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… with the measuring of land for the founding of a building. In the Armenian ceremony connected [handwritten: with] with the founding of a church, one of the first acts was the taking of the measuring tool and the laying out of the plan of the building. Such a use of the measuring tool in all probability 378 ing. goes back to the laying of the temple at Jerusalem. Indeed, 379 in the Coptic dedication of a baptistery, the whole 380 passage in which Ezekiel describes the building of a temple was read. In the Greek dedication of a church, 381 the temple at Jerusalem was mentioned. 382
Since κτίζις means founding or creation, it may have been a symbol with a Christian interpretation. In looking for meaning in such symbols, we must not be too rigid, for it may have had one meaning at one time and another meaning at another time. In addition to its principal meaning, it 383 may have had at the same time several connotations. Now Epiphanius who was archbishop of Cyprus a short time before our building was built states quite clearly that κτίσις 384 is a symbol of eternal life. Και η κτίσις πάσα διαρρηδην αυτους ελέγχει, υποφαίνουσα καθ' εκάστην ημέραν, ανα- στάσεως το είδος. Δύνει γαρ η ημέρα, και νεκρων ανιττόμενα τον τρόπον, πολυμέσον ανιττομενο ανατέλλει η ημέρα ημας διυπποσουσα και ανα- στάσεως υποδεικνυουσα το ηνεύον. — Άκρις Τελευτα, θάφασα τι εαυτης αποβαλησθεν κύημα
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain