Letter 77

To the same person. The Lord touched the feet, so that he might strengthen feet that are earthen and weak, feet destined to run throughout all the world that lies beneath the sun. He takes hold of the part of the heel, against which the sentence had been pronounced at the beginning [Genesis 3:15], so that, once the hand of the great Physician had been laid upon it, the venom of the intelligible serpent might work no longer. The heel, therefore, having been strengthened by the hand of the Master who touched it, trampled down Satan, who of old deceived the first-formed [Adam and Eve], and thus there was fulfilled what was confirmed in the words by the prophetess Deborah [Judges 5]: "My soul, having been made strong, shall trample down my enemies." And David cried out, singing a song of victory: "They that rise up against me shall fall under my feet" [Psalm 18:38-39 (LXX 17)], and "I will grind down my enemies like the mire of the streets." "For behold," the Lord has said, "I have given you authority to tread, and not to be trodden down, nor to be deceived by the destroyer" [Luke 10:19].

Ἥψατο τῶν ποδῶν ὁ Κύριος, ἵνα ἐνισχύσῃ πόδας γηΐνους καὶ ἀσθενεῖς, μέλλοντας διατρέχειν πᾶσαν τὴν ὑφ᾿ ἥλιον· λαμβάνεται τοῦ μέρους τῆς πτέρνης, καθ᾿ ἧς ἡ ἀπόφασις καταρχὰς ἐξενήνεκτο, ἵνα τοῦ μεγάλου ἰατροῦ τὴν χεῖρα ἐπιθέντος, μηκέτι ἐνεργήσῃ ὁ ἰὸς τοῦ νοητοῦ ὄφεως. Ἐνδυναμωθεῖσα τοίνυν ἡ πτέρνα ὑπὸ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ ἁψαμένου Δεσπότου ἐπάτησε τὸν Σατανᾶν τὸν ἐξαπατήσαντα πρὶν τοὺς πρωτοπλάστους, καὶ οὕτω πεπλήρωται τὸ ὑπὸ τῆς προφήτιδος Δέββόρρας βεβοηθημένον ἐν φμασιν· «Καταπατήσει τοὺς ἐχθρούς μου ἡ ἐμὴ δυναμωθεῖσα ψυχή.» Καὶ ὁ Δαυΐδ κέκραγε ψάλλων ἐπινίκιον· «Πεσοῦνται ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας μου οἱ ἐπανιστάμενοί μοι,» καὶ ὥσπερ πηλὸν πλατειῶν λεανῶ τοὺς ἐχθρούς μου. «Ἰδοὺ γὰρ δέδωκα ὑμῖν ἐξουσίαν, ὁ Κύριος εἴρηκε, πατεῖν, καὶ μὴ καταπατεῖσθαι, μηδὲ ἐξαπατᾶσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ λυμαινόνος.»