Φωτίζου, φωτίζου ἡ νέα Ἱερουσαλήμ·

ἡ γὰρ δόξα Κυρίου ἐπὶ σὲ ἀνέτειλε. Χόρευε

νῦν, καὶ ἀγάλλου Σιών, σὺ δὲ ἁγνή, τέρπου
Θεοτόκε, ἐν τῇ ἐγέρσει τοῦ τόκου σου.

Lectori salutem!

In my dissertation, I will develop the Old Testament background of the phrase "the glory of the Lord/God" in
the Easter hymn of St. John of Damascus. As an Eastern Christian priest, I see the period from the Babylonian
captivity to the Christian hymn poetry of the first 7 centuries as part of a dynamic, unfolding process of salvation
history moving towards the fullness of time (Gal 4.4).
Looking back from the fullness of time, from the redemption, the process leading up to it is a time of dialogue
and rapprochement between the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and humanity. In this process, God communicates
more and more about himself, man learns more and more about himself, the world and his God (Heb 1:1-3a). The
experience of communication and knowledge is articulated and transmitted by man. First orally, and then later, in the
whole process of salvation history, he records it again and again in writing (1 Timothy 2.3-4). Just as salvation history
is an unfolding process towards the fullness of time, so its human imprint follows its dynamic. The greatest value of
Scripture in capturing and transmitting revealed truth moving in time towards fullness is not its immutability, but the
authentic, informationally unbiased recording and transmission of the unfolding process of salvation history through
the written word. In the inter-covenant period of salvation history, all types of Scripture: the canonical books, the
Targums, the translations, especially the LXX translation, the deuterocanonical books, the eschatologies, the
apocalyptics, the works of the two Talmuds and Philo of Alexandria, together preserve the process of salvation history
leading the whole creation to salvation by means of the written word (Is 55:10-11).
The key to the age of salvation from the Babylonian captivity to Christ our Lord, and the loose thread in
salvation history, is the presence of "the glory of God" who filled the first Temple (I Kings 8:10-11), followed his
people into captivity (Ezek 1-3:15), but did not fill the completely empty Holy of Holies of the second Temple (Bavli
p. 1517, Mishnah Yoma 21b). In my work, with servile reverence and fidelity to the Scriptures that preserve the
course of salvation history, I am piling up the stones of the mosaic of truth in search of why God's glory was absent
from the Second Temple and how this absence was experienced and dealt with by the chosen people (Bavli Yoma 9b-
10a, Pesikta Rabbati, parasha 35, Sefer ha-Ikkarim, 3,11). Why was the religious status quo, organized around the
empty sanctuary of the Second Temple, reconstructed down to the smallest detail, the response of the sacred
community, reorganized from the Babylonian captivity returnees, to the absence of God's glory from the Second
Temple? Given the change in the relationship between God's glory and the sacred community reconstituted around the
Second Temple in Jerusalem, what other questions and answers emerged as diving trails in the Babylonian and
Palestinian Talmud, in the eschatologies, in the apocalyptics, in the encounter between Hellenism and Old Testament
religion, notably in the works of Philo of Alexandria? In this work, my guiding principles have been the canons of the
first seven universal councils under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (John 14.16-17,26). It is in the light of these that I
seek to trace the path from the glory of God absent from the Second Temple (Bavli Yoma 21b) in the age of salvation
history from the Babylonian captivity to the poetry of the Christian hymn in the Eastern Age to the glory of God
restored among us in the risen Lord Christ (II Cor 4,6; Jn 1,14). In this salvific process I seek to capture the encounter
or difference between human questions and answers and God's redemptive plan. It is shocking to be confronted with
the cruel reality of the message conveyed by the prophets (Is.55.8-9). The remnant of the chosen people who returned
from captivity after the consecration of the second temple heard only the restoration of the glorious past from the
messages of the prophets of the age (Is.60 f.). Israel had chosen the human way instead of God's redemptive plan (Is
55:8-9). Anyone who questioned the finality and perfection of the cult community, which was surrounded by religious
formalism (Lk 18:11-12, Mt 23:13-29), provoked extreme reactions from the clergy and scribes of Jerusalem who
enjoyed the status quo (Acts 7:48-54). Yet the High Priest, who entered the empty sanctuary of the Second Temple
once a year with the blood of atonement, was only awaited by the stone on which, according to tradition, the lost Ark
of the Covenant stood (Bavli p. 1551, Mishnah Yoma 5.1). In this stone the stone of the stumbling block of the
remnant of the chosen people returned from captivity was to be recognized (Is. 8.13.17), 8-9), but self-examination.
Listening to their prophets, the leaders of the returned remnant of Israel should have realized in introspection that
Israel is not the sole owner of the Promise, but its steadfast, faithful keeper, for it is for all nations; and Israel is not the
only chosen one of all the peoples of the earth, but a sign and witness to the nations (Is. 42, 1-7). The redemptive plan
of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for all mankind, and the human effort of those who returned from captivity
and their descendants, began to drift apart after the dedication of the second temple, and the time came when they
confronted each other, fulfilling the threatening words of Isaiah (Is 55:8-9). The operation and continued protection of
the Jerusalem-centred sacred community made the chosen people increasingly closed and opposed to all the peoples of
the earth (2 Cor 3:15-16). The "veil" woven by human effort (2 Cor 3:14-16) obscured the opening of salvation to the
peoples of the earth. Israel, trusting in human efforts, failed to hear that "As the rain and the snow fall from heaven
and do not return, but water the earth and make it fruitful and productive, to give seed to the sower and bread to the
hungry,11 so shall my word be that proceeds from my lips. He will not return to me without result, but will do my will
and accomplish what I have sent him to do (Is 55:10-11). There is power in these words, power of salvation that goes
on to the fullness of time. Witness to this, in its time and until the end of time, is the Book of Wisdom, the Book of
Daniel, the extremely rich Deuterocanonical and Apocryphal literature, and especially the Septuagint.
This Greek translation is not one of the translations of the Old Testament, but an authentic witness to the
unfolding process of salvation; a gateway to the nations and a bridge to the fullness of time, to redemption. The
Septuagint is the text witness of salvation that was not written against something or for some purpose, out of
apologetic human considerations, but because the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, blows where he wills (John 3.8). The
Egyptian Pharaoh can also be a servant of salvation in the hands of a God who loves man. The Septuagint opens the
door of the Old Testament promise of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob to all peoples, and there is a particular aspect
of this opening that has received little attention. It is this Greek translation that has freed the light of divine knowledge
from the captivity of the dead tongue (Neh. 8.8) that faithfully preserved it, and of the political messianism of the age
(Is. 60, 62; Acts 1.6). The Septuagint, through its linguistic-cultural opening, made possible the integration into the
history of salvation of all that God's creation of man outside the covenant had created, preserved and collected in its
own power - notably in the contemporary Alexandrian library. It was on the basis of this unrivalled knowledge base of
the ancient world that the Alexandrian 'Christian Catechetical School' lived and worked, educating the Church
teachers of the first centuries and providing the fathers of the first universal synods as workers of the Spirit. In the
same way, the work of Philo of Alexandria, who is not only one of the scribes, but also a bridge to the New Testament
in the intertestamental age, fits into the salvation education.
In the Eastern Mediterranean basin, in the Eastern Roman Empire, the cataclysms of human history did not
break the process by which the first church fathers, the seven universal councils, the Eastern hymn poetry, the creators
of the Eastern liturgies, the unfolding of salvation and the fullness of time, the redemption of the Old Testament age,
were conceived and transmitted in a linguistic and cultural-historical medium that was continuous with the Old
Testament. Thus it was that in the Saviour the glory (Kāḇôḏ) and presence (Šəḵīnā) of God restored to all the peoples
of the earth were recognised (2 Cor 4,6). And in the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the glory (Kāḇôḏ) and presence
(Šəḵīnā) of God who remains with us until the end of time were recognised (John 14,26). On this solid basis, the
Eastern half of the Church, through art, liturgy and hymn poetry, has made the glory and presence of God, the glory
and presence of the one, holy, life-giving and indivisible Trinity, returned to all the peoples of the earth, part of
everyday Christian life in daily worship: "O Christ our God, who art the fullness of the Law and the Prophets, who
hast accomplished all the salvation of thy Father, fill our hearts with joy and gladness, now and ever, and for ever and
ever! Amen!"(Liturgy of St. John of the Golden Mouth)