I believe, therefore, that if the
meaning of the whole of divine Scripture is properly and piously smoothed out,
the disagreements perceived on the literal level of the text will be seen to
contain nothing contradictory or inconsistent. For in accordance with true
teaching, all the saints from the beginning [1253A] were “forerunners” [GK: προδομος] of the mystery, which they proclaimed in
advance and prefigured through their sufferings, deeds, and words. Therefore,
the saints can justifiably stand in the place of each other: all can stand in
place of all, and each in place of each. Moreover, the saints can be named in
place of the books written by them, just as the books can be named in place of
the saints, which is why the books are called by their names, as is the habit
of Scripture. And the Lord Himself clearly demonstrates this when he calls John the
Baptist by the name of “Elijah,” either because the two were equal in the habit
of virtue (as the teachers say), in the purity of their intellect in all
things, and in the austerity of their way of life; or because of their
identical power of grace; or because of some other, hidden reason, which is
know to God (who identified the two figures) and [1253B] to those whom He enlightens
about these mysteries. (Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua to John: Ambiggum 21, in
On Difficulties in the Church Fathers: The Ambigua, 2 vols. [trans.
Nicholas Constas; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 2014], 1:441)
Further Reading:
