Glaphyra in Pentateuchum

BOOK 1.

That through all the writing of Moses the mystery of Christ is signified enigmatically. Concerning Cain and Abel. BOOK 2. Concerning Noah and the ark. Concerning the nakedness of Noah and Ham. Concerning Abraham and Melchizedek. BOOK 3. Concerning Abraham and the promise concerning Isaac, and that through them the mystery of faith was prefigured. Concerning Abraham and Isaac. Concerning Isaac and Rebekah. Concerning Esau and Jacob, that they are set as a type of the two peoples, both Israel and the people through faith in Christ. BOOK 4. Concerning the patriarch Jacob. Again concerning the same. BOOK 5. Concerning Jacob. Again concerning Jacob. Again concerning the same. BOOK 6. Concerning Joseph. Concerning Judah and Tamar. Again concerning Joseph. Concerning Joseph and his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. BOOK 7. Concerning the blessing of the twelve patriarchs. Concerning Reuben. Concerning Judah. Concerning Issachar. Concerning Gad. Concerning Naphtali. Concerning Benjamin. Concerning Simeon and Levi. Concerning Zebulun. Concerning Dan. Concerning Asher. Concerning Joseph. BOOK 1. Again concerning Moses. Concerning the vision of Moses at the bush. BOOK 2. Concerning the sacrifice of the lamb. Concerning the dedication of the firstborn. Concerning Marah and the wood shown to the blessed Moses. Concerning the manna and the quail. Concerning the three signs that came to be through Moses. BOOK 3. Concerning the rock that was struck. Concerning the descent on Mount Sinai and the presence of Israel.

Concerning the ascent of Moses and Aaron to the mountain, and of Nadab and Abiud, and of the seventy elders of the people. Concerning the making of the calf by Israel. Concerning the veil on Moses' face. That the passion of Christ is saving. That, having come to partake of the mystical blessing, we shall be holy and sacred altogether and in every way. Concerning the cleansing of leprosy. Concerning the synagogue of the Jews, that it happened to fall through disobedience. Concerning Aaron's not entering at all times into the Holy of Holies. Concerning Christ and the synagogue of the Jews. Concerning those who spied out the land of promise. That Christ has become for us the bread of life. Concerning the red heifer, burned outside the camp. Concerning the bronze serpent. Concerning the heifer with its neck broken in the valley. Concerning the captive woman shaved and having her nails trimmed. Concerning the one who wars against his enemies. Concerning the plastered stones. Concerning the choosing of Jesus.

Of our father among the saints, Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, the Glaphyra on Genesis, Discourse One. That through all the writing of Moses the mystery of Christ is signified enigmatically. Search the Scriptures, Christ cried out to the assemblies of the Jews, saying most clearly that no one could otherwise attain eternal life, unless, as it were digging up a treasure, they

...the legal [text], they might diligently examine the pearl hidden within it, that is, Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden, according to the voice of the blessed Paul. Concerning this so venerable and admirable wisdom or knowledge, Solomon also said somewhere: If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will find the knowledge of God. And nothing of equal worth to this would come to be, among those who praise the blameless life and have chosen to set right the best and most excellent of all things, and who fill their own mind with the divine light—because it is necessary to delight ineffably in the words concerning God, and to make the sacred Scripture like a lamp, as the holy Psalmist cried out and said: Your law is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths. Therefore, since the diligent love of the mystery of Christ is clearly and manifestly the cause of eternal life, and the way of all our gladness—come then, let us again apply profitable labor, and before all else for ourselves, and let us strive both to gather together the things by which the mystery of Christ might be very well signified to us, and to explain how each of the thoughts stands; so that what has been said by us, having subtle impressions, may at times be a good occasion for the more teachable toward the truer contemplation of things, and, as it were, steps carrying them up to the better and highest knowledge. We shall set forth usefully, first, the things that were done historically...

Having set these matters out in due measure, and reshaping the narrative as it were from type and shadow, we shall make our exposition clear, since our discourse is directed toward the mystery of Christ and has him as its end, if indeed it is true that Christ is the end of the law and the prophets. But if it should happen that we fall short of what is most fitting, given the slightness of our thoughts and their great obscurity, those who read ought to be forgiving. It should be known, moreover, that having composed seventeen books On Worship and Service in Spirit and in Truth, and having gathered in them a great multitude of thoughts, we have for reasons of economy passed over in the present writing the chapters treated at length there, and have kept them unexamined, even if somewhere it happened that we mentioned something as if from necessity. We shall begin, then, with the more polished matters concerning Genesis; and thus, running through the five books of Moses in order, we shall also carefully examine, in addition to them, what is useful from the other Scripture for the present purpose. Concerning Adam. 1. Paul, truly learned in the law and most holy, having understood the mystery of salvation through Christ, says that in him there is a recapitulation of both the things in heaven and the things on earth, and—by the good pleasure and will of God the Father—the restoration of all things and the return of corrupted things to what they were in the beginning, making this clear by the name of recapitulation. For he had remembered, as is likely, God speaking through the voice of the prophets: Do not remember the former things, and do not consider the ancient things. Behold, I make new things, which now spring forth, and you shall know them.

Therefore he himself also, having been nurtured as he was in the divine words, showed forth to us the proclamation in them, already in a manner brought to its fulfillment in Christ, saying: “So that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” For we have been reconstituted in Christ, and we have become a new creation. And in him alone we have come to possess the new name as our wealth; for we have been called Christ’s. And indeed again, the inspired Paul somewhere says concerning us: “But those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” For the life of those in Christ is holy and becoming, and beyond fleshly passions and earthly uncleanness. That the new name which is invoked upon us in Christ was going to come upon us would be made clear, since God has cried out through the voice of the saints: “To those who serve me a new name shall be given, which shall be blessed upon the earth.” For they shall bless the true God.

Therefore, since no one who has chosen to think rightly and fittingly would doubt that new things have come to be in Christ, come, let us consider carefully what this oldness is, and of what sort the correction toward the better might be said to be—as being from that which is not wholly sound and free from harm, that is, from what has been corrupted, and from what has been unexpectedly brought down into what it was not in the beginning. For in this way one might know, and quite rightly, wherever the aim of the proposed discourse darts for us, and what is blameless would in no way be excluded. 2. Therefore the supreme Artificer of all things, God, using his own and all-working power—that is, the Son—for everything whatsoever that is to be done,

For all things came into being through him, and without him nothing came into being; he fashioned heaven and earth, and before all other things in the beginning, and he called them into being, though they never existed before. But how, then, if someone should ask, and from where, will he hear from us this truly wise and excellent answer: Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his counselor? For if anyone should choose to learn such things thoroughly, that he will certainly need both mind and understanding, according to what is understood in God, is not disputable. But that the things in us are small or even nothing at all compared to God, he himself will make clear, saying: For my counsels are not as your counsels, nor are my ways as your ways. But as heaven is far from the earth, so my way is far from your ways, and your thoughts from my thought. Let the inquiry concerning these things be dismissed, then, as superfluous and in no way graspable. For he creates as he knows, and as God is able. So then, when heaven and earth had been made in the beginning, and then the multitude of waters had been gathered into one place—for it was necessary to yield to the one saying: Let the water be gathered into one gathering—the earth was uncovered, and it bloomed everywhere with grasses of such manifold kinds, and it was unusually fair in its plants, having received the generation of fruit-bearing trees. And the circles of the sun and moon appeared, and there was a law from God apportioning to each the measure of its rule. For it had been appointed, the one for dawn and rays of light, and the other for night and darkness; and the whole heaven for us was adorned with stars. And indeed he was establishing by law that for which they had come into being, saying:

And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years, and let them be for light in the firmament of heaven, so as to shine upon the earth. And since the Creator of all things is by nature life, he also made the very nature of the waters a mother of swimming creatures and of birds that fly into the air. And again he commanded the earth to bring forth the many-formed nature of cattle, and the untamed kinds of wild beasts. And without delay what seemed good, even beyond understanding, was accomplished. In each of the things made, the Word was the creator, and the coming into being was but a nod. And since the good order in the things that had come to be pleased even the Craftsman of all things himself, another consideration then entered in, bringing in last, for the sake of whom those things were brought into existence, I mean man. For it was necessary, it was necessary that the Creator of all things, being good by nature—or rather, that very Good which he is—be known also by us. It was necessary that the earth be filled with those who know how to glorify, and from the beauty of created things, as it is written, to contemplate the glory of the one who made them. For as the prophet Isaiah says, You did not make it in vain—clearly meaning the earth—but for it to be inhabited. It was necessary, then, that a rational living being be molded in it, after those things that contribute to delight had first been brought forth, and so as to seem well made. Having thus first set forth in fitting order heaven and earth and the things in them, he proceeded to the fashioning of man; of whose coming into being he made the consideration older; although he sketched out all the rest of creation by a word, and established it by his own Word as God.

Since man is truly a living being of good natural disposition and most godlike, so that the likeness of the highest glory might not seem to have obtained equal shares in creation with those not so constituted, he honored him both with forethought and with the work of his own hands.

And having molded him as a statue from earth, he made him a living, rational being, and in order that he might trace back the principles of his own nature, he immediately engraved in him an incorruptible, life-giving spirit; for it is written: And he breathed into his face the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. Then he deemed him worthy of paradise and delight, and assigned to him dominion over all things on earth; he set him as leader over swimming creatures and birds, and he yoked herds of wild beasts to him, and he spread beneath him, together with the others, the kinds of venomous creatures. And he commanded that man, being endowed with reason, should be persuaded by natural laws. Therefore man was the impression of the highest glory, and on earth an image of God-befitting authority. But since it was altogether necessary that the one who had come to this point should henceforth discern his glory and delight—that he has God as his overseer, king, and lord—lest by excessive prosperity he should most readily slip into thinking that he had perhaps been released from both authority and the supremacy of the ruler, he immediately gave him a law, and made the punishing threat a neighbor to transgressions. For as yet there was no manner of sin on the earth, since there was one and only one. But in order that he might also come under law, a manner of guard was devised for him: For from every tree, he says, that is in paradise you shall eat for food. But from the tree of knowing good and evil, you shall not eat from it.

On the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Then, when one of Adam's ribs had been taken, the woman is formed, to serve him for the procreation of children and to live with him as one of the same kind, and indeed he continued living with her in simplicity. But when she was led astray by the devil's slanders to transgression, and made the forbidden thing of the trees edible, and the forefather Adam himself fell with her, human nature was at once condemned to death. And to the woman God addressed the words, In pains you shall bear children, and to Adam, Cursed is the ground in your works. And in addition to these things, they were sent out from the much-desired dwellings that had been theirs from the beginning and from the luxury of paradise. And being naked, in that they were also unclothed, and now being in need of garments, then at last they scarcely learned it; and tunics of skins were made for them for this purpose, God having taken pity; and they were inscribed as children of the earth as mother, and were clothed in the linens of corruption, and, I think, nothing at all of what leads to the utmost wretchedness had been left out for them. 3. But what then? someone, I think, might say: if man, once made, was going to descend into such great misery, how would it not reasonably be considered far better for him not to exist? Yet he makes so bright and admirable the one who would not long afterward be pitiable and miserable, and under curse and justice. Therefore the Creator, being God by nature, was in no way ignorant of what was to come.

But since he acted knowingly, how will he not be convicted of doing wrong rather than, at any rate, of doing good, if indeed it is truly better for those who will be wretched that they never come into existence at all, according to the very voice of the Savior himself, which he spoke concerning the disciple who betrayed him: It would have been good for that man if he had not been born? To such things I would say that it is altogether precarious and close to the madness that has reached its allotted end—or rather, far within and beyond it—to reproach the divine counsels as though they had not been rightly made; and to suppose that the supreme nature either perhaps disregarded what was fitting, or at any rate erred from what was useful and in better things, as is the case among us. Rather, it would be fitting, while attributing to it the blamelessness that belongs to its counsels and deeds, to decline to think beyond what one ought to think, and not to leave curiosity in these matters unrebuked. And in addition to this, I think one ought to reckon that too: whether it is better for those who have received existence together with well-being—surely better, I suppose, not to have come into existence, that is, not to have had being, and not to have partaken of the Creator's gentleness—but no one, as I think, would doubt it. For just as, for those who will be wretched, if they were diverted into existence, not to obtain this would reasonably be thought better and more choiceworthy; in the same way,

I think that even for those who are disposed in the least favorable way, coming into existence and living is a good and admirable thing. What then, tell me? For I say that this account must be led up by us even to matters far beyond our own, and I mean again the blessed angels. They have been made by God and have their passage from non-being into being—both Angels and Archangels, Thrones and Authorities, Powers and Principalities, and in addition to these the highest Seraphim themselves. And among the things that came to be was also that apostate dragon himself, and the evil powers with him, and they were together with the other holy and rational creatures, filling the mansions above, shining in glory, and far, very far, better than our own, possessing an incomparable superiority. And indeed it has been said somewhere by God: I have set you with the Cherubim. But the holy Cherubim have their glory firmly established and securely preserve their own rank. And thousands of thousands minister to God, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. But Satan was cast down with others and has been deprived of his own glory. Was it then because he was going to abandon his own rank, willingly inclining toward offending God, that the Creator of all needed to entertain hesitation regarding the creation of the holy angels, and to cast off so bright and admirable a creation?

How then would it not seem that they had been wronged, if the multitude that stands present to this day and serves had not been brought into being, the multitude that keeps its genuineness toward God who fashioned it, and does not endure to suffer the forgetting of its own origin? For tell me, what is it that greatly grieves, if some have failed of well-being through contempt? But those who are better than these stand with God, and richly filled with his gentleness, they honor him with long and unceasing doxologies. And concerning them, I think, the blessed David says: Blessed are all who dwell in your house; they will praise you for ever and ever. Since the account concerning these things stands thus, come, let us bring the examination down and consider that matter also in our own case. 4. For man was made in the beginning entrusted with the reins of his own wills, and having the inclination toward whatever he might choose left free. For that which is divine is free, and it was toward this that he was also formed. And this, I think, was so, and not otherwise, for the possession of what is worthy of admiration, if he were seen to be a voluntary worker of virtue, and having the fruit of his own judgment—the sincerity in his deeds—not as it were the result of natural necessity, which does not at all permit one to be carried outside the good, even if one should choose to do what is not so. Therefore in the beginning man had kindled within him the inclination of his mind toward all things to be done, left free and unrestrained; but by the deceptions of the serpent he was led astray without understanding toward what was not fitting, and he made the transgression of no account.

By this, then, it was condemned to death and corruption, God foreordaining, I think, what was more advantageous in the event. For once man had inclined to sin, and his nature was diseased with a propensity toward base things, he was continually detected on earth as an evil, perhaps on a par with the unclean spirits. Therefore the death of the flesh was devised usefully, not sending the living creature to total destruction, but rather to renewal, and, so to speak, to a reconstitution, being preserved at times like a vessel that has been shattered. For the Creator was not ignorant that it would befall the living creature to suffer corruption, but he knew, together with this, the dissolution of what is wrong, and the removal of corruption, and the restoration to what is better, and the recovery of the goods that were in the beginning. For he knew that in due season he would send his own Son in human form, to die for us and to destroy the power of death, so that he might be lord of both the dead and the living. For what then? Even if not all have believed, yet the multitude of those who have been saved, being beyond number, will as it were triumph over their destruction; and it will show the grief over them to be stale, all but

saying, "Therefore they shall eat the fruits of their own way." For since it was possible for them to be saved, if they had so wished, and to escape the harms that had crept in among them, they do not receive the Redeemer, that is, Christ. For tell me, if someone skilled in the arts of husbandry filled his own garden with the more naturally vigorous of trees, and then not every harm arising from various causes happened to be avoided, would anyone think that the one who chose to labor as a husbandman did not rightly make his choice? But no one, I think, would find fault with him. Far from it! For he was taking the care that was due to the things planted, but they fell sick so as to suffer. Shall we then say that it was better that no one should go at all to husbandry, nor that the paradise should bloom with the noblest plants, but rather that one should do away with all the ways of planting, so that none of the things planted might be wronged? And how, then, is it not utterly senseless to think these things are right? Therefore we shall not with justice bring an accusation against the Creator for having brought man into existence, but shall rather blame ourselves, who have suffered harm of our own will, if we have understanding and a sound mind. For that, when he was bringing man straightway into being, he knew that he would fall into corruption, and did not fail to know the means of healing, the divine Paul clearly persuades, bearing witness to the antiquity of salvation through Christ as 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 suffer hardship with 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 the grace given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal ages, but now made manifest in the last times through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. And again to others: We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified. And those whom he justified, these he also glorified. You hear how he says that the grace in Christ was given before eternal ages, and that those who would be conformed to the image of his Son were foreknown and clearly predestined by God and the Father. For the manner of the incarnation was foreknown, as I said, and the release from our infirmities was being stored up for the fitting time, and Paul will testify again, writing as follows: To him who is able to establish us according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for eternal times, but now made manifest through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God, made known to all the nations for the obedience of faith, to the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen. For the mystery was kept silent, but has now been made manifest, both through the law and the prophets, according to the will of God and the Father.

For we have been restored in Christ to the state of the beginning, since the things that had been inserted in between by the deceit of the devil have been overturned. For Paul again spoke thus concerning Christ, the Savior of us all: In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his goodness, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and understanding, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him for a dispensation of the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him. In whom also we were allotted an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had previously hoped in Christ. Behold, then, again we have been predestined according to the purpose of the Father; and we have obtained as it were an older hope of being

we have become rich, God having foreknown the matter, and in his own counsels writing down beforehand the things that follow upon our affairs. For since the inventor of sin deceived Adam and showed him guilty of the charges of ease in the beginning, and it thus came about that he was brought down to death, and the judgment has passed over to all men, the suffering going forth as from a root to the things that come from it;

For it reigned from Adam even until Moses, and upon those who sinned in the likeness of Adam's transgression. Thereafter the Creator necessarily took forethought for his own creatures, and contrived for us, as it were, a second root of the race, raising us up to incorruptibility from the former one, so that just as the image of the first man, taken from the earth, marked us out for death and for being caught in the snares of corruption, so again the second beginning after him—that is, Christ—and our likeness to him through the Spirit might imprint upon us the imperishable; and just as in that first man the hard-of-hearing was borne along with us by punishments, so in this one the yielding and wholly obedient might be shown to have received a share of the blessing from above and from the Father. For, it says, the first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a life-giving spirit. And again in another way he made it clear to us, saying: The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are the earthy also; and as is the heavenly, such are the heavenly also. And just as we bore the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. And again: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For he humbled himself, as it is written; and the only-begotten Word of God willingly submitted to the things that are ours, not so that death might reign with us—Adam handing it on and passing the deadening even to him—since he himself is the one who gives life to all things, but so that, having shown the form held fast by corruption, he might transform it into life.

It is by this that it became flesh. Thus also the wise Paul writes: For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead; and as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. For it is ignorant to suppose that Adam, being earth-born and a man, transmitted the power of the curse that came upon him, as though some inheritance, naturally passing over into the whole race; but that Emmanuel, being from above and from heaven, and God by nature, and having the likeness toward us, and having become for us a second Adam, would not richly bestow his own life upon those who choose to partake in faith of kinship with him. For we have become members of his body through the mystic blessing. And we are united in another way also, 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: By this we know that he is in us, from the Spirit which he gave us. Therefore he himself is our life, he himself our justification. And again it is written: So then, as through one trespass it came to all men unto condemnation, so also through one righteous act it came to all men unto justification of life. And again: For as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many shall be made righteous.

It is therefore not unclear that in Adam the first man the mystery concerning Christ was also being shaped at that time—not, indeed, because it was imprinted in an exactly identical way, but because it was different and in a reverse figure. For the one was a beginning for the race, unto death, unto a curse, unto condemnation; but the other unto the very opposite: unto life, unto blessing, unto justification. And the one received the woman into one flesh, and was destroyed through her; but Christ, joining the Church to himself through the Spirit, both preserves and saves her, and makes her better than the devil's deceit. Therefore he also persuades her to cry out: For we are not ignorant of his devices. And the forefather Adam received corruption as the wages of sin and the penalty of transgression; but righteousness was an accusation against Christ, at least according to the madness of the Jews. Therefore, because of the suffering of death, he is crowned with honor and glory, according to the voice of the blessed Paul. And to Adam, with difficulty and only barely, were the things on earth subjected; but to Christ, all things. For every knee shall bow to him, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Concerning Cain and Abel. 1. Human nature has been subjected, as in the beginning of the race in Adam, just as I said a moment ago, to death and sin; but it has been redeemed in no other way except through Christ alone. For as his own disciple wrote, There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

For it was necessary, it was necessary that the one through whom all things were brought into existence should become the renewer of things corrupted, and should drive out the crippling caused by sin; and should abolish what causes grief, and should again distribute well-being richly to those who came into being through him. For I would grant that a brilliant accomplishment of godly power—and indeed also of authority—has been shown, both the ability to bring things from non-being into being, and, so to speak, to call back again to well-being those things that have erred from what is good and blameless. The type concerning this has indeed been shown in Adam. But one may see it no less written in those who came from him. For God and Father sums up in Christ both the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. And what slipped into what was not fitting is led back up to what it was in the beginning, through him alone, while the things that had crept in between have now gone away to nothing, and the things on the earth are being reconstituted into newness of creation. For there is a new creation in him, and the word is true. Consider, then, consider also in Abel and Cain the mystery of Christ, through whom we have also been saved. It is written, then, 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 proceeded to bear his brother Abel. And Abel became a shepherd of sheep. But Cain was a worker of the earth. And it came to pass after days that Cain brought from the fruits of the earth an offering to the Lord, and Abel also himself brought from the firstborn of his sheep, and from their fat.

And God looked upon Abel and upon his gifts, but upon Cain and upon his sacrifices he did not regard. And it grieved Cain exceedingly, and his face fell. And the Lord God said to Cain: Why have you become deeply grieved, and why has your face fallen? If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, have you not sinned? Be at peace; his turning shall be toward you, and you shall rule over him. And after a little: 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 God 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 your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. And now you are cursed upon the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. For you shall work the ground, and it shall no longer yield its strength to you; you shall be groaning and trembling upon the ground. And Cain said to the Lord: My cause is greater than that I should be forgiven. And if you cast me out today from the face of the ground, and I shall be hidden from your face, and I shall be groaning and trembling upon the ground, then it shall be that everyone who finds me will kill me. And the Lord God said to him: Not so; everyone who kills Cain shall suffer sevenfold vengeance. And the Lord God set a sign on Cain, so that no one who found him should destroy him. And Cain went out from the face of God. 2.

Cain, then, and Abel as well—both were born of Adam, and they were like tender and fair-flowering shoots rising from a root in the beginning and at the first; and in them human nature was practicing fruit-bearing, and the growing and multiplying was scarcely at the beginning of appearing, and thereafter in strength. But Cain came forth first in time according to birth. And Abel followed and was after him; and as long as they were delicate and young, like nestlings they were reared by their parents. But when the young men came to maturity, and thereafter appeared completing their course among men, they turned to different kinds of industrious labor. And Cain, having taken delight, I suppose, in the earth clad in green, and seeing it very rich in wood and most productive, and adorned with ripe fruits, thought it necessary by his attentions to make the appearance of what was seen more gentle and cultivated; and the things that were from home and naturally worthy of love and spontaneously reaching to this beauty he pondered, as is likely, that if they should chance upon the farmer's sweat, they would easily come into view—he was preparing what was incomparably superior. So he set about it in rustic fashion, and using all his strength, he wished to accomplish his purpose. And perhaps nature gave him the knowledge of these things too, and a divine and secret law was engraving somewhere in his mind the knowledge of whatever he might choose. But these things Cain deemed worthy of earnest effort and toils; while Abel the wise, letting go the sweat upon wood and the hoe, and indeed not enduring the sickle, devoted himself to flocks of sheep.

Perhaps these things were bringing him to this opinion: rams still softly bleating to their mothers and scarcely able to bleat back, and with tender, newly formed feet skipping a little on the fair-flowering grass; and indeed to this end the bleating goats too, leaping effortlessly up the highest rocks. And by a most noble vote, I think, he deemed it right to crown the shepherd's craft, being exceedingly wise, treating the matter as a kind of preliminary training for the leadership of men, and believing it to be so. For it is the custom, both in the God-inspired Scripture itself and among the learned of the Greeks, to call the leaders of peoples or those set over cities or populations "shepherds." So then, when the two young men had turned aside, the one to farming, the other to something better, namely shepherding, time went on and made Cain's gardens thick with foliage and heavy with ripe fruits; while for Abel it brought what had been gathered together to the greatest possible multitude. Then the law of the innate knowledge of God within us was calling the men to the necessity of kindling thank-offerings to the Creator of all, and to God the giver of every good thing to us. For if the aim of discerning who is the maker of all things is perhaps corrupted and not seen as true among the worshippers of idols, nevertheless an innate and necessary law pierces through, and self-impelled knowledge awakens us, at least to the need of understanding that which is superior and incomparably better than we are, that is, God. So then the holy and all-wise Abel brings the choicest of the flock, selected by excellence;

For he brought, it says, from the firstborn of the lambs, and from their fat, that is, the pre-eminent and choice portions. And not being ignorant of the manner of the sacred rite, he set forth the fat. But Cain did not do so, but very carelessly indeed; for the things that were most especially excellent among the ripe fruits he gave over to his own luxuries, while with the second-rate he grieved the God over all. Accordingly, upon Abel's gifts, sending down fire from heaven, he caused the sacred offerings to be consumed; but upon Cain and upon his sacrifices, it says, he did not look with favor. For he did not send down the customary fire upon what had been offered. From this Cain is greatly distressed and terribly at a loss. And being taught the cause of the rejection, and since the better verdict had been chosen for Abel, he did not rather turn to the correction of his failings; but rearing up in untimely fits of anger, he was the first among men to bring to birth untamed envy; and all but avenging himself on the God of all for the rejection, he comes against the one who had been admired by deceit. And he trampled on the law of affection, having his mind filled with devilish vileness and unholy designs; and fashioning what was kind into words: Let us go, it says, into the field. Do you hear how he called

Would he not be, as it were, an overseer over the fields of his gentleness, and enjoy the many-formed sight of the flowers? But he acts impiously, and gives his own brother as a kind of firstfruit and offering to death, and became a teacher to human nature of the road to murder. And when God inquired and said, Where is Abel your brother? the wretched man speaks falsely, and answers harshly, saying, I do not know. But when he was convicted as a murderer, and had been subjected to the curses, he thought again that he himself would die, and that, even if God did not wish it, the matter would be a release for him from the wrath of God. For he said: If you cast me out today from the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from your face, and I shall be groaning and trembling upon the earth, and it shall be that everyone who finds me will kill me. But that he would in every way and altogether be subject to the curses and pay the penalties for his own impieties, living a thrice-wretched life on earth, he was clearly assured when God said: Not so, for everyone who kills Cain will suffer seven vengeances. And he sets seven in place of many, just as if he were saying, He who releases him from bodily life will grant to the fratricide Cain a penalty for many and impious transgressions. But if anyone should choose to say that the vengeances are also the number seven, it is no difficult thing to measure it out and say that the first sin of Cain was not to divide rightly, nor indeed to dedicate to God the choicest of all things.

Second, indeed, it is the mark of one who has learned of sin not to turn to repentance and to correct his failings by running back to what is better, but rather to be sharpened to anger and provoked by the good repute of his neighbor—one whom he ought by all means to have chosen to emulate, not to regard as an enemy and to eye with unjust looks. Third, and as it were a kind of preliminary assault of the savagery that leads to the necessity of murder, is untamed envy. Fourth is the very phrase, Let us go out into the field, which carries the proof of guile and deceit. Fifth are the accusations of his impious bloodshed. A sixth transgression might be reckoned to him: that he lied against God. As a seventh, that he thought he could escape the judgments against God's will, having departed from bodily life not unwillingly. But God gave, it says, a sign to Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of God. He was forthwith subject to the curses, and the manner of his turning away followed. For how would the all-pure and most holy nature look upon one who had already passed through to the utmost of evil? 3. Let these things be said by us for now, as it were in the coarse substance of events and historically. But as if recoloring the outline of the image and transcribing the shadow in the letter into truth, come now, come, and examining each point very minutely, let us say this: that one might discern the mystery of Christ prefigured in the beginning, as in a shadow, by what happened.

For it was necessary, it was necessary, when human nature had been disposed toward sin and unexpectedly entangled in the snares of death, that the mystery of the return to what is better be proclaimed beforehand, and that Christ, who for our sake and on our behalf would die in due season, not be unknown. Therefore Adam, the first father, according to the testimony of the sacred Scriptures, was made in the image and likeness of God. And from him were begotten and came forth, first Cain, and second after him Abel. But to Cain we shall assign the figure of Israel. For indeed Christ himself deemed it worthy to prefigure by him the Jewish peoples, who are of equal disposition with Cain. 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 set you free. But they, not understanding the beauty of the freedom that comes from the father, attempted to take pride in fleshly boasts, saying: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to anyone. How do you say, You will be free? What then does Christ say to these things? If you were children of Abraham, he says, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek me

to kill a man who has spoken the truth to you, which I heard from the Father; this Abraham did not do. But he assigns Satan to them as a father, saying: You do the works of your father. That one was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth, because he is a liar, just as also his father. And we will not yet think, understanding rightly, that Christ had in mind the wicked and first-author-of-evil demon; but to the Jews who had raged madly and were in labor with their unholy murder against him, he gives as father the first murderer and practitioner of falsehood, I mean Cain, and of that one Satan, the inventor of sin. When some ask what father we shall assign to the devil, or what we say is the archetype of his perversity, he assigns as an archetype, as it were, Cain, and as an image those said to be sick with the likeness in every respect of the impiety that dwells in him. For that it is a habit of the Savior Christ to call Satan one who resembles him in his ways, we may observe quite easily from what he says to the holy disciples: Did I not choose you, the twelve, and behold, one of you is a devil? Israel, then, must be compared to Cain, about whom it is written: Israel is my firstborn son. But after Israel the firstborn, second as it were in time, and youngest, Christ appeared, himself also a son of Adam. Therefore also he wisely and in accordance with the divine plan called himself everywhere the Son of Man.

But Israel seemed to honor God by offering things temporary and easily dissolved, and of which the account is not very great, and he placed his whole mind, as it were, on pursuits concerned with the earth. For Cain turned to farming the land, but Abel was a shepherd of sheep. For Emmanuel was leading the rational flock, and he himself is the good Shepherd who in a rich place and in good pasture, as it is written, shepherds the flocks both above and on the earth. To him also the prophetic word has cried out: Shepherd your people with the rod of your guard, the sheep of your inheritance. Therefore Israel thought fit to honor God with the more earthbound things, bringing forth the fruits of the law and dedicating to him the sacrifices that were not of his will. Accordingly he also heard through the voice of the saints: The whole burnt offering of your rams, and the fat of lambs, and the blood of goats and bulls, I do not want, nor if you come to be seen by me. For who sought these things from your hands? You shall not continue to tread my court. If you bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me. And again, Why do you bring me frankincense from Sheba, and cinnamon from a distant land? Your whole burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices have not pleased me. This is clearly that God did not regard the sacrifices of Cain. But Abel the righteous, that is Christ, was bringing as gifts to God the firstborn of the rational flocks, that is, those tender in heart and infantile in evil, and chosen in virtues, and bearing the glory of the firstborn in the image that is toward him.

For the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in the heavens, the multitude of those called through faith to sanctification, is named by the divine Paul. So then, Christ has become the priest of this holy multitude and flock of the firstborn. For through him we have obtained access in the Spirit to God and the Father. And we have become a good and acceptable sacrifice, better than a young calf bearing horns and hooves. For the approach through blood is lowly and more earthbound, and has no sweet savor before God. But the worship in the Spirit and through Christ is exceedingly pleasing to the Father. Indeed, to those from Israel who brought offerings from the earth, God cried out: I will not accept calves from your house, nor goats from your flocks; for all the beasts of the field are mine, the cattle on the mountains and the oxen. I know all the birds of the sky, and the beauty of the field is with me. If I am hungry, I will not tell you; for the world is mine, and its fullness. But to us who have been justified in Christ and sanctified in the Spirit, he addressed us, 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 affliction, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. Therefore the spiritual things are better than those from the earth, and the sacrifice through Christ is far more excellent than the sacrifice according to the law. God, then, was not inclined toward the sacrifices of Cain, but toward those of Abel. And for what reason? For Israel offered correctly—for it was necessary to sacrifice to God—but he divided incorrectly, always attending to types and supposing that God took pleasure in things in shadows. Therefore he both sinned and was commanded to be quiet, that is, to cease from the ancient customs according to the law, and to make Christ 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." But if Israel had wished, thrusting aside the offering from more earthly things and the uselessness of the worship according to the law, to make Christ the ruler and guide of the way to the better, he would have been free with us, and in the book of the living, according to the Scriptures. But since he made the good repute of our Savior an occasion of envy equal to Cain's and a beginning of murder, he has fallen into a curse, and has become subject to sevenfold avengers. For many have become liable to judgments and have been subjected to savage punishments, and the wretched ones continue groaning and trembling; for everywhere they are strangers and aliens and full of fear, and they do not have the boldness of speech that is most fitting for free men. However, Cain received a sign that he should not be killed.

For Israel has not perished entirely, but the remnant has been saved, according to the voice of the prophet, and knowing this he proclaimed beforehand, saying: And unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a seed, we would have become as Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. And indeed, in addition to this, the inspired Melodist also pleaded with the God of all that Israel not be destroyed entirely: Do not kill them, lest they forget your law. Moreover, Cain went out from the face of God. For it is written thus: And Cain went out from the face of God; and those from Israel have suffered something of this kind, to whom it was 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 supplication, I will not hear you. For your hands are full of blood. For they killed the Lord of all, and they have dared to say out of exceedingly great impiety, His blood be upon us, and upon our children. But the blood of Abel alone perhaps cried out against the murderer; but the precious blood of Christ has cried out both against the cruelty and the ingratitude of the Jews; and it has taken away the sin of the world, since it was poured out for its sake. Therefore the inspired Paul says: that we who have been justified in faith have drawn near to the sprinkling of blood that speaks better than Abel. And I think that this also would fit what has been said. For after Abel had died, he says, Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and she named his name Seth, saying:

For God raised up for me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain killed. Then after other things: And Adam lived, it says, thirty and two hundred years; and he begot according to his form and according to his image, and he named his name Seth. Consider, then, that after Abel's death, a son, Seth, is born again most resembling him who was according to the image and likeness of God, that is, Adam. For after Emmanuel died according to the flesh, another seed immediately sprang up for Adam, richly possessing in itself the supreme beauty of the divine image; for we who believe are being reformed into Christ through the Spirit. And that the death of Christ has become, as it were, a root and cause of lineage for these, he himself will confirm, saying: Amen, amen I say to you: unless the grain of wheat falling into the earth dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. When, therefore, he has fallen like a grain into the earth, he sprang up in abundance like an ear of grain, human nature being remolded in him toward the image that was in the beginning, according to which the first man came to be. 4. It is also worth our while to investigate thoroughly the lineage from both, I mean that of Cain and that of Seth; for from this too something will accrue to us that contributes to benefit. And it is written thus: And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch, and he was building a city, and he named the city after the name of his son Enoch. And to Enoch was born Gaidad, and Gaidad begot Maouia. And Maouia begot Mathusala, and Mathusala begot Lamech, and Lamech took for himself two wives.

And the name of the one was Ada, and the name of the second was Sella. And he said to the women Ada and Sella: Hear my voice, women of Lamech; give ear to my words: for I have killed a man to my wounding, and a young man to my bruising; for seven times vengeance has been taken for Cain, but from Lamech seventy times seven. You have in these things the clear account of the genealogy from Cain; let us see also what was that from Seth. And it is written again thus: And Seth lived five and two hundred years, and he begot Enos; concerning whom the sacred Scripture says: This one 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 a hundred and ninety years, and he begot Cainan; and all the days of Enos were five and nine hundred years, and he died. And Cainan lived seventy years and a hundred, and he begot Maleleel. And all the days of Cainan were ten years and nine hundred, and he died. And Maleleel lived five and sixty and a hundred years, and he begot Jared. And all the days of Maleleel were five and ninety and eight hundred years, and he died. And Jared lived two and sixty years and a hundred, and he begot Enoch; then it says: And Enoch was well-pleasing to God, and he was not found, because God translated him. Consider then, and before all other things, how those from Cain are named, and the account of the succession of the generations creeps along. Yet it is not the case that the time of each one's life has been clearly set forth, namely to how great a number of years it extends, as indeed is the case also with those who came from Seth.

For the time of each one has been recorded accurately—who they were and how long they lived, both before the begetting of children and after that—and one may learn this again, precisely and exactly, from the sacred Scriptures. This, then, is also no unclear indication to those who have wholly chosen to examine such matters closely, that God would not endure to know the life of those who love sin. At any rate, they will hear Christ saying at the divine judgment seat: Amen I say to you, I never knew you. For nothing escapes Him as far as knowledge is concerned—I mean the God of all. But knowing, He does not know those who love sin, because of His turning away from them, which shows the utmost intensity. Therefore the time of life has been passed over in silence for those from Cain. For they have done nothing worth hearing, but only such things as were likely to be to the harm of those who encounter the writing about them. They have therefore obtained, and quite justly, even remembrance before God. Yet He does make it a matter of account to know precisely the life of the saints, and, I think, nothing of what concerns them would escape the divine and pure mind. And our Lord Jesus Christ will confirm this by saying: Are not two sparrows sold for an assarion? And not one of them will fall to the ground without our Father in the heavens; but even all the hairs of your head are numbered. And if even the number of hairs has been set down as a matter of account before God, because He clearly knows all things that concern them and makes them a matter of care, in what way could the time of life itself be unknown? For, it says, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. And the second one immediately after Cain, Enos, had a city named after him in the land.

And yet the saints, as if in the rank of boasting, have made it their practice to think and to say: "We have no lasting city here, but we seek the one to come, whose architect and builder is God." And they call the life in this world a sojourning. And somewhere the inspired David also sings: "Spare me, for I am a sojourner in the land and a stranger, as all my fathers were." But concerning those who think on earthly things, in the 49th psalm he says: "They called their names upon their generations." And from Seth sprang the inspired Enosh, concerning whom it is written: "This one hoped to call upon the name of the Lord his God." For the race in Christ is holy and sacred, and in the hope of glory beyond man. Since indeed, being from the earth, we have been called to adoption as sons of the Master of all, and to brotherhood with Christ, who for our sake became as we are, so that we too through him might become gods in better things and beyond man—clearly by grace and love for mankind, gaining glory as our profit. For I said, he says: "You are gods, and all sons of the Most High." Enosh, then, hoped to be called by others in the name of the Lord his God—that is, God. For since he was not unadmired, shining with the boasts of holiness, some of the more gentle, perhaps, having chosen to crown him with the highest honor, called him God. Let our account now come to its proper aim. For the Jews, who are also images of those from Cain—that they exist is known by the God of all; but that they do not have their enrollment in the book of life would be clear from the fact that the life of those from Cain has been passed over in silence.

For that the race in Christ is inscribed, and in the memory that is with God, one would demonstrate—I think—by the fact that the life of the righteous has been clearly recorded, I mean those from Seth. And Enosh, the second immediately from Cain, had a city named after him. For those wretched Jews think only of things on earth, not knowing the church of the firstborn, nor hastening to the city above. But the one from Seth is greatly approved—that is, Enosh. For he is already even named God. And through faith we have richly obtained the glory that pertains to this, we who have run to Christ and have laid hold of the hope in him. I would add yet another observation, necessary in addition to what I have said. For if one should choose to trace the genealogies of those from Cain and from Seth, having first set down Adam as a kind of root of each, he will find Lamech coming as the seventh through Cain, and Enoch himself as the seventh through Seth. And the enumeration of both lines is as follows: Adam, Cain, Enosh, Gaidad, Maouias, Mathusala, Lamech. And again: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kainan, Maleleel, Jared, Enoch. Let us see, then, in what respects each of the two stands. For Lamech said to his wives: "Hear my voice, wives of Lamech, give ear to my words: because I have killed a man to my wounding, and a young man to my bruising, because seven times vengeance has been taken for Cain, but from Lamech seventy times seven." But the righteous Enoch was translated by faith so as not to see death, according to the voice of the blessed Paul: "And he was not found, because God translated him.

