Glaphyra in Pentateuchum

But those who had the law that educates well through shadow and types toward Christ, or who put forward the words of Moses high and low, and even disregarded Moses himself (for they turned to the teaching and commandments of men), shook off the yoke of service under God. For they did not at all accept the one through whom he rules all things, that is, Christ. And what was the pretext? For they had turned aside to worldly deception, and made the pleasures in this life the object of more earnest zeal, and they naturally clashed. For having been invited to the wedding, they did not wish to come, putting forward possessions of women and fields. And it was already time, having slipped into impiety to this point, for Israel to undergo the wrath in full. But the prayers of the saints saved the remnant; yet the penalty fell upon many. For they fell, consumed by swords and bitter war, and they barely learned that the charges of their outrage against Christ had turned out to be evil for them. And having cast off, as it were, the attire of that ancient glory, and all spiritual adornment, they are greatly afflicted with gracelessness, and they remain stripped of all honor. And that Christ himself had departed from them, Moses indicated, moving his own tent far from the camp, leaving it abandoned. For how Christ, having in a way fled from the flocks of the Jews, that is, their camps, and from their multitude, and going to the farthest point, set up an unshaken tent, the Church from the nations. And declaring it his own, he says somewhere through the voice of the Psalmist: "Here I will dwell, for I have chosen it.

It was necessary, therefore, that those who do not have Emmanuel, the Lord of glory, who places a crown of faith and virtues upon those who love him, should henceforth be seen stripped of both world and glory, so that, being greatly delighted by this, they might say: "Let my soul rejoice in the Lord. For he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness. As a bridegroom he has placed a mitre upon me, and as a bride he has adorned me with ornament." For the beauty is exceedingly splendid, clearly the intelligible beauty in Christ, through which and with which glory is given to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Concerning the veil on the face of Moses. Do you really understand what you read? It would fittingly be said to the Jewish multitudes, who would be thought to have reached such a pitch of madness that they are henceforth called heartless in the sacred writings. For behold, it says, a foolish and heartless people. They have eyes, and do not see; they have ears, and do not hear. That the law given through Moses has become utterly useless to them, because of the magnitude of the stupidity inherent in them, Christ himself has shown us, saying: "Search the Scriptures, and you think that in them you have eternal life. And those are the ones that testify about me. And you do not wish to come to me, so that you may have life." For a hardening came upon Israel in part, and lacking illumination through the Spirit, they were sluggish concerning faith, and exceedingly difficult to move toward choosing and thinking what is useful for salvation.

But they would not be without punishment, because, after choosing what was beneficial, they turned rather to unteachable disobedience; and having the light from heaven and from above, they preferred to walk as if in night and darkness. This the prophet also indicated, saying concerning them: "While they waited for light, darkness came upon them; while they remained in the dawn, they walked in the gloom." For they have remained harsh and unbridled, holding of little or no account the profitable things and those by which they might likely and with no trouble escape what harms. For Christ proclaimed: "I am the light of the world." And, "As long as you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overtake you." But they were as those who have no mind or sense. Therefore they were overtaken by darkness, and they continue as if in night, wholly without share of the divine radiance, and not having the divine light; for they do not at all understand the God-inspired Scripture. And for what reason, the divine Paul will clarify, saying to us: "For until the present 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 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. Observe then the mystery shining forth in the sacred and more ancient writings. And it goes thus: "And the Lord said to Moses: 'Write these words for yourself; for upon these words I will establish a covenant with you and with Israel.'

And Moses was there before the Lord forty days and forty nights. He ate no bread and drank no water. And he wrote these words upon the tablets of the covenant, the ten commandments. When Moses came down from the mountain, the two tablets were in the hands of Moses. As he was descending from the mountain, Moses did not know that the appearance of the skin of his face had been glorified while he was speaking with Him. And Aaron and all the elders of Israel saw Moses. And the appearance of the skin of his face was glorified, and they were afraid to approach him. And Moses called them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the Synagogue turned toward him. And Moses spoke to them, and after this all the sons of Israel came to him. And he commanded them, telling them everything that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. And when he ceased speaking to them, he placed a veil over his face. Whenever Moses entered before the Lord to speak with Him, he removed the veil, until he came out. And when he came out, he spoke to all the sons of Israel everything that the Lord had commanded him. And the sons of Israel saw that the face of Moses was glorified. And Moses placed a veil over his face, until he should enter to converse with Him. For the God of all writes the law on stone tablets.

Since the face of Moses was now radiant with the impact of the divine light, as he sat in attendance for forty days, neglecting his human needs, the chosen ones among Israel, and especially Aaron, were ignorant when they looked upon him. As they were already withdrawing and turning to flight, Moses turned back and spoke thus to the sons of Israel, placing a veil before his face, and making the approaching ray of divine light barely bearable to the crowds through the shadows. But when, it says, he entered before God, the veil was removed. Understand, then, how the light of the law itself is somehow incomprehensible to the minds of the Jews. But if what is written in it were understood spiritually—for it will reveal nothing other than the mystery of Christ—it instills the divine and most clear light into the hearts of the hearers. Yet the men of Israel would not listen to such venerable words, nor would they grasp the depth of the mystery without difficulty. Indeed, Nicodemus, when he heard Christ speaking of regeneration through the Spirit, responded coldly and feebly, saying, "How can a man be reborn when he is old? Can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born?" And he added to this, as Christ urged him that matters beyond mind and reason must be honored with faith, "How can these things happen?"—even though the law, through countless forms, prefigures the mystery.

Therefore, the light of the law itself is unacceptable to the Jews, and not only to the weak and common, but also to the chosen and sacred ones. For you have heard that Aaron, along with the elders, feared the glory of Moses. So Moses very usefully placed the veil. For the law has a covering, the thickness of the letter, and the not very bright aspect of the history. But when Moses entered into the presence of God, he says, he removed the veil. This we will find to be true also in our own case. For when we are brought, as it were, into the presence of God the Father, with Christ presenting us, we will see the glory of Moses without coverings, understanding the law spiritually. For we are transformed from glory to glory, according to what is written. For that the mystery of Christ is in glory, how can it be doubted, when the blessed Paul clearly proclaims here concerning both the First and Second Covenants: For if the ministry of condemnation is glory, how much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory? For the shadow of the law has been abolished, although it was honored with the glory through Moses, that is, in the person of Moses. But the things through Christ remain unshaken, and they certainly possess a better glory and grace than the older ones. Therefore, when the coverings in the law are removed, we behold the glory of God, according to what is written. If we hear of the lamb being sacrificed in type, we immediately recognize the mystery, recognizing the lamb who for us and on our behalf offered himself as a sweet fragrance to God the Father.

Even if the ash of a heifer sprinkling those who are defiled sanctifies them for bodily purity, let us nonetheless understand the cleansing through Christ, which is by water and spirit, not freeing us from bodily filth, but washing away the stain of pollutions in spirit and soul. For we have been sanctified in Christ. And we will also usefully add this. For we have determined to measure the narrative of the chapters in Exodus up to this point, not having grown weary of the interpretation of what follows, but because, when composing the discourses On Worship in Spirit and Truth, we subjected to the appropriate investigations both the construction of the holy tabernacle itself and each of the things placed in it—namely, the sanctuary, the ark, the table, and the lampstand—so that nothing seems to have been left out of the account of the necessary matters. For we have expended on this the ninth and tenth discourses. Glory to our God for ever and ever. Amen. Of Our Father among the Saints Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Book of Leviticus.

That the passion of Christ is salvific. God of all did not create death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living; rather, he created all things into being, and the generations of the world are salvific. And there is no kingdom of Hades on earth, as it is written; but death entered the world through the envy of the devil. And the word would have the truth upon itself, and quite reasonably. For the Creator would not have placed such glory and wonder in things naturally prone to easy corruption, but death was introduced from wrath, because the forefather Adam, disregarding the divine command, turned aside into disobedience and unruliness. But it has now been abolished and removed from the midst in Christ through the obedience of the one man, the charges having been settled. For we have been justified in him; and the divine Paul will bear witness, writing: For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be constituted righteous. For we were condemned to death in that one; but we have been pitied through Christ and renewed into life; for he became obedient to the Father unto death, and laid down his life for us. And by his wound we were healed, according to the Scriptures. And one might say that, having fallen ill with the sin of the world in Adam, we have become in Christ a spiritual and fragrant sacrifice to God and Father, good and acceptable, and far superior to the shadow under the law. And Christ, our firstfruits, has renewed the way for us; for thus David says in the book of Psalms to the Father and God in heaven:

You did not wish for sacrifice and offering; but you prepared a body for me. You did not approve of whole burnt offerings and those for sin. Then I said, "Behold, I come, O God, to do your will; I was willing." And these things again it is possible to observe also from what is written in Leviticus. It reads thus: "If you offer a sacrifice of firstfruits to the Lord, new parched groats, crushed for the Lord, and you shall bring the sacrifice of firstfruits, and you shall pour oil upon it, and you shall place frankincense upon it. It is a sacrifice. And the priest shall offer its memorial from the groats with the oil, and all its frankincense; it is a burnt offering to the Lord." 2. The meaning of the text is very clear, and it would not, I think, require any labor, at least for being able, I mean, to understand it precisely. Nevertheless, I will say this: "Chidra" are called the flours from legumes. In the types, however, it receives the mystery of Christ. And he himself is the sacrifice on our behalf, the spiritual firstfruit, that is, the first offering of humanity, the firstborn from the dead, the first into incorruption, the so-called firstfruit of those who have fallen asleep. Like a grain of wheat falling upon the earth and dying, but like an ear of grain springing up manifold. For he himself related this to us, saying, "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Yet he died, not for himself, but for us. But the legal text has subtly indicated this to us. For if someone should choose, it says, to offer a sacrifice of firstfruits to the Lord, new parched groats crushed for God.

Observe then how Moses, that is, the legal text, urges us to bring fruit from our youth. For the firstfruits, as I said, of life renewed into newness of nature is Christ, and in him all things have become new. However, the offering for sacrifice is not made from grain alone, but also from crushed legumes. For just as he typified that from grain fine flour, and not the whole kernel itself, is to be burnt whole, so here too he has commanded that crushed legumes, that is, ground produce from legumes, be made, so that the edible part, as it were, might be present in the sacrifice. For we are accustomed to make food not from the whole kernel, but rather from it crushed. Therefore, Christ is both a firstborn and a sacrifice beautiful and most fragrant to God, and also very nourishing to us ourselves. For he is the bread that came down from heaven, giving life to the world, and he has set himself before us as a kind of food, like fine flour or groats. And he said that oil must be poured on the sacrifice, and he commanded that it be coated with frankincense as well, the oil symbolically indicating cheerfulness and richness, and the frankincense elegantly signifying for us the sacred and fragrant. For Christ became a sacrifice on our behalf, as I said, and like a firstfruits of spiritual produce from the fields. But that his death was not for tears or lamentation, but rather for the removal of tears and lamentations and for the most cheerful hope, how or whence could anyone doubt? For he did not become a captive at the gates of Hades, nor did he remain among the dead.

