Bogdan G. Bucur Pisburgh, PA “THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD“: SINAI, ZION, AND EDEN IN BYZANTINE HYMNOGRAPHIC EXEGESIS 1 Intrdctin In the manifesto of the “Theophaneia School,“ Alexander Golitzin ventures the following bold statement: Theophany permeates Orthodox Tradition throughout, informing its dogmatic theology and its liturgy. That Jesus, Mary’s son, is the very One who appeared to Moses and the prophets — this is the consistent witness of the ante-Nicene Fathers, and remains founda- tional throughout the fourth century Trinitarian controversies and the later christological disputes. 2 In the pages to follow, I would like to show that, aside from the his- tory of creeds, councils, and condemnations, and accompanying the patristic works of Christology or trinitarian theology, the identication of the Son of Mary with “the Lord of Glory whom Moses saw of old“ is also armed by the hymnographic tradition of the Christian East. The witness of Byzantine hymnography is extremely relevant, as no single patristic work has been read so extensively and with such uncondi- tional acceptance throughout the ages. Nevertheless, as I will show, the exegetical dimension of Byzantine hymnography is dicult to de- ne using the categories commonly used for early Christian exegesis (“allegory,“ “typology,“ etc); I submit that a more suitable category (1) Except where indicated, the English translation of the hymns is taken from The Festal Menaion (trans. Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware; London— Boston: Faber&Faber, 1969) and The Lenten Triodion (trans. Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware; London—Boston: Faber&Faber, 1977), modied only to con- form to contemporary use of pronouns and verbs. For biblical references, in cases of divergence between biblical book, or between the numbering of chap- ters or verses in the LXX and the MT, the rst abbreviation and number refers to the LXX, the second to the MT. (2) A. G, Theophaneia: Forum on the Jewish Roots of Orthodox Spirituality, Scr 3 (2007) xviii.