Letter 83

To the same person. Daniel, as a true household servant, through prayer stopped up the mouths of the lions in the pit. But Christ, who is his Master, by his own authority closed the throats of the gatekeepers of Hades and of the unsmiling guards of that most murky prison there. For it had indeed been said prophetically in the book of Job: "The gates of death are opened to you in fear, and the gatekeepers of Hades, when they saw you, cowered." Those who have believed in Christ are called living, but dead are all those who have not believed; and therefore it is written: "And Aaron the priest stood between the living and the dead." For the Master Christ stands in the middle, between both those who have received him and those who have been unwilling to receive him. And John the Baptist bears witness, saying to the people at the Jordan: "There stands one in your midst whom you yourselves do not know."

Δανιὴλ μὲν ὡς οἰκέτης γνήσιος διὰ προσευχῆς τὰ τῶν λεόντων ἐν τῷ λάκκῳ ἐνέφραξε στόματα. Χριστὸς δὲ ὁ τούτου Δεσπότης ἰδίᾳ ἐξουσίᾳ, τὴν πυλωρῶν τοῦ ᾅδου καὶ τῶν ἀμειδῶν φρουρῶν τῆς ἐκεῖσε ζοφερωτάτης εἱρκτῆς τοὺς φάρυγγας ἔκλεισεν. Καὶ γὰρ εἴρητο προφητικῶς ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ τοῦ Ἰώβ· «Ἀνοίγονται σοὶ φόβῳ πῦλαι θανάτου, πυλωροὶ δὲ ᾅδου ἰδόντες σε ἔπτηξαν.» Ζῶντες λέγονται οἱ πιστεύσαντες τῷ Χριστῷ, νεκροὶ δὲ ὅσοι μὴ ἐπίστευσαν· διόπερ γέγραπται· «Καὶ ἐστάθη Ἀαρὼν ὁ ἱερεὺς ἀνάμεσον τῶν ζώντων καὶ τῶν ἀποθανόντων.» Μεταξὺ γάρ ἐστιν ὁ Δεσπότης Χριστός, τῶν τε παραδεξαμένων αὐτὸν, καὶ τῶν μὴ βουληθέντων παραδέξασθαι. Καὶ μαρτυρεῖ Ἰωάννης ὁ Βαπτιστής, λέγων τῷ λαῷ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, ὅτι «Μέσος ὑμῶν ἔστηκεν, ὃνπερ ὑμεῖς ἀγνοεῖτε.»