But even if death prevailed and swallowed, according to the prophet’s word, yet again God removed every tear from every face; he removed the reproach of the people from the whole earth. How, or in what manner? For Christ revived, having trampled upon death, in order also to deliver us from corruption, and having thoroughly suppressed the lamentation over this, he persuades us, now somehow rejoicing, to cry out: “You have turned my mourning into joy for me; you have rent my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.” Therefore the manner of the sacrifice would reasonably possess cheerfulness, in hope. It might also be understood otherwise, if one should choose. For we have been pitied in Christ. And this, I think, is the meaning of: “You have anointed my head with oil.” And that the death of Christ was not for any reasonable causes or faults, but a most auspicious and entirely blameless sacrifice on our behalf (for it was offered in order to abolish sin, and the death that comes from it and through it), you will understand from the frankincense. For the forefather Adam, by his initial transgressions, received a curse that was very fitting. Since he had indeed contracted the truly foul-smelling sin, he was justly condemned for it. But the Savior and Lord of all, convicted of nothing improper (for he committed no sin), became a beautiful and fragrant sacrifice on our behalf, and a firstfruit, as it were, of new crops, and in every kind, both grain and pulses. For he died on behalf of all, small and great, both Gentiles and Jews. For through him and in him we have become a memorial to God and Father. Therefore the legal text says:

And the priest shall offer up her memorial from the barley-groats with the oil, and all her frankincense. For it is a burnt offering to the Lord. For having stumbled through many sins, we have become almost as though out of the Father’s sight. But since Christ became a sacrifice on our behalf, he remembered us and blessed us. He blessed those who fear him, the small along with the great. Therefore we have also been taught to sing and say: Blessed by the Lord are we, who made the heaven and the earth. And in another way the law clarifies Christ’s sacrifice for us, saying: If it is a sacrifice for deliverance, his gift to the Lord: if he offers from the cattle, whether male or female, he shall present it unblemished before the Lord, and he shall lay his hands on the head of the gift, and slaughter it by the doors of the tent of testimony. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall pour the blood around the altar of the whole burnt offerings. And they shall bring from the sacrifice for deliverance a burnt offering to the Lord: the fat covering the belly, and all the fat on the belly, and the two kidneys, and the fat upon them, and the fat on the thighs, and the lobe of the liver together with the kidneys he shall remove. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall offer these up on the altar, upon the whole burnt offerings, upon the wood on the fire, a burnt offering of fragrant odor to the Lord.

And not only from cattle, but if one should choose, also from sheep, or from goats, to make the sacrifice of salvation, it was done by the same means, and the manner of the sacred rite was one for all. Whether the victim happened to be male or female, he said it must be entirely free from any blemish. And the rationale of the sacrifice would apply to Emmanuel himself. For he is the fatted calf, the unblemished victim, the one who takes away the sin of the world, and who, in the form of a goat, is slaughtered for us; for a goat was slaughtered by law for sin. But observe again the precise manner of the sacrifice. For the legal text does not very strictly distinguish between male and female. Yet Christ would be understood in both. In the male, as leader or guide; for the male is more dominant than the female; in the female, as one who has come under the law and is also a leader. For the female is always subordinate and secondary to the male, if indeed it is truly in a lesser and lower measure. Yet the victim offered is unblemished. And such is Christ. Therefore he said: The ruler of this world comes, and in me he will find nothing. And indeed, to the Jews, he made his divine nature an entirely unblemished proof, saying: Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me? So the sacred victim is unblemished in this respect. It was slaughtered before the Lord at the doors of the tabernacle, the hands of the offerer being laid upon it. Then, after the blood was poured out at the base of the altar, he said the entrails must be burnt whole.

For the death of the Son was accomplished, as it were, before the eyes of God the Father, who gave His own life for the life of the world. For if the one who says, "The death of His saints is precious before the Lord," is truthful, how would God the Father not deem the death of the Son worthy of His own oversight? For He certainly honors and deems worthy of inspection, while He turns away from what is abominable and detestable. Therefore, that the death is not inglorious would be immediately demonstrated by the fact that it obtained the Father Himself as an eyewitness. And it was slaughtered at the very sacred doors. For Emmanuel died, as it were, widening for us the entrance into the Holy of Holies, and opening the gates of the upper and heavenly Church to those who believe in him. Thus, in the death of Christ, we gain the ability to finally reach the very tent of the saints, which the Lord, and not a man, pitched: the heavenly Jerusalem, the upper beautiful city, the mother of the saints, and the nurse of angels. And that the death of Christ will be holy and sacred would be indicated by the fact that the blood must be poured out at the altar itself. And it would also signify in another way that He gave His own life for the Church. For the altar is a type of the Church, and the blood is of the soul. And the offering up, or consecration, of the inward parts—I mean the fat, the liver, and the kidneys—again indicates that all things in Christ are holy, sacred, and fragrant. For in the liver, those wise in these matters say that desires or appetites for anything arise. And the kidney, again, is a part of the body that has a discerning function.

For the useful separates out the superfluous. And something like this the mind also works in us. For it adulterates, if it is wise, that which is naturally inclined to do wrong; and it welcomes very gladly that which tends to benefit. And the blessed David sings somewhere, as from the person of Christ: "All my desire is before you." And again: "Because you have acquired my reins, O Lord." And that Emmanuel is full of the virtue that befits God, the fat would again demonstrate, as in a type. For just as in the best-nourished animals the fat is produced, in the same way, I think, virtue is produced in a mind that has its nourishment from heaven. Holy then and blameless is Christ, and full of virtue, sacred and fragrant, a spiritual whole burnt offering, and offered in every form, I mean, as a calf, and a ram, and a goat. For he became a sacrifice for our salvation, and gave himself for all, one who is worth all. Through whom and with whom is glory to God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

That having partaken of the mystical blessing, we shall be altogether and in every way holy and sacred. The divine disciples became stewards of the mysteries of our Savior, not snatching the honor for themselves, nor yet going of their own accord; rather, they were chosen for the apostolate and appointed to perform the saving proclamation throughout the whole world under heaven, that is, the Gospel of Christ. For he set the initiators as illustrious, speaking thus: "Go and disciple all the nations." Yielding, then, and with great eagerness, to the Lord's decrees, they illuminate the inhabited world, having themselves received the Father and God in the heavens as their teacher, and making others partakers of the grace. For they remembered, as is reasonable, that Christ's mind led them to this, saying clearly: "You received freely, give freely." Therefore the divine Paul writes and makes clear the deep mystery of the incarnation, speaking somewhere thus: "For the impossibility of the law, in which it was weak through the flesh, God, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin concerning 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." For Christ became sin for us, as it is written, and not at all guilty of sin. For we are not accustomed to babble here, since he, being God by nature and having appeared from God the Father, did not at all see wrongdoing; but because he became a sacrifice for sin. For our Passover, Christ, was sacrificed for us.

We say that this also became the sin-offering. For it was sacrificed, as I said, so that by its own blood it might purchase the world under heaven. For we have been bought at a price, according to the Scriptures, and we are not our own, but belong to the one who became the sin-offering for us, so that he might deliver us from ancient transgressions and declare us holy through participation in his holy flesh, and clearly also in his blood. This indeed the divine law proclaimed to us beforehand; for it is written thus in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin-offering. In the place where they slaughter the whole burnt offerings, they shall also slaughter the sin-offering before the Lord. It is most holy. The priest who offers it shall eat it; it shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tabernacle of testimony. Everyone who touches its flesh shall be sanctified. If any of its blood is sprinkled on a garment, that which is sprinkled shall be washed in a holy place. And an earthen vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken; but if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, it shall be scoured and washed with water. Every male among the priests shall eat it. It is most holy to the Lord.'" Understand, then, that it commands the sin-offering to be sacrificed, that is, the offering for sin. And this was a goat, as a type of Christ, who became the sin-offering for us, as I said. For he was counted among the lawless, and was crucified with thieves, and was even called a curse. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." But he submitted himself to these things for us by way of economy.

But he was and is holy, not by participation as from another, as we are, but rather by nature, as God. For through him we believe that creation is sanctified, whether you name angels, or that which is preeminent in glory, or that which is superior and higher, I mean Thrones and Powers, or even the Seraphim themselves. But these would not be sanctified otherwise, except from the Father through the Son in the Spirit. Therefore, even if sin came to be, he remained what he was, that is, holy by nature as God, and he does not give the Spirit by measure, according to the saying of John. And that the death of his flesh, having occurred for the abolition of the flesh, was holy and inviolable, and acceptable to God the Father as in the manner of incense offerings, the law has clearly revealed, saying: In the place where they slaughter the whole burnt offerings, they shall also slaughter the sin-offering before the Lord. Christ is the whole burnt offering, that is, entirely and wholly, not partially, offered up as a sweet fragrance to God the Father. Therefore he is truly the Holy of Holies. For we are sanctified in him, and he is our entire justification, and indeed the sanctification even of the higher spirits themselves, as I have just said. But, The priest, it says, who offers it, shall eat it. Now observe again that in every one of the things to be done, the Church is governed by sacred and divine ordinances. For what comes from the sacrifice belongs to the one who brings it. Anyone who has been nurtured in the laws of the Church knows what I mean.

That the place most fitting for divine liturgies is the Church of God, and that in it the mystery of Christ is necessarily accomplished, he would indicate not obscurely, adding to what I said: "It shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tent of testimony." But at that time there was one tent in the wilderness, and after it one temple, which Solomon built in Jerusalem. And death was for those who sacrificed outside the tent. For the sacred text spoke thus: "Any man of the sons of Israel who slaughters a calf or a sheep or a goat in the camp, and any who slaughters outside the camp and does not bring it to the door of the tent of testimony so as to offer it as a gift to the Lord before the tent of the Lord, blood shall be accounted to that man; that one who shed blood shall be destroyed; that soul shall be cut off from the people." Therefore, it is lawlessness and profanation, and under the penalty of blood, to love consorting with impious heretics and to cling to communion with them. For they sacrifice outside the holy tent, not performing the sacred sacrifice in holy places concerning sin. For the Church is one, just as the temple of old was one, and the tent is one, prefiguring the beauty of the Church still in types. We, then, shall sacrifice the sin, as in a holy court, and we shall eat of the holy meats, that is, having partaken of the mystical blessing, we shall be sanctified. And the law bears witness, saying: "Everyone who touches its flesh shall be sanctified." But the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice is of equal power for mystical blessing. For it said again:

And if any of its blood is sprinkled on a garment, the garment that is sprinkled upon shall be washed in a holy place. And what is surprising, if the rational animal, I mean man, sanctifies, when even the vessels themselves taken for sacred service were sanctified in the manner entirely fitting for them? For this reason they are not taken for common use. Therefore some vessels are washed, others are broken. For how could things that have served the divine be summoned to human use? That the partaking of the flesh of the sacrifice is holy and would not be suitable for others, except only for those accustomed to trample down sin and to be courageous in virtue, he indicated by saying: "Every male among the priests shall eat them." Holy things belong to the Lord. So then, tell me, has the law commanded to drive away the female sex from the blessing? We do not say this; for it is sanctified along with us. But those things were in types and shadows. And through the male and priestly race, he fittingly indicated those who are spiritually manly and priestly in Christ. We have therefore been called to partake of the most fragrant sacrifice, as a holy and acceptable race, as a holy nation, as a royal priesthood, youths and maidens, elders with younger ones. For in Christ Jesus, there is not male and female, but we are all one, as partaking of the one bread, according to what is written.

Let us then, with unclosed mouths and ceaseless voices, honor the King and Redeemer of all with doxologies, I mean Christ, through whom and with whom glory is given to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. On the Cleansing of Leprosy. Sin has reigned over us and prevailed over those on earth, because the mind of man has been diligently inclined toward evil from youth and has unrestrainedly chosen to undergo the inclination toward worse things, making the glory of righteousness of no account. But God, rich in mercy and compassion, as it is written, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in transgressions, he brought us to life together with Christ, and raised us up, and seated us together with the heavenly ones. For we have been enriched in Christ with gentleness from above, and we have washed away the inglorious and utterly wretched sin, having been called through faith to sanctification. And in addition to these things, having become partakers of eternal life, we shall be acceptable and shall be laid up in the odor of fragrance for God the Father. For the blessed Paul writes truly that we are the fragrance of Christ to God. For that, even if sin has tyrannized us at times, yet we have repelled the stain, we have wiped away the filth, we have ceased in Christ from the ancient infirmities, sacred reason will persuade us. For it is written thus in Leviticus: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, This is the law of the leper, on the day he is cleansed.

And he shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look, and behold, the affliction of leprosy is healed from the leper. And the priest shall bring him forward, and they shall take for the purified one two living and clean birds, and a cedar stick, and spun scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall bring him forward, and they shall slaughter one of the birds into an earthenware vessel over living water. And the living bird, and the cedar stick, and the spun scarlet, and the hyssop, he shall take, and he shall dip them, and the living bird, into the blood of the slaughtered bird over living water, and he shall sprinkle upon the one purified from leprosy seven times, and he shall be clean. And he shall release the living bird into the field, and the purified one shall wash his garments. And all his hair shall be shaved from him, and he shall bathe in water, and he shall be purified. And after these things, he shall enter the camp, and he shall remain outside his house for seven days. And on the seventh day, all his hair shall be shaved—his head, his beard, and his eyebrows, and all his hair shall be shaved—and he shall wash his garments, and he shall bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean. Now the literal meaning of the narrative would be evident, even if one were not to choose to expound it clearly, but it contains nothing that leads to benefit unless it be understood spiritually. Therefore, come, let us speak, recasting the weakness of the letter fittingly into the mystery of Christ. And a few necessary things will be said by us beforehand, usefully for clarification.

Leprosy is an involuntary affliction that befalls the bodies of some. It is especially voracious, and somehow always spreads more inward than before, seizing upon the part of those in whom it occurs. The disease is exceedingly hard to escape, and does not submit to the science of physicians—that is, to the aid of any of those wise in such matters—but yields only with difficulty, as if nature itself were rising up against it and repelling the harm, with God assisting. Nevertheless, the law declared that the leper must be sent away from the camp as unclean. For it is said somewhere to the hierophant Moses, by God commanding the sons of Israel: "And they shall send out of the camp every leper, every one with a discharge, and every one unclean in soul." And we do not say that the law punishes the infirmities of bodies. For it is utterly foolish that those who have fallen ill involuntarily, who rather ought to be pitied, should also be subjected to penalties. But the things delivered through the all-wise Moses were in types, laboring to bring forth the truth. For leprosy deadens the flesh, while sin, when it befalls souls and enters the human mind, renders it immediately useless and chilled through dead works. And by dead works of the flesh we mean, of course, the foul and profane passions, and the choice to think of earthly things. Indeed, we said also at the beginning that we, being dead through transgressions, were brought to life together with Christ by God the Father. Therefore, through a visible thing, the word turns us toward subtle concepts. For it sends the leprous out of the camp.

Hinting enigmatically that those who are deadened by sin, having a mind virtually stippled with various passions and greatly suffering from ugliness within themselves, must depart from the company of the saints and be carried outside the sacred rolls. For the wicked will never be herded together with the righteous, nor the defiled with the profane, nor will the one bearing the indelible stain of sin consort with the sanctified. For what communion, it says, has light with darkness, or what share has the faithful with the unbelieving? And that it is necessary for those wishing to live rightly to hasten away from the wicked for their benefit, the inspired Scripture itself will again persuade us. For God somewhere said to his intimates: "Go out, go out from among them, and separate yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the Lord." And the vessels of the Lord would be understood as the manifold virtues. And so the divine Paul says: "Put on the panoply of God." Therefore, as in the type of lepers, God repels from the company of the saints the one who is sick with sin and defiled. But there were some among the sick who were very likely to repel the affliction. For we sometimes cease from sins by turning our mind to choose and think what is better and more fitting. What then does the law do? Does it not show the way to those wishing to repent? Does it not open the gate of salvation? Do not suppose this. For the Lord is good and philanthropic. Listen to him speaking clearly: "Turn back, you who are turning, and I will heal your fractures." And indeed also through the voice of Ezekiel:

Turn back and turn away from all your lawless deeds, O house of Israel, and they will not be for you a punishment for injustice. What then is the way of salvation? Who is it that releases those who have sinned from the necessity of being punished? Who is it that ransoms and easily rescues? Our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom in exchange for all, and sanctifies us with his own blood. Observe for me again how, as if still in shadows, the mystery is set forth in what is written in the law. For the leper was brought to the one serving as priest according to the law, having gone outside the gate. And when he, as it were, indicated by his demeanor the better outcome of the affliction, and that it would henceforth cease and come to an end, the rites for purification were fulfilled, according to what seemed good to the lawgiver. For a pair of clean birds was taken, and cedar wood, and twisted scarlet, like a cord, and also hyssop, which is a kind of herb. Then one of the birds was slaughtered over water, while the other, together with the items just mentioned, having been dipped in the water and also in the blood of the dead one, having suffered nothing, was then released. Then the priest, sprinkling the one afflicted with leprosy seven times with the water, set him free from the accusations of the law. His hair was also shaved off, and he then entered without reproach into the camp and into his own house, having spent seven days outside. For those who formerly carried about the deadness of sin, and were stained with the manifold wildness of passions, and were afflicted, as it were, with a spiritual leprosy—

We have gone astray, having worshipped the creation; we have been brought to God, the great, holy, and innocent priest, according to the word of the blessed Paul. And we have been brought by God the Father. For Christ said somewhere, speaking to the Jews: Do not murmur against one another. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. For God the Father brings those who are sick, as by his own power, to the Son. For he has come to heal those whose heart is broken, to open the eyes of the blind. If, therefore, we renounce the weak and powerless in fulfilling what is pleasing to God, and have a most industrious heart, and cling firmly to the works of gentleness, and pursue the glorious and admirable way of life, recognizing the one who is by nature and truly the Master, let us say thus, according to the word of the Psalmist: Bless, my soul, the Lord, who is merciful to all your transgressions, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from corruption, who crowns you with mercy and compassion. Observe how the one suffering from leprosy is brought in to the priest who is outside the gate and far from the camp. For to us, as if cast out and remaining outside the holy and sacred city—I mean the Church of God—Christ came, having a likeness to us. And having visited us, he declared us pure through his holy baptism and his body. For he was sacrificed for us, and was shown to be a saving remedy for us, even that he endured death on the wood for us.

This was sketched out for us in the sacred writings. For two clean birds are taken. And this too was a type of Christ, who is from above and from heaven. For the bird is air-borne. And Emmanuel has come down to us from above and from the heavens. For somewhere he speaks thus: No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of God. And the wise John writes: He who comes from above is over all. And the birds are clean. For the Lord is truly clean and undefiled, knowing no sin. And we do not say that we understand two Christs, even if two birds are spoken of. But the account brings us a wise and necessary contemplation. For the Only-begotten, being God by nature, bore the flesh of the holy Virgin, and is composed, as it were, from two—I mean from the highest nature and from humanity—ineffably and beyond understanding. Yet there is one Lord Jesus Christ. So the account contemplates the convergence of two into one. Therefore, the law, signifying the mystery of Christ in manifold ways by these two birds, said that cedar wood must also be taken; and this too would be a type of his holy flesh, which does not suffer corruption. For the wood is imperishable. And hyssop would be a type of the Holy Spirit, boiling in its energy, through which we, boiling in spirit, are made to have the impurity in our inward parts, as it were, melted away. For hyssop is a plant, hot by nature, and capable of cleansing the phlegmatic and cold impurity gathered in the inward parts.

Christ frees us, as I said, by the energy of the Spirit from the passions hidden within the mind. The type of grass is also very well taken with living water. For we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire, according to what is written. The grass is hot, as I said, and receptive of the energy of the Spirit. The twisted scarlet thread again indicates by itself the manner of the incarnation of the Only-begotten. For the Word, being God, is woven, as it were, with flesh and blood. The scarlet represents both blood and flesh, for it is seen and will be of such a color. So the bird is slain over living water, in which the remaining part, together with the others, is baptized, and thereafter is released, having suffered nothing, as I already said. For Christ was sacrificed for us, but he was the same both in death and beyond death. He was put to death in the flesh, according to what is written, but was made alive in the Spirit, in which he also went and preached to the spirits that once disobeyed in prison. For in that he is conceived and became man, he underwent death; but in that he is truly life and from life, he appeared superior to death. Therefore the living bird was baptized into the death of the dead one, the law indicating enigmatically that although the Word exists by nature as life and from life, he appropriates the death of his own flesh. For the flesh assumed was not alien to him, but his own. The leper, having been immersed seven times in the water, was thereafter freed from the charges arising from his leprosy. And Christ, as I said, declares us clean, sanctifying us through holy baptism.

