Glaphyra in Pentateuchum

And for this reason, he says, the inspired Joseph was greatly admired. When Pharaoh himself had a dream about the coming abundance not far off and the distress from the famine, having seen it first in cows, both fat and lean, and then in ears of grain, and when the wise men in Egypt had nothing to say, being utterly at a loss to explain clearly what was indicated by the visions, Joseph was testified to be capable of doing this, and coming forward he interpreted it. And indeed Pharaoh, marvelling, appointed him steward and governor over his own realm. For Christ was persecuted, as I just said, in the person of the holy apostles. But while they were in the midst of these labors, those of whom the account speaks, being very wise and capable of explaining clearly what is hidden to many, were manifest at first to some in the world, and then even to the rulers of the earth themselves, who, believing that they possess knowledge of future events through revelation from God in the Spirit, have allowed them to become stewards and rulers of nations, and to distribute to those in famine of teachings, which sustain life incorruptible, that is, the divine and heavenly word, and the education that leads to everything excellent. These also acquired, or rather through them Christ acquired, the land of the nations for God and the Father, just as Joseph did for Pharaoh the land of the Egyptians. To him were born two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, from a mother Aseneth, the daughter of Petephres, who was a priest. And Manasseh is interpreted as forgetfulness of the evils that have happened.

to increase and advance toward the better, Ephraim. For as if from a sacred mother, I mean the Church, they have become fruits, and those called from the nations would be counted among the sons of God through faith in Christ, who will also be brought to forgetfulness of their labors. For they will forget, it says, their first distress, and it will not come up into their heart. For on their head there will be praise, and rejoicing, and gladness will overtake them. Pain, grief, and groaning have fled. So then, in due time they will come to forgetfulness of evils, and they will also advance to increase, running to the sweet end of hope. For they will be transferred from earthly things to heavenly things, from things measured in time to things beyond time; from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power. While the famine was still pressing and continuing, the descendants of Jacob went down to Egypt to buy food. Then, with a brief intervening word, and Joseph almost sporting with them (for he said that they had come not at all for the sake of provisions, but rather to survey the land), and demanding Benjamin, who was his brother and the youngest, and insisting that they would not depart from the Egyptians unscathed unless they brought the youth, the father reluctantly allowed them. When they came together with the boy, he then invited them to the feast, and after they had washed, he satisfied them with bread and wine.

For they, the Jews, being oppressed as if by an unbearable famine—clearly a spiritual one—will in due time set aside their lofty and haughty pride and come to Christ, yearning for food from him, which is holy, spiritual, and life-giving. He will not receive them, however, without the new people, of whom Benjamin would be a type. But when they come, as if in unanimity and with one mind, he will receive them gladly and bring them into his own house, that is, the Church. Then he will wash them with pure water, the bath of regeneration, and nourish them with bread and wine—mystically speaking. But let us also say this in addition: Joseph recognized his brothers when they arrived together with Benjamin, and indeed deemed them worthy of a table, as I said recently. But he gave them no portion of land and ordered them to depart entirely, to bring their father, I mean Jacob, down to him. But when he had come down and saw him present together with his children, then, at that time, he allotted the best land of all. This too would be a clear sign that Christ will receive those from Israel who convert in the last times of the age, with the new people, of course, accompanying them in a manner of unanimity. For this, as I said, is Benjamin. But the inheritance that we hope for will not be given to us without the holy Fathers. For just as they, although they died in faith—as the wise Paul said—did not receive the promise, because God foresaw something better for us, so that they might not be perfected without us.

Thus also we shall await the Fathers, lest we be perfected without them. Therefore, together with the holy Fathers—the first, middle, and last peoples—we shall receive the best and inalienable inheritance of the kingdom of the heavens in Christ, through whom and with whom glory to God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, for all eternity. Amen. Concerning Joseph and his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. 1. Every good gift and every perfect endowment comes down from above, from the Father of lights. And I affirm that there is none of these so venerable and exalted goods that we do not gain through Christ. For he became, it is said, the mediator between God and men, and through him we have obtained access in one Spirit to the Father and God in the heavens. Therefore he also said: No one comes to the Father except through me. In him and through him is every fullness of grace and a splendid inheritance. For God, being rich, became poor for our sake, so that we, by his poverty, might become rich, and, ascending to the glory of the holy Fathers, we might be able to partake of the hope that is most fitting for them. But behold the true meaning of the account concerning these matters, applying the eye of the mind to the sacred Scriptures. For it says again as follows: Now it happened after these words, and it was reported to Joseph that his father was ill. And taking his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, he came to Jacob. And it was reported to Jacob, saying: Behold, your son Joseph is coming to you; and Israel, strengthening himself, sat up on the bed. And Jacob said to Joseph:

My God appeared to me in Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, and said to me: Behold, I will increase you and multiply you, and make you into gatherings of nations, and I will give you this land, and to your seed after you for an eternal possession. Now then, your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt, before I came to you in Egypt, are mine, Ephraim and Manasseh, as Reuben and Simeon shall be mine. But the offspring which you beget after these shall be yours; they shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritances. When I was coming from Mesopotamia of Syria, Rachel your mother died in the land of Canaan, as I was approaching by the hippodrome of Chabrathah of the land to come into the land of Ephrathah, and I buried her on the road of the hippodrome. This is Bethlehem. Now the blessed Jacob had been nurtured in a good old age, according to what is written. But since he was departing from our affairs, he intended to bless the sons of Joseph; who, because they were from a foreign mother, Aseneth daughter of the priest Petephres, lest any of the Israelites should disparage them and consider their race alien and foreign, the divine Jacob wisely and economically attempts to teach both Joseph himself and the other sons that, following the divine decrees, he claims all those born from them as his own. For God appeared to me, he says, in the land of Canaan, and that I shall be father of very many peoples, and I shall be expanded into nations and gatherings of nations, was openly promised. At the same time, then, he also persuades them to honor God with true praises.

And it teaches that those who are related by blood, or rather those who have sprung from them, are to be considered as one's own, even if they happen to be born from a foreign mother. 2. Departing briefly from the thickness of the historical narrative, we say this: So also we who have been justified in faith have become in Christ, sons of God, and kinsmen of the saints, with him mediating and binding us through himself to himself and to the Father and to the choirs of the saints—just as indeed Joseph, placed as it were in between, made Ephraim and Manasseh sons of his own father, and had them enrolled also in the list of the patriarchs. For now, he says, your two sons who were born to you in Egypt are mine, Ephraim and Manasseh, as Reuben and Simeon will be mine. That is, they will be among the firstborn, and they will be ranked also among those in obedience. For Reuben was the firstborn. And obedience, again, is what Simeon is interpreted to mean. And we, through faith, have become last first, and the people from the nations have obtained the glory of the firstborn. And they have been honored through obedience and ready compliance. For Christ himself has borne witness to them, saying thus: A people whom I did not know served me, they obeyed me with the hearing of the ear. For even if we have been born from a mother, as it were, of a different race, because the Church has been called from the nations, yet Emmanuel will suffice as mediator, both to unite us through himself to God and Father, and to enroll us in the ranks of the saints, and to raise us to the glory befitting them, and to declare us a sacred race. And observe how, out of his love for the blessed Joseph, he ranks those born from him as his own sons.

For we too have been loved in Christ, and since through him we have undergone a spiritual birth in the Spirit, we have become acceptable to the Father, as I have just said; and we have been enrolled among the holy ones who preceded us. Yet even if we have been called sons of God and Father, we shall again be under the authority of the one who presents us and unites us to him, that is, Christ. For see how the blessed Jacob, after enrolling both Ephraim and Manasseh among his own children, says, "And the offspring that are born to you shall be yours." Do you understand, then, that even if we are styled sons of God and Father, we shall nonetheless belong to Christ? And this, I think, is what he said to the Father: "Those whom you gave me from the world were yours, and you gave them to me; and I have been glorified in them." Moreover, Jacob said that Rachel was buried in Bethlehem. We have often named Rachel as an image and type of the Church from the Gentiles. It would, I think, be no falsehood to say that the Church has migrated to another life, clearly a better one and more excellent than the earthly life, having died to the world by refusing to think its thoughts, and living spiritually in Christ through an evangelical way of life. For even if she is in the world because of life in the flesh, yet she is, as it were, hidden, not possessing the brilliance that is in the world, and she has been almost buried with Christ; and this, I think, is what the most wise Paul said to us: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Understand, then, that when Rachel was buried in Bethlehem and was no longer seen, Emmanuel himself was, so to speak, hidden along with her. For he had not yet been born through the holy Virgin. Let us therefore praise such a death of the Church, which leads back to the beginnings of holy life in Christ. And I think it necessary to add this as well. When the father received the children of Joseph as his own after their mother had died, he gives instructions concerning her as well. Thus, the fact that he marks the place where she is buried can be nothing other than an indication that it is fitting to show proper care for her. And God the Father also gave instructions to the Son concerning the Church, and persuades him to deem her worthy of care, she who had been overcome by death because of the ancient curse. Therefore, the divine David cries out to the Father and God in heaven: "Command, O God, your power; strengthen, O God, this which you have wrought in us." For, as if pointing to the body held by death, he implores that through the power of God the Father—that is, through the Son—it be delivered from corruption and return again to its original state, that is, to the blessed and pure life in Christ.

That he was firstborn, and honored with the privileges of that rank, Israel fell away from the glory that was inherent in him, and the grace of such splendid renown passed over to the new people coming from the nations, we shall learn no less from what follows. For, it says, when Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he said: "Who are these to you?" And Joseph said to his father: "They are my sons, whom God gave me here." And Jacob said: "Bring them to me, so that I may bless them." But his eyes were heavy with old age, and he could not see. And he brought them near to him, and he kissed them, and he embraced them, and Israel said to Joseph: "Behold, I have not been deprived of your face, and behold, God has shown me your offspring as well." And Joseph brought them from his knees, and they prostrated themselves before him on the ground. And Joseph, taking his sons—Ephraim in his right hand, on the left of Israel, and Manasseh in his left hand, on the right of Israel—brought them near to him. And Israel, stretching out his right hand, placed it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands. And he blessed them, and said: "May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac were well-pleasing, the God who has nourished me from my youth until this day, the angel who has delivered me from all evils, bless these children." For the youths stood by. And the old man inquired whose they were. And indeed, to these things Joseph says: "They are my two sons.

Then, when they had been brought forward and had come near, he deemed them worthy of kisses and embraces. Understand, then, how we, who were somehow unknown to God the Father, have become known and near in Christ. He receives us very gladly, as the Son testifies to our kinship with himself, and thus he deems us worthy of love, calling us to union—clearly the spiritual union in the Spirit. This would be a very clear type: a kiss of love, and an embrace of union. Therefore, the most wise Paul also writes to those who have believed in Christ, at one time saying, "But now, those who were once far off have become near," obviously through the mediation of Christ, and at another time, "But now, knowing God, or rather being known by God." For God the Father deems worthy of contemplation and recognizes only those who have a spiritual kinship with the Son and who have obtained regeneration through the Spirit under him and through him. Just as, indeed, in Egypt, those who were anointed with the blood of the lamb were made recognizable, as he said, "And I will see the blood, and I will shelter you, and there will be no plague among you to destroy you when I strike in the land of Egypt." And Jacob, being very cheerful, said to his son, that is, Joseph, "Behold, I have not been deprived of your face, and behold, God has shown me your offspring as well." For as far as the Jews are concerned, the Father has been deprived of the Son. For they thought that he would be confined to the gates of Hades and would lie dead with the others, and they clothed him in death. But it was not possible for the one who is the author of life to be clothed in death.

Therefore, he came back to life, and the Father again beholds him, and the race from him and in him—clearly, those who have believed, the holy nation, the royal priesthood, the people for possession. To them Christ himself rejoins, saying, "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me." And Joseph presented them to his father; and they prostrated themselves. Then, with Manasseh, who was the firstborn, standing on the right, and the younger Ephraim on the left, Jacob crossed his hands and placed them, honoring Ephraim with the imposition of his right hand, while deeming Manasseh worthy of second place, as it were, giving him his left hand, and thus he began the blessing upon them. For we have been received as worshipers—both the first ones and the peoples after them—presented not by Moses or the prophets (for the law is too sluggish for salvation), but by the Son himself; for through him, as I said, we have obtained our introduction. And it was his intention to place Israel before the flock from the nations; for Joseph placed Manasseh on the right of his father. But since they have blasphemed against him beyond measure, the Father has given precedence to those who are second in time, that is, the nations. And the last have become first, and the first last. And Jacob blessed the youths, naming God as the one who nourishes and the angel as the one who rescues him, joining the Son entirely to God the Father—the Son who is also called the Angel of Great Counsel through the voice of the prophets. Therefore, every grace and every mode of blessing and assistance to us would come in no other way than through the Son from the Father.

And indeed the divine Paul says, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Yet the divine Joseph is distressed, seeing the firstborn placed behind, as it were, after the younger. Then the father explained the power of the mystery, saying, "And this one shall be a people, and this one shall be exalted; but his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall be a multitude of nations." Then after other things, "And he placed," it says, "Ephraim before Manasseh." For as far as it pertained to what seemed good to Christ, Israel would not have fallen away from its own glory. And indeed he plainly declared, "I was sent only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But since it has been hardened, as it is written, and has remained disobedient, insulting the call to salvation, it has been placed on the left, having the lesser in glory. And it is blessed and exalted itself, as being in the saved part; and this is the remnant, according to the voice of the prophet. But the one from the Gentiles is exceedingly superior, and is spread out into gatherings of nations, and is greater than Israel, making its preeminence by the boundless multitude of the believers; for we, both those from Israel and indeed those from the Gentiles who have believed and been justified in Christ, have been crowned with one and equal grace for sanctification; through whom and with whom glory is to God and Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Glaphyra on Genesis, Book Seven. On the blessing of the twelve patriarchs. The purpose of the discourse is that it is necessary to narrate each of the things said by the forefather Jacob concerning the things that will come to pass in due time for the sons born from him. But he forewarns clearly, as it were, that the meaning of what is said is exceedingly difficult to grasp and not accessible to the many, being enigmatic and obscure in its revelation. Mixed with the manner of blessing is that which is not so, and that which is even more difficult to grasp than these. For the inspired Jacob promises to foretell to his children the things at the end; yet he makes mention of past events and recounts a fault, first that of Reuben, then immediately next and after that, that of Simeon and Levi. Then who would dare to say that the recollection of things already previously erred will be a manner of blessing for some, and would not be considered false-speaking and deviant from proper meaning? Therefore, the discourse on this matter is deep and not very accessible to those wishing to grasp it. What then do we say is the plausible interpretation for the matters at hand? Or, to speak collectively of the entire race, that is, the type of each tribe, what sort it will be in due time, and that it will be reproached in some things, but how it will be esteemed, or in what it might happen to be, and wherever its affairs might end—the narration of the prophecy will surely bring this in for us. Observe how for some he depicts the things that will be later from things that have already happened, while for others, again, the narration of the names, that is, their interpretation, makes a kind of revelation of future things and a clear pre-indication.

It is written thus: "And Jacob called his sons, and said: 'Gather together, that I may announce to you what will befall you at the end of the days. Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to Israel, your father.'" Concerning Reuben. "Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the beginning of my children, hard to bear and stubbornly self-willed. You raged like water; do not boil over. For you went up onto your father's bed; then you defiled the couch upon which you went up." So Reuben stole his father's marriage; and he was caught not obscurely, having done what is not lawful, and the matter was condemned as wicked even by the votes of Jacob himself. For it says, "It appeared wicked in the sight of Jacob." But I think no one would suppose that what is already past will be so at the last times. For it is utterly foolish to think thus. But reshaping the form of the transgression, as it were, into something similar, we will see the sin of the firstborn people—I mean Israel. For God brought the congregation from Egypt, as it were, like a woman, through the intelligible communion according to the law. For he admitted her and deemed her worthy of intimacy, and made her fruitful and a mother of children, with wise Moses, as it were, leading her as a bride, and angels mediating the manner of the union.

But the Synagogue, having been led astray from God in this matter, was violating the law of legitimacy, in a manner attaching itself to the sons of the married man, and committing fornication under them, and no longer bearing fruit for the one with whom she had been joined by law, but rather subjecting her own mind to the inseminations of others—clearly, I mean, to those that are intellectual and pertain to learning. For, disdaining as stale the notion of being set before God, she turned to the commandments and teachings of men, and, disregarding the disciplines from above, made whatever seemed good to her simply into law. Hence also the prophet Isaiah says: "How has the faithful city of Zion become a harlot, full of judgment? In which justice slept, but now murderers. Your silver is counterfeit. Your merchants mix wine with water." For justice, that is, God, slept and lodged with her. But she admitted murderers, adulterers, and corrupters, who gave her counterfeit silver and mixed wine with water. For truly counterfeit is the word of those who persuade her to choose to honor the teachings and commandments of men. And, as if adulterated and not unmixed with the worse, is the instruction from them. For this, I think, is what it means to say that the wine is mixed with water. And that this matter grieved the God of all, and that He justly reproached Jerusalem as having become a harlot, hear clearly when He says at one time through the voice of Jeremiah: "Lift your eye straight, and see where you have been defiled. You sat on the roads like a desolate crow, and you defiled the land with your fornications, and you had many shepherds to your own harm.

You have become the face of a harlot, you have been shameless before all. You did not call me your housemate, nor father and founder of your virginity. And again, at another time: "If a man sends away his wife, and she goes away from him, and becomes the wife of another man, will she, not returning, ever return to him? Will not that woman be polluted, polluted?" And you have committed fornication among many shepherds, and you kept returning to me? says the Lord. The manner of this fornication the Savior himself has clearly shown us. For the ever-accusing and foolish Pharisees approached, saying: "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." To them Christ said: "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said: 'Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you.' But you say," he says, "that if one says to his father or his mother 'Korban,' which is 'gift,' that if you are benefited by me, he will not honor his father or his mother, and you have nullified the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition." Do you hear how, having come under other teachers, they have chosen to think and do certain things contrary to what seemed good to the lawgiver, and would be caught out very easily? Therefore the Synagogue of the Jews has committed fornication. But the virgin, pure and undefiled, free from every stain and wrinkle, that is, the Church, promises to preserve for Christ the sacred and inviolable form of union, saying: "My beloved is mine, and I am his.

Therefore, let us compare the concubine of Jacob—I mean Bilhah, with whom Reuben consorted—to an image of the Jewish Synagogue, especially since Bilhah is interpreted as "grown old," and Reuben as "son of profanation." For the Synagogue of the Jews has grown old and become wrinkled, while the new people in faith have sprung up in its place. And rejoicing over this, let David sing: "The people being built will praise the Lord." For the new creation is in Christ, according to the Scriptures; but Israel would be considered profane and defiled, not having accepted the purification through Christ—and why do I say this?—even laying hands on the one speaking for purification. Therefore, it is said through the voice of the holy prophets themselves, on one hand: "Will the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots? And will you be able to do good, having learned evil?" And on the other hand, as to a woman, Jerusalem: "If you wash with nitre and multiply herbs for yourself, you are stained before me by your lawless deeds, says the Lord." — Reuben, then, says Jacob, is my firstborn: you are my strength and the beginning of my children. For upon the firstborn people from Egypt, a great display of strength occurred on the part of God. For the land of the Egyptians was punished in very many and not unremarkable ways: waters being turned to blood, gnats being stirred up, frogs being brought forth, hail being sent down, firstborn being destroyed, and in addition to these, the redeemed passing through the middle of the sea as though on dry land. Therefore, Reuben is called the strength of God.

But he was harsh to bear, and harshly self-willed—that is, unchangeable and unbending, and savage, aggressive. For the Jews are by nature impetuous and exceedingly unbridled. Therefore they justly hear: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit." And Christ Himself says somewhere: "Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill? And you have filled up the measure of your fathers." So then Israel is reckless and prone to anger, and has an unbearable onset, and rages like water—that is, it has an irresistible attack against whomever it chooses. For such, in a way, are the rushes of waters. But it says, "Do not boil over." And what is this? Boiling water is carried upward, overflowing the vessels, and seems somehow to be abundant. Since, then, it has attributed to him the rush of water, it continues the metaphor of the discourse and says: "Do not boil over," that is, do not rise up into a multitude, nor become numerous. For those saved from the blood of Israel through faith in Christ are easily counted compared to the multitude of the Greeks. Then it adds the cause of what will happen, and says: "For you went up onto your father's bed; then you defiled the bed of the one onto whom you went up." For as I have already said, no longer examining the things in the law and the ancient oracles and human commandments, they have missed this knowledge concerning Christ. Therefore He Himself says: "Search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life in them. And those are the ones that testify about me, and you do not wish to come to me, so that you may have life.

And again: "If you believed Moses, you would have believed me; for he wrote about me." He also strongly reproached the teachers of the Jews, saying thus: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven before men. For you do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to come in." And again: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you go around the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte. And when he is made, you make him a son of Gehenna twice over yourselves. But he would not have become a son of Gehenna, had he not been added to the words of the adulterers." Therefore those of the blood of Israel have mounted the bed of the father, thrusting aside what seemed good to the lawgiver as stale, while inserting their own words into those being instructed and sowing seeds of impurity in them. Concerning Symeon and Levi. α. Symeon and Levi, brothers, accomplished an injustice from their own choice. May my soul not enter into their counsel, and may my liver not rest upon their conspiracy, because in their anger they killed men, and in their desire they hamstrung a bull. Cursed is their anger, because it is self-willed, and their wrath, because it was hardened. I will divide them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel. When Jerusalem had been prostituted and had submitted her mind to the unholy deceptions of those accustomed to teach heterodoxy, the God of all was naturally indignant, and he said through the voice of Isaiah quite clearly: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

They worship me in vain, teaching the commandments of men as doctrines. And since God the Father was planning to reform for the better the profane Jerusalem, which was, as it were, intoxicated by its aberrations and heedlessness in this matter, he sent from heaven his own Son, who became like us, that is, a man, so that, since the multitude of the holy prophets had ceased in the face of impossible tasks—for they said, "Lord, who believed our report?"—at least they might respect the Son when he came. But they reached such a pitch of evil counsel that they thought they could even seize the Lord's inheritance, and after killing the saints and going to the extreme of impiety, they even outrageously attacked the Son himself. For they said among themselves, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take possession of his inheritance." And their impiety did not stop there, but they added to the holy prophets the second group, I mean the holy apostles, no longer sparing even their blood. Such is the meaning that the intention of the prophecy before us labors to express. For the inspired Jacob seems again to recall the events that took place in Shechem. But the intention of the righteous man is actually as follows: for how could one accept what had already happened as something that would happen at certain times? Therefore, from what happened in Shechem, he refers to the same mode of sin in the case of Christ, just as indeed he did in the case of the firstborn Reuben. What then did Simeon and Levi do in Shechem?

Dina was the sister of Levi and Symeon, and she went out from her father's tent to see the daughters of the local inhabitants. Shechem the son of Hamor violated her, for he deflowered her. Distressed at this and contriving the murder of her out of deceit, they first persuaded them to undergo their father's circumcision, as they would immediately become kinsmen by race if they chose to do this. But when they had done so, they killed them unexpectedly, thinking that it would suffice for their defense to say: "But will they treat our sister like a harlot?" We must proceed, then, to what resembles this, and we fashion the theory as well as we can, gathering from all sides what contributes to clarification. So then, extending the discourse concerning Jacob, we have narrated how and in what manner he lived, and which women he took as wives, and of how many children he became father. We said that he married Leah, the eldest of Laban's daughters, and second after her, and not long after, the youngest, Rachel. We affirmed that Leah would be for us a type of the Jewish Synagogue, and Rachel of the Church from the Gentiles. For Leah is interpreted as "wearying," and she had weaker and less beautiful eyes. The Jewish Synagogue has greatly wearied, burdened by the law given through Moses, and does not have strong eyes to see the mystery of our Savior. Rachel was beautiful in form and exceedingly fair. The Church from the Gentiles is very splendid. Dina, then, was the last daughter of Leah.

This would also be a type of the multitude from the circumcision, which also occurred in the last times, when the Only-begotten became man. So when the final multitude from the circumcision, having gone a little outside the paternal tent—that is, the customs according to the law—attacked the locals, that is, mingled for the sake of learning, I mean with the holy apostles, no longer living as Jews but being regarded as if they were of a different race—then, indeed, then they were spiritually deflowered, receiving from them the seeds of the polity in Christ and of the gospel. But some of the sons of Jacob, Symeon and Levi, were indignant at this—that is, those placed in the order of subjects, and with them the sacred and chosen race. For Symeon is interpreted as "obedience," and Levi as "added" or "chosen." And that those who had obtained the boasts of the priesthood according to the law violently attacked the holy apostles, with the peoples running together with them, how can one doubt? They gnashed their teeth, calling the conversion of those under them corruption, and bringing charges as of something utterly outlandish. "For behold," they said, "you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching." And since they reproached them for no longer living as Jews, they learned that circumcision was honored among them, but that there was nothing at all dividing them into difference, if they chose to understand the things of Moses in the proper way. For it is not the one in the visible, he says, who is a Jew, nor is circumcision in the visible in the flesh; but the Jew in the hidden, and circumcision of the heart in spirit, not in letter.

You see how those who had a reputation among the gentiles were conforming themselves to the Jews, carrying about the circumcision in spirit and the Jew within, in secret. But even so they killed, having first slain prophets, and even Emmanuel himself. So they accomplished, it says, the injustice of Symeon and Levi, by their own choice; for Symeon and Levi, that is, the laity and the priests, agreed and conspired with one another in the injustice against the saints. And "by their own choice" means according to design and will. For the terrible things suffered by the victims were not simply brought about by chance, nor were the audacities and extraordinary boldness unplanned; but they went from their councils to commit every evil beyond measure. So the inspired Jacob deprecates the conspiracy in this matter, the common deliberations, the design. "Let not my soul," he says, "enter into their council, nor let my reins be stirred up at their conspiracy." For it is as if he were saying: May I never gaze with the eyes of my mind upon such counsels, nor ever admit into my heart at all these utterly grievous schemes of the impious. Thus also the prophet Isaiah laments the Jewish multitudes, saying: "Woe to their soul, because they have devised an evil counsel, saying among themselves, Let us bind the righteous man, because he is troublesome to us." And David also sings: "Blessed is the man who has not walked in the council of the impious, and has not stood in the way of sinners." And again: "I have hated the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the impious." So the inspired Jacob departs from the Jewish schemes.

He then states the causes, and says: "Because in their anger they killed men, and in their desire they hamstrung a bull." For they killed the saints, as I said, driven by unholy anger toward cruelty and inhumanity, and the wretches, having taken utterly into their mind an endless and reckless desire, hamstrung a bull, that is, Christ. And what the desire is, we have said before. For having recognized that he is the heir, they desired to have his inheritance. 3. And observe the precision of the account. For they killed the men, but they hamstrung the bull. For they have cast the saints into death, and they remain dead, awaiting the time of the resurrection. But like a calf hamstrung by an eagle, Christ, as it were, sank down to the ground, willingly undergoing the death of the flesh; yet he was not held fast by death. But even if he became dead as a man, he remained alive in the nature of his divinity. And Christ is a bull, for the animal is exceedingly strong, pure, and most sacred. And the Son is the Lord of the powers, who has not committed sin, but rather offered himself for us as a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God the Father. Therefore, let those who hamstrung such a venerable bull hear: "Cursed is their anger, because it is self-willed; and their wrath, because it was hardened." What then have they suffered? They have gone out of their own land, and have left the land that bore them; they have been scattered and have become everywhere strangers, aliens, and fugitives.

For it is true that just as a bird when it flies out of its own nest, so also a man when he is torn away from his own places. And I think it is fitting to add this as well, that for those who hamstrung the bull, the matter will be a curse; but for those who have grieved and who shake off so terrible an accusation, it will be a ransom and a purification and a deposition of sins. And we will find through the shadow in the law what I said being written. For it is thus in Deuteronomy: "But if a wounded man is found in the land which the Lord your God gives you to inherit, having fallen in the plain, and they do not know the one who struck him, your council of elders and your judges shall go out and measure to the cities around the wounded man, and the city nearest to the wounded man shall be. And the council of elders of that city shall take a heifer from the cattle, which has not worked and which has not drawn a yoke; and the council of elders of that city shall bring the heifer down into a rough ravine, which has not been worked nor sown, and they shall hamstring the heifer in the ravine, and the Levite priests shall approach, because the Lord your God has chosen them to stand before him and to bless in his name, and in their mouth shall be every dispute and every touch. And the entire council of elders of that city, those nearest to the wounded man, shall wash their hands over the head of the heifer that has been hamstrung in the ravine, and answering they shall say: 'Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see.'

Be gracious, O Lord, to your people Israel, whom you redeemed from the land of Egypt, that no innocent blood may be shed among your people Israel, and the blood shall be expiated for them. But you will remove the innocent blood from yourselves. Yet it will be spoken in due time concerning each matter in detail, but we say this. Understand how some free themselves from accusations of bloodshed, as the heifer typifies for us the Emmanuel upon herself. For I think it necessary that those who free themselves should say: Our hands did not pour out this blood. But the Jewish people will never be convicted of having cried out this. Rather, they have dared to say, while hamstringing the calf, Our hands poured out this blood. For there is, I think, nothing other than this in speaking senselessly concerning Christ: His blood is upon us and upon our children. Concerning Judah. Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hands are upon the backs of your enemies. The sons of your father will bow down to you. A lion's cub of Judah; from a shoot, my son, you arose, and having fallen back you slept like a lion, and like a cub. Who will rouse him? A ruler will not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until what is reserved for him comes. And he himself is the expectation of nations. Binding his foal to the vine, and the foal of his donkey to the tendril. He will wash his garment in wine, and his cloak in the blood of the grape. His eyes are bright from wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk.

The manner of the blessing is very clear to us in these words, as he has introduced to his hearers the proclamation of our Savior's economy. He lays down a beginning, as it were, with praises, both the significance of the name and the preeminence in glory beyond the other tribes of Judah. For if one should choose to clarify the name Judah, whether the sound or the word itself, he would interpret it as praise, or hymn, or the one hymned. And the reference of the word is to Christ according to the flesh, who is from the tribe of Judah. For he appeared from Judah, and Jesse, and David, and the Virgin who was taken for the generation of the flesh. Having thus looked beforehand at the one from the tribe of Judah, the prophet says, "A true name for you," as the very force of things would indicate. For you will be hymned, and you will bear the glory befitting God. For it would be fitting for no other to be glorified except only the one who is truly and known as God. For even if you have appeared as a man and emptied yourself, yet you will be known, revered, and celebrated. And the brothers, because of the human element, will not cling to you as a man, but will acclaim you as a Master placed among brothers, will hymn you as Creator, and will recognize you as the King and Lord of all, even though you are among them among creatures, even though overshadowed by the form of a servant. And that Emmanuel will prevail over all who oppose him and easily overcome his enemies, he proclaimed beforehand, saying, "Your hands are upon the backs of your enemies." This Christ himself also foretold through the voice of David. For he said:

That I will pursue my enemies, and I will overtake them, and I will not turn back until they perish. I will crush them, and they will not be able to stand; they will fall under my feet. Therefore, the hands will be upon the back of the enemies, he says, as of one pursuing rather than fleeing; not as of one being struck, but as of one striking them down. For the hymn in the book of Psalms is true, that an enemy will not prevail against him, and a son of lawlessness will not add to harm him. For if he himself gives us to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon the entire power of the enemy, how is it not necessary to confess that before us he himself will have those who wish to oppose him and are impiously rising up lying under his hands? That therefore he does not know how to flee, but rather to pursue, and to take hold of whomever he wishes, and this without effort—for he has conquered the world—the divine Jacob has already indicated beforehand, saying: Your hands are upon the back of your enemies, and the sons of your father will bow down to you. And who again would be understood as the difference between the praising brothers and the sons of the father, who will be ranked among those who bow down? How is it not necessary to say? The blessed Joseph was then designated as father to Christ, although he was not truly a father. And he had sons and daughters from a first marriage. Since they were perhaps also table-companions with Christ, seeing signs and not yielding very much to legal precepts because of their indifference regarding foods and their not choosing to honor the Sabbath rest greatly—for he said: What enters the mouth does not defile a person.

And that the Lord of the Sabbath is the Son of Man. They were divided in opinion, and they neither wished to honor him wholeheartedly, because it seemed that his conduct regarding the law was not without fault, nor did they deem it right to leave unadmired one so illustrious. And so they once approached him, saying plainly, "If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world. For no one does anything in secret and seeks to be in the open." And the evangelist added to this, "For not even his brothers believed in him." But those who said these things in the beginning, as time went on, came to believe. For they were fully persuaded that he is God by nature, and that he was born in the flesh and appeared as man. This indeed the blessed prophet Jeremiah, having foreknown in spirit, says to Emmanuel himself: "That even your brothers and your father's house, even they rejected you, and they cried out from behind you. They gathered together; do not trust them, for they will speak evil against you." For those who once, together with others, had cried out against him, were gathered together in faith and spoke well of him. Thus the blessed James writes to the twelve tribes, saying, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." Therefore, those who are called to brotherhood through faith and through the sanctification that comes through faith will praise him as God; and the sons of the father will worship him no less. And it is evident that those who worship will praise him, and those who weave praise will be no less worshipers.

For indeed, the Christ is a lion's cub from Judah, being the Son of God who is all-powerful, to whom belongs the ability to conquer without battle and to terrify his opponents by word alone. For as the prophet says: "A lion will roar, and who will not be afraid?" Therefore, the Christ is a lion's cub, as if sprouting from a shoot and from a noble root, from the holy Virgin. For he himself is the rod of power, which God sent to us from Zion, a staff that comforts and supports all, a rod of righteousness and kingship, which both rightly and gently shepherds the flocks of the saints, and crushes like a potter's vessel those who do not consent to be pastured under him. He is the rod of Aaron, which had its place in the divine tabernacle and was brought into the Holy of Holies, which blossomed with nuts—a symbol of resurrection. For the wood of the nut tree is somehow productive of wakefulness. And the mystery of the resurrection is honored in the churches of God. For this reason, the blessed Jacob, having named him a shoot, immediately recalls the events at the end of the economy, and says: "You lay down and slept like a lion," that is, you did not undergo death unwillingly, but although you were able to seize and terrify all like a lion, and to escape the hand of those hunting you, you willingly lay down, and not, as those who chose to crucify you thought, overcome by death, but as if using sleep, and closing your eyes briefly. "Who then will raise him?" he says. It is as if he were saying: He lay down willingly, but he will not require the assistance of another for his resurrection. For he himself is all-powerful, as the power of the Father.

And he was not without the power, at least in terms of ability, and quite easily, to revive his own temple. This indeed he said, speaking to the Jews: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." That no one would be his helper in this, but he alone would suffice as the strength of the one who begot him, the word would indicate not obscurely. But what indeed the time of his advent will be, he reveals by saying: "A ruler from Judah will not cease, and a leader from his loins, until the one for whom it is reserved comes." And he himself is the expectation of the nations. For the Jews ruled, and those who were leaders among them were from the blood of Israel, until Herod, the son of Antipater, a Palestinian, was named tetrarch, and took over the rule; at which time Christ himself, the expectation of the nations, was born. For that the multitude of the nations was saved at his birth, there will be no need of long words for proof, since the matter itself cries out. However, that the newly born and young people from the nations entered first through faith, and that Israel will be brought in after him, he taught by saying immediately: "Binding his colt to the vine." For the true vine, that is Christ, bound to himself through faith the people from the nations, whom he compares to a colt. And he bound the colt of his donkey, I mean the people who believed from the more ancient mother of the Jews, that is the Synagogue, to the tendril of the vine, that is, to the love from himself. How could anyone doubt, when the entire divinely inspired Scripture, so to speak, speaks to us of the mystery?

That he was about to stain his own flesh with his own blood, being nailed to the wood and pierced by the spear, he indicated by saying: "He will wash his garment in wine, and his cloak in the blood of the grape." And indeed the divine Isaiah, describing the ascension of Christ into the heavens, said that the holy angels, or the upper powers, spoke: "Who is this who has come from Edom? His garments are red from Bosor." And again: "Why are your garments red, and your clothes as if from a trodden winepress?" But even if he was among the dead, even if he endured the outrages of the Jews, slaps and insults, he does not make much account of such things, having suffered for our sake and having saved the world beneath heaven; rather, he is always in his most beloved and customary cheerfulness, as he would show by saying: "His eyes are bright from wine." For in these words, as I think, one might understand the so-called smile-loving nature and the ever-cheerful and joyful character of his divinity. For the mind of those who have drunk is somehow always cheerful, and a despiser of things that usually cause grief. And since the word proceeds as if from teeth, he says that they too are white, as emitting a pure and spotless word from the tongue. For Christ is never prone to sinful speech, but rather is well-spoken and truthful; and everything he utters is holy, admirable, and produces the greatest brightness in the soul and mind of his hearers.

Concerning Zaboulon. Zaboulon is a maritime dweller; he himself will dwell by a harbor of ships, and will extend as far as Sidon. Having already arrived at this point, we said earlier, when examining the word of the prophecy before us and studying how it might be and be well completed, that this is made as from the likeness of what has already been worked out, and that from the very interpretation of the names, being, as it were, molded and prefiguring the form of things to come, anyone with understanding would, I think, demonstrate it. This is especially possible to observe again in the case of Zaboulon and those that follow. For it is interpreted as "good journey" and "blessing" by those accustomed to clarifying such matters well. We will therefore find some of Israel to be blessed, and to have been enriched with good journey in all things pleasing to God; but these are those justified through faith in Christ and illuminated by the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that they are able to cry out without falsehood: "Blessed are we by the Lord who made the heaven and the earth." And I think the blessed prophet Isaiah might fittingly say about them: "The way of the pious became straight, and the way of the pious was prepared." For the way of the Lord is judgment. The God of all has commanded that those here resplendent and blessed be summoned into the sacred and divine court, speaking thus: "Open the gates; let the people who guard righteousness enter, and who guard truth, who take hold of truth, and who guard peace.

But so that they might not, stumbling over the obstacles in between, admit hesitation regarding good things, he has commanded that there be a smooth passage, as it were, and that the approach be cleared, speaking thus to the holy priests: "Go through my gates, and cast away the stones of the road." Therefore, those from Israel who have honored faith in Christ would be blessed and have a prosperous journey. And indeed, he clearly affirmed that Zaboulon would dwell in the region neighboring the sea. He was saying something like this: that Israel will henceforth be intermingled with the nations, since the two peoples have been gathered into one flock and have come under the hand of the one naturally good chief shepherd, that is, Christ. And that the riddle is true, the word of the inspired Scripture will easily confirm, assigning the region neighboring the sea to those from the nations. For it spoke thus: "The region of Zaboulon, the land of Nephthaleim by the way of the sea, and the rest who dwell along the coast, Galilee of the nations. The people sitting in darkness, see a great light." Do you understand how it called the region of Zaboulon that of the nations, who have also seen a great light, clearly through Christ? So Israel, dwelling together with them, has been illuminated along with those inhabiting the coast. And this, I think, would be the prosperous journey from God. For that being illuminated would entirely and absolutely be accompanied by the necessity of also having a prosperous journey, we will learn again from the Savior saying to the Jewish multitudes: "As long as you have the light, walk in the light, so that darkness may not overtake you.

The people of old, then, dwelling alone, refusing to mingle with the nations, will be co-dwellers with them, with no distinction made for difference; because the partition wall of the fence has been dissolved by Christ, and the law of commandments has been abrogated by the demonstrations, and the two peoples have been brought forth into one new man in Christ through the Spirit. And it will be, he says, also by the mooring of ships, that is, as in a safe and waveless harbor, as it were, fastening the cables of hope to Christ. For, as if departing from a great storm, it will then be moored in the grace that is with him, just as, of course, merchant ships are in harbors. And the statement that it extends even as far as Sidon itself seems to indicate that the spiritual union of the two peoples will be so great that those of the blood of Israel will fill even those cities which have been held in great blame and slander before God, as having once led astray and, in a way, plundered those who worship him. For he said somewhere through the voice of the prophets: "And what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and all Galilee of the foreigners? Do you also give me a return, or do you also bear a grudge against me? Quickly and swiftly I will return your recompense upon your heads, for the silver and gold you took from me, and you brought my chosen and my beautiful things into your temples. And you sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel to the sons of the Greeks, in order to drive them out of their borders.

Observe then how the once terrible and most hostile cities, which brought destruction to the people of Israel, will receive those who have believed, free from all fear, as our Savior Christ binds the two peoples together in peace and concord, dissolving the enmity and settling Israel among the nations in love. I think, therefore, that here and in no other way will Zebulun dwell by the sea. Concerning Issachar. Issachar desired the good, resting between the allotments. And seeing that the rest was good and the land fertile, he put his shoulder to the toil and became a farmer. Now Issachar is interpreted as "reward." He would be, from the meaning, a kind of type and not an unclear image of what was assigned as a reward to Christ from God the Father: "Ask of me," says David, "and I will give you nations as your inheritance, and your possession the ends of the earth." And again he sings somewhere, I think, of what was given to Emmanuel, almost showing: "Behold the inheritance of the Lord, sons; the reward of the fruit of the womb." For, he says, those who have believed, both from the blood of Israel and from the other multitude, I mean that from the nations, have been given to Emmanuel as a kind of reward. And having named Jesus as Lord, he said that he became the fruit of the womb, because of his likeness to us. For he was born of a woman and was shown to be the fruit of a virgin's womb. Therefore, Christ has gained those who believe, and concerning them he perhaps says to the Father and God in heaven:

Those whom you have given me from the world were yours, and you have given them to me. These, then, desired the good, that is, everything that is truly called and is excellent, and those things that are most dear to God. They make this of great account and strive to succeed, as if from a good mind they cry out, saying: "The judgments of the Lord are true, justified together, desirable beyond gold and much precious stone." And it is good, in addition to this, to desire to be under Christ himself. This indeed the bride says in the Song of Songs: "In his shadow I desired, and I sat." Therefore, the people who advance in this disposition will carefully examine the lots concerning God, that is, the good things promised in hopes to the pious. Concerning which the divine David said: "In your hands are my lots." And he will lodge, as it were, in them, and will rest completely and entirely, because he will attain what he expects. Having then praised his own counsel and judgment, and having deemed the rest in these things—that is, the honor into eternity, the life as in perfect sanctification, the unending glory, the inalienable kingdom, and all that is beyond mind and tongue—worthy of no moderate wonder, he will be patient thereafter. For having seen that the land is rich, he will put his shoulder to it, it says, and will love the labor. And he takes the example from those who are accustomed to cultivate the land in the best way, who are most industrious and fond of the hoe, and indeed strive to be absorbed in plows, if they should take hold of rich land, considering, I think, the abundant fruit and what will come from it.

The wise Hosea also somehow urges us to this, saying: Sow for yourselves into righteousness, harvest for the fruit of life; light for yourselves the light of knowledge. Seek out the Lord until the offspring of righteousness come to you. And the blessed Paul also prayed, saying: He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and multiply your seed, and will increase the offspring of your righteousness, so that you may always have all sufficiency and abound in every good work. Concerning Dan. Dan will judge his people, as if one tribe in Israel; and let Dan be a serpent, lying in wait on the path, biting the heel of a horse, and the rider will fall backward, awaiting salvation from the Lord. The discourse again follows the etymology of the name. For Dan is judge or judgment. This one too would indicate, as it were, in his own person, the glorious and conspicuous chorus of the holy apostles, who are placed at the head of the faithful and have received the office of judging, Christ distributing this function to them. And indeed the divine Paul says: Do you not know that we judge angels, let alone worldly matters? So Christ is one judge and lawgiver according to the Scriptures. But if the apostles act as ambassadors for Christ, and the matter of reconciliation is placed in them, it is no wonder if they are also understood as judges in likeness to Christ. And the great Isaiah also cries out somewhere, making manifest both the divinely fitting kingdom of Christ himself and the exaltation of the holy apostles themselves: Behold, a righteous king will reign, and rulers will rule with judgment.

Formerly, those from the tribe of Judah ruled over Jerusalem; those who attended the holy tent and received the lot of the priesthood were appointed to judge: for the lips of a priest will guard judgment, and they will seek law from his mouth. But when the shadow of the law was, as it were, contracted, and the worship in spirit and truth was introduced through Christ, the world needed more illustrious judges; therefore, the divine disciples have been summoned to this and have entered into the lot of the teachers of the law. Accordingly, to the mother of the Jews—I mean Jerusalem—it was said by God through the voice of the Psalmist: "Instead of your fathers, your sons were born," that is, "Your sons, who are called your sons, have taken the place of the fathers." And to our Lord Jesus Christ: "You will appoint them rulers over the whole earth." This one might see as having been brought to fulfillment. For we have made rulers and have had ecumenical judges—the holy disciples—by whose instructions even the mystery of Christ is proclaimed, since they are themselves the stewards of the saving word and the introducers of what must be done: on the one hand, rejecting as counterfeit whatever is unprofitable for the benefit of those being instructed, and on the other hand, advising that what is naturally suited to help be adopted. Therefore, "if," he says—that is, whoever at all are appointed from time to time to judge nations and peoples—they will thus rule powerfully and with great glory, just as, of course, one tribe of Israel did. He means, I think, the ruling tribe of Judah, and no other.

For that they have been honored and have reached the peak of glory, at least among the worshipers of the Savior, those appointed by him as teachers of the world under the sun—how is it possible to doubt? Yet that ruling will not be entirely without hardship for them, and they were destined to experience many countless evils; they will be hindered, and they will not find the course of their mission entirely free from dangers, as he indicated by way of a typological example, saying, "Let Dan be"—that is, the mob of persecutors will be Dan, like a snake sitting on a path, biting the heel of a horse on the road, that is, giving terrible and inescapable teachings. For the bites of vipers are somehow hard to escape, even if they strike the very heel. For it says, "He himself will guard your head, and you will guard his heel." Some plotted against the holy apostles in this way, even bringing about the death of the flesh. And we say that they underwent something of this sort, such as a rider might suffer when a horse sinks down and collapses backward. For the rider will be thrown on his back, and falling to the ground, I think, will await the one who saves him. The divine disciples will await the time of their own glory and salvation, when they will be summoned into an unshakable and eternal kingdom, as Christ calls out to them: "Come, the blessed ones of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." For they have completed the course and have preserved the faith. Therefore, they will carry off the unfading crown of glory.

If, then, someone should wish that it is not that some will be like snakes lying in wait on the road for Dan, but that Dan himself will plot against others, we will say this: that the Scribes and Pharisees, having the role of judging and leading the people, grew like most bitter vipers against Christ, and as if they were cutting down a horseman rushing along a bare and smooth path, they were caught unholy in their bites. But even if the horseman has fallen, having willingly endured the death of the flesh, yet he will also rise again, making the Father his ally and helper. For the Son, being a power of God the Father, himself gave life to his own temple. By this it is said that he, having been in danger as a man, was saved by the Father, although he is by nature God, and himself holds together the whole visible and invisible creation for its well-being. Understanding it thus, the divine Paul also says about him: "For even if he was crucified from weakness, yet he lives from the power of God." Concerning Gad. Gad is a piratical band; it will attack him, and he will attack it in turn at the heels. It has been explained again what Gad would signify: "temptation" or "piratical band." And it would be fitting, I think, for the god-hated and arrogant swarm of the Scribes and Pharisees to be understood through this.

who, thrusting aside the divine and evangelical proclamation and honoring none of the necessary things for benefit, gnashed their teeth at Christ, who was teaching things beyond shadow and law, was highly esteemed and admired, and no less astounded those throughout all Judea by the excess of his miracles and by introducing marvels along with every one of his proposals that were pleasing to God. And indeed, when, according to the voice of the prophet, he left Bethany and entered Jerusalem, he himself gently mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt, while the boys leading the way cried out in praise: "Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And some of those running together spread their garments on the roads and made his entry not without wonder; but others were torn apart, struck by the sharper goads of envy, and whispered to one another, almost accusing him of being about to commit murder. For they said, "Do you see that it does no good? Look, the whole world has gone after him." But since they feared the multitude of those who had already believed, they for the time refrained from using their hands and from open attack. However, in order to make him clash with the Roman generals, they sent some of their own disciples along with those called Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are truthful, and indeed you care about nothing; for you do not look at the face of men. Is it permitted to give tribute to Caesar or not?" But they were immediately refuted, Christ saying to them, after showing the denarii, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.

Now, they ought to have blushed at this and refrained from testing him any further, yet they made another attempt upon him. For having made something like a whip from a rope, he drove out of the temple all those selling sheep and cattle, saying: "Take these things away from here; do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise." And they, indignant, come to him: "By what authority do you do these things, and who gave you this authority?" What then does Christ say to this? "I will ask you a question too," he says, "and tell me: whence was the baptism of John? From heaven, or from men?" And they deliberated among themselves, it says, that "If we say, 'from heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' If we say, 'from men,' we fear the crowd." For all held John as a prophet. And they say, it says, "We do not know." What then does Christ say to this? "Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things." Therefore Gad is a testing-ground, that is, the Pharisees who are always testing. Yet they were tested in turn at their heels, that is, immediately. For it was Christ who, according to the voice of the prophet, catches the wise in their own wisdom, and skillfully turns the intricate plans of the cunning into a counter-question.

Concerning Asher. Asher, his bread is rich, and he himself will give food to rulers. Wealth, again, is Asher. For here is the meaning of the signified. And it would be, I think, understood here as well, in whom are all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge, that is, Christ, the treasure hidden in the field, the precious pearl, who also says most clearly in the person of Wisdom: Wealth and glory belong to me, and possession of many things, and righteousness. He himself who visited the earth, as David says: You have multiplied to enrich it. And the most wise Paul also writes to us about him: I always give thanks to my God for you, for the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, that you have been enriched in everything in him, in every word and all knowledge. For he became poor with us, although he is rich, God, so that we might become rich through his poverty. To him indeed belongs also the rich bread, that is, very rich and most nourishing. For our Lord Jesus Christ nourishes us, not sending down the manna of the senses, as he did long ago to those from Israel, but dwelling himself in the souls of believers through the Holy Spirit. Therefore he also said to the multitudes of the Jews: Truly, truly I say to you, Moses did not give you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world. And again: I am the bread of life. And bread is also understood in another way as life-giving according to some of the more secret things. And he gives food to the rulers.

I would say that Thrones and Authorities, Principalities and Powers, angels and archangels, and every holy and rational creation, make Christ their food. And as the matter should be understood. But also to the leaders of the flocks on earth he distributes food, clearly spiritual food, the revelation of the divine mysteries, the knowledge of all virtue, so that they too may nourish the peoples subject to them with teachings for life. Therefore also to them he says, "Freely you have received, freely give." And indeed elsewhere: "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord will set over his house, to give out the measure of grain at the proper time? Truly I say to you, blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, upon coming, will find doing thus. Truly I say to you, that over all his possessions he will set him." We will find the teachers of the Churches doing this, and before them the holy apostles. For the blessed Paul writes to some: "I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift for your strengthening." And they themselves say they have been called by God, obviously filled by him with goods from above, and richly fattened by the supplies through the Spirit. Asher, then, is Christ, or those who have been enriched with Christ, whose bread would be understood as rich.

Concerning Nephthaleim. Nephthaleim is a vine-stock set free, yielding beauty to its offspring. One might, I think, not unsuitably, apply this again perhaps to Emmanuel himself, and, if one wishes, also to those justified in faith and sanctified in spirit. For it was said to the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem, through the voice of Jeremiah: "A beautiful olive tree, well-shaded in form, did the Lord call your name. At the sound of its circumcision, fire was kindled upon it. Great is the affliction upon you. Its branches were rendered useless, and the Lord of hosts, who planted you, spoke evils against you." For when it ought to have received its proper care (for circumcision signifies this, I think, and nothing else), then he says it was both rendered useless and set on fire, because it did not wish to recognize the farmer as present, who, as with a very sharp sickle, by the energy of the spirit, frees us from useless things, that is, from the more earthly and fleshly, so that we may put forth desire and eagerness for everything admirable. For one can hear our Savior Christ clearly saying: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he removes; and everything that bears fruit, he prunes it, so that it may bear more fruit." For as a kind of root and vine-stock securely planted deep, our Lord Jesus Christ is for those brought into the newness of life.

Like branches, we have been grafted and attached spiritually in unity, bound together by love for him, and luxuriating in the richness from him, and nourished by divine grace for the bearing of virtue. And the Father himself, together with the Son, visits our affairs. But it is clear somewhere that even if Christ is understood as a vine, and the Father as the farmer, then in Christ he certainly prunes away the useless and cares for what can be in the best condition and bear fruit in him. So when it was necessary for the mother of the Jews to be seen as having become better, the shady and beautiful olive tree, as the prophet says, then it perished, and fire was kindled in it. Therefore the wise John also says, "Already the axe lies at the root of the trees; every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." And that the notorious city was about to fall into the misfortunes that came to an end, the prophet Zechariah foretold, saying, "And the lamentation of Jerusalem will be like the lamentation of a pomegranate tree being cut down in the plain." And again, as if to her, "Open, O Lebanon, your doors, and let fire devour your cedars. Let the pine wail, because the cedar has fallen. That the great nobles have suffered greatly. Wail, oaks of Bashan, because the thicket has been torn down." For Lebanon is a mountain thick with cedar. The plant is fragrant and among the most admired for beauty. So he compares Jerusalem to Lebanon, which has a not unadmired multitude of priests, I mean, those pertaining to the honors from the law.

For the leaders had been placed, like stout and very straight trees in forests, holding the measure of all the others and greatly towering over the peoples under their hand. But Jerusalem has been burned, that is, Lebanon. And the illustrious and most renowned in it, those holding height in glories, have lamented one another, falling and perishing, and as if falling upon most robust woodcutters, the Roman generals. But our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom those men have perished miserably in an evil manner, has become a released trunk. For he always revels in the unceasing upward movements, and, so to speak, extends over the whole region under heaven. And this very thing God clearly proclaimed beforehand through the voice of Ezekiel, saying thus: "And I will take from the choice trees of the cedar, from the top of their heart I will cut off, and I will plant on a high mountain, and I will hang it on a lofty mountain of Israel. And I will plant, and it will put forth a shoot, and it will bear fruit, and it will become a great cedar, and every beast will rest under it, and every bird will rest under its shade. And its branches will be restored, and all the trees of the plain will know that I am the Lord, who humbles a high tree and raises a low tree, and dries up a green tree and makes a dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do." You understand, therefore, that having taken the choice trees of the cedar, God the Father has planted for us the tree of life, that is, Christ. And he calls the choice trees of the cedar the tribe of Judah, which always rules and is more renowned than the others.

from which Jesse and David and the holy Virgin who bore Jesus have sprung. And that what was taken from the choice cedar was hung on a tree for our sake, and is a beautiful and most flourishing plant, how can one doubt? And we too have sprouted through the counsel of the Father, the formerly dry and fruitless trees, having become dry and withered in a manner like those in the moisture and life of the law, that is, those from Israel. And they were high, but we were low and cast down. But we have been raised up in Christ through faith. And they have slipped from their ancient glory and have become low. Therefore God is the Lord of all, who by his own decrees humbles the high and raises up the low, and dries up the green tree and makes the dry tree bloom again. For that those from the ancient Synagogue, differing nothing from a thorn and a tribulus, are all but cut off from the holy land, while the multitude of those in faith has sprung up instead and is compared to the most fragrant of trees, you will learn from God saying: And I will make the desert into marshes, and the land into watercourses. I will place in the waterless land cedar, and boxwood, and myrtle, and cypress, and white poplar. And after other things: And instead of the stubble, cypress will arise, and instead of the fleabane, myrtle will arise. For by the cedar you will understand the hope of the faithful for incorruption, for the cedar knows no decay. And by the boxwood, that it is fitting for those in Christ to be understood neither in lightness of mind nor in levity of thought. For all are intelligent, since they have Christ as their mind.

The boxwood is a dense wood, having great compactness within itself. Through the myrtle is signified the fragrant in sanctification and the ever-blooming in grace. Through the cypress, the lofty and fragrant—lofty, I mean, in virtue and conspicuous in teachings. Through the white poplar, the bright and gleaming white, as it were, in righteousness. For those in Christ are bright, being illumined by the grace from him. Now the stem assigned to Naphtali is either Christ himself or those known to Christ. Since it says, "imparting beauty to the offspring," it would indicate, I think, something like this again. For in the beginning, Christ, seen in our form, was not believed to be God by nature, even though he became flesh. Indeed, the Jews dared to stone him, casting upon him the charge and accusation that "you, being a man, make yourself God." And we will find that even the holy apostles were amazed at him as a wonder-worker, but did not yet clearly understand the mystery concerning him. For instance, the sea was calmed and the rush of wild winds was checked when Christ commanded it to be so. But they, it says, reasoned among themselves, saying, "What sort of man is this, that even the sea and the winds obey him?" Do you see how that which he was by nature—that is, God, even though he became flesh—was not yet known to those in the world, and he was in glories that were not yet bright? But when knowledge about him advanced among us to increase, it was finally believed that he is God by nature, and every knee bends to him, with the whole world under heaven worshiping him.

Therefore, as our knowledge about him advances to perfection, he who is beautiful in form beyond the sons of men is then, at that very time, recognized. And if perhaps the phrase "bestowing beauty upon the offspring" were understood in our case, the argument would not be obscure. For as we continually progress in virtue and attain to better things, or rather extend ourselves forward, according to the voice of the blessed Paul, we ever ascend to a more conspicuous beauty—beauty, I mean, of a spiritual kind, so that it may be said of us as well: "The King has desired your beauty." Concerning Joseph. Joseph is an increased son; an increased son, a zealous son, my youngest son, return to me. Those who plotted against him reviled him and held him in check, masters of arrows, and their bows were broken with force, and the sinews of the arms of their hands were loosened by the hand of the mighty Jacob. From there, Israel prevailed through the God of your father; and my God helped you, and blessed you with a blessing of heaven from above, and a blessing of earth that contains all things, because of the blessing of breasts and womb, the blessing of your father and your mother. You prevailed over the blessings of steadfast mountains, and over the blessings of eternal sand dunes, which shall be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the brothers over whom he ruled. Upon him, again, the Emmanuel, the word of prophecy creeps. And the meaning derived from it would be, I think, nothing other than what I just said: "bestowing beauty upon the offspring.

To say that he increased signifies the advance from the beginning and the natural progression of the glory inherent in him, according to what is rightly understood. For since the only-begotten Son of God, being God and from God, emptied himself, according to the Scriptures, willingly descending into what he was not, and clothed himself in this most inglorious flesh, and appeared in the form of a servant, becoming obedient to God the Father unto death, he is said to be exalted, and as if not having, on account of the human element, and by way of grace, to receive the name above every name, according to the voice of the blessed Paul. But the matter was in truth not a gift as of things not naturally present in him from the beginning—far from it. Rather, it would be understood as a return and a re-ascent to what was originally and substantially and inalienably his. Therefore he also said, having assumed the lowliness of humanity in the economy, "Father, glorify me with the glory that I had before the world existed, with you." For he was always in divine glory, coexisting with his own Begetter before every age and time and the foundation of the world. Thus increase in the case of Christ is to be understood as the advance of glory, which God always has more broadly and manifestly, because he is naturally perceived by those in the world, and as Lord of all, is jointly glorified and jointly worshipped with God the Father. Yet he himself, being the maker of the ages, would reasonably be understood as having become also the youngest.

He appeared, then, in the final times of the age, after the glorious and admirable chorus of the holy prophets, and, in a word, after all those who before his advent were counted as in the order of sons on account of virtue. That the Emmanuel became an object of envy, how can one doubt? But he is an object of envy to the saints, who, eager to follow in his footsteps and being formed according to his divine beauty, making him the pattern of their actions, carry off the best of all glory. Yet he is also an object of envy in another sense, if it be understood, to those who have chosen not to love him—I mean the teachers of the Jews, that is, the Scribes and Pharisees, who, nursing a bitter envy within themselves and making his incomparable glory a pretext for malice, were caught in many ways. For Christ raised the dead, already stinking and decayed, and proved himself stronger than death itself. But they, who ought to have been astounded and to have hastened to believe, no longer hesitating at all, did not do this, but were stung by envy and received bitter griefs into their mind. He healed the man blind from birth, and they called him a sinner. Unclean hordes of demons were driven out, and they falsely accused him of having Beelzebul as the provider of his power. They stoned him, saying most impiously: "We do not stone you for a good deed, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." They were exasperated, saying: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him." Therefore he is an object of envy even to those who have chosen to hate him, yet not altogether vulnerable.

For even though he endured the cross, yet as God he came back to life, having trampled upon death, with God the Father himself, as it were, calling out and saying, "Return to me." For he ascended into the heavens, that he might also hear him saying, "Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet." For that they have fallen prostrate, although they were nursing an exceedingly great madness against him, he taught by saying, "Against whom, taking counsel, they reviled and bore a grudge, the lords of arrows." For gathering councils, the lords of arrows, that is, the leaders of the peoples, took bitter counsel, whetting against him those who, as it were, wound and, in the manner of arrows, are all but fixed in, because they dare to do what is not lawful, and to leap upon him like wild beasts. Yet their bows were broken, and the sinews of their arms were loosened by the hand of the mighty one of Jacob, that is, God the Father, who is the Lord of the powers, who also caused the Son to be blessed both in heaven and on earth. For the divine Paul writes, "But when he introduces the firstborn into the inhabited world, he says, 'Let all the angels of God worship him.'" And the great David says somewhere, "Let the whole earth worship you and sing to you." This, we say, is the blessing from above, and that on the earth below which contains everything, that is, in which through Christ there is henceforth every virtue, and the fruits of piety toward God are exceedingly abundant. For it has been said somewhere to the Son, "You visited the earth, and having drenched it, you multiplied it, to enrich it.

It was clearly affirmed that he was given the blessing from above, and indeed also from the earth: "Because of the blessing of breasts and womb, the blessing of father and mother." Through this, both the generation of the Only-begotten from God the Father and that through the holy Virgin are clearly and manifestly signified, inasmuch as he is understood and has appeared as man. For being naturally and truly the Son of God the Father, he underwent for our sake the generation through a woman and a womb, and he suckled at breasts. For he did not become man in appearance, according to some, but having truly appeared as this very thing which we ourselves are, he followed the laws of nature and submitted to food, even though he himself gives life to the world. Indeed, the blessed Isaiah makes a kind of indication of the Lord's true incarnation, that he needed infant-like nourishment, saying, "He will eat butter and honey." Therefore, he is blessed because of breasts and womb. For as I said earlier, since he became man and was obedient to the Father, he has inherited a name above every name, and every knee will bow to him, of heavenly, earthly, and subterranean beings, confessing that the Lord Jesus Christ is to the glory of God the Father. Yet, even if he has appeared like us, he will nevertheless surpass every saint and will rise above even the renowned fathers of old in a manner befitting God. For what the Psalmist says: "Who in the clouds will be equal to the Lord? Or who will be likened to him among the sons of God?"—this the blessed Jacob teaches, saying, "You have prevailed over the blessings of steadfast mountains and eternal sands.

For the mountains are eternal and most steadfast, and indeed also the eternal sand-dunes, he says, meaning the saints, because they are lifted from the earth, and think nothing of things that are cast down, but seek the things above, and dart very well into the heights of the virtues. Therefore, after the glory of Christ, the most notable of the Fathers also follow, reaching the portion of virtue. For some were servants, even if they were afterwards counted among the children; but the Lord, as Son, having supplied to them the things through which they became illustrious. Therefore they also say, "From his fullness we all received, and grace for grace." Thus the crown of glory will be placed naturally upon the head of our Savior; but it will pass no less, and will be a gift given, also upon the saints who have come under him, who will put on the unfading crown of glory; and having become partakers of his sufferings, they will share in his renown. For it is fixed that, having suffered with him, they will also reign with him.

Concerning Benjamin. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning it will be eaten, and toward evening it will distribute food. Rachel first bore the wondrous Joseph, and after him Benjamin; but Joseph was called the youngest son by his father. So we will grant that this is the case. But we say that Benjamin was younger than the youngest. Yet Benjamin is the youngest son; and he would reasonably be understood as a kind of image and type of the youngest people, who are called through the holy disciples, after Christ rose from the dead and returned to his Father and God in the heavens. He is compared to a ravenous wolf because of, I think, the fervor of their desires for discipleship, and their always leaping eagerly, as if at some prey, toward anything that nourishes them for well-being, clearly spiritual well-being. For they are skilled at seeing what is beneficial, and indeed at seizing what is helpful; they are swift to flee from those accustomed to do wrong. They are not at all easily frightened, not even if dogs, as it were, were poured around them—those who have chosen to drive away good works and words—and they grow numb to the attack. For they have learned, and very vigorously: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Distress, or narrowness, or famine, or persecution, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?" But not even if the false shepherds should entirely drive them from the path they love, casting them into kidney-deep ditches, sparing them not, as it is written. For such people are very patient, and consider suffering to be life; indeed they cry out: "For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Therefore, even if they were compared to rapacious wolves, according to the patterns we have just demonstrated, they would not, it seems, be unjustly wronged in not being correct, since the Savior himself calls himself a lion and a leopard, or a panther, saying: "Because I am like a panther to Ephraim, and like a lion to the house of Judah. And I come, and I will go, and I will take, and there will be no one to rescue." He also calls those who believe in him wild beasts of the field, speaking thus through the voice of Isaiah: "The wild beasts of the field will bless me, sirens and daughters of ostriches. Because I have given water in the desert, and rivers in a waterless land, to water my chosen race, my people whom I have acquired to recount my virtues." You understand, then, how he called the chosen race wild beasts of the field and sirens, that is, the most sweet-voiced of the sparrows. And beasts, because they perhaps do not tolerate the taming of Satan, who strives to bring them under his hand, but rather leap upon him and all but tear apart those who have chosen to stray where it is not lawful; and sirens, because they speak beautifully of Christ's achievements, telling of them and singing his honors. Therefore, Benjamin is the young wolf, the people in faith, whose readiness to understand what is beneficial, and indeed also the ability to benefit others, he indicates by saying: "In the morning it will be eaten, and toward evening it will distribute food." The learner is always somehow like the one being fed. For lessons are lodged in the mind, just as, of course, food is lodged in the stomach.

The teacher differs in no way from the feeder. Indeed, the divine Paul likens the manner of teaching to food; for he said that solid food is for the perfect, for those who, by habit, have their senses trained for distinguishing good and evil. Therefore, Benjamin is a rapacious wolf. He will eat in the morning and distribute food in the evening. It is as if he were saying: Still being a disciple and not yet having arrived at maturity, he might benefit others, and a very short time will show those recently converted as fit for teaching. For concerning those from Israel it was said, due, I think, to great ignorance and the thickness within the mind: "Behold, a foolish and heartless people. They have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear." And again: "Those taken from the womb and educated until old age." But the wise John writes to those in faith and in Christ: "You have no need for anyone to teach you, but rather Christ's anointing teaches you about everything." For they have the mind of Christ, who knows all things, and they are not incapable of teaching and exhorting one another. If indeed it is fitting to say that the prophecy concerning Benjamin has been fulfilled in the case of the blessed Paul himself, it would be well and truly so. For he who persecuted the Church and, like a wolf, attacked those who love Christ, was transformed in a very short time to the complete opposite. He proclaimed the faith which he once ravaged, and offers thanks, having been placed into the apostolate, although previously he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man. For he himself says something like this.

He was also from the tribe of Benjamin. And I say that the inspired David himself clearly recalls the history concerning him in the sixty-seventh psalm, saying: "There Benjamin the younger in ecstasy. The rulers of Judah, their leaders, the rulers of Zebulun, the rulers of Naphtali." For being Jews and from the blood of Israel, the blessed disciples became teachers of those justified through faith in Christ, with whom also he himself, from the tribe of Benjamin, writes and says: "For whether we are in ecstasy, for God; or whether we are in our right mind, for you." For he proclaimed the Lord Jesus Christ to both Gentiles and Jews; through whom and with whom glory to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS CYRIL ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, GLAPHYRA ON EXODUS, FIRST BOOK. On the Birth of Moses. 1. Having only just and with difficulty completed the book on Genesis through very great conciseness as far as possible, from power to power, according to what is sung in the Psalms, and having taken no brief respite, we persuade the pen accustomed to good labors to proceed as is necessary. For we touch, with God willing and granting wisdom, upon the chapters in Exodus which seem to have been omitted by us when we composed the ethical exhortation, at which time we also seemed to decline lengthy discourses, wishing to show what would be understood by us as the manner of worship in spirit and truth.

Having separated each of the included chapters among the five books of Moses, and having carefully examined beforehand the purpose of the contemplation in them, we have compiled, as occasion required and as most necessary, those things that were essential for moral instruction, and I say, in the order most fitting for each. But those things through which it was likely that the mystery of Christ might be foreshadowed, as it were in the shadows of the law, we have reserved for the subsequent composition, for which, having chosen now to labor, beloved Palladius, you will join me, I know, through prayer. The task is by no means easy for us, but it might become at least partly passable if Christ again broadens the path for this very purpose. For He is the way, and He is the door, and in Him are all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We will compose the book not by going through every chapter without omission and in sequence (for we have already incorporated very many, as I just said, selectively, and we will find them clearly in the other treatise); but whatever is seen to be useful for the stated purpose, these we will examine as far as possible accurately and with refinement, and we will proceed straight to the truth. Since the purpose of the book leads to redemption through Christ, it is somehow necessary to show that the human race had previously been in no small danger and had been brought to the verge of the utmost misery. For the account of the fitting assistance would be appropriate here and not otherwise in the world; for it says, "My power is perfected in weakness.

It seems to me necessary, also, that the most skilled and approved physicians, if they are ever to be admired somewhere for the arts in which they are wise, should have the patient set before them, about whom the display of the skill inherent in them would occur. 2. So then, let us now say that when famine once pressed down and fell unbearably and lay heavily upon the sons of Israel, they departed from the land of Canaan into Egypt with about seventy-five souls, as it is written. But as time went on, their race extended into a multitude greater than number. For it is written: "The sons of Israel increased, and multiplied, and became numerous, and grew very strong; and the land greatly multiplied them." But since the one who happened to rule the land of the Egyptians regarded the increase of the Hebrews into a multitude as not without suspicion, he plotted and set overseers of the works over them, so that they might oppress them in their labors. And the manner of their oppression was sweat at the spade, long and unpaid brick-making, and also the building of fortified cities for Pharaoh—that is, cities with towers, or else so broad and long as to seem utterly impregnable to others, evidently because of the multitude of their inhabitants. These were Pi-Thom and Rameses, and other cities. But the tyrant's plan turned out contrary to his expectations. For, it says, while those being punished were humbled, the evidence of their superiority was greater, and they became more numerous, because God, through the habit of causing affliction, intended to benefit those who were impiously outraged. And the tyrant, understanding this, added to their toils another plot.

He ordered the Hebrew midwives, if they were attending women already in labor and childbirth, to strangle the male children of those under suspicion, that is, the male sex, but to let the female live. For he deemed the weak and unwarlike, prone to cowardice and enervated by the law of nature, worthy of no account. But the midwives did not do this impious thing, and for this they were pleasing to God. What then did the malefactor do? He strips off his anger and persuades them to be shameless in their ways of impiety. For Pharaoh issued a decree to all his people, saying: "Every male born to the Hebrews, cast into the river, and every female, let it live." But let the narrative of the history stand at this point. Let us now speak, turning our mind to the innermost contemplations, that, when the human mind is diligently inclined toward evil from its youth, due to a lack of goods from above, the entire race on earth, so to speak, was being corrupted, and a famine, as it were, of heavenly teachings was devouring us, just as indeed we might observe also the prodigal son depicted in a parable, who consumed his paternal substance in a foreign land and desired to be filled with the carob pods which the pigs ate. To this we have run, to the more earthly things, abandoning the better and the necessity of striving for more beneficial things, through which it was likely not to miss the good will from above and to be seen possessing intimacy with God. Having slipped away, then, from everything capable of sustaining us in well-being and with God, we no longer made the one who is by nature and truly the Master the steward of our affairs.

We have withdrawn, as it were, from a holy land, that is, from a God-loving life, and have flowed down into a more shameful and less beautiful region lying virtually under the devil, and have become equal to those from Canaan who went down into Egypt and came under the hand of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. These, being excessively devoted to the worship of demons and having every form of baseness not unpracticed, would exhibit, as in an image, in themselves both Satan himself and those under him, whom they considered gods, having been driven out of right thinking and afflicted with the mist and darkness of ignorance. Since we have come under a terrible and accursed master, I mean Satan, we are worn down with mud and brickmaking, I mean with the most abominable pursuits concerning the earth and the things in it, accomplished not without sweat. For the distraction of this life is not free from toils, even if it should happen to be vain. And Satan, as it were, appointed as overseers of the works most dear to him the unclean demons, that is, the powers under him, who, by the manifold excesses of the passions, burden the mind of each person on earth, fearing, I think, lest at some point, releasing the eye of the mind from its leisure toward God, they might loosen the neck from servitude under him; for human nature is very fond of freedom.

That glory and wealth are accounted to the unclean demons and to Satan himself, and that our vain distraction and our labors concerning the flesh and our zeal directed toward more earthly things are such, the building of cities for Pharaoh by the Israelites, worn out with mud and brickmaking, would show enigmatically. And that he makes the male—that is, that which inclines toward manliness, clearly that which pertains to virtues—an object of abomination, and almost stifles the warlike by sinking it into the marshes of pleasures, while he welcomes that which is not strong and, as useless, submits it without a fight to his own yokes, the command that the male must be thrown into the waters while the female is to be kept alive would show not obscurely. For things that are in sight and manifest would be a type of things more obscure. Therefore, having from above and from our fathers been sick with sin and oppressed by the lack of goods, we wretches have perhaps even unwillingly been yoked to Satan, the chief of evil, and subjected to the overseers of baseness, I mean the unclean demons, and our condition was already at the extremity of all evil, with nothing lacking for misery and wretchedness, except that God took pity, delivered and saved us. And in what manner we shall learn from what follows and is joined. For we shall bring forward as an image and pattern of salvation through Christ the things written concerning the divine Moses.

There was a certain man from the tribe of Levi, who took one of the daughters of Levi, and had her, and she conceived, and bore a male child. Seeing that it was fair, they hid it for three months. But when they could no longer conceal it, his mother took a chest, and smeared it with asphalt and pitch, and put the child into it, and placed it in the marsh by the river. And his sister watched from afar, to learn what would become of him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river, and her maidservants were passing along the river. And seeing the chest in the marsh, she sent her maidservant and took it up. Opening it, she sees a child weeping in the chest, and the daughter of Pharaoh took pity on it, and said: This is one of the children of the Hebrews. And his sister said to the daughter of Pharaoh: Do you wish me to summon for you a nursing woman from among the Hebrews, and she will suckle the child for you? She said: Go. And the young woman went and called the mother of the child. And the daughter of Pharaoh said to her: Keep this child for me, and suckle him for me, and I will give you wages. And the woman took the child and suckled him. When the child had grown, she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he became a son to her. And she named him Moses, saying: I took him up from the water. For God the Father at last took pity on the world, which was serving an unholy tyrant and a most savage brigand, and did not spare even His own Son, according to what is written, but gave him up for all of us.

For being in form and equality with him, the Son who is from him and in him by nature, having lowered himself into emptying, became as we are, as the wise evangelist John says, he came to his own. For he was sent, as he himself says somewhere, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; but his own did not receive him. Therefore he also reproached them greatly through the voice of Isaiah, saying: Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, that the Lord has spoken: I begat sons and raised them high, but they rejected me. The ox knew its owner, and the donkey its master's manger, but Israel did not know me, and the people did not understand me. Since, then, those of the blood of Israel had stumbled and did not recognize the one who is by nature and truly the Master, the worshipers of idols were summoned through faith, and the unholy and most abominable multitude of the godless recognized the Redeemer. And this, then, was what was proclaimed beforehand through the voice of the prophets to those of Israel: I have set watchers over you. Hear the voice of the trumpet; and they said: We will not hear. Because of this, the nations heard, and those who tend their flocks. Hear, O earth: Behold, I bring evils upon this people, the fruit of their turning away, because they did not heed my word and thrust away my law. Behold then, behold clearly the mystery, and as in the matters concerning Moses, as I just said. The divine Moses was born from the tribe and blood of Levi. And Emmanuel himself has been named, holy and innocent, and being entirely a priest, sacred.

Even if he were thought to be from the tribe of Judah, so that he might be believed to be both a hymn-singer and a king, and that his temple was not according to the flesh, as indeed it was for the teachers of the Jews, but as for God and king of all in sanctification and glory. Therefore the type is in fleshly things, so that the truth might be beyond the flesh, that is, Christ, who is conceived as a newborn child because of the innocence of the divinity, that is, because a new creation has come to be. For having cast off the aging in corruption, we have passed over into a newness of life in him. The infant is like a new creation. That the newborn child is a symbol of innocence is easy to see, even from the words of the Savior themselves, if one should choose to demonstrate them. For women once brought, and indeed even brought infants, so that he might lay his hands on them, as it is written. But the disciples, thinking it was a crowd, tried to prevent them. But he said to them: "Let the children come," he says, "and do not hinder them from coming to me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." And once a discussion arose among them as to who was greater in the kingdom of heaven; for the wise evangelist says thus to us: "Taking hold of a child," he says, "he placed it in the midst, and said: 'Truly, truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like these children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.'" And what it means to turn and to love to be made like the children, the blessed Paul wrote explaining: "Brothers, do not become children in mind, but be infants in wickedness; and in mind become perfect.

Therefore, it is evident that because of the guilelessness of the divinity, Christ is signified as a child. And the father of Moses has been passed over in silence in the sacred Scriptures for the sake of economy. For it was possible to say, "So-and-so, for instance, took one of the daughters of Levi"; but it says, "There was a certain man," because it indirectly indicates that Christ was without a father according to the flesh, yet he was under suspicion of having a father; for he was thought to be the son of Joseph. But it says, "The child was beautiful." For Christ is and is called beautiful in form beyond the sons of men. And elsewhere the inspired David again exclaims to him, "Gird your sword upon your thigh, mighty one in your beauty and your comeliness." But it must be understood that the beauty as in glory, I mean, and in the nature of the divinity that surpasses all, no one would doubt; for one would not, of course, attribute the boasts of the flesh to Christ himself and count them to his glory—far from it. For the whole mystery of his incarnation is a kenosis and humiliation for him. And the prophet Isaiah writes somewhere about him: "And we saw him, and he had no form, nor beauty, but his form was dishonored, inferior to all the sons of men." And we do not say that the prophet's word denounces the boasts of the divinity, but rather it persuades us to understand that, when compared to the glory of the divinity, the things of the flesh will appear worthy of no account. For the Son appeared in a form that was exceedingly without beauty. For being God by nature, he became like us. And the interval is immeasurable, and the human is inferior to the divine by incomparable differences.

Observe how, when Pharaoh ordered that every male child be destroyed, the mother hides the infant, and then, placing it in a basket—that is, a chest—she casts it into the marshes. Immediately, the daughter of the pursuer finds it by the waters, opens the basket, and, discovering the infant weeping, recognizes that it is a Hebrew. She gives it back to the mother to nurse, promising payment for the nourishment. What meaning, then, should we apply to such words? Or what mystery is it necessary to contemplate? For before the coming of our Savior, the male was not safe on earth. By "male" we understand that which is in spiritual manliness, and whose fruits are pleasing to God. Thus, the male was in danger, with Satan, as it were, casting it into worldly pleasures like mire or swamps, and drowning those who choose the weak and effeminate—I mean in character and ways. Hence, the Spirit-bearing fathers, lamenting, I think, the deviation of all toward what is not upright, said: "All have turned aside, all have become useless; there is none who does good, not even one." For the good had become entirely unpracticed among all men, since the inventor of sin did not allow them to be manly. But when Emmanuel came among us and was numbered among those under attack—the infant who is male by nature and truly, that is, not knowing softness, for he is not weakened toward sin—he escaped the notice of the ruler of this age in the beginning.

The child, that is, Moses, was hidden. But when he came of age, the Synagogue, his mother, sharpened for murder by the devil's stratagems—for Christ in the flesh came from the Jews—shut him in a tomb. A clear type of this would be Moses, let down as if by his own mother's hand in the so-called chest, and exposed. For the Synagogue of the Jews alienated Emmanuel from herself. But the daughter of Pharaoh, that is, the Church from the Gentiles, though she once had Satan as a father, finds him by the waters, of which holy baptism would be a type, through which and in which Christ is found, and opens the chest. For that he did not remain among the dead, but rather revived, having trampled death, and came out of the tomb, those who have found through faith the one who died for us so that he might live for us truly believe. She finds the child weeping. We too will encounter Christ recounting the impiety of the Jews and the things done to him, all but weeping. For he says distressfully: They dug my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones. They themselves observed and looked upon me; they divided my garments among themselves, and cast lots for my clothing. And elsewhere: They put gall into my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. And that Christ came from the Jews, the Church from the Gentiles recognized and believed. For the daughter of Pharaoh said, she says: This is one of the Hebrew children.

Yet that in due time the Synagogue of the Jews will receive Christ from the Church of the Gentiles, being initiated, clearly, into the mystery concerning him, could be demonstrated very easily from the daughter of Pharaoh receiving the child who bore him. For the Synagogue of the Jews, having exposed Jesus, as it were, and cast him off through her disobediences, will in the last times receive him, being initiated by the voices of the Church. And that this matter is not without profit, but rather that she is now convinced of great hopes. For see how the daughter of Pharaoh promised wages to the mother of Moses, who chose to nurse the child from her. Therefore, the birth of Moses and the events concerning him would signify quite clearly to the discerning the mystery of Christ, through whom and with whom glory is to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and always and for endless ages. Amen. Still concerning Moses. 6. In examining the birth of Moses, we have shown, as far as possible, the mystery of Christ, with the subtlety of the thoughts depicting him economically in a newborn infant, on account of the guilelessness of the divinity, and its complete lack of cunning, and its utter simplicity, that is, that a new creation has appeared. But come, let us again and in another way contemplate in him the Emmanuel being formed. For Christ is the end of the law and the prophets. So it happened, it says, in those many days, that Moses, having grown great, went out to his brothers, the sons of Israel; and observing their toil, he sees an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew, one of his own brothers.

And having struck the Egyptian, he hid him in the sand. Going out on the second day, he sees two Hebrew men quarreling, and says to the one doing wrong: "Why do you strike your neighbor?" The other said: "Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? Or do you wish to kill me, in the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" Moses was afraid, and said: "Has this matter become so evident?" And Pharaoh heard of this matter, and sought to kill Moses. Moses withdrew from the presence of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian. Having come to the land of Midian, he sat down by the well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters pasturing the sheep of their father Jothor. Having arrived, they drew water until they filled the troughs to water the sheep of their father Jothor. But the shepherds came and drove them away; Moses rose up and rescued them, and drew water for them, and watered their sheep. They came to Raguel their father. And he said to them: "Why have you hastened to come today?" They said: "An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds, and drew water for us, and watered our sheep." And he said to his daughters: "And where is he? And why have you left the man like this? Call him, then, that he may eat bread." Moses was settled with the man, and he gave Sepphora his daughter to Moses as a wife. The woman conceived and bore a son, and Moses named him Gersam, saying: "I am a sojourner in a foreign land." So far, then, concerning Moses.

But the word again applies to us the innermost contemplation, assigning to the history as much as possible what is fitting for it; and whatever might appear to serve well the spiritual narratives, this it turns into an economy concerning Christ. 7. You inquired why Moses, having grown great, went out to his brothers. For the divine Paul writes truly: "But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law." What then might reasonably be understood as the manner of the mission indicated here, or what shall we say has come to pass, it is necessary to consider. For we will grant that the Word from God the Father, having become among us, that is, man, has all but come out, and we will say that he has gone outside his divine glory, if it is true that, being rich, he became poor and lowered himself into kenosis. And indeed, when the economy was already completed, and he was about to ascend to the Father to sit with him and mount the highest thrones, he says: "Father, glorify me with the glory I had before the world existed, with you." But the Lord of heaven and earth, as God substantially holding the power of all things, would not somehow depart from his own state when he took the form of a servant; but he in whom we live, and move, and are, if he were seen among us naked and in tombs, even if he lived again as life, it would not seem to him to have gone out a little from what is most fitting for him. Then how could anyone doubt? He has therefore gone out to his brothers, that is, the sons of Israel.

For their promises, their fathers, to whom the promises were made. Therefore he said: "I was not sent except for the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But truly suffering a terrible and unbearable greed (for Satan was leaping upon them as if crushing them), he planned to free them and to show them released from every toil. And having in a manner slain the one who chose to do injustice, he hid him in the earth, that is, he placed him in the subterranean regions, confining him to Hades. This, I say, is the hiding of the dead Egyptian in the sand. And that the hateful and unclean hordes of demons were driven together into Hades by the ineffable power of our Savior, and were condemned to inhabit the abyss, one might learn quite easily from the Gospel readings. For the demons besought him, it says, that he not order them to go into the abyss. For as a great multitude had already been sent ahead, those still remaining approached and begged that they be spared for the time being from being condemned along with the others. And that they were tormented, paying the penalty for their cruelty toward us, one might see, if he wished, even without effort, hearing them cry out: "Woe, what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come here before the time to torture us?" Therefore, since Christ saw the Egyptian unbearably pressing upon those on earth, he hid him in Hades. This again Jesus, who led the sons of Israel across the Jordan and served as general with Moses, accomplished as in shadows and types.

He confined the five kings of the Amorites in a cave, the type obliquely prefiguring for us that after the polity under the law, when Emmanuel is revealed as king over us, he will seal the leaders of the demons, as if in a deep cave, in the subterranean recesses. So then, with the one who lay in wait and oppressed having been removed, on the second day, it says, when two Hebrews were quarreling, Moses was to be an arbiter in their midst and a reconciler to peace for those who had stood apart from each other in enmity. He appeared, saying to the one who wished to oppress his brother: "Why do you strike your neighbor?" The other replied to him: "Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? Or do you wish to kill me in the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" For Emmanuel, having first shut up Satan as if in Hades, appeared as an arbiter of justice to those from Israel and a teacher of mutual affection, commanding them to cultivate love for brothers and to consider nothing better than peace and concord. And so he also said: "I give you my peace." But they, though they ought to have praised the proposal and admired the reconciler, the provider of peace, the steward of love, the leader of the best teachings for them, were exceedingly impious. For they did not accept him as a guide. Yet even when he clearly said through the voice of the Psalmist, "And I was appointed king by him over Zion, his holy mountain," they went beyond all shamelessness and stubbornly and impiously resisted, saying at one time, "Who gave you this authority?" and at another time again:

We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this man came from; and they, recording the means by which they were saved, to their own slander, and most senselessly disparaging the manner of the assistance. For the inspired Moses was accused of having killed the Egyptian, even though he was oppressing and pressing hard, and burdening the flocks of the Hebrews with unbearable exactions. And Christ, as if burying the evil demons in an abyss, and unwillingly removing them from their tyranny against us because of those who had them, expelling them; yet, although it was necessary to be admired for this, he did not escape the words of those accustomed to slander. For they have dared to say, making a complaint of the miracle: "This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons." But observe that Moses, having looked around here and there, and having seen no one, buried the dead Egyptian in the sand. Then, having passed on, he counsels peace to his blood brothers. For the Lord fights against Amalek, but by a hidden hand, as it is written, and with no one on earth seeing, the more secret matters of affairs were being managed through Christ. For how or when the hordes of demons were condemned and ordered to inhabit the abyss, who among those on earth could know? Having thus driven Satan into Hades, and having first freed those on earth from his greed, he then called them to the knowledge of virtue. This Christ himself says somewhere not obscurely: "Or how can someone enter the house of the strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then plunders his house?

Having first bound the strong one, that is, Satan, as if with a chain, he transfers through faith to himself his vessels, that is, those who once acted under him and were reckoned among the useless vessels. But in matters for which it was fitting that he be admired, in these very matters he was impiously mocked, and he necessarily departed, leaving Judaea, where he was born according to the flesh; although in truth he was not a Jew as the Word is, but from above and from heaven, and from the Father, just as indeed the inspired Moses was born in Egypt and was a Hebrew of Hebrews, having a noble and holy root from his father. But when those of his bloodline reproached him and made the most extreme slanders of the things done on their own behalf, he was then transferred to Midian, and was conveyed to the land of the foreigners. Then, settling by the well, he assisted the daughters of Jethro. For they, being seven in number and tending their own father's herds, brought the thirsty flocks to the troughs. But when they had already drawn water with much labor, some of the goatherds took advantage. Moses exerted himself and, drawing with his own hands, watered their sheep, as it is written. We will therefore accept Jethro as a figure of the world, who was a priest of the Midianites, not offering worship to the God who is by nature and truly, but to creatures instead of the creator and maker, or to things made of stone and the works of craftsmen. And the world was also in error, worshipping demons and not God. And Jethro is interpreted as "abundance" or "superfluous.

Such also is the world, being entirely superfluous; for those who choose to think its thoughts do nothing necessary, but are as if intoxicated by vain distractions and are tossed about, as it were, toward useless pleasures. It would be indisputable that for those wishing to live rightly, the things of the flesh and thinking the things of the world are superfluous, having missed the hunt for what is useful and necessary, if it is true that "the mind of the flesh is enmity toward God," and that one who thinks the things of the world becomes an enemy of God. Truly, then, it is superfluous to choose to think the things of the world, and the world itself is superfluous. For Christ said somewhere: "What will a man be benefited if he gains the whole world but damages his own soul? Or what will a man give as an exchange for his soul?" 8. Moses, then, moved from the land of the Egyptians to Midian, and in like manner Christ moved from Judea to Galilee. But observe that Leah is one daughter who bore the holy Moses. Yet there are many, seven in number, the daughters of Jethro the Midianite. For the multitude of the Jews is one, from which Christ was born in the flesh, as in the type of Moses. But very many are the daughters, so to speak, of the world, that is, the herds of nations dwelling in it. Christ, then, having left the Synagogue from which he sprang in the flesh, turned aside to the many herds of the nations, which evil shepherds, that is, the world-rulers of this world, were oppressing. He indeed saved them. But come, let us speak of the manner of his intervention, adding the mode of his assistance.

It is customary for Holy Scripture to compare the innate knowledge of God within us, and that by which we are guided in each of our actions, to a cistern. For just as from a spring, there wells up within us from the mind the knowledge of every good thing, and the knowledge of the opinion concerning God as if in a mirror and enigma. And indeed, those who have neglected the love of God, and have turned impiously to the necessity of kindling reverence for demons, he reproached, saying through the voice of Jeremiah: "Heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered exceedingly, says the Lord, because my people did two evil things: they abandoned me, the spring of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water." For false worship is like a broken cistern; for no one could draw from there the life-giving word; but the immaculate knowledge of God is truly a spring of life. Therefore, the cistern would be an image for us of innate knowledge. But as long as we use a right and unforced mind for the knowledge concerning God, we will arrive straight at the truth. But if someone, being overreached by the deceptions of demons, should turn aside to what seems good to him, he will expend his own efforts on those things. This, I think, is enigmatically what it means for the daughters of Jethro to draw water, but for those who overreach to take it by force. We say that those who are in error are in such infirmities, their innate knowledge being perverted to ugliness, that is, to error, and to what is useful for demons. But Christ came to the aid.

He drove away the wicked false shepherds, and gave to drink the living water, that is, his divine and heavenly proclamation. And so he said: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Therefore, let us take Jethro as representing the world, which is full of excess and decay. And we say that the seven daughters are the herds of the nations everywhere, since a multitude is signified by each of Jethro’s daughters. And the evil and most violent shepherds would fittingly be understood as the hordes of demons. And Christ is the defender, who also intoxicates us with divine streams. Since the young women fled the greed of the impious shepherds, they return to Raguel, their father, that is, Jethro. When he asks them the reason for their unusual speed, they immediately report Moses’ assistance. He at once takes the man in, and gives him Sephora, the foremost and most comely of his daughters, to marry; and she bore Gershom. For when Christ had benefited the systems of the nations in the world, it was made known to him, through those saved by him who initiated him, that he was able to defend and easily rescue from the hand of those who chose to do wrong. And so then he gladly welcomes him, just as Raguel welcomed the most holy Moses. And it happens that, as if for intimacy, he presents to him as a bride, as it were a most beautiful thing, the Church from the nations, which is understood through Sephora. For she is interpreted as “inspection” or “beautiful,” and indeed also “grace of breath.

For the East came from on high to the truly splendid and beautiful one, I mean the Church, and as a gift and offering of heaven, it granted her the bestowal of its own breath, I mean the participation in the Holy Spirit. And she bore him Gershom, I mean the people who are truly sojourners. For those who are sealed with the divine Spirit, deemed worthy of oversight from above, and fashioned into beauty with respect to the Son, are sojourners, in truth, in this world. It would be most fitting for them to cry out and say: We have no abiding city here, but we seek the future one, whose craftsman and creator is God. For while walking on earth, they dwell in heaven, and they are in no way eager for the things in this world; rather, they earnestly pursue those for the age to come. For they have learned to follow, through a truly refined and well-turned life, Christ, who for our sake, as one of us, sojourned in this world. For he did not care for the things of this world—far from it—but rather he appeared to us as a pattern of a supramundane and most lawful life. Observe how the sacred text, very economically, names the father of the seven maidens Jethro before the assistance through Moses came to them, and then after this Raguel. And Jethro is interpreted as "superfluity" or "superfluous," as I have already said, while Raguel is "shepherding of God." For I will use the term for its usefulness. And we said, attributing to him the persona of the world, that the distraction in the world is truly superfluous and vain.

But before being benefited by Christ, the chorus of young women was among these. But when they were freed from greed and placed outside the hand of the unholy shepherds, then, at that time, they were renamed Ragouel, which is "flock of God" or "pasture," according to the force of the interpretation. For they had slipped under the hand of the chief shepherd of all, I mean Christ; through whom and with whom glory is to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of the ages. Amen. On the vision of Moses in the bush. The blessed prophets, being not moderately concerned about our affairs, since they were inspired and made a precise examination of matters, called upon the Word of God as a helper and assistant to be shown to those on earth, and they attributed to him alone, as God, the power to rescue those who had come to an end of evils. For they became introducers of the best things and, showing the path of salvation, were wise and shrewd. And why should they not have received what is praised, and been justly admired? But they were not such as to drive away the tyranny of Satan against us, nor to expel the profane hordes of demons, who plundered us wretched ones in many ways, all but treating us as booty, and burdening us with the yoke of slavery, forcing us to think and act impiously as they saw fit; and like harsh and inexorable tax collectors, they ordered us to bring them the tribute of worship, and as if in the manner of a debt, that we must be defiled by earthly pursuits, and for this reason choose to think only of carnal things.

Therefore, it was indeed a brilliant achievement of the ineffable nature to shake off the arrogant and profane greed of the devil, to free those on earth from such harmful and abominable servitude, and to make them henceforth workers of virtue. That this great and much-desired good was destined to come at the appointed times to those on earth, when the Only-Begotten descended into kenosis and humanity, we shall learn no less from the sacred Scriptures. It goes as follows: After those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel groaned from their labors, and they cried out, and their voice went up to God from their works, and God heard their groans, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God looked upon the sons of Israel and was made known to them. For the Egyptians were oppressing the Israelites, imposing the yoke of compulsory servitude upon them, and setting over them harsh and pitiless taskmasters, who made their life full of pain, as it is written. And those who were pressed by excessive greed, weeping and lamenting, begged to be deemed worthy of mercy from above, the wretches. But God visited them, and he looked, it says, upon the sons of Israel and was made known to them. Therefore, when we are in ignorance of God, then we are subject to wrongdoers and wallow in the mire of sin, having as our bitter and cruel overseers the unclean demons. But the grace of freedom will surely follow the knowledge of God.

But those things were done typologically; they were written for our admonition, as it is written. And the type pertains to one nation, those of the blood of Israel. It will teach well and clearly that the unclean spirits and the devil have as their aim to press those on earth to hasten to settle on vain pursuits and to fulfill the works of the flesh, so that, not having a mind at leisure and aspiring toward the heights, they might not know the God of all; and thus they are directed according to his will and bear the yoke of servitude to him. Since the love of freedom is inherent in human nature, we do not always approve of the passions; but we often abhor them, recovering a little, and we thirst for the ungraciousness of the pleasures of the flesh, for assistance from above and from God, and we make no small outcry against unwilling servitude. This, I think, is what it means for the sons of Israel to groan to God. And since he is good, he sent us a Savior and Deliverer from heaven, the Son, who became like us, that is, a man. And the sacred text again foretold this to us enigmatically. For it spoke thus: And Moses was shepherding the sheep of Jothor, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the sheep into the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, Choreb. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the bush. And he sees that the bush is burned by fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses said: Passing by, I will see this great vision, that the bush is not consumed. And when the Lord saw that he was approaching to see, the Lord called him from the bush, saying: Moses, Moses. And he said:

What is this? And He said, "Do not come near here. Untie the sandal from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." And He said to him, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses turned away his face, for he was reverent, not daring to look upon God. For God gave the Law as a help, according to the voice of the prophet (for He had already providentially appointed Moses as a tutor), and He was making the shadow almost as a display of the more perfect things, except that in due time the truth was to come to light. And the end of the tutelage was the mystery of Christ, which was well taught through the vision. For the bush is a shrubby and fruitless plant, yielding little to thorns. And a great flame surrounded it. For in the form of fire a holy angel filled the thing, and the flame was raised very high, but it did no harm at all to the bush in which it appeared. Truly, the occurrence was impious and beyond all description. Fire coming upon thorns and cherishing them with the gentlest touches, almost neglecting its innate power and settling lazily upon things capable of being destroyed. So the inspired Moses was amazed at the sight. What then is the meaning? Holy Scripture likens the divine nature to fire, because of its all-powerful quality and its ability easily to consume everything, like wood and field grasses, the man from the earth. Therefore it says at one time, "Our God is a consuming fire," and at another, "Man is like grass; his days are like the flower of the field, so he will bloom.

But just as fire is not bearable to thorns, so also divinity is not bearable to humanity. Yet in Christ it came to pass and became bearable. For the whole fullness of the divinity dwelt in him bodily, as the wise Paul also testified. And He who dwells in unapproachable light, that is, God, took up lodging in the temple from the virgin, lowering himself to an admirable gentleness, and, as it were, veiling the undiluted impact of his own nature, so that he might become containable, just as, of course, fire is to thorns. And that he rendered the flesh, which is naturally subject to corruption, superior to corruption, the fire on the bush, which kept the wood completely unharmed, would indicate enigmatically. For that he was giving life to his own temple, and rendering it incorrupt and superior to death, being by nature life, the Word from God—how could anyone doubt? Therefore, the fire spared the thorn bush, and the flame became bearable to a small and very weak piece of wood. For, as I said, divinity has been contained by humanity. And this mystery came to pass in Christ. And the Word of God has also dwelt in us, not demanding penalties, not exacting punishments, but shining upon us with kind and most gentle impacts. For as he himself says somewhere, God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Therefore, the bush was not burned up, with the flame encompassing it. For we were not required to pay penalties for our sins, as I just said; rather, Christ shines upon us through the Holy Spirit, and is in us through him, and in him we cry out, "Abba, Father.

