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Epifanius over de nazoreeëndoor J.C. Plooy
Op deze pagina geef ik een engelse vertaling van de gedeelten in het Panarion van Epifanius die betrekking hebben op de nazoreeën. De vertaling is ontleend aan Frank Williams, The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book I, Leiden/New York/Köln, 1997 (2e druk). De toegevoegde commentaren zijn van mij.
Panarion, Proem I(...) 3. And here are the contents of the entire work which includes the three Volumes, Volume One, Two, and Three. These three Volumes I have divided into seven Sections with a certain number of Sects and Schisms in each, making eighty in all. The names of these sects, and the occasions for them, are as follows: 1. Barbarism. 2. Scythianism. 3. Hellenism. 4. Judaism. 5. Samaritanism. Derived from these are the following. Before Christ's incarnation, but after Barbarism and the Scythian superstition, the outgrowths of Hellenism are: 6. Pythagoreans of Peripatetics, a sect divided from Hellenism by Aristotle. 7. Platonists. 8. Stoics. 9. Epicureans. Next the Samaritan sect, an offshoot of Judaism, and its four breeds: 10. Gorothenes. 11. Sebuaeans. 12. Essenes. 13. Dositheans. Next the afore-mentioned Judaism, which took its characteristic features from Abraham, was amplified through the Law given to Moses, and got its ancestral name, “Judaism,” from Judah the son of Jacob or Israel, through David, the king from Judah's tribe. And derived from Judaism itself are the following seven sects: 14. Scribes. 15. Pharisees. 16. Sadducees. 17. Hemerobaptists. 18. Ossaeans. 19. Nasaraeans. 20. Herodians. Commentaar 4. From these sects, and later in time, there appeared the saving dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ - that is to say, his incarnation, preaching of the Gospel, and proclamation of a kingdom. This alone is the fount of salvation, and the faith in the truth of the catholic, apostolic, and orthodox church. From this the following sects, which have Christ's name only but not his faith, have been broken away and split off: 1. Simonians. 2. Menandrians. 3. Satornilians. 4. Basilideans. 5. Nicolaitans. 6. Gnostics, who are also known as Stratiotics and are the same as the Phibionites. But some call them Secundians, others, Socratists, others, Zacchaeans, and by some they are called Coddians, Borborites, and Barbelists. 7. Carpocratians. 8. Cerinthians, also called Merinthians. 9. Nazoraeans. 10. Ebionites. (...) Commentaar 5. Now I give another list of them divided into Volumes, and in this summary of mine indicate how many of these eighty Sects are in Volume One, and so on in Volumes Two through Three - for each of the seven Sections in the three Volumes, moreover, which portion of the Sects it contains. Thus: There are three Sections and forty-six Sects in Volume One, including their mothers and the original names of these, I mean Barbarism, Scythianism, Hellenism, Judaism and Samaritanism. In Volume Two there are two Sections and twenty-three Sects. And there are two Sections, and eleven Sects, in Volume Three. In the first Section of Volume One there are twenty Sects, as follows: Barbarism, Scythianism, Hellenism and Judaism. Varieties of Hellenes: Pythagoreans or Peripatetics, Platonists, Stoics, Epicureans. The Samaritan sect, which stems from Judaism. Four Samaritan peoples, as follows: Gorothenes, Sebuaeans, Essenes, Dositheans. Seven Jewish sects as follows: Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Hemerobaptists, Ossaeans, Nasaraeans, Herodians. There are likewise thirteen Sects in the second Section of Volume One, as follows: Simonians; Menandrians; Satornilians; Basilideans; Nicolaitans; Gnostics, also called Stratiotics and Phibionites, but Secundians by some, Socratists by others, Zacchaeans, Coddians, Borborites and Barbelists by others; Carpocratians; Cerinthians, also called Merinthians; Nazoraeans; Ebionites; (...) Commentaar Panarion, Anacephalaeosis IThe following are in the first Section of Volume One of the Refutation of the Eighty Sects. This includes twenty Sects as follows: (...) Seven Jewish Sects: (...) 