3 Maccabees 2 - Simon’s Prayer and God’s Defense of the Temple

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Simon bows before the sanctuary and gives Jerusalem’s fear the words of prayer. He remembers God’s judgments and deliverances, confesses the people’s sins, and asks mercy to reach the brokenhearted first. God restrains Ptolemy, but the king refuses repentance. The defended sanctuary is followed by a new crisis in Egypt, where religious surrender is offered as the price of civic privilege.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Chapter 2 continues the temple crisis from chapter 1 and then turns the story toward Egypt. The first half belongs in Jerusalem: the high priest prays, God answers, and Ptolemy is removed from the sanctuary. The second half points to Alexandria and the Egyptian diaspora: the king weaponizes his humiliation into policy against the Jews.

Simon is commonly identified with Simon II, son of Onias, the high priest celebrated in Sirach 50:1-21. This is a scholarly identification rather than something the chapter itself establishes. Sirach, received in the Coptic biblical tradition, portrays a high priest whose service gathers the people into worship and blessing. He stands as priestly intercessor. His prayer echoes the biblical pattern of 1 Kings 8, where Solomon prays that when the people sin, suffer defeat, turn, and pray toward the house God has sanctified, God will hear in heaven. Simon also recalls the flood, Sodom, Pharaoh, and the Red Sea. The prayer is a tapestry of salvation history.

The chapter also anticipates later persecution. The king’s decree in verses 27-30 is not only administrative. It attacks religious identity. Jews who refuse sacrifice are denied entrance to their own temple, registered among the common people, marked with Dionysus’ ivy leaf, and reduced in rights. Those who enter the rites receive equal rights with Alexandrians. The pressure is clear: abandon covenant distinction and receive public belonging.

For Christian reading, this chapter points toward Christ without forced typology. Simon is a priestly intercessor, but he is not a simplistic substitute for Christ. Rather, his prayer teaches the shape of intercession fulfilled in Christ the High Priest. Christ is the true Temple and the one mediator. Through Him, the Church learns to pray under threat, confess sin, remember deliverance, and approach holy things with reverence.

Geographical Significance

The chapter begins before the holy place in Jerusalem and ends in Egypt. The sanctuary is defended, but the diaspora becomes exposed: Ptolemy cannot enter the holy place, so he tries to control the people connected to it.

The offer of equal rights with Alexandrians points toward the city where Jewish worship, Greek civic status, and royal power meet. Diaspora life is not automatically compromise. The Jews must live as subjects, neighbors, and members of a community without surrendering the covenant. The change of location makes the king’s demand more invasive: what he could not obtain at the sanctuary he now tries to obtain from the bodies and public identity of its worshipers.

The Characters 👥

• Simon the high priest: The priestly intercessor. He prays with Scripture, confession, and bold trust in God’s mercy.
• Ptolemy IV Philopator: Humbled by God, but not healed in heart. His speech is stopped briefly, yet his threats return.
• God, King of the heavens: Creator, Judge, Holy among the holy, and defender of His sanctified place.
• The fathers of Israel: Remembered through the flood, Sodom, Pharaoh, the Red Sea, and earlier deliverances.
• Ptolemy’s friends and bodyguards: Terrified by the judgment and afraid the king will die. They remove him from the holy place.
• The companions in wine: The king’s corrupt circle in Egypt, described as lost to all goodness.
• The Jews in Egypt: The threatened diaspora community. Some yield to the king’s policy, while the majority cling to religious observances.
• The apostates: Those who abandon the city of piety and give in, expecting honor from association with the king.

Light from the Word

3 Maccabees 2:1-8 - Simon remembers God as Creator, Judge, and Deliverer

¹ Now was it that the high priest Simon bowed his knees over against the holy place, and spread out his hands in reverent form, and uttered the following supplication:

² O Lord, Lord, King of the heavens, and Ruler of the whole creation, Holy among the holy, sole Governor, Almighty, give ear to us who are oppressed by a wicked and profane one, who exulteth in his confidence and strength. ³ It is thou, the Creator of all, the Lord of the universe, who art a righteous Governor, and judgest all who act with pride and insolence.

⁴ It was thou who didst destroy the former workers of unrighteousness, among whom were the giants, who trusted in their strength and hardihood, by covering them with a measureless flood. ⁵ It was thou who didst make the Sodomites, those workers of exceeding iniquity, men notorious for their vices, an example to after generations, when thou didst consume them with fire and brimstone.

