Typika and from the 3rd and 6th Odes of the Canon.

[55] This Irmos paraphrases the *Nunc dimittis*. The word for ‘cried aloud’ is that used of Jonas (2,3), whose prayer forms the sixth biblical ode.

[30] c. 540. This is one of the three *Proemia* to St Romanos’s Kontakion for the feast. The whole Kontakion may be found in my *On the Life of Christ,* published by AltamaMira Press for the International Sacred Literature Trust.

Or the following Antiphons.

At the prayers of the Mother of God…

[49] I have assumed that this Troparion is part of the Mother of God’s words to Symeon.

Verse 1: My heart has uttered a good Word, I tell my works to the King.

At the prayers of the Mother of God…

[53] This prepares for the allusion to Isaias 6,6-7 in the next Troparion.

Verse 2: My tongue is the pen of ready writer.

At the prayers of the Mother of God…

[58] The last troparion implies that the whole Ode is spoken by Symeon.

Verse 3: Grace was poured from your lips.

Son of God, carried in the arms of righteous Symeon, save us who sing to you. Alleluia!

Glory. Both now.

Son of God, carried in the arms of righteous Symeon, save us who sing to you. Alleluia!

Verse 4: Therefore God has blessed you for ever.

Son of God, carried in the arms of righteous Symeon, save us who sing to you. Alleluia!

Verse 1: Gird your sword on your thigh, mighty warrior, in your splendour and beauty.

Only-begotten Son…

Verse 2: Draw your bow and prosper, and reign.

Hail, full of grace, Virgin Mother of God…

Verse 3: Your arrows have been sharpened, O Mighty One; peoples will fall beneath you.

Hail, full of grace, Virgin Mother of God…

Verse 4: The sceptre of your Kingdom is a rod of justice.

Hail, full of grace, Virgin Mother of God…

Glory. Both now.

The Lord has made known his salvation before all the nations.

Verse 1: Listen my daughter and see, and incline your ear.

Son of God, carried in the arms of righteous Symeon, save us who sing to you. Alleluia!

Verse 2: The richest of the people will entreat your favour.

Mother of God, hope of all Christians, protect, watch over, guard all those who put their hope in you.

Verse 3: I will remember your name throughout all generations.

In the shadow and letter of the Law, Let us the faithful discern a figure. ‘Every male child that opens the womb shall be holy to God.’ Therefore the Son and Word of the Father who has no beginning, the firstborn child of a Mother who had not know man, we magnify.

At, It is truly right.

I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. Alleluia.

[1] Luke 2,29. Further references to the frequent quotations from the *Nunc Dimittis* will not be given. The Greek word  means more than ‘let depart’, as does the Latin ‘dimitto’. It means to ‘release’, ‘loose’, set free’. It may have financial, military, legal or social connotations; ‘discharge a debt’, ‘disband or discharge troops’, ‘acquit’ or even ‘divorce’, as at Matthew 1,19. It is also used in the LXX euphemistically of ‘dying’, e.g. Gen. 15,2; Numbers 20,29; Tobit 3,6.13. ‘Dismiss’ is perhaps too dismissive, so I tentatively propose ‘release’. The word also occurs at Matthew 15,23, where the Disciples say to Jesus of the Phoenician woman, ‘Let her go‘ (implying ‘with her request granted‘). Nearly all Enlgish versions have ‘Send her away‘. This is far too harsh and distorts the true meaning of the passage.

[2] Cf. Gen. 28,17.

[3] † 740. Also known as Andrew of Jerusalem.

[4] Since these verses are normally abbreviated in the books, the whole of the first part of the *Nunc Dimittis* should probably be said here

[5] Isaias 6,6.

[6] Cf. 1 Cor. 2,8.

[7] Luke 1,28.

[8] Malachy 4,2.

[9] Cf. Luke 1,79.

[10] 645-740. Patriarch of Constantinople 715-730, deposed by Leo III, the Iconoclast.

[11] Exod. 20,21.

[12] I take the aorist participle here to be a true passive. The *Festal Menaion*  takes it as active.

[13] This reading is a selection from Exodus 12,51-13,16 together with 22,29 and passages from Leviticus 12 and Numbers 8. The reference to the purification of the mother in Leviticus is made to refer to the child. This may be influenced by Luke 2,22, which has ‘their’, not ‘her’, or, according to the Western text, ‘his’. The text in *The Festal Menaion* is misleading, being translated from the Hebrew, not the Greek of the Menaion, which differs noticeably from the LXX.

[14] This is masculine, though the LXX has ‘woman’.

[15] This last clause is not from any of the texts used in the reading. The phrase ‘God the Most High’ only occurs at Gen. 14,20 and Psalm 77,35. The second is characteristic of Isaias, and the two nearest references are 30,12 & 15. But the whole clause is probably a mere commonplace by the compiler.

[16] Note in the Menaion. ‘Instead of the above reading, the manuscripts have another from the prophecy of Ezekiel 43 & 44 . While what seems to be the oldest of the manuscripts has neither it, nor a Liti, nor Kathismata, but only the Aposticha with one Doxastikon in the same Tone, ‘A light for revelation of the nations’, which is to be found at Vespers on the 4th of the month.’

[17] Probably Anatolios the Studite, c. 770.

[18] Daniel 7,13 . The Church normally uses Theodotion’s version of Daniel, but some of the Greek and Syriac texts suppose the Septuagint. In this version we read, ‘The Son of man was present as Ancient of Days and those who stood round were present with him’, not, as in Theodotion and the Aramaic, ‘And he reached the Ancient of Days and was brought before him’. These two versions explain why Christ is also given the title ‘Ancient of Days, in some liturgical texts.

[19] Colossians 1,26.

[20] Possibly John of Damascus, c. 675-c. 749.

[21] Galatians 3,13.

[22] I do not know of a passage where the voice of God on Sinai is described as ‘faint’.

[23] Exodus 34,29-33.

[24] John 5,39.

[25] St Kosmas the Melodist, c. 685-c. 750. This Idiomel is used in the Western office for the feast, but the Latin translation is inaccurate, or based on a defective original.

[26] Psalm 79,2; Ezek. 1.

[27] Psalm 109,3.

[28] Ezek. 1; Ecclus. 49,8.

[29] Luke 2,34.

[31] Cf. Job 38,8: ‘I shut in the sea with gates, when it burst out as it came from its mother’s womb’. Cf. also Gen. 7,11; Exod. 19,4.

[32] Exod. 14,22.

[33] Exod. 15,1.

[34] Isaias 45,8. The LXX reads, ‘Let the heaven above rejoice, and let the clouds pour down justice’.

[35] Isaias 19,1.

[36] Isaias 35,3.

[37] Psalm 103,2; 135,5; Isaias 49,13.

[38] Wisdom 13,1.

[39] Cf. John 1,18.

[40] The words translated ‘firm foundation’ and ‘make firm’ recall the biblical text of the third ode. ‘My heart has been made firm in the Lord’ (I Kingdoms 2,1).

[41] Col. 1,15.

[42] Cf. 1 Cor. 14,20.

[43] Gen. 3,19.

[44] Exodus 19,16-19.21; 33,19-23.

[45] Avvakoum 3,3. This chapter forms the fourth biblical ode. This verse is said by the priest at the Proskomidi, as he puts the veil over the chalice.

[46] Psalm 131,8.

[47] Daniel 3,53.

[48] Cf. Avvakoum 3,3: ‘And the earth is full of your praise’.

[50] Cf. Ezekiel 1.

[51] A type, or figure, of the Mother of God.

[52] Much of this ode is based on Isaias, from whom the fifth biblical ode (26,9-20) is taken. The Irmos refers to Isaias 6,1-7. ‘Escorted’ is the word used of the Angels in the Cherubic Hymn. The last two lines, which are somewhat freely translated for reasons of rhythm, may be inspired by Isaias 26,9.12. The earliest attested use of the word ‘that knows no evening’ is in Origen.

[54] This typology of the burning coal is common in the texts, though more frequently it is used of the Eucharist. The word in Greek for the ‘spoon’ used to give Communion to the faithful really means ‘a pair of tongs’, with a direct allusion to the vision of Isaias. Immediately after receiving Communion the priest is directed to say Isaias 6,7.

[56] Isaias 8,14; 28,16; Luke 2,24; 1 Peter 2,7.

[57] Hebrews 1,3.

[59] Cf. Luke 5,26.

[60] In an early Syriac hymn attributed to St Ephrem we find a similar idea, ‘Mary carried a child who by his wisdom begot Adam’.

[61] This is reminiscent of St Cyril of Jerusalem’s homily. ‘He who grasps the whole earth in his hand is contained in the arms of an elder. And he who bears the universe by the word of his power is being carried’. PG 33,1196.

[62] Cf. John 1,18.

[63] The meaning is unclear, since the word also means ‘the membrane of the eyes’, or ‘the eardrums’.

[64] Daniel 3,49-50.

[65] Daniel 3,52.

[66] This idea is already found, in much developed form, in St Romanos’s kontakion, stanzas 14-17.

[67] Gen. 2,7.

[68] Isaias 61,1.

[69] Luke 2,35.

[70] Daniel 3,57.

[71] Luke 2,32.

[72] Like David (2 Kingdoms 6). The Ark is the Mother of God.

[73] Luke 2,34.

[74] Luke 2,34. The Greek word means both ‘rise’ and ‘resurrection’

[75] In Greek these Megalynaria have an alphabetical acrostic from A to O, but omitting I and X. The letter Alpha begins both the first and second. This gives a total of fourteen, the normal number of Troparia in a Canon. The last two do not form part of the acrostic, and seem to be a later addition. They bring the total to the unusual number of sixteen. The Slavonic set are, for the most part, quite different. They number only fourteen.

[76] Psalm 103,31.

[77] Isaias 6,6.

[78] Exodus 13,2.

[79] Leviticus 12,8.

[80] Isaias 19,1.

[81] Cf. John 1,17.

[82] In Greek *Theodochos*.