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The Friend of the Bridegroom: On the Orthodox Veneration of the Forerunner

As the field of biblical studies seems on the verge of awakening from a long historicalcritical somnolence, theological reflections based in liturgical readings of Scripture are rare gems. In this account of John the Baptist, published in Russian in 1927 by the twentieth century's greatest Orthodox theologian, we have one such gem. This is the second volume of Bulgakov's "little trilogy," which includes also volumes on the Virgin and the angels. Drawing on liturgical texts, traditional exegesis and iconography (especially the Deisis, or the Virgin and John in prayer at either side of Christ) as explications of the sparse Gospel narratives, Bulgakov argues that the Forerunner enacts a necessary role in the drama of the Passion, not only as the