“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”
This is why it is said: 'Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you' — the citation (possibly from a baptismal hymn) calls the community: egeirō ('wake up,' 'rise'), anistēmi ('arise') ek tōn nekrōn ('from the dead'), and epiphainō ('Christ will shine upon you,' illuminate you), eschatological wakefulness.
Church Fathers on Ephesians 5:14
“Wherefore he says, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon you.” By the “sleeper” and the “dead,” he means the man that is in sin; for he both exhales noisome odors like the dead, and is inactive like one that is asleep, and like him he sees nothing, but is dreaming, and forming fancies and illusions. Some indeed read, “And you shall touch Christ”; but others, “And Christ shall shine upon you”; and it is rather this latter. Depart from…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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