ARGUMENTS OF THE GLAPHYRA OF ST. CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, ON GENESIS
A BOOK I. That the mystery of Christ is signified enigmatically throughout all the writings of Moses. Concerning Cain and Abel. Gen. iv.
BOOK II. Concerning Noah and the ark. Gen. vi, vii, viii. Concerning the nakedness of Noah, and Cham (Ham). Gen. ix. Concerning Abraham and Melchisedec. Gen. xiv.
BOOK III. Concerning Abraham, and the promise regarding Isaac, and how the mystery of faith was prefigured by them. Gen. xv, xvi, xvii, xxi. Concerning Abraham and Isaac. Gen. xxii. Concerning Isaac and Rebecca. Gen. xxiv. Concerning Esau and Jacob, how they are set as a type of two peoples, namely, the Israeliticized, and those who are such through faith in Christ. Gen. xxv.
BOOK IV. Concerning the patriarch Jacob. Gen. ii, vii, xxviii. More on the same. Gen. xxix, xxx.
BOOK V. Concerning Jacob. Gen. xxx, xxxi. Concerning the poplar and nut rod, etc. More on Jacob. Gen. xxxiii. Still on the same. Gen. xxxiii, xxxiv, xxxv.
BOOK VI. Concerning Joseph. Gen. xxxvii. Concerning Juda and Thamar. Gen. xxxviii. More on Joseph. Gen. xl, xli. Concerning Joseph and his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. Gen. xlviii.
BOOK VII. Concerning the blessing of the XII patriarchs. Gen. xlix. Concerning Ruben. Concerning Juda. Concerning Isachar. Concerning Gad. Concerning Nephthalim. Concerning Benjamin. Concerning Simeon and Levi. Concerning Zabulon. Concerning Dan. Concerning Aser. Concerning Joseph.
ARGUMENTS OF THE GLAPHYRA
ON EXODUS
LIB. I. Of the birth of Moses as applied to Christ. More concerning Moses. Exod. I. Of the vision of Moses in the bush. Exod. II, III.
LIB. II. Of the host of the lamb. Exod. XII. Of the consecration of the firstborn. Exod. XIII. Of Merrha, and the wood which was shown to blessed Moses. Exod. XV. Of the manna and the quail. Exod. XVI. Of the three wondrous things performed by Moses. Exod. III, IV.
LIB. III. Of the struck rock. Exod. XVII; Num. XX. Of God’s descent onto Mount Sinai, and the attendance of Israel. Exod. XIX. Of the ascent of Moses and Aaron onto the mountain, and likewise Nadab, Abiud, and the seventy elders of the people of Israel. Exod. XXIV. Of the calf which Israel cast. Exod. XXXII. Of the veil on the face of Moses. Exod. XXXIV.
ON LEVITICUS
That Christ’s passion is salutary. Levit. II. That we, having been made participants of the mystical blessing, shall be altogether and entirely holy and divine. Levit. VI, XVII. Of the cleansing of leprosy. Levit. XIV; Num. V. Of the Synagogue of the Jews, how it has fallen through contumacy. From Levit. XIV, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, etc. Of the fact that Aaron does not always enter the Holy of Holies. Levit. XVI.
ON NUMBERS
Of Christ, and the Synagogue of the Jews, from Num. XII, Hosea VII, Jerem. XIII, etc. Of those who explored the land of promise. Num. XIV; Deut. I; Josue. That Christ has become for us the bread of life. Num. XV. Of the red heifer burned outside the camp. Num. XIX. Of the brazen serpent. Num. XXI; John III.
ON DEUTERONOMY
Of the heifer whose nerves were cut in the valley. Deut. XXI. Of the captured woman, shaven and with nails trimmed. Deut. XXI, 10. Of him who battles against enemies. Deut. XXIII. Of the twelve stones plastered with lime beyond the Jordan. Deut. XXVII. Of the election of Josue. Deut. XXXI.
OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS, BOOK ONE.
A That the mystery of Christ is signified figuratively throughout the entirety of the writings of Moses.
"Search the Scriptures," Christ proclaimed to the crowds of the Jews; clearly declaring that there is no other way for any to attain to eternal life, unless, like those digging up some treasure, they examine closely the legal letter so as to find the pearl hidden within it, that is, Christ, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," according to the voice of the blessed Paul. Solomon also spoke elsewhere of this so venerable and admirable wisdom or knowledge: "If you seek it as silver, and search for it as for treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." And there could be nothing equal to this for those who praise a blameless life, and who wish to be occupied with the best and most excellent of deeds, and who have filled their own minds with divine light. For this reason, one ought to take delight without ceasing in those things which have been written concerning God, and appoint for oneself the sacred Scripture like a lamp, according to the holy Psalmist who cries out and says: "Thy law is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths." Since, therefore, the accurate investigation of the mystery of Christ clearly and openly procures eternal life, and is a straight road for us unto every tranquility of soul, come then, adding again a profitable labor, and before all else for our own sakes, let us likewise gather together those things through which the mystery of Christ may be signified to us in the best possible way.
A Let us endeavor to explain how each thought stands, so that our statements may have subtle conceptions, and may sometimes be a good opportunity for the more learned to contemplate more true things, and in a way, like steps, may lead them up to that more excellent and most sublime knowledge. We shall therefore profitably set forth what happened historically, and by applying a suitable explanation to them, and transforming the narrative as if from a type and shadow, we shall make it clear and manifest, our discourse tending toward the mystery of Christ, and having it as its goal: since it is true that Christ is the end of the law and the prophets. If, however, in such great subtlety and obscurity of contemplations, it should happen that we deviate from those things which are more appropriate, it is fair that we should find indulgence with the reader. But let this also be known, that since we have written seventeen books *On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth*, and have embraced in them a great abundance of contemplations, we have deliberately omitted from this present work the chapters contained therein and have left them unexamined, even though it sometimes happens that we mention one of them for necessary reasons. We shall therefore begin with those things in Genesis which are more elegant and select; and thus, successively running through the remaining books of Moses, we shall investigate them accurately, along with those things from the other commentary which conduce to the purpose proposed to us.
Concerning Adam.
C 1. The truly learned in the law and most holy Paul, having the mystery of salvation through Christ most thoroughly explored, says that there will be a recapitulation in Him of all things in heaven and on earth, in the good pleasure and will of God the Father: that is to say, the renewal of all things and the restoration of those things which were corrupted to their original state, naming it by the term "recapitulation." He remembered, as is right, God speaking elsewhere through the voice of the prophets: "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I do a new thing, which shall now spring forth, and you shall know it." Therefore he himself, as one nurtured in divine discourses, showed that the things foretold to us in these have already found their end in Christ, saying: "If therefore any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new." For we have been refashioned in Christ, and have become a new creature; and in Him, and in Him alone, we have obtained a new name. For we have been called Christ's. For this reason the same divine Paul says of us again elsewhere: "But they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh with the passions and desires." For the life of those who live in Christ is holy, and superior to carnal passions and earthly impurity. That the new name to be bestowed upon us in Christ was about to come upon us, would be manifest, God having proclaimed through the voice of the saints: "To those who serve me, a new name shall be called"
for they shall bless the true God. Since, therefore, no one who chooses to think correctly and reasonably would doubt that new things have come to pass in Christ, come, let us consider what this "making old" or abolition of the former things might be, and of what it is said that the restoration for the better has taken place: namely, from that which was not entirely whole, nor altogether unharmed, or from that which was corrupt and had carelessly fallen away from its prior state. For thus, and indeed most correctly, the goal toward which the purpose of our proposed discourse tends is understood, and the true meaning will by no means escape us.
B 2. The God who is the consummate craftsman of all things, employing His own creative power—that is, the Son—for the accomplishment of everything whatsoever, for "all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made," created the heaven and the earth, even before other things, in the beginning, and called them into existence, though they had never existed before. If, perchance, someone should ask how, and from where, he shall hear from us this truly wise and excellent answer: "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?" For if anyone should desire to learn such things, there is no doubt that his own intellect and mind, when compared with God, would be found wanting. That our affairs are small, or rather are nothing at all when compared to God, He Himself declares, saying: "For my counsels are not as your counsels, nor are my ways as your ways; but as the heaven is distant from the earth, so is my way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from my thought." C Let the investigation of these matters, therefore, be dismissed as superfluous and nowhere fathomable. For God creates as He knows and as He is able. Heaven and earth having been created in the beginning, and then the multitude of the waters contracted into one place—for it was necessary for them to yield to Him who said, "Let the water be gathered into one congregation"—the earth was laid bare, and it blossomed everywhere with such a variety of herbs, and yielded from itself, in an unusual manner, the fruits of fruit-bearing trees. The orbs of the sun and moon appeared, and the divine law was allotting to each the measure of its beginning. For the one was appointed for day and brilliance, but the other for night and darkness; and the whole heaven itself appeared to us adorned with stars. Moreover, He also set the law as to why they were made, saying: "And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years; and let them be for illumination in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth." D Since the Creator of all is by nature Life, He fashioned the very nature of the waters to be the mother of things that swim and of birds that travel through the air. And He commanded the earth again to bring forth the multiform nature of beasts and the untamed races of wild animals. And that which seemed good, and which was beyond understanding, was accomplished without delay. For in the case of everything that was made, the Word was the craftsman.
A Since the order and beauty in things that have been made were pleasing to the Artificer of all things Himself, a further thought entered His mind concerning the one for whose sake these things were brought into existence—I mean, of course, man. For it was necessary—it was necessary—that the Creator of all things, being good by nature, or rather, being Goodness itself, should also be known by us. It was necessary that the earth should be filled with those who knew how to glorify Him, and who from the beauty of the creatures could contemplate the glory of Him who had created them. For as the prophet Isaiah says: “You did not make it in vain,”—the earth, that is—“but that it might be inhabited.” B It was therefore necessary that a rational animal be fashioned upon it, after all the things that might serve for pleasure and that might appear to be well-made had first been pointed out to it. Thus, having displayed beforehand the heaven and the earth and all that is in them in a seemly order, He proceeded to the formation of man, whose creation He had contemplated in His mind from before—even though He had formed every other creature in time by His word and had established them as God with His own utterance. But since man is an animal that is truly well-formed and most godlike, so that the image of the highest Glory might not seem to have been obtained in the same manner of formation as the other creatures, which are not so, He deigned to produce his structure by a process of deliberation and, so to speak, by manual labor. For having fashioned a figure from the earth, He made it a rational animal, and in order that it might possess the faculties of its own nature, He immediately impressed upon it an incorruptible, life-giving spirit; for it is written: “And He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” C Then He deemed him worthy of paradise and luxury, and granted him authority over all things that are on earth; He set him as chief over those that swim and those that fly, and he subjected to him the herds of wild beasts, and indeed also the other kinds of venomous creatures, along with the others. And He persuaded him by natural laws that it was fitting for man to be feared. Thus, man was the likeness of the highest Glory and the image of divine authority upon the earth. But since it was absolutely necessary for the one who had arrived at such glory and luxury to understand that he had God as his overseer, king, and master—in order that he might not, by reason of overmuch prosperity, most easily slip into thinking that he was perhaps free from the power and the superiority of the one who holds command—He immediately gave him a law, and set alongside transgressions the threatening punishment. For there was as yet no way for sin to exist on the earth, since [man] was one and alone. But in order that he might exist under a law, a way of observing it was devised for him. “For of every tree,” He says, “that is in paradise you shall eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” D Then, one of Adam’s ribs having been taken, the woman is fashioned, so that she might serve him for the bearing of children, and live with him as one of the same kind, and continue to dwell with him in simplicity. But after, by the devil’s deception, [he came] to the transgres-
A he was seduced and ate the fruit plucked from the forbidden tree, the first parent Adam fell, and nature was immediately condemned to death. And to the woman God pronounced: "In sorrow you shall bring forth children," and to Adam: "Cursed is the ground in your labors." Furthermore, they were cast out from those most pleasant and most voluptuous places upon which they had lived at first, and from the delights of Paradise. But when they were naked and without clothing, and were thereafter in need of garments, then at length they realized it. The tunics, moreover, were of skins for them, as God had pity; and they inscribed the earth as their mother, and were borne off into the nets of destruction, and absolutely nothing was lacking to them for extreme misery.
3. "But why so?" someone, I think, might say. "If man was destined, upon coming into being, to sink into such misery, how is it not much better and reasonably to be thought that he should not exist at all?" And yet He made him so splendid and admirable, only for him to be, not long after, piteous and wretched, and subject to a curse and punishment. God, being by nature the Creator, was in no wise ignorant of the future. Since, therefore, He fashioned him with knowledge, how will He not be found to have harmed rather than benefited him, if it is indeed truly better for those who are to be miserable never to have come into being, according to the very voice of the Savior which He spoke regarding the traitor disciple: "It would have been good for that man if he had not been born"? B To such things I would respond, that it is exceedingly dangerous, and near to an insanity that is prone to lose its senses—or rather, much more and far beyond that—to rebuke the divine counsels as if they were not rightly done, and to suppose that the supreme nature perhaps has no care for what is right, or otherwise to imagine that it is deceived and led astray in things that are most convenient and expedient for our circumstances. But rather, it is fitting to attribute the highest perfection to His counsels and actions, and to be far from desiring to know more than one ought to know, and to set aside such anxious inquiry, which is not free from guilt. C And to this, I also believe one ought to calculate the following: whether for those to whom it has been granted both to be, and to be well, it is better not to have come into being, or rather to exist and to partake of the Creator’s gentleness. But no one would doubt this, as I believe. For just as for those who are to be miserable, if they are brought into being, it would reasonably be thought better and more desirable not to have attained to this; in the same way, I think, for those who are not at all so conditioned, it is a fine and desirable thing to come into being and to live. What then, I ask you? For I maintain that this argument ought to be extended by us D even to those things which are far beyond our own state; I mean, of course, the blessed angels again. For they were made by God, and were called from non-existence into existence—Angels and Archangels, Thrones and Authorities, Powers and Principalities, and in addition to these, the highest Seraphim themselves. And the dragon himself was also among the things that were made
A and stood together with the other holy and rational creatures, filling the mansions above, excelling in glory, and endowed with a condition far and incomparably more sublime than our own: whence it was said elsewhere by God: "I have placed you with the Cherubim." But the holy Cherubim indeed possess their glory firm and stable, and maintain their own dignity unshaken; and "a thousand thousands serve God, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him." B Satan, however, fell with others and was deprived of his own glory. Since, therefore, he was about to abandon his own station, having inclined of his own will to offend God, was it necessary, tell me, for the Creator of all to shrink from the creation of the holy angels, and to cast away a creation so bright and admirable? And then, how would He not appear to have suffered an injustice, if that multitude which has stood to this day and serves Him, and which preserves its integrity for God who fashioned it, and which does not endure to suffer the forgetting of its own station, had not been brought to birth? For what, tell me, does the great injury amount to, if some, out of their own arrogance and pride, have fallen from their good state, or being? For these others exist as more excellent than them with God, and, filled abundantly with His benevolence, they honor Him with long and unceasing doxologies. And I think the blessed David speaks C of them: "Blessed are all who dwell in Thy house; they shall praise Thee unto ages of ages." Since, therefore, the discourse concerning these matters holds itself in this way, come, let us apply this same consideration also to those things that pertain to ourselves.
4. For man was made in the beginning having been entrusted with the reins of his own volitions, and having an inclination relaxed towards whatever he might choose. For free is God, in whose image he was fashioned. For thus, and not otherwise, he could only obtain praise if he were seen as a voluntary worker of virtue, and if he produced the purity of his works as if it were the fruit of his mind, not as the result of a natural necessity which would not allow him to be carried outside of what is good, even if he should wish to do what is not such. D Man, therefore, had at the beginning a movement of mind that was free and unimpeded toward the doing of any thing; but by the deceptions of the dragon he was unwisely carried away toward what was not fitting, and he took no account at all of the transgression. For this reason he was sentenced to death and corruption, God, I think, foreseeing the advantage that would follow from what had happened. For once man had turned to sin, and his nature was suffering from a declination into vice, evil would have been discovered on earth as persistent, in a way almost equal to the impure spirits. Therefore the death of the flesh was profitably devised, not leading the living creature into absolute destruction, but rather into renewal, and, so to speak, as a vessel that had been shattered, it was preserved in due time
A. For the Creator knew that it would come to pass that the living creature would suffer corruption, but He knew, along with this, the solution to evils, the destruction of corruption, the restoration to what is better, and the recovery of original goods. For He knew that in due time He would send His own Son in human form to die for us, and to destroy the dominion of death, so that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. What then? If not all have believed, yet the number of those saved, being an immense multitude, will in a sense prevail over the destruction of those others, and will show the grief over them to be vain, saying almost: "Therefore they shall eat the fruits of their own way" (Prov. 1, 31). For although it was possible to be saved, if they had wished, and to escape from the harms that had crept in between, they do not accept the Redeemer, that is to say, Christ. For if someone, tell me, an artisan skilled in agriculture, were to fill his own garden with the finest of trees, then—because not everything avoids the damages that are wont to befall them from various causes—would anyone suppose that the one chosen to cultivate the land did not intend to plant rightly? Not so, I believe, would anyone reproach him. Far from it! For he indeed took the necessary care of the things planted, though those things suffered from infirmity. Shall we then say that it would have been better for him to cease entirely from planting, and not to sow his garden with the most noble plants, and to do away with all methods of agriculture entirely, lest some harm befall some of the plants already sown? And how, then, would it not be utterly absurd to think that this is the right way?
5. Therefore, we shall not blame the Creator who brought us into existence, but rather we shall blame ourselves, having suffered voluntary harm, if we are sound in mind and reason. For that the Creator, while conveying man into existence, knew that he would fall into corruption, yet was not ignorant of the modes of healing, the divine Paul clearly persuades us, testifying to the antiquity of salvation through Christ, as if in the foreknowledge of the Spirit. For he writes thus to Timothy, his own disciple: "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but join in suffering for the Gospel according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, but has been manifested now in the last times through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ" (II Tim. 1, 8-10). And to others again: "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified" (Rom. 8, 28-30). Do you hear D
how A he says that the grace which is in Christ was given before eternal times? And that those who were to be conformed to the image of His Son were clearly foreknown and predestined by God the Father? For the manner of the incarnation, as I have said, was foreknown; and the remedy for our infirmities was stored up for the fitting time. Paul will bear witness to this again, writing thus: "Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept silent for eternal ages, but now is manifested through the prophetic Scriptures, by the command of the eternal God, unto the obedience of faith among all the nations, to the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Rom. 16, 25-27). For the mystery had indeed been kept silent, but it has now been manifested through the law and the prophets, according to the will of God the Father.
For we have been restored in Christ to what we were in the beginning, with those things which had subsequently been introduced by the deceit of the devil being overthrown. For thus Paul says again concerning Christ, the Savior of us all: "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He caused to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure B which He proposed in Him in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, both those which are in the heavens and those which are on the earth, in Him. In whom also we have been allotted an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we should be for the praise of His glory, we who before hoped in Christ" (Eph. 1, 7-12). Behold, then, we have again been predestined according to the purpose of the Father, and we have attained a hope as if it were older than ourselves, God having foreknown this and having ordained in His own counsels the things that were to happen to us.
For since the inventor of sin deceived Adam at the beginning and made him guilty of listless negligence, it happened that he was thus condemned to death, and the penalty extended to all men, even as a defect propagating itself from the root into the branches. For death reigned from Adam even to Moses. But since they sinned in the likeness of Adam's C transgression, the Creator of all necessary provided for His own creatures, and fashioned for us, as it were, a second root of our race, which might lead us back to our former incorruption. That as the first and earthy image marked us with the necessity of dying and entangled us in the snares of destruction; so again for us, the second principle after that one—that is, Christ—and the likeness to Him through the Spirit, might declare us exempt from death. And as there our disobedience led us to punishment, so here obedience might make us partakers of the heavenly and paternal blessing. "For," he says, "the first man, Adam, was made into a living soul; the last D
A Adam into a quickening spirit." And again he clarifies this to us differently, saying: "The first man is of the earth, earthly: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." And again: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." For he B humbled himself, as it is written; and the only-begotten Word of God of his own accord descended into our conditions, not that he might be ruled over by death along with us—with Adam transmitting even unto him the state of being dead, since he himself is that which quickens all things—but that, having manifested the nature that had been subject to corruption, he might transform it unto life. For this reason he became flesh. Thus also the wise Paul writes: "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in C Christ shall all be made alive." For it would be absurd to believe that Adam, being earth-born and a man, transmitted the power of the curse that came upon him, as a kind of inheritance, naturally to the entire human race; yet that the Emmanueal, being from above and from heaven, and God by nature, and having taken on our likeness and become a second Adam to us, should not likewise abundantly make those who desire to enter into familiarity with him through faith partakers of his own life. For we have become co-corporeal with him through the mystical blessing. We are D united also in another way, because we have become partakers of his divine nature through the Spirit. For he dwells in the souls of the saints, and as the blessed John says: "Hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." Therefore he himself is our life, he himself is our justification. And it is written again: "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." And again: "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." It is therefore not unclear that in Adam, the first man, the mystery of Christ was shadowed forth at that time, not indeed by being represented in a manner equal and indistinguishable in every way, but as subsisting in a different way and in an inverted pattern. For the one was the beginning for the race unto death, unto a curse, unto condemnation; but the other leads to things entirely contrary: unto life, unto blessing, unto justification. And the one received the woman into one flesh, and perished through her; but Christ, knitting the Church unto himself through the Spirit, preserves and saves her, and renders her superior to diabolical deceit. For this reason he even encourages us to cry out: "For we are not ignorant of his devices." And the first parent, Adam, received death as the wages of sin and the penalty for his transgression; but to Christ, regarding sin...
it was actually a badge of righteousness, according to the astonishment of the Jews. Therefore, on account of the passion A of death, He is crowned with honor and glory, according to the voice of the blessed Paul. And to Adam, only things on earth were subject, and that with difficulty; but to Christ, all things. For every knee shall bow to Him, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Of Cain and Abel
1. The nature of man was indeed subjected, as I said just now, at the beginning of the race in Adam, to death and sin; but it has been redeemed in no other way than through Christ alone. For as His disciple wrote: "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." For it was necessary, truly necessary, that He through whom all things were brought into existence should become the restorer of those things that had been corrupted, and should cast out the weakness brought about by sin; and that He should render inoperative what causes grief, and should once again lavishly distribute the true state B of goodness to those who were made through Him. For I would attribute this noble work to divine power and authority: both to be able to bring into being things that do not exist, and to recall to a good state those that have turned away from a righteous and blameless condition. A type of this matter is therefore shown in Adam. But you may see Him C no less describing this same thing in others who have been made by Him. For God and Father sums up in Christ all things that are in heaven and that are on earth. And that which had fallen into what was not fitting, He reduces to its former state, with those things which had meanwhile intervened being removed by His intervention—and His alone—and with those things that are on earth being restored to the newness of creation. For there is a new creation in Him, and the word is true. See, therefore, also in Abel and in Cain, the mystery of Christ, D through whom we have also been saved. It is written, therefore, in Genesis: "And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said: I have acquired a man through God, and she added to bear his brother Abel. And Abel became a shepherd of sheep; but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And it came to pass after some days, that Cain brought of the fruits of the ground a sacrifice to the Lord, and Abel also brought of the firstlings of his sheep, and of their fat. And God looked upon Abel and upon his gifts; but upon Cain and his sacrifices He did not regard. And Cain was very sad, and his countenance fell. And the Lord God said to Cain: Why have you become sad, and why has your countenance fallen? Unless you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, have you not sinned? Be still, his turning is toward you, and you shall rule over him." And a little later: "And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go out into the field. And it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him. And the Lord said to Cain: Where is Abel your brother? And he said: I do not know: am I my brother's keeper? And God said: What have you done?"
The voice of the blood of your brother cries to me from the earth. And now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. Since you will till the earth, and it will not add its strength to give to you; you shall be groaning and trembling on the earth. And Cain said to the Lord: My punishment is greater than that I might be forgiven. And if you cast me out today from the face of the earth, and from your face I shall be hidden, and I shall be groaning and trembling on the earth, and it will be that everyone who finds me will kill me. And the Lord God said to him: Not so; everyone who kills Cain, shall pay seven vengeances. And the Lord God put a sign on Cain, so that everyone who found him would not kill him. And Cain went out from the face of God.
B 2. Cain, then, and indeed Abel as well, were both born of Adam, and they were like tender and flourishing shoots, springing from one first root; and in them human nature was exercising its fruitfulness, and it seemed hardly to be growing and multiplying at the very beginning, and as yet increasing in strength. Cain, however, preceded him in time of birth. But Abel followed him; and as long as they were tender and young, they were being brought up by their parents like nestlings. But after they passed the time of puberty and arrived at man's estate, they betook themselves to different pursuits and labors. And Cain, I suppose, delighted by the greenness of the earth, and seeing it adorned with most flourishing trees and timely fruits, thought that he ought to apply his effort to render it more cultivated to the eyes of those who looked upon it; and C he devised things that of themselves and by their own nature invited love and displayed a spontaneous beauty; so that, in so far as it could be done, by the benefit of agriculture they might present a much more excellent appearance to the eyes. And so he led a rustic life, and strove with all his might for this pursuit. But mother Nature gave him knowledge in this sort of thing, and a divine and ineffable law imprinted the knowledge of those things which he desired. And it was in this indeed that Cain spent his study and labor. But wise Abel, setting aside hoes and pruning-hooks, devoted himself to the care of flocks. And perhaps it was the little lambs, calling out shrilly to their mothers, and scarcely yet bleating, and sporting on the spring grass with soft and tender feet, that D brought him to this opinion: as well as the bleating goats, leaping over the highest precipices of the rocks with no difficulty. And I believe that the very wise Abel rightly approved of the pastoral life, setting it down for himself as a kind of preliminary exercise for administrative authority among men, and judging that things were so ordered. Moreover, it is the custom of the divinely inspired Scriptures and of the wisdom of the Greeks to call those who preside over nations, or cities, or peoples,
A even as it is to mention those who preside over the youths. And so, as time went on, one of the two youths devoted himself to agriculture, while the other to a more excellent pursuit, namely, shepherding. To Cain, it gave gardens dense with trees and laden with seasonable fruits; to Abel, it brought forth that which he had gathered in the greatest possible abundance. Then the law of innate knowledge of God that is within us called the men to offer tokens of gratitude to the Creator of all and to God, the giver of every good thing. For even if the impulse to discern who the Maker of all things is, appears perhaps corrupted and untrue in those who worship idols, nevertheless, a certain innate and necessary law is stirred, and a spontaneous knowledge arises B to the point of realizing that there is something superior and incomparably better than human affairs, which is God. The holy and all-wise Abel, then, takes the choicest of his flock, and those judged to be the best. "For he brought," it says, "some of the firstborn of his sheep and of their fat," meaning the most excellent and select. And not being ignorant of the manner of priestly service, he presented the fat. Cain, however, did not do so, but very negligently; for he kept the most beautiful and outstanding of the ripe fruits for his own enjoyments, but offered secondary and more worthless things to the God over all. Therefore, fire descended from heaven upon the gifts of Abel and caused the holy offerings to be consumed; but "upon Cain and his sacrifices, He did not look," it says. For the usual fire did not come down upon what had been offered. C Hence, Cain is greatly provoked and is distressingly troubled. And though he was taught the cause of the rejection and the fact that the judgment of Abel was better, he did not turn toward the amendment of his failings; but, becoming wild with untimely angers, he was the first among men to conceive of untamable envy. And, as if taking vengeance on the God of all for the rejection, he craftily sets upon the esteemed one. And he overrides the law of brotherly love, having a mind filled with diabolical baseness and unholy schemes, while feigning goodness in his words: "Let us go," he says, "into the field." Do you hear how he called him into the fields D as if to be a spectator of his diligence and cultivation, and so that he might feast his eyes on the multifarious beauty of the flowers? Yet he commits a heinous crime, and dedicates his own brother as a kind of first-fruit to death, and was the instructor of human nature in the path toward homicide. And when God inquired and said, "Where is Abel, your brother?" the miserable man lies, and retorts harshly, saying, "I do not know." But after he was convicted of the homicide and subjected to curses, he thought again that he would die himself, even if God did not wish it, and that this would be the resolution of the divine wrath for him. For he said, "If you cast me out this day from the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from your face, and I shall be groaning and trembling upon the earth, it will happen that everyone who finds me will kill me." But—since he was in every way subject to curses and was paying the penalty for his sins, while living a most miserable life on earth—he knew with certainty, as God said clearly: "Not so; for whoever kills Cain shall pay sevenfold vengeance." Now "seven" is put for "many," as if to say: for the many and impious sins of the fratricide
A Cain, he who lets him go from bodily life shall pay the penalty. But if one should choose to say that there are seven things for which vengeance is taken, he would not be wrong to recount that the first sin of Cain was that he did not divide rightly, nor did he offer to God the best of all things. The second was that, having recognized the sin, he was not led to repentance, nor did he turn back to better things to correct his faults, but ended up in anger, and was stirred up by the successes of his neighbor—whom it would have been better to imitate, not to consider an enemy and look upon with envious eyes. The third, a kind of staging ground for the cruelty required to commit murder, was the untamed envy. The fourth was that, "Let us go out into the field," which is an indication of deceit and fraud. The fifth is the crime of impious fratricide. A sixth sin could be reckoned to him: that of lying to God. And the seventh is that he thought he could escape judgment against the will of God, not having been released from life in the body against his will. "But God gave," he says, "to Cain a sign that he should not be killed by anyone who found him." And Cain went out from the presence of God. He was immediately subject to the curses, and in this way the turning-away followed. For how could the all-pure and most holy nature look upon one who had already pressed on toward the completion of every evil?
B 3. But let these things be said by us briefly and historically for the time being. As we add our own colors to the outlines of the image and transform the shadow of the letter into the truth, come now, let us examine each point very carefully and say that one may easily recognize the mystery of Christ prefigured in the events that took place of old. For it was necessary, since human nature had been inclined toward sin and had been unexpectedly entangled in the snares of death, that the mystery of its restoration to a better state be announced beforehand, and that Christ, who was to die for us and in our stead at the appointed time, should not be unknown. The first forefather, Adam, was therefore made, according to the faith of the Holy Scriptures, in the image and likeness of God. Born and proceeding from him, first was Cain, and then C after him, Abel. But we will adapt the person of Israel to Cain. For Christ himself also deemed that the masses of the Jews, being of the same character as Cain, signified him. For he himself said: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” But they, not understanding the beauty of the paternal freedom, endeavored to adorn themselves with carnal boasts, saying: “We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How do you say that you will be free?” What, then, does Christ say to these things? “If you were children,” he says, “of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham.”
But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from the Father; Abraham did not do this.” He assigns Satan as a father to them, saying, “You do the works of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he has not stood in the truth, because he is a liar, as is his father also.” And we shall not, if we think rightly, ever suppose that Christ is making mention of the evil and primitive demon; but he gives as a father to the Jews, who are rabid and plotting impious slaughter against him, that first murderer and contriver of lies, I mean Cain, and to that man, Satan, the author of sin. To those who inquire as to whom we shall assign as a father to the devil, or what we say is the archetype of his perversity, he bestows B upon those who bear the likeness of the impiety with which he is endowed, the archetype, as it were, of Cain, just as an image. For that it is customary for the Savior Christ to call one who resembles his ways Satan, anyone can very easily see when he says to his holy disciples, “Did I not choose you twelve, and behold, one of you is a devil?” Israel, therefore, is to be compared to Cain, concerning whom it is written: “Israel is my firstborn son.” Yet after the firstborn Israel, a second, as it were, in time, and the latest, appeared—Christ, who is also himself a son of Adam. For this reason, he wisely and economically calls himself “Son of man” everywhere. But Israel thought he was honoring God by offering temporary and easily fading things, and things of little account, and possessed his whole mind, so to speak, attached to earthly pursuits. “For Cain was occupied with agriculture, but Abel was a shepherd of sheep.” For Emmanuel is the overseer of the rational flock, C and he himself is the good Shepherd who, “in a fertile place and in good pasture,” as it is written, feeds the flocks that are above and those that are upon the earth. To whom the prophetic word also cried out: “Shepherd your people with your rod of guardianship, the sheep of your inheritance.” Israel, therefore, pursued the worship of God with earthly things, offering legal sacrifices and consecrating to him things that were ungrateful. For this reason, he also heard through the voice of the holy prophet: “I do not want the holocaust of your rams, nor the fat of lambs, and the blood of goats and bulls, not even if you come to appear before me. For who sought these things from your hands? You shall no longer tread my court. If you bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me.” And again: “Why do you bring me incense from Saba, and cinnamon from a land far away? Your holocausts are not acceptable, and your sacrifices do not please me.” This is clearly D that God did not regard the sacrifices of Cain. But Abel the just, that is to say, Christ, offered to God the firstborn of the rational sheep—that is, those easy and tractable in heart, and infants in malice, and select in virtues, and bearing before them the glory of the firstborn in likeness to him himself. For the Church...
of the firstborn A who are inscribed in the heavens is what the multitude of those called through faith to sanctification is named by the divine Paul; of this holy multitude, then, and of this flock of firstborn, Christ has become the high priest. For through him we have had access in the Spirit to God and the Father; and we have become a good and acceptable sacrifice, better than a calf newly putting forth horns and hooves. For the bloody offering is lowly and more earthly, and possesses no sweet odor before God. But the worship in the Spirit and through Christ is far more pleasing to the Father. And, indeed, toward those out of Israel who offer things from the earth, God proclaimed: "I will not accept from your house calves, nor from your flocks he-goats; for all the beasts of the field, the cattle on the mountains, and the oxen are mine. I have known all the birds of the sky, and the beauty of the field is with me. If I hunger, I will not tell you; for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof." But to us who have been justified in Christ and sanctified in the Spirit, he proclaimed, saying: "Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of your tribulation, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." B Spiritual things are therefore better than those of the earth, and that which is done through Christ is far more advantageous than the legal sacrifice. For this reason, God did not attend to the sacrifices of Cain, but to those of Abel. And for what reason? For Israel did indeed offer rightly (for it was right to sacrifice to God), but he did not divide rightly, always resting in types and thinking that God is pleased by shadows. Wherefore he sinned, and was commanded to rest—that is, to desist from the ancient and legal rites, and to take Christ as his leader. For it was said to Cain: "You have sinned, be quiet"; and to Abel: "To you shall be his turning, and you shall rule over him." And indeed, if Israel had willed, having abandoned the earthly and legal worship, to set before himself as prince and leader of the better way, Christ, he would be free along with us, and "in the book of the living" according to the Scriptures. But since, like C Cain, he seized upon the praise and glory of our Savior as an occasion for envy and a beginning of murder, he fell under a curse, and became liable to sevenfold vengeance. For they have become guilty of many and most grievous punishments, and have been subjected to cruel penalties, and the wretches continue groaning and trembling; for everywhere they are strangers, and sojourners, and fearful, lacking the freedom that especially befits the free-born. Nevertheless, Cain received a sign so that they would not kill him; for Israel has not perished entirely, but a remnant has been saved, according to the voice of the prophet, who, understanding this, proclaimed, saying: D "And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah." Therefore, the divine Psalmist also, lest Israel be consumed entirely, besought the God of the universe, saying: "Do not slay them, lest they forget your law." Furthermore, Cain went out from the face of the Lord. For so it is written: "And Cain went out from the face
A “And if the Lord of Sabaoth had not left us a seed, we should have become as Sodom, and we should have been made like unto Gomorrah.” And indeed, the inspired Melodist also petitioned God, the Lord of all, that Israel might not be utterly destroyed: “Do not kill them, lest they forget your law.” But Cain has departed from the face of God. For it is written thus: “And Cain went out from the face of God.” And those of Israel have suffered something similar, to whom it has been said through the voice of the prophet: “When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you; and if you multiply your prayer, I will not hear you. For your hands are full of blood.” For they killed the B Lord of all, and dared, out of exceedingly great impiety, to say: “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” But the blood of Abel cried out perhaps only against the murderer; whereas the precious blood of Christ cried out indeed against the cruelty and ingratitude of the Jews, but it also delivered the world from sin, inasmuch as it was poured out for its sake. Therefore, even the divine Paul says that we, who have been justified by faith, have approached the blood that speaks better than that of Abel. It is fitting, C I think, to add to what has been said also this: “After Abel was dead,” he says, “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and called his name Seth, saying: For God has raised up for me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” Then a little later: “And Adam lived,” he says, “two hundred and thirty years, and begat according to his own likeness and according to his own image, and called his name Seth.” See, therefore, that after the death of Abel, Seth is born again, a son who is very similar to him who was made according to the image and likeness of God, that is, to Adam. For after Emmanuel died in the flesh, another seed immediately sprung up for Adam, possessing within itself D the supreme beauty of the divine image; for those who believe are transformed into Christ through the Spirit. That the death of Christ became a root and, as it were, a cause of this generation, he himself will attest to it, saying: “Amen, amen, I say to you: unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.” When, therefore, he fell into the ground like a grain of wheat, like an ear of corn, a countless multitude sprung forth, while human nature was being fashioned anew in him toward the image in the beginning, according to which the first man was made.
4. It is worth our while also to investigate the progeny of both, that is, of Cain and of Seth; for we will gain some utility from this also for our own well-being. For it is written thus: “And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enos, and he was building a city, and he called the city by the name of his son Enos. And to Enos was born Gaidad, and Gaidad begat Maviael; and Maviael begat Mathusala, and Mathusala begat Lamech; and Lamech took to himself two wives, the name of the one was Ada, and the name of the second was Sella. And Lamech said to his wives Ada and...
Sella: Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech; for I have slain a man to my wound, and a young man to my hurt; for sevenfold vengeance has been taken on Cain, but for Lamech seventy times seven. A You have in these things a clear account of the genealogy and progeny of Cain. Let us look now also at the progeny of Seth. It is written again thus: "And Seth lived two hundred and five years, and begat Enos," 68 concerning whom the holy Scripture says: "He hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God." And all the days of Seth were twelve and nine hundred years, and he died. And Enos lived one hundred and ninety years, and begat Cainan; and all the days of Enos were five and nine hundred years, and he died. And Cainan lived one hundred and seventy years, and begat Malalehel. And all the days of Cainan were ten and nine hundred years, and he died. And Malalehel lived one hundred and sixty-five years, and begat Jared. And all the days of Malalehel were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died. And Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begat Enoch. 69 Then he says: "And Enoch pleased God, and was not found; because God translated him." 70 B You see, therefore, how the descendants of Cain are named before the others, and the series and succession of his generation is narrated, but the number of the years of the life of each one is by no means calculated, as it is for the descendants of Seth. For the span of the life of each is described, even before they beget others, and after, so that it might easily be clear to anyone from the sacred Scriptures. This, therefore, is a by no means obscure argument for those who wish to judge things correctly, that God does not sustain the knowing of the life of sinners. They shall hear at the divine tribunal Christ saying: "Amen I say to you, I never knew you." 71 And yet, nothing whatever that falls under knowledge escapes God, the God of all. But knowing them, He does not acknowledge sinners, on account of their excessive turning away from Him. Therefore, the time of the life of the descendants of Cain has been passed over in silence. For they did nothing worthy of memory, but rather things that were more likely to be a source of ruin to those who might chance upon their reading. Deservedly, therefore, they were not recorded in the memory of God. C He has, however, a great regard for accurately knowing the life of the saints, and nothing, I think, that pertains to them escapes the divine and immortal mind; which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself testifies, saying: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father who is in heaven? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." 72 If then even the number of our hairs is a concern to God, and therefore all things that pertain to us are explored by Him, and He keeps an account of them, how then would He be ignorant of the time of their life? "For the eyes of the Lord," it says, "are upon the just." 73 And whereas immediately after Cain, Enoch had a city of his name on the earth,
A even though the saints, as if by way of a boast, were accustomed to think and say: “We have no abiding city here, but we seek the one to come, whose craftsman and builder is God,” 74 and considered and called their life in this age a pilgrimage. For the divine David also sings somewhere: “Forgive me, for I am a sojourner on the earth and a traveler, like all my fathers.” 75 But concerning those who think on earthly things, he says in the forty-eighth psalm: “They called their names upon their generations.” 76 And from Seth there sprang up the divine Enos, concerning whom it is written: “This one hoped to call upon the name of the Lord his God.” 77 For the race in Christ is holy and sacred, and it abides in the hope of glory beyond man. For since we are from the earth, we have been called to the adoption of the Lord of all, and to the brotherhood of Christ, who for our sake became like us, so that we too, through him, might attain B to better things and be gods beyond man, clearly by grace and philanthropy, obtaining this glory. “For I said,” he says, “You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.” 78 Enos therefore hoped to be called by others by the name of the Lord his God; that is, God. For since he was not unadmirable, being distinguished by the ornaments of holiness, some of the more sensible people, wishing to crown him with the highest honor, perhaps called him God. Let the discourse therefore now proceed to our intended purpose. For the Jews, who are also an image of the descendants of Cain, are known indeed by the God of all to exist, but that they are not written in the book of life is clear from the fact that the life of the descendants of Cain is passed over in silence. For the fact that the race in Christ is written down, and is in memory before God, would demonstrate, I think, that the life of the just—I mean those who sprang from Seth—is clearly recorded. And Enoch, being the second immediately after Cain, had a city of his name. For the wretch- C ed Jews think only on things on earth, not knowing the Church of the firstborn, nor indeed hastening toward the city above. But the son of Seth, that is, Enos, turns out to be illustrious; for he is even called God. And we have been enriched through faith with the glory pertaining to this, we who have run to Christ and have clung firmly to the hope in him. I would add yet another observation to those I have mentioned, which is no less necessary. For if anyone were to recount the race of the descendants of both Cain and Seth, having placed Adam before them as a kind of root for both, he will find the seventh from him to be Lamech, born through Cain; but the seventh again to be Enoch, born through Seth. For the succession of both of those begotten stands thus: “Adam, Cain, Enoch, Gaidad, Maviael, Mathusalem, Lamech.” And again: “Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Malalehel, Jared, Enoch.” Let us see, therefore, in what each of them is. For Lamech had D relations with his own wives, saying: “Hear my voice, wives of Lamech, give ear to my words; for I have slain a man for a wound to me, and a young man for a bruise to me; for sevenfold vengeance has been taken from Cain; from La-
Amech, seventy-sevenfold. But the just Enoch was translated by faith so that he should not see death, according to the voice of blessed Paul, and he was not found, because God translated him. For in the final times, in which the sabbatism in Christ has appeared, Israel surely appears fearful and seized by the dread of punishment, inasmuch as they slew a man, and are judged for holy blood, and indeed far more than Cain himself did. For he, having sinned against one of us, became liable to seven vengeances; but this one, having committed a crime against Emmanuel himself, is afflicted with a far graver punishment. For vengeance was taken from Cain sevenfold; but from Israel seventy-sevenfold. For the punishment must be meted out in proportion to the gravity of the impiety. But those who shall have been distinguished by faith in Christ during the time of his sojourn shall by no means be found when Satan seeks them. For they shall be translated by God to an incomparably better and more glorious life, from death and corruption to everlasting life, from meditating on carnal things to performing those things B which are pleasing to God, from ignominy to glory, from infirmity to power, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom and with whom to the Father is glory with the Holy Spirit, unto ages of ages. Amen.
GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS: BOOK TWO
Concerning Noah and the Ark
C 1. Noah was a good man, and a genuine lover of piety in the highest degree, preferring the glory of this to all things. And since he was brilliant, and conspicuous, and very famous, and crowned most excellently with his boastings, he deservedly won admiration, being adorned with the highest praises. The discourse therefore turns to him, and by positing what happened to him as a kind of image and type of the salvation through Christ, it would, I think, benefit not a little those who are concerned with it. Come, then, let us recount each of the things concerning him as one, thinning out the thickness of the history, and skillfully coloring the things that manifestly occurred into spiritual contemplation.
2. Seth, therefore, was born from Adam after the slaughter of Abel. And from Seth, Enos, who hoped to call upon the name of the Lord his God. For he was called by his own name.
A For since they were in awe of the magnitude of the justice that was in him, they straightway named him God, judging that this appellation was most fitting for the virtue of that man. From Enos, that is, from him who was surnamed God, others were born, after whom came also Lamech, the father of Noah, who at the birth of his child is straightway revealed as a prophet, just as, indeed, Zacharias was at the time of the blessed Baptist. For Lamech named his son Noah, which signifies "rest," if the word were to be translated into our language. And Lamech, as if providing the reason for such an appellation, says: "This one," he says, "will give us rest from our works, and from the earth which the Lord God cursed." With such splendid and truly excellent hopes, therefore, the birth of Noah was foretold to those of old. And he was the tenth in the genealogical line from Adam through Seth, and the custom of calling the descendants of Enos by the name of God continued down to him. "Now Noah," he says, "was five hundred years old, and he begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth." And Shem, if you translate the Hebrew meaning into the Greek tongue, signifies "perfection" or "a plant"; Ham signifies "heat"; and Japheth, "widening." Then the Holy Scripture says: "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply upon the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all whom they chose. And the Lord God said: My spirit shall not always abide in these men, for that they are flesh. And their days shall be a hundred and twenty years. And the giants were upon the earth in those days." And after that: "When the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bare children to them, the same became the giants which were of old, the men of renown." Since the human race had already extended into a great multitude, the sons of God, says [the Scripture], having fallen into a most absurd desire for women, took to themselves wives of all whom they chose. We know, then, that some copies read clearly: "And the angels of God saw the daughters of men." Then some distort the B charges of carnality, and attribute the causes of such loathsome desire to the fallen angels, who did not keep their own beginning, according as it is written. But I would say and affirm that any soul-sickness is compatible with them [the angels]; yet, to concede that the proof of the matter is to be carried as far as possible from what is consonant with reason would be, in my judgment, among the most absurd things. For it is our purpose to seek the truth of each of the things that are written, and not to exhaust the understanding of the diseases of the demonic herd. For we always see that desires follow the impulses that are innate within us ourselves. For we either love the vices of the flesh, or we are accustomed to value most highly those things through which that which pertains to the flesh is accomplished. But pleasures by no means [carry us] outside the natural laws C D
of natural laws, at least according to what seems to me to be well and truly the case. For example, eating and drinking, and the natural union with women, might be works and passions of the flesh. But the desires for wealth and glory minister to the pleasures of the flesh, and almost all the passions in the world arise through these, according to what was said by the wise disciple: "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). We are easily ensnared by the bitter and terrible desires of such things into choosing to think upon and to practice those things which are of the flesh; but no reason will persuade us to love things that are outside the body and contrary to nature. Furthermore, how would it not be close to folly to say that spirits superior to the flesh, and removed from it, are touched by carnal love? What natural impulse do they have toward this, or what law incites them, as indeed it is for us ourselves, to labor under such passions, or others? Nor, indeed, do we free the crowd of demons from the blame for these things. For they are impure and profane, and inclined toward every kind of baseness; and let them labor also, if you please, with other pleasures that are contrary to their own nature. B But when the divine Scripture says that they cohabited with women, and they brought forth the ones called giants—that is, monstrous prodigies, yet rational human beings—what then must we conclude about this? For the formation of a human being in a woman could not come from spirits that are the most removed from flesh. But some talk nonsense, and involve the matter in empty fictions, glossing over what is impossible with reasons that they believe are plausible; for they say that the wicked demons, having fallen into men, produced through them the sowing of seeds. Yet we shall find their argument to be very unbecoming and full of ignorance. For how shall we admit and hold as true that which the divine Scripture does not attest? Therefore, let us rather read it as: "And the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and they took to themselves wives from all whom they had chosen." And the rendering of other translators confirms for us more correctly that this is the reading. For Aquila says: "And the sons of God saw the daughters of men." But C Symmachus, in place of "sons of God," rendered it "sons of the powerful." They called the descendants of Seth and Enos the sons of God and of the powerful, because of the holiness and piety that were in them, and because of their being able to overcome all those who stood against them; for God, as is likely, was helping them and clearly manifesting that most sacred and holy race, which was unmixed with the other, that is, with those who were born of Cain and indeed of Lamech, who, following in the footsteps of his father, became a murderer; for he confessed: "For I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt." As long, therefore, as the sacred race lived D without any commerce with evil, the beauty of piety toward God still shone pure and sincere among them and made them admirable. But after they [turned] to the desires of the flesh...
and, being stimulated by the beauty of women, they were inclined toward apostasy—for “They took,” he says, “for themselves wives from all whom they chose from the daughters of men,” that is, from the descendants of Cain—even though they were called gods and sons of gods and potentates, they eventually shifted toward the customs of those people and toward a shameful and profane way of life. And the women gave birth to monsters, for God was indeed corrupting the beauty of human bodies thereafter, because of the unbridled nature of their lusts at that time. The offspring were giants, that is, wild and robust, and having suffered much [in the way of] hideousness, and exceeding others in the magnitude of their bodies. Note, however, that it is customary for the discourse of the divinely inspired Scripture to call those who are endowed with great strength "giants." And thus it spoke regarding the Persians and the Medes through the voice of the prophet: “Giants are coming to fulfill my wrath, rejoicing at the same time and behaving insultingly.” B We shall not, however, in any way agree with the lies of the Greeks. For those deemed learned among them, and especially the poets, are accustomed, according to what seems good to them, to take [the] natures of things and refashion them; to lift up high things small and cast-down, and to think it necessary to adorn them with splendid lies and the embellishment of words, even if the narrative strays far from the truth. Some of them fable that the whole of Sicily was cast into heaven by one of the giants, and another lies more crudely about some other one. There were indeed some, as I said, endowed with a horrific appearance and immense strength, rigid and terrible, and exceeding others also in the size of their bodies, but by no means, as those fables have it, striking the clouds with their peaks. For they were, as I have said, terrible to behold, immense in strength, harsh and difficult to encounter, and in the heights of their bodies, they slightly exceeded the others as one might expect; but [they did] not, as those accustomed to fables about them suppose, touch the clouds themselves even at their heads.
5. Since, therefore, [all] generations had turned aside to unbridled sin: “The Lord God saw,” he says, “that the wickedness of men had multiplied upon the earth, and everyone ponders diligently in his heart the evil things on all days, and God took thought” (or repented, according to another interpretation, namely that of Aquila) “that He had made man upon the earth, and He pondered, and said: I will wipe out the man whom I have made from the face of the earth; from man even to beast, and from the creeping things even to the birds of the sky; for I have pondered that I made them. But Noah found grace before the Lord God.” C You understand that He resolves to wipe out every man. But because Noah was adorned with the pursuits of piety, He is appeased toward him alone, and does not destroy him with the others, but saves him with his whole household. And He says to him: “The time of every man has come before me, because the earth is filled with injustice from them, and behold I am destroying them and the earth. Make therefore for yourself an ark of square timbers; you shall make compartments in the ark, and you shall daub it inside and outside with bitumen. D And thus you shall make the ark: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, and fifty cubits the breadth, and thirty cubits the height.
A Gathering it together, you shall make the ark, and finish it to a cubit B from above. And after other things, once more: "And you shall enter into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife," he says, "and the wives of your sons with you. And from all wild animals and from all livestock and from every flesh, two by two. From all you shall bring into the ark, so that you may feed them with yourself; male and female they shall be, from all the birds according to kind, and from the livestock according to kind, and from all the reptiles creeping upon the earth according to their kind, two by two. From all they shall enter into you to be fed with you, male and female. And from the clean indeed, you shall collect seven by seven," he says, "and two again from the unclean." C When these things therefore had all been executed just as the God of all things commanded, all flesh was being strangled, as rains and showers and a most violent torrent of waters from above and from heaven were flooding the whole world; but the ark was floating, laden with the souls of the righteous. But when the waters had subsided a little, "The ark sat," he says, "upon the mountains of Ararat. And Noah, having opened the door of the ark, sends out the raven to see if the water has ceased from the face of the earth; but it did not return. Then after it, he sent out a dove; and not finding," he says, "a resting place for its feet, the dove returned to him to the ark, because water was upon all the face of the earth. And Noah, having stretched out his hand, took it and brought it to himself into the ark. And it was sent out also a second time after seven days, and it returned toward evening, having an olive sprig in its mouth. And a third time he sent it out again after seven days, and it," he says, "no longer returned to him." D He understood then that all the water had been swallowed up from the earth. The dry land appeared again, and the things that were in it. And since he beheld the land, together with his own children and all those gathered there, now dry and rid of the waters, he immediately built an altar; and he was eager to offer as a whole burnt offering the clean and undefiled of the livestock and of the birds; offering, I suppose, the thanksgivings to the God who preserved him. Which having been done, "The Lord God," he says, "smelled the odor of fragrance, and the Lord God said, considering: I will not further increase to curse the earth on account of the works of men; for the intent of a man's heart is studiously inclined toward evil from his youth. I will not therefore further strike every living flesh, as I have done, all the days of the earth, seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and spring, day and night shall not cease." And in addition to these, "And furthermore," he says, "the Lord God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon all the wild animals of the earth, and upon all the livestock, and upon all the birds of the heaven, and upon all things moving upon the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea; into your hands I have given them."
A Since our discourse has been brought thus far, and has been consumed, as it were, in the narration of the mere letter historically, nothing further, I think, is required. Come, therefore, repeating each of the points that have been made, and transferring the contemplation hidden within them, let us fashion the mystery of Christ, and demonstrate that Noe himself was a kind of image and type of the salvation provided through Him, and of the wise and ineffable plan of divine providence concerning the ark. Noe, then, was born of Lamech—not of him who had slain a man and a young man, but of another of the same name from the line of Seth. Our Lord Jesus Christ also sprang from Israel, holy indeed on account of the fathers, but from a people who reflected the character of Lamech, being of the same mind as the murderer, and already of the same name in that he was a murderer. It has been said somewhere to the Jews: "Which of the prophets did not your fathers kill?" And by Christ: "And you fill up the measure of your fathers." And furthermore, He says through the voice of Isaias: "When you stretch forth your hands to me, I will turn away my eyes from you: and if you multiply prayer, I will not hear you; for your hands are full of blood." And Noe was the eleventh from Adam. But Christ again likewise was born in the last and eleventh time according to the flesh, and began the administration of our salvation. That this is so, and that it is true, you may easily learn from the sacred Scriptures. For He who hired laborers for his vineyard and called them at the eleventh hour, addressed some in this wise—the Gentiles, of course—saying: "Why stand you here all the day idle?" And when they openly said that no one had hired them (for no one, indeed, before the advent of our Savior, called the Gentiles to the knowledge of God), He answered kindly and mercifully: "Go you also into the vineyard, and what shall be just, I will give you." Furthermore, the law given through Moses ordered the slaughtering of the lamb to be performed between the evenings, towards evening and already under the lamps. For as if now at B the very sunset of time, and with the present age already almost drawing to a close, the Only-begotten Word of God became man, and endured the slaughter for all, setting those who have received the faith very far from punishment and penalty, and from all fear of such things. C For He himself is the true Noe, that is, justice and rest; for this is what the name itself is interpreted to mean. "For we have been justified," according to the Scriptures, "not by works of justice which we have done, but according to His great mercy." Christ, therefore, has become justice to us who have believed, and indeed also rest, if indeed it is true: "That He was weakened for our iniquities, and for our sins He was delivered, and by his stripe we all were healed: and, The Lord delivered Him up for our sins," according to the voice of the prophet. Since, therefore, Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, we are blessed and to be envied. D For what have we not obtained of this kind,
A and of what heavenly gifts do we not partake, and in what abundance of them do we not luxuriate? Having cast off the heavy burden of sin, are we not henceforth set free into spiritual prosperity? For He Himself called us to this, saying: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." For that Christ was to give us rest, the archangel Gabriel also foretold to the holy Virgin, saying: "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus; for he will save his people from their sins." And indeed, the divine prophets also hastened to foretell the rest that was to come through Him. For one of them said: "Take courage, Zion, let not your hands be slack. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one; he will save you, and will renew you in his love." And Isaiah, as if placing it before our very eyes, said: "Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees; be encouraged, you fearful in heart; be strong, do not fear. Behold, our God! Behold, the Lord comes with might, and his arm with dominion. Like a shepherd he will feed his flock, and with his arm he will gather the lambs, and he will comfort those that are with child." B Christ has thus become for us both righteousness and rest; and He has also delivered us from the earth which the Lord God had cursed. For this is what Lamech said in his prophecy regarding Noah. And it is not in doubt that the accusation of the transgression in Adam has been abolished again in Christ. "For He became a curse for us," according to what is written, freeing the earth from the ancient curse. For through Him we say that the Father and God has restored all things: "The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new; and if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." Since it is a second Adam who, by obedience, overthrows the accusation against the first-formed—I mean, of course, the disobedience that occurred at the beginning. The blessed Paul also seems to have held this view; for he writes thus: "For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so also by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. And Christ became obedient to the Father even to death, even death on a cross." C Just as the earth was cursed because of the transgression in Adam at the beginning, so it has become blessed because of the obedience of Christ. But He has delivered us from this cursed earth in another way as well. "For we wait for new heavens and a new earth, according to his promises," as the wise disciple of the Savior also said. He has also restored for us the return to things above and to the heavens; and as a forerunner for us, He has entered the holy land, whose meek heirs He said we would be—that is, those who have been taught meekness by the evangelical discipline. For the law said, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth," D
for a tooth," adding that injury must be inflicted upon those who inflict it. But Christ says to us: "To him who strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also." A Noah, therefore, is the eleventh descendant from Adam through Seth and Enos, "who hoped to call upon the name of the Lord his God," on account of his supreme piety and God-beloved manner of life. The genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ is also described by the holy evangelists from Adam down to Joseph himself, through every holy person, so to speak, as the account of the genealogy proceeds along its path.
5. But come, let us speak of the mixture, as it were, and the intermingling that occurred between the generations—I mean, the holy with those who are not such, that is, the profane and most defiled. For just as those who were born of Enos, having the byname of "gods," burned with desire for the daughters of men, by which event they immediately became different from themselves, and in adapting their life to the customs and laws of the others, labored under an apostasy into the most absurd things; so too those who came from the blood of Israel, as long as B they practiced the holiness of life and proved themselves excellent imitators of ancestral piety, drove away every mode of wickedness from themselves, and preserved in themselves the praise of a glorious life, entirely sincere and immaculate. But once they were mingled with neighboring peoples—which the Law forbade—they were immediately filled with the iniquity that reigned among them, and being prone to vice, what extreme evils were they not found to be suffering from? And this is the more to be wondered at. For the nations, worshiping the creation against the Creator and Maker and having slipped into the error of a plurality of gods, rendered honor to herds of demons with a certain sincerity toward that. But Israel, holy from above and from its forefathers, made light of its apostasy in the slightest degree. Therefore, God says to them through a holy voice: C "Pass over to the isles of Kittim, and see, and send to Kedar, and consider vehemently, and see if such things have been done: if nations will change their gods, and these are not gods. But my people have changed their glory, from which they shall not profit. The heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered exceedingly, says the Lord. For my people have done two evil things: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water." And again: "For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem they sacrificed to Baal: why do you speak to me? All of you have transgressed, and all of you have acted impiously against me, says the Lord." For they had fallen into such perversity of thoughts, or rather of deeds, that they were still having intercourse with wandering and erring women. D But when they had brought forth children, it was clearly necessary for the infants to be signed with the knowledge of the Judaic rites, and for them to undergo circumcision on the eighth day, and the sacrifices for this purpose
A were carried over as an offering to the unclean demons from the sanctified peoples. And this, I think, is what was said concerning them by the voice of the prophet: "For alien children were born to them." Since therefore the holy race had been corrupted toward the worse by association, as far as pertained to the quality and difference of sentiment and conduct—and indeed as customs had been brought together into one for both Israel and all the nations that were on the earth—the Creator of all justly passed sentence of destruction. But, overcome by His innate gentleness, He did not launch His wrath against them with an intensity equal to what their sins deserved. And so that the race on earth might not be utterly destroyed, He prefigured through Noah the justification that is in faith and the remission that is through water. For this reason the Only-Begotten became man, B and "dwelt among men," according to what is written; He is the truer Noah. And, indeed, just as in a type of that famous ark of old, He has, as it were, established the Church, into which those who have leaped find escape from the destruction hanging over the world. Thus also the divine Paul interprets the mystery regarding the ark, saying: "By faith Noah, having received warning, built an ark for the salvation of his household." In which, as Peter also says elsewhere, "a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water." The antitype of which, baptism, now saves us, "not as a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but as the questioning of a good conscience toward God." In what way, then, was the ark built? "Three hundred cubits," he says, "shall you make the length of the ark, and of fifty the breadth, and of thirty the height. Gathering it, you shall make the ark, and you shall finish it in a cubit from above." That such a construction would signify the mystery of Christ, even if very dimly, would be manifest to anyone and quite easily, C as the divine Paul writes to those who had been justified by faith, for whom he says he prays unceasingly, that they might be able "to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and to know the surpassing love of Christ which exceeds knowledge." D 6. What, then, is the meaning of the measures of the ark? A straight and refined manifestation of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and of the one Godhead, which holds itself together and is in every way most perfect. For one who considers will clearly perceive that this is indicated to us in the numbers set before us; as it is the custom of the God-inspired Scripture to make those numbers which revolve within themselves a symbol of perfection. For example: the number seven, beginning from the first, is completed on the Sabbath at the seventh day. Then again we count the numbers that follow, starting from the first until the seventh again. Likewise, having progressed to the number ten, we again begin the following decade from the first; and in this same manner and logic, the perfect number will be composed of perfect numbers, that is, one hundred from ten tens; and having a rotation and return to
the unit once again. Therefore, as I said, every number is a symbol of perfection in Holy Scripture, as it were moving on until it comes to the term that is proper and defined for it. See, then, the A all-encompassing perfection of the Holy Trinity, as if signified in three centuries of cubits. For this is the length of the ark. But that it is, so to speak, the perfection of perfections, or the Deity in unity, the breadth declares, consisting of fifty cubits, that is, as if in seven sevens joined to themselves by the unit; for this reason, because the nature of the Deity is one. And even the height itself does not beget for us any other sense than this. For it concludes in the third decade of cubits, and yet it ends B once again at the one set above [all others] and at the highest point. “For thirty,” he says, “is the height of it, and you shall finish it to one cubit.” For the Holy Trinity, though extended into three hypostases and the differences of its proper persons, is contracted into one nature of Deity. For the Gentiles rejoice in a plurality of gods. We, however, constituting the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit in their own hypostases in truth, are accustomed to crown them with the unity of nature. And by the identity of their substance, lifting them up, we finish the ark to one cubit in length and breadth, and indeed in height too. Christ, therefore, saves us by faith, and introduces us as if into an ark, the Church, in which being placed we escape the fear of death, secure lest we be condemned with the world. For the just Noah will be with us, that is, Christ.
7. I think it worth our while to inquire carefully who those might be who entered into the ark with Noah, and who won salvation through faith and water. It is written, therefore, that: C “Noah entered into the ark, and his sons, and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him.” He also brought in with them, from every kind of animal and bird, seven of the clean, but two of the unclean. For so it seemed good to God to command. Now the names of his sons are Shem, Ham, Japheth; and Shem is interpreted as “a plant and perfect,” Ham as “heat,” and Japheth as “breadth.” For we have been saved in Christ through faith, we who have been transplanted, as it were, like tender shoots from the imperfection of the legal life into the perfection of the evangelical instruction. Therefore, D the divine David also reproves the people of the Jews, who do not accept justification through Christ, saying: “You loved evil rather than good; iniquity rather than to speak righteousness. You loved all words of ruin, a deceitful tongue.” For they have blasphemed intemperately against the Son. “For this reason,” he says, “God will destroy you in the end; he will pluck you out, and migrate you from your tabernacle, and your root from the land of the living.” But concerning those who love justification and life in Christ: “Being planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God.
A That it is not without divine and intellectual fire, and a kind of warmth through the Spirit, that Emmanuel has wrought the grace which has flowed from Him into us, the divine Paul confirms, bidding those who are called in sanctification to be “fervent in spirit.” John, the wise herald, testifies no less to this, saying: “I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” For the love of the Jews has grown cold because “iniquity has abounded among them,” as it is written. B But we are indeed most fervent in this respect as well. Therefore we say: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or persecution, or sword?” A type, therefore, of those who are fervent in spirit, and a very clear one, was Ham, which is interpreted as "warmth." That we have also been brought into a widening or breadth of heart, having stepped out of the affliction of the legal life, the third one, Japheth, clearly signifies to us, he who received the surname of "breadth." For God addressed the Jews through the voice of the prophet Isaiah: “Hear the word of the Lord, you afflicted men, and princes of the people in Jerusalem.” And again: “Learn to hear, you who are in anguish.” C But Paul, having emerged from these constraints of the Law, speaks thus to some who had already embraced the faith: “Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged. You are not restrained in us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now for a recompense in the like kind, I speak as to my children, be you also enlarged. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” For they were still complying with the precepts of the Jews and with unfruitful vanities. David also sings somewhere to Christ, the Savior of all, as if in the person of the new and Christian people: “I ran the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart.” For our mind has been enlarged unto wisdom, with Emmanuel dwelling and moving in the souls of all through the Spirit. Such, then, are those who are in Christ through faith.
8. That the multitude of those justified by faith is indeed very great, but that of the Jews is smaller, one might easily learn from this without toil. D For seven of the clean animals were brought into the ark, but two of the unclean, that is, of the Christ-killing Jews. “For the remnant has been saved,” according to the voice of the prophet. Moreover, that in the course of time some of the blood of Israel were going to depart and fall away from the faith was again typified. For he says: “He sent out the raven from the ark, to see whether the water had abated; and it did not return.” It was drowned, I suppose, in the waters, not finding a support or resting place. Therefore, from the faith of Christ...
A and to apostatize, is altogether a cause of destruction. So also the blessed Paul, to those who after receiving the faith were being perfected in the Law, or who thought they would be perfect by it, says: “You have been severed from Christ, you who are justified by the Law; you have fallen away from grace. For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.” Observe, moreover, how the raven, being one of the unclean birds, was an apostate. For there were some from among the Jews who, after the justification received through Christ, were returning to the shadows of the Law. And concerning them, I suppose, the wise John also writes: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.” And since the Spirit also says clearly that “in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits,” see also a clear type of this matter brought about through Noah. For he sent out a first and a second dove to examine, in a way, whether the flood had subsided. And they returned, as if into a cage, to the ark, one having a twig in its mouth, as it is written—namely, of olive. For holy ones are sent out by Christ to examine the world and those who are in it. And they return as if speaking peace. For I think that the olive branch lying in the mouth of the dove signifies this indirectly. For the plant is always in some way a symbol of peace. For those who are godly are those who are cleansed by faith, and, as in the meekness of the evangelical life, are chosen by God. Yet, that some C even from among them will fall away in the last times, as I just said, this type signifies. For a third and final dove is sent, and it did not care to return. For it remained. And the flood having subsided, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat, which you may interpret as “testimony of the descent.” For those who are in Christ through faith are high and, as it were, set upon mountains because of the sublimiters of the evangelical life; they who preach everywhere on earth the Word of God who descended from above and from heaven, to whom God Himself calls out through the voice of the prophet: “You be my witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord God; and the servant whom I have chosen.” Therefore, the glory of those who are in Christ is higher than lowly earthly things.
9. That Emmanuel also became High Priest in our behalf, through whom we have gained access to the Father and God, and were renewed to our original state, with the curse that had been propagated upon us from the first parent abolished—observe this from the things written next. “For after,” he says, “the earth was dried, Noah went out of the ark, and all who were with him. And he built,” he says, “an altar to God; and he took from all the clean animals, and from all the clean birds, and offered whole burnt-offerings upon the altar. And the Lord,” he says, “smelled the aroma of sweetness, and the Lord God said, reflecting: I will not again curse the earth because of the works of men.” And a little further D on:
gēnd diὰ tὰ ἔrga tῶn ἀnthrώpōn. Kaὶ meθ᾿ ἕtera pάAlin· «Kaὶ eὐlόgēse Kύrios ὁ Theòs tὸn Nῶe, kaὶ toὺς υἱoὺς aὐtoῦ, kaὶ eἶpen aὐtoῖs· Aὐxάnesthe kaὶ plēthύnesthe, kaὶ plērώsate tḕn gῆn, kaὶ katakυ- rieύsate aὐτῆς, kaὶ ὁ phόbos ὑmῶn, kaὶ ὁ trόmos ἔstai ἐpὶ pᾶsi toῖs thēriois, kaὶ ἐpὶ pᾶsi toῖs ktḗnesi tῆs gῆs, kaὶ ἐpὶ pάnta tὰ ὄrnea toῦ oὐranoῦ, kaὶ ἐpὶ pάnta tὰ kinoύmena ἐpὶ tῆs gῆs, kaὶ ἐpὶ pάntas toὺς ἰχθύas tῆs thalάssēs· ὑpὸ χεῖras ὑmῖn dέdōka.» Oὐkoῦn ὅte gέgonen ἡmῶn ἀrchiereὺς ὁ Christόs, kaὶ prosekọmísthēmen di' aὐtoῦ noētῶs eἰs ὀsmḕn eὐ- ōdíaṭ tῷ Theῷ kaὶ Patrí, tόte kaὶ eὐmeneías tῆs par' aὐtoῦ ploυsíos ἠξιώmetha, kaὶ bebaían ἐσχḗkamen tḕn ὑpόthesin, toῦ mēkéti kath' ἡmῶn ἰσχῦsai tὸn thánaton. Dέlυtai kaὶ tὰ ἐx ὀrgῆs, oἴchetai dέ pọi kaὶ tὰ ἐk tῆs ἀrchaías ἀrᾶs ἐkeínēs. Eὐlogḗmetha B gὰr ἐν Christῷ, di' oὗ kaὶ meth' oὗ tῷ Theῷ Patrὶ ἡ dόxa, sὺn tῷ ἁgίῳ Pneύmati eἰs toὺς aἰῶnas tῶn aiώnōn. Ἀmḗn.
De nudatione Noe et Cham.
α΄. Sυmpeperasménōn ἁpάntōn tῶn ἐpὶ tῇ kibō- tῷ, kaὶ parōchēkótos mὲn toῦ kataklυsmoῦ, gēpo- noῦntos dὲ ἤdē toῦ Nῶe, tína dὴ ἆra tὰ ἐν aὐτῷ pe- pragména parὰ toῦ Chάm, polυpragmonḗsei pάlin ἡmῖn ὁ lόgos. Ἀnapeísei gὰr dὴ toὺς oἵper ἂn ἔlointo diabioῦn ἐνnόmōs tῆs eἰs toὺς patéras aἰdoῦs oὐdὲn tὸ parάpan ἡgeῖsthai ἰsostatoῦn, kaὶ parai- teῖsthai saphῶs ὡs ti tῶn sphalērōtátōn tὸ katά ti goῦn ὅlōs ἐpimeidiᾶn aὐtoῖs, kἂn eἰ toῦ prépontos C ἔxō phérointo brachὺ taῖs tῆs phύseōs ἀstheneíaις ὑpenēnegménoi. Ὅti gὰr septὸn ἀeὶ pῶs ἐsti tῶn gonéōn tὸ chrῆma, kaὶ aὐtὸs ὁ theῖos ἡmᾶs ἐkpaideύei nόmos· proepitáxas gὰr deῖn ἐx ὅlēs psυchῆs kaὶ kar- días tὸn ἕna te kaὶ phύsei Theὸn ἀgapᾷn, «Tίma, phēsí, tὸn patéra soυ, kaὶ mētéra soυ, ἵna eὖ soi génētai, kaὶ ἔσῃ makrόbios ἐpὶ tῆs gῆs.» Ἐn eἰ- kόni gὰr ὥsper kaὶ ἐν mimḗsei Theoῦ katalogistheíen ἂn oi gegennēkótes. «Mnḗsthēti gάρ, phēsín, ὅti di' aὐtῶn ἐgennḗthēs.» Taύtῃ toi pάlin phēsín, «Ὀhthal- mὸn katagelῶnta patrόs, kaὶ ἀtimázonta gḗras mētρός, ἐkkόpsaisan aὐtὸn kόrakes ἐk tῶn pharάg- gōn.» Ὅti toínυn kaὶ ἐν ἀρᾷ kaὶ díkῃ tὸ mὴ deῖn oἴesthai timḕn patéras, kaὶ mḕn kaὶ aἰdoῦs ἁpάsēs ἀxioῦn, kaὶ diά ge toῦ Chὰm ἀnamάthoi tis ἂn kaὶ lían eὐkόlōs. «Ἡsan gάρ, phēsín, oi υἱoὶ Nῶe oi ἐxelhόntes ἐk tῆs kibōtoῦ, Sḗm, Chάm, Ἰάpheth. Chὰm dὲ ἦn patḕr Chanaάn. Treῖs oὗτοί eisin oi υἱoὶ Nῶe. Ἀpὸ toύtōn diespάrēsan ἐpὶ pasᾶn tḕn gῆn. Kaὶ ἤrxato Nῶe ἄnthrōpos geōrgὸς gῆs, kaὶ ἐphύ- teυsen ἀmpelῶna, kaὶ ἔpien ἐk toῦ oἴnoυ, kaὶ ἐme- θύsthē, kaὶ ἐgυmnώthē ἐν tῷ oἴkῳ aὐtoῦ· kaὶ eἶde Chὰm ὁ patḕr Chanaὰn tḕn gύmnōsin toῦ patrὸς aὐ- toῦ, kaὶ ἐxelhὼn ἐpḗggeile toῖs ἀdëlphoῖs aὐtoῦ ἔxō· Kaὶ labόntes Sḕm kaὶ Ἰάpheth tὸ ἱmάtion, ἐpέthento ἐpὶ tὰ dύo nῶta aὐτῶν, kaὶ ἐporeύthēsan ὀpisthoṛa- nῶs, kaὶ sυnekάlυpsan tḕn gύmnōsin toῦ patrὸς aὐ- tῶn, kaὶ tὸ prόsōpon aὐtῶn ὀpisthophanés, kaὶ tḕn
A gύmnōsīn toῦ patrὸς oὐk eἶdon. Ἐxénēpse dè Nῶe B apὸ toῦ oἴnou, kaὶ ἔgnō ὅsa ἐpoíēsen aὐtῷ ὁ υἱὸς aὐtoῦ ὁ neṓteros, kaὶ eἶpen· Ἐpikatάratos Xanaὰn, paῖs oikέtēs ἔstai toῖs ἀdelfoῖs aὐtoῦ, kaὶ eἶpen· Eὐlogētὸς Kýrios ὁ Theὸς Sḗm, kaὶ ἔstai Xanaὰn paῖs aὐtoῦ. Platýnai ὁ Theὸς tῷ Ἰάfeth, kaὶ katoikēsátō C en toῖs skēnṓmasi Sḗm, kaὶ genēthḗtō Xanaὰn paῖs aὐtoῦ. Nῶe mὲn gὰr ἀmpelῶna periteukṓs, tῶn oikeíōn ἐνeforeῖto pónōn, kaὶ kάtoinos mὲn ἀsynḗthōs ἦn. Ἀdókēton dè filo- inías ἔgklēma, tḕn ἀnethέlēton ὑpomeínas gύmnōsin, oἴkoi te kaὶ ἀpoptos ἦn toῖs polloῖs. Ὁ dè tὰs frέnas oὐk ἀsfalḗs, fēmὶ dὴ tὸn Xάm, tῆς thέas tὸ ἀprepὲs ἀnosíou gέlōtos ἐpoieῖto prόfasin· kaítoi katamfiάtai dè, mononoυxὶ dè kaὶ ἐpamῦnai tῷ fýsanti, mέthē pleonektoumέnῷ, kaὶ toῖs ἐx oἴnou ptaísmasin ὑpenēnegmέnῷ. Ἀllὰ pareὶs tὰ toiάde, kaὶ tῆς eἰs tὸn fýsanta timῆς oὐ metríōs ὀligōrῶn, proxeneῖn ἐpeígetai toῖs ἄllois tḕn thέan, kaὶ skēnḕn oἷá tinα prostheὶs tὸn presbýtēn, gelᾶn ἀnapeíthei toὺs ἀdelfoús. Oἱ dè ἦsan ἀmeínous tῆς ἐν aὐtῷ dysboulías· katasofizómenoi dè tὸ symbebēkόs, kaὶ tῆς thέas tὸ ἀkallὲs toῖs periblḗmasin ἀfanízontes, ἀnópin ἐbάdizon. Ἐdόkei gὰr eὐsebeῖn aὐtoῖs, kaὶ mēroὺs aἰdeῖsthai patrόs, di' ὧn kaὶ gegónasin. Ἐpeὶ dè die- gēgermέnos ἐν aἰsthḗsei toῦ prάgmatos gέgonen ὁ patḗr, ἐparᾶtai mὲn eὐthὺs tὸn toῦ prέpontos, kaὶ tῆς eἰs aὐtὸn aἰdoῦs ἠfeidēkόta paralόgōs, kaὶ zygὸn aὐtῷ tὸn oἰketikὸn ἐpetíthei dikaíōs, Xanaὰn ὀnomázōn diὰ toὺs ἐx aὐtoῦ Xananαíous, οἳ kaὶ tῆς díkēs aὐtῷ symmethέxein ἔmellon. Paggeneῖ gὰr ἐkoulázeto. Eὐlόgēse dè toὺs timḗsantas.
2. Signification of the mystery of the Jews
2. Ἐmfḗneie d’ ἂn aἰnigmatōdῶs kaὶ tόde dὴ pάlin tὸ ἐpὶ toῖs Ἰou- D daíois mystḗrion. Treῖs mὲn gὰr oἱ pάntes gegónasi laoí, ὅte ἐν prṓtῷ kairῷ kathάper kaὶ ὁ Sḗm, kaὶ mḕn kaὶ ὁ diὰ mέsou katὰ tὸn ἐpάraton Xάm, kaὶ ὁ trítos ὁ loῖsthos nooῖt' d’ ἂn ὡs ἐν teleytaíois Ἰάfeth, ὃs ἑrmēneúetai platysmόs. Ἐpeidḕ dè ἡmῖn ἀpekάlyxen ὁ Theὸς kaὶ Patὴr tὸn ἴdion Yιόn, ὃs diὰ mērῶn sēmaínetai, kaὶ ὅson ἦken eἰpeῖn eἰs tὸ noētὸn tῆς theótētos kάllos, ἀs- chḗmonά te kaὶ ἀterpῆ diὰ tὸ ἀnthrṓpinon· « Oὐdὲ gὰr eἶchen eἶdos, oὐdὲ kάllos, » katὰ tḕn toῦ profḗtou fōnḗn· tόte dὴ tόte, kathὰ kaὶ aὐtὴ tῶn pragmátōn ἐpimar- tyrḗseien ἂn ἡ ἔkbasis, ὁ mὲn prῶtόs te kaὶ loῖsthos laόs, tout- ἐstin, oἱ ἐν ἀrchῇ kaὶ prῶtoi pisteúsantes, kaὶ mḕn kaὶ ὁ klēthē- sάmenos ἐν ἐschάtois, dedysṓpēntai tὸn Ἐmmanouḗl. Eὐlόgēntai dè di’ aὐtoῦ parὰ toῦ Theoῦ kaὶ Patρόs. Ὁ dέ ge tοῖn dyoῖn metaxὺ gegonṓs, katameidiάsas ὥsper Christoῦ diὰ tὸ tῆς ἀnthrōpótētos ἀkallέs, kaὶ tὸn ἐk Theoῦ pe- fēnóta Yιὸn katὰ polloὺs ἀtimásas trόpous, ἐν tῷ tῆς dou- leías ἀpomenḗnēke trόpῷ, kaὶ tῆς tῶn patέrōn ἐleutherías ἀpṓlis- then. Ὅti dè ἔmellon oἱ ἐν ἐschάtois kairoῖs ἐk tῶn Ἰou- daíōn pisteúsantes tῶn prṓtōn ἔsesthai koinoinoí, mononouxὶ kaὶ ὁmέ- stioi· ἅte dὴ kaὶ eἰs mían synenechthέntes pόlin, ἤgoun aὐlḕn ἣ ἑstían, tout- ἐsti tḕn Ἐkklēsían, ὑpέfēnen eἰpṓn, « Platýnai ὁ Theὸς tῷ Ἰάfeth, » tout-
- A ἔστι, τῷ τρίτῳ καὶ ἐν ἐσχάτοις· τρίτος γὰρ ὁ Ἰάφεθ· « καὶ κατοικησάτω ἐν τοῖς σκηνώματι τοῦ Σήμ, » τουτέστι, τοῦ πρώτου· « καὶ γενηθήτω Χαναὰν παῖς αὐτῶν· » τοῦτο, οἶμαι, ἐστὶν ὅπερ ἔφη Χριστὸς τοῖς Ἰουδαίων δήμοις· « Ἀμήν, ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, δοῦλός ἐστι τῆς ἁμαρτίας. Ὁ δὲ δοῦλος οὐ μένει ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, ὁ υἱὸς μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα· ἐὰν οὖν ὁ υἱὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλευθερώσῃ, ἐλεύθεροι ἔσεσθε. » Καταμειδιάσαντες γὰρ οἱ τάλανες Ἰουδαῖοι τῆς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν οἰκονομίας, καὶ τὴν ἀποκάλυψιν αὐτοῦ τὴν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς εἰς ἡμᾶς γενομένην οὐ τετιμηκότες, ἐν τῷ τῆς δουλείας μεμενήκασι πνεύματι.
Περὶ τοῦ πύργου καὶ τῆς αὐτοῦ κατασκευῆς
B Ἐλελοίπει μὲν οὐδὲν τῇ ἀνθρωπεία φύσει πρὸς τὸ εὖ εἶναι καὶ εὐημερεῖν. Πλήρη γὰρ αὐτὴν ἀπετέλει καὶ παντὸς ἐπίμεστον ἀγαθοῦ ὁ τῶν ὅλων Ποιητής. Ὑπενήνεκται δὲ πρὸς τὸ μεῖον ἡ πρὶν μεγάλη ζημιουμένη κατὰ βραχύ, τὰ δι' ὧν ἦν εἰκὸς ὁρᾶσθαι σεπτὴν, καὶ ἀρτίως ἔχουσαν εἰς τὸ λίαν ἐπιπρεπές. Οἷον φέρε εἰπεῖν, ἀπημπόληκε μὲν τὸ ἄφθαρτον ἐν Ἀδάμ. Εἴρηται γὰρ πρὸς αὐτόν, « Γῆ εἶ, καὶ εἰς γῆν ἀπελεύσῃ. » Ἐστέρηται δὲ μετὰ τοῦτο τοῦ πνεύματος. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ μόνα φρονεῖν ἐθέλοντας τὰ σαρκὸς ἀνόσιά τε καὶ μυσαρώτατα πάθη τοὺς ἐπὶ γῆς ἑώρα Θεός, « Οὐ μὴ καταμείνῃ τὸ πνεῦμά μου, » φησίν, « ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τούτοις, διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς σάρκας. » C Ἀλλ' ἰδοὺ δή τι καὶ ἕτερον ὑπομένει πάλιν. Ἐπ' ἀνοσίοις γὰρ σκέμμασι καὶ ἀποπλήκτοις εἰκαιοβουλείαις κατεγνωσμένοι τινὲς εἰς ἑτεροίαν αὐτὴν καὶ ἀσύμφωνον ἐκκομίζουσι γλῶσσαν. « Ἦν μὲν γὰρ, » φησί, « πᾶσα ἡ γῆ χείλος ἕν, καὶ φωνὴ μία πᾶσι. Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ κινῆσαι αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν, εὗρον πεδίον ἐν γῇ Σεναάρ, καὶ κατῴκησαν ἐκεῖ, καὶ εἶπεν ἄνθρωπος τῷ πλησίον· Δεῦτε, πλινθεύσωμεν πλίνθους, καὶ ὀπτήσωμεν αὐτὰς πυρί. Καὶ ἐγένετο αὐτοῖς ἡ πλίνθος εἰς λίθον· καὶ ἄσφαλτος ἦν αὐτοῖς ὁ πηλός. Καὶ εἶπαν, Δεῦτε, οἰκοδομήσωμεν ἑαυτοῖς πόλιν καὶ πύργον, οὗ ἡ κεφαλὴ ἔσται ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ποιήσωμεν ἑαυτοῖς ὄνομα πρὸ τοῦ διασπαρῆναι ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν. Εἶτα κάτεισιν ὁ Θεὸς, οὕτω γὰρ ἔφη τὸ Γράμμα τὸ ἱερὸν, καὶ συγχεῖ μὲν αὐτῶν τὰς γλώσσας, κατασκεδάννυσι δὲ καὶ εἰς πᾶσαν αὐτοὺς τὴν γῆν. » Ἐπετίμα μὲν γὰρ τοῖς ἐπιχειρήμασιν τῶν ὅλων Θεός, οὐ δέδιε δὲ τὸ συμπέρασμα· ὡς δὲ ὑπερόπτην τι βεβουλευμένους, D ἡμερότητι τῇ ἐμφύτῳ χρώμενος, ὑποπαύει τῶν ἐγχειρημάτων τῇ πολυγλωσσίᾳ· σημαίνων ὅτι τὰς ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον σκέψεις, καὶ εἰ φέροιντό πως διὰ τῶν ἀμηχάνων, οὐκ ἀνεπιπλήκτους ἐᾷ. Αὐτὰς δὲ συγχεῖ τὰς γλώσσας, τὰ γὰρ μόνης τῆς τοῦ Δημιουργοῦ δεόμενα τέχνης, καὶ μέν τοι καὶ ἐξουσίας, ἁρμόσειεν ἂν οὐχ ἑτέρῳ τῳ ποθεν, ἀλλ' αὐτῷ δὴ καὶ μόνῳ. Γλώσσης δὲ μεταπλασμὸν, καὶ τὸ ἐξευρύνεσθαι λόγον εἰς ἠχὼ τὴν διάφορον, ἀναθείη τις ἂν εἰκότως τῷ γε ἀληθῶς μόνῳ τε καὶ κατὰ φύσιν Δημιουργῷ. Ἀμοιρήσειέ δ' ἂν οὔτι που τὸ γεγονός, τοῦ σφόδρα εἰκότως διαγελάσθαι δεῖν.
δεῖν. A For they supposed, I know not how, that the tower built of brick and earth would be entirely and altogether strong, even up to the heavens themselves. And they too, I think, might be a type of the lack of understanding of the Jews, who supposed they would find kinship with God—nay, almost the very journey to the things above—not by choosing to look upon what is pleasing and dear to Him, nor by faith in Christ, but, as it were, by raising up a tower, foolishly conceiving grand things on the bare and sole glory of their fathers. For by naming Abraham again and again, and building up their own glory, as it were, with earthly boasts, they were ever somehow condemned. B But God was angry with those who were building the tower, and divided them into many languages. And we say that what happened to them at that time was a foreshadowing of those things which later befell the Jews. For because they were high-minded, and were seeking a journey to the things above through means by which it should by no means be sought, He scattered them into many tongues, that is, into all the nations. For they were dispersed from their own land and city and driven from their homes, and became wanderers among the Gentiles, according to the voice of the Prophet. But in Christ, the diversity of languages was a good sign. For when the disciples were gathered on the day of Pentecost into one house, it says: "And suddenly there came from heaven a sound, as of a violent wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance." And what were they saying? With the Spirit supplying to them the journey to the things above, the ascent into the heavens in Christ through faith, and the gathering of all the languages throughout the habitable world—whether of peoples or of nations—into unity in the Spirit. For every tongue of men was confessing Christ and speaking of His mysteries. Wherefore, in the case of the tower, the diversity of languages was a sign of dissipation and flight into all the nations; but in Christ, it was a sign of a gathering into unity through the Spirit, and of the approach to heaven. For Christ has become for us "a tower of strength," according to the voice of the Psalmist, transporting [us] to the city above, and joining those who dwell on earth to the choirs of the holy angels. C D
Concerning Abraham and Melchizedek.
1. The Lord of all gave the Law for our help; for it is written thus. But that the law instructs [us] as children, while the mystery of Christ brings [us] to perfection, it is by no means difficult to see from the holy Scriptures themselves, gathering our proof from them, and collecting the truest things. But it will suffice, I think, for the divine Paul to speak concerning the two Testaments: "For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect; but the bringing in of a better hope, by which we draw near to God."A
Therefore, surely, one may very easily find friendship with God, not through that first and Mosaic commandment, but through the hope said to be superinduced, which the interpreter of the sacred mysteries seemed to crown with the verdicts of what is better, looking toward the truth. He says clearly that the things in the Law have been set aside, and defining that the former commandment could perfect nothing, he writes to the Hebrews: "For if that first had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them B a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." He immediately adds to these: "In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." The Law, therefore, is weak, and much impotence is seen in it, as for the ability, I say, to perfect unto sanctification.
That the justification and worship in Christ are better, you shall hear clearly from the voice of the prophets, as God himself cries out to those who honored the legal worship, and who, as it were, tenaciously clung to the antiquated commandment; sometimes saying, "Wash you, make you clean;" and at other times, "I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." For we have obtained mercy in Christ, and in Him we have seen the Father intellectually (noētōs), and have known Him who is by nature God. C
2. But since it is very easy to accumulate countless things to what has been said, and to bring forward voices of the holy prophets, through which anyone might see very clearly that the worship according to the Law is unacceptable to God, in order that we do not drag our discourse away from the proposed aim, and that the narrative does not wander far off, like a path leading elsewhere, we shall now proceed to the divine Abraham himself. For when he heard that his nephew Lot had unexpectedly fallen into danger—for he was dwelling in Sodom and had already become a prisoner of war and was in the power of his enemies—he armed his household servants and certain others of his allies, Eschol, Annan, and Mambre; and he leads them out against the victors, not ignobly, and delivers the man from their tyranny, and along with him, he saves a very great multitude D who were included in the common loss and danger.
A To him as he returned home, bearing the illustrious signs of deeds performed nobly against the enemy, there came out to meet him, as was necessary, those who had been aided by his labor and work. For it is written thus: “And the king of Sodom came out to meet him after he had returned from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings who were with him, to the valley of Shaveh.” This was the king's valley. And it adds: “And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; and he was a priest of God Most High. And he blessed Abraham, and said: Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, who created heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hands. And he gave him a tithe of everything.” B Observe, therefore, the types of the perfection in Christ shining clearly in Melchizedek, and the measure of the legal cult as inferior. For it is indubitable that that which is wholly the lesser is blessed by the greater and more excellent, according to the Scripture. The root, so to speak, of those from Israel is the divinely inspired Abraham, and the excellence and distinct glory in him is Levi, who was adorned with the honors of divine priesthood. “But he was still concealed in his loins.” For the blessed Abraham was, by potentiality, the father of those who were to arise from him in the course of time. And this, I think, is wisely spoken regarding Levi. For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. The justice according to the Law, therefore, is blessed by the cult in Christ, of which Melchizedek is the type. But that the blessing which possesses the power of blessing is incomparably more useful than that which lacks such virtue, no one would doubt. But for now, we shall desist from an accurate contemplation of these matters.
3. Perhaps one who has chosen to fight against Christ, more than any other, will be eager to know who in the world Melchizedek was. For some, intoxicated by various opinions regarding him, have fallen unwisely into vain and foolish tales, and are not well-versed in the customs of divine Scripture. C For some say that the Holy Spirit occurred to the victorious Abraham only in a vision and a form that resembled ours, and only appeared to him. Others say not this—deterred, I suppose, by the absurdity of that opinion—but assert that he was a power of the multitude of angels, illustrious and preeminent. A sluggish and foolish mind, as it seems, has dragged them into this opinion regarding him. For when they say, “Salem is interpreted as peace,” and Melchizedek is named king of Salem, they argue that he should not be considered a man, but that the Spirit is signified; for peace is an attribute proper to God, and He alone is the author of peace. D They further add to these things: If he has neither a beginning of days nor an end of life, how would it not be an argument of folly to attribute the lack of beginning and end to a man? Let the Spirit be understood again. For if he is likened...
he says, to the Son of the Highest, and remains also a priest forever, how would one not be led to think, through everything, that A Melchisedec is not a man? Then, by weaving other arguments onto these, they think they are strengthening a doctrine that they have provided for themselves from I know not where. But we are compelled to say what has come to mind, choosing to offer in opposition to their suspicions what seems to be, as far as possible, correctly held. For in the first place, if they have learned to think reasonable thoughts, they themselves will also agree that Salem is a city, and that it was not Melchisedec who was the first and only one to reign over it, but that there were certainly many, both those before him and others who succeeded him. But if anyone thinks we are lying, let him come and show that Melchisedec reigned in Salem even up to the present—although it is a city of Judea, which perhaps has also been named Jerusalem. B And this is translated as "Vision of peace." But no one will be able to show it. It is therefore foolish, then, to dare to destroy clear and acknowledged facts by clinging to the interpretation of names. And that the matter is foolish and full of lack of understanding, this discourse of theirs will be easily refuted by us if we take into account this fact. For Jerusalem is interpreted, as I said just now, "Vision of peace" or "Higher than death"; Israel, moreover, as "Mind seeing God"; and Judah as "Praise and celebration." But the holy Scripture has openly testified how many unholy and profane kings have been, at various times, of Jerusalem and over Israel and Judah. Therefore, a king of the "Vision of peace," of "Praise and celebration," and of the "Mind seeing God" could by no means be an earthly one. But neither would the matter befit a human being, if we were to say, clinging to the interpretations of names, that those who were kings over time are shadows and phantoms, and not human beings at all, but rather the Spirit, just as in the case of Melchisedec. C But that the force of names, or rather of interpretations, does not in any way force the nature of things into itself, you might also learn from this. For will not anyone imagine, or rather, will he not truly say that it is valid in every way, that if Jerusalem is the "Vision of peace," it was necessary that she should by no means be ignorant of Christ? "For He Himself is our peace," according to the Scriptures. But the eyes of the mind have not seen Him through whom we have had access, and have been glued into the unity of the Spirit with the Father, "who made both one," and "created the two peoples into one new man." How then is it a "Vision of peace" if it has not seen Christ? And if it is "Higher than death," that is, stronger and superior to death, how has the wretched one perished because of its unbelief in Christ? For He Himself called out, saying to the Jews: "Amen, I say to you, unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." And if Israel is interpreted as "Mind seeing God," why has it not seen the glory of Christ, through whom and in whom we have known the Father Himself? How also were they caught? D
by the darkness? Or how was it said concerning them, and those who were chosen to lead: "Let them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind"? For what sort of blindness could be conceived regarding a mind seeing God? Therefore, is it not for that reason A filled with ignorance, in every way and altogether, to attribute power to the qualities of names and to the things themselves? I suppose, moreover, that nothing will prevent us from thinking correctly and fittingly that Melchizedek was a man, and that he had reigned for a time in Salem, even if it happens to be interpreted as "peace."
4. We must also attend to what has been said in addition to this; for we see now B through a glass and in a riddle the divine mysteries with difficulty. Since we have nothing among created things that can be completely equated to the divine and ineffable nature, we gather together from myriad examples, in some measure, the ability either to conceive or to speak of it as far as possible. Nevertheless, the mystery concerning Christ is very obscure, and the principle of the incarnation cannot be grasped by every common person. For the principle of the divine dispensation is very profound. For being God, and the Only-Begotten from God by nature, He became man, "and dwelt among us." He has also been called both our Apostle and High Priest; He freed us from the stammering law and has transferred us to the symphony of the Gospel teachings. And not only this, but He also set us free when we were captives, having defeated the prince of this world, and He rescued the sleepers from the depths of Hades. He established the Church, and having been appointed as ruler over us, He led us in faith across the Jordan; He gave the circumcision in the Spirit, and He has brought us into the kingdom of heaven. That He became as we are, I suppose the testimony of the divine evangelist will suffice, saying: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." That He was also anointed as priest and apostle, the manifestation of Aaron C makes clear—even quite plainly. For he was anointed with holy oil and was set as a prince and governor of the priests and the people; and furthermore, he received the golden ornament on his forehead, or the plate, having the name of the Lord inscribed upon it. This was a clear symbol of our Savior the King, and as it were, a splendid and conspicuous diadem. That the worship through Christ is superior to the legal worship, one might see as in Aaron, just as, indeed, in the case of Melchizedek. For the Levites received tithes from the children of Israel according to the laws. But God commanded that a tithe be given from the tithes of the Levites to Aaron, as to a leader, and to one who was endowed with the highest honor because of his priestly function. Understand, therefore, in what way D even in the person of Aaron, he who receives the tithes, Levi, has been tithed. For Aaron represents the person of Christ. And all the other Levites and priests performed the sacrifices according to the law, having their station in the first tabernacle. But the divine Aaron alone out of all of them, once a year, as it is written, "went into the Holy of Holies," and not without blood, according to the Law. But he was also a type of
A Christ, "who once died for our sins, according to the Scriptures," and entered into that supernal and most holy tabernacle. For He established this way for us, and sanctified the Church with His own blood. But the divine Moses, when chosen for his mission, prayed to God, saying: "I beseech You, O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither yesterday, nor the day before, nor from the time You began to speak to Your servant; I am weak of voice and slow of tongue." And he added to these: "Choose another capable person whom You might send." Then the God of all said to him: "Not so; behold Aaron your brother, the Levite. I know that he will speak to you, and behold, he shall come out to meet you; and when he sees you he will rejoice in himself. And you shall speak to him, and you shall put My words into his mouth, and I will instruct you both what you shall do; and he shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth." For the old Law is in truth slow of speech, and, being unable to utter clearly, it stammers to us with difficulty over a long circuit the will of God, if I may speak according to the Letter; but the mouth of Moses, which is Christ, B transfers the types into truth, and sets forth a ready knowledge of necessary things to those everywhere in the world. Therefore He says in the forty-eighth Psalm: "Hear these things, all ye nations; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world." Thus, therefore, Christ was typified as in Aaron. And what is more paradoxical—do not marvel if He shadowed forth the magnitude of His own excellence in those who knew Him and were learned in the laws, when He was even shown in an alien man who delivered Israel from captivity, and founded the holy and sacred city, and was possessed of an invincible strength against all. But I shall set forth a clear and brief account of him, as far as possible.
5. Judea was once taken captive, and those from Israel were long oppressed in Babylon, subjected to harsh and C barbarous slavery. But when Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, having secured the power of both Medes and Persians, waged war against the Assyrians who were bordering and neighboring to him, then indeed, having captured Babylon itself by force, he released the Jews who were lamenting the oppression of the Assyrians, and who approached him not without tears, maintaining that it had been foretold by God through the voice of the holy ones that he would come at the right time and defeat the adversaries, and that he himself would release those who were oppressed from their bonds, and that he would rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, which the Assyrians, acting impiously toward God, had burned. And that the Israelites were not lying in this matter will easily be evident to us if we search the scriptures of the holy prophets. For D God says thus through the voice of Isaiah: "Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord who brings these things to pass; I alone stretched out the heavens and established the earth. Who else shall destroy the signs of the soothsayers, and divestments from the heart? turning the wise...
back, and making their counsel foolish, and confirming the words of his servant, and verifying the counsel of his angels; saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and her desolate places shall rise up. Saying to the abyss, Thou shalt be desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers; saying to Cyrus, to be wise, and he shall do all my will. Saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and I will found my holy house. Thus says the Lord God to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, that nations might obey before him, and I will break the strength of kings. A I will open before him doors, and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before thee, and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and I will cut in sunder the bars of iron; and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, hidden, invisible, I will open them to thee, that thou mayest know that I am the Lord God that calls thy name, the God of Israel. For the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel my elect, I will call thee by thy name, and I will receive thee. But thou hast not known that I am the Lord God; and there is no other, besides me there is no God, and thou hast not known me.” You hear how clearly it says, “Thou hast not known me”; neither did He deem him worthy to be ranked among those who know God, so illustrious a man; whom He Himself had established as superior to kings, and master of countless nations.
For the things said concerning him were types of the works accomplished through Christ. For He foretold that he himself would dissipate the false divinations of the Babylonians and the signs of those who have familiar spirits. But He declares that the counsels—that is to say, the predictions—of His own prophets, whom He also called angels, are by no means false. Moreover, He has foretold that he will also build the cities of Judah, and will lay waste the abyss, and will dry up all her rivers; by the abyss, I believe, B calling Babylon, on account of the vast multitude of those dwelling within it; and by its rivers, the nations running together from every side to its aid. But come, let us speak of Cyrus, elegantly transferring the deeds wrought by him to the mystery of Christ.
6. Cyrus, then, was born of Mandane, the daughter of Astyages, prince of the Medes, and of Cambyses, a Persian by lineage, but of very humane character. Whence some of the ancients called Cyrus a mule and of mixed nature, because, as I indeed believe, of the difference in race between his father and mother: for the Persians and the Medes are a different people. But you may see something similar C also in Christ. For He was born according to the flesh of the holy Virgin, who was like us and endowed with human nature. But from a father, He is like no one among us; but, if I may so say, of a nature entirely different and discordant, and surpassing by far all that is created. Therefore He also says to the Jews, who were thinking that He was like us and born in the same condition as we are: “You are from beneath, I am from above.” D Now, indeed, Cyrus ruled over countless nations, and every city received him. But he also received the treasures of darkness, hidden,
A invisible, and he released Israel from long slavery. But Emmanuel has reigned over all that is under heaven, and as the Savior and Redeemer of all, the whole city received Him, and the entire human race has now been liberated from the slavery and diabolical greed to which it had been forced and compelled to serve under him. And having descended into Hades, He emptied its dark, hidden, and invisible B treasures. He shattered the gates of bronze and broke the iron bars. For He said to those in chains, “Come out,” and to those in darkness, “Show yourselves.” Therefore, long ago He said to Job, that most patient and unconquerable athlete: “Did you come to the fountain of the sea, and have you walked in the tracks of the abyss? And are the gates of death opened to you for fear, and did the gatekeepers of Hades shudder when they saw you?” For we shall read these words as if in a question, since the discourse is demonstrating the deeds accomplished C through Christ, and those things done in the very recesses of Hades. For to this end Christ died and lived, so that He might rule over both the dead and the living. And Cyrus, indeed, long ago gave money and commanded the temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt. But Emmanuel has founded the Church, the truly holy and celebrated city, overturning as if it were a Babylon, that proud and insolent idolatry. And concerning Cyrus, God says that “he shall perform all my will.” But our Savior, to the crowds of the Jews who despised Him, exclaimed somewhere: “You judge according to the flesh.” And elsewhere: “And if I judge, my judgment is true: because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.” And to Cyrus, God D said: “I have called you by my name.” But the Lord is truly Emmanuel, even if He appeared as a man. That the things said concerning Cyrus were placed as a type of the glory of Christ, what follows from the mouth of the prophet will clearly provide confirmation: “I have made the earth and man upon it. I have established the heaven with my hand, and have commanded all the stars. I have raised him up in righteousness, and all his ways are straight. He shall build my city, and he shall turn back the captivity of my people, not with price, nor with gifts, says the Lord of Sabaoth. Thus says the Lord: Egypt has labored, and the commerce of the Ethiopians, and the Sabaeans, men of stature, shall pass over to you, and they shall be your servants; and they shall follow behind you, bound in fetters, and they shall worship you, and they shall pray to you, because God is in you, and there is no God beside you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Savior. All those opposing Him shall be ashamed and put to shame, and they shall walk in confusion.” For He who made the earth and man upon it, He who adorned the heaven with stars, raised up for us righteousness, Jesus, who redeems freely: “For we have been justified by faith,” releasing from chains and captivity, building spiritually the intellectual Jerusalem, and founding the Church, which cannot be moved by the very gates of Hades, nor conquered by enemies. This
A God existing by nature those who once erred acknowledge, saying: "For You are our God, and we knew it not. And there is no God besides You." Him they will worship; to Him shall every knee bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Some of those who were of Israel have dared to oppose Him. But they have been put to shame and have fallen, and they have gone away in confusion according to the word of the prophet.
Now Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, founded the temple of God in Jerusalem as a type of Christ. But that Emmanuel Himself would accomplish this thing spiritually and intellectually, you may readily understand through another image. For after Cyrus delivered Israel from the Babylonian servitude, leaders were immediately designated as it were princes of the people: Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel, from the tribe of Judah, and Jesus, the son of Josedec, the high priest. When they had arrived in Jerusalem, God, through the voice of the prophet Haggai, commanded them to be diligent in the building of His house. For it is written thus: "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying: Speak to Zorobabel, son of Salathiel, of the tribe of Judah, and to Jesus, son of Josedec, the high priest, saying: Thus says the Lord Almighty: This people says: The time has not yet come to build the house of the Lord. And the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai B the prophet, saying: Is it time for you to dwell in your paneled houses, while the house of the Lord is desolate?" And after a few things, again: "And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zorobabel, son of Salathiel, of the tribe of Judah, and the spirit of Jesus, son of Josedec, the high priest, and the spirit of the rest of all the people. And they went in and did the work in the house of the Lord Almighty their God."
See, therefore, how in a double type and figure Emmanuel is expressed: as King, as in Zorobabel who was of the tribe of Judah, which at that time held authority in Israel; as High Priest, as in the one who was also named Jesus, the high priest; and indeed as the leader of the way into the holy city, from the land of foreigners—I mean, again, of the Babylonians. See also how he is the architect and curator of the holy temple. For we, following through faith Christ the leader as King and High Priest, enter from the diabolical tyranny—as if from the land of foreigners—and from worldly deceit into the holy city, the Church of the firstborn, which Christ Himself builds with spiritual C stones; which even Paul testifies, writing to those who are redeemed through faith and who wish to follow in the footprints of Christ: "In whom you also are built together into a dwelling place of Christ in the Spirit." But that the glory of the Church is far more illustrious than that of the first temple made of stones, He Himself declares through the voice of Haggai, saying: "Who among you saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now, as if it were nothing in your sight?" And a little later D again: "My
A silver is mine, and my gold is mine, saith the Lord Almighty, because the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord Almighty; and in this place I will give peace." And peace of soul B falls to the portion of everyone who builds to raise up this temple. One could collect without effort the things through which Christ was depicted to us by the ancients. But lest our discourse seem to depart from what is fitting through a multitude of examples, setting aside others for the moment, we say this: We must by all means choose one of two things. For we must either entirely do away with those through whom these things came to pass—stripping the types of their authority if they are to be considered as having been made through men like us, even though they contain divine things within them—or, if we say that the Spirit always takes on our form, we shall necessarily be forced to confess that the Spirit was at one time transformed into Cyrus, who did not know God. For it was said to him: "But you did not know me." If those things in the types are removed, Aaron will perhaps be considered a shadow; but Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and indeed also Jesus the son of Josedec the high priest, would possess nothing beyond empty and mere names.
C 7. But I think that those who are persuaded by the calculation of what is likely will the more readily agree correctly that Melchisedec was indeed a man, reigning over the city of Salem. Paul, that subtle and most acute investigator of spiritual contemplations, set him before us as a type of Christ. But those who oppose this, nevertheless say that Melchisedec was not a man, but rather the Holy Spirit, or perhaps some other supernal and heavenly power, endowed with priestly office. Such is the opinion of some who must be said to err in two ways, both in dragging down the divine and ineffable nature of the Holy Spirit to things that are in no way appropriate to it, and in foolishly elevating a created and made creature to a glory far superior to itself. I shall say in what way. It is written concerning Melchisedec that he was a "priest of God Most High." If, however, the Holy Spirit is Melchisedec, the Spirit is numbered among the priests and performs a priestly ministry. He will therefore also praise God Most High along with the holy angels. For it is written: "Bless the Lord, all his angels, his ministers, who do his will." For it D could not be unclear that whoever performs a sacred function for another person, and does not perform that sacred function for himself, performs it for God, who is superior. If, therefore, we say that the Spirit exercises the priesthood, he will necessarily be inferior to the divine nature and will be reckoned among created things, and he will worship along with us. And he will certainly not sanctify himself, since that which is sanctified is sanctified by something superior to what it is by its own nature. He will therefore be sanctified along with us. In what way then, will that which is sanctified be God by nature? For is not every priest who sanc-
sanctifies, and thus enters upon the administration of holy things? "For no man takes the honor to himself (as it is written), but he who is called by God, as was Aaron." A And Paul added, "So also Christ did not glorify himself to become a high priest, but he who said to him: 'You are my Son; today I have begotten you.' As he says also in another place: 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.'"
For it is necessary to know that not even the Son himself, the Word from God the Father, would be called a priest or be said to exist in a liturgical order, unless he were conceived of as having been made like us; and just as he is called a prophet and indeed an apostle because of his human nature, so too he is called a priest. For the forms of servitude, servile things, befit him: and this is the emptying. For he who was in the form and equality B of the Father, to whom the supernal Seraphim also attend, and whom thousands of thousands of angels serve, after he emptied himself, is then finally declared to be the priest of the holy things and of the true tabernacle. Then, too, he who surpasses every creature is sanctified with us: "For both he who sanctifies," he says, "and those who are sanctified are all from one. For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying: 'I will declare your name to my brothers.'" Since, therefore, God who sanctifies, when he was made man and dwelt among us, was also called brother according to his human nature, he is then also said to be sanctified with us.
To exercise the priesthood, therefore, and to be sanctified with us, befalls him through the flesh he assumed: and if we wish to think rightly, we attribute these things to his emptying. But if we say that the Holy Spirit, since he in no way emptied himself, exercised the priesthood, we deprive him of divine glory and rank him among things that are inferior to God, placing him among created beings; or let them show us that the Spirit assumed human nature and underwent the diminution ordained by divine counsel, just as the Son did. For because the holy and adorable Trinity is consubstantial, it does not therefore follow that the account of the incarnation is to be attributed to whichever person one might choose. For it was the Son alone who was made man, not the Father himself, nor the Holy Spirit. Thus have the divine Scriptures initiated us. C Why then do they wrench the truth and offer violence to it, and contend that the Holy Spirit—who had no occasion for emptying himself—was emptied, by including him among the number of priests? For Melchizedek was a priest. But they say that the Spirit was transformed by himself in honor of the Son, as a type of his future priesthood as it would be realized through the times. Therefore—for I will ask—did the Holy Spirit neglect his honor and love for the Son, and see fit to take little care of this matter? And yet, how would this not be vain to think and to say? For the Paraclete, that is, the Spirit, glorifies the Son. And of him he says: "He shall glorify me." He, therefore, who wishes to honor him, and that continually, why does he not
designate Aaron A himself? Or even Cyrus, the king of the Persians and Medes? And truly also Jesus, the son of Josedec, and indeed Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, of the tribe of Judah, or even Moses, to whom the Word, pointing toward the mediation or intercession of Christ in his own person, spoke: "I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them as I shall command him." Why then was not Jesus, the son of Nave, also made this—he who was the leader after Moses, who led the children of Israel across the Jordan, and circumcised them with knives of stone, and brought them into the land of promise? For have we not been baptized in Christ, and circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, through the Spirit, and have we become heirs of the kingdom of heaven? And how, therefore, is this not manifest? If, therefore, we shall posit the Spirit as being always fashioned and as if dwelling in each one of those whom we have mentioned, that he might honor the Son, it will truly be said that he had a trivial adornment, inasmuch as he would have inserted himself into the type and likeness of the Son. Away, therefore, with this absurdity of thought. Melchisedec, then, was a man, not the Holy Spirit. B
8. But that he should not be thought to be a holy and ministerial power, as some seem to think, come let us speak, collecting those things which are from probable reasoning for the demonstration of the truth. For they hold a certain opinion, as they think, wise and consistent in itself. For they say: since it is written concerning Melchisedec that he was without father and without mother, and further that he was without genealogy, yet he blessed Abraham, who was of such great stature; and "that which is less is blessed by the greater and more excellent, without any controversy," therefore let it not be thought, according to us, that he was a man, but let him be in his nature an angel, or one of the revered and glorious C supernal and ministerial powers. But I, beloved, marvel greatly if perhaps a certain piety and reverence toward the illustrious Abraham has led them astray and torn them away from the thoughts necessary for attaining the truth. For when they set forth Melchisedec as a likeness and type of Emmanuel, they do not consider the quality of the things, nor do they examine the mode of the priesthood, but rather they inquire into the natures of those to whom that kind of office was granted. For what, one might rightly say to them, would stand in the way of Abraham being blessed by Melchisedec, as by a man, even if we do not believe him to be greater than the former? For it is not the natures that are judged in these things, but rather the mind of the things being done, and the words of truth are judged to be more excellent than the figures of those things which exist in shadows. For that it is most absurd not to weigh the things signified against the shadows, but rather to examine the natures of those brought D into the midst, can be understood even from this. For Aaron was chosen, and was the prefect and leader of the holy tabernacle, arrayed with supreme priestly dignity;
A how, then, was he sanctified? Was not a ram sacrificed, and the extremity of his right ear, and of his hand, and of his foot, anointed with the blood, and was he thus initiated into the priesthood? But I would say to such men: if it is good to cleave to the natures of those who sanctify and those who are sanctified, and not rather, as if from a type and shadow, to approach the very beauty of the truth, how is it that the lesser is still blessed by the greater? What is better in these matters, let them say. Shall we set Aaron behind the ram? In an irrational animal is the rational creature brought to perfection. We shall say that the one chosen for the priesthood was sanctified by the blood of sheep, and that the ashes of the heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctifies them unto the purity of the flesh. What then is the matter? What is the depth of these meanings? The things done were types and images, and, if I may so speak, a pre-manifestation of the sanctification through Christ. But the type is discovered in objects, not in the nature of those who sanctify or those who are sanctified. Since, as I said just now, the greater is blessed by the lesser, if indeed the nature of man is better than that of the heifer and the ram. Let them not, therefore, be ashamed, even if Abraham, being much more powerful and better than Melchizedek, is said to be blessed by him. For it was the type that was prevailing, not the nature of the one blessing. I am astonished, moreover, that while they establish him as a likeness and type of the Son, they contend that he is without mother and without father, like an angel, even though Christ in a certain way flourishes with both parents. For His mother on earth was the holy Virgin, and there was and is for Him in heaven a Father, God. But I think that images ought to be painted according to their archetypes. Since, however, the divine Paul said, regarding Melchizedek, 9 "Having neither beginning of days, nor end of life," they therefore contend that he exists as a rational and priestly power; not understanding that they are overlooking something of necessity. For nothing of those things that exist among created beings shall be without beginning in terms of time; but whatever has received essence into the universe, this also has a beginning of life and of days. What, then, was the scope of the blessed Paul in his discourse? Or in what way did he put forward Melchizedek C as "into a likeness and type of Christ"? Putting away, then, the mind from such vain notions, come, let us examine, and as far as possible, let us speak.
9. Paul, therefore, being highly learned in the law, did not conduct his argument with the Jews from simple reasonings, but from the Mosaic writings, to which it was likely that even those who had known how to war against the truth would unwillingly yield. He establishes, therefore, Melchizedek as a likeness and type of Christ, D for the reason that he is said to be "king of righteousness, and moreover, of peace." For this befits Christ, the Emmanuel, alone by mystical reasoning. For He was manifested to mortals as the author and bestower of righteousness and peace. For "having been justified by Him," we have cast off the yoke of sin. We have also attained peace toward the Father.
We have also obtained the peace which is toward the Father A and God, having washed away the defilement of our manner of life—the defilement which stood between and separated us—and being united to Him in a certain way through the Spirit. For "he who is joined to the Lord," the same Apostle says, "is one spirit." Therefore, according to the Greek tongue, *Melchi* means "king," and *Sedec* "justice." And one might see how Melchisedec, in his very name, possesses in accordance with the force of what is signified, the title "king of justice." And in that he was called "king of Salem," [he is] "king of peace." The divine Paul therefore fittingly adapted these things, as being a clear and manifest likeness of Melchisedec, to Christ. He accepts that blessing bestowed upon Abraham, and the offering of wine and bread, as a symbol or figure of a priesthood more excellent than the legal one. For we are blessed in no other way than by Christ, the great and true priest. But we are blessed in the manner of the divine Abraham, having most strongly fought against the rulers of this age, showing ourselves superior to our enemies and in need of nothing that is in the world, but rather B counting as riches those things which are of God and the glorious and unfading distribution of gifts from above. For observe that Melchisedec blessed the victorious Abraham, as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings, as it is written, and refusing to accept anything from the prince of Sodom for his own possession. For the ruler of the Sodomites said to the victorious Abraham: "Give me the men, but take the livestock for yourself." But he, having determined to claim nothing of his, said: "I will lift up my hand to the Most High God, who created heaven and earth, if I take from a thread even to a shoelatchet of all that is yours, that you may not say: 'I made Abraham rich.'" For it is not the custom of the saints to delight in worldly wealth. Having therefore conquered visible and invisible enemies and accepting nothing from the world, but rather honoring the wealth from above, we are blessed through Christ, the King of peace. We are blessed, receiving the mystical and secret things as a gift of heaven and as a provision for life. Let it be silent for now, if it seems good; we are blessed by Christ also through intercessions for us C to the Father. For Melchisedec blessed Abraham, saying thus: "Blessed be the Most High God, who has given your enemies into your hands." But our Lord Jesus Christ, the propitiation for us all, says: "Holy Father, keep them in your truth." Therefore, he also draws from the interpretation of the names what is useful for the prefiguring of Christ. And he made the very mode of his priesthood manifest as a demonstration of the matter. "For Melchisedec brought out bread and wine." But that Melchisedec was without father or mother, or was without genealogy, or had no beginning of days or end of life, the holy Scripture nowhere states. Someone might perhaps say, therefore: "Then the divine Paul is a deceiver." We do not say this; far from it! For he speaks the D truth.
A Rather, the divinely inspired and artful interpreter of the sacred mysteries deems that this narrative is also an economic type of the glory of Emmanuel. For the holy Scripture declares to us that Melchizedek was a priest, but it does not record his lineage, nor say from what father or mother he was born; nor do you find it narrating how many years he reached, or what sort of successions his priesthood had. Therefore, the account of these things depicts for us in a figurative way the perpetuity and lack of beginning in Christ, as He is God. By "lack of beginning," I mean that which pertains to quantity—that is, according to time. For He Himself is the Maker of the ages. It also further indicates the never-ending nature of his priesthood. For this reason, the blessed Paul says regarding Melchizedek: B "having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like to the Son of God, he remains a priest forever." It appears that he intended to signify yet another wise point, and I shall attempt to explain what this is, as best I can.
10. The Jews opposed the preaching concerning Christ and dared almost to scoff at the apostolic zeal, presenting these two points: first, that it was impossible for the commandment prescribed to the fathers by the mouth of the all-wise Moses to be made void, or for the Law to be abrogated by the introduction of a new way of life hitherto unknown to any of the ancients; and second, that C they insisted that the glory of the priesthood should not be removed from the chosen tribe—that is, from the tribe of Levi—because God everywhere keeps those who are not of it away from the ministry of the temple, and immediately inflicts the ultimate penalty upon those who act with such temerity. Paul, therefore, being an expert in the Law, strives and attempts to establish with plausible arguments, and indeed from the inspired Scripture itself, that both the renewal of the Law and the transfer of the priesthood had been foretold, and that the meaning of both had been prefigured in these types. He accepts that Melchizedek was not of the Levitical tribe, and then shows that he was a priest of the Most High God, offering bread and wine, D and he speaks thus concerning him: "Consider how great this man is, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. And those who indeed receive the priesthood of the sons of Levi have a commandment to take tithes from the people according to the Law, that is, from their brothers, though they too have come out of the loins of Abraham. But he whose generation is not numbered among them took tithes from Abraham, and blessed him who had the promises. And without any contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the better." We say, therefore, that this excellence was not in the nature of Melchizedek, but in the manner of his priesthood; and the patriarch Abraham did not refuse, but attributed preeminence to him, and for that reason showed him honor by the offering of tithes. For those who are of the blood of Levi take tithes from the people, even though they are their brethren; but he whose generation is not numbered with them, that is, Melchizedek (for he was not of the...
A tribe of Levi), tithed Abraham and blessed him. And the type consists in these things. But Christ, who was signified in the shadows, whose generation is not numbered with those who were appointed for the priestly office according to the law (for He is sprung from the tribe of Judah, concerning which Moses spoke nothing about priests), has tithed the sons of Levi, that is, the priesthood according to the law. He tithed them long ago in Melchizedek, and later also in Aaron. For He Himself also tithed the sons of Levi, bearing before Him the type of Christ, as we have already said.
11. Therefore, it is demonstrated in the case of Melchizedek that the office of the priesthood must at some point be transferred from the tribe that exercises priesthood according to the law; and indeed, that another manner and law of priestly service will shine forth. For there was a necessity B that the law itself should also be transferred and changed along with the priesthoods. Therefore, the divine Paul also philosophizes on these matters, saying: "If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being translated, there is made of necessity a translation also of the law." C And again: "And it is yet far more evident if, after the similitude of Melchizedek, there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For He testifieth: Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." D You see how he condemns the legal priesthood, inasmuch as it is able to perfect nothing, while he demonstrates the introduction of a better commandment to be most useful. For if, he says, there were usefulness in that one, why is another priest demonstrated to be needed after the order of Aaron, and not rather after the order of Melchizedek, who was a likeness and type of Christ, who does not indeed administer the priesthood carnally, but rather according to the power of an endless life? For He nourishes us unto unfading life by the mystical priestly services, even though Aaron discharges the priesthood carnally. For the slaughter of oxen was exercised through him, and the immolation of sheep, and the ashes of heifers sprinkling those who participated for the purification of the flesh; and other things besides these, not perfecting those who worship according to the conscience. "For it is impossible that the blood of bulls should take away sins." When, therefore, another mode of sacrifice has been introduced to us, leading away from the first and more ancient customs, there is also, by all means, another priest. And if God has proclaimed a new testament, having made old the first, the priest after the order of Melchizedek—concerning whom it should be understood that he is to be forever—could be none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS, BOOK III
A Concerning Abraham, and the promise through Isaac, and that the mystery of faith was prefigured by them.1. The divine Paul writes that Christ became the High Priest and Apostle of our confession; and indeed he clearly affirms that He has introduced to us an evangelical covenant, which is incomparably better and more excellent than the ancient and Mosaic commandment, and that He has become the guarantor of a better covenant. And the word is true; since the law works wrath and is a pointer to sin, but grace, administered by the kindness of our Savior, justifies us. For as He Himself says somewhere, He did not come to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Now, that even if He was not born according to the flesh from the tribe of Levi, He is nonetheless called and is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, has been demonstrated by us sufficiently. But that the mystery of justification B by faith has an origin older than the circumcision in the law, and that this type was proclaimed in figure to those from Israel—that they could never be saved in any other way than through Christ alone, who justifies the ungodly and forgives sins—and furthermore, that those who are of the promise made in Isaac to blessed Abraham are to be reckoned as heirs of God and among His most legitimate sons; come, let us speak, taking our proofs from the sacred Scriptures themselves and seeking an accurate demonstration of each thing.
2. Therefore, the most holy Paul writes to the Romans: "What then shall we say that Abraham, our father, found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works of the law, he has glory, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now, to him who works, the wage is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt. But to him who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, according to the purpose of the grace of God. Just as David also speaks the beatitude of the man to whom God credits justice without works: Blessed are those whose iniquities were forgiven, and whose sins were covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not account sin." This blessedness, therefore, is upon the circumcision, or also upon
A the uncircumcision? We say, for that Abraham’s faith was credited as righteousness. How then was it credited? Being in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, he says, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith that is in uncircumcision, so that he might be the father of all those who believe through uncircumcision, for it to be credited to them as righteousness, and father of circumcision not to those who are of circumcision only, but also to those who follow the footprints of the faith that is in the uncircumcision of our father Abraham.
And in addition to these, he makes B the testing of the mystery yet more subtle. Thus he says: "For the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. For the law worketh wrath. For where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations), before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were."
You hear how, up and down, he asserts and says, and that most keenly, that it was to Abraham, while not yet circumcised, but still having uncircumcision, that the grace justifying him through faith was given, and that those who seek to follow the footprints of the faith of the patriarch Abraham in uncircumcision are declared heirs of the gifts from God. C And they will not boast in the Mosaical shadows, nor will they vaunt a carnal father Abraham, who has been named "father of many nations," although Israel is a single nation, even if it might perchance be extended into an immeasurable multitude, for he has become the father of the faithful, who are gathered from all, so to speak, cities and regions, and have become fellow-members in Christ, and have been called into a spiritual fraternity. For the Jews were indeed born of Abraham. But not all who are of Israel are Israel. Nor, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all to be reckoned his children. But faith makes those who believed in uncircumcision D more intimate with him. For the promise was made, and the justifying grace was given, when Abraham as yet did not have circumcision, but was rather in uncircumcision, at least according to the faith of the holy Scriptures.
3. That the gift of the righteousness which is by faith would not extend only to Abraham, even if the promise was made in him, but has, as it were, spread out to all who have believed, the most wise Paul again confirms for us, adding to what I just said: "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was credited to him for righteousness; but for us also, to whom it shall be credited if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered
A for our transgressions, and was raised for our justification (Rom. IV, 25). Therefore, the gift of divine kindness, from above, a gift that is both heavenly and justifies us through faith, does not merely encompass those who are sons of Abraham born of him according to the flesh, but also those who have acquired a character and brotherly spirit similar to his, and who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ. These, too, shall be heirs of the gifts from God, now that the Israel according to the flesh has been cast aside because of unbelief. This was prefigured, and indeed very clearly, for us in the mystery regarding Isaac. But come, let us speak as much as possible, bringing forward the very writings of Moses for information. They run as follows: «And after these words», it says, «the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, saying: Fear not, Abraham, I will shield thee. Thy reward shall be very great. And Abraham said: Lord, what wilt thou give me? I am being dismissed childless. But the son of Masec, my home-born slave, this Damascus Eliezer. And Abraham said: Since thou hast not given me seed, my home-born slave shall inherit from me. And immediately the voice of the Lord came to him, saying: He shall not inherit from thee, but he who shall come out of thee, he shall inherit from thee. And he brought him outside and said to him: Look up now into heaven, and number the stars, if thou canst count them. And he said: So shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness» (Gen. XV, 1-6). For the blessed B Sarah (whose name is interpreted as "princess"), a woman most excellent in beauty and very comely, was joined to him and shared his hearth; for thus the holy Scripture has testified. But the home-born slave, Hagar (her name being interpreted as "sojourning"), followed, serving as it were as a secondary and illegitimate wife. Now Sarah, having never yet experienced the labor pains of legitimate children, lamented her childlessness. But Hagar bore Ishmael. Now, with matters of history standing thus, God spoke to Abraham, saying: «I will shield thee, thy reward shall be very great.» And he, what does he say to these things? «Lord, what wilt thou give me? I am being dismissed childless; but the son of Masec, my home-born slave, this Damascus Eliezer.» Observe the precision of the discourse. «What wilt thou give me, O Lord?» he says. Do you perceive how by no means does he say that he has any need at all of earthly possessions, but even if it were to come to pass that he possessed far more, he declares that he would find no joy in them, unless he has a legitimate heir, truly a son born of a free marriage? Observe also how, in order to know clearly what is useful, nature is led spontaneously and without written laws. For although he had a son, I mean Ishmael, the divine Abraham called himself childless. Nature, therefore, knows indeed very clearly that no one could justly be called a son at all who is born of spurious and illegitimate unions. D «For he shall not give root into the depth,» as it is written (Sap. IV, 3). And that, even if to some a son is born of a maidservant, it is a cold and vain thing, and not to be ascribed to free delight, he shows by saying: «But the son of Masec, my home-born slave, this Damascus Eliezer.» This
A means: The one born of the home-born slave shall henceforth be to me a consolation of blood. For this is what “Damascus” is. And it shall be reckoned also for help and succor from God. For this again is what “Eliezer” is. It is therefore similar to as if he were to say clearly: Instead of a legitimate blood-relation and the love that is due to it, the consolation of blood and the help from God, will necessarily become my home-born slave; and he will be my heir. «What then will you give me?» If I do not have a legitimate heir to succeed me, Abraham will be altogether contemptible in every way, O Lord. For he departs childless of true children and those born of a free woman. But God did not allow the righteous man to grieve for long. For He immediately promised offspring in Isaac, which He also said would be equal to the uncounted multitude of the stars. And He confirmed that he would be called the father of countless nations, even if he had been struck with the fear of childlessness. B «And Abraham believed God,» he says, «and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.» Righteousness, therefore, is the prize for one who honors the Lord of all by faith. For through this he has testified that He is able to bring all things to fulfillment; but the faithless and neglectful man will be arrogant and insolent. For this reason, therefore, he will eventually fall under both judgment and reasoning. «Abraham, therefore, believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.» But he asks for a sign as well for the confirmation and truth of the things that, as they will be, have been promised. Then God, in His dispensation, allows this so as not to allow the one who has believed to be troubled toward double-mindedness. For it is written thus: «And He said to him: I am the God who led you out of the land of the Chaldeans, in order to give you this land to inherit it. But he said: Dominator Lord, by what shall I know that I will inherit it? And He said to him: Take for me a heifer of three years, and a goat of three years, and a ram of three years, and a turtledove and a pigeon. And he took all these things for himself, and he divided them in the middle, and he placed them opposite each other. But he did not divide the birds. And the birds descended C upon the bodies, upon their divisions, and Abraham sat with them. And about the setting of the sun, a trance fell upon Abraham, and behold, a great dark fear falls upon him. And it was said to Abraham: Knowing you shall know, that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not its own, and they will subject them to servitude, and they will afflict them, and they will humiliate them for four hundred years. But the nation to which they may serve, I will judge. And after these things they will go out from here with much baggage. But you shall go to your fathers with peace, buried in a good old age. And in the fourth generation they shall return here. For the sins of the Amorites have not yet been completed until now. And after the sun had reached the setting, a flame was made. And behold a smoking furnace, and torches of fire, which passed through the midst of these divisions.» D As for what the reason is for the things that have been done, the diligent will consider it, and they will accurately inquire into the mode of the oath, asking what the pieces or divisions signify, and what the flight of the birds and the rushes toward them mean, and what it is that Abraham sits with them, and what the flame passing through the midst of the divisions means. Let us therefore explain.
A 4. Among the Chaldeans, the practice of an oath was fulfilled by passing through the midst of the animals that had been cut into two parts, saying in a certain way by the very act itself, in this manner: "May it not befall me as it has these." Since Abraham was a Chaldean by birth and had recently departed from his native land, the Lord of all, in his wise administration, commanded him to use the customary manner of a covenant, elegantly weaving into the things sacrificed the mystery of Christ. When the pieces were laid out on the ground and God was about to pass through the midst, He says, "Many birds swooped down upon them, and Abraham sat with them." That is, he watched over them, guarding them so that no harm might come to them, and so that the things brought for the need of the oath might not become food and prey for the unclean birds. But, he says, "at the setting of the sun, an ecstasy and fear fell upon Abraham." B And what might one consider the reason for this again? I would say as much as I am able. It was a custom among the Chaldeans, and one held in good and entirely blameless esteem, to observe with precision the flights of birds. Therefore, the God of all, in his wise administration, allowed it, so that from those things that were a custom for some to observe, they might be instructed about future events. When, therefore, the birds had gathered upon the dismembered bodies, the divine Abraham was terrified, having perhaps pondered then to whom or upon whom this sign would befall. For it seemed base, and not merely something outside his concern, that the most abominable birds should fly down upon the sacrifices. For those birds that are accustomed to eating flesh are always in some way unclean. C But when he feared for his own life, lest perhaps the thing should reach him as well, He frees him from the anxiety he felt on this account. "For," He says, "the things that you fear will not come upon you. But knowing you shall know that your seed will be a sojourner in a foreign land." And many will be those who very much wish to do evil, of whom the birds flying down upon the sacrifices lying out were a type. Nevertheless, having caused little harm, they will pay the penalty. "But you shall depart to your fathers, having been nurtured in a good old age." Then He says that when the sun was already at its very setting, "a flame of fire, and a furnace, and torches passed through the midst of the divisions." D And the Divinity is again understood in the form of fire, in accordance with the custom of the Chaldeans, fulfilling the oath. Therefore, even the divine Paul receives this matter as having the force of an oath, and says: "For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself, saying: Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men swear by the greater, and the oath is for them an end of all controversy, for confirmation. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of His counsel, interposed an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to hold fast the hope set before us."
A God therefore made the promise most economically, even though He knows not how to lie, so that, as the divine Paul writes, we might have strong consolation, being no longer in doubt that it will by all means and in every way be brought to its end. B Therefore—for I shall bring the discourse back a little; while Hagar was still pregnant with Ishmael, Sarah was distressed, unable to bear, perhaps, the maidservant’s arrogance regarding her fertility and her no small haughtiness. Then she drives her from the house and ordered her to go wherever she might wish, her legal husband—I mean Abraham—having permitted her to do this. But as the sacred Scripture says, “The angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the desert, on the way to Shur. And the angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Hagar, servant of Sarah, where do you come from and where are you going?’ And she said, ‘I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarah.’ The angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands.’” And Hagar returned and took up the yoke of slavery.
And God was now ordaining circumcision for Abraham, saying, “You shall keep My covenant, you and your seed after you in their generations. And this is the covenant which you shall keep between Me and you, and between your seed in their generations: every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between Me and you. And the eight-day-old child among you shall be circumcised, every male in your generations. The homeborn and the bought from any foreign son who is not of your seed shall be circumcised by circumcision, the homeborn of your house and the bought. And My covenant shall be upon your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul shall be destroyed from his race, because he has broken My covenant.” C Since it was necessary to obey the divine laws, the divine Abraham was circumcised with his whole household. And he also circumcised Ishmael at the same time as the others. Finally, the son of the free woman was born, that is, Isaac. And what followed? The bastard son, Ishmael, playing in the household, was no longer tolerable, as he was perhaps being honored equally with Isaac. “For Sarah saw,” it says, “the son of Hagar the Egyptian, who was born to Abraham, playing with Isaac her son.” Then she comes forward weeping, as is likely, and saying, “Cast out this maidservant and her son. For the son of this maidservant shall not inherit with my son Isaac.” D But it says the word seemed very harsh to Abraham regarding his son. And God said to Abraham, “Let not the word be harsh before you regarding the boy and regarding the maidservant. All that Sarah may say to you, hear her voice, because in Isaac shall seed be called for you; but I will also make the son of the maidservant into a great nation, because he is your seed.” Abraham rose early, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, and placed the boy upon her shoulders, and sent her away. And going away...
A she wandered in the wilderness, near the well of the Oath. But the water in the skin failed, and she cast the boy under one of the fir trees. And going away, she sat opposite him at a distance, as if a bowshot away. For she said, “I shall not see the death of my child,” and she sat opposite him. The boy cried out and wept. But God heard the voice of the boy from the place where he was. And the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What is it, Hagar? Do not fear; for God has heard the voice of your child from the place where he is. Rise and take the boy, and hold him with your hand.” And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of living water, and she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy, and he grew. Now the divine Abraham, being overcome by the laws of paternal affection, was concerned for Ishmael. But since the divine oracle commanded him to apply himself only to Isaac, as the promise pertained to him, he dismissed Hagar, and ordered her to depart from the master’s house along with the infant, the mystery concerning Christ being foreshadowed by this legal type.
6. Let us indeed speak of this, B necessary to bring the discourse back to the beginning. For one could represent it very concisely, that the things which are through Christ are older than those in the Law; and that the justification by faith has an older manifestation than the circumcision in the flesh. For the circumcision was given to Abraham as a sign of the faith in uncircumcision, according to the voice of the most wise Paul. The blessed Abraham was therefore grieved that he had not become the father of a free child. And having a son from the Egyptian—I mean from Hagar—he remained most despondent, regarding the illegitimate and not free seed as equal to childlessness. Yet after he received the promises concerning the legitimate child, I mean Isaac, C and heard clearly that he would be the father of ten thousand and of countless nations through him, he was justified by believing. And that he would also take possession of the land shown to him by God—“For I will give this land to you,” He said—he begged to be made certain, saying, “Master, by what shall I know that I will inherit it?” For this reason God ordered him to take the divided animals: a heifer of three years, and a goat, and a ram, and a turtledove and a pigeon. And Abraham divided the four-footed animals of these and placed them opposite one another, that is, he arranged them in rows. But he did not divide the birds. And he drove away the birds that wanted to devour them. And when the sun was already setting D towards the evening, God passed through the divided parts in the form of a fire. What spiritual reason or sense, then, should be applied to such things, let us say as far as we are able.
7. For the one according to the flesh, Israel, became a firstborn as it were to the God of all. “For the Son,” he says,
A “is my firstborn Israel” (Exod. iv, 22). Yet, as having been redeemed from a slave woman and from Egypt, God did not deem him worthy to be numbered among the legitimate children (for nature is free, and loves what is legitimate); but he sought rather the people who would please him, that is, those who are through faith in Christ according to the promise, in whom Abraham also became a father of many nations. For posterity have inherited the glory regarding this, not in Israel according to the flesh, but in those among the nations who have been saved through faith. And Paul will testify, writing: “For the promise to Abraham, that he should be heir of the world, was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom. iv, 13). For we ascribe to ourselves Abraham as father, we who have believed in uncircumcision, and are justified by God according to his likeness. Paul, being learned in the law, clarifies this divine mystery for us most emphatically. For he writes to the Galatians in this way, after they had been initiated into Christ, rebuking those who were turning back: “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. But he who was of the slave woman was born according to the flesh; B but he who was of the free woman, through the promise. Which things are allegorized. For these are the two covenants: one indeed from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery, which is Hagar. For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, and it corresponds to the Jerusalem that now is, for she serves with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother. For it is written: Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who do not travail; for many more are the children of the desolate one, than of her who has a husband. Now we, brothers, are children of the promise according to Isaac. But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was according to the spirit, so also now. But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. We, however, brothers, are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman, with the freedom by which Christ has set us free. Stand fast therefore, and do not be held again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. iv, 21–31). C You understand, therefore, how clearly he says that Hagar and Sarah are types of the two covenants. And he compares the little maidservant to the mother of the Jews, that is, to the earthly Jerusalem; inasmuch as she is subject to the laws of slavery, and is not endowed with a free spirit. But the first and the free one, I mean Sarah (whose name is for that reason interpreted as "lady"), he declares to bear the type of that sublime and heavenly Jerusalem, and asserts clearly that she has become the mother of those who are justified through faith, and are called from the promise of God, to be children of Abraham. “For we,” he says, “are children of the promise according to Isaac” (Rom. ix, 8; Gal. iv, 28). For we have been set free in Christ, through whom and in whom, obtaining the divine and heavenly Spirit from above, we have been ranked among the children of God, and we cry, “Abba, Father,” and have become heirs of the goods D which have been promised to the saints, swearing not only by himself
A but also, as it were, God has sworn by himself. For the Son was taken as an oath of the Father, or rather the mystery concerning him. For it is customary for the Father to swear by his own power, namely the Son, and this is to swear by oneself. Since the Son is not other than he, I say, according to the account of the essence and the identity of the Godhead. And so, the inspired Moses, when he shows us God swearing, introduces him saying quite clearly, “For I lift up my hand to heaven, and I swear by my right hand.” For the right hand of God and the Father is the Son, through whom he rules all things, and is, as it were, the power of everything, and works in a God-befitting way, calling into existence things that are not, and distributing well-being to those that have already received existence. Therefore, since the mystery of our Savior was taken up as in a need for an oath confirming the faith of the heirs of the promise, Christ was depicted rather through a heifer, and furthermore through a goat and a ram, and as in two birds, I mean the turtledove and the pigeon. And I will explain, as far as I am able, what the reason for this B is.
8. For sometimes, on account of his immense strength and insuperable might—namely, the divine, he is compared to a calf; but sometimes, because of his humanity, and because he was made under the law, he is called a heifer. For the female is always less and inferior to the male, as being superior and more excellent. For the Son exceeds the entire creation and surpasses the nature and glory of created things with incomparable superiority, having as his root the most high, I mean the Father of all and God. But since he was born for our sake, he was reckoned under the law as one who is our leader. Therefore he also said, “I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.” We will attribute this, too, to the measures of his emptying, if we choose to think rightly. For this reason Christ is called a heifer, as fulfilling the figure of the law of Moses, or rather the law defined through him. But he is also likened to a goat. For what reason? Because he offered himself for our sins according to the Scriptures. Now, a goat in the law is a sacrifice for sin. But he is also compared to a ram, because he is the leader of the rational flock. For Christ is our one leader, and we are indeed the “people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand,” as it is written. But after he was made like his brothers in all things, that is to us, C lowering himself to an emptying, he is described, indeed, as a ram, but understood as leader. For rams are always those that stand at the head of the herd. Therefore the same is a heifer, because he is under the law, and also as a goat, an offering for sin; and furthermore a ram, as leader. Desiring to stand in his footsteps, and striving, “we shall be established in good pastures, and in a rich place,” according to the voice of the prophet, and we shall dwell in the sacred folds. For he himself shall lead us into the heavenly mansions, being both ram and chief shepherd, and as one D of us under the law, and above the law, as God himself is all justification, “though he was counted among the wicked,” and for our
A sake he endured the slaughter. He is also shaped as in a turtledove and a pigeon. For he himself is the only spiritual and most resonant turtledove, a truly harmonious bird, which sounds out throughout the whole world from heaven and from above with evangelical preachings; to whom the bride herself, that is, the Church from the Gentiles, has called out, saying: “Show me your face, and let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is beautiful.” He is also the same simple and guileless pigeon, having no guile. For “no guile was found in his mouth,” as it is written. The heifer, moreover, is three years old, as are the other animals. For the Lord is altogether perfect, the age of the animals clearly indicating the perfection of the Godhead in the Only-begotten. B And the animals are laid out, for they have been divided. But the pair of birds remained undivided. And what is the meaning of this? For indeed the Only-begotten Word of God became flesh, and is in a certain way divided, and the discourse concerning him is broadened into a double contemplation. For sometimes we understand his divine and ineffable generation from the Father; yet at other times we speak of the mystery of his incarnation, laying out and unfolding the deep design of the dispensation, as it were, for the understanding of those who do not know it. But even if the discourse concerning him has in a way become twofold, yet he is altogether one, and is not divided in two after the union with the flesh. Nor is he cut into a duality of sons; for Christ is one and indivisible. A clear type of this also might be the undivided state of the birds; for it says, “The birds, however, he did not divide.” And he was signified as being of the earth on account of his humanity, as in the calf, and indeed in the goat and the ram. But he is understood again as being from heaven and from above, because he is God, through the birds. And that, although he underwent a voluntary C death for us, “his flesh did not see corruption,” according to the Scripture: and that, according to the voice of the Psalmist, “The enemy will not be helped in him, and the son of iniquity will not add to harm him.” The divine Abraham would show this very clearly again in a type, by warding off the birds that wished to spoil the carcasses of the dismembered animals. When the affliction that was to happen in time in Egypt against those from his blood, that is, against Israel, and his wondrous redemption, had been announced to Abraham, he says, “At the setting of the sun, a smoking furnace and lamps of fire passed through the midst of the divisions.” For the law through Moses shone forth before those who are of the promise, containing long narratives for the hearers concerning the slavery of the Israelites and their redemption. But in the final times of the age, and as it were toward evening, “The Word became flesh.” For this, I think, signifies—and nothing else—that, as in the likeness
of A fire, the divine and ineffable nature is seen to reach out to cut through the divisions. “For there was,” he says, “a flame of fire, and a furnace of fire, and lamps of fire.” For the holy mystery of the incarnation has truly become for those who have chosen to be disobedient and who have turned away toward their own destruction, a furnace, and a flame, and the intolerable and final judgment of all. And indeed, concerning those from Israel who foolishly insulted the mystery of Christ and were found to be ill-minded and arrogant, David says to the Father of all and God: “You shall make them as a furnace of fire in the time of your countenance, O Lord; in your wrath you will trouble them, and fire shall devour them.” But the time of the countenance of the Father may rightly be understood as the time of the incarnation, since the Son is both the countenance and the image of God and the Father. Therefore, a wild flame and a furnace remain for those who wish to reject the mystery of the incarnation of the Only-Begotten. But for those who have acknowledged his appearing, as it is written, it is “a lamp shining in darkness,” B dissipating the density of the devilish mist and not allowing the multitude of those who worship Him to be offended by the scandals that present themselves in the midst. Thus God and Father named the Son for us also through the voice of Isaiah, saying: “For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until my righteousness go forth as light. And my salvation shall burn like lamps.” For the Son has become for us salvation and righteousness from God and the Father, if indeed it is true that we are justified in Him, and, overcoming death which long ago reigned over us, we are transferred back to incorruption and are reformed into that which nature was at the beginning.
9. That it was necessary, now that Immanuel had appeared C and His mystery had been shown to the world, for the types of the Mosaic worship to be subjected and to yield to the evangelical teachings, as being a superior and more perfect commandment, it was again foreshadowed as in a crude type.
And who this is, I will say. For when Sarah was barren, but Hagar had borne Ishmael, she became elated and contumacious against the free woman. Sarah, however, took the contumacy and arrogance of that woman very ill, and she afflicted the Egyptian. But she fled from the house and wandered through the wilderness. And an angel from heaven asked her where she was going and whence she came. She answered: “I am fleeing from the face of Sarah my mistress.” What, then, does the divine angel say? “Return,” he says, “to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hands.” For the former revealed the legal discipline bringing forth Israel. But D because she was a bondwoman (for the free spirit was not in her), she well-nigh gestated the carnal "Egyptian" people prior to the new and evangelical discipline. Therefore she was puffed up in mind, and she persecuted the Christians, and lifting high her eyebrows against the evangelical precepts, she was found out in many ways. For the Synagogue of the Jews rebuked the holy apostles, saying openly: “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.” You see in what way she insults Sarah’s Egyptto teach in this name, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.” You see in what way the Egyptian woman exalts herself against Sarah, and the handmaid shows boldness toward the free woman. A Yet she was overcome by time, and she flees, in a way paying the penalty for her own contumacy. She is warned, however, by the voice of the angel, not to despise the free woman—that is, the discipline calling one to the dignity of freedom—but rather to be humbled under her hand. For legal worship, proceeding by way of figures and types, in a way serves the evangelical teachings, displaying before itself a certain obscure beauty of the truth. Therefore, the old law of Moses was given through angels, and by the voice of an angel it is commanded that it must, so to speak, bow its neck to the precepts promulgated through Christ, and be subjected to the free woman, even if it is unwilling to yield. For this, I think, is what it means in a spiritual sense for Hagar to be under the hand of Sarah. It is necessary to remember that the divine Paul set them forth as an example of the two testaments, the one bearing children into slavery, and being akin to the Jerusalem that now is; but the other, I mean Sarah, into the dignity of freedom. B That, once Christ had appeared, the time for circumcision in the spirit would rise with Him, the blessed Abraham was clearly taught. For God was ordaining the law that circumcision must be fulfilled, prefiguring spiritual things, I think, through carnal examples. “For every male,” He says, “shall be circumcised.” And he meted out destruction and perdition as the penalty to those negligent in this; for He said that the uncircumcised male, who shall not have his flesh of his foreskin circumcised on the eighth day, that soul shall be cut off from his generation because he has broken My covenant. You see that circumcision in the flesh was shown beforehand, as it were, as a type of circumcision in spirit and truth. For it is performed on the eighth day, on which Christ rose from the dead. And it was already the time for us to become partakers of the Holy Spirit, C and to receive in Him the circumcision which would not afflict the flesh, but would cleanse the spirit, and which would not deliver us from bodily filth, but would dissolve the diseases of the soul. For when Christ rose from the dead, having abolished the power of death, then at last He breathed into the disciples, as it were, some first-fruits of the Holy Spirit. For He breathed upon them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The most wise John also agrees with this statement, saying: “For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” For He was indeed glorified when He rose from the dead on the eighth day. Therefore, the Spirit was also brought upon us, and in Him we have been circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, but spiritual. For this manner of circumcision is pleasing to God. D Indeed, the divine Paul says elsewhere thus: “For he is not a Jew who is one in the open, nor is circumcision that which is in the open in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one in secret, and circumcision is of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter: whose praise is not from men, but from God.”
10. But since the worship in the Law is ineffectual, and the new one in Christ is already prevailing, and [prevailing] over the faithful peoples
who have also been placed among the children of the free woman, not having a spirit of slavery—for they cry out, “Abba, Father”—the time was already at hand for the assembly and Synagogue A of the Jews to be sent away, and for the people who would spring from her to become, as it were, disinherited of the promise. But that she will return in due time, and will be acceptable to God, and will attain to the kindness from above and from the Father, acknowledging the Savior and Redeemer of all, the sacred Scripture again signifies to us. For the boys were sporting among themselves, mocking one another, Isaac namely, B and of course also Ishmael. And the persecution, I suppose, was the manner of their play; and Ishmael was following as persecutor, while Isaac was fleeing as he was pursued. But the mind of the free woman, I mean Sarah, was indignant at this; and she indeed said to the divine Abraham: “Cast out this slave woman and her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit with my son Isaac.” And the word C was not untroubling to the ears of Abraham. But he heard from God that one must yield to the words of Sarah. And so, having provided Hagar with a viaticum of bread and water, he ordered her to depart from the master’s house together with her son. She indeed went away distressed and weeping; but she wandered about in the wilderness. And when the boy was in danger and wailing, “God,” it says, “opened the eyes of Hagar, D and she saw a fountain of living water, and gave him to drink.” Observe then, therefore, how the play of the boys itself is not useless for the understanding of the mystery. For Ishmael was persecuting Isaac. But that in due time the son of the slave woman, that is to say Ishmael, would persecute the son of the free woman—that is, the people who are in faith and in Christ—the blessed Paul declared, speaking thus concerning Ishmael and Isaac: “But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also it is now.” Since Ishmael has warred against those who are of the free woman, henceforth the Synagogue of the Jews is cast out, having a thin and scant-juiced viaticum, bread namely and water (this is, a discourse of knowledge and piety according to their capacity), by which it was fitting that they should not altogether perish. For God says somewhere, having left behind as it were certain remnants and a small seed of legal piety in Israel: “And I shall be to them a small sanctuary in the countries into which they have entered.” He says that it will be a small sanctuary for those from Israel, after the dispersion among the nations, because the Jews are not very strong and strenuous, not even to fulfilling the law prescribed by Moses, and because they were observing only very slightly, and scarcely at all, the circumcision in the flesh and the rest on the Sabbath. Therefore, bread and water is given as a viaticum, with difficulty, to her who was born into slavery, that is, the Synagogue of the Jews. And while Abraham indeed bore it ill that Hagar was being cast out, he nevertheless let her go when God commanded it. For Israel truly afflicted the holy apostles and evangelists. But they were separated from him, even against his will, because of the will of God and the love toward Christ. Whence also
the holy apostles and evangelists A falling away, is Israel. Nevertheless, they were severed, and not willingly, but because of what seemed good to God and on account of love for Christ. And so the inspired Paul writes: "That I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites" (Rom. ix, 2-3). The mother of the Jews, having been cast off, wandered for a long time; and she was in danger of perishing at length in total ruin. But if they should cry out, shouting to God in due time, they will by all means and in every way find mercy. For He will open the eyes of their mind, and they themselves will see the fountain of living water, that is, Christ; and once they have drunk, they will live in Him. And having washed, they will become clean, according to the voice of the prophet. And that Christ is the fountain of life, the Psalmist will make clear, speaking to the Father and God in heaven: "How You have multiplied Your mercy, O God! But the sons of men shall hope in the shelter of Your wings. They shall be drunk with the fatness of Your house, and You shall make them drink from the torrent of Your pleasure, because with You is the fountain of life" (Ps. xxxv, 8-9). There is no other besides this, the Christ. Through Whom and with Whom to God and the Father be the glory and the power, together with the holy and consubstantial B and life-giving Spirit, unto all and unending ages of ages. Amen.
Concerning Abraham and Isaac
1. "And it came to pass after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him: Abraham, Abraham. And he said: Behold, I am here. And He said: Take your beloved son, whom you loved, Isaac, and go into the high land, and offer him there for a whole burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell you of" (Gen. xxii, 1-2). Such were the things divinely announced. The righteous man, therefore, without delay saddling his donkey, as it is written, and having bidden only two servants to follow, and having taken his beloved son, departed C for the sacrifice. And when he had arrived at that holy place, barely on the third day, he said to the servants: "Sit here with the donkey. But I and the lad will pass on even to here, and after we have worshipped, we will return to you." And having loaded his son with the wood necessary for the sacrifice, and having urged him to walk, he followed. And when the lad asked his father, saying: "Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for a whole burnt offering?" "God," he says, "will provide for Himself a sheep for a whole burnt offering, my son." And having built that divine altar, he gathered the wood. And having bound the youth upon them, and already having laid hold of the sword, the voice D of an angel restrains him, saying that he must not slaughter the lad. For God had already known his good intention. Then, seeing a ram hanging by its horns in the thicket of Sabek, the righteous man completes the sacrifice, offering it instead of the son. And he descends
A to the servants, bearing the son with him in good health. We shall not be hesitant, therefore, to curtail the breadth of the history and to bring together in a brief word that which is useful for the demonstration of the mystery regarding our Savior, which was prefigured through these events, taking up our own task again according to our strength. And if not everything contained in the histories should be included in the discourse, let no one find fault. For in the superfluous part of the history, the spiritual meaning is often hidden; just as, indeed, the most fragrant flowers in the gardens are draped externally with casual leaves, which, if one were to cut them away, he would find stripped bare the thing that delights and benefits. Let the discourse of allegory, therefore, go in for us.
2. That the blessed Abraham being tested, and being commanded to sacrifice his beloved son, while feeling heavy of heart, as is natural for a parent, and being pierced by the warm goad of nature toward affection, yet nevertheless preferring the good which would follow from the deed—this itself once again declares to us very clearly that which was said by the Savior: B «For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life» (John iii, 16). For if it is necessary to say something even in human terms for a clear demonstration of the meaning, God and Father was in a way being bitten in his heart as He sent the Son to death for our sake, even if He knew that He would suffer none of the things that cause pain, inasmuch as He Himself was impassible as God. Nevertheless, when He considered the benefit that would flow from His death—I mean the salvation and life of all—He set aside the affection that befits a Father. For this reason, Paul also wondered at Him, saying: C «He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all» (Rom. viii, 32). For in what would the miracle of the love with which God and Father pursued us consist, if it were not that He seemed to endure something even beyond His will as He delivered up His own Son for us? For such is the thing that Paul, saying «He spared not,» persuades us to understand. Which would never be said of common things, but only of those who attempt some great matter, as in the passage: «Enlarge thy borders, and strengthen thy nails, extend still to the right and left» (Isa. liv, 2); and further, «Fix, do not spare.» And again: «Deliver those being led to death, and do not cease to ransom those being slain» (Prov. xxiv, 11). And D these things, then, shall be said by us regarding the command, «Take thy beloved son» (Gen. xxii, 2). But the two servants accompanying and running along with the old man until the third day would be a figure of the two peoples, I mean Israel and Judah, who were called to servitude through the Law. Who thought that they ought to follow only the commandments of God and Father, just as those servants followed Abraham, not yet perceiving the Son through whom all things exist, nor recognizing the heir of the Father, of whom the little boy, Isaac, still lying in the bosom of his own father, bears before us the most beautiful image, and not yet bearing the authority befitting a master. For he was and is
always the Lord and perfect God the Son. But because He is not visible to all, and especially not to the unholy Jews who look only to the flesh, He was thought to be a mere child. Knowledge of Him is measured out in some way appropriately, according to the minds of all; it is found small in the small, but great in the great. And thus, indeed, the prophets say that "He is great and terrible over all those who are around Him," meaning those who befall Him through extreme discernment. Paul also travails with some "until Christ be formed in them." That is to say, until the great and supernatural characteristics of His divinity might be fashioned in their minds. B And that the servants followed only as far as the third day, and were not permitted to ascend to the high and holy land, but were rather commanded to sit there with the donkey, signifies by the law the two peoples following God, and extending as far as the third time, that is, the last, in which Christ appeared to us. For the whole age is measured by three times: I mean the past, the present, and the future. Therefore, the end is signified in the third time. Moreover, the divine Scripture says that Christ came in the last times of the age. Israel, having therefore followed God through the law even until the times of the coming of our Savior, did not wish to follow Christ through faith as He went to undergo death for all; or rather, he was even prevented by many sins. For hardening has happened to Israel in part, which is signified by the donkey that was then with the servants. For the donkey is a type of extreme irrationality; and the offspring of irrationality is hardening. C But that the father separates himself from the servants and proceeds together with the son, and that he says he will return again, "For I," he says, "and the boy will walk as far as this place, and having worshipped, we will return to you," signifies the temporary withdrawal of God from the children of Israel, and His future return to them at the consummation of the ages, completed through faith in Christ. For "when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved." And that the blessed Abraham does not state clearly that he is going up to sacrifice his son, but acts as if he has another motive—saying, "We will walk as far as this place"—might be a clear sign that the mystery of Christ was not believed by the Jewish peoples. And our discourse regarding this will appear true to us when we see Jesus speaking to the Jews as if in parables and through riddles, but saying to His own disciples, "To you it is given to know D the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables." But the boy, that is, Isaac, was burdened with the wood for the whole burnt offering by the hand of the father, and he arrives at the place of sacrifice. For Christ, bearing His own cross upon His shoulders, suffered outside the gate, not forced to the passion by human power, but by His own will and the decree of God the Father, according to what He Himself said to Pontius Pilate:
A “You have no authority over me, unless it had been given to you from above.” Isaac, B however, having been placed upon the wood, is rescued from death and passion. But a ram, given by God, ascends for the sacrifice. For truly, the Word who flashed forth from the essence of God and the Father was in His own temple, that is to say, in the one from the Virgin, and He was nailed to the wood. Existing as God, impassible and immortal, He exempted Himself from death and passion. He ascends, however, into an odor of sweetness to God and the Father through His own body, which He is said to have received from the Father, according to that which is said in the Psalms, as if by Him: B “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me; holocausts and for sin you did not require. Then I said, Behold, I come. In the head of the book it is written of me, to do your will, my God, I wished.” That the things contained in the history we have before us are referred to Christ in a most beautiful way, He Himself will again witness, saying: “In the head of the book it is written of me.” For the entire volume of Moses is a five-part work of great wisdom. The head, and in a way the beginning, of the entire volume is Genesis, in which these things are written about Christ. That the head again signifies a beginning in the divine Scriptures, you will be well convinced, understanding what Paul says: “That the head of every man is Christ, clearly. The head of a woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.” C For the beginning of the man is Christ, inasmuch as He brought him from non-existence into being. The beginning, again, of the woman is the man, on account of what was said and truly done: “She shall be called woman, because she was taken from her man.” But he says that the beginning of Christ is God Himself, since the Son is from Him according to nature, and He possesses as His beginning the Father, who is without beginning, along with the fact of His coexisting eternally with Him.
3. C It is excellent, then, in my opinion, for the mystery to be fitted to the facts of the history. But it is necessary, I think, for the divine Abraham to be glorified by us with extraordinary wonder, and to be shown everywhere as noble and conspicuous with the highest praises. And furthermore, it is necessary to examine clearly the depth of the divine craftsmanship. For the divine Abraham was being tempted, not because God was ignorant of the outcome of the matter, for nothing could escape the mind that is conscious of all things. D For this reason God also said: “Who is this that hides counsel from me, and thinks he hides words in his heart?” And again through the voice of Isaiah: “That I am God, and there is no other besides me, announcing from the first the things that are last before they come to be, and at the same time they are completed.” It would therefore be judged absolutely absurd and among the most unreasonable thoughts to suppose that the God of all things is ignorant of future events, and for this reason to test Abraham. But it was necessary that the head of the just man be brought to light not only in the knowledge of God, but that his praise, having been testified to by the most illustrious deeds, should be celebrated by the knowledge and approval of all. It was necessary
A that it should be proclaimed through the Sacred Scriptures, that there was in him a great readiness, and that his respect for the divine commands was great, or rather, that nothing surpassed it. He arrived at such a frame of mind and such zeal, that he even disregarded his love for his child, and did not shrink from the writing of child-murder. And, what is more paradoxical, he still expected to be the father of many nations in him. But he also knew that God, in regard to this, does not lie. Then he brought the child for a sacrifice, not having fallen into despair regarding the things promised, but having entrusted himself to the powers of the Master, in order that he might know how to fulfill what had been sworn. And the matter was not without profit for him, even though he went through a trial so bitter. For he was instructed, as if from that which was about to happen B, in the miracle of the resurrection from the dead, which is beyond all reason and worthy of being heard, and furthermore in the holy and great mystery of the incarnation of the Only-Begotten. And thus the divine Paul says: "By faith," he says, "Abraham offered Isaac when he was being tested, and he who had accepted the promises was offering up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, 'In Isaac shall your seed be called,' accounting that God is able to raise even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figure." For since God the Father was destined in due time to show him forth as a root, as it were, and a source of countless nations, with Emmanuel dead for the world, therefore C through this very trial the righteous man was profitably instructed in the immense and ineffable love of God the Father toward us; who "did not spare his own Son," as we have already said, "but delivered him up for us all," for those who are justified by faith, and have been reckoned as children of the patriarch Abraham. For if one must speak in human terms as well, I would say that the command of God to the blessed Abraham to sacrifice his son was very grave and arduous. For how do you imagine he was disposed at that time when he was ordered to do this? He was a man far advanced in old age, having one late-born son, having been deprived by time of the ability to be the father of others, and having a wife who was also older (for Sarah herself was elderly), and he was ordered to slaughter without delay his son who was so dearly loved, his only-begotten, and sought after with many prayers. With what hand, indeed, D did the old man expect to drive the sword into the throat of the boy, and to dare such a piteous slaughter of his own offspring? Should we not think it consistent that a bitter and sharp swarm of thoughts was raging intolerably within the soul of the righteous man? At one moment nature was compelling him toward the affection that is owed to children; but at another, the divine oracle was urging him on, and perhaps calling him toward an unwilling obedience as if by necessity. Truly great, then, is the miracle of the righteous man, and his piety is superior to all praise. For he offered a rational victim, bidding farewell to the laws of nature, trampling upon the inevitable impulses of love for his children, and postponing all earthly things to his love for God. Therefore he was also glorified, and called the friend of God, and finally
reached the goal of his expectations, A and the things for which he hoped came to pass. For he became the father of many and innumerable nations in Christ. Through whom, and with whom, be to God and the Father the glory, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Concerning Isaac and Rebecca
1. To those who have been justified through Christ, and who have been enriched with unity with Him through participation in the Holy Spirit by the good pleasure of the Father, the wise Paul writes: "I betrothed you to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ." B For the blessed apostles have become, as it were, groomsmen, making those who were once far off to be near, and all but binding them to Christ, and joining them together by the unity of the Spirit. And Christ Himself takes the Church to Himself, raising her up, and all but presenting her to God the Father, and betrothing her to His own Son; yet, that there are saints acting as mediators, no one could doubt. For the inspired David, C proclaiming for us the mystery beforehand, says somewhere to her: "Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house; because the king has desired your beauty; for he is your Lord, and you shall worship him." And Paul has also testified, as I said just now, that the believers are presented to Christ as a kind of bride. But one might see this mystery, so venerable and worthy of being heard, no less in this account as well. For it is written: "And Abraham was an old man, advanced in days; and the Lord blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, the ruler over all that he had: Put your hand under my thigh, and I will adjure you by the Lord the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my land, where I was born, and to my tribe, and you shall take a wife for my son Isaac from thence." D When therefore Abraham had commanded these things, the servant immediately swore, placing his hand under the thigh of his master. From which one may understand that he had made the oath on behalf of the entire generation that was to spring from him. So, having loaded ten camels with many of the good things of Abraham, he went quickly into Mesopotamia, and came to the city of Nachor, and made the camels lie down outside the city by the well of water, at evening, when those who draw water come out. When therefore he had arrived there, he prayed to God that He would open the way for him, and show him a virgin who was beautiful and hospitable, and who would be quick to show love. "For it shall be," he says, "the virgin to whom I shall say: Incline your jar that I may drink, and she shall say: Drink, and I will water your camels, until they have finished drinking—her you have prepared for your servant Isaac." And there immediately came a maiden, beautiful in appearance
and most comely, I mean Rebecca. A When he asked to drink, she readily brought it. She also promised to give his camels drink, and she carried out what she had promised into action. The servant therefore concludes from this that she was the one, and no other. Consequently, taking bracelets and earrings, he presented them to the maiden. She then urged him to enter her house and follow her immediately. When this had occurred, he is received there with hospitality, and he gives a brilliant account of his own master's wealth. He added that, having an only and beloved son, Isaac, he had given everything to him, and the young man is lord of all. When the matchmaker wished to depart with the young woman, they asked Rebecca if she would go with him, and whether she would depart willingly. She readily assents. And when she had arrived in this manner, Isaac B received her into his home as his wife willingly; and he was so greatly comforted, even though his mother was dead.
The account of the history is indeed long and copious. But stripping it down as much as possible, we have spoken sufficiently. Let the power of contemplation now come to matters that are highly subtle, and let it reveal again the type of the mystery, as if wrapped in certain dark shadows, yet pregnant with the truth.
2.
Abraham did not deem it worthy to betroth a wife to his beloved son, I mean Isaac, from among the daughters of Canaan; but he ordered his faithful servant to depart into the land of those who worshipped idols, keeping in mind a wife who was most C suitable for him. For God and Father did not wish to join the Synagogue of the Jews to Christ, who is signified in Isaac. For Isaac is "late-born" and "beloved." And Christ also appeared in the last times, and is Beloved, and is delight and exultation; for this is what Isaac is interpreted to mean. That the Canaanites might be understood as a type of those from Israel would be clear, and indeed quite easily so, from the interpretation of the name. For "Canaanites" means "ready for humiliation." To whom would it be fitting to be about to go to humiliation, or rather, to have already reached it, if not to the Jews? For they have been humbled, having fallen from the glory of God and been cast down into every sort of extravagance. Therefore, D the bride of Isaac is not from Canaan, but from Mesopotamia. For as I said, the Church, spiritually joined to Christ the Savior, is not from the Jews, but from the nations. Nevertheless, by the will of the Father, with servants intervening who were most faithful and sincere, that we might understand the disciples, who became stewards and administrators of the mysteries of Christ [1 Cor. iv, 1], and in whose hands are almost all things that are in His house. These, having left Judea, just as the servant of Abraham left the land of the Canaanites, traveled down into the land of those who worshipped idols, carrying in a certain way the goods of God and the Father, and having their minds filled with wisdom from above, and full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Observe, however, how the name of Abraham’s servant is not expressed, so that the type of the ministry might be extended to all faithful and approved disciples. And he rested whoA at the well of water toward evening, and he entreated God by prayer to be his helper, and he wished to test the maiden at the water. But the divine disciples also arrived, as I just said, at the regions of the nations toward evening—that is, in the last times of the age—and at the waters they tested the intelligible maiden. For the Church is most exceedingly suitable, and strongly possesses the power—I mean, to be able to draw the life-giving word from the fountains of the Savior, according to what is written. It possesses also, not inefficiently, as far as the suitability of mind and understanding reaches, the ability to be able to provide to others also the things that conduce to life. For Rebecca gave drink both to the servant himself and to the camels. And the servant—he might now be understood as a type of those from Israel. For they are men having the law as a pedagogue, and although the mystery of Christ was still as in shadows, they were nevertheless not entirely without instruction in the mysteries. But the gentiles, in no way differing from brute beasts, are those who might reasonably be compared to camels. For the animal is unclean according to the Law. Such, by all means, are those who do not yet know the God who is such by nature and in truth. Most sufficient, therefore, is the Church to irrigate with sacred and divine streams those who have sprung from the Jews, toward choosing the love for Christ, and those who have been called from the nations. And when the disciples had glimpsed such a maiden, they immediately adorned her with bracelets, and indeed they added an ornament to her ears—that is, they made her B splendid and most excellent in the glories that lead to obedience. For the adornment of the hearing signifies obedience. They also took care to make her appear conspicuous by the works of her hands, for I judge this to be the meaning of the bracelets added to her hands. Furthermore, the servant of Abraham recounted to those in Haran the wealth of his own master, and that he had only one and most beloved heir. But the disciples also instructed the nations in the wealth of God and the Father, preaching hope, life, sanctification, and they openly proclaimed that Christ is the one and only Son by nature and in truth, who has been declared the heir of all things. And the maiden was asked whether she would willingly go with the servant. And she immediately signaled her assent. For the Church from the nations is most prompt, and as it were fervent toward the love that is in Christ. And the divine David will testify in speaking about the flock of the nations, saying: "You have inclined your ear to the readiness of their heart." And when Isaac was finally joined to Rebecca, "He was comforted," it says, "concerning his mother." D From this, therefore, it can be easily understood that Christ indeed grieved, as it were, for the death of the Synagogue of the Jews on account of its unbelief, from which he himself was born according to the flesh. But after he became the spouse of the Church of the nations, he put aside, in a certain manner, the sorrow that he had conceived on that account. For it is said somewhere through the voice of the prophet to the Church: "And it shall be, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so the Lord shall rejoice over you." Through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory with the holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
Of Esau and Jacob: that they are a type of two peoples, namely, the Israelitic, and the one that is through faith in Christ
A 1. "And these are the generations of Isaac, the son of Abraham: Abraham begat Isaac." And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebecca, the daughter of Bathuel the Syrian, from Mesopotamia, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife. And Isaac besought the Lord for Rebecca his wife, because she was barren. And God heard him, and Rebecca his wife conceived in the womb. And the children struggled within her. And she said: If this is to be so, why should this happen to me? And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be divided from thy womb. And one people shall overcome another; and the greater shall serve the lesser." And the days were fulfilled for her to be delivered, and B lo, there were twins in her womb. And the first that came forth was red and entirely hairy like a skin; and she called his name Esau. And after that his brother came forth, and his hand held the heel of Esau; and she called his name Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when Rebecca bore them. And the young men grew up. And Esau was a man who knew how to hunt, a man of the field; but Jacob was a simple man, dwelling in a house. And Isaac loved Esau, because his venison was his meat; but Rebecca loved Jacob. And Jacob boiled a pottage. And Esau came from the field, failing, and said to Jacob: Give me to taste of this red pottage, for I am failing. Therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said to Esau: Sell me thy birthright today. And Esau said: Behold, I am going to die, and why to me are these birthrights? And Jacob said to him: Swear to me today; and he swore to him. And Esau sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he ate and drank, and rising, went his way. And Esau made light of his birthright. C God, who cannot lie, had promised that the illustrious Abraham would be the father of many nations, and He confirms that the multitude to be born from him would be innumerable, both above and below: "For as the sand," He says, "which cannot be numbered, and as the stars of heaven" (Gen. XXII, 17). Yet the bounds of so manifest a glory were not circumscribed within the Israelitic people alone, but also among the flocks of the Gentiles. For they have been called through faith, and such as these are rather in Isaac, that is, from the promise: a fact which the most wise Paul also attests, writing: "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached beforehand to Abraham, that In thee shall all nations be blessed." Therefore they who are of faith shall be blessed with the faithful Abraham. For whoever are D of the works
of the law are under a curse. For it is written: Cursed is every one who does not remain in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no one is justified before God by the law is manifest, because the just shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith, but: He who has done these things shall live in them. A It is confirmed, therefore, that the things promised were accomplished; and not, to be sure, through those who were trained under the law, but through those who have been justified by faith. Now the commandment through Moses entered by divine counsel, not because the promise was neglected, but in order that it might instruct and lead them step by step toward the calling through faith; and by refuting the weakness of those who were already under it, it further demonstrated how most useful and necessary to all is the grace that we obtain through faith and the justification in Christ.
The divine Paul says again in this way: B "Brethren (I speak as a man), yet a man’s covenant, if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to. The promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul a covenant confirmed by God, so as to make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise." He immediately adds the reason why the law was introduced first, saying thus: "What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not of one, but God is one. C Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could give life, righteousness would indeed have been by the law. But the scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which was to be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."
Therefore, no one would doubt that the law was a refutation of the weakness of those who were being D tutored, and rather a pointer to faults and sin. "For where," he says, "there is no law, there is no transgression." And again: "I would not have known sin except through the law. And when the commandment came," he says, "sin revived, and I died." And again: "Until the law there was sin in the world; for sin was not imputed when there was no law. For the law works wrath." The law, therefore, leads us as by the hand to Christ, refuting transgressors and teaching mortals by experience itself that it is impossible for those laboring under a propensity to sin to escape the accusation from the law, but that they are in every way in need of salvation through Christ, who justifies in faith and mercies.
B Consequently, it is clear that the Word rendered the preliminary announcement of the law given through Moses, as it were, most necessary for the economy concerning us, as the grace which was to run immediately afterward and in Christ was bringing into our midst the seed promised by God—that is, those who are in Christ through faith. For thus did the inspired Abraham become the father of countless numbers. Behold, then, observe the form of the economy, fashioned cleverly as a type again in the pair of brothers born of Isaac, namely Esau and Jacob. Therefore, it was said by God to the inspired Abraham: "For in Isaac shall seed be called to thee."
Explaining this oracle, Paul, who was learned in the law, says: "To Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed: he saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." In Christ, therefore, the things promised were brought to their fulfillment, and Isaac has been set forth in some way as an image and type of Him. This name is interpreted as "joy and exultation." Now, the inspired David also called Christ "exultation," speaking as if from the person of those who vehemently desired salvation through Him: "My exultation, deliver me from those who surround me." For we have escaped in Christ the assaults of robbers, and we have trampled upon scorpions and snakes in Him, and we believers have walked upon the asp and the basilisk.
That Christ is called "exultation" in the Holy Scriptures, the prophetic word also will convince us. For it holds thus: "And the Lord shall cause righteousness and exultation to arise before all the nations." For Emmanuel has become righteousness and exultation, not only for those who are of Israel, but also for the nations and peoples throughout the whole world. For we have been justified in Him, and we have warded off the disgrace of the ancient curse from ourselves; for we have been clothed, as it were, in gladness and joy, freed from death and sin—and what good things from above and from God have we not acquired? Therefore, we have been taught to give glory, saying: "My soul shall exult in the Lord. He has clothed me in a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness." And who this tunic of gladness is, the most sacred Paul will clarify, saying: "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." And again: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts."
Isaac, therefore, as a type of Christ, has been most usefully taken up for the themes set before us. Rebecca was his wife. This name, however, might be interpreted as "greatest and complete patience." But we shall receive her person also as a type of the Church, whose glory is in patience. Furthermore, for her children—I mean those who live in faith and spirit—the way to salvation is patience. For thus do the Holy Scriptures proclaim to them, at one time saying: "In your patience you shall possess your souls"; and at another time: "Patience is necessary for you, that you may [do] the will of God."
[that you] may receive the promise." A Observe, therefore, Rebecca, who was barren and conceived with difficulty (for she was of advanced age), yet who nevertheless, through the generous favor of God and the love of Isaac, gave birth to Esau the firstborn, and immediately after him, Jacob. By these two are appropriately represented to us again the two peoples: the Israelitic, of course, and the Gentile. And the firstborn is indeed Israel (for he was called first through the Law), but the second after him is he who is in faith through Christ. B One might observe in these two peoples a difference in disposition and character, as well as in the very names by which each was called, and in the actual form or constitution of their bodies. For Esau is interpreted as "oak," which is to say, harsh and rigid. It was said somewhere to Israel by God: "I know that you are stubborn, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze." But Jacob is "supplanter," that is, a craftsman or one skilled in victory. For one supplants him whom he has overcome. Yet it is not the people under the Law who altogether conquer, but those who are in Christ through faith, and who have fled the C accusation of sin and blunted the power of death. Furthermore, Esau was entirely red—for it is written thus: "And [he was] as if [he were] a hairy skin"—but Jacob was a man smooth or hairless. The redness is a type of ferocity and anger, if indeed it is true that to those in a rage the skin becomes somewhat reddish. And who would doubt that to be hairy and shaggy is a sign of a bestial nature? One might, I think, perceive Israel to be possessed of such traits: constituted, indeed, with a mind or intellect that is recalcitrant, and very much tending toward ferocity and cruelty. For they slew the holy prophets, and D finally acted impiously against Emmanuel himself. Gentleness, however, is the proper sign of human form. And indeed, the new people who are in faith are exceedingly mild and most gentle. For the elegance of the face is a clear argument for the intellectual or interior beauty, just as we have said that to be shaggy and red is a sign of the wildness in Esau. Nevertheless, they both had one mother, namely, Rebecca. But our Lord Jesus Christ has joined to himself the Church as a chaste virgin, serving in a way toward the spiritual regeneration of the two peoples. For, as far as the goal of his coming is concerned, he fashioned them into one new man, establishing peace and reconciling both in one spirit, as it is written. But Israel was discordant with the new people, existing as the firstborn according to time. For this, as I believe, is signified by the infants leaping within the womb, portending a future enmity. But that the new people would be superior, and destined to attain a much more glorious renown than the firstborn Israel, was signified immediately by Him to whom all things are known, when He said: "The people shall overcome the people, and the greater shall serve the lesser." For the mystery of both was predicted.
A even by the voice of the saints, and that Israel would come after the nations was declared to us in many ways—the matter being God’s, who demonstrated it even in the birth itself. For Esau came forth from the womb first, but Jacob followed, showing that he would supplant and overcome his brother, which is signified by the seizing of his heel.
3. But let these things be said for the present, taking the starting points of our discourse from the appearance of the bodies and the birth itself. Yet as we proceed no less through other thoughts concerning both, to the best of our ability, let us speak: for the very manner of their life will be an index of each one's mind. For the youths were of the same age, but not of the same mind nor of the same counsels. For Esau loved to pass his time in the fields and in hunting; but the other was urban, B clearly accessible and socially inclined, and a simple man living in the house. And the one was unbridled towards carnal desires, and as if casting behind the most excellent of his own gifts for those that were most cheap, he exchanged the cold and common things of necessity. But the other was an insatiable lover of the best things, and searched everywhere for those means by which he might become illustrious. For he bought the primogeniture, with Esau casting it aside and thoughtlessly preferring the satiety of his belly to his own dignities. Therefore his name was called Edom from thence, which is to say, "earthy." For it is a clear proof of a truly earthy and most base mind, to disregard the glory that was present to him and to make the prerogatives of knowledge of no account at all, and rather to choose as better and more preferable the temporal pleasure, and to crown the momentary delight with a superior vote, even if it might carry much loss. Therefore also the divine Paul C rightly called him, who had chosen to live so basely, a fornicator and a profane person. Placing Esau as a kind of model of those who have slipped into this baseness, he made an accusation and a writing, saying: "Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel sold his primogeniture." Wherefore, if we compare the darkness of the Jewish life and the purity and nobility of the multitude of the nations with the ways of these youths, we shall correctly speak [of them]. For Israel was indeed rustic and possessed an earthy mind, and was arrogant, and fond of dissensions and war, and much too unbridled for bloodshed, according to the rustic and beast-slaying Esau. D And thus the prophetic word reproached them, saying: "They have set snares to destroy men." And Christ himself cursed them, saying: "Without cause they have hidden their destruction from me in a snare, in vain have they reproached my soul. Let a snare come upon them which they do not know, and the net which they hid—let it catch them." For they sent some of the Pharisees, with those who are called Herodians; and these are the collectors of tribute, tempting and saying: "If it is lawful to give tribute
to Caesar, or not?" A Is not Israel, therefore, truly a hunter? But the new people through faith, just as the divine Jacob, domestic and loving a quiet life, with a mild and settled mind, simple and not at all cunning, B "dwelling at home," as it is written. For it is truly possible to say that the most gentle multitude of those who have been justified by faith have fashioned the Church as a certain splendid city, ordered by an excellent polity, and a most firm house, which cannot be overturned by those who tempt, having perfected their life in Christ. And their mind is simple, and foreign to all duplicity. For it is especially hateful to them to wear a fictitious mind and feigned manners, concerning which divine David speaks somewhere in this way: "The Lord makes those who are of one mind to dwell in a house." For he is single-minded who is simple in Christ, who also dwells in a house, while one of the holy prophets cries out to Israel: "In the multitude of thy ways thou hast labored." They, therefore, who are in Christ C dwell in piety and holiness of life as in a house; which indeed they place upon their own heads as a certain crown, and account it as their greatest happiness. Therefore they say now and then, indeed: "I was glad in those things that were said to me, We shall go into the house of the Lord"; and then again: "One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek after." What then does he ask? And what is the one benefit he expects? "That I may dwell in the house of the Lord," he says, "all the days of my life, that I may see the delight of the Lord, and visit his holy temple." Do you hear how he reckons dwelling in the house of the Lord, and moving about in the divine court, as the highest benefit? But this dwelling is not to be understood corporally, but in the stability of mind and pious life. Moreover, "Isaac loved Esau," he says, "because his hunting was food for him." For the firstborn Israel D was deemed worthy of love from above, because he offered to God the perfection of the legal life and the labors undergone for this, as a certain food. For there were also saints in Israel, and pious and strenuous observers of the law. Therefore the prophet Isaiah bewails Jerusalem as having played the harlot. He says, however, that "justice sometimes took its rest in her," that is, it rested and resided, because many had existed in her who were illustrious for the glory of the legal life. Israel was therefore in honor with God as the firstborn, but he did not preserve the honor of the birthright granted to him forever. For he yielded the birthright in a certain manner to the new and later-born people, that is, to the Gentile, turning himself far too much to carnal and worldly things. And, indeed, as it is read in the evangelical parables: "A king celebrated marriage for his son." Furthermore, there were those who were calling to the supper, announcing the command of God to the guests, namely this: "Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come to the marriages." But they, he says, would not come, but each one had an excuse ready at his own will.
One said: "I have married a wife, have me excused." Another said: "I bought a field, and I cannot come." A You see, then, how they have imitated Esau, preferring the enjoyment of temporal and carnal things to the glory offered by God, and all but handing over their birthright to others to be seized. For the Gentiles who believe were immediately brought in, and they have snatched away the glory that was due to Israel, and indeed the blessing as well, on account of their readiness for obedience and their exceeding alacrity and wakefulness in fulfilling what is pleasing to God. May the divine David be a witness to us of this, speaking thus concerning them: "You have heard the desire of the poor, O Lord; your ear has hearkened to the preparation of their heart." For the people who are in the faith are always somehow more ready for obedience, even though those from Israel had already been enriched by their instruction in the law. B But even if the multitude of the Gentiles labored under a poverty of divine teachings, they were nonetheless more ready in faith, and they received the oracles of Christ with ears that were in a way avid; as He Himself testifies, speaking through the voice of David, somewhere saying: "A people whom I have not known has served me; they obeyed me at the hearing of the ear." But concerning Israel, who had already fallen as it were into an alienation, and was no longer willing to walk uprightly, but had as it were a dislocated leg of the mind, He says: "Alien sons lied to me; alien sons grew old, and they limped from their paths." For the paths that lead to Christ are straight and unerring, C as is the instruction through the law and the predictions of the holy prophets. But since they arrived at the end of the law and the prophets—that is, Christ—they limped because of their senselessness, not out of a sound mind, treating Him with insolence and not fearing to put to death the Author of life. That the new people in the faith, therefore, snatched away the blessing due to Israel, having a mind more ready to submit to divine inclinations, from this it will be possible for us to understand. For it is written thus: "And it came to pass when Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were dimmed so that he could not see, he called Esau his son, the firstborn, and said to him: 'My son.' And he said: 'Behold, I am here.' D And he said: 'Behold, I have grown old, and I do not know the day of my death. Now therefore take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out into the field, and hunt me game, and make me meat such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.'" These things, then, the father said to Esau. And he, having immediately made himself ready for the labors of the hunt, goes out from the house, and acts manfully. But what of what happened meanwhile? Rebecca persuades Jacob that he should anticipate Esau and snatch away the blessing. And he, indeed, was at first afraid to do this, but being incited by his mother, he brings two fine and tender kids from the fields and prepares the meat; and putting the skins upon his shoulders and covering the naked parts of his neck, he beautifully imitated Esau's hairiness, so that he might deceive his father's hands, in case he should happen to feel him. Then, taking the food, he approached his father, and
A said, "Father." He replied, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?" And Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn; I have done as you spoke to me. Arise, sit, and eat of my game, so that your soul may bless me." And since the old man had eaten what had been brought, he said to the young man, "Come near and kiss me, my son." And having come near, he kissed him; and he smelled the scent of his garments, and he blessed him, and said to him, "Behold, the scent of my son is like the scent of a full field which the Lord has blessed; and may God give you of the dew of heaven B and of the fatness of the earth, an abundance of grain and wine. And may nations serve you, and may princes worship you, and be lord of your brother, and may the sons of your father worship you. Whoever curses you, let him be cursed; and whoever blesses you, let him be blessed" (Gen. xxv, 18-29).
Thus Jacob anticipated his father's blessing; then afterwards, Esau came from the fields with his game. But when he had offered it to his father, he was frustrated, and learned what had happened. For he heard immediately: "Your brother came fraudulently, and snatched away your blessing." And Esau said, not without tears, "Is there only one blessing for you, Father? Bless me also." Isaac said again: "Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above; and you shall live by your sword, and you shall serve your brother. And it shall be when you have taken off and cast away his yoke from off your neck" (ibid. 30-40). C We have therefore set forth for our readers, in a very brief manner, the extensive narrative of the history. But I judge it necessary to transfer these elementary things to a spiritual sense.
4. We say, then, that even before others—that is, those called in faith and in Christ—the Lord and Father of all commanded Israel, as it were a splendid gift, and as a reward for good works, to hasten to offer a life pleasing to Him, which was previously described to the ancients through the legal life, wrapped only in types, and lying as it were in a forest on the surface of the letter; yet it is not incomprehensible to those who wish to seek it through spiritual and perfect contemplation. This, I think, is what Isaac desires in the game of Esau. But it was commanded, as I said, to Israel, and he promised he would do it. For he said in Horeb, with the congregation gathered there, and God descending upon Mount Sinai in the form of fire: "All things that the Lord God shall say, we will do, and we will be obedient" (Exod. xix, 8). D Yet he was found to be very negligent through his actual deeds, even if he was ready in promising. Therefore he yields his place, and thus the supplanter Jacob, that is, the new people in faith, anticipates him. For he offered to God what He Himself desired,
the new people, and as it were in faith. A For it has brought to God the things required, and while the firstborn people were lagging and delaying, it brought forth the fruit of faith, which also the divine nature employs in the order of nourishment. And so the Savior made known in advance to the holy apostles the conversion of the Samaritans, saying: "I have food to eat that you do not know about." B Explaining what He had said, He says, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work." That the readiness to promise was utterly useless to those from Israel, since the matter was not carried to completion, and that it was no hindrance to the nations to have come late to the faith, recognizing the Redeemer and thenceforth honoring Him with obedience in every good thing, Christ taught us by a parable. For He said thus: "A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, 'Son, go work today in my vineyard.' C But he answered and said, 'I will not.' Afterward, being moved by repentance, he went. He went to the other and said likewise. But he answered and said, 'I go, sir,' and did not go. Which of the two did the will of the father?" He who went into the vineyard, without doubt, even if a little weakness crept in between, which caused him to hesitate to do what he had promised. See, then, in these things, Esau most readily going to hunt, and promising to do this, while Jacob, though at first refusing to do it, nonetheless arrived before him and was blessed by his father. So also the new people snatch the blessing, having, as it were, a counterfeit form D of the Jewish way of life. Just as, indeed, Jacob also wisely imitated the hairiness of Esau with the skins of the kids. But he immediately heard his father crying out: "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." How, then, should we apply this to the peoples who are in the faith, that they should also appear in a certain form, and as if in imitation of the Jewish way of life, yet have a voice different from theirs? We say, then, that in the Sacred Scriptures the hand is always a sign of operation or of active faculty. Therefore, as far as concerns the identity of action and the abundance of works, they too fulfill the law who are sanctified in Christ intellectually and spiritually, and offer themselves as a sweet-smelling fragrance to God and the Father. Whence also Christ, clearly prescribing for us the evangelical laws, says, "Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law, until all things are fulfilled." You understand, therefore, in what way they fulfill the law who have received the circumcision in spirit instead of the carnal one in Christ? And entering also into the rest of Christ, and keeping the Sabbath in Christ, and showing the Jew in secret and within. This, I think, is what having the hands of Esau signifies, but with a voice different from his. For we do not use the unbridled tongue of the Jews; nor do we blaspheme the Lord who redeemed us, whom they deny: but we glorify with God the Father the Son and Lord.
