Ode 9. Irmos.

[1] Cf. the well-known Irmos in Tone 5, which is used at weddings and ordinations, though why dancing should be considered appropriate to Isaias is not clear.

[15] Cf. Romanos *Kontakion 1,* Stanzas 6 & 2.

** E ** Christ, our Creator, you magnified the Mother of God who gave you birth, from whom you took a body with like passions to our own, which was the deliverance from our faults. As with all generations we call her blest, we magnify you. [66]

[19] These phrases recall the fourth Sticheron for Vespers of the Nativity.

[2] Cf. Exodus 3:2-3.

[29] The opening is clearly an imitation of the Irmos.

** R ** Rejecting all the stain of passion, let us take up as befits the coming of Christ a prudent disposition; for he is coming forth without stain to bear flesh and to grant to all divine refashioning through the Spirit.

[20] Note by Bartholomew, ‘*Elsewhere* in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes’.

[3] The idea that the places connected with the Nativity–Eden, Bethlehem, the Cave, the Manger–must prepare is a constant theme in the pre-Christmas texts.

** A ** Looking to Christ, who humbles himself, let us be lifted up from the passions that seek the ground; with good zeal trained by faith not to think lofty things, [67] let us be humbled in spirit; that by works which exalt we may exalt up the One who is being brought forth.

[21] Cf. 3 Reigns 8:27.

[4]   Cf. Genesis 3:23-24. Christmas reverses the results of the Fall.

[22] Deification is a central idea in Orthodox theology. In his homily *On Theophany*, 13 St Gregory the Divine puts it succinctly, προελθὼν δὲ Θεὸς μετὰ τῆς προσλήψεως, ἓν ἐκ δύο τῶν ἐναντίων, σαρκὸς καὶ Πνεύματος· ὧν, τὸ μὲν ἐθέωσε, τὸ δὲ ἐθεώθη - ‘coming forth as God with the addition, one from two opposites, flesh and Spirit. The latter deified, the former was deified’.

[5] Note how the liturgical texts combine the two accounts of the Nativity.

[23] Cf. Genesis 3:1-7.

[6] Cf. the *Protoevangelium of James * 8:2-9:3.

[24] Luke 2:1.

[7] Matthew 1:20-22.

[25] Cf. Deuteronomy 32:1.

[8] The Greek says, literally, ‘the Metropolis of God’. St Gregory the Divine, in his sermon *On the Death of his Father,* 17, calls Bethlehem ‘the metropolis of the inhabited world, as the nurse and mother of Christ, who created and conquered the world’– τῆς οἰκουμένης μητρόπολιν, ὡς Χριστοῦ καὶ τροφὸν καὶ μητέρα, τοῦ τὸν κόσμον καὶ ποιήσαντος καὶ νικήσαντος. This could perhaps be the source for the hymn writer’s bold image.

[26] Luke 2:14.

[9] The Greek word ÁdutoV usually means  ‘inaccessible’, and as a neuter noun the ‘inner shrine’ of a temple. It also, though less frequently, means ‘unsetting’. When coupled with ‘light’ it can, therefore means either ‘inaccessible’ or ‘unsetting’. The former meaning is suggested by the expression ‘inaccessible light’– fwV Âprósiton –in 1 Timothy 6:16. Origen, however describes Christ as ὁ νοητὸς ἥλιος τὸ φῶς τὸ ἄδυτον καὶ ἀνέσπερον –‘the spiritual sun, the light that never sets and knows no evening’, while St Theodore the Studite, speaking of the Mother of God, says that she it was ἐξ ἧς ὁ τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἥλιος ἀνέτειλεν, ἡμέραν ἀδύτου σωτηρίας ἀνθρώποις δημιουργησάμενος –‘from who dawned the Sun of righteousness, who created for humans a day of salvation that never sets’. The meaning ‘inaccessible’ is scarcely appropriate here.

[27] Exodus 3:14.

[10] Luke 2:8.

[28] Matthew 2:6.

[11] This text is used elsewhere, for example on 17 December.

[30] Cf. Isaias 49:3.

[12] The accounts of the Nativity in the Gospels make no mention of a cave. This comes from the *Protoevangelium* of James, 18:1.

[31] Cf. Isaias 55:12, Psalm 113:4.

[13] This epithet of the Mother of God is rare in the Fathers. It is used by Theodore the Studite in his homily on the Nativity of the Mother of God– Χαῖρε, ἀμνὰς, … ᾿Εξ ἧς ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου, ἐπεδήμησε.

[32] Exodus 15:1.

[14] In Greek there is a play on LógoV –‘Word’, and ÁlogoV –‘irrational’.

[33] Cf. Hebrews 1:2.

[16] Cf. John 1:17.

[34] Isaias 9:5.

[17] Cf. Philippians 2:7.

[35] Cf. 1 Reigns 2:1.

[18] A word used by St Gregory the Divine and John of Damascus, among others, with reference to Christ’s human nature. St John speaks of ‘deifying the addition’– ποιητῇ τοῦ παντὸς θεοῦντι τὸ πρόσλημμα –‘the Maker of all deifying the addition’.

[36] Isaias 11;1.

[37] In Greek Âlógwn , with a play on L ógoV .

[38] Avvakoum 1:3.

[39] John 1:11.

[40] Cf. Isaias 19:1.

[41] Cf. Michaias 5:1.

[42] Cf. Numbers 13:23. The cluster of grapes cut by Caleb in Canaan and carried on a wooden pole is frequently used as a type of Christ crucified. Hence the vine, from which the cluster was cut, is also used frequently as a type of the Mother of God.

[43] Daniel 3:26.

[44] Christ is often called ‘Myrrh’ in the liturgical texts. St John of Damascus calls Christ ‘the myrrh poured out for our renewal’– Χριστὸν τὸ κενωθὲν μύρον εἰς ἡμῶν ἀνακαίνισιν , *Homily on Holy Saturday* . Hence the Mother of God can be called muroq°kh .

[45] Cf. Isaias 6:6-7. The typology of Christ as the burning coal of Isaias’ vision is applied to the Eucharist. Hence the use of the word labíV ,  ‘tong’, for the spoon with which Communion is given to the people. Here the tong is used a type of the Mother of God.

[46] Cf. Daniel 3:74.

[47] Luke 2:1-3.

[48] 1 Corinthians 2:8.

[49] Luke 2:7.

[50] The word ‘irrational’–in Greek ÁlogoV –is a play on LógoV.

[51] Daniel 9:27. Note that the phrase ‘consummation of the time’ only occurs in Theodotion’s version of Daniel, which is that used by the Orthodox Church,  but in neither the Septuagint nor the Hebrew.

[52] This is almost a quotation from the Chalcedonian Definition, τέλειος ὢν ἐν θεότητι καὶ τέλειος ὁ αὐτὸς ἐν ἀνθρωπότητι , ‘being perfect in his divinity and the same perfect in his humanity’.

[53] One of a number of examples in the liturgical texts of the Trinitarian understanding of the Trisagion in the Byzantine Orthodox tradition. This excludes, for the Orthodox at least , translations which add ‘and’ in the second and third clauses, which by so doing make the whole hymn refer to ‘God’, that is, to the Father.

[54] This sticheron is also used at the Liti on the Sunday before Christmas, where no author is given.

[55] Cf. Deuteronomy 32:1.

[56] Luke 2:14.

[57] Exodus 3:14.

[58] No author is given on the earlier occasion.

[59] Genesis 2:9.

[60] Genesis 1:26.-27.

[61] The days from 20-24 December are assimilated the first four days of Holy Week, hence the acrostics for the Triodes of the canons at Compline. In Holy Week the canons at Matins on the first three days are Triode, but this in not the case in December, and therefore the Triodes are included in Compline on the 20-22 of December. In Holy Week Great Thursday has a full canon, and so, on 23 December, the canon for Thursday is sung at Matins, as the acrostic makes clear. Bartholomew of Koutloumousiou has the following note on this canon, ‘In the manuscript at Koutloumousiou this Triode has the ascription, *Composition by Symeon Metphrastes*. The prosomia on the Wednesday before the Great Canon are also ascribed to him, according to the Typikon for the Annunciation, no. 6. But since Allatius (Prologue at the beginning of September, para. 8) does not include the Metaphrastes in the list of hymn writers, but says simply *Monk Symeon*, it seems that the present composition, and so the following Triodes as well, are by this Symeon, and not Symeon Metaphrastes’. He adds a further note, ‘In the 1843 Constantinople edition of the Menaia these Triodes are ascribed, *Composition of Symeon, the Logothete, the Metaphrastes.*

[62] Philippians 2:6-7.

[63] Cf. John 15:14, where the word is ‘friends’, rather than ‘kinsmen’.

[64] John 14:27.

[65] Cf. Luke 1:34.

[66] Luke 1:46-48.

[67] Romans 12:16.