18. Ossenes, meaning “boldest.” They kept all the observances as the Law directs. But they also made use of other scriptures after the Law, though rejecting most of the prophets that came after it. Commentaar 19. Nasaraeans, meaning, “rebels,” who forbid all flesh-eating, and do not eat living things at all. They have the holy names of patriarchs which are in the Pentateuch, up through Moses and Joshua the son of Nun, and they believe in them - I mean Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the earliest ones, and Moses himself, and Aaron, and Joshua. But they hold that the scriptures of the Pentateuch were not written by Moses, and maintain that they have others. Commentaar (...) Panarion, 18Against Nasaraeans, Sect five from Judaism but eighteen of the series 1. I shall next undertake to describe the sect after the Hemerobaptists, called the Nasaraeans. They were Jews by nationality - originally from Gileaditis, Bashanitis and the Transjordan I am told, but descended from Israel himself. They practiced Judaism in all respects, and scarcely had any beliefs beyond those of the Jewish sects I have mentioned. They too had acquired circumcision, and they kept the same Sabbath and were attached to the same feasts, but they did not introduce fate or astrology. They too recognized the fathers in the Pentateuch from Adam to Moses, who had been conspicuous for excellence of piety. I mean Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi and Aaron, Moses and Joshua the son of Nun. But they would not accept the Pentateuch itself. They acknowledged Moses and believed that he had received legislation - not this legislation, however, but some other. And so, though they were Jews who kept all the Jewish observances, they would not offer sacrifice or eat meat. They considered it unlawful to eat meat or make sacrifices with it. They claimed that these books are fictions, and that none of these customs were instituted by the fathers. This was the difference between the Nasaraeans and the others; and their refutation is to be seen in many places, not just one. Commentaar (...) Panarion, 19Against Ossaeans, Sect six from Judaism, but nineteen of the series 1. After this sect in turn, comes another closely connected with them, called the Ossaeans . These are Jews like the former, hypocritical and ingeniously inventive. I have been told that they originally came from Nabataea, Ituraea, Moabitis and Arielis, the lands beyond the basin of what sacred scripture called the “Salt Sea”; this is the one known as the “Dead Sea.” And from the translation of the name, this “People of the Ossaeans” means “sturdy people.” The man called Elxai joined them later, in the reign of the emperor Trajan, after the Savior's incarnation; Elxai was a false prophet. He wrote a book by prophecy, if you please, or as though by inspired wisdom. But they say that another person, Iexaeus, was Elxai's brother. Elxai was personally misguided and a deliberate fraud. Originally he was a Jew with Jewish beliefs, but he did not live by the Law. (...) Commentaar 2. As has been said earlier, Elxai was connected with the sect I have mentioned, called the Ossaean. Even today there are still remnants of it in Nabataea, which is also called Peraea near Moabitis; this people is now known as the Sampsaean. (...) Commentaar (...) 5. This, then, is the Ossene sect, which lives the Jewish life in Sabbath observance, circumcision, and the keeping of the whole Law. Though it is different from the other six of these seven sects, it causes schism only by forbidding the books of Moses like the Nasaraeans. (...) And I shall also pass this sect by. For again, Elxai is associated with those who came later, the Ebionites after Christ, as well as the Nazoraeans. And four sects are bewitched by him imposture, and have made use of him. Of those that came after him, the Ebionites and Nazoraeans. Of those before his time and during it the Ossaeans, and the Nasaraeans whom I mentioned earlier. This is the sixth sect of the seven in Jerusalem. They persisted till the coming of Christ, and after Christ's incarnation until the capture of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus, Domitian's brother but Vespasian's son, in the second year of his father Vespasian's reign. And after Jerusalem's fall this, and the other sects which enjoyed a brief period of celebrity - I mean the Sadducees, Scribes, Pharisees, Hemerobaptists, Ossaeans, Nasaraeans and Herodians - lingered on till, when its time came, each was dispersed and dissolved. Commentaar (...) Panarion, 20Against Herodians, Sect seven from Judaism, but twenty of the series (...) 