Having been struck with awe at the sight, the blessed Moses then added this, saying: "I will pass by and see this great vision, why the bush is not consumed." But immediately the blessed angel, speaking as from the face of God, restrains him, saying: "Do not approach here; loose the sandal from your feet. For the place where you stand is holy ground." He calls the waterless desert, which bears thorns and in which the bush is, holy ground. Every place is holy in which Christ is. And it appears very fittingly in a desert, which serves as a type of the church from the Gentiles, to which the sacred word says: "Rejoice, thirsty desert; let the desert exult and bloom like a lily." And God somewhere promised to turn the desert into marshes and the thirsty land into places with water channels. For the grace of the Savior has abounded upon us who are called from the Gentiles, and like a river flooding from above with streams, it richly intoxicates. This also the inspired David says to us: "He set rivers in the desert, and turned fruitful land into salt water because of the wickedness of its inhabitants." So the bush is in the desert, and the ground that holds it is holy and sacred to God. And as Moses approaches, he is checked and ordered to remove the sandal from his foot. This is a sign of deadness and corruption, since every sandal is the remnant of an animal already dead and decayed. Therefore Christ is inaccessible to those under the law and under the pedagogical worship. For it is necessary to wash away the defilement and rub off the filth from sin beforehand. And it is impossible for the blood of bulls to remove sin. For no one is justified under the law.

Since sin has not yet been abolished, corruption must necessarily prevail and death must still hold sway over those who are defiled. Therefore, those who wish to see the mystery of Christ must first set aside the worship in types and shadows, which is not superior to either corruption or sin. For then they will understand and enter into the holy land, that is, the Church. For that those who do not depart from the worship according to the law are held by corruption, Christ Himself will make clear, saying: "Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves." This was the mystery, not desired by those under the law, but by those who have received the faith and been justified in Christ, and who possess the better instruction than the legal, I mean the evangelical. Therefore, those who are under corruption and, as it were, under the law, the mother of death, I mean sin, not yet having unburdened themselves through faith, are far from Christ. But if they should wish to remove the sandal, that is, corruption, which is unable to justify, and truly accept the life-giving grace, then they will approach the one who justifies the impious, that is, Christ, through whom and with whom glory is to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Glaphyra on Exodus, Book 2. On the Sacrifice of the Lamb. 1. That we escape the power of death in Christ and in Christ alone, and that, as the wise disciple has written for us, "There is no name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved," one might learn also in many other ways, if one should choose. For countless are the bright and transparent images in the God-inspired Scripture that flash forth the power of the mystery. Come then, let us gather together what is useful for this and demonstrate it through what follows. Moses and Aaron came forward; and having arrived before Pharaoh, they said explicitly: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: 'Send forth my people, that they may hold a feast for me in the wilderness.'" And Pharaoh said, "And who is this whose voice I am to obey, so as to send forth the sons of Israel? I do not know the Lord, and I will not send forth Israel." And they said to him: "The God of the Hebrews has summoned us. We will therefore go a journey of three days, so that we may sacrifice to our God, lest death or murder befall us." And the king of Egypt said to them: "Why, Moses and Aaron, do you turn my people away from their labors? Go each of you to your own work." For the frenzied Pharaoh, being full of diabolical madness, says that he does not know who the God of the Hebrews is.

Since the land of the Egyptians was being ravaged by frequent and unbearable plagues, and was perishing little by little—their waters being turned into blood, locusts and hail being brought upon the earth, gnats and frogs stirring, and even a three-day darkness spreading—Pharaoh, though reluctantly, promised to let them go, but he was stubborn, and after this again he was harsh and hardened, and extremely difficult to move to choose, I mean, to free Israel from such long servitude. Then God planned to send the destroyer against the firstborn of the Egyptians. But since it was necessary that the chosen ones not perish along with the impious nations, out of love for the sake of the fathers, God instituted the law concerning Passover, and commanded that the mystery of Christ be prefigured before the wrath. Through this again it will be possible to understand that it is impossible for death to be abolished through Moses or the law. The precious blood of Christ repels the destroyer and delivers the sanctified from destruction. For it is life from life, and God of all, as God from God. So the sacred text spoke thus: And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it is the first for you among the months of the year. Speak to the whole assembly of the sons of Israel, saying: On the tenth of this month let each one take a sheep according to the houses of the families, a sheep per household. But if those in the household are few, so that they are not sufficient for a sheep, he shall take with him his neighbor who is near him.

Then, having determined that a spring should be taken, he further prescribes what kind of sacrifice it is fitting to be, and when and how it must be performed. For he says, "A perfect, unblemished yearling shall be for you; you shall take from the lambs and from the goats, and it shall be kept for you until the fourteenth day of this month. And the whole multitude of the assembly of the sons of Israel shall slaughter it toward evening; and they shall take from the blood, and place it on the two doorposts and on the lintel in the houses in which they eat them. And they shall eat the flesh on this night, roasted by fire, and they shall eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs. You shall not eat from it raw, nor boiled in water, but roasted by fire, the head together with the feet and the entrails. You shall not leave any of it until morning, nor shall you break any bone from it. And what is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire." And the lawgiver adds to these the following, teaching what the appearance of the banqueters ought to be, and in what manner it is fitting for them, when prepared, to partake of the most sacred common meal. For he says, "Thus you shall eat it: Let your loins be girded, and your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands; and you shall eat it with haste. For it is the Passover of the Lord." And it will benefit them, and in what manner the slaughter of the sheep, very well laying bare: "And I will pass through the land of Egypt, and I will strike every firstborn from man to beast; among all the gods of the Egyptians I will execute vengeance; I am the Lord.

And the blood shall be for you a sign upon your houses, in which you will be there. And I will see the blood, and I will shelter you, and there will be no plague of destruction among you when I strike in the land of Egypt. Then again after other things: For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, he says, and from the first day you will remove leaven from your houses. And having defined the punishment for the transgressor, he adds again: And the first day shall be called holy, and the seventh day shall be a called holy day for you. Now the divine oracle is thus; but having gone through it again in detail, I will attempt to apply the meaning appropriate to each, referring the power of the significations in manifold ways to Christ himself. He therefore defines the time of the sacred rite at the beginning of the year, in the first month; for Christ is the beginning of all things, since he is not recent because of his generation from God the Father before the ages. And he himself sanctifies all time, from beginning to end, but as in the month of new things the festival. For the ancient things have passed away, according to the voice of the blessed Paul: Behold, all things have become new. And human nature blossomed again toward what was in the beginning in Christ. And while the sons of Israel were still slaves and acting under the tyrannical hand—for they still had that of the Egyptians—such things were ordained.

The word again hints enigmatically that the human soul cannot ascend to freedom from sin, escape the devil's greed, and go from life in the world to the city above, except through participation in Christ and his love for humanity, according to what he said to the foolish Jews: "Truly, truly I say to you, that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin; the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. Therefore, if the son frees you, you will truly be free." And again: "Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves." The land, to which they hastened to move from Egypt, might well be understood as a type of this promise. The lamb is taken on the tenth day of the month and kept until the fourteenth, so that it may be slaughtered toward evening. And why is this? someone might ask; for the word is indeed deep. For tell me, what prevented taking it on the first day of the month? And what persuaded God to legislate that the victim be sacrificed toward evening after being kept for five days? For we will find a number of five days beginning from the tenth. Now, that the lamb is not taken on the first day but on the tenth of the month seems to signify that many times preceded, and there were long ages before us, during which God always was, is, and will be.

This age of ours immediately enters as a neighbor after those, being divided into five times, as if by a five-day journey of the road just mentioned by us. The parable of the Savior, which runs as follows, will clarify what we are seeking very well: The kingdom of heaven is like a man who is a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Having agreed with the workers on a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them: Go also you into my vineyard, and whatever is fair, I will give you. And they went. Again, about the sixth hour and the ninth hour he did likewise. And about the eleventh hour, going out, he found others standing, and says to them: Why have you been standing here idle all day? They say to him: No one hired us. He says to them: Go also you into my vineyard. Do you see, then, in these things very clearly and plainly the age according to us divided into all five times? And first we will reckon the time in which the forefather Adam was still having his sojourns in paradise; second, after that and as indicated by the third hour, the time in which Noah and those with him; third, as in the sixth hour, the time in which the God over all called Abraham to knowledge of the truth; fourth, as again in the ninth hour, that of Moses and the prophets, evidently.

Around the eleventh, that is, in the fifth time, the day already drawing in and the present age, as it were, coming to an end, Christ hired the nations, called to recognition, by no other in the earlier and past times. Hence the last ones say, more than all: "No one hired us." So the sheep is taken on the first day of the five-day period, that is, the tenth, which holds the type of the beginning of the age, and having been kept until the last time, that is, the fourteenth, it is slaughtered toward evening; so that you may again understand that the mystery of Christ is neither new nor recent, but was preserved in the foreknowledge of the Father from the very foundation of the world. And he died for us in the last times of the age, while the intelligible and divine light was not yet shining, the earth still being immersed in the darkness of ignorance, and the errors of the rulers of this darkness defiling the hearts of all. For this reason also the Savior, when he came, said, "I am the light of the world." And the saints, holding the word of life in the world, are called lights; and furthermore this: "And you are the light of the world," they rightly hear, because they are able to enlighten those who are in darkness. And you will again marvel, finding another mystical economy in this.

The lamb is sacrificed on the fourteenth day of the month, when the lunar cycle has its own glory full, and illuminates the inhabited world with a kind of bastard light, yet it is already beginning to wane little by little, and as if of necessity now contracting the honor and grace dwelling in it; so that you may understand from this, as from an image and shadow of the matter set before you, being led by the hand to the comprehension of more true things, that the ruler of the night, that is, the devil, was glorified throughout the whole inhabited world, being indicated through the moon as in a type (for the moon is set as the beginning of the night), and, as if instilling a kind of bastard light, the wisdom of the world, into the hearts of those who are led astray, he procured for himself the fullest glory. But Christ, the true Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world, died for us and on our behalf, and he destroyed the glory of the devil. For it is necessary that it wane and be consumed little by little, since the multitude of the nations, through their turning away from him and their faith, is already hastening to ascend to peace and love as toward God. And this indeed was what was sung long ago in the Psalms concerning Christ: "In his days righteousness shall arise, and an abundance of peace, until the moon is taken away." For righteousness arose in the days of Christ through faith; and an abundance of peace, through the turning toward God. And in addition to these things, the ruler of the night, that is, the devil, has been taken away. But observe how it does not say that the moon will simply be destroyed, but rather that it will be taken away;

For as he has already taken him away, it is clearly evident that the devil destroys the man in return. Let each one, he says, take a sheep per household. For Christ, perfect in each, dwells through participation in the Holy Spirit, and is not divided, as Paul says. But if they are few, he says, so that they are not sufficient for a sheep, he will take with him his neighbor who is near him. For those who are not able by themselves to understand the mystery of Christ perfectly, or who are insufficient for contemplation concerning him due to the weakness of their own understanding, will again partake, receiving as co-workers and helpers their fellow believers. For through mutual admonition we are sometimes able to ascend to greater speculations than our own. So, for instance, that wise eunuch inquired of Philip, hearing the prophecy about Christ: I beg you, about whom does the prophet speak, about himself or about someone else? Do you see how, taking his neighbor (for we are all near one another, all who are in the one common word of faith), he was already shown to be a partaker of the spiritual sheep through the inquiry? For he immediately asked to be baptized, and indeed he was baptized. Let the sheep, he says, be perfect. For all the divine attributes were in Christ. But let it also be male, the lawgiver declared. For he was and is the one who instills in us all the seeds of the knowledge of God, like a fertile land. Just as the prophetic word also has it, offering humanity to God and Father through the evangelical proclamations.

But in addition to these things, let it also be a yearling, either according to the time, so that it may not be as something incomplete, the year not yet having been fulfilled upon it; or because they were about to celebrate the most God-befitting feast of the Passion each year, those who gain the good things from the Passion. And he says that they are to be taken from the lambs and from the goats. And the lamb is understood according to the law as a pure and blameless sacrifice, while the race of goats is always offered at the altar for sins. And you will find this also in Christ. For he was the same, both as a blameless victim, offering himself to God and Father as a sweet-smelling savor, and as a goat being slaughtered for our sins. And after the slaughter, he orders them to anoint the doorposts and the lintel of the houses with the blood, wishing to signify nothing other, as it seems to me, than that we secure our earthly house, that is, the body, with the venerable and precious blood of Christ, driving out the deadness from transgression through participation in life. For participation in Christ is life and sanctification. And by troubling the destroyer himself, and by putting the plotting demon very far away through the anointing, we deaden the passions arising from fleshly movements. And by the door of the house just mentioned by us, you will understand the senses in us, through which the quality of things is ministered to the hearts of all, and the immeasurable multitude of desires is poured in. And the prophet Joel also calls these doors, saying: "As if some thieves were to enter through our windows," for they were not anointed with the blood of Christ.

He commands that the flesh be eaten on this night, that is, in the present age. For Paul also calls it thus, saying: "The night advanced, and the day drew near." In these words, he plainly calls the future age, which Christ illuminates, "day." Therefore, they will eat the flesh in this age, he says. For as long as we are in this world, we partake of Christ through the holy flesh and precious blood, and in a more material manner. But when we reach the day of his power, as it is written, and ascend to the brightness of the saints, we will be sanctified again in another way, as the dispenser and giver of future goods knows. Moreover, the partaking of his holy flesh and the drinking of the saving blood contain a confession of the passion and of the death of Christ, which was economically undergone for us. For he himself says somewhere, when he laid down the laws of the mystery for his disciples: "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim my death." Therefore, in the present age, through participation in the things just named, we fittingly proclaim his death; but when we arrive at the glory of the Father, we will no longer opportunely offer him the confession of the passion, but we will recognize him purely as God face to face, as Paul says: "For we will glorify him as Lord," he says. For having died once, he dies no more; death no longer rules him, according to Paul's saying. Hence he also said: