Chapter 142

¹ “And he raised me up upon my knees and said to me: Daniel, man of desires, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upon your place, for now I have been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling, and he said to me: Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day on which you gave your heart to understand and to afflict yourself before God, your words were heard.”

² See how much the reverence of a righteous man avails, that the things not yet to be made manifest in the world might be revealed to him alone as worthy.

³ And first he was given understanding by the angel Gabriel, then a second time he was made wise by the Lord himself.

⁴ For he says thus: “And I saw, and behold, as it were the appearance of a son of man touched me.” Now the first time he said “as a man’s hand,” but now he says “as the appearance of a son of man,” so that first he might show him partially, and then a second time his full incarnation.

⁵ For the Word of God was proclaimed beforehand as a man in the form of a man, a man in the flesh to appear in the world, not yet then being a son of man; but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, so that, having put on the man from the Virgin, he might be shown to be Son of God and Son of man.

⁶ “And I opened,” he says, “my mouth and spoke to the one standing before me: Lord, at your vision my inward parts were turned within me, and I had no strength.” For at the coming of the Lord it was fitting that the things above be brought below, so that the things below might be able to come into the things above.

⁷ “And he proceeded,” he says, “and touched me as the appearance of a man, and strengthened me, and said to me: Fear not, man of desires; peace be to you, be of good courage and be strong.” For whenever all the strength and glory of our life is dissolved, then we are empowered by Christ, who stretches out his hand and raises us up as living from the dead and as from Hades into the resurrection of life.