For in the last times, in which the sabbath-rest in Christ has appeared, Israel is thoroughly afraid, and is seen to have fallen into the fear of being punished, as one who has killed a man, and is judged from then on for the holy blood—and far more greatly than Cain himself. For the one, having sinned against one of those who are ours, has become liable to those exacting vengeance sevenfold; but the one who has acted impiously against Emmanuel himself is far more greatly held accountable. For vengeance has been exacted from Cain seven times; but from Israel seventy times seven. For the judgment will follow in proportion to the acts of impiety. But those who have been approved in Christ through faith at the time of his visitation would no longer be found when Satan seeks them. For they will be transferred by God to the incomparably better and more glorious life, by God from death and corruption to a long-lasting life, from thinking the things of the flesh to willing to do the things that please God, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom and with whom be the glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

A SECOND DISCOURSE OF THE GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS.

Concerning Noah and the ark. 1. Noah was a good man, and a genuine lover of the love of God, setting nothing before the good repute that leads to this. And since he was brilliant, and conspicuous, and exceedingly glorious, and renowned, right well crowned with his boasts, he was reasonably admired. So then the account creeps up to him, and having set forth an image and type of the salvation through Christ, as it were a certain dispensation that came to pass in him, it would profit, as I think, and not moderately, those who will read it. Come then, let us narrate each of the things concerning him as best we can, thinning out the thickness of the history, and cleverly tinting the things that visibly happened into spiritual contemplation. 2. Seth, then, was born from Adam after the slaughter of Abel. And from Seth was Enos, who hoped to call upon the name of the Lord his God. For among those of that time Enos was called God. For since they were struck with wonder at the greatness of the righteousness that was in him, they named him God straightway, thinking that the appellation was most fitting to the man's virtue. And from Enos, that is, from him surnamed God, others were born, after whom also was Lamech, the father of Noah, who at the birth of his child is straightway shown forth as a prophet; just as indeed also Zacharias at the birth of the blessed Baptist. For Lamech named his son Noah; which is, rest, if the word be interpreted in our tongue. And Lamech, as it were assigning the reason for such a name, says, This one shall give us rest from our works, and from the earth which the Lord God cursed.

Thus, under bright and most radiant hopes, the generation of Noah was proclaimed beforehand to those of old. And he was the tenth from Adam, reckoned by genealogy through Seth, reaching down to himself, since those who came from Enos, who was surnamed God, ought to be called gods by all. But Noah, it says, was five hundred years old, and he begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Shem may be renamed from Hebrew into the Greek tongue as "perfection," or "planting"; and Ham as "warmth"; and Japheth as "enlargement." Then the sacred Scripture says: And it came to pass, when men began to become many upon the earth, and daughters were born to them. And the sons of God, seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took for themselves wives from all whom they chose. And the Lord God said: My spirit shall not remain in these men forever, because 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: Whensoever the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; those were the giants, the men of old, the renowned men. For since the race of men was now spreading into a great multitude, the sons of God, it says, having fallen into a most perverse desire for women, took for themselves wives from all whom they chose. We know, then, that some of the copies clearly contain: And the angels of God, seeing the daughters of men.

Then some people turn the charges of flesh-loving back around and kindle the causes of that most abominable desire in the angels who slipped, who did not keep their own principate, as it is written. But I would say and agree that every sickness of mind would befit those beings; yet to allow the credibility of reasonable argument concerning the matter to be carried as far away as possible would be, as it seems to me, among the most absurd things. For our aim is to love to examine the truth concerning each of the things written, and certainly not to dwell on the sicknesses of the herd of demons. For above all we always see desires following the movements that are in ourselves and innate. For either we love the passions of the flesh, or we are accustomed to hold in the highest regard those things through which the things of the flesh would come about. But outside the natural laws, pleasures do not carry us away,

at least according to what seems to me to be well and truly the case. For example, food and drink, and perhaps the natural intercourse with women, would be works and passions of the flesh. But the desires for wealth and glory serve the pleasures of the flesh, and nearly all the passions in the world come through these, according to what was said by the wise disciple, that everything in the world is the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance of life. The bitter and terrible desires for such things easily ensnare us into choosing to think and do the things of the flesh; but no argument will persuade anyone to desire things outside the body and contrary to nature.

Then how would it not be close to folly to say that spirits higher than flesh and estranged from it lust after carnal things? What natural motion do they have for this, or what law provokes them, as indeed it also provokes us ourselves to the necessity of thirsting for such passions, especially since? For surely we do not perhaps acquit the swarm of demons of the charge in these matters. For it is unholy and profane, and ready for anything whatsoever of the outlandish. And let it be sick, if it seems good, along with the others, even with pleasures contrary to nature. But when the divine Scripture says that they came together with the women, and they bore those called giants—that is, extraordinary prodigies, yet rational human beings—what then should one reason about this? For certainly a casting of seed into a woman could not come from spirits far removed from flesh. But some babble vainly and cleverly devise the matter, stealing away the impossibility with plausible reasonings, as they think; for they say that the evil demons, having come to be among men, accomplished the castings of seeds through them. But we will find their account exceedingly unseemly and full of ignorance. For what the divine Scripture has not said, in what manner shall we accept it, and count it among things that are truly so? Therefore let us rather read: And the sons of God, seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took for themselves wives from all whom they chose. And the rendering of the other translators confirms for us all the more that such a writing is correct. For Aquila says: And the sons of the gods, seeing the daughters of men.

But Symmachus, instead of "sons of God," rendered it "the sons of the rulers." And indeed they called "sons of God" and also "of rulers" those descended from Seth and Enos, both because of the holiness and love of God that was in them, and because they could prevail against all who opposed them—God, as was likely, aiding them and making manifest the most sacred and holy race, which was unmixed with the other, that is, with those from Cain and also Lamech, who indeed, walking in his father's footsteps, became a murderer; for he confessed, "I killed a man to my wounding, and a young man to my bruise." As long, then, as the holy race continued by itself and unmixed with the worse, the beauty of piety toward God, still pure and unadulterated, shone brightly in them, and made them worthy of admiration. But when they slipped away into love of the flesh, and, stirred up by the beauty of women, were bent toward apostasy—for it says, "They took wives from all whom they chose from the daughters of men," that is, from those of Cain—although they were called gods and sons of gods and of rulers, they were carried off thereafter to the customs of those people, and into a shameful and profane manner of life and conduct. And the women bore monstrosities, God now even debasing the very beauties of human bodies, because of the incontinence of those of that time toward lustful desires. And those who were born were giants, that is, savage and strong, and having much of the hideous, and surpassing others in the size of their bodies.

But it must be known that it is somehow customary for the word of divinely inspired Scripture to call those who are exceedingly strong "giants." At any rate, it said concerning both the Persians and the Medes through the voice of the prophets: "Giants come to fulfill my wrath, rejoicing and at the same time acting insolently." But we shall by no means attach ourselves to the false tales of the Greeks. For those among them who are learned, and especially the poets, are accustomed, according to what seems good to them, to narrate and to mold the natures of things, and to lift up on high small and cast-down things, and to think they must dignify them with exceedingly false myths, even if the narrative departs far from what is fitting. One of them says that all Sicily was hurled up to heaven by one of the giants, while another lies yet more greatly and more discordantly about another. For there were, as I said, men terrible to behold, immense in strength, harsh and hard to confront, and by the surpassing size of their bodies raised a little above the rest, as is likely—except that they did not, as those who are accustomed to fabricate myths about them claim, touch the clouds themselves. 3. When the races had therefore been mingled with one another, and all had inclined toward unbridled sin, "God saw," it says, "that the wickednesses of men were multiplied on the earth, and every one devises in his heart evil things earnestly all his days, and God considered"—that is, repented—"and according to another version, that of Aquila, I mean: 'Because he made man on the earth, and he considered, and said: I will blot out the man whom I made from the face of the earth, from man to beast, and from reptiles to the birds of heaven.'

because I considered that I made them. But Noah found grace before the Lord God. You understand that he desires the destruction of every man. But since Noah was adorned with the ways of piety, he is entreated alone; and he does not destroy him together with the others, but saves him with his whole household. And indeed he says to him: The time of every man has come before me, because the earth has been filled with injustice from them, and behold, I destroy them, and the earth. Therefore make for yourself an ark of squared wood; you shall make nests in the ark, and you shall cover it inside and outside with pitch. And thus you shall make the ark: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, and fifty cubits the width, and thirty cubits its height. Gathering together you shall make the ark, and you shall finish it above to a cubit. And after other things again: 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 the beasts and from all the cattle, and from all flesh, two by two. From all you shall bring into the ark, that you may feed them with yourself; male and female they shall be from all the birds according to kind; and from the cattle according to kind, and from all the creeping things that creep upon the earth, according to their kind, two by two. From all they shall enter in to you to be fed with you, male and female. And from the clean ones, seven by seven you shall gather, he says; and two again from the unclean. When all these things therefore had been completed, just as the God of all had commanded, all flesh was being drowned;

when the rains and hail and the most violent downpour of waters from above and from heaven flooded the whole region under heaven; and the ark floated, carrying as cargo the souls of the righteous. But when the waters had subsided a little, the ark, it says, came to rest on the mountains of Ararat; and Noah, opening the door of the ark, sent out the raven to see whether the water had ceased from the face of the earth; but it did not return. Then after it he released a dove, and finding no rest for her feet, it says, the dove returned to him into the ark, because water was over all the face of the earth. And Noah stretched out his hand and took her and brought her to himself into the ark. And a second time, after seven days, she was sent out, and she returned toward evening, holding a sprig of olive in her mouth; and a third time he released her again after seven days, and she did not return to him any more, it says. And thus he understood at last that all the water had been swallowed up from the earth. And the dry land appeared again, and the things in it. And when, together with his own children and all those gathered with him, he had now seen the earth freed from the waters, he immediately built an altar.

and he was eager to offer whole burnt offerings of the clean and unblemished among the cattle and the birds, dedicating, I suppose, thank-offerings to God who had saved them. When this had happened, the Lord God, it says, smelled a sweet savour, and the Lord God said, having considered it: I will not again curse the earth because of the works of men, for the thought of man is earnestly set upon evil from his youth. I will not again smite all 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 besides these things, it says, the Lord God also 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 beasts of the earth, and upon all the cattle, and upon all the birds of heaven, and upon all things that move upon the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea; into your hands I have given them. Since our account has now already come to this point, nothing at all, I think, remains wanting in the way of narration according to the letter and historically. Come then, let us carry through the inner hidden contemplation, following in the track of what has been said, and let us mould the mystery of Christ, and show an image of the salvation that is through him—Noah himself, and the wise and ineffable economy concerning the ark. Noah, then, was begotten through Lamech—not the one who previously killed a man and a young man, but through his namesake, the one descended from Seth.

But our Lord Jesus Christ also sprang from Israel, holy indeed because of the fathers, but from a people of like character to Lamech and of like mind with the murderer, and already bearing the same name inasmuch as he was a murderer. And it has been said somewhere to the Jews: Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill? And by Christ: And you, fill up the measure of your fathers. And indeed by the voice of Isaiah he says: When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you; and if you multiply your supplication, I will not hear you; for your hands are full of blood. And Noah was the eleventh from Adam; but Christ again, as in the last and eleventh time, was born according to the flesh, and begins the dispensation on our behalf. And you would learn that this is so and true, since you will say it altogether and in every way, being fully persuaded from the sacred Scriptures. For the one who hires laborers into the vineyard addressed certain ones at the eleventh hour—and these would be those from the Gentiles: Why have you stood here all day idle? And when they had said openly, Because no one hired us—for no one had called the Gentiles to the knowledge of God before the coming of our Savior—kindly and compassionately he says: Go also you into the vineyard, and whatever is just I will give you. And the law through Moses commanded the slaughter of the lamb to be performed in the middle of the evening, toward evening and already under the lamps.

For, as it were, when the time was already at its very setting, and the present age was, so to speak, now being drawn to a close, the Only-begotten Word of God became man, and endured the slaughter on behalf of all, freeing them from penalty and judgment, and placing those who have believed far away from every such terror. For he himself is truly Noah—that is, righteousness and rest; for the name is interpreted thus. For we have been justified, according to the Scriptures, not by works of righteousness which we ourselves have done, but according to his great mercy. Christ, therefore, has become for us who have believed righteousness, and indeed also rest, if indeed it is true. For he himself was wounded for our transgressions, and was delivered up for our sins, and by his bruise we were healed. And, the Lord delivered him up for our sins, according to the voice of the prophet. Since Christ, then, suffered for us in the flesh, blessed and worthy of emulation And why indeed? Have we not been called to such things, and do we not delight in the heavenly gifts, and are we not enriched in the participation, and the

having cast off the hard-to-bear burden of sin, we are henceforth released into spiritual well-being. 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 that I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For that Christ was going to give us rest, the archangel Gabriel also foretold to the holy Virgin, saying: Do not fear, 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 inspired prophets also earnestly foretold the rest that was to come from him. For one said: Take courage, Zion; do not let your hands grow weak; the Lord your God is in your midst, mighty; he will save you, and he will renew you in his love. And Isaiah, as it were, all but set it before their very eyes, saying: Be strong, you weakened hands, and you paralyzed knees; comfort those who are faint in mind; be strong, do not fear. Behold our God. Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with dominion. As a shepherd he will shepherd his flock, and with his arm he will gather the lambs, and will comfort those who are with child. Christ has therefore become for us both righteousness and rest; and he has saved us also from the land which the Lord God cursed. For this Lamech foretold to us concerning Noah. And it is not doubtful that the charges of the transgression in Adam have been loosed again in Christ.