B We name and call Him Savior and Redeemer.
5. C Moreover, I consider that it is worthwhile for us to investigate the power of the blessing A conferred upon both, so that we may say what comes to our mind. For the matter will indeed provide no small benefit to those who read it. The blessed Isaac therefore says concerning Jacob: "See, the odor of my son is as the odor of a full field, which the Lord has blessed. May the Lord give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, an abundance of grain and wine. And let nations serve you, and let princes bow down to you: and be lord of your brother, and let the sons of your father bow down to you. He who curses you, cursed be he; and he who blesses you, blessed be he." There is mixed into these words the narrative of history, and through two persons the truth of the matter proceeds to one thing, confirmed by the events themselves. For these things are not fulfilled entirely in Jacob, but in Christ and in those who have been justified by faith, who also have become children according to the promise in Isaac. Therefore, the meaning of the prophecy will square with the new people and with Christ Himself, who is the beginning and the leader. He is also reckoned as the second Adam, and as a second root of humanity B that has sprung forth. For those who are in Christ are a new creation, and we have been renewed in Him unto sanctification, and incorruption, and life. The rationale of the blessing, I believe, signifies the spiritual fragrance in Christ, as of a field and a most flourishing garden sending forth a beautiful and sweet odor from spring flowers. For thus did Christ name Himself to us in the Song of Songs, saying: "I am the flower of the field, the lily of the valleys." For He was a lily and a rose grown from the earth on account of His humanity; yet, not knowing sin, but rather sending forth to all those established throughout the whole world a fragrance C from His good works that is most worthy of God. Therefore, he compares Christ to a field blessed by God, and with very good reason, since the odor is of the knowledge of God the Father. For thus the divine Paul again says: "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ Jesus, and manifests the fragrance of His knowledge through us in every place." For our Lord Jesus Christ was manifested through the holy apostles as the fragrance of the knowledge of God the Father. "For if anyone knows the Son, he certainly knows the Father also," on account of the identity of nature, and the fact that He possesses it equally and without any difference in all respects. D These things, therefore, are appropriate for Christ, but they may also be fittingly applied to the new people: "May the Lord give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, an abundance of grain and wine." For the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth—that is, the Word from God the Father—has been given to us by participation, clearly through the Spirit, and we have become partakers of the divine nature through Him; and we have obtained an abundance of grain and wine, that is, of strength and gladness. For it is truly said: "Bread strengthens man's heart."
and wine gladdens." Therefore, bread is a sign of intellectual strength and that which exists in the Spirit, while wine is a sign of the other. These things were given to those who are in Christ through Him. In what way or manner have we become steadfast in piety, and in a certain sense immovable, and knowing how to think rightly, and established unshakably? For we received power "to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy." This, I think, is the abundance of grain. But we have also received wine in turn. "For we rejoice and are made glad in hope," as it is written. For we await the dwellings above, life in incorruption, and the eternal life, and to reign together with Christ Himself. Let these things be said also regarding us, for this is what the discourse means. Afterwards, the power of the blessing is transferred back again to Emmanuel. "For B may nations serve you," He says, "and may princes bow down to you, and be lord over your brother." For Emmanuel was called the firstborn when He became "according to us," and "among many brothers." But not for this reason should He fall short, on account of the fact that He is also God and Lord of all; for we worship Him as Lord, and He has exercised lordship as God over those who have been called into brotherhood through grace. "For who in the clouds," He says, "shall be compared to the Lord, and who shall be like Him among the sons of God?" Emmanuel, therefore, has exercised lordship as God over those who have been brought into brotherhood, and "to Him every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." And "he who curses," he says, "is cursed; and he who blesses, is blessed." This word is clear. For those who speak evil of Him are accursed and hated by God; but those who bless, that is, those who proclaim His divine glory, are full of gifts from above and from God.
6. This, then, is the blessing of Jacob, having its power of reference to Emmanuel Himself and to those who have been justified by faith. But let us look also at the other, that is, the one made to the firstborn, it is clear that it was to Israel, of whom Esau was a type. "For behold," he says, "from the fatness of the earth shall be thy dwelling, and from the dew of heaven from above, and in thy sword shalt thou live, and thou shalt serve thy brother. But there shall be a time when thou shalt put off and break his yoke from thy neck." For the blessing was given to the Israelites, the D law issued through Moses; for it was Christ's word administered through angels. That He Himself spoke to the ancients, the most wise Paul proves, writing: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son." And the Saviour Himself demonstrated that the law was His own words, saying: "Amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and
A earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass." If, therefore, it is true that it was the word of Christ, and the law was given through angels in the order of a blessing to Israel, and we understand Christ to be the dew of heaven B and the fatness of the earth: for just as the multitude of angels is refreshed, being irrigated by the heavenly and spiritual dews, so too the fat earth, being full, delights in the intelligible rains for spiritual fruitfulness. But we who are in Christ have been enriched by faith with bread and wine. Israel, however, is devoid of these things; for this was not added to the blessings of Esau. Moreover, the wretched Jews are also devoid of this mystical blessing in another way, since this was not even given to the legal worship, but has been reserved rather for the peoples in Christ and in the faith. And we indeed pass our time in peace through Christ, but Israel in wars, C and we have inherited spiritually the land of promise, which is a type of the heavenly and intelligible land, of which the Saviour Himself also made mention, saying: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." And we have been constituted as sons through the free Spirit, and we have approached Christ as one made like unto us, and as our brother, having rendered a beautiful and spontaneous obedience. But Israel again is subjugated, and has been weighed down by the laws of Moses, with the death penalty proposed for transgression. For Esau heard: D "And you shall serve your brother,"—that is, you shall be subject, even against your will, to him who is like you by nature. Now Moses is a man and like us, having nothing excellent in himself as far as the condition of humanity is concerned. And therefore the Lord of all also called Israel the people of Moses; for they had made a calf for themselves in the wilderness. Then God says to Moses: "Go, descend quickly from here; for your people, whom you led out from the land of Egypt, have sinned." For the inspired Paul also ascribed that law in the letter to the blessed Moses. For he says thus: "Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy upon two or three witnesses." That Israel, however, was about to cast off the yoke of Moses, as Christ called him to the grace that is through faith, He beforehand made known, saying: "But it shall be when you remove and strip off his yoke from your neck." For those from Israel who believed cast off the yoke of the law, which was very burdensome, from their necks. For they have been called to the dignity of freedom through faith in Christ. Through whom, and with whom, to God and the Father be glory with the holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS, BOOK IV.
FOURTH BOOK OF GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS.
Concerning Jacob the patriarch.
A 1. It is most true that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” 62 For the sons of iniquity leap upon them like wild beasts, regarding the splendor of those who are accustomed to live uprightly as a kind of accusation and condemnation of their own wickedness. For those things which are worse are somehow always exposed by the comparison of those which are better. And the ugly thing, having the more distinguished vote, almost records the defeat of those who are overcome. What then results from this? The darts of envy, and the fire that is kindled in those who feel themselves conquered by hatred—a beginning of madness and an occasion for impiousness against those who have chosen to live as excellently as possible. And if they should perchance be in struggles and toils, they would not, however, be entirely capturable by those who war against them. For He who stands over the saints will never abandon those who are in danger for His sake. Rather, He will deliver them most easily, and will make them appear even more illustrious, having set before them sweat as an exercise for their endurance. B The divine Paul also agrees with this statement, having written thus: “But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will, with the temptation, provide also the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” 63 And they themselves who have been conversant with struggles, and who have borne the labors of persecutions not ignobly, also cry out in the book of Psalms: “For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the trap; You laid afflictions upon our back; You made men ride over our heads. We went through fire and water, and You brought us out into a place of refreshment.” 64 Do you hear how they know not at all how to be annoyed by those things in which they are tested, but rather rejoice as having been declared the better, and as having been known by the experience itself—what they are—and by their utter love for God, manifested through their suffering? For they said they passed through fire. As, I think, the most refined of incense, when it has been brought into contact with fire, then gives the proof of the fragrance inherent in it; so also a holy soul, being refined in a certain way through being tempted and laboring, makes the manifestation of the manifold virtue inherent in it much clearer. Moreover, concerning every holy person, the divine David also sings somewhere, saying thus: “The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about those who fear Him.”
A And again, the provider of aid speaks openly: “Because he has hoped in Me, I will deliver him. He shall cry to Me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation; I will deliver him, and I will glorify him. With length of days will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” What then, therefore, is the salvation of God and Father? The God Word from Him, who for our sake became as we are, and by divine counsel assumed the form of a servant. Thus the Father called Him even through Isaiah, saying: “And the nations shall see my righteousness, and kings my glory. And my salvation shall burn as a lamp.” For the Son has become for us righteousness and glory from God and the Father, and indeed salvation. For we have been justified in Him, and have been raised to the glory of adoption. B And that we have also been saved, freed from the bonds of death, and translated unto incorruption, how could this be thereafter, or whence be uncertain? For there dawned upon us, as a lamp in night and darkness, the Son, infusing divine light into the souls of those who believe. Therefore He also said: “I am the light of the world.” Since, therefore, according to the very voice of the Savior, those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake are blessed (for they shall have the inheritance in the heavens, and they are to experience the Lord and Savior of all as their helper; they shall see also the very mystery concerning Christ), one might easily understand this from the very things that happened to the blessed Jacob. I deem it, however, worth the effort to set forth what was written about him for a C clearer understanding for readers. It holds thus: “And Esau was angry with Jacob concerning the blessing with which his father blessed him. And Esau said in his mind: Let the days of my father’s mourning approach, that I may kill my brother Jacob. And the words of Esau, her elder son, were reported to Rebecca; and sending, she called her younger son Jacob, and said to him: Behold, Esau your brother threatens to kill you. Now therefore, O my son, listen to my voice, and rising, flee to Mesopotamia to my brother Laban in Charran, and dwell with him for some days, until your brother’s fury and anger turn away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him: and sending, I will fetch you from there, lest I be bereaved of you both in one day.” D Then, having seized an opportune occasion for the flight of her son, she entered to Isaac and said: “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of the sons of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of this land, what does it matter to me to live?” For so that the blessed Jacob might not make his departure unwelcome to his father, and prove to be a cause of grief and anger, the woman skillfully persuades the elder to grant his son the opportunity to leave. For, he says, having called Jacob, Isaac blessed him and commanded him, saying: “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites. Rising, flee to Mesopotamia to the house of Bathuel, your mother’s father, and take for yourself from there a wife from the daughters of Laban, your uncle. And may the Lord God bless you, and multiply you, and you shall be for congregations of nations, and may He give you the blessing of Abraham your father, to you and to your seed after you, unto the
return to the land of your sojourn, which God gave to Abraham. C
2. As far as the letter and the plain history are concerned, one ought not to regard with little wonder both Rebecca herself and the blessed Isaac. For she, as to one superior, offered petitions to her husband on behalf of their son. He, however, taking counsel from the law of nature that he might refrain from nuptials that would not please his mother, gave instruction: educating him in a way like a young whelp, he who was born of him and piously reared, and urging him to insist upon the footprints of his fatherly virtue. For everywhere we shall find the divine Jacob yielding to the biddings B of those who begat him, and making the matter a manifest and unambiguous sign of his piety toward God. However, as far as concerns the discourse of contemplation, I think it necessary to repeat the argument from a higher point. For thus will the contemplation become easily transparent. For when Rebecca was still carrying in her womb that pair of brothers born of her, she suffered intolerable pains of soul, to such a degree that she was even in danger of her life, as the infants leapt immoderately in the womb. Then, inquiring of God as to what this might mean, she said: "If it is to be thus with me, why is this to me?" But what does God provide in answer? "Two nations and two peoples C shall be separated from your womb, and people shall surpass people," He says, "and the greater shall serve the lesser." Let us therefore establish Jacob and Esau as a type of the two peoples, namely, the Israelitic and the faithful. Moreover, "Esau was indignant," it says, "at his brother Jacob," because having purchased his birthrights he had deprived him of the glory of his own primogeniture, and by offering his own honor to another, and being the second to bring the meal from his hunting, he had been defrauded of the blessing. Therefore, he enters into ferocious designs against him, and conceives in his soul slaughter, the companion of envy. Indeed, the firstborn Israel was similarly indignant and gravely angered D at those in the faith and those after him, that is, the new people. Forasmuch as he was established in the first place before God, and held for the firstborn, and was full of the blessing from above, having become enriched with the grace in Christ through the Spirit. Israel, surely, set upon those who are in Christ through faith, and in his will and endeavors became a murderer, haunting them with persecutions, and wounding them with the darts of envy. But Rebecca persuaded Jacob, having abandoned his home, to flee from his brother and to approach Laban, a man who was an idolater. Isaac, the blessed father of Jacob, also urged him to abandon a marriage from Canaan, but rather to be eager to make a consort—for the new people, endangered and infested by persecutions, that they might flee the rages of murderers, the Church, whose type is Rebecca, prudently took counsel. But of the same opinion is also the bridegroom of Rebecca himself, that is, Christ, commanding indeed that one should avoid spiritual friendship with those who burn with impious rages, and slaughters.
fiercely. A For marriage is a sign of intimacy. It is better, therefore, to choose those from the house of Laban, that is, those from the nations. We shall find that the holy apostles, who have become the first fruits of the new peoples in faith, were diligent in fulfilling what had been commanded to Jacob. For they were separating themselves from the flock of the Jews, inasmuch as it was raging against them. And as they changed regions and cities, they wisely made an effort to escape the anger of those who persecuted them. For they remembered Christ commanding and saying: "Whenever they persecute you from this city, flee to the other." B And they spoke to those also who were from the blood of Israel, who had chosen to be disobedient and were heaping insults upon them without restraint: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you; but since you thrust it aside, and do not judge yourselves worthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us." Do you hear how the bridegroom of the Church, that is, Christ, has commanded his own to go away to the multitude of the Greeks, and to beget children from there, so to speak, and to appear as fathers of peoples? Therefore, the most wise Paul also writes to those from the nations who believed through him, saying: "For though you have ten thousand C tutors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel." And that God will also be present, and will richly bless the peoples in faith, the divine Isaac would show very easily, as he sends Jacob away from his father's home, crowning him with blessings from above and saying: "May my God bless you, and increase you, and multiply you; and you shall be for congregations of nations. And may he give to you the blessing of Abraham your father." For those in Christ have been blessed, and have increased greatly, and have become a multitude and congregations of nations, and have been declared fellow-heirs of the holy fathers. D For they will recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, even in the kingdom of heaven, according to the voice of the Savior himself. We have been blessed by him again; for he said on our behalf: "Holy Father, keep them in your truth." But if Rebecca should also be understood as the mother of Esau, this will not harm these observations at all. For we have accepted Esau as a type of those from Israel; yet we have attributed to Rebecca the person of the Church. But indeed, even those from Israel themselves have become sons of the Church through faith in Christ, no longer counted as that old and ancient people, but rather transformed into a new one, mixed with those from the nations. "For if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation"; who also created the two peoples into one new man, making peace according to the Scriptures, and reconciling both in one spirit
A 3. Jacob, therefore, instructed by the viaticum of his father's blessing, embarked on the journey he had planned. What things actually happened to him in the meantime will be clear to us from the sacred Scriptures themselves. They hold as follows: "And Jacob went out from the well of the oath, and went to Charran, and arrived at a place, and slept there. For the sun had set. And he took of the stones of the place, and put it by his head, and slept in that place, and dreamed. And behold a ladder set up on the earth, whose head reached to heaven, and the angels of God ascended and descended upon it. And the Lord was set upon it, and said: I am the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: fear not. The land whereon thou sleepest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the sand of the sea. And it shall be spread abroad to the sea, and toward the south, and toward the north, and toward the east; and in thee shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed, and in thy seed. And behold, I am with thee, keeping thee in all the way whithersoever thou shalt go, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done all that I have spoken to thee." And Jacob rose up from his sleep, and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not." And he was afraid, and said, "How fearful is this! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." And Jacob rose up early, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it, and called the name of that place, The House of God." We have said, therefore, that the name of the city is the Well of the Oath. For it is written B thus concerning it: "And it came to pass that day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said, We have not found water. And he called it an Oath. Therefore he called the name of the city, Well of the Oath, unto this day." If anyone wishes to know why it was called the "Well of the Oath," I shall tell him that also. For there the leaders of the Gerarites, I mean Abimelech and those with him, struck a pact of peace with Isaac. The divine Jacob, therefore, departs from his paternal home and from that city itself, and is separated from his kin. Wherefore he began to be quite sorrowful. For he had understood, as is probable, that he was to be a pilgrim and a stranger, and that he would live C among foreigners, and be in some measure subject to others, and would have to undergo an unaccustomed yoke of servitude. For it is necessary for even those who are quite noble to yield to those who are in power. But God, who "knows the hearts and kidneys," at once brings him aid, and does not permit the soul of the righteous man to be oppressed by such bitter grief. For He showed him that a multitude of angels, darting hither and thither, would easily deliver those who are subject to God. For this, and nothing else, was what he was taught through the dream. For he saw D perceptibly a ladder reaching up to heaven. The descent and ascent were a sign, even if in a rough [manner]
it was being written by types. He also heard the voice of Him who commands the angels, saying that the blessing given to him by the Father would reach even to him. "For your seed," He says, "shall be extended to the sunrise and the sunset, to the north and to the south." He also said that he would have Him as his helper and savior. Having awakened, the divine Jacob was filled with no small wonder, and he even said, "The Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." But what might He wish to signify through this? How is it not worth seeing? We shall find that the ancients had a very small opinion concerning God. For they imagined that the Divine B neglected all other land and was, in a manner of speaking, confined only to that into which they had been called by Him, having left their own homes and departed from the region of the Chaldeans. For since the worshippers of idols proposed to themselves many gods, attributing a proper region, as it were, to each of the demons, who were worshipped throughout the cities, they supposed that they could not all be everywhere and ought not to be worshipped [as being everywhere]. Wherefore, even the blessed patriarchs, having recently been led away from the customs of idolatry and the error of polytheism, and having been taught to worship God—who exists naturally and truly—did not yet believe that God was present and helping them in every land and in every place, having as yet attained a very small understanding of God. The blessed Jacob, therefore, is taught, and he gathers the fruit of his pilgrimage: faith. For he learned that God is in every place and every region. And He indeed dwells in heaven, but He fills the entire world, and all things are subject to Him, and the spirits that are commanded to go up and down in heaven have Him as their head and overseer. For this reason he marveled, saying: "The Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." Having thought, however, that the stone was the cause of the dreams themselves, he honored it too, anointing it with oil; and he called that place "the house of God" and "the gate of heaven," and he set up the stone.
4. C And these things may be said for us again in a coarser manner of narration. For it was necessary to simplify what seemed steep in the history. But moving what lies before us to spiritual contemplation, we say again that the new people in the faith, as though in the firstfruits of the holy apostles, was eager to flee and escape as much as possible the hands of the bloodthirsty, I mean the Jews. Setting out, moveover, from city to city, it claimed for itself the flock of the Gentiles, and desired vehemently to gather them as it were into itself through the spiritual and intelligible communication, D just as, indeed, Jacob also hastened to the daughters of Laban, with Esau striking terror into him and having attempted to murder him cruelly. But after the faithful people rested in Christ, who is the "choice, corner, precious stone"—for this, I think,
A (wishing to sleep upon the stone) we have learned that they will not be alone on earth, but will have the holy angels as helpers and allies, running up and down. For Christ says somewhere, "Amen, amen, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." This, I think, is the ladder, the movement of the holy spirits up and down, "who are sent for service, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation." And Christ was firmly fixed upon the ladder, in that the holy spirits reached up to him and had him as their leader, not as one existing among them, but as God and Lord. David also says somewhere to every man who chooses to dwell in the aid of the Most High, "For he will give his angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the adder and B the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon." For we have trodden upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, with Christ giving the authority. Worthy, therefore, are those in Christ even of a divine vision, and of being calmly confident that he will be with them, will defend them, will save them everywhere, and will render them fruitful. "For behold," he says, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." That the blessed disciples have become rich and have become fathers of countless nations—in the faith in Christ, I say, and as if in a spiritual generation—is manifest, I think, to everyone, since Paul says clearly to those who believed through him, "For if you have ten thousand C pedagogues in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, through the Gospel, I have begotten you." Their seed, therefore, has become equal in number to the sands, and has spread out also to the sunrise and the sunset, and to the right and left—to the south, I mean, and the north. But the stone too was honored, and set up, and anointed with oil as a type of Christ. For Emmanuel has been anointed by God and the Father with "the oil of gladness above his fellows." And he has also been raised from the dead, although he descended voluntarily into death. And this, I think, is what it means for the stone to have been set up. And our Lord Jesus Christ is also proclaimed by the holy apostles as one anointed by the Father in the Holy Spirit D and raised from the dead; through whom and with whom, to God and the Father, be glory and power with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
Further concerning the patriarch Jacob.
1. That it is by far the most excellent thing, and most pleasing to God, to desire divine discourses and to wish to learn all that is best, how could anyone doubt? And that this matter is of the greatest importance and will lead us to a useful end, the Savior himself bears witness, saying thus: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto..."
a merchant man seeking goodly pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." It is therefore necessary that we should first seek the goodly pearls. For thus shall we find the one and precious pearl, that is to say, Christ. And who these goodly pearls might be—those having a possession acceptable to God, the seeking of which leads us A to the one pearl—I would say that they are altogether the saints, concerning whom it has been spoken by the voice of the prophet, that "the holy stones are rolled upon the earth." B We must therefore examine most diligently what has been said and done by each of the ancients in particular; for we shall see in them the deep mystery of our religion, that is to say, Christ, as if skillfully and wisely sketched out in types. Furthermore, we shall find the divine plan of salvation, shrouded in some difficulty, yet not entirely obscure in its manifestation. Therefore, the discourse will again be instituted concerning Jacob, and we shall pursue the manner in which he passed his whole life, placing the figure of the entire economy—of the Gospel, I mean—before our eyes, as if in him; flying like bees over the most flowery branches of history, and gathering what is useful in each for the clarification of our discourse. But if indeed not everything written about him should be brought into these contemplations, let no one take offense, considering that some things are, in a certain sense, proper to those events which happened historically, while others pertain to the interior senses and are transformed into the power of the mystery. C 2. It is written, therefore, again in this way: "Jacob then lifted up his feet, and went into the land of the East, unto Laban the son of Bathuel the Syrian, brother of Rebecca, mother of Jacob and Esau. And he looked, and behold a well in the field. And there were three flocks of sheep lying by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks; and a great stone was upon the mouth of the well. And thither were all the flocks gathered together, and they used to roll the stone from the well's mouth, and water the sheep, and put the stone again upon the mouth of the well in its place." And Jacob said to them: "My brethren, whence are you?" And they said: "Of Charran are we." And he said to them: "Know you Laban the son of Nachor?" And they said: "We know him." And he said to them: "Is he well?" And they said: "He is well." D And behold, Rachel his daughter was coming with the sheep of her father. And Jacob said to them: "The day is yet much, neither is it time to bring the flocks back to the folds. Water the sheep, and go and feed them." They said: "We cannot until all the shepherds be gathered together, and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and we water our sheep." While he was yet speaking to them, behold, Rachel the daughter of Laban was coming with the sheep of her father. For she tended the sheep of her father. And it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother. And he kissed
Rachel, and lifting up his voice, he wept, and told B Rachel that he was her father's nephew and that he was the son of Rebekah. And running, she told her father according to these words. And it came to pass when Laban heard the name of Jacob, the son of his sister, he ran to meet him, and embracing him, he kissed him and brought him into his house; and he told Laban all these words, and Laban said to him, "You are my bone and my flesh." C After that extraordinary divine vision and revelation—for he had seen a ladder reaching to heaven, and the Lord standing upon it, and the angels running up and down, and he had heard clearly that God would be with him and would multiply his seed into an innumerable multitude of peoples—having set up the stone as a type of Christ, then indeed, having taken courage and having his hope concerning the things to come firmly planted in God, he presses on toward the goal of his journey and arrives at the land lying toward the dawn. And he immediately makes himself known to many shepherds, as one who is also highly experienced in pastoralism. And that it is a familiar matter to him he makes clear by saying: "There is yet much of the day. Now therefore, having watered the sheep, go, feed them." And he is made known D also to the daughter of Laban, bestowing as it were a first-fruit and beginning of the nobility of character that was in him, in that he deemed it worthy to provide care for the sheep she was grazing and to water them. For he believed, as was likely for one nurtured in the best of characters, that it was quite unseemly for Rachel, being a virgin and at the age of marriage, to wait for the assembly of the shepherds so that, the stone being moved, she might water the sheep, yielding to others due to both weakness and the modesty becoming to a virgin. Otherwise, too, the law of natural love provoked him to perform the duty and to assist those of the same blood and near kin. And so he watered the sheep of Rachel, rolling the stone alone from the well. But it is necessary to recall that the divine Moses also, upon fleeing the Egyptians, arrived in the land of the Midianites. Then, encountering shepherds and finding the daughters of Jethro being treated unjustly, he made himself known through the same manner of exertions. Thus it is that the things written concerning him hold: "And Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian. And coming to the land of Midian, he sat by the well. And the priest of Midian had seven daughters, grazing the sheep of their father Jethro. And having arrived, they drew water until they filled the troughs to water the sheep of their father Jethro. But the shepherds arriving, drove them away. But rising, Moses rescued them and watered the sheep of their father. And they returned to Jethro their father, who said to them, 'Why have you hastened to come today?' And they said, 'An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds, and he drew water for us and watered our sheep.' And he said to his daughters, 'And where is he? And why have you left the man? Call him, therefore, that he may eat bread.' And Moses dwelt with the man." You understand, therefore
in what way the meanings A are in a certain sense akin, and how those things indicated by them through both are related. Moreover, the divine Moses, repelling the injury and violence of other shepherds, drew water and watered the flocks of Jethro. Jacob alone, however, rolled away the stone, although very many others had been accustomed to do this not without sweat, and he watered the sheep of Laban in a similar way. And just as Moses turned aside into the house of an idolater, so also did the divine Jacob. For Laban was still a worshiper and servant of idols. But since the account has attributed to the person and figure of Jacob the peoples in the faith, come, let us say what is interior and more hidden, investigating the density that the history has in itself.
3. The created people, therefore, according B to the voice of the Psalmist, would be, I think, no other than the new man in Christ, that is, he who through faith has been raised to the glory of the firstborn, having repelled the former and ruined Israel. For he who was the head, that is, the superior, has become the tail, and he who was known before the calling of others is called a follower. For they are placed in the rear, and they walk behind the nations. The supplanter, therefore, is the people in Christ through faith, and his state is like that of the divine Jacob. The first fruits of this race are to be considered the holy apostles, who indeed took their origin from the blood and race of Israel; but after they had obtained faith in Christ, and had adapted to their heads, as it were a certain crown, the grace of the Holy Spirit, they were offended by those who were of their own race. Therefore, they abandoned those prone to slaughter and ferociously raging, and departing C just about entirely from their father’s house and from the very homeland itself—from Jerusalem, I say, or the region of the Jews—they betook themselves to the nations, having Christ as their helper and an aid to every good, and the angels as companions, established by hope from above, and expecting to become the fathers of many nations, so that their seed might be propagated into the east and west, the north and south; that is, those who are regenerated in spirit through faith, and are justified in Christ; whom they also address, saying: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession, that you may proclaim the virtues of him who called you from darkness into his marvelous light. You who once were not a people, but now are the people of God in Christ." But how could it be doubtful that those who are appointed to teach them are called in the sacred Scriptures "fathers of the nations"? They departed, therefore, from the region of the Jews, and having left behind the proud and insulting people, they went away to the nations according to the command of our Savior. Moreover, that they are spiritual shepherds, and skilled in divine discipline, they declare at once, by in no way allowing [the flocks] to be idle
A regarding that which is most suitable for them. For they immediately set forth the word of the doctrine concerning Christ, and persuade them to perform those things which are profitable; just as the divine Jacob also, to the shepherds of Charran—because he himself was also a shepherd—manifestly explained, saying: “There is yet much of the day remaining; it is not yet the time for the cattle to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go away and feed them.” Do you hear in what manner he gave the order to the shepherds to feed the sheep? This is the very thing that the most wise disciple also commanded the presbyters of the people, that is, the bishops, to do. “The presbyters therefore,” he says, “who are among you, I beseech, I who am a fellow-presbyter, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that is about to be revealed: feed the flock of Christ which is among you.” B And going through every region and city, they ordered that countless other shepherds should be set over the people, and to take care of the rational sheep; and that they should feed them as if in a good pasture and in a fertile place, and lead them, as it were, into the most flowering grass—the divinely inspired Scripture, that is to say. For the word of God is food that preserves the life of the soul. Let it be said, therefore, to these spiritual shepherds: “Take care of the green field, and mow the grass, and gather the timely hay, so that you may have sheep for clothing.” But the holy disciples were also fathers of the Gentiles in another way, and they proved themselves to be teachers of the shepherds among them, that is, of the wise men and masters, introducing a truer instruction to those who listened. And that they were by far much C more powerful and better than them, one might perhaps know, and very easily, if one considers this: for a stone of immense weight was laid upon the well, which the shepherds indeed, with joined forces, could barely move; but Jacob alone accomplished this. What, therefore, does the well signify, and what again the stone? Come, let us say, as far as possible. For we shall know of this, and of the difference in strength of the shepherds, and the preeminence and superiority in understanding of the disciples of the Savior, and it will become manifest how much the disciples of the Savior excelled in knowledge.
4. D It is the custom of divine Scripture to compare the knowledge of God to water. For that it is life-giving, the Savior testified, saying to the Father in heaven: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” He also spoke at one time to the woman from Samaria: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” I think he calls the word from himself and his own instruction lifegiving. The Master also cried out: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and drink.” And indeed, through the voice of the prophet, he rebukes some who had ignorantly swayed away to the necessity of accepting other teachers after the instruction in the Law, and had turned aside to the doctrines and commandments of men. For he said thus: “The heaven was astonished at this, and trembled exceedingly, says the Lo
Lord; because my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” The vivifying water, therefore, is the divine Word. But it is situated at a very great depth, nor could any one ever procure it without sweat; for it is not ready for those who wish for it simply. A A very heavy stone lies upon it, one which can be removed only with the greatest difficulty—namely, the obscurity regarding it, which surpasses the weakness of our intellect, and it is entirely necessary that those who pasture the spiritual sheep should apply the greatest labor to remove this difficulty and to draw up the water, and, as it were, to lead it forth from the deep so as to provide it to the hearers for the use of life. Furthermore, the shepherds of the nations—that is, those who are considered wise among them—to some extent subvert the truth through the variety of their dogmas concerning God. For they do not think rightly about Him: they do indeed confess the nature of God, but they attribute the glory of Deity to whomever it has seemed good to them. However, even one single shepherd in Christ suffices to move away from the well the stone, however heavy it may be—that is, the covering and the difficulty by which the opinions about God are obscured—[and] from whence they draw up a manifest truth for the nations, and propose to them the one God, naturally and truly. Wherefore, B when the blessed Paul had come to Athens, he set the living water before the wise men of that city, saying: “Men of Athens, in all things I see that you are somewhat more superstitious. For as I passed by,” he says, “and beheld your devotions, I found also an altar with this inscription: To the Unknown God. Whom therefore you ignorantly worship, Him I announce to you.” You see, therefore, how, even though they were leaders of peoples, and shepherds, and guides, they scarcely move the most heavy stone from the well even a little, thinking indeed that they were acting piously because they revered God, but in reality, they were wandering far from the truth. For having built an altar, they inscribed upon it a title: To the Unknown God—that is, to a demon not yet known. But these men thought that they were holding the best opinion C concerning God. But the divine Paul condemns that inscription and, with great artfulness, leads them to what is useful, saying that the God unknown to them is Christ. “For whom,” he says, “you ignorantly worship, Him I announce to you.” You see how he uncovered the well, moved away the stone, and showed them the vivifying knowledge. Incomparable, therefore, is the difference in the diligence of the shepherds. For they, even though they were very numerous, did not attain the true opinion concerning God, and, overcome by the obscurity of their dogmas, they were carried away toward what seemed right to them. But this man, even though he was alone, set forth the truth. For Jacob alone rolled away the stone, and watered the sheep of Rachel. Moreover, he considered the girl worthy of being loved. “For he kissed,” it is said, “Rachel, and D was immediately recognized by Laban,” who thereafter received him into his house and deemed him worthy of the love and embraces of his kinsman.
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[...], he says, Rachel, and he was immediately recognized by Laban, A who from that time on also made him one of his household, considered him worthy of affection and embraces, and counted him among his close kin. For he said: "You are of my bones and of my flesh." Rachel is interpreted as "sheep of God." One might attach to her, and indeed very reasonably, the figure of the Church from the nations. For she is the sheep of Christ, mixed with the older folds and enclosed in the Savior's pens. Therefore, he also said: "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." The inspired disciples also pastured the Church of Christ, or rather the rational sheep understood to be under it, and they have indeed presented her to God as a pure virgin, having no spot or wrinkle, or anything of that sort, but rather holy and immaculate.
B 5. That Israel, who was from the Gentiles, also had the beginning of his lineage and, as it were, the first shoots of the root, we shall understand from the words of Laban. For an idolater greeted Jacob, and said that he was from his own blood; and it is clear that he called him flesh and bone due to Rebecca. For the divine Abraham was called in uncircumcision, having been raised in the land of the Chaldeans, in their customs and Gentile laws, and he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the faith which he had in uncircumcision, according to what is written. Therefore, the first-born Israel is kin to those from the Gentiles, even if he is separated by the Law, so C as to appear distinct. But in Christ the two have become one. For He took away the wall that separated them, abolishing the law of commandments in ordinances, and the circumcision that divided them. For we have been renewed into one new man, and the nations and those from Israel have become a single body and of one mind. And it is seen that they have even been brought into an identity through communion in the Spirit. For Christ once said to the Father and God in heaven: "I desire that as I and you are one, D so they also may be one in us." For He is our peace, who has broken down the middle wall of the partition, as I said just now, and has removed what stood in between, binding us together, as it were, into a unity through the Spirit. Therefore, a sign—and a very clear one indeed—of the unity of the two peoples in faith and in the Spirit is Laban embracing Jacob and confessing that he is his bone and flesh. But what else, come, let us say, seeking from the holy Scriptures themselves? "For he said," it says, "Laban to Jacob: 'Because you are my brother, shall you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me what your wages are.' Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. But Leah's eyes were weak, while Rachel was beautiful in appearance and very fair in face. And Jacob loved Rachel, and said: 'I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.' And Laban said to him: 'It is better that I should give her to you, than that I should give her to another man; dwell with me.' And Jacob served for Rachel seven years."
A And they were in his sight as a few days, because he loved her. And Jacob said to Laban: 'Give me my wife; for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.' And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a marriage feast. And it became evening, and Laban took Lia his daughter, and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob went in to her. And Laban gave Zelpha his handmaid to his daughter Lia for a handmaid. And it became morning, and behold, it was Lia. And Jacob said to Laban: 'What is this that you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? And why have you deceived me?' Laban said: 'It is not so in our place, to give the younger before the elder. Complete therefore her week—and I will give you this one also—for the work which you shall do with me for seven other years.' And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. And Laban gave him Rachel his daughter to be his wife. Laban also gave to his daughter Rachel, Balla his handmaid to be her handmaid. And he went in to Rachel; and he loved Rachel more than Lia. And he served him seven other years.
6. These things, therefore, taken from the bare history, need no explanation. For there is nothing in them that is entirely difficult. But if any of those who are accustomed to scrutinize such matters with more precision should say that it is considered especially disgraceful among us to contract double marriages and to join two wives to oneself, and indeed to have a pair of sisters in one's house, to this we reply that to the ancients there was no greater desire than to abound in children, and they deemed this the highest degree of prosperous success. It was free, and without any reproach, to be joined not only to two, but even to more wives, who might propagate the race into an immense multitude. C Indeed, they received the propagation of children from God in the place of a blessing. And the Lord of all things Himself promised to bestow this benefit even upon those saints who were of old and preceded Moses, as well as upon those who received the discipline of the Law. For He says: 'There shall be no barren or widowed woman among the children of Israel' (Deut. vii, 14). But we ought not to consider this utterance in the category of law, but rather to say that it is a promise. For whatever things are within us and under our own power are subject to legal ordinances, and quite rightly so; but whatever things do not depend upon us, but have their fulfillment in the laws of nature, do not have the Law as their arbiter. It is manifest, therefore, and to no one who exists is it unclear, that the Creator could not have commanded that there should not be a barren or childless woman among the children of Israel. But if they should be observers of the Law, He promised as God to show them, as it were, fruitful. D Therefore, among the ancients, the multitude of children was a matter of concern and was held in the highest praise. But we, having been transferred in Christ, ought rather to be fruitful in the spirit—not indeed despising marriage, but rather choosing that which is more excellent than this, and which is celebrated with the highest praise in the sacred Scriptures—to adhere, I say, to…
God without distraction, and not to be divided at all by the things which are in the world. For the unmarried man, says Paul, cares for the things of the Lord; but he who is married cares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided.
B 7. But let us now dismiss the discourse concerning these things. Come, let us turn our minds to spiritual contemplations, considering that, and very rightly, the labor of the apostles, which they expended in preaching, was not without its reward, nor was their sweat devoid of compensation. For Laban said to Jacob: "You shall not serve me for nothing." The blessed disciples also made the multitude of those who believed in the beginning a foundation of glorious achievements and of glory. Therefore Paul addressed them thus: "My joy and crown." But I consider it necessary that we return to those things which were most usefully set forth by us at the beginning. I said, in fact, that by contemplating the person of Jacob spiritually, sometimes the chorus of the holy apostles comes into view, as having become the first-fruits of those sanctified in the Spirit and justified by faith: but sometimes Christ Himself, as the first-fruits of the humanity renewed unto incorruption, as the first-born among many brothers, as the second Adam, and as the second root of the race after the first. C The argument, therefore, always shifts the goal of the contemplations to where it is fitting to aim. For to deviate from the proper line of thought makes the interpretation of the contemplations more graceless. For the present, therefore, the person of Jacob represents Emmanuel, the heavenly bridegroom, who in a certain sense received the daughters of Laban not without labor. For it is proper to the supreme essence of all things to perform whatever He wills without labor. For I have said somewhere else concerning Him, as the blessed prophet Isaiah also said: "He shall not hunger, nor shall He labor, nor is there any searching of His understanding." For the Divine is in no way needy, but is most perfect in Himself, having no power acquired from another, nor is He invigorated by the food or drink of bodies; but He is power by nature. D Therefore, He also establishes the heavens, and distributes power with authority to whomever He wishes. But just as, even though His nature is such that He cannot suffer pain, He is nevertheless said to suffer pain (for He says somewhere to the mother of the Jews, by which I mean the Synagogue: "And you have grieved me in all these things"); and the divine Paul also writes: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed"; so, even if He is said to labor, we do not mean this because He perceives the sense of labor, but because (if to labor were His custom) He would have sustained it, having achieved immense and most excellent things, and those things in which it is probable that the most grievous and bitter labors would have been endured if one of us were in that state. Therefore, if we move from human understanding to the highest concepts, we shall find the solicitude of the immortal nature for us to be, as it were, soaked in labor and sweat. Yet we shall deem Him necessarily free from labor, since
He surpasses the whole of creation, being established and resting in His own excellences. Not without a reward, therefore, nor yet without labor, did Christ take to Himself, first, the Synagogue of the Jews, which we shall consider as bearing the figure of Leah. For her name is interpreted as "laboring" and "renewed." She labored, indeed, oppressed by the tyranny of the Egyptians and weighed down by the intolerable yoke of servitude. Furthermore, she was renewed and restored to her ancestral dignity. For she was, in a sense, transformed from idolatrous worship to the knowledge of the one who is naturally and truly God. For God cried out to them through Moses: A "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord," and this: "There shall be no other gods for you besides me." But Christ desired Rachel from the very beginning—that is, the Church from the Gentiles. Therefore, He also said concerning the Synagogue of the Jews to Moses, the interpreter of the divine oracles: "I have spoken to you once and twice, saying: I have seen this people, and behold, a stiff-necked people: let Me alone, that I may destroy them, and I will blot out their name from under the firmament of heaven; and I will make you into a nation great and strong, and much greater than this." But it was necessary that those who still possessed a mind that was light and easily moved from its state should not be led immediately to that which is perfect, and to a discipline superior to their understanding—the evangelical, I mean—but rather that they should be instructed first by lesser things, and be pre-exercised for the life in Christ by the legal doctrine. B The heavenly bridegroom therefore loved the younger from the beginning—that is, the Church from the Gentiles. Yet, in a way, he leads the elder not without labor. For Jacob served for Leah. And that Israel was rescued from the servitude of the Egyptians by many and great labors, there is no doubt. For the whole of creation waged war along with them. Therefore, the servitude of Jacob, being performed by no means without toil, is a sign that Israel was not redeemed without sweat, and that he subsequently became God's through the legal worship. But when the weeks of the elder were completed, he took Rachel—that is, the younger, whom he had desired and loved from the beginning. For after the first, the Church from the Gentiles, the "sheep of God," was invited—for this is how Rachel is interpreted, as I have said before. C That Christ in a certain way labored also for her, the divine Jacob again demonstrates to us, having endured the seven years' labor also for the sake of Rachel. For if it were possible for the Son, existing as God by nature, to labor, how could it not have happened to Him, when He endured the persecution of Herod at the beginning, the snares of the Pharisees, the calumnies of the governors, the spitting, the slaps, the scourges, the insults of the soldiers, and finally death itself upon the wood? Leah and Rachel were daughters of Laban, a man who still worshiped idols. For they were called from the Gentiles: the first, the Synagogue of the Jews (for even the divine Abraham himself sprang from an Hellenic root and race), and the second, and after the second the new, that is, the Church. D
The eyes of Leah were weak and dull, but Rachel was fair of form and very beautiful to behold. And concerning the Jews Christ said to his holy disciples: “Let them alone; they are blind leaders of the blind. But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.” A Therefore, the weakness of the Jewish Synagogue regarding the vision of God would be fittingly signified through the eyes of Leah. But the wisdom and intelligence, and the great maturity in understanding of those who are in faith in Christ, and indeed, the splendor in works, were foreshadowed through the beauty of Rachel. And toward the mother of the Jews, the prophetic word may cry out: “Behold, your eyes are not, nor is your heart beautiful.” But let Christ call the Church from the Gentiles, and let him say concerning her: “Your eyes are doves.” For he longed for her beauty, according to the voice of the Psalmist. Therefore, Christ took as a consort first the Synagogue of the Jews, with Moses acting as the bridal escort and the angels serving as mediators; and after her, as if a second, he took the Church from the Gentiles, having used the blessed John the Baptist, in a manner of speaking, as a mediator for this. B Therefore, he also spoke, signaling to us this spiritual and divine marriage: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine, therefore, is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.” But mercy and faith are the dowry of the bride. For the bridegroom, coming from above and from heaven to the Church from the Gentiles, says somewhere through the voice of the prophets: “And I will betroth you to myself forever, and I will betroth you to myself in justice and judgment, and in mercy and in compassion. And I will betroth you to myself in faith, and you shall know the Lord.” For he had brought, as I said just now, the elder before the Church from the Gentiles. But the manner of the betrothal, [c] and the strength of the union, was not for eternity. For he says somewhere again concerning her, that “She is not my wife, and I am not her husband.” And again: “I have given her a bill of divorce into her hands.” For she has been cast away as having played the harlot, and condemned for the most loathsome deeds. For he says somewhere concerning her: “If a man dismisses his wife, and she departs from him, and becomes another man’s, will she return to him again? Shall not that woman be utterly defiled? And you have played the harlot with many shepherds; yet return to me, says the Lord. Lift up your eyes to the straight path, and see where you have been prostituted. You sat by the roads like a desolate crow, [d] and you have polluted the land with your fornications and with your wickedness, and you have had many shepherds to your offense. The face of a harlot has become yours; you have become shameless before all. Have you not called me even now as father and the leader of your virginity? Will it remain for ever?” Such was the plight of the elder. But the younger, that is, the Church from the Gentiles, he betroths to himself, and that in sem-
sempiternum. As for what it says: "To me myself," let it be understood in what way. For he led the Synagogue of the Jews, but through the mediator Moses. However, he was coupled in a certain way to the Church of the Gentiles, calling her to it with his own voice, and being seen as a man like one of those who dwell upon the earth. For he assented to the bride who was crying out: “Show me thy face, let thy voice sound in my ears." And indeed, the ancients heard him speaking, yet through Moses or the prophets. But in the last times of the age, the Son himself has spoken to us through himself, just as the wise Paul also testified. B 8. It is worthwhile, in addition, to inquire into the generation of those who were born from Jacob, and to see how many there were and from whom they sprang. Therefore, in the first place, Lia gave birth to four: Ruben, Simeon, Levi, and Juda. But since Rachel was still sterile and childless, being very sad and at a loss, she took counsel regarding her childlessness. She persuades Jacob, saying: "Behold my handmaid Bala. Go in unto her, and she shall give birth upon my knees, and I shall have children from her." When this had been accomplished at last, two sons were born to Jacob, Dan and Nephthalim. Furthermore, Lia, joining her own handmaid Zelpha to him, so that he might become the father of two other sons, brought about the birth of Gad and Aser. But what then? "Ruben went," he says, "in the days of the wheat harvest, and found mandrake apples in the field, and brought them to Lia his mother." And Rachel said to Lia her sister: "Give me of the mandrakes of thy son." And Lia said: "Is it not enough for thee that thou hast taken my husband? Wilt thou take also the mandrakes of my son?" Rachel said: "Not so; let him sleep with thee this night for the mandrakes of thy son." C When Jacob had come from the field in the evening, Lia went out to meet him, and said: "Thou shalt come in unto me this day. For I have hired thee for the mandrakes of my son." When this was done, Lia again gave birth to Isachar, and after him Zabulon. When the Israelites had finally reached this number, "God remembered," he says, "Rachel, and the Lord heard her, and opened her womb, and she conceived and gave birth to a son for Jacob." And Rachel said: "God has taken away my reproach," and she called his name Joseph, saying: "God has added to me another son." Moreover, she gave birth besides this one also to Benjamin. Regarding her, the Scripture is written thus again: “And it came to pass when Chabrata was approaching to go into the land of Ephrata, Rachel gave birth with difficulty. And it came to pass when she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her: 'Be of good courage. For this also is a son for thee.' And it came to pass, as she was breathing her last (for she was dying), she called his name: Son of my sorrow. But his father called him Benjamin." D And so, while Rachel was dying from the pains of childbirth, she shared with us
A the departure from the things of this life. Such, then, is the account of the generations of Jacob. But who might understand the innermost sense of what is written? That is known to Him alone who knows all things, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," according to what is written. We, however, shall gaze upon these things with delicate eyes, attempting, as far as possible, to dissipate the density of the mist that covers them, and we shall say to Him who gives understanding to the blind: "Open my eyes, and I will understand the wonders from your law."
Hence (for I shall return to the beginning and call to mind again what I said), we must very rightly compare Leah, the elder, B to the Synagogue of the Jews; and we shall suppose Rachel to represent the Church of the Gentiles. Having thus established the faith in these matters as a foundation for our discourse, let us add the rest.
9
Leah, then, bore four sons first; then, meanwhile, four others were born from the two handmaidens, Balla and Zelpha. And since Leah and Rachel divided between themselves the mandrakes found in the fields by Ruben, both became mothers. Leah bore, in addition to those four, Issachar, which means "reward"; then Zabulon, which, when interpreted again, signifies "blessing" and "sweetness of scent." Furthermore, Rachel also bore Joseph, which means "addition of God"; and after him, in the end, Benjamin, which means "son of sorrow." For she who was older in time, that is, the Synagogue, was the first to give birth to the multitude of the Jews C for God. And you will understand very well that God called those born of her "sons," as He says to Moses: "Israel is my firstborn son." Also, through the voice of Isaiah: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten and raised up sons, but they have rejected me."Furthermore, because they were born of free women, it was because their fathers had not had the yoke of the Law imposed upon them; for the blessed Paul himself declared to us the freedom of the fathers, saying: "I was alive without the law once." By this "I," he refers to the root of his own race and attributes it to his ancestors. But that even if they had been born of free women, they were destined to undergo the yoke of legal servitude, the neighboring birth D of the other four, who were born of handmaidens, figuratively signifies to us.
Yet there is a mystery in these as well. For the sons of Balla, Dan and Naphthali, were ascribed to Rachel; but those of Zelpha, Gad and Aser, were ascribed to Leah, and they were born later than those of Balla. But, I suppose, one might ask, and not without reason, how those born of a slave-woman, I mean Balla, could be ascribed to Rachel, even though they fulfill the type of the Church from the Gentiles? What, then, do we say to this? That the blessed prophets were numbered from the beginning among the sons of the handmaid Jerusalem, but in a certain way they were sons of the Church from the Gentiles. For they contemplated the things that are hers, saying that they were to be revealed, and intending to shine forth at the time of Christ.
and through a thousand A types prefiguring it, and—one might almost say—bringing it before the very eyes of those of old. But those who were born after them into slavery did not receive Christ, the dispenser of freedom. That the former are better than those who followed them is easy to see, God saying through the voice of Isaiah: "How has the faithful city become a harlot, Sion full of judgment? In which righteousness dwelt in it, but now murderers." You understand how he calls Jerusalem, or Sion, full of judgment—that is, of rectitude—and a dwelling place of just men, but in the latter days teeming with murderers.
10. But one might see, and very clearly, even from the names themselves, if one were willing, that the sons of Balla are indeed alumni of the Church, but the sons of Zelpha are rather her enemies. For Dan is interpreted as *judgment*, and Nephthalim as *latitudinarianism* (or *enlargement*). This was the preaching of the prophets. For that Christ was about to judge the world in righteousness, and to condemn the devil—the tyrant exercising power over us and our slayer—and to save us, and to translate us, as it were, from very many straits into a wide and ample heart, it will by no means be difficult to prove again. B For the blessed Psalmist cried out, speaking as if in the person of those who are in Christ and justified in the Spirit: "I ran the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart." And the most wise Paul, writing to those among the Corinthians who were wishing to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, says: "Our mouth is opened unto you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompence in the same (I speak as unto my children), be ye also enlarged, be not unequally yoked with unbelievers." But that a right and just judgment has been wrought by Christ, the blessed David again makes clear to us, taking upon himself the person of those who were oppressed by tyranny, and saying to Christ the Savior of all: "Arise, O Lord, and attend to my judgment, my God and my Lord, unto my cause." C And the Savior himself makes this manifest, saying: "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." Do you see that the prophets, when speaking of the mystery concerning Christ, were announcing beforehand the just judgment that would come to us and the enlargement of the heart? Therefore, Dan and Nephthalim were born from Balla, which signify judgment and enlargement; and from Zelpha, Gad and Aser; and Gad is interpreted as *temptation*, but Aser as *riches*. D Were not the latter peoples who followed after the first ones of the Jews indeed of this kind? Let no one surely doubt it. For from those things which happened to Christ, one may easily understand. For these tempted him along with those called Herodians, saying: "Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man; for thou dost not look to the person of men, but...
in truth teachest the way of God; is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?" A They approached, testing him, so that they might ensnare him. For thus the inspired evangelist has testified. But they, for the sake of gain and avarice, did not accept the Son. For, he says, they said among themselves: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours." B That the Pharisees—and that impious crowd of Scribes—were exceedingly fond of wealth and gain, anyone might perceive, and very readily, by turning his mind to the things written concerning them. For our Lord Jesus Christ said that those who choose to think on things above ought to sell their earthly wealth and distribute their possessions to the poor, that they might gain the treasure above. But, as the evangelist says, the Scribes and Pharisees, being lovers of money, heard these things and mocked him. And that they, reaching even to the most trivial things, strove with great precision and pedantry, not leaving even the least bit neglected for those who do not bring according to the law the appointed tithes—though they were little concerned with the law itself—the Lord fully pointed out to them, saying: "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith." Therefore, Gad is "temptation," C but Asher is "wealth." And both were born of the handmaid Zilpah, after Dan and Naphtali, who were from Bilhah. But in these, let the time before the coming of our Savior be described for us, in which Rachel was still barren, that is, the Church from the Gentiles, which, being about to bear many and to be a nurse of innumerable nations, Isaiah long ago cried out, saying: "Rejoice, O barren, you that do not bear. Break forth and cry, you that travail not; for the children of the desolate are many more than of her who has a husband." But the inspired David also pointed this out regarding God, saying: "Who makes the barren woman to dwell in a house, a mother rejoicing over her children." And the Lord and God of all said somewhere to her: "Lift up your eyes round about, and see all." And again: "Behold, these come from afar, these from the north and from the sea, and others from the land of the Persians." D Come then, if you please, let us observe when and how the barren woman has brought forth. After those who were born from the handmaids, Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob, finds mandrakes in the field, and brings them to his mother Leah. But she gives them to Rachel who asks for them. And Leah, having received the mandrakes, brings forth again two sons, to wit, Issachar and Zabulon. Then God remembered Rachel, and her womb being opened, she herself also brought forth Joseph, and lastly Benjamin. That Leah therefore signifies the Synagogue of the Jews; but Rachel, the Church from the Gentiles, has been stated by us many times already. Passing over, therefore, as superfluous, the repetition of the same, let us declare next of what thing the mandrakes, found by the firstborn Reuben, are a type: what also is meant by their, perhaps, equal distribution to both. For Leah gave to Rachel,
and what moreover the very generation of children signifies, which in the meanings of their names brings forth C the mystery.
11. Mandrakes, therefore, are produced in the fields, and the fruit they bear is a kind of apple. That it is sleep-inducing and that it oppresses those who use it with a deep stupor, and as it were inebriates them, I do not think requires much speech to demonstrate, since physicians find relief for the sleep difficulties of the sick through the natural virtue and efficacy of mandrakes. They signify to us figuratively the mystery of Christ, who in a certain way fell asleep for our sake and lowered Himself even to the emptying of Himself unto death, although He rose again. For He was God by nature, and He became flesh. But wherever death is in general accepted as a sort of sleep, one must seek there also the resurrection to life; and, in summary, the mystery of Christ is in these things. And so the inspired Paul, rebuking those who, out of fickleness, had been moved toward a different way of thinking, says: "For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." And after other things: "But if Christ is proclaimed as having been raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?" For since Christ (for He was Life by nature) was the first among men to show that death is a sleep, He became for human nature a sort of door and path to the duty of henceforth dealing boldly even with death itself. For this reason also the most wise Paul everywhere D calls those who have died "asleep," as people who are soon to be raised up through Christ. For he says again: "For if we believe that Christ died and rose, so too will God raise those who have fallen asleep with Jesus, and will place them with us." The mandrakes, therefore, are a symbol of sleep. And Reuben, being the firstborn, finds them and then brings them to his mother; and she distributes them to her sister. For the first of those from Israel perceived and became rich in the mystery concerning Christ through the firstborn according to time; and, indeed, they brought this to their own mother—I mean Jerusalem—offering as a brilliant discovery the sagacity that was in them, and moving her to rejoice. For before the calling of the nations, the inspired disciples gave instruction in the sacred mysteries throughout all Judea. For even if not all perhaps believed, yet there was granted to all the opportunity of receiving the word concerning Christ. "But the remnant has been saved," according to the Scriptures. That the Jews preceded the nations in faith is indeed manifest and obscure to no one at all. Leah, therefore, having received the mandrakes, brought forth two sons, Issachar and Zabulon. And indeed Issachar is interpreted as "reward"; but the other, that is to say Zabulon, as "good way" and "blessing." For, as I have already said, through the holy apostles, as if through their own sons [index: entries preserved]
the Synagogue of the Jews, having finally received the mystery of Christ, was shown to be the mother of children who are prospered by God with both reward and blessings. For that faith in Christ is not without reward, the forgiveness of sins would immediately teach. And our Lord Jesus Christ himself confirms this, saying: "Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in me has eternal life." No less does Blessed Paul also say: "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach; for if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." What, then, is a greater and more worthy reward than the saving of a soul? That this is an excellent and most precious thing, the Savior himself convinces us, saying: "For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Glorious and saving, therefore, is the reward for those who believe. B And that a blessing will certainly accompany those who have been justified in Christ, there can be no doubt. For we have been sanctified in the Spirit. Blessed David also says: "The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we have blessed you in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Moreover, God speaks somewhere through the voice of Isaiah to the mother of the believers, I mean the Church: "I will put my spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your children." Therefore, the most wise Paul also writes to those who have been justified by faith, saying: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing." And those who have richly partaken of the blessing from above, how would they not be prospered unto every good work? "For the path," he says, "of the pious has been made straight, and the way of the just has been prepared. For the way of the Lord is judgment." For concerning the Synagogue of the Jews, God says somewhere: "Behold, I will hedge up her ways, and she shall not find her path." But sending us into the mansions above by a way that is level and as it were unobstructed, He commands the holy ministers: "Open the gates, let the people enter who keep justice, and who proclaim truth, C taking hold of truth, and keeping peace." And again: "Make way for my people, and cast the stones from the road, that they may not encounter stumbling blocks in the middle and be hindered in their zeal for good works." Leah, therefore, has brought forth those who are prospered by God with reward and blessings; and Rachel, in like manner, having received the mandrakes, brought forth Joseph. For having received, as it were, the mystery of Christ through the holy apostles, the Synagogue of the Jews—like a sister of the same lineage—became the mother of a people that is always growing and propagating itself into an immense multitude. For "Joseph" is interpreted as "addition of God." For the Church has been added to the Israelite flock.
For this reason Christ also said: "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." The flock of the nations is therefore added, as I have just said, to the more ancient flocks, and it has an unceasing increase, growing still more and more until he himself, the "son of sorrow," the people, is born in the last times, as if in the days of Benjamin.
12. B But who is this, at whose birth the one who gave birth will herself cease and, as it were, pass over into another life? For Rachel died in those very labor pains of Benjamin. To know these things with absolute precision, we shall again attribute to God, and to those endowed with intelligence beyond us; for it does not hurt at all to say what has come to mind. I believe, therefore, that the "son of sorrow," the people, can deservedly be understood as the multitude of believers in the last times of the age. For at that time there will be the "son of iniquity," "who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God." He will array his forces against the saints, and he will in no way differ from untamed wild beasts. For as the Savior himself says: "There shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be." And that his C ferocity and cruelty will attack none other than the saints, Christ has indicated again, adding: "And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened." For since there will be persecution against all the elect and sincerely faithful, and since grievous and intolerable tyranny and distress will hang over them, time will be altogether contracted, with God, I suppose, measuring and tempering the temptation to the strength of those afflicted. This is what the most wise Paul also persuades us of, saying: "And God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it." With the birth, therefore, of Benjamin—that is, the people at the end and in sorrows—Rachel will cease. D For the Church, that is, we who through faith in Christ have obtained unity with God through the Spirit, will, as I just said, be translated into another life in a certain sense. And do not wonder if death translated Rachel from the affairs of this life. For it sometimes strikes certain people to consider these things that happened long ago. And someone perhaps might say and think to himself: "Will the Church therefore cease with the passage of time, and be in some way extinguished by death: and is this what it means to be translated to better things?" To this we reply: When you hear the Church named, believe that the holy multitude of the faithful is meant,
whose death, according to the manner of life in the world and the flesh, is a way to the increase of life in Christ, and a mode of translation to better and more excellent things. For this reason also the blessed Paul brings a sharper rebuke to some, saying: "If you have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why do you decree as if still living in the world?" He writes again to those who have cast off the carnal and pleasure-loving life: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When therefore Christ shall be manifested, your life, then you also shall be manifested with Him in glory." He says clearly that we must mortify our members which are upon the earth, mentioning fornication and uncleanness and the things akin to these. Thus, the death of Rachel signifies entirely the flock of believers, that is to say, the Church, and the death understood in Christ which translates us, in a way, into another life; if it is true that our state will be translated from corruption to incorruption, from death to life, from weakness to power, from dishonor to glory, from measured and defined times to everlasting life. For thus, yes thus, we shall ever be with Christ himself: through whom and with whom, to God and the Father be the glory and the power with the Holy Spirit for ages upon ages. Amen.
GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS BOOK V.
Glaphyra on Genesis, Book Five.
Concerning Jacob.
1. God-inspired Scripture proclaims the types of the salvation through Christ in many ways and many fashions, offering no small benefit from thence to those who will read them. For just as those who are thoroughly skilled in the art of painting, by applying the varied forms of colors to the shadows, lead them to a more pleasant appearance and contribute much grace and beauty to the painting; so too the Wisdom that is the Artificer of the entire universe, that is, God, subtly foreshadows the beauty of the mystery by means of as many varied types as possible, so that those who understand as in riddles, and by taking the matter as a kind of preliminary instruction and introduction to understanding, might be in a way better prepared as candidates for sacred discipline to receive the truth. We for our part have spent our time in this world differing little from brute beasts, or perhaps even being inferior to brute animals, if indeed God truly rebuked the Israelites, saying thus: "The ox knows his owner, and the ass his manger
but Israel did not know me, and my people did not understand." A If, however, those who had the Law as their tutor were accused of such grievous ignorance, what standard would need to be required of the Gentiles, who were immersed in the thickest darkness of error regarding the plurality of gods? For, inclining always downward and wrapped in desires, they were occupied only with earthly thoughts, not able to raise even a little the eye of their mind to the splendor of piety. Therefore, you may find the blessed prophets lamenting us everywhere and, as it were, weeping over us as we lay prostrate, having spent countless words. For the blessed Isaiah says: B "Hell has enlarged its soul, and has opened its mouth, so that it might not cease." For they did not turn away from evil; but, oppressed by the intolerable tyranny of Satan raging against us, the wretched ones descended into hell, after they had been liberated from there, with death swallowing them up and the inventor of sin in a sense feeding upon us. C Nor indeed—as I just said—did the divine David recall such a calamity without tears. For he speaks of us thus, in one place: "As sheep they are laid in hell, death shall feed on them;" but in another place again: "You who feed Israel, give heed, you who lead Joseph like a sheep. You who sit upon the Cherubim, manifest yourself. Stir up your power, and come to save us." For this reason, we have not remained under death forever. For God and Father sent to us from heaven the good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, who does not feed those who are under him in hell, D but leads them to incorruption and life. For he feeds "among the lilies, and in good pastures, and in a fertile place," as it is written; he provides us with spiritual grass, and irrigating us with streams from above and from heaven, he makes us fruitful, and furthermore, he extends us into an immense multitude of peoples. Now let anyone consider that what I have said is signified as in shadows by the divine Jacob, and we shall explain what is written concerning him, and what may appear more obscure in the history, as far as it is possible. Thus, therefore, it is written: "And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban: Send me away that I may return to my place and to my land. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, that I may depart. For you know the service which I have served you, and how much of your livestock was with me. For small was whatever you had before me, and it has increased into a multitude; and the Lord has blessed you at my foot. Now, therefore, when shall I make a house for myself? And Laban said to him: What shall I give you? But Jacob said to him: You shall not give me anything. If you do this word for me, I will again feed your sheep, and keep them. Let all your sheep pass by today, and separate from there every sheep distinct with varied spots, and every dark sheep among the lambs, and every white-spotted and speckled one among the goats shall be my reward, and my justice shall answer for me in
the day to come, because my reward is before thee. Whatever is not spotted and white among the goats, and dark among the lambs, shall be accounted stolen by me." And Laban said to him, "Let it be according to thy word." And he separated on that day the he-goats that were A spotted and white, and all the she-goats that were spotted and white, and whatever was white among them, and whatever was dark among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons, and placed a journey of three days between them and between Jacob. And Jacob was shepherding the sheep of Laban that were left. It is necessary, therefore, to briefly compress again the flow of the history, and thus to add what spiritual contemplation befits it.
2. Servile labor, therefore, had the blessed Jacob performed for Laban, for the sake of two daughters, namely, Lia and Rachel. But when a long time had been consumed, and Joseph was born to him from Rachel, who was exceedingly dear to him, he naturally grieved from that point on, and hastened to return B home, and this discourse concerning setting out has a probable discovery. For, he says, if I am to tend thy possessions without reward and continuously, when shall I make a house for myself? That is, when shall I gather the necessities of life for my own children, and when shall I myself be called the master of a house? And Jacob said these things. But Laban resists as if [speaking] to a good shepherd, and says that he himself had been blessed by his coming; yet he would not let him go, even though the time of the stipulated servitude for his daughters had been completed, and he promised to give whatever reward he wished; and this man [Jacob], because he was upright and good and most patient, and thus was the cause of divine blessing for him, openly confirms it. For he says, "God hath blessed thee C at my foot,"—per pede, signifying his entrance: for Laban had said this before. He asks for a wage, then, and promises to manage the flocks of Laban. After the sheep that were specifically spotted—that is, white or ash-colored—were set apart and designated for him, this having been done, Jacob delegates the flock allotted to him to his own children, while he himself continues to shepherd the sheep of Laban. Who, then, might be the clear sense of these things, which is also necessary for us to state, possessing the spiritual refinement of mind?
3. Let Jacob, therefore, put on the countenance of Christ Himself, D just as we indeed said before. For Christ is the true supplanter. For He has altogether trampled down sin, and according as He is understood, He has appeared as a man, being youngest and more recently born than those who were before Him—I refer to the holy prophets, and even Moses himself. Yet He holds the birthright, and is the firstborn because the Only-Begotten is present among many brethren. He Himself is the one blessed by
A the Father with the abundance of grain and wine. Nations served Him, and princes adored Him, and he who curses Him is cursed, but he who blesses Him is blessed, according to the blessing of Isaac. B He, in the likeness of Jacob, having as it were left the paternal mansion of heaven, betook Himself to Laban, who is to be compared to the world that knows not who is God by nature, but is rather suffering severely from the error of polytheism; for Laban was an idolater. The world, therefore, was indeed Christ’s own, insofar as He is understood to be God by nature and the Lord and Maker of all, yet it was not His own on account of its defection, and because, due to sin, it seemed in some way to have become another’s. For it had enrolled Satan as its king. The Word, therefore, descended from heaven, having (as I have said) left the paternal mansion, and He was as a stranger in His own world. The wise John will testify to this, saying: "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." But these things may perhaps rightly fit the times of His coming. That He was in His own, however, even before the incarnation, as God, yet unknown to the world, and that He took thought for us out of His innate goodness and divine kindness, the inspired Jacob may demonstrate directly, as in a type of Himself. For he tended the sheep of Laban, although he received absolutely no wage from him, but was led by hope alone to be joined to his two daughters and to be declared the father of legitimate children. And these were Leah and Rachel. For the Son, being God by nature, was in the world—for this is what Laban represents—and He tended it in a certain way, dispensing as God the things necessary for the sustenance of life, granting the fruits of the earth, sending forth springs of waters and the courses of rivers, C causing His sun to rise, and, as it is written, sending down rains, and implanting in human nature its innate prudence. For He is "the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world." He fulfilled these things for the sake of, as I said, His innate kindness alone; and receiving no wage from those who were in the world at that time—no glorification, no adoration, no right opinion, nor an error-free judgment concerning Him—He nonetheless foreknew that in the course of time He would have two wives, who would be the mothers of legitimate children to Him, bearing offspring spiritually. But who are these? The first, the elder, that is, Leah, bears before her the type of the Synagogue of the Jews. The second, however, coming not long after and much-loved, the younger, is Rachel, that is, the Church from the Gentiles, who also bore Joseph, which is interpreted as the "addition of God." For the flock of the Gentiles is added to those from Israel. It is also understood otherwise, through the addition in time of those who believe, [the Church] having grown into an immense multitude. But observe the reasoning, for an exact knowledge of these things will be of great benefit. Leah gave birth before Rachel, D and then between them were two handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah. But
Jacob was quiet for a time; he did not yet plan to build a house of his own. But Rachel bore Joseph, and he then desired a house: "When," he said, "shall I provide a house for myself?" A For the Synagogue of the Jews bore those who were subject to the bondage of the Law. But Christ had not yet clearly professed to have a house of his own. For he did not hold in high esteem the temple of stone which Solomon had built. And so he all but rebukes the Jews, who were exceedingly proud of it, saying: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?" But Israel did not become a spiritual house of God, for he did not dwell in them. But when the Church from the Gentiles had born a new and additional people, the Savior then prepared a house of his own for himself. And what is this? We who have believed, concerning whom he says also through the voice of the prophet: "Giving my laws into their mind, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to me for a people." B He dwells in us through the Spirit, as I just said, having not dwelt in Israel. For that those before the coming of Christ were without the Spirit—I mean, in the manner of our own type—the most wise John makes clear, saying: "For the Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus was not yet glorified." For having been raised from the dead, and refashioning human nature according to the divine image, he breathed upon the holy apostles first, saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit." And so the divine Paul said somewhere: "For you have not received the spirit of slavery back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, in which we cry: Abba, Father." Therefore, there was a spirit of slavery in Israel, but in us who are of Rachel—that is, C the Church from the Gentiles—there is the Spirit of God for adoption, making us a spiritual house. For the children of Rachel are free, whose eyes are beautiful and fair, whereas Leah's were not so. For the Synagogue of the Jews does not see soundly. And the most wise Paul will testify to this, saying: "For until the present day the same veil remains at the reading of the Old Testament, not being unveiled, since it is abolished in Christ. But even until today, when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart. But whenever it turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all," as he said again, "with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, D just as from the Lord the Spirit." Do you understand that we behold the glory of the Lord with beautiful eyes and an unveiled face? For Rachel's eyes are resplendent, as I said just now. Since, therefore, the younger Rachel has borne Joseph, the divine Jacob is now eager at last to go home. But Laban changes his mind, and...
A says that he has been blessed by his increase into a great multitude of the flock. For the world stands in great need of God, even if it does not perhaps say so; it knows and confesses, however, that all things necessary for its life and its good constitution are from God. But the blessed Jacob demands his wages, and is no longer willing to be subject to him for free. And the wages were not unwelcome to him: they were the ring-streaked and the ash-colored. In former and past times, indeed, God the Word, through whom all things were made, governing the world with his innate and fitting kindness, permitted them who were in it to walk in their own ways, B as it is written. But since the Church has brought forth a new and ever-growing people—that is, those who have already attained to spiritual regeneration through faith in it—it demands from the world, as a kind of wage for its care of it, those who are more ready for faith, of whom the ring-streaked and the speckled are a type. What, then, does this mean? Always, in the flocks of sheep and goats, those of one color are more desirable to their shepherds, while the various and the speckled hold a second place, and are not held in the same esteem as the others. For the wool in them is not uniform, but varied, C and of different colors, and as it were confused. Christ, therefore, receives from the world, not necessarily those things that are considered precious and choice among men, but rather those which seem to be of lower quality and held in less esteem among them. The divine Paul confirms this, writing to believers: "For see your calling, brothers, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put the wise to shame, and God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the strong." D It might also be understood in another way, if one wishes to examine such matters more closely, regarding the ash-colored and the speckled. For those who are distinguished in Christ are gifted with a certain variety in deeds and words. For the dusky and the black is a figure and shadow of the mystery of Christ, and signifies that the discourse concerning him is dark and obscure to the many. For the divine David also says somewhere in the book of the Psalms: "He made darkness his hiding-place; his tabernacle was round about him; dark water in the clouds of the skies," comparing the difficulty of the dogmas concerning God with the tabernacle, and calling the darkness and the "dark water in the clouds of the skies" A his covering. Wisdom also promises that it will be given to some to understand abundantly parables and dark discourse, the sayings of the wise and riddles. Therefore, the ash-colored signifies to us the depth and the as-it-were black nature of the dogmas concerning Christ. The brilliant and as-it-were transparent nature—which I say is seen in deeds of piety—is signified by the other, that is, the white. Therefore the Lord of all also pre-announces the purification of faith in Christ, saying through the voice of the prophet: "Learn to do good, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,"
A judge the orphan, and justify the widow, and come, let us reason together, saith the Lord. And if your sins be as crimson, I will make them white as snow: and if they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool." Elect, therefore, and of greater value before the Saviour of all, Christ, are those who possess the secondary rank in the world. Set as though among others in lower positions, and bested in glory, yet mottled in a sense and spiritually variegated in the depth of the dogmas concerning God, and enriched with a discourse unknown to others, they are exceedingly conspicuous in the radiance of piety. Jacob’s reward, then, was the "mottled and spotted." But by what manner did he outwit Laban, and what were the many things he chose to do? Let us inquire, if it pleases, and learn from the holy Scriptures themselves. For they hold as follows: "And Jacob took unto himself a green rod of storax, and of almond, and of plane tree, and peeled off white skins, stripping away the green. B And the white, which he had peeled, appeared on the rods, being variegated. And he set the rods, which he had peeled, in the watering-troughs of the water, so that when the sheep should come to drink, they, coming before the rods to drink, might conceive at the rods. And the sheep brought forth white, and variegated, and ash-colored spotted ones. And Jacob separated the lambs, and placed before the sheep a white ram, and every variegated one among the lambs. And he separated flocks for himself by themselves, and did not mix them with the sheep of Laban. And it came to pass at the time when the sheep were conceiving in the womb, Jacob placed the rods before the sheep in the troughs, that they might conceive according to the rods. When, however, the sheep were bringing forth, he did not place them. And the unmarked became Laban’s, and the marked Jacob’s; and the man became exceedingly enriched." C It is a matter of shepherd's science, I say, to know that sheep and goats might bring forth offspring clearly similar to those things they had seen, and might exhibit the colors of the objects that occurred to their sight while they were conceiving. And this seems to come about by a certain natural law. But such things can be explained by no words, nor does the keenness of our mind attain to it. But the divine Jacob selected anew the ash-colored and the spotted according to a divine oracle. For he said somewhere to Leah and Rachel: "And it came to pass when the sheep were conceiving in the womb, and I saw with my eyes in a dream, and behold, he-goats and rams were mounting upon the sheep and the goats, white-flecked and variegated, and ash-colored and spotted; and the angel of God said to me in a dream: Jacob. D And I said: What is it? And he said: Look with your eyes, and behold the he-goats and the rams mounting upon the sheep and the goats, white-flecked, and variegated, and ash-colored and spotted." This, then, the holy Scripture says. But come, let us pass by the lowly sense of the history and ascend to spiritual meanings.
4. On the Rod
Rod, for us, enigmatically signifies, once again, Immanuel. For he is named thus by the God-inspiredA Scripture. For the divine Isaiah says: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise out of the root." But representing the person of those who believe, the divine David cries out to the Father and God in the heavens: "Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me." For we have been comforted in Christ, and have made him our support. For it is written that "the Lord shall uphold the righteous." Therefore, to us—rational sheep grazing throughout the whole world—Christ sets himself forth as a kind of rod. And not just any rod, but one of storax, one of nut-wood, and one, as it were, of plane-tree. And this plant, too, is a witness to uprightness. The storax B is a sign of death; for the dead body is treated with aromatics, and the sweetest of aromatics is storax. But Christ died for us and was buried, according to the Scriptures. The nut-wood rod is a sign of wakefulness and watching, for it naturally has such an effect in us. But Christ was raised for our sake; for he could not be held fast by the gates of Hades, nor was he completely shackled by the bonds of death. The rod of plane-tree, again, seems to signify his course on high and upward—that is, the ascension of Christ into the heavens. For the plane-tree is a well-grown wood and one of the very tallest. But the Son was exalted by the Father. For Peter said concerning him: "Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God." And Paul says that he was highly exalted and received the name which is above every name, and C the adoration of all. If, however, one wishes to attribute yet another meaning to this tree, he may. And what is the manner of it? Those who curiously inquire into the etymologies of names say that the plane-tree (platanos) is so called because of the breadth (platos) of its leaves. But we, too, are widened through faith and love, clinging, as it were, to Christ. For the law is very narrow, and the mind of idolaters is strict. Therefore, God also cried out to the flock from the Gentiles through the voice of the prophet: "Learn to hear, you narrow-minded ones." And Paul, writing to the Corinthians who were choosing to return to their ancient error after the breadth found in faith, says: "Our mouth is opened to you, O Corinthians; our heart is enlarged. You are not narrowed in us, but you are narrowed in your own D affections. Now, in the same recompense—I speak as to children—be you also enlarged. Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what participation has righteousness with iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness? Or what agreement has Christ with Belial?" Moreover, the Psalmist, somewhere in the Spirit, addressing Immanuel himself and disparaging the narrowness of the law, says: "Thy commandment is exceeding broad." And again: "I ran the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart." In addition to this, he also says: "And I walked in breadth, because I sought out thy justifications." That, indeed, the nut-wood rod is, as I just said, naturally a cause of wakefulness and averts sleep, God himself testifies to the prophet Jeremiah, saying: "What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, he says, A nut rod. And"
the Lord said unto me: Thou hast well seen, for I have watched over my words to perform them." A Since therefore Christ proposes himself to us in the likeness of a rod, as one who has died, and has been raised, and is exalted into the heavens, and spiritually widening the hearts of those who receive him. But where did Jacob place the rods? In the drinking troughs of the water. Let the troughs and watering places of the rational flock—that is to say, of us—again be understood as the writings of Moses and the prophetic preaching, which all but gush forth for us from above a word from God. For it is written, "And ye shall draw water with joy from the fountains of the Savior." There we shall find Emmanuel, the rod of power, both as one who in death for our sake, and as the firstborn from the dead, and as one exalted in glory and widening those who believe, just as I said just now. B For the entire discourse of the holy prophets, and indeed that of Moses, points toward the mystery of Christ. Wherefore the wise Paul also said that "Christ is the end of the law and the prophets." But Jacob peeled the rods into white slivers, stripping away the green, and in this way the flocks conceived variegated offspring near them. For Christ in a way strips off the shadow of the Law and what is, as it were, a veil of the prophetic scriptures, and thus showing the word within them, white and beautiful to behold, he transfers it to a spiritual song, and persuades them, as if variegated like magpies, to exert themselves toward virtue, practicing that double-fold [life], I say, in deed and in word. And therefore the divine prophets, bearing before them the figure of those who have been justified by faith, cry out clearly: "For thy fear, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb, and have been in travail, and have brought forth the spirit of thy salvation." C The same blessed Isaiah says somewhere else again more specifically: "Strengthen the relaxed hands, and the paralyzed knees. Be comforted, ye faint-hearted in soul, strengthen, fear not. Behold our God recompenses judgment, and he will recompense." And again: "Behold, the Lord comes with power, and his arm with rule; as a shepherd he will pasture his flock, and with his arm he will gather the lambs, and he will comfort those with young;" that is, there will be spiritual comfort for those who are already travailing with the divine word, as those destined to be fruitful, and who are soon to bring forth the glories of the evangelical life. For this is the fruit of a holy and undefiled soul. D But, he says, Jacob made for himself flocks apart, and did not mix them with the sheep of Laban. For there is no fellowship of the holy with the profane, of the pure with the filthy; but those who are of Christ are separated, refusing to be mixed with those who are in the world, and are free from all carnal desires; and indeed they are not merely marked by their manner of life, but are rather distinguished by virtue. "For those things which were not marked were Laban's; but the marked were Jacob's." And yet Jacob was not free from envy; for after they saw him growing rich and enjoying prosperous circumstances, the sons of Laban envied him exceedingly: wherefore he was also thinking of departing, and to the [homeland of his fathers...]
returning. A For it is written: “And the man was enriched exceedingly. And there were to him many cattle, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and donkeys, and mules.” And Jacob heard the words of the sons of Laban saying: “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and of the things that were our father’s he has made all this glory.” And Jacob saw the face of Laban, and behold, he was not toward him as yesterday and the day before. And the Lord said to Jacob: “Return into the land of your father, and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where the flocks were. And he said to them: “I see the face of your father, that it is not toward me as yesterday and the day before. But the God of my father was with me. And you yourselves know that with all my strength I have served your father. And your father has deceived me, and has changed my wages of ten ewe-lambs. Then he says, that “God took away all the cattle of your father, and gave them to me.” For in truth our Lord Jesus Christ has enriched himself to an immeasurable multitude, gathering in the world his own worshippers; who also make the confession of their servitude under him B a splendid gift of a good mind, saying: “And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” But the children of the world do not endure this with a quiet mind. For seeing, as it were, their own father despoiled, and the most distinguished sheep, and those variegated by a manifold kind of virtues who are born of Christ, undergoing the hand of the good shepherd, they murmur, saying: “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and of the things that were our father’s he has made all this glory.” And they do not lie at all. For the word is true. For Christ has gathered all who are in the world to himself, and having brought into his own folds the flocks of those who have believed, he possesses wealth befitting God and preeminent glory; for he says also somewhere to the Father and heavenly God, that “All mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I have been glorified in them.” Let us see also the reward given to Jacob: “There were to him, he says, many cattle, and oxen; servants and maidservants, camels and donkeys.” See him gathering too, as Christ does, from every nation, according to that which is written: “The kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, and gathering from every kind.” C For he receives the slave, that he may render him illustrious with the glories of freedom. He receives those who are under the law, as already holy and fit for spiritual sacrifice, which is signified by the sheep and the ox, that by transferring them to the splendor of the evangelical life, he may render them more holy. He receives, moreover, the profane and impure race, which is signified by the camel and the donkey, that having destroyed the filth of the error of the plurality of gods, he may join them, pure and clean, to the assembly of the saints. The sons of Laban, therefore, being moved to envy, and even Laban himself, bearing a grim countenance not free from envy—for “it was not,” he said, “his face as yesterday and the day before”—the God of Jacob, that he might return to his own land...
commanded; who summoned his wives, Leah A to be sure, and Rachel, and indeed openly explained to them the injuries of their father. He added, moreover: “God has taken away all the cattle of your father, and has given them to me.” And Rachel and Leah, answering, said to him: “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? Are we not esteemed as strangers by him? For he has sold us, and has quite devoured our money. All the wealth and the glory which God has taken from our father shall be ours and our children’s. Now, therefore, do all that God has said to you.” B For as the world and its children frown upon Christ, consolation from on high and from heaven, that is to say from the Father, is given to the spouses of the Savior, I mean the Churches. Yet this is a consolation by the Son, who, in a way, transports to us the words from the Father. For “He whom God has sent, speaks the words of God,” according to the voice of John. Observe, then, how God was speaking to Jacob, but he to his own spouses, I mean Leah and Rachel. The reason for the consolation was that it was necessary for them to depart with their own spouse C from the father’s house. Thus also the blessed Psalmist speaks in the Spirit to the Church: “Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people, and your father’s house. Because the king has desired your beauty; because he is your Lord, and you shall worship him.” Therefore, that which Jacob had received from God, he spoke to his own spouses. And what was the word? A complaint against Laban, that he was indeed unjust and wicked, and slow to pay the wages that he owed. But Christ also accuses the world of great senselessness, because it is unwilling to pay thanks D to the Lord for the benefits received, and refuses to render back, as a debt or wages for the care he took of it, spiritual gifts—I mean faith and love. Yet all things have come under his power, through the God and Father, who gathered them into his net. For the Son said somewhere to him: “Those whom you have given me out of the world were yours, and you have given them to me.” And this was that saying: “God has taken away all the cattle of your father, and has given them to me.” But the honorable spouses of the Savior readily promise to follow [Him]; for they say that they were, as it were, sold to Him by the world. For Christ bought the Churches with his own blood, and they have been alienated from their old father. Indeed, there is no bond of society or portion for them with the world from the time they were called; but their wealth, and that of their children, is Christ himself, who surpasses every mind and reason. He is their portion and lot, their praise and glory, and the sum of all happiness and prosperity. Thus the world with its children carries sadness on its face because of Christ, and burns with the flame of envy, seeing him raised to such a pinnacle of dignity and glory, that he subjects the whole world to himself and rules over all mortals. But as for the fact that its madness extends beyond itself, and that it pursues and kills, and all but literally the Savior's
A glory, and refers that glory to the Churches under Him, and is most hostile to His children—that is, to the multitude of those who believe—it is not difficult for those who choose to learn to see this through what follows. “For, it says, Jacob arose, and took his wives and his children upon camels, and brought all his possessions which he had acquired in Mesopotamia, and all his things, B and went to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. And Laban went to shear his sheep. And Rachel stole the idols of her father; and Jacob hid it from Laban the Syrian, that he might not tell him that he was fleeing. And he fled, he and all that he had, and crossed the river, and hastened to the mount of Galaad. And it was told to Laban the Syrian on the third day that Jacob had fled. And taking his brothers with him, he pursued him a journey of seven days, and overtook him at the mount of Galaad. And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said to him: Beware that you do not speak evil to Jacob. And Laban overtook Jacob. And Jacob pitched his tent on the mountain; and Laban set his brothers C in the mount of Galaad.”
Laban therefore approaches, and sharply accuses the blessed Jacob, because he had fled secretly, having stolen, as it were, his own daughters and the gods he kept at home. For he says thus: “Now then, you have gone; for you have longed to depart for the house of your father. Why, he says, did you steal my gods?” But Jacob, it says, did not know that his wife Rachel had stolen them. And Laban having searched for his own gods, does not find them with Lia, nor even in the house of the handmaidens Balla and Zelpha. But since Rachel expected that she would be searched by her father, she cunningly outwits him. “For she took, it says, the D idols, and cast them into the camel’s saddle-bags, and sat upon them, and said to her father: Do not take it ill, my lord; I cannot rise before you, for the custom of women is upon me. And Laban searched in his whole house, and found not the idols.” And since he is now somehow at a loss, and lamenting for his lost gods, blessed Jacob deservedly rebukes him for pursuing him in vain, when he could not accuse him on any count. Then talk moved between them concerning concord and the making of a pact. For Laban, answering, said to Jacob: “Your daughters are my daughters, and your sons my sons, and your cattle are my cattle, and all that you see are mine and my daughters'. What shall I do to them this day, or to their sons whom they have borne? Now therefore come, let us make a covenant, I and you, and it shall be for a testimony between me and you.” And he said to him: “See, there is no one with us, God is witness between me and you.” And Jacob, taking a stone, set it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his brothers: “Gather stones.” And they gathered stones, and made a heap, and they ate there upon the heap. And Laban said to him: “This heap shall be a witness between me and you this day.” And Laban called it, “Heap of testimony”; but Jacob called it, “Heap of witness.”
B 5. We have thus briefly and succinctly recounted the history here. But it is necessary to explain its inner meaning. That the world was offended at Christ, because He enriched the flock of believers, and that it attacked in a kind of frenzy, there is no need for a long discourse to prove. For see how, as Jacob departs, Laban pursues him, shouting with his sons. Christ also departs in a certain sense from the world with his brides—that is, with the Churches—and, as it were, migrates with his whole house, crying out spiritually to his own: “Arise, let us go hence.” The manner of this departure and withdrawal is not a sensible one, nor does it occur corporally from place to place (for it would be, in the first place, absurd to think or say so), but it is successfully accomplished when one turns from worldly thoughts to doing those things which are pleasing to God. For, as the blessed Paul writes, “We have not here a lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come,” of which God is the architect and creator.
Another of the holy apostles also writes thus: “I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires, which war against the soul.” While we walk upon the earth, we manage our citizenship as if in heaven, no longer desiring to live carnally, but rather in a holy and spiritual manner. Paul rouses us to this, writing: “Do not conform yourselves to this world, but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.” Since we have not conformed to the world, departing from worldly deceit, we shall be imitators of Him. The Savior, recognizing that this is the case, said: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” It pursues, therefore, hating us. But God restrains and curbs the world, which is breathing slaughter and inflamed with uncontrollable rage, not permitting it to afflict us even in the slightest with harsh words. For God said to Laban, He says: “Take heed that thou speak not anything harsh against Jacob.” But the world complains that it has been despoiled and that it has lost its gods. But Rachel had stolen them. Yet observe how the matter was conducted. Laban searched for the gods in the possession of Leah, and indeed also in that of the two handmaids, “and he did not find them,” he says. But there sat upon them...
A Rachel, excusing herself by the custom of women. What, then, is the reason for this? The removal of the idols was not the work of the Jewish Synagogue, nor of those born into servitude; but rather of the younger Rachel—that is, the Church—branding with ignominy those things made by hands, and all but fulfilling in them what was spoken by the voice of the prophet: “And you shall take away the silver-plated and gold-plated idols, and you shall break them into pieces, and scatter them like the water of a menstruous woman, and cast them away like dung.” Since his gods were not found by Laban, he proceeded thereafter to make peace with the inspired Jacob. For when the world no longer possesses gods falsely so-called, it shall be a friend; or rather, it has already become to Christ a bond of peace. He himself, once again, is the most highly approved stone, the precious, cornerstone, which is set in the head of the corner and in the foundation of Zion. “For Jacob set up,” he says, “a pillar,” as a type of Christ. Others are also gathered, the stones of the holy apostles, or rather of those who are justified through faith and sanctified in the Spirit, elegantly prefiguring the confluence towards Christ. For the prophetic word says concerning the holy apostles: “For the holy stones roll upon the earth.” For the inspired disciples traversed the whole world, preaching the gospel to the nations. And the wise Paul writes to those who are justified through faith, saying: “In whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Holy Spirit.” B The collection of stones, therefore, was called a ‘Heap of witness’ by Laban; but the inspired Jacob refers the meaning to something far greater and incomparably more sublime—that is, to Christ—calling it a ‘Heap of witness’ because of what has happened. For Christ himself is the Head of those who believe. That the multitude of angels, moreover, shall be present to serve the Savior of all, Christ, as He saves His own and leads them out of worldly wickedness (for it is clear that they also fulfill the ministry assigned to them), one might easily understand again from what follows. For as Laban was now departing and returning home in peace, “Jacob,” he says, “looked up and saw the camp of God encamped, and the angels of God met him.” And Jacob said when he saw them, “This is the camp of God,” and he called the name of that place “Camps.” It is written, moreover, that “the angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear Him, and He shall deliver them.” And again, that “He will command His angels concerning you, to keep you in all your ways.” Now our Lord Jesus Christ saves all who love Him, through whom and with whom to God the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
Further discourse concerning Jacob
C 4. The manner of life of the saints is not without admiration among those who have chosen to live righteously; but the glory of their conduct surpasses all speech. D
A A beautiful model may be provided for those who desire to live piously, explaining in various ways in what manner one must straightly strive toward that which is good and pleasing to God. For I say, or rather the very discourse of the inspired Scripture itself says, that we ought to contemplate rightly the outcome of the conduct of the ancient saints, to imitate their faith, and, as it were, to set our feet in the tracks of the virtue with which they were endowed. For it is among the absurdities that those who have become skilled in the royal arts should propose to themselves as teachers those who were before them, and should strive to imitate those who have excelled in that kind, while we, whose purpose is to practice virtue, do not fix the eyes of our mind upon the goodness of the ancients, to draw over ourselves in some way from them those things through which one might become most approved before God, and might make one's own mind an expert in a pious manner of life.
Let the divine Jacob be proposed to us, no less than any other, walking a way that was, as far as possible, blameless and adapted to the time—I speak of his manner of life—having God, who is the ruler over all things, as his assistant and leader; sometimes permitting him to fall into labors for his benefit (for no one could obtain the glory of virtue without sweat), but after the exercises, crowning him with joy and enriching him, as if he were some most robust athlete, with the utility of the rewards. B And do not say to yourself: "Why did God not bestow upon the saints without labor that which delights and cheers them?" For this would have been to leave them unexercised and by no means to bestow upon them the reward of virtue—that is to say, for it to be well with them—but rather to heap upon them His benevolence and splendid and admirable benefits, when there had been no making of trial of their will. For it was fitting rather that they should first be seen to be approved, and by their works themselves be judged worthy of divine benefits, and be proposed as a manifest example to those who came after them, that they must labor and handle matters manfully, understanding that to those who spend their lives in sloth and cowardice no reward is to be given, but all excellent things are due to those to whom labor is dear, and who prefer sweat for the sake of good things over the highest delights of this life. C Thus one of the wise men said: "My son, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation, direct your heart, and endure." For, as it is written, endurance produces proof, and proof produces hope; and hope does not put to shame. Let us therefore follow the proposed aim.
2. After the departure of Laban from Mount Gilead, the blessed Jacob hastened and desired to press on toward his native land. D But having scarcely been freed from the assault of Laban, and having exhorted himself but briefly, he immediately fell into more grievous fears. For since it was necessary for him, departing from Mesopotamia and returning to the land of Canaan, to pass through the midst of the land of Seir, where Esau dwelt, he was extremely fearful. For he was not ignorant of...
A the fact that he had grieved [his brother] on account of the blessing and the birthright itself. But in what way he might cast off the grief arising from these things, and lead his brother to love and gentleness, how is it not worthy to be seen, and furthermore to be wondered at? It is written, therefore: "And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother into the land of Seir, to the country of Edom, and commanded them, saying: Thus shall you speak to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob: I have sojourned with Laban, and have remained until now. And there were born to me oxen, and asses, and sheep, and menservants and maidservants. And I have sent to tell my lord Esau, that your servant might find grace in your sight. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: We came to your brother Esau, and behold he is coming to B meet you, and four hundred men with him. And Jacob was greatly afraid, and was perplexed. And he divided the people that were with him, and the oxen and the sheep into two companies. And Jacob said: If Esau comes to one company and smites it, the second company shall be saved. And Jacob said: O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me: Return to the land of your birth, and I will do well by you; may I be sufficient with all the justice and all the truth which you have done for your servant. For with this staff of mine I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two companies. Deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest perhaps he come and smite me, and the mother upon her children. But you said: I will do well by you, and I will make your seed as the sand of the sea, which shall not be numbered for the multitude." C You understand how he insinuates himself pleasantly to his brother Esau, and all but fawns upon the one who is angry, and endeavors by fair speech to mitigate the vehemence of his wrath. For although he was superior, on account of the blessing of his father and the glory of the firstborn, and had God as his helper, he submits himself, desiring to perform that which in every way becomes the saints: "If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men." For speech is sometimes harsh, and full of arrogance, and is intolerable to some. But as the wise writer of Proverbs says: "A soft and submissive answer turns away wrath." Furthermore, see the artful piety of the just man. He sends messengers seeking peace, and carrying most pleasant words to Esau, and commands them to say everywhere: "Thus says your servant Jacob." He himself, however, again betakes himself to prayer, and does not cease to implore the help which is ever ready to save. He confirms, moreover, that the experience of D past things provides him with certainty of hope for things to come, saying: "With this staff of mine I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two companies." For he says: "Having nothing but a staff from my house, I crossed the Jordan, and by your kindness, O Lord, I have become the master of many." We are taught indeed even from these things that we ought to be meek and peaceable, and by every means to take care that we pass our life without strife. "For the servant of the Lord..."
he says, "must not fight, but be gentle toward all men," as it is written. A For it is no hindrance to us to make use of human skills also for the good; nay, it is something highly praiseworthy. But we must by all means—even if this be done by us—implore the care of God and help from above, "not minding high things," but pondering with ourselves that which is written: "The greater thou art, the more humble thyself, and thou shalt find grace before God." For by so thinking and acting, we shall gain the goods which spring from peace, and we shall turn to gentleness those who act fiercely against us. "For the wild beasts," he says, "shall be at peace with thee." This Jacob achieved. For he did not appease his brother only with soft and gentle words, but followed these up with gifts, and made him a sharer in his own resources, assigning to him an exceedingly rich portion: sheep and oxen, goats and asses, camels and calves. For peace is better than riches, and the possession of temporary goods is to be postponed for brotherly love. B Truly the divine Jacob feared, as I said, his brother Esau, and was troubled, as though about to experience his anger at any moment. But Esau, having cast away his former envy, embraced Jacob, and kissed him with tears, and yielded to the laws of nature which provoke [men] to love. For it is written: "And Esau running to meet him, embraced him, and fell upon his neck, and they both wept." And these indeed are all the works of meekness, the fruits of a humble and not at all exalted spirit, and a gift of the kindness of God, who for those that love Him softens difficult and arduous things, and makes them light, and fills with joy those who strive to adhere to Him. But I think it necessary to transfer the narrative to spiritual contemplation: and come, let us speak, reweaving the discourse from the beginning. C For so the mystery of Christ will be manifest to those eager to learn. 161
3. Fearful, therefore, of his brother, who was murderous and raging like a beast, as was fitting, the divine Jacob set out on his journey to Charran and to Laban, with his father, that is to say Isaac, consenting to his departure. For thus he seemed likely to escape the onset of the enraged man. D Having then arrived at Laban, he took to wife that man’s daughters, namely Leah and Rachel, and indeed became wealthy in the brood of children, and in flocks of animals, and in addition to these, in other property as well. And when he had arrived at such a point of prosperity, he thought it time to have a house of his own, and he departed from Charran and from the home of Laban, together with what had been acquired, and his wives and children. And though Laban pursued and overtook him, the matter was settled for peace, and Christ confirmed the bond of love. For the stone was erected as a type of Him. Thereafter, however, when Laban had returned home, peace also in
A truth came to him who had long been murderous and savage, that is, to Esau. For they kissed one another, burying in a certain way, by their mutual meeting, the sadness previously harbored. In these things, then, the whole discourse of the history was completed; let us also remember that we have assigned to Jacob the person of Christ Himself, and sometimes also that of those who have been justified by faith. B We have said that Esau typifies the people from the circumcision and under the Law; especially because the Lord God of all, while Rebecca still carried the twins in her womb, said to her: "Two nations and two peoples shall be separated from your womb, and people shall overcome people, and the greater shall serve the lesser." This was indeed fulfilled through Christ. For those who were first in order of time, being the Israelites—and who were called first-born for this reason—have become behind and are placed at the back of those who through faith in Christ have laid claim to the glory of the first-born, because of the First-born who is in them, even though He is the Only-Begotten, to whom they have also been made conformable through the Spirit, having regeneration unto sanctification and incorruption. Inflamed by envy, therefore, Esau, that is to say Israel, C persecuted Jacob, that is, Christ. Our discourse is indifferent, as I said, in these matters, always observing what is appropriate, sometimes referring Jacob to Christ, and at other times to the new people of faith. Thus, harassed in a certain way and against His will, Christ departed into the region of the Gentiles, openly crying out: "I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become for me like a lion in the forest. It has uttered its voice against me; therefore I have hated it." But also to the women in the garden, after His resurrection from the dead, He manifested Himself out of gentleness and love for mankind, saying: "Go, tell my brethren, that they may go into Galilee, and there they shall see me." D Having arrived, then, in Galilee, just as the blessed Jacob did in Charran, He tended the sheep of Laban, that is, of the world which worshipped created things and was led astray, just as Laban was. Having come there, He, as a bridegroom, brings home in a spiritual sense a chaste virgin, the Church from the Gentiles, that is to say Rachel, bringing in with her also the one who was already previously joined to Him through the Law, the Synagogue of the Jews, of which Lia is the type. "For the remnant of Israel has been saved," according to the voice of the prophet, even if the whole multitude did not perhaps esteem the grace in Christ through faith. The bridegroom Christ having thus been revealed to the Gentiles, and having regenerated by grace very many into adoption through the Spirit, and having gathered a truly innumerable flock of rational sheep, He was persecuted by the world. For some of those in the world who were endowed with great honors and supreme power have often fought against the glory of Christ. But divine grace has also appeased this one. The world, indeed, has made peace with Christ, just as Laban did with Ja-
Jacob. But in later times our Lord Jesus Christ will also claim for himself that long-time persecutor, Israel, just as Jacob, indeed, embraced Esau after his return from Charran. A For that Israel himself will also be received, after some time, into the love that is in Christ through faith, we should not in the least doubt if we hold to the words of the divinely inspired Scripture. For the Lord of all says somewhere through the voice of one of the holy prophets: "For the children of Israel shall sit many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an altar, and without a priesthood, and without manifestation: and after this the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and they shall hope in the Lord and his blessings in the last days." B For while the Savior of us all, Christ, is still gathering those from the Gentiles who believe, Israel has in a way been left desolate, having no law as a master of what must be done, nor offering what is ordained by the laws upon the divine altar; but he is, as it were, awaiting Christ, who is returning from the calling of the nations, that he might then himself also be led in through faith, and join himself, so to speak, to the others by the law of love. For observe: while still rejoicing at the birth of his children and at many flocks of cattle, Jacob returns from Charran, but in this way he then receives Esau into friendship. Therefore, in the fullness of time, after the calling of the Gentiles, Israel will return and will admire those very riches that are in Christ. For it is easy to understand this also from what was historically done, for those who wish to contemplate it. Jacob sent gifts to Esau, transferring him to love even through the magnificence of the gifts. He also sent messengers to call upon him with peaceful words. C That those things which will turn them to friendship are indeed to come and will not be delayed, Christ himself makes manifest at the opportune time. For he says somewhere to the Jews through the voice of the prophet: "And behold, I will send you Elias the Thesbite before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes. Who shall restore the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of a man to his neighbor, lest I come and strike the earth utterly." He, when he comes, will, as is fitting, turn the intractable Israel and will remove him from his ancient anger, and will make him a friend and peaceful toward Christ, all but showing the gifts of his own generosity, that is to say, the hope of those who believe. D For the fruit of the promise will not be prolonged for a great length of time for those who shall then believe, but the reward will be near at hand, and grace will be close by; for with the son of sin destroyed at once, and with the Savior of us all, Christ, descending from heaven with the holy angels, through whom and with whom to the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
A Human nature had indeed fallen through sin into death. But since it had become estranged from Him who alone knows how to save, he who had been fashioned according to the divine image became all but a slave and was burdened by a heavy weight of servitude. For he bowed his neck, albeit against his will, to the tyrant Satan, who, out of his own immense arrogance (for the evil spirit is arrogant beyond measure), behaved insolently toward everyone, so to speak, who was upon the earth, saying: *"I will grasp the whole world with my hand like a nest, and as eggs that have been abandoned I will take it, and there is no one who will escape me or speak against me."* For he reigned according to his own whim, as I have said, and has been called the God of this age. For the world worshiped him and served the creature rather than the Creator. But when God took pity on those who had been brought into such great misery, He promised to send us His Son from heaven, who would restore human nature to its former state. *"For there is a new creature in Christ,"* according to the Scriptures. The blessed prophets were the transporters to us of these good words, *“prophesying of the grace that was to come unto us, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things.”* For so writes the disciple of the Savior. And although there is much discussion among them concerning the incarnation of our Savior, and that a Redeemer would arrive in the fullness of time, it will not be amiss to bring forth a few points for the better instruction of the diligent.
B Indeed, it would be appropriate to set this matter forth as a reproach to the crowds of the Jews, as can be seen from the facts themselves. For although they were able to discern the advent of the Savior from the prophetic words—or rather, perhaps, if the wretched ones had understood clearly even from the shadow itself within the Law—they stubbornly resisted the divine oracles, and Christ Himself, just as the wise Paul says to us: *"That blindness in part is happened to Israel, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear, neither do they understand,"* even as the Savior Himself says. He says, therefore, or rather the inspired Isaiah introduces Emmanuel Himself in his own writings speaking openly: *"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me; he hath sent me to preach good tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to call the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense."* For these were the C glorious works of His advent. And Hosea, speaking elsewhere about Him, says in turn: *"And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together in one, and shall appoint themselves one head, and shall come up from the land, for great is the day of Jezreel."* For very many of those who were leaders among the Jews throughout the ages, while urging and teaching others to worship the God of all with their lips alone, and teaching doctrines and commandments—
to the Jews, serving as guides only with their lips, persuading the God of all, and teaching to the peoples under their hand the commandments of men. But there is one A authority set over all and for all, Christ, and we have ascended from the earth, which is to say, we have been taught to set our minds on things above. Truly "great is the day of Jezrahel," that is, of the seed of God, or of the Son. The divine David also recalled this day for us, saying: "This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it." And furthermore, Paul, the wisest among us, says, "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation," in which, clearly, we also have been saved, Christ calling us to this. For as the wise disciple has said, "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." You will hear Jeremiah also speaking clearly: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will raise up for David a righteous branch; and a king shall reign and shall understand, and shall execute judgment and justice upon the earth. In his days Juda shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently. And this is his name, which they shall call him: The Lord Josedec among the prophets." For Christ, a righteous King, has reigned over us; he has performed judgment and justice, freeing from sins those who had been deceived, and condemning the enemy who had gained much, Satan, who exercised tyranny over us. But his name is Josedec, which means "the justice B of God." "For we have been justified in him, and not by works of justice that we performed, but according to his great mercy." Therefore God and Father also said: "My justice draws near speedily, and my mercy shall be revealed." For Christ has become for us mercy and justice from God and the Father; and the brilliant choir of saints called him by this very name. For that blessed Samuel, famous among the prophets, addressed the Israelites, saying: "And behold, I have walked before you from my youth even to this day. Behold, here I am; answer against me before the Lord, and before his Christ." And again: "The Lord is witness among you, and his Christ is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand." But the blessed David, more clearly, almost accuses the madness of the Jews, and their unbridled audacity against Christ, and their vanity in purposes and childishness in thoughts, saying: "Why did the nations rage, and the peoples meditate empty things? The kings of the earth stood C by, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ." For the counsels of the Jews against Christ are indeed empty. For the Life would not have died, nor was he held fast by the gates of Hades, he who even said to the spirits below: "Go forth," and to those in darkness: "Be revealed." But the prophet Jeremiah also lamented Jerusalem as impious, as the slayer of the Lord, as profane, as ungrateful. For he says thus: "The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in their corruptions, of whom we said, In his shadow we shall live among the nations." D Since
they ought to have chosen the grace through faith as a saving way, they were caught as fighters against God. Therefore, the Maker of all things, the only-begotten Word of God, A having lowered himself to emptying, has been anointed by the Father and has become as we are. And the goal of this emptying was to save those who dwell on the earth. And thus the prophet Zephaniah brought the good news, saying: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; preach, O daughter of Jerusalem; be glad and take delight with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your iniquities, he has redeemed you from the hand of your enemies. The Lord shall reign over Israel in your midst; you shall see evil no more." But they, being disobedient and intractable, and gifted with an unbridled audacity, heaped insults upon Him, conceiving all manner of base things in their minds and carrying them out in action. Therefore, they have paid the penalties for their sins. For the evil have perished evilly. Yet not everyone. For they have obtained mercy, and a remnant has been saved, according to the voice of the prophet. B
2. That these things, then, would come about in this manner as time progressed, the divine Jacob was taught, as God elegantly shaped the matter. And how, I shall say, by recording the text of the Holy Scripture itself. It stands thus: "And arising that night, he took the two wives, and the two maidservants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of Jabbok; and taking them, he crossed the torrent, and brought over all that he had. And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until morning. And he saw that he could not overcome him, and he touched the breadth of his thigh, and the breadth of Jacob's thigh withered as he wrestled with him. And he said to him: Let me go, for the dawn has ascended; but he said: I will not let you go unless you bless me. C And he said to him: What is your name? And he answered: Jacob. And he said to him: Your name shall not be called Jacob any more, but Israel shall be your name, because you have been strong with God, and you are powerful with men. And Jacob asked and said: Tell me your name. And he said: Why do you ask my name? And he blessed him there, and Jacob called the name of that place, The Face of God. For I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved. And the sun rose upon him when the Face of God passed by; and he was limping on his thigh." The divine Jacob crossed the Jabbok, that is, the torrent, and brought over all he had, and he himself remained alone. What, truly, does this matter mean, and in what way would it not be worth the effort to consider? Come, therefore, let us contemplate the cause: for the D series of the discourse itself will lead us toward spiritual things.
3. Esau lived in Edom and Seir, and held sway over the land, and was in power such as was not subject to the hand of Jacob. But after Mesopotamia and the house of Laban
had been left behind, and he was hastening to come to his ancestral land, it was in every way necessary to make the detour through Edom. Most prudently, therefore, he sought peace with his brother, and he instructed messengers to go on ahead along with splendid gifts, because he himself was coming to see him and to address him; and he ordered that they should precede him and mitigate the ancient enemy, who was still raging and fierce, with both gifts and words. When those who had been sent arrived, they said: "We went to your brother Esau, and behold, he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him." A And the blessed Jacob was struck with great fear; for he had no way of knowing clearly to whom he would be encountering, whether as a friend and one who is peaceable, or as one still stirred by his accustomed anger and envy, and plotting harm. "And Jacob sent over all that he had, and remained alone." B This, I suspect, he had decided within himself: that if he should find him amenable and kind, it would be in no way difficult for him to approach and address him, and to summon back his wives and children. But if he were to come instead still rigid and eager for slaughter, he might spare the children, and be moved to pity by the tears of the women; but once he had taken hold of him alone, he would satisfy his anger, and the death of the one who had offended him would suffice for his retribution. But that all these things turned out for him, God helping, better than he had imagined, we have already said. "For they kissed one another." C From this event, therefore, he was instructed in the power of the mystery. And in what way, I shall say again. For he sent over all his possessions across the torrent. But when he remained alone, a man wrestled with him until morning. We call the holy angel who wrestled with him a type of Christ, who became as we are on account of his humanity. But that he himself did not cross the torrent—that is, the Jabbok, which is translated "struggle"—along with the others, this is the reason why this battle which is perceived took place for them. But what again would be the reason or the interior sense of this matter? For with those who cross the Jordan, of which the Jabbok is a type, Christ does not wrestle, nor does he hold in the rank of enemies or adversaries those who revere his mysteries. Rather, he saves them, and as those who have become victors of the world (as, clearly, in a spiritual struggle), he crowns them and D adorns them with the highest honors. The name of the river is "struggle." "For the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." And: "Narrow is the way which leads to life, and few are they who find it." That therefore the descendants of Jacob in the progress of time would not cross the Jordan (that is, by the grace of holy baptism), and would impiously despise it, and would afterwards have Immanuel himself as an adversary, this event signified. For that those who do not cherish the faith are to be judged in every respect and in every way as those who stand against him, the Savior himself affirms, saying: "He who is not with me, is against me." But may those who have believed be with him. But it is true that even those who are not with him are against him. But how can it be a matter of doubt that the contrary is true? Furthermore: "He wrestled," he says, "a man with Jacob until morning; and he saw that he could not overcome him." You hear
A how the struggle occurred in the night? He was convicted of failing and being overcome, because he was seeking the impossible, having chosen to fight against God and to find himself superior to the One who is all-powerful. This, I imagine, is what the inspired David also said, chanting concerning those from Israel, because they devised grievous and monstrous things against their own head—not to mention Christ: "They devised counsels which they could not establish" (Ps. XX, 12). Therefore, Israel resisted Christ, being established in darkness; that is to say, not having the divine light in their mind, nor the brilliant day, nor the morning star rising spiritually in the hearts of those who believe. For he remained unbelieving, and as the prophet says: "Having expected light, it became darkness for them; having expected sunshine, they walked in gloom" (Isa. LIX, 9). B But when the divine Paul writes to those who have been justified by faith and have become enriched with the wealth that comes through the Spirit, he says: "We are not of night nor of darkness, but children of light and of day" (1 Thess. V, 5). He indicates that they have become superior to the ignorance of the Jews and have cast off and left behind the darkness appropriate to those others, saying: "The night has advanced, and the day has drawn near. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light; as in the day, let us walk becomingly" (Rom. XIII, 12). Therefore, those who believe walk in the day, but the unbelievers, as if in night and in darkness, fight against Christ. This is what the descendants of Jacob have done; however, they have been weakened and overcome, and they are unable to walk uprightly. C "For he touched," he says, "the man wrestling with Jacob upon the breadth of his thigh, and the breadth of Jacob's thigh grew numb, as he wrestled with him" (Gen. XXXII, 25). Come then, let us see what we should understand from this. Since the thigh, for the most part, denotes in the divinely inspired Scripture those parts of the body necessary for the procreation of children—and indeed, even the procreation itself, which, as it were, arises from it—(for all the members suited for reproduction lie near the thighs), therefore, even blessed Abraham, when he sent his trusted servant into the middle of Mesopotamia to find a wife for his son Isaac, instructed him to swear, saying thus: "Put your hand under my thigh" (Gen. XXIV, 2), that is, swear by God, and by those who will come from me and from the master's seed. D The thigh, therefore, signifies those who originate from the thigh. Consequently, the thigh of Jacob grew numb. For they who were born from his thigh, that is to say, they who are from Israel, grew lame. The Savior himself is witness to this through the voice of David, saying: "Alien children lied to me; alien children have grown old, and they limped from their paths" (Ps. XVII, 46). That Israel has suffered a spiritual lameness, the wise Paul also knew. Therefore, he also writes: "Therefore, lift up the slackened hands and dislocated knees, and make straight paths for your feet" (Hebr. XII, 12, 13), so that the
lame leg may be turned aside, but rather be healed. Now, healing for such lameness could never be attained in any other way except through faith and love in Christ alone. But those who do not accept the faith remain in lameness and in the dislocation of the passion, according to the voice of blessed Paul. The passion that occurred to Jacob at his thigh while wrestling A is therefore an enigma of the intelligible lameness of Israel. Yet that we would be speaking falsehood were we to assert and say that Christ in a certain way opposes and wrestles with those who are in the night and have a darkened mind, slackening them into spiritual lameness, one might discover no less easily from what follows. For the man wrestling with Jacob said: "Let me go, for the dawn has risen." You understand how he does not endure to wrestle when the day is breaking. For he does not fight with those who have become light. To whom it would be fitting, having passed on to such a most brilliant state, to say subsequently: "O God, my God, I watch for you from the dawn" (Psal. LXII, 1). And furthermore, this: "In the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I will stand before you, and you will look upon me" (Psal. V, 4). For when the light of righteousness, that is to say Christ, rises in our minds and casts an intelligible beam into our hearts, then, yes, then we shall also stand before Him most brightly through forbearance in all things, and we shall show ourselves worthy of the oversight from above; for "the eyes of the Lord," he says, "are upon the righteous" (Psal. XXXIII, 16). B Therefore, when the dawn is now rising, He dissolves the wrestling. Observe, then, how He economically and most skillfully teaches Jacob, who wishes to depart, to transform himself and be exceedingly eager to contribute those things necessary for his salvation. For He who had completely won, and was able to depart, even if He did not release him who was conquered, yet as though giving him authority, if he should choose, to hold on firmly, says, "Let me go." We shall find something similar to this said by God to Moses wisely and economically. For He intended to exact punishment from the Israelite people who were practicing idolatry in the desert (for they had fashioned calves for themselves). Yet, in a way, He permits blessed Moses, if he wished, to avert the wrath by making supplication for those who had sinned: "I have spoken to you," He says, "once and twice, saying: I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; let me alone, that I may utterly destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make you into a great nation" (Exod. XXXII, 9, 10). But when Moses understood the economy of divine kindness, he comes to the point of preventing it, and says: "If You will forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot even me out of this book which You have written" (Exod. XXXII, 31, 32). Therefore, in such C a way was the "Let me go" said to Jacob by the One wrestling with him. But he, quickly understanding who the wrestler was and having now gained perception of the whole matter, struggles firmly and says: "I will not let you go, unless you bless me" (Gen. XXXII, 26). He was blessed, and indeed the mode of the blessing was the transformation of the former name into another. "For your name," He says, "shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name" (Gen. XXXII, 28). Since Jacob signifies "supplanter," that is, virile and strenuous for the things that need to be performed, but Israel indicates a mind seeing God. Now, what the reasoning for these things is, come, let us say, repeating the narration a little further back. D
B Jacob, having wrestled and been overcome, and having suffered numbness in the darkness—manifestly in the thigh—then holds onto the one wrestling with him as peacefully, now that the light is shining and dawn has already arrived. He was even urged to bless him, as it were, and indeed he was blessed; for he was renamed Israel. For Israel was, as it were, resisting Immanuel in his disobedience and stubbornness, yet only as one in ignorance and darkness—in ignorance, I mean. But he was hardened, and he recognized the divine light C just as it was barely rising in his mind. He is blessed by Christ, even if not perhaps everyone, yet certainly a portion of those who have believed. For "there has been a remnant according to the election of grace" 31 in Israel, according to what is written, and not a few of the Jews in number 32 have believed. And before all others, the divine disciples, who were once Jacob, having the weakness in the Law, and as it were "supplanting" 33 and breathing quickly, and—most especially—praying to avoid offending God. For they were blameless according to the justice that is in the Law. But they have become after this also Israel, that is, they have migrated D into a mind that now sees God. For to know Christ, who indeed he is, and whence he has come among us, or what is the manner of his economy in the flesh—this, I say, is to receive the light of true God-seeing into the mind. And that the knowledge concerning God is greater, more advanced, and incomparably better than the life under the Law, he himself will confirm, speaking through one of the prophets: "For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" 33. And Paul, as one who had been [276, A] "according to the justice that is in the Law, bright and blameless," considers such things to be "loss because of the surpassing knowledge of Christ" 34. And that the pure knowledge concerning Christ is also more excellent than the brilliance of works, Paul declares again, writing to Timothy, whom he exhorts to the exercise of piety: "For bodily exercise," he says, "is profitable for a little, but piety is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come" 36. For as the Savior himself has said to the Father in heaven: "This is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ" 37. Therefore, even if someone should perhaps be Jacob—that is, if he is able B to supplant, and to escape in a noble and youthful manner everything that has the power to destroy and leads to sin—he will progress through Christ also to the divine knowledge. He will be called also Israel, that is, seeing God. Then indeed, then will he also be powerful among men, having been strengthened with God. For the work of one who has been weakened by apathy would not be to know God, and to receive the knowledge concerning him, even if he sees 38
A in a mirror and in a riddle; but to one who is brought to this after his weakness, such that he no longer makes account of fleshly and worldly things, but with a rapid and unbridled mind is able to dart toward what is pleasing to God, he will be powerful among men, and will be strengthened with God. Therefore, the inspired Jacob is blessed, yet he approaches, saying: "Tell me your name." And he said, he says, "Why do you ask for my name?" God does not announce his name, declaring by this that he is according to nature. For as in the case of a human, perhaps there is no one name peculiar to God; however, from the things that he is by his own nature, he is named in many ways. For he is light, and life, and power, and truth, the only-begotten, and the radiance, and the character of the One who begat him, mercy, and wisdom, and justice, and redemption. B Understanding then, in turn, the blessed Jacob that it was God, to whom no name could be specifically attributed, he called the name of that place "The Face of God." "For I saw God face to face," he says, "and my soul was saved." Observe, then, how he became Israel, that is to say, "seeing God." He says he saw God face to face, while the man was wrestling, and that his own soul was saved. For indeed, the knowledge concerning Christ is a saving thing. Therefore, God is also the Word become flesh. For the patriarch Jacob says that he saw God face to face. And as the sun rose, "The face of God passed by," he says, "but he himself was limping on his thigh." For as I said before, once the Jews were enlightened, the struggle ceased. C But the face of God also passed by, that is to say, Christ ascended into the heavens. Yet Israel has not been delivered from his limp. For not the whole of him has been saved. He suffers, in a way, on account of those who are still unbelieving, being unable to walk perfectly in every respect. Therefore, he has been renamed Israel, and the "supplanter" was transformed into "mind seeing God." And what is next after this? "And Jacob," he says, "departed into tents, and made houses for himself, and for his cattle he made tents. Therefore he called the name of that place 'Tents'." Do you hear how he dwelt in tents? And this would be a clear sign of the change for the better of the mind that has become Israel. D For he built tents, and dwelt in them. For the fruit that is precious before God would be from a mind that is already seeing and deemed worthy of the vision of God, and that has been nurtured and flourishing in advancements for the better toward perfection, which is to no longer make any account of the things in this world, but to rather consider life in the body to be a sojourning. For this is a mind that is holy, and a precise indication of an exceptional and elevated manner of life. One might be persuaded [of this] by the blessed David who had arrived at this excellence, and who sings: "Grant me respite, because I am a sojourner in the land and a stranger, as are all my fathers." And Paul also writes to those who have arrived at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, and to a perfect man, that we do not have a lasting city here, but we seek the one to come, whose builder and maker is God. Jacob, therefore, or Israel, dwelling in tents, is a sign that he does not at all [value]...
the things in this world, and that it is fitting for those who are already looking toward God and have a mind enlightened [by understanding] to consider the things in this world A a sojourn. Then he moves "to Salem, a city of the Sichemites, which is in the land of Canaan," where the righteous one was tried yet again, having suffered the wrongs done to his daughter, Dinah. For she, being a young girl and a virgin still blooming, went out from her father’s tents, looking to see the daughters of the inhabitants. For the female sex is always prone to be eager to love B those of the same age. Therefore, the young girl went out; but Sichem, the son of Emmor, did violence to her in an unseemly way. For he deflowered the virgin, and being seized by intemperate desire, he was planning to take the girl as his wife. But Simeon and Levi, the brothers of the young girl, being kindled to anger, considered this insult unbearable, and devised cruel plans against those who had inflicted the injury. For they persuade the inhabitants of Sichem to accept C the circumcision [that had been] handed down to them from their fathers and was customary, and they killed them, with all mercy and pity utterly cast aside. Yet the divine Jacob took this ill, and rebuked them, saying: "You have made me hateful, so that I have become evil to those inhabiting the land." For the killers did not restrain their rage, nor, being educated by a righteous father, did they contemplate anything that was not clearly wicked. For they ravaged and killed even those who wished D to think the same [things] as them and who were confident in them. What use, therefore, might spring from this for us? For the divinely inspired Scripture is by no means idle and vain. Come, then, let us speak as we are able.
5. For we have undergone a spiritual birth, and have been ordained as children of God through Christ. Therefore, if it should happen that a soul, having already been regenerated through holy baptism and made a daughter of God, should be corrupted by those accustomed to doing this—either having slipped into carnal desires, or otherwise choosing to think absurd thoughts that subvert the true knowledge of God (for such truly are the opinions of the impious heretics)—the brothers of the one injured according to faith, even if they should hold a priestly rank, as indeed Levi also [did], or if they be understood as Simeon—that is, those lying in the order of subjects (for Simeon is interpreted as "obedience")—let them indeed be indignant that one of their own according to faith has been wronged, but let them not proceed to bloodshed, nor let them exact savage punishments from those who have corrupted [them], lest they hear Christ saying to them: "You have made me hateful, so that I have become evil to those inhabiting the land." For it is necessary to remember that the Savior himself once rebuked the blessed Peter, when he was drawing his sword, saying: "Put your sword into its sheath; for all who take the sword shall perish by the sword." Nor
A is it fitting for us, who have chosen to struggle for piety toward God, to arm ourselves with swords against enemies; but rather to be patient, and if some should choose to persecute us, to bless those who revile us, not to murmur while suffering, but rather to commit ourselves to Him who judges justly. Those who wish to avoid destruction must be very careful not to depart from the paternal tent, that is, from the house of God, nor to attack the flocks of aliens, that is, of those who hold different opinions. For when Dinah went out from the paternal tent, she was carried off into the house of Shechem. Yet she would never have suffered such an outrage if she had remained within her father's rooms and had dwelt continually in the holy tents. For the blessed David persuades us that this is a beautiful and not unhelpful matter, singing: "One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the delights of the Lord, and visit his holy temple. For he hid me in his tabernacle, in the day of my evils he protected me in the secret of his tabernacle." B Accordingly, God commanded Jacob, who had become thoroughly fearful and despondent, to depart. It is as follows: "And God said to Jacob: Arise, go up to the place Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar to God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from the face of Esau your brother. And Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him: Put away the strange gods from your midst, and be cleansed, and change your garments, and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and let us make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my tribulation, who was with me and saved me in the way in which I walked. And they gave to Jacob the strange gods that were in their hands, and the earrings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth that is in Shechem, and they lost them until this present day." Thus the God of all summoned the just man from Shechem to Bethel. And he was not disobedient. Then, having passed through to Luz, and having been deemed worthy of a divine vision and confirmed by promises that he would be the father of many nations, he "went up to Bethel. And Jacob set up," he says, "a pillar in the place where God spoke with him, a stone pillar, and he poured a drink offering upon it, and he poured oil upon it. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel." D Many things concur as no obscure arguments for why Jacob returned to the land of Israel, and was translated into an incomparably better state. For he dwelt in tents, thereby demonstrating, as it were, that the race of the saints is a sojourner on earth. Furthermore, grieving over the incident with his daughter, and not moderately incensed at his sons, Simeon, I say, and Levi, who had been ignobly overcome by anger, he rebuked them severely, showing us in actual deed that patience and endurance are appropriate in holy trials. But after he was called by God, he went up to Bethel, that is, into the house of God—for this is what Bethel is interpreted to mean—he sacrifices to God, and is declared a leader and master of sacred rites. For in what way could he have governed the house
of God A of God—for this is what Bethel is interpreted to mean—he sacrifices to God, and is declared a leader and master of sacred rites. For in what way could he have governed the house of God is made clear to his followers. For he commanded them to cast away, as if it were dross and uncleanliness, the alien gods and to change their garments. This is something we are also accustomed to see when we are called into the presence of God and enter His divine temple, especially at the time of holy baptism. For we must, as it were, remove the alien gods from our midst and, departing from such error, say: "I renounce thee, Satan, and all thy pomp, and all thy worship." We must also entirely change our garment, "putting off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and putting on the new, which is renewed in the image of Him who created him." The women who were with Jacob also cast away their earrings. For even women entering into the house of God, having no carnal ornament but loosening their very hair, B might free their heads from the charge of pride. This, I think, is what it means for the women to remove the ornament which they wore in their ears. When, therefore, we have ascended into Bethel, that is, into the house of God, we shall recognize there the stone, the elect stone, I say, which has become the head of the corner, that is, Christ. And we shall see Him anointed by the Father unto the joy and exultation of every creature that is under heaven. For the Son, as I have said, has been anointed by God and Father as "the joy of us all, the universal exultation," according to the voice of the Psalmist. You may see this also prefigured in the things just mentioned by us: "For Jacob C raised up the stone, moistening it with oil and wine." The event was indeed a type of the mystery concerning Christ, through whom and with whom, to God and the Father, be glory together with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS, BOOK SIXTH
D
Concerning Joseph
1. The mystery of godliness, that is, Christ, is indeed great beyond question, but the doctrine concerning Him is very profound, as is the admirable plan of His incarnation. And this can by no means be understood by those who wish to know it only superficially, but by the prudent, and indeed not without effort.
A For those illuminated by divine grace are wise and sharp-sighted, and are skilled in the legal and prophetic writings. And so the divine Peter, the prince of the disciples and far superior to the others, confessed the faith correctly; and he heard from Christ: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven." For God and Father instructs us in the word concerning the Son; and in this way He restores us, offering us to Him as to a Savior and Redeemer. "For no one," He says, "comes to me, unless my Father who sent me draws him." In order, therefore, that through the whole, so to speak, of the Holy Scripture, we may understand the word concerning Him, and gathering an unwavering faith, may not have a heart vacillating and as it were drunken with B detestable double-mindedness, nor be carried off by the whirlwind of ignorance, let us hear God saying through the voice of the prophets: "They have loved to move their feet, and have not spared, and God hath not taken pleasure in them." For this reason, through numberless images and figures He confirms us in the truth, and profitably strengthens faith in Him, establishing the events that happened through time as clear types of knowledge concerning Him. Let us see, therefore, in the things that happened to the divine Joseph, whether what I have said might appear true again. It is as follows: "These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding sheep with his brethren, being a youth with the sons of Balla, and with the sons of Zelpha, his father's wives. Joseph brought an evil report to Israel his father. Now Jacob loved Joseph above all his sons, because he was for him the son of old age. And he made him a coat of many colors. And his brethren seeing that their father loved him above all his sons, hated him, and could not speak any peaceable thing to him."
D 2. For the author of the book has made an exact enumeration of those who were born of Esau. For the Holy Scripture has taught us who was born of whom, and where each of them dwelt, and over whom they exercised rule; though meanwhile no one of them did anything glorious or worthy of remembrance. Therefore the narrative mostly passes over their names, and betakes itself to the divine Joseph, and institutes a splendid account of those who are of the blood of Jacob. Joseph, being the youngest among the sons—for he was seventeen years of age—did not shrink from the pastoral labor, but along with the other brothers applied himself to the same pursuits, not seeking leisure, in which youth especially delights, nor avoiding the labor that was untimely and little suited to his age, nor loving to be idle, as one still in his boyhood; but just as an old man, and gifted with excellence of judgment and strength of mind, and using the reasoning of an elder, and showing forth the beauty of his future splendor, he deservedly stirred up the admiration of his beloved father, and to greater C
A love and care he provoked him. "For he was to him," he says, "also a son of old age." But what is this? Our discourse investigates the affections or dispositions that are within us. For the love of parents toward their children is in general equal in some, and in no way unequal. But nature often overcomes and forces the mind, persuading it to bestow something more upon those who are in need, inasmuch as they are in a state that requires greater care. It happens otherwise sometimes that certain parents bestow the abundance of their love upon those born last, the prior love being in a way taken up into the later one. For the human mind is a lover of what is new; and while it does not cast aside the satiety of those already born, it has a more powerful care for those not yet born, or otherwise recently acquired, and pursues them with a more fervent love. Thus the divine Jacob loved Joseph above the others, "because he was a son of old age to him." It must be known, however, that although he took Leah as wife in Charran, he also loved Rachel, who brought forth Joseph and, when already about to die, Benjamin. To this we say that both were indeed sons of old age. But the good character of Joseph, of a kind which all the others did not possess, was the cause why the old man was inclined above all others to him. For he had persuaded himself that he would likely be brilliant and illustrious; inasmuch as, neglecting the wantonness of youth, he presented himself as a man already perfect, so how could he not be a subject of admiration? B But the blessed Jacob produced something new in him more than in the others. For he procured for him a tunic of many colors, and adorned him with the most becoming garments. What therefore does this mean? The sons of Zilpah and Bilhah were stirred up to anger, and were equally carried away into an utterly absurd gloom, and conceived envy against the adolescent, even those who were born of the free woman, namely Leah: not because he himself had done any injury to them, but the love of the father toward him and the good character of the boy cast the flames of unjust envy into them, and they attacked him with the virulence of their tongues, reviling and slandering him for those things by which it was fitting that the youth might be an object of disgrace to his enemies. This, as I think, is that which is said: "And they brought an evil report of Joseph to Israel their father." Therefore, the revilings and reproaches of an unbridled tongue, proceeding from envy, were as it were the preludes and first-fruits of their impious counsels. But this was kindled into a more grievous hatred for such a cause. For God had revealed to the adolescent beforehand that he would be illustrious and glorious in the course of time, and more excellent than his brothers, and that he would be adorned with the highest honors. Which, indeed, was a provocation that sharpened the youth for the desire of virtue. For just as gymnastic trainers, when they anoint the youths, give them spirit, and persuade them to bear labors bravely, by setting forth for them the prizes which the masters of the contests propose through their own liberality, and finally the favorable acclamations and praises and C applauses of the spectators: so also God, when He sees the soul D prepared for the most courageous acts, and choosing to endure suffering, encourages it to reach out for the best things, and inspires it with a desire for virtue, manifesting to it beforehand that it will be brilliant and observable, and in the end crowned with glory. Yet this was, I think, a summons, sharpening the lad toward the pursuit of virtue. For in the way that those who train the young, by anointing them, stir them up...
A to most courageous exploits, and by holding out the rewards that the prizes of the gamesters join with the glory of victory, the cheers and applauses of the spectators, persuade them to value them; so also the God of all, when He sees a soul naturally noble, and shining with a proven and sincere mind, and fitted for every one of the best things, calls it then to choose to do what is good; pre-announcing future things, and economically rousing it to zeal, it being clear that this is for the sake of the virtues.
A vision, therefore, and an oracle from above once visited the youth, I mean Joseph. And he, I suppose, having wondered at it, shared it with his brothers, speaking thus: "Hear this dream which I have dreamed: I thought we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field, and my sheaf arose and stood upright; but your sheaves turned about and worshipped my sheaf." And his brothers said to him: "Shalt thou indeed reign over us, or shalt thou lord it over us?" And they added still more to hate him, on account of his dreams and his words.
Consider, then, B that for them the circumstances of envy go toward increase, and they make, as it were, a kind of nourishment for envy of the things indicated by the dreams. For since they were distressed in no moderate way at the very beginning—because he had been honored—how could they possibly have deemed it bearable to choose to worship him, and to maintain for him such an august and greatly exalted rank? Yet it is worth seeing here how envy always has an unholy course and proceeds through similar evils. We shall find that the beast is, in the highest degree, blind and a fighter against God. For observe, indeed, how while God was proclaiming to Joseph the brilliance of his future glory, it was necessary for them to reflect clearly on this: that God, C who judges righteously, would by no means bestow the highest honors upon those who were undeserving; and then, whereas it was fitting that they should rejoice over their brother, to whom such a great hope was proposed and who was honored by the divine will, they did not do this, but rather were stimulated more sharply to envy, and they raged like wild beasts, all but finding fault with God, who had promised him the honor and had pre-indicated that he would be admirable.
We shall find that this same thing occurred in the case of Cain and Abel. For since the God of all deemed the sacrifice of Abel worthy of praise, and by sending down fire from heaven accepted the offering, while He did not look upon that of Cain—he straightway received the murderous envy, and as though D setting his own anger in battle-array against the votes from above, he pursues his brother with deceit, and even destroys him. For envy always culminates in this. But what might be the meaning of the visions? We shall accept the sheaf as a sign of the time. The raising up of the one sheaf, however, would signify that he himself would be glorious. That a time would therefore come in which the blessed Joseph would be established in supreme honor and dignity, and that the rest of the multitude of his brothers would be subjected to him, the sheaf of his that was worshipped by the others enigmatically pre-indicated.
But Joseph’s dreams did not end with these; but—he told another also to his blessed father and brothers for this same purpose. "For he saw," he says, "and another dream, and he told it to his father and his brothers, and said: 'I have dreamed another dream: as though the sun and the moon and eleven stars were worshipping me.' And his father rebuked him,"
A and said to him: 'What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers come to bow down to you upon the earth?' His brothers envied him, but his father kept the saying." An artful old man, and excellent in heavenly discernment. For he understands the power of the visions: yet he rebuked the lad, saying: "Shall I and your mother and your brothers come to bow down to you upon the earth?" And who would understand this? Yet how wise and how necessary is this manner of rebuke. For he gracefully checks the envy of the hearers, and tempers the lad—who was being poured out in unbearable arrogance—in a way, and calls him toward what is mild; so that the youth does not puff himself up with pride over his brothers because of the hope of these dreams, nor foolishly disregard the honor due to his father, by arrogating to himself the untimely excellence of future dignity. For see how ingeniously he reduces the power of the dreams to a certain result. For since Rachel, who had borne Joseph, was already dead, he says: "Shall I and your mother bow down to you?" And he did this, as I said just now, as much to break the haughtiness of the youthful mind as to put to sleep the envy of the brothers which had already been stirred up against him. B Nevertheless, he himself expects the matter to turn out in this way. For he did not hear it languidly, nor did he treat the words as worthy of oblivion, even if he censured the vanity of the thing. "For he kept them," it is said, trusting, no doubt, that they would soon come to pass. But after the telling of the dreams, "the brothers went away together with the flocks to pasture them in Sichem." Then, after a short time had passed, the father sends the youth to seek out his brothers: "Do not your brothers pasture in Sichem? Come, I will send you to them." And he said to him: "Here am I." And Israel said to him: "Go, see if your brothers are well, and the sheep, and bring me word." Most promptly, therefore, he promises he will go, and indeed sets out, and has departed from the valley of Hebron. And as he traversed the whole wilderness, a certain man who met him C asked him for what cause, from where, and to whom he was going. "Who immediately replied: 'I seek my brothers; tell me where they are pasturing.' But the man said to him: 'They have withdrawn from here; for I heard them saying: Let us go to Dothaim.'" And having arrived there, he was unexpectedly surrounded. For envy effectively accomplished what it had long since devised. Those sons of the handmaids—Balla, I mean, and Zelpha—desired absolutely to kill him. For they said: "Behold, that dreamer is coming. Now therefore come, let us kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we shall say: An evil beast has devoured him; and we shall see what his dreams are." But Ruben, hearing this, took him out of their hands, saying: "Let us not strike him in the soul." Ruben said to them: "Do not shed blood; cast him into one of these pits that are in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand upon him." But he said this so that he might rescue him D from their hands, and restore him to his father. They therefore, stripping Joseph of his many-colored tunic, cast him into the pit.
A Although they did not kill him, they did so as though he were to die not long after. When, however, certain Ishmaelite spice merchants were traveling toward Egypt, at the persuasion of Judah (who cried out openly that the brother should not be killed), they sold him to the buyers for a price of twenty pieces of gold, and Joseph was carried away to Egypt. Ruben, however, unaware of this, approached the pit. But when he did not find the brother, thinking him dead, he tore his garments and complained about the brothers concerning Joseph, saying, "The boy is not in the pit; and as for me, whither shall I go yet?" As if he were to say: "How shall I return to my father, or how will he receive us at all, without his beloved son? And what shall we say to him when he asks for the boy?" They, however, staining the many-colored tunic with the blood of a goat, presented it to their father, having concocted fraudulent and deceitful words. "This we found," they say; "recognize if it is your son's tunic or not." B The father laments, and perhaps somewhere he cried out against the envy and unholy schemes of his sons, saying, "An evil beast has devoured Joseph." He conceived a grief so grave because of the calamity of his son that it could not be lulled or mitigated by any reasoning. For he did not wish, he says, to admit consolation, saying, "Because I shall go down to my son mourning into Sheol." Now that the text of the history has been brought to an end, the mind will transfer itself again to internal investigation; and just as if by certain shadows made sensible, inducing the living color of truth, it will place before our eyes, as much as possible, the most excellent beauty of spiritual contemplation.
3. Rachel the younger, therefore, gave birth to Joseph, beautiful in appearance and gleaming with the brilliant rays of her eyes, which bestowed grace; although Leah was not like this. C Whence? For it is written that "the eyes of Leah were weak; but Rachel was beautiful in appearance and fair of face exceedingly." But we spoke of Leah as the mother of the Jews, that is, the Synagogue; taking the proof of this fact from her eyes and from the interpretation of her name. For the interior sight of the Jewish Synagogue, which pertains to the mind, is truly unlovely and suffers from much infirmity. "For they have eyes, and do not see," according to the voice of the prophet. For they have not known the things of Moses, nor have they been able to contemplate the mysteries contained therein, through which Emmanuel was described in many ways. Leah is interpreted as "laboring," as we have also said in other places. For the Synagogue of the Jews labored under a heavy and intolerable burden, sustaining the Law through D Moses. Therefore also Christ, as…
A one who calls the weary and burdened to the relief that comes through faith, said: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." But such is Leah. The eyes of Rachel, however, are exceedingly pure. For the Church from the Gentiles has beheld the glory of Christ, and in Him the Father; and she has been called to intimacy with the intelligible Bridegroom, that is, Christ, after the first. For this is the youngest, having no wrinkle, although the first has grown old and, as it is written, has approached decay. And Rachel, moreover, is interpreted as "the flock of God." For the Church is the flock of the Savior, who said to the Jews through one of the holy prophets: "And I said, I will not shepherd you. Let that which dies, die; and let that which fails, fail; and let the rest devour each one the flesh of his neighbor." But concerning us, "My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life." He is, therefore, the good shepherd, and in all things occupying the first place. But He was also called a sheep, since He became as we are. And thus the wise John pointed Him out to the crowds of the Jews, saying: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." For countless numbers were slaughtered according to the type of the Law, but no one took away the sin of the world. "For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins." But the immaculate Lamb, the true and spotless sacrifice, has taken away the sin of the world. Therefore He has also been reckoned as a sheep with us. He would, therefore, be called also the Son of the Church, as the firstborn among brothers. B One must know, however, that Joseph is also interpreted as "the addition and increase of God." For the holy multitude of the children of the Church is always increasing and growing. Wherefore it was also said to her: "Lift up thine eyes round about, O Sion, and behold all. Behold, they are gathered together and have come to thee." And again: "Behold, these come from afar; these from the north, and these from the sea; but others from the land of the Persians." And it is written also in the Acts of the Apostles, in one place, that the Lord added daily the saved to the same; but in another: "But the multitudes of men and women believing in the Lord were the rather added." Accordingly, as I said a little before, the intelligible Joseph—that is, those who are in Christ—may deservedly be esteemed as the addition or increase of God. Nor would we have wandered from our purpose if we were to name those who believe in Him, and Himself as well, in this way. For He is the head: and we, in respect of a part, are the body and the members. And He is the vine: but we cling to Him like [branches], united by the unity of the Spirit through sanctification. C Furthermore: "Joseph," he says, "was seventeen years of age." And that he was indeed very young, the holy Scripture, as I think, declares to us through this. We also say that Emmanuel himself is the youngest of all, attributing antiquity of time to those who were born before Him, such as Moses and the prophets; but examining the force of the writings, we also signify something else by these D [words], attributing the beginning of the economy of salvation to the times after him.
as if to be considered by those who are mounting towards what has been fulfilled, such as Moses and the prophets. For investigating the power of the things written, we shall believe that something else is also signified by this. For the number of the years will perhaps also A describe for us the deep mystery of the economy of the flesh. And I shall try to explain clearly in what way; for as I have already said, I shall call to mind things mentioned in other places.
4. B It is the custom of Holy Scripture to make numbers that fall backward, after they have attained their appointed completion, into symbols of perfection. For example: if one were to measure the denary and wish to go through it, he will begin again from unity, as if intending to lead it to its own end. And similarly in the case of the septenary. For having begun from the first, it advances in succession to the seventh; then, having concluded the number of the days to the end, it returns again to the first. Therefore, the sacred word makes numbers of this kind signs of perfection. And so, in the distribution of talents, it says that he who has come to the fulfillment of diligence according to God has received ten talents, and moreover that ten cities have been assigned to him; because, for the perfection of those who excel, the rewards should in every way be apportioned C equally, through which the distributor of these—that is, Christ—shows them. And one of the saints said that the barren woman bore seven, placing the seven for many, and whatever might happen to be reckoned into a perfect number by those chosen to measure. When, therefore, it is said concerning Joseph that he was seventeen years old, we shall allow that Emmanuel is constituted in one Christ and Son from two perfections: divinity and humanity. For we do not accept what certain people assert, thinking that that divine temple of God, which the Word of God brought forth from the holy Virgin, lacked a rational soul. But just as He was perfect in divinity, so also was He in human nature, yet existing as one in an ineffable manner that surpasses the intellect. Therefore, the denary number signifies, and implicitly declares to us, perfection in divinity. And since this is so, the septenary in its turn presents to us the humanity, which is D less than the denary that is in the Trinity, and is included in it and as it were subject to it. For after the denary number, the septenary occurs. For in the surpassingly great and sublime Trinity—that is, the Divinity—is the God Word who is from the Father; but in subordination is the human condition, and the glory of God is in things lesser. And God the Word is understood to pre-exist, but the human nature has followed in Him. Wherefore the denary number necessarily precedes; the septenary follows. "For Joseph," it says, "was seventeen years old." Consider, furthermore, for me, the temporary and the beginningless, in the sense of time, I say, of Emmanuel. For the enumeration of years took place in Joseph as in an image; but the "was" has been added. For He was called to a generation understood according to us, and to a number of years by reason of the humanity, even though He was the God Word; but the "was" altogether suits Him. For it is understood, and is truly
A coeternal with God and the Father: as the divine John says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." I shall therefore say again: Joseph the divine was seventeen years old, and he was pasturing his father's flocks with his brothers, those by Zilpah, I say, and Bilhah, that is, those born of the handmaids. For the Word of God, having become man, traversed the region of the Jews both up and down, gathering again, as it were, into love for God and the Father the lost sheep of the house of Israel. For, as the blessed Paul writes: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." Emmanuel, therefore, was shepherding those who were born into slavery, and those who were, in a manner, born of two handmaids, and who did not possess a free birth. For after the kingdom of Jeroboam, the ten tribes departed from Jerusalem, and they dwelt in Samaria, Jeroboam having transferred them there. B And they went astray and worshipped the golden calves there. Whence also, through the voice of Ezekiel, God rebukes them as two lewd women, saying thus: "Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother, and they committed whoredom in Egypt; in their youth they committed whoredom, and their breasts were pressed there, and there they were deflowered. And their names were Oollah the elder, and Oolibah her sister. And they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters; and their names were Samaria, Oollah, and Jerusalem, Oolibah." The Son, therefore, having become as we are, was shepherding those who were born both of slavery and of fornication. For those who were leaders according to the law were still presiding over the Israelites, although Christ was already teaching and initiating those who came to Him, and was leading them to the path of truth. And this path was Himself. C Therefore He also said: "I am the way." But the Scribes and Pharisees, famous for their knowledge of the law, were feeding them on thorns and thistles, into error, into doctrines and commandments of men; while He, into a good pasture and, as it were, into the most flowering herb, [was feeding them] on the knowledge that is natural and most admirable of the evangelical teachings. And they were lazy and slothful shepherds, and furthermore, being taken by gain and suffering from the worst greed; eating the milk, clothing themselves in the wool, and slaughtering the fat, according to the voice of the prophet: hirelings and arrogant, and counting it of no account whatever D to have to labor for the sheep. But as those from Zilpah and Bilhah brought evil reproach upon Joseph, so also the most perverse multitude of the impious Pharisees did not fear to slander the glory of Emmanuel, and dared to calumniate Him, calling Him a Samaritan, a wine-bibber, and in addition to these, one possessed by a demon, and impiety claiming that He was aided by the energies of Beelzebub for the sake of being able, I say, to drive out the evils from those who were sick. Therefore, Emmanuel Himself cried out through the voice of the prophet against the railing of the Jews, saying: "Woe unto them, for they have departed from me. Miserable are they, for they have acted impiously against me. I have redeemed them; but they have spoken against me."
A And again: "Their princes shall fall by the sword, for the inexperience of their tongue." The band of the Pharisees, therefore, has spoken vainly and impiously against Christ, a band both bold and ignoble. And this, I think, is what it means to cast an evil reproach upon the brothers against Joseph. "But he was loved," it says, "by the father, because he was to him a son of old age." For there were indeed also other shepherds, good and virtuous, before the manifestation of our Savior in the world and in the flesh; and before all others, the divine Moses, and those who followed him, B who shepherded rational flocks. But the Father loved the Son differently, even though He was the last after the others, and came to be in the last times of the age. It will therefore be fitting for Jacob to have Joseph as a son of his old age. But God is ageless, without beginning, and without growth, and is always in all respects most perfect. Wherefore, lest our discourse stray from what is right, we say that Emmanuel was in a certain sense the Son of old age to the Father, for the reason that He appeared in the last times of the age—that is to say, the present—and because there is no one after Him. For we do not expect to be saved by anyone else. He alone is sufficient, as we do not say that the salvation and life of the world lie in any other. He, therefore, will shepherd us unto C ages, according to the voice of the Psalmist, and we shall be subject to Him, the beloved, who appeared indeed in the last times of the age, as I just said, having assumed flesh, but who pre-existed as God. For we say that He is co-eternal with the Father. Therefore, Joseph was loved by his father in a distinguished manner; and he gave him a coat of many colors, as an exceptional gift, setting the object as a clear indication of the deep affection he felt for him. But this too was a provocation of envy and a pretext of hatred to his brothers, as the outcome of events will show. And the Pharisees were also enraged against the Beloved, that is, Christ, because He was clothed with glory from God and the Father in a multiform way. For He was truly admirable in many ways, D partly indeed as vivifying, and partly also as light, and able to enlighten those in darkness, as cleansing lepers, and most easily raising even those dead who already stank, as rebuking seas, and riding upon the waves themselves by His own power. For this reason, the Jews, at a loss and already consumed unendurably by the fire of envy, said to one another: "What are we to do? For this man does many signs." The multiform coat, therefore, is for us a riddle of the multiform glory with which God and the Father is said to have clothed the Son, who became like us for the sake of humanity. For as far as His own nature is concerned, He is the Lord of glory, even though, because of the likeness He has with us, He says: "Father, glorify Thy Son." For these reasons, then, which I have recounted, the sons of the handmaids were goaded to anger and envy; moreover, they fell into suspicion because of the story of the dream. For, sensing beforehand that in the course of time they would be subject to their brother and would worship Him, and that He would be far superior to them, and would be raised to such a pinnacle of glory that even by them [He would be...]
worshipped, they gnashed their teeth, and thought of killing Him. The Jews were also exacerbated, and were not a little afflicted, understanding that Immanuel would surpass even those holy fathers of theirs, and that He would be worshipped by all people, nay, rather, by the whole earth. And being conscious of this, they said: "This is the heir: come, let us kill him, and let us seize his inheritance"; even as the blessed David spoke openly to the Only-Begotten incarnate: "All the nations which Thou hast made shall come and shall worship before Thee, O Lord." And elsewhere, on the other hand, he again brings the envy and the impious wrath of the Israelites themselves against Christ before our eyes and says: "The Lord hath reigned, let the peoples be angry." Having thus sufficiently shown the cruel and untamable envy of the Jews, let us opportunely speak of their intolerable and bloodthirsty deeds, following the history in every respect, and recurring to the very scope of the incarnation of the Only-Begotten. For the discourse brings us back to this again.
5. The mission of Joseph and of Christ
5. For the B divinely inspired Joseph goes to Shechem, as the command of his father persuades him, if they are in sound state C and wheresoever and in what manner they might be tending the flocks, he might oversee his brothers. He goes away, but finds them with difficulty, not indeed in Shechem, but having moved rather to Dothaim. And as soon as they saw him approaching, they mocked him with a bitter and hateful smile, saying: "Behold, that dreamer cometh." And while they were desiring to make away with him, Reuben prevents them. Therefore they cast him into one of the pits, disregarding the counsel of Reuben. But not long after, having drawn the youth up from the pit, they sold him to the Ishmaelites who were going down into Egypt. But Reuben, having returned to the pit, and not having found the youth, and already believing him to be dead and to have become the work of the impiety of those murderers, felt no little distress. And Joseph was indeed carried off into Egypt; but his father mourned, and continued for a long time lamenting.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was sent by God and Father, to visit those who were of Israel, to see if they were still endowed with health—intellectual health, of course—and likewise whether the sheep committed to them were faring in good pastures, and were not destitute of the care of the shepherds. But the brothers were found, not in Shechem, but in Dothaim. Shechem is interpreted as "shoulder." Now this member is a sign of diligence. For Holy Scripture sometimes employs this type for strength, and sometimes for work, as in that saying: "Give your heart to the shoulders," that is, to the zeal for working. Dothaim, on the other hand, is "a great falling away." The Israelites, therefore, were caught, not indeed applying themselves to virtue, nor to those things which the law approves, but in a great falling away—and indeed, from all equity. Neither
A was there a just man, nor was there one doing kindness, not even one; but, as God says somewhere through the voice of the prophet, they offered him only the honor of their tongue, having removed their mind elsewhere, and having removed their heart far away from the necessity of fulfilling the things decreed through Moses. For they were devoted only to the teachings and commandments of men. Yet they did recognize the beloved, the intelligible Joseph, present in the flesh. For the blessed evangelist John said, “How, indeed, many from among the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it.” B Having recognized him, therefore, they acted lawlessly against him. For they slew him, and as if into some pit, the wretches cast him—the deep and dark chasm of death, that is to say, Hades. For thus did the divine David also signify him to us, speaking to the Father and God in heaven as if in the person of Christ: “O Lord, you brought up my soul from Hades, you saved me from them that go down into the pit.” Observe also for me the power of the holy Scriptures, and how it is most refined in its precision: “The pit,” he says, “was empty; it had no water,” so that Hades might C be clearly and plainly signified to us by this. And in what way, I will say. For water would be a symbol of life, as it is vivifying. “But water,” he says, “was not in the pit.” For Hades might reasonably be understood as a house and dwelling place of those deprived of life. Yet the child was brought up. And Christ also rose again from the dead. For he did not remain held by the pit. Nor did Christ remain in Hades, but rather he emptied it. “For he said to those in bonds: Come forth.” And since he was brought up, and not long after, the divine Joseph went away into the land of the Egyptians, having been purchased by the Ishmaelites; and these were merchants of aromatics. D For Christ also rose again, and ascended from the pit. But leaving Judea, he crossed over into the country of the nations, being carried around by the intelligible Ishmaelites, that is to say, those who are in obedience to God—for that is how the word is interpreted. And who might such people be? Again, the blessed disciples, who lent their ear to the teachings through Christ, and became the firstfruits of those who acquiesce in obedience and faith, and in those boasts which surpass the law. For such people might reasonably also be considered merchants of aromatics, making the mystery of Christ fragrant, and tracing out in their own souls the form of every virtue in a general sense. These purchased Jesus in a certain way, having left behind all the things in the law that were bright, but having traded for the one and “precious pearl,” according to the parable of the Savior himself. These conveyed Christ to the nations, performing the office of the Gospel, and throughout the whole world preaching Christ as God and Lord, and as a stone chosen, rejected indeed by the architects of the law and of worldly wisdom, but chosen and precious with God, and placed as the head of the corner. Furthermore, Ruben prevented his brothers from the slaughter, and Judas
A also felt aggrieved. And indeed, Ruben was the firstborn, but Judas was from the tribe that was called to the reins of the kingdom. Consequently, as many as have attained the conformation with the firstborn—if they were of the Jews—and as many as have been called to the kingdom of heaven, having accepted the proclamation through Christ, have not been slightly aggrieved at the audacious deeds against Him. For there were—I say, there were—innumerable [souls] at that time, both in Jerusalem and in the rest of Judea, who were sorrowful and simultaneously mourned with Christ, who was affected by ignominy. B The father also bewailed Joseph. "For he would not be comforted," it says. From this, therefore, it is possible to see that the wanton violence against Christ and the murderous attempts of the Jews have not slightly grieved the Father and God in heaven. They have offended so vehemently that He rejected every consolation, and as it were, did not admit anyone who might intercede on their behalf. For the prophets often prayed and besought for Israel, that he might be saved, even though he had committed deeds against the prophets more grievous than words can express. But God often overlooked this because of His kindness, for they were His own servants who were in danger. But when they behaved with such wild abandon against Christ Himself, the Father became inexorable, and conceived an implacable anger. For they were not insulting any mere prophet, but the Savior of all, who is the Lord of the prophets themselves—in Christ, I say, through whom and with whom, to God and the Father, be glory with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
On Judas and Thamar
C α΄. The scope and intention of the divinely inspired Scripture is to signify to us the mystery of Christ through nearly infinite matters. And not unworthily might one compare it to a splendid and magnificent city, which does not have one statue of its king or emperor, but very many, and those placed in a celebrated spot where they might be looked upon by all. For behold how it omits no deeds that contribute to this, but pursues each and every one. And even if the text of the history sometimes seems little suited to the discourse, nothing hinders it from weaving well and completing that which is proposed to it. For its scope is not to set forth the life of the saints (far from it), but rather to instruct us in the knowledge of the mystery of Christ through such matters, by which a manifest and true discourse about Him might be made; from which it cannot be reprehended, as if it had wandered away from the truth. D Therefore, the mystery of the incarnation of our Savior is described to us in a certain manner again in Judas and in Thamar. For it happened, says the text, at that time, that Judas went down from his brothers and came to a certain Odollamite, whose name was Hiras. And Judas saw there the daughter of a Chananite man, whose name was Saba. And he took her, and went in to her, and she having conceived
bare a son, and she called his name Her. And having conceived again, she bare a son, and she called his name Aunan. And adding yet more, she bare a son, and she called his name Selom. A These, therefore, are the three sons born to Judas. But when the young men had reached puberty, Judas took Thamar and joined her to his firstborn, that is, to Her. And since he was evil in the eyes of God, he was taken away before the begetting of children such as ours. "For," says the text, "God slew him." Then the father urged Aunan to lie with his brother's wife, and to raise up seed to the deceased. But he, since he said that what was to be born would not be his own, violated the law of procreation, pouring it upon the ground, and did not rather grant the seed. And so he too perishes immediately from divine wrath. This having happened, Judas then feared to join his third son to her, I mean Selom. And the occasion for the fears in this matter was, B "Lest perhaps he also should die," as he said. And he made a pretext for not needing to fulfill the marriage, that the age of the boy was altogether too small. For he said, as it says, to his daughter-in-law: "Remain a widow in your father's house, until my son Selom grows up." For he said, "Lest this one also die, as did his brothers." And Thamar went away and sat in her father's house. Then, much time having passed, Thamar was distressed at the delay of the marriage. She understood now in part that her father-in-law was not going to fulfill the promise he had made to her, but was only using some pretext to delay and put off the matter, and to deceive and circumvent her with empty hope. But what does she devise against this in return? C "It was reported," it says, "to Thamar his daughter-in-law, saying: Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Thamna to shear his sheep." And having stripped off the garments of her widowhood from herself, she wrapped herself in a veil, and adorned herself, and sat at the gates of Aenan, which is on the way to Thamna. For she saw that his son Selom had become grown, but he did not give her to him for a wife. And Judas seeing her, thought her to be a harlot. For she had covered her face, and he did not recognize her. Then he was snatched away by desire; and to the woman asking for a fee, he promised that he would send a kid; and as she demanded pledges for the promise, he gave his staff, and the ring, and the necklace, that is, a certain ornament for the neck D (one might suppose, and quite reasonably, as Judas was a Chaldean, that he was not negligent in the matter of adorning himself to lie down—for the Chaldeans are lovers of ornament, and they bring splendor to both hands and neck with gold, and they sometimes even crown their hair. And this has been regarded among them as manly, and a token, moreover, of topmost nobility and not lacking in praises for bravery). These things having been thus accomplished, Judas went his way, where his intention had been from the start. But she returned to her father's house, raised in good hope, because she was pregnant. And when Judas discovered this, he said that she must be put to death, as an adulteress. But
when she was at the point of extremity, she showed him the staff and the rest, saying: "I am pregnant by the man to whom these things belong." And he said: "Recognize whose this signet-ring is, and the bracelet, and this staff." And Judas recognized them and said: "Thamar is justified before me. Why did I not give her to my son Selon?" And he added no more to know her. And it came to pass, the text says, A when she was giving birth, that there were twins in her womb. And it came to pass in her bearing, that one put forth his hand. But the midwife took and tied scarlet thread upon his hand, saying: "This one will come out first." But when he drew back his hand, immediately his brother came out. And she said: "Why has the barrier been broken for your sake?" And she called his name Phares. After this his brother came out, on whose hand was the scarlet thread; and he called his name Zara. B And these things I have recounted from the letter. But the meaning of those things which are useful is abstruse, which we shall also extract in brief as to how it stands.
2. Therefore, we ought, I believe, to say this first of all: that even if certain notable persons are discovered to have acted in a way not altogether honorable, yet, since God provides through them something conducive to salvation in the Holy Scripture, we should repel far from us that which might offend, provided that wisdom and understanding are matters of care for us, and we are not completely ignorant of those things which concern our case. For we consider that even the blessed prophet Osea at one time took for himself a harlot as a wife, and did not refuse such a marriage, and was called the father of detestable children; whose names were: "Not my people," and, "Not having obtained mercy." And what this matter signifies and for whom these things were done, we shall not hesitate to explain. For since those who seemed to be most illustrious among the people of Israel were opposing the proclamations of the prophets, and the divine word was unacceptable to them, God sometimes caused things of this kind to be done through His C saints, so that, seeing the future things as if clearly and openly depicted on a tablet within these very actions, they might bend their minds toward the discovery of what is advantageous, and pursue with all zeal that which was salutary, and persuade others to do the same. For they were learning from this that they would become "not a people," and would be numbered among those to whom the gates of mercy are closed, inasmuch as they were hard and intractable. And were they not suffering from such diseases, and were they not altogether convicted? Moreover, that the prophet cohabited with a harlot was a type of God, who in a way has been joined to a certain harlot and most impure woman—namely, the Synagogue of the Jews—from which He accepted an onerous generation of children. D Understanding therefore now the reason and dispensation of the divine counsel for its own times, we shall by no means any longer condemn the harlotry of Thamar and Judas, but rather we shall say that their congress was instead of God's dis-
dispensation. For she desired free offspring, being deprived of him who had been her lawful husband; and he was not in any great fault, as he chose to unite with another, his first having died. This physical union and generation may surely describe for us A the types of spiritual union and intellectual birth. For in no other way could the human mind be more conveniently led to the truth.
3. Judas descended, therefore, and came to a man whose name was Hira. He was a goatherd and an expert in pastoral matters. Having seen B Saba there, he took her as his wife and made her the mother of three children; namely Her, and Onan, and Selom. And Her is interpreted as "leathern," that is, carnal; Onan as "one struck in heart"; and the third, Selom, as "pulling away," or "release and pacification."
The only-begotten Word of God, who is truly praised and naturally holds the majesty of the kingdom, also descended from the heavens, as if from a certain C holy land. For this person of Judas might signify precisely this to us: for the meaning of the name signifies praise. The tribe of Judah was honored before the others, and set in supreme excellence. Hence the divine Jacob, while giving the blessing to Judah, says: "Let thy brethren praise thee." Most wise Paul also testified that Christ, who is to be praised above all creatures, would arise from the tribe of Judah.
The only-begotten Word of God, therefore, descended and visited the desert of Madian, where the blessed Moses was D shepherding at that time. For He appeared to him in the form of fire in the bush, and in a certain way was united through him, just as to the foreign Canaanite woman, to the Synagogue of the sons of Israel in Egypt; just as, indeed, Judas did through the shepherd to Saba, which is interpreted as "height" or "elevation." For the Synagogue of the Jews, having been called as it were into intimacy with God, was no longer low and trodden down, nor bearing the wretched condition of slavery, but became lofty and radiant. For it was redeemed as if from an iron furnace and from the house of slavery, according to what is written.
Furthermore, three peoples were born to this Synagogue in Egypt—once as if to a foreigner and idolater—fulfilling the order of sons to God, and though born from one mother, they divided the generation in time. And we shall say shortly in what way.
Judas joined Thamar to his first son, Her, who was his firstborn. And since God destroyed him because he was evil, Onan immediately succeeds him in marriage, who was second in birth and time. But because he did not wish to raise up seed to his brother, he was destroyed together with the first, the divine wrath also seizing him for this. Then the father does not allow the third, that is, Selom, to enter into marriage, fearing that he might perish like the first ones.
What does this matter mean? I shall endeavor to explain, God helping. For when God took the first Synagogue in Egypt (which we have handed down as being foreign, in that)
it was exceedingly barbarous and savage in its manners then and in its Greek customs), and had refined it through the legislation of the law, He set it forth as if it were a new Synagogue, and A one that was, as it were, different from the first. And this is Thamar, B and it is as if it were a second Synagogue. But see how the mystery is discovered from the very interpretation of the names. For Thamar is interpreted as "a falling away" or "one who is shaken." And indeed, the Synagogue of the Jews has truly been shaken and has fallen away. How, or in what manner? For the worship according to the law did not remain altogether unshaken, but it has yielded and given way to the worship in spirit. And finally, the Synagogue introduced through Christ was brought in, which accuses the first, as not possessing that which is blameless. Moreover, Christ betrothed to Himself the Church as a certain pure virgin, C having cast off that ancient and first one. Therefore, the Synagogue of the Jews is rightly understood as a "falling away" and as "one who is shaken."
And that no one is justified by the law before God, nor is there any participation in the calmness of God in the Synagogue of the Jews (for "the Law works wrath," D as it is written), the generation of the sons of Juda who were joined to Thamar would enigmatically suggest. For Her, the firstborn, is "leathern," or "earthly." But because he was evil, he was condemned to death. And the first people were seen to be truly evil, murmuring against God and saying: "Will God be able to prepare a table in the wilderness? Because He struck the rock, and waters flowed, and torrents were flooded, will He also be able to give bread?" Indeed, even after those who had been sent to explore the land of promise had returned, they bewailed like children as if they were already lost, insulting Him who is able to do all things by their disobedience. Wherefore also they perished, and not one of them entered into the land of promise; but "their members rotted in the wilderness," as it is written. Therefore, the firstborn Her—that is, this malicious and carnal people—perished first, having no fruit of piety. For this, again, childlessness would suggest to us as in a figure; for sensible things are as it were images of things in the intellect.
Then after him follows the second, that is, the people generated after him as a certain son of the God who redeemed and freed them from the house of bondage. This people did indeed cross the Jordan, with Joshua as their leader, and inherited the land of promise: but afterwards it also came to the judges, and it too fell into the indignation of God. For it was truly Onan, that is, "struck in heart." For it turned absurdly and basely to a plurality of gods, having neglected Him who is one by nature and truly God. And therefore that one also perished and served the foreign nations. For this, the book which is inscribed "Judges" teaches us. Therefore, this one also died in childlessness, just like Her, sowing into nothing—that is, into the earth. Whence it was consistent that he should receive no fruit, nor raise up seed to his brother. But the middle one also hesitated,
A and as it were the second people in time, through the leniency of the Law, endeavoring to raise himself up to God in the place of those who had been disobedient, and to show himself forth by his deeds as a new people, in a way, springing up in return. For this, I think, signifies enigmatically: "to raise up seed to his brother." The two sons having been removed for just causes (for the one was wicked, and the other was stricken in heart), he excludes the third from union with Thamar. For the father feared lest he also should perish here, like the two before him. For God did not permit the third people, as the youngest B and as if in the last time of the holy prophets (with whom was also the neighbor, the glorious Baptist, showing Him who is present from above, that is, Christ), to be, as it were, embraced by the arms of the Synagogue of the Jews; nor did He will that it should receive any fruit from it, lest perhaps it also should perish. "For the Law works wrath," and no one is justified by it at all. Observe, however, how elegantly Selom reveals in himself the type of the last people, which is through faith. For "Selom" is interpreted as "extraction" or "dismissal." For when the divine wrath had, as it were, consumed those of the blood of Israel because of their crimes committed against Christ and the intolerable insolence offered to Him, then the faithful were, so to speak, snatched from the jaws of the beast, and released in a way from the bonds in which they who were to be punished had been entangled. For the remnant was saved, according to the Scriptures. Hence also God says somewhere through the voice of the prophet: C "As when a shepherd snatches from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be snatched." Therefore "Selom" is "extraction" or "evulsion," and on this account it is rightly so named. But that the faithful avoid the custom of Thamar—that is, to bring forth fruit in the Law—and that they have been removed from the multitude of those who perished, you may easily learn without toil from the blessed Paul, who speaks as follows concerning the boastings in the Law: "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted as loss for Christ." For he did not desire to hold a righteousness of his own—that one, I say, which is again in the Law—but the righteousness which is from the faith of which is in Christ Jesus. Therefore, Selom, being the youngest, cannot be joined to Thamar; and for this reason she has remained a widow, and indeed for a long time. For God not permitting the Synagogue D of the Jews to bring forth fruit any longer, it has been called, and truly was, a kind of widow, bereft of children, and deserted by her spiritual husband and spouse. For Christ says somewhere: "For she is not my wife, nor am I her husband." Is there, then, no account taken of her at all after this? Has she been deemed unworthy of the care that comes from God? Do not suspect this. For although she is condemned for the most extreme impieties, nevertheless, because of His innate goodness, God will have mercy on her again in the last times of the age. Then she too will bring forth the knowledge of Christ. But that the nations will follow after, we shall certainly understand through those very things which are written here. For when Judah had gone down to shear his sheep, he had relations with her by the way and, as it were, in passing.
A But He permits her to have the staff, and the ring, and the necklace, promising also that He will send a kid. For Christ, bearing a unique and most necessary care for receiving the fruits from His intelligent flock—I mean those who have believed and been sanctified in the Spirit—will enter into a perfunctory or not altogether thorough communion in the spirit with the Synagogue of the Jews; rather, He will show it to be fruitful, as though it were laboring of His wisdom. He will present Himself to it, just as He does to us, as a staff of power, as an image and likeness of God and the Father (for this is what is signified by the ring), and as one beautiful in form beyond the sons of men. For this, I think, is what is meant by the necklace. For every ornament that contributes to external appearance should be considered a sign of beauty. He also sends her the kid, that is to say, He bestows the remission of sins. For the kid was slaughtered according to the Law for sin, and it foreshadowed the remission of transgressions. But Thamar is saved, even though the sentence of death had already been passed, and the extreme punishment had been decreed against her (for Thamar had been condemned as an adulteress). B Yet she is saved; for she showed the staff, the ring, and the necklace. And she confessed clearly that she had conceived from Judah, and that she carried his fruit. And Christ, in His own time, will also liberate the Synagogue of the Jews from being punished, since it bears the symbols of the communion that was initiated with Him, and clearly shows that it has conceived from Him and become pregnant. For so do those who have chosen to be approved through faith in Christ say in some place: "For the fear of thee, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb, and have been in pain, and have brought forth the spirit of thy salvation, which we have brought forth upon the earth." But Thamar, laboring with a pair of infants, was finally near to the delivery itself. Then the first-born thrusts out his hand, but as he draws it back to himself (although it had already been bound with the scarlet thread), the second leaps forth, as though a fence had been broken through, and so the one who followed comes out first. C And this may also be for us a not obscure sign that the Gentiles were called before those who are of the blood of Israel, and that those who are honored in the last times have obtained the dignity of the first-born. But it will undoubtedly come to pass that Israel himself, too, will receive the sacrifice of Christ. For the scarlet is a type of the sacred blood. Who, then, is He that broke down the middle wall of the partition, and in order called the second the first-born, but placed the first behind? Is it not manifest that it is Christ, through Whom and with Whom be glory to God and the Father with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
Still concerning Joseph
We must return to the remaining part of the history concerning Joseph, of which we have already made mention; for the account that occurred in the meantime concerning Thamar and Judah, I mean, has now been brought to its proper end. For since we have transferred divine Joseph to the person of ChristA we said that he was cast into the pit by his brothers, but that he was again brought up and sold to the Ishmaelites, who were merchants of the most fragrant spices, and who carried them to those who lacked them. We added that he was carried away by them to the land of the Egyptians. For since the Only-Begotten humbled Himself into a state of emptying and became man, and was called brother to those who dwell on earth, and before all others to those of Israel, He endured death and underwent the cross, and descended even to hades, of which the pit is a type. Yet He rose again, and withdrew from those who were of the blood of Israel. But He was delivered, as it were, to the merchants of spiritual spices, that is, the holy apostles, who, spreading abroad the perfume of His ointment, arrived in the land of the Gentiles, offering Him—who had taken on the form of a servant—to those who did not know Him through the preaching of the gospel. He is proclaimed, indeed, as having come for our sake in the flesh, and in the form of a servant. This, I think, is what is meant by Joseph’s being brought down to Egypt by the Ishmaelites. Consider, if you will, what happened to him there, and what was appropriate to do in this matter. For when he was yet a youth and in his prime, he vanquished the wantonness of the Egyptian woman, though he was urged on with great force to desire to do what is not lawful. She seized his garments tightly and shamelessly, and tried in no small measure to force him into forbidden sin. But he, leaving behind his cloak, escaped the mad lust of the woman and could not be conquered by such a passion. After this, however, he was falsely accused, the woman turning the charges of her own shame back upon him, C while the temperate and noble-minded man was made to bear the charges of foulness. Yet, it is said, he was master of the prison. Now Christ also was among the Gentiles—in the person, I mean, of the holy apostles—who said that they carried the marks of His sufferings in their own bodies. For they refused to conform to those who chose to mind the things of the world, and were as far as possible removed from carnal lusts. For such is always the life of the holy. But for this reason they were plotted against, and being slandered by those who were accustomed to regarding those who wish to live in Christ as burdensome, they fell into temptations and were cast into prison. Yet they remembered Christ saying: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, for this reason the world hates you,” just as, indeed, the wanton woman was with Joseph. But even in these sufferings they were enlarged, as the grace of God softened them—whom it was fitting to toil most of all. For the keeper of the prison, as I said, was gladdened by Joseph. Then he explained the dreams of the eunuchs of Pharaoh, I mean the cupbearer and moreover the baker, who were bound. And because of this, he says, the divine Joseph was held in no small admiration. And when Pharaoh himself also dreamed of the future, not long after—the great abundance and the labor from the famine, which he saw first in the cows, those fat and those lean, and in the ears of grain seen after them—
and A while the wise men in Egypt had nothing to say and had utterly despaired of being able to clarify what was indicated by the visions, he himself was attested as being able to do this, and when he came forward, he made it clear. And Pharaoh, having marveled, appointed him treasurer and leader over his own realm. For Christ, as I said just now, was persecuted, as it were, in the person of the holy apostles. But they, of whom the discourse now treats, since they were able as very wise men to unearth things hidden to many during those very afflictions, were made manifest and known to certain people established in worldly power, and even to those kings of the earth who, believing that they possessed the knowledge of things to come through the revelation of God in the Spirit, allowed them to become stewards and leaders of the nations, so as to distribute to those in the famine of learning that which gathers them unto life incorruptible—that is, the divine and heavenly Word and the instruction leading to every best thing. These acquired—or rather, through them, Christ acquired—for God and the Father the region of the nations, just as Joseph acquired Egypt for Pharaoh. B To him were also two sons born, Manasseh and Ephraim, from their mother Aseneth, the daughter of Pentephres, who was a priest. And Manasseh is interpreted as "oblivion of the evils which have happened," but Ephraim signifies "augmenting and increase for the better." For as if from a sacred mother—I mean the Church—there have been fruits, and those called from the nations, who will also be brought into oblivion of their toils, could be counted among the sons of God through faith in Christ. For "they shall forget," he says, "their first tribulation, and it shall no longer come up into their heart. Upon their head is praise C and exultation, and joy shall take hold of them." Sorrow, grief, and sighing have fled away. They will, therefore, come in due time to the oblivion of evils, and they will make progress, hastening toward the sweet end of hope. For they shall migrate from earthly things to heavenly, from things measured in time to those placed beyond all time; from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power. And when the famine was still pressing and spreading, the sons of Jacob went down into Egypt to buy provisions. Then, while Joseph was playing jocularly with his brothers (for he claimed they had not come at all to buy grain, but to explore the land), D and was demanding Benjamin, who was his youngest brother, and insisting that they would not depart from the Egyptians unscathed unless they brought the boy, he was at last brought, with their father reluctantly consenting. And when they had arrived together with the child, he then invited them to his home, and refreshed them with water, bread, and wine. For the Jews, heavily afflicted and pressed by what is, as it were, an unbearable famine—one that is clearly intellectual—will, in due course, casting off their high and haughty brow, crave the help that comes from Christ.
A eagerly seeking from Him food—spiritual, that is, and life-giving. But He will not receive them without the new people, of whom Benjamin is the type. And when they come, as if in unity of spirit and with one mind, He will receive them cheerfully and bring them into His own house, which is the Church. Then, cleansing them with pure water—that is, with the laver of regeneration—He will nourish them with bread and wine. This is the mystical interpretation. Let us add this too, moreover: Joseph was indeed revealed to his brothers once Benjamin had arrived, and he deemed them worthy of his table, as I just said. Yet he gave them no gift, but ordered them to depart again so that they might bring their father—I mean Jacob—to him. B But after he had descended and Joseph then beheld him present, along with his children and household, only then did he assign to them the best of all the land. This may also serve as a clear sign that Christ will indeed receive the Israelites returning in the last times of the age, provided, needless to say, that they agree with the new people in a manner of unity of spirit. For that, as I said, is Benjamin. Moreover, the inheritance that we hope for will not be given to us without the holy Fathers. For just as they, although they died in faith—as the wise Paul said—"received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Heb. xi, 39), so too shall we await the Fathers, that we may not be made perfect C without them. Therefore, together with the holy Fathers, we—the first, middle, and last peoples—shall receive the best and incorruptible inheritance of the kingdom of heaven in Christ, through whom and with whom to God the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
Concerning Joseph and his sons Ephraim and Manasseh
1. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights" (Jam. i, 17). I declare that there is nothing, however sacred or set apart as a good, that we do not gain through Christ. "For He is," it is said, "the mediator between God and man," (1 Tim. ii, 5) D and "through Him we have access in one Spirit unto the God and Father in heaven" (Ephes. ii, 18). Whence He Himself also said: "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (Jo. xiv, 6). In Him and through Him is every fullness of grace and a glorious inheritance. For God, being rich, became poor for our sakes, that we might be enriched by His poverty (2 Cor. viii, 9), and that, striving toward the glory of the holy Fathers, we might be able to attain the hope most worthy of them. You will easily perceive that these things are so if you turn the eye of your mind to the holy Scriptures. For they continue: "And it came to pass after these words, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and came unto Jacob. And they told Jacob, saying, Behold, thy son"
A Joseph cometh unto thee; and Israel strengthened himself and sat upon the bed. And Jacob said to Joseph, God, my God, appeared to me in Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and said to me: Behold, I will increase thee and multiply thee, and will make thee into congregations of nations, and I will give to thee this land, and to thy seed after thee for an eternal possession. Now therefore, those two sons of thine, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt before I came to thee here in Egypt, are mine, Ephraim and Manasseh; they shall be to me as Reuben and Simeon. But the offspring B that thou shalt beget after these shall be thine, and they shall be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritances. And I, when I was coming from Mesopotamia of Syria, thy mother Rachel died in the land of Canaan, as I was drawing near to the hippodrome of Chabratha of the land, to go to the land of Ephratha; and I buried her in the way of the hippodrome; the same is Bethlehem." For the blessed Jacob had indeed been nurtured in a good old age, according as it is written. But since he was departing from human affairs, he considered blessing the sons of Joseph; for since they were from an alien mother, Aseneth, daughter of the priest of Petephres, lest any of the Israelites should perhaps abhor them, and deem them a race foreign and diverse, therefore, prudently and with good counsel, the divine Jacob endeavored to instruct Joseph himself and his other sons, that, following the divine decrees, he holds all who have been born from them as his own. "For God appeared to me," he says, "in the land of Canaan," and that I should be a father of very many peoples, and that I should be widened out into nations and congregations of nations, he openly promised. At the same time, therefore, he also persuades them to honor God with a sincere mind. He teaches, moreover, that they should regard their kinsmen as their own brothers, and much more those who have sprung from them, even if they chance to have been procreated from an alien mother. C 2. Having briefly traced the history, we say this: Thus even we, who have been justified by faith, have become in Christ children of God, and domestics of the saints, while He mediates and by Himself joins us to Himself and to the Father and to the choirs of the saints; just as, indeed, Joseph also, being in a way in the middle, made Ephraim and Manasseh the sons of his own father, and to be inscribed D in the very register of the patriarchs. "For now," he says, "the two sons of thine who were born to thee in Egypt are mine, Ephraim and Manasseh; they shall be to me as Reuben and Simeon." That is to say, they shall be counted among the first-born, and shall be linked also with those who are in obedience. For Reuben was indeed the first-born. And Simeon is interpreted as obedience. But we who were last have become first through faith, and the people of the nations have inherited the glory of the first-born. Yet they have been honored with this honor on account of obedience and faith. For Christ Himself has testified of them, saying: "A people whom I have not known has served me; at the hearing of the ear it has obeyed me." For even if we have been born from a mother as if alien, since the Church has been called from the nations, Emmanuel will suffice for us me-
the Church to be called from the nations, but that Emmanuel, by interceding, might suffice to join us to God the Father through Himself, to enroll us in the lots of the saints, to bring us to the glory appropriate to them, and to render us a holy race. A Observe, moreover, how out of the love he had for the blessed Joseph, he ranks those born of him among his own sons. For we too have been loved in Christ, and since through Him we have been born again by a spiritual birth, we have become acceptable to the Father, and, as I just said, we have been enrolled with the saints who preceded us. Nevertheless, even if we are called sons of God the Father, we shall again be under the hand of Him who brings us forth and unites us to Himself—that is, to Christ. For see how the blessed Jacob, after he had enrolled Ephraim and Manasseh among his own children, says: "But the offspring that you beget after them shall be yours." You understand, therefore, that even if we are named sons of God and the Father, we shall nonetheless also be Christ’s. And this, I think, is what He said somewhere to the Father: "Those whom You have given Me out of the world, they were Yours, and You have given them to Me, and I have been glorified in them." B Jacob also said that Rachel had been buried in Bethlehem. We remember often having spoken of Rachel as a type and image of the Church of the nations. And someone, I think, would not be untruthful if he wished to say that the Church has passed over to another life—namely, one better and more excellent than this worldly one; for she has died to the world, insofar as she does not endure to mind its affairs, but lives spiritually for God in Christ through an evangelical way of life. For even if she is in the world because of the life in the flesh, yet, as it were, she is hidden, not possessing the splendor of the world, and is practically buried with Christ. And this, I think, is what the most wise Paul says to us: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." For understand that because Rachel was buried in Bethlehem and no longer seen, Emmanuel Himself was practically buried with her. For He had not yet been born through the holy Virgin. Let us, then, praise such a death of the Church, which reports us back to the beginnings of holy life, and of that which is in Christ Jesus. I also think it necessary to add this point. When the father, having received as sons those born of Joseph while their mother was dead, gave instructions also concerning her, his indicating the place where she was buried can be nothing else but an exhortation C that the care which is becoming should be taken for her. Likewise, God the Father also gave instructions to the Son concerning the Church, and persuades Him to undertake her care, having been overcome by death on account of the ancient curse. Hence also the divine David cries out to the Father and God in heaven: "Command, O God, Your power; confirm, O God, what You have wrought in us." By this, he was as it were displaying the body subject to death, and praying that by the power of God and the Father—that is, through the Son—it might be delivered from corruption, and again be restored to its pristine condition, that is, to the blessed and pure life in Christ.
A
That Israel, being the firstborn and honored with the prerogatives pertaining to this, nevertheless fell from the glory he previously possessed, and that the grace of such extraordinary glory was transferred to the new people gathered from the Gentiles, we shall know no less clearly through the events that follow in the history. For He says: "Israel, having seen the sons of Joseph, said: Who are these? And Joseph said to his father: They are my sons, whom God hath given me here. And Jacob said: Bring them unto me, that I may bless them. Now his eyes were dim with age, and he could not see. And he brought them near to him, and he kissed them, and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph: Behold, I am not deprived of thy sight, and lo, God hath even shown me thy seed." And Joseph took them out from his knees, and they worshipped him, falling on their faces to the ground. And Joseph, taking his sons, Ephraim on his right, but on Israel’s left; and Manasseh on the other side, to his left, and to Israel’s right, brought them to him. But Israel, having extended his right hand, laid it upon the head of Ephraim (for he was the younger), and his left upon the head of Manasseh, transposing his hands. And he blessed them, saying: "The God in whose sight my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, pleased; the God who hath fed me from my youth until this day; the angel who hath delivered me from all evils, bless these lads." B For the youths were standing by, and the old man inquired who they were. To this, indeed, Joseph answers: "These are my two sons." Then, having moved them closer, he embraced and kissed them.
Do you understand, then, how we, as if unknown to God and the Father, have become known and have been made near in Christ? He receives us most willingly, with the Son testifying on our behalf as to our intimacy with Him, and He deems us worthy of such love and calls us to a unity—a spiritual one, of course. Furthermore, the kiss is a manifest type of friendship, just as the embrace is of unity. Therefore, the most wise Paul also writes, saying to those who have believed in Christ, sometimes indeed thus: "You who once were far off have now been made near," C Christ clearly bringing us in. At other times, however, he says: "Now that you have known God, or rather are known by God." For God and the Father deems those worthy of being looked upon and acknowledges only those who enter into a spiritual friendship with the Son and who have obtained spiritual regeneration from Him and through Him; just as, indeed, in Egypt, He counted only those who were marked with the blood of the lamb as "known," saying: "And I will see the blood, and I will protect you, and there shall not be a plague among you unto destruction, when I strike in the land of Egypt."
Jacob was cheered beyond measure by the sight of Joseph. For he says: "Behold, I am not deprived of thy sight. God hath shown me also thy seed." D For as far as the Jews are concerned, the Father was bereaved of the Son. For they supposed that He could be held by the gates of the netherworld, and that, like others overcome by death,
A he lay among the dead, and they clothed Him in death. But it was not possible for the Author of life to be clothed in death. Consequently, He rose again, and the Father looked upon Him once more, and upon the race born from Him and in Him—by which I mean believers, B "the holy nation, the royal priesthood, the people for His own possession." In these, Christ Himself also rejoices, saying: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me." And so Joseph brought them to his father, and they did homage. Then, because Manasseh was the firstborn standing at his right hand, and the youngest, Ephraim, at his left, Jacob crossed his hands and placed them [on the boys]; he honored Ephraim by the laying on of his right hand, but as though deeming Manasseh second and younger, he placed his left hand upon him, and thus he begins the blessing upon them. For we have been received as worshippers, we who are the first, and the peoples after us, brought to Him not by Moses, nor by the prophets—for the Law was too slow for salvation—but by the Son of God Himself: "For through Him," as I have said, "we have had access." C And his intent and purpose was to place Israel in preference to the flock of the Gentiles, for Joseph had placed Manasseh at his father's right hand. But because they have been impious towards Him beyond words, the Father preferred those who were later in time, that is to say, the Gentiles; and "the last have become first, and the first last." Jacob blessed the lads, calling God the one who sustains, and the Angel the one who delivers Him, joining the Son universally to God and Father, who also, by the voice of the prophets, is called "the Angel of great counsel." Therefore, all grace, and every manner of blessing and help toward us, can come about in no other way than through the Son from the Father. Hence the divine Paul also says: D "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." The divine Joseph was distressed to see the firstborn placed in a lower position, but the father made clear the power of the mystery, saying: "And this one shall become a people, and this one shall be exalted; but his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall be into a multitude of nations." Then, a little later: "And he set," he says, "Ephraim before Manasseh." For as far as the will of Christ was concerned, Israel would not have fallen from its own glory. Indeed, He said effectively: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But since they were hardened, according to what is written, and remained disobedient, insulting the calling of the One who invites to salvation, he has been placed to the left, having a lesser portion in glory. Nevertheless, he too is blessed and exalted, in that he is in the part that is saved; and this is the remnant, according to the voice of the prophet, "that is saved."
The one from the nations is extended far beyond, and expands into the gatherings of the peoples, and is greater than Israel, making his preeminence in the measureless multitude of those who believe. For we are crowned with one and the same grace unto sanctification—those from Israel, if they believe, and those from the nations—justified in Christ; through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS: BOOK SEVEN
BRegarding the blessing of the twelve patriarchs.
The aim and purpose of the present discourse is to recount individually those things which the forefather Jacob predicted would befall the sons born to him, in their own times. But he declares beforehand, as it were, that the meaning of the words is extremely difficult and not obvious to the common observer, but contains an abstruse and obscure significance. And there is mixed into the mode of blessing that which is not of such a nature, and which is even more difficult than these things. For the divine Jacob promises to predict to his sons the things which are to happen in the last days, yet he makes mention of things passed away and measures out the sin, first of Ruben, and after that, of Simeon and Levi. But who would dare to say that the commemoration of past sins is a legitimate mode of blessing? Would not such a person be held to be a liar and foreign to right reason? Therefore, the discourse on this matter is extremely obscure for those desiring to grasp it. What then shall we say, applying a line of reasoning appropriate to the points we have proposed? Because the explanation of this very prophecy or prediction introduces to us completely the type of the Synagogue of the Jews—or, to speak summarily, of the whole race—and thus of those things which belong to each tribe: what each will be in its own time, whether it is to be condemned or, on the contrary, approved; likewise how or in what things it will be, and whither those things that are in accordance with it will turn out. See, moreover, in what way he describes the future by means of things already done, but to others he declares the outcome of future events from the very interpretation of their names. It is written, therefore, thus: "And Jacob called his sons and said: Assemble yourselves, that I may tell you what will befall you in the last days. Assemble, and hear, O sons of Jacob; hearken to Israel your father."
Regarding Ruben.
"Ruben, my firstborn, you are my strength and
and the beginning of my children, difficult to tolerate and hard to deal with. Your pride bubbled over like water; do not seethe. You have ascended onto your father’s couch; then you defiled the bed where you ascended." Ruben had indeed secretly violated his father’s marriage bed, and having been caught doing that which is not lawful, the matter was judged as wicked even by the votes of Jacob himself. For he says, "The evil appeared in the sight of Jacob." But I do not think anyone would suppose that what has already passed will be in the last days; for it is altogether foolish to interpret it in that way. But if we transfer the type of the transgression to something similar, then we may understand the sin of the first people—I mean, of Israel. For God led out the Synagogue, as a wife, from Egypt, through the intellectual communion of the law. B For He admitted her, and deemed her worthy of intimacy and conjunction, and thus made her fruitful and a mother of children, with Moses acting in a way as a bridal escort, and the angels mediating the manner of the marriage. But this Synagogue, having been brought to this by God, having rejected the true and sincere law, was joined in a certain way to the sons of Him who had married her, and committed adultery with them; and she no longer bore fruit for Him who was her legitimate husband, but subjected her mind to the seeds of others—to spiritual ones, I mean, and those which pertain to teaching. For, despising as empty the holding fast to God, she turned to the commandments and teachings of men, and, disregarding the teachings from above, she simply made what seemed right to her into a law. Therefore, the prophet Isaiah also says: "How, he says, has the faithful city, Sion, full of judgment, become a harlot? In which justice once rested, C but now murderers? Your silver is adulterated. Your vintners mix wine with water." For justice—that is, God—had rested in her and had a lodging there. But she admitted murderers, adulterers, and corrupters, who provide her with base silver and mix the wine with water. For the speech of those who persuade her to choose the price of teaching and the commandments of men is truly base. And her instruction is adulterated and lacks no mixture of wickedness. For this, I think, is what is meant by saying that the wine is mixed with water. But that this matter displeased the God of the whole universe, and that He justly accused Jerusalem as an adulteress, hear clearly from what He said through the voice of Jeremiah: D "Lift up your eyes to the straight path, and see where you have prostrated yourself. You sat on the roads for them like a desolate crow, and you polluted the land with your fornications, and you had many shepherds as a stumbling block to yourself. A harlot’s face was made for you. You ceased to blush before all, nor did you call me your companion, when I am both father and leader of your virginity." And again, when He says: "If a man sends away his wife, and she goes and is joined to another man, shall he return to her again? Will not that woman be polluted by polluting herself? And you have committed fornication with many shepherds, and yet you dare to return to me? says the Lord." Moreover, the Savior Himself also openly showed us this manner of fornication.
A For the quarrelling, foolish Pharisees always approached him, saying: "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." And Christ said to them: "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said: Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you. But you say, he says, whoever shall say to his father or mother, Corban, which is a gift by whatever you might have been profited by me, he shall not honor his father or his mother, and you made void the commandment of God by your tradition." Do you hear how, having come under other leaders, they presumed to think and do things other than what was ordained by the Lawgiver, and how they would be caught and convicted even most easily? B Therefore, the Synagogue of the Jews has committed fornication; but that which is a chaste and blameless virgin, and free from every spot and wrinkle, that is, the Church, promises that she will keep the form of marriage holy and inviolate for Christ, saying: "My beloved is mine, and I am his." Therefore, let us set forward as a type of the Jewish Synagogue the concubine of Jacob, I mean Balla, with whom Ruben, that is, the firstborn people, had relations, especially since Balla signifies "the old," and Ruben signifies "the son of contamination." For the Synagogue of the Jews is indeed old and as if covered in wrinkles; but a new and faithful people has flourished, by contrast. On account of this, David also sings with joy: "A people that shall be created shall praise the Lord," C as a new creature in Christ, as it is written. But the people of Israel ought to be understood as impure and wrinkled, since they did not receive the purification of Christ. But why do I say, did not receive? When they even laid violent hands upon Him who called them to purity? Whence, through the voice of the holy prophets, it is said in one place: "If the Ethiopian shall change his skin, and the leopard his spots, then you also will be able to do good, you who have been taught to do evil." And in another place, speaking to Jerusalem as to a woman: "If you wash yourself with nitre and multiply for yourself herbs, yet you are spotted before me in your own iniquities, says the Lord." D "Ruben, therefore," says Jacob, "my firstborn; you are my strength and the beginning of my children." For in the firstborn people, whom he delivered out of Egypt, a great manifestation of strength was produced by God. For the land of the Egyptians was punished in many and marvelous ways: at one time with the waters turned into blood, at another with lice stirred up, again with frogs brought upon them, now with hail sent down, now with the firstborn taken away, and, besides these, with those who were being redeemed passing through the midst of the sea as through dry land. Ruben is therefore called the strength of God to that extent. But he was difficult to tolerate and hard, that is, intractable and churlish, or wild and impetuous. For the Jews are truly impetuous and unbridled. From this, they also deservedly hear: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit." Moreover, even
A Christ himself says: "Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill? And you have filled up the measure of your fathers." Thus, Israel is headlong and prone to anger, having a flight that is difficult to trust, and overflowing like water—meaning, having an insupportable onslaught against those whom it chooses to attack. For such, in a way, are the currents of water. "But do not boil over," he says. And what does this mean? Water that boils rises up somewhere, overflowing the cauldrons, and seems, in a way, to be both great and much. Since, therefore, he has attributed to it the衝衝衝 impulse of water, he persists in the metaphor and says, "Do not boil over," which is to say: "Do not be puffed up into a multitude, nor become great." For those from the blood of Israel, having been saved through faith in Christ, are easily countable compared to the multitude of the Gentiles. Then he brings forward the cause of what would happen, and says: "For you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled his couch, upon which you ascended." For, as I already said, because they were no longer searching into the things contained in the law, and were not inclined toward heavenly things, but B toward the commandments of men, they wandered far from the knowledge of Christ. Therefore he himself also says: "Search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life. And they are they which testify of me, and you are not willing to come to me, that you may have life." And again: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me." He also rebuked the leaders of the Jews vehemently, saying thus: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven before men. For you do not enter in, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." And again: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you travel about the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twofold C more a son of hell than yourselves." But he could not have become a son of hell if he had not been imbued with the inventions of fornicators. Therefore, the Israelites ascended into the father's bed, spurning the will of the lawgiver as something stale, while drilling their own words into their disciples and implanting in them the seeds of uncleanness.
Concerning Simeon and Levi.
D 1. "Simeon and Levi are brothers; they have completed injustice out of their own choice. Let not my soul come into their council, and let not my liver be stirred at their gathering; for in their anger they killed men, and in their desire they hamstrung a bull. Cursed be their anger, because it is headstrong, and their wrath, because it is hardened. I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel." For when Jerusalem was playing the whore and subjecting its mind to the impious illusions of those who were accustomed to teach things contrary to the law of God,
A God, the Lord of all, was rightly indignant, and He declared this very clearly through the voice of Isaiah: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching the doctrines and commandments of men." But since God and Father was devising a plan for how he might bring back to a better state that profane Jerusalem, which was, as it were, intoxicated by its own deviations and laziness, He sent from heaven His own Son, who had become as we are—that is, human—so that, since the multitude of the holy prophets had ceased their work without success (for the prophets were saying: "Lord, who has believed our report?"), they might at least respect the Son Himself when He came. But they fell into such madness as to think that they could take the Lord's inheritance if they only killed the holy men; and so, having surpassed all degrees of impiety, they went on to behave outrageously even against the Son Himself. B "For they said among themselves: 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize his inheritance.'" And the impiety of those wretches did not stop there, but they added to the holy prophets a second group—I mean the holy apostles—whose blood they likewise shed. Such is the meaning that the goal of the prophecy set before us begets for us. For it seems that the divine Jacob is once again remembering the things that were done in Shechem. Now the mind of the righteous man truly holds the matter thus; for how could one accept what has already happened as if it were something about to happen in its own time? Therefore, from what happened in Shechem, he refers to the equal manner of the sin committed against Christ, just as, indeed, he does also in the case of the firstborn, Reuben. C But what did Simeon and Levi commit in Shechem? Dinah, the sister of Levi and Simeon, went out from her father's tent to look at the daughters of the inhabitants of that region; and she was violated by Shechem, son of Hamor. For he took her virginity. They, being deeply indignant at this and contriving a fraudulent slaughter against them, persuaded them to accept and observe their ancestral circumcision, as if they would become kinsmen by race if they chose to do this. By doing this, they killed them while they were unsuspecting and suspecting no such thing, thinking that this would suffice for them as a defense if they were to say: "Should they treat our sister as a harlot?"
D 2. Furthermore, we must address what is appropriate to this, and we shall compose this commentary as beautifully as possible, gathering from all sides the things that seem to pertain to its clarification. We have spent an extensive discourse on Jacob, and we have pursued the whole manner of his life, and which wives he took, and of how many children he was shown to be the father. We said that he first took Leah, the eldest of Laban's daughters, then not long after, the younger one, Rachel. And we asserted that Leah is a type for us of the Jewish Synagogue, and Rachel of the Church of the Gentiles. For Leah is interpreted as "laboring," since she used...
A weaker eyes. And the Jewish Synagogue, burdened by the Mosaic law, labored exceedingly, and did not look with keen eyes upon the mystery of our Savior. But Rachel was fair of face and very beautiful. Most elegant indeed is the Church which consists of the Gentiles. Leah’s last daughter, therefore, was Dinah, who herself may also be a type of the multitude of the circumcised, as she was born in the final times, when the Only-begotten was made man. When, then, this last multitude of the circumcised had gone forth a little from the paternal tents—that is, from the customs according to the law—it fell in with the indigenous, or rather, it was mingled through instruction, I mean with the holy apostles. They were no longer living in the Jewish fashion, but were regarded as aliens; then, I say, she was spiritually defiled, receiving from them the seeds of the polity and Gospel which is in Christ. But some of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, were B exceedingly enraged at this; that is, those who stood in the order of subjects, and with them the holy and chosen tribe. For Simeon is interpreted as "obedience," and Levi as "taken" or "chosen." And that those who had attained the dignity of the priesthood (with the peoples conspiring together with them) did grievously insult the holy apostles, to this no one can doubt. For they gnashed their teeth against the things that the apostles were doing, calling their conversion a corruption, and accusing them as if of some grave atrocity: "Behold," they said, "you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching." But after they taunted them because they no longer lived in the Jewish fashion, they then learned that circumcision was held in honor by them, and that there was nothing at all that separated them from the Gentiles, if only they were willing to understand Moses in the way they ought. "For he is not a Jew who is one openly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter." C You see how those who had the reputation of being aliens were conformed to the Jews, while they bore within them the spiritual circumcision and the Jew in secret. But indeed, even in the past they had slaughtered the prophets in this very way, and even Emmanuel Himself. Therefore, he says, Simeon and Levi carried out their wickedness out of their own volition; for they agreed and concurred with one another in the injustice against the saints, both Simeon and Levi, that is, the peoples and the priests. And the phrase "out of their own volition" is used instead of "by counsel and desire." For these evils of those who suffered did not happen simply by chance, nor were these rash acts and outrageous boldness done without deliberation; but they turned to the most extreme atrocities after having taken counsel among themselves. Therefore, the divine Jacob detests the conspiracy, the sharing of counsels, and the purpose of these men. D "For let not my soul," he says, "enter into their counsel, and in their assembly let not my vital parts be joined." Just as if he were to say: "May it never be that I should fix the eyes of my understanding upon such counsels, or that I should in any way receive them into my heart."
A Likewise, the prophet Isaiah also laments the multitudes of the Jews, saying: "Woe to their soul, because they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying: Let us bind the just man, because he is unprofitable to us." And David also sings: "Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the impious, and has not stood in the way of sinners." And again: "I have hated the congregation of those who do evil, and with the impious I will not sit." The blessed Jacob, therefore, departs from the consultations of the Jews and adds the reason, saying: "Because in their fury they killed men, and in their desire they hamstrung a bull." For they killed, as I said, the holy ones, being driven by a furious anger toward cruelty and inhumanity; and when those wretches had once admitted into their mind an unbridled and rash desire, they hamstrung the bull, that is to say, Christ. As for what this desire may be, we have spoken of it before. For when they had recognized that he was the heir, they desired to have his inheritance.
3. But see how accurately the narrative handles each detail. For they did indeed kill men, but they hamstrung the bull. B For they delivered the holy ones to death, and they remained dead, waiting for the time of the resurrection: but Christ, like some calf hamstrung by an eagle, fell in a sense to the ground, willingly enduring death for our sake; yet he was not held by death, but indeed, though he became dead as a man, he remained alive by the nature of his divinity. The bull, therefore, is Christ, because it is a most robust animal, and also pure and most holy. But the Son is the Lord of strength and power, who committed no sin, but rather offered himself for us as a sweet-smelling odor to God and the Father. Let those, therefore, who have hamstrung such a holy bull hear: "Cursed be their fury, because it is stubborn, and their wrath, because it has hardened." What then has happened to them on this account? C They were cast out from their own homes, and they went into exile from their country, they were scattered and became everywhere strangers, and foreigners, and fearful. For it is true that, even as a bird when it has flown from its own nest, so also is a man when he has been torn from his own places. Yet I think it proper to add this further point: that to those who have hamstrung the bull, this matter will result in a curse; but to those who have grieved and have thus removed such a grave crime from themselves, it shall be for redemption, and purification, and the remission of sins. We shall find this also described through the shadow of the law. For it holds thus in Deuteronomy: "If a corpse of a man slain be found in the land, which the Lord thy God gives thee to possess, lying in the field, and they know not who slew him, thy senate and thy judges shall go forth, and they shall measure to the cities that are around the slain one, D and that city shall be which is near to the slain. And the senate of that city shall take a heifer from the herd, which has not worked
and which has not pulled the yoke; and the senate of that city shall lead the heifer down into a rough valley, which is not cultivated nor sown, and they shall cut the tendons of the heifer in the valley. B And the priests, the Levites, shall approach, for the Lord your God has chosen them to stand before him, and to bless in his name, and at their word shall be every controversy and every affliction. And all the senate of that city who are nearest to the slain one shall wash their hands over the head of the heifer that was struck in the valley, and answering they shall say: "Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen it. Be gracious to your people Israel, whom you redeemed from the land of Egypt, that innocent blood may not be in your people Israel," and the blood shall be atoned for them. But you shall remove the innocent blood from among yourselves.
Verum etsi de hisce singulis suo tempore dicendum sit accurate, illud tamen nunc admonemus, et dicimus. You understand how some people free themselves from the accusation of shed blood through the heifer, which prefigures Immanuel. For it behoves them, I suppose, when they excuse themselves, to say thus: "Our hands have not shed this blood." But you will never find that the people of the Jews ever cried this out; nay rather, after they had hamstrung the bull, they dared to say further: "Our hands have shed this blood." For it is nothing other than this which they said foolishly concerning Christ: "His blood be on us and on our children." C
Concerning Judah
"Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hands shall be on the back of your enemies. Your father's sons shall bow down before you. A lion's whelp is Judah; from the sprout, my son, you have ascended; lying down you slept as a lion, and as a whelp; who will rouse him? A ruler shall not fail from Judah, and a leader from his thighs, until the things reserved for him come. And he himself is the expectation of the nations. Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass's colt to the vine-shoot. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape. His eyes are bright from wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk."
Fairly clear indeed to us in these things is the manner of the blessing, since it introduces to the hearers a prophecy concerning the incarnation of our Savior. D There is set forth, however, immediately at the beginning of the blessing, the meaning of the name, and that the tribe of Judah surpasses the others in the preeminence of glory. For if anyone were to choose to interpret the name Judah, he would translate it as 'praise', or 'remembrance', or 'being praised'. Now the discourse ought to be referred to Christ, who is indeed from the tribe of Judah according to the flesh. For he was born of Judah, and Jesse, and David, and the Virgin who was assumed for this generation of the flesh. When, therefore, the prophet had looked toward him who is to rise from the tribe of Judah: "Your name is true," he says, "just as the very force of the things..."
A would demonstrate. For you shall be praised, and you shall render the glory befitting God." For it would not be fitting for the glory of being praised to belong to another, except to the one who is truly and really the known God. For even if you have appeared as a man, and have emptied yourself, yet you shall be known as holy and eternal. But your brothers, on account of your human nature, will not cling to you as to a man, but, having placed you among their brothers, they will praise you as Lord and celebrate you as Creator, and although you dwell with them in creation, they will acknowledge you as the King and Lord of all, though you are veiled in the form of a servant. And that the Emmanuel will master all those who have stood against him and will easily overcome his enemies, he proclaimed beforehand, saying: "Your hands are upon the back of your enemies." B This same thing Christ himself previously declared through the voice of David. For he says: "For I will pursue my enemies, and I will overtake them, and I will not turn back until they fail. I will crush them, and they shall not be able to stand; they shall fall under my feet." Therefore, he says, "his hands shall be upon the back of his enemies," as one who is pursuing rather than fleeing, and striking rather than being struck. For true is that which is sung in the book of Psalms: "The enemy shall not profit against him, and the son of iniquity shall no longer harm him." For if he himself grants us to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, how is it not necessary to confess that he holds under his own hands those who wish to fight against him and who raise themselves up impiously? That he therefore does not know how to flee, but rather to pursue, C and to master whomsoever he wishes, and that without labor—for he has conquered the world—the divine Jacob has signified beforehand, saying: "Your hands are upon the back of your enemies, and the sons of your father shall worship you." And what is to be understood again by the distinction between the brothers who praise him and the sons of the father, who will be joined to those who worship him? Is it not worth the effort to bring into the middle what is proposed? Blessed Joseph, therefore, was inscribed as father to Christ, even though in truth he was not his father. But he had sons and daughters from a first marriage. When they were somewhat familiar with Christ, seeing him perform miracles, and not paying much heed to legal D precepts because of his indifference regarding food and because he did not greatly observe the rest on the Sabbath—for he used to say, "Not what enters into the mouth defiles a man," and that "the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath"—they were divided in their judgment. And neither were they willing to honor him completely, because he seemed not to have the things regarding the law without fault, nor, on the other hand, did they deem it right for one so brilliant to remain in obscurity. And so they once approached him, saying clearly: "If you do these things, manifest yourself to the world. For no one does anything in secret, if he seeks to be manifest himself." The Evangelist, however...
those who at first said these things believed as time went on, having been fully persuaded that he is also God by nature, even though he was made in the flesh and appeared as man. This the blessed prophet Jeremiah also perceived in the Spirit, and he addresses the Emmanuel himself: "For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even these rejected you, and they cried out behind you. They gathered together; do not believe them, for they will speak evils to you." For those who had once shouted out against him along with the others were later gathered together in faith, and spoke well of him. Hence, the blessed James writes to the twelve tribes, saying: "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." Therefore, those who have been called B through faith and sanctification to the brotherhood will praise him as God; but the sons of his father will worship him no less. It is manifest, moreover, that those who worship will praise, and that those who celebrate him with praises will also worship. For Christ is indeed the "lion's cub" out of Judah, being the Son of the omnipotent God, to whom it belongs by his own might to conquer, and to be able by his word alone to strike terror into those who resist him; for, as the prophet says: "A lion will roar, and who will not be afraid?" Christ, therefore, is the lion's cub, as one who has sprung up from a noble stalk and root, the holy Virgin. For he is also that "rod of power" which God sent to us out of Zion, the staff that consoles and sustains all, the "rod of guidance and kingdom," which rightly and gently pastures the C flocks of the saints, but, on the other hand, shatters "like a potter's vessel" those who do not endure to be pastured by the one. He is, in short, the rod of Aaron, which has a place in the divine tent, and which was brought into the Holy of Holies, which brought forth almond nuts, and is a symbol of the resurrection. For the wood of the almond tree is, in a way, productive of wakefulness, dispelling sleep. The mystery of the resurrection is indeed truly glorious in the Churches of God. Therefore the blessed Jacob, having called him a shoot, immediately mentions the state of things that was to come at the end, and says: "Recumbent, you slept as a lion"; that is to say, you did not suffer death against your will, but, although you were D able to strike terror into everyone as a lion, and to escape the hands of hunters, you lay down of your own accord, and were not, as it was thought by those who chose to crucify him, held fast by death, but, having used it as a sleep, you closed your eyes for a short while. Who then will awaken him? he says. It is as if he were to say: He lay down indeed willingly, yet he will not have need of the cooperation of another for the resurrection. For he is almighty as the power of the Father; and, not being incapable, at least regarding the ability to do so, he can most easily make his own temple alive. This is why he also said to the Jews, when talking to them: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." That, therefore, it is by the help of no one for this
A task that he is sufficient, as the power of the Father, the text of history has clearly demonstrated. But as for the time of his advent, he indicates it, saying: "There shall not fail a prince from Judah, and a leader from his loins, until he comes to whom it is laid up. And he is the expectation of the nations." The Jews did indeed reign, and those who were leaders among them were from the blood of Israel, until Herod, the son of Antipater, a Palestinian by race, who was named tetrarch, acquired the kingdom for himself, under whom Christ was also born—the "expectation of the nations." For that the multitude of the nations was saved upon his birth, there is no need to demonstrate with many words, since the matter itself speaks for itself. But that the recent people, born anew through faith, was admitted first, and that Israel would be called after them, he immediately taught, saying: "Binding his foal to the vine." B For the true vine—that is, Christ—bound to himself through faith the people from the nations, whom he likens to a foal. And that he has bound the foal of the ass to the tendril of the vine (that is, by his own love)—I mean the people who believed from the ancient mother of the Jews, or the Synagogue—how could anyone doubt this, when the whole of holy Scripture, to say it in one word, bears witness to this mystery? And that he was to dye his own flesh with his own blood, being fastened to the wood and pierced by the lance, he revealed with these words: "He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape." Whence also the divine Isaiah, narrating the ascent of Christ to the heavens, introduced the holy angels, or the powers above, addressing him thus: "Who is this that comes from Edom? The redness of his garments is from Bosor." And again: "Why are your garments red, and your raiment like that C from a trodden winepress?" And that, even though he had died and had endured the raving of the Jews, the slaps and reproaches, he did not dwell much upon these things, having suffered for our sake and saving all; but rather accounted them as most grateful and customary delights for himself, Jacob declared with these words: "His eyes are cheering from wine." For from these, I think, ought to be understood the pleasant, joyful, and cheerful quality with which his divine nature is endowed. The mind of those who have drunk wine is wont to be for the most part pleasant, and it abhors exceedingly those things which produce sadness. But since the word proceeds, as it were, from the teeth, he therefore says that these are also white, as those which emit a white (that is, pure and clear) word from the tongue. For Christ is by no means a babbler, but rather a truth-teller. D Since everything he speaks is holy and worthy of admiration, and indeed such that it sheds a most splendid light upon the souls and minds of the hearers.
Concerning Zabulon.
"Zabulon shall dwell by the sea, and he himself shall dwell by a harbor of ships, and shall extend as far as Sidon." Having alreadyA said, we affirm that those who are diligent in examining the rationale of the prophecy set before us, and in observing how it might hold or be fulfilled well, say that this has been accomplished partly out of similarity to things already performed, and partly is nearly formed, so to speak, out of the very interpretation of the names, and, I think, any person of sound mind could see that it foreshadows the image of future things. This can be seen B once again in the case of Zabulon and those who follow him. For it is interpreted as prosperity and blessing by those who are well accustomed to clearly explaining such things. We shall find, therefore, certain ones of Israel who are blessed, and who have attained prosperity in all things pleasing to God, except that they are those who have been justified through faith in Christ and illuminated by the grace of the Holy Spirit; so that they were able at last to cry out, not untruly: "Blessed are we by the Lord, who made heaven and earth." C And I think the blessed prophet Isaiah might also be fittingly applied regarding them, saying: "The way of the righteous is made straight, and the path of the righteous is prepared. For the way of the Lord is judgment." The God of all has commanded that those who are thus splendid and blessed be called into the holy and divine court, saying: "Open the gates; let the people enter who keep justice, and keep truth, apprehending truth, and keeping peace." But lest those who stumble on the scandals in the middle be retarded in this prosperous way which leads to good things, He ordered that they should make the entrance level, saying thus to the holy ministers: "Go through my gates, and remove the stones from the way." D Therefore those of Israel who have honored faith in Christ would be both blessed and prosperous. Yet that they would inhabit, or that Zabulon would inhabit the region bordering the sea, he clearly affirmed. It is as if he were saying that Israel will from now on be mixed together with the nations, inasmuch as both peoples have been brought into one flock and have been placed under the hand of one Shepherd, who is good by nature, that is, Christ. That this riddle is true, the discourse of the divinely inspired Scripture will easily convince us, assigning the region bordering the sea to those from the nations. For it spoke thus: "Region of Zabulon, land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, and the rest who dwell by the seashore, Galilee of the nations. The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light." Do you understand now how he called the region of Zabulon the "land of the nations," who have also seen a great light through Christ? Israel, therefore, dwelling together with the nations who live by the sea, has been illuminated. And this is to have a prosperous way from God. But that prosperous success of the journey perpetually accompanies illumination, we shall understand again from the Savior saying to the crowds of the Jews: "While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overcome you." The people of old, therefore, who lived apart and refused to be mixed with the nations, will be their fellow inhabitants, since there is now nothing to separate them, because the middle wall of partition has been destroyed, and the law of commandments has been made void, and the two peoples have been formed into one new man in Christ, through the Spirit.
A “And he shall be,” he says, “by the station of ships,” that is, as it were, in a safe and tranquil harbor, fastening the cables of his hope upon Christ. For having struggled in a way out of a most grievous tempest, he shall at last take refuge in the grace of God, just as truly heavily-laden merchant ships do in a harbor. And in that he says “even unto Sidon,” he seems to signify that there will be such a concurrence of the two peoples toward spiritual union, that the Israelites shall eventually fill even those cities which are culpable and condemned before God, because they formerly misled and in a way plundered those who worshipped Him. For He says somewhere through the voice of the prophets: “And what are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the Galilee of the foreigners? Will you also render me a recompense, or do you remember an injury against me? I will render you a recompense swiftly and speedily upon your heads, because you took my silver and my gold, and brought my chosen and beautiful things into your temples. And you sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel to the sons of the Greeks, that you might cast them out of their borders.” Keep in view, therefore, how those cities, formerly great and most warlike—which were the causes of destruction to the Israelites—shall now receive the same believers, freed from every fear, when our Savior Jesus Christ brings the two peoples into unity in peace, and has dissolved the enmity, and has together with the Gentiles transferred Israel into His love. I think, therefore, that in this way, and in no other, Zabulon shall inhabit the maritime region.
Concerning Isachar
C “Isachar has coveted the good, resting in the midst of the inheritances. And seeing the rest, that it was good, and the land, that it was fat, he bowed his shoulder to labor, and became a husbandman.” Isachar, furthermore, is interpreted as “reward.” And he might be, according to the meaning of the name, a clear type and image of those who have been granted to Christ by God the Father in the place of a reward. For David says: “Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession.” And again, the same psalmist, when singing, seems to commemorate those who were given to Emmanuel, saying: “Behold the inheritance of the Lord, children; the reward of the fruit of the womb.” For those who have believed, both from the blood of Israel and from the other multitude—I mean, that from the Gentiles—are given to Emmanuel as a kind of reward. D Moreover, he called Jesus the Lord, and said that He Himself was made a fruit of the womb, because of His likeness to us. For He was born of a woman, and was shown to be the fruit of a virginal womb. Therefore, Christ has gained the believers for Himself, and concerning them, perhaps, He speaks to the Father and God in heaven: “Those whom you have given to me out of the world, they were yours, and you have given them to me.” They, therefore, have obtained an outstanding lot, that is, whatever can be said,...and is in truth excellent and very acceptable to God. A For this is what they highly esteem and strive above all to perform, that is to say, exclaiming with a good heart, they say: "The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves; more to be desired than gold and much precious stone." It is excellent and good, moreover, to desire that one may be under Christ, just as the bride says in the Song of Songs: "Under His shadow I desired and sat." The people, therefore, being thus affected, studiously considers the inheritances which proceed from the Lord, that is, the good things promised to the saints which are still situated in hope: of which also the divine David makes mention: "In Thy hands are my lots." He will dwell, moreover, in a certain manner and rest in them, because he is about to become the possessor of his own hope. When, therefore, he has approved his counsel and judgment, and being no little amazed at the rest therein—that is, the eternal honor, the life perfectly sanctified, the incessant glory, the everlasting kingdom, and whatever things surpass every mind and tongue—then indeed he becomes B long-suffering in labors. For when he has seen that the land is fat, the text says, "He will bow his shoulder" and will love labor. He borrows, however, an example from those who are accustomed to cultivate the land, who are first and foremost laborious and devoted to agriculture, and with their whole heart apply themselves to the plows, when they have obtained a rich soil, and understand that they will receive an abundant fruit therefrom. The prophet Hosea also urges us to this, saying: "Sow for yourselves unto righteousness, and reap the fruit of life; kindle in yourselves the light of knowledge; seek the Lord until the fruits of righteousness come to you." Blessed Paul also prayed, saying: "He who provides seed to the sower and bread for food, will provide and multiply your seed, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, that having always all sufficiency, you may abound unto every good work."
Of Dan
"Dan shall judge his people as also one tribe in Israel; and let Dan be a serpent on the way, sitting on the path, biting the heel of the horse, and the rider shall fall backward, awaiting the salvation of the Lord." C The discourse again follows the etymology of the name. For Dan is "judge" or "judgment." This carries before it the glorious and admirable choir of the holy apostles, who are set in the primacy of those who have believed, and have obtained the office of judgment, Christ distributing this to them. Hence also the divine Paul says: "Do you not know that we shall judge angels, not to mention worldly things?" Therefore, although there is one Judge and Lawgiver according to the Scriptures, namely Christ, yet if the apostles act as ambassadors for Christ, and the word of reconciliation has been placed in them, it is no paradox if they may also be understood as judges according to the D likeness...
A of Christ. Furthermore, the great Isaiah cries out to us somewhere, revealing both the godly kingdom of Christ himself and the manifestation of the holy apostles themselves: “Behold, a righteous king shall reign, and princes shall rule with judgment.” For of old, those who were of the tribe of Judah reigned in Jerusalem; but those who presided over the holy tabernacle and held the priestly dignity were appointed to judge. “For the lips of a priest preserve judgment, and they shall seek the law from his mouth.” Since, however, the shadow of the law had been, as it were, contracted, and the worship in spirit and truth had been brought in through Christ, the world stood in need of more illustrious judges, and the divine disciples were called to this office, and they entered into the lot of the teachers according to the law. Therefore, to the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem, it was said by God through the voice of the Psalmist: “Instead of thy fathers, sons were born to thee,” that is, thy sons who are so called have received the order of the fathers. And to our Lord Jesus B Christ he says: “Thou shalt make them princes over all the earth.” And that this has been brought to a conclusion and carried out to the end, anyone can see. For we have had the holy disciples as universal princes and judges, by whose instruction the very mystery of Christ is explained. For they themselves are the dispensers of the saving word and the authors of the things to be done; inasmuch as they separate, like something counterfeit, whatever is useless to those who are learning, and in turn urge us to embrace what is useful. “Let Dan be,” therefore, he says—that is, those who in due time would be chosen to judge peoples and nations—they shall rule so powerfully and with so much splendor and glory as one tribe from Israel reigned. He hints, I suppose, altogether at the reigning tribe of Judah, and no other. For who would doubt that those who have been chosen as princes of the world are to be held in the greatest value and highest honor by the worshippers of Christ? Nevertheless, that their rule would not be free from hardships, but that they would be tempted by many and innumerable evils, and would not find the course of the apostolate immune and free from dangers, he showed as in a type or example, saying, “Let Dan be”—which is to say, the C people of the persecutors shall be Dan—“as a serpent in the way lying in wait by the path, biting the heel of the horse,” which means, giving terrible and inescapable doctrines. For the bites of vipers are in a way inevitable, even if they reach only the heel. “For he himself,” he says, “shall watch thy head, and thou shalt watch his heel.” For they plotted against the holy apostles in such a way as even to bring upon them bodily death. Whence we say that they suffered something of such a kind as a rider might suffer if his horse were to slip because its hind legs gave way, and the rider were to fall backward onto the ground, looking for someone to bring help and save him. For the divine disciples also wait for the opportune time of their glory and salvation, when they will be called into the kingdom that is unshaken and everlasting, with Christ exclaiming to them: “Come, blessed D
A of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” For they have finished the course, and they have kept the faith. Therefore, they shall receive the unfading crown of glory. But if anyone should wish to posit that there will be no such people as Dan sitting like serpents by the way, but rather that Dan himself will lie in wait for others, then we say this: that the Scribes and Pharisees, possessing both judgment and rule, rushed upon Christ like most dreadful vipers, and, as if attacking a horseman hurrying along a narrow and smooth path, they impiously seized him with inflicted bites. But even if the horseman has fallen, having willingly endured the death of the flesh, yet he will rise again, making the Father his helper and champion. For the Son, being the power of God and the Father, has himself brought his own temple to life again. And for this reason he is said even to have been saved by the Father, being subject B to dangers as a man, although by nature he is God and himself holds together the entire visible and invisible creation in its proper state. In this way, perhaps, the divine Paul also understood this, and says concerning him: “For even if he was crucified out of weakness, yet he lives by the power of God.”
Concerning Gad.
“Gad, a raiding troop shall raid him; but he shall raid them at their heels.” He has interpreted once more what the name Gad might intend to signify; for it signifies temptation. And it will not be discordant, I think, if by this we understand the God-hating and arrogant crowd of Scribes and Pharisees, who, spurning the divine and C evangelical proclamation, and practicing nothing of those things necessary for salvation, gnashed their teeth against Christ, who was teaching things above the shadow and the law, and who was greatly approved and marveled at, striking with wonder no less than before all those throughout Judea by the abundance of his miraculous deeds and by his interpretations of those things that are pleasing to God, contributing as he did the paradoxical. Indeed, when, according to the voice of the prophet, he left Bethany and entered into Jerusalem, he himself, being meek, having mounted upon a beast of burden and a young foal, the children who went before were crying out in praise, saying: “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” And some of those racing along were spreading their garments in the roads, and they did not deem his entry to be D un-wondrous; but others were bursting with envy, and being goaded by the sharper stings of jealousy, they spoke among themselves, and they were accusing those who were slower to act in the matter of killing him. For they were saying, “You see, you profit nothing. Behold, the whole world has gone after him.” Since they feared the multitude of those who had already believed, for a time they refrained their hands, and from any open attack. But so that he might run into conflict with the Roman commanders, they sent some of their own disciples, along with those called Herodians, saying—
"Teacher, we know that you are true, and you care for no one; for you do not regard the person of men. Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, or not?" A But they were immediately refuted by Christ when he said to them, after the showing of the denarius, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And these men, who ought to have been ashamed for this and to have refrained thereafter from tempting him, instead plotted another temptation against him. For taking a scourge made of rope, when he cast out those who were selling sheep and oxen from the temple, saying, "Take these things away from here; do not make my Father's house a house of trade"—they, bearing this indignantly, approached him, saying, "By what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority?" What does Christ say to these things? B "I will also ask you," he says, "one word, and tell me: Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men?" But they pondered, the text says, among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude; for all held John to be a prophet." And they say, it says, "We do not know." What then does Christ say to these things? "Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things." Gad is therefore a temptation—that is, the Pharisees, who are always tempting. Yet they themselves were immediately tempted in return. For Christ was he who, according to the voice of the prophets, catches the wise in their wisdom, and cleverly turns the plots of the sophists into a counter-question. C
Concerning Asher
"Asher, his bread is fat, and he shall give food to princes." Asher signifies riches again. For the name itself declares this. But I think that he who is understood here is he "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"—that is, Christ, the "treasure hidden in a field," that precious pearl; who also, in the person of Wisdom, says most clearly, "Riches and glory are with me, and possession of many things, and justice." He is the one who visits the earth, as David says, "You have increased that you might enrich it." And the most wise Paul also writes to us about him somewhere, "I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus: that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge." D For God, though he is rich by his own nature, became poor alongside us, that we might be enriched through his poverty. Hence, therefore, it is entirely true that the bread is fat, that is, very rich and most nourishing. For our Savior Jesus Christ feeds and nourishes us, not by bestowing sensible manna, as he did of old to those of Israel, but by placing himself into the souls of the faithful through the Holy Spirit. Whence he also said to the Jewish crowds, "Amen,
A amen I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven that is true. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." And again: "I am the bread of life." But the life-giving bread is also understood in another way, according to something of the more ineffable things. For it gives food even to the rulers. For I would say that Thrones and Powers, Principalities and Virtues, Angels and Archangels, and every holy and rational creation, makes Christ its food. And as one might turn the matter to be understood. But he also distributes food to the leaders of the flocks upon earth, and it is manifest that it is the spiritual foods, the revelation of divine mysteries, the knowledge of every virtue, so that they themselves may also shepherd the peoples subjected to them with teachings unto life. Wherefore he says to them: "Freely you have received, freely give." And indeed also elsewhere: "Who then is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the Lord will set over his household, to give them their due measure at the proper time? Amen, I say to you, blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he comes, will find so doing. Amen, I say to you, that he will set him over all his possessions." We find the teachers of the Churches doing this, and before them indeed the holy apostles. For the blessed Paul writes to some: "For I long to see you, that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be strengthened." And they themselves also say that they have been comforted by God, who fills them with the good things from above, as is manifest, and sates them richly with the gifts through the Spirit. B Asher, therefore, is Christ, or those who have been enriched with Christ, of whom the bread may truly be understood as rich.
Concerning Nephthalim
"Nephthalim, a tree let loose, giving beauty to its fruit." Someone, I think, might not inappropriately apply this again even to Emmanuel himself, and indeed, if it pleases, also to those who have been justified by faith and sanctified in the Spirit. For it was said to the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem, through the voice of Jeremiah: "A fair olive tree, C shaded in its appearance, the Lord called thy name. At the voice of its circumcision, a fire was kindled against it. Great is the tribulation upon thee. Its branches became useless, and the Lord of hosts who planted thee has spoken evil against thee." For when it was necessary that it should receive the care fitting for it (for this, I think, and nothing else, does the circumcision signify), then he says it became both useless and burned, because it did not wish to recognize the husbandman who was present, who, as if with some most sharp sickle through the efficacy of the Spirit, lops us off from useless things, that is, from the more earthly and carnal things, so that we may possess the longing and readiness for whatever things are worthy of admiration. Therefore, one may hear D the Savior of us all clearly saying: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every-
A branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every one that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." For the Lord our Jesus Christ is as a certain root and stem of a vine that is exceedingly luxuriant and laden with such clusters, which have been brought to the newness of the spirit. We, moreover, are like branches, born and grafted onto him in the unity of the spirit, when we are intelligibly united to him through charity, and, flourishing as if with the fatness received from him, we are nourished by divine grace unto the fruitfulness of virtue. Furthermore, together with the Son, the Father also takes care of us. Indeed, it is manifest that even if Christ is understood as the vine and the Father as the husbandman, he prunes away in Christ every superfluous thing, exercising care that goods may grow as well as possible, and that they may be able to bear fruit in him. When, therefore, it was necessary for the mother of the Jews to be seen among the better things, and to be a beautiful and shady olive tree, as the prophet says, then it also perished, and fire was kindled in it. Hence also the wise John says: "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." That the celebrated city was to be oppressed by calamities unto the end, the prophet Zechariah taught long before, saying: "And there shall be a wailing in Jerusalem, as the wailing of a pomegranate orchard being cut down in the plain." And again, as if to it, he says: "Open, O Lebanon, thy doors, and let fire devour thy cedars. Let the pine howl, for the cedar is fallen. B For thy mighty ones have perished. Howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the planted forest has been razed." For Lebanon is a mountain filled with cedars, which is a plant of good odor and beautiful above all. Therefore, he compares Jerusalem to Lebanon, which indeed has an admirable multitude of priests, at least so far as pertains to the honor of the law. For these were the leading guides, and as if they were sturdy and very tall trees in the woods, inasmuch as they excelled all others in authority and far surpassed the people subject to them. But Jerusalem was set on fire, that is to say, Lebanon. But those who were bright and most illustrious in it, and eminent in the height of glory, wailed for one another, falling and perishing; inasmuch as they had fallen upon the most robust leaders of the Romans no otherwise than upon certain woodcutters. But our Lord Jesus Christ, of those who, being evil, died an evil death, has become the C unshaken stem. For he always delights in infinite riches being borne aloft, and, to say the word in one, he is expanded throughout the whole world. This same thing God clearly foreshadowed through the voice of Ezekiel, thus saying: "And I will take of the choice cedar, I will crop off from the top of his heart, and I will plant it upon a high mountain, and I will hang it upon the mountain, the height of Israel. And I will plant it, and it shall bring forth a shoot, and shall beget fruit, and it shall be a great cedar, and every beast and every bird shall rest under the shadow thereof."
And its branches shall be restored, and all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord, who humble the high tree, and exalt the low tree, and dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree to flourish. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. A You understand, then, that having taken the choice parts of the cedar, God and Father hath planted for us the tree of life, that is, Christ. By the "choice parts of the cedar" he means the tribe of Judah, which is always ruling, and more glorious than the others; from which sprang Jesse and David, and the holy Virgin, who hath given birth to Jesus. And that the tree taken from the choice cedar, being both a good and most flourishing plant, was hung upon a tree for our sakes, how is it possible to doubt? We, too, have blossomed forth by the will of the Father, who were once dry trees having no fruit, and in a certain manner those who were in the vigor and life of the Law—that is, the Israelites—having become dry and withered. B And they indeed were high, but we were low and cast away. But we have been exalted in Christ through faith. But they have fallen from their ancient glory, and have become low. God, therefore, is the Lord of all, who by His own will humbles the high, and brings up the low, and dries up the green tree, and makes the dry tree to flourish. For that those who were of the ancient Synagogue, having produced nothing but thorns and thistles, are well-nigh cut off from the holy land, while on the contrary a new multitude of believers has sprung up, which is compared to trees of most sweet odor, you will learn from God, saying: "And I will make the desert into pools, and the land into watercourses. I will set in the dry land the cedar, and the box tree, and the myrtle, and the cypress, and the poplar." And after other things: C "And it shall be that instead of the sloe tree shall come up the cypress, and instead of the fleabane shall come up the myrtle." For by the cedar you shall understand the hope of those who believe in eternal life; for the cedar knows not how to rot. By the box tree, that it is fitting that those in Christ should have neither levity of mind nor lightness of spirit. For they are all understanding, as those who have Christ as their own mind and intellect. For the box tree is a compact wood, having much solidity in itself. Furthermore, by the myrtle is understood good fragrance in sanctification, and perpetual blooming in grace. But by the cypress, height and good odor. D For height, I say, in virtue, and clarity in doctrines. And by the poplar, we shall understand brightness and whiteness unto righteousness. For Christians are bright, flashing with the grace of God. A stem, therefore, is Nephthalim, or rather Christ Himself, and those who are known to Christ. But when He said: "Giving beauty to the shoot," he would, as I suppose, point out something of this kind again. For when Christ appeared at the beginning in human nature, it was not easily believed that He was God by nature, and had become flesh. Hence the Jews even dared to try to stone Him, objecting that, being a man, He had yet made Himself God. And we shall see even the holy apostles...
A wondering at Him as a worker of wonders, yet not clearly comprehending the mystery concerning Him. Therefore, although the sea was calmed and the force of the wild winds was checked at Christ’s command, they, as it is written, reasoned among themselves, saying, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” Do you see how He who was by nature God, even though He had become flesh, was not yet known to those in the world, and was not yet in glorious brilliance? But since the knowledge concerning Him in us has made greater progress, it has finally been believed that He is God by nature, “and every knee shall bow” to Him, B as the whole world under heaven worships Him. Therefore, as the knowledge concerning Him in us advances toward perfection—He who is beautiful in beauty above the sons of men—then, indeed, is He truly known. But if these words are understood of us also, “Bestowing beauty upon the shoot,” the reason will not be obscure. For since we always make progress in virtue and strive for better things, extending ourselves to what is before us, according to the voice of the blessed Paul, we always progress toward beauty—a spiritual beauty, I say—so that it may be said to us as well: “The king has desired your beauty.”
Concerning Joseph
“Joseph is a growing son; a growing son, my youngest son, return to me. Against whom they consulting reviled, and the lords of the arrows lay in wait for him, and their bows were broken with might, and the nerves of the arms of their hands were loosened by the hand of the mighty one of Jacob. Thence the strengthener of Israel C from the God of your father; and my God helped you, and blessed you with a blessing of heaven from above, and a blessing of the earth which has all things, for the sake of the blessing of the breasts and of the womb, a blessing of your father and of your mother. You have grown stronger above the blessings of the stable mountains, and above the blessings of the everlasting hills. They shall be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the vertex of those of whom he was the leader, his brothers.”
This prophecy likewise tends toward Emmanuel Himself: nor can what is signified here be anything else than that which I said just now, namely: “Bestowing beauty upon the shoot.” For to say that he is “grown” signifies in every way that progression of the glory naturally existing in Him to that which it had from the beginning. For since the only-begotten Son of God, D being God and from God, emptied Himself, according to the Scriptures, and of His own will descended into that which He was not, and put on this most vile flesh, and appeared in the form of a servant, having become obedient to God and the Father even to death; for this reason He is now said to be exalted, and to have received, as it were by way of grace and reward, the “name which is above every name,” according to the voice of the blessed Paul. But in reality, the matter is according to the
A what is true, not a gift, as if it were something he did not possess by nature from the beginning; for it is far from that. It should rather be understood as a returning and a recurrence to what he was in the beginning, and which he possessed in a manner ineffable and inalienable. Therefore, he also said, having assumed the littleness of humanity by economy: “Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” For he was always in divine glory, as one who co-existed with his own Begetter before all ages and time and the foundation of the world. Therefore, we must understand the “increase” in Christ as the progress of his glory, which God daily renders more expanded and manifest; because he is known by those in the world according to his nature, and as Lord of all, being co-glorified and co-worshipped with God the Father.
However, since he is the Creator of the ages, he could reasonably be understood as having become the youngest. B For he appeared in the final times of the age, after the glorious and much-admired choir of the holy prophets, and simply after all those who, before his coming, were reckoned in the order of sons on account of their virtue. How, then, can anyone doubt that Emmanuel is to be envied? But he is to be envied by the saints, who strive to follow in his footsteps, and, being formed toward his divine beauty, and making him the pattern of their actions, they carry away the most excellent glory of all.
But he may also be understood as “to be envied” in another sense by those who have chosen not to love him; I mean, by the leaders of the Jews, that is, the Scribes and Pharisees, who, nurturing a bitter envy within themselves C and taking his incomparable glory as the occasion for jealousy, were convicted by many arguments. For Christ did indeed raise the dead who were already stinking and decayed, and he appeared superior to death itself. But they, whereas they ought to have marvelled and been impelled to believe without any hesitation, did not do this; instead, they burned with envy and conceived bitter sorrows in their minds. They called the man born blind a sinner. Legions of unclean spirits were being driven out, and they falsely accused him of providing the power [to do so] by Beelzebub; they pelted him with stones, most impiously saying: “For a good work we do not stone thee, but for blasphemy, because thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” They gnashed their teeth, saying: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him.” D Therefore he was indeed a subject of envy to those who chose to hate him, yet he was not caught by them in any way. For even if he endured the cross, yet as God he rose again, having trampled upon death, with God the Father well-nigh calling out and saying: “Return unto me.” For he has ascended into the heavens, that he might also hear Him saying: “Sit at my right hand, until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet.” For that they have fallen, even while nurturing the utmost madness against him, he taught by saying: “Taking counsel together they reviled me, and the masters of arrows held him.” For they gathered councils and took bitter counsel [concerning] the arrows.
that is, the leaders of the peoples, who sharpened their purpose against him that they might wound him, and that they themselves might be fixed into him like javelins, in order to commit things against him that are not lawful, and like wild beasts to spring upon him. Nevertheless, “their bows have been broken,” and their arm-strings have been loosened by the hand of the mighty One of Jacob, that is, of God and the Father, who is the Lord of hosts, and who ordained that the Son should be blessed both in heaven and on earth. A For the divine Paul writes that when he brought the Firstborn into the world, he said: “And let all the angels of God worship him.” And our great David also says to him: “Let all the earth worship thee, and let them sing psalms to thee.” We declare this to be that blessing from above, and that which below on earth contains all things; that is, that in which, because of Christ, every virtue consists, and the fruits of piety towards God are most manifold. For it is said to the Son: “Thou hast visited the earth, and watered it; thou hast multiplied to enrich it.” Furthermore, that both the blessing from above and that which is on earth were given to him is clearly confirmed by these words: “Because of the blessing of the breasts and of the womb, because of the blessing of the father and the mother, etc.” B From these words, the generation of the Only-begotten from God and the Father is openly and evidently declared, as is also the generation through the holy Virgin, insofar as he is understood to have appeared as man. For although he was by nature and in truth the Son of God and the Father, he endured for our sake to be born through a woman and a womb, and to suckle at the breasts. For he did not become man in appearance only, as some would have it, but he became man in very truth, being such as we are, following the laws of nature, and partaking of food, even though he himself provided life to the world. Therefore, the blessed Isaiah, as if by a most certain proof, showed the true incarnation of the Lord from the fact that he needed the food of infants, C when he said: “Butter and honey he shall eat.” Blessed, therefore, is the cause of the breasts and of the womb. For, as I said before, after he became man and was obedient to the Father even unto death, he inherited a name which is above every name, and to him “every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Yet even if he appeared as a man like us, he will still excel every saint, and will be exalted in a manner worthy of God above the renowned fathers of old. For the Psalmist says: “For who in the clouds shall be compared unto the Lord? Or who shall be likened unto the Lord among the sons of God?” D The blessed Jacob teaches this point by saying: “For you have prevailed in the blessings of the lasting mountains and the everlasting hills.” For he calls the saints lasting mountains and everlasting hills, because they have been lifted up from the earth, and think nothing of base things, but seek the things above, and strive most excellently toward the heights of virtue. Following after the glory of Christ, therefore, are the most distinguished of the Fathers, and unto the portion
highest peak of virtue. For all these were servants in the house of God, even if they were later adopted as sons. But He Himself is the Lord, as the son of the house, supplying to them the things by which they became illustrious. Whence they also say: A “Of his fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.” Therefore, the crown of glory will naturally rest upon the head of our Savior; yet it will none the less pass—and will be a gift bestowed—also upon the saints themselves who have been under Him, who shall wear the unfading crown of glory. And having become partakers of His sufferings, they shall likewise share in His excellence. For it is established that those who have suffered with Him shall also reign with Him.
Concerning Benjamin
“Benjamin is a ravening wolf; in the morning he shall still eat, and in the evening he shall distribute food.” B Rachel gave birth first to the divine Joseph, and afterwards to Benjamin; yet it was Joseph who was called by his father the youngest son. And this is how we shall grant the matter to be. We say, however, that Benjamin was the younger, in that he was the least in age. But Benjamin is indeed the last-born son. And he may quite appropriately be understood as a type and image of the latest people, C who were called through the holy disciples after Christ had risen from the dead and had returned to the Father and God in heaven. He is compared to a ravening wolf, I suppose, because he is inflamed with a wondrous desire for learning and for rushing forth, as if upon prey, toward those things that bring nourishment to a good disposition—toward the spiritual things, I mean. For they are clever and keen-sighted to see and, as it were, to seize those things which are helpful and expedient to them for salvation, and, conversely, active in turning aside from things that are harmful. Nor are they easily overcome by fear, D even if they are swarmed by those who are like dogs, who attempt to turn them away from good works and salvific doctrine; but rather, they withstand their onslaught with a brave spirit. For they have learned, and very manfully indeed: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or persecution, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?” And not even the false shepherds would be able at all to drive them from the path dear to them, even if they should cast them into prison and show them no mercy, as it is written. For while they appear wretched and miserable, they themselves count such punishments as life, saying: “To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Therefore, even if those who have been shown by us are compared to ravening wolves in the ways just described, there seems to be no violence done to the Scripture; since the Savior Himself calls Himself a lion and a leopard—or rather, a panther—saying: “For I am as a panther to Ephraim, and as a lion to the house of Judah. And I will come, and I will go, and I will take, and there shall be none to deliver.” And He calls those who believe in Him “beasts of the field,” saying thus...
A by the voice of Isaiah: “The beasts of the field shall bless me, the sirens and the daughters of the sparrows. Because I have given water in the desert, and rivers in a dry land, to give drink to my elect genus, the people whom I acquired for myself to recount my virtues.” Do you understand, then, in what way He named the elect genus “beasts of the field and sirens,” that is, the most sweet-voiced among the birds? And “beasts,” indeed, because they do not endure being tamed by Satan, nor being subjected to his power; rather, they insult him, and when he wishes to force them to things restricted by God, they rebel. And “sirens,” B because they sing very sweetly, proclaiming the remarkable deeds of Christ and celebrating the honors due to Him. Therefore, the new and faithful Benjamin-people is a wolf, which is very ready both for understanding and for obtaining that which contributes to edification, strength, and the helping of others; which he indicates by these words: “In the morning he shall eat still, and at evening he shall distribute food.” He who is learning seems somehow like one who is being fed. For learning is introduced into the mind just as, indeed, food is into the stomach. And the teacher differs in no way from one who nourishes. Hence even the divine Paul compares the manner of teaching to nourishment; for he said that “solid food is for the perfect,” C who, because of their habit, have senses trained for the discernment of good and evil. Therefore, Benjamin is a “ravening wolf. In the morning he shall eat still, and at evening he shall distribute food.” As if to say: he who is still desirous of learning, even if he has not yet progressed to that age so as to be perfect, can yet be useful to others; for those who believed a little while ago and became faithful can in a short time become fit to teach. For it was said of Israel, on account of—I believe—their notable ignorance and dullness of mind: “Behold, a foolish and senseless people. Eyes have they, and they see not; ears, and they hear not.” And again: “Who are taken from the mother’s womb and are taught until old age.” But the D wise John writes to those who are in the faith and in Christ, saying: “You have no need that anyone should teach you, but as his anointing teaches you about all things.” For they have the mind of Christ, who knows all things, and they are not incapable of teaching and exhorting one another. But if it should please anyone to refer the prophecy about Benjamin to the blessed Paul, he would by no means err. For he who was persecuting the Church, and who fell upon the worshippers of Christ like a wolf, was in a very short time changed to the complete opposite. For he now strenuously announces the faith which he formerly was attacking, and gives thanks to God who called him to the apostolate, even though he was previously “a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious.” For thus he himself testifies elsewhere. He was, moreover, from the tribe of Benjamin. Nay, I even say that the blessed David clearly remembers his history, in the sixty-seventh psalm, where he says: “There is Benjamin the younger in an ecstasy of mind. The princes of Judah their leaders, the princes of Zebulun, the princes
Zabulon, the princes of Naphtali. For the blessed disciples, though Jews by the blood of Israel, have been constituted leaders to those who have been justified in Christ through faith, with whom was also this man from the tribe of Benjamin. Whence he writes: "For whether we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or whether we are of sound mind, it is for you." For he preached, bringing the good news to Gentiles and Jews alike, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to God and the Father with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. B
OF OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, GLAPHYRA ON EXODUS, FIRST BOOK.
On the birth of Moses.
1. Now that we have, with great difficulty and through much brevity of speech, barely finished the book on Genesis, having passed "from strength to strength," according to what is sung in the Psalms, we have persuaded ourselves that the pen, accustomed to noble labors, must not be allowed to rest, even for a moment. For, God willing and granting wisdom, we take up the chapters of Exodus, which seemed to be omitted by us when we were drafting the moral exhortation, at a time when it also seemed best to avoid long discourses, wishing to show what mode of worship in spirit and truth might be understood by us. For having divided each of the chapters contained in the five books of Moses, and having very carefully observed the goal of the contemplation within them, those things which in some way appeared useful and necessary for the moral exposition...
we have compiled in due time, and in an order, I say, suited to each one; but those things through which it was expected that the mystery of Christ would still be pre-signified as in shadows according to the Law, as far as is possible, we have reserved for this subsequent work, in which to those of us now working, A friend Palladius, your prayers, I know, will be of great assistance. For this would be impossible for men, yet it is expedited, at least in part, by Christ opening the way for us to this. For He Himself is the Way and the Door, and in Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. But we shall compose the writing of this book not in a continuous series, proceeding through every single chapter (for very many things, as I just said, we have gathered by selection, and in the other composition we shall find them manifest); but those things which remain that might be useful for the proposed goal, these, as far as is possible, we shall weigh accurately and with precision, reaching straight for the truth. Since the goal of the book leads to the redemption which is through Christ, it is altogether necessary that we first show that the human race had been in peril and had fallen into the greatest miseries. For thus it is fitting, nor would the method of assistance have been applied in a decent order otherwise: "My power," He says, "is perfected in infirmity." B Physicians also, skilled and proven, would not otherwise give proof of their science unless a sick man were proposed to them, upon whom they might make trial of their art. And I think that for those who are or might be considered wise, there must be a sick person set before them, concerning whom the demonstration of the skill that is in them might occur.
2. Let us say, therefore, that when a famine once pressed hard and laid heavily and unbearably upon the sons of Israel, they emigrated from the land of Canaan into Egypt, being in number seventy-five souls, as it is written. But as time went on, their race extended into a multitude beyond counting. For Scripture holds thus: "The sons of Israel increased, and were multiplied, and spread, C and were exceedingly strengthened; and the land multiplied them." But when he who held the helm of the Egyptian kingdom began to hold such an increase of the Jews with suspicion, he laid snares for them. For he placed over them, it says, harsh taskmasters, that they might afflict them in their works. And the manner of their affliction was the labor of digging, the long and unremunerated making of bricks, and furthermore, the building of fortified cities for Pharaoh, that is, those that were towered, or so wide and long that they seemed to others D extremely well-fortified and impregnable, clearly on account of the multitude of their inhabitants. There were Pitho and Ramesse and other cities. But the tyrant's counsel fell out for him far otherwise than he expected. For he says: the more they were oppressed and humbled, the greater danger was created for him, and more arose through the very thing by which he was accustomed to afflict them, it being the will of God, clearly, to vindicate those who were being afflicted with unjust insults. And when the tyrant understood this, beyond these labors he stretched out other snares as well. For he commanded the Jewish midwives that, when they were acting as midwives to women who were already in labor and delivery, the...
they should smother the suspect gender, that is, the male; but that they should keep the female alive. For he thought that this weak and unwarlike sex, which is quick to fear and by the law of nature is a diminished kind, was worthy of no account. A But the midwives did not carry out this wickedness, and for this reason they were pleasing to God. What then does that polluter do? He breathes out anger, and persuades the ways of impiety to become shameless. "For Pharaoh charged all his people, saying: Every male that is born to the Hebrews, cast into the river, and every female, save alive." B 3. But let the discourse of history pause at this point. Let us now express—directing our mind to the deeper meanings—that since the mind of man is inclined zealously toward evil from his youth, through the lack of the goods from above, the whole race of mortals, so to speak, was corrupted, and a famine of heavenly teachings consumed us, just as we might easily observe in the case of the prodigal son written of in the form of a parable, who, having squandered his paternal substance in a foreign land, longed to be filled with the husks which the swine were eating. Because of this, we have fled to more earthly things, having abandoned what was better, when C we ought rather to have desired the more profitable things, through which we would certainly never have fallen from the favor from above, but rather would have attained the friendship of God in abundance. Having therefore slipped away from those things which would keep us in goodness and satisfy us in God, who is by nature and truly the Master, we acknowledged no longer the Author of our goods. But when we departed from the pious life, as if from a holy land, and as if cast down into a fouler and more tetrid one which obeys the devil, we have become like those who migrated from Chanaan into Egypt, and became subjected to the hand of Pharaoh D and the Egyptians, who were strangely occupied with the worship of demons and, leaving no kind of wickedness untried, would represent, as in an image, Satan himself and those under him—whom they even considered gods—having been cast out from the best discernment and having become infirm through the haze and darkness of ignorance. Since we have come under a cruel and defiling master—I mean Satan—we are worn down by mud and brick-making, I mean by the earthly and most abominable pursuits, which are not accomplished without sweat. For the bustle of this life is not free from labors, even if it happens to be vain. And Satan, as it were, appointed over the works of those most dear to him the impure demons—or the powers under him—as overseers of those being wronged; these, by the manifold greed of the passions, weigh down the mind of each person on earth, fearing, I suppose, lest by chance they might lift the eye of their understanding, having leisure toward God, and shake off the yoke of slavery from their necks; for the nature of man is very much a lover of freedom. And that glory and wealth are—to the impure spirits—
a distraction, and our struggles regarding the flesh, and the diligence A that looks ever toward earthly things, this might enigmatically signify—the raising of cities for Pharaoh by those of Israel, who were worn down by clay and brick-making. And, furthermore, the fact that the male, that is, that which tends toward manliness—clearly that which is in accordance with the virtues—is an object of hatred and is stifled, for he [the tyrant] almost chokes everything warlike by plunging it into the mire of pleasures; yet he permits what is not at all robust, and, as being useless, subjects it to his own yokes without a fight—this demonstrates not obscurely why he says that the male must be cast into the waters, while the females are to be preserved alive. For those things which occur before our eyes, and are as it were in plain sight, are types of those things that are more obscure and remote. B Since, therefore, we have been ailing in sin from our earliest parents, and have been burdened by a lack of good things, and have been subjected to the ruthless prince of all iniquity, and dominated by his private agents—I mean the unclean spirits—and our affairs had reached the extreme of calamity, and nothing could be added to our utter misery and wretchedness, God had mercy on us, and rescued and saved us. How, then, it came about, we shall understand through the things that follow. For we shall bring forward the things written concerning Moses as a type and prefiguration of the salvation conferred upon us through Christ.
4. C “And there was a man of the tribe of Levi, who took a wife from the daughters of Levi, and he had her, and she conceived and bore a male. And seeing him to be beautiful, they hid him for three months. And when they could no longer hide him, his mother took for him a basket of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and put the child in it, and placed it in the marsh by the river. And his sister watched from afar to learn what would happen to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe at the river, and her maids were walking along the river. And seeing the little chest in the marsh, she sent her maid and took it. And opening it, she saw the child weeping in the chest, and the daughter of Pharaoh had pity on him, and said: This is of the Hebrews’ children. And the sister of the child said to the daughter of Pharaoh: Shall I call for thee a woman that is a nurse D of the Hebrews, and she shall suckle the infant for thee? And the daughter of Pharaoh said to her: Go. And the young girl went and called the mother of the child. And the daughter of Pharaoh said to her: Guard this child for me, and suckle him for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the infant, and suckled him. And when the child had grown, she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he became to her a son. And she called his name Moses, saying: Because I took him out of the water.” For since God and Father now had pity on the world, which was in servitude to an unholy tyrant and a most cruel robber, He did not spare His own Son, according to what is written, but for the sake of us all delivered Him up. For being in the form and equality towards Him [the Father], from Him and in Him,
being the Son by nature, He brought Himself down into a state of emptiness and became as we are, as the wise evangelist John says: "He came unto His own." For He was sent, as He Himself says somewhere, "unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel; but His own received Him not." A Hence He also heavily reproached them through the voice of Isaiah, saying: "Hear, O heaven, and attend, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten and exalted children, but they have disregarded Me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel has not known Me, and My people has not understood Me." Since, therefore, those of the blood of Israel stumbled and did not recognize their natural and true Master, the idol-worshippers were invited through faith; and the impure and most abominable multitude of the godless, recognized the Redeemer. And this was the very thing that was proclaimed beforehand to those of Israel through the word of the prophets: "I have set watchmen over you. Hear the voice of the trumpet; and they said, We will not hear. Therefore the nations have heard, and those who feed their flocks. Hear, O earth: Behold, I am bringing evils upon this people, the fruit of their apostasy, because they heeded not My word, and rejected My law." Look, therefore, see clearly the mystery, even in those things that concern Moses, just as I said a moment ago. For the divine Moses was born of the tribe and blood of Levi. Yet Emmanuel Himself has also been called a holy and innocent B High Priest, being altogether holy; even if He is understood to be from the tribe of Judah, that He might be believed to be both renowned and a King, and that it might be manifest that the priesthood belongs to Him not according to the flesh, as it generally did to the leaders of the Jews, but as to God and King of all things in holiness and glory. Therefore, the type is in carnal things, that the reality might be understood as above flesh, that is, Christ, who is understood as a newborn infant on account of the innocence of His divinity, or because He has become a new creature. For having put off the old age that was, as it were, in corruption, we have been brought over into newness of life in Him. And an infant is, in a way, a new creature. But that a newborn infant is a symbol of innocence is easy for anyone to see, even from the words of the Savior Himself. For women at one time approached Him, bringing infants with them, that He might lay His hands upon them. But the disciples, taking it ill, were driving them away. To whom He said: "Suffer the little children, and do not forbid them to come to Me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." And when at one time a dispute arose among them as to who was C greater in the kingdom of heaven (for so the wise evangelist said it came about), He took a little child, set him in the midst, and said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you be converted and become as these little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." And what it is to be converted, and how we are accustomed to be conformed to children, the blessed Paul revealed, writing: "Brethren, do not be children in your senses, but in malice be infants: let your senses—
A be perfect." It is clear, therefore, that through the innocence of the Godhead, Christ is signified as if in a child. Moreover, the father of Moses is passed over in silence in the sacred Scriptures, designedly handled; for it was possible to say, "This man took a wife from the daughters of Levi." But it is said, "There was a certain man," to signify obliquely that Christ, according to the flesh, had no father, although Joseph was held to be his father. "And he was," he says, "an elegant boy." B For indeed, "beautiful in form above the sons of men," he is both called and is Christ. The blessed David elsewhere cries out to him: "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one, in thy splendor and thy beauty." But no one should doubt that this beauty is understood as that which is in the glory and nature of the Godhead, which surpasses all things; for no one would ascribe the glories of the flesh to Christ, nor count them to his glory: far be this! For the whole mystery of his incarnation is an emptying and a humiliation, just as the prophet Isaiah wrote concerning him: [c] "And we saw him, and he had no form or beauty; but his form was inferior to all the sons of men." We by no means say that the prophetic word speaks to us of the glories of the Godhead, but rather it persuades us to understand that those things which are of the flesh, when compared with the glory of the Godhead, are of absolutely no moment or worth. For the Son appeared in a form that was altogether unsightly. For though he is God by nature, he became man. But man is, by infinite and incomparable differences, lesser than God. D Now consider how, though Pharaoh had ordered that every male should be plotted against, the woman who had given birth first hides the infant, and afterwards, having placed and enclosed him in a wicker basket, she casts him into the lake. Yet soon the daughter of his persecutor takes him, finding him in the very waters; she opens the basket, and seeing the wailing infant, she understands clearly that he is a Hebrew, and gives him back to her who bore him to be nursed, promising her, moreover, a wage for the nursing. What meaning, then, shall we apply to these things? Or what mystery is it necessary to observe? For before the coming of our Savior, no male on earth was free from plots. We understand "male" to be him who is endowed with spiritual strength, whose fruit it shall be to please God. The male, therefore, is in danger, as Satan immerses him in worldly pleasures as if in mire or swamp, and suffocates in general those with a strong mind who despise softness and that which is effeminate, in morals and in life, of course. Whence also those moved by the Spirit said, struck with amazement, I think, at this universal turning toward evil: "All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one." For it was then altogether unpracticed by all men to be good, as it was not permitted to act in a manly way
A by the author of sin. But after he had become one of us, and had been numbered among those against whom snares were being laid, Emmanuel—who is by nature and truly a male infant, that is to say, one who knows not how to be softened, for he has not been softened toward sin—did indeed escape the notice of the prince of this world at the beginning; for the child, that is, Moses, was hidden. But when he had arrived at age, the Synagogue that bore him, for Christ is indeed sprung from the Jews according to the flesh, being inflamed to perform slaughter, shut him up in a sepulcher.
Now Moses, being let down and exposed in an ark of bulrushes by the hand of his own mother, is a manifest type of this occurrence. For the Synagogue of the Jews also alienated Emmanuel from itself. But the daughter of Pharaoh, that is, the Church of the Gentiles, although she once had Satan for a father, finds him by the waters, which represent the type of holy baptism, through whom and in whom Christ is found, and she opens the ark. For that Christ did not remain among the dead, but rather rose again B to life, having trampled death underfoot, and was raised from the monument, those have truly believed who through faith have found him who died for us, that he might also enter into life for us.
She finds the infant crying. We also shall find Christ recounting the impiety of the Jews and all that they committed against him, and all but weeping. For in sorrow he says: "They pierced my hands and my feet; they have counted all my bones. They themselves have looked and watched me; they parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots." And again also elsewhere: "They gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." That Christ also sprang from the Jews, the Church of the Gentiles has known and believed. "For the daughter of Pharaoh," it says, "said: This is of the Hebrew children." Nevertheless, that the Synagogue of the Jews will receive Christ at proper times from those who are of the Church of the Gentiles, being instructed by his mystery, the little child returned to his mother by Pharaoh's daughter will easily demonstrate to you. For the Synagogue of the Jews, even though it had in a way exposed and cast away Jesus through disobedience, yet in the final times will receive him, being persuaded by the arguments of the Church. And that this is not without reward, but that a great hope is proposed for it, is confirmed. For see how the daughter of Pharaoh promised wages to the mother of Moses, wishing her to nurse him whom she had brought forth. Wherefore, the birth of Moses and those things which befell him have most clearly signified to those of understanding the mystery of Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to God and the Father with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for infinite ages. Amen.
Further concerning Moses.
6. Investigating the birth of Christ as a male child, we show forth the mystery of Christ, because the subtlety of the spiritual sense describes him in a sure manner in a newly born
infant, on account of the innocence of his divinity, and his utter simplicity and sincerity, or certainly because he appeared as a new creature. But come, let us again consider in another way Emmanuel prefigured. For Christ is the end of the law and the prophets. A • "And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren the children of Israel: and looking on their burdens, he saw an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren; and having looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to the man that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, If this thing is become known? And Pharaoh heard this word, and sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Madian: and he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Madian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father Jethro's flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but B Moses stood up and delivered them, and watered their flock. And they came to Raguel their father, and he said to them, How is it that ye are come so soon to day? And they said, An Egyptian man delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and drew water enough for us, and watered our flock. And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have so left the man? call him, that he may eat bread. And Moses dwelt with the man; and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter to wife. And the woman having conceived in the womb, bare a son, and Moses called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land." And these things indeed concerning Moses. Now our discourse will turn to the sense of deeper consideration, bestowing upon the history that which most befits it; and likewise, that which seems able to serve the spiritual exposition, we shall refer to the dispensation of Christ. C
7. "And it came to pass, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren." For true indeed is the divine Paul, writing thus: "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law." Who, therefore, ought rightly to be understood as the manner of this his mission to us which is here revealed, or what we shall say it is that he has "gone out," it will be necessary to examine. For shall we not admit that the Word of God the Father, in that he was made as we are, that is, man, in a certain manner went out from himself, and, as it were, receded from his divine glory? Since this is true D
that being rich he became poor, and humbled himself A into emptying, and thus, when the dispensation was already completed, when he was about to return to the Father to sit with him and to be placed above the highest thrones, he says, "Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was." But the Lord of heaven and earth, as God essentially possessing power over all things, would in no way depart from being what he is by having taken the form of a servant; yet the One in whom we live and move and are, even if he appeared to us as dead and to have been in the monuments, and nevertheless rose again as Life, it would not seem that he was even in the slightest degree removed from those things that most properly befit him. How then could anyone doubt? He went out, therefore, to his brothers, that is, to the sons of Israel. For theirs are the promises, theirs the fathers, to whom the promises were made. Whence he himself said, "I was not sent except to the lost B sheep of the house of Israel." But because they were enduring a terrible and truly insupportable tyranny (for Satan was leaping upon them as if crushing them), he considered how to set them free and to render them released from every labor. And having in a certain way killed him who had chosen to do injury, he hid him in the earth, that is, he placed him in the subterranean parts, shutting him up in Hades. This is what I mean by hiding the Egyptian dead in the sand. But that the visible-to-God and unclean throngs of demons were driven by the ineffable power of our Savior into Hades, and condemned to dwell in the abyss, one might learn even quite easily from the evangelical readings. "For," he says, "the demons begged him not to command them to go away into the abyss." For as though a great multitude had already been sent forth, those who still remained C approaching begged that they might be allowed for the time being not to be condemned along with the others. And that they were punished for their cruelty, which they used against us, paying the penalty, anyone who wishes may grasp without difficulty, hearing them crying out, "What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" Since, therefore, Christ had seen that this Egyptian was troublesome to men, he hid him in Hades. This same thing Jesus, who led the sons of Israel across the Jordan and served as commander of the war after Moses, has again brought to pass as in shadows and types. For he bound the five kings of the Amorites in a cave, the type obliquely revealing to us beforehand that after the life under the Law, Emmanuel our King, having been revealed to us, will, as it were, seal up the leaders of the demons in a deep cave in the subterranean D recesses. Therefore, the one who was oppressing us having been removed, "the next day," he says, "two Hebrews were quarreling," and Moses, acting as an arbiter into their midst, was a conciliator for peace between those who were standing at odds in unbrotherly fashion. He appeared to be toward hostile faction, saying to the one who wished to offer violence to his brother, "Why do you strike your neighbor?" But he said to him, "Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us? Or do you resolve"
A to kill me in the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" For when Emmanuel had first shut up Satan, as it were, in Hades, he came forth as the mediator of righteousness to those from Israel, and as a teacher of brotherly love, commanding them to strive for mutual charity and to hold nothing more precious than peace and unanimity. Whence he himself also said: "My peace I give to you." But they, when it was their duty to praise this instruction and to admire the author of peace, the guide of charity, and the teacher of the best doctrines, were irreverent toward him beyond measure. For they did not accept him as their leader. But although he was saying clearly through the voice of the Psalmist: "But I have been constituted king by him upon Sion, his holy mountain," nevertheless, standing beyond all shamelessness, they moved against him fiercely and impiously, saying at one time: "Who gave you this authority?" and at another time: "We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he is from." And thus, those things through which they were being saved they ascribed to condemnation, and they most basely distorted the method of their own aid. B For the divine Moses was accused because he had killed the Egyptian, who nevertheless had afflicted and harassed them and had oppressed the flocks of the Hebrews with intolerable violence. But Christ, when casting the evil demons into the abyss and removing them—even against their will—from the tyranny which they exercised over us, by driving them out from those whom they were tormenting (when, in fact, he ought to have been admired for this very thing), did not escape the accusation of quibblers. For they have dared to say, turning the performance of wonders into an accusation: "This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons." Observe, however, that Moses, having looked around this way and that, and having seen no one, hid the dead Egyptian in the sand. Then, coming forward, he advised his blood brothers in matters of peace. For the Lord fights against Amalek, but with a hidden hand, as it is written, and C while no one of those who dwell on the earth was seeing it, he was administering the ineffable things through Christ. For who among mortals could know how or when the bands of demons were condemned, and commanded to inhabit the abyss? Having therefore driven Satan into Hades, and having freed those on earth from his tyranny, he then called them to the knowledge of virtue. This is also what Christ himself testifies not obscurely elsewhere, saying: "Or how can anyone enter the house of a strong man and plunder his vessels, unless he first binds the strong man, and then plunders his house?" For Christ, when he had first bound Satan as a strong man, transfers through faith into himself his vessels—that is, those who once performed the work under him and were reckoned among useless vessels because of sin. But for those very things for which he seemed worthy of admiration, being impiously mocked for them, he necessarily departed, leaving Judea, in which, however, he had been born according to the flesh, even though according to truth he was not a Jew as the Word, but D from above...
and from the Father, just as the divine Moses was indeed born in Egypt and was a Hebrew of Hebrews, having a noble and holy root from his father. But because those of his own blood heaped insults upon him, and, in their extreme malice, slandered the things that were done for their own sake, he eventually withdrew into Midian and settled in the land of strangers. Then, when he had sat down by the well, he defended the daughters of Jethro. For they were seven in number, pasturing their own father’s flocks, and were bringing the sheep, which were laboring with thirst, to the troughs. But because they were drawing water with great labor due to the iniquity of certain shepherds, Moses fought for them and, drawing water with his own hands, gave their sheep to drink, as it has been written. A We shall accept, then, Jethro in the order of the world, who was a priest of the Midianites, not rendering worship to Him who is God by nature and in truth, but to the creatures instead of the Creator and Maker, or to things fashioned from stone and to the craftsmanship of builders. The world, too, was astray, worshipping demons and not God. Jethro is interpreted as "superfluity" or "superfluous." Such indeed is the world, being entirely a superfluity, because those who care for worldly things do nothing of those things that are necessary, but, being drunk with vain thoughts, are altogether addicted to useless pleasures. It would be an indisputable fact that, to those who wish to live righteously, the superfluous things of the flesh and the holding of worldly thoughts miss the mark of what is useful and necessary, if indeed it is true that "The mind of the flesh is hostility towards God," B and he who thinks the things of the world "is constituted an enemy of God." It is, therefore, a true superfluity to choose to think the things in the world, and the world itself is this. For Christ says somewhere: "What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but sustains the loss of his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
8
. Moses therefore migrated from Egypt to Midian, and in the same way Christ also [moved] from Judea to Galilee. Observe, however, that the daughter of Levi who bore the holy Moses was one. But the daughters of Jethro the Midianite were many, and indeed seven in number. For the multitude of the Jews is one, out of which Christ was also born according to the flesh, as in a configuration in the life of Moses. But the daughters of the world—or rather, the flocks of the nations inhabiting it—are very many. C Christ, therefore, having left the Synagogue from which he had sprung according to the flesh, turned toward the many flocks of the nations, whom wicked shepherds—that is, the rulers of this world—were oppressing. But He himself saved them. But come, let us speak of that injury, so that we may at the same time reveal the manner of the help. It is the custom of divine Scripture to compare the inherent knowledge of God within us, by which we are guided in the way we ought to do each thing, to a well or a cistern. For the knowledge of every good thing wells up within us as if from a fountain of the mind, and the knowledge of the glory of God [is] as if in a mirror and in a riddle. Whence those who despise God'sA love and have impiously turned away to offer the worship due to God to demons, are gravely accused by the voice of Jeremiah, saying: "The heaven was astonished at this, and the earth trembled exceedingly, saith the Lord, for my people have done two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living water, and have hewn them out cisterns, broken, that cannot hold water." For false worship is like a broken cistern; for no one can draw from it the Word that has power to give life: but the unsullied knowledge concerning God is in truth the fountain of life. The well, therefore, is a type of the knowledge implanted in us. As long as we use our mind for the right and undistorted knowledge of God, we shall walk on the straight path of truth. But if anyone, overcome by the deceits of demons, is turned aside to that which pleases them, he will spend his own energy on them. This, I think, B is what is signified figuratively by the daughters of Jethro drawing water, but others who are mightier snatching it away by force. We say that those who are deceived are in such ailments, inasmuch as the knowledge implanted in them has been turned into absurdity, that is, into error and into that which is profitable to demons. But Christ has vindicated them. For He, having driven off the wicked shepherds, has given them to drink of the living water, that is, of His divine and heavenly preaching. Therefore He said: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." Jethro, therefore, will bear for us the person of the world, which abounds in superfluity and vanity. And we shall say that the seven daughters are the nations of the Gentiles in every place, so that by each one of the daughters of Jethro a multitude is signified. But the evil and most violent shepherds may C rightly be understood as the crowds of demons. But the One who vindicates is Christ, who also inebriates us with divine streams. But the maidens, having escaped the injuries of the impious shepherds, return to Raguel their father, I mean Jethro. And when he asks the cause of such an unusual haste, they immediately announce the help of Moses. Whence he immediately receives the man into his house, and gives him Zipporah, the most excellent and beautiful of his daughters, to wife; and she bore him Gershom. For after Christ helped the congregations of the Gentiles in the world, He was known indeed by those whom He was instructing, and He saved those whom He could vindicate, and most easily deliver from the hand of those who inflict injuries. And thereafter he receives him very gladly, just as Raguel did the most holy Moses. He brings her, as it were, into familiarity with Himself, like some most beautiful bride, the Church from the Gentiles, which is understood through Zipporah. For Zipporah is interpreted as visitation, D or beautiful, and indeed the grace of the Spirit. For the Dayspring from on high has visited that truly becoming and beautiful Church, I say, and has gifted her with a heavenly gift, the accession of His Spirit, that is, the participation of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, she bore him Gershom, that is, a people truly as a stranger. For those who are marked by the divine Spirit, and deemed worthy of the heavenly visitation, and transformed to beauty as toward a Son
are in truth strangers in this world. A It would be most fitting for them to cry out and say: "We have not here a lasting city, but we seek the one to come, whose craftsman and builder is God." Walking on earth, they are citizens in heaven, and they do not covet any of the things in this world, but they strain eagerly toward the age to come. For they have learned to follow, through a life truly elegant and disciplined, Christ who for our sake became as we are and lived in this world. For He did not care for worldly things—far from it—but rather presented to us a model of a super-mundane and most lawful life.
Observe, moreover, how the sacred Scripture, with no small wisdom, named the father of these seven maidens Jethro, before Moses brought them help, and then afterwards Raguel; and Jethro signifies, as I have already said, "superfluity," or "superfluous," while Raguel signifies "God’s pasturage." I shall use the word for the sake of its utility. We were saying that, by clothing it with the mask of the world, B this occupation in the world is truly superfluous and vain. But this is to be understood as being before the chorus of maidens was aided by Christ. For after they were delivered from tyranny and snatched from the hand of the impious shepherds, then, I say, the name Jethro was changed to Raguel, which is "God’s flock" or "God’s pasturage," according to the force of the interpretation. For he has submitted to the hand of the chief Shepherd of all, that is to say, Christ; through whom and with whom, to God and His Father, be glory with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
On the Vision of Moses in the Burning Bush
Blessed are the prophets who, having no mediocre care for our affairs, inasmuch as they were spirit-bearers and made an exact examination of things, besought that the Word of God might come to men as a helper and redeemer, attributing to God alone, indeed, the power to save those who have reached the extreme of calamities. For they were teachers of the best things and wise keen-minded guides, pointing out the way of salvation. And what kind of praise did they not bloom with? Yet they were not able to ward off the tyranny of Satan C from us, nor to drive away the profane cohorts of demons, who were plundering us (wretched as we are) in many ways, and, making us almost like captured slaves, weighing us down with the yoke of slavery, and forcing us in an unholy manner to think and see only what pleased them. Like cruel and unyielding tax-collectors, they commanded us to offer our service to them, and as if it were a debt, they forced us to be defiled by earthly pursuits, and for that reason to choose to think only of carnal things. It was therefore the distinguished work of that ineffable nature to overthrow the proud and forward tyranny of the devil, and to deliver us from such a sordid yoke of servitude.
to set free those upon the earth who are in such a most harmful and loathsome state, and finally to reveal them as workers of virtue. That this was to be so great and desirable a good for those upon the earth in due time, when the Only-begotten humbled himself into emptying and humanity, we shall learn no less from the holy Scriptures. It is as follows: B "And it came to pass after those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaned because of the works, and they cried out, and their cry went up to God from the works, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant which he made with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and was known to them." For the Egyptians were oppressing those from Israel, imposing the yoke of necessary servitude, and setting over them bitter and pitiless taskmasters who tormented their lives, as it is written. But those oppressed by such tyranny, groaning and weeping, at length in their misery begged to be found worthy of heavenly mercy. "And God looked upon," he says, "and visited the children of Israel, and was known by them." Since, therefore, we were in ignorance of God, then we were subject to those who inflicted injury, and we were wallowing in the mire of sin, having cruel and bitter taskmasters, namely, the unclean demons. For the grace of liberty follows entirely upon the knowledge of God. But these things happened typically and as a figure, and were set before us for our admonition, as it is written. And it is a type of one people, that of Israel. It teaches us quite openly that the purpose of the unclean spirits and C of the devil is nothing else than to compel mortals to toil in vain labors and to perform the works of the flesh, lest perhaps, having a mind vacant from these and aspiring to the things above, they recognize the God of the universe, and thus hereafter order themselves according to his will and shake off the yoke of diabolical servitude. But since a love of freedom is innate in human nature, we do not always approve of such calamity, but we loathe it, and often, coming to ourselves a little and detesting the deformity of carnal pleasures, we thirst for help from above from God, and we make no small lamentation over our violent servitude. This, I think, is what it means for the children of Israel to groan to God. But because he is good, he sent us from heaven a Savior and Redeemer, the Son, who became as we are, that is, a man. And the holy Scripture again prefigures this for us enigmatically. For it speaks as follows: D "And Moses was tending the sheep of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Madian; and he led the sheep into the desert, and he came to the mount of God, Horeb. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the bush. And he sees that the bush is burning with fire, yet the bush is not consumed. And Moses said: I will go near and see this great vision, why the bush is not burnt. But when the Lord saw that he was drawing near to see, the Lord called to him out of the bush, saying: Moses, Moses. But he said: What is it, Lord? And he said: Come not near hither. Loose the sandal from
A your feet, for the place whereon you stand is holy ground. And he said to him: I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses turned away his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. For God gave the Law as an aid, according to the word of the prophet (for he pre-announced Moses as a child-guide by divine economy), yet he intended it to be as a shadow for the manifestation of more perfect things; nevertheless, truth was destined to look forth at the proper times. And the end of that child-guidance was the mystery of Christ, which was very well taught through this vision. For the bush is a bushy and unproductive plant, and yields but little to thorns. Yet a great flame surrounded it. For a holy angel in the form of fire was fulfilling the task; and while it was lifted up, the flame being very high, it did not harm the bush in which it appeared at all. B Truly a marvelous thing, and surpassing all reason! The fire, brought near the thorn, cherished it with a most gentle approach, and, as though forgetting its own innate power, sat idly upon those things which it could have destroyed. Therefore Moses was amazed at this vision. What then is the rationale? Sacred Scripture compares the divine nature to fire, because of its all-powerful nature and its ability to easily vanquish everything, consuming the man of earth like wood and grass in a field. Therefore it says, at one time: “Our God is a consuming fire;” C at another, it says: “Man is as grass; his days are even as a flower of the field, so shall he wither.” But just as fire is not bearable to thorns, so Deity is not bearable to humanity. Yet in Christ it became bearable. “For in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” as the wise Paul has testified. And “the one who dwells in light inaccessible,” that is, God, took up residence in the temple of the Virgin, bringing himself down into an admirable gentleness, and as it were contracting the unmixed impact of his own nature, so that he might become containable, just as, in fact, the fire did to the thorns. D That he rendered what is by nature subject to corruption—that is, the flesh—superior to corruption, the image of the fire, which kept the wood entirely unharmed in the bush, would demonstrate. For as the Word from God, existing as Life by nature, made his own temple incorruptible and superior to death, how could anyone doubt it? The fire, therefore, spared the thorn, and the flame became bearable to the small and most fragile wood. For humanity, as I have said, became capable of the Deity. And this is the mystery that occurred in Christ. For the Word of God has also taken up residence in us, not seeking punishments, nor aiming at litigation against us, but shining forth with beneficial and gentle approaches. For as he himself says elsewhere: “God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” Therefore, the bush was not consumed by the flame resting upon it. For neither is he demanding penalties, but rather illuminating us with gracious and most gentle approaches.
A For as he himself somewhere says, “God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” Therefore, the bush was not burnt, since the flame was contained within it. For we were not being sought out for payment on account of our sins, as I just said; but rather, Christ shines upon us through the Holy Spirit, and he is in us through him, and in him we shall cry out: “Abba, Father.” But the blessed Moses, having been astonished at the sight, was adding that which followed, saying: “I will go across and see this great vision, why the bush is not burnt.” But the blessed angel, as if speaking from the person of God, immediately held him back, saying: “Do not come near here; remove the sandal from off your feet. For the place on which you stand is holy ground.” He calls the arid and thorn-bearing desert, in which the bush also was, holy ground; for every place is holy in which Christ might be. And indeed, it appears very appropriately in a desert and sterile land, since it bears a type of the Church from the Gentiles, to which also the holy word says: “Rejoice, O thirsty desert; let the desert exult, and let it blossom like a lily.” And God promised somewhere else B that he would make the desert pools and the thirsty land into watercourses. For the grace of the Savior has overflowed upon us who have been called from the Gentiles, and like a river from above, it intoxicates us abundantly with overflowing streams. And for this reason, the divine David also tells us: “He turned rivers into a desert, and a fruitful land into salt-marsh through the wickedness of those dwelling in it.” The bush, therefore, is in the desert, and the earth that contains it is holy and consecrated to God. Furthermore, it is forbidden for Moses to approach, and he is commanded to remove his sandal. This thing is a sign of death and corruption; for a sandal is made from the exuviae, or remains, of a dead and already decayed animal. C Therefore, Christ is inaccessible to those who are under the law and under the pedagogical worship. For it is necessary first to wash away every defilement and to wipe off the stain of sin. But since it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (for no one is justified by the law), therefore, since sin has not yet been abolished, it is necessary that corruption still flourish, and consequently, that death still dominate the polluted. Therefore, it is necessary for those who wish to know the mystery of Christ first to put off that shadowy and typical worship, which can overcome neither corruption nor sin. For then they will understand, and thus they will enter into the holy land, that is, into the Church. For that those who have not yet renounced the worship of the law are still detained in corruption, Christ himself made plain, saying: D “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.” This was the mystery, not among those who were formerly under the law, but among those who have received the faith and have been justified in Christ, and who are enriched with the better instruction than the legal one, I mean the evangelical. Under corruption, then, and as if in the law, are those who have not yet unloaded through faith the mother of death—I mean sin—and are still far removed from Christ. But if they were willing to remove the sandal, that is, corruption,
they have not yet laid aside, through faith, the corruption—the mother, so to speak, of death, which is sin, according to the law—they are still far from Christ. But if they should desire to cast off the sandal, that is, the corruption that is unable to justify, and should truly embrace the life-giving grace, then they shall draw near to Him who justifies the ungodly, that is, Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
GLAPHYRA ON EXODUS: BOOK II
ON THE SACRIFICE OF THE LAMB
A 1. That we escape the dominion of death in Christ alone, and that, as the wise disciple wrote to us: "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved," one might learn in many other ways, if one so wished. For there are countless bright and clear images in the God-inspired Scripture, in which the power of this mystery shines forth and flashes. Come, therefore, let us gather together the things that contribute to this, and let us demonstrate them through the things that follow. "Moses and Aaron came into the midst and, coming to Pharaoh, spoke openly: 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Send away my people, that they may keep a feast to me in the desert.' And Pharaoh said, 'Who is he, whose voice I should hear, so as to send away the sons of Israel? I know not the Lord, and I will not send away Israel.' And they said to him, 'The God of the Hebrews has called us; we shall go a journey of three days into the desert, that we may sacrifice to our God, lest death or slaughter meet us.' And the king of Egypt said to them, 'Why, Moses and Aaron, do you turn my people from their works? Go each of you to his own work.'"
B For the senseless Pharaoh, being full of diabolical madness, says that he does not know who the God of the Hebrews is. But since he was chastised with frequent and unbearable plagues, and the land of the Egyptians was perishing little by little—at one time the waters being transformed for them into blood, at another time locusts and hail being brought upon the land, with gnats and frogs being stirred up, and indeed with darkness poured forth for three days—he promised with difficulty that he would send them away, though not willingly; yet he was stubborn, and after this again fierce and hardened, and utterly difficult to persuade to cease, I say, from keeping Israel in such long servitude. Then God considered sending the destroyer upon the firstborn of the Egyptians. And since it was necessary to take care that they should not perish along with the impure peoples and be numbered with the wicked,
A God, out of love for the fathers, established the law concerning the Pascha, and commanded that the mystery of Christ be celebrated before the wrath descended. By this, again, it will be possible to understand how it is impossible for death to be abolished through Moses or the law. But the precious blood of Christ wards off the exterminator from us, and delivers the sanctified from corruption. For He is life from life, and God of the universe, as God from God. The holy Scripture therefore speaks thus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it is the first to you among the months of the year. Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: On the tenth of this month let each man take a lamb according to the houses of their families, a lamb for a house. But if they be few in the house, so as not to be sufficient for a lamb, he shall take with him his neighbor who is next to him."
B Then, having defined how the lamb is to be taken, he prescribes again what kind it ought to be, and also when and how it is to be sacrificed: "For it shall be," he says, "a perfect lamb, a male, unblemished, a yearling shall it be for you; you shall take it from the lambs and from the kids, and it shall be kept for you until the fourteenth of this month. And the whole multitude of the congregation of the children of Israel shall slaughter it toward evening. And they shall take some of the blood, and shall put it on the two doorposts, and on the lintel in the houses in which they shall eat them. And they shall eat the meat in this night roasted with fire, and unleavened bread with bitter herbs shall they eat. You shall not eat of them raw, nor boiled in water, but only roasted with fire, head together with the feet and the inner parts. You shall not leave any over C until morning, and a bone you shall not break of it. But what remains of it until morning, you shall burn with fire." After these things, the legislator shows what manner of dress befits the guests and teaches in what way they ought to be prepared and ready when they approach this most holy feast. For he says: "Thus shall you eat it: let your loins be girded, and your sandals on your feet, and your staves in your hands; and you shall eat it with haste. For it is the Pascha of the Lord." It will also profit them—and he reveals very clearly in what way—the sacrifice of the lamb: "And I will go through the land of Egypt, and I will strike every firstborn from man even to cattle, and on all the gods of the Egyptians I will execute vengeance; I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a sign on the houses in which you shall be there; and I will see the blood and I will cover you, and there shall not be a plague among you to destroy you, when I strike in the land of Egypt." D Then again, after other things: "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread," he says, "and from the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses." And having defined the punishment for the one who transgresses this law, he adds again: "And the first day shall be called holy, and the seventh day shall be a holy convocation to you." The divine oracle holds thus; but we, having gone through it again in parts, will attempt to accommodate the understanding suitable to each, referring the power of the signifiers in many ways to Christ.
B 2. It is determined, therefore, at the beginning of the year, in the first month, the time for the ritual sacrifice; for Christ is the beginning of all things, since He is not new, because of His generation from God the Father before the ages. He sanctifies things for all time, from the beginning unto the end, but the feast is as in the month of new things. For the ancient things passed away, according to the voice of the blessed Paul: “Behold, all things have become new.” And human nature blossomed again toward that which it was in the beginning in Christ. While the sons of Israel were still slaves, and were acting under a tyrannical hand (for they were still under that of the Egyptians), such things were ordained—the Word again signifying enigmatically that no soul could otherwise escape from sin to liberty, nor flee the greed of the devil, nor be gifted with the city above, released from the conversation of this world, except through the communion and kindness of Jesus Christ, according to that which was said by Him to the foolish Jews: “Amen, amen, I say to you, that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. Now the slave does not remain in the house forever; the Son remains forever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” And again: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves.” To which the land of promise, into which they were hastening to depart from Egypt, may well be thought of as a beautiful type. C But the lamb is taken from the tenth day of the month, and is kept until the fourteenth, so that it may be slaughtered toward evening. And for what reason, someone might perhaps ask? For the reasoning is truly deep. For what, I ask, prevented the lamb from being taken on the first day of the month? Or what moved God to ordain by law that the lamb, having been kept for five days, should at last be sacrificed toward evening? For we shall find the number of five days if we begin to count from the tenth unto the fourteenth. That the lamb therefore was not taken on the first, but on the tenth day of the month, seems to signify that many times had passed, and certain long ages were those before us, in which God always was, and is, and shall be. D And immediately after those, this age of ours enters, as if through the five-day path just mentioned by us, divided into five seasons. The parable of the Savior will declare to us the thing sought very elegantly, which has the following manner: “The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And having made an agreement with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And having gone out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said: ‘Go you also into my vineyard, and whatever is just I will give to you.’ And they went. Again, having gone out about the sixth hour and the ninth, he did likewise. But having gone out about the eleventh, he found others standing, and said to them
‘Why do you stand here all the day idle?’ They say to him: ‘No one has hired us.’ He says to them: ‘Go you also into my vineyard.’ A You see then in this, most plainly and clearly, that our age is divided into five seasons? And first, we reckon that in which the first father Adam was still living in paradise; second, after that, and as it were at the ‘third hour,’ is signified that in which Noah and those with him lived; third, as if at the ‘sixth hour,’ that in which Abraham was called to the knowledge of the truth by the God of all; the fourth, again as if at the ‘ninth hour,’ that of Moses and the prophets. B ‘About the eleventh,’ however, that is, in the fifth season, when the day was already contracting and inclining toward sunset, then Christ hired the nations, who had never been invited at any previous time in the ages that had passed. Hence, the last ones say: ‘No one has hired us.’ The lamb is therefore taken on the first of these five days, that is, on the tenth, which bears the type of the beginning of time, and having been kept until the last time, that is, on the fourteenth, it is slaughtered toward evening, so that you may again understand from this that the mystery of Christ is not recent, nor was it born lately, but that it was reserved in the foreknowledge of the Father, and from the very foundation of the world. But He died for us in the last times of the age, when the intelligible and divine light was not yet shining, but the earth was still submerged in the shadows of ignorance, and the princes of these shadows were, in a way, obscuring the hearts of all with errors. Therefore, when the Savior had come to us, He said: ‘I am the light of the world.’ C Likewise, the saints are called ‘luminaries in the world,’ holding forth the word of life, and deservedly hear: ‘You are the light of the world,’ inasmuch as they are able to illuminate those dwelling in darkness. You will admire again also another mystical economy in this place. For the lamb is slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the month, when the lunar circle has its fullness, and illuminates the world with a sort of bastard light, but as it is already beginning to decrease little by little, and as if of necessity contracting the honor and grace that resides in it: so that you may understand from this, as from an image and shadow of the proposed matter, being led forward to the apprehension of the truer things, that the prince of the night, that is, the devil, was glorified throughout the whole world, being signified by the moon as in a type (for the moon has been set as the beginning of the night), and by instilling worldly wisdom, as a sort of illegitimate light, into the hearts of those who are led astray, he arrogated to himself the most ample glory. D Furthermore, Christ died for us and in our stead, that true Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, and destroys the glory of the devil. For it is necessary that it should henceforth cease and gradually be consumed, as the multitude of the nations hastens to ascend to the peace and love of God through conversion to Him and faith. And this is that which was long ago sung in the Psalms concerning Christ: ‘In His days shall justice rise, and a multitude of peace, until the moon shall be taken away.’ For in the day-
-Aspring of Christ, justice has indeed risen through faith; and a multitude of peace, through conversion unto God. Furthermore, the prince of the night has also been taken away—that is to say, the devil. Mark how he says that the moon shall not be taken away simply, but rather "taken away in turn"—for as one who has already slain, it is surely and entirely evident that the devil is taken away in the place of man.
“Let everyone take a lamb, therefore,” he says, “for their houses.” For Christ dwells perfectly in each one through the participation of the Holy Spirit, and He is not divided, as Paul says. And if, he says, they are too few to be sufficient for a lamb, he shall take unto himself his neighbor and his next of kin. For those who do not have it in themselves to be able to understand the mystery of Christ entirely on their own, or who are not sufficient for the understanding concerning Him due to the weakness of their own intelligence, will again become partakers of it by receiving the faithful unto themselves as fellow workers and helpers. For it often happens that through the instruction of one another, we make greater progress in spiritual understanding than we could by ourselves. Just as that truly wise eunuch was inquiring of Philip, while listening to the prophecy concerning Christ: “I beseech you, of whom does the prophet speak: of himself, or of some other man?” You see how, by taking his neighbor (for we are all close to one another, so far as the one and common reason of faith is concerned), he was already declared a partaker of the spiritual lamb through this inquiry. For he was immediately made worthy to be baptized, and indeed, he was baptized. B“Let the lamb be perfect,” he says, for all divine insights are perfect in Christ. But the lawgiver adds that it must be a male. For He Himself was and is the One who suggests the seeds of divine knowledge to all of us, acting as a kind of receptive soil. Wherefore, as the prophetic account also has it, He perfects human nature unto God and the Father through the proclamations of the Gospel. Furthermore, he commands that it be a yearling, either by reason of time, lest it be as something imperfect, since it has not yet completed the year; or else because those who gain the good things from His passion were destined to perform the festival Cproper to God on account of the passion every year. And he says that it is to be taken from the lambs and from the kids. And the lamb is understood according to the law as a pure and spotless victim, but the race of kids is always offered to God upon the altar for sins. You will find the same thing in Christ. For He Himself was a spotless sacrifice, and offered Himself to God and the Father as an odor of sweetness, and was slain for our sins as a kid. But after the slaying, he commands to smear the doorposts and the lintel with the blood: intending, in my opinion, to signify nothing else than that we should fortify and protect our earthly house—that is to say, our body—with the venerable and precious blood of Christ, and through participation in life, [we should drive away] the death which we had incurred through transgression.
A For life and sanctification are for us communion with Christ. And when we drive away the destroyer himself, and by the anointing keep the demon who lies in wait far from us, we mortify the passions that arise from carnal impulses. By the “doors” of the house we mentioned just now, you will understand our senses, through which the quality of things is ministered to the hearts of all, and the immeasurable multitude of desires is poured in. The prophet Joel also calls them “windows,” saying, “As if some thieves will enter through our windows”; for they were not anointed with the blood of Christ.
He commands that the meat be eaten in this night, that is, in the present age. For thus did Paul also invoke it, saying, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” B By “day” in these words he expressly meant the age to come, which Christ himself illumines. They shall eat the meat, therefore, in this age, he says. For as long as we are in this world, we shall communicate with Christ through the holy flesh and the precious blood, speaking in a somewhat cruder way. But when we have encountered the day of his power and virtue, as it is written, and have ascended into the brightness of the saints, then we shall be sanctified again in another way, which he, the distributor and giver of future goods, knows.
Furthermore, the communion of his holy flesh, and likewise the cup from his saving blood, contains a confession of the death of Christ, which for our sake was made manifest. For this is what he himself says elsewhere, when prescribing laws for his friends concerning this mystery: “As often,” he says, “as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death.” C In this present age, therefore, by participation in what has just been enumerated, we rightly proclaim his death. But when he has arrived in the glory of the Father, it will no longer be appropriate to offer confession to him concerning the passion; rather, we shall know him purely as God, “face to face,” as Paul says. For we shall glorify him, he says, as Master. “For once having died, he dies no more; death no longer has dominion over him,” according to the voice of Paul. On account of this, the same [apostle] says elsewhere: “And if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.” D For then we shall recognize him not from those things by which he is man, but from those by which he is true God, more brilliantly, when the economy has been fulfilled and completed, for the sake of which he also became flesh. For it is likely that accounts concerning his incarnation will cease, and a greater knowledge will begin, and divine understanding of his salvation will shine within us, which is in the divine glory. Furthermore, he commands them to eat the flesh of the lamb roasted with fire, because those who wish to approach the communion of Christ ought to be inflamed in spirit. For this reason Paul also commands them to “be fervent in spirit.” But he says they should eat unleavened bread with wild lettuce, figuratively signifying that those who have been made partakers of Christ ought to feed their souls
with unleavened and most pure desires, accustoming themselves to a life that is guileless and unmixed with malice; nor should they for this reason shrink from the bitterness that comes from temptations, according to that which was said by someone: “My child, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation; direct your heart and endure.” B But he also says, “You shall not eat of it raw.” What then is this? He who eats raw food does not eat it unto digestion; indeed, such food is not at all suitable for the teeth. You would rightly say that those people do this who do not, through careful inquiry, refine the word concerning Christ, and do not test and prove it by fire, according to that which was sung by David: “And in my study a fire shall burn.” Furthermore, he forbids eating it boiled in water, indicating that a watery and lax perception or opinion about him will by no means be wholesome food for the minds of believers. C But a watery opinion about him is to not believe that he is God by nature, but to relegate him to the order of creatures: which indeed, out of their ignorance, some do not fear to do, perverting to their own will those things said concerning him in a providential way on account of the incarnation, and making it, as it were, food for their own impiety. “You shall not eat it, therefore,” he says, “boiled in water, but roasted with fire,” for the previously stated reason, and because “the oracles of the Lord are tested by fire.” For all the words concerning his deity are fervent and have nothing watery or cold in them, according to him who again said in the book of Psalms: “Your oracle is very D fiery, and your servant has loved it.” He also commands that the head with the feet and the entrails be eaten, wishing the knowledge of the whole mystery concerning him to dwell completely in the minds of the faithful. For one ought to know, before all things, that the Word, being God, was in the beginning in the Father and with the Father—this signifies the head, being the beginning of the whole mystery. Second, that being God, he will again return, a judge who will put an end to our dispensation; for this is what the feet signify to us, being the end of the whole body. And you will understand the entrails as the hidden word, which is, as it were, in the midst, concerning the incarnation. Therefore, the faith is whole through these things; and Christ is total and perfect in us through such knowledge. For this reason I would think
that the legislator A again commands, saying, “It shall not be left from them until the morning,” speaking enigmatically, as seems to be the case, and through these things preventing those who would wish for—in regard to their will—not entirely good delays. For let not, he says, the perfect and true knowledge concerning Him be sent off into delay, nor let anyone reserve for themselves for a later time access to Him, having once entirely taken part and touched [Him]. B However, this is done by those who, having through catechesis tasted of the dogmas concerning Christ, yet keep the illumination through the Spirit and the grace through Baptism for a distant and late delay—for old age, he says. For indeed the harm from this occurs great and unexpectedly. For in the most part, even if one should achieve one's own plans, the hope is not secure. But with the goal having once reached its end for him, he is indeed sanctified, yet he possesses only the forgiveness of offenses, and he brings the talent back to his own Master dry, having had no leisure to work C anything upon it. “But not a bone shall be broken of it,” he says. For bones are always uneatable to our teeth. Such, therefore, to human minds is the white, if one may so say, and hidden Word of His divinity. That the Son is by nature God, and that He was begotten of God and the Father, we believing this, understand very correctly; but we inquire no further, according to the voice of the holy one. For who knows how to tell of the manner of His birth? And how is the D prophet not true, crying out, “Who shall declare His generation? For His life is taken away from the earth”? In these things, therefore, he calls the bones the solidity of the doctrines which are above the mind. These the legislator does not permit us to break. But the heretics, who pervert the right [doctrines], break them entirely for themselves. For they curiously examine the manner of the divine and ineffable birth, suffering from a certain incomparable insipidity, and not receiving the written word into their mind: “Who has measured the heaven with a span?” which thing we, therefore, reasonably refuse, having wisely refrained from breaking the bones of the Lamb, but rather receiving by faith those things which are above us. It is necessary, however, to remember that the written word was also understood more historically concerning our Savior, the soldiers of Pilate not breaking His legs, as it is written. But he says that what remains of the Lamb until the morning ought to be burned with fire. And by “morning” again he names that illumination which is to be in the age to come, when we shall see our King and God face to face, no longer as now in an enigma and in a mirror, and in a shadow, and in part, as Paul says. Since, therefore, the consideration of Him which is now as in an enigma is then to be declared, in a certain manner, through a more brilliant knowledge, he says again, as in a type, that what remains of the Lamb until the morning is to be burned with fire. He commands the guests to be clothed in such a habit: “Your loins,” he says, “shall be girded, and your sandals on your feet, and your staves in your hands. And you shall eat it in haste. For it is the Lord’s Passover.” That they should gird their loins, therefore, is a sign of vigilance and a prompt will, according to that saying by God to the righteous Job: “Gird your loins like a man.” And again, by a certain prophet: “And it shall be that righteousness shall gird his loins,” for which is meant he shall be agile and strong for cultivating righteousness. But the sandal signifies the preparation of the will to go without delay to that which has pleased God. For so Paul understood it, writing: “Having put on the sandals in the preparation of the Gospel of peace.”
And in addition to this, the prophet Jeremiah A says: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, but to fear the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways?” The staff then in their hands signifies the hope that supports us and holds us up in patience, according to that which is written in the prophets: “Hope in the Lord, and support yourselves in God.” Again, He commands them to eat the lamb with haste, by which he shows that he who has become a partaker of Christ should not appear sluggish or remiss in doing good, but should apply diligence and ardent zeal in those things which he judges to be profitable to himself. And here, note what blessed Paul writes in his epistle: “Do you not know,” he says, “that those who run in the stadium, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain.” Furthermore, since I think we ought everywhere to hunt for what is expedient, I shall now turn to another meaning. The law does not want him who is already sanctified through Christ to appear delicate or dissolute, but brings him into such a guise as is suitable for travelers; and this it is clearly insinuating in two ways: namely, that either these things which are set forth in type and shadow must finally be translated to the truth, or that it behooves him who has once partaken of Christ to strive toward every virtue with, as it were, a spurred and ardent spirit, and to flee from that abominable pleasure which is in the world. He immediately adds the reason why the Christian who has now been described by us must appear such: “It is the Lord’s Phase,” he says, “that is, a passing over.” B For we pass over from the worldly life into a conversation acceptable to God. And immediately he sets before their eyes what and how great a benefit they are to receive from this, while he announces to them that he is going to smite every firstborn in the land of Egypt, and that the blood for those who have eaten the lamb will be as a sign, that they are under his protection, so that they may not perish when he smites the land of Egypt. For God takes punishment upon the incredulous and disobedient, and those destitute of the sanctification of Christ. But He knows only those, and deems them worthy of keen care, who are anointed with the blood of the true Lamb, and does not allow the sanctified one to perish together with the impious, but rather fosters them with His singular kindness. But indeed, after seven full days, He commands those who eat the sacred lamb to feed on unleavened bread, by which, it seems to me, He persuades those sanctified in Christ to feed their own soul with the purest desires, and those most of all separated from every depravity. “The first and the seventh day,” he says, “shall be called holy.” For time was holy in the beginning of creation, when the first parent Adam had not yet been cast out from paradise on account of transgression, but still dwelt in it and was keeping the commandment given to him. Holy, likewise, is also the final time, through Christ, who in faith justifies those who approach Him, and reduces us to that which we were in the beginning. Wherefore the whole
mystery concerning our Savior was prefigured for us in these things. And so, he very rightly said to the Jews himself: "If you believed Moses," he says, "you would have believed me; for he wrote about me." B
Concerning the consecration of the firstborn
1. We have been redeemed from our ancient way of life handed down by our fathers, as it is written: "Not with corruptible silver or gold, but with the precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, Christ, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but made manifest in the last times." For since He was God by nature, and in the form and equality of God and the Father, and since the Only-Begotten has also been named the firstborn, He was seen upon earth and conversed with men. For He says somewhere concerning us in the Psalms to the Father and God in heaven: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the Church will I praise thee." For having assumed human nature into Himself, and having stooped according to the economy into those things that are ours, He is not ashamed to call us brethren, since we have been called unto adoption as sons through Him. C And it is true, and has been testified to by the very facts themselves, that the Father gave His own Son as a ransom for the salvation of all. Therefore, as Paul says: "We have been bought with a price," and we are not our own. "But one died for all, that all might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again for us." That, therefore, each one of those who have been saved through Christ, and who have been enriched, as it were, with a likeness to Him through sanctification in the Spirit, subsequently consecrates his own life to God, would be made clear by the all-wise Moses, who addresses the ancients thus: "And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land of the Chanaanites, as He swore to thy fathers, and shall give it to thee; and thou shalt set apart every male that opens the womb D to the Lord; everything that opens the womb from thy herds and in thy beasts, whatsoever shall be the males that are born to thee, thou shalt sanctify to the Lord. Every one that opens the womb of an ass, thou shalt exchange for a sheep; but if thou do not exchange it, thou shalt redeem it. Every firstborn of man among thy sons thou shalt redeem." And the Synagogue having been gathered in its time in Horeb, he uses the same language, and thus the lawgiver addressed it again: "The firstborn of thy sons thou shalt give to me. So shalt thou do thy calf, and thy sheep, and thy beast of burden. Seven days it shall be with the mother; but on the eighth day thou shalt deliver it to me. And you shall be holy men to me."
A 2. Most opportunely, therefore, does God, the Lord of all, ask for the consecration of the firstborn from us, and asserts that the males must be sanctified to Him by us. For since the firstborn of the Egyptians perished, while the beloved Israel was preserved in every house and escaped the destroyer, having been anointed with the blood of the lamb—which was a type of Christ who died for us so that He might abolish death—it is right, therefore, that those which were saved should no longer be of their own right; rather, it is fitting that they should henceforth be possessed as belonging to Him who risked Himself for them. For in the same way that those who have the power to deliver subjects from the barbarians, and who repel the servitude unexpectedly imposed upon them by engaging in battle with them, become in a way their lords, inasmuch as they have acquired them with their own blood; in the same way, I think, Christ our Lord, having routed the throng of unclean demons, and having poured out His own blood for us, and having destroyed death and abolished corruption, has from then on claimed us for Himself and brought us into subjection, so that we should not henceforth live for ourselves, but rather for Him. For had He not died for us, we surely would never have been saved; and had He not been among the dead, the fierce power of death would never have been shattered. B Thus, too, the divine Paul has initiated us, saying to those who have been saved through Christ: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." As, therefore, the people of Israel lived, as it were, by the life of the slaughtered lamb, so we too no longer live our own life, but that of Christ who died for us, even though He lived again. For He was Life by nature, as God. Our life, therefore, must be holy; for such was the life of Christ. And wishing to live holily, we shall attain His admirable image, and having become conformed to Him who for our sake became as we are—the Only-Begotten as God, but "firstborn" because of His human nature—we shall be a holy and truly acceptable sacrifice to God and the Father. C The firstborn and male offspring are sanctified, therefore, because they are understood to be in the image of Christ. For just as mothers used to bring their infants, and our Lord Jesus Christ received them very gladly, and said to His holy disciples: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven," so here too you shall understand that God and Father loves the firstborn, as being preeminent in the image of Christ. Only the males of the firstborn are set apart. For it was necessary, indeed it was necessary, that the beauty most suitable to Himself be saved for Christ, and for those who had been formed in His image, as in the likeness of the firstborn. For Christ is at once both firstborn and male, since He knows no effeminacy D toward sin; and the female is a type of effeminacy. Therefore, those who bear the image of Christ should avoid...
A effeminate thoughts, and should banish far from themselves softness and weakness, as things truly execrable and odious to God; but rather, with the greatest alacrity and contention of soul, they should exercise virtue. “Everything that opens the womb of an ass shall be exchanged for a lamb.” And what is the reason for this? For an ass is unclean and polluted according to the law; but a sheep is a clean animal, and therefore it is offered for the ass. Yet again the law suggests to us in these things that even what is profane is made holy in Christ, and what is unclean is made clean, and what is rejected becomes approved and acceptable. For since we were sinners and unclean, He Himself became for us a holy sacrifice, and an odor of sweet fragrance, because He died for sinners, the just for the unjust, the clean for the unclean, just as the lamb [is offered] for the ass. Now the firstborn of men are redeemed by gifts, as is fitting, or by an offering of valuation. For what reason? Because everything that has been simply consecrated and sanctified to God had to be sacrificed. But God, who created all things in incorruption, abhors homicide. “For God did not create death, nor does He delight in the destruction of the living,” as it is written. Neither, likewise, does He rejoice in the perishing of the unclean demons; but rather He commands that we pay the price of redemption instead of death itself, B and thus openly acknowledge that we owe this life to Him. For this is what He suggested by ordering the so-called didrachma to be paid by Peter. But Christ Himself should be understood as the true price of redemption, through whom and in whom we have conquered corruption; for He gave Himself for us.
He also said that the lamb must spend seven days under its mother, and on the eighth day be brought. For it was not sacrificed as soon as it was born from the womb; but when it had become little by little fatter and more robust on its mother's milk, God declares it suited for the odor of a sweet fragrance. And this very thing may be a type of a mystical and necessary matter, which is observed to this day by us, who are accustomed to consecrate our rational firstborn to God. For we do not immediately offer those C recently called to God, and who have scarcely been imbued with the first precepts of faith, and are not yet initiated, but rather we instruct them with the catechism, and in a way nourish them under their mother, that is, under the Church, and render them more robust as if with milk suitable for infants and with the tender word. Hence Paul also writes to those who are not yet of perfect habit: “I have given you milk to drink, not food. For you were not yet able, nor indeed are you able even now.” And again in another epistle: “For everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness. For he is an infant. But solid food is for those who are perfect, who through custom have their senses trained for the discernment of good and evil.” Therefore, we bring those who have become men, and who have been well nurtured in the teachings of Christian instruction, on the eighth day, that is, when the time in which they were infants has passed, and another enters in its place, in which the mystery of Christ may be conveniently [delivered to them].
A committed. For the eighth day signifies for us the time of the resurrection, when Christ, having suffered death for our sake, rose again, to whom we are spiritually conformed by dying through holy baptism, that we might also become partakers of his resurrection. Paul confirms this, writing: "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Therefore, being reborn through faith into the knowledge of the truth, and having already attained the form of our Lord Jesus Christ—who for our sake was made the firstborn among us—and having then drunk the rational and guileless milk, and "attained to the measure of the stature of the fullness of his," as it is written, B then, I say, we shall all henceforth be holy and consecrated to God, dying spiritually to the world, but living holily to God. For this, I think, is what is meant by the firstborn of the flocks being sacrificed at the altar for Him. The divine Paul also writes to those who are thus sanctified: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." The death of the saints is therefore holy; and I think the blessed David seems to have looked toward something like this when he said: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." The meaning of what we have just said is appropriate, in my opinion, not only for those who turn from the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth, but also, and indeed especially, for those who, having been called from legal worship, have been brought to justification in Christ and sanctification in the Spirit. For the lamb or calf was nourished by its mother for seven days, but was brought C on the eighth; by which I think God signified in a figure (for the law is a shadow) that it was necessary for those who were later to be holy and to be offered to God as an odor of sweetness to be instructed first through types and discipline, not of a very manly sort, but better suited to infants. And the mystery of Christ, which is signified by the eighth day, is the opportune time that is most especially suited to such perfection. God is therefore inaccessible through legal worship, but can be approached through Christ alone. For through him we have received access, as if after the seventh day—that is, when the sabbathism according to the law has already passed, or rather, the legal worship has ceased in its entirety and in a general sense. For the law perfected nothing; but Christ draws us to this, because only the faithful are ready for virtues, and through Christ they attain perfect knowledge, D as being endowed with his mind, through whom and with whom, to God and the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Concerning Marah and the wood that was shown to the blessed Moses.
1. The Israelites, departing from the land of the Egyptians and having cast off the intolerable yoke of slavery, passed through the midst of the sea as if on dry land, and this too without toil...
A For the waters stood fast as a wall, obeying the divine will. Then, when they saw that Pharaoh with all his army had incurred danger and been submerged in the waters, and that those who once were intolerable to them and treated them most harshly had thus miserably perished, they sang songs to God with a truly joyful spirit, and celebrating Him with hymns of thanksgiving, they said: "Let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously glorified; the horse and the rider He has cast into the sea. He has become my helper and protector for salvation." B For the God of all performed this miracle to good purpose. For although He had shown them very many and highly admirable signs in Egypt, yet He added this magnificent one, that they might escape those to whom they had been subject even through the midst of the sea, and thus by the outcome have their minds confirmed within themselves, and believe that this had not happened by means of gods falsely so called, or inventions of human art, and idols made of wood and stone; but that He was the Lord of all, who commands the subject creation, and accomplishes easily whatever He wills. And that they might be profited by admiring still more, He commanded them to depart more abundantly and to hasten to the land promised to their fathers, with the all-wise Moses as leader and guide. But what happened further, the sacred Scripture again explains: "For Moses," it says, "set the children of Israel forward from the Red Sea, and led them into the desert of Sur, C and they went three days in the desert, and found no water to drink. And they came to Marah, and they could not drink the water from Marah, for it was bitter. Therefore the name of that place was called Bitterness. And the people murmured against Moses, saying: What shall we drink? But Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a wood, and he cast it into the water, and the water was made sweet. There He set for him justifications and judgments. And there He tested him, and said: If you hear the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is pleasing before Him, and hearken to His commandments, and keep all His justifications, every sickness which I brought upon the Egyptians I will not bring upon you. For I am the Lord who heals you. And they came to Elim, and there were there twelve fountains of water, and seventy trunks of palm trees. And they encamped there by the waters." D See, therefore, how by His divine providence He did not suffer those whom He redeemed not without labor, elated by the magnitude of their joy, to betake themselves to leisure, lest perhaps they should soon fall into the oblivion of Him who is able to save, and thus easily revert to the errors of the Egyptians. For labors usually recall us to God. Hence the prophet also says: "Lord, in affliction we have remembered Thee, in a small tribulation is Thy discipline to us." Since therefore they had traveled through a long and most arid land, they labored from the want of things that are necessary for life. For they did not find water to drink;
A but when their thirst was prolonged even to the third day, they with difficulty found the object of their desire. But even this was entirely useless. For the water of Merrha was bitter, and not safe for those who were thirsty, in the sense, it is said, of being able to escape death; and they were distressed because of this, and cried out against the mediator, while Moses was troubled. But when God, who knows all things, had pointed out a piece of wood to him, he cast it into the waters, and they were miraculously changed into sweet and most potable streams. Having drunk, therefore, and having received benefit, they marveled at the divine sign, and after this they encamped by twelve springs of water, where there were also seventy palm trees. And they dwelt there, passing their time in luxury. That therefore it was impossible to find the way of salvation in faith and in no other way, God confirmed through shadow and types. For this reason He commanded the lamb to be slaughtered in Egypt, and wanted them to believe that, having been anointed with its blood, they would escape the death cast upon the firstborn. For who would not say, and most reasonably, that what was done was a prelude of faith? For tell me, by what manner would the slaughter of a sheep frighten death? But the event was a type of a mystery. B For Christ, with His own blood, truly snatches those who have been sanctified in faith, and declares them superior to the corruption of death. But what again is the meaning of what happened at Merrha? Come, let us say as best we can.
2. Holy Scripture compares the word of God to water, because just as this sensible water vivifies bodies, so the divine word, if it should reach the mind, would refresh it in no small measure. Hence, also, Christ, speaking to the crowds of the Jews, cries out, saying: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." And again to the woman from Samaria He says: "And everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst forever." The Israelites, therefore, having abandoned the God-hating worship of the Egyptians, transferred their minds to completing whatever God might wish. C But although they had not yet been instructed by the laws from above, and had not yet tasted of the intelligible waters, they had, as it were, a dry and thirsting mind within themselves. Then with difficulty they arrive at Merrha, but they could not drink the water, for it was bitter. Afterwards, when Moses had cast in the wood, the water was delivered from its innate bitterness. What then is Merrha? I would say it is the legal Letter. For the law is bitter, D inasmuch as it is a punisher. And indeed, the divine Paul said: "Anyone who has transgressed the law of Moses dies without mercy under two or three witnesses." Do you see that it was bitter and difficult to bear, even for those who wish to fulfill it with virtue? And indeed, the holy disciples openly said to those who were persuading some who already had faith to return again to the legal worship, explicitly saying: "Now therefore why do you tempt God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?" And indeed, the
A blessed Paul calls the commandment of the all-wise Moses a ministry of condemnation. For he speaks thus: "For if the ministry of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness exceed in glory." He says also elsewhere: "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." By "letter," I suppose, he clearly means the law; and by "Spirit," again, he designates the worship in spirit, that is, the Gospel. For the law is bitter. And Marrah is interpreted as "bitterness." That the instruction through the law, in itself—and in so far as it exists in types—is not able to give life, needs no further confirmation. For "no one is justified by the law before God," as it is written. But even the law itself will become life-giving then, and will be divested of the bitterness according to the letter, if it becomes receptive to the mystery according to Christ; for "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes," being understood, clearly, in a spiritual sense. The event at Marrah may also be a clear type of this. For the wood signifies the cross of our Savior, or the mystery concerning it; which, if it were received by those under the law, they would find even that which is bitter to be sweet. For the law is no longer accusatory nor punishing to those who believe in Christ, but rather it gives life, as the history is rightly translated by us into spiritual understanding and leads to Christ, who is Life and the Life-giver. For then—then, I say—the law will define for us justifications and judgments, inasmuch as it leads us straight to that which pleases God, and points out the path to all that is salutary for us: and it will place us outside of fear and the expectation of punishment. For He says: "Every plague which I brought upon the Egyptians, I will not bring upon you." Therefore, to those who have received this mystery in the law, a good hope is set forth of escaping punishment. And this, I think, is what the Savior Himself said to the crowds of the Jews at the time of His sojourn: "Amen, amen, I say to you, that he who hears my word, and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." And again: "He who believes in the Son is not judged." Having therefore received the justifications of Christ, then—then, I say—we shall come to Elim, which means "an ascent." For we are raised up from our ancient infancy into a mature mind, and arriving at the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," we shall take delight in the fountains of intelligible waters. These twelve fountains describe for us the choir of the twelve apostles; and we shall find there also the seventy trunks of palm trees. For it is written that after the holy apostles, "the Lord appointed other seventy." That the divine disciples are in truth fountains, gushing forth for us the divine and saving word of life, which is necessary for salvation, God would very well demonstrate to those who have been justified in the law, saying thus: "Draw water with joy out of the fountains of the Savior." And concerning every saint, David thus writes:
Just as the righteous man, it says, shall flourish like a palm tree. A And do not be surprised at this; since Christ himself is called by this name in the inspired Scripture. For the intelligible bride, that is to say the Church, says somewhere again concerning the bridegroom from above and from heaven, namely Christ: "I said: I will climb up into the palm tree, I will take hold of the fruits thereof." For this tree is always flourishing, and is both sweet and well-rooted, and has a heart that is white. Such, in a spiritual sense, is Christ, through whom and with whom to God the Father there is glory, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
Concerning the manna, and the quail.
1. God, who is of all things, works miracles again, and B passes from strength to strength, as it is written; and He finds ways for the impossible, providing everywhere for His own glory, and showing in many ways that it is for Him alone, without labor, to be able to accomplish even things beyond reason, and those things which we would rightly say ought to be admired, so that God might be seen through all things, not as one of those who are skilled in human arts, or those who have impiously invented something, but truly and naturally. For from the things which He performs gloriously, one could most easily understand His most perfect nature; to which there belongs, indeed, as a proper good, omnipotence, and an invincible strength to do whatever He might wish. Furthermore, forbearance also attends Him. You may see what I am saying, and indeed quite clearly, in the things that we currently have before us. For it is written: "On the fifteenth day of the second month, when they had gone out from the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the children of Israel said to them: Would that we had died, struck down by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, and did eat bread to the full! Why have you brought us into this desert to kill all this assembly with hunger? C And the Lord said to Moses: Behold, I will rain bread for you from heaven, and the people shall go out and shall gather what is sufficient for each day: that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law. And it shall be on the sixth day, and they shall prepare what they carry in, and it shall be double of what they used to gather day by day." For the first-born of the Egyptians, as we have already said, perished; but the Israelites were being sent away from the country so quickly that they could not even provide themselves with provisions for the journey. For they brought out their flour before their dough had fermented, which they had gathered in their garments. Having therefore taken as provisions what was at hand, they went out in haste, and there was fear D equally for the Egyptian persecutors and for the Israelites who were enduring the persecution. For they [the Egyptians] were expecting that they themselves would soon be added to those who had already perished, if they did not yield to the divine commands and drive Israel out of their country; but these [the Israelites], if they were found to be slow and delaying their exit, thought that it would certainly happen that they would enter into the final struggle, and without any mercy
A. They set out, therefore, not at all concerned about the things necessary for a journey, and having barely snatched up what was at hand, and as it were stealing from their own homes the things that were most easily portable, which in fact they had already consumed. Then, being at a loss as to where in the desert they might obtain the necessities of life for themselves, they slipped into a desire for the food they had enjoyed in Egypt. And that they had been taken away from the lowest of conditions and from the slavery in Egypt they forget; and they, in a way, cry out against the help provided, and are angry that they have been redeemed; and they prefer the gluttony and satiety of an unclean stomach to liberty, that state most desired and most welcome to all men. This matter greatly troubled the mediator, that is to say, Moses. But God promises that He will immediately supply them with an abundance of food, and He presents Himself to those who have rebelled against Him with no little kindness. For the fact that they demand from Him the necessities for the sustenance of their life is exempt from reproach; but He is offended by their murmuring. Furthermore, the Savior Himself taught us in our prayers to say: "Give us this day our daily bread" [Matth. vi, 11]. By saying this, we are in no way accusing the Lord, but rather we ask of Him the things that are necessary for life. But the Jewish people, when they ought to have asked for food, are resentful because they have been liberated, and they most foolishly insult such a precious and desirable grace, as if it were something that had deprived them of things most pleasant, namely, the use of meat and bread. Therefore C they murmur and speak impiously against God. But God, who is patient toward the wicked, promises them an unexpected abundance of these things. For in His ineffable power He sends down quails in the evening, and in the morning, manna. Hence the divine David says: "He gave them bread from heaven, man ate the bread of angels" [Psal. LXXVII, 24]. He taught them most certainly by experience and by the events themselves that God is able even now to give and prepare a table in the desert; just as in truth our Lord Jesus Christ also performed similar miracles, when from five broken loaves He satisfied many in the desert, and twelve baskets were filled, moreover, with the fragments. Furthermore, the ways in which He performed the miracles are completely beyond investigation, but those things which exceed the mind should be grasped by faith, and let God hear from all who admire Him: "I know that Thou canst do all things, and that nothing is impossible for Thee." D
2. But let this be our discussion concerning those things that are perceived by the senses. What, however, might be the meaning of the spiritual consideration, or what the enigma of the Law is, must now be examined by us, who are diligently striving to seek out the truth. We shall see, therefore, even through these things, that the life according to the Law is without a doubt inferior to the evangelical life, and likewise subject to the accusation of carnal desires, nor is it free from earthly concupiscences: whereas the divine and evangelical life is spiritual and inviolate, and has a form incomparably more beautiful than the other. We shall seek the demonstration and proof of each, examining well the rationale of both, from the holy Scripture: "And it came to pass, in the evening," [etc.]
says the Scripture, "and the quail came up, and covered the camp. And in the morning, the dew ceased round about the camp, and behold, upon the face of the desert there was a small thing like coriander, white as hoarfrost upon the ground." And the sons of Israel seeing it, said one to another: "What is this?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them: "This is the bread B which the Lord has given you to eat; this is the word which the Lord has commanded. Gather of it every man according to that which is necessary, a gomor for every head, according to the number of your souls. Let each man gather with those who dwell in his tent." And the sons of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less; and they measured the gomor, and he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered less had no lack, every man gathering to those who were with him. And Moses said to them: "Let no man leave of it unto the morning." And they did not listen to Moses, but some of them left of it unto the morning, and it bred worms, and it stank. And Moses was angered against them. C And after other things, he says again: "And Moses said to them: This is the word which the Lord has spoken: Tomorrow is the holy Sabbath, a rest to the Lord. As much as you shall bake, bake; and as much as you shall seethe, seethe; and all that is over, leave for the morning." And they left of it unto the morning, as Moses had commanded them, and it did not stink, neither was there any worm in it. He commanded everyone, therefore, to gather what was sufficient for himself. He does not at all hinder anyone from gathering even for those who were absent, if he so wished, and thereby adorning himself with the law of charity. But he denies entirely that anything should be preserved unto the morning, and he said to do this only before the Sabbath, so that the law of rest might not be dishonored. For D there was absolutely none to be found on the Sabbath, nor did God provide any, so that by this, He compelled them, as it were, to abstain from works on the Sabbath. But indeed, many of them, despising the divine oracle, reserved even this before the Sabbath, and, as the holy Scripture says, "it stank and bred worms." And Moses was exacerbated, because they went out to gather even on the Sabbath, at which God Himself was incensed. For it is written thus: "And it came to pass on the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said to Moses: How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my law? See, the Lord has given you this day the Sabbath. For this reason He gave you on the sixth day bread for two days; sit everyone in your houses, let no man of you go out from his place on the seventh day." And what discourse could be appropriate and most suitable for us regarding what has been said? Why, I ask, did the quail come in the evening, but the manna was given in the light and at dawn? I think, for my part, that it is necessary to examine this thoroughly, and before all else, what the quail, and what also the manna, might signify enigmatically and as in a type or shadow.
A That the life of the Jews, therefore, is not freed from carnal desires, one might easily understand; and it would be an obvious argument that they seek the flesh-meats of Egypt as food, and have a mind B conquered by these delights, and all but oppressed by their tyranny. But you would find nothing of the sort in us. For we have been sanctified in Christ, and have surpassed that carnal uncleanness. The divine Paul will bear witness to this, writing: "They that are Christ’s had crucified the flesh with the passions and desires." And what is "had crucified"? It is that they have delivered themselves to death—to a spiritual death, clearly—inasmuch as they no longer endure to live according to the flesh, nor choose to set their minds on temporal things, but rather "mortify their members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire," and while they walk upon the earth, they strive with their whole heart and aspire toward the life above. For they remember the sacred Scripture that cries out: "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." The mind of the Jews, therefore, is infirm, and is very easily overcome by the assaults of the passions; for it still loves carnal things, and is conquered by those that are more earthy.
These things are signified to us, as I said, by the quail. God, indeed, offers to those who desire, yet He does not Himself impel them toward desires, nor does He yet grant the strength to withstand the passions—because to those under the Law, that which is proper to life and entirely sanctified was not kept, but rather it was reserved for those who are in Christ. Hence also did God promise a new testament through the prophet, not like that first one, because that one did not possess that which was blameless, but another and a spiritual one, which has the power to perfect and consume in conscience those who have believed. C Observe also in what manner the flight of the quails to the Jewish synagogue happens at evening. For it says: "And it was evening, and the quail came up," the figure obliquely intimating to us that he who is addicted to earthly things does not dwell in the intelligible light, but as if in night and darkness. And the matter is entirely so, because the mind of the Jews has by no means been liberated from ignorance and blindness and intelligible mist. Hence also Christ cries out, saying: "I am the light of the world." Those, therefore, who have not yet received the faith are in mist and as in darkness; for they have not arrived at the light. And Christ said somewhere regarding the Pharisees and the people subject to them: "Let them alone; they are blind, and guides of the blind." The mind of the Jews, therefore, is lightless; consequently, they sicken according to the flesh, and all but hang upon things that are more earthy.
We consider, therefore, that the manna is a shadow and a type of the teachings and gifts of Christ, which are from above and from heaven, and have nothing that is earthy; but rather, they are devoid of this carnal defilement, and are truly the food not of men only, but of angels also. For the Son D has manifested the Father to us in Himself, and through Him we have been instructed in the account of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and have been well guided into every path of virtue. But the food of spirits, which is in these
A is right and genuine knowledge. And such a provision of the gifts of learning through Christ might be as in light and by day. Therefore, the manna was given to the ancients as the day was dawning and the light was spreading. For the day was dawning within us who believe, according as it is written, and the morning star has risen in the hearts of all, and the Sun of Justice has appeared, that is to say Christ, the dispenser of the intelligible manna. For that that sensible manna was as it were a figure, but he himself is the truth, he will confirm by saying to the Jews: "Your fathers ate the manna in the desert, and they died. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that if any man eat of it, he may not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever. And the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world." For our Lord Jesus Christ nourishes us unto eternal life, both by his precepts for piety and by the mystical blessings. He himself, therefore, is in reality through himself that divine and truly life-giving manna. And whoever has eaten of this shall be exempt from corruption and shall escape death, unlike those who ate the sensible manna. For the type was not saving, but was foreshadowing the representation of the truth. God ordered the manna, sending it down from above like rain, to collect what was sufficient for each person, yet to gather together, if some wished, with those who inhabit the same tabernacle. "For each one," he says, "gather with those who dwell in your tents, and do not leave any of it until the morning." For we must be filled with divine and evangelical teachings. Since Christ distributes his grace in equal measure to both small and great, and similarly feeds all for life, he wishes us to gather together with others, even the weaker ones, and to toil on behalf of our brethren, and to lend our own labors to them, and to make them participants in the graces from above. And this is, I think, what was said to the holy apostles themselves: "Freely you have received, freely give." For, having collected the greatest amount of manna for themselves, they strove to distribute it to those who were dwelling in the same tents, that is to say, the Church. For the inspired disciples were continually admonishing, B leading to everything that is praiseworthy, and abundantly setting before all for their participation the grace which they themselves had been enriched with by Christ. And truly, the blessed Paul writes to some: "For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual grace, to strengthen you." But if the phrase, "Each one gather with those who dwell in your tents," should be understood in another way, that is to say, that they should not all collect it promiscuously and in a huddled mass, but according to their family, or rather according to their tents, understand it in this way. For we must be filled with divine words together with our co-believers, and seek the intelligible manna; we must not unthinkingly share it with those who hold different opinions, and who are in a certain sense foreigners.
A It is commanded, however, not to leave any of it until the morning, with the law again signifying that the use of types, when the time in which they were still useful and necessary has passed, brings about in every way and by all means judgment and punishment: “For that which was kept for the morning bred worms.” This would also be a clear indication of punishment and corruption. For all those who keep to the shadow after the revelation of the truth will without doubt be subject to corruption and punishment. We assert that something of this kind happened to those of whom the blessed Paul writes: “You have been severed from Christ, you who are justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” And again: “Having begun with the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?” Therefore, he forbids keeping it until the morning, so that by the “morning” you may understand the time after the law, in which Christ appeared and the divine light shone upon us. Furthermore, the Israelites who were about to celebrate the Sabbath B used to reserve the manna until the morning, and this by God’s command. What, then, is the reason that what was gathered before the Sabbath is guarded and does not perish, nor does Moses become angry with those who reserved it? For, having entered through faith into the sabbath-rest that is understood in Christ—that is, into the peace and cessation from sins—we do not cast aside as useless the discipline of the Law which has been gathered within us and as it were stored up, because it leads us to Christ (for “the law is a pedagogue”); but rather, since we possess it joined together with the evangelical instructions, we shall not certainly be far from being worthy of praise on this account; so far is it from the case that God is angry with us for doing this. Hence the Savior himself, teaching us this, says: “Therefore, I say to you, every scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” The manna, then, which was gathered by us beforehand through the law, is free from reproach, provided it is reserved for the intelligible sabbath-rest. For we who celebrate the Sabbath in Christ dwell in the Mosaic shadows precisely so that we may seek the truth within them. But it was execrable and punishable if anyone were to gather on the Sabbath; rather, God did not grant any manna at that time. C For when we celebrate the Sabbath spiritually in Christ, we no longer gather those things which are in figures. For we shall not undergo carnal circumcision, nor shall we sacrifice sheep or oxen; rather, we reject the coarseness of the types, since we possess the truth itself, which is Christ.
4. D The discourse held on these matters is, I think, sufficient and clear. But since in the book entitled Numbers we find a chapter that also contains other appendices to the narratives, I thought it necessary not to pass over, without examination, those things which were passed over in silence in this book of Exodus. For in this way the deeper meaning would be more abundant for those who read. It is written, therefore: “And the…”
A mixed multitude among them fell a-lusting, and the children of Israel sat and wept, and said: Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remembered the fish which we did eat in Egypt for nothing; and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away, there is nothing at all, besides this manna, before our eyes.” Then he adds to these: “And Moses heard them weeping throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased.” B Observe, then, how very fickle Israel is, and that he is not able to profit others, but languishes in weakness and only in things that pertain to himself. For the mixed multitude fell ill with a most improper and loathsome desire; yet those whom it was fitting to reprove, and rather to persuade to choose better things, suffer in a worse way. And the divine Moses is not moderately distressed; he said clearly to the God of the universe that he would not be able alone to sustain a labor so heavy and intolerable. And as proof of this matter, he brought forward the great difficulty and impossibility of providing C what was requested, saying: “Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people to eat?” And having fallen into such despondency that he already wished to die, for he says: “If thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.” God consents, and commands him to choose men who would take it upon themselves to share in the care, from the whole congregation, to the number of seventy. For He said to Moses: “Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you yourself know to be the elders of the people and their scribes; D and you shall bring them unto the tabernacle of the testimony, that they may stand there with you: and I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take of the spirit that is upon you and I will put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you; and you shall not bear it yourself alone.” This having been done (for he immediately presented those who were more distinguished than the others), the God of the universe filled them with the Holy Spirit. Then, after this, yielding to the desires of those who were weeping, He sent down to them the quail. But they, being in heaps around the camp, gathered them up very joyfully where they lay; and they devoured them in a beast-like manner, having no regard for satiety or temperance. But when an immense multitude of birds had been gathered and caught by them, and the eating of the flesh had continued for the space of a month, at last a deadly disease fell upon them, and as the prophet says: “Hell hath enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth without measure.” For the flesh, he says, was yet between their teeth, ere it was consumed. And the Lord was angry with the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague, and the name of that place was called, “The Graves of Lust,” because there they buried the people that lusted. For whereas they lacked none of the good things, and could have enjoyed the delicacies of the manna in abundance, yet they lusted after flesh, and cried out for leeks, and figs, and melons, and likewise onions, and garlic. Whence, not long after they had
eaten, they perished. For God gives the quail, not approving of their desire, but rather persuading them by means of the facts that nothing is impossible to Him. And after this, He follows up by punishing those who have been ensnared by base pleasures. The wretched Jews experienced something similar at the time of the advent of our Savior. For those events long ago were shadows and types of what was to be manifest in the future. For when the truer manna, Christ, had come down to us from above and from heaven—who is able to feed us and promises eternal life—the Jews, in their folly, preferred the putrid and insipid usage of earthly things after the manner of this world, and were clearly at odds, necessarily offending not only the God of all, but also the divine Moses himself. For it is written: “And the Lord was stirred up in wrath against His people, and it seemed evil in the eyes of Moses.” A For the mind of the saints always follows the will of God. That the multitude of the Jews preferred transitory and carnal things to the heavenly goods before them, anyone may learn from the evangelical parable. For the servants who were inviting the guests wished to summon them to the wedding; but they went away, it says, one to his own field, and another to his merchandise. And the excuse was: one, that “I have married a wife,” and another, “I have bought a field, and I cannot come.”
That Moses himself also cried out against the disobedience of the Jews, our Lord Jesus Christ confirms, saying: “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you have hoped. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.” B And Moses considered it a grave and arduous matter to bear with Israel any longer. Therefore, God sanctified seventy others, as we have already said. For the Law alone, of which Moses bears the type, is not sufficient to guide by the hand. Whence also others, [the] seventy, are chosen to supply what is wanting, and they are seen as in a perfect number. For the number seventy signifies this perfection. And who are these, again? They are those appointed through Christ after Moses to lead the people, whose firstfruits and fathers are the holy disciples. But God is said to take from the spirit that is upon Moses and to place it upon those chosen, for no other reason than that we may believe that God makes both the saints who were before us and ourselves holy by the one and holy Spirit. For just as the Father is one, and likewise the Son is one, so also is the holy Spirit one, C who is one in the prophets and in us. And being one, He is not to be understood as being divided in many, but is indivisible, even in the manifold distribution of gifts, and is perfectly present in all.
It is to be observed, however, that God commanded to choose seventy in number for this whole. But this number is not completed; for two were wanting, Modad and Eldad. However, God also fills these, who were lacking, with the Spirit. For they prophesied in the camp. Whence some who were around Moses were jealous of them and asked that they should be suppressed D
But he, A foreseeing the mystery of Christ, says: "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, when the Lord shall have given His Spirit upon them?" We shall understand also through these things that the law has fished and was bringing over to God many to be tutored for the mystery of Christ. Yet it was not capable of bringing over all; but Christ sanctified even those who were lacking. For those from the nations have been called to the knowledge of the truth, not through Moses or the law, but rather by the power of God and the Father, who revealed His own image, that is, the Son, to those who were ignorant of Him; and He made those who were called holy also, anointing them with the Spirit. But those who are under the law are jealous of those who are in Christ and who have been justified and sanctified by faith in the Spirit. Yet Moses rejoiced, having foreknown the mystery. Therefore, the crowds of the Jews do not think the thoughts of Moses, being jealous in an absurd way of the saints in Christ.
Having then ruminated, as it were, upon the discourse from the beginning, we say this: In the first chapter it was clearly shown that the crowd of the Jews is still carnal. But different, and truly better, is that which is in faith and in Christ, because that sensible manna was shadowing forth and bearing a type of the gifts through Christ. We were taught, moreover, that if we keep the shadows of the law even after the time suitable for them, we shall offend God, and we shall come to be odious even to the saints themselves. For Moses himself was angry with those who would reserve the manna until the next day. In the later chapters, however, it is possible to see that the Jews, despising the spiritual manna and averting themselves from the heavenly things offered through Christ, and being addicted rather to earthly things and intemperately inclined toward foul pleasures, perished in a notable slaughter. For it behooved us altogether to value the divine things more, and to embrace by faith the Savior and Redeemer of us all, I mean Christ, through whom and with whom to God and the Father is glory with the holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Concerning the three signs accomplished through Moses.
1. B One would not be able to contemplate the divine nature, whatever it may be. For it is altogether invisible, and moreover it is beyond everything and transcends the power of speech; it alone is known only by itself. And you will understand this from the shouting of Christ: "For no one knows," He says, "who the Son is, except the Father; and no one knows who the Father is, except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." The Only-begotten, therefore, displayed to us the exceptional beauty of God and the Father, setting Himself forth as a brilliant image. For He says: "He who sees Me, sees My Father." And we have beheld the Son, both with the eyes of the heart and with those of the flesh, when He emptied Himself and descended to our state; and indeed existing as God in the form and equality of God and the Father, and by nature begotten of Him.
A And indeed Baruch also spoke, I believe, pointing out the Word: "This is our God, no other shall be accounted besides Him. He found out all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel beloved by Him. After this He was seen upon the earth, and conversed with men." And the divine David loudly proclaims to us: "The Lord God of gods spoke, and called the earth from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof: out of Sion is the perfection of His beauty. God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not keep silence." For He descended in the appearance of fire upon Mount Sinai. But that those things were but a type and figure, and nothing more, Christ provides assurance. B For the throngs of the Jews thought that they had truly beheld the hidden nature, with Moses mediating and standing by them in Horeb, and convening them unto the assembly under Mount Sinai. When the sound of the trumpets piercing through to the heights terrified those who heard it, they thought within themselves that they had also become hearers of the divine voice. But that they were thinking these things in a childish manner, God has clearly provided assurance, saying thus: "You have heard His voice, and have seen no form of Him." And you do not have His word remaining in you, because the One whom He sent, Him you do not believe. Therefore, we who have believed have seen the Father in the Son, and have accepted also His word. Thus we have been redeemed; for it was not some envoy that saved us, not an angel, nor the law through Moses, but the Lord Himself, as it is written. C That what I say is true, you will know also from the Scripture. For it is written: "And He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses turned away his face, for he dared not look against God." Behold the weakness of the law: for the God of all showed Himself; yet when He appeared manifestly, Moses turned away his face. It is therefore brought about and clearly concluded that the peoples of God cannot openly behold upon earth the full glory of the majesty of God, even if He Himself shows Himself and leads them near to the knowledge of Him. For what does He proclaim by the voice of Isaiah? "I was found by those who did not seek Me: I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me. I said, Behold, I am here, to a nation that did not know Me. All the day long have I spread out My hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people." D Therefore, they did not see the glory of Christ, those who have turned away the eyes of their mind. And this, I believe, is what is said about them through the voice of the prophet: "And they turned their back and face unto Me." And the divine Paul writes: "Until this present day, upon the reading of the Old Testament, the same veil remains unlifted, because it is done away in Christ. But until this day, when Moses is read, the veil is lying upon their heart. But whenever it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." We, however, who have believed, do not fear to look against God, but as the divine Paul there adds: "With unveiled face"
A we behold the glory of the Lord." Moses therefore turns away his face. Then, God saying that he ought to go with the elders of the children of Israel to the terror-stricken Pharaoh, making it clear that God has called the ones from Israel so that they might sacrifice to Him in the wilderness; and adding further that it would be necessary to despoil the Egyptians, as wives were to receive silver and gold vessels and clothing from their neighbors and those who dwelt with them: Moses, it says, answered and said, "But if they do not believe me, nor listen to my voice (for they will say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you'), what shall I say to them?" And the Lord said to him, "What is this in your hand?" And he said, "A staff." And He said, "Cast it upon the ground." And he cast it upon the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. And the Lord said to him, "Stretch out your hand, and take hold of its tail." Stretching out his hand, therefore, he took hold of the tail, and it became a staff in his hand; so that they might believe you, He says, that the Lord God of your fathers has appeared to you, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. B For Moses was indeed afraid, lest he appear as a deceiver to the children of Israel, and as one prone to idle talk, saying that the God of the universe had appeared to him, and had commanded him to depart resolutely from the oppression of the Egyptians. On this account He commanded him to work a miracle, and to do things beyond human nature, God himself changing the staff into a serpent, so that he might be believed to be not a mere impostor, but truly a messenger of the decrees from above and from God. For the true sign, which we all have believed, is the coming down of the Word among us, which is signified by the staff having fallen to the earth. How and in what manner, I shall attempt to say again.
2. The God-inspired Scripture compares the Word born of God to a staff, because all things are sustained by Him; for it says, "By the word of the Lord, the heavens were established." And, C "The Lord sustains the righteous." We are therefore brought to the Father through the Son; and this the Truth Himself signifies, saying, "And I will shepherd them with my staff." A staff is also otherwise a symbol of kingship; for God and Father of the universe reigns through the Son. This, the rod of Aaron which sprouted in the Holy of Holies might signify, as well as Him who is from the root of Jesse, who spiritually comforts us all, and furthermore sustains the steps of those who have rightly believed, according to that which is sung in the Psalms to God the Father: "Thy staff and Thy rod, they have comforted me." The Son, therefore, is the staff. But as long as He was as if in the hand of the Father and in the heights of the Godhead, and not yet born a man as we are, we wretches were living as atheists in the world; we were wandering, D serving creatures and subject to the desire of impious spirits. But after, as it pl-
- A eases us to say (speaking with greater regard to the flesh for the sake of what is useful for contemplation), He had left the heights of His own glory, and, as it were, the right hand of the Father, and descended from heaven to earth, He became like us, and conformed to us who are on earth, who are full of wickedness. For the Son of God Himself called us evil, saying: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" B Nay, I would even say that He was transformed into a serpent, on account of our likeness and because He put on a form equal to our own. For man is indeed evil, if he be compared to the gentleness of God. Therefore the rod turned into a serpent. For the Only-Begotten became man, and was reckoned among the transgressors, and was called evil with us, even though by nature He is good, or rather, He is goodness itself. But that we have indeed received the Only-Begotten, having been made as we are, while the nation of the Jews rejected Him and did not follow Him with the love they ought (for they withdrew, so to speak, from Him), this will be clear from the Holy Scriptures themselves. For "Moses," they say, "turned his face away." Because he C thought Him wicked, he was afraid to believe in Him; indeed, he killed Him, and fixed Him on a cross in the midst of robbers. But that the Jews were sometimes rebuked and censured by Christ is so far from proving that He was a sinner, that we know from the very thing that happened that He is rather a spiritual support and strength to those who believe. For God turns back Moses as he is fleeing. For when he took hold of the serpent, it was immediately changed into a rod in his hand. Thus, to those who are ignorant, Christ appears wicked because of His likeness to us; but if anyone should take hold of Him by faith, he will find Him to be a rod and a support. Wherefore this divine miracle D done concerning the rod is worthy of faith, and avails much to persuade the Israelites, that is, all who inhabit the earth, that they are watched over by God. But since those who are exceedingly enfeebled by an obstinate heart, and set beyond the hope of being able to escape the inevitable evil that threatened them, required more wonders, such men are with difficulty called to obedience.
3. Then God said again to the holy Moses: "Put thy hand into thy bosom." And he put his hand into his bosom, and his hand became leprous as snow. And He said again: "Put thy hand into thy bosom." And he put his hand into his bosom, and he brought his hand out of his bosom, and it was again restored to the color of his flesh. It is therefore a sign of the highest majesty and power to be able to cure leprosy. For afflictions that have been brought to such a point of depravity as to seem to yield to no experimental knowledge of physicians, are in need of some remedy, and that of divine power alone, to which nothing resists, but all things are passable and obedient. Therefore, leprosy is an immedicable disease; but things that are despaired of by men, and appear impossible to us, are easy to be done by God Himself. So does He...
A show that the God of all things left nothing to be considered as insurmountable, by healing the leprous hand of Moses; so that those who were called, that is to say, those who are of the blood of Israel, might see from this that even if they should have a disaster impossible to escape, being subjected to the wickedness of the Egyptians and having contracted, as it were, a grievous disease—I mean, the slavery under them—yet the Physician is resourceful and knows and is able to overcome even the things of the passions that are very difficult to retrieve, and this without toil and in no long time. For as soon as Moses put his hand into his bosom, it was delivered from its disease.
But the matter signified something else to us, as I suppose. For the Israelites, spending long times in Egypt, fell away from the moderation that was theirs from above and from their fathers, and being settled in customs rather local and sinking deeply into debasement, according to the voice of the prophet: "They served the creature rather than the Creator." They slid into every kind of impurity, and had a mind that was as it were already dead and cold. For leprosy is a sign of impurity and death. But He initiated them through the miracle, so that if God should receive them, and as it were embrace them again, they would not have an impurity difficult to turn away, but would drive off even very easily the defilement from the mental death. And thus much for us on this point.
But that the mystery of Christ was shadowed forth again, as in the hand of Moses, leprous and then cleansed, I shall attempt to explain. Therefore, that "All things were made through the Son, and without Him was not anything made," the holy evangelist John B excellently testifies. But since the Father is active towards everything through Him, for this reason the divinely inspired Scripture also names for us the Son as the hand, the arm, and the right hand of the Father. For thus the divine Isaiah says: "Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" For the wretched Jews remained hard and unbridled, and suffering greatly from unbelief. And David testifies that the heavens were established by the Word of the Lord, and God the Father confirms this through the oracles of the prophets, saying: "My hand has founded the heaven." And addressing others, He says the same: "For I am your God who strengthened you, and I helped you, and I protected you with My just right hand."
It is the custom, therefore, of the divinely inspired Scripture to call the Son the hand. Observe, then, the hand of Moses hidden in his bosom, then brought to the outside, and seen in leprosy; and again brought into his bosom, and immediately delivered from the affliction. But if we desire to consider the mystery and the mode of the incarnation, where and how it might be, and to gaze into it more C deeply, we shall find that something like this has happened. For the Son was in some way in the bosom of God and the Father, and through Him the Father made all things. For He D is the exalted arm, and the hand establishing and strengthening all things, and the admirable right hand. But after He had come in a certain way to His own place, having been made man, in...
and had taken our infirmities, according to the voice of the prophet, He was brought into the supposition of uncleanness. For the nature of man is unclean before God, if that which the prophet Isaiah says is true: "All our righteousnesses are as a menstruous cloth." Therefore, as far as the human nature was concerned, He was, in appearance, made unclean, He who is all-pure and dwells in light inaccessible. For the wretched Jews were wayward in this manner; and therefore they called Him a wine-bibber, and a Samaritan, and born of adultery, and besides these, a sinner. For they said to the man born blind, who had been healed, "Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner." But B they would never, I think, have fallen into such folly as to say such things, and to open their mouths against Him unrestrainedly, had they recognized the nature of God in Him. But when He, who had been born into this world as an impure man—or rather, was himself deemed impure and wicked—had most perfectly completed the dispensation of His life, and had finally arrived at the Father, and had returned into His bosom; then, I say, He expelled that opinion by which He appeared to have been born as an iniquitous and impure man. He is honored as God, He is praised by all as Lord, as the Holy of holies, as One who illuminates the things that are created, and who grants to the spirits of men, and indeed to those who are on earth, the power of overcoming and trampling down him who is the author of all defilement. That He indeed accepted the things pertaining to man by dispensation for our sake, and was made under the law, and was accounted among the lawless, but has returned again to the honor and glory that were innate to Him and present in the beginning, He makes perfectly manifest when He speaks thus to the heavenly Father: "Father, glorify Thou me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." Do you see that he is released from the things that had intervened, and that He did not make the incarnation with flesh involuntary, but was hastening toward the glory of the Godhead and the dignity that surpasses all things? Hence also the blessed Paul says: "If we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him no longer." For He rose again from the dead, and returned to the Father clothed in flesh. But, he says, we no longer know Him according to the flesh, that is to say, no longer as being in the affections of the flesh—I mean the natural and blameless passions. For before He underwent the precious cross, He is said to have hungered, and to have sat down weary from the journey, and to have been exceedingly sorrowful, and indeed to have suffered death on the wood for our sake; but now we do not know Him as subject to these things. "For Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more." For Christ is incorruptible, since He is Life by nature, and the author of life, because He came forth from the very life of the Father.
4. But after the sign concerning the leprous hand had been performed miraculously, God confirms them even more by a third sign. For Scripture says again: "But if they will not believe thee to these two signs, neither will they hearken"
A unto thy voice, take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land." Observe yet again the previously known unbelief of the Jews. For they are always procrastinating and slow to understand, and difficult to move toward the truth. For they have disbelieved in the manner of the incarnation, and in the things that were miraculously accomplished through the intermediate steps. Late and with difficulty did they believe in the final sign, even if perhaps not all did, but indeed the remnant according to the election of grace, as the blessed Paul writes. And what is the final sign? The death upon the wood, and the resurrection of Christ, which is joined to death and immediately adjacent to it. That the death of the Savior, and that great and wondrous mystery of the resurrection from the dead, is given as a sign to the sons of Israel, might become clear through the words of the Savior Himself. For the Pharisees once approached him B after many miracles had been shown, mocking and saying: "Master, we wish to see a sign from thee." But He said to them: "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." That the death of Emmanuel has profited not only many of the Jews, but also many of the Gentiles, can be easily perceived. For He says again, at one time: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things unto myself," and at another: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into C the ground die, itself remaineth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Do you see how through a clear example He pointed out to us the fruit from death? Therefore, the final sign for us was the words of the Savior, in which there was faith not only for those from Israel, but also—as I said—for those from the other multitude, I mean those from the Gentiles. In what way, then, was this very thing signified? "Take," He says, "of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land." For water is a type or sign of life; indeed, it is truly necessary for this, and of the greatest use to those on earth. Therefore, just as from a river, the Father who gives life to all things, the Son himself truly sprang forth as life from Him. For just as D there is light from light, so also is there life from life. That He does not exist externally, but is by nature the Son of the God and Father, Moses was taught; and we ourselves are taught no less. "For take," He says, "of the water of the river." Then he was commanded to pour this onto the earth. This is, enigmatically, the mystery of the incarnation. For the Only-Begotten, being Life, and born in an ineffable way as from the Life of God and the Father, was mingled in a certain manner with the earth-born humanity, just as, indeed, water is with the earth.
A For the fullness of the Godhead [Colossians 2:9] has dwelt in Christ bodily; and He was united—nay, not just mingled—with our human nature, in a manner that no one could possibly conceive or express; save that the water was transformed into blood. For the Life that is by nature—that is to say, the Word who is from God the Father—by an economic union (I mean that which is with respect to the flesh, or rather, with respect to the whole humanity and nature such as ours), went so far as to endure even death, as it were, in appearance. For we say that He also died for our sake, not that He suffered this in His own nature (for He could not die at all, being Life), but by appropriating the death of His own flesh. Observe, then, how that if Moses had not poured the water onto the earth, it would not have been transformed into blood; which is a manifest sign of death. For when the Word of God is considered apart from the flesh, He is Life and Lifegiver; but since He has dwelt in the flesh, then, indeed, it is said that He died according to the human manner. This, then, is the extraordinary and clear sign, through which the remnant of Israel has been netted unto faith, and the multitude of the Gentiles has also been called in. For who would refuse to believe, seeing the death which was once grievous and ill-omened to mortals now enfeebled, corruption taken away, and the human nature raised up to the hope of unending life? For just as we died together with Adam, so also have we been raised with Christ, and holy Paul will testify, writing to us: "As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." [1 Corinthians 15:22] For He redeemed us with His own blood, and He pledged His own life as a ransom for the life of all.
B 5. But although works of such wondrous and venerable magnitude had been brought to completion, Moses lingers; he is overcome by fear, and has not yet taken courage for his mission. He does not yet go to Pharaoh when God commands, to declare clearly that he should release Israel to sacrifice to Him in the desert. He shudders at the matter not a little, and confesses openly while offering his plea, as one admittedly slow of speech and having a stammering tongue: "For I am not eloquent, either from yesterday, or from the day before, or from the time You began to speak to Your servant; I am weak of voice and slow of tongue." [Exodus 4:10] And he also asserted clearly that he was incapable of liberating the people from the yoke of servitude, saying: "I beseech You, Lord, appoint another capable man whom You will send." [Exodus 4:13] But though God promised that He would give him a tongue and enlarge his mouth, and asserted that He alone was the Giver of wisdom and speech, he excused himself all the more, saying that another ought to be appointed who was more powerful in these matters; and in this way he offended God not lightly. "And the Lord," the Scripture says, "angered with anger against Moses, said: Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know that he will speak for you." [Exodus 4:14, 15] And in addition, He says: "He shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him in those things which pertain to God." [Exodus 4:16] D Do you see how the stammering of the word was even of old prefigured as in the divine Moses? For the Law was not sufficient for announcing the oracles, nor was it sufficiently expressive or eloquent to commend the exact understanding of those things which are salutary...
GLAPHYRA ON EXODUS. BOOK II
in knowledge, just as, indeed, Christ is who is truly the Levite, of whom Aaron is a type. A For the Law given through Moses brings one only to the beginnings of God's oracles; it is, as it were, a tutor and pedagogue for the foolish among the simple-minded, bringing to us with difficulty, through type and shadow, a dim knowledge of what must be done. But our truly most capable and great priest and one powerful in mission—that is, Christ—has revealed the truth, stripped of shadows. For He is not slow of tongue, nor impeded, nor brief in speech as Moses was, but is exceedingly eloquent, most of all as the Word, the Wisdom of God and the Father.
Observe, then, how the Law is not sufficient to rescue from slavery those struggling under the spiritual Pharaoh—that is, the Devil—nor would the divine Moses himself profit the earth anything, despite possessing a glory that is most manifest in virtues, were Christ not present with him and rendering aid. You may learn from this that what we say is true and spoken without falsehood: because Aaron has been yoked alongside. Moses indeed discourses, but Aaron makes the word clear. For unless the Law is understood spiritually, with Christ revealing to us what lies within it, the meaning will be obscure and unclear to those who hear it. And certainly the Jews, not having the one who interprets the things of Moses—that is, Christ—have remained ignorant. B Therefore, the divine Paul also said: "For until this very day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because it is nullified in Christ. But until this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." C Rightly, therefore, did the God of the universe say to the high priest Moses concerning Aaron: "He will speak for you, and he will be your mouth, and you will be for him in matters that pertain to God." And we do not mean that Moses is more closely related to and nearer to God than Immanuel. For the latter is Son and from God the Father by nature, while the former is with us among the servants, even if he be called genuine. Yet it seems that Moses was made to be, for Him, the one who handles matters pertaining to God. For Christ lived under the Law as a man, and kept the things of Moses. For He was circumcised on the eighth day, and He paid the contribution of the didrachma, although as Son He was free by nature. D He also ate the Passover, although He Himself was the true Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. For this reason, Moses is said to have been for Him the one who handles matters pertaining to God.
That Israel was going to be disobedient even to the signs of God performed through Christ, Moses himself would demonstrate, by showing that they would not even attribute faith to those miracles. Therefore, we shall assign the person of Moses to those who are from Israel, since they have been called through him and have been tutored by the laws given through him. Therefore, that the Law is not sufficient for those who seek redemption, but that the precious blood of Christ is sufficient for us for this purpose (through which...
A also alone death has been conquered), would become clear and very easily so again from the following points.
6. That divine Moses departs from the land of Midian, taking with him his wife and children, and finally reaches Egypt, accurately observing and performing the things commanded by God. But when he was not far from Egypt, the Architect of the universe, God, said to him: "Go and return to Egypt; see all the wonders which I have put in your hands; you shall perform them before Pharaoh." And after other B things: "You shall say to Pharaoh: Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to you: Let my people go, that they may serve me. But you refused to let them go: behold, therefore, I will kill your firstborn son." And it came to pass, the text says, that on the way, in the inn, the angel of the Lord met him and sought to kill him. And Zipporah, taking a stone, circumcised the foreskin of her son, and fell at his feet, and said: "The blood of the circumcision of my child has stayed." And he departed from her, because he said: "The blood of the circumcision of my child has stayed." For the angel C in human form was attacking and attempting to slay, but was barely appeased when Zipporah circumcised her son, I mean Gershom, who was also the firstborn, a name which in Latin means a stranger or sojourner. But whom the exterminator wished to take away from the midst, the sacred text does not clearly indicate; but perhaps it was Moses, on account of his having delayed the circumcision of his son; and he was unwillingly driven away or repelled.
Again, this type designates that death has been conquered in the blood of Christ. For through him the holy multitude of the fathers has been saved, and indeed the entire race D of mortals, which preceded him in time. For he died for all, and in him the death of all was dissolved. For it is not in the blood of prophets, but in the blood of the new-born Christ, and with him, that we escape the destroyer. Hence Paul says: "For to this end Christ both died, and rose again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living." But even if you say that it was Gershom himself who was being attacked by the exterminator, and not rather the blessed Moses, you will still understand the same thing. For it is not through the legal circumcision, that is, the carnal and sensible one, that death is driven away, but through that which is in Christ through the Spirit, which he has wrought in the firstborn and new people, who are indeed sojourners on earth, but are enrolled again for the life that is lived above and in the heavens: whom spiritual Zipporah, that is, the Church, which consists of the Midianites and the Gentiles, circumcises by her own suffrage. This also might be a type of the Spirit, as being all-powerful and unbreakable, and because it is from a rock. For the Spirit is Christ's: "And that Rock was Christ," as the wise Paul writes. And it should be known that Joshua, who was after Moses long ago, circumcised the sons of Israel with stone knives, enigmatically signifying to us the circumcision not made by hands in Christ, by which death is defeated, which is
the spiritual circumcision of wickedness, and the casting off of depravity and pleasures. For concerning the circumcision according to the flesh, the divine Paul writes to us: "Circumcision is nothing." A And the wise and sacred Word cries out to us: "You have been circumcised in Christ," through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
GLAPHYRA IN EXODUM LIBER TERTIUS
Concerning the struck rock.
1. "Enter through the narrow gate," B Christ called out to his own friends; and I suppose he calls this narrow gate and cramped way the endurance of suffering and patience, worthy of every praise, by which those who choose to think on things above may attain glory, and shine with exercises that look toward the good constitution of the soul and toward virtue. For just as excellence in battles bears witness to the bravery of the combatant, so too does the ability to bear well the labors brought upon one by temptation declare the robust, generous, and shining man to be C filled with every praise, in terms, I say, of his being able to accomplish the virtue that is pleasing to God. And so the disciple of the Savior, because such a man will be entirely and completely conspicuous, has left it attested to us, saying: "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because when he has been proven, he will receive the crown of life." Those, then, who have attained this level of strength, and have taken up such a glorious reputation, say: "O God, you have proven us; you have refined us as silver is refined. You put tribulations upon our back. You have made men ride over our heads. We passed through fire and water, and you led us into a place of refreshment." D For labor ends in delight, and tribulations broaden the straight way for those who contend bravely. Now, the one who knows all things before their creation, that is to say God ("For all things are naked and opened unto his eyes"), awaits the end of events and the strength of the tempted at the appropriate times; so that they might appear worthy of rewards not only in his eyes according to foreknowledge, but might be applauded all the more as having performed excellently, and as having been testified to by deeds themselves for their virtue, by angels and men alike. For this reason the blessed Paul also, concerning himself and the other saints, says that when they have contended and won most happily, they have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to
A men. Therefore, Israel is tested in many ways, so that even if he appears to be still suffering from weakness, God might be admired for His very great gentleness, in that He puts up with those who offend; and the mystery is shadowed forth to us more clearly in each of the things that have happened. We have just now finished our discourse on the quail and the manna, and we have shown Israel to be not a little sickly in his helplessness and devotion to pleasure. But behold, he is once again seen inciting [God’s wrath], and that before long. For it is written thus again: “And all the congregation of the children of Israel set out from the wilderness of Sin, according to their encampments by the word of the Lord, and they encamped in Raphidim; and there was no water for the people to drink. And the people railed against Moses, saying, ‘Give us water that we may drink.’ And Moses said to them, ‘Why do you rail against me? And why do you tempt the Lord?’ And the people thirsted for water there, and the people murmured against Moses, saying, ‘Why is it that you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?’ And Moses cried to the Lord, saying, ‘What shall I do to this people? It is but a little while and they will stone me.’ And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go before this people. And take with you some of the elders of the people, and the rod with which you smote the river, take it in your hand, and go. Behold, I will stand there before you on the rock in Horeb. And you shall smite the rock, and water will come out of it, and my people will drink.’ And Moses did so before the children of Israel; and he called the name of that place, Temptation and Railing, because of the railing of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us, or not?’” C This is what the divine oracle tells us in the book of Exodus; but in Numbers a more extensive account of these events is set forth, which I believe it is necessary for us to bring forward, so that by examining each detail correctly and precisely, we may arrive at a full knowledge of the things that were once done in a figurative sense, and obtain the beauty of the spiritual meaning. It is written thus: “And the children of Israel came, and all the congregation into the desert of Sin, in the first month, and the people remained in Cades, and Mary died there, and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation, and they were gathered together against Moses and Aaron. And the people railed against Moses, saying, ‘Would that we had perished in the destruction of our brothers before the Lord! And why did you bring the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, to kill us and our children? And why did you lead us up out of Egypt to reach this evil place? A place where there is no seed, nor figs, nor vines, nor pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.’ And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the congregation to the door of the tabernacle of Testimony. And they fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Take the rod, and gather the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before them, and it will give its waters, and you will bring forth water for them from the rock,”
A And Moses took the rod before the Lord, as the Lord commanded him; and Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation before the rock. And he said to them: "Hear me, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" And Moses lifting up his hand, struck the rock with the rod twice; and there came out much water, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: "Because you have not believed me, to sanctify me before the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of contradiction, because the children of Israel contended against the Lord, and he was sanctified in them." B For they had passed through the dry continent, and having traversed much arid land, they were then growing weary with the hardships of the journey; and if any slight thing of the usual kind happened to cause them pain, they made a grievous outcry against Moses and Aaron. For although they had been spectators of many and wondrous signs, and had learned the excellence of divine power by experience itself, yet they still feared lest He might cease to provide the things necessary for sustenance and fail to supply food and drink in every place; but they were overcome by a childish pusillanimity and an effeminate mind, and if any trouble presented itself, they immediately insulted their guide and impiously clamored against him, because he had become a mediator for them, and because through him they had been called to liberty. On the other hand, they proclaimed as blessed those who had perished in the previous pusillanimity, C because, seized by the desire for flesh in Egypt, they had been punished with death, having eaten the deadly quail. Therefore they say: "Would to God that we had died among our brethren before the Lord! Why have you brought us into this desert, to kill us and our cattle?" O the weakness! O the impatient thought, and the mind so prone to sloth! For being pressed by a little thirst, they immediately preferred Egyptian servitude to divine gifts, and the bitterest yoke of slavery in times past grew sweet, and no longer seemed difficult to bear; however harsh Pharaoh might have been, neither the mud nor the cruelty of the taskmasters was odious anymore, but all things were now pleasing and sweet. To such a degree of folly has the weakness of their minds pushed them. D Hear now, I beseech you, the accusations leveled at Moses concerning the ministry of his office, when they say: "Why have you brought us out of Egypt, to come to this wicked place? A place where nothing is sown, nor are there figs, nor vines, nor pomegranates, no, nor even water to drink." [alt-version omitted] See how the mind rushes into timidity and wrongly delights in temporal pleasures, and strives vehemently after worldly delights, and tends to the gluttony of the belly; on the contrary, however, see how it casts away hope, and rebells and struggles against the land promised to the fathers, not understanding that labors always and everywhere achieve excellent gifts. For no one attains the greatest rewards without sweat. Therefore, it does not know
A how to excel, nor to resist the assaults of the passions with youthful vigor; since, moreover, this manner of life was not preserved for those under the Law, but was rather prepared for those in Christ.
But it was reasonable for God to be indignant and not even to deem them worthy of a supply of water. Yet, that even though they had been brought to such a state of perversity, they might be helped toward faith through other miracles, Moses is commanded to strike the rock with his staff. But God was not ignorant that, as his spirit faltered for a short time at the upsurges of the crowds, he might himself succumb regarding faith. Therefore He says in Exodus: "Take with you some of the elders of the people, and the staff with which you struck the river, take into your hand, and go. Behold, I stand there, before you come to the rock in Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and my people shall drink." And in Numbers B it reads thus: "Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother. And speak to the rock before them, and it will give its water. And you will bring out water for them from the rock, and you will give the congregation to drink."
Observe that He strengthens him in faith by recalling to memory the miracle wrought in Egypt, and says: "Take the staff into your hand, with which you struck the river." As if saying: That staff which transformed such a great river into blood by the ineffable power of God granting such things, will very easily bring forth water even from the rock. Then He confirms him by another method while saying: "Behold, I stand there." C You will not be alone, He says, nor will you again be the performer of the wonders; but I shall show the rock to be a mother of many streams, I will make ready the miracle beforehand, and I will await your service. Speak to the rock, and I shall be the power and efficacy of your words.
Yet, although Moses ought to have trusted in such words, he faltered. For he says: "Hear me, you unbelievers; shall we bring forth water for you from this rock?" Then he strikes the rock twice with the staff, as if nothing of what was expected would occur if the rock were only struck once. He struck it twice; yet in Egypt, having changed the waters into blood, he had accomplished it by extending the staff only D once. Nevertheless, God granted the stream of water, although He was not a little angered by their incredulity, lest some in their foolish suspicion might form an opinion of weakness regarding Him. Whence Moses is rebuked: "You shall not," He says, "bring this congregation into this land which I have given to them, because you did not believe so as to sanctify Me before the children of Israel."
Come, then, again transferring the history to the mystery of Christ, let us say what is consonant with the truth, insisting upon the footprints of divine Scripture, and applying ourselves to this, that we may direct the force of our intellects to the meaning of the sacred Letters.
A 2. In the first month, Maria having died, the people thirsted. Then, at the command of God, the inspired Moses strikes the rock with his rod, while the elders of the people, and Aaron as well, stood beside him. They themselves speak to the rock, and it pours forth a stream in abundance and watered the congregation and their cattle, as it is written. What, then, do we say is adumbrated by the death of Maria, or how is she to be understood at all, and what is the function of the necessary declaration that she died in the first month? We shall posit, then, Moses as the type of the Law, Aaron of the priesthood, and we shall assign the person of Maria to the legal cult. For God said through the voice of the saint to unbridled Jerusalem: "And I sent before thy face Moses, and Aaron, and Maria." B Dost thou see how she was placed after Moses and Aaron to lead the Israelites? For since the all-wise Moses acted as mediator, and Aaron presided—that is, the priestly dignity by means of the cult in types—the Israel according to the flesh then gained for itself the worship of God.
And that the person of Maria is necessarily brought in together with Moses and Aaron is easily understood from this: that by the Red Sea, when Pharaoh and his attendants had perished and been drowned with all his army, Moses sang a hymn of thanksgiving to God. But when they had gone out, and the dancers went out, Maria took her timbrel, as it is written, C perhaps adding a heavy and piercing opening note to the melody. But this was a subtle enigma of true contemplation in the types. For that the Law itself—that is, Moses—and with him Maria—that is, the cult in shadows and types—proclaim the supernatural and admirable power of the God who rules over all, was intimated by the manner of the song and the sound of the timbrels.
Therefore, one might rightly assign the person of the legal cult to Maria, just as one assigns the person of the law to Moses and of the priesthood to Aaron. Since, therefore, Maria died in the first month, that is, in the beginning of the year, according to the laws of the Hebrews, when the mystery of the holy Pascha is itself celebrated, the people thirsted. For in the first month of the year, which is also called the month of new things, the cult in shadows and types almost ceased and was contracted D and removed from the midst. By what mode or how? For the only-begotten Word of God shone upon us in the form that is ours, as in the month of new things. Therefore He himself, speaking, said: "I am come as an hour upon the mountains, and as in the month of new fruits."
Thus He called the Church from the Gentiles, saying: "Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove, for behold the winter has passed, the rain has gone, has departed for itself. The flowers have appeared in our land; the time of pruning has arrived." For we have blossomed again in Christ into newness of life, and the season of His arrival is shown to us as a spiritual spring, when He makes the nature of man flowery and fruitful. Then, I say, then, with the cult in shadows being constricted, and as if Maria herself had died, the people thirsted, and [felt] a lack of spiritual waters
of our own; for the time of circumcision had arrived. A For in Christ, [we are] brought to a newness of life, and the time of [His] visitation was revealed to us as a spring, bringing to completion human nature that is blossoming and fruitful. For then, I say, then, with the cult in shadows being constricted, and as if Maria herself had died, the people thirsted, and [felt] a lack of spiritual waters. But the stream of Christ has poured forth abundantly—I mean, again, the decrees through Him and the mystical instruction in spirit and in truth. And having understood this, the inspired Paul writes: "I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, B and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. And the rock was Christ." He is likened to a rock because of His unshakable and immovable nature. For that divine and supreme nature is established firmly in its own goods. It is therefore necessary to consider in what way this [rock] also poured forth water. For when the elders of the people had been gathered, and Aaron was standing by, words were spoken to the rock. And Moses struck it twice. For when the elders of the people and the priests—those instructed according to the law, that is, Israel in the person of Moses—had run together, they spoke against Christ, accusing Him before Pilate and crying out impiously: "Away with Him, away with Him; crucify Him." C Then they also wounded Him with two blows. For first, they killed the Author of life. And they added a second blow, as it were, to the first, when they strove to persuade men that He had remained among the dead. But Christ rose from the dead, having trampled down and crushed death itself. And when the soldiers who had been ordered by them to be guards of the tomb came reporting this, they commanded them to say—and that at the risk of their lives—that His disciples had stolen Him away secretly, thus slandering that venerable mystery of the Resurrection. In double measure, therefore, was the blow dealt. But the rock poured forth the stream abundantly, even though Israel had raged against Him, so that He gave drink to the whole congregation; for He irrigated the world with holy and divine streams. For thus He promised that He would give Himself to us through the voice of the prophet, saying: "Behold, I will decline toward them like a river of peace, and like a torrent overflowing D with the glory of the nations." And David also sings somewhere: "The impulses of the river gladden the city of God." And indeed, to the Father and God in heaven Himself: "How you have multiplied your mercy, O God; but the sons of men shall hope in the covering of your wings. They will become drunk from the abundance of your house, and you will give them to drink from the torrent of your delight. For with you is the fountain of life." Observe, however, in what manner, with their disbelief having intervened before, Moses strikes the rock with his rod. For Israel, being incredulous, had raged against Christ, but Moses was rebuked, and Aaron with him. "For you shall not," He says, "bring the children of Israel into the land that I have given to them." But He will lead us into the inheritance of the saints, and the truer land of promise, not indeed the law which moves in types, nor the weakness of the legal priesthood, as if in shadows. For we shall not be made acceptable through blood, nor shall we be adorned by earthly glory.
We shall rather walk toward the city above, and we shall come to the inheritance of the fathers, having Christ as leader, through whom and with whom is glory to God and the Father, with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen. B
On the descent of God upon Mount Sinai, and the standing of Israel.
1. Our Lord Jesus Christ, to the crowds of Jews who would not receive the redemption through faith, but rather despised the usefulness of the oracles through Him, and thought that the law given through Moses would suffice for them, and that it alone was enough to gain closeness to God, addressed them saying: "No one comes to the Father, except through me." And again: "I am the way, and I am the door." He does not lie at all in saying these things, since He is the truth. Nor can God the Father be approached in any other way than only through the Son who is such by nature; for he who has known Him will surely also know the Father from whom He has shone forth. Therefore He also said to those who chose to be disobedient to Him, and who even claimed to know the God of all: "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also." C For Moses was indeed a pedagogue to the ancients, a mediator and leader, and a proclaimer of the laws from God, and most excellent among the saints. For he clearly heard God saying: "I know you above all, and you have found grace in my sight." Yet the law is weak, nor is it able to reconcile to God perfectly; but through the mediation of Christ we obtain this. For "He himself is our peace," according to the Scriptures, and in Him alone is perfect knowledge, and every good gift, and He Himself, through Himself, has all but brought us to the Father. Therefore He also said: "Father, I will that, as I and you are one, so they also may be one in us." Mediator, then, is Moses, but as in a type and shadows; but the true mediator is Christ, to whom we are joined relationally, if it be true that He has descended to us and become man, so that we also might become partakers of His divine nature, being bound to God by the participation and grace of the Holy Spirit. And this we shall again see, if we fix the eye of our own mind upon the holy Scriptures. For He says, the Lord said to Moses: "Go down, testify to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow. And let them wash their clothes, and let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will descend onto Mount Sinai, before all the people, and you shall separate the people round about, saying: Take heed to yourselves not to ascend the mountain, and to touch any part of it. Everyone who has touched the mountain shall die a death. A hand shall not touch it, for he shall be stoned with stones, or shot through with a dart; whether it be man or beast it touches, it shall not live."
A And when the sounds and the trumpets and the cloud depart from the mountain, they shall ascend onto the mountain. For since the Israelites, while serving as slaves in Egypt and having been ruined by the false worships of those people, were worshiping human inventions, and were offering their services to things made of stone or from some other material, suffering from a pitiful error, and as the prophet says, "saying to the wood: You are my God, and to the stone: You have begotten me"; for this reason, therefore, it was necessary, insofar as the Creator wished to lead them away from that former and polluted worship to the knowledge of the truth—so that they might not appear to be worshiping what is not God, being deceived by the words of Moses—that He should usefully deem them worthy of a vision of God in figures. For things that are seen are wont to be grasped with a firmer faith. He promises, therefore, clearly that He will descend, and indeed quickly. But truly, that they might have it ascertained that those who had been called to such a great honor, so as to be made at once listeners and spectators of God, that is, of His divine and ineffable glory, must needs be endowed with the most pleasing purity and be free from carnal defilement; moreover, that they should be clothed in clean garments, so that they might rightly and decently express the figure of the feast. For it is truly a feast and one worthy of the highest admiration, that He should have deemed them worthy of such a splendid vision. He commands them, however, first to be cleansed, and to abstain from the company of women, and thus to maintain continence until the third day. He also commanded that their very garments be washed. When this precept had been brought to its conclusion, He says: B "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were voices, and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon mount Sinai. The voice of the trumpet was exceeding loud. And all the people that were in the camp feared. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. And all mount Sinai was smoking, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire: and the smoke ascended, as the smoke of a furnace: and all the people was terrified exceedingly. And the voices of the trumpet were proceeding and becoming exceeding loud. Moses spake: and God answered him with a voice." For that supreme nature, dwelling in the highest, which exceeds every creature, is with difficulty discerned by the mind. But after those things which pertain to the vision of God were conveniently accomplished by more manifest things, for this reason thenceforth the plan of the divine counsel proceeded through many things that might strike terror. For voices and lightnings were clashing, and a thick cloud was gathered, so that even creation might be seen to be ministering, and to be bowing its neck to serve the God of this universe. Moses, therefore, was leading forth the terrified Israel, and placed them under the mountain; but he taught them beforehand that they were to suffer no evil, but were to have a kind and propitious Lord. Now as the mountain was kindled, smoke was being carried upward, and a loud sound of the trumpet was being emitted: which indeed at the beginning was more remiss, but afterward more intense, and gradually proceeding into the shrillest blast. Then the God of all descended onto the mountain in the appearance of fire. D "For the Lord," he says, "descended upon mount Sinai, upon the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mount. And Moses ascended,"
and the Lord said to Moses, "Go down, testify to the people, lest they draw near to God to see, and a multitude of them fall. And the priests who draw near to the Lord God shall be sanctified, lest the Lord remove them." And Moses said to God, "The people will not be able to ascend to mount Sinai. For you have testified to us, saying, 'Separate the mountain, and sanctify it.'" And the Lord said to him, "Go, descend, and ascend, you and Aaron with you. But the priests and the people must not set out to ascend to God, lest the Lord destroy any of them." B For He commands only the mediator—I mean Moses—to ascend to the mountain; He admits no one else, and declares the mountain inaccessible to them. For He threatened death to anyone who would violate the precept. Yet He does not wish to seem cruel, or savage, or inaccessible on account of this; for such a thought would be absurd in the highest degree. Rather, it is so that they might know and understand that those who are the chief of the elect, and those who are established in the highest excellence, are able to draw near to the glory and honor of God. Furthermore, it was also for another reason absurd in the highest degree, since these people were imbued with the customs of the Egyptians, and knew that the shrines of unclean demons could not be approached by just anyone, but that only those selected and purified were permitted, according to their own laws, to enter the adyta and the most intimate places; yet to do nothing of the sort, but to draw near to the God of the whole universe, and thus to profane the venerable and sacred places in which His divine and ineffable glory appeared. But there is another way: for I surely say that we ought to seek what is useful in many ways. It was not fitting that the same honor should be bestowed upon the people and upon the leader, the future pedagogue and those subject to him; upon the minister and those for whose sake the law was administered; but rather, it was more equitable that those in charge be graced with greater honor, which is more beneficial to the subjects. That what I say is agreeable to the truth, you will understand by another means as well. For the Lord says again to the sacred minister Moses: C "Behold, I come to you in a column of cloud, that the people may hear me speaking to you, and believe you forever." Everything, therefore, was done in a wonderful order and by a singular counsel of God.
2. But it was, as I said, a sketching out in the beginning, so to speak, of the coming of our Savior, who was to shine forth to those on earth, as on the third day, at the final time, in which "the Word became flesh," and appeared to us "according to the Scriptures," preaching through the Law the purification which is from Him, and which is to be proposed through Him at the appointed times to those who believe. "Testify," He says, "to the people, and let them be prepared for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will descend upon Mount Sinai." And what, then, is the mode of this preparation? Moses reveals it in these words:
A "For three days," he says, "do not come near a woman." And he clearly asserted that their garments themselves must also be washed. But in the fact that he says not to sleep with women, and to abstain from intimacy with them, the mortification of the flesh itself is most elegantly signified to us. Just as in the washing of garments, there is described to us in a certain way purification through water, it is manifest that this is also through the Spirit who cleanses the stains and defilements of the soul within us. For thus the blessed Paul writes: "Those who wish to mind the things of Christ, and walk according to the Spirit, have crucified the flesh along with its passions and desires; and they mortify their members which are upon the earth: fornication, impurity, passion, and evil desire." They make the garment B splendid through the grace which is from above, and through Emmanuel himself. "For put on," he says, "the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires." But those things Moses commanded the men of that time to observe. We have heard, however, even we, the law figuratively preaching what is pleasing to Christ, both the purification through water and the mortification of carnal desires. For the Law prescribed that the defiled should be washed with water for the purification of the flesh, and that those with a seminal emission should be sent out of the camp as unclean, censuring, I suppose, the vice of incontinence, and declaring the pleasure of the flesh to be impure. Whence we ourselves, who have been justified through Christ and sanctified by the Spirit, are also commanded to hate the contaminated tunic of the flesh. The Law, therefore, is a preparer, and C it pre-shows forth to us the beauty of the benefits of Christ, as if in shadows still, through types. Let us consider, therefore, if you will, the very mode of his advent. "And it came to pass," it says, "on the third day, when it was morning, there were voices and lightnings, and a dark cloud was upon Mount Sinai. The voice of the trumpet sounded greatly." For the Only-Begotten arrived, as I said, and descended to us from the heavens, not in the first time, nor in the beginning of this age, nor even in the second and middle time, but in the third and last, and as if at the dawn of the day—that is, when the intelligible darkness that was in us had been driven away, and the night had passed, and the shadows were abolished. For he who until now was thought to be the D God of this age, through his own imposture and tyranny, blinded the whole world, leading it astray into the error of the plurality of gods, and into every kind of impurity. But the God and Lord of the universe—that is, Christ—shone forth upon us, and brought forth the truly desirable day, of which the blessed David also made mention, saying: "This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice in it." And the most wise Paul also wrote elsewhere in this way: "The night has passed, and the day has drawn near"; and now he writes thus: "We are not of the night, nor of darkness, but children of light and children of day." Therefore, the first
A light, and as if on the third day, the Only-Begotten has descended. There were lightnings upon Mount Sinai, and a murky cloud. Lightning, indeed, is a type of the divine light and of the intellectual radiance—namely, that which in the Spirit illuminates all things through Christ and runs through the whole world under heaven. So, too, does the prophet somewhere cry out to the God of all, the Savior Christ: “Your lightnings shone upon the world.” And we do not mean, of course, that he was making mention of lightning produced by rain; but, as I said just now, by the name of lightning he intended to signify the effulgence and coruscation of the intellectual and divine light. B Moreover, that the mystery of Christ is truly difficult to see, the murk would give us to understand. Thus, even the blessed David himself, understanding it in this way, as I believe, cries out beforehand saying: “And he made darkness his covering, his tabernacle round about him; dark water in the clouds of the air. From the brightness before him the clouds passed.” For the mystery of Christ is so concealed and wrapped up that it has need of instruction from above and of revelation from God. Hence Peter heard, when he perceived well the God-Word who had appeared in the flesh, and was truly the Son: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” C And Paul also asserted that the mystery had become known to him by the revelation of God. Therefore, the cloud signifies the obscurity of knowledge. But the trumpet also sounded, revealing the melodious nature of the evangelical oracles. And so God said somewhere through the voice of the prophets to the crowds of the Jews: “I have set watchmen over you. Hear the voice of the trumpet. And they said: We will not hear. Therefore the nations have heard, and those who feed the flocks among them. Hear, earth: behold, I bring evils upon this people, the fruit of their turning away, because they did not heed my word, and they refused my law.” For the trumpet has D clearly sounded among them through the watchmen from God, that is, the holy apostles. For they have been ordained as watchmen over us. “But they said: We will not hear. Therefore the nations have heard.” And we shall find that these same holy apostles also plainly said to the Jewish peoples: “It was necessary for the word of God to be spoken to you first. But since you push it away and do not judge yourselves worthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations. For so the Lord has commanded us.” The blessed Isaiah also compares the harmony of the proclamations of Christ to a trumpet, when speaking of the time of his visitation: “And it shall be, in that day, they shall sound the great trumpet.” For the law is indeed a trumpet, but it was thin-voiced and slow-tongued. For this reason Moses was also thin and slow of tongue, because he cried out with difficulty into Judea alone, in which God was also known. But Christ is that great and grand trumpet, or at least his proclamations, which sound through the whole world. For he says that “the Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, as a testimony to all nations.” That this discourse
is true, the outcome of events has confirmed. For there is none of us who has not beheld the glory of our Savior. B “Moses,” it says, “led the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of mount Sinai.” Observe the pedagogy of Moses: he leads them to God. For he is a pedagogue toward Christ, and he indeed causes those who are for a time being trained under him to stand at the mount; yet he does not lead them up onto it. By the mount you shall understand in these things that transcendent and surpassing knowledge of the mystery concerning Christ. For it is very high, and not all accessible to those who are under the Law, but rather it is fitting for us who have been sanctified in the Spirit. For as the Savior himself has said: “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven: but to them it is not given,” C I mean, to the Jews. And while he makes, as it were in the form of a prayer, the words to the Father and God on our behalf: “I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight.” Therefore, Moses causes them to stand at the mount, but he does not lead them up into it; for, as I said just now, we attain perfection and sublimity in wisdom and knowledge through Christ rather than through Moses. For the latter was a servant and a pedagogue, but the former, as Lord of all, has appeared to us as the bestower of perfect knowledge. Indeed, “In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden,” as it is written. Now when God descended in the form of fire, smoke, gushing as it were from a furnace, was borne very high aloft, spread, I think, over the entire people. D For the Word of God came down to us from heaven, like the fire of a furnace, according to the voice of the prophet. And he himself also baptized us with the Holy Spirit and with fire; with an intelligible fire, which in us consumes dross and wipes away the filth of sin, and does not permit our mind to grow cold through impure pleasures, but rather ignites us and makes us fervent in spirit. And this is what Christ himself works in us. Whence he says: “I am come to cast fire on the earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled?” For this reason, by a wondrous plan, he appeared to the ancients in the form of fire; yet not without smoke. Through this, however, we shall again understand how much for lamentation and weeping are those who are so sluggish that they neglect and treat with contempt his divine glory. For those who are involved in smoke must shed tears. And who indeed would doubt that such deriders and calumniators are to be cast into the exterior darkness? “For there shall be,” he says, “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That those, therefore, about whom we are now speaking, shed bitter tears, the smoke indicates. It is added, moreover, that the voices of the trumpet became with the passing of time more vehement, so that at the beginning very few heard, but afterwards many, indeed the whole congregation. For the preaching of the Gospel is a most sonorous trumpet, which also makes the sound accessible to the hearing.
A of those who are near; and I think this is what it means for the voices of the trumpet to become stronger. Then, after this, God finally enjoins the blessed Moses to testify to the people: "Lest," He says, "they draw near to God to consider Him, and a multitude of them fall; and let the priests who draw near to the Lord God be sanctified, lest the Lord perhaps depart from them." Consider, then, consider also from these things once again how it is impossible to draw near to God through the discipline of Moses. For He does not admit those who remain content with types and shadows—for such are the things of Moses—but He seeks rather the beauty of the truth in us. And the truth is Christ, through whom we have had our access and have drawn near B to the Father, as if having ascended the mountain to the knowledge of Him. For having known the Son, we have known through Him and in Him also the Father. Therefore, through Him we have had our access; not through Moses, that is, not through the Law. And as He explicitly shows beforehand that even they must be sanctified, the priesthood according to the Law was not yet perfectly holy, for as if still in need of sanctification, He commanded them to be sanctified elsewhere. But our High Priest, Christ, is blameless and Holy of Holies, and the "surety of a better covenant," as Paul says. And therefore the first has indeed ceased. And a translation of the priesthood itself has taken place, since it was not irreproachable and supremely holy. For it perfected no one in conscience, but rather introduced doctrines of washings, and C instructions of sprinklings for the purity of the flesh. For the power of the legal priesthood barely reaches as far as this. Since, therefore, it is not perfectly holy, but is to be sanctified in due time in Christ when the types have been transformed into truth, He commanded them to be sanctified. And by adding, "Lest the Lord depart from them," He let it be understood that death is the penalty for those who honor the priesthood under the Law after the one through Christ has been manifested in the world; through whom both the peoples and this very genus which was once held in honor and sacred are sanctified; but that which has not been sanctified by Him is altogether profane and unclean. For this reason He also said to the crowds of the Jews: D "Amen, amen, I say to you, that unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins." Now, that those of Israel who had become refractory were to be sent away for a time, but would return to God at an evolved time, and that not otherwise than through Christ, you will easily gather from that which
A God says in his economy to the most excellent Moses: “Go, descend, and ascend, you and Aaron with you.” Do you see how Moses was sent away, and yet does not return alone, but ascends again with Aaron his companion and fellow-traveler, who was a type of Christ, that great high priest? For through him, as I said, the access to the Father lies open. And thus those under the law, that is, the Israelites, were rejected for certain times. For in the last times they will recognize that holy and immaculate high priest, that is, Christ, and through him they will come to God the Father, as they ascend, as it were, into a mountain, embracing that venerable and immense mystery of the divine administration, through which Christ Jesus has saved us all; through whom and with whom is glory to God and the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
On the ascent of Moses and Aaron into the mountain, as also Nadab, and Abiu, and the seventy elders of the people of Israel.
1. The Israelites were indeed called to God through the law, with Moses then acting as mediator and minister. But as the inspired Paul writes: “The law has made nothing perfect.” B Yet Christ is understood as the perfection of it and of the prophets. For all redemption is through him. Since: “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,” and in him is all perfection in the sanctification of the Spirit. In him we have been called to God the Father, and we shall ascend with him into the city above. For he himself plainly said: “In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” For he went before into heaven like a first-fruit and, as it were, a certain initiation of humanity. That he will also bring us ourselves in thither, no one could rightly doubt. For he who cannot lie, and who has given a sure hope to those worthy of such a gift, has confirmed us in that belief. C We shall be, therefore, inhabitants and citizens of heaven in our own time, with Christ, as I said, going before us; and the most wise Paul will provide the assurance that this is true, having left it written thus: “For Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” For he was, and is, and shall be God, existing by nature with his own Father, D as in the form of the Begetter. But he appears for us, because he became man, so that we also, who have been cast away from the eyes of the Father through the fall of Adam and the sin that tyrannized over us, may again be brought into his sight through Christ, and to what was in the beginning, while those things which had crept in between have vanished into nothingness. We have been called, therefore, in Christ, both to the city above and are deemed worthy of the contemplation of God and the Father, and through him and in him we have been taught to worship the Creator of all, God the Father. And the law itself again hints at and predicts this to us by a figure. For God of all ascends in the form of fire in
the law to us enigmatically. For God of all things descended in the likeness of fire upon Mount Sinai, having legislated for those from Israel the things through which it was likely to attain the beginnings of righteousness. For the law is as it were a kind of progress toward more perfect things, and rudiments and a foreshadowing of the teachings through Christ. And to Moses, He says, "Ascend toward God, you and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abiud, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and they shall worship the Lord from afar. And Moses alone shall draw near to God. But they shall not draw near. And the people shall not ascend together with them." B And when the all-wise Moses had reported these things, the whole people answered with a loud voice, saying, "All the words which the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will hear." And what after this? "And Moses wrote," he says, "all the words of the Lord. And Moses rising early in the morning, built an altar under the mountain, and twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent the youths of the children of Israel, and they offered whole burnt offerings, and sacrificed a sacrifice of peace-offering to the Lord God, calves. And having taken half the blood, Moses poured it into the bowl; and half the blood he presented to the altar. And having taken the book of the covenant, he read it into the ears of the people; and they said, Everything as much as the Lord has spoken, we will do and will hear. And having taken the blood, Moses sprinkled it upon the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has established with you concerning all these words." After the sacrifice was finished, and all the people had been sprinkled with the blood of the covenant, "And Moses and Aaron, and Nadab and Abiud, and seventy of the elders of the people of Israel went up," he says, "and they saw the place where the God of Israel had stood; and the things under his feet were like the work of sapphire brick, and like the appearance of the firmament of heaven for purity. C And of the chosen ones of Israel, not even one disagreed. And they appeared in the place of God, and they ate and drank." Come then, come, let us speak accordingly about each of the things read, and beginning straightway from the meaning of the things proposed, [let us speak of] the things that have been done for us by Christ. And just as in a tablet, we see described in the divinely inspired Scripture both the Church that is above and in the heavens, that is to say the heaven, and also that very one which is on earth, because it is assimilated to the heavenly, now being named a hill, now a mountain, because they are exalted and have raised themselves up into virtue, those who dwell in them. For the mind of the saints is not lowly, nor cast down, but surpasses every earthly prudence and carnal desires. For it tends more toward what is above; and true is that which is through the voice of David: "That the mighty gods of the earth were greatly exalted." And that it is appropriate for those who have chosen to live thus here, and have ascended to such a height of virtue, to dwell also in the mansions above, the Psalmist will again confirm, saying thus: Who shall ascend
A into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? The innocent in hands and pure in heart, who did not receive his soul in vain, and did not swear in deceit to his neighbor. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Savior. This is the generation of those who seek the face of the God of Jacob.»
The mountain, then, is passable to the saints—it is heaven itself, or the Church of the firstborn; but to the profane and the unholy, it is untrodden. Therefore, God of all B commanded Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiud, and seventy of the elders of Israel to go up into the mountain. And He said, «And they shall worship the Lord from afar. And Moses shall approach alone to God; but they shall not approach. Nor shall the people go up with them.» The sons, therefore, of Aaron designate for us the sacred race; the elders, those selected by merit. Aaron, again, portrays for us Christ, the holy and guileless high priest, through whom we have also received the birth through the Spirit and water, and are called «a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation.» We shall therefore ascend in due time, we also, the elect and holy, into the heavenly city, with Christ, the great high priest, accompanying and leading us, who was made of us, and who worships with us the Father, who is God by nature. And Moses approaches, but with us, who are situated further off, the Son also draws near. C For whenever He came to the mystery of the economy in the flesh, Moses was closer to God, as mediator and arbiter of the Law. But since the Son has become with us, though He is God by nature and Lord of all, for this reason He does not despise our measure. Yet He submits, by reason of the economy, to be considered even after Moses. And indeed, He has become with us under the same law, though He was the Lawgiver as God. That He became under the law is easy to see. For He is circumcised on the eighth day. He also pays the didrachma for Himself, though by nature He was free and exempt, as the Son. And this also is sufficiently clear from the Holy Scriptures, that Emmanuel was born under the Law. But that, inasmuch as He was man, and insofar as He was born under the law according to us, He is judged even inferior to Moses, thou shalt learn from what follows. For the Lord of all D commanded Moses, the most excellent, to deliver the Israelite people from the intolerable servitude of Pharaoh, by speaking thus: «The Lord God of the Hebrews has called us.» For the Law confesses itself to be somewhat weak and feeble for redemption. To this one who is tergiversating and hesitating, He adds the divine Aaron, who is a type of the all-powerful Christ, through whom is all redemption. For to Moses He says thus: «Behold, I have given thee as a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak to him all that I command thee, but Aaron thy brother shall speak to Pharaoh.» Thou seest how Aaron is again a mediator, while Moses sustains the person of the lawgiver? Hence, the blessed Paul also attributes the law itself to him, even as having been dissolved by God. For he writes thus: «Whosoever has made void
the law of Moses, dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.» A We ascend, therefore, just as into a mountain, we who are holy and chosen, to the mansions above, while the other multitude remains below. For he says the people shall not ascend with them: because, according to the voice of the Savior, «Many are called, but few are chosen.» But we ascend, that is, those who are without Christ. For Aaron was at that time with those who were worshipping, and he was numbered with those who were still far away. In the same way, Christ also was far from us for our sake, in order that we too, with Him and through Him, might draw near to the Father. For He managed all things wisely for our sake and on our behalf. For just as He became mortal with us, in order that we might live with Him and through Him—for having trodden down the power of death, He came to life again—so He became “further” away from us, even though He was near, so that we again, with Him and through Him, might draw near to the Father: which also has been accomplished. For having become participants of Him through the Spirit, we are united to God and the Father through Him, if indeed «we are truly partakers of the divine nature,» according to the Scriptures. B But the God of all commanded Moses and Aaron, the holy and chosen ones, to go up on high, and to ascend together into the mountain. But it is fitting that those who are coming to this glory, and who are truly prepared to ascend on high, in order that they may also become near to God, be previously purified by the blood of Christ, who gave His own soul as a redemptive price for the life of all, and offered up the flesh He assumed as a sweet-smelling savor. For He offered Himself to God as an unblemished sacrifice on our behalf, and as a spiritual holocaust, as the blessed Moses once again prefigured for us, leading the way with the illumination of the Spirit toward the knowledge of things to come. For understanding this, I think, before his own ascent and that of those who were called into the heights, he «wrote all the words of the Lord.» Now, what followed this, we shall say immediately. For I think it is necessary that those who tend toward the heights and desire the things above should carry the law of God inscribed in their mind and heart; and finally to exclaim with the Psalmist to God: «In my heart I have hidden Your words, that I might not sin against You.» C For just as it is not without benefit to life, and is a salutary thing, to remember the words of God at all times; so, in the same way, I think it brings destruction to be forgetful of, and ignorant of, them. Therefore, the blessed Moses writes «all the words of the Lord,» concerning which he himself also gave instruction to those being trained through him, or rather to us ourselves: «And you shall speak of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking in the way, and when you are lying down, and when you rise up.» And rising early in the morning, he built an altar. And he set up twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent the young men of the children of Israel, and they offered holocausts, and they sacrificed calves as a sacrifice of salvation to God. The altar, then, might be a type, and indeed a very clear one, of the Church of Christ, which is set upon a mountain. D For we say that that other one is situated in a high place, as if on a mountain, which is the metropolis of the firstborn, whose Maker and Architect is God. Therefore, the altar represents for us the Church,
A around which Moses very legally placed the twelve stones, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel, declaring thereby to those of the blood of Israel that the place most fitting for them is the Church of Christ. And perhaps it is necessary to cry out: "I will encompass thy altar, O Lord, that I may hear the voice of praise." For the Father sent the Son as Savior and Redeemer to them most especially and before all others, as He Himself makes clear when He says: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But after the Jews, perishing in their immense folly, raged against Him, Christ necessarily turned to the nations. Therefore, that the place most fitting for them was, as I was just saying, the altar of Christ, Moses portended, placing upon it twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.
But you may easily learn from what was done that they who were to offer sacrifice to Christ in due time were to be those who possessed, by the grace of God, a spirit of wondrous fortitude—that is, a robust and strong mind. For young men were sent, and they offered holocausts. That the blessed apostles performed this, we discover, for they traversed as it were the whole world, sacrificing and offering holocausts to God, that is, those who are adorned with a sound and upright faith and are exceedingly well-prepared for virtue. For it is not, it is not possible for one of feeble mind to be able to teach others clearly, nor for one of infirm spirit, nor one accustomed to secular desires, but for one so prepared and youthfully minded that he can at last say: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." B For such a person is a youth, truly bold and to be numbered among the stoutest-hearted. Such a one must offer to God holocausts and spiritual sacrifices, and handle holy, intangible things, and also offer the saving sacrifice: which is most aptly designated by the calves offered. For sometimes, because of strength—and because the calf is the primary animal among those that are called holy—Christ is likened to a perfect calf; sometimes also to a small calf. For this reason, as you see, the Only-Begotten, having become man, was born under the yoke of servitude; true, if it is the case that He appeared in the form of a servant. But as much as it is permitted to say, He came into the mystery of the flesh, born with us under the yoke of servitude, yet free from the servile yoke, since He was of a heavenly and free nature. C Hence He is compared to a calf, because He was both under the yoke and free of the yoke. For a calf does not know the yoke, even if it is meant for the yoke. Alternatively: although He was born under the law, as if under a yoke, nevertheless He was free; for He was above the law, as being the Lawgiver and God. And thirdly, if it appears so, He bore terrestrial flesh, weak in itself on account of the law of sin, as Paul says. For as far as the carnal nature is concerned, He is considered to have incurred the yoke of sin; but He was pure and whole from all guilt: "For He condemned sin in the flesh, that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." D
A Christ is therefore mystically named a calf, and because He was made a new creature. For He Himself was the first-fruits of those who have been called to this. But that it was necessary for those who comprehend and wish to approach God to be sanctified by blood, Moses shows, sprinkling the whole people and the book itself with blood. From this, however, it is again necessary to know that the law itself alone does not suffice for sanctification. For see how the Law itself is sanctified by the sprinkling of blood (the law, indeed, does not at all wash away sins), while the grace of the mysteries through Christ truly accomplishes this. And it is right, too, that Moses, rising at dawn, performed the sacred rites, and that he himself arranged the divine mystery, and the twelve stones placed by him, as we have already said, as well as the calves for sacrifice. B For as if at dawn and with the morning already come, and with the Day-star almost shining forth, and with the intelligible day rising for us, while the night was already passing away and the demonic darkness had ceased, the bright beauty of the Church was revealed, having the venerable altar on which the mystery of Christ is accomplished. And the tribes of the earth stood by him, as if in the types of the stones. And so the divine Paul, truly describing the image of the type, writes to those who have been sanctified in Christ: "In whom you also, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood." Then the young men also offered the burnt offerings, and became spiritual priests. Then, I say, we are in the presence of the Father, establishing the power of the mind, which is fittingly suited to every good, and are brought into the order of the gathered people. C This is clearly what the divine David also proclaims to us on behalf of those who believe, saying thus to the God of all: "In the morning You will hear my voice. In the morning I will stand before You, and You will see me, for You are not a God who desires iniquity, nor shall the wicked dwell near You." Being sanctified, then, and as in types purified and cleansed by blood, "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up. And they saw what was under His feet, as the work of a sapphire stone, and as the work of the firmament of heaven for brightness. And of the chosen ones of Israel not one perished. And they appeared in the place of God, and they ate and drank." D You hear how they saw the place called of God as in the likeness of the firmament of heaven? For the heaven is bright, and in its highest and ethereal color it is similar to a sapphire. And the heaven is a most fitting and suitable place, in which the One who dwells among the angels reposes. For the Holy One dwells in the holy, and in a way inclines towards those who inhabit the city above, on account of their diligence and their rightly instituted excellence of life. For we believe that the assembly of those above is most holy. He says, therefore, that those things which were under the feet of God were seen by those who had ascended the mountain as in the pattern of a firmament, in a clear and serene heaven. For it was necessary for those who were sick from wandering on account of the multitude of gods, and who were serving the creature,
A and then were called to the knowledge of God, to see—usefully and necessarily—that He has even the heaven under His feet, and that He is the Lord of all, as He who brought all things into existence, He who delivers them from their ancient deception. But that it compares those who approach the city above at various times to the receiving of divine gifts abundantly, and to the necessity of delighting in spiritual goods from Christ, this is shown by the fact that those who ascended to the place of God ate and drank.
But as we said just now, Moses alone is ordered to approach God; while the others remain further off to worship, among whom was Aaron. We said, however, that the Son—who by nature is far off, yet who is near to God and the Father, our innocent and immaculate High Priest—was with us, so that through Him and with Him we might ourselves be found near. Hence He is called Emmanuel, which is interpreted, "God with us." B Yet although He has been with us as a man, you can see that the Father was not made accessible even to the blessed Moses without His intercession. For He Himself is the way, He Himself is the door, as we have already said. We shall learn this again from what follows. "For the Lord said to Moses: 'Ascend to me into the mountain, and stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets, the law and the commandments, which I wrote to give them as a law.' And Moses and Joshua who stood by him, rising up, ascended into the mountain of God." You see how Moses is called onto the mountain, to receive the law which is still in shadows and letters, but Joshua runs along with him, though not called, as a type of Christ, who is not called by the Father as others are, for He is always with Him. For He clears the way for those who are called, C as mediator and assistant. For it is impossible, as I said, for us to be in God the Father in any other way than through His mediation alone. To Him therefore be the glory and the power, together with the all-holy Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Concerning the making of the calf by Israel.
Those who do not have the law as a safeguard are carried away by a certain blind and unbridled impulse of the will toward all kinds of harmful things, and they incur immense guilt, both before God and men. And although they may appear to be very faultless, they are nonetheless accustomed to admire and praise whatever is wicked and most absurd; nor do they know how to discern what is truly worthy of admiration, and what is, on the contrary, shameful and detestable. For just as ships that traverse this vast and wide sea, if they have a capable and skilled pilot at the helm, complete a happy and straight course; but if he happens to be little skilled in nautical matters, they are tossed up and down by the [storms].
which drive them wherever they will: so also the soul of man, when it does not have the perfect law, is easily swept away to whatever it desires, and is in a certain sense intoxicated by the waves of carnal pleasures. We shall find that this is what happened to Israel. For since they did not have a mind inclined toward piety, nor a heart fixed in God, they were caught, as it were, retrogressing and embracing execrable idolatry. Therefore, the Saviour Himself said of such as these: "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it wanders through waterless places, seeking rest, and finding none, says: ‘I will return to my house from which I came out.’ And when it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and garnished; then it goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than itself; and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first." B And He adds a little later: "Amen, I say to you, so it will be for this perverse generation." For at the beginning, they drove out the evil spirit by sacrificing the lamb in type of Christ, and they were anointed with the blood, and escaped the destroyer. But look, they fall back again, and into things far worse than before, if He who speaks of those who are afflicted with such a sickness is true: "For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment which was delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb: 'A dog [that has] turned back to its own-vomit, and a sow [that has been] washed to [rolling in] a wallow of mire.'" C For from the very things they attempted, one can easily see that they returned to their own vomit, and rolled themselves in their former mire. For it is written: "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him: 'Arise, and make us gods, who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' And Aaron says to them: 'Take off the gold earrings which are in the ears of your wives and daughters, and bring them to me.' And all the people took off the gold earrings which were in the ears of their wives, and brought them to Aaron. And he received [them] from their hands, and fashioned them with a stylus and made them a molten calf. And they said: 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.' D And Aaron seeing [this], built an altar before it, and Aaron made proclamation, saying: 'A feast of the Lord tomorrow.' And rising early on the morrow, he offered burnt offerings, and brought a peace-offering, and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." The blessed Moses, indeed, having been well initiated into the laws, was making his stay
A on Mount Sinai. But they, being foolishly dismissive regarding his delay, slipped into such folly that they perhaps, in the end, did not even fully know that they had been placed under God, the Almighty—although they had seen Him in the form of fire upon the mountains of Sinai, and had been hearers of His voice, and had implored Moses to mediate for them. But, "O thou who art filled with such senselessness," one might say to them, "even if Moses has delayed, what is this to God, who is ever present to those on earth, even if He is not seen?" Let the divine David therefore cry aloud: B "A crooked and provoking generation." And furthermore, Moses says to this: "You forgot the God who nurtured you." But what need for gods had he who had been so miraculously redeemed, for whose sake hail and three days of darkness beset the whole of Egypt? For whose sake, likewise, all the firstborn perished in a single night? For whom the wild and untamable sea provided a way to flee the cruelty of his pursuers? But if someone were to wish to pursue each thing individually, he would expend a long discourse on it all. Since, therefore, wise Moses was tarrying on the mountain, they set upon Aaron. And he, when he saw that he was unequal to bearing their insolence (for they kept crying out: "Make for us C gods who shall go before us"), ordered them to bring the earrings of their wives and daughters. And they brought them immediately; and that they had relapsed into the error of Egypt and had defiled themselves with their former rashnesses, Aaron himself showed us by the very deed, when he formed for them an idol to be worshiped in the form of a calf. For the calf was a form of worship in Egypt, both for the Egyptians themselves and for those who were afflicted with their same error. Do you see, then, how they are drawn back into their original state? The unclean spirit has returned again, and it has happened to them, according to the words of the Savior, that "the last state was worse D than the first." I think, however, that it was with a singular intent that the divine Aaron requested the earrings, as if by this means signifying that they had stripped their own hearing of its proper ornament, having no longer a mind for obedience, but rather having been drawn away into wicked and God-hateful disobedience. For even though God had commanded, "You shall have no other gods beside me," and they had pledged their faith in these words, and approved them with common consent, and had said that all things which the Lord God had spoken they would do and would hear, yet they sought sculpted gods. Do you see now how they have cast away obedience? And this, I suspect, is the ornament of the ears. Yet observe, I pray, how sweetly Aaron mocks the attempt of these men. When he had shown them the idol made in the form of a calf, he proclaimed to them: "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." But they were not liberated by the calf (for how could this possibly be?), but "by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm," and by signs and wonders. Therefore, as if to recall to their memory the things that were done by God, he mocks them, saying: "These are your gods, O Israel." They also brought a victim, and they ate and drank, as if on a feast day. For those who fall away from God are at once ensnared by carnal things, and they regard filth as a luxury, and deem honorable and pleasant those things for which they ought, by rights, to be mourning. And for this reason also, St. Paul [numbers the] shameful idolatry among...
the crimes of the flesh: "For the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry." For error is a guide toward even worse things; and being carried away from God, it forces one to become sick with the most shameful of all evils. For they were dancing, abandoning themselves, I suppose, to banquet songs, and seeing and saying things that are the crimes of drunkards. But God revealed these things which had been dared to the divine Moses, who was ignorant of them, saying thus: "Go, get thee down hence; for thy people, whom thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have transgressed. They have quickly turned aside out of the way which thou commandedst them. They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it, and have said: These are thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And now let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the Lord his God." Do you hear how light and rash Israel is, and very much inclined to apostasy? Therefore, God does not deign to call them "His own" people; and although He himself provided the Law and prescribed it, He assigns and attributes the matter to Moses. For He says: "They have quickly turned aside out of the way which thou commandedst them." Hence, Christ also says that the Judge will speak at the tribunal of God to those who are like-minded B to them, and who pretend to show a false truth while they have not practiced doing good in reality: "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity; I know you not." Therefore, those would be known to God, and His people in truth, who hold fast to love for Him inseparably, and keep the sincerity of faith intact, and are strengthened in doing good, and push away from themselves the crimes of levity. Nevertheless, Moses prayed and desired to check the wrath that had flared up against all of them. For it was necessary, it was necessary, I say, that this mediator also should imitate Christ, the true Mediator, who warded off the wrath hanging over us from heaven C because of much sin, and as the Son, bestowed justification in faith upon those who had sinned. Therefore, even in this, the divine Moses is again a type of the mediation which happens through Christ, because he mitigated the severity of the wrath with his prayers. Then he descended from the mountain; but when he heard the dancers and received in his ears the voices of the drunks, he shattered the tables upon which the laws were engraved, no longer deeming them worthy of instruction, as if they were disobedient, slothful, endowed with a stupid mind, and scarcely having a mind fit for what is proper, as those who had fallen so headlong into apostasy. But after he came to the congregation, he grinds the calf to pieces. And having cast it into the water, he made the children of Israel drink of it, he says; signifying by these very things D that impiety was inherent in their hearts and bowels. Furthermore, I also believe that he signified by this that they had hearts stuffed with scelerate and execrable idolatry. Having summoned the elect, he commanded that they should kill the main leaders who were the cause and authors of this crime, and neither spare
A brother, nor neighbor, nor acquaintances. And so, twenty-three thousand fell. But since he demanded moderate penalties from those who had acted so impiously, he returns to God and makes intercession for the others. Then, indeed, God scarcely assented to him, saying that He would by no means be present with them Himself, but would rather send an angel to preside over and lead the way. And in addition to this, the people were lamenting; but God commanded them to take off their ornaments and vestments, and thus to walk in sadness. And when this reached its end, it is written that Moses took his tent and pitched it outside their camp. Let these things be said briefly concerning the series of that history itself. But we shall find that those who were of Israel dared a similar deed and committed equal crimes when, by divine counsel, the only-begotten Son of God became man among us. For He called them into the kingdom of heaven just as God once called them through Moses into the land of promise, and He promised that He would deliver those who believed in Him. And God delivered those who, from the lineage of Israel, received the saving blood through faith from the oppression and tyranny of the Egyptians. For they slaughtered the lamb as in a type, while Christ was yet to fulfill the mystery. B Yet those who possessed the Law, which indeed faithfully introduced them through figures and types to the mystery of Christ, boasted everywhere of the words of the wisest Moses, though they never revered Moses himself. For they declined toward the teachings and commandments of men, and shook off the yoke of divine worship. Indeed, they did not reach Him through whom God governs this universe, that is, Christ. But what was the occasion and cause? They turned aside to worldly deception, and preferring the pleasures of this life to more useful pursuits, they deservedly fell from grace. For when they were called to the wedding, they refused to come, excusing themselves with the marriages of wives and the purchase of fields. And indeed the time had already come for Israel, who had fallen into such impiety, to undergo the wrath entirely. Yet, by the prayers of the saints, a remnant was saved; C many, however, paid the penalty. For they fell by the sword; and while they were being consumed in cruel war, they scarcely realized to what a depth of evil they had descended on account of the crimes committed by them against Christ. And having cast away, as it were, the garment of that former glory and all spiritual ornament, they labor under immense hatred, stripped of all glory and dignity. But that Christ has also departed from them, Moses shows by transferring his tabernacle outside the camp. For Christ, having left the throngs of the Jews and, in a certain way, having deserted their multitude, departing very far from them, designated the unshaken tabernacle, the Church of the Gentiles: which, also affirming as His own through the voice of the Psalmist, He says: D “Here I will dwell, for I have chosen it.” It was necessary, therefore, that those who do not have that Emmanuel, the Lord of glory, should henceforth be seen
A stripped of glory and adornment; but those who love Him, clothed in the ornaments of faith and virtue, just as if they had greatly rejoiced in Him, ought to say: “Exult, my soul, in the Lord. For He has clothed me with a garment of salvation and with raiment of joy. As for a bridegroom, He has set a crown upon me, and as for a bride, He has adorned me with ornament.” For this beauty is truly excellent, and obviously it is the intelligible beauty that is in Christ, through Whom and with Whom is glory to God and Father with the Holy Spirit now and always, and for the ages of ages. Amen.
On the veil on the face of Moses
B “Do you think you understand what you are reading?” It might fittingly be said to the peoples of the Jews, who are seen to have arrived at such a state of stupor that they are henceforth named “heartless” in the holy Scriptures. “For behold,” He says, “a foolish and heartless people. They have eyes, and do not see; they have ears, and do not hear.” That the Law given through Moses became entirely useless to them because of the magnitude of the folly within them, Christ Himself showed us, saying: “Search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness of Me. And you do not want to come to Me, so that you may have life.” For blindness in part has happened to Israel, and because they do not have the illumination of the Spirit, they are slower to believe, and are C very difficult to move toward choosing and thinking about things that are conducive to salvation. But they would not be free from blame, because, when they should have chosen what is useful, they turned rather to incorrigible unbelief; and while having the heavenly light, they preferred rather to walk in night and darkness. This also the prophet intimated, saying of them: “When they looked for light, darkness became theirs; waiting for brightness, they walked in the night.” For they have remained obstinate and stubborn, and have accounted as of little value the things that are profitable, and through which it was likely and very easy to escape what is harmful. For Christ was crying out: “I am the light of the world.” And: “While you have the light, walk in the light, so that darkness may not overtake you.” But they, being like the senseless and the stupid, were seized by that very darkness, and continuing as if in the night, they are in no part participants D of the divine brightness, nor do they have the divine light within them: for they do not understand the divinely inspired Scripture at all. But blessed Paul will declare the cause to us: “Until the present day,” he says, “the same veil remains in the reading of the Old Testament, not lifted, because it is nullified in Christ. But until this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their hearts. But when they have turned to Christ, the veil will be taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
A Behold, therefore, the mystery shining forth even in the holy and more ancient writings. It speaks thus: “And the Lord said to Moses: Write for yourself these words: for with these words I will make a covenant with you and with Israel.” And Moses was there before the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did not eat bread, nor did he drink water. And he wrote these words upon the tablets of the covenant, the ten commandments. And when Moses was coming down from the mountain, and the two tablets were in his hands. And as he was coming down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the appearance of the skin of his face had been glorified while God was speaking to him. And Aaron and all the B elders of Israel saw Moses. And the appearance of the skin of his face was glorified, and they were afraid to approach him. And Moses called them, and Aaron and all the princes of the Synagogue turned back to him. And Moses spoke to them, and after this all the children of Israel approached him. And he commanded them, saying all things that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. And when he ceased speaking to them, he put a veil upon his face. And whenever Moses entered before the Lord to speak to Him, he would take away the veil until he came out. And coming out, he would speak to all the children of Israel those things which the Lord had commanded him. And the children of Israel saw that the face of Moses had been glorified. And Moses put a veil upon his face until he entered in to speak with Him. C For the God of all things writes the law on tablets of stone. But after the face of Moses, who remained there for forty days and abstained from all human things, had shone with the impact of divine light, the elect of Israel were astounded by this spectacle, and Aaron above the rest. But as they were already departing and turning themselves to flight, Moses would call them back, and would speak thus to the children of Israel, placing a veil upon his face, and making the ray of divine light that was approaching, which was hardly bearable to the crowds, tolerable by means of his coverings: “But when,” he says, “he would enter in before God, the veil was taken away.” Understand, therefore, how to the minds of the Jews the light even of the law itself is in some way incomprehensible. But if those things which are written are understood spiritually, D nothing else will flash forth than the mystery of Christ, casting that divine and most clear light into the hearts of the hearers. But the Israelites were not able to hear words of such majesty, nor without the greatest labor to comprehend the depth of the mystery with their intellect. Therefore, Nicodemus, when he heard Christ preaching concerning spiritual regeneration, broke out in a very cold and childish manner into these words: “How can a man be born when he is already old? Can he return into his mother's womb and be born again?” Indeed, even after this, when Christ was persuading him that that which exceeds our mind and reason ought to be apprehended by faith, he added: “How can this come to be?” although the law had adumbrated the mystery of Christ with almost infinite figures. Wherefore, even the light of the law itself is incomprehensible to the Jews, that
and not only to the weak and the vulgar, but even to the chosen and the priests. For you have heard that Aaron, together with the elders, was terrified by the glory of Moses A. Not without reason, then, did Moses draw a veil over his face, for the law has a dense shadow in its letter and a narrative that is not very luminous. But, he says, when Moses went in to the vision of God, he would remove the veil. We shall find this to be true in our own case as well; for when Christ leads us in a manner of speaking into the vision of God the Father, then we shall see the glory without the adumbrations of Moses, understanding the law spiritually. “For we are transformed from glory to glory,” as it is written. And how can anyone doubt that the mystery of Christ is in glory, when the blessed Paul cries out openly concerning the Old and New Testaments: “For if the ministration of condemnation is in glory, how much more does the ministration of righteousness abound in glory?” For the shadow of the law has been made void, even though it was honored by the glory that was through Moses—that is, the glory that was upon the face of Moses. But the things that are through Christ remain unshaken, and they possess in every way a glory and a grace that is better than the more ancient one. B Since, therefore, the adumbrations in the law have been removed, “we behold the glory of God,” as it is written. If we hear of the lamb being slaughtered in a type, let us immediately recognize the mystery, knowing the Lamb who for us and on our behalf offered Himself to God the Father as an odor of sweetness. And when the “ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who are defiled sanctifies unto the purification of the flesh,” let us understand no less the purification that is through Christ, which is through water and the Spirit, not washing away our carnal filth, but cleansing the blemish of the stains that are in the spirit and the soul. For we have been sanctified in Christ. C We shall add this, too, profitably. Up to this point, we have resolved the narrative of the chapters in Exodus, not because we are slow to explain the things that follow, but because in the books which we have written *On Worship in Spirit and Truth*, we have accurately investigated the constitution of the holy Tabernacle, and we have traversed each of the things that are in it—I mean the mercy-seat, the ark, the table, and the lampstand—in such a way that we have omitted nothing that seemed to require declaration. For our ninth and tenth books have been consumed by this matter. To our God, however, be glory forever and ever. Amen. D
OF OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, ON THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS.
That the passion of Christ is salutary.
A 1. The God of all did not make death, nor does He delight in the destruction of the living; but He created all things that they might exist, and the generations of the world are salutary. And there is no kingdom of Hades upon the earth, as it is written: “but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world.” And the argument should very reasonably have the truth within itself. For the Creator would not have subjected a creature so glorious and admirable to things that are naturally prone to decay; but death came in alongside from anger, because our forefather Adam, having disregarded the divine command, swerved toward unbelief and disobedience. Yet subsequently, the sins have been destroyed and removed from the midst in Christ through the obedience of the one man. For we have been justified in Him; and the divine Paul, writing, shall bear witness: “For as by the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of the one man shall the many be made righteous.” For we were condemned in him to death; but we have received mercy through Christ, and we have been renewed unto life; for He became obedient to the Father even unto death, and He laid down His soul for us; “And by His stripes we were healed,” according to the Scriptures. B One might indeed say that we also, having been sickened by the sin that is according to the world in Adam, have become in Christ a spiritual sacrifice, fragrant to God and the Father, beautiful and well-pleasing, and far better than the shadowy sacrifices of the Law. Therefore, Christ is our firstfruits, and He Himself has made and renewed the way for us; for thus **
A he speaks to the Father and God who is in heaven in the Book of Psalms: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire; but a body you have prepared for me. Burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you did not accept. Then I said: Behold, I come, O God, to do your will; I was content" (Ps. XXXIX, 7). And it is possible to observe this same thing again from the things written in Leviticus. It runs as follows: "If you offer a sacrifice of firstfruits to the Lord, new roasted grain bruised for the Lord, and you shall offer the sacrifice of your firstfruits, and you shall pour oil upon it, and you shall put frankincense upon it. It is a sacrifice. And the priest shall offer its memorial from the grain with the oil, and all its frankincense, a sacrifice by fire to the Lord" (Lev. II, 14, 15).
B The meaning of the letter is, therefore, very clear, and there would be no need, I think, for any strain to understand it in detail. However, I will say this: *Chidra* (bruised grain) is the term used for flour made from legumes. But in these types, it captures the mystery of Christ. For He is the spiritual offering of firstfruits for us; that is, the firstfruits of human nature, the firstborn from the dead, the first unto incorruption, and, as it were, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Just as a grain of wheat, when it has fallen into the ground and died, springs up many times over in the manner of an ear of corn. This is what He Himself explained to us, saying: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John XII, 24). Yet He did not die for Himself, but for us. C But notice how the legal letter elegantly points this out to us. For it says: "If anyone wishes to offer a gift, a sacrifice of firstfruits to the Lord, new roasted grain bruised for the Lord." See, then, how Moses—or rather, the legal letter—urges us to bring forth fruit from "new" things. For Christ is, as I have said, the firstfruits of the nature that is renewed into the newness of life, and in Him all things have become new (II Cor. V, 17). Furthermore, gifts for sacrifice are not offered from wheat alone, but also from bruised legumes. Just as the Law commanded to offer fine flour from wheat, and not the whole grain itself, for the burnt offering, so too here it commanded that they be "bruised"—that is, ground—from legumes, so that the sacrifice might appear to be, as it were, something edible. For we are accustomed to make food not from the whole grain, but from that which has been broken up. Therefore, D Christ is indeed the firstfruits and a sacrifice to God that is good and most fragrant, and above all, most nourishing to us ourselves. "For He is the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world" (John VI, 50), and in a manner of speaking, He places Himself before us to be eaten, just like fine flour or a certain meal from legumes. He commanded that oil be poured upon the sacrifice, and that it be sprinkled with frankincense; the oil symbolically signifying that which is rich and joyful, while the frankincense aptly signifies the holy and fragrant. For Christ became, as I said, a sacrifice for us, and as a firstfruits of the fields of spiritual firstfruits, He has been brought as a sacrifice most fragrant to God and the Father, and this unto us—
A that His death was not a thing to be wept over or mournful, but rather that it removed weeping and lamentation from our midst and brought us into the most joyful hope, who could doubt, or from whence would anyone harbor such a thought? For He did not remain held by the gates of Hades, nor did He stay among the dead; but even if strong death swallowed Him, according to the voice of the prophet, yet again God wiped away every tear from every face; He took away the reproach of His people from all the earth. How, or in what manner? For Christ rose again, having trampled down death, that He might also deliver us from corruption, and having quieted the lamentation over this with great care, He persuades us, already somehow rejoicing, to cry out: "You have turned my mourning into joy for me; You have torn off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness." Therefore, the manner of this sacrifice has, with good reason, a joy conjoined with hope. Yet it can be understood in another way, if one B wishes. For we have obtained mercy in Christ. And this, I think, is the meaning of: "You have anointed my head with oil." But that the death of Christ was not for any just causes, or due to His own sins, but was rather a most fragrant and altogether incorruptible hostia for us (for He was brought that He might destroy sin, and the death that reigned from it and through it), you will understand by the incense; for the first father, Adam, by the transgressions committed in the beginning, quite properly incurred the curse. And since he labored with sin that was truly foul, he was with good C reason condemned to death. But the Savior and Lord of all, being condemned for none of those perverse things (for He committed no sin), became a lovely and fragrant hostia for us, and as a firstfruits of new fruits, in every form, I say, in the form of wheat and legumes. For He died for all, small and great, nations and Jews alike. We have been made in Him and through Him a memorial to God the Father. Therefore the legal letter says: "And the priest shall take from it its memorial of the fine flour of the legumes with the oil, and all its incense. It is an offering to the Lord." For having offended God by many sins, we had been, as it were, removed from the eyes of the Father. But after Christ became a hostia for us, the Lord remembered us D and blessed us, according to that word: "He has blessed all who fear the Lord, both small and great." Hence we too have been taught to chant and say: "Blessed are you by the Lord, who made heaven and earth." But in another way also the Law describes to us the oblation of Christ, saying: "And if his gift to the Lord is a peace offering; if he shall offer it from the cattle, whether male or female, he shall bring it unblemished before the Lord, and he shall lay his hands upon the head of the gift, and he shall slaughter it before the doors of the tabernacle of testimony. And the sons of Aaron the priests shall pour out the blood upon the altar, round about the offerings. And they shall bring of the peace offering, a burnt offering to the Lord, the
fat that covers the belly, and all the fat that is upon the belly, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is upon the thighs, and the lobe upon the liver with the kidneys, he shall take away. A And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall set them upon the altar, upon the burnt offerings, upon the wood that is upon the fire, an offering of sweet fragrance to the Lord. And it is not only from oxen, but if anyone should choose to bring a burnt offering also from sheep, or even from goats, to perform the sacrifice of peace offering, it was performed in the same ways, and the manner of the priestly service was one for all. Whether, then, the victim happened to be male or female, he said that it must be entirely devoid of any blemish. And the rationale of the sacrifice reaches unto Emmanuel himself. For he is the fatted calf, the unblemished victim, who takes away the sin of the world, and was, as it were, in the guise of a kid slaughtered for us; for a kid was slaughtered according to the law for sin. But observe again, B strictly, the manner of the sacrifice. For the legal Letter does not make much distinction between the male and the female. Yet it might be understood as Christ in both. In the male, as the leader or guide. For the male is more authoritative than the other. Among females, however, as one become under the law and subject. For the female is always subject and in the second place to the male, if it is true that it is in lesser and humbler measure. Yet the offering is unblemished. And such is Christ. Therefore he said: "The ruler of this world is coming, and he will find nothing in me." And indeed, against the Jews, he demonstrated his divine nature through the fact that he was entirely unblemished, saying: "Who of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?" C Therefore, the holy sacrifice in this regard is unblemished. It was slaughtered before the Lord, by the doors of the tent, when the hands of the one who brought it had been laid upon it. Then, the blood being poured out at the base of the altar, he said it was necessary to burn the entrails as a burnt offering. For the death of the Son has been accomplished in the eyes, as it were, of God and Father, who laid down his own soul for the life of the world. For if he is true who says: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," how would God and Father not deem the death of the Son worthy of his own oversight? For indeed, he deems it worthy of honor and observation; but, on the other hand, he turns away from what is abominable and hateful. D Therefore, that his death is not inglorious, the fact that the Father himself was an eyewitness to it would readily show you. And it was slaughtered at the very sacred doors. For Emmanuel died, opening up for us, as it were, the entrance into the Holy of Holies, and opening the doors of the Church above and in the heavens to those who believe in him. We gain, therefore, in the death of Christ the arrival at last into that holy tabernacle itself, which the Lord pitched, and not man—the heavenly Jerusalem, that city above, the mother of the saints, and the nurse of angels. That the death of Christ will be holy and sacred,
A Migne’s text further indicates this by what it says: "the blood must be poured at the altar." It may, however, signify something else, namely, that He laid down His own soul for the Church. For the altar is a type of the Church, and the blood a type of the soul. Moreover, the dedication—or rather, the consecration—of the inwards (I mean, of the fat, the liver, and the kidneys) indicates once again that all things in Christ are holy, sacred, and fragrant. For they who are skilled in these matters declare that the liver is the seat of the desires or appetites of each person. The kidneys, on the other hand, are a part of the body possessing a discerning function. For they separate what is useful and healthy from what is useless and superfluous. The mind within us performs a similar task. For if it is wise, it rejects what is apt to do harm and very gladly admits what contributes to our benefit. Wherefore the blessed David also sings somewhere, as if in the person of Christ: "Before Thee is all my desire." And again: "For Thou didst possess my kidneys, O Lord." But that Emmanuel was also filled with divine virtue is shown again, as in a type, by the fat itself. For just as fat grows in B animals that are well-kept and well-fed, so I think it is with virtue in a mind that abounds with celestial food. Therefore, Christ is holy and blameless, and filled with virtue—a holy and fragrant, intelligible holocaust, and as it were offered in every form, I mean in the calf, in the ram, and in the goat. For He became a saving sacrifice for us, and gave Himself as a redemption, one for all, who is of equal value to all. Through whom and with whom be glory to God the Father, with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
That we, having become partakers of the mystical blessing, shall be altogether and entirely holy and divine.
The divine disciples, having been deemed noteworthy for the mysteries of our Savior, did not seize the honor for themselves, nor did they present themselves without a calling; but rather they were chosen for the apostolic office and ordained to administer holy things to the whole world through the saving proclamation, that is, the Gospel of Christ. For He who said to them, "Go, teach all nations," made them C brilliant and illustrious teachers. Thus, being most promptly obedient to the Lord's commands, they enlightened the inhabited world; having obtained God and the heavenly Father Himself as their teacher, they made others partakers of the grace. For they remembered well, as was fitting, the commandment which Christ gave them: "Freely you have received, freely give." Therefore, the divine Paul writes thus, declaring the mystery of Christ's incarnation, saying somewhere: "For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." For Christ has become sin for us, D and for our sakes has endured the cross, and has set us free from the condemnation of the law.
He is not, however, A in any way liable to sin. We are not accustomed to think in this way, since he saw no sin at all, being God by nature and having appeared from God the Father, but because he became a sacrifice for sin. "For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us." Therefore we say that he became sin. For he was sacrificed, as I said, so that by his own blood he might acquire the world under heaven. "For we have been bought for a price," according to the Scriptures, "and we are not our own," but his who became sin for us, so that he might rid us of our ancient transgressions and render us holy through communion with his holy flesh, and clearly his blood, too. This very thing the divine law also foretold to us beforehand. For it is written thus in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying: This is the law of sin. In the place where they slaughter the burnt offerings, they shall slaughter the sin offering before the Lord. It is holy of holies. The priest who offers it shall eat it; in a holy place it shall be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of testimony. Everyone who touches its flesh shall be sanctified. And if any of its blood is sprinkled on a garment, whatever is sprinkled upon it shall be washed in a holy place. And the earthen vessel in which it was cooked shall be broken; but if it was cooked in a bronze vessel, he shall scour it and wash it with water. Every male among the priests shall eat of them. They are holy of holies to the Lord." B Understand, then, how he commands the sin, that is, the offering for sin, to be sacrificed. Now this goat was a type of Christ, who for our sake, as I said, became sin. "For he was reckoned among the lawless" and was crucified with robbers, and was called a curse. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." But he humbled himself in these things for our sake economically; yet he was and is holy, not by participation as from another, as we are, but rather naturally as God himself. For through him we believe that creation is sanctified, even if you name angels, or that which is still superior in glory, and that which is higher and above, I mean Thrones and Principalities, and even if you tell me of the Seraphim themselves; yet these could not be sanctified otherwise than by the Father through the Son in the Spirit. Therefore, even if he has become sin, he has remained what he was, C that is, holy by nature as God, and "he does not give the Spirit by measure," according to the voice of John. And that the death of his flesh, having taken place for the destruction of sin, was holy and undefiled, and acceptable to God and Father as if in the order of incense, the law has indicated clearly, saying: "In the place where they slaughter the burnt offerings, they shall slaughter also the sin offering before the Lord." Christ is the burnt offering, that is, whole from his whole being, and not partially, D laid before God as an odor of fragrance.
Therefore, he is in truth the A Holy of Holies. For we have been sanctified in him, and he himself is our entire justification, and even more so the sanctification of the supernal spirits themselves, as I said just now. Furthermore, he says: "The priest who offers it shall eat it." Observe here again that in all matters to be performed, the Church is governed by sacred and divine precepts. For those things which result from the sacrifice belong to him who offers it. Everyone who has been nurtured by the laws and institutions of the Church knows what I mean. That the Church of God is the most convenient place for divine sacrifices, and that the mystery of Christ is necessarily performed therein, is shown not obscurely by those things which I have mentioned, provided one pays attention: "In a holy place it shall be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of testimony."
But at that time, there was one tabernacle throughout the desert, and after that, one temple in Jerusalem, which Solomon also built. And indeed, capital punishment was proposed for those who sacrificed outside this tabernacle. For the holy writing says thus: "A man of the sons of Israel, whoever shall slaughter a calf, B or a sheep, or a goat in the camp, and whoever shall slaughter outside the camp, and shall not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of testimony, so as to offer a gift to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, blood shall be reckoned to that man, as if he had poured out blood; that soul shall be destroyed from among his people." Therefore, it is a transgression and a profanation, and indeed worthy of the death penalty, if one becomes accustomed to living with impious heretics and joins himself to their society. For they sacrifice for sin outside the holy tabernacle, and they do not perform the holy sacrifice in holy places. For just as there was formerly one temple and one tabernacle which represented the dignity of the Church as in types, so too is there one Church. We shall therefore sacrifice for sin as in the holy court, and we shall eat of the holy meats, that is, having become partakers of the mystical blessing, we shall be sanctified. And the law will bear witness, saying: "Everyone who touches the meats thereof shall be sanctified." But the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice is of equal power for the mystical blessing. For it said again: "And upon C whatever garment some of the blood thereof shall have been sprinkled, it shall be washed in a holy place." And what is wonderful if a rational animal, I mean man, is sanctified, when even the vessels themselves that have been taken for holy ministry are sanctified in their own entirely appropriate manner? Therefore they are not taken for common use. For this reason, some of the vessels are washed, and others are broken. For things dedicated to God, how could they be transferred to human uses? But that the communion of the flesh of the sacrifice is holy, and that it is not fitting for any others except only those who are accustomed to resist sins and who strive for virtue with a brave heart, is signified by these words: "Every male among the priests shall eat thereof. D It is a holy of holies unto the Lord." Tell me then, has the law strictly ordered that the female sex be pushed away from the blessing
We do not say this; for it is sanctified along with us. But those things were done in types and shadows. By the male and sacred gender, it was A aptly signifying those who are spiritually strong and holy in Christ. We have been called, therefore, to the participation of that most fragrant offering, as a holy and acceptable race, as a holy nation, as a royal priesthood, young men and virgins, old men with the younger. For in Christ Jesus B there is no male and female, but we are all one, as partaking of the one bread, according to what is written. Come, therefore, let us henceforth with mouths wide open and unceasing voices glorify the King of all and our Redeemer—I mean Christ—by whom and with whom be glory to God and the Father with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
On the Cleansing of Leprosy
Sin has reigned over us, and gained power over those upon the earth, in that the mind of man is diligently prone to evil from his youth, and unrestrainedly chooses to succumb to a downward inclination, having made the glory of continence of no account at all. But God, "being rich in mercy and pity," as it is written, "because of the great love with which He loved us, and when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up, and made us sit in the heavenly places." C For we have attained in Christ a kindness from above, and have washed away base and utterly corrupt sin, being called through faith to sanctification. Moreover, having become partakers of life eternal, we shall be acceptable, and we shall be offered as a "fragrance of sweetness" to God and the Father. For true is the blessed Paul, who writes that "we are the fragrance of Christ to God." For even if sin has tyrannized over us for a time, yet we have emerged from this disgrace and have washed away the filth, and having been rescued by Christ from our former maladies, the holy Scripture will persuade us. D For it is written thus in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: This is the law of the leper, in what day he shall be cleansed; and he shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go forth outside the camp, and the priest shall look, and behold the plague of leprosy is healed from the leper. And the priest shall command, and there shall be taken for the one who has been cleansed two living and clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet yarn, and hyssop. And the priest shall command, and they shall slaughter one of the birds into an earthen vessel over living water. And the living bird he shall take, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet yarn, and the hyssop, and he shall dip them and the living bird into the blood of the bird slaughtered over living water, and shall sprinkle seven times upon the one who has been cleansed from the leprosy, and he shall be clean. And he shall let loose
the living bird into the open field, and the one who has been cleansed shall wash his garments; and he shall shave off all his hair, and wash with water, and he shall be clean. And after these things he shall enter into the camp, and shall dwell outside his house seven days. And it shall be on the seventh day, he shall shave off all his hair: his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows, and he shall shave off all his hair; and he shall wash his garments, and wash his body with water, and he shall be clean. A The literal account, then, is clear enough; and even if one were not to choose to explain it in depth, there is nothing in it that contributes to understanding, unless it be understood spiritually. Come, then, let us set it forth, gracefully translating the infirmity of the letter to the mystery of Christ. But we shall preface a few things that will be necessary for explanation. For leprosy is a disease that happens to some bodies without their will. It is, moreover, by far the most devouring, and it is always in a way self-propagating and becomes aggravated in the members it occupies. It is an utterly incurable evil, which rejects the knowledge of physicians and the remedies applied by those skilled in this art, and is only with difficulty driven out when nature in a way rises up against it, and, with the help of God, repels the damage from itself. Furthermore, the Law commands that the leper be cast out from the camp as unclean. For it is said elsewhere by God to Moses: B "Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that has an issue of seed, and every one that is unclean in his soul." We do not say, however, that the Law punishes diseases of the body. For it would be very absurd for penalties to be exacted from those who are ill against their will, when they rather deserve compassion. But these Mosaic things were engaged in types, bringing forth the truth. For just as leprosy kills the flesh, so sin, when it invades the soul and occupies the human mind with dead works, immediately renders it useless and frigid. I call "dead works," those impure and profane vices of the flesh, which taste of nothing but what is earthly. Hence, in the beginning, we said that we, when we were dead through transgressions, God the Father made alive in Christ. And so, through an obvious thing, the Law leads us to subtle senses. For it casts out from the camp the one infected with leprosy, by which it latently insinuates that it is necessary for those who are dead through sins, and in a way having a mind branded with various marks of disturbances, to depart from the flock of the saints, and be far away from the number of the priests. C For the wicked shall not be gathered with the just, nor the filthy with the pure; nor he who has the stain of sin tenaciously clinging to him, with the sanctified. "For what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?" That it is necessary for those who wish to live piously, for their progress, to avoid the wicked with the greatest zeal, the divinely inspired Scripture will again persuade us. For God says elsewhere to those whom He holds dear: "Go out, go out from the midst of them, and separate yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord." Furthermore, the vessels of the Lord can be understood as those multiform virtues. D Hence also...
the divine Paul says: "Put on the armor of God." Therefore, God, as in the type of the lepers, bars the one who has sinned and is defiled by the multitude of his transgressions from the assembly of the saints. But it was right that some of those who were corrupted by this disease should be liberated and restored thereafter. For we too cease to sin when we transfer our mind to wishing to do and to think of what is better and more desirable. What, then, of the Law? Does it not show the way to those wishing to repent? Does it not open the gates of salvation? Do not suspect this, for the Lord is benevolent and a lover of mankind. But rather hear Him clearly saying: "Return, you who return, and I will heal your bruises." Likewise, through the voice of Ezekiel: "Return and turn yourselves away from all your iniquities, O house of Israel; B and they shall not be to you for a punishment of injustice." What, therefore, is the way of salvation? Who is it that frees those who have sinned from having to be punished? Who is it that redeems and saves them perfectly? Our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, and sanctified us by His own blood.
2. Observe for me, again, the mystery as it is still written in shadows in the Law. For the leper was brought to the priest who was acting according to the Law while he was outside the gate. And when the disease had inclined toward the better, and was about to cease, and seemed to be at its end, C then, I say, the things that contributed to purification were performed, just as they were decreed by the Lawgiver. For a pair of clean birds was taken; and cedar wood, and scarlet that was folded, as in the form of a cord; and also hyssop, which is a type of herb. Then one of the birds was sacrificed over running water, while the other, together with the things we have just mentioned, after being dipped in the water and indeed in the blood of the one that had been killed, while having suffered nothing, was subsequently dismissed. Then the priest, sprinkling with the water seven times the one who had suffered from leprosy, declared him free from the legal filth. Then he shaved the hair, and thereafter he entered blamelessly into the camp, and into his own house, having remained outside for seven days. For we who of old carried around the deadness of D sin, and were stained by the wildness of multiform passions, and were ill as with a spiritual leprosy—for we had wandered, giving worship to created things—we are now brought to Christ, that great, holy, and innocent Priest, according to the voice of the blessed Paul. And we are brought by God and the Father. For Christ, speaking elsewhere to the Jews, said: "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him." For God and the Father brings the infirm through His Son as if by His own power. For He came to heal the brokenhearted, [and to open the eyes of the blind. If, then, the weak and...]
A casting off the infirmity in order to fulfill the things pleasing to God, let us have a heart that loves works, and, clinging firmly to the works of gentleness, let us cultivate a glorious and admirable manner of life, recognizing Him who is by nature and in truth our Master. Let us speak thus, according to the voice of the Psalmist: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with mercy and compassions." Observe, moreover, how he who is afflicted with leprosy is shown to the priest as being outside the gate and very far from the camp. For Christ, having the resemblance of ourselves, visited us who were as if cast out and remaining outside the holy and sacred city—I mean the Church of God—and having visited us, He declared us clean through holy baptism and His own body. For He is offered for us and has been revealed to us as a saving remedy, in that He Himself endured for our sake the death upon the wood. For this is what was shadowed forth for us in the sacred Scriptures: "For two clean birds are taken." And this is a type of Christ B who is from above and from heaven. For the bird is winged. And Emmanuel has descended to us from above and from the heavens. For so He says: "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, the Son of God." And the wise John also writes: "He who comes from above is above all." And the birds are clean. For the Lord is truly clean and undefiled, not knowing sin. And we do not mean by this that we conceive of two Christs, even if two birds are mentioned. But the discourse brings in for us a wise and necessary contemplation. For the Only-Begotten, being God by nature, bore the flesh from the holy Virgin, and is composed, as it were, of two—I mean of the nature from on high and of humanity—ineffably and beyond understanding. Yet there is one Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, Scripture, considering this union of natures, employed two birds for the sacrifice. Wherefore the Law, since it signifies in many ways the mystery of Christ, says that one must also take C "cedar wood," which may well be a type of His holy flesh itself, which did not endure to undergo corruption. For this wood is not subject to rot. Moreover, the hyssop will designate the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, through which we are made fervent in spirit, and the uncleanness within our inward parts is, as it were, dissolved and dried up. For hyssop is a plant by nature hot and apt to purge the phlegmatic and cold uncleanness collected in the inward parts. But Christ, as I said, through the operation of the Spirit, delivers us from the passions that still lie hidden in the mind. Furthermore, this kind of herb is very rightly taken with living water. For we have been baptized "in the Holy Spirit and in fire," as it is written. But this herb, as I said, is of a hot nature, and demonstrates the power of the Spirit. And "scarlet wool" D again declares in itself the manner
of the incarnation of the Only-begotten. For the Word, being God, is entwined, A as it were, with flesh and blood. And the scarlet wool represents flesh and blood; for it appears of such a color, and is so. The bird is therefore slaughtered over living water, in which the one that remained, together with the others, is dipped, and is then released, having suffered no harm, as I said before. For Christ is set forth for our sake; but he was the same both in death and above death. B "For he was put to death in the flesh," as it is written, "but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who were sometimes disobedient." For in that he is understood to have been made man, he underwent death; but in that he is truly life and from life, he appeared superior to death. Therefore, the living bird was dipped into the death of the one that had been slain. The Law signifies enigmatically that, although the Word exists by nature as life and from life, he makes the death of his own flesh his own. For the flesh that was taken up was not another’s, but his own. C And the leper, having been sprinkled seven times with the water, was thereafter released from the causes of being a leper. And Christ, as I said, also renders us clean, sanctifying us abundantly through holy baptism. For I think that the number seven signifies this. And understanding this, the blessed Paul said: "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Therefore, the magnitude of grace, and that which is as it were perfect for cleansing, is signified by the number seven. And the leper who had been cleansed had his hair shaven off. For we, having been cleansed through holy baptism, as it were also lay aside the growths of the flesh—that is, the innate pleasures within us, which are understood in the form of hairs—together with our other transgressions; and Christ works this in us. For the Word himself is living and active D and most sharp, cutting away sins and ridding the mind of the uncleanness that arises from the disease of sin. The leper, therefore, having been shaven, enters at last into the camp; but not yet indeed into his own house. For, having been cleansed, as I said, we are joined to the saints, and pass our lives henceforth with the holy and divine race, and thus we enter even into the house of God, though not yet into the mansions above. For the gift has been reserved for the saints for the age to come. This is why the cleansed person would enter into the camp, having spent seven days, and would then enter into his own house at last. For after the present age, possessors of the cleansing had through Christ, we shall also dwell in the mansions above; and each of the sanctified, as if into his own house, shall dwell in the lot appointed to him. For the rewards will not immediately be bestowed upon those who have believed; but our calling is under good hope and the guarantee of the Spirit. And in his own time, grace will shine forth, which is the end of this hope in Christ, through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
On the Synagogue of the Jews, how it fell through disobedience.
1. A That the Synagogue of the Jews was exceedingly hardened, and indeed disobedient and stubborn of character, God made clear long ago through the voice of Ezekiel, speaking thus: "All the house of Israel are contentious and hard-hearted." Therefore, even the Savior Himself, as One who wished for it to be saved, reproved the inner malice within it, saying: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." For the God of all was eager to save it by ten thousand ways that He willed. But they, being for the most part carried away into an abyss of sin, and having treated the kindness from above with contempt, were carried off by terrible and headlong turns toward ruin and destruction. B Therefore, having ordained through Moses things by which it was possible to be well-led toward the knowledge of virtue and to gain the knowledge of the truth, He also fruitfully applied to them from time to time the predictions of the holy prophets, in order that they might have other guides of the highest excellence, who knew how to regulate them for an illustrious polity, for a life most conformable to law, and for everything worthy of wonder. But it was right for them to kindle thanksgivings to the God of all, to approach their teachers willingly, to treat them with all honor, and then to be very readily led by them to better things, and to be captured by a more noble voice; yet they were hard and obstinate, and were caught suffering from an even more grievous malady. C Consequently, they perished together, and concerning them the prophet Jeremiah says: "The house of Israel is fallen, there is none to raise it up." But consider the matter again, and as it is spoken enigmatically through the writings of Moses. For it is thus in Leviticus: "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, When ye be come into the land of the Canaanites, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in the houses of the land of your possession; and he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house: then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go in to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house; and the priest shall look upon the plague: D and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall; then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days. And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them out of the city into an unclean place." And they shall scrape the house within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they have scraped off without the city into an unclean place; and they shall take other stones that have been hewn, and
shall put them in place of the former stones, and they shall take other dust, and shall plaster the house. But if the contagion should come again, and break out in the house after the stones have been taken out, and after the house has been scraped, and after it has been plastered, and the priest shall enter, and shall see if the contagion has spread in the house, it is a permanent leprosy in the house, it is unclean. And they shall pull down the house, and its timbers, and its stones, and all the dust of the house, and they shall carry it out of the city into an unclean place. B Next, the priest again examines the person who slept or ate or entered in any way into that which was previously judged unclean. For it says: "But if the priest, arriving, shall enter and see, and behold, the contagion has not spread in the house after the house has been plastered, then the priest shall cleanse the house, because the contagion is healed. And he shall take for the cleansing of the house two clean, living birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet yarn, and hyssop. And he shall kill one bird in an earthen vessel over running water, and he shall take the cedar wood, and the scarlet yarn, and the hyssop, and the living bird, and shall dip them into the blood of the bird killed over the running water, and shall sprinkle the house C seven times. And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet yarn, and he shall send forth the living bird out of the city into the field, and shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean." The whole mystery concerning the Synagogue of the Jews is clearly revealed to us in these things, as well as all that has happened to it from the beginning to the end, and what shall yet come to pass through Christ. Come then, once more, let us carefully examine each detail as far as possible, and breaking through the surface of the letter, let us strive to lay bare the beauty of the contemplation enclosed within it.
2. Now, the leprosy that occurs in the human body is an affliction which cannot be repelled by the arts of physicians, but yields only—together D with other diseases—to the great and all-powerful right hand and the creative power of God, to which all things must yield. In those whom it has once seized, the flesh and skin appear with a different aspect than before. For when various colors appear on the surface, they counterfeit nature itself, and changing as they do into what is contrary to nature, as far as the appearance of the body is concerned, they also show us the vicissitude of our own will and purpose, and the change from better to worse. For many often fall away from a good intention and propriety, and by a varied wickedness they stain their own souls, as if preserving for themselves the appearance of both: for they do not completely lose everything good, nor yet do they fall entirely into complete wickedness and perversion. Such is the state that sometimes exists in us, and the human habit and will, and therefore…
the divine Scripture often brings forth the leper as a figure. And when it wishes to display the individual manner of a person, as if upon a tablet, it takes the person of one man and sets him in the middle. But when it wishes to signify a state of this kind—whether of a nation, or of a city, or finally of a region—then it brings in the form of a house, because it is inclusive of those dwelling within it, and it makes the declaration in terms of a multitude. B Therefore, hearing of a leprous house or family, you should understand the whole Synagogue of the Jews, clearly corrupted by its own vices and disturbances, and not very much regarding the things predicted to it divinely by the prophets, but rather inclining itself toward those things that were for pleasure in the doing, rather than those which bore the form of virtue and honesty. It is said, moreover, to be announced to the priest, so that the plague of leprosy might be discerned in some house; and nowhere do we say that the Lawgiver commands one accusing a house to go to another priest, as if someone were to demand a potion from a doctor they just happened to meet. But since we have determined that the congregation of the Jews was taken with leprosy, come, let us consider in order, as much as we are able, who this announcer of the leprosy is, and who, in turn, is the priest.
Let the person of the one announcing the disease come forth: the choir of the holy prophets, who even announced it to the high priest of all and the ruler of our souls, that is, Christ. And even before the incarnation they proclaimed the passions of the Jewish madness, and they inveighed against the impiety and corruption of their morals—not moved by hatred and malice toward them, but conquered by reverence for the Giver of all things; confessing these faults of theirs with tears, and at the same time exhorting them. Receive, therefore, the morals of the Jews, and the blessed prophet Jeremiah, who laments the leprosy and who was himself terribly attacked by its bites; for thus he says in prayer: C "Our sins have stood against us, O Lord. Do thou this for thy name's sake, because our sins are many before thee. We have sinned against thee. O expectation of Israel, O Lord, and thou shalt save in the time of evils. Why hast thou become as a stranger in the land, and as a native turning aside into an inn? Wilt thou be as a man sleeping, or as a man who cannot save? Yet thou art in us, O Lord, and thy name is called upon us; do not forget us." And elsewhere: "Woe is me, my soul, for the pious has perished from the earth, and there is none among men to set things right. All judge in blood; every man afflicts his neighbor with tribulation. They prepare their hands for evil." For in such lamentations of the prophets we hear the leprosy of Israel being deplored. D The priest surely commands such a house to be purged. For God’s judgment upon our crimes is to be feared. For it is right that the guilty be punished. In which evils, indeed, a purgation is commanded to be embraced, which God, endowed with kindness, grants—the leprosy sent upon them is to be wiped away; and thus it is possible to avoid the justice of the observing God, so that they may obey his word: "Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall the thoughts of thy labors abide in thee?"
And by the "thoughts of labors," some rightly understand those afflictions which are brought upon us as penalties for our sins. Therefore, A consider the priest commanding the causes to be removed, because of which you may understand that someone has justly fallen into punishments.
3. Then the Scripture says: "And the priest shall enter to inspect the house, and he shall look at the infection, and behold the infection is in the walls of the house." And again: "The priest going out of the house to the door of the house, the priest shall shut up the house for seven days." After the separation made out of goodness, and since it was necessary for it to be purified for seven days, the malice, appearing again in the figure of leprosy, has B rightly called the priest, who bears the person of God in these things, to a reasonable indignation. For this reason, once again having inspected the infection—that is, the signs and symbols of the disease—he shut off the house for seven full days. For, being grieved—very rightly so—at the violations against the law by those belonging to Israel, although God is compassionate, He sent all of them into captivity, delivering them into the hand of the Babylonians for entire years, seventy in number, having reckoned one day for ten. He says that the days of the shutting off of the house are seven, reckoning the day as ten years, according to that which was said to the prophet Ezekiel: "I have set a day for a year for thee." C The angel also who prays for the Synagogue in Zechariah seals this word, saying: "O Lord Almighty, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, which Thou hast despised? This is the seventieth year." Then he says again, that "The priest shall return on the seventh day." But you are not to understand the return of the priest in these things as anything else than the conversion to the nations in the incarnation of the Son of God, as the Lord testifies by the voice of the same prophet: "I will return to Jerusalem in mercy, and My house shall be rebuilt in it, saith the Lord Almighty, and a measuring line shall be stretched over Jerusalem." And again, as in that D passage: "How shall I make Ephraim an equal? I will protect thee, O Israel. As Adama I will make thee, and as Boim. My heart is turned within Me, My repentance is troubled; I will not act according to the wrath of My anger. I will not fail so that Ephraim should be blotted out. For I am God, and not man; the Holy One in thee." When, therefore, he says that the priest returns on the seventh day to see the house, and "behold, the infection has spread in the walls of the house," and the priest shall command, and they shall take out the stones in which the infection is, and they shall cast them outside the city. And after other things: "And they shall take other hewn stones, and they shall put them instead of those stones." For after the release from past guilt, and the Synagogue of the Jews having again been examined by God, who searches all our things—and, as was fitting, no longer infected by leprosy, and clearly having ceased from its old wickedness—it is found
A not to have made His anger fall upon all, but only upon those who were the causes of it suffering and the occasion of the disease. He calls these "stones," showing them to be certain parts of the whole house, that is, of the nation. These were, in part, some of the kings of those times who led the people astray into other forms of worship, and in part some of the false prophets who spoke from their own hearts, as it is written, and who paralyzed the piety of those who heard them. He orders that these be removed from the building, signifying their separation, or rather their expulsion into destruction. B Such is what was said by God concerning Jeconiah: "Earth, hear the words of the Lord. Write this man as a man cast out." And concerning the false prophets: "Therefore I have mowed down your prophets. I have killed them by the word of my mouth." And again that saying: "For this reason, the leaders of the people shall be cast out from the house of their delight, because of their wicked practices they have been thrust out." And again: "Because of uncleanness, it has been corrupted with corruption." C But the fact that other, pure and hewn stones are brought in to replace those that have been taken away signifies that, at the proper time, some are raised up by the counsel of God who support the house of Israel and hold it in a stable and sound place—namely, kings, prophets, or holy men. As it is said by God to the blessed Isaiah: "Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: Go into the storehouse, to Shebna the treasurer, and say to him: What are you doing here, and what is it to you here? For you have hewn out for yourself a memorial here, and you have made for yourself a memorial on high, and you have carved out for yourself a tabernacle in the rock. Behold, now the Lord Sabaoth shall eject and cast out a man, and will take away your stole, and your glorious crown, and will cast you into a land great and vast, and there you shall die. And your beautiful chariot he will turn into dishonor, and the house of your master into a trampling ground. And you shall be removed from your stewardship and from your place. And it shall be in that day, I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your stole, and I will give him your crown, and I will give into his hands your power and your stewardship, and he shall be as a father to those dwelling in Jerusalem." D Moreover, he adds: "They shall take dust and plaster the house," having used "they shall plaster" in place of "they shall smear." This signifies the consolation given to Israel through the holy prophets, who, by smearing the sinners with beautiful and good words, urged them to come willingly to the will of God and to wash off all defilement, following instead those things which that legislator deemed worthwhile for his followers to know. Such is that which was said to them by one of the saints: "Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord God Almighty shall be with you." And after this: "But if the leprosy shall return again and break out in the house, after the stones have been rooted out, and after the house has been scraped and plastered; and the priest shall enter, and see if the touch has spread in the house. It is a persistent leprosy in the house, it is unclean." And
A they shall tear down the house, and its wood, and its stones, and they shall carry all the dust of the house outside the city into an unclean place. For when every method of healing had been devised for those out of Israel, and the stones flecked with the scab, though removed, were of no benefit, and the anointing—that is, the exhortation—by the prophets proved useless, then the priest again enters to inspect the leprous house. For the Only-Begotten entered into this world in a body. When He became man, how great and what kind of transformation from its ancient depravity into a much better way of life would the Synagogue show, if one examined it closely! But since He encountered it still held captive by the afflictions of old and suffering from persistent impurity, He commands that it henceforth be torn down and cast out into an unclean place. B For the entire framework of the Jews according to the Law has been dissolved, and the nation has been scattered into every unclean place, according to what was said by the prophets: “And I will scatter them into every wind,” and “I will winnow them to all the nations.” You shall rightly accept for this purpose also that which was said by the Savior concerning the temple among them: “See all these things? Amen, I say to you, there shall not be left here stone upon stone that shall not be destroyed.” He adds to these, “And he who enters the house, all the days that it is set apart, shall be unclean until evening. And he who sleeps in the house shall wash his garments, and shall be unclean until evening. And he who eats in the same house, in the same manner.” In this He clearly indicates that whoever is joined to the Jews in any way, by holding the same opinions, shall also necessarily be a partaker of their impurity. C Then, He again brings in the priest to inspect the leprous building: “If, upon arriving, the priest enters,” He says, “and looks, and behold, the plague has not spread in the house after the house was scraped, it is because the plague is healed.” For the Jewish Synagogue was torn down as unclean because it raved against Christ, and it fell away from the friendship of God. Yet, having prolonged its time in this state, “until the fullness of the nations should enter,” according to the word of Paul, it will obtain mercy from Christ. For as God once more inspects it—in a way hidden, as only God can—it will again be brought in the last times unto righteousness, that is, the righteousness which is from faith and charity towards D God. The High Priest therefore approaches to look upon it again, and when He finds it better, He will cleanse it at once and receive it, as was foretold by the holy prophets: “In that day, says the Lord, I will gather her that is broken, and I will take up her that has been cast off, and those whom I had rejected. And I will make her that is broken a remnant.” And elsewhere: “For many days the children of Israel shall sit without a king, and without a prince, and without sacrifice, and without an altar, and without priesthood, and without manifestations. And after these things the children of Israel shall return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and they shall be amazed at the Lord and at His blessings.”
A When, therefore, the priest, he says, inspects the house afflicted with leprosy and cleanses it; take, he says, to purify the house, two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet thread, and hyssop. And again: “He shall dip the living bird into the blood of the bird that was slain in the living water, and in the living bird, and in the cedar wood, and in the hyssop, and in the scarlet thread, and he shall send the living bird out of the city into a clean field; and he shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.”
4. Everything here again plainly brings around to us the mystery of our Savior, and the purification through holy baptism. For He commands that two living and clean birds be taken, so that you may understand through the birds the heavenly man who is at once God, divided into two natures, so far as concerns the reason appropriate to each. For the Word was He who shone forth from God the Father, in the flesh which is from a woman, yet not divided. For Christ is one from both natures. B And for this reason, two birds are taken, and are understood again as being both together, yet living and clean. For the Word Himself, by Himself, is the provider of life and of all purity, as is the temple from the Virgin which has the living Word within itself. For the body was His own, and He did not wear a foreign garment. Hence, there is one and the same Jesus Christ. Furthermore, besides the birds, He commands that cedar wood be taken, so that you may understand from it that the body of Christ is incorrupt. For it knows no corruption, just as the cedar does not know rot. But so that the holy body of Christ may be known to be incorruptible, a very credible discourse concerning His resurrection is thereby introduced. C But the scarlet thread fully signifies our confession concerning the death of the Savior. And indeed it is said somewhere concerning the Church in the Song of Songs: “Like a scarlet thread are your lips, my sister, my bride.” For because the lips of the Church always proclaim the salvation through the blood of Christ, and command those who approach to make a profession of faith upon it, it rightly compares her lips to a scarlet thread; and the participation in the mystical blessing also contains a proclamation of the death and resurrection of Christ Himself. D Which things even those initiated into Christ are persuaded to confess beforehand, and then they are brought to holy baptism, and we perfect them in the blood of the eternal covenant, as it is written. For indeed it signifies the confession of faith in the blood of Christ through the scarlet thread, but through the hyssop, the fervor of the Holy Spirit. For this herb is hot, and washes away coldness and cleanses diseases. For such is the energy and power of the Holy Spirit in us. “He shall take,” he says, “to cleanse the leprous house, the living bird…”
and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered, over living water, and shall sprinkle the house with them seven times. And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the living water, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet thread.” That the Synagogue of the Jews could not otherwise be washed from the filth of infidelity, and be cleansed of the stain of their various transgressions, the law again indicates to us, except only by the blessing from Christ, and by confession and faith in Him, perfected, evidently, and sanctified through holy baptism. Observe, therefore, how Christ is depicted for us complete through the things mentioned, and how faith and confession in Him are shown. For by the living bird, we understand the Word, who is ever-living, vivifying, and heavenly; but by the slaughtered bird, the precious blood of the temple that suffered. For we say that He suffered B in the flesh, yet as in His own body. And by the incorruptible wood, we perceive the flesh that is incorruptible; by the hyssop, the Spirit; by the scarlet, the confession in the blood of the Testament; by the living water, the saving grace of baptism, which even in the Passion itself our Savior’s holy side beautifully displayed, sending forth water together with blood: with which He says the house must be sprinkled, that it may also be cleansed, according to the word of Ezekiel the prophet: “I will take you from the nations, and will gather you out of the lands; and I will pour clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed.” And he commands that it be sprinkled not once, but seven times. “For where sin abounded, grace did superabound.” C Then to these the lawgiver adds again, that he shall also let the living bird go outside the city into the field, and shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean. The “house” we lately named, we have understood as a type of the Synagogue of the Jews, or rather of the whole nation. And we shall say that the city is the containership of many houses. You will recognize the inhabited world to be such, holding many races of men, and circumscribed by the firmament as if by a wall; beyond which, at length, the wide and clean field of the heavenly realms is understood. The lawgiver, therefore, teaches through the bird released into the field outside the city, the departure of Christ from the world, and His ascension D into the heavens. For having come to God and the Father, He will make atonement for all of us and for the Synagogue of the Jews, and we shall be cleansed. For as the most wise disciple John says: “We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” Rightly, therefore, He Himself said to the Jews: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.” Through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory and power with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.
On the fact that Aaron does not always enter into the Holy of Holies
1. A Since the Only-begotten was God by nature and born of God the Father, He lowered Himself to that which we are, and appeared on earth according to the Scriptures, and conversed among men. And this was for no other reason than that, as the divine Paul says, He might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, to propitiate the sins of the people. For the Law given long ago to the ancients through Moses via the mediation of angels appointed men as priests, who labored under the common infirmity of nature, and for this reason they were obligated—just as they did for the people—to offer sacrifice also for their own lapses. But the word of the oath, which is after the Law, "appointed the Son perfect for ever; whence he is also able to save to the uttermost those who approach God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them." B And Christ does not intercede for Himself, not in the least. And the reason is readily at hand: because He committed no sin; rather, it was for us. And the divine Paul clearly explains this to us, writing about Him: "Whom God set forth as a propitiation by faith in His blood." And for this reason he says that He entered into the Holy of Holies once, having found eternal redemption, and having perfected by one sacrifice, and for all time, those who are being sanctified. Hence we have been saved, since He Himself takes away our sins and suffers on our behalf. For He laid down His own soul willingly for us, although He was raised again. For He was God by nature, and is in the heavens at the right hand of the Father, "always living to intercede for the saints," as I said just now. C And these things have been said by me again as from a legal shadow; how this is the case, I shall clearly explain. For it is written in Leviticus: "And the Lord said to Moses: Speak to Aaron your brother, that he may not enter at all times into the sanctuary within the veil before the propitiatory, which is on the ark of the testimony, lest he die. For I will appear in a cloud upon the propitiatory." For it was necessary, I say, it was necessary that Aaron should represent the image and type of the priesthood of Christ, and therefore he was not permitted to enter into the Holy of Holies at every hour, that is, at any time, in order to sanctify the dignity of this mystery. D For Christ, having entered once, as I said, found eternal redemption. It is therefore a transgression against the truth itself, by means of those things which are in the types, if Aaron should enter into the Holy of Holies more often than once a year, but rather always and whenever it is opportune. Therefore God commanded him that this act should be observed, lest he die. Indeed, if a capital punishment was established for him who transgresses the shadow and strikes against the type of the truth, what kind of punishment then will await those who sin against the truth itself, that is, against Christ? Which—
A indeed the Jews do not receive, but rather in various ways they deform and taint it, even though He manifestly says, "I am the truth," that is, the fulfillment of the types and figures of the Law. For Christ is the end of the law and the prophets. For thus writes to us the most learned and most holy Paul. Aaron is therefore forbidden from making entry into the Holy of Holies at all times, so that the dignity of the mystery might remain inviolate and intact, and shine forth to us even from those very shadows. Therefore, the entry was made once and at one time. But in what way it ought to be done, so that one does not stray from what is proper, the Legislator adds in these words: B "Thus shall Aaron enter into the holy place. With a calf from the herd for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering; and he shall be clothed in a holy linen tunic, and there shall be a linen breeches upon his flesh, and he shall be girded with a linen sash, and he shall put on a linen turban. These are holy garments; and he shall wash his whole body in water, and shall put them on. And from the congregation of the children of Israel he shall receive two goats from the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall present the calf which is for his own sin, and shall make atonement for himself and C for his house. And he shall take the two goats, and shall set them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of testimony; and Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one for the Lord, and one for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the lot for the Lord fell, and shall offer it for a sin offering; and the goat upon which the lot of the scapegoat fell, he shall set it alive in the sight of the Lord, to make atonement over it, so as to send it away for a release, and send it forth into the wilderness." D In these words he explains to us the manner of the sacrifice. Then Aaron brought forward the calf for his own sin and for his house. After the calf had been slain, and also the ram had been made a burnt offering according to the law proper to it, "And he shall take," he says, "the censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar that is before the Lord. And he shall fill his hands with incense of fine composition, and shall bring it within the veil, and shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the vapor of the incense shall cover the mercy seat that is over the testimonies, and he shall not die. Afterwards, he shall take of the blood of the calf, and shall sprinkle with his finger the mercy seat; toward the east he shall sprinkle seven times with his finger from the blood." He further adds to these: "And he shall slay the goat for the sin of the people before the Lord, and shall bring in of its blood within the veil; and he shall do with its blood in the manner he did with the blood of the calf." And all these things indeed he commanded to be done, I say, for the sake of making atonement for the uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and for all their sins. But they were anointed with the blood≫
of the calf, and indeed also of the goat, not only the mercy seat, and the inner tabernacle, that is, the Holy of Holies, but also the altar of burnt offerings itself, in the first A tabernacle. For he says again: "And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord, and make atonement for it; and he shall take of the blood of the calf, and of the blood of the goat, and shall put it upon the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle upon it of the blood with his finger seven times, and shall cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleannesses of the children of Israel." And again he brings forward: "And Aaron shall bring the live goat, and shall lay his two hands upon the head of the live goat. And he shall confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their injustices, and all their sins. And he shall put them upon the head of the live goat, and shall send it away by the hand of a man ready for it into the wilderness. And the goat shall take upon itself their iniquities into an inaccessible land, and he shall send the goat into the wilderness."
2. These things, then, having been decreed in types for a time, stand thus, and were indeed so performed. But since the shadow has passed away, and the time of amendment has arrived, come now, let us, using more subtle and elegant thoughts, transfer the scope of the Law to the mystery of Christ. B "For Christ our Lord has entered into the Holy of Holies once for all, having found eternal redemption." But [it is] in the blood of the everlasting covenant, and not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, that he wipes away the sin of the world. For he was sacrificed not for his own sin, but for ours. We shall therefore follow the shadows of the Law quite clearly. For it was indeed, and very strongly, C fitting, or rather necessary, that the divine Aaron should offer sacrifices for his own transgressions; for one ought not to think of him as being without sin, since he was a man. But in Christ no such thing falls; far from it, since he, as God, is by his very nature free from sin. Nay, it is truly in him and through him that there is also the purification of the holy ones themselves—I mean the priests, and indeed the people as well. For look at how Aaron prefigures in the sacrifices for himself the sacrifice understood in Christ and the intelligible odor of sweetness. For the calf and the ram were for a burnt offering. But the calf is understood again as Christ. For those things which are offered for the holy ones to God are abundant, and the modes of such sacrifices are very rich. The calf is a sacred animal, and stands pre-eminent D above all others suitable for sacrifice. Therefore, the calf would signify to us the perfection of the sacrifice. And the ram is again offered for a burnt offering, because our Lord Jesus Christ has become to God and Father an odor of sweetness, inasmuch as he has dissolved in himself the abomination and foulness of the sin of the world. But observe how it is prescribed to Aaron that, at the times when he enters the Holy of Holies, and performs the sacrifices for his transgressions with care, he should not be seen in the habit of the high priesthood;
A but it says he shall put on a linen tunic that has been sanctified, and a linen breeches shall be upon his skin, and he shall be girded with a linen sash, and he shall put on a linen turban; these garments are holy, and all his body shall be washed with water. But this habit was customary for all priests according to the Law. What reasonable, or rather, what true account can we then provide for this? For it was not fitting that Aaron, while sacrificing for his own transgressions, should appear in the form of Christ, who knew no sin. For the dress most suited to him, and the very fashion of the high priesthood, imprinted the beauty of the kingship and priesthood of our Savior. And that it is impossible for anyone to be able to enter into the Holy of Holies, or into the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, unless they have first been purified by the water of regeneration, the Law clearly signifies, commanding Aaron to wash himself with water when he is about to enter the Holy of Holies.
He also commanded that coals of fire should be taken from the altar itself and carried inside, that is, inside the veil. And he further commands them to make a full handful of fine incense. When this is brought to its end, he says, the vapor of the incense shall cover the mercy seat which is upon the testimonies. B This too was a type of Christ, who was sacrificed as a calf and burnt as a ram, and who fills the whole holy tabernacle, that is, the Church, with intelligible fragrance, even as it will be said by us: "Thy name is oil poured forth. Therefore the young maidens have loved thee and drawn thee. We will run after thee in the odor of thy ointments."
But come, let us draw our discourse up to the beginning, for thus the explanation of our themes will rightly hold together for us. A calf, then, and a ram were brought for sacrifice on behalf of Aaron; but two goats were brought for the people, as well as a ram for a whole burnt offering. For it is written thus: "And he shall cast lots upon the goats: one for the Lord, and one for the scapegoat." And it is necessary to say what mystery might be in these. Some, indeed, think that one of the goats was given and released as a sacrifice to some scapegoat and unclean demon in the wilderness; C but we say that this opinion is filled with absurd superstition, and is not free from the error that came into the Greek world. Nay more—for I will add this without fear—that which is even worse, we would find the Law to be an instructor of sin against God, the author of all, even though in many ways it recalls us from the polytheistic error and points out the one Lord of all by nature, and is accustomed to lead us into the recognition of the truth. For someone of those accustomed to think rightly might say: "Why does it command that the goat, which I say had been brought to God, should be released as a sacrifice and assigned to a malignant power that is in fact opposed to God?" And what utility shall we find rendered by Aaron, when he has laid his hands upon the goat D
A and accused it of the sins of the children of Israel? Would not this matter, then, appear to be filled with the most extreme delirium, and to be not at all removed from the impiety of the Greeks and the perversity of thoughts? And for whom or how can what bears upon its face so manifest a condemnation still be ambiguous?
3. What then, precisely, was the act performed? Two goats were brought forward, beautiful and equal in size to one another, both of the same age, of the same color, and in no way inferior to one another, nor differing in value; lots were then inscribed with the two names of the goats, as it seemed good to the lawgiver, signifying them quite clearly. For one was named "for the Lord," B and the other "for the Averter" (the scapegoat). Since, therefore, the goats were named—the one for the Lord, and the other for the Averter, because it was to be sent away; for the name was derived from this—we shall understand the term "Averter" not to mean a demon, but we shall understand the animal itself to be so designated. And the one for the Lord—for this, as I said, was the name of one of the goats—was slaughtered in a manner befitting it. It sanctified with its blood the innermost tabernacle, and also the altar of burnt offerings which was outside, upon which they also performed the sacrifices according to the law. But the other, that is to say, the Averter, was sent away C into the inaccessible wilderness, after Aaron had confessed over it the sins of the children of Israel. Christ is signified by both: he died, indeed, as a man and was sacrificed for us in the form of a goat. For the goat was slaughtered for the remission of sins, sanctifying the Church, which is considered in a type of the innermost tabernacle, and indeed those also who were under the law. For, as I said, even the altar that was according to the law was sanctified by the blood of the goat. But without any dispute, that which is lesser is blessed by that which is greater. Therefore, there is no perfection in the law, nor can D the legal worship have the power to sanctify anyone. For it necessarily requires Christ, who has the power to perfect and who sanctifies with His own precious blood those who practice the legal worship. Hence, the divine Paul, concerning both himself and those called from the circumcision, says somewhere: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, and we have believed in Jesus Christ," so that, manifestly, we might receive justification from Him. He was therefore sacrificed for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He rose again, and ascended into the region inaccessible to us—that is, into heaven—as if bearing away our sins. For He Himself, the Scripture says, takes away our sins and suffers for us. This, I think, is the Averter. For He was sent away, as if from those things concerning us, into the city above, to appear now in the presence of God for us. And the blessed John affirms this for us, writing: "Little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” A It is, therefore, pleasing to God that we should be cleansed in Christ, and healed by his stripe. He himself is the advocate for us, and he has migrated into a region inaccessible to men, of which the desert may be a type. For he went into heaven as our precursor, and opened for us a new and living way, introducing us into the inner tabernacle. B Therefore, Christ is the emissary, like the goat, bearing our sins. For the goat, as I have said, was slaughtered for sins. But the fact that the goats were in every respect equal and similar to one another, signified hiddenly that Christ is always the same. For since it is impossible for a goat once slaughtered to revive, it would have seemed to be some prodigy, and nothing else. But God is not a lover of portents, although he is able to perform all things miraculously. And therefore, by an admirable plan, two were taken, which agreed with each other in every way in their similarity. Just as also happened in the cleansing of leprosy, where the lawgiver commanded that two little birds be offered, one of which was slaughtered, and the other released into the desert. For by ten thousand most evident examples the law instructs us in the mystery of Christ; C through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory and power, with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, BOOK OF GLAPHYRA ON NUMBERS
Of Christ and the Synagogue of the Jews
That the wretched Jews have used an unbridled and savage tongue against Christ, they might be convicted in many ways D
A That this matter did not go unpunished for them, one might know even from the events themselves. For Israel, who was the firstborn and outstanding on this account in glorious renown, once beloved and chosen, has been placed behind the Gentiles and has become among the last, or rather, wrapped in every evil. And the Lord foreannounced this to them through the voice of Hosea, saying: "Woe to them, because they have departed from me. Woe to them, because they have transgressed against me. I have redeemed them, but they have spoken lies against me." There is nothing so absurd that they have not dared to say. For they have spoken evil without considering that which is written: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that rule it shall eat its fruits." But since they have acted wantonly against Him, letting their tongue loose into unbridled slander, as I have just said, on this account they have also fallen away from the hope in Him, as those who do not listen to Him saying: "This is thy lot and thy portion, namely, that ye do not believe me, saith the Lord." B Wherefore, that this disease of the tongue has been a charge against them, and that they were about to pay heavy penalties for their raving against Christ, we shall understand most excellently from what is written in the book of Numbers. It runs as follows: "And Maria and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of the Ethiopian woman whom he took: for he had taken an Ethiopian woman. And they said: Hath the Lord spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard. Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men that were upon the earth. And the Lord said immediately to Moses, and Aaron, and Maria: Come out you three to the tabernacle of testimony. And they three came out to the tabernacle of testimony. And the Lord descended in the pillar of the cloud, and stood at the door of the tabernacle of testimony; and Aaron and Maria were called, and they both went forth. And the Lord said to them: Hear my words. If there be a prophet among you to the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream. It is not so with my servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house. For I will speak to him mouth to mouth, and in a vision, and not by dark speeches, and he hath seen the glory of the Lord. Why therefore were you not afraid to speak evil against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and they went away: and the cloud also departed from the tabernacle: and behold Maria was leprous as snow. And Aaron looked upon Maria, and behold she was leprous. D And Aaron said to Moses: I beseech thee, my lord, lay not upon us a sin, because we have been ignorant as to whom we have sinned against. Let it not be as a thing dead, as an abortive that is cast out of the mother's womb, and that devoureth half the flesh of its own. And Moses cried to the Lord, saying: O God, I beseech thee, heal her. And the Lord said to Moses: If her father had spat upon her face, ought she not to be ashamed? Let her be separated seven days without the camp, and after that she shall be called again. And Maria was separated without the camp seven days, and the people did not mo-
move until Maria was cleansed. A These things, too, are akin to those already mentioned. For it is not far removed from the contemplation found in them, and it possesses a thought that is, as it were, sisterly and naturally conjoined to them. For it speaks of the same mystery, and introduces the ignominy of the Jewish Synagogue in those matters in which it has acted insolently toward Him. The mode of the offenses differs in a small degree. For in the former cases, the Synagogue was suffering from leprosy, and was unclean, corrupting itself through many and various failings. But in these matters, our discourse portrays the crimes of the insolence directed solely at Christ, and sketches the swelling pride of the Jews, while demonstrating, on the contrary, the meekness of Him who says: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart." B Furthermore, it introduces the kindness of Him who judges justly, who does not rage against sinners forever or with infinite anger, but who wounds in such a way that, after the plague, He heals and restores to health. Therefore, the entire scope of the things proposed here revolves around what I have stated briefly and in summary. Now, however, pursuing each of the things said part by part, we shall extract the meaning hidden within them, with God opening the door to our discourse, He who says to those hoping in Him: "And I will give you treasures that are dark, hidden, and invisible, I will open them to you."
B 2. Aaron and Maria, then, have murmured against the all-wise Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had taken, and they said: "Has the Lord spoken only to Moses? Has He not spoken also to us?" They accuse Moses with these two charges: first, because he took a wife, the Ethiopian, I say; and secondly, because of this, saying, "Has the Lord spoken only to Moses? Has He not spoken also to us?" For in the first, he is considered to be under a charge of transgression of the law; C and in the second, it is said that he has not been placed in very high esteem, nor that he has received any grace exceptional beyond the others, if indeed God is seen to have spoken to others as well. But we shall speak in order, assigning the first place to the first accusation; and thus, again, from this we shall transfer the things that are in types to Christ Himself. Moses, therefore, had taken a wife long ago, and had made the Midianite his consort—the daughter of Jethro, I mean. But after no small time had passed, he took an Ethiopian woman, D both an alien and dark-skinned. And this, although the legislator had clearly proclaimed that the sons of Israel should not at all mingle with aliens. For it is thus written: "Thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son, nor shalt thou take his daughter as a wife for thy son." For this reason, Moses is judged by Aaron and Maria as a transgressor of the law, since they were—as is likely—ignorant of the mystery beautifully adumbrated through him as in a type; which, as far as it may be possible, we shall place clearly before our eyes, by beautifully translating the nature of the matter itself to Christ Himself, to whom we shall now assign the person of Moses. For Christ is the legislator and the mediator of God and men, just as he too was. For indeed, even here he signifies to us Him.
A For the Lord your God will raise up to you a Prophet from among your brethren, like me. And Aaron shall be taken for the form of the priesthood of the Jews, and Miriam shall fulfill the role of the Synagogue. The seniors of the Jews therefore accused our Savior Christ, and the Synagogue itself along with them, charging Him with the transgression of divine commands, in that they said: "If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath." They were also gnashing their teeth in another way, because He was betrothing to Himself the black one, that is, the Church of the Gentiles, and was in a certain manner taking her in marriage after the first one, that is, the Israelite woman, who was again the Synagogue. Now, that they were gnashing their teeth because the custom of their vain observance—or otherwise the things B spoken in figures by Moses—was being abrogated, it would not be difficult for one to understand who has been even slightly versed in the evangelical writings. That He was again betrothing the Church of the Gentiles, which was still black because of the darkness of her mind—for the true light, which knows how to illuminate and to render white its appearance, was not yet in her—one could gather the proof from the prophets even very easily. But it appears to me more fitting to demonstrate it through the dispensation of our Savior. For when they were foreigners, He preached to the Samaritans, and in them He laid, as it were, a beginning and a foundation for the calling of the Gentiles. But that the Gentiles were foreign and separated from the flock of the Jews, anyone could perceive from this C without difficulty. For when sending out His own disciples to announce the kingdom of heaven: "Do not go," He says, "into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter into the city of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Do you see how He placed those outside the sheep of the house of Israel? Therefore, before He repudiated the Israelite woman, that is to say, the Synagogue, and while He still seemed to be dwelling with her, He did, in a certain manner, betroth and marry the black, foreign woman, that is, the Church of the Gentiles. For this reason, also discussing with the Jews, He said: "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." D Nay, even there, a little later, reproving them more vehemently as incredulous, when they were openly questioning Him, saying: "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly," Jesus answered them: "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in the name of my Father, these testify of me. But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep." For He was already calling those from the Gentiles His own sheep. At which the Pharisees, being exceedingly gnashed and angered, as if He were loving foreigners and making the divine law of no account, and accusing Him, were saying: "Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a devil?" For, they were saying, if you understood the things that are of the Samaritans, and were a lover of the Greeks and of foreigners, you would certainly never have associated yourself at all with the Gentiles. And unless the same devil were also in you...
for they were accustomed to call idolaters demoniacs on account of the devil who was in them—you would not have made, they say, in any word the transgression of the legal precepts. And [it is clear] that what was done through Christ is much rather a fulfillment of the law, and not a transgression, according to what was said by Him: "I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it" (Matt. v, 18). For it was a transformation of the letter alone toward the truth. Such then is the manner of the accusation concerning the "black" [i.e., the dark charges], and the image of the perversity in Christ, as it will be understood in the accounts concerning Moses; but we shall introduce the neighbor and sister insult to this, again transforming the meaning of what is said from the type to the truth. "For God," he says, "did not speak to Moses alone; He has spoken also to B us" (Num. xii, 2). The word is from arrogance, the voice from an empty puffing of pride. For it was surely necessary that those who think rightly should not altogether hasten to ascend to an equal measure with the one who justly heard: "I knew you above all, and you have found favor before me" (Exod. xxxiii, 21), but rather to offer thanks for the gifts with which they were honored, not overstepping the order ordained from above, nor yet snatching for themselves the honor so given. Which would justly be considered to lack nothing of the ultimate arrogance. But consider again our Lord Jesus Christ, manifesting to the Jews the scope and intention of God and the Father, which was naturally known to Him alone, by saying: "I do not speak from myself, but the Father who sent me, He has given me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak" (John xii, 43). And again: "The words that I speak are not mine, but His who sent C me" (John xiv, 10). Then when the impious Scribes and Pharisees were puffed up with boldness and boasted immoderately of their fathers, as if God had spoken to them alone, for this reason it came about that they persevered in disbelief. For they say: "We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this man, we do not know where He is from" (John ix, 29). Do you see, then, how through saying that they knew full well that God spoke to Moses, they say, as it were, that ancient thing and in harsher words: "Has God and the Father spoken to Christ alone, and not to our fathers?"—on Mount Sinai, they say. "And the Lord heard. And the man Moses was very meek, above all men who are upon the earth" (Num. xii, 2-3). Miriam and Aaron, as it seems, seized the occasion of Moses' meekness for pride. But even while he was restrained, God is angered, and He comes of His own D accord to justly express indignation against those who dared to insult the contempt shown to the genuine minister, taking it upon Himself. You shall understand the same also in the case of Christ. For because of the meekness and loving-kindness that was in Him, the Pharisees were carried to a certain readiness toward contempt for Him. But it could certainly be detected that they would not escape divine vengeance. For God and the Father, having been affected by the insult in the Son, is inflamed with just anger.
3. The history then subjoins: «And the Lord said forthwith to Moses and Aaron and Mary: Go out you three into the tabernacle of testimony. And the Lord descended in the column of a cloud, and stood at the door of the tabernacle of testimony.» A Again the word indicates that God will be the judge of those who speak against our Savior Christ, and will assuredly descend in judgment to wreak vengeance upon those who have dared to revile Him and to contend impiously for equality of honor with Him. Now this judgment is entirely through the Son, to whom He who begat Him is ever present, according to the saying: «I am in the Father, and the Father in me.» B But after Mary and Aaron appeared standing before Him who judges justly, He says: «Hear my words. If there be among you a prophet to the Lord, I will make myself known to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream. It is not so with my servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house; for I will speak to him mouth to mouth, in vision, and not by riddles. And he saw the glory of the Lord.» This excellence of Moses in seeing God above others was kept for him because of this; and it was also well testified that he was able to listen C to the divine oracles in private. But you may see this more truly in Christ. For God and the Father did not speak in the Son as He spoke in the prophets. But to them the knowledge of what was to be learned was suggested by the Spirit. He, however, knows the counsels in the Spirit, not by way of instruction, as being the wisdom and counsel of Him who begat Him. And the blessed prophets received the contemplation of His glory through riddles. «For no man hath seen God at any time.» But He is seen only by the Son who is such by nature. And thus it D should be understood in a manner worthy of God. And the Savior Himself shall be our witness to this, saying: «Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He who is from God, He hath seen the Father.» Wherefore the Jews did not rightly, but rather impiously, putting forward the fact that God had spoken to their fathers, reject Christ, who spoke those things which He had heard from His Father. For what was said on Mount Sinai were shadows and types, and rather riddles, which brought forth a certain hidden and not very manifest knowledge of Him who was to be sent. But Christ hears the words of the Father for Himself; if indeed it is appropriate, because of the unavoidable poverty of the human intellect, to speak even more crudely. The text brings in, moreover, a great difference in Christ as compared to all others. For it says: «He is faithful in all my house.» Does it not by this show that the administration of the law and the prophets was particular and circumscribed, but that which is through Christ is general and universal? For the law watched over one house alone, namely the Israelite; but Christ not so, rather [He saved] the whole world through faith in Him and through His blood.
redeeming it, as it is written, for God and the Father. A Therefore He says: "Were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" For such is what was spoken of old through the prophet to the impious Pharisees on account of their petulant and unbridled tongue against Christ: "But draw near hither, you sons of the lawless, offspring of adulterers and of a harlot. In what have you delighted? And against whom have you opened your mouth? And against whom have you let loose your tongue?" For indeed, as if they had let loose the reins of an impious tongue against God, the Pharisees were making their blasphemies against Christ in a most fluent manner, and being puffed up with immense pride, they spewed forth words full of wickedness and madness. B To whom the Psalmist also, bitterly grieving, says, "I have said to the workers of iniquity: Do not do iniquity; and to the sinners: Do not lift up your horn, and do not speak injustice against God." For they were truly acting iniquitously when they condemned Him most impiously, and in lifting up their horn on high they were found wanting, not merely by not yielding to Christ to know the will of the Father, but even asserting that they themselves knew it better, by saying, as has already been said before: "We know that God has spoken to Moses," C and thus they were eager to be disobedient. And the cloud departed at that moment from the tabernacle of testimony. And Miriam immediately appeared leprous, and not simply so, but as snow. For the divine and immortal nature, being moved to wrath and bearing ill the reckless deeds and ravings of the Jews against Christ, flew up in a certain way, and departed from the Synagogue, according to that which was said by Christ: "I have left my house, I have forsaken my heritage." For the Lord having descended in a pillar of cloud, again departs as [if in] a cloud, according to the type in the letter. But since He was naturally departing from the Synagogue of the Jews, it was immediately shown D to be unclean; and not simply unclean, but running to the extremity of uncleanness. For to say of one who has become leprous that he is greatly whitened has the intensity of the disease. But what could be whiter than snow? For it was likely, or rather necessary, and beyond doubt, that it should be in every way evil for the Synagogue of the Jews, as it fell from the care of the Savior. Therefore, the unruly and mocking swarm of the herd is punished with uncleanness and dishonor, according to that which was rightly said by the saints to God: "Fill their faces with dishonor; and they shall know that thy name is, O Lord." But though Aaron was accused along with Miriam, and was in the same guilt as she, yet he is profitably not afflicted with leprosy. Since the matter of the priesthood is great and precious in the sight of the Lord; therefore Aaron escaped the form of leprosy: yet he was afflicted with grief on account of her who was seized by this disease, according to that which was said by God: "Gird yourselves and lament, O priests; wail, you who minister at the altar; enter in, and lie in sackcloth, you who minister to God, for the sacrifice and drink-offering have perished from the house of our God." Aaron, however, approaches, saying to the wise Moses:
A "I beseech you, Lord, do not lay sin upon us, because we have sinned in ignorance." For those who were by birth of Israel, and in their relationship according to the flesh not alien to the Synagogue of the Jews, but who had been appointed stewards of the mysteries of our Savior, were about to offer prayers on behalf of those who had sinned in ignorance, even though they themselves had been liable to a similar fault at the beginning. But they beseech Christ not to join in the wrath of the Father, just as Paul did, saying: B "Brethren, the good will of my heart, and my prayer to God for Israel, is for their salvation." But he who said this was a steward of the mysteries of God and a minister of the divine message, just as Aaron was then. And when Moses cried out for the leper and asked that she be healed, God delayed granting pardon and said: "Let her be separated seven days outside the camp, and after that let her enter." C
4. This account shows us again, as in an image, how ready the divine nature is to show mercy and how most prompt it is to be propitiated; yet, because of the multitude and magnitude of our offenses, it is often held back and delays its kindness toward the guilty. In my opinion, this signifies the same thing: that the great prayers and supplications of the saints were made to God on behalf of Israel, even though it could not come to pass that he who was condemned for such great sins should escape punishment; and therefore God applied mercy only after the punishment. D That God is often exasperated and irritated by our transgressions, so that, although He is endowed with immense clemency, He nevertheless sometimes delays and withdraws it, is not difficult to see even from these very facts. For when He had once revealed through the Spirit to the prophet Jeremiah the impending slaughter that was to occur in the land of the Jews in his time, as the Babylonians raged against it by the law of war, and when very many had already fallen and dead bodies were seen everywhere, God then said to the holy prophet: "Woe is me, for my soul fails because of the slain! Go about the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and know, and seek in its squares if you can find a man who does justice and seeks faith, and I will be propitious to them, says the Lord." Do you see in these words how much He is afflicted with grief on account of the slain, although He would willingly exercise mercy toward Jerusalem? Yet, in a way, He shuts up the kindness inherent in Him because of the massive weight of their sins, almost drawing it back and turning it away; nevertheless, He still seeks occasions for showing mercy, so that He might be willing to lay aside His wrath for the sake of even one just man. For He commanded those going around the city to show Him one just man. Therefore, Miriam is sent away for the leprosy with which she was infected. "But the people," it says, "did not move on until Miriam was cleansed." For we too, who have believed in Christ, are to await the purification of the Jews, which is clearly that of faith. And so, the remainder of our life in this world...
having been left behind, we shall depart toward the city above, and shall run on into the land of true promise. Our Savior speaks the truth, then, when He says to the Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me." Through whom and with whom, to God and the Father, be glory together with the holy Spirit, now and always, and for the ages of ages. Amen.
Concerning those who explored the land of promise
A 1. Exalted indeed is the inheritance for those who have chosen to love God, the King of all. For the possession of goods surpassing the mind has been prepared for them. The blessed prophet Isaiah will confirm this, saying: "There is an inheritance for those who worship the Lord." And again: "And thou shalt be confident in the Lord, and he shall raise thee up upon the good things of the land; and he shall feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken these things."
The promise, therefore, must be true and established in every way and altogether; for the mouth of God could not fail of the truth, nor would it ever speak falsely, but it will certainly bring to pass what has been promised. And being aware of this, the divine Psalmist says B somewhere: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: thou art the one who restores my inheritance to me." Who, then, are these who worship the Lord, or for whom will such a bright and enviable inheritance be attained? They are those who have made it their business to perform what is pleasing to God, and who know how to pass over without neglect anything at all that is admirable, and who have proposed to themselves to struggle tirelessly against every enemy, and who do not rely on their own powers—or rather, on clever skills—but, holding up God’s grace from above as a kind of shield, they have God, the Lord of all, standing before them and fighting alongside them. For, being disposed in this way, they say with David: "Not in my bow C will I hope, and my sword will not save me. For you have saved us from those who afflict us, and you have put to shame those who hate us." He renders the good and most courageous—and those who are the more ready to believe—most distinguished, distributing good things with a generous hand; but as for those who have chosen to be sick with the most wicked of all things, in disobedience, He will certainly drive them away from the flock of the elect and remove them from everything that knows how to bring joy. And He will proclaim, as is most justly the case for each one: "This is your portion, the portion of your disobeying me."
We shall find the multitudes of the Jews fallen into such charges. And for this reason they have slipped away from the hope, and have remained disinherited, even though the inheritance was their own—if it is true that the promises belong to them, according to the voice of the blessed Paul. But since they have disobeyed the one calling them to these things, they have remained excluded, and, according to the voice of the Savior: "The last have become first, and the first last." And this, in turn, was foretold to us by the ancient Scriptures themselves. It is as follows: "And after this the people departed from Aroer D and encamped in the desert of Pharan; and the Lord spoke to Moses..."
saying: "Send for thyself men, and let them inspect the land of the Canaanites, which I give to the sons of Israel for a possession, one man per tribe, according to their ancestral houses; these thou shalt send, every prince among them." And Moses sent them from the desert of Pharan by the voice of the Lord, all of them men who were princes of the sons of Israel. A These men, therefore, who were chosen from the tribes, twelve in number, were separated from the rest of the multitude. They went up to inspect the region very thoroughly, to see whether the land was rich or poor in soil, and whether it was amenable and good and highly productive, or else dry and barren; whether it was nurtured by cultivated trees and produced timely fruits, and whether the land was fertile with crops; furthermore, what kind of inhabitants it had, whether they were distinguished for strength and warlike and invincible in battle, or whether they could be easily conquered by those who possessed a stout heart; furthermore, how many and what kind of cities were in it, whether they were open and without walls, or fortified with towers. Moreover, Moses enjoined that, if possible, B they should bring back with them some of the fruits they had plucked, as a confirmation of the matter. Having thus set out upon their journey, as I said, they strove to perform the things that had been commanded. When a suitable time presented itself, they explored the land and brought back a cluster of grapes, a truly wonderful and extraordinary thing, a miracle in very truth; and they returned to Moses unharmed.
However, they differed in their opinions. For all of them with one mouth proclaimed and reported that the land was good and rich, and as a testimony to this matter they presented the fruit which they had brought from it; but some of them called the nation of that region spirited and robust, and so warlike that it would not easily yield to anyone because of its pride. For, they said, we saw the sons of giants there; a race of men so tall and huge that the sons of Israel seemed like locusts, if indeed they were compared with the stature of those men. C But Caleb and Joshua openly and freely said that the land was good and rich. "If the Lord chooses us, He will bring us into it." And they affirmed again and again that those who inhabit it will be overcome, with God fighting on our behalf. But the mixed, common crowd of the Israelites, having heard these words, were delivered over to forgetfulness of God, and, unmindful of the signs brought about in Egypt, they were seized with great fear, and became slower to fight and refused to enter into battle; they no longer loved the promises, nor did they think of the helping hand which overcomes all things and can be surpassed by no one; but rather they wept in a childish manner, and fearfully expected that their wives and those things dearest to them would be taken by the hostile swords. Nor indeed did they fear to say D that the Egyptian servitude would have been more pleasing to them, and its yoke lighter. "Would that it were permitted for us to return to the Egyptians!" they said with tears; but Joshua and Caleb, who were urging them toward courage, were being cast with dust and [were about to be stoned...]
as the saying is.
C When the matter reached such a depth of misery, the glory of the Lord, he says, appeared in a cloud over the tabernacle of the testimony before all the children of Israel, intending to destroy them all on the spot. But when Moses fell prostrate and entreated him, he forgave them again. For he says, the Lord said to Moses: "I am propitious to them according to your word. But as I live, and my name lives, the glory of the Lord shall fill the whole earth. Because all the men who see my glory, and the signs which I wrought in Egypt, and in this wilderness, and have tempted me now ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers; but their children, who are with me here—as many as do not know good or evil, every younger person who is inexperienced—to them will I give the land. B But all those who have provoked me shall not see it; but my servant Caleb, because there was another spirit in him and he followed me, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his seed shall inherit it." Observe, therefore, how grave the sin of unbelief is before God. On account of this, it is necessary that those who suffer from this vice must sustain a heavy penalty. We shall find that Israel had been thus affected if we compare the new things with the ancient writings and reveal the truth adhering to the shadows. For Moses exhorted those chosen from all the tribes to go and explore the land of promise. But after they had arrived and returned, ten of them accused it, and became the authors of both fear and godless unbelief to the whole Israelite congregation. But the remaining two, Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua, exhorted them to go and possess it, and proclaimed that it was a land of promise, clearly crying out that it was rich and fruitful, a bountiful mother of crops. But the former were deprived of the promise, while the latter were approved as heirs by heavenly vote and were honored by God.
C It is now necessary, therefore, to say what the mode of true and spiritual contemplation is. Through the books of Moses, or through those things in them that were as yet pre-figured in types as good things for the saints—or rather, the holy land promised and prepared for the fathers—the mind of the Jews was in a certain way being dispatched. For it is possible, I say, it is possible to see in the legal writings the mystery of Christ adumbrated in types, and the sanctification through him in the Spirit, and the hope proposed to the saints. For the lamb was indeed immolated in Egypt by the Israelites, and they were anointed with the blood, and the exterminator was removed. D That death is rendered powerless by the death of Christ, and that destruction will henceforth pass over those who have been anointed with his holy Spirit, the shadow itself pre-demonstrated. And that we shall attain the blessedness bestowed in the beginning, and that man will be brought back again into the paradise of delight, the law no less indicates to us. For it commanded that...
the feast take place in the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, once the palms of the fronds are taken in the hands, along with the fruit of a beautiful tree, the branches of dense trees, and the willow of the river. A Yet it did not command that we simply receive them, but on the first day and the seventh, and it names the first holy, and likewise the seventh. Moreover, this thing signified indirectly that paradise was indeed given in the first time to Adam, who is the beginning of the human race: but it shall be given also in the last time, that is, at the consummation of the present age; a type of which the last day of the seventh [month] may very clearly be. Holy, therefore, is the first, and the seventh. For holy is that time, in which the first-begotten father Adam was still keeping the commandment prescribed to him; but holy also, again, is that which is at the end. For we have been sanctified in Christ, having been released from the charges of sin, and having become partakers of the holy Spirit. B By figures and shadows, therefore, Moses—or rather, the power of the legal writings—is all but training those who are more learned and who have an intellect that is, in a way, select, for an exact consideration of those things promised by God. But since for those who desire to attain such eminent and glorious goods, the struggle is not “against blood and flesh, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this age,” as it is written, those who mind the things of the flesh shrink from the battle, since they prefer the temporary and perishing delights of the age to the eternal. See, moreover, how the Israelites, regarding their wives and children, contradict the instructions of those chosen to lead them, having fallen into such cowardice and misery. C Consider also with me those who, at the time of the coming of our common Saviour Christ, made shipwreck of the faith at the voices of their leaders. For our Lord Jesus Christ bestowed the kingdom of heaven upon those who believe. Nevertheless, He called them to fortitude—spiritual fortitude, of course. For because it behooves those who trust in Him to overcome the tyranny of the devil bravely, He encourages them, saying: “Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy.” But they did not wish to believe, preferring bodily things to the love of God. For when they were called to the marriage feast, the scripture says they all began at once to make excuses. And one said: “I have bought a field,” and another: “I have married a wife, and I cannot come.” D Do you see the affinity of their passions and the kinship of their maladies? Therefore, the Scribes and Pharisees in a way speak against the promise of God, inasmuch as they are unwilling to enter it, and do not allow others to do so either. Hence, they rightly heard: “Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge! You yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” For the people under their charge perished by the words of these leaders. For so also God says elsewhere through the prophet: “The shepherds acted foolishly and did not seek the Lord; therefore the whole flock did not understand, and they were scattered.” Whence also a great [multitude of the Jews]
fell away from the promise, and became destitute of the grace which is through Christ. Nevertheless, the remnant has been saved through Christ. A clear type of this might also be Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and indeed Jesus [Joshua] also, who in many ways cried out to the children of Israel, rousing them to courage, calling the land good and worthy of note, and shouting with a loud voice that they would triumph over the nations; yet it was little short of them being killed by these same people. For it says that the entire synagogue agreed to stone them. Nevertheless, they were appointed as heirs by God. Who then is Caleb? The name itself will clarify. For it is interpreted as "whole heart," and Jephunneh, again, means "conversion." Therefore, those who have a heart perfect with God are sons of conversion, with whom Jesus is. These, in turn, were they who believed the apostles who called Israel, and were understood in a sense as the firstfruits; and among them one might perceive the remnant. And in calling them, they were in danger. Yet they were established as heirs of the holy land. For that the sons of conversion, that is to say, those who turned from legal commandments to the worship and grace that is through faith, have possessed as it were a whole or perfect heart with God, one might learn from what Paul writes clearly: that he considered those things in the law as refuse, and counted them as loss on account of the excellence of the knowledge of God; and that he might gain Him and have the righteousness that is through Him. That Israel, therefore, shall fall away from the promise, yet not perish entirely, but shall be saved, as it were, in a small portion—for this, I think, is what "remnant" means—you will understand very well, as I have already said, when you see Caleb brought into it by the promise of God, with Jesus, who saves, joined and appearing together with him in a certain way; for Jesus is interpreted in this way. And indeed, the divine angel Gabriel himself was the one who, when he announced to the holy Virgin the manner of the Only-Begotten’s incarnation, said: “Do not fear, Mary; for you have found grace with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest.” B Only, then, did the remnant of the Jewish synagogue inherit the promises and enter into the holy land? Far from it. For the new and faithful people also entered into it with them in a certain way. For the God of all promises to Caleb that he will bring in with him every child that is young. This the divine David also intimated to us, speaking of the inheritance of the saints: “Let it be written for another generation, and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord.” For the inheritance is reserved not for those instructed in the law, but for another generation. And what is this other generation? The new and faithful people, as I have said. For we have been created in Christ unto newness of life, having put off the old man with his passions and desires. For Christ is said to fashion the two peoples into one new man, D when He makes peace, and
A reconciles both in one Spirit unto the Father. Therefore, the infants who are brought into the holy land along with Caleb may well be a type of the new people. Concerning these infants, the divine disciple writes in these words: "As newborn infants, desire the rational and guileless milk, that by it you may grow unto salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." That the divine Paul also understands the things in the Law in this way, and transfers the type contained in the letter unto the truth, you will clearly discover from what he wrote to the Hebrews: "Therefore," he says, "as the Holy Spirit says: Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted Me, tested Me, and saw My works. Forty years I was offended with this generation, and I said: They always err in their heart. And they did not know My ways; B as I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest." But in order that we too may drive away such execrable faithlessness, and, removing it as far as possible from our souls, may be found heirs of the promise, the Apostle addresses us there again, saying: "Beware, brethren, lest perhaps there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another every day, while it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if indeed we hold the beginning of His substance firm unto the end, while it is said: Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, provoked, but not all who came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He offended forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose C limbs fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter into His rest, if not to those who were disobedient? And we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." For that their disobedience, by which they went against the divine precepts, brought about for them the loss of hope, and that the contrary [virtue] helped them not a little, Paul nevertheless persuades us, saying: "Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps, while a promise remains of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to have fallen short. For we have been evangelized, just as they were. But the word of hearing did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter into His rest" in the Savior and Redeemer of us all, I mean Christ, through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit unto the ages. Amen.
That Christ has become for us the bread of life.
Reproving the vain and presumptuous desire for learning of the Jews, the divine prophet Jeremiah D with good reason was indignant, saying: "How will you say: Because
We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? In vain hath the false pen of the scribes wrought it. The wise men are confounded, they are dismayed, and taken: for they have cast away the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is there in them?" A For although the Scribes and Pharisees were puffed up and greatly swollen with pride regarding their knowledge of the laws, holding their heads high and behaving arrogantly toward the common people, they were in fact suffering greatly from foolishness; and they were proven by the events themselves to be unwise and lacking in discernment. For they rejected the wisdom that comes from above and from heaven, the Word of God the Father, "Who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." For this reason they have become reprobate and senseless, "fools and blind," according to the voice of the Savior Himself. But since they thrust aside the divine Word and, as if from a great distance, cast away the life-giving grace, and by their excessive disobedience grieved God in a thousand ways, they have perished of famine. And this is what was spoken by God through the voice of the prophets: "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine upon the earth; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. And water shall be moved from sea to sea, and from the north to the east shall they run about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." For those who had it within their power to possess Him, and that in great abundance, but who most foolishly pushed Him away, have finally paid the penalty by divine judgment, making a loss of all things most excellent; and those things by which they might well have been enriched—I mean by heavenly goods—they spurned. But because they chose to be disobedient and impiously insulted the divine and most admirable grace, a famine of divine teaching has descended upon them, and with good reason. B But for us who believe in Him, Emmanuel has become the bread of life, the "bread which came down from heaven, and giveth life to the world," in whom and through whom, the power of corruption—which is hateful to God—being overcome, and being clothed with the grace from above and from heaven, that is to say, with incorruptibility, we have been brought before God and the Father, bright and holy. And why should we not live happily on earth, being enriched with such goods? The letter of the law teaches us this in the following terms; for it says: C"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: When you enter into the land, into which I bring you there, and it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall set apart an offering, a separation to the Lord, the first-fruits of your dough; you shall separate a bread-offering as an offering from the threshing-floor, thus you shall separate it; the first-fruits of your dough, and you shall give an offering to the Lord for your generations. And when you have sinned, and have not fulfilled all these commandments, which the Lord spoke to Moses, as the Lord God commanded you by the hand of Moses from the day that the Lord commanded you and thenceforth for your generations; and it shall be, if it be done by the eyes of the synagogue—"
A And the whole congregation shall make one bullock from the herd, without blemish, for a whole burnt offering, for a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord, and its sacrifice and its drink offering according to its ordinance, and one kid of the goats for sin. And the priest shall make atonement for the whole congregation of the children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them, because it is an act of ignorance: and they have brought their gift, a burnt offering to the Lord for their sin before the Lord, for their acts of ignorance. And it shall be forgiven the whole congregation of the children of Israel, and to the proselyte who sojourns among you, for it is an act of ignorance for all the people. And if one soul should sin through ignorance, he shall bring a kid of the first year for sin. And the priest shall make atonement for the soul that has erred and sinned through ignorance before the Lord, to make atonement for him. And it shall be forgiven him, both to the native among the children of Israel, and to the proselyte who is joined among them. One law shall be for them, whoever shall do anything through ignorance.
These are the things which are in Numbers; but in Leviticus the mystery is portrayed somewhat differently, though the truths (theoriai) do not stand far apart in their unlikeness. Come, then, since we have made mention of these—for they are very necessary to be known—let us weave together one account from both passages. For thus it says again: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: When you enter into the land which I give you, and you reap the harvest of it, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall open the sheaf before the Lord for your acceptance; on the morrow of the first day the priest shall open it. And you shall offer on the day in which you bring the sheaf, a lamb without blemish of the first year for a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And its sacrifice, two tenths of fine flour mingled with oil, a sacrifice to the Lord for a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord, and its drink offering, the fourth part of wine and of bread. And you shall not eat new parched corn until this same day, until you have brought the gifts to your God. A law forever throughout your generations, in all your dwellings." B
2. The sheaf, then, is the firstfruits of the harvest and a symbol of the new produce. Bread is grain that has been pounded together, and gathered into the threshing floor, and perhaps even carried into the storehouses themselves. C But God commanded these things to be done by those who already dwelt in the land of promise, so that in both there might be an understanding of Christ; for He is the "bread that comes down from heaven" and gives life, and the firstfruits of the lump of those who are restored and built up in Him into newness of life. For Adam was the firstfruits of the older lump; but after he neglected the commandment given by God and slipped into transgression, he was immediately rendered accursed, and the human race in him was condemned to death and corruption. But Christ was the firstfruits of this second lump, He who also escaped the curse, becoming, of course, a curse for our sakes. And He overcame the power of corruption, through Himself in turn D
being existing among the dead A freed from death. Indeed, he ascended to the Father almost as an excellent and splendid gift and offering, and as a kind of first-fruit of human nature renewed unto incorruption. Furthermore, the fact that the bread was brought into the holy tabernacle and set forth in the Holy of Holies to God, may signify the return of Emmanuel to heaven, and with very good reason. "For Christ has not entered into hand-made copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us," as it is written. But that he is also the life-giving bread from heaven and from above, and that besides this he dismisses sins and frees those on earth from ignorances, offering himself as an odor of sweetness to God and the Father, you will be able to understand very well with the eyes of your mind, if you behold him viewed as a slaughtered calf B being entirely burnt, and as a goat for the ignorances of the people. "For who will understand transgressions?" as it is written. See, then, how the law-giver clearly called the cleansing that is through Christ the one that is incomparably superior to the worship that is in the Law. For if you have transgressed, he says, the precepts of Moses, and if certain people have neglected the institution of legal worship, then, I say, then you will find the forgiveness guaranteed to you through blood, when a calf is sacrificed and a goat offered. This, however, was in type of Christ. Accordingly, the Law indeed defines the punishment for those who infringe, but the precious blood of Christ C delivers [the offender] from the punishment and frees him from the faults committed out of ignorance. For he laid down his soul for us, that he might dissolve the sin of the world. Therefore, just as Christ is understood as life and life-giving in the bread, and again as being slaughtered and offering himself as an odor of sweetness to God and the Father in the calf, and as becoming sin for us and being offered for sins in the form of a goat, so too the sheaf may be understood in another way. And who this is, I will explain in a word. The human race can be likened to the spikes in a field, which spring from the earth and, waiting for the growth appropriate to them, are meanwhile cut down by the passing of time by death. So also Christ himself said to his holy disciples: "Do you not say that there are still four months, D and then the harvest comes? Behold I say to you: lift up your eyes, and see the regions, for they are white already for harvesting. And he who reaps receives a wage, and gathers fruit unto life eternal." Therefore, as I said just now, those who dwell on earth are very well to be likened to the crops in the field. And Christ became as one of us, having sprouted like a spike from the holy Virgin. Since he even called himself a grain of wheat, saying: "Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it remains alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit." For he became as an offering and a holy gift for us to the Father, and in the order of a sheaf, as the first-fruits of the earth, by which he brought forth, bearing witness to [the end].
A fruit-bearing. Yet, when considered as one single spike, just as we ourselves are, it is not presented as one single spike, but as a sheaf, that is to say, a single bundle made from many spikes. And this matter is necessary for our benefit, and fulfills the type of the mystery. For Jesus Christ is one, yet he is perceived and exists, as it were, as a bundle of many, because he contains in himself all who believe, by a spiritual union. For by what method, indeed, does the blessed Paul write: "Even as we have been raised up with him, and seated with him in the heavenly places"? Since he is of us, we have become fellow-members with him, and have been enriched by the unity with him through the body. B It is for this reason that we say that we are all in him. And indeed he himself says somewhere to the Father and God in heaven: "I will that, even as I and thou are one, so also they may be in us." On the principle that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Therefore, Christ is a sheaf, as one who has encompassed all within himself, reclining on behalf of all, and the first-fruits of a humanity perfected in faith, which henceforth ought to be carried up to the treasures above and in heaven. And he says that the sheaf must be brought on the day after the first, which is the third. For Christ rose from the dead on the third day, and ascended by his own power into heaven, into the true tabernacle, and into the Holy of Holies. C But just as he is understood as bread, being prefigured even by the calf for a burnt offering and destined for a sweet-smelling odor, and furthermore by the goat offered for transgressions, so too, perhaps, even if he were considered as a sheaf, he is himself that yearling lamb—that is, the perfect one. For Christ is perfectly complete and in need of nothing by his own nature. For which reason he is also entirely irreproachable. For he knew no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. And he is that bright fine flour, mingled with oil, which signifies a life of richness and joy. For we live, rejoicing in him on account of the hope laid up for us; and because we are watered by the grace of the Holy Spirit, according to that which is in the Psalms, we say: "Thou hast anointed my head with oil." D For we have obtained mercy through faith in Christ, together with whom we are in a certain way pervaded by the holy fragrance of incense, holding a secondary place, just as those things which are called *chidra* relate to his fine flour. For we say that *chidra* is meal made from legumes. For that Christ, even if he became like us by dispensation, is nonetheless by right to be considered superior and more excellent than us, no one could doubt. His life, therefore, is without controversy more honorable. For it is completely holy and immaculate. But our own lives are in a lower and secondary position, and after the likeness of *chidra*, which, as I have already said, is like the fine flour made from wheat. But the fine flour conveys the image of life. In addition to this, the *chidra* is brought with the fine flour to the altar. For we are made fragrant, as I said, with Christ, and through him we all offer a sweet-smelling odor, and are together accepted by God and the Father. And those who do not have Christ are not even at all suitable for sacrifice; for "Without me," he says, "you can do nothing."
Furthermore, he says, do not eat until the third day, until you offer the sheaf. For neither the time of the law, nor the chorus of the holy prophets possessed the new food—that is to say, the teachings through Christ—nor indeed the very renewal of human nature, except perhaps in mere prediction. But since our Lord Jesus Christ has risen again and has brought himself as the first-fruits of humanity to God and the Father, as in the order of a sheaf, then, I say, then we are transformed as it were into a new life. For we conduct ourselves according to the Gospel, "not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit," through whom and with whom to God and the Father A be glory with the holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
On the red heifer, which was burned outside the camp.
1. But surely the inspired David also says: "What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me?" Such a voice should fittingly also be ours. For what shall we have that is equal to God and the Father? For he gave his own Son for us, "that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life," becoming almost prodigal of the indulgence and love owed to himself. For he gave himself for our sins, as the sacred Scripture says; and B truly we indeed have been saved through him, but he himself was bruised for our sins, and he himself bore the pains for us, having also endured death in the flesh, not that he might remain among the dead with us, but that we, running back to life with him and through him, and returning to incorruption, might be able to say rejoicing: "O death, where is your victory? Where, Hades, is your sting?" What then C is the path that brings us to this? It is the grace through baptism, through which, having washed away all filth, we are shown to be partakers of the divine nature, with the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. For then, then, I say, "our conscience is purged from dead works," to use the words of Paul, and we are made partakers of the mystical blessing, and filling our own mind with grace from above, we are seen to be zealous and conspicuous; and indeed what are we not seen to be of such a kind? You would certainly see that what I have said is true, if you recognize what was prophesied in the heifer. D "And the Lord spoke," he says, "to Moses and Aaron, saying: This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has ordained, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and let them take to you a red heifer, unblemished, in which there is no blemish, and on which no yoke has been placed. And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and they shall lead it out of the camp to a clean place, and they shall slaughter it before him. And Eleazar shall take of its blood, and shall sprinkle it seven times before the face of the tabernacle of testimony with its blood. And they shall burn it before his eyes, and its skin, and its flesh, and its blood with its dung shall be burned."
A And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and they shall cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer. And the priest shall wash his garments, and he shall wash his body with water, and after these things the priest shall enter into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until evening. And he that burneth it shall wash his garments, and shall wash his body with water, and shall be unclean until evening. And a clean man shall gather up the ashes of the heifer. And in the following: "And it shall be for the children of Israel and for the proselytes who are added among you, a perpetual statute." And the lawgiver adds to these things, that some are defiled and appear profane who touch the dead bodies of the deceased. For such a one shall be unclean for the number of seven days. He shall be purified by the ashes of the heifer mixed with water, having been sprinkled on the third or certainly on the seventh day. If he does not do this, he says, he shall have the uncleanness unatoned. And he shall also pay the penalty, because he defiled the tabernacle of the Lord. His soul, he says, shall be cut off from Israel, because the water of sprinkling was not sprinkled upon him. And if it happens, he says, that someone dies in a house, then let the very hearth itself be marked, and all things that are in it, namely, I say, the vessels, with the charge of uncleanness. And if any of the vessels should lie open, let these also be polluted. But none the less profane, he says, is he who touches in a field either one who is wounded, or the bone of a dead man, or a tomb. By what reason, therefore, he has prescribed that such things should be purged, we shall say as we are able, aptly explaining the obscurity of the Scripture with suitable meditations.
C 2. Therefore, the heifer that is altogether blameless, and cleansed once for all from every stain, and that does not know sin, is our Lord Jesus Christ. For He was bold to say: "The prince of this world comes, and in me he will find nothing." And indeed to the Jews He says: "Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?" But consider this meanwhile, that in the divine Scriptures He is called now a calf, now a heifer: a calf indeed, inasmuch as He is Leader and Prince; but a heifer, in so far as He is designated as minor and subject. For God is the Prince of all, and exercising power over all D together with God the Father; yet He was made under the law by His own will, and He kept the precepts of Moses, as of one superior, even though He was but a servant. And it is no wonder, since He also endured being called a prophet, and appeared in the form of a servant, although He was the Lord and God of the prophets, the Head. But a red heifer is sought; for the mystery is perfected in the blood of the Son of Man: since it is certain that He was obedient to the Father even unto death, even the death of the cross, and took away the sins of the world by His own blood. But red is an evident sign of blood, and a very manifest argument. But even if He was made obedient to the Father, and subject to the Law with us, according to that which was of human condition, and servant
has He been named, having not dishonored the flesh which He assumed; but He was and is and is thus free, because He is also by nature God, and while least of all submitting to the yoke of slavery, yet He was A altogether untouched by it. For He comes from above, and is above all, having sprung from that very free essence of God and the Father. For this reason He commanded that the heifer be brought, red and without blemish, and untouched by the yoke of labors. For if the Only-Begotten has emptied Himself, and of His own will sits in the form of a servant, how or whence could it be a matter of dispute that there shall be, by all means, an emptying from the heights, and a kenosis from the plenitudes; and an arrival from His innate and older liberty, that is to say, as it were, in the form of a servant? The heifer, therefore, [is brought] because He is in subjection and under the Law as one leading; but it is red because the mode of the economy has come to pass through blood for us and on our behalf. And it is without blemish on account of its having no fault; for He knows no sin. And it is untouched by yoke and work on account of its freedom in divinity, and the strangeness of slavery, even if He has become like us and in the form of a servant. "But they shall give," He says, "the heifer to Eleazar the priest, and they shall lead it forth out of the camp to a clean place, and they shall slaughter it before him." B The priest would be a type of those who are holy and sanctified and anointed by the Holy Spirit; since, indeed, it has been said somewhere to us who have believed, through the voice of the saint: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." To us, therefore, who are holy, the chosen race and the holy nation, Christ has been given by God and the Father as sanctification and redemption, wisdom and justice, Savior and Redeemer, and as the divine Paul writes, "He suffered outside the gate." Where he said that we also ought to go, bearing His reproach, that is, our own cross. This also the Savior Himself said: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." And that it is most becoming and appropriate for those who are holy and sanctified, for C their healing, to have, as it were, Christ dying in their very eyes, this would be signified by the fact that it was ordained by law that the heifer be slaughtered in the sight of the priest. When, however, we remember Christ who died for us and on our behalf, then indeed, then, I say, we shall the more intensely admire the divine Paul as he discourses to us about Him: "For one died for all, in order that they who live may no longer live to themselves, but to Him who died for us and rose again." And again: "For I through the law have died to the law, that I might live to God; I have been crucified with Christ. Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me. And what I live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself for us." Therefore, let there be set forth in a way before the eyes of the mind the slaughter D endured on our behalf. For thus we shall live no longer for ourselves, but rather for God, as having been bought by the blood of Christ, who gave Himself for us, as it is written. Therefore, He commanded that the sacred [tent] be sprinkled with blood by the hand of the priest.
and this seven times. Moreover, the heifer was to be burned, with nothing of its whole being cast away; but together with the flesh and the dung, the skin and the rest of the body [were to be burned]. A For Christ sanctifies the true tabernacle, that is, the Church, with His own blood; and He sanctifies it perfectly, that is, abundantly. This, I think, is what is signified by the tent being sprinkled with blood seven times. The number seven is a sign of perfection, as it advances up to the seventh [number]. And the burning of the heifer with fire after the slaughter seems to indicate the trial unto death which Christ endured for our sake. For silver is tested in fire, as the royal Psalmist sings: “You have tested us, O God; You have tried us with fire, as silver is tried.” B That Christ was in a certain way tested by obedience unto death, that passage, I think, will show not inconsistently. For He says somewhere by the voice of the prophet Zechariah, perhaps to those justified by faith, that is, those for whom He died: “And I will say to them: If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; or refuse.” Then the prophet says: “And they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me: Cast them into the furnace, and I will see if it is tested, as I was tested by them.” Hence it clearly appears that Christ was tested even unto His last breath, just as the heifer here had to be burned with fire after the slaughter. But nothing from it was to be cast away. For the whole of Christ is holy, both the flesh and the skin, that is, both that which is covered and concealed, and that which is manifest and open. For He was God by nature, having become as we are, yet without sin at all. C Now cedar wood, and hyssop, and a crimson thread are cast into the ashes; the cedar wood designating to us incorruption (for the cedar overcomes putrefaction); the hyssop, however, signifying purification (for this herb has the power of cleansing, and by its nature it dissolves the impurities of the inward parts); and the crimson thread signifying the union of the Word with the flesh: for the Word was as it were entwined with flesh and blood, being tested for our sake even in the fire, and unto death, as I have just said. But His passion and the manner of His incarnation procured for us incorruption and purity. For we have been justified in Him, having had the filth of the soul and the inward parts washed away, if indeed there is truly salvation in baptism, and it is not the removal of the filth of the flesh involving [merely] power, but the interrogation of a good conscience towards God: D through which there is the remission of sins, and grace certainly follows upon the confessions of faith. That the dying of Christ for us became a way to incorruption and life is in nowhere doubtful. But he who burned the heifer, and mixed with the ashes the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the crimson [thread], and gathering the ashes, said that those [who did so] were unclean until evening, even though they were purified and clean by the washing of their garments—the Law perhaps declares the feebleness of human nature, and that if we search our own [lives] accurately and subtly, there is no one who is not deserving of censure, whoever might be [appointed] to sacrifice
A, even if one were perchance of those who had chosen to live in the best way possible, and as pure as is permitted, he would not possess his ministry to be without blame. For no one is worthy to touch the mysteries of our Savior. And [this is] no wonder; for the sacred word will convince us, speaking thus: "And the stars are not clean before him." If then our affairs were to be compared to the purity of Christ, they would be unclean and stained, and will be under divine judgment. And one would very rightly admire the divine Melodist [Psalmist] saying: "If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, who shall stand? Because with you is the propitiation." He is indeed censured who thinks himself pure. For it is far better, as I said, than according to human nature, [to seek] that which is entirely faultless, and for the purity within us to draw near to Christ.
He said that the water of purification must be poured outside the camp, and not rather in the camp itself. For the purity of Christ is outside the synagogue of the Jews. For when he had left it, he foretold freely thus: "Behold, your house is left to you desolate." But the purifying grace has flowed over even to the Gentiles; and as Paul says: "Those who were far off have been made near." For they have been called through faith, and have been enriched with the righteousness in Christ, while those from Israel chose to be disobedient.
That the water of purification could also easily scour away every kind of uncleanness, the Scripture shows thus: "Whoever touches a corpse shall be unclean." But he will not be freed from that defilement otherwise than if he is sprinkled with the water of purification on the third and seventh day. Now a corpse is the corruption of bodies and a symbol of uncleanness. But the sprinkling of the water, with the ashes of the heifer and other things mixed into it, would be a type of holy baptism. Therefore, he who is caught by dead works and by pollutions unto corruption—and we call "dead works" unholy and profane fleshly passions, "fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire"—would not otherwise be clean, unless he were purified and washed away of the defilement through holy baptism, on the third and the seventh day. And the third [day] signifies the time of the resurrection, the last and, as it were, final time, in which the Only-Begotten became man.
"And if," he says, "one should be defiled by some dead person in it, those who enter into it are unclean. And every vessel and pot not covered is B abominable; but even these are purified by the water of purification in the same manner, on the third and the seventh day." C Through the defiled house and its vessels, and a vessel not covered, the legislator might peradventure appear to us to point out the synagogue of the Jews, which killed its own Lord, which is understood collectively by "the house," but individually by the individual vessels. For man is like a vessel. Now that they do not have a firm mind, and are thus very prompt to receive defilements, and are already accustomed to admitting any injustice, is obscurely designated by the uncovered vessels, into which whatever is harmful... [the text continues at the top of the next page].
mind of those who have been justified by faith is not of this kind. For it is firm and covered, and not easily susceptible to those things that are accustomed to cause harm. But if, he says, anyone by chance touches either one who is wounded, or the bone of a dead man, or a grave, he shall also be unclean. Furthermore, we call him wounded who is sick in heart, wounded, I say, by secular desires, or mundane cravings, or carnal ones. But we shall take the bone of a dead body as something remaining of impurity. Moreover, the monument is for remembering in a certain way even an extinguished impurity. For the devil sometimes wounds the heart. But we ourselves, being overcome in part by the affections of the flesh, grow sick, not indeed falling into just any sin, but still clinging to its remnants as we dwell in the world. As if someone tries to overcome anger or avarice, yet does not entirely escape the excess or superfluity of it. I believe that the same should be felt regarding the rest of the vices, that they are certain impurities: of which the bone of a dead person may be a sign or symbol. But by recalling to memory a passion already overcome, and B approaching too closely to the pleasure that had been laid to rest, we are sometimes not a little defiled. However, we depart from these sins of the vices, with Christ wiping us clean and purging us by His own sufferings. For He died for our sake, and by His stripe we were all healed. And He Himself takes away our sins, and is an advocate with the Father for our sins: not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world, as the blessed John wrote to certain ones. In Him, therefore, is all purification, all justice, sanctification, and redemption, together with whom and through whom to God and the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit for ages of ages. Amen.
Concerning the Bronze Serpent
1. God did not make death, nor does He take pleasure in the ruin of the living, as it is written. For He created all things to exist, and the generations of the world are healthful. But after the first-fruits of our race, that is, Adam, by disobedience and neglect of the divine precept offended the Creator, he therefore C fell into corruption, and human nature was cursed, and so our whole race was made subject to punishment. And we wretches, although born in incorruption, subsequently, like shadows and like grass in the fields, flourishing for a little while and scarcely so, fall unexpectedly to the earth as to our mother. Hence the saints have variously cried out, lamenting our state. For it is openly permitted to hear the blessed David crying out: "Man has been made like to vanity." And Isaiah says again: "All flesh is hay, and all D the glory of man as the flower of hay." For we have come, as I said, to this state at last...
of misery and wretchedness, that no one, however endowed with divinely inspired wisdom, could say to what our affairs might rightly be compared. Nevertheless, the Creator did not despise us in this state, but rather deigned to treat us with His own care and kindness, and through Christ rendered us free from death and corruption. But in what way, or in what manner? It is manifest to everyone, even if all were silent; furthermore, from the more ancient writings themselves, one might easily perceive the power of this mystery. It is thus in the book of Numbers: "And they departed from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to encompass the land of Edom; and the soul of the people was discouraged in the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, saying: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, nor is there water. And our soul loathes this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of the children of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken B against the Lord and against you. Pray therefore to the Lord, that He may take away the serpent from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses: Make yourself a serpent, and set it upon a sign. And it shall be that if a serpent bites a man, everyone that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon a sign. And it came to pass that when the serpent bit a man, he looked at the serpent of brass, and lived." For they had been serving in Egypt, oppressed by an intolerable servitude, and were redeemed by God, with many and marvelous signs brought to pass there. For the water was transformed into blood, and frogs and lice, and likewise the dog-fly, and the visitation of hail, were all but conducting a campaign against the land of the Egyptians; and they were punished besides with darkness, and the death of the firstborn C heavily afflicted those who chose to exercise tyranny over them, while God meanwhile was miraculously preserving the Israelites. Then, passing through the midst of the sea as if on dry land, they saw the Egyptians perish miserably. They also received bread from heaven; for God sent down manna for them. And Christ was understood as being in the rock; and He unexpectedly had pity on those thirsting for streams. For the divine power is mighty in these things, and bountifully supplies what is necessary for life to those who are consecrated to Him. Yet those who received so many excellent benefits were weak, and succumb to slight labors: because they were both unmindful of the benefits of God, and did not show themselves firm in believing in Him, but were inconstant and easily moved, and very much inclined toward faint-heartedness, and stupidly ignorant of the blessings with which they had been gifted by God. For they call the heavenly bread "light," D and complain of the lack of water, even though they had long since learned by experience that nothing is impossible to the divine and ineffable nature, which had established the hard rock for them as a fountain of waters. Since, therefore, they rashly and wickedly
A grumbled against God, they were punished by the bites of serpents. Then, returning to themselves, they testified to the recognition of their sins with tears, confessed their faults, and implored Moses as a mediator, that he might render God merciful and appeased toward them. He, however, falling down in prayer, and obeying the supernal commands, fashioned a bronze serpent, which, when raised on high, he ordered those bitten to look upon: and indeed, those who did so were healed.
2. But what is the spiritual sense of this history, and what the great and excellent mystery in it, it is proper that we should inquire with accuracy. For the letter will not suffice for the more prudent, but rather the mysteries which lie hidden in the types. Come then, let us speak, translating the account again from the type to the universal and more general, and to that which is true. For, having become weary of the divine and heavenly goods, and rushing inconsiderately toward that which is pleasant rather than that which is useful, and having rejected the works of virtue and become addicted to shameful actions, we have injured the Benefactor, and B in more than one way have offended the Creator. Whence also we have been subjected to the bites—of the intelligible, that is to say—serpents, which, stinging us through individual sins, subject us to the snares of death. For the prince of these venomous beasts is that apostate dragon, that is, Satan, by whose bites the first man perished, that is, Adam. And this evil creeps subsequently, as if from a root, even into us, who have been born from him. Yet we have been saved in a certain way. For we have looked upon the serpent, that is, Christ. How, then, can He who in His own nature is good, indeed is goodness itself, be a serpent? Because He was made like unto us, who by free choice are wicked, according to the saying: "He was made in the likeness of the flesh of sin"; and: "He was reckoned among the wicked." And that we are wicked—not created as such by God, but having fallen into vices through sin which exercises tyranny over us—Christ Himself will make manifest to you, saying: "If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him?" Christ, therefore, is a serpent as if in the likeness of sin, because He was made man. Yet if any man intuits Him C intellectually, he will be superior to death, and will escape corruption, and will despise the bites, and will make of no account the crowd of venomous ones. We shall look upon Christ, however, if we understand the mystery concerning Him rightly, and believe firmly. For although by His own nature He is God, He was made man, and even if He was in the likeness of sin, He nevertheless remained good. For He was made as we are, not that He might be wicked with us, but that He might make us good through the Holy Spirit, who has transformed us unto every kind of virtue. D The serpent, therefore, is a sign. For Christ, indeed, was exalted upon the precious cross, as He Himself declares this to the Jews, saying: "When you have exalted the Son of Man, then you shall know that"
A I am." That this type looks to His mystery, you may learn from His own words, saying clearly: "As Moses exalted the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be exalted." Now the serpent was of bronze, because of the most pleasant and most sonorous sound of the divine and evangelical preaching. For there is no one who is disobedient to the oracles of Christ, but rather to all the heavenly realm is His mystery proclaimed, and to Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.
TWO FRAGMENTS ON NUMBERS
B XVIII, 26. "And you shall take from it a portion." Those who were called to the priesthood according to the law of Moses received tithes from the sons of Israel as a portion and inheritance of God. But they themselves used to bring the tenth part to the one who leads and holds the primacy of the priesthood—that is, to Aaron; who was indeed established as a type of Christ, not ministering in the first tabernacle which had its standing there, but in the inner and hidden one.
XX, 8. "Take the rod, and gather the congregation." Observe that, to strengthen their faith, He calls to his mind the memory of the prodigies performed in Egypt, saying: "Take in thy hand the rod wherewith thou smotest the river." And soon after: Christ is likened to the Rock because of His solidity and immovability.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, GLAPHYRA ON DEUTERONOMY. BOOK II.
A 411 On the heifer whose sinews were cut in the valley.
1. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” But those who rightly understand that, being God by nature, He humbled Himself into a state of emptiness, and became flesh, and dwelt among us, according to the Scriptures, have obtained the divine and most precious grace. For, He says, “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” But those who have rejected the truly divine and saving Word have fallen from hope, and perished miserably, because they have impiously insulted the Savior and Redeemer of all. B Such, in turn, were the wretched Jews, whom even the prophet Jeremiah himself deplores, saying: “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep for this people day and night!” For since it was within their power to be illustrious and worthy of emulation, and they are deprived of the happiness they possessed, how would they not be worthy to be henceforth numbered even among the dead? Whom one might deservedly lament, shedding tears of love and mutual affection. Thus, they have been deprived of every good, and the disobedient Israel has been, as it were, uprooted from its very foundations. For Christ has migrated to the nations, and the slow-to-believe Jew is at last saved only in a small remnant. And this is, I think, that which [is spoken] through the voice of the prophet Isaiah—
A *“Except the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been made like unto Gomorrah.”* Come then, if it seems good, let us also search out the power of the mystery from the Mosaic words themselves. For it is written thus in Deuteronomy: *“If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it, fallen in the field, and it is not known who slew him, then thy senate and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain. And it shall be that the city which is next unto the slain man, the senate of that city shall take a heifer from the herd which hath not wrought, and which hath not drawn the yoke; and the senate of that city shall bring down the heifer into a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown. And they shall cut the sinews of the heifer in the valley; and the priests and the Levites shall come near, for them the Lord thy God hath chosen to minister unto Him, and to bless in His name, and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried. And all the senate of that city that are next unto the slain man shall wash their hands over the head of the heifer that is cut in the valley, and they shall answer and say: Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful unto Thy people Israel, O Lord, whom Thou hast redeemed out of the land of Egypt, that innocent blood be not in Thy people Israel. B And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt Thou put away the innocent blood from among us, if thou shalt do that which is right and pleasing in the sight of the Lord thy God.”*
2. Vulneratus quidem propter nos est Emmanuel.
2. Emmanuel was indeed wounded for us; for He was sickly because of our sins, according to the Scriptures. And it came to pass that He suffered this in the land of the Jews, and outside the gate of Jerusalem. Yet they knew not who it was they had smitten, or in what manner. What, then, does the Law say? And yet we say that the deeds against Christ were the work of the Jewish impiety. For they themselves brought Him to Pilate; they themselves were found crying out: *“Away, away, crucify Him.”* And again: *“If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend.”* And the divine disciples clearly accused their perversity to God the Father in heaven, saying thus: *“For of a truth in this city were gathered together against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel.”* And most clearly and openly the blessed Peter reproves the Jewish people, saying at one time: C *“Ye killed the Prince of life,”* and at another again: *“But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you.”* Why then does the Law say that they did not know who they had smitten? The saying is mystical, and not simply set forth for all; but it is perhaps known only to those who rightly understand the mystery of Christ. For the rulers of the Jews thought, and those who D were joined to their impious opinions, that because they had prevailed, and not...
of Christ’s own will—ascribing the matter to their own waywardness—they rejoiced as men who had conquered. Yet they did not know that He suffered willingly, and in obedience to the will of the Father, He delivered Himself up for us 59. Whence He openly says to Pilate: “You would have no power at all against Me, unless it had been given you from above.” The Father, therefore, delivered up the Son, and, if we may so speak, He Himself is said to have struck Emmanuel. Hence also in the Book of Psalms the person of Christ is introduced, speaking to the Father and God in heaven concerning the impiety of the Jews: “Whom You have struck, they have persecuted, and they have added to the pain of My wounds 60.” Let not the slayer of the Lord, therefore, henceforth vaunt himself magnificently or grow proud B, as though they themselves had conquered Christ as one who was weak; but rather let them learn the truth from Moses. For they do not know Whom they struck. Behold, therefore, the wounded Emmanuel in the land of the Jews. Yet the mystery concerning Him is by no means fulfilled among them, but rather it is celebrated figuratively in the region and land of the Gentiles: “For if the wounded one be found,” he says, “they shall take an heifer, free from the yoke and from labor, and having brought it down into a rough and uncultivated valley, let the nerves be severed by those who are ordained for the priesthood. Then, having washed their hands over it, let them say: Our hands have not shed this blood 61.” This heifer is a type of Christ, as we have already stated. It is an heifer, in so far as it is free from yokes: for although He was under a yoke in so far as He was man, yet because by His very nature He is God, He is therefore free from the yoke. For the Divinity is free and subject to no created thing; nay rather, it rules over all things, and holds all creation under its power. But although the Son is free by His own nature as God, He nevertheless became with us as man and subject to the yoke. Hence He called the Father God with us. For we are made subject to the divine power. Wherefore C the heifer is understood in so far as He lowered Himself under the yoke of human nature, but is removed from the yoke because of the glory of the Godhead, which is entirely free. But see the heifer led away into a rough and uncultivated valley. For after the venerable cross, when Christ was found wounded, He departed from the land of the Jews and migrated to the region of the Gentiles, which has never been cultivated, nor received seed. For before Christ shone upon the Gentiles themselves, they were in the world like a certain arid and uncultivated land, void of divine fruit. Hence the prophet Isaiah also says of this land: “Rejoice, O desert, and the thirsting land, and let the desert exult, and bloom like a lily 62.” Therefore the region or the multitude of the Gentiles is not inappropriately compared to a certain rough and uncultivated land. There he says: “The nerves of the heifer are to be severed by the divine priests 63.” For the mystery of Christ is accomplished among us who are from the Gentiles, as I have said, and confessing His passion and the resurrection of the dead, to
receive the mystical blessings. This, I think, is what is meant by the sinews of the heifer being severed; for as I have said, by proclaiming His death and, indeed, also His resurrection, we perform a sacred mystery. B But as many as depart from the impiety of the Jews, having left far behind the city in which He was wounded and suffered, and have come to the rough and uncultivated valley, there they will wash their hands over Christ Himself. For they shall be washed, being baptized into His death; for this, I think, is what is meant by "washing their hands over Him." And by confessing that they have become partakers of the impiety of the Jews, they shall attain forgiveness. For the Jews, having raged against Christ, have inscribed the impiety upon their own heads, saying: “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” But those who longed for the grace from Him and sought the purification through the Holy Spirit, by which they have learned to honor Him, all but cried aloud, saying: “Our hands have not shed this blood.” In Christ, therefore, is the purification. And if any of the Jews were to choose to think rightly—as the divine disciples and those who believed through them have indeed done before the rest—to whom one might justly assign the role of the senate (for they are honorable and chosen, rejecting the impiety of Israel through faith in Christ, through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.) C
Concerning the captive woman, who is shaved and has her nails pared.
1. God of all brought the Israelites out of the house of bondage, and as if from an iron furnace, all but waging war with the Egyptians “with a strong hand and an uplifted arm,” as it is written, and opposing the machinations of those who exercised the tyranny of the impious against them with His miracles. For He worked signs and wonders and commanded them to pass through the middle of the sea as if on dry land. And as the divine David said: “He fed them in the wilderness and gave them bread from heaven. Man ate the bread of angels. He sent forth fountains of water.” For what indeed that was miraculous and beyond all expectation did He not accomplish? Therefore, as the divine Moses writes: “As an eagle protects its nest, He received them and took them upon His own shoulders.” But they reached such madness and perversity of thoughts and wildness of undertakings that they even treated the Redeemer, who was present in the flesh, with ignominy. And why do I say this, passing over things even more atrocious than these? For they killed Him with a fervent and cruel audacity, being carried away to the ultimate impiety. For this reason, then, the Synagogue, or Jerusalem, D the murderess of the Lord, is deservedly cast away and, having been shown henceforth to be alien from the friendship of God, has rushed into every kind of evil, receiving in a manner the punishment invited upon its own head. And the Emmanuel Himself has also spoken:
A “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” For that the Synagogue of the Jews, hateful to Christ, was to pay so grave and intolerable a penalty, the Law itself B has also figuratively signified to us. For it holds thus: “If thou goest out to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, and seest among the captives a woman beautiful in form, and desirest her, and wouldest have her to thy wife, and hast brought her home into thine house, then shalt thou shave her head, and pare her nails, and thou shalt put off the raiment of her captivity from her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a month of days: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and shalt dwell with her, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not deal with her as a slave, because thou hast humbled her.” I think it is absurd, therefore, to labor in investigating the historical text, or to weigh accurately things that are contained in shadows, since they have no difficulty in themselves; but the mind of the commandments is subtle, and cannot be understood without labor. Thus, one must proceed to the investigation of spiritual matters.
C 2. For what, in general, or against whom, could this war be imagined to have been waged? And who is the woman beautiful in form and most comely? And why, indeed, is she to be stripped of the hair of her head, and made to part with her nails, and with the garments of her captivity? Therefore, as I have already said before, the Synagogue of the Jews served in Egypt. For the fathers, long ago, urged by famine, went down there. But when, in the course of time, they had grown into an almost innumerable multitude, the Egyptians feared for themselves, lest, relying on such a number, they might rebel against them, and bring back into their own power those who had once ruled over them. By reason of this, the Israelites were not a little distressed by the toil of making bricks. But God had mercy on them. For, as I said, He waged war against the peoples D of the Egyptians who were exercising an intolerable tyranny over the Israelites, and He laid them waste. But in that devastation, He saw captive Jerusalem, or the multitude of the Jews, which was renowned for the nobility of its fathers: for she was fair and admirable on account of her ancestors. And when He beheld her, and desired her—that is, deemed her worthy of being loved—and as it were wanting to dwell with her, and to make her a mother of good works, He brought her into His own house. And what indeed does this mean? He set up the holy tabernacle in the desert, so that, instructed by the legal sacrifices and the typical cult, she might learn more easily
The Mystery of Christ
. For the Law is a pedagogue unto Christ, as the blessed Paul says. ReceptamA into her house, she shaves her head, and trims her nails, and puts off the vestments of captivity. Now, Holy Scripture is accustomed, in a certain way, to signify the mind by the head, and to liken the hairs upon it to the thoughts of the mind. The shaving of the hair, therefore, very aptly denotes the putting aside of thoughts, which indeed the redeemed ancient Israel was commanded to perform, God speaking clearly through the all-wise Moses: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." And again: "Thou shalt not act thus toward the Lord thy God." For the abominations which the Lord hated, they performed for their gods. For while they were living in Egypt, they held other thoughts, as those who believed there were infinite gods, and paid worship to the creation rather than to the Creator; and they ascribed divine glory to wood and stones. But since they were called through Moses to the knowledge of God, who is by nature both true and alone, how can there be any doubt that that time brought forth in them thoughts that were altogether new? The divine Paul commanded us to strive to accomplish this very thing, saying: "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may test what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." The shaving of the head, then, would surely signify this very thing. And the putting away of long nails signifies the casting off of filth and uncleanness. For they who had the promises were otherwise accustomed to foster filth in them. B That Israel, whom God has deemed worthy of His friendship, must depart from its former uncleanness, no one could doubt who has heard the Law clearly proclaiming: "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," and whatever is in harmony with these. As for the garments of captivity, I would say they are a figure of slavery, and present a type of a life led in depravity. For since the neck was subjected to the will of the devil and to his greed, it contracted the sordid desires of the flesh like a worn-out garment. But after it was redeemed by the Law and taught to think and see better things, it shed the crimes of its former depravity and thereafter continued, having clothed itself, as it were, in a bright tunic of legal instruction. And this, I think, is exactly what the blessed Paul exhorts us ourselves to do, saying: "Put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, who is renewed after the image of him that created him." C We are also stripped in holy baptism, as it were, throwing away the garments of captivity to Satan. And so, having put on Emmanuel Himself, we offer thanks to God and the Father, saying: "Let my soul rejoice in the Lord: for he has clothed me with the garment of salvation, and with the tunic of gladness." Paul also, most expert in the Law, said elsewhere: "Put on our Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Do you see how, being stripped of the garments of the flesh as if they were those of captivity, we use a bright and divine garment, I mean Christ? For He Himself is the tunic of gladness,
and the garment of salvation. Once, therefore, the hair has been shorn A away, and the nails, those that grow grimy and long, have been trimmed, and the garments of captivity cast off, then—truly, then—she will dwell in your chamber, and shall be brought in as one in the status of a betrothed woman. Yet she will weep for her father and her mother for a month of days, that is to say, she will remember her home. And after this you shall go in to her, and she shall be your wife. For I believe that those who have been called into friendship with God must turn their mind away from absurd thoughts, and from those things, I say, which can lead them astray, and from every filth, and, as the divine Paul writes, "put off the old man, which is corrupted according to the lusts of deceit" 79, and cling indivisibly to God, who has so adorned us and received us into spiritual friendship. For I think that "clinging B indivisibly" is signified by this: "she shall sit in your house." Hence also blessed David, knowing this to be an excellent and most useful thing, says: "One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord, and visit His holy temple" 80. And it would be a clear sign that the mind has been confirmed and filled with love toward God if one considers that one must dwell in the divine courts through all the days of one's life. However, the Creator did not ignore the capacity of the human mind. For how or whence would He? If true is what He Himself says: "He Himself knew our frame" 81. For as we depart from the life in this world and withdraw our mind C from the passions of the flesh, we are not accustomed to doing this perfectly and without reproach. For we are infirm from our origin, and the mind is carried away by base pleasures. For it is easy to slip—if you call to mind the affairs that are in the world—and it happens that we embrace friendship with it much more willingly, even though the law coerces us, and God in a way draws us backward, leading us toward a life far better and beyond controversy more excellent. For since virtue is a steep path, while the way leading to vice is very easy, we therefore recoil from the labor and are easily snatched toward the other. But what does the law say? "She shall mourn for her father and her mother for a month of days" 82; that is, she cannot be immediately drawn away to inhabit your home, but she will briefly remember her household. D Now this happens to those who fall into captivity, that even if they are treated with honor by those who have taken them captive and are held in the highest delights, they yet desire their home, their parents, and their own city again, and cannot help but remember their own people, and sometimes shed tears, with vexation and sorrow occupying their soul, because they are deprived of their fatherland. The same thing also happens to the throngs of the Jews. For although God delivered them from Egypt and, having rescued them from bitter servitude, called them to a heavenly and ancestral freedom, yet they were still mindful of Egyptian affairs, and they would weep, saying, "Would that we had died, struck down by the Lord in the land of Egypt!" And they would rise up
A against Moses, saying, "Why did you bring us out into this wilderness?" That it is, therefore, a necessity for those who are being delivered from the accursed love of the flesh and from a life given over to the world to have difficulty in tearing themselves away at the start, and at times to seek after the things that were in them, the Lawgiver obscurely hints to us by saying: "She shall bewail her father and mother for a month of days." And we do not by any means say that he has commanded them to weep; rather, he permits it and bears with them while they are weak. And he said that it was necessary to pardon the faults of those who have suffered this, because they do not yet possess B the capacity to endure. Accordingly, he allowed that suffering in the wilderness to the Synagogue of the Jews, and he did not utterly destroy those who had sinned, even if he was righteously indignant. For that he has not always allowed them to be infirm, nor to harbor the memory of our ancient familiarity — I mean that which is in the world — he showed clearly by assigning not long periods of time for weeping; for "a month of days" signifies a short and contracted interval of time. A similar thought has been brought in for us by the divine Psalmist, speaking to the Church of the Gentiles: C "Hear, O daughter, and see and incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of your father; because the King will desire your beauty." Therefore, he says, "Having bewailed her father and mother for a month of days, she shall then be your wife." For being delivered, as I said, from the life in the world, then indeed, then do we cleave to God, in spiritual union, of course. "For he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit." But, he says, "If you do not wish to have her, you shall send her away free, and she shall not be sold for silver." For when the Synagogue of the Jews acted impiously and laid hands upon Christ himself, since she had acted wantonly D against her own Master, then she became hated and undesired; and she was, as it were, expelled from the divine and holy house. Yet she was not handed over into slavery, nor sold to Satan, nor subjected entirely to his will; for she did not serve idols, even though Israel fell away from the friendship of God. For she continued to confess and worship the one and naturally existing God, and she maintained a love for Moses and the Law; for the God of all did not reject her, because she was once deemed worthy of closeness to Him. For he teaches us this, saying: "You shall not reject her, because you have humbled her." For by humiliation here he means the loss of virginity, or the mode of spiritual union, namely that which is in Christ, through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
On him who fights against the enemies.
"Take up armor and shield," it is addressed to someone.A Indeed, the prophet Isaiah saith as much. As for the most wise Paul, he says: "Put on the whole armor of God." For those who are friends of God, and lovers of virtue, and foster children of all excellent goodness, do indeed fight most valiantly against every profane and carnal pleasure, and set themselves firmly in opposition to the perversities of the devil, with a soul established in faith, unshaken in patience, enduring in hardships, and ready for industry in all things that are admirable. But I do not think that anyone could reach such a measure of spiritual strength, so as to win such a distinguished and truly marvelous glory, unless he has B Him as his defender. And He will surely fight with those who have chosen to mind His things, and who, having obtained purification through Him, count His reproach as their honor. Hence the blessed Psalmist says: "He who dwells in the help of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the God of heaven. He shall say to the Lord: You are my protector and my refuge, my God, and I will hope in Him. For He shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters, and from the harsh word." For since we shall be superior to our enemies, with God as our savior, He will be faithful, saying: "Because he has set his hope upon Me, I will deliver him. He has cried out to Me, and I will hear him; I am with him in tribulation; I will deliver him and glorify him." But behold the matter, even as it is written by the all-wise Moses. For he said: C "If you go out to battle against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing; if there shall be among you a man who is not clean by reason of his nocturnal pollution, then he shall go outside the camp, and shall not enter into the camp. And in the evening he shall wash his body in water, and when the sun has set, he shall enter into the camp. And you shall have a place outside the camp; and you shall go out there, and you shall have a peg on your belt. And it shall be when you sit out there, you shall dig with it, and turning back you shall cover your filth with it. For the Lord your God walks in your camp, to deliver you, and to hand over your enemy into your hands. And your camp shall be holy, that there may not appear in you any indecency, lest He turn away from you." D Do you hear how those who desire to conquer their enemies and be approved by God must be washed clean of all defilement? For our wrestling is not "against flesh and blood," as it is written, "but against principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places," which closely examine human life and inquire into the manner of life of each one. We must therefore maintain a blameless and irreprehensible life, so that we may not be subject to their accusations. For the father of sin is our enemy and persecutor. Those, therefore, who contend in this world by the right of war and battle against an enemy, either receive wounds themselves or inflict them upon others. But for us it is not so; since "our weapons are not carnal," as it is written. Whence we are not wounded in the flesh, but in
rather we receive desires into our mind and heart, and fall into the passions of the love of the flesh. We ought, then, to be equipped with the whole armor of the spirit, and be hedged about by grace from above, and as far as possible keep our mind outside of every intellectual missile. For in this way we shall excel our adversaries, and casting aside every passion, we shall preserve the beauty of our soul unviolated for God. A For this reason the Law says: "If you go out to wage war against your enemies, guard yourself from every evil word," that is, keep yourself far from every cause of accusation, so that no word against you may be true regarding disgraceful and shameful matters; avoid disparagement of any kind, and let every evil word against you be idle.
That we ought also to rid ourselves of the accusations of carnal impurity, it indicates enigmatically, by commanding anyone who is defiled by his nature to go outside of the camp, to wash with water toward evening, and only then at last to return home and, if he wishes, to the camp itself. Now, what this matter is, and what understanding one might have of such things, I will endeavor to explain. For if any human pollution occurs, when the mind has slidden a little toward softness and has admitted the impulse of base desires, then the Lord deems that he who has arrived at the flock of the saints should be separated; for He does not allow the clean to be mingled with the unclean. B For He by no means leaves the sin that corrupts us in us unrebuked. But we shall find purification in Christ, being cleansed by water, according to the saying: "Wash yourselves, be clean." Doing this "toward evening," that is, in the last times of the age—a thing which one might see fulfilled in the flocks of the nations. For they who were defiled by base pleasures, and who once remained outside the camp of the saints, far removed from the sacred flock, these have obtained cleansing through holy baptism; and though they were once far off, they have now become associates and fellow citizens, C and have become partakers of the hope, namely in the time of the coming of Christ, as if in the evening and at the very sunset of the present age.
Therefore the Law says to those who seek the purification of Christ that the accusation of pleasure must be removed. "But you shall have," it says, "a place outside the camp, and you shall go out there; and there shall be a peg under your belt. And when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it; and by bringing it back, you shall cover your indecency with it. For the Lord your God walks in your camp to deliver you, and to hand your enemy over into your hands. And your camp shall be holy, and nothing of indecency shall appear in them." D For it is fitting for those who desire to obtain victory over intellectual enemies to avoid, with as much diligence as possible, every form of impurity, as I have said. But since "we all stumble in many things," and the nature of man labors with a propensity toward vice; and truly, "no one understands transgressions," according to the voice of the Psalmist: therefore, it says, if it happens that one is occupied by any natural impurity and is discovered
so to speak, to be overcome by those who are diseased or caught in that which is outside of the law and a holy life (for the law of sin dwells in the members of the flesh), let it first not be A manifest and uncovered, nor let the faults of infirmity be placed in the sight of many; but let it be as if outside and hidden, and thus as far as possible from the camp. Then, let it be covered by corrections, as it says: "For the wise will hide their own shames," according to what is written. But when we desist from transgressions, and by inclinations toward the better we in some way redirect the mind to choosing that which is beneficial for us, we then remove from our midst the deformity of former falls, and overcoming the stench of sin with a subsequent good fragrance, we will enter again into the camp of the saints, that is, into the Church of the firstborn. B And in Christ this is accomplished. But how, tell me? If we each receive our own cross, according to his word, endowed with a sharp and most ready spirit. For the fact that we have a stake, or wood, beneath our girdle, this surely hints at the cross itself to us obliquely. The law, therefore, is spiritual, and it is accustomed to use bodily things for the description of intelligible realities. For we are not unclean in the sight of God who made us, by going to a privy and relieving ourselves of the superfluities of the belly. But these things which fall into the outward senses, as I have said, are types and images of intelligible realities. It is necessary, therefore, to hide impurity in the earth, "for the Lord thy God," he says, "walketh in thy camp." For Christ dwells and walks in us, and when he sees an ugly and foul thing in us, he immediately departs. "For the spirit of wisdom shall flee deceit," as it is written, "and will remove from foolish thoughts." But if he finds us already clean and washed, and superior to affections and pollutions, then he will promptly inhabit us and will deliver us C from the hand of our enemies. Whence it says: "Be ye holy, for I am holy." And again: "Depart from thence, and touch not the unclean thing, then I will receive you, says the Lord." For our Lord Jesus Christ receives with joy those who have been thus cleansed, through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
Concerning the twelve stones covered with lime.
1. Most wise was the blessed Paul, saying that the ancients were led by the writings of Moses to the mystery of Christ. For thus the matter stands, and the word is true. For if we transfer those things which were commanded through Moses to the truth, we shall find in them a most beautiful spiritual sense. For D if we tenaciously adhere to the letter, and do not let go of those things that are in types, [the next page will continue].
A we shall hear the prophet saying: "Dig deep to the foundations" (Isa. 28:16; cf. Luke 6:48). For we shall find nothing in the shadows that is truly aroused or profitable; rather, we shall declare the commandment to be entirely blameless. It is for this reason that the divine Moses also placed a veil upon his face, signifying, I suppose, to those of clearer understanding, that the law is twofold: that the truth lies deep within, that the shadow is like a mask drawn over it, and that the exterior things are a certain superfluous covering for the interior and hidden things.
Moses therefore teaches us in Deuteronomy that the ministers of the New Testament in Christ will indeed speak the word at the proper times through Him, and will guide [their hearers] toward the truth, and will make the interpretation of the letter more manifest, interpreting it in a more spiritual manner. For it is written thus: "And Moses and the elders of Israel commanded, saying: Keep all these commandments, which I command you this day; and it shall be that on the day that you cross the Jordan into the land which the Lord your God gives you, then you shall set up for yourself great stones, and you shall plaster them with plaster, and you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law, when you cross the Jordan, when you enter the land which the Lord the God of your fathers gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, even as the Lord the God of your fathers said to you. And it shall be that when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, on Mount Ebal; and you shall plaster them with plaster; and you shall build there an altar to the Lord your God; an altar of stones; you shall not wield iron upon them. You shall build the altar to the Lord your God of whole stones. And you shall offer upon them whole burnt offerings to the Lord your God, and you shall sacrifice a sacrifice of peace, and you shall eat, and be filled, and rejoice before the Lord your God. And you shall write upon these stones all this law." B Observe again with me how He ordered that the care of the words which would be about Him should not be neglected, but that the utmost diligence should be applied to them. Such, indeed, were the things which were spoken by the holy apostles. But now I shall attempt to explain each point in detail, as far as it is possible, clearly.
C 2. For if it should come to pass, He says, that you cross the Jordan and enter into the much-desired land of promise, then indeed, having set up great stones on a high place, plaster them with plaster, and write upon them very clearly all this law. Now the great stones set on high signify to us the choir of the holy apostles, who are in truth great and lofty and conspicuous. For as far as virtue is concerned, and the glories of the life in Christ, nothing can be compared to them. For we shall find them standing upright in their excellencies above us, and very far, indeed, surpassing us. For who, I ask, possessed of a sound mind, will contend for equality with those holy and renowned men, whom Christ himself called friends? "For I no longer call you servants," He says, "but my friends" (John 15:15).
He also named them the light of the world and salt of the earth, A and commanded that they be seen adorned with dignities proper to themselves and to Him; He established them as benefactors and appointed them universal physicians, saying: "Heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse lepers, raise the dead: freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8). Great, therefore, are these stones, as though they were set upon a mountain. For the splendor of glory and the excellence of praise make them exceeding high, and as if they were placed in a more elevated spot, even upon a mountain. But who are those who raised up the stones? Those who cross the Jordan; they who have believed in Christ and have obtained the grace through holy baptism. These, therefore, of themselves set up the disciples of our Savior as masters and teachers; and these are the holy and elect stones, of whom the prophetic word says to us: "For holy stones are rolled upon the earth" (Zach. 9:16). For the divine disciples, the glorious students, were, so to speak, rolled out over those under heaven, traversing the inhabited world and displaying to all everywhere the beauty of the piety with which they were endowed, and proclaiming the true pearl, that precious stone, that is to say, Christ.
And the stones covered with lime have writing, namely, the law very expressly. For in the holy apostles we shall find the contemplations of the law clearly and openly, no longer obscured by the letter, nor having a dark veil and shadow, but brilliance and purity. For the teaching of the saints is spiritual. They speak, then, clearly of the law. And this, I think, is what it means for it to be inscribed very skillfully upon the lime-covered stones, according to Scripture (Deut. 27:8). Moreover, when the stones on which the law was written are set up, He commands that an altar be built next from other entire stones, that is to say, uncut and uninjured by the blows of iron. And what could be the reason for this? For the "chief cornerstone" (1 Pet. 2:6), which is Christ, is set in the foundations of Sion. B By Him we have been supported, and having taken Him as a safe and unshakable base, we too, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house, into a holy temple, into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Eph. 2:20-22). C Nevertheless, we are also like a certain altar, gathered together according to spiritual unity, breathing out the good spiritual odor of faith in Christ, and offering through Him to God and the Father our boasts of virtue, like the most fragrant incense. Hence also the divine Paul writes to us: "Present your members as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your rational worship" (Rom. 12:1). We ourselves, therefore, are also stones, albeit entire and unworked, and not struck by iron. For those who, as I said, emit the fragrance of Christ themselves, consecrate their mind completely, not distracted toward the things that are in the world, nor do they carry any longer the wounds which impure and execrable sin inflicts; but just as Christ is undivided, D so also are they themselves simple and true.
being attached to God alone, A refusing to appear divided toward the things of the flesh and the world. Thus, having dedicated himself, the holy Paul writes: "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." It is necessary to remember how God commanded the same law to us in other places, speaking thus: "And if you shall make an altar of stones for me, you shall not take hewn ones for the structure; for if you apply a chisel to it, it is defiled." The stones, therefore, should be whole and uncut, according to the ways we have just now explained. "But you shall eat," he says, "and you shall be filled there, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God." For to those who by this time have arrived at such glory that they are able to give off the fragrance of Christ, it is fitting and highly reasonable that they should be filled with the sacred and divine food, and indeed also rejoice spiritually in the eyes of God. This also appears clearly in the mystical blessings of those in the Churches who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
On the election of Joshua.
B 1. The wise John, having understood most correctly both the mystery of Christ and the measure of the Mosaic ministry, proclaimed it, saying: "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ." But the law was indeed ready for wrath, and on transgressors it immediately and without delay inflicted bitter punishments; C it simply accused wickedness, and brought about the condemnation of sin. "For sin," he says, "is not imputed when there is no law." And again: "I did not know sin, except through the law." But Christ releases us from transgressions; for He justifies in grace, and sanctifies those who have believed, and brings to an end what was long ago promised to the fathers. D And that these things are true for both, Paul will clarify for us again, writing thus: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life." For he calls the "letter" the shadow of the law, just as he calls "spirit" the worship in spirit and truth—that is, the evangelical [worship], which Christ has renewed throughout the whole world. For since the first was not entirely blameless, for this reason a place for the second was necessarily sought thereafter, and God indeed rendered the former ancient, having promised a new one. Therefore, with Moses as it were removed and taken out of the way, Christ has in a certain manner arisen and been manifested as our leader, through whom and in whom we have been brought into the kingdom of heaven and shall receive the prosperity that runs through endless ages, living a life pure and holy, and exempt from every fault. He has instructed us to be thus disposed and to think these things by means of what was prescribed by Moses to those of old. For it is written thus: "And Moses called Joshua, and said to him before all Israel: Be courageous and be robust; for you...
A will enter before the face of this people into the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give to them, and you shall distribute it to them by lot. And the Lord shall be the one journeying with you. He will not fail you, nor will he forsake you. Do not fear, nor be dismayed."
As the excellent Moses was about to depart from human affairs and to be transferred thereafter to the mansions above, the divine Joshua was, as it were, substituted in his stead, and succeeded to the leadership B. For as the old and ancient letter, and the worship in the Law, were, as I have already said, nearly coming to an end and being contracted, the Only-begotten descended to us from the heavens, "and became in the likeness of us." But since He is the God who rules over all, having the most ancient and splendid dignity in this regard, He nevertheless humbled Himself so much that, for the sake of our likeness, He appeared to be called to the beginning of a kingdom. Hence He Himself also says: "But I have been set king by Him"—that is, by God and the Father—"upon Sion, His holy mountain, proclaiming the commandment of the Lord." Moses, therefore, having given way to the glory of Christ, let no one bring him back into the midst again; let not the types prevail, nor let the shadow be stirred up by anyone. "The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." And if anyone should choose to do this, let him know that he is dishonoring the divine economy, and is setting himself apart from what is pleasing to God, and is dismantling the adorable and great mystery. For whoever still clings to the types after the revelation of Jesus will be found farthest removed from the flock of the saints, and entirely destitute of the benefits which are conferred upon them through Christ.
When this had happened to certain of the Galatians, Paul clearly rebuked them in plain words, saying: "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucified? This only I wish to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" Then he adds to these things again: "You have been alienated from Christ, you who are justified by the law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." For the great Moses was indeed faithful, and of those who are most distinguished; but he was a servant, and his measure was that of a mediator and minister of the law that condemns. But Christ, the Lord of him, has arrived, and has brought to us the grace that justifies. Let the law, therefore, be silent, which is the accuser of sin and the minister of condemnation, through which God concluded all things under sin, that He might have mercy on all, as it is written.
2. But what does the great Moses say to Joshua? "Be courageous and be robust; for you will enter before the face of this people into the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give to them, and you shall distribute it to them by lot." D Consider, therefore, your...
A proclamation. Moses did not ignore the glory of our Savior, that incomparable excellence which He possesses above all saints, or rather, if I may speak more truly, above every rational creature. He knew that unconquerable hand, that all-powerful and invincible authority; yet he was almost struck with amazement seeing enemies falling, death weakening, Satan fleeing, and that dragon, once unconquered and insuperable, now fearful and defeated, the mouth of sin stopped, lepers cleansed, demons shrieking, and the raging sea calmed by a single word. Finally, he did not ignore that the Law could justify no one through itself; for it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. But our Lord Jesus Christ has freed the inhabited world from its ancient faults, and since He Himself is the truth, and is holy by nature, He sanctifies those who have believed by His own blood, and renders them superior to death and corruption, bringing them into the very kingdom of heaven, into the land that is truly holy and desirable, into the supernal mansions, into the heavenly city, into the Church of the first-born, B whose Artificer and Creator is God. And that God and Father will assist and cooperate with the Son, who has become like us in all things whatsoever, Moses clearly confirms, having added: "And the Lord who goes with you will not abandon you, nor will He forsake you." Therefore, the Son is all-powerful, and possesses an unconquerable authority, inasmuch as He is God by nature. Yet He is said to be aided by the Father on account of His human nature, and this for a very appropriate reason, namely, on account of the form of servitude and the manner of the economy after the assumption of flesh. Wherefore the Son, in order to create faith in us that He has become as we are, assumes the weakness fitting to man, saying to the Father and God in the heavens: "For Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, nor wilt Thou give Thy holy one to see corruption."
3. Furthermore, that the instruction through the Law was perhaps known to no one before the arrival of the Lord when understood spiritually, but has been held in admiration now that Christ has shone forth, and as it were C has been placed before the eyes of small and great alike, because the Holy Spirit has descended upon us through whom we understand the depths of God, it is manifest also from the things that follow. For they proceed thus: "And Moses wrote all the words of this law into a book, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to the elders of the sons of Israel. And Moses commanded them in that day, saying: After seven years, in the time of the year of remission, at the feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes together to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their ears. Assemble the people, the men and the women, and the children, and thy proselyte who is in thy cities, that they may hear, and that they may learn to fear D the Lord our God, and so hear, that they may observe all the words of this law.
and bring them to perfection." A You hear what He wrote concerning the law, and that He commanded the priests and also the elders that, every seventh year, in the time of remission at the Feast of Tabernacles, they should gather all the young men and the old, the women and the children, and, having gathered them, should read it to them. For the reason that many and countless years were to pass before the Lord should shine forth and the time of His incarnation be made manifest, one may learn from this, namely, that it was to be read only after seven years had elapsed. For the number seven in divinely inspired Scripture signifies a multitude, as is sufficiently evident, I think, from that text: "For the barren hath borne seven." And elsewhere: "Trust not thy enemy for ever, for seven are the wickednesses in his heart." And the compiler of Proverbs likewise wrote: B "Seven times shall the just man fall, and shall rise again." Observe, moreover, that in the seven years which preceded the remission—that is, in the times before the advent of Christ—the law was not read at all. For it is the same as if it had not been read at all, if someone perchance reads it but does not understand it. But then, He says, it was made known to all, to small and great alike, when the time of remission arrived. For the law commanded those of old, saying: "After seven years thou shalt make a remission, and thus thou shalt make it. Remit every debt which thy neighbor oweth thee." And again: "When thou hast possessed a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve thee, but in the seventh year thou shalt send him away free from thee." And our Lord Jesus Christ, at the end of the ages and as it were in the seventh year, remitted to us who had sinned our debts, according to the evangelical parable; and when we were slaves to sin and subjugated to Satan, He rendered us distinguished and C resplendent with the spirit of liberty. The time of remission was indeed announced as being at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, which indicates the mystery of the resurrection, when the tabernacle of each one—that is, the body lying in the earth—is joined together. For when Christ rose from the dead, having trampled upon death and despoiled hell, and having said to those in bonds, "Come forth, and to those who are in darkness, be revealed," then, adorning human nature with the Holy Spirit as in the first fruits of the race and of those who were reformed unto sanctification, He breathed upon the holy apostles, D saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit." Then the eyes of our understanding were opened. Then we were illuminated, and we understood the law that was long hidden and, likely, known to none of the ancients. Then, finally, we were gathered from the ends of the earth into the place which He Himself chose, that is, the Church, in which, as we dwell, the chosen and holy doctors and masters interpret for us the figures and types. Whence also the divine Paul, very skillfully transferring the types into spiritual contemplation, thus writes: "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer being sprinkled, sanctifieth such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh"
how much more the blood of Christ? » A And when those of Israel were sacrificing the lamb, and were busied with the shadows, he again, referring the type of the mystery to Christ, said, "Christ our passover is sacrificed." B He also writes to others: "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two Testaments; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." Being mystically instructed, therefore, in the spirit, we conceive within ourselves a holy fear of the law. C That the power of the worship in types and shadows was to be withdrawn in its own time, Moses again shows us figuratively. For it is written that when Moses had made an end of writing all the words of this law in a book, even unto the end, he commanded the Levites which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: "Take this book, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God." Understand, then, how he bade that the law be laid up in one part of the ark, and not in the very middle thereof; as though the new and divine ordinances through Christ were already near at hand, to which it was necessary that the older commandment should give way, and in a certain manner make room, or rather be moved from the midst, so that that which was better and more perfect might be introduced. D Yet it is not cast out from the holy ark altogether; for the law given through Moses is accepted in the churches; but it is not placed in the first rank, but has been, as it were, withdrawn and has remained at the side, giving place, as I said, to those things incomparably superior, that is, to the divine and evangelical oracles, through which Christ has tutored us unto the knowledge of God and unto all knowledge of virtue; through whom and with whom, to God and the Father, be glory with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. GLAPHYRORUM IN DEUTERONOMIUM LIBER