⁶ Thou didst make known thy power when thou causedst the bold Pharaoh, the enslaver of thy people, to pass through the ordeal of many and diverse inflictions. ⁷ And thou rolledst the depths of the sea over him, when he made pursuit with chariots, and with a multitude of followers, and gavest a safe passage to those who put their trust in thee, the Lord of the whole creation. ⁸ These saw and felt the works of thine hands, and praised thee the Almighty.

Simon bows his knees and spreads out his hands before the holy place. His posture is part of the teaching. He does not begin by explaining Ptolemy to the people. He begins by naming God. The first title is not local or tribal: “King of the heavens, and Ruler of the whole creation.” The God who sanctified the temple is not trapped inside the temple.

The prayer remembers divine judgment against arrogant strength. The giants trusted in strength and were covered by the flood. Sodom became an example to later generations. Pharaoh enslaved God’s people and pursued them with chariots, but God rolled the sea over him and gave safe passage to those who trusted in Him. Simon’s point is not revenge. It is realism. Arrogant power has never been ultimate before God.

Prayer under threat receives substance from remembering who God is. Simon’s prayer gives the frightened people a larger memory than Ptolemy’s army. The same God who judged the proud and delivered the oppressed can defend the holy place now.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrase: Simon begins with who God is before he names what Ptolemy has done.
• Emphasize: Prayer under threat is strengthened by salvation history.
• Avoid: Making the prayer sound like a magical formula. It is covenant memory and humble appeal.

3 Maccabees 2:9-20 - The holy place belongs to God, and mercy must go first

⁹ Thou, O King, when thou createdst the illimitable and measureless earth, didst choose out this city: thou didst make this place sacred to thy name, albeit thou needest nothing: thou didst glorify it with thy illustrious presence, after constructing it to the glory of thy great and honourable name.

¹⁰ And thou didst promise, out of love to the house of Israel, that should we fall away from thee, and become afflicted, and then come to this house and pray, thou wouldest hear our prayer. ¹¹ Verily thou art faithful and true.

¹² And whereas thou didst often aid our fathers when hard pressed, and in low estate, and deliveredst them out of great dangers, ¹³ see now, holy King, how through our many and great sins we are borne down, and made subject to our enemies, and are become weak and powerless. ¹⁴ We being in this low condition, this bold and profane man seeks to dishonour this thy holy place, consecrated out of the earth to the name of thy Majesty.

¹⁵ Thy dwelling-place, the heaven of heavens, is indeed unapproachable to men. ¹⁶ But since it seemed good to thee to exhibit thy glory among thy people Israel, thou didst sanctify this place. ¹⁷ Punish us not by means of the uncleanness of their men, nor chastise us by means of their profanity; lest the lawless ones should boast in their rage, and exult in exuberant pride of speech, and say, ¹⁸ We have trampled upon the holy house, as idolatrous houses are trampled upon.

¹⁹ Blot out our iniquities, and do away with our errors, and shew forth thy compassion in this hour. ²⁰ Let thy mercies quickly go before us. Grant us peace, that the cast down and broken hearted may praise thee with their mouth.

Simon now speaks directly about the city and holy place. God created the measureless earth and chose this city. He made this place sacred to His name, though He needs nothing. This is crucial. God does not need the temple as a house because He lacks a home. He sanctifies the place out of love for Israel and for the glory of His name.

The words “albeit thou needest nothing” in verse 9 protect the prayer from imagining God as a needy inhabitant of a building. Isaiah 66:1-2 sets heaven as His throne and earth as His footstool, then turns toward the humble person who trembles at His word. Acts 17:24-25 likewise proclaims that the Creator gives life and breath rather than receiving necessary support from human hands. God’s freedom to sanctify a place and His freedom from dependence on it belong together.

The prayer also confesses sin. Simon does not present the people as morally entitled to rescue. He says, “through our many and great sins we are borne down.” Yet he pleads that the lawless should not boast that they have trampled the holy house as idolatrous houses are trampled. The defense of the sanctuary is not pride. It is concern for God’s name and mercy for a broken people.

The most beautiful line is verse 20: “Let thy mercies quickly go before us. Grant us peace, that the cast down and broken hearted may praise thee with their mouth.” Simon asks mercy to go ahead of the people. The plea recalls Psalm 79:8 (LXX 78:8), where tender mercies are asked to reach the impoverished quickly. They do not stand because they are strong. They stand because mercy reaches them first.

For Christian teaching, this becomes a doorway into repentance. The holy place is God’s possession. The Church does not approach the Eucharist because she is worthy in herself. She approaches because Christ has opened the way, and because mercy goes before us. The Coptic Eucharistic life is full of this pattern: confession, mercy, preparation, fear of God, and praise.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrase: “Let thy mercies quickly go before us.”
• Emphasize: Simon defends the holy place while confessing the people’s sins.
• Avoid: Teaching temple holiness as national pride. The prayer is humble, not boastful.

3 Maccabees 2:21-24 - God humbles Ptolemy, but the king does not repent

²¹ At that time God, who seeth all things, who is beyond all Holy among the holy, heard that prayer, so suitable; and scourged the man greatly uplifted with scorn and insolence. ²² Shaking him to and fro as a reed is shaken with the wind, he cast him upon the pavement, powerless, with limbs paralyzed; by a righteous judgment deprived of the faculty of speech.

²³ His friends and body-guards, beholding the swift recompense which had suddenly overtaken him, struck with exceeding terror, and fearing that he would die, speedily removed him. ²⁴ When in course of time he had come to himself, this severe check caused no repentance within him, but he departed with bitter threatenings.

God hears the prayer. The text piles up descriptions of Ptolemy’s humiliation: scourged, shaken like a reed, cast on the pavement, powerless, paralyzed, deprived of speech. The man who insisted on entering by force cannot even stand or speak. The king who thought he could treat the sanctuary as one more temple is made weak before the God who sees all things.

The miracle is a mercy as well as a judgment. Ptolemy is removed from the holy place before worse sacrilege occurs. He is also given a severe warning. But the chapter is honest: “this severe check caused no repentance within him.” A person can be humiliated by events and still refuse repentance. Fear can pass. Threats can return. The heart can turn a warning into bitterness.

The distinction is sobering: a painful consequence is not itself repentance. Repentance is not merely being stopped. It is the turning of the heart to God. Ptolemy is restrained, but not converted. The story therefore continues into persecution.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrase: Humbled without repentance.
• Emphasize: Divine restraint is mercy and warning, but the heart must still turn.
• Avoid: Treating Ptolemy’s collapse as spiritual healing. The text says the opposite.

3 Maccabees 2:25-33 - The crisis moves to Egypt: stigma, registration, and coerced assimilation

²⁵ He proceeded to Egypt, grew worse in wickedness through his beforementioned companions in wine, who were lost to all goodness; ²⁶ and not satisfied with countless acts of impiety, his audacity so increased that he raised evil reports there, and many of his friends, watching his purpose attentively, joined in furthering his will.

²⁷ His purpose was to inflict a public stigma upon our race; wherefore he erected a pillar at the tower-porch, and caused the following inscription to be engraven upon it: ²⁸ That entrance to their own temple was to be refused to all those who would not sacrifice; that all the Jews were to be registered among the common people; that those who resisted were to be forcibly seized and put to death; ²⁹ that those who were thus registered, were to be marked on their persons by the ivy-leaf symbol of Dionysus, and to be set apart with these limited rights.

³⁰ To do away with the appearance of hating them all, he had it written underneath, that if any of them should elect to enter the community of those initiated in the rites, these should have equal rights with the Alexandrians.

³¹ Some of those who were over the city, therefore, abhorring any approach to the city of piety, unhesitatingly gave in to the king, and expected to derive some great honour from a future connection with him. ³² A nobler spirit, however, prompted the majority to cling to their religious observances, and by paying money that they might live unmolested, these sought to escape the registration: ³³ cheerfully looking forward to future aid, they abhorred their own apostates, considering them to be national foes, and debarring them from the common usages of social intercourse.

Ptolemy returns to Egypt and becomes worse. His companions in wine further his will, and he raises evil reports. The decree aims to stigmatize the Jewish race. Entrance to their own temple is refused to those who will not sacrifice. Jews are to be registered among the common people. Those who resist are to be seized and put to death. Those registered are marked with the ivy leaf of Dionysus and reduced to limited rights.

The imposed ivy leaf makes the body a site of coerced allegiance. Revelation 13:16-17 offers a later parallel in the mark linked to the right to buy and sell. These are distinct texts and crises, not a code identifying Ptolemy’s decree with a modern device or institution. Against coercive marking stand the protective mark in Ezekiel 9:4 and God’s sealing of His servants in Revelation 7:3. The contrast concerns whose claim a life receives, not the outward resemblance of every mark.

The offer in verse 30 is especially important. If Jews elect to enter the community of those initiated in the rites, they receive equal rights with Alexandrians. Coercion here joins an invitation to a threat: full belonging is offered on the condition that the people accept the king’s rites and surrender their covenant distinction. This is forced assimilation clothed as civic opportunity.

The chapter distinguishes responses without disguising their cost. Some give in, expecting honor through the king. The majority cling to their observances and pay money to escape registration. The narrator praises their fidelity, but the payment also shows how vulnerable survival has become: money can buy a temporary exemption that conviction alone cannot secure. Their refusal of social intercourse with apostates is equally stark. Public abandonment of the covenant wounds a threatened people, and the text reports their abhorrence without softening it.

A Christian comparison requires care. In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, St Paul distinguishes association with outsiders from fellowship with a person who claims the name of brother while persisting in grave wrongdoing. That distinction protects communion from becoming indifferent to confession; it does not authorize contempt for frightened people or private campaigns of exclusion. Apostasy calls for repentance and pastoral care. Neither wealth nor an outwardly untroubled appearance can tell us what a person has endured.

The temple has been defended, but the diaspora is now targeted. Chapters 3-4 show suspicion becoming policy and policy entering homes, while the people wait for the help they cannot yet see.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrase: Coerced apostasy can present itself as equal rights.
• Emphasize: The pressure is religious, social, and political at the same time.
• Avoid: Making the chapter a simplistic attack on civic life. The problem is forced worship and covenant abandonment, not ordinary public belonging.

St Dionysius of Alexandria on fear and falling away

Centuries after the setting of this story, St Dionysius described the Decian persecution in a letter to Fabius preserved by Eusebius. Some approached sacrifice because of fear, some because their public office drew them in, and some because acquaintances urged them. Others denied their former Christian identity; some endured imprisonment and then fell (Eusebius, Church History 6.41.11-13). This is an Alexandrian parallel, not a commentary on 3 Maccabees. It adds human precision to a word such as apostasy: coercion works through livelihoods, social circles, exhaustion, and terror.

Dionysius neither calls denial harmless nor treats the fallen as beyond mercy. In the same letter, he recalls confessors receiving back those whose repentance they judged sincere (6.42.5-6). Their example keeps firmness from becoming cruelty. Those who remain faithful need grace, and those who fall need a truthful road home.

Christological Reading

Simon prays as a high priest who confesses the sins of his own people. His outstretched hands and appeal to remembered mercy prepare Christian attention for Christ’s priesthood, while Hebrews 9:11-14 makes the difference clear. Christ enters once for all through His own Blood, cleansing the conscience for service of the living God. Simon petitions for deliverance before a sanctuary; Christ Himself accomplishes the redemption through which we draw near to the Father.

Hebrews 10:19-23 joins confidence to cleansing, faithful confession, and persevering hope. The Christian answer to Ptolemy’s entitlement is therefore neither casual access nor despairing distance. Christ opens a new and living way. The believer receives it through repentance and faith rather than demanding it as a reward for rank or effort.

St Cyril of Alexandria on the true Temple

At John 2:21-22, St Cyril explains that Christ’s Body is a temple because the Only-Begotten Word who is God by nature dwells in it. He then distinguishes the grace received by the faithful: “In another sense indeed, we are called temples of God, by reason of the Holy Ghost indwelling in us.”¹ This is direct commentary on John, not on Simon’s prayer. It helps a Christian see why God needing nothing can still make His presence known among His people. Holiness is His gift and presence, not our possession.

Ptolemy’s inability to repent gives this reading its ascetical edge. A person may defend the sanctuary in public and still refuse God’s correction in private. Christ’s opening of the way calls for the turning of the whole heart. To approach His Body and Blood while nursing a refusal to forgive would repeat the demand for holy access without holy obedience.

The Church’s Voice in Worship

This passage has no established place in the Coptic Orthodox lectionary.

The Coptic Liturgy reads Hebrews 9:1-12 for the Entrance of Saint Mary into the Temple on Kiahk 3, December 12 in 2026, and also on Mesra 16 and Paona 21. Its remembrance of the high priest’s annual entry gives Simon’s priestly prayer a Christian companion. On Palm Sunday the Pauline Epistle is Hebrews 9:11-28, proclaiming Christ’s entry by His own Blood. Hebrews 10:19-38 is read on the Fifth Sunday of the Holy Fifty Days, while the Third Sunday of Toba uses Hebrews 10:19-39. The comparison with this chapter is a reading of these Scriptures together, not a claim that the Church appoints them as commentary on 3 Maccabees.

Simon’s prayer begins with God’s majesty, remembers His works, confesses sin, and asks mercy so that brokenhearted people may praise. Before Communion in the Coptic rite, the priest proclaims, “The Holies for the holy.” The people answer, “One is the All-Holy Father, One is the All-Holy Son, One is the All-Holy Spirit. Amen.”² The mysteries are received from the One who sanctifies, never claimed as a social entitlement.

St Cyril of Jerusalem explains the corresponding Eucharistic proclamation, “Holy things to holy men,” by distinguishing holiness received from holiness by nature: “we too are holy, but not by nature, only by participation, and discipline, and prayer.”³ The point is not that a person must first make himself independently worthy. The Lord sanctifies those whom He calls to draw near in truth.

The ivy leaf also sharpens the contrast with Holy Myron, the consecrated chrism with which the baptized are anointed. Ptolemy’s mark subjects persons to alien worship and the king’s conditions. Christian anointing belongs to the life given in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13-14 speaks of believers sealed with the promised Spirit. St Cyril of Jerusalem’s teaching on chrism explains that the body’s visible anointing accompanies the soul’s sanctification by the life-giving Spirit (Mystagogical Catechesis 3.3-4). This is a sacramental comparison, not a claim that Ezekiel’s mark and the Christian rite are identical historical practices.

Spiritual Fruit

1. Give fear a larger memory. Before asking for a particular outcome, name one saving work of God from Scripture. Simon’s remembrance is not an escape from the crisis; it teaches the frightened heart whom it is addressing.

2. Confess without blaming sufferers. Simon confesses the community’s sins while resisting a real aggressor. His prayer does not give us permission to identify another person’s persecution, illness, or humiliation as punishment for a hidden fault. Let confession begin with what you yourself can repent of.

3. Turn a check into repentance. Recall a correction that left you embarrassed but unchanged. Bring the specific refusal to confession: the apology still withheld, the practice resumed when pressure passed, or the resentment disguised as wounded dignity. Being stopped can become mercy when the heart turns.

4. Name the price of acceptance. Ordinary friendship, public service, and citizenship are good. When an opportunity requires a lie about Christ or participation in idolatry, its promise of belonging has become coercion. Seek counsel early, before fear and ambition make the false choice feel inevitable.

5. Keep the road home open. Pray for a person who has withdrawn from faith without turning that person into an object of gossip. Firmness about communion belongs with patient invitation to repentance. Our own perseverance is a gift, not evidence that we would have endured every pressure better.

Simon asks mercy to go before the people. Let that petition accompany the next frightening conversation or necessary confession. You do not need to arrange a worthy appearance before God will hear you. Kneel before the One who knows the truth, receive correction, and ask for peace that can become praise.

Teaching Notes

3 Maccabees 2:1-8

Explain the prayer’s titles for God and the sequence of flood, Sodom, Pharaoh, and the sea. Sennacherib, the Three Youths, Daniel, and Jonah belong to Eleazar’s prayer in chapter 6, not to Simon’s here. Prayer shaped by salvation history is not a formula for controlling outcomes.

3 Maccabees 2:9-20

Read the confession and the plea for mercy together. God’s freedom from need does not erase His sanctification of the temple. Protect sufferers from the inference that the teacher can diagnose their affliction as punishment. Simon’s words are communal confession, not permission for blaming victims.

3 Maccabees 2:21-24

Keep the severe restraint and the explicit absence of repentance together. Do not use Ptolemy’s collapse to suggest that paralysis, speech impairment, or illness in other people proves divine displeasure. The narrator interprets this particular event; we are not given that judgment over other lives.

3 Maccabees 2:25-33

Explain sacrifice, registration, the ivy leaf, and the promise of civic rights without encouraging suspicion of ordinary civic belonging. Paying for exemption is narrated as a means of survival, not as a general rule for bribery. The exclusion of apostates needs honest explanation beside 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 and Dionysius’ account of frightened Christians. Distinguish ecclesial discipline from contempt or harassment. Do not convert the Revelation comparison into speculation about contemporary technology.