3. At all events, these were the seven sects in Israel, in Jerusalem and Judaea, while the four I mentioned in “Samaritans” were in Samaria. But most of them have been eliminated. There are no more Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Hemerobaptists or Herodians. There are only a handful of Nasarenes, perhaps one or two, beyond the Upper Thebaid and beyond Arabia; and the remnant of Ossaeans, no longer practicing Judaism but joined with the Sampsites, who in turn live in the territory beyond the Dead Sea - now, though, they are joined with the Ebionite sect. And so they have lapsed from Judaism - as though a snake's tail or body had been cut off and a snake with two heads and no tail had sprouted from it, grown on a half of a body and attached to it. So much for my discussion of the four Samaritan and seven Jewish sects. With the sole exception of three Samaritan ones, the Goronthenes, Dositheans and Sebuaeans, none of them exist any longer. There are no Essenes at all; it is as though they have been buried in darkness. And there are no more sects among the Jews except the Ossaeans, and a few isolated Nasaraeans. But Ossaeans have abandoned Judaism for the sect of the Sampsaeans, who are no longer either Jews or Christians. That will do for these. Commentaar (...) Panarion, Anacephalaeosis IIHere in turn are the contents of this second Section of Volume One. It includes thirteen Sects as follows: (...) 29. Nazoraeans, who confess that Christ Jesus is Son of God, but all of whose customs are in accordance with the Law. Commentaar 30. Ebionites are very like the Cerinthians and Nazoraeans; the sect of the Sampsaeans and Elkasaites was associated with them to a degree. (...) Commentaar (...)
Against Nazoraeans, Number nine, but twenty-nine of the series
1. After these [the Cerinthians] come Nazoraeans, who originated at the same time or even before, or in conjunction with them or after them. In any case they were their contemporaries. I cannot say more precisely who succeeded whom. For, as I said, these were contemporary with each other, and had similar notions. For this group did not name themselves after Christ or with Jesus' own name, but “Nazoraeans.” However, at that time all Christians were called Nazoraeans in the same way. They also came to be called “Jessaeans” for a short while, before the disciples began to be called Christians at Antioch. But they were called Jessaeans because of Jesse, I suppose, since David was descended from Jesse, but Mary from David's line. This was in fulfillment of sacred scripture, for in the Old Testament the Lord tells David, “Of the fruit of thy belly shall I set upon thy throne.”
Hieruit blijkt, dat in de begintijd van het christendom alle christenen ‘nazoreeën’ genoemd werden. Volgens Epifanius noemden zij zich aanvankelijk ook wel ‘jesseeën’. Verder blijkt uit deze tekst, dat de nazoreeën zich ook later geen ‘christenen’ noemden. (...)
5. (...) So in that brief period when they were called Jessaeans - after the Savior's ascension, and after Mark had preached in Egypt - certain other persons seceded, though they were followers of the apostles if you please. I mean the Nazoraeans, whom I am presenting here. They were Jewish, were attached to the Law, and had circumcision. But it was as though people had seen fire under a misapprehension. Not understanding why, or for what use, the ones who had kindled this fire were doing it - either to cook their rations with the fire, or burn some dead trees and brush, which are ordinarily destroyed by fire - they kindled fire too, in imitation, and set themselves on fire. For by hearing just the name of Jesus, and seeing the miracles the apostles performed, they came to faith in Jesus themselves. But they found that he had been conceived at Nazareth and brought up in Joseph's home, and for this reason is called “Jesus the Nazoraean” in the Gospel as the apostles say, “Jesus the Nazoraean, a man approved by signs and wonders,” and so on. Hence they adopted this name, so as to be called Nazoraeans. Not “nazirites” - that means “consecrated persons.” Anciently this rank belonged to firstborn sons and men dedicated to God. Samson was one, and others after him, and many before. Moreover, John the Baptist too was one of these persons consecrated to God, for “He drank neither wine nor strong drink.” This regimen, befitting their rank, was prescribed for persons of that sort.
Hieruit blijkt, dat de nazoreeën
Met betrekking tot de naam ‘nazoreeën’ gaat Epifanius uit van een onjuiste etymologie. Zie daarvoor De betekenis van het woord ‘nazoreeër’. 6. They did not call themselves Nasaraeans either; the Nasaraean sect was before Christ, and did not know Christ. But besides, as I indicated, everyone called the Christians Nazoraeans, as they say in accusing the apostle Paul, “We have found this man a pestilent fellow and a perverter of the people, a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazoraeans.” And the holy apostle did not disclaim the name - not to profess the Nazoraean sect, but he was glad to own the name his adversaries' malice had applied to him for Christ's sake. For he says in court, “They neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, nor have I done any of those things whereof they accuse me. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I, believing all things in the Law and the prophets.” And no wonder the apostle admitted to being a Nazoraean! In those days everyone called Christians this because of the city of Nazareth - there was no other usage of the name then. People thus gave the name of “Nazoraeans” to believers in Christ, of whom it is written, “He shall be called a Nazoraean.” Even today in fact, people call all the sects, I mean Manichaeans, Marcionites, Gnostics and others, by the common name of “Christians,” though they are not Christians. However, although each sect has another name, it still allows this one with pleasure, since it is honored by the name. For they think they can preen themselves on Christ's name; not on faith and works! Thus Christ's holy disciples called themselves “disciples of Jesus” then, as indeed they were. But they were not rude when others called them Nazoraeans, since they saw the intent of those who called them this. They did it because of Christ, since our Lord Jesus was called “the Nazoraean” himself - so say the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles - because of his upbringing in Joseph's home in the city of Nazareth, which is now a village. Though he was born in the flesh at Bethlehem, of the ever-virgin Mary, Joseph's betrothed. Joseph had settled in Nazareth after leaving Bethlehem and taking up residence in Galilee.
Epifanius meent kennelijk, dat de nazoreeën een andere sekte vormden dan de nasareeën. Die mening is echter uitsluitend gebaseerd op het feit, dat de nasareeën vóór Jezus bestonden en hem dus niet kenden, terwijl de nazoreeën zich juist onderscheidden door hun geloof in Jezus. Epifanius gaat geheel voorbij aan de mogelijkheid, dat de naam ‘nasareeën’ een verbastering was van ‘nazoreeën’ en dat de latere nazoreeën, die in Jezus geloofden, uit de eerdere (voor-christelijke) nazoreeën zijn voortgekomen. Met betrekking tot de etymologie van de naam ‘nazoreeën’ verwijs ik naar het commentaar bij de vorige paragraaf. Kennelijk wist men in de 4e eeuw niet meer, wat het woord ‘nazoreeër’ betekende, namelijk dat de betrokkene tot de groepering der nātserājīn (‘wachters’) behoorde. Mensen uit Nazareth noemde men niet ‘nazoreeën’ (grieks: nazōraioi), maar ‘nazareners’ (grieks: nazarènoi). 7. But these sectarians whom I am now sketching disregarded the name of Jesus, and did not call themselves Jessaeans, keep the name of Jews, or term themselves Christians - but “Nazoraeans,” from the place-name, “Nazareth,” if you please! However they are simply complete Jews. They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do. For unlike the previous sectarians, they do not repudiate the legislation, the prophets, and the books Jews call “Writings.” They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the Law proclaims it and in the Jewish fashion - except for their belief in Christ, if you please! For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things, and declare that God is one, and that his Son is Jesus Christ. They are trained to a nicety in Hebrew. For among them the entire Law, the prophets, and the so-called Writings - I mean the poetic books, Kings, Chronicles, Esther and all the rest - are read in Hebrew, as they surely are by Jews. They are different from Jews, and different from Christians, only in the following. They disagree with Jews because they have come to faith in Christ; but since they are still fettered by the Law - circumcision, the Sabbath, and the rest - they are not in accord with Christians. As to Christ, I cannot say whether they too are captives of the wickedness of Cerinthus and Merinthus, and regard him as a mere man - or whether, as the truth is, they affirm his birth of Mary by the Holy Spirit. Today this sect of the Nazoraeans is found in Beroea near Coelesyria, in the Decapolis near Pella, and in Bashanitis at the place called Cocabe - Khokhabe in Hebrew. For that was its place of origin, since all the disciples had settled in Pella after they left Jerusalem - Christ told them to abandon Jerusalem and withdraw from it because of its coming siege. And they settled in Peraea for this reason and, as I said, spent their lives there. That was where the Nazoraean sect began.
Hieruit blijkt, dat de nazoreeën
Het is overigens niet duidelijk, wat de nazoreeën onder ‘Zoon van God’ verstonden en of zij van mening waren dat ook niet-joodse christenen zich aan de voorschriften van de Tōrā moesten houden (vgl. Handelingen 15:1-29). Verder laat Epifanius in het midden, of Jezus volgens hen verwekt was door een man, dan wel door de heilige Geest. Vermoedelijk verschilden de nazoreeën daarover van mening. Met betrekking tot de etymologie van de naam ‘nazoreeën’ verwijs ik naar het commentaar bij paragraaf 5 hiervóór. 8. But they too are wrong to boast of circumcision, and persons like themselves are still “under a curse,” since they cannot fulfil the Law. For how can they fulfil the Law's provision, “Thrice a year thou shalt appear before the Lord thy God, at the feasts of Unleavened Bread, Tabernacles and Pentecost,” on the site of Jerusalem? As the site is closed off, and the Law's provisions cannot be fulfilled, anyone with sense can see that Christ came to be the Law's fulfiller - not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill the Law - and to lift the curse that had been put on transgression of the Law. For after Moses had given every commandment he came to the point of the book and “included the whole in a curse” with the words, “Cursed is he that continueth not in all the words that are written in this book to do them.” Hence Christ came to free what had been fettered with the bonds of the curse. In place of the lesser commandments which cannot be fulfilled, he granted us the greater, which are not inconsistent with the completion of the task as the earlier ones were. For I have discussed this many times before, in every Sect, in connection with the Sabbath, circumcision and the rest - how the Lord has granted something more perfect to us. But how can people like these defend their disobedience of the Holy Spirit, who has told gentile converts, through the apostles, “Assume no burden save the necessary things, that ye abstain from blood, and from things strangled, and fornication, and from meats offered to idols?” And how can they fail to lose the grace of God, when the holy apostle Paul says, “If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing ... whosoever of you do glory in the Law are fallen from grace?”
Epifanius was de eerste gezaghebbende christelijke schrijver die de sekte der nazoreeën beschouwde als een ketterij. Vóór hem werd zij beschouwd als een acceptabele variant van het christendom. Overigens lijkt het enige bezwaar van Epifanius tegen de nazoreeën geweest te zijn, dat zij - hoewel zij geloofden in Jezus als de Messias - vasthielden aan de joodse levenswijze. 9. In this Sect too, my brief discussion will be enough. People like these are refutable at once and easy to cure - or rather, they are nothing but Jews themselves. Yet these are very much the Jews' enemies. Not only do Jewish people have a hatred of them; they even stand up at dawn, at midday, and toward evening, three times a day when they recite their prayers in the synagogues, and curse and anathematize them. Three times a day they say, “God curse the Nazoraeans.” For they harbor an extra grudge against them, if you please, because despite their Jewishness, they preach that Jesus is the Christ - the opposite of those who are still Jews, for they have not accepted Jesus. They have the Gospel according to Matthew in its entirety in Hebrew. For it is clear that they still preserve this, in the Hebrew alphabet, as it was originally written. But I do not know whether they have removed just the genealogies from Abraham to Christ. But now that we have also detected this sect - like an insect that is small, yet still causes pain with its poison - and have squashed it with the words of the truth, let us pray for help from God, beloved, and go to the next.
Hieruit blijkt, dat de nazoreeën
Verder zou uit de tekst afgeleid kunnen worden, dat de nazoreeën een hebreeuwse versie van het evangelie van Mattheüs gebruikten. Met ‘het hebreeuws’ zou echter ook het hebreeuwse schrift bedoeld kunnen zijn. De toelichting in de volgende zin (“in het hebreeuwse alfabet”) zou dan opgevat kunnen worden als een nadere verklaring: ‘met hebreeuwse lettertekens’. Dat het evangelie in het hebreeuws geschreven zou zijn, is niet waarschijnlijk, want het hebreeuws was destijds al lang geen voertaal meer. Het meest aannemelijk lijkt dan ook te zijn, dat het evangelie weliswaar in hebreeuwse lettertekens, maar in de syrisch-aramese taal geschreven was. Dat wordt bevestigd door Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica, 4.22, en Hiëronymus, Dialogi contra Pelagianos, 3.2. De mededeling van Epifanius, dat hij niet weet of de nazoreeën de genealogie van Jezus uit het evangelie van Mattheüs verwijderd hebben, zou erop kunnen wijzen, dat die genealogie niet voorkwam in de oorspronkelijke tekst van het evangelie. Dat zij de genealogie opzettelijk verwijderd zouden hebben, is onwaarschijnlijk, want zij hadden daarvoor geen enkele reden. Wat Epifanius hier het ‘evangelie van Mattheüs’ noemt, kan overigens niet het evangelie van Mattheüs zijn zoals wij het thans kennen, want dat was oorspronkelijk in het grieks geschreven. Waarschijnlijk gaat het om het ‘evangelie der hebreeën’, dat geschreven was in het aramees, door de nazoreeën werd toegeschreven aan Mattheüs en na vertaling in het grieks bewerkt is tot het evangelie van Mattheüs zoals wij het kennen. Against Ebionites, Number ten, but thirty of the series
1. Following these and holding the same views, Ebion, the Ebionites' founder, emerged in his turn - a monstrosity with many shapes, who practically formed the snake-like shape of the mythical many-headed hydra in himself. He was of the Nazoraeans' school, but preached and taught differently from them. For it was as though a person were to collect a set of jewelry from various precious stones, and a garment from clothing of many colors, and dress up to be conspicuous. Ebion, in reverse, took any item of preaching from every sect if it was dreadful, lethal and disgusting, if it was ugly and unconvincing, if it was full of contention, and patterned himself after them all. For he has the Samaritans' repulsiveness but the Jews' name, the viewpoint of the Ossaeans, Nazoraeans and Nasaraeans, the nature of the Cerinthians, and the badness of the Carpocratians. (...)
Hieruit kan worden afgeleid, dat de ebionieten zijn voortgekomen uit de nazoreeën. Dat de sekte der ebionieten gesticht is door een zekere Ebion, is overigens waarschijnlijk onjuist. Waarschijnlijk zijn de ebionieten ontstaan als een afsplitsing van de nazoreeën, nadat de nazoreese gemeenschap van Jeruzalem zich in de jaren na 135, toen alle joden uit Jeruzalem verbannen werden, bij haar zustergemeenschap in Pella gevoegd had. 2. For Ebion was contemporary with the Nazoraeans and, since he was their ally, was derived from them. (...) They got their start after the fall of Jerusalem. For since practically all who had come to faith in Christ had settled in Peraea then, in Pella, a town in the “Decapolis” the Gospel mentions, which is near Batanaea and Bashanitis - as they had moved there then and were living there, this provided an occasion for Ebion. And as far as I know, he first lived in a village called Cocabe in the district of Qarnaim - also called Ashtaroth - in Bashanitis. There he began his bad teaching - the same place, if you please, as the Nazoraeans whom I have mentioned already. For since Ebion was connected with them and they with him, each party shared its own wickedness with the other. (...)
Zie commentaar bij Panarion, 30.1. De mededeling van Epifanius, dat de ebionieten “hun begin hadden” na de val van Jeruzalem, moet naar mijn mening zo worden geïnterpreteerd, dat de kiem van de conflicten onder de nazoreeën die uiteindelijk zouden leiden tot de afsplitsing van de ebionieten, gelegd is na de val van Jeruzalem in het jaar 70, toen een deel van de nazoreeën die naar Pella gevlucht waren weer naar Judea terugkeerde, terwijl een ander deel in Pella achterbleef. Wellicht is de historische kern van de legende van Ebion, dat binnen de geïsoleerde nazoreese gemeenschap in Pella in de periode 70-135 opvattingen ontstaan zijn die niet meer spoorden met de opvattingen van de nazoreeën in Jeruzalem. Mogelijk heeft dit na de hereniging in de jaren 135 geleid tot conflicten, die ertoe geleid hebben dat de meer radicale ebionieten - vermoedelijk een groot deel van de oorspronkelijke gemeenschap in Pella - zich afscheidden van de meer gematigde nazoreeën. (...)
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