Glaphyra in Pentateuchum

Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know him in that way now. For then we will recognize him more brightly, not from what he is as a man, but from what he is as true God, once the economy on account of which he became flesh has been completed. For the discourses concerning the incarnation will, as is reasonable, cease, and a greater knowledge will enter in, and a certain divine understanding will shine forth in us from his salvation in godly glory. He commands that the flesh of the sheep be eaten roasted by fire, because those who ascend to the comprehension of Christ must be hot in spirit. Paul also commands them to be fervent in spirit. But they will also eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs, he says, indicating through the enigma that those who have become partakers of Christ ought to nourish their own soul with unleavened and most pure desires, as it were, accustoming themselves to a guileless and unmingled with baseness way of life, and not to shrink from the bitternesses of temptations on account of this, according to what has been said by someone: "Child, if you approach to serve God, prepare your soul for temptation, steady your heart and endure."—But also, you shall not eat from it raw, he says. What then is this? He who eats raw food does not eat for digestion; nor does such food yield at all to the teeth. Those would do this fittingly who do not, through investigation, mince the discourse concerning Christ, and fire and test it, according to what is sung by David: "And in my meditation a fire will be kindled.

Again, he forbids eating it boiled in water, indicating that a more watery and diluted understanding of him will not be good food for the minds of believers. A more watery understanding of him is to think that he is not God by nature, but to relegate him to the rank of created things—which some ignorantly and without hesitation do, dragging the things said about him economically on account of the incarnation to their own will, and making them, as it were, food for the impiety dwelling in them. "You shall not eat," he says, "anything boiled in water, but only roasted by fire," for the reason already given, and because the oracles of the Lord are fiery. For all the words concerning his divinity are hot, and have nothing watery or chilled, as the one who says again in the book of Psalms: "Your word is very fiery, and your servant has loved it." Again, he commands to eat the head together with the feet and the entrails, wishing that the knowledge of the whole mystery concerning him be established in the minds of believers from the whole. For it is necessary to know first of all that he was in the beginning, being God the Word, in the Father and with the Father—that is, the head, being the beginning of the whole mystery. Secondly, that although he is God, he will again return, as judge, to put an end to the economy concerning us—for this the feet signify to us, being the end of the whole body. And you will understand the entrails as the hidden and, as it were, middle account of the incarnation. Thus, through these things, the faith is complete; and through such knowledge, Christ is whole and perfect in us.

For this reason, I would think, John said: "The one who is, the one who was, the one who is coming." Then again the lawgiver commands, saying: "You shall not leave any of them until morning," cryptically, as it seems, through these words preventing those delays that are not good for those who wish to understand perfectly. For let not, he says, the perfect and true knowledge of him be postponed, nor let some keep for themselves for an untimely grace the opportunity to partake of him fully, having once partaken and touched him at all. This indeed is what those do who have tasted through catechesis of the doctrines concerning Christ, but keep the illumination through the Spirit and the grace through baptism for a long and untimely delay, until old age, he says. For the harm from this is great and occurs unexpectedly. For even if one attains his own plans, the hope is not secure. But if his purpose is brought to completion, he is sanctified, yet he has only the remission of his transgressions, and he brings the talent to his own master dry, having had no leisure to work with it. But also, he says, "No bone will be broken from it." For bones are always inedible to our teeth. Such, so to speak, is the white and hidden Logos of his divinity to human minds. For that the Son exists by nature, and that he has been born from God the Father, we believe, understanding this very correctly, and we no longer inquire, according to the voice of the saint. For who knows how to tell the manner of his generation? And how is the prophet not true when he cries out?

Who can recount his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. Therefore, by "the bones" in these passages he means the solidity of doctrines beyond the mind. The lawgiver does not permit us to break these; but those who distort the right teachings, the heretics, break them entirely on their own. For they meddle with the manner of the divine and ineffable generation, suffering from an incomparable folly, and not accepting what is written in their mind: "Who measured the heaven with a span?" What we therefore reasonably decline, having prudently refrained from breaking the lamb's bones, we rather accept by faith what is beyond us. Yet it is necessary to recall that what is written was also taken more historically concerning our Savior, in that the soldiers of Pilate did not break his legs, as it is written. And he says that the leftovers from it must be burned until morning. Again, by "morning" he names the future illumination in the age to come, when we will see our King and God face to face, no longer as now in riddle, mirror, shadow, and partially, as Paul says. So, since at that time the contemplation of him as in a riddle will be, as it were, obliterated by a brighter knowledge, he says that the leftovers from it will be burned until morning, again as a type by fire. And he commands the banqueters to have this posture: "Let your loins be girded," he says, "and the sandals on your feet, and the staffs in your hands. And you shall eat it with haste. It is the Passover of the Lord.

Now the girding of the loins would be a symbol of swiftness and of a vigorous spirit, according to what was said by God to the righteous Job: "Gird your loins like a man." And again concerning someone among the prophets: "And he will be girded with righteousness about his loins," that is, swift and courageous for righteousness. The sandal signifies the readiness of the mind to walk without delay toward whatever God may will. For Paul also writes with such a meaning: "And having shod your feet in the readiness of the Gospel of peace." And in addition to this, the prophet Jeremiah says: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways?" The staff in the hand indicates the hope that supports us and sustains us in endurance, according to what is set down in the prophets: "Hope in the Lord, and support yourselves on God." Again, he commands that the lamb be eaten with haste, clearly typifying that one who has become a partaker of Christ must not be sluggish or slack in good works, but must bring a vigorous and fervent zeal for whatever he thinks will benefit him. And again, consider the blessed Paul writing: "Do you not know that all who run in the stadium run, but one receives the prize? Run thus, that you may overtake." And supposing that we must hunt for what is beneficial from every side, I will come to another meaning.

He does not wish the one sanctified through Christ to be seen as living delicately and slackly, but the law places upon him a form befitting travelers, indicating these two things, as is likely: either that he will one day cross over and run toward the truth of what is in type and shadow, or that it is fitting for the one who has once partaken of Christ, using eagerness for the good as if with swift and well-running feet, to go to every virtue, passing by the abominable pleasure in the world. And he immediately gives the reason why the one just named by us must be seen thus: "It is Passover," he says, "of the Lord," that is, a crossing over. For we cross over from life in the world to a God-loving way of life. Then again immediately, making clear to them what and how great a benefit they gain from this: for he promises to strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt; and he says that the blood will be a sign for those who have eaten the lamb, so that from this they may be under his shelter, so as not to be destroyed when he strikes in the land of Egypt. For God punishes the disobedient and the heedless, and those who have no share in the holiness from Christ. But he recognizes only, and deems worthy of good care, those who appear anointed with the blood of the true lamb, and he does not allow the sanctified one to be destroyed together with the impious, but grants them exceptional kindness. And for seven whole days he commands those who have eaten the sacred lamb to feed on unleavened bread.

with the purest desires, as it seems to me, removed from all baseness, and persuading those sanctified through Christ to nourish their own soul. "Let the first and the seventh day be called holy," he says. For holy is our time at the beginning of creation, when the forefather Adam had not yet left paradise because of the transgression, but was still dwelling in it, still keeping the commandment given. And holy again is the time at the end, through Christ, who justifies in faith those who approach him, and brings them back again to that which we were in the beginning. Therefore, in these things the whole mystery concerning our Savior was prefigured for us. Hence, he himself very well said to the Jews: "If you believed Moses," he says, "you would have believed me; for he wrote about me." Concerning the offering of the firstborn. a. We have been redeemed from our ancient, ancestral upbringing, not by perishable silver or gold, but by the precious blood as of a spotless and unblemished lamb, Christ, who was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but manifested at the end. He, being God by nature, and in the form and equality of God and Father, and since the Only-begotten is also called firstborn, appeared on earth and lived among men. For he said somewhere about us in the Psalms to the Father and God in heaven: "I will announce your name to my brothers; in the midst of the Church I will hymn you.

Having taken up human nature into himself, and having economically brought his own affairs down to our level, he is not ashamed to call us brothers, since we have been called to sonship through him. For it is true, and is attested by the facts themselves, that the Father gave his own Son as a ransom for the salvation of us all. Therefore, as Paul says, we have been bought at a price, and we are not our own. But one died for all, so that we all might no longer live for ourselves, but for the one who died and rose again for us. That each of those saved through Christ, and who have richly acquired, as it were, a conformity to him through sanctification in the Spirit, owes his own life to God, would become clear from the words of the all-wise Moses addressing the ancients: "And it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to your fathers, and gives it to you, you shall set apart every male that opens the womb, every firstling from your cattle or among your flocks, whatever males are born to you, you shall consecrate them to the Lord. Every firstling of a donkey you shall exchange for a sheep; but if you do not exchange it, you shall redeem it. Every firstborn human among your sons you shall redeem." And when the assembly gathered at times in Choreb, he came with the same words, and again legislated, saying thus: "You shall give me the firstborn of your sons. So you shall do with your calf, and your sheep, and your beast of burden. It shall be seven days under the mother, and on the eighth day you shall give it to me. And you shall be holy men to me.

Therefore, the God of all things opportunely demands the dedication of all things, and insists that we should consecrate the firstborn to him. For since the firstborn of the Egyptians have perished, while the beloved Israel has been saved with his whole household and escaped the destroyer, anointed with the blood of the lamb as a type of Christ, who died for us among the dead in order to abolish death, the saved things would rightly no longer belong to themselves; rather, it would be fitting for them henceforth to be possessed as his own by the one who risked himself for them. For just as those who are able to rescue those already fallen into barbarian hands and free them from unexpectedly imposed slavery by enduring battle against those enemies, virtually hold the position of master thereafter, acquiring the captives by their own blood—so, I think, by this same reasoning, our Lord Jesus Christ, having subdued the host of unclean demons and shed his own blood for us, and having thus repelled death and dissolved corruption, henceforth makes us his own, so that we live no longer our own life but rather his. For if he had not died for us, we would not have been saved; and if he had not been among the dead, the terrible power of death would not have been overthrown. So also the divine Paul has initiated us into the mystery, saying: "Those saved through Christ: I have been crucified with Christ; I no longer live; Christ lives in me. And what I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Just as the Israelites lived, so to speak, the life of the slaughtered lamb, so we no longer live our own life, but the life of Christ who died for us, even though he came to life again. For he was life by nature, as God. Therefore our life must be holy; for such is the life of Christ. And having chosen to live holily, we will be enriched with his admirable image, having become conformed to him who is for us and like us, and we will be to God the Father a truly acceptable and worthy offering, as to the Only-begotten in that he is God, and to the Firstborn in that he is human. Therefore the firstborn and the males are sanctified, because they are understood to be in the image of Christ. For just as mothers used to bring their infants, and our Lord Jesus Christ received them very gladly and said to the holy disciples, "Let the children be, and do not hinder them from coming to me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these," so here you will understand: God the Father loves the firstborn, as it shines in the image of Christ. Only the male firstborn are selected. For it was necessary, it was necessary that the beauty most becoming to Christ be preserved for him, and for those who are formed in his image as in the form of the firstborn. For he is both firstborn and male, because he knows no effeminacy into sin; the female is a type of effeminacy. Therefore those who bear the image of Christ must renounce an effeminate disposition, and utterly shake off, as truly accursed and abhorred by God, that which is soft, relaxed, cowardly, and to maintain a vigorous spirit.

and a manly eagerness to choose, I say, to achieve virtue. But every donkey that opens the womb is exchanged for a sheep. And what is the meaning? For the donkey is unholy and profane according to the law, while the sheep is holy; therefore it is offered in place of the donkey. The law again hints to us in these things that even the profane is holy in Christ, and the unholy, and through him even the unacceptable is acceptable. For since we were sinful and unclean, he himself became a holy sacrifice for us, and an offering of sweet fragrance. For he died for sinners, the just for the unjust, the pure for the impure, just as a sheep is offered for a donkey. The firstborn of humans are redeemed by gifts, as is fitting, that is, by the price of those being tested. For what reason? Because that which is entirely dedicated and sanctified to God had to be sacrificed somewhere. But the God who created all things in incorruption rejects the killing of humans. For he did not create death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living, according to what is written. Nor does he take pleasure in the same way as unclean demons, who delight in corruption; rather, he commands that the ransom be paid for him, almost explicitly confessing that we owe our own life to him. For this will be accomplished by commanding that the so-called didrachm be paid. And the true ransom for all is understood to be Christ himself, through whom and in whom we have conquered corruption; for he gave himself for us. And he said that the lamb must remain for seven days under its mother, and be presented on the eighth day. For it was not slaughtered immediately upon being born from the womb.

and having been gently strengthened by the milk of the mother that bore it, and having grown a little strong, then, yes then, it is suitably disposed for the fragrance of good odor, God ordained. This too would be a type of a mystical and necessary matter, which is preserved even to this day among us who are accustomed to consecrate the rational flocks to the God who rules all. For we do not bring those who have been called together and have entered into the beginnings of faith, and are still uninitiated, to the divine and bloodless sacrifice; but rather we first instruct them, and we almost run under the mother, that is, the Church, and fatten them with a kind of milk, a speech suitable for infants and tender. And indeed the divine Paul writes to those not yet perfect in habit, saying: "I have given you milk to drink, and not solid food. For you were not yet able, nor even now are you able." And again in another Epistle: "For everyone who partakes of milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness. For he is an infant." Solid food is for the perfect, for those who, by reason of habit, have their senses trained for distinguishing good and evil. Therefore, when they have grown up and been well nourished by the words of catechesis, we bring them forward on the eighth day, that is, when the time in which they were in infancy has passed, and another time after that has entered, in which the mystery of Christ might be appropriately presented to them. For the eighth day signifies for us the time of the resurrection, when Christ, having endured death for us, came to life again, to whom we are spiritually conformed, dying through holy baptism, so that we may also obtain the resurrection. And Paul will confirm this, writing:

We were buried with him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life. Being opened up, therefore, through faith to the knowledge of truth, and having already acquired conformity to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is for us and among us the firstborn, and then drinking in rational and unadulterated milk, advancing to the measure of his fullness, according to what is written, then indeed, then at last we shall all be sacred, and an offering to God, dying to the world, but living holily to God in a spiritual sense. For this, I think, is what is meant by the firstborn of the flocks being slaughtered at the altar. And the divine Paul writes to those thus sanctified: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Sacred, therefore, is the death of the saints, and something of this sort the blessed David seems to me to have in view: "For," he says, "the death of his holy ones is precious before the Lord." And the manner of the thoughts we have just expressed would be fitting, I think, not only for those from the nations who are turning to the knowledge of the truth, but especially for those called from the legal worship to justification in Christ and sanctification in the Spirit. For the lamb, or the calf, was fed for seven days under its mother.

It was offered on the eighth day, allegorically, I think, God intimating (for the law is a shadow) that it was necessary for those who were to be sacred and to be brought up to God in the odor of fragrance to be first trained through types and, as it were, through lessons not too manly but rather suitable for children. And the time most fitting for such a completion is the mystery of Christ, which is signified by the eighth day. God is therefore inaccessible through legal worship, but would become accessible through Christ alone. For through him we have our approach, as after the seventh day, that is, when the sabbath according to the law, or the universal and more general worship according to the law, has already passed. For the law has perfected nothing; but Christ leads to this: for those who have believed are complete in virtue and have perfection in knowledge through Christ. For we have his mind, and through him and with him glory to God the Father with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

On Marah, and the Wood Shown to the Blessed Moses. 1. Departing from the land of the Egyptians, the Israelites, having barely thrown off the grievous yoke of slavery, went through the midst of the sea as on dry land, accomplishing this also without toil. For the waters stood firm like a wall, yielding to the divine commands. Then, after this, having seen Pharaoh, who had risked everything with his whole army, drowned in the waters, and those who were once unbearable and harshly drove them without pity having perished miserably, they sent up songs to God, honoring him with hymns of thanksgiving, saying: Let us sing to the Lord; for he has been gloriously glorified; he cast horses and rider into the sea. He became my helper and protector for salvation. For the God of all has wrought wonders usefully. Although he had shown them very many and exceedingly marvelous signs in Egypt, and moreover generously granted that those who were under him could even pass through the sea itself, so that they might henceforth have a mind well established and firm in them, and indeed believe that he is not like one of the falsely named gods, that is, the inventions of human art, or a mere image made of wood and stone, but that he is Lord of all, who commands creation as lying under his feet, and whatever he chooses to accomplish is easily brought to pass. And in order that they might benefit while marveling even more, he commanded them to depart more richly and hasten to the land promised to the fathers, with the all-wise Moses leading and guiding.

Then what comes after this, the sacred text will again make clear. For it says that Moses led the sons of Israel away from the Red Sea and brought them into the wilderness of Shur, and they traveled for three days in the wilderness and found no water to drink. And they came to Marah, and they could not drink water from Marah, for it was bitter. For this reason that place was named Bitterness. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" And Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood, and he cast it into the water, and the water became sweet. There he established for them ordinances and judgments and decisions. And there he tested them, and said: "If you truly hear the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is pleasing before him, and give ear to his commandments, and keep all his ordinances, I will not bring upon you any plague that I brought upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you." And they came to Elim; and there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. And they encamped there by the waters. Observe then how he does not permit them, once delivered, to be untrained or to revel in the breadth of cheerfulness, being brought carelessly to idleness, lest gradually going toward forgetfulness of the one who is able to save, they should easily slip back into the error of Egypt. For hardships gather one toward God. Indeed, the prophet says: "Lord, in distress we remembered you; in slight distress is your discipline for us." Therefore, passing through a long and thirsty land, they came to be in need of the necessities for life.

For they found no water to drink; and as their thirst continued into the third day, the longed-for water was barely discovered for them. But this too was entirely useless. For the water of Marah was bitter, and for the thirsty it was not safe, as it says, to be able to escape death. Thereupon they became distressed and cried out against the mediator; and Moses was perplexed. Then, when the all-knowing God showed him a piece of wood, he cast it into the waters, and they were miraculously transformed into a sweet and most drinkable stream. Having drunk and been benefited, they marveled at the divine sign; after this they encamped also at twelve springs of water, where there were also seventy palm trunks. And they then dwelt there, delighting. So then, that the path of salvation could be found through faith and not otherwise, God was confirming through shadows and types. For this reason, too, he commanded the lamb to be slaughtered in Egypt, and they were to believe that, having been anointed with its blood, they would ward off the death that hung over the firstborn. For would not one say, and quite reasonably, that this action was a preliminary exercise in faith? For how, tell me, could the slaughter of a sheep avert death? But it was a type of a mystery. For Christ redeems with his own blood those who are sanctified in faith, and shows them to be superior to the corruption of death. And what again is the case with Marah? Come, let us speak as far as possible.

Water is compared to the divine word by the inspired Scripture. For just as perceptible water is life-giving to bodies, so too the divine word, if it reaches the mind, would benefit it greatly. Therefore Christ also, speaking to the Jewish multitudes, cried out, saying: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." And to the woman from Samaria: "And everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never thirst for eternity." So now the Israelites, having left behind the God-detested servitude of the Egyptians, changed their minds to accomplish whatever God might wish. But they had not yet been educated by the laws from above, nor had they tasted of the intelligible waters; they had, so to speak, a dry and thirsty mind within themselves. Then they barely come upon Marah; but they could not drink the water, for it was bitter. Then, after Moses cast in the wood, the water was freed from its innate bitterness. What then is Marah? I would say that it is the literal text of the Law. For the Law is bitter, since it is a punisher. And indeed the divine Paul said: "If someone violates the law of Moses, he dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses." Do you see that it was bitter and hard to bear, even perhaps for those wishing to do right? And indeed the divine disciples, when they attribute to those after the faith some return to legal worship, expressly said: "And now why do you tempt God to place a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?

And indeed the blessed Paul calls the commandment through the all-wise Moses a ministry of condemnation. For he spoke thus: "For if the ministry of condemnation is glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory." And he said elsewhere: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life." By "letter," I think, he clearly means the law, and by "spirit" again he calls the worship in spirit, that is, the evangelical; for the law is bitter. And Merrah is interpreted as "bitter." That the education through the law itself, by itself, and insofar as it pertains to types, is not able to give life, it is superfluous to argue. For no one is justified before God by the law, according to what is written. But the law itself will then be life-giving, and will be freed from its literal bitterness, if it should become receptive to the mystery concerning Christ; for the end of the law is Christ for the salvation of every believer, understood, of course, spiritually. And a clear type of this would be what happened at Merrah. For the wood signifies the cross of the Savior, or the mystery upon it; which, if it should become acceptable to those under the law, they will find the bitter also sweet. For the law is not accusatory and punitive toward those who believe in Christ, but is already life-giving, as the history is well transformed for us into spiritual contemplation, and leads to Christ, who is life and life-giver. For then, then the law will define for us both ordinances and judgments.

For it will immediately carry one off to whatever it pleases, and will show the path to every best thing, and prepares one to be outside of fears and to expect not to be punished. For it says, "Every blow which I inflicted upon the Egyptians, I will not bring upon you." Therefore, for those who receive this mystery in the law, there is a good hope of escaping punishment. And this, I think, is what the Savior himself said to the Jewish multitudes at the time of his advent: "Truly, truly I say to you, that he who hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and does not come to judgment, but has passed from death to life." And again: "He who believes in the Son is not judged." So, having accepted the ordinances of Christ, then indeed, then we shall come to Elim, which means "ascent." For we are raised up from our ancient childishness to a mind that is now mature, and having reached the measure of the fullness of Christ's age, we shall delight in the springs of the intelligible waters. And these twelve springs depict for us the chorus of the holy apostles. And we shall also encounter the seventy trunks of the palm trees. For it is written that after the holy apostles, the Lord appointed another seventy. And that the divine disciples are truly springs, bubbling up for us the divine, saving, and necessary word for life, the God of all would demonstrate well to those justified in the law, speaking thus: "Draw water with joy from the springs of the Savior." And concerning every holy one, the divine Melodist says, "The righteous man will flourish like a palm tree." And do not be surprised at this.

For Christ Himself is named by such a title in the divinely inspired Scripture. For the spiritual bride, that is, the Church, once said concerning the bridegroom from above and from heaven—I mean Christ: "I said, I will climb the palm tree; I will grasp its heights." For the plant is always flourishing, sweet and deep-rooted, and has a whitened heart. And Christ is in a way like this spiritually, through whom and with whom glory is given to God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen. Concerning the Manna and the Quail. α. Again the God of all works wonders, and passes from one power to another, according to what is written; and for impossible things He finds ways, everywhere providing for His own glory, and showing in many ways that only He possesses the ability to accomplish effortlessly even things beyond reason, and those which would rightly be admired by us, so that through all things He might be seen as God—not as one of those skilled in craft, that is, unholy and exceptional men, but by nature and truly. For from the glorious results one might observe, even without toil, the pure nature, to which belongs as its own good the all-powerful and invincible capacity for anything it might choose to do. And along with this, there is also forbearance. One would see what I mean, and quite clearly, even in the matters just set before us. For it is written that on the fifteenth day of the second month, after they had departed from the land of Egypt, the whole assembly of the sons of Israel murmured against both Moses and Aaron, and the sons of Israel said to them:

Would that we had died, struck down by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate bread to satiety! Why have you led us out into this desert, to destroy this whole assembly by famine?" And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain down bread for you from heaven, and the people shall go out and gather day by day what is needed for the day, that I may test whether they will walk in my law. And on the sixth day it shall be, and they shall prepare whatever they bring in, and what they gather day by day shall be double." For the firstborn of the Egyptians, as we have already said, perished; and the Israelites were sent out of the country, not even permitted, so to speak, to take provisions. For they brought out their dough before their mixtures were leavened. Having equipped themselves simply with whatever came to hand, they went out in haste, and the terror was equal for the pursuing Egyptians and for those undergoing the pursuit. For the former expected to be added to those already dead before long, unless, yielding to divine commands, they drove Israel out of the land; and the latter, if they were to be caught while departing and turning back, thought that they would certainly enter into the final struggles and be pitilessly endangered.

They went out, then, not having given much thought to the journey, and having snatched up only what was at hand, and having taken by necessity the most portable of the things left at home, which they had already consumed, then being at a loss as to how they might obtain life-sustaining provisions in the desert, they slipped into a desire for the food in Egypt, and they forget that they had been delivered from all the worst things and from slavery in Egypt, and they almost cry out against the assistance; and they are angry that they have been freed, and they prefer the satiety of an unclean belly to freedom, which is thrice-desired and most prayed for by all men. And the matter troubles the mediator, that is, Moses. But God promises to provide them immediately with an abundance of food, and, though they have offended not a little, he still deals with them gently. For to wish to receive life-sustaining provisions from him would have no fault at all; but the murmuring greatly distresses. For indeed the Savior himself taught us to say in prayers: Give us our daily bread today. But if we say this, we will in no way accuse the Master, but rather we will ask from him what is necessary for life. But the Jewish multitudes, though they ought to ask for food, are angry that they have been freed, and most senselessly insult such a sacred and worthy grace, as if it had sent them away from the most pleasant things, namely, bread and meat. Therefore they murmur and cry out impiously. But God is patient and promises them an unexpected abundance. And indeed he sends down, by an ineffable power, the quail in the evening.

At dawn, the manna. And as the divine David said, "He gave them bread of heaven; man ate the bread of angels." He confirmed through experience itself and through events that God is able both to give bread and to prepare a table in the wilderness, just as, of course, our Lord Jesus Christ, working similar wonders, broke five loaves and satisfied many in the wilderness, when twelve baskets of fragments were gathered. The modes of the miracle are entirely beyond investigation; therefore let things beyond understanding be honored by faith, and let God be heard by all who marvel: "I know that you can do all things; nothing is impossible for you." 2. But let our discourse concerning the perceptible things be at this point. What, then, would be the meaning of the spiritual contemplation, or why is it necessary to investigate the riddle of the law, since we are earnestly eager to hunt down the truth? We shall know, therefore, also through these things, that the legal polity is indisputably behind the evangelical one, and is not free from accusations of fleshly inclination, but is not freed from earthly desire; rather, the divine and evangelical polity is spiritual and blameless, and has incomparable beauty. We shall take the demonstration and confirmation for each, thoroughly examining the account of both from the inspired Scripture. For it happened, it says, that evening came, and a quail rose up and covered the camp. In the morning, when the dew around the camp ceased, behold, on the face of the wilderness there was something fine as coriander, white as frost on the ground. When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is this?

For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them: "This is the bread which the Lord gave you to eat; this is the word which the Lord commanded. Gather from it each one into the proper omer, per head, according to the number of your souls. Each one together with your tent-mates shall collect." And the sons of Israel did thus, and they gathered, both the one who had much and the one who had less, and they measured the omer; and the one who had much did not have an excess, and the one who had less did not have a deficiency, each one into the proper measure by himself. And Moses said to them: "Let no one leave any of it until morning." And they did not listen to Moses, but some left some of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angered against them. And again after other things: And Moses said to them: "This is the word which the Lord spoke: Holy Sabbath, rest for the Lord tomorrow. Whatever you may bake, bake; and whatever you may boil, boil; and all that is left over, leave it in storage until morning." And they left some of it until morning, just as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, nor did a worm appear in it. Now he commanded each one to gather what was sufficient for himself. But he by no means forbids the act, if one should choose, for instance, to gather also for those absent and to be adorned by the law of love. But he utterly forbids keeping it until morning, and he said to do this only before the Sabbath, so that the law of rest might not be dishonored. For it was not at all possible to find on the Sabbath, God not permitting, but rather through this almost compelling one to refrain from work on the Sabbath.

But some have paid little heed to the divine oracles, and have kept [the manna] before the Sabbath, and, as the sacred text says, it bred worms and swarmed with maggots. And Moses was grieved; and some went out to gather on the Sabbath, and God was indignant. For it is written thus: "And it came to pass on the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, and found none. And the Lord said to Moses: 'How long will you refuse to hearken to my commandments and my law? Behold, the Lord has given this day as the Sabbath. For this reason he gave you on the sixth day two days' supply of bread. Sit each one in your own houses; let none of you go out from his place on the seventh day.'" And what speech could be fitting and most suitable from us for what has been said? What indeed is the meaning of the quail coming in the evening, but the manna being given at dawn and in the morning? I think it is proper to investigate; and before all else, what the quail is, and what the manna is, as a type. That the life of the Jews was not free from carnal desires would be reasonably understood, and the fact that they sought to make food of the meat in Egypt, and had their mind overcome, indeed almost tyrannized, by inclinations toward this, would clearly prove it. But our condition is not seen in these things. For we have been sanctified in Christ, and we are beyond carnal impurity. And the divine Paul will bear witness, writing: "But those of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh together with its passions and desires." And what is the meaning of "they crucified"?

instead of "they have given over to death," that is, spiritual death, because they refuse to live according to the flesh, nor do they choose to think of temporal things, but rather mortify the members on earth—fornication, passion, evil desire—and while walking on earth, they yearn intensely for the higher ways of life. For the sacred text is remembered as crying out: "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desire of the flesh." Therefore, the mind of the Jews is weak and very easily overcome by the assaults of the passions; for it still loves fleshly things and is defeated by the more earthly ones. And these things, as I said, are signified to us by the quail. Yet they seek God, who does not himself draw them into desires, nor does he yet grant them to be arrogant over the passions, because the excellence for life and the complete sanctification were not preserved for those under the law, but rather for those in the Spirit. Therefore, God also promised a new covenant through the prophet, not like the first one, because it does not have the blameless quality, but another, spiritual one, capable of perfecting the faithful according to conscience. And the flight of the quail toward the Synagogue of the Jews occurs as if in the evening. For it says: "Evening came, and the quail went up," obliquely indicating to us that the lover of earthly things is not in the light of the mind, but as if in night and darkness. And this is not false; for the mind of the Jews is not free from ignorance and hardness, that is, mental fog. Therefore, Christ also addressed them, saying: "I am the light of the world." So, in fog and as if in darkness, then, are those who have not yet believed.

For they did not arrive at the light. And Christ said somewhere concerning the Pharisees and the peoples under their hand: "Let them be; for they are blind, leaders of the blind." Therefore, the mind of the Jews is without light; consequently, they are sick in the flesh and cling almost entirely to the more earthly things. So we shall consider the manna to be a shadow and type of the teachings and gifts through Christ, which are from above and from heaven, and have nothing earthly about them; rather, it is free from carnal foulness and is truly food not only for men but also for angels. For the Son has revealed the Father in himself to us, and through him we have been entrusted with the doctrine of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and we have been well guided into every path of virtue. The nourishment of spirits is the right and unadulterated knowledge contained in these things. And the provision of the teachings through Christ would be as if in light and day. Therefore, manna was given to the ancients when day was dawning and light was spreading. For day dawned in us who believe, as it is written, and the light-bringer rose in the hearts of all, and the sun of righteousness arose, that is, Christ, the giver of the intelligible manna. For that the sensible manna was still as in an image, but the true one is he himself, he will fully confirm by saying to the Jews: "Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that if someone eats of it, he will not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

And the bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. For our Lord Jesus Christ nourishes us into unceasing life, both by the precepts of piety and through the mystical blessing. Therefore he himself is also, through himself, the divine and truly life-giving manna. And he who has consumed this is superior to corruption and will escape death, not those who ate the sensible manna. For the type was not salvific, but it was fashioned as a prefiguration of the truth. And God commanded the manna, sending it down from above like rain, that each should gather what suffices for himself, and that they should collect it together, if some should choose, even for those dwelling in the same tent. For each, it says, gather together with your tent-mates, and you shall not leave any of it, it says, until morning. For we must be filled with divine and evangelical teachings. In equal measure, Christ distributes his grace from himself to small and great alike, and nourishes all equally into life, desiring that the stronger gather together with the others, and labor on behalf of their brethren, and lend them their own toils, and make them partakers of the gifts from above. And this, I think, is what was said to the holy apostles: Freely you have received, freely give. For they, collecting the manna in abundance for themselves, were eager to distribute it to those dwelling in the same tent, that is, the Church.

The divine disciples continued to admonish, to instruct, to bring forward everything praiseworthy, and to set forth generously for all to partake of the grace which they themselves had received from Christ. And indeed the blessed Paul writes to some: "For I desire to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you." But if the phrase, "Each of you, together with your tent-mates, gather," is understood in another way—that is, not all together in a disorderly manner, nor mixed, but according to kind, or by tents, let the gathering be made—you will understand it thus. For we must, together with those of like faith, be filled with the divine words and seek the spiritual manna; we must not be carried away senselessly with those of different opinion, who are virtually aliens. And this indeed we do, driving away from the Churches those of heterodox and perverse views, while together with those who are our own in faith we enjoy the nourishment from heaven. And it is said not to leave it until morning, the law again indicating that to make use of the types after the time has passed in which they were still useful and necessary, brings one entirely and absolutely under judgment and punishment. For what was kept has bred worms. This would be a clear indication of punishment and corruption. For all who keep the shadow after the revelation of the truth will be subject to corruption and punishment. Such a thing we say has happened to those to whom the blessed Paul writes: "You have been abolished from Christ, who were justified in the law, you have fallen from grace." And again: "Having begun in spirit, you now end in flesh; you have suffered so much in vain, if indeed in vain.

Therefore, he forbids keeping it until morning, so that by "morning" you may understand the time after the law, when the coming of Christ appeared and the divine light shone upon us. But those from Israel, intending to keep the Sabbath, were preserving it until morning, and this at God's command. What then is the meaning of this: that the manna gathered for the Sabbath was preserved, yet not further corrupted, and that Moses was not angered with those who preserved it? For having arrived through faith at the Sabbath rest understood in Christ—that is, at the cessation and termination from sins—we do not reject as useless the instruction of the law that has been stored up in us and, as it were, laid beforehand, which leads us by the hand to Christ. For the law is a pedagogue. And having it together with the evangelical teachings, we will not be far from being fit to praise, and God is not angered by this. Indeed, the Savior himself teaches us this when he says, "Every scribe who has been discipled to the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from his treasury both new and old." Therefore, the manna stored up in us through the law is blameless, even if it is preserved in the spiritual Sabbath rest. For we who keep the Sabbath in Christ encounter the shadows through Moses, so that we may seek the truth in them. But God placed a curse and penalty on gathering manna on the Sabbath; rather, he did not allow the manna to fall. For when we keep the Sabbath spiritually in Christ, we will no longer gather things in types.

For we will not cling to fleshly circumcision, nor will we slaughter oxen or sheep; rather, we will set aside the thickness of the types, having the truth itself, that is, Christ. 4. The discourse we have made on the matters before us is, I think, sufficient and clear. But since we find the subject treated in the book called Numbers, and also with other additions of narratives, I thought it necessary not to pass over without examination what was passed over in silence in Exodus. For thus the understanding would be more ample for those who encounter it. So it is written: "And the mixed multitude among them desired a desire, and sitting down they wept, both they and the sons of Israel, and said, 'Who will feed us meat? We remembered the fish which we ate in Egypt for free, and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. But now our soul is parched; our eyes see nothing but the manna.'" Then it adds: "And Moses heard them weeping according to their tribes, each at his own door. And the Lord was very angry, and it was grievous to Moses." Observe, then, how very easily swayed Israel is, and not capable of benefiting others; it suffers from cowardice even in its own affairs. For the mixed multitude fell ill with such an utterly strange and abominable desire; and those who ought to have rebuked them, and chosen to be persuaded to think more fitting things, are sick in a worse way.

And the divine Moses is exceedingly distressed, and he spoke plainly to the God of all, saying that he would not be able alone to bear such a heavy and grievous burden. As proof of the matter, he brought forward the extreme difficulty and perplexity, saying, "Whence shall I give this people meat to eat?" And having already fallen into despondency to this point, as if wishing to die, he says, "For if you do this to me, kill me outright, that I may not see my misery." He restrains him and commands him to choose select men to join him and share in the care, from the whole assembly, men to the number of seventy. For the Lord said to Moses, "Gather for me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you yourself know to be elders of the people and their scribes, and lead them to the tent of testimony, and they shall stand there with you, and I will come down and speak there with you. And I will take from the spirit that is upon you and place it upon them, and they will help you bear the impulse of the people, and you will not bear it alone." When this was done (for he immediately presented those who were more distinguished than the others), the God of all fills them with the Holy Spirit; then after this, yielding to the desires of those who were weeping, he sent down to them the quail. And they, being in heaps around the camp, gather the fallen birds with great joy, and devour them like beasts, heedless of satiety and sufficiency.

When a countless multitude of quails had been gathered and piled up for them, and the meat-eating extended for a month's days, finally a disease struck, and as the prophet says, "Hades widened his soul and opened his mouth, not to cease." For the meat, he says, was still in their teeth before it ceased. And the Lord was angry with the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague, and the name of that place was called the Tomb of Desire, because there they buried the people who were desirous. For although they lacked none of the good things, but rather had the means to revel blamelessly in the abundant provisions of manna, they longed for meats and leeks, they named cucumbers and melons, onions and garlic. So having eaten, they perished not long after. For God gives the quail, not praising the desire, but rather demonstrating through deeds that nothing is impossible for him. But he then punishes accordingly those who fall into shameful pleasures. The wretched Jews suffered something similar at the time of the coming of our Savior. For those things were shadows and types of these, and the events of old prefigured the later ones. For when the truer manna, Christ, was set before us from above and from heaven, and of such a kind as to nourish, and promising an unceasing life, they, having unwisely chosen the use of earthly things, which is truly watery and worldly, have necessarily given offense, and not only to the God of all, but also to the divine Moses himself.

For it is written: "And the Lord was angered with wrath against his people, and it was grievous in the sight of Moses." For the mind of the saints always follows the decrees of God. That the Jewish people everywhere preferred the temporary and fleshly things to the higher goods, one might learn from the Gospel parable. For the dinner guests wished to gather for the wedding; but they went away, it says, one to his own field, another to his business. And the excuse was, for one, "I have married a wife," for another, "I have bought a field, and I cannot come." That Moses himself also denounces the disobedience of the Jews, our Lord Jesus Christ will confirm, saying: "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. It is Moses who accuses you, in whom you have placed your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me." And Moses considers it very burdensome that Israel can still endure. And God sanctified others, seventy in number, as we have already said. For the law alone, of which Moses may reasonably be considered a type, is not able to lead us. And so also many others, seventy, are appointed, to fill the deficiency of that one, and they appear as a complete number. For the number seventy would be indicative of this. And who are these again? Those who, after Moses, through Christ, have been brought forward to lead, of whom the blessed disciples are the first and the fathers.

God is said to take away from the Spirit that was upon Moses and to place it in the chosen ones, and for no other reason than that we may believe that with the one and holy Spirit, God sanctifies both the saints before us and ourselves. For just as the Father is one, and the Son is likewise one, so also the Holy Spirit is one, the same in the prophets and in us. And being one, it would not reasonably be conceived as divided among many, but it is indivisible even in the abundant distribution of gifts, and is present fully in all. It must be observed that the God of all commanded that the chosen ones be gathered to the number of seventy. But they are not assembled to a full number; two are missing, Modad and Eldad. And these, though lacking, God filled with the Spirit. For they prophesied in the camp. And some among those around Moses were jealous, and indeed said that they ought to be excluded. But he, prefiguring the mystery of Christ, says, "Who would give to the people of the Lord prophets, when the Lord gives his Spirit upon them?" We shall understand through these things also that the law had netted and was bringing many to God to be led to the mystery of Christ. Yet it was not able to bring all; these, though lacking, Christ sanctified. For those from the nations are called to the knowledge of the truth, not through Moses or the law, but rather by the power of God and Father, revealing his own image, that is, the Son, to those who are ignorant; and having called them, he set them as saints, anointing them with the Spirit. And they are jealous.

those in the law, those justified and sanctified in Christ and in faith in the Spirit. Yet Moses rejoiced, having foreknown the mystery. Therefore the Jewish multitudes do not think the thoughts of Moses, as they absurdly emulate the saints in Christ. Having thus ruminated, as it were, back to the beginning of the discourse, we say this: In the first chapter it was clearly shown that the Jewish multitude was still fleshly, but that the multitude of those in faith and in Christ was different, holy, and truly superior, and that the manna perceived by the senses fulfilled a shadow and type of the gifts through Christ. We were also taught that if we preserve the shadows of the law, ready for them even after a time, we will offend God and will also be hated by the saints themselves. For Moses was embittered against those who preserved the manna. In the second part it is possible to see that the Jews, dishonoring the intelligible manna, and being averse to the things from above and through Christ, but inclining rather to the more earthly things and sinking immoderately into foul pleasures, have conspicuously perished. For it was necessary that the things from God be held in higher esteem, and that the Savior and Redeemer of us all, I mean Christ, be crowned with faith, through whom and with whom glory is to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit for the ages. Amen.

Concerning the three signs that occurred through Moses. a. One could not possibly behold the divine nature, whatever it is. For it is utterly invisible, and indeed beyond every mind, and surpasses the power of speech; it is known only by itself alone. And Christ cries out, confirming this: "For no one knows," he says, "who the Son is, except the Father; nor does anyone know who the Father is, except the Son, and to whomever the Son wishes to reveal it." Therefore the Only-begotten has displayed to us the exceptional beauty of God and Father, setting himself forth as a bright image. Hence he says: "He who has seen me has seen the Father." And we have beheld the Son, both with the eyes of the heart and with the eyes of the flesh, when he lowered himself into kenosis and descended into our midst—although he is God, existing in the form and equality of God and Father, and born from him by nature. And indeed Baruch said, I think, pointing out the Word himself: "This is our God; no other shall be compared to him. He discovered every path of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. After this he appeared on earth and lived among men." And the divine David also clearly proclaimed beforehand: "God of gods, the Lord spoke, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting; from Zion is the comeliness of his beauty. God will come manifestly, our God, and he will not be silent." For he descended in the form of fire upon Mount Sinai. But that those things were a type and nothing else, Christ assures us.

The Jewish peoples thought that they had truly beheld the ineffable nature, with Moses mediating and standing around them at Horeb, and gathering them into an assembly at the foot of Mount Sinai. And since the piercing sound of trumpets, darting upward, terrified the hearers, they thought that they had also become hearers of the divine voice in their own persons. But that they were thinking childishly in these matters, God has clearly confirmed by speaking thus: "You have heard his voice, but you have not seen his form. And you do not have his word remaining among you, because you do not believe the one whom he sent." Therefore, we who have believed have beheld the Father in the Son, and we have also received his Word. By this we have been redeemed; for it is not an elder, not an angel, not the law through Moses that has saved us, but the Lord himself, according to what is written. And that what I say is true, we shall know also from the written records. It runs thus: "And he said," it says, "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 before God. Observe the weakness of the law. For the God of all manifests himself; but when he manifests himself clearly, Moses turns away his face. And this would be for us a clear sign that not even the sons themselves could behold the divine glory of the Son, even when he manifests himself and, so to speak, brings them to recognition. Therefore, he also said through the voice of Isaiah: "I was found by those who did not seek me; I became visible to those who did not ask for me. I said, 'Behold, I am here for the nation that did not know me.'

All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. Therefore they have not beheld the glory of Christ, turning away the eyes of their mind. And this, I think, is what was said about them through the voice of the prophet: "And they turned their backs and their faces toward me." And the divine Paul writes: "Until the present day, at the reading of the Old Testament, the same veil remains not lifted, because it is abolished in Christ." But until today, when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we who have believed do not fear to look upon the face of God, but, as the same divine Paul said, "With unveiled face we mirror the glory of the Lord." Therefore Moses turns away his face. Then, when God says that it is fitting for him to go together with the council of the sons of Israel to the stricken Pharaoh, making clear that God has summoned those from Israel so that they might sacrifice to him in the wilderness, and adding that it will be necessary to despoil the Egyptians, a woman receiving from her neighbor and tent-mate silver and gold vessels and clothing, "Moses answered," it says, "and said: 'But if they do not believe, and do not heed my voice (for they will say, "God has not appeared to you"), what shall I say to them?' And the Lord said to him: 'What is this in your hand?' And he said: 'A rod.' And he said: 'Throw it on the ground.'

And he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. And the Lord said to him: Stretch out your hand and take hold of its tail. So stretching out his hand, he took hold of its tail, and it became a rod in his hand; so that they might believe you that the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you. For Moses was afraid, lest he might seem to the sons of Israel to be a liar and a fabricator of idle tales, saying that the God of all had appeared to him, and that he had been commanded to declare that it was now fitting to depart resolutely from the greed of the Egyptians. For this reason he was bidden to work wonders and to do things beyond human nature, the Lord transforming the rod into a serpent, so that he might be understood not as a deserter truly, but as a bearer of decrees from above and from God. For the true sign, which we all have believed, is the descent of the Word among us, which is signified by the rod that fell to the ground. How and in what manner, as far as it is possible to say again, I will attempt to explain.

The rod is compared by the inspired Scripture to the Word that sprang from God, because everything is supported by Him. "By the word of the Lord," it says, "the heavens were made firm." And, "The Lord supports the righteous." We have been brought under the Father through the Son, and He Himself, being true, indicates this by saying, "And I will lead them under my rod." The rod is also, in another sense, a symbol of kingship; the God and Father of all reigns through the Son. The rod of Aaron, which sprouted in the Holy of Holies, would signify Him; the rod from the root of Jesse, and the one that spiritually encourages all of us and sustains the faithful to stand firm, according to what is sung in the Psalms to the God and Father of all: "Your rod and your staff, these have comforted me." So the rod is the Son. But as long as He was, as it were, in the hand of the Father and in the heights of divinity, not yet having become like us, we wretches continued godless in the world; we wandered, worshiping creation and being subjected to the excesses of unclean spirits. But when He, so to speak (to speak more corporeally for the sake of usefulness in contemplation), having left the heights of His own glory and, as it were, the hand of the Father, came down from heaven to earth, became like us, and was of like form with those on earth who are full of wickedness (for the Son called them wicked, saying thus: "If you, being wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him")—

We say that he all but transformed it into a serpent, solely because of its likeness to us and its being in the same form. The man is wicked, if compared to the gentleness of God. So the rod turned into a serpent. For the Only-Begotten became man, and was counted among the lawless, and was considered wicked along with us, although by nature he is good, or rather goodness itself. But that we accepted the Only-Begotten when he became like us, while the peoples of the Jews did not love him (for they fled from him as it were), would become clear through the sacred Scriptures. For Moses fled from his face. For thinking him to be wicked, they did not dare to trust, but rather killed him and crucified him with wicked men. However, that at times he will seize hold of Christ, and it is known that he is by no means wicked, but rather a support and spiritual strength for believers, we shall learn from the event itself. For God turns back Moses as he flees. And when he seized the serpent, it became a rod in his hand. Therefore, to those who do not know, he seems wicked because of his likeness to us; but if someone seizes him through faith, he finds a rod and a support. So the divine sign concerning the rod is worthy, and it is able to persuade those from Israel, that is, all people on earth, that God has visited them. But since those who are too weak are hard of hearing, and those who have fallen outside hope of being able to escape the distress hanging over them, even more wonders were needed.

Such men are barely called to docility. 3. Again, God said to the holy Moses, evidently: "Put your hand into your bosom." And he put his hand into his bosom, and his hand became leprous like snow. And he said again: "Put your hand into your bosom." And he put his hand into his bosom, and he brought his hand out of his bosom, and it was restored again to the color of his flesh. It is indeed most befitting of God to be able to remove leprosy. But those affections that have reached such a degree of savagery that they do not even deign to yield to the expertise of physicians would perhaps require, in their own right, the sole authority from above, to which nothing is resistant, all things being passable and easily accomplished. Leprosy is an incurable disease. Therefore, that things among humans that are despaired of, and things impossible for us, are possible for Him, and that nothing at all is insurmountable, the God of all made known by healing Moses' hand when it had become leprous, so that those who are called, that is, those of the blood of Israel, might learn from this that even if they were in a calamity difficult to escape, subjected to the wickedness of the Egyptians and suffering as if from a final disease—slavery under them—yet the physician is resourceful, knowing and able to easily overcome even the most stubborn affections, and this without toil and in no long time. For as soon as Moses put his hand into his bosom, he was freed from the disease. But the matter also hinted at something else for us, as I think.

For the Israelites, having spent long years in Egypt, had fallen away from the gentleness that was natural to them from above and from their fathers, and had rather become settled in the local customs, sinking deeply into debasement, according to the word of the prophet: they had served the creation instead of the Creator. And they had slipped into every form of impurity, and had, so to speak, a mind that was dead and chilled. For leprosy is a sign of impurity and deadness. And through the miracle he initiated them, as it were, into the mystery, that if God were to accept them and, so to speak, take them again into his bosom, they would not have an impurity that was hard to turn away, but would very easily shake off the defilement from spiritual deadness. And thus we have the account in this matter. But that the mystery of Christ was again depicted, as in the leprous and then cleansed hand of Moses, I will try to explain. Therefore, that all things came to be through the Son, and without him nothing came to be, the divine evangelist John testifies very well. And since the Father is active in everything whatsoever through him, for this reason inspired Scripture also calls the Son the hand, the arm, and the right hand of the Father. And indeed the divine Isaiah says: "Lord, who believed our hearing? And to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed?" For the wretched Jews remained hard and unyielding, and greatly afflicted with disobedience. And David said that even the heavens were fixed by the word of the Lord; and through the voice of the prophets, God the Father affirmed, saying: "I fixed the heaven with my hand." And he also addressed others.

For I am your God who strengthened you, and helped you, and secured you with my right hand, my righteous hand. Now, it is customary for the divinely inspired Scripture to call the Son a hand. Observe, then, the hand of Moses hidden in his bosom, then brought forth outside and seen with leprosy, and again brought back into his bosom, and immediately freed from the affliction. And considering the mystery and the manner of the incarnation, and striving to discern where and how it might be, we will find that something of this sort has occurred. For the Son was, in a way, in the bosom of God the Father, and through him the Father has done all things. For he is the high arm, the hand that prevails over all, the admirable right hand. But when he went forth, in a manner, into his own place, becoming man and taking on our weaknesses, according to the voice of the prophet, he came to be in suspicion and uncleanness. For human nature is unclean before God, if indeed what the prophet Isaiah says is true, that all our righteousness is like a rag of a menstruating woman. Therefore, what pertained to human nature came to be in the appearance of uncleanness, for the all-pure one who dwells in inaccessible light. For even the wretched Jews have erred in this way; indeed, they called him a drunkard and a Samaritan, and born of fornication, and in addition to these, also a sinner. For they said somewhere to the man born blind who had been healed, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner." But they would not, I think, have ever descended to such folly, if they had known that he was God by nature, so as to say such a thing and open their unbridled mouth against him.

But He who was in semblance subject to impurity as a man, when He completed the most excellent economy among us and ascended to the Father and came to be in His bosom, then, indeed, then He also cast off the very semblance of having been with us in deadness and impurity. He is glorified as God, He is glorified by all as Lord, as Holy of Holies, as one who illuminates creation and the spirits of men, and indeed supplies to those on earth the power to trample everything that has the strength to defile. That the Son, for our sake, economically submitted to human things, and came under the law, and was even counted among the lawless, but then returned again to the honor and glory innate and originally present in Him, He Himself will fully confirm by saying to the Father in heaven: Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Do you see that He is freed from the intervening intrusions, and that He did not make the economy with flesh unwillingly, but hastened toward the glorious and supremely exalted dignity of divinity? For this reason also the blessed Paul says, Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know Him. For He revived from the dead and sprang up to the Father with flesh. But, he says, we no longer know Him according to the flesh, that is, as still being in the passions of the flesh—I mean the natural and blameless passions. For before the precious cross, He is said to have hungered, to have wearied from travel, and to have become very sorrowful.

And we know that He endured death on the cross for our sake, but now we recognize that He is not in that state. For having died once, He dies no more. For Christ is incorruptible, life by nature and giver of life, because He has come forth from the life of the Father. 4. After the miracle accomplished on the leprous hand, He makes them more certain by a third sign. For He said again: "If they do not believe you with these two signs, nor listen to your voice, you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land; and the water which you take from the river shall become blood on the dry land." Observe again the foreknown disobedience of the Jews. For they are always slow and sluggish in understanding, and hard to move toward the truth. For they disobeyed the manner of the incarnation and the miracles accomplished in the interim. Late and with difficulty they believed the final sign, even if not all perhaps, but the remnant chosen by grace, as the blessed Paul writes. And what is the final sign? The death on the cross, and the resurrection of Christ immediately joined and neighboring to death. That the death of the Savior and the great and admirable mystery of the resurrection from the dead have been given as a sign to the sons of Israel would become clear from the words of the Savior Himself. For the Pharisees once approached with a display of countless signs, mocking and saying: "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." And He said to them:

A wicked and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and a sign will not be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. And it has gained that the death of Emmanuel has drawn many, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles, to see without difficulty. For he said again, at one time, "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everything to myself," and at another time, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Do you see how through a clear example he indicated to us the fruit from death? Therefore, the final sign for us was the words of the Savior, on which the faith rests not only of those from Israel, but also, as I said, of those from the other multitude, I mean from the Gentiles. In what manner, then, was this very thing signified? "You will take," he says, "from the water of the river, and you will pour it onto the dry land; and the water which you take from the river will be blood on the dry land." For water is a type or sign of life; and indeed it is truly necessary for this, and more useful for those on earth. Therefore, just as from a river, the Father who gives life to all things, the Son himself truly grew forth as life. For just as light is from light, so also life is from life. That he subsists not externally but from God the Father himself by nature, Moses was taught; and no less we ourselves. "For you will take," he says, "from the water of the river.

Then this was commanded to be poured out onto the earth. This is, in a riddling manner, the mystery of the incarnation. For the Only-begotten, being life, and having been born from God the Father as from life in a flowing manner, was in a way mixed with humanity from the earth, just as water is with the earth. For the whole fullness of the divinity dwelt bodily in Christ; it was almost brought together with human nature, in a way that one could not conceive or express. Yet the water was changed into blood. For life by nature, that is, the Word from God the Father, by an economic union—I mean with flesh, or with the whole humanity and nature like ours—came even to the point of enduring death itself. For we say that he died for us, not that he himself suffered this in his own nature (for he could never die, being life), but that he appropriated the death of his own flesh. Observe how, if Moses had not poured the water onto the earth, it would not have been changed into blood, which is a clear sign of death. For the Word from God, conceived outside the flesh, is life and life-giving. But when he dwelt in flesh, then indeed they say he died according to the human aspect. This then is the extraordinary and clear sign, by which the remnant of Israel has been caught into faith, and the multitude of the nations has also been summoned. For who would not be converted to obedience, seeing death, once terrible and grievous to those on earth, weakened, and corruption abolished, and human nature raised to the hope of unending life?

For just as we died together with Adam, so we have been raised together with Christ, and the divine Paul will bear witness writing to us: For just as in Adam we all die, so also in Christ we shall all be given life. For he ransomed us with his own blood, and made his own life the exchange for the life of all. 5. But even though such august wonders had been accomplished, Moses was distressed, overcome by timidity, and had not yet taken courage for the mission. For when it was necessary to go to Pharaoh at God's command, clearly announcing to release Israel, that they might sacrifice to me in the wilderness, he shuddered at the matter not moderately, and he speaks openly, saying that he was admittedly poor in speech and had a defective tongue: For I am not eloquent from yesterday, nor from the day before, nor from the time you began to speak to your servant; I am weak-voiced and slow-tongued. And that he was also incapable of the deliverance from the yokes of bondage, he clearly insisted, and said: I beg you, Lord, appoint another who is able, whom you will send. And when God promised to grant him both tongue and to broaden his mouth, and said that he himself was the giver of wisdom and speech, he made his refusal longer, saying that another who was able must be designated. So then he offends God by this. And being angered, it says, the Lord in wrath said to Moses: Is not Aaron your brother the Levite? I know that he himself will speak when speaking to you. And to this he says: He will be your mouth; you will be to him the one for matters concerning God.

You see the slow-tongued nature of the word, even long ago shadowed forth as it were in the inspired Moses? For the law is not sufficient for the proclamation of the oracles, nor is it eloquent or fluent, to set forth the precise knowledge of what is beneficial, as indeed Christ is, the true Levite, of whom Aaron is a type. For the law through Moses barely brings us to the beginnings of the divine utterances, and is an elementary instructor for infants, a teacher of the foolish, introducing to us through type and shadow only the most indistinct knowledge of what must be done. But our truly most sufficient and great priest, and powerful in sending forth, that is Christ, has exhibited the truth freed from shadows. For he is not slow or sluggish in tongue, nor brief in words like Moses, but is very eloquent, and especially as the Word of wisdom of God the Father. And see how the law is not sufficient to free from servitude those who act under the spiritual Pharaoh, that is Satan, nor could the inspired Moses have benefited the land at all, even though he won the most conspicuous glory in virtues, unless Christ were present with him and assisting. And you would learn that this is so and has been truly said by us from the fact that Aaron is joined to him. And Moses speaks, but Aaron makes the word clear. For if the law is not understood spiritually, with Christ revealing to us what is in it, what is signified will be dark and unclear to the hearers. And indeed the Jews, not having the interpreter of Moses' words, that is Christ, have remained ignorant.

Therefore the divine Paul also said: "For until this very day, the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament, not being removed, because it is abolished in Christ. But until today, when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. And the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Rightly then did the God of all say to the hierophant Moses concerning Aaron: "He himself will speak to you, and he will be your mouth; but you will be for him the things toward God." And we do not say that Moses is more intimate with God or closer than Emmanuel. For the one is Son and from God the Father by nature, while the other is among us among servants, even if he is called genuine. But it seems that the things toward God have somehow happened for him. For Christ, as a man, was subject to the law and observed the ordinances of Moses. For he was circumcised on the eighth day, and he made the contribution of the two drachmas, although he is by nature a free Son. And he also ate the Passover, although he is again the same, the true lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Thus Moses is said to have had the things toward God happen for him. And that Israel was about to disobey even the divine signs through Christ, Moses would show, not even granting faith to the miracles themselves. Therefore we will place the person of Moses upon those from Israel, when they are called through him, and have been educated through his laws.

Therefore that the law is not sufficient for redemption, but that the precious blood of Christ suffices for this (for through it alone has death been conquered), would become clear and very easily so from these things as well. For the inspired Moses departs from the land of the Midianites, taking his wife and children, and then arrives in Egypt, completing well the things commanded by God. But when he was no longer far from the land of the Egyptians, the God of all said to him: "As you go and return to Egypt, see all the signs which I have placed in your hands; you shall perform them before Pharaoh." And after other things: "But you shall say to Pharaoh: 'Thus says the Lord: My firstborn son is Israel. I told you: Send forth my people so that they may serve me. But you were unwilling to send them forth; see then, I will kill your firstborn son.'" And it happened, it says, on the road at the lodging place that an angel of the Lord met him and sought to kill him. And Zipporah, taking a stone, circumcised the foreskin of her son, and fell at his feet, and said: "The blood of my child's circumcision has stopped." And he departed from her, because she said: "The blood of my child's circumcision has stopped." For the angel, in a form like ours, was rushing and attempting to slay him, but was barely appeased, Zipporah having circumcised her son, I mean Gershom, who was also the firstborn, and is interpreted as "sojourner." Whom then the destroyer was attempting to slay, the sacred text has not clearly revealed.

but rather Moses, perhaps, by this circumcision of the child, and not willingly, has been driven away. The type again makes clear that death has been conquered in the blood of Christ. The holy multitude of the fathers has been saved, or rather the entire race from above and before him. For he died for all, and the death of all has been dissolved in him. For it is not in the blood of prophets, but in the blood of Christ, the newest, and with him we escape the destroyer. For this, it is said, Christ died and lived, that he might rule over both the dead and the living. But if the destroyer is said not to attack Gershom, and not rather the blessed Moses, you will understand that again. For death has not been driven away through circumcision according to the law, that is, through the fleshly and sensible, but through that in Christ, through the spirit, which he has wrought in the firstborn and new people, and in the one who is a sojourner on earth, but again inscribed for the above and heavenly; which the spiritual Zipporah, that is, the Church, she from Midian and from the nations, has circumcised by decree. And she would be a type of the spirit, because of its all-powerful and unbreakable nature, and indeed because it is from a rock. For the spirit is of Christ; and the rock is Christ, as the wise Paul writes. And it must be known that Joshua, who long ago came after Moses, circumcised the sons of Israel with stone knives, signifying to us enigmatically the circumcision not made by hands in Christ, through which death is also overcome, which is the spiritual circumcision of evil, the laying aside of baseness and pleasures. For concerning the circumcision according to the flesh, the divine Paul writes to us: "Circumcision is nothing.

A wise and sacred word has cried out to us: "Be circumcised for Christ, through whom and with whom glory is given to God and Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen." GLAPHYRA ON EXODUS, BOOK 3. On the Struck Rock. 1. "Enter through the narrow gate," Christ proclaimed to his friends. By the narrow gate, I think, he means the grievous entrance and the endurance worthy of all reason, through which it might be possible, even abundantly, to be esteemed by those who have chosen to think of higher things, and to be adorned with exercises for courage and virtue. For just as excelling in battles testifies to the valor of the one bearing arms, so the strong and noble man—in terms of being able, I say, to accomplish the virtue pleasing to God—would be shown as brilliant, illustrious, and full of all praise by his ability to bear well the labors of being tested. And indeed, the disciple of the Savior has assured us that such a man will be altogether and in every way admired, saying: "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for having been tested, he will receive the crown of life." Those who have thus arrived at such strength and have taken up such illustrious glory say: "You have tested us, O God; you have burned us, as silver is burned. You placed afflictions on our back. You set men over our heads. We passed through fire and water; you tested us for refreshment." For labor ends in delight, and afflictions broaden the straight path for those who contend nobly.

The knower of hidden things, that is God, knows all things before their generation (for all things are naked and laid bare before him); but he awaits the outcome of events and the strength of those being tested at the appropriate times, so that they might appear worthy of rewards not only to him by foreknowledge, but rather so that angels and humans might applaud them as having distinguished themselves and as having been attested in virtue through their own deeds. For this reason, the blessed Paul says concerning himself and the other saints, as those who have contended well and conquered, that they became a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to humans. Israel, therefore, is tested in many ways, so that even if it should appear still suffering from weakness, God might be admired for his great gentleness in tolerating those who err, and the mystery might be sketched out for us in each of the events that have occurred. Now, having just completed the discourse concerning the quail and also the manna, we showed Israel to be exceedingly weak in its feebleness and love of pleasure. But behold, again and not long after, it is seen stirring. For it is written thus again: And the whole assembly of the sons of Israel set out from the wilderness of Sin, according to their encampments by the word of the Lord, and they encamped at Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink. And the people reviled Moses, saying, "Give us water, that we may drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you revile me? And why do you tempt the Lord?" And the people thirsted for water there, and the people murmured against Moses, saying, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, "What shall I do with this people? In a little while they will stone me." And the Lord said to Moses, "Go before this people. Take with you some of the elders of the people, and the rod with which you struck the river, take it in your hand, and go. Behold, I stand there before you come to the rock at Horeb. And you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, and my people will drink." And Moses did so before the sons of Israel, and he named that place Temptation and Reviling, because of the reviling of the sons of Israel and because they tempted the Lord, saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" And these things the divine oracle said to us in Exodus. But it will break up, as it were, in Numbers a broader account, which I think it necessary to bring in, so that, examining each point correctly and precisely, we may have sufficient knowledge of the things that happened long ago typologically, and, in addition to these, the beauty of spiritual contemplation. So it is written: "And the sons of Israel and the whole assembly came into the wilderness of Sin, in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh, and there Miriam died and was buried there. And there was no water for the assembly, and they gathered against Moses and Aaron. And the people reviled Moses, saying, 'Would that we had perished in the destruction of our brothers before the Lord! And why did you bring the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness to kill us and our children?'

And why have you brought us up out of Egypt to come to this evil place? A place where there is no sowing, no fig trees, no vines, no pomegranates, and no water to drink. And Moses and Aaron came from before the congregation to the door of the tent of testimony. And they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and speak to the rock before them, and it will give its water; and you will bring forth water from the rock for them, and you will give drink to the congregation and their cattle." And Moses took the rod that was before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded, and Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation before the rock. And he said to them, "Hear me, you disobedient ones; will we not bring forth water for you from this rock?" And Moses, raising his hand, struck the rock twice with the rod; and much water came out, and the congregation and their cattle drank. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe to sanctify me before the sons of Israel, for this reason you will not lead this congregation into the land which I gave them." This is the water of contention, because the sons of Israel reviled the Lord, and it was sanctified among them. For they traveled through dry land, passing by much thirsty ground, and then, succumbing to the toils of the journey, if anything slight occurred that was wont to distress them, they made it unbearable, crying out against Moses and Aaron.

They had become observers of very many and admirable divine signs, and had learned through experience the superiority of divine power, yet they still feared that it might somehow fail to provide, I mean, to distribute life-sustaining things, and to supply them from every side with food and to make provisions of water. But they succumb to faint-heartedness, having a childish and unmanly mind. And if some small thing that naturally causes distress takes hold of them, they immediately attack their guide and cry out impiously, that he ever became their mediator at all, and that they were called through him to freedom. They even bless those who perished in the earlier faint-heartednesses, because they were caught up in a desire for the meats in Egypt; then, having eaten the deadly quail, they were condemned to death. Therefore they say, "It would have been better for us to have died in the destruction of our brothers, before the Lord. And why have you brought us into this desert, to kill us and our cattle?" O what wickedness of spirit, how unendurable the mindset, and how readily the mind falls into despondency! Having thirsted a little, the terrors in Egypt were now better than those from God; and the formerly bitter yoke of slavery was somehow sweet; and Pharaoh, though harsh, was no longer unbearable; the mud was not hated, nor the savagery of the taskmasters, but everything was now pleasant. For the weakness of their intellect persuades them to reach such a point of folly. And hear, if you will, also the accusations against Moses' mediation: "For why," they say, "did you lead us out of Egypt to come to this evil place?

A place where nothing is sown, no fig trees, no vines, no pomegranates, nor is there water to drink. Observe how he is carried away toward cowardice, and has turned without restraint toward temporary pleasures, and is excessively concerned with worldly delights; he accepts the filling of the belly. But he spurns hope, and does not cling to the land promised to the fathers, not considering that in every way and at all times the exceptional gifts are interspersed with labors. For one does not acquire the finest rewards without sweat. So Israel does not know how to excel, nor to resist the assaults of the passions with youthful vigor. Since this matter was not preserved for those under the Law, but was rather prepared for those in Christ. Yet it would have been fitting for God, being angry, not to deem them worthy even of a supply of water; but so that, even though they had sunk to such perversity, they might be helped toward faith through other wonders, Moses is ordered to strike the rock with his staff. But God was not unaware that, having become somewhat faint-hearted at the uprisings of the people, he himself would falter in faith. Therefore he says in Exodus: "Take with you some of the elders of the people, and take the staff with which you struck the river in your hand, and go. Behold, I stand there, before you come upon the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, and let my people drink." And in Numbers: "Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron. And speak to the rock before them, and it will give them water. And you shall bring forth water from the rock, and give the congregation to drink.

Observe that, in order to confirm faith by recalling the wonder-working in Egypt, he carries it further, saying: "Take the rod in your hand, with which you struck the river." As if to say: The rod that changed a great river into blood by the ineffable power of the God who accomplishes such things will very easily bring forth water also from the rock. Then, in another way, he reinforces it, adding: "Behold, I stand there." For you will not be alone, he says, nor would you again be the performer of the miracle; but I will show the rock to be the mother of many streams, I will prepare the miracle in advance, and I will await your service. Speak to the rock, and I will be the power of the words. Yet, although it was necessary to take courage from such words, Moses faltered. For he said: "Hear me, you disobedient ones; shall we not bring forth water for you from this rock?" Then he strikes the steep rock twice with the rod, as if nothing of what was expected would happen, even if the rock were struck. He struck twice, although in Egypt he had transformed the river into blood by striking the rod once. Nevertheless, God gave the stream, even though he was not moderately angered by these actions, so that no appearance of weakness might be recorded against him in the suspicions of the foolish. And Moses is rebuked, it is said: "For you will not bring this assembly," he says, "into this land, which I gave them, because you did not believe to sanctify me before the sons of Israel.

Let us then again reshape the form of the history into the mystery of Christ, and say what is fitting, tracking the divine Scriptures and striving to set straight the force of the meanings in the sacred writings as seems very good. 2. So in the first month, when Mariam had died, the people were thirsty. Then, at God’s command, the inspired Moses struck the rock with his rod, while the elders of the people and also Aaron stood by him. And they themselves speak to the rock, and it pours forth water abundantly and gives drink to the congregation and their cattle, as it is written. What then do we say is again intimated through the death of Mariam, or who would be understood at all, and what is the purpose of the necessary indication in saying that she died in the first month? We will therefore accept that Moses represents the law, Aaron the priesthood, and we will assign the person of Mariam to the worship under the law. Indeed, God said through the voice of a holy one to the everlasting Jerusalem: “And I sent before my face Moses and Aaron and Mariam.” Do you see that she was placed with Moses and Aaron to lead Israel? For through the mediation of the all-wise Moses and the presidency of Aaron—that is, of the dignity of the priesthood through the worship in types—the fleshly Israel then gained worship toward God. And that the person of Mariam is necessarily brought in along with Moses and Aaron is easy to understand even from this without effort.

Therefore, when Pharaoh had perished together with his bodyguards in the Red Sea and had been drowned with his entire army, Moses sang the thanksgiving and composed the hymn. The women came out dancing, and Miriam took her timbrel, as it is written, producing perhaps a deep and piercing sound in harmony with the songs. But this was a subtle enigma in types of the true contemplation. For the law itself, that is, Moses, and also Miriam, that is, the worship in shadows and types, would indicate the extraordinary and admirable power of the all-ruling God, as the manner of the ode and the sound of the timbrels would suggest. So one might assign the person of the worship in the law to Miriam, just as, of course, the person of the law is assigned to Moses, and that of the priesthood to Aaron. When Miriam died in the first month, that is, at the beginning of the year, according to the laws of the Hebrews, at the very time when the mystery of the holy Passover is celebrated, the people became thirsty. For in the first month of the year, which is also called the month of new things, the worship in shadows and types has, so to speak, come to an end, has been in a way contracted, and has been removed from the midst. How or in what manner? The only-begotten Word of God shone upon us in our form, as in the month of new things. Therefore, the speaker himself said: "I am present, as the seasons on the mountains, and as in the month of new things." Thus he called the Church from the nations, saying: "Arise, come, near me, my beautiful one, my dove, for behold, the winter has passed, the rain has gone away, it has gone on its way. The flowers have appeared in our land; for the time of harvest has arrived.

We have blossomed anew in Christ toward a newness of life, and the season of his advent has been shown to us as a spiritual spring, rendering human nature flourishing and fruitful. For then, at that time, when Miriam, who had been contracted and, as it were, dead in shadows, the people thirsted and came to be in a scarcity of spiritual waters. But the stream of Christ has flowed forth abundantly—I mean again, the oracles through him, and the mystical instruction in spirit and truth. And understanding this, the divine Paul writes: "For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them. And the rock was Christ." It is likened to a rock because of its indestructibility and immovability. For the divine and supreme nature is founded upon its own goods. In what manner, then, the water was given forth, it is necessary to examine. For when the elders of the law were gathered together and Aaron was present, words were spoken to the rock. And Moses strikes it twice. For when the elders of the people and the priests had assembled, those instructed according to the law—that is, Israel in the person of Moses—spoke against Christ, accusing him before Pilate, and impiously cried out, "Away, away, crucify him." Then they also afflicted him with two blows. For they killed the author of life.

Then, as if adding a second blow to the first, they wished to persuade that he had also remained among the dead. For Christ had come back to life, having trampled upon death. But since the soldiers who had been stationed by them as guards of the tomb came saying this, they recklessly ordered them to say also that the disciples had stolen him secretly, thus slandering the sacred mystery of the resurrection. Therefore, the blow was twofold. Yet the rock poured forth its stream abundantly, even though Israel had acted insolently toward it, and it gave drink to the whole congregation and flooded the world with its holy and divine streams. For thus he promised to bestow himself upon us, saying through the prophet: "Behold, I will incline toward them like a river of peace, and like a torrent flooding the glory of nations." And David also sings somewhere: "The rushings of the river gladden the city of God." And indeed, to the Father and God in heaven: "How you have multiplied your mercy, O God; the sons of men will hope under the shelter of your wings. They will be intoxicated with the fatness of your house, and you will water them with the torrent of your delight." For with you is the spring of life. Observe, however, that before their disbelief ran ahead, Moses strikes the rock with his rod. For Israel, having disobeyed, acted insolently toward Christ; Moses was rebuked, and Aaron with him. For you will not, he says, lead the sons of Israel into the land that I gave them.

He will bring us into the company of the saints and into the truer land of promise, not the law in types, nor the priesthood in itself, the feebleness in shadows. For we shall not be pleasing through blood, nor shall we be conspicuous before God in more earthly boasts; but we shall rather journey to the upper city and come to the company of the fathers, having Christ as our guide, through whom and with whom glory to God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. Concerning the Descent on Mount Sinai and the Presentation of Israel. 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ, addressing the Jewish multitudes who did not accept redemption through faith and greatly despised the benefit of his own ordinances, and who thought that the law through Moses would suffice and alone bring them into relationship with God, said: "No one comes to the Father except through me." And again: "I am the way, and I am the door." He did not speak falsely in saying these things, since he is truth. And God the Father is accessible in no other way except through the Son by nature; for whoever has known him will surely also know the Father from whom he proceeded. Therefore he also said to those who chose to disobey him and claimed to know the God of all: "If you knew me, you would also know my Father." For Moses became a pedagogue to the ancients, a mediator and leader, and a carrier of the laws from God, and he is excellent among the saints. For he heard God saying clearly: "I know you above all, and you have found favor with me.

Yet the law is not vigorous, nor is it such as to fully procure for us intimacy with God; but through the mediation of Christ we gain this as well. For He Himself is our peace, according to the Scriptures; and in Him alone is perfection in knowledge, and every good gift, and He has, so to speak, presented us through Himself to the Father. Therefore He also said: "I wish that, just as I and you are one, so also they may be one in us." So Moses is a mediator, but as in type and shadows; the true mediator is Christ, to whom we are attached in a relational manner, if indeed it is true that He has descended into our condition and become man, so that we also may become partakers of His divine nature, being bound to God through the participation and grace of the Holy Spirit. And we shall learn these things again, fixing the eye of our understanding upon the sacred writings. For it says that the Lord said to Moses: "Go down, testify to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow. And let them wash their garments, and let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will descend upon Mount Sinai, before all the people, and you shall enclose the people round about, saying: 'Take heed to yourselves that no one go up onto the mountain, nor touch any part of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall die. No hand shall touch it; for he shall be stoned with stones or shot with a dart, whether beast or man, he shall not live.' And when the voices and trumpets and the cloud have departed from the mountain, then they shall go up onto the mountain.

For when the Israelites, while serving in Egypt and having slipped into their false worships, were prostrating themselves before human inventions and things made of stone, or of other material, offering their devotions, suffering a pitiable delusion, and, as the prophet says, saying to wood, "You are my God," and to stone, "You gave birth to me," then of necessity, since the Creator wished to lead them back from that ancient and profane false worship to knowledge of the truth, so that they might not seem, deceived by the words of Moses, to worship a non-existent God, He usefully deems them worthy even of the vision of God in types. For visible things are wont to be honored with more steadfast faith. So then He manifestly promises to come down, and not far off. And so that they might know that those called to this honor, as both hearers and beholders of God, that is, of His divine and ineffable glory, it was absolutely necessary for them also to have the purity most dear to Him, and to be free from carnal uncleanness, and in addition to this to be well-groomed, so that the form of the feast might be properly and fittingly represented. For it is truly a feast and a wondrous thing to be deemed worthy of such a splendid vision. Moreover, He commands them to purify themselves, to abstain from intercourse with women, and to extend their continence to the third day. And He also ordered that their garments be washed. And when this had been accomplished, it says, "On the third day, at dawn, there were voices and lightnings, and dark clouds on Mount Sinai. The sound of the trumpet rang out loudly.

And the whole people in the camp were struck with terror. And Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was all smoking because God had descended upon it in fire; and the smoke rose up like the smoke of a furnace; and the whole people were exceedingly amazed. And the sounds of the trumpet grew progressively stronger. Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice. For the supreme and transcendent nature, which is beyond all that is created, is barely seen by the mind. But since they required more manifest things for the vision of God, this mode of economy necessarily proceeded through many terrors. For there were voices and flashes of lightning occurring together, and a dark cloud gathered, so that creation might appear to be serving, and to be bowing its neck as a slave to the God of all. Therefore, Moses brought out Israel, who were trembling, and stationed them at the mountain, because they would suffer nothing from those who wronged them, but would encounter the Lord as gentle and good, having perhaps first initiated them, as he says. And when the mountain was kindled, there were immediately smoke rising upward, and a clear sound of a trumpet, at first faint, then after this and advancing shortly, to a deep and more robust utterance. Then the God of all descended in the form of fire upon Mount Sinai, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. And Moses went up, and the Lord said to Moses, "Go down and solemnly warn the people not to approach God to observe, lest a multitude of them fall.

And the priests who approach the Lord God shall be sanctified, lest the Lord remove himself from them. And Moses said to God: The people will not be able to ascend Mount Sinai. For you testified to us, saying: Set apart the mountain, and sanctify it. And the Lord said to him: Go, descend, ascend yourself, and Aaron with you. But the priests and the people shall not go up to God, lest the Lord destroy them. For he commands only the mediator—I mean Moses—to go up to the mountain; he admits no one else, and declares the mountain untrodden for them. And he threatened death if anyone should choose to disregard this. It is not that he seeks to be thought harsh, or cruel, or difficult of access—for it would be quite foolish to think thus—but that they might know and understand that to be able to be near God belongs to things exceedingly exalted and to those in the highest preeminences, of honor and glory. And it was also, in another way, most absurd that they, nurtured in the customs of the Egyptians and knowing that the precincts of unclean demons were not accessible to those who wished, but only with difficulty to the chosen, after being purified, perhaps, according to the laws among them, to enter the innermost shrines, should then think it nothing to approach the God of all and to behold such august and sacred places where his divine and ineffable glory appeared. Moreover, I say that it is necessary for us to be drawn by many means to love what conduces to benefit. It was not right that peoples and their leader be honored equally by God; the one who is to guide and those under him—

the servant of the law, and the one upon whom the laws depend; but it was better, indeed wise and most useful for those who would be placed under him, to assign the glory in a more exceptional way. And that what I say is true, you will understand through another matter. For the Master of all said to the hierophant Moses: Behold, I come to you in a pillar of cloud, so that you may hear me speaking to you, and that they may believe you forever. Thus everything in the world was done in an orderly and economic manner. 2. But there was, as I said, in the beginning a kind of shadowy outline of the coming of our Savior, who was about to shine upon those on earth, as on the third day, in the final time, when the Word became flesh and appeared to us, according to the Scriptures; and it proclaimed the purification that would be set forth by him and through him at the proper times for those who believed. For he says, Bear witness to the people, and let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will descend upon Mount Sinai. And what the manner of this preparation is, Moses clarifies by saying: For three days, he says, do not approach a woman. And he insisted that they must clearly wash even their garments. But in the necessity of saying not to sleep with women, and to refrain from intercourse with them, the mortification of the pleasures of the flesh is well signified. And in the necessity of cleansing even the garments themselves, the purification through water is somehow inscribed for us, clearly also through the Spirit that removes defilements. For as the blessed Paul writes:

Those who have chosen to think the things of Christ and walk in the Spirit have crucified the flesh together with its passions and desires; and they mortify the members on the earth—fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire. But they make a bright garment of the grace from above, or rather of Emmanuel himself. For "put on," it says, "our Lord Jesus Christ, and do not make the flesh's fornication into desire." But these things Moses commanded those of that time to do. And we have heard even the law itself proclaiming enigmatically what is pleasing to Christ, both purification through water and the mortification of fleshly desires. For the law commanded that those who were defiled be sprinkled with water for the purity of the flesh, and that the one with a discharge be sent out of the camp as unclean, disparaging, I think, the matter of incontinence and declaring the pleasure of the flesh profane. Therefore we also, who have been justified in Christ and sanctified through the Spirit, have been commanded to hate the defiled garment of the flesh. So the law is a preparer, and it prefigures the beauty of the gifts through Christ, as if still in thick types. But let us consider, if you will, the manner of the manifestation itself. For it happened, it says, on the third day at dawn, there were voices and lightnings, and a dark cloud over Mount Sinai. A sound of a trumpet resounded loudly. For the Only-begotten, as I said, came and descended from the heavens, not in the first time, nor at the beginnings of this age.

nor yet in the second and intermediate time, but as the third and last, and as at dawn and the beginning of day—that is, when the intelligible mist within us has already been driven off, and the night, as it were, is passing by, and the darkness has vanished. For the one suspected of being the god of this age through deceit and covetousness darkened the whole earth in an intelligible sense, leading it into polytheistic error and every form of impurity. But the God and Lord of all, that is, Christ, has shone upon us and truly displayed a most longed-for day, which the inspired David mentioned, saying: "This is the day that the Lord made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." And the most wise Paul wrote somewhere: "The night has advanced, but the day has drawn near." And again: "We are not of night, nor of darkness, but sons of light and sons of day." So at dawn, as on the third day, the Only-Begotten descended. There were lightning flashes on Mount Sinai and a dark cloud. The lightning is a type of the divine light and the intelligible radiance—that is, of the spiritual light shining through Christ upon all things and coursing through the heavens. For the prophet also cried out thus to the God and Savior Christ of all: "Your lightning has shone upon the inhabited world." And we certainly do not say that he was making mention of lightning produced from rain; but, as I just said, he intended to signify the radiance of the intelligible light by the name of lightning. And the darkness would suggest that the mystery of Christ is truly hard to behold.

And indeed the blessed David himself, understanding somewhere, as I think, cried out beforehand, saying: "And he set darkness as his concealment; around him is his tent; dark water in clouds of airs. From the radiance before him the clouds passed by." For the mystery of Christ is hidden in such a way that it requires initiation from above and revelation from God. Peter, for his part, listened well, understanding the God Word who had appeared in the flesh and is truly the Son: "Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven." And Paul also affirmed that the mystery was made known to him by revelation of God. Therefore, the obscurity of knowledge is indicated by the darkness. And the trumpet also cried out, sounding the melodiousness of the evangelical oracles. And indeed God said somewhere through the voice of the prophets to the Jewish peoples: "I have set watchers over you. Hear the voice of the trumpet." And they said: "We will not listen." Because of this, the nations heard, and those tending the flocks among them. "Hear, O earth: Behold, I bring evils upon this people, the fruit of their turning away, because they did not heed my word and rejected my law." For the trumpet sounded among them through the watchers from God, that is, the holy apostles. For watchers have been appointed over us. But they said: "We will not listen." Because of this, the nations heard. And we will find that the holy disciples themselves openly said to the Jewish peoples: "It is necessary for us to speak the word of God to you first.

Since you reject him and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations. For thus the Lord has commanded us. And the blessed Isaiah likens the fine sound of the trumpet to the proclamations of Christ, speaking of the time of his advent: "And it shall be, on that day, they shall blow the great trumpet." For the law also is a trumpet, but it was weak-voiced and slow-tongued. For this reason Moses barely sounded to Judea alone, where God became known. But the great trumpet is Christ, or the proclamations through him, resounding throughout the whole world under heaven. For he said that this Gospel would be proclaimed in the whole inhabited world, as a testimony to all the nations. And that this word is true, the outcome of events has testified. For no one has remained ignorant of the glory of our Savior. And Moses, it says, led the people of God out of the camp to meet him, and stood at Mount Sinai. Observe the pedagogy of Moses: he leads to God. For he educates toward Christ, and for the time being presents those under his instruction at the mountain, but does not lead them up into it. By "mountain" here you will understand the transcendent and surpassing knowledge of the mystery concerning Christ. For it is very high and scarcely accessible to those under the law, but rather fitting for us who are sanctified in spirit. For as the Savior himself said: "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; but to them it is not given," I mean to the Jews.

And making his words to the Father and God on our behalf as if in the form of a prayer, he says, "I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden all these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to infants." Yes, Father, because such was your good pleasure. So Moses leads them to the mountain, but does not bring them up onto it; for, as I just said, we gain perfection and height in wisdom and knowledge rather through Christ, not through Moses. For the one was a servant and a tutor; but the other, as Lord of all, has appeared to us as the giver of perfect knowledge. For in him are all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge, according to what is written. So when God descended in the form of fire, there were smoke-like emissions darting forth as from a furnace, unrolling very high, and, I think, spreading over the whole people. For the Word of God came down from heaven to us for our sake like a smelting fire, according to the voice of the prophet. And he himself baptized us with the Holy Spirit and fire—with the intelligible fire that consumes the rubbish in us and melts away the filth from sin, and does not allow the mind to grow cold toward outlandish pleasures; and we have been perfected by this, boiling with the Spirit. And Christ himself worked this in us. Therefore he also said, "I came to cast fire upon the earth. And what do I want if it is already kindled?" So he appeared to the ancients in the form of fire, very fittingly, but not without smoke.

We will understand again through this, that those who fall into idleness and choose to despise His divine glory must necessarily lament and wail. For it is necessary to weep in smoke. And will not the God-hating and accursed be carried off to the outer darkness, how could anyone doubt? For there, it says, will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Therefore, that those concerning whom the account is shed bitter tears over their indolences, the smoke indicated. And it added that the sounds of the trumpet became, as it advanced, much stronger, so that at first only a few could barely hear; later, many, indeed the whole assembly. For the trumpet, both most clear-voiced and producing a piercing sound, is the evangelical proclamation, as we have already said. But it was heard, it says, at first only in Judea; as time advanced, the divine disciples already went around to every place under heaven, proclaiming everywhere; so that from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum, indeed even to the very ends of the earth, and from east to west, they sounded the sacred trumpet. This, I think, is what it means for the sounds of the trumpet to become stronger. Then after this, God finally charges the blessed Moses to testify to the people: "Lest," he says, "they approach God to observe, and a multitude of them fall; and let the priests who approach the Lord God be sanctified, lest the Lord remove them.

Consider then, consider, even from these things again, how it is impossible to approach God through the pedagogy of Moses. For He does not welcome those who choose to be esteemed in types and shadows—such are the things of Moses—but rather seeks in us the beauty of truth. And truth is Christ, through whom we have obtained access and have come near to the Father, as if ascending a mountain, the knowledge concerning Him. For having known the Son, we have known through Him and in Him the Father. Therefore, we have obtained access through Him, not through Moses, that is, not through the law. And He clearly indicates beforehand that even they are sanctified, yet the priesthood according to the law is not yet perfectly holy, for as still needing sanctification, He has not commanded it to be sanctified elsewhere. But blameless and holy of holies is the high priest over us, Christ, and the guarantor of a better covenant, as Paul says. Consequently, the first has ceased. And there has been a transposition of the priesthood itself, not having the blameless and the supremely holy. For it has perfected no one according to conscience, but has rather introduced teachings of baptisms, instructions of purifications for the cleanliness of the flesh. For the power of the legal priesthood barely culminates in this. Therefore, as not having the perfectly holy, but being sanctified in due time in Christ, with the types being transformed into truth, He has commanded it to be sanctified. And adding, "Lest the Lord ever remove from them," He has allowed us to understand that death is the penalty for those who honor the priesthood in the law, when the priesthood through Christ has been manifested in the world.

through whom both peoples and the very race once revered and sacred are sanctified; but utterly profane and in impurities is that which has not been sanctified by him. For this reason he said to the multitudes of the Jews: "Truly, truly I say to you, that unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins." And that those from Israel, having become unbridled, were to be sent away at times, and would return to God in no other way than through Christ, the saying of God spoken economically to the most excellent Moses will easily demonstrate: "Go, descend, and ascend, you and Aaron with you." Do you see how Moses was sent away, then does not return alone, but ascends again with Aaron accompanying and running alongside him, who was a type of Christ, the great high priest? For through him, as I said, the Father is approachable. And those in the law, that is Israel, having been sent away at times, will in the last times recognize the holy and innocent high priest, that is Christ; and they will approach God the Father through him, as if ascending the mountain, the revered and great mystery of the economy, through which Christ has saved us all, through whom and with whom glory is to God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

About the ascent of Moses and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abiud, and the seventy elders of the people to the mountain. a. Those of the blood of Israel were called to God through the law, with Moses mediating and ministering at that time. But as the divine Paul writes, the law perfected no one. Indeed, perfection of the law and the prophets is understood to be Christ. For every redemption is through him. Since there is no other name under heaven among men in which we must be saved, and in him is all perfection through sanctification in spirit. Through him we have been called to the Father, and we shall ascend to the upper city with him. And indeed he said plainly: In the house of my Father there are many dwellings. But if not, I would have said to you: I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I come again, and I will take you to myself, so that where I am, you also may be. For he offered a firstfruits and a kind of first offering of humanity to heaven. And that he will also bring us ourselves up, one would not doubt. For he who knows not how to lie confirms this, adding hope to those worthy of attaining it. For we shall be citizens of heaven in due time, Christ having gone up before us, as I said, and the most wise Paul will confirm that this is true, having written thus: For Christ did not enter into handmade sanctuaries, copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God on our behalf. For he was, and is, and will be God by nature, together with his own Father and in the sight of him who begot him.

He reveals concerning us that he became man, so that we also, who were cast out of the sight of the Father's eyes both through the transgression in Adam and the sin that tyrannized us, might again come into his presence, through Christ and into the beginning, with the intervening things that had crept in having vanished into nothing. We have therefore been called in Christ, and to the city above, and are deemed worthy of the oversight from God and Father, and through him and in him we have been taught to worship the God who is the begetter and Father of all. The law also prefigured this for us again in a riddling manner. For the God of all descended in the form of fire upon Mount Sinai, and after giving laws to the people of Israel, through which it was fitting to proceed to the beginnings of righteousness. For the law is like a preliminary entry to more perfect things, elements and a pre-announcement of the teachings through Christ. And he said to Moses, "Go up to God, you and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abiud, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they will worship the Lord from afar. And Moses alone will approach God. But they will not approach. And the people will not go up with them." When all-wise Moses had reported these things, the whole people answered with a loud voice, saying, "We will do all the words that the Lord spoke, and we will listen." And what after this? And Moses wrote, it says, all the words of the Lord. And rising early in the morning, Moses built an altar on the mountain, and twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.

And he sent out the young men of the sons of Israel, and they brought up whole burnt offerings, and they sacrificed a sacrifice of deliverance to the Lord God, calves. And Moses, taking half of the blood, poured it into the bowl; and he poured the other half of the blood toward the altar. And taking the book of the covenant, he read it into the ears of the people; and they said: Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will hearken. And Moses, taking the blood, sprinkled it over the people, and said: Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words. And when the sacrifice was completed, and the whole people had been sprinkled with the blood of the covenant, then, it says, Moses and Aaron, and Nadab and Abiud, and seventy of the council of the people of Israel went up, and they saw the place where the God of Israel stood, and what was under his feet, like a work of sapphire brick, and like the form of the firmament of heaven in its purity. And not one of the chosen of Israel was missing. And they appeared in the place of God, and they ate and drank. Come then, let us say the fitting things concerning each of the things read, and beginning straightway with the meaning of the matters before us, the things that have happened to us from Christ. As if on a tablet, let us see inscribed in the God-inspired Scripture both the Church above and in the heavens, that is, heaven, and also that on earth according to the likeness of the one above, and to call it a hill and a mountain, because of the elevated and raised-up character of those dwelling in them with respect to virtue. For the mind of the saints is not low nor cast down.

But it is raised above the more earthly disposition and carnal desires. It rather ascends higher; and the saying of David is true: "The mighty gods of the earth were greatly exalted." And that those who have chosen to live here and have subsequently ascended to virtue would fittingly need to dwell also in the upper abodes, the Psalmist will again confirm, speaking thus: "Who will ascend the mountain of the Lord, or who will stand in his holy place? He who is innocent in hands and pure in heart, who has not taken his soul in vain, and has not sworn deceitfully to his neighbor. He has not given his money at interest, and has not taken bribes against the innocent. This one will receive blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Savior. This is the generation of those who seek the face of the God of Jacob." 2. Therefore, a mountain accessible to the saints is heaven, that is, the Church of the firstborn; but to the profane and unholy, it is untrodden. So the God of all commanded Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiud, and seventy of the elders of Israel to ascend the mountain. And he said that they would worship the Lord from afar. And Moses alone would approach God; but they would not approach. And the people would not ascend with them. Now the sons born of Aaron signify for us the priestly class; and the elders, those chosen on the basis of merit.

Aaron, in turn, is presented to us as a type of Christ, the holy and innocent high priest, through whom we have received the birth by Spirit and water. We are called a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation. Therefore, at the appointed times, we, the elect and sacred ones, will ascend to the upper city, with Christ, the great priest, accompanying and leading us—he who became like us for our sake, and who, though he is God the Father by nature, worships together with us. And Moses draws near, but the Son is with us who are far off. For as far as the mystery of the incarnation is concerned, Moses is closer to God, as mediator and definer of the law. But since the Son has become one of us, though he is God by nature and Lord of all, he does not thereby dishonor our measure. He condescends, in the economy, to be thought of as even behind Moses. Indeed, he has come under the same law with us, though as God he is the lawgiver. That he came under the law is easy to see. For he was circumcised on the eighth day. And he also paid the two-drachma tax, though he is by nature free as the Son. And the sacred text itself will suffice, saying that Emmanuel came under the law. And that, because of his humanity, and because he became like us under the law, he is considered to be placed second to Moses, you will understand also from other things. For the God of all commanded the most excellent Moses to say to Pharaoh, releasing Israel from unbearable slavery: "The Lord God of the Hebrews has called us." But the law confesses its weakness regarding redemption.

Then he links the emerging and about-to-be-revealed Aaron as a type of Christ the all-powerful, through whom all redemption comes. For he spoke thus to Moses: "Behold, I have given you as a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak to him all that I command you, and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh." Do you see that Aaron again mediates, while Moses bears the person of the lawgiver? Indeed, the blessed Paul also attributes the law itself to him, even though it was abrogated by God. For he writes thus: "If someone rejects the law of Moses, he dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses." Let us therefore ascend, as if to a mountain, to the heavenly abodes, the holy and chosen ones, while the other multitude remains below. For it says, "The people will not go up with them," because, according to the Savior's saying, "Many are called, but few are chosen." And we ascend not without Christ. For Aaron was then with those who worshiped, and he was still numbered among those far off. So also Christ is far off with us for our sake, so that we, with him and through him, may be near the Father. For everything was clearly arranged for us and on our behalf. Just as he became with us among the dead, so that we might be in life with him and through him—for he revived, having trampled the power of death—so he became with us at a distance, although he is near, so that we in turn, with him and through him, might draw near to the Father. And this indeed has been accomplished. For having become partakers of him through the Spirit, we are united to God the Father through him, since we are truly sharers in the divine nature, according to the Scriptures.

But the God of all commanded Moses and Aaron, the sacred and chosen ones, to go up and assemble together on the mountain. And that those who have come to this point of glory and are truly eager to ascend to the heights, so as to draw near to God, must first be purified by the blood of Christ, who made his own soul the ransom for the life of all, and offered up his assumed flesh as a sweet fragrance. For he presented himself as a blameless sacrifice and a spiritual holocaust on our behalf to God, as the inspired Moses again typified for us, led by the illumination of the Spirit to foreknowledge of things to come. Understanding this, I think, before his own journey upward and that of those summoned, he wrote down all the words of the Lord. What was done before this again, we will say directly. For I think that those who desire the high and upward journey must have the law of God engraved in their mind and heart, and then sing out as from a lyre to him, "I have hidden your words in my heart, so that I may not sin against you." For just as it is not unprofitable for life and a saving thing to always remember the words of God, in the same way, I think, forgetfulness tends to bring ruin. So the blessed Moses writes all the words of the Lord, about which he himself proclaimed to those being instructed through him, and indeed to us as well: "And you will speak them while sitting in the house, while walking on the road, while lying down, and while rising up." And rising early in the morning, he built an altar.

He places around it twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent the young men of the sons of Israel, who, it says, brought up whole burnt offerings and sacrificed a sacrifice of deliverance to God, calves. Now the altar would be a type, and quite clearly, of the Church of Christ, which is, as it were, situated upon the mountain. For we say that the other, the metropolis of the firstborn, of which God is the artisan and creator, is raised up as if on a mountain. Therefore the altar depicts the Church for us. And Moses very economically places the twelve stones around it, for the twelve tribes of Israel, as if thereby pre-urging those of the blood of Israel that their most fitting place is the Church of Christ. And perhaps one must cry out: "I will encircle your altar, Lord, that I may hear a voice of praise." For that it was to them especially and before all others that the Father sent the Son as Savior and Redeemer, he himself will make clear by saying: "I was sent only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But since they slipped into extraordinary madness and raged against him, Christ necessarily moved over to the Gentiles. Therefore, that their most fitting place was, as I just said, the altar of Christ, Moses prefigured by placing the twelve stones around it for the twelve tribes of Israel.

That those who are admired for their courage—clearly spiritual and according to God, those who have a strong and robust mind—would at the proper times perform the mystery of Christ, one might learn from what actually happened. For the young men were sent and brought the whole burnt offerings. We find that the holy apostles did this, who, so to speak, went about the whole earth, performing for him and bringing whole burnt offerings, that is, those who are conspicuous in blameless faith and also, by their efforts, those who are well trained in virtue. For it is not possible, it is not possible, for a feeble mind to be able to celebrate the mysteries clearly, nor for a sick mind that is weak and accustomed to sinking into worldly desires; but for one who is so equipped and has such vigor as to be able to say henceforth: "For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Such a one is a young man, and among the most valiant. It would be fitting for him to consecrate to God the whole burnt offerings and spiritual sacrifices, and to engage in the intelligible sacred rites, and to fulfill the sacrifice of salvation; or this was well prefigured through the calves that were brought. For sometimes, because of its great strength and because it is the highest of the unblemished animals, the calf is compared to Christ as a full-grown calf; but sometimes to a small calf, and for what reason, you see again, the Only-begotten became man and under the yoke of servitude, if it is true that he appeared in the form of a servant.

But even if, to speak concisely, he entered into the mystery of the incarnation under the yoke of servitude with us, he was unacquainted with servitude, because he was of a nature that is from above and free. For this reason he is compared to a calf, because he is both under the yoke and outside the yoke. For a calf is unacquainted with the yoke, even though such a kind is naturally under the yoke. Moreover, even if he came under the law as under a yoke, he was free; for he was above the law, being lawgiver and God. And thirdly, if you will, he bore the flesh from the earth, which in itself suffers from the law through sin, according to Paul's saying. For as far as the nature of the flesh is concerned, he seems to have been placed under the yoke of sin, but he was unacquainted with it; for he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. Christ, therefore, is called a calf in this economy, and because a new creation has come into being; for he is the firstfruits of those called to this. And that it was necessary for those grasping to be sanctified by blood and for those yearning to approach God, Moses showed by sprinkling the entire people and the book itself with blood. And through this we will again understand that he alone is incomplete for sanctification. For observe how he himself is sanctified by the sprinkling of blood; for the law least of all washes away sins, but the grace of the mysteries through Christ accomplishes this. And very well indeed is the fact that the hierophant Moses, rising early in the morning, both set aright the divine mystery itself and, as I already said, placed around it twelve stones, and also sacrificed calves.

For at dawn, as if morning had already come, and the Daystar was almost shining, and a spiritual day was rising for us, while night had already passed and demonic darkness had ceased, the sacred beauty of the Church was revealed, having a venerable altar upon which the mystery of Christ is celebrated. And the tribes of the earth stood by it, as if in the examples of the stones. And indeed, the divine Paul, transforming the image of the example into truth, writes to those sanctified in Christ: "In whom you also, as living stones, were built up into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood." Then the young men also brought the whole burnt offerings, and became spiritual priests. Then indeed, then we came into the presence of the Father, and stood before him with the vigor of the mind, ready for every good thing whatsoever, making it in the order of a presentation. This clearly the divine David also proclaimed to us beforehand, speaking on behalf of the faithful thus to the God of all: "In the morning you will hear my voice. In the morning I will stand before you, and you will see me, because you are not a God who desires lawlessness, nor will an evildoer dwell with you." Sanctified, then, and as if still purified in types by the blood, Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiud, and the seventy of the council of Israel went up to the mountain, and saw the work under his feet like a work of sapphire brick, and like a work of the firmament of heaven in its purity. And none of the chosen of Israel dissented.

And they appeared in the place of God, and they ate and they drank. You hear how they beheld what is called the place of God, as in the form of the firmament of heaven. For the heaven is luminous, and the highest and ethereal color resembles sapphire. The heaven is a most fitting place, and one upon which he rests, taking up his abode among angels. For he dwells holy among the holy, and, so to speak, reclines upon those who tread the upper city, because of their very noble nature and their being well polished for the excellence of life. For we believe the multitude of the upper spirits to be holy. So then, what is beneath his feet appeared to those who had ascended the mountain, as in the form of the firmament of heaven in its purity, it says. For it was necessary, it was necessary, that those who had once been sick with the error of polytheism and had worshipped creation, and then were called to the knowledge of God, should see, usefully and necessarily, that he has even heaven itself under his feet, and that he is Lord of all, as one who has brought all things into existence, redeeming them from their ancient deception. And that those who from time to time enter the upper city are again compared to partaking richly of divine gifts and to enjoying the spiritual goods from Christ, the fact that those who ascended, having come to be in the place of God, ate and drank will demonstrate. But in what I said recently, Moses alone was commanded to approach God; the others, with whom Aaron was, were to worship from afar. And we said that the Son, who is near to God the Father, has become with us by nature from afar, our innocent and undefiled high priest.

so that through him, and again with him, we too may be found near. Therefore he is also called Emmanuel, which is interpreted, "God with us." Yet even if he has become with us as a man, it is possible to see that not even to the blessed Moses himself did the Father become accessible without his mediation. For he himself is the way, he himself is the door, as we have already said. And we shall learn this again from what follows: For the Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets, the law, and the plates which I have written to legislate for them." And Moses arose, and Joshua who stood by him, and they went up to the mountain of God. You see that Moses, having received the law still in shadows and letters, is called, and Joshua, who was not called, runs up with him as a type of Christ, who is not called by the Father, perhaps like the others, for he is always present. And he makes the path accessible to those who are called, mediating and being present. For it is impossible, as I said, for us to enter within God and Father in any other way except through his mediation alone. Therefore, glory and power to him, together with the all-holy Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Concerning the Calf-Making of Israel. Those who have no law to aid them are carried away by blind and undiscerning impulses of their wills toward anything whatsoever, and very easily, even if they appear to be greatly afflicted with the inability to be blameless, they are carried away toward things that are abhorrent and under great accusation before God and men; rather, even if there should be something utterly outlandish, they deem it worthy of wonder and praise, and they do not know how to distinguish what is truly acceptable from what is, on the contrary, shameful and suspect. For just as ships that traverse this great and spacious sea, if they have a skilled and expert helmsman standing at the rudders, speed on a straight course; but if there is one who is not very skilled, they are tossed about everywhere, almost yielding to the driving wave, wherever it can drive them; so also the soul of a man, having no law standing over it, readily inclines toward whatever seems good to it, and is intoxicated by the waves of its own pleasures. We will find that Israel has suffered this. For not yet having the mind established in piety, nor the heart firmly set with God, he was found going backward again, and loving the charges of the accursed and abominable idolatry. Therefore concerning them the Savior himself said: "But when the unclean spirit goes out from the man, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and does not find it," and, "I will return," he says, "to my own place." And coming, it finds the place vacant, swept, and adorned.

Then he goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And entering, they dwell there; and the final state of that man becomes worse than the first. Then, adding to these things, "Truly," he says, "I say to you, thus it will be for this wicked generation." For in the beginning the evil spirit was driven out when they sacrificed the lamb as a type of Christ; they were anointed with the blood and escaped the destroyer. But behold, it has entered again, and much worse than before, if indeed the one speaking about those who have chosen to suffer such things is truthful: "For it would have been better for them not to have known the path of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment given to them." What has happened to them is that of the true proverb: "A dog returning to its own vomit," and "A sow, having washed itself, rolling in the mire." From the very things they have dared, one might observe that they were again touching their own vomit and, by turning back, were practicing rolling in the mire from above. For it is written that when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him: "Arise and make us gods who will go before us. This Moses, the man who led us out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what has become of him." And Aaron says to them: "Take off the golden earrings from the ears of your wives and daughters, and bring them to me." And all the people took off the golden earrings from the ears of their women and brought them to Aaron.

And he received them from their hands, and shaped them with his stylus, and made for them a molten calf. And they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt." And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar opposite it, and Aaron proclaimed, saying, "Tomorrow is the feast of the Lord." And rising early on the next day, he brought up whole burnt offerings, and offered a sacrifice of deliverance, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. The inspired Moses, being well initiated into the laws, spent his time on Mount Sinai. But they, having senselessly disregarded his delay, fell into such mental derangement that they no longer knew at all that they were under God, who is all-powerful—even though they had seen him in the form of fire on Mount Sinai, and had been hearers of his voice, and had entreated Moses to mediate for them. But, "O full of folly to the point of oblivion," one might say to them, "Moses has been delayed. Yet what is this to God, who is always present with those on earth, even if he is not seen?" Let the inspired David then cry out, "A crooked and embittered generation." And to this Moses adds, "You have forgotten the God who nourished you." And what gods did he need, who had been so miraculously delivered, for whom the hail and the three-day darkness had been poured over the land of the Egyptians, for whom all the firstborn had perished in a single night, to whom the wild and untaught sea had granted escape from the cruelty of their pursuers? But if one should choose to recount each detail, he will spend a long discourse on all.

When the all-wise Moses was about to come, they attacked Aaron. And he, having already somehow seen the onset as unbearable (for they had cried out, "Make us gods who will go before us"), ordered them to bring the earrings of their wives and daughters. And they immediately brought them; for they had fallen into the error of Egypt and slipped into their ancient follies, as Aaron demonstrated by the very act, shaping for them the worshipped image in the form of a calf. For the calf was the object of reverence in Egypt both to the Egyptians themselves and to those who had succumbed to their deception. So you see how they are being carried back to the beginning. The unclean spirit broke in again, and for them, according to the Savior's word, the last things became worse than the first. But I think that the inspired Aaron very wisely asked for the earrings, indicating by this, as it were, that they had stripped their hearing of its proper adornment, no longer possessing obedience but rather having been led astray into a god-hating and profane disobedience. For when God said, "You shall have no other gods besides me," and then they applauded his words and honored them with a fine vote, saying, "All that God has said we will do and we will listen," they sought carved gods. Do you see how they have cast off their readiness to hear? And this, I think, is the adornment of the ears. But see how Aaron smiles at their undertakings. For having shown them the image made in the form of a calf, he then addressed them: "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

But it was not by a calf that they were redeemed (how or whence could that be?), but by a mighty hand, a high arm, and by signs and wonders. Therefore, as if to recall what had happened from God, he speaks ironically, saying: "These are your gods, O Israel." He also brought sacrifices; and they ate and drank as at a festival, and rose up to play. For separation from God is followed by being bound to fleshly things, and considering impurity as luxury, and deeming as good and pleasant delight those things over which they ought to have lamented. For this reason the blessed Paul also counted impure idolatry among the fleshly offenses: "For the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry." For error is a matchmaker for even worse things; and to be carried away from God compels one to suffer the most shameful of all evils. For some danced, letting loose, I suppose, the after-dinner songs, doing and saying what are the offenses of drunkards. And to make known to the inspired Moses what had been dared, God speaks thus: "Go, descend quickly from here; for the people whom you led out of the land of Egypt have transgressed. They quickly departed from the way which I commanded them. They made for themselves a calf, and worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and said: 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.' And now let me be, and, angered with wrath against them, I will destroy them, and make you into a great nation." And Moses prayed before the Lord his God.

You hear how Israel, being light and easily led astray and very prone to revolt, is not even deemed worthy to be called God's own people? And yet, although He Himself ordained the law, He attributes the matter to Moses. "For they quickly turned aside," He says, "from the path which I commanded them." So too Christ, concerning those who have thought the same things and have fabricated a pretense of piety but have not truly practiced doing good, said that the Judge would declare before the divine tribunal: "Depart from me, workers of lawlessness; I do not know you." Therefore, those who cling unswervingly to love for God, preserve the genuineness of faith, are firmly set on doing good, and reject the charges of fickleness, would truly be known to God and be His people. Nevertheless, Moses interceded and begged that the wrath against all be checked. For it was necessary—yes, necessary—that the mediator imitate Christ, who drove away the wrath from above that was upon us because of much sin, granting as Son the justification in faith to those who had sinned. So this too is a type of the mediation through Christ. And the inspired Moses, by his supplications, averts the severity of the wrath; then he comes down from the mountain. But when he learned of the dancing and heard the voices of the revelers in his ears, he shatters the tablets on which the laws were inscribed, no longer deeming them worthy of instruction, as they were disobedient and ungrateful, or of little understanding, and as they had a mind exceedingly prone to what was not fitting, and had made so swift a revolt. And when he came to the assembly, he destroys the calf.

Then, having let it down into the water, he gave it to drink, it says, to the sons of Israel, indicating almost by this that the impiety would touch even their livers and inward parts. I think that he was perhaps also intimating to them that their heart was filled with profane and abominable idolatry. Having summoned the chosen men, he ordered them to put to death those who were most responsible of all, sparing neither brother, neighbor, nor acquaintance. And indeed twenty-three thousand fell. But since he sought proportionate penalties for those who had so shamelessly committed impiety, he withdraws to God and makes intercession on behalf of the others. Then only with difficulty does God assent to him, saying that he himself would by no means dwell with them, but would rather send with them an angel as a guide and leader of the way. And at this the people lamented; but God ordered that they remove their garments and all their adornment and go thus in dejection. When this had been carried out, Moses, it says, took his tent and pitched it outside the camp. And thus the account of the history in brief. But we shall find that those from Israel dared the same things when the Only-begotten became man among us. For he called them to the kingdom of heaven, just as formerly through Moses to the promised land, and he promised to set free those who believed in him. For he freed even those of the blood of Israel who accepted salvation through blood in faith, having endured the greed of Egypt. For they sacrificed the lamb, as in types, while Christ was still fulfilling the mystery.