For he became a curse for us, according to what is written, releasing the earth from the ancient curse. For through him we say that the Father and God recapitulates all things to what they were in the beginning: And the old things have passed away, and all things have become new, and if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Since he is a second Adam who by obedience overturns the accusation against the first-formed man—I mean the refusal that took place in the beginning, which became disobedience. The divine Paul also seemed to think this way. For he writes thus: For just as through the disobedience of the one man sinners were made, so also through the obedience of the one man many will be made righteous. And Christ became obedient to the Father unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore, just as the earth was accursed through the transgression in the beginning in Adam, so it has become blessed through the obedience of Christ. And in another way he redeemed us from the earth that had become accursed. For we expect new heavens and a new earth, according to his promises, as the wise disciple of the Savior also said. And he renewed for us the ascent to the things above and to the heavens; and as a forerunner on our behalf he entered into the holy land, which he said the meek would inherit—that is, those who are trained in meekness by the teachings of the Gospel. Since the law indeed commanded that eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, and wound for wound be brought back upon those who do wrong. But Christ says to us: To the one who strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Noah, then, became the eleventh from Adam, through Seth and Enosh—the one who hoped to call upon the name of the Lord his God, through the greatest holiness and a life beloved of God. And our Lord Jesus Christ is also traced in genealogy by the holy evangelists from Adam, and all the way to Joseph himself, who was holy, so to speak, throughout, since the line of the genealogy comes down to him. 5. But come, let us speak of the so-called mingling and the pouring of the generations into one another—of the holy, I mean, and of those who are not such, that is, of the profane and most abominable. For just as those born of Enosh, who was surnamed "God," raged after the daughters of men, and when this happened they were at once of a different manner, having chosen to live by their customs and laws, and they sank into an irremediable corruption unto every kind of excess—so too those of the blood of Israel, as long as they were workers of a life befitting holiness and the best imitators of their ancestral piety, earnestly pursued every manner of worthlessness, and they kept the boasts of their glorious way of life altogether unaltered, at least as far as depended on themselves. But when they became entangled with the neighboring nations, although the law had condemned the practice, they were straightway infected with the abomination that was in them, and being very easily carried off and light, and sick with—what not?—of the worst evils, they were caught. And what is more paradoxical: for the nations, although they had served the creation instead of the Creator and Maker, and had turned aside to polytheistic error by their genuineness toward this, honored the herds of demons.

But Israel, holy from above and from the fathers, made light of the apostasy in a very few words. Therefore God says to them through a holy voice: Go to the islands of the Kittim, and see, and send to Kedar, and understand thoroughly, and see whether such things have come to pass, whether nations will exchange their gods, and these are not gods. But my people has exchanged their glory, from which they will not profit. Heaven stood amazed at this, and the earth shuddered exceedingly, says the Lord: for my people has done two evil things: they abandoned me, a fountain of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water. And again: For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the ways of Jerusalem they sacrificed to Baal. Why do you speak to me? All of you have acted lawlessly, and all of you have been impious against me, says the Lord. For they were occupied with such dullness of thoughts, or rather also of deeds, as to mingle with women who were still wandering in error. But when they bore children—although it was necessary that the marks of the Jewish worship be stamped immediately upon the infants, circumcision on the eighth day, and the sacrifices for these—they brought the offspring of a people that had been sanctified as an offering to the unclean demons. And this, I think, is what was said about them through the voice of the prophet: For they have begotten strange children.

Therefore, since the holy race had by now been corrupted by its association with what is worse, and—as far as it depended on the quality and difference of both mind and manner, and indeed also of customs, Israel and the nations having been brought together into one—the Creator of all things reasonably condemned to destruction all that were on the earth. But overcome by his innate gentleness, he did not make his anger equal in weight to their sins. And so that the race on earth might not be utterly destroyed, he fore-showed beforehand, through Noah, the justification that is by faith and the desire for what is through water. For this reason the Only-Begotten became man and lived among men, according to what is written—the truer Noah; and indeed, as in a type of that famous ark of the beginning, he all but pitched his Church, into which those who have leapt in escape the destruction that hangs over the world. Thus also the inspired Paul interprets the mystery concerning the ark, saying: By faith Noah, when he was warned, prepared an ark for the salvation of his house. Into which, as Peter also says, a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. This also now saves us as its antitype, baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the appeal of a good conscience toward God. In what manner, then, was the ark constructed? Three hundred cubits, it says, shall you make the length of the ark, and its breadth fifty, and its height thirty. Gathering it together shall you make the ark, and you shall finish it above to a cubit.

That this arrangement would signify the mystery of Christ, even if very dimly, would become clear to everyone, and very easily indeed, since the inspired Paul writes to those who have been justified in faith that he makes unceasing prayer concerning them: that they may be strong to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the surpassing love of the knowledge of Christ. 6. What, then, is the meaning of the measurements of the ark? It is the upright and exact declaration of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and the perfect state of the one Godhead, and that which is perfect in every respect. For one may see this indicated in the numbers set before us, considering that it is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to make the numbers that have a backward recurrence a symbol of perfection. And what I mean is this: the week, beginning from the first, is completed on the Sabbath, according to the seventh. Then again we count the next series, beginning from the first until again the seventh. Likewise, when we come to the number ten, we again begin from the first of the next decade; and in this same manner and principle, the perfect number is also composed from perfect numbers—that is, the hundred from ten tens—having its recurrence and return again to the unit. What I said, then, is that in divine Scripture every number that goes, as it were, backward after it has reached its proper and defined end is a symbol of perfection. Observe, then, the perfection of the holy Trinity as in three hundreds of cubits. For this was the length of the ark.

That the perfection of perfections, so to speak, is the Godhead as in a unit, the width would hint at, extending well to fifty cubits—that is, as in seven sevens with a unit added to them, because the nature of the Godhead is one. And the height itself brings forth for us no other thought than this. For it is completed to the thirteenth decade of cubits, and again it ends in one, the supreme and highest. For thirty cubits, it says, is its height; and you shall complete it to one cubit. For the holy Trinity, as it were, is widened into three distinctions of hypostases and indeed of individual persons, and is contracted, so to speak, into one nature of Godhead. For the Greeks honor the path to polytheistic error. But we, reckoning and positing Father, and indeed Son and Holy Spirit truly in individual hypostases, are accustomed to crown them with unity of nature. And by the identity of essence, gathering them together, we almost complete the long and wide and indeed high ark into one cubit. Christ, therefore, saves us in faith, and as it were settles the Church into an ark, in which, having been brought to be, we shall swim over the terror of death and escape being condemned with the world. For the righteous Noah, that is Christ, will be with us. 7. I think it is worth investigating carefully who might be understood as those who ran together with Noah into the ark and gained the salvation through faith and water.

It is written, then, that Noah entered into the ark, and his sons, and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him. And he brought in with them also from every living creature and the birds, seven of the clean, and two of the unclean. For it seemed that God was thus legislating. And the names of his sons were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Shem is interpreted as "planting" and "perfect," while Ham means "heat," and Japheth "enlargement." For we have been saved in Christ through faith—we who have come from the incomplete, so to speak, conduct according to the law to the perfection of the gospel instruction, planted like tender saplings. Therefore also the inspired David rebuked the peoples of the Jews who did not accept the justification in Christ, saying: You have loved wickedness more than goodness; injustice more than speaking righteousness; you have loved all words of destruction, a deceitful tongue. For they have blasphemed without restraint against the Son. Therefore, he says, God will bring you down to the end; he will pluck you out and cause you to migrate from your tabernacle, and your root from the land of the living. But concerning those who have loved the justification and life in Christ: Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God. And that Emmanuel did not accomplish His grace in us apart from the divine and intelligible fire, and as it were the heat through the Spirit, the inspired Paul will be believed: wishing those who are called in sanctification to be seen boiling in the Spirit. And the wise John confirms us no less, saying: I indeed baptize you in water for repentance; but he who is after me

He who is coming is stronger than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. For the love of the Jews has grown cold, because lawlessness has increased among them, as it is written. But we are exceedingly fervent, even in this regard. Therefore we say: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress? Or famine, or persecution, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Therefore Ham, which is understood as heat, would be a very clear type of those who are boiling in the spirit. And that we have been brought into the broadening of heart, departing from the life in the law and going out from tribulation, the third, Japheth, would have hinted to us, being renamed into broadening. For God addressed the Jews through the voice of Isaiah: Hear the word of the Lord, you men who are oppressed, and rulers of the people in Jerusalem. And again: Learn to hear, you who are in distress. But Paul, having gone out from the narrowness in the law, addressed certain of those who had already believed: Our mouth has opened to you, Corinthians. Our heart has been broadened; you are not constrained in us. But you are constrained in your own affections. And in the same recompense, I speak as to children, be broadened also yourselves. Do not become unequally yoked with unbelievers. For they were still following the commandments of the Jews, and their profitless vain counsels. And David also sings somewhere to Christ, the Savior of all, as from the person of the new people and those in Christ: I ran the way of your commandments, when you broadened my heart.

For our mind has been widened into wisdom, since Emmanuel dwells and has made his home in the souls of all through the Spirit. Such, then, are those in Christ through faith. 8. That the most pure multitude of those justified in faith is very great, but that from the Jews is smaller, one may learn from this without labor. For he brought into the ark seven of the clean animals, and two of the unclean—that is, of the Jews who killed the Lord. For the remnant has been saved, according to the voice of the prophet. But that some of the blood of Israel would at times rise up and depart from the faith, he prefigured again. For he sent forth, it says, the raven from the ark to see if the water had subsided; but it did not return. And it was drowned, I think, in the waters, having found no support or standing place. Therefore, to slip away from faith in Christ and to be separated from him is altogether the cause of destruction. So also the blessed Paul says to those who after faith seek to be perfected in the law, that is, who thought they would be perfect: You have been severed from Christ, you who are justified in the law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, eagerly await the hope of righteousness. And observe how the raven, from among the unclean birds, is the apostate. For there were some from among the Jews who, after justification in Christ, went backward to the shadows of the law. And concerning them, I think, 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 the Spirit also says clearly, that in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits; see also the clear type of this that came to be through Noah. For he sent out a first and a second dove to look around, as though the flood had come to a pause. And they returned back as to a nest into the ark, and one had a twig in its mouth, as it is written, and this was a shoot of olive. For the saints are sent by Christ to look around the world and those in it. And they return back as speaking peace. For this, I think, is what the shoot of olive lying in the dove's mouth obliquely indicates. For the plant is always somehow a symbol of peace. Therefore those purified by faith are lovers of God, and as it were in the gentleness of the evangelical conduct, chosen by God. Nevertheless, that some even of these will depart in the last times, as I said just now, the type would indicate. For a third and final dove is sent, and it did not care for the return. It has been left

For when the flood had subsided, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, which is interpreted as a testimony of descent. For those in Christ through faith are lofty, as it were, and in a manner raised up on the mountains because of the pre-eminence of the evangelical way of life, proclaiming everywhere the God and Word who came down from above and from heaven, to whom God himself also cried out through the voice of the prophet: Be my witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord God, and the servant whom I have chosen. Therefore the boasts of those in Christ are higher than the lowliness of the world. 9. And it came about that Emmanuel also became High Priest for us, through whom we have obtained access to the Father and God, and we have been renewed to the state of the beginning, the curse having been loosed—I mean the curse upon the first-formed man. See now that we must enter upon what is written next. For since the earth was dried, he says, 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 cattle and from all the clean birds, and offered whole burnt offerings upon the altar. And God smelled a sweet savour. And the Lord God said, having considered: I will no longer curse the earth because of the works of men. And after other things again: And 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 beasts, and upon all the cattle of the earth, and upon all the birds of the heaven, and upon all things that move upon the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea; under your hands I have given them. Therefore when Christ became our high priest, and we were brought near through him in a spiritual sense as a sweet savour to God the Father, then also we were richly deemed worthy of his favour, and we have obtained a firm foundation, so that death no longer has power against us. The things that came from wrath have been dissolved, and the things from that ancient curse have likewise departed. For we have been blessed in Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to God the Father, with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen. Concerning the nakedness of Noah and of Ham. 1. When all the things pertaining to the ark had been brought to completion, and the flood had passed by, and Noah was now tilling the ground, our discourse will again inquire what exactly were the things done in him by Ham. For it will persuade those who would choose to live lawfully to reckon nothing at all as equal to the reverence due to fathers, and clearly to avoid, as one of the most dangerous things, smiling at them in any respect at all, even if they should be carried a little beyond what is fitting, borne down by the weaknesses of nature. For that the matter of parents is always in some way venerable, the divine law itself teaches us.

For having first commanded that one must love the one and by nature God with all one's soul and heart, he says, Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you, and you shall be long-lived upon the earth. For those who have begotten us would be reckoned as an image, as it were, and a likeness of God. For remember, he says, that through them you were begotten. Again, therefore, he says, The eye that mocks a father and dishonors the old age of a mother—let the ravens from the valleys pluck it out. That, then, it is both under a curse and a matter of justice not to think it right to honor fathers, and indeed to deem them worthy of all reverence, one may learn, and very easily at that, through Ham. For, he says, the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three are the sons of Noah. From these they were scattered over all the earth. And Noah began to be a man, a tiller of the earth, and he planted a vineyard, and drank of the wine, and became drunk, and was uncovered in his house; and Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and going out he reported it to his brothers outside. And taking the garment, Shem and Japheth laid it upon their two backs, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father, and their face

With his face turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. But Noah awoke from the wine and knew what his younger son had done to him, and he said: Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. And he said: Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. For Noah, having planted a vineyard, was enjoying the fruits of his own labors, and was unaccustomed to wine. But having endured the involuntary nakedness, an unexpected charge of drunkenness, he was at home and unseen by the many. But he who was not sound in mind—I mean Ham—made the indecency of the sight a pretext for impious laughter; although he ought to have covered him, and all but to have helped his father, who was overcome by drunkenness and brought low by the failings that come from wine. But disregarding such things, and by no means lightly esteeming the honor due to his father, he hastens to procure the sight for others, and, as it were, setting the old man forth as a kind of spectacle, he persuades his brothers to laugh. But they were better than his evil counsel; and outwitting what had happened, and hiding the unseemliness of the sight with their garments, they walked backward. For it seemed to them an act of piety, and to feel shame before their father's thighs, through which they had come to be. But when the father had been awakened to an awareness of the matter, he immediately curses the one who had recklessly cast aside what was fitting and the reverence due to him, and justly laid upon him the yoke of servitude, naming Canaan because of the Canaanites who were to come from him, who were also to share in the judgment against him.

For he was punished with his whole race. But he blessed those who honored him. 2. And this mystery concerning the Jews would also be hinted at enigmatically once again. For there have been three peoples in all: the one in the first time, just as Shem, and indeed the one in the middle, according to the accursed Ham, and the third, the last, which would be understood as Japheth among the last, which is interpreted as "enlargement." But since God and the Father revealed to us his own Son, who is signified by the thighs, and, as far as it pertained to speak of the intelligible beauty of the divinity, he was unseemly and unattractive because of the human nature—for he had neither form nor beauty, according to the voice of the prophet—then, then, just as the outcome of events itself would testify, the first and the last people, that is, those who believed at the beginning and first, and indeed the one who would be called among the last, have reverenced Emmanuel. And they have been blessed through him by God and the Father. But the one who came between the two, having mocked Christ, as it were, because of the uncomeliness of his humanity, and having dishonored in many ways the Son who appeared from God, has remained in the manner of slavery and has slipped away from the freedom of the fathers. And that those who would believe among the Jews in the last times would be almost sharers and table-companions of the first—inasmuch as they too were brought together into one city, that is, a court or a household, that is, the Church—he indicated by saying: May God enlarge Japheth, that is, the third and one among the last; for Japheth is third; and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, that is, of the first.

And let Canaan be their servant. This, I think, is what Christ said to the assemblies of the Jews: Amen, amen, I say to you, that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. But the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. If therefore the son sets you free, you shall be free. For the wretched Jews, having mocked the dispensation of our Savior and having not honored the revelation of him that came to us from God and the Father, have remained in the spirit of slavery. Concerning the tower and its construction. Nothing had been left by the Creator of all things to human nature for its well-being and prosperity. For he made it full and possessed of every good. But it has been brought down to the worse—the formerly great nature, being gradually diminished in those things by which it was likely to be seen as venerable and as recently possessing the utmost comeliness. For example, to take a case, it has sold away incorruptibility in Adam. For it was said to him, Earth you are, and to earth you shall go. And after this it has been deprived of the spirit. For since God saw those on earth willing to think only the unholy and most defiled passions of the flesh, he says, My spirit shall not remain among these men, because they are flesh. But behold, it endures yet another thing as well. For some, having been condemned for unholy thoughts and demented rash counsels, carry it off into a different and discordant tongue. For, he says, the whole earth was one lip, and one voice for all.

And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there, and a man said to his neighbor: Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And the brick became to them as stone, and bitumen was their mortar. And they said, Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose head shall reach to heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves before we are scattered over all the earth. Then God comes down—for so the sacred Scripture said—and confounds their tongues, and scatters them also over all the earth. For the God of all rebuked their undertakings, but did not fear the outcome; rather, since they had devised something arrogant, using his innate gentleness, he restrains them from their attempts by the diversity of tongues, signifying that thoughts beyond human measure, even if they be carried through by impossible means, he does not leave unrebuked. But he confounds their very tongues; for the things that require the craft of the Creator alone, and indeed his authority, would fit no other whatsoever, but him alone. And the reshaping of the tongue, and the spreading out of speech into varied sound, one would reasonably ascribe to the truly only and natural Creator. Nor would what happened lack the need to be thoroughly and very reasonably laughed at. For they have supposed, I know not how, that a tower built of brick and earth would prevail entirely and in every way, even up to the heavens themselves. And they would be, I think, a type once again of the foolishness of the Jews, who have supposed that they would find kinship with God—

And they all but set up as a kind of tower the very ascent to things above—not, perhaps, by choosing to do what seemed good and dear to them, nor yet through faith in Christ, but by foolishly thinking lofty things on the basis of the bare and sole glory of their fathers. For naming Abraham up and down, and as it were building their own glory on earthly boasts, they were always somehow condemned. But God rebuked those who were building the tower, and divided them into many tongues. And we say that what happened to them then was, as it were, a fore-announcement of what befell the Jews. For thinking exceedingly lofty things, and seeking the ascent to things above by means least fitting, he scattered them into many tongues, that is, among all the nations. For they were dispersed from their own country and city, and driven from their homes, and they became wanderers among the nations, according to the voice of the Prophet. But in Christ the many-tongued thing was a good sign. For when the disciples were gathered on the day of Pentecost into one house: There came, it says, suddenly from heaven a sound, as of a violent wind being borne along, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues divided as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. But what were they saying?

The Spirit supplies the journey upward, the ascent to heaven in Christ through faith, the running together into unity in the Spirit of all the tongues—that is, peoples or nations—throughout the inhabited world. For every tongue of mortals confessed Christ and spoke his mysteries. Therefore, in the case of the tower, the scattering and flight into all the nations was signified by the multiplicity of tongues; but in the case of Christ, [it signified] the running together into unity through the Spirit, and the journey upward. For Christ has become for us a tower of strength, according to the voice of the Psalmist, conveying us to the city above and joining those on earth to the choirs of the holy angels. Concerning Abraham and Melchizedek. 1. The God of all gave the law as a help; for it is written thus. Moreover, since the law trains children, but the mystery of Christ brings to perfection, it is no difficult thing for us to observe from the sacred Scriptures themselves, gathering the faith concerning this most excellently and collecting the true things. And, I think, the divinely inspired Paul is sufficient when he speaks about the two covenants: for a setting aside occurs of the preceding commandment because of its weakness and uselessness. For the law perfected nothing; but there is the introduction of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. Therefore, one may come very easily into familiarity with God—not, indeed, through the first and Mosaic commandment, but through the hope said to have been introduced, which the mystagogue, looking toward the truth, seemed to crown with the votes for the better.

He says clearly that the things in the law have been set aside, and defining that the former commandment was able to perfect nothing, he writes to the Hebrews: For if that first covenant had been blameless, a place would not have been sought for a second. For finding fault with it, he says: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish upon the house of Israel and upon the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not remain in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: giving my laws into their mind, and upon their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to me for a people. And each shall not teach his neighbor, and each his brother, saying: Know the Lord; because all shall know me, from the small to the great among them, because I will be merciful to their sins, and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. And he adds to these things immediately: But in saying "new," he has made the first old; and what is becoming old and growing aged is near to disappearance. Therefore the law is weak, and it is seen to have much feebleness henceforth with respect to being able, I say, to perfect unto sanctification. But that the justification in Christ and the worship are better, you will hear clearly when God cries out through the voice of the prophets to those who have honored the worship according to the law, and who have, as it were, clung to the old commandment: at one time, Wash yourselves, become clean;

But at another time it says, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." For we have been shown mercy in Christ, and in him we have seen the Father spiritually, and we have come to know the God by nature. 2. Since it is very easy to heap up countless further points upon what has been said, and to bring forward the voices of the holy prophets, through which one might see very clearly that the worship according to the law is unacceptable to God—yet, so that we do not drag out our discourse beyond the proposed aim, and the narrative not depart far away somewhere, proceeding as it were along a path toward another topic, let us now proceed to the inspired Abraham himself. When he learned that his nephew Lot had unexpectedly fallen into danger—for he was living in Sodom, and was already among his household slaves, taken captive by the spear—he armed his household-born servants, and certain others of his allies, Eshcol, Aner, and Mamre; and he led them out against the victors, not ignobly, and he delivered the man from their greed. And together with him he recovered a very great multitude, which had been wronged and was in danger. And as he was returning home and bearing the venerable tokens of his valor against the enemy, those who had been benefited by his labors necessarily came out to meet him. 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 the kings who were with him, to the valley of Shaveh." This was the plain

of the king; and he adds that And Melchisedek, king of Salem, brought out to him loaves and wine; and he was a priest of God the Most High. And he blessed Abraham, and said: Blessed be Abraham by God the Most High, who created the heaven and the earth. And blessed be God the Most High, who delivered your enemies under your hands, and he gave him a tenth from all things. Consider, then, the types of the perfection in Christ shining forth clearly in Melchisedek, and the measure of the worship according to the law in lesser things. Since it is not doubtful that in every way and altogether the lesser is blessed by the greater, according to what is written, and as the root of those from Israel, the inspired Abraham, and the pre-eminent and exceptional in him, Levi, crowned with the boasts of the divine priesthood. But he was still lying in the loins. For in power the blessed Abraham was father of those who would come from him in due seasons. And this, I think, is what was wisely said concerning Levi. For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchisedek met him. Therefore the righteousness according to the law has been blessed by the worship in Christ, of which Melchisedek is a type. And that the blessing is more excellent and incomparably so, such as belongs to that which is not here, how could anyone doubt? But concerning such things, we shall consider briefly and with careful precision, not at length. 3. But perhaps, before other things, the one who has chosen to fight against Christ will inquire who Melchisedek actually was.

For some are intoxicated by various opinions about him, having senselessly slipped into idle nonsense, and having paid no great attention to the customs of the God-inspired Scripture. For some say that the Holy Spirit met with Abraham in a mere phantom and appearance only, and was only seen by him when he had conquered. But others say this is not so—for they fear, I suppose, what is altogether too much inclined toward the unseemly—and they insist that he was a manifest and select power of the multitude of angels. But a feeble and inept mind, it seems, brought them over to this opinion. For since, they say, Salem is interpreted as peace; and Melchisedek has been named king of Salem, let him not be understood as a man, they say, but let the Spirit be indicated. For peace is proper to God, and he alone is the origin of peace. And they add to these things: If he has neither beginning of days nor end of life, how would it not be a writing of folly to assign the unbegun and the endless to a man? Let the Spirit, then, be understood again. For if, he says, he has been made like the Son of the Most High, and also remains a priest forever, how should we not think in every way that Melchisedek is not a man? Then, weaving other reasonings together with these, they think they establish as truth the account procured for them from I know not where. But it is necessary for us to say what has come to mind, having chosen to bring back against their suspicions what seems best and most correct.

For first, if they have determined to think what is fitting, they themselves will agree that Salem was a city, over which Melchizedek was not the first and only king, but there were certainly very many, both those before him and others who came after him. But if anyone should think that we speak falsely, let him come and show Melchizedek still reigning over Salem to this day—and yet it is one of the cities in Judea, which has perhaps been renamed Jerusalem. And this too is interpreted as "Vision of peace." But no one could demonstrate it. It is therefore ignorant, then, to dare to abolish things clear and agreed upon by attending to the interpretations of names. And that this matter is ignorant and the argument about it full of foolishness, we shall see without a struggle, taking that also into mind. For Jerusalem is interpreted, just as I said just now, as "Vision of peace," or "Suspended over death." And Israel again, "Mind seeing God." And Judah, "Praise and hymn." But the sacred Scripture has clearly proclaimed how many impious and profane kings there were at various times over Jerusalem, and over Israel, and Judah. Therefore, since it is a vision of peace, and of praise and hymn, and of a mind seeing God, an earthly king could not be [over it].

But neither would the matter be fitting for a man, come, let us say, having attended to the interpretations of the names, that those who reigned at various times are shadows and images, and not even human beings at all; but rather the Spirit, just as also in the case of Melchizedek. And that the force of the names, that is, of the interpretations, will in no way force the nature of the things into itself, you may learn even from here. For would anyone not think, or rather also say that it is altogether and in every way true, that if Jerusalem is "vision of peace," it ought certainly not to have been ignorant of Christ? For he himself is our peace, according to the Scriptures. But she has not seen with the eyes of her mind the one through whom we have obtained access, and have been joined in the unity in the Spirit to the Father, the one who made both things one, and created the two peoples into one new man. How then is she "vision of peace" if she has not seen Christ? And if she is "elevated above death," that is, better than death and higher, how has the wretched one perished through unbelief in Christ? For he himself addressed the Jews, saying: Amen I say to you, unless you believe that I am, 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? And how were they overcome by darkness? Or how was it said concerning them, and those who obtained the lot to lead, Leave them, they are blind guides of the blind? For what blindness could be conceived in a mind seeing God?

Therefore, it is full of ignorance to assign the mastery to the qualities of names entirely and in every way, even over the things themselves. But, I think, nothing will henceforth at all prevent a man from rightly and properly understanding that Melchisedek was a human being, and that he reigned over Salem at various times, even if it happens to be interpreted as peace. 4. But one must also carefully observe the following in addition to what has been said; for we see even now the divine mysteries only through a mirror and in a riddle; and since we have nothing that can be fully likened to the divine and ineffable nature, from countless examples we modestly gather the ability to think or speak something about it, at least to the extent attainable. Nevertheless, the mystery concerning Christ is very obscure, and the account of the incarnation is not easily grasped by just anyone. For the account of the economy is exceedingly deep. For being God and from God by nature, the Only-begotten became man, and dwelt among us. And He has been called both Apostle and High Priest for us, and He has released us from the slow-tongued law, and has transferred us to the euphony of gospel teachings. And not only this, but He also released us who were captives, having cast down the ruler of this age, and He rescued those who had fallen asleep from the recesses of Hades, and He has founded the Church, and He has been appointed ruler over us, and He has led us across the Jordan in faith, and He has given the circumcision in the Spirit, and He has brought us into the kingdom of the heavens. That He therefore became as we are, I think the divine evangelist will suffice to say: And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.