Visual and source limits: A map may show the change from Jerusalem to Egypt. Keep any image of Christ the High Priest or the holy dwelling of the Word clearly distinct from a depiction of this episode. No established icon of Simon stopping Ptolemy is asserted.

Discussion Questions

1. What does Simon’s prayer teach us about how to pray under threat?
2. Why does Simon confess the people’s sin while asking God to defend the holy place?
3. What is the difference between being stopped and repenting?
4. How does the king’s offer of equal rights become a form of coercion?
5. How should Christians preserve identity in public life without becoming hostile or fearful?

Glossary

• Simon the high priest: Priestly intercessor in 3 Maccabees 2 who prays before the holy place.
• Holy among the holy: A title in Simon’s prayer emphasizing God’s holiness beyond all created holiness.
• Dionysus: Greek god associated here with the ivy-leaf mark and the rites into which Jews are pressured.
• Ivy-leaf symbol: The imposed mark connected with Dionysus, representing coerced religious assimilation.
• Alexandrians: Citizens of Alexandria. In the chapter, equal rights with them are offered as reward for entering the king’s religious program.
• Apostasy: Public abandonment of covenant faith and worship.
• Mercy going before: Simon’s phrase for God’s compassion reaching the brokenhearted before they can stand by their own strength.
• Holy Myron: Consecrated chrism used in the anointing of the baptized, associated with the gift and sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit.

Translation Notes

Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX). The full chapter and its verse numbering are retained. Psalm references give the NKJV number first, followed by the Septuagint number where it differs.

Sources

1. Lancelot C. L. Brenton, The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament, with an English Translation (1851), 3 Maccabees 2. Background and comparisons: 1 Kings 8; Sirach 50:1-21; Isaiah 66:1-2; Psalm 79:8 (LXX 78:8); Ezekiel 9:1-6. New Testament cross-references, NKJV: Acts 17:24-25; Hebrews 9:1-28; Hebrews 10:19-38; John 2:19-22; Revelation 13:16-17; Revelation 7:1-4; Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13.

2. Roger A. Bullard and Howard A. Hatton, A Handbook on 3-4 Maccabees (UBS, 2018), commentary on 3 Maccabees 2:1, for the identification with Simon II.

3. St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Book 2, on John 2:21-22, P. E. Pusey translation, Library of the Fathers 43 (1874), pp. 163-164. Text.

4. St Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis 5.19 (Catechetical Lecture 23.19) and Mystagogical Catechesis 3.3-4 (Catechetical Lecture 21.3-4), Edwin Hamilton Gifford translation, NPNF, second series, vol. 7 (1894). Eucharist; chrism.

5. St Dionysius of Alexandria, letter to Fabius, in Eusebius, Church History 6.41.11-14 and 6.42.5-6, Arthur Cushman McGiffert translation, NPNF, second series, vol. 1 (1890). Text. An Alexandrian historical parallel, not direct exegesis of 3 Maccabees.

6. Coptic Orthodox Katameros, Pauline Epistles at the Liturgy: Hebrews 9:1-12 on Kiahk 3, Mesra 16, and Paona 21; Hebrews 9:11-28 on Palm Sunday; Hebrews 10:19-38 on the Fifth Sunday of the Holy Fifty Days; Hebrews 10:19-39 on the Third Sunday of Toba. Date-resolved examples: Kiahk 3, Mesra 16, Paona 21, Palm Sunday, Fifth Sunday, and Third Sunday of Toba. This passage has no established place in the Coptic Orthodox lectionary.

7. Coptic Reader, The Divine Liturgy According to Saint Basil the Great, English text before the Confession, Joyous Saturday, April 11, 2026, for the proclamation of the Holies and the people’s response. Holy Myron is discussed as sacramental anointing, without reproducing its rite’s wording.

Footnotes

1. St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Book 2, on John 2:21-22, P. E. Pusey translation, Library of the Fathers 43 (1874), pp. 163-164. Text. ↩

2. Coptic Reader, The Divine Liturgy According to Saint Basil the Great, English text, proclamation and response before the Confession, Joyous Saturday, April 11, 2026. ↩

3. St Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis 5 (Catechetical Lecture 23), section 19, Edwin Hamilton Gifford translation, NPNF, second series, vol. 7 (1894). Text. ↩