This, I think, is what the sevenfold signifies. Understanding it thus, the blessed Paul said, "Where sin abounded, grace superabounded." Therefore, the abundance of grace and its, as it were, perfect capacity for cleansing is indicated by the sevenfold. The leper, having been shorn, had his hair shaved off. For, cleansed through holy baptism, we also put aside, as it were, the growths of the flesh—that is, the innate pleasures within us, understood in the form of hair—together with other transgressions, and Christ effects this in us. For He is the living and active Word, most sharp, shearing away sins and freeing the mind from the impurity of passions. So then, the leper, having been shaved, enters the camp, but not yet his own house. For, cleansed as I said, we join the saints, we dwell henceforth with the holy and sacred race, and thus we enter the house of God, but not yet the upper mansions. For the gift is reserved for the saints in the coming age. Indeed, the cleansed one enters the camp after spending seven days, and then enters his own house. For after the present age, having cleansing through Christ, we shall also take up abode in the upper mansions, and each of the sanctified will take up abode, as in his own house, in the allotment assigned to him. For the rewards are not immediately given to the faithful, but the calling is with good hopes, and the pledge of the Spirit.

Grace will shine forth in due time, and the fulfillment of hope in Christ, 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 Synagogue of the Jews, that it fell due to disobedience. a. The excessive harshness of the Synagogue of the Jews, and indeed its disobedient and intractable character, God had already made manifest long ago through the voice of Ezekiel, speaking thus: "The whole house of Israel is contentious and hard-hearted." Therefore, the Savior himself, as one who refused to be saved, reproached its inherent perversity, saying: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the slayer of the prophets, and the stoner of those sent to you; how many times did I wish to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not. Behold, the house is left to you." For the God of all desired to save it through countless means, but the many, having turned excessively to the unbridled and having disregarded the care from above, were carried away by terrible and reckless reversals to ruin and destruction. And this, having legislated through Moses the means by which they could be well educated toward knowledge of virtue and gain the knowledge of the truth, and having made timely and useful revelations through the holy prophets, so that they might have other guides to the noblest things, knowing how to regulate them into a glorious polity, into a most lawful life, and toward everything admirable.

But it is necessary to kindle the thank-offerings to the God of all, and to welcome the guides gladly, and to deem them worthy of every honor, and to be transformed, as it were, very eagerly toward better things, and to choose the more fitting expression. They were found to be hard, unyielding, and afflicted with even worse things. Therefore they have perished, and concerning them the prophet Jeremiah speaks thus: "The house of Israel has fallen; there is no one to raise it up." Now observe the matter again, as it is enigmatically voiced through the writings of Moses. For it is thus in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: When you enter the land of the Canaanites, which I give you as a possession, I will give a leprous affection in the houses of the land that is your possession. And someone’s house will be affected, and he will report to the priest, saying: ‘A leprous affection has appeared to me in the house.’ And the priest will order the house to be cleared before the priest enters to see the affection, and everything that is in the house will not become unclean. And after this the priest will enter to examine the house, and the priest will see the affection. And behold, the affection is on the walls of the house, with greenish or reddish hollows, and its appearance is lower than the walls. And the priest, having gone out of the house to the door of the house, will set apart the house for seven days. And again the priest will come on the seventh day, and will see the house; and behold, the affection has spread on the walls of the house, and the priest will order, and they will remove the stones in which the affection is, and they will cast them out of the city, into an unclean place.

And they shall scrape the house inside all around, and they shall pour out the scraped earth outside the city into an unclean place. And they shall take other scraped stones, and they shall put them in place of the stones, and they shall take other earth, and they shall plaster the house. But if the affliction comes again and arises in the house, after removing the stones and after scraping the house and after plastering the house, the priest shall enter and see whether the affliction has spread in the house; it is a persistent leprosy in the house, it is unclean. And they shall demolish the house, and its timbers, and its stones, and they shall carry all the earth of the house outside the city into an unclean place. Then, having previously declared unclean the one who sleeps and eats and generally enters it, he again introduces the priest inspecting. For he says: But if the priest, arriving, enters and sees, and behold, the affliction does not spread in the house after the house has been plastered, the priest shall purify the house, because the affliction has been healed. And he shall take to purify the house two clean living birds, and a cedar stick, and twisted scarlet, and hyssop. And he shall slaughter one bird into an earthenware vessel with living water. And he shall take the cedar stick, and the twisted scarlet, and the hyssop, and the living bird, and he shall dip them into the blood of the slaughtered bird upon living water, and he shall sprinkle with them upon the house seven times.

And he shall purify the house with the blood of the slaughtered bird, and with the living water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the twisted scarlet, and he shall send the living bird outside the city into the field, and he shall make expiation for the house, and it shall be clean. In these things the whole mystery concerning the Synagogue of the Jews is clearly revealed to us, both what has happened from the beginning to the end upon it, and what will happen by Christ. And come now, going through each point as precisely as possible, and unfolding the thickness of the letter, let us hasten to lay bare the beauty of the theory buried within it. 2. Now leprosy occurring in the human body is a disease which cannot be repelled by the arts of physicians, but yields only, along with other things, to the great and all-powerful right hand, and is overcome by the all-working power of God. And in those who have once suffered, the flesh appears in a different aspect from what it was at the beginning. For a certain discoloration supervenes, which belies the nature, as the body passes into a state contrary to nature, so far as its appearance is concerned; and one must suppose that such a thing also corresponds to the change of our choice, and the transition from better to worse conditions. For many, having often changed from some good disposition to a worse one, and having departed from what is fitting to nature, bespatter their own soul with manifold baseness, as if preserving the appearance of each for themselves; for they neither fall entirely into a complete loss of the good, nor do they run out into complete baseness and depravity.

Such a state sometimes occurring among us, and all that is wont to happen concerning human condition and choice, the divine Scripture often makes the leprous person an image. And when it indicates the character of each individual, as if on a tablet, it takes the person of one and sets it forth. But when it wishes to hint at some such state of a nation, or a city, or a country, then it introduces the form of a house, because it is inclusive of those dwelling in it, and makes the indication plural. Therefore, when you hear of a leprous house, understand the whole Jewish Synagogue at once, corrupted by its own passions, and not much caring for the oracles divinely given to it, but rather inclining to be able to do what was more to their pleasure than what would prove good. And when it says to announce something to the priest, as if a touch of leprosy is seen in the house, and we do not say that someone has accused his own house and goes to the priest, but rather as if from a physician seeking a remedy for what has happened. Since we have granted that the Jewish Synagogue is leprous, come, let us consider well who is the one announcing the affliction, and who again is the priest, as is proper.

Let the role of the announcer be assumed, then, by the chorus of the holy prophets, who proclaimed to the high priest and guardian of our souls, that is, to Christ, even before the incarnation, the passions of the Jews' folly and the impiety and corruption of their ways, not from hatred and aversion toward them, but overcome by reverence for the benefactor, and while confessing their transgressions not without tears, yet nevertheless pleading that she be pitied. And again, for this purpose, accept in a certain manner the lamenting leprosy of the Jews, and the blessed prophet Jeremiah greatly distressed over it, through the words he speaks in prayer: "Our sins have stood against us, Lord. Act for us for the sake of your name, for our sins are many before you. We have sinned against you. O patience of Israel, Lord, and you will save in a time of evils. Why have you become like a sojourner on the earth, and like a native turning aside into a lodging? Will you not be like a sleeping man, or like a man unable to save? And you are among us, Lord, and your name has been invoked upon us; do not forget." And again: "Woe, my soul, that piety has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among men. All judge for blood, each oppresses his neighbor with oppression. They ready their hands for evil." For in such lamentations of the prophets we will accept the announcement concerning Israel being leprous. Then the priest orders the house to be cleared out. For the inspection of God over our transgressions becomes most fearsome.

It is necessary, then, that those who are guilty be punished, being subject to whatever evils they have already incurred; for being benevolent, he commands them to love purifications and to cast off the disease that has befallen them, and thus to anticipate the penalty that comes from the visitation, as in the words: "Wash your heart from wickedness, Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long will there be in you the deliberations of your sorrows?" And what else would the "deliberations of sorrows" reasonably be understood to be, if not precisely those through which we have entered into sorrows and the penalties for transgressions? Observe, then, in these things the priest commanding that the causes be removed beforehand, on account of which one might reasonably be thought to fall under punishments. 3. Then he says: "And the priest shall enter to inspect the house, and he shall see the affliction, and behold, the affliction is on the walls." And again: "The priest, having gone out of the house to the door of the house, shall set apart the house for seven days." For after the benevolent distinction, and the requirement that it be purified beforehand for seven days, the baseness appearing again in the form of leprosy has reasonably called the priest to a just indignation, the priest bearing the divine person in these matters. Therefore, having again inspected the affliction—that is, the signs and symbols of the disease—he set apart the house for a full seven days. For God, being benevolent but greatly and justly grieved at the outrages against the law committed by the Israelites, sent them all into captivity, delivering them into the hands of the Babylonians for a total of seventy years, having set one day as equivalent to ten.

He says that the days of the quarantine of the house are seven, reckoning a day as ten years, according to what was said to the prophet Ezekiel: "I have set a day for a year." And the angel praying concerning the Synagogue in Zechariah will also seal the word, saying: "Lord Almighty, how long will you not take pity on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, which you have overlooked? This is the seventieth year." Then again he says that "the priest will return on the seventh day." And you will understand the return of the priest as nothing other than the turning back of God's benevolence toward the nation, as in the words: "Thus says the Lord: I will return to Jerusalem with compassion, and my house will be rebuilt in it, says the Lord Almighty, and a measure will be extended over Jerusalem." Or again, as in that passage: "To whom shall I assign Ephraim? I will shield you, Israel. I will set you like Adamah and Boeim. My heart was changed in the same; my repentance was disturbed; I will not do to you according to the anger of my wrath. I will not abandon Ephraim to be blotted out. For I am God, and not a man holy in you." When, then, he says: "The priest returns on the seventh day to see the house, and behold, the plague has spread in the walls of the house; and the priest will order, and they will remove the stones in which the plague is, and cast them out of the city." And after other things: "And they will take other scraped stones and put them in place of those stones.

After being released from the charge concerning past events, God, who examines everything among us, again surveyed the Synagogue of the Jews and, as is reasonable, found it no longer entirely leprous, yet not completely free from its ancient baseness. He did not direct his anger against all, but only against those who were responsible for its suffering and had become the source of the disease. These he calls stones, indicating certain parts of the whole house, that is, of the nation. These were, on the one hand, some of the kings who from time to time led the people astray into other forms of worship, and on the other hand, some of the false prophets, speaking from their own hearts, as it is written, and undermining the piety of their hearers. He commands that these be removed from the house, signifying their excommunication, that is, their expulsion into oblivion. An example of this is what was said by God concerning Jeconiah: "Earth, hear the words of the Lord. Write this man down as an outlaw." And concerning the false prophets: "Therefore I have reaped your prophets. I have killed them with the word of my mouth." And again this: "Therefore the leaders of the people will be cast out from their house of luxury; they were driven out because of their evil practices." And again: "Because of impurity, it was destroyed by corruption." And the fact that other stones, clean and polished, are brought in to replace those that have been removed indicates that from time to time, by the will of God, certain individuals are appointed to support the house of Israel and to hold it together in an incorruptible state—whether kings, prophets, or holy men.

As in what was said by God to the blessed Isaiah: "Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: Go to the pastophorion, to Omnas the treasurer, and say to him: 'What are you doing here? And what is yours here? For you have hewn for yourself a tomb here, and you have made for yourself a tomb on high, and you have carved for yourself a tent in the rock. Behold, the Lord Sabaoth will cast out a man to destroy, and he will take away your robe and your glorious crown, and he will cast you into a great and boundless land, and there you will die. And he will put your beautiful chariot to dishonor, and the house of your ruler to trampling. And you will be removed from your stewardship and from your station. And it will be on that day: I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Helkias, and I will clothe him with your robe, and I will give your crown to him, and I will give the power and your stewardship into his hands, and he will be like a father to those dwelling in Jerusalem.'" But also, he says, they will take other dust and plaster over the house—having used "plaster over" in the sense of "smear over." And this signifies the consolation given to Israel through the holy prophets, who, by smearing over the sinners with good and noble words, persuaded them to go eagerly toward what is pleasing to God, and to wipe away the defilement from passions, and rather to emulate and hasten toward those things which the lawgiver knew to be useful for those serving him. Such as what was said to them through one of the holy ones: "Seek the good, and not the evil, so that you may live, and the Lord God, the Pantocrator, will be with you in this way.

And after this he says: "If the affliction of leprosy should come again, and arise in the house, after the stones have been removed, and after the house has been scraped, and after it has been plastered over. And the priest shall enter, and see whether the affliction has spread in the house. The leprosy is persistent in the house; it is unclean. And they shall demolish the house, and its timbers, and its stones, and they shall carry all the rubble of the house outside the city to an unclean place." For when every means of treatment had been devised by those from Israel, and the leprous stones, having been removed, availed nothing, and the anointing through the prophets, that is, exhortation, was thereafter shown to be useless, the priest enters again to inspect the leprous house. For the Only-Begotten entered this world in a body. When he became man, the Synagogue, examining carefully, reveals how great or what a change from ancient baseness to a good polity has occurred. But since he found it still afflicted by its original passions, and suffering from persistent uncleanness, he then orders it to be demolished and sent out to an unclean place. For the entire constitution of the Jews through the law has been dissolved, and the nation has been scattered to every unclean place, according to what was said in the prophets: "And I will scatter them to every wind," or "I will winnow them among all the nations." You will also rightly take up for this what was said by the Savior concerning their temple: "Behold all these things. Truly I say to you, not one stone will remain upon another that will not be thrown down.

He adds to these things that "Everyone who enters the house, for all the days that it is set apart, will be unclean until evening. And he who sleeps in the house shall wash his garments, and will be unclean until evening. And he who eats in the house, again likewise." This clearly indicates that everyone who clings to the Jews in any way whatsoever, by thinking the same things, will certainly also share in their uncleanness. Then again he brings in the priest to examine the leprous house: "For if the priest, coming, enters and sees," he says, "and behold, the affliction does not spread in the house after the house has been plastered, because the affliction is healed." For the Synagogue of the Jews was demolished as unclean on account of its outrage against Christ, and fell away from the friendship of God. Yet, having extended a long time in this state, until the fullness of the Gentiles enters, according to the voice of Paul, it will be pitied by Christ. For He again visits it in a hidden manner as God, and again leads it back to righteousness in the last times—righteousness, of course, that which comes through faith and love for Him. Therefore, the High Priest of all will come to inspect it again, and finding it improved, he will immediately purify it and receive it, according to what is said through the holy prophets: "On that day," says the Lord, "I will gather the outcast, and I will receive the broken one, and those whom I cast out. And I will place the broken one as a remnant." And again in another place:

For many days the sons of Israel will sit without a king, without a ruler, without sacrifice, without an altar, without a priesthood, and without the Urim and Thummim. And after these things the sons of Israel will return and seek their God and David their king; and they will stand in awe of the Lord and of his blessings at the end of the days. When the priest inspects the leprous house, it says, and purifies it, they shall take to purify the house two living clean birds, and a cedar stick, and twisted scarlet, and the hyssop. And again: He will dip the living bird into the blood of the slaughtered bird in living water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar stick, and with the hyssop, and with the twisted scarlet, and he will send the living bird outside the city into a clean field, and he will make expiation for the house, and it will be clean. Now in all these things again observe clearly the mystery of our Savior and the purification through holy baptism. For it commands that two living and clean birds be taken, so that you may understand through the birds the heavenly man who is also God, divided into two natures, as far as concerns the proper account of each. For he was the Word who shone forth from God the Father, in flesh from a woman, yet not divided. For Christ is one from both. And for this reason the two birds are taken, and again are understood as both one, yet living and clean.

For the Word is in Himself the giver of all life and purity, and the temple from the Virgin has the living Word within itself. For His body was His own, and not a foreign garment. Therefore there is one Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to the birds, He commands to take cedar wood, so that through this you may understand the body of Christ to be incorruptible. For it knows no decay; for cedar rejects corruption. And by understanding that the holy body of Christ has not been corrupted, the argument concerning His resurrection is introduced as very plausible. The twisted scarlet thread signifies the confession concerning the death of our Savior. And indeed it is said somewhere about the Church in the Song of Songs: "Your lips are like a scarlet thread, my sister bride." For since the lips of the Church always proclaim the salvation through the blood of Christ, and command the one approaching to make the confession of faith upon it, it fittingly compares her lips to a scarlet thread; and the participation in the mystical blessing itself contains a proclamation of the death and resurrection of Christ Himself. These things we also, persuading the believers to confess beforehand, bring them to holy baptism and perfect them in the blood of the eternal covenant, as it is written. For the confession of faith upon the blood of Christ is signified by the scarlet; and by the hyssop, the fervor of the Holy Spirit. For the plant is hot and cleansing of passions arising from coldness. Such also is the energy and power of the Holy Spirit in us.

Then, it says, the one purifying the leprous woman shall take the living bird, the cedar wood, the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them into the blood of the slaughtered bird, over living water, and shall sprinkle with them upon the house seven times. And he shall purify the house with the blood of the bird, and with the living water, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the spun scarlet. For the law indicates to us that the Synagogue of the Jews cannot otherwise wash away the defilement from disobedience and put off the stain from various transgressions, except only through the blessing from Christ, and through confession and faith in him, accomplished and sanctified, of course, through holy baptism. For observe how through the things mentioned the whole Christ is depicted for us, and faith and confession in him are signified. For through the living bird you would understand the ever-living, life-giving, and heavenly Word; through the slaughtered one, the precious blood of the suffering temple. For we say that he suffered in the flesh, but as in his own body. Through the incorruptible wood, the imperishable flesh; through the hyssop, the Spirit; through the scarlet, the confession of the covenant in blood; through the living water, the life-giving grace of baptism, which even in the passion itself the holy side of our Savior well signified, sending forth water together with the blood, with which it says the house is to be sprinkled, so that it may be purified, according to what was said to the prophet Ezekiel.

And I will take you from the nations, and I will gather you from the lands, and I will sprinkle upon you pure water, and you will be purified. And it commands that she be sprinkled not once, but seven times. For where sin abounded, grace superabounded. Then the lawgiver adds to these things that he will send the living bird outside the city into the plain, and he will make expiation for the house, and it will be clean. We have taken the House, recently named for us, as a type of the Synagogue of the Jews, or of the whole nation. And we will grant that a City is something containing many houses. You will understand that the inhabited world among us is something of this sort, containing many races of men, and girded around as if by a wall by the firmament, beyond which then the broad and pure plain of the upper worlds is conceived. Therefore the lawgiver teaches, through the bird being released to the plain outside the city, both the departure from the world and the ascent into the heavens of Christ. For this one, having gone to the Father and God, will make expiation on behalf of all of us and of the Synagogue of the Jews, and we will be purified. For as the most wise disciple John says, we have an Advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is expiation for our sins, not only concerning our own, but also concerning the whole world. Well then, he rightly said to the Jews, If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. Through whom also with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Concerning the fact that Aaron does not enter the Holy of Holies continually. Being God by nature and from God the Father, the Only-Begotten lowered himself to our condition, and appeared on earth, as it is written, and consorted with men, and for no other reason than that, as the divine Paul says, he might become merciful, and a faithful high priest toward God, to atone for the sins of the people. For the law once decreed through Moses, with angels as intermediaries, appoints men as priests, who suffer the common weakness of nature, and because of it are obliged to offer sacrifice both for the people's and for their own transgressions. But the word of the oath after the law is a Son perfected for eternity; whence he is able to save completely those who approach God through him, always living to intercede on their behalf. Christ makes atonement, least of all for himself. And the word is true: for he committed no sin; rather, he does so for us. And the divine Paul will make this very clear to us, having written about him: whom God set forth as a mercy seat through faith in his blood. For this reason, it says that he entered the Holy of Holies once, and having found eternal redemption, and having perfected it with one offering, and this for the continual sanctification of the sanctified. And we are saved; but he takes away our sins, and grieves for us. For he willingly laid down his own life for us; yet he revived.

For he was God by nature, and is in the heavens at the right hand of the Father, always living to intercede on behalf of the saints, as I have just said. And this I will again set forth as from the legal shadow, and I will clearly explain how it stands. It is written, then, in Leviticus: And the Lord said to Moses, Speak to Aaron your brother, Let him not enter at every hour the inner part of the sanctuary beyond the veil, before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark of the testimony, and he shall not die. For I will appear in a cloud upon the mercy seat. For it was necessary, it was necessary that Aaron, fulfilling the appointed image and type of the priesthood of Christ, should not at every hour, that is, at all times, make his entrance into the Holy of Holies, as if to signify the beauty of the mystery. For Christ entered once, having found eternal redemption, as I said. It is therefore an offense against the truth itself through the types, that Aaron does not enter the Holy of Holies once a year, but at every hour, and as it were at all times. For this reason he commanded that it be observed, lest he die. But if death was the penalty for one who violated the shadow and outraged the type of the truth, what then will be the punishment for those who offend against the truth itself, that is, Christ? This the Jews have done, not accepting faith in him, and dishonoring him in countless ways, even though he says clearly: I am the truth, that is, the fulfillment of the types in the law. For the end of the law and the prophets is Christ. For so writes to us the learned in the law and most sacred Paul.

Aaron is therefore prevented from making his entry into the Holy of Holies at all times, so that the beauty of the mystery might shine forth for us undamaged and pure, even in the shadows themselves. So the entry occurs once a year and at a single season. And he legislated, speaking in such a way as would not err from what is fitting: "Thus Aaron shall enter the sanctuary. He shall take a calf from the cattle for a sin offering, and a ram for a whole burnt offering, and he shall put on a linen tunic that has been sanctified, and there shall be a linen garment next to his skin, and he shall gird himself with a linen girdle, and he shall place a linen turban on his head. These are holy garments; and he shall wash his whole body with water, and then put them on. And from the congregation of the sons of Israel he shall take two he-goats from the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a whole burnt offering. And Aaron shall present the calf for his own sin, and he shall make expiation for himself and his household. And he shall take the two he-goats, and set them before the Lord at the door of the tent of testimony, and Aaron shall cast lots upon the two he-goats, one lot for the Lord, and one lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall present the he-goat upon which the lot for the Lord fell, and he shall offer it for a sin offering; and the he-goat upon which the lot of the scapegoat fell, he shall set it alive before the Lord to make expiation by it, so that he may send it away into the wilderness, and he shall release it into the desert." So then, in these things he explains to us the manner of the sacrifice. Then Aaron presented the calf for his own sin and for that of his household.

The calf having been slaughtered, and the ram having been made into a whole burnt offering, according to the law proper to it: "And he shall take," it says, "the fire-pan full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord. And he shall fill his hands with incense of fine composition, and shall bring it inside the veil, and shall place the incense upon the fire before the Lord, and the vapor of the incense shall cover the mercy seat upon the Testimony, and he shall not die. And he shall take from the blood of the calf, and shall sprinkle the altar with his finger; he shall sprinkle seven times from the blood with his finger." And it adds to these: "And he shall slaughter the goat for sin from the people before the Lord, and shall bring some of its blood inside the veil; and he shall do with its blood in the manner that he did with the blood of the calf." And these very things he has commanded to be done, I say, for the purpose of expiating the impurities of the sons of Israel and all their sins. And the blood of both the calf and the goat was smeared not only on the mercy seat and the inner tent, that is, the Holy of Holies, but also on the altar of the offerings itself in the first tent. For it says again: "And he shall go out to the altar before the Lord, and shall make expiation upon it; and he shall take from the blood of the calf and from the blood of the goat, and shall place it upon the horns of the altar all around. And he shall sprinkle upon it from the blood with his finger seven times, and shall cleanse it, and shall sanctify it from the impurities of the sons of Israel.

And again it adds: "And he shall bring the live goat, and Aaron shall place his two hands upon the head of the live goat. And he shall confess over it all the lawless acts of the sons of Israel, and all their injustices, and all their sins. And he shall place them upon the head of the live goat, and shall send it away by the hand of a ready man into the wilderness. And the goat shall take upon itself their lawless acts into the inaccessible place, and he shall send the goat into the wilderness." 2. These things, then, were ordained in types at that time, and so they stand, and indeed were practiced. But since the shadow has passed, and the time of correction has arrived, come now, let us, employing subtle and most elegant thoughts, transform the intention of the law to the mystery of Christ. For our Lord Jesus Christ entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having found an eternal redemption. Yet it was by the blood of an eternal covenant, and not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, that he wiped away the sin of the world. For he was sacrificed not for any need of his own, but for our salvation. We shall therefore follow even the very shadows of the law. It was indeed quite fitting, or rather necessary, that the inspired Aaron should offer sacrifice for his own transgressions. For being human, he could not be conceived as incapable of error. But such a thing will no longer suit Christ—far from it. For he is rich in his own nature in being without fault, as God.

Yet in him and through him is the purification even of the sanctified themselves—I mean both priests and indeed the laity. For see how Aaron prefigures the sacrifice understood in Christ and the spiritual fragrance in the offerings made on his behalf. For there was a calf and a ram for a whole burnt offering. And again, Christ is understood in the calf. For the offerings brought to God on behalf of the saints are very abundant, and the modes of such offerings are exceedingly rich. The calf is a sacred animal, superior to all others suitable for sacrifice. Therefore, the calf would indicate to us the perfection of the sacrifice. And again, a ram for a whole burnt offering, for our Lord Jesus Christ became a fragrance of sweet odor to God the Father, dissolving, as it were, the abominable and foul stench of the world's sin in himself. Observe how Aaron, commanded to make his entry into the Holy of Holies at appointed times and to complete well the sacrifices for his own transgressions, is not seen at that time in the form of the high priesthood, but, it says, he shall put on a sacred linen tunic, and there shall be linen breeches on his skin, and he shall gird himself with a linen girdle, and he shall place a linen turban on his head; the garments are sacred, and he shall wash his whole body in water. But this attire was customary and lawful for all priests. What then would be our plausible, and indeed true, account of these things? For it was not consistent that Aaron, sacrificing for his own faults, should appear in the form of Christ, who knew no sin.

For the adornment most fitting to him, and the very form of the high priesthood, typified the beauty of both the kingdom and the priesthood of our Savior. And that it is impossible for anyone to be able to enter into the Holy of Holies and into the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not a man, unless they have been previously purified by the water of regeneration, the law clearly indicated, commanding Aaron to wash himself with water if he was about to make his entrance into the Holy of Holies. And it commanded that coals be taken from the altar itself and carried inside, that is, within the veil. And it instructs them thus to make a full handful of fine incense. And when this has been accomplished, it says, the vapor of the incense will cover the mercy seat upon the Testimony. And Christ was a type of this, who was sacrificed as a calf, and is wholly consumed as a ram, and fills the entire holy tabernacle, that is, the Church, with spiritual fragrance, as will be said by us: "Your name is ointment poured out. Therefore maidens loved you and drew you. After you we will run for the scent of your ointment." But come, let us raise the discourse from the beginning. For thus our exposition of the meanings will proceed straight to what is fitting. Now a calf and a ram were brought for sacrifice on behalf of Aaron; and two goats from the people, and also a ram as a whole burnt offering. For it is written thus: "Lots for the goats: one for the Lord, the other for the scapegoat." And what the mystery concerning them might be, it is necessary to state.

Some, then, think that one of the goats was given and sent away into the wilderness to some kind of scapegoat and unclean demon. But we say that this opinion is filled with extraordinary superstition and is not free from the accusations that belong to Greek errors. Rather—for I will speak without reserve, and even more strongly—we will find that the law introduces inequality of reasoning into sin against God, although it in many ways draws away from polytheistic error, points out the one and naturally Lord of all, and is accustomed to lead to the knowledge of truth. For someone accustomed to right thinking would immediately say: For what reason has he commanded that a goat be sent away and assigned as a kind of sacrifice to an evil and opposing power, when it has been offered to God—I mean the he-goat? And what necessary benefit shall we find that Aaron accomplished when he placed his hands on the goat and recounted the sins of the sons of Israel? Would not this matter then be considered full of the utmost stupidity, Greek impiety, and not free from perversity of reasoning? And to whom or how is it still debatable that which is so clearly diseased has an evident refutation?

What, then, was the rite? Two goats were brought forward, both fine and equal in size to one another, both of the same age, of the same color, and in no way afflicted with a blemish. Then two lots were cast, bearing the names of the goats, according to what seemed good to the lawgiver, marking them well. For one was named "Lord," and the other "Scapegoat." So, then, when the goats had been named, one "Lord" and the other "Scapegoat"—for the name comes from being sent away—we will understand that "Scapegoat" is said not of a demon but of the animal itself. And the "Lord," for this was the name of one of the goats, as I said, was sacrificed in a fitting manner. It sanctified with its blood the innermost tent, and also the outer altar of burnt offerings, upon which they performed the sacrifices according to the law. The other, that is, the "Scapegoat," was sent out into the wilderness, Aaron having confessed over it the sins of the sons of Israel. Both signify Christ: having died as a man, and having been sacrificed for us, as in the form of a goat. For the goat was slaughtered for the remission of sins, sanctifying the Church, understood as a type of the innermost tent, and also those under the law. For, as I said, the altar according to the law was sanctified by the blood of the goat. And without any contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the greater. Therefore, in the law, the perfect, even if it has the power to sanctify some, is the worship according to the law.

For it is necessarily required, as one who is able to perfect, that Christ sanctifies with his own blood those who practice the legal worship. Indeed, the divine Paul says something like this concerning himself and those called from the circumcision: "Knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law, except through faith in Jesus Christ. And we believed in Jesus Christ, so that we might clearly have justification from him." Therefore, he has been sacrificed for our sins, according to the Scriptures; but he came to life again, and departed into a region inaccessible to men, that is, heaven, bearing away, as it were, our sins. For he himself, it is said, takes away our sins and grieves for us. This, I think, is the Scapegoat. For he was sent away, as it were, from our realm into the upper city, to appear now before the face of God on your behalf. And the blessed John confirms us in this, writing: "Children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, not only for ours, but also for the whole world. It is fitting, then, that we have been cleansed in Christ, and we have been healed by his wound. He himself is the advocate for us, and he has ascended into the region inaccessible to men, of which the desert would be a type. For he entered the world as a forerunner for us, and he himself inaugurated the way for us, a fresh and living way, entering into the inner part beyond the veil.

Christ is therefore a scapegoat, bearing our sins in the form of a goat. For a goat, as I said, was slaughtered on behalf of sins. And the equality and likeness of the goats to each other in every respect demonstrated enigmatically that it was the same one. For since it was not possible for the slaughtered goat to come to life again—for the matter seemed to be a kind of portent and nothing else—and the Divine is always unostentatious, although it is able to work all things miraculously, for this reason two were taken in a providential manner, having an equal and irreproachable resemblance to each other. Just as, of course, in the purification of the leper, the lawgiver ordained that two birds should again be brought, of which one was slaughtered, and the other was released into the wilderness. For through very many most clear examples the law has taught us the mystery of Christ, through whom and with whom glory and power belong to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, GLAPHYRA ON THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.

Concerning Christ and the Synagogue of the Jews. The wretched Jews, having let loose a harsh and boorish tongue against Christ, could be caught in many ways. But that the matter was not without penalty for them, one might know even from the events themselves. For Israel, the firstborn, possessing conspicuous glory on this account, the beloved and chosen one, has been placed behind the nations, and has come to be in the last, or rather in every evil. And the Lord foretold this to them through Hosea, saying: "Woe to them, because they have departed from me. They are wretched, because they have sinned against me. I redeemed them; but they have spoken falsehoods against me." For there is no harsh word of theirs that they have not dared to utter. For they have blasphemed, not heeding what is written: "Death and life are in the hand of the tongue; those who control it will eat its fruits." But since they have raged against him, having let loose an unbridled tongue for slander, as I just said, they have also slipped away from hope in him, and indeed, not hearing him say: "This is your lot, and your portion, that you disobey me," says the Lord. Therefore, that they have become guilty of charges of loquacity, and were about to pay bitter penalties for their outrage against Christ, we will readily agree also from what is written in Numbers. It reads as follows: "And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, on account of the Ethiopian woman whom Moses took, because he took an Ethiopian woman. And they said: 'Did the Lord speak to Moses alone? Did he not also speak to us?' And the Lord heard.

And the man Moses was exceedingly gentle beyond all men on the earth. And the Lord said immediately to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam: "You three go out into the tent of testimony." And the three went out into the tent of testimony. And the Lord descended in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doors of the tent of testimony; and Aaron and Miriam were called, and both went out. And the Lord said to them: "Hear my word. If a prophet of the Lord arises among you, I will be known to him in a vision, and I will speak to him in a dream. Not so is my servant Moses, who is faithful in my whole house. I will speak to him mouth to mouth in form, and not through riddles, and he saw my glory. And why were you not afraid to speak slander against my servant Moses?" And the wrath of the Lord's anger was upon them, and they departed; and the cloud withdrew from the tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous like snow. And Aaron looked at Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses: "I beseech you, Lord, do not let sin be added to us, because we were ignorant against whom we sinned. Let it not be to us as equal to death, like a miscarriage proceeding from a mother's womb, which devours half of her flesh." And Moses cried out to the Lord, saying: "O God, I beseech you, heal her." And the Lord said to Moses: "If her father, spitting, spat in her face, would she not be ashamed? She shall be separated for seven days outside the camp. And after this she shall enter." And Miriam was separated outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move until Miriam was purified.

These matters are akin to what has already been said. For the contemplation in those passages is not far removed, but the thought is like a sister and of the same nature. For these words also speak the mystery and introduce the dishonor of the Jewish Synagogue for the outrages it has committed against Him. Yet the manner of the offenses differs somewhat in detail. In those passages, the Synagogue was leprous and unclean, corrupting itself with many and various faults. But in these, the discourse only frames the charges of the outrage against Christ, and it depicts the swelling of Jewish arrogance, while it displays the meekness of the one who says: "Learn from me that I am meek and lowly in heart." Moreover, it also introduces the philanthropy of the one who judges justly, not extending his anger to the uttermost nor indefinitely against those who offend, but applying a salve after striking, and saving and healing. So, to speak in summary, the whole aim of the present passages has inclined in this direction. Having taken up each of the said matters in detail, let us unfold the hidden meaning in them, with God opening a door for the discourse, who says to those who hope in Him: "And I will give you hidden treasures, secret, invisible; I will open them to you.

Aaron and Miriam therefore spoke against the all-wise Moses because of the Ethiopian woman he had taken, and they said, "Has the Lord spoken to Moses alone? Has He not also spoken to us?" These are the two charges of their foolish talk against Moses: first, that he took a wife, I mean the Ethiopian woman; and second, the saying, "Has the Lord spoken to Moses alone? Has He not also spoken to us?" In the first charge, he is accused of lawlessness; in the second, it is said that he has not been placed very highly, nor has he received any exceptional grace beyond others, since God is seen to have spoken also to others. We shall proceed in order, assigning the first discourse to the first accusation; and thus from these things we shall now transfer the types to Christ Himself. Now Moses formerly took a wife and made the Midianite woman his consort, I mean the daughter of Jethro; and after no small time had passed, he married the Ethiopian woman, a foreigner and a black woman. Yet the lawgiver clearly proclaims that the sons of Israel should not mingle at all with foreigners. For it is written thus: "You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son." On these grounds, the great Moses is judged for lawlessness by Aaron and Miriam, who have not understood, as is likely, the mystery that was well managed through him as a type, which we shall now make as clear as possible, constructing the nature of the matter well toward Christ Himself, to whom we shall now also apply the person of Moses.

For Christ is the Lawgiver and mediator between God and men, just as that one was, of course. For he also indicated to us, saying, "The Lord your God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me." And as for the form of the Jewish priesthood, Aaron will be taken, and Miriam will fill the role of the Synagogue. Therefore, the elders of the Jews, and the Synagogue itself along with them, accused our Savior Christ, charging him with transgression of the divine commandments, by saying, "If this man were from God, he would not have broken the Sabbath." They were also indignant in another way, because he was courting the black woman, that is, the Church from the Gentiles, and in a manner marrying her in addition to the first, that is, the Israelite woman, who was again the Synagogue. And that they were indignant as their customs, based on vain observance, and those spoken of in types through Moses, were being dissolved, it is not difficult for one who once engages with the Gospel writings to understand. And that he was again courting the Church from the Gentiles, still darkened because of its obscurity in knowledge and ways—for the true light, which knows how to brighten and whiten, was not yet in it—one might very easily gather proof from the prophets. But it seems more fitting to me to demonstrate this through the economy of the Savior. Therefore, he preached to the Samaritans, who were foreigners, and as it were laid down a beginning and foundation of the Church of the Gentiles among them.

That they were of other races and had been separated from the flock of Israel, one might see even from this without difficulty. For sending out his own disciples to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, he says, "Do not go into the way of the nations, and do not enter into a city of Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Do you see how he has placed those outside the sheep of the house of Israel? Therefore, not yet having departed from the marriage of the Israelite woman—that is, the Synagogue—but still seeming in some way to cohabit with her, he was in a manner courting and taking as a second wife the black woman of another race, that is, the Church from the nations. For this reason, when speaking to the Jews, he said, "I have other sheep, which are not from this fold, and I must lead those as well; and there will be one flock, one shepherd." And somewhat more sharply, when they were disobedient and explicitly inquired, saying, "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly," Jesus answered them, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in the name of my Father, these bear witness about me. But you do not believe, because you are not from my sheep." For he already called those from the nations his own sheep. At which the Pharisees, being greatly vexed and angered, as if he loved those of other races and held the divine in no regard, charged him with the law, saying, "Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? For if you did not follow the ways of the Samaritans, if you were not a friend of Greeks and of other races, you would not have mingled at all with those from the nations. And if the demon among the Greeks were not in you—

They called idolaters "demoniacs" because of the devil in them, and they say that you did not make the transgression of the legal commandments a matter of no account. And that what is through Christ is rather a fulfillment of the law, and not a transgression, according to what was said by him: "I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." For it was a transformation of the mere letter into truth. So the manner of accusation concerning the black woman is in these things, and the image of ill-temper toward Christ, as will be taken in the matters concerning Moses; and we will introduce the abuse that is neighbor and sister to this, again transforming the meaning of the sayings from type to truth. For he says, "The Lord spoke not only to Moses, but also to us." The speech is from arrogance, the utterance from empty puffing. For those thinking rightly ought not at all to hasten to rise to an equal measure with the one who justly heard, "I know you above all, and you found favor with me"; rather, they should offer thanks for the honors they have received, not overstepping the order ordained from above, nor snatching for themselves the honor thus given. This would rightly be considered not lacking in the utmost arrogance. But consider again our Lord Jesus Christ, making clear to the Jews the purpose of God and Father, known naturally to him alone, and saying: "I do not speak from myself, but the Father who sent me has given me the command what to say and what to speak." And again: "The words that I speak are not mine, but those of the one who sent me.

Then, in response to this, he again grows bold, as the lawless Scribes and Pharisees, who are meditating and have chosen to disobey for this reason, are not moderately insolent in speaking to their fathers about God. For they say: "We know that God spoke to Moses; but we do not know where this one comes from." So you see how, by claiming to know that God spoke to Moses, they all but say in those ancient and harsher words: "Has God and Father spoken only to Christ, and not to our fathers?" And they say, "At Sinai." And "The Lord heard." And "The man Moses was exceedingly gentle beyond all men on earth." They seem to have made Moses' gentleness a pretext for arrogance, both Miriam and Aaron. But in this matter, even as that one entreats, God becomes angry, and of his own accord comes to justly resent those who have dared to insult him, appropriating to himself the contempt shown toward his genuine servant. Thus you will understand also in the case of Christ. For from the gentleness and philanthropy inherent in him, the Pharisees were somehow more inclined to contempt. But it was, it seems, indisputably evident that they would not escape the motion from above. For as one insulted in his Son, God and Father was about to be indignant. For he had knowledge without instruction, and through a knowledge befitting God, of the words spat out from the contempt of the Pharisees.

Then, next in order: "And the Lord immediately said," it says, "to Moses and Aaron and Miriam: 'You three go out to the tent of testimony.' And the Lord descended in a pillar of cloud and stood at the door of the tent of testimony." The account again suggests that God will be the judge of those who slander our Savior Jesus Christ, and will certainly descend in wrath, as is just, upon those who have dared to revile and contend for equality with him. And the judgment is entirely through the Son, who is manifestly inseparable from his Father, according to: "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me." Since Miriam and Aaron appeared to be standing with the one who judges justly: "Hear my words," he says. "If a prophet arises among you for the Lord," he says, "I will be known to him in a vision and I will speak to him in a dream, not as my servant Moses is faithful in my whole house; I will speak to him mouth to mouth, in form, and not through riddles." And he saw the glory of the Lord. Moses' preeminence in divine visions beyond others is preserved through this, and his exceptional ability to hear divine words was well attested. This you would see as more true in the case of Christ. For God the Father did not speak in the Son as he did in the prophets. Rather, the prophets were furnished through the Spirit with knowledge of what they needed to learn. But the Son knows the counsels in the Spirit not by instruction, as the wisdom and counsel of the one who begot him. And the blessed prophets received the contemplation of his glory through riddles. For no one has ever seen God. He is seen only by the Son according to nature.

And thus it would be understood in a manner befitting God. And the Savior himself will be a witness to us of this, saying: "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God; this one has seen the Father." Therefore, not reasonably, but rather impiously, the Jews, claiming that God spoke to their fathers, made light of Christ saying that he spoke what he heard from the Father. For the things on Mount Sinai are shadows and types and riddles, giving birth to a hidden and not very clear knowledge of what was commanded. But Christ was an earwitness of the Father's words, if it is fitting to speak somewhat more corporeally due to the unavoidable need of the meaning. Yet the account introduces a great difference in Christ compared to all others, for "in my whole house he is faithful." Or does it not through this show a partial and measured economy, that through law and prophets, and a general and universal one through Christ? For the law saved only one house, that of Israel; but Christ, not so, redeeming the whole world through faith in him and through his own blood, as it is written, for God and Father. Therefore he says: "Were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" For such is what is said through the prophet to the impious Pharisees long ago, because of their nonsense and loose talk against Christ: "But you, bring here, lawless sons, seed of adulterers and a harlot. In what did you revel? And against whom did you open your mouth? And against whom did you let loose your tongue?

For just as if slackening the reins to a god-fighting tongue, the Pharisees were making, in a certain way, a very smooth course of blasphemy against Christ, and, being puffed up with excessive arrogance, they belch forth words born of madness. At which the Psalmist, greatly pained, says: "I said to those who transgress: Do not transgress, and to those who sin: Do not lift up your horn, do not raise your horn to a height, and do not speak injustice against God." For they were truly transgressing, condemning impiously him whom it is least necessary to condemn, and they would be caught raising their horn to a height, not only by conceding to Christ the knowledge of the Father's will, but also by insisting that they themselves knew this, through saying, as has already been stated: "We know that God spoke to Moses, so that we also strive to disobey for this reason." And at that time the cloud departed from the tent of testimony. And immediately Miriam appeared leprous, and not simply, but as snow. For, being vexed at the outrages against Christ and the unholy audacities of the Jews, and being bitterly disposed, the divine and pure nature, in a certain way, took flight and ascended from the Synagogue, according to what was said by Christ: "I have abandoned my house, I have left my inheritance." For the Lord, having descended in a pillar of cloud, departs again as a cloud, according to the literal type. And since he was naturally separated from the Synagogue of the Jews, it was immediately shown to be unclean; and unclean not simply, but having run to the extremity of the affliction. For saying that the one who became leprous is exceedingly whitened indicates the intensification of the disease.

What could be whiter than snow? For it was indeed likely, or rather necessary, and unquestionably the case, that the Synagogue of the Jews would fall into every evil, having fallen away from the care of the one who preserves. Now the untamed and jest-loving swarm of the common people is punished with uncleanness and dishonor, according to what was rightly said by the saints to God: Fill their faces with dishonor, and they will know that your name is Lord. And Aaron, having accused Mary along with her, is not profitably cleansed of leprosy, although he owed the same penalty to the judge. For since the office of the priesthood is honorable and great before God, he, having escaped appearing with leprosy, was punished rather with grief for the one who suffered this, according to what was said by God: Gird yourselves and mourn, you priests; lament, you who serve the altar; enter in sackcloth serving God, because sacrifice and libation have left the house of our God. And he approaches the all-wise Moses, saying: I beg you, Lord, do not also lay sin upon us, because we did not know against whom we sinned. For those who are by race from Israel, and not alien to the fleshly relation of the Synagogue of the Jews, but have been appointed stewards of the mysteries of our Savior, were to offer prayers for those who sinned from ignorance, although they stumbled together in the beginning. And they beseech Christ not to add to the Father’s anger, which Paul did when he said: Brothers, the good will of my heart and the prayer to God for them is for salvation.

But he who said this was a steward of the mysteries of God and a minister of the divine proclamation, which Aaron also was at that time. And when Moses cried out on behalf of the leprous woman and begged that she be healed, God deferred granting pardon, saying, "Let her be separated for seven days outside the camp, and after this she shall enter again." 4. The word demonstrates to us as in an image that the divine nature is swift to pity and, in a certain way, most ready to incline itself toward supplication, but it is often roughened by the multitude or magnitude of our transgressions and shrinks from showing kindness to the guilty. This also signifies, in our understanding, that much intercession by the saints has ascended to God on behalf of Israel; but since it was not fitting that he should go unpunished, being condemned for no ordinary offenses, mercy was placed second to justice. And that God is often provoked by our transgressions to the point of sometimes hesitating to grant even that serenity which is most dear to him, it is not difficult to see from these things as well. For it was revealed through the Holy Spirit to the prophet Jeremiah that at certain times a slaughter would take place in the land of the Jews, when the Babylonians overran it by the law of war; but when many had already fallen and corpses were visible, he says to the holy prophet, "Woe is me, for my soul departs over those who have been slain; run through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and know, and search in her squares.

If you find a man, if there is one who renders judgment and seeks faith, I will be merciful to them, says the Lord. You see in these words one who is in travail over those who have been slain, and who is ready and willing to pity Jerusalem, but is somehow restrained on his own, so to speak, and checks his godly serenity because of the excess of sin, yet nonetheless seeks occasions for compassion and wishes to put an end to the effects of wrath on one point: for he imagined one man who would show themselves faithful in her. So Miriam was sent out, confined by leprosy. But the people did not depart, it says, until Miriam was purified. For we also who believe in Christ will wait for the purification of the Jews, clearly that through faith. Thus we will then leave behind the tents of this life, march up to the upper city, and run to the promised land. So the Savior speaks truly when he says to the Jews: If you believe Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. Through whom and with whom glory to God and Father with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Concerning Those Who Have Surveyed the Land of Promise. 1. The lot is exceptional for those who have chosen to love the King of all, God. The possession of goods beyond understanding has been prepared for them. And the blessed prophet Isaiah will confirm this, saying: "There is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord." And again: "And you will be confident in the Lord, and he will raise you up to the goods of the land; and he will feed you the inheritance of Jacob, your father." For the mouth of the Lord spoke these things. Therefore, the promise would be true, and firmly established in every way and entirely; for it would not fail of the truth, nor would the mouth of God ever deceive; but it will certainly fulfill what was promised. And knowing this, the divine Psalmist says somewhere: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance; you are the one who restores the inheritance to me." Who then are those who serve the Lord, or to whom will such a splendid and desirable lot come? Those who have striven to accomplish what is pleasing to God, and who know how to pass without hesitation to any of the admirable things, and who have most unhesitatingly set out to crush every enemy, and who have not relied on their own powers, that is, on their own skills, but have held forth the grace from above as a kind of weapon, having God of all as their champion and shield-bearer. For having been so disposed, they say: "I will not hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me. For you have saved us from those who oppress us, and you have put to shame those who hate us." He renders the good and most courageous, and those more ready to believe in the necessity, most distinguished, distributing the goods with a bountiful hand.

But those who have chosen to be disobedient, suffering the most shameful of all maladies, he will certainly drive away from the chosen flock and repel from every matter that knows how to delight. And he will declare, as is most just in each case: "This is your portion, the portion of your disobedience to me." We will find the Jewish multities subject to such accusations. Therefore they have slipped away from hope and have remained without a share, even though the inheritance was theirs—if indeed it is true, as the blessed Paul says, that the promises belong to them. But because they disobeyed the one who called them to those promises, they have remained without a share, and according to the Savior's word: "The last have become first, and the first last." And this, in turn, was foretold to us from the ancient Scriptures themselves. It runs thus: "And after this the people set out from Hazeroth and encamped in the wilderness of Paran; and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 'Send for yourself men, and let them survey the land of the Canaanites, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for possession; you will send one man from each tribe and from their ancestral houses, all their leaders.' And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran by the Lord's command, all of them leaders of the sons of Israel." Now these chosen men of the tribes, twelve in number, were separated from the rest of the multitude. And they went up to survey well whether the land was fertile or thin-soiled, good for pasture and most productive, or dry and barren.

or a nurse of cultivated trees, or having obtained the generation of seasonal fruits, unless it has the practiced ability to harvest the crop. And in addition to these, who the inhabitants might be, whether they are formidable in strength and skilled in warfare, and not easily captured by ordinary men, that is, by those practiced in valor; and how many and what the cities are, whether they are bare and unwalled, or excellently fortified. Moses added that they would need to pluck some of the fruits as a demonstration and then return. So having gone up, they hastened to report what had been commanded. When the opportune time came, they surveyed the land, and indeed, taking a cluster of grapes—a strange and unusual thing, a true marvel—they returned unharmed and came back to Moses. However, they were still divided in opinion. For all deemed it right to praise and reported that the land was good and fertile, and they brought the fruit taken from it as a witness. But some called the people living there bold, strong, and very warlike, yielding little to the contempt of all. "For we have seen sons of giants there," they said, "so tall and large that they would surpass the men of Israel, I think, like locusts, if compared to their stature." But Caleb and Joshua clearly affirmed that the land was good and fertile. "And if the Lord chooses us, he will lead us into it. They will prevail over the enemy," they insisted again, "since God protects us.

Since those from Israel were hearing such words—the great and unorganized multitude—they were immediately carried away into forgetfulness of God, and having no memory of the signs in Egypt, they suffer from great cowardice, they shrink from battle, they renounce resistance, and they no longer desire the promised things. They did not consider the all-powerful and invincible hand of their helper, but they lament childishly, and at once they expect to be consumed by the swords of their enemies, along with their women and children. And indeed they dared to say that servitude in Egypt was better for them, and the burden of slavery more bearable. And they declared, weeping, that they would have to return to the Egyptians; and they tried to stone Joshua and Caleb, who were urging them to courage, covering themselves with dust. When matters had already reached this depth of wretchedness, then, it says, the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud upon the tabernacle of testimony, before all the sons of Israel, and it considered destroying them all without effort. But when Moses fell down and implored, it reluctantly consented. For it says, the Lord said to Moses: I am merciful to them according to your word. But I live, and my name lives. And the glory of the Lord will fill the whole earth. For all the men who see my glory and the signs that I performed in Egypt and in this wilderness, and have tested me this tenth time, and have not heeded my voice—they will certainly not see the land that I swore to their fathers, but rather their children, who are with me here, all who do not know good or evil. Every younger inexperienced one—to these I will give the land.

All who provoked me will not see it; but my servant Chaleb, because another spirit was in him, and he followed me—I will bring him into the land into which I entered there, and his seed will inherit it. Observe then that the charges of disobedience are very grievous before God. And it is necessary that those who have fallen under it endure a loss hard to bear. We will find that Israel suffered this, when we compare the new writings with the older ones, and declare the truth corresponding to the shadows. For Moses urged the chosen ones from all the tribes to go and thoroughly survey the land of promise. But when they arrived and were already present, the ten, being in number, became agents of terrors and godless unbelief to the whole assembly. The remaining two, Chaleb son of Jephonne and also Joshua, urged them to go, having ravaged it, and deemed it worthy to praise the land itself, crying out clearly that it was rich and fruitful, and indeed best for crops. But the former fell from the promise, while the latter were appointed by divine decree as heirs from above, and were honored by God.

What then is the manner of true and spiritual contemplation? It is necessary to state it. Through the books of Moses, that is, through the good things still prefigured in them as types for the saints—namely, the holy land promised to the fathers—the mind of the Jews was, in a way, sent forth. For it is possible, indeed, to see in the legal writings the mystery of Christ shadowed by the types, and through it the sanctification in spirit, and the hope promised to the saints. For the lamb was sacrificed in Egypt by the Israelites; they were anointed with its blood, and the destroyer was restrained. And that death will be weakened by the death of Christ, and that corruption will henceforth pass by those anointed in the Holy Spirit, the shadow foretold. And that we will grasp the prosperity given in the beginning, and that man will be brought back again into the paradise of delight, the law would no less suggest to us. For it commanded to celebrate, in the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, and to take in hand palm branches, and the fruit of a beautiful tree, and thick branches of a tree, and willow, and chaste-tree. And it commanded to receive not simply, but on the first day and the seventh; it calls the first a holy convocation, and likewise the seventh. The matter indirectly indicated that paradise was given at the first time to the beginning of the race—I mean to Adam—and will be given also at the last, that is, at the end of the present age; of which the last day of the seventh would be a very clear type. And the first is holy, and the seventh.

Holy is our time, in which the first-ancestor Adam was still keeping the commandment given to him; and holy again is the last time. For we have been sanctified in Christ, freed from the charges of sin, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, through type and shadow, Moses—that is, the power of the legal writings—virtually sends ahead those who are more teachable and who have, as it were, a select mind, for an accurate contemplation of the good things promised by God. But for those who wish to obtain such revered and most glorious goods, the struggle is not against blood and flesh; rather, it is against principalities and powers, and the world-rulers of this