That he was anointed both as priest and as apostle, the appointment of Aaron would indicate, and very clearly. For he was anointed with the sanctified oil, and was set as ruler and leader of priests and people, and moreover on the tips of his forehead he received the golden plate, that is the petalon, having the name of the Lord inscribed. This was a clear symbol of our Savior the King, and as it were a bright and conspicuous diadem. That the worship through Christ is better than the legal worship, one may see as in Aaron, just as indeed also in Melchizedek. For the Levites received tithes from the sons of Israel according to the laws. But God commanded that a tithe be apportioned from the tithe of the Levites to Aaron as leader, and in the manner befitting the priesthood, abounding in the highest honors. Understand therefore how also in the person of Aaron, the one receiving tithes, Levi has paid tithes. For Aaron has been set as a figure of Christ. And all the other Levites and priests performed the sacrifices according to the law, having their station at the first tabernacle. But alone and out of all, the inspired Aaron, once a year, according to what is written, entered into the Holy of Holies, and not without blood, according to the law. And this too would be a type of Christ, who died once for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and who enters into the tabernacle above and most holy. For this way he inaugurated for us, sanctifying the Church by his own blood. And the inspired Moses, appointed to an apostleship, besought God, saying:

I beseech, Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before yesterday, nor before the third day, nor since you began to speak to your servant; I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. And he added to these things: Appoint another whom you will send. Then God of all things said to him: No; behold Aaron your brother, the Levite, I know that speaking he will speak to you, and behold he himself will come out to meet you. And seeing you he will rejoice in himself, and you shall speak to him, and you shall put my words in his mouth, and I will instruct you in what you shall do, and he shall speak to you to the people, and he himself shall be your mouth. For the old law was confessedly slow of tongue and not knowing how to speak well, barely, through a long circuit—I mean that according to the Letter—all but lisping to us what seems good to God; but the most melodious mouth of Moses is Christ, translating the types into truth and setting before all everywhere the ready knowledge of what is necessary. Therefore he says in the forty-eighth Psalm: Hear these things, all you nations; give ear, all you who dwell in the inhabited world. So then Christ was prefigured as in Aaron. And what is more paradoxical. For do not wonder if among those who knew him and in the knowledge of the laws he sketched in shadow the greatness of his own superiority; since he also appeared as in a man of another race, and one who releases Israel from captivity, and who founds the holy and sacred city, and who has invincible strength against all. And I will make the narrative clear, having spoken briefly as far as possible. 5.

Judea was once taken captive, and those from Israel wore themselves out for long years in Babylon, oppressed by harsh and barbarous slavery. But when Cyrus, son of Cambyses, who held the rule over both Medes and Persians, undertook war against the Assyrians, who were adjacent and neighbors, then indeed, then, having taken Babylon itself by force, he released the Jews, who were lamenting the greed of the Assyrians and were running to him not without tears, affirming that it had also been foretold by God through the voice of the saints that he would come at the appointed times and would prevail over those who opposed him, and that he himself would release the wronged from their bonds, and that he himself would again raise up the house in Jerusalem, which the Assyrians, in burning it down, were impiously treating with contempt against God. And we shall not find those from Israel speaking falsely in these matters, if we search the writings of the holy prophets. For God spoke thus through the voice of Isaiah: Thus says the Lord who redeems you, and who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord who accomplishes these things; I alone stretched out the heaven, and I established the earth. Who else will scatter the signs of ventriloquists and divinations from the heart, turning the wise backward and making their counsel foolish, and establishing the words of his servant, and confirming the counsel of his angels as true? He who says to Jerusalem, You shall be inhabited; and to the cities of Judea, You shall be built, and her desolate places shall rise again. He who says to the abyss, You shall be made desolate, and I will dry up your rivers; he who says to Cyrus, to think, and he shall do all my will. He who says to Jerusalem, You shall be built, and I will lay the foundation of my holy house.

Thus says the Lord God to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him, and I will shatter the strength of kings. I will open doors before him, and cities shall not be shut; I will go before you, and I will level mountains, I will break in pieces bronze doors, and shatter iron bars, and I will give you dark treasures, hidden things, I will open to you unseen things; that you may know that I am the Lord God who speaks your name, the God of Israel; for the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel my chosen, I will call you by your name, and I will receive you; but you did not know that I am the Lord God; and there is no other God besides me, and you did not know me. You hear how clearly he says, "You did not know me"; he does not deem it right to rank among those who know God one so illustrious, whom he himself established, and made greater than kings, and lord of countless nations. For the things that happened in his case were types of the achievements accomplished through Christ. For he foretold that he himself would scatter the false divinations of the Babylonians, and the signs of the ventriloquists. But the counsels, that is, the predictions, of his own prophets, whom he also called angels, he will show to be not false. And he has foretold beforehand that he will also build the cities of Judea, and lay waste the abyss, and dry up all its rivers; calling Babylon, I think, the abyss, because of the multitude of those dwelling in it; and its rivers, the nations that flow together from every side to its aid. But come, let us speak clearly of the things concerning Cyrus, fashioning anew in a fitting manner into the mystery of Christ the things accomplished through him. 6.

Cyrus, then, was born of Mandane his mother, daughter of Astyages who ruled the Medes, and of Cambyses his father, a Persian by race but exceedingly gentle in character. Hence some of the older writers called Cyrus a mule and of a different stock—because, I think, of the difference between his father and mother in respect of race. For the Persians are indeed a different people from the Medes. One might see something of this sort in the case of Christ as well. For he was born of the holy Virgin as his mother according to the flesh, who was one of us and human by nature; but of no father among us—rather, if I may so put it, of one wholly of a different nature, and removed in nature, and transcending everything that comes to pass among generated things. Therefore he also said to the Jews, who supposed that he was one of us and had become one of us: You are from below, I am from above. And Cyrus prevailed over countless nations, and every city received him. He also took treasures dark, hidden, invisible, and he released Israel from a long slavery. Emmanuel has reigned over all that is under heaven, and as Savior and Redeemer of all, every city receives him; and already all that had been forced into slavery and compelled to serve under him—I mean the devil—has been released from diabolical slavery and greed. And having descended even into Hades, he emptied treasures dark, hidden, invisible. He shattered gates of bronze and broke bars of iron in pieces. For he said to those in bonds: Come out; and to those in darkness: Be revealed. Therefore also of old he said to Job, that most enduring and invincible athlete:

You came to the fountain of the sea, and you walked in the footsteps of the abyss. The gates of death are opened to you in fear, and the gatekeepers of Hades, seeing you, cowered. For we shall read these things as in a question: the word demonstrating the achievements accomplished through Christ, and wrought in the very recesses of Hades. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. And Cyrus of old, giving money, commanded the temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt. But Emmanuel has laid the foundation of the Church, the truly holy and renowned city, having overthrown utterly, as it were a Babylon, the boastful and insolent idolatry. And concerning Cyrus, God says, He shall perform all my will. And somewhere the Savior of us all has addressed the peoples of the Jews who despised him: 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 said: I have called you by my name. But truly the Lord is Emmanuel, even if he has appeared as a man. And that the things concerning

It is set down for Cyrus, and the words that follow through the voice of the prophet will clearly confirm it: "I made the earth and man upon it. I established the heaven with my hand, and I commanded all the stars. I raised him up in righteousness, and all his ways are straight. He shall build my city, and he shall bring back the captivity of my people, not with ransoms nor with gifts, says the Lord of Hosts." Thus says the Lord: "Egypt has labored, and the merchants of the Ethiopians, and the Sabeans, tall men, shall pass over to you, and they shall be your servants, and they shall follow after you bound in fetters, and they shall bow down to you, and shall pray in you, because God is in you, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Savior." All who oppose him shall be ashamed and put to shame, and they shall go in shame. For he who made the earth and man upon it, who adorned the heaven with stars, has raised up for us in righteousness Jesus, who redeems freely—for we have been justified by faith—who looses bonds and captivity, who builds spiritually the intelligible Jerusalem and lays the foundation of the Church, so that it is unshaken even by the gates of Hades and unconquerable by enemies. Those who once wandered, recognizing this one as God by nature, say: "For you are our God, and we did not know it. And there is no God besides you." To him they shall bow down, to him every knee shall bend, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Some of the people of Israel dared to resist him. But they were put to shame and fell, and they went into flight, according to the voice of the prophet. Cyrus son of Cambyses, then, laid the foundation of the house of God in Jerusalem, as a type of Christ. But that Emmanuel himself was going to bring the matter to completion spiritually and intelligibly, one may learn at once from another image. For when Cyrus released Israel from the slavery in Babylon, there immediately appeared as leaders and, as it were, foremost men of the people Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel of the tribe of Judah, and Joshua son of Josedek the high priest. And when they had arrived at Jerusalem, God laid upon them through the voice of Haggai the prophet the zeal for work on the 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 Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, of the tribe of Judah, and to Joshua son of Josedek the high priest, saying, Thus says the Lord Almighty: This people say, The time has not come to build the house of the Lord. And the word came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it a time for you to dwell in houses with paneled ceilings, while the house of the Lord lies desolate? And again after other things: And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel of the tribe of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Josedek the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they went in and did the works in the house of the Lord Almighty, their God.

Consider, then, how in a type and a twofold image Emmanuel is depicted: as king, as in Zerubbabel, who was from the tribe of Judah, which at that time had obtained the rule in Israel; and again as high priest, as in his namesake Jesus the great high priest; and indeed also as leader of the way into the holy city, out of the land of the foreigners—I mean, again, of the Babylonians. Consider also that he is a craftsman and overseer of the holy temple. For following Christ as our guide through faith, as king and high priest, out of diabolical greed, and as it were out of the land of foreigners, out of worldly deceit, we enter the holy city, the Church of the firstborn, which Christ himself will raise up, as it were, with spiritual stones. And Paul will testify, writing to those who through faith have been redeemed and have chosen to follow in the footsteps of Christ: In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of Christ in the spirit. And that the glory of the Church is better than the first and original glory—I mean, of course, that of the temple made of stones—he has made clear, speaking again through the voice of Haggai: Who among you is there who saw this house in its former glory, and how do you see it now as though it were not before you? And again, after other things: The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord Almighty, because the latter glory of this house will be greater than the first, says the Lord Almighty; and in this place I will give peace. And peace of soul for the benefit of everyone who builds to raise up this temple. And one could gather without sweat the things by which Christ was depicted for us, as it were, in the ancient figures.

But lest our argument seem to be carried away somewhere from what is fitting by the multitude of examples, having for now passed over the matter of going through others as well, we say this: we shall certainly need to choose one of two things. For either we shall do away altogether with those through whom those things came to be, marking off what is not excessively faulty in the types, if they are understood to have come about through men of our own time, although they possess very much that is God-befitting; or, saying that the Spirit is always conformed to our own form, we shall necessarily confess that it was once molded even into Cyrus, who did not know God. For it has been said to him, "But you did not know me." And if those in the types are done away with, Aaron is perhaps a shadow; and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and indeed Jesus the son of Josedek the great priest, would be in bare and mere names. 7. But I think rather that those who have been persuaded by the reasoning of what is likely will rightly agree that Melchizedek was a man, reigning as king of the city of Salem; and Paul, being keen-sighted for spiritual contemplations, made him a type of Christ; but those who object after this, and nonetheless say that Melchizedek was not a man, but rather the Holy Spirit, or at any rate some other power from above and from heaven, having the rank of ministering service—for he seems to think this way in other places—we say necessarily that they will err in two ways, both dragging down the divine and ineffable nature of the Spirit in a manner not fitting to it, and foolishly exalting the begotten and made creation to an excessively lofty glory. In what way I shall say.

It is written concerning Melchizedek that he was a priest of God Most High. But if indeed Melchizedek is the Holy Spirit, then the Spirit has been brought down thereafter among those who perform priestly rites, and has a liturgical ministry. Then it too will hymn God Most High together with the holy angels. For it is written, "Bless the Lord, all his angels, his ministers, who do his will." For it would be evident from nowhere that one who in some way altogether performs priestly rites for another, and does not perform the priestly rite for himself, performs it for God, who is preeminent. Therefore if we say that the Spirit serves as priest, it is altogether subject to the divine nature; but it perfects rather even among created things, and will worship together with us. It will surely not sanctify itself, since that which is sanctified is sanctified by something altogether greater than itself by nature. It will be sanctified together with us. How then is that which is sanctified still God by nature? For is not every priest sanctified, and does he not thus enter in so as thereafter to need to perform priestly rites? For no one takes the honor for himself, as it is written, but the one called by God, just as Aaron also was. And Paul has added that "Christ also did not glorify himself to be made high priest, but the one who spoke to him: You are my Son, today I have begotten you." As he also says 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 said to serve as priest and to come to be in the liturgical order, unless he were understood to have become as we are, and just as he has been called prophet and indeed also apostle because of the human nature, so also priest.

For it is fitting for him, in the form of servitude, to have the things befitting a servant; and this is the kenosis. For he who exists in the form and equality of the Father, to whom also the Seraphim themselves stand by, to whom a thousand thousands of angels minister, since he emptied himself, then, yes then, he is said to be appointed minister of the holy things and of the true tabernacle. Then also he who is above all creation has been sanctified with us. For he says, "He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one." For this reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, "I will declare your name to my brothers." Therefore the one who sanctifies as God, when he became man and dwelt among us and was called brother according to the human nature, then he is also said to be sanctified with us. There is, then, both the need to serve as priest and to be sanctified with us, belonging to the economy with the flesh. And to those who have chosen to think rightly and blamelessly according to the measures of the kenosis, we shall add such things as these. But if we say that the Spirit, who nowhere underwent kenosis, serves as priest, we shall bring him out of the God-befitting glory and reckon him somewhere among things under God, giving him the measure of the created. Or else let them show us that the Spirit became man and underwent an economic condescension, just as indeed the Son did. For it is not because the holy and worshipped Trinity is consubstantial that one would on that account define the account of the incarnation in respect of whichever person one might choose. For it was not the Father himself who became man, nor the Holy Spirit, but the Son alone. Thus the divine Scriptures have initiated us into the mysteries.

Why then do they do violence to the truth, and to the fact that there is no pretext for saying that the Holy Spirit needed to be emptied—I mean the Holy Spirit—reckoning him among the measures of the kenosis, if indeed he is truly numbered among those appointed to perform sacred rites? For Melchizedek was a priest. But, they say, it was to the honor of the Son, as a type of the priesthood that would be according to him in due seasons, that the Spirit himself formed this by himself. Therefore—for I will ask—did the Holy Spirit then neglect the honor and love toward the Son, and deem the matter worthy of little concern? And yet how is it not already nonsense to think or say these things? For the Paraclete, that is, the Spirit, glorifies the Son. And concerning him he says, He will glorify me. Therefore, what has chosen to honor him and this unceasingly—why has it not rather become Aaron himself? And indeed also Cyrus, who ruled over the Persians and Medes? And indeed also Joshua the son of Josedek, and indeed also Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, who was from the tribe of Judah? Or also Moses, to whom it was said somewhere, showing beforehand in himself the mediation of Christ: A prophet will I raise up for them from their brothers, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them whatever I command him? Why has it not become Joshua the son of Nun, the commander after Moses, who brought the sons of Israel across the Jordan, and circumcised them with stone knives, and brought them also into the land of promise? Or have we not been baptized into Christ and circumcised with a circumcision made without hands through the Spirit, and have we not become heirs of the kingdom of the heavens? And yet how is this not evident?

Therefore either we will grant that the Spirit is always being formed, and as it were in each of those named, in order to honor the Son—or else the argument will henceforth be true, that he is convicted of having taken thought for too few things befitting him; for he allowed some of the more ancient to be molded into a type and likeness of the Son. Away with the absurdity of such reasonings! Therefore Melchizedek is a man, not the Holy Spirit. 8. But that he would not even be understood to be a holy and ministering power, as some have seemed to think, come then, let us state it, gathering from probable reasonings for the demonstration of the truth. For against them a certain argument, such and so wise—as they suppose among themselves—has been composed. For since, he says, it is written concerning Melchizedek that he was fatherless and motherless, and indeed also without genealogy; and he blessed Abraham, though he was so great; and the lesser is blessed by the better and greater, without any dispute—let him not be understood, according to us, but let him be by nature an angel, or one of the powers above and ministering, venerable and glorious. But I, beloved, have greatly marveled if a manner of piety...

To the wondrous Abraham, he carried him away from the hunt of the useful and the fitting, and led him away from the thoughts necessary for the discovery of truth. For in presenting Melchizedek to us as a likeness and type of Emmanuel, they do not look to the quality of the things, nor do they examine the manner of the priesthood; rather, they scrutinize the natures of those brought forward for this purpose. For what would be the grievance, someone might reasonably say to them, that Abraham is blessed, as perhaps by a man, Melchizedek, even if he is not understood to be better than him? For it is not the natures that are examined in these matters, but the meaning of the things done, and the words of truth are shown forth beforehand as better than the riddles in shadows. For that it is among the most absurd things, not to set the things signified against the things in shadows, but rather to go to the very natures of those brought into the midst, you will know from this as well. Aaron was chosen, standing before and leading the holy tabernacle, crowned with the highest honors in the priesthood. How then was he sanctified? Or was a ram slaughtered, and with its blood the tip of the right ear was smeared, and indeed also of the hand and foot; and was he thus perfected for the priestly service? But, O best of men, I would say to them, if it is good to attend to the natures of those who sanctify and those who are sanctified—and not rather to go to the very beauty of truth as from type and shadow—how is the lesser still blessed by the greater? Let them tell us what is better in these things. Shall we then place Aaron behind a ram? In an irrational animal the rational is perfected.

Shall we say that the chosen one was sanctified for the priesthood by the blood of sheep, and that the ashes of a heifer, when sprinkled, sanctify those who have been defiled, with a view to the purity of the flesh? What then is the meaning? What is the depth of the thoughts? The things performed are types and images, and, so to speak, a fore-announcement of the sanctification that is according to Christ. But the type is discerned in the realities, not in the nature of those who sanctify, that is, of those who are sanctified. Since, as I said just now, the better is blessed by the lesser, if indeed the nature of man is among the better things than a heifer and a ram. Let them not then blush, even if Abraham, being far better than Melchizedek, is said to be blessed by him. For it was the type that prevailed, and not rather the nature of the one who blesses. But I marvel that, shaping him into a likeness and type of the Son, they say he is both motherless and fatherless, as an angel, although Christ is in a certain way also of two parents. For he had a mother on earth, the holy Virgin. And he had and has a Father in heaven, God. But I think the images ought to be written in accordance with the archetypes. And since the divine Paul said that Melchizedek has neither beginning of days nor end of life, for this reason they maintain and say that he is also a rational and priestly power; not understanding that something necessary escapes them. For none of those who are perfected among generated things will be without beginning in respect of time. But whatever has at all been brought into existence, this also has a beginning of life and of days. What then was the aim of the blessed Paul's discourse?

Or how did he prefigure Melchizedek as a type and likeness of Christ? Therefore, having turned the mind away from random notions, come now, come, let us examine, and let us speak as far as possible. 9. Being exceedingly learned in the law, he does not make his argument to the Jews from simple notions, but from the Mosaic writings, to which those who have resolved to fight against the truth would reasonably, even unwillingly, yield. He therefore accepts Melchizedek as a likeness and prefiguration of Christ at that time, because he is called king of righteousness, and indeed also of peace. For these things, I think, would fittingly belong to the mystical Word alone, to Emmanuel. For he was shown forth as the president of righteousness and peace to those on earth. And we have been justified in him, having sent away the burden of sin. And we have also had peace with the Father and God, having washed away the uncleanness that intervenes and separates us from our ways, and being united as it were to him through the Spirit. For he who is joined to the Lord, it says, is one spirit. Therefore, in the Greek tongue, Melchi means king; and Sedek, righteousness. And one may see that Melchizedek, as it were enriched in his own calling, according to the force of the meanings, is "king of righteousness." And in that he is called king of Salem, "king of peace." The divine Paul therefore harmonized these things to Christ, as from the now clear and manifest likeness of Melchizedek. And he receives the symbol of the priesthood beyond the law—the blessing of Abraham, and providing him with wine and loaves. For we are blessed in no other way than by Christ, the great and true priest.

But we are blessed according to the wondrous Abraham, having most mightily overcome the rulers of this age, and being shown better than the hand of enemies, and needing nothing of the things in the world; but rather counting as intelligible wealth the things from God, and the glorious and unfading distribution of gifts from above. For consider that Abraham, having conquered and returned from the slaughter of the kings, as it is written, and having not deigned to take anything from the ruler of the Sodomites for his own possession, blessed Melchizedek. For the leader of the Sodomites said to Abraham as to one who had conquered: Give me the men, but take the horses for yourself; but he, having determined to claim nothing of his things, says, I will stretch out my hand to the most high God, who created heaven and earth, if I will take from a thread to a sandal strap from all your things, so that you may not say: I made Abraham rich. For it is not the custom of the saints to rejoice in worldly wealth. Having therefore prevailed over visible and invisible enemies, and receiving nothing from the world, but rather honoring the wealth from above, we are blessed through Christ, the king of peace. And we are blessed, receiving the mystical things as a kind of gift of heaven and provision for life. For let it be silenced for now, if it seems good; but we are blessed by Christ and by his intercessions on our behalf to the Father. For Melchizedek blessed Abraham, saying thus: Blessed be the most high God, who has given your enemies subject to you. But our Lord Jesus Christ, the propitiation of us all, says, Holy Father, keep them in your truth.

Therefore he also seizes what is useful from the interpretation of the names, for a prefiguration of Christ. And he made the very manner of the priesthood a clear demonstration of the matter. For Melchisedek brought out bread and wine. But that he was fatherless or motherless, that is, without genealogy, or that Melchisedek had neither beginning of days nor end of life, the sacred Scripture has nowhere indicated. The divine Paul, then, has perhaps, someone might say, deceived us. We do not say this—God forbid—for he speaks the truth; rather the master-craftsman of the mysteries receives it, leading even the economical narrative concerning these very things up to a type of the glory of Emmanuel. For that Melchisedek was a priest only, the God-inspired Scripture has shown us, not naming his race, nor of what father or mother he sprang; nor indeed to how great a number of years he came, nor do we find it added what sort of successors of the priesthood he had. Therefore the narrative of so many things is molded for us, as it were in some way, into the continuous and unbeginning nature of Christ, insofar as he is understood as God. And I call unbeginning that which is, as it were, in quantity—clearly, in respect of time. For he is the maker of the ages. And in addition to this, it also intimates the unceasing character of the priesthood. For this reason the blessed Paul says concerning Melchisedek, that having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest continually. And it seems he has again wisely purposed something else; and what this is, I shall attempt to explain as best I can. 10.

The Jews opposed the proclamations about Christ, and they all but dared to laugh at the apostolic labors, putting forward these two things: one, that it was among impossibilities for the commandment ordained to the fathers through the voice of the all-wise Moses to be left unfulfilled, and for the law to be set aside, when another constitution, one not recognized by any of old, was unexpectedly being brought in; and the other, in turn: for they insisted that the glory of the priesthood ought not to be carried outside the chosen tribe, that is, the tribe of Levi. God drives away from the sacred ministry those who are not of it, both above and below, and straightway fixes the ultimate penalty for such a daring act. Paul, then, being learned in the law, contends and tries to give full assurance, both from what is fitting and indeed from the God-inspired Scripture itself, that both a newness of law and a transposition of the priesthood itself were foretold; and the manifestation of each shone forth beforehand in types. He accepts, then, that Melchisedek was not of the Levitical tribe, and then shows that he was a priest of the most high God, bringing both bread and wine, and he spoke thus concerning him: Consider how great this man is, to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils. And those who receive the priesthood from the sons of Levi have a commandment to tithe the people according to the law, that is, their brothers, although they have come out of the loins of Abraham. But he who is not descended from them has tithed Abraham, and has blessed the one who had the promises; and without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.

But we say that the superiority belongs to Melchizedek not in nature, but in the manner of his priesthood—the forefather Abraham not refusing it, but as it were assigning him preeminence through the honors by which he knew to honor him, and by the very offerings of tithes. For those of the blood of Levi receive tithes from the people, though they are brothers; but the one not reckoned in their genealogy—that is, Melchizedek (for he was not of the tribe of Levi)—received tithes from Abraham and blessed him. And in these things there is the type. But Christ himself, who is written in shadows, being without genealogy, has received tithes from those appointed to serve as priests according to the law (for he has arisen from the tribe of Judah, about which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests)—he 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 too tithed the sons of Levi, holding the type of the priesthood of Christ, just as we have already said. 11. It has therefore been demonstrated in Melchizedek that the institution of the priesthood would one day be transferred from the tribe that served as priests according to the law; and indeed, that another manner and law of priestly service would arise. For it was somehow necessary that the law itself should be changed and depart along with the priestly services. Therefore the divine Paul also philosophizes on such matters, saying: If then perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for the people received the law under it), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not to be called according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there is also a change of law. And again:

And it is still more evident if another priest arises according to the order of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not according to a law of fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is testified, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." Do you see how he condemns the priesthood according to the law as being able to perfect nothing, showing the introduction of the better commandment to be most useful? For if the necessary thing were in that priesthood, why, he says, is another priest appointed not according to the order of Aaron, and not according to the order of Melchizedek, who was a likeness and type of Christ—who does not priest in a fleshly manner, but rather according to the power of an indestructible life? For he nourishes us unto unfading life by the mystical sacred rites, although Aaron priest in a fleshly manner. For there were sacrifices of oxen through him, and slaughters of sheep, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who had been defiled, for the cleansing of the flesh; and certain other things besides these, not perfecting those who worship according to conscience. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls to take away sins. When, therefore, another manner of sacred ministry has also been brought in for us

setting aside the first and older customs, he is certainly a different priest. And if God has promised a new covenant, the first having grown old, the priest according to the order of Melchizedek, for whom it would also be fitting that he be understood as existing forever—no one else would be this than our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to God and the Father with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

BOOK 3 OF THE GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS.

Concerning Abraham, and the promise regarding Isaac, and that through them the mystery of faith was prefigured. 1. That Christ became high priest and apostle of our confession, the divinely inspired Paul writes; and indeed, he clearly affirmed that, having brought in for us the incomparably better and more excellent command than the ancient one through Moses—I mean the gospel—he has become the guarantor of a better covenant. And the statement is true: since the law works wrath and is demonstrative of sins, but the grace ministered through the gentleness 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. That therefore, even if he did not happen to be of the tribe of Levi according to the flesh, he has been designated and is high priest forever according to the order of the priesthood of Melchizedek, the account has already sufficiently demonstrated to us.

That the mystery of the righteousness that is in faith has the proclamation of the circumcision that is in the law as something older, and that the type was pre-inscribed for the people of Israel—namely, that they could never be saved in any other way, except through Christ alone, who justifies the ungodly and remits offenses. And in addition to these things, that those who are of the promise made to the blessed Abraham in Isaac are heirs of God and will be ranked among the most genuine children—come, let us say these things, taking them from the sacred Scriptures themselves and making the proofs for each point precisely and with careful examination. 2. The most holy Paul, then, writes to the Romans: What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has a boast, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin. This blessedness, then, is it for the circumcision, or also for the uncircumcision? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it reckoned? While he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, he says, but in uncircumcision.