Homilies on the Dormition of the Mother of God · §2.12 · John of Damascus

Homily II — The new Solomon brings the ark home

Then, yes, then the ark of the Lord, setting out from Mount Zion and borne on the glorious shoulders of the apostles, is carried by way of the tomb to the heavenly sanctuary. First she is led through the middle of the city, like a bride of great beauty adorned with the unapproachable radiance of the Spirit, and so she is brought to the most holy place of Gethsemane, with angels running before her, following after her and covering her with their wings, and with the whole body of the Church.

King Solomon, at the laying to rest of the ark in the temple of the Lord which he himself had built, assembled all the elders of Israel in Zion, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion; and the priests took up the ark and the tent of witness, and the priests and the Levites brought them up; and the king and all the people were before the ark, sacrificing oxen and sheep beyond number; and the priests bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, into the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim (1 Kings 8:1-6; 2 Chronicles 5:2-7).

Just as he did, so now too, at the laying to rest of the spiritual ark, the ark not of the covenant of the Lord but of the very hypostasis of God the Word, the new Solomon himself, the ruler of peace and master craftsman of the universe, has today assembled the ranks of the heavenly minds that are above the world, and the leaders of the New Covenant, I mean the apostles, with all the people of the saints in Jerusalem. Her soul he brings through angels to dwell in the Holy of Holies, the true and heavenly archetypes (Hebrews 9:24), upon the very wings of the four-faced living creatures (Ezekiel 1:5-10), and he has set it beside his own throne, within the veil, where Christ himself has entered bodily as forerunner (Hebrews 6:19-20). Her body is carried forward in the hands of the apostles, while the King of kings (1 Timothy 6:15) covers it with the radiance of his invisible Godhead, and the whole company of the saints runs ahead, sending up holy cries and offering a sacrifice of praise, until it was laid in the tomb as in a bridal chamber, and through the tomb in the delight of Eden and in the heavenly dwellings.

Greek

Τότε δὴ, τότε ἡ κιβωτὸς τοῦ Κυρίου ἀπάρασα ἐξ ὄρους Σιὼν τοῖς τῶν ἀποστόλων κλεινοῖς ὤμοις ἐποχουμένη πρὸς τὸ οὐράνιον τέμενος διὰ μέσου τοῦ τάφου διαβιβάζεται. Καὶ πρότερον μὲν διὰ μέσου τοῦ ἄστεος ἄγεται, οἷά τις νύμφη περικαλλὴς τῇ ἀπροσίτῳ αἴγλῃ ὡραϊζομένη τοῦ Πνεύματος, καὶ οὕτως εἰς τὸ ἱερώτατον τῆς Γεθσημανῆ χωρίον κομίζεται, ἀγγέλων προτρεχόντων, παρεπομένων, συγκαλυπτόντων ταῖς πτέρυξι, καὶ παντὸς τοῦ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας πληρώματος. Καὶ ὥσπερ ὁ βασιλεὺς Σολομὼν ἐπὶ τῇ καταπαύσει τῆς κιβωτοῦ ἐν ναῷ Κυρίου, ὃν αὐτὸς ἐδείματο, πάντας τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους Ἰσραὴλ ἐν Σιὼν ἠκκλησίασε, τοῦ ἀνενεγκεῖν τὴν κιβωτὸν διαθήκης Κυρίου ἐκ πόλεως Δαβίδ· αὕτη ἐστὶν Σιών· καὶ ἦραν οἱ ἱερεῖς τὴν κιβωτὸν καὶ τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ μαρτυρίου, καὶ ἀνεβίβασαν αὐτὰ οἱ ἱερεῖς καὶ οἱ Λευῖται· καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς, καὶ ὁ λαὸς ἅπας ἔμπροσθεν τῆς κιβωτοῦ θύοντες βόας καὶ πρόβατα ἀναρίθμητα· καὶ εἰσφέρουσιν οἱ ἱερεῖς τὴν κιβωτὸν διαθήκης Κυρίου εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτῆς εἰς τὸ δαβὶρ τοῦ οἴκου, εἰς τὰ Ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, ὑπὸ τὰς πτέρυγας τῶν Χερουβίμ· οὕτω δὴ καὶ νῦν ἐπὶ τῇ καταπαύσει τῆς νοερᾶς κιβωτοῦ, οὐ διαθήκης Κυρίου, ἀλλ' αὐτῆς τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου ὑποστάσεως, αὐτὸς ὁ νέος Σολομὼν, ὁ εἰρηνάρχης, καὶ τοῦ παντὸς ἀριστοτέχνης τῶν οὐρανίων νόων τὰ ὑπερκόσμια τάγματα, καὶ τῆς Νέας Διαθήκης τοὺς προὔχοντας, τοὺς ἀποστόλους φημὶ, σὺν παντὶ τῷ ἐν Ἱερουσαλὴμ τῶν ἁγίων λαῷ σήμερον ἠκκλησίασε, καὶ τὴν μὲν ψυχὴν δι' ἀγγέλων εἰς τὰ Ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, τὰ ἀρχέτυπα τὰ ἀληθινὰ καὶ οὐράνια εἰσοικίζεται, ἐπ' αὐτὰς τῶν τετραμόρφων ζώων τὰς πτέρυγας, καὶ τῷ ἑαυτοῦ παρεστήσατο θρόνῳ, εἰς τὸ ἐνδότερον τοῦ καταπετάσματος, ὅπου πρόδρομος αὐτὸς Χριστὸς σωματικῶς εἰσελήλυθε· τὸ δὲ σῶμα ταῖς τῶν ἀποστόλων χερσὶ προκομίζεται, τοῦ Βασιλέως τῶν βασιλευόντων συγκαλύπτοντος τῇ αἴγλῃ τῆς ἀοράτου θεότητος, καὶ παντὸς τοῦ τῶν ἁγίων συστήματος προτρεχόντων, καὶ ἱερὰς ἀφιέντων βοὰς, καὶ θυόντων θυσίαν αἰνέσεως, ἕως ὡς παστάδι τῷ τάφῳ, καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ τῇ τῆς Ἐδὲμ τρυφῇ, καὶ οὐρανίοις ἐναπετέθη σκηνώμασι.

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About this text

John of Damascus's three sermons on the falling asleep of Mary, preached at her tomb at Gethsemane: praise of the Mother of God, the story of her last days and burial, and the old account in which Juvenal of Jerusalem tells the empress Pulcheria that the apostles found the tomb empty.

English translated from the Greek of Migne, Patrologia Graeca 96, cols. Where the printed Greek is plainly wrong, the English follows the reading that the sense and Migne's facing Latin require; each such place is listed below. Psalm numbers are given in the English (Hebrew) numbering.

Printed text used

Translated from Migne, Patrologia Graeca 96 (Paris, 1860), cols. 699-762 (Greek · All three homilies)

Where the prints differ

Homily II, section 1 — Printed διαιρέσεως ('division'); the English follows προαιρέσεως ('a good will'), with the facing Latin 'probaque voluntate'.
Homily II, section 2 — Printed ἐνδέδυμαι ('I have put on') is read as ἐκδέδυμαι ('I have put off' the garments of skin), with the facing Latin 'exui'; printed ὑπερέρχεται is read as ὑπέρχεται ('undergoes'); printed ἀχειροτμήτῳ is taken in the sense 'not made by hands'.
Homily II, section 4 — Printed θέσματα ('ordinances') is rendered 'wills', with the facing Latin 'voluntates'.
Homily II, section 10 — Printed 'our hands' is read as 'my hands', since Mary is speaking (facing Latin 'manuum mearum').
Homily II, section 13 — Printed ἀμελητί ('carelessly') is read as ἀμελλητί ('at once').
Homily II, section 14 — Printed ἐλαίου ('oil') is read as ἐλέου ('mercy'), as Migne's own note directs; printed γεύμασιν is read as ῥεύμασιν ('in their flowing'), with the facing Latin 'fluentis'.
Homily III, section 2 — Printed κλίματι is read as κλίμακι ('ladder'), ἐδείξατο as ἐδέξατο ('received'), and 'fruits of the presence' as 'the bread of the presence', each with the facing Latin.

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