Light became a herald of the Luminous One whom Mary bore. For His conception took place in the purity of light, and His Birth likewise in the purity of the sun. Blessed is the Pure One.
Yod stands at the head of Your name, and the month Nisan is marked by ten. On the tenth You entered the womb. Your conception rests in the mystery of the number of perfection.
The number ten is complete. [On the tenth of Nisan You entered the womb. The number six also is perfect; on the sixth of Kanun Your Birth gladdened the six directions.
The number ten is a boundary.] The sixth too is the boundary of boundaries. On the tenth was His conception, on the sixth His Birth: one Birth for the four directions [and for height and depth].
Joseph’s name was not sufficient to make him Your father, for it was weak. Your own name gave it the letter yod; Your name strengthened Joseph’s name so that he might be called Your father.
Christ too, in His mercy, gave the first letter of His name to Mary’s name. See how their names depend upon His names, just as by His power their bodies, together with every creature, depended upon Him.
Mary, who carried Christ in womb and bosom, also carried in her own name the first letter of the name ‘Messiah,’ in likeness to His power by which He carried her whole body.
Mary could not carry His body apart from His power. Through what was visible the Hidden One showed that even their names could not exist apart from Him.
He gave His initial letters to those who were counted as His parents, and just as their bodies were adorned through Him, so He adorned their names with His names.
Nor could John, apart from His power, baptize His body. The letter yod carries the name John, just as the power of Jesus carried John.
If the beauty of His written letters was lent to their names, and His exalted beauty was mingled with their names, how much more was His hidden power mingled with their names!
Just as the number ten has only ten steps, creation has six sides—height, depth, and the four directions—and all are filled by You.
The letter yod of Jesus our King is queen of all numbers. Every reckoning hangs upon its completeness, just as all minds are joined in Jesus.
The One greater than all descended wholly into unspeakable lowliness. Then He returned from that lowliness and took the boundless height at the right hand.
Great is the wonder: from that height He did not descend little by little until He reached littleness; He flew from the bosom of the Godhead to humanity.
For the sun, Your sun, proclaims Your mystery as with a mouth: in winter it descends to the low place as a symbol of You; in summer it rises to the height in Your likeness and reigns over all.
Great to me also is the sign of Your conception and that of John, Your herald. The mystery of your conceptions and births is depicted in light and darkness and is clear to whoever understands.
John’s conception took place in Tishrin, when darkness grows strong. Your conception took place in Nisan, when light reigns over darkness and subdues it.
I give thanks for Your first Birth, hidden and concealed from every creature. Again I give thanks for Your second Birth, revealed and foreshadowed by every creature made by Your hands.
The Only-Begotten has two births: one above and one below; one beyond every lineage, and one as Son of the race, wholly kin to humanity.
The day of Your Birth is fittingly set, as a mystery, in Kanun, when light increases over darkness and takes back the hours it had swallowed—just as You delivered us from the one who swallowed us.
Nisan portrays Your conception and cries, ‘Behold, Light is enclosed in the womb.’ In Kanun a pair of lights came forth: You from the womb, and the sun with You from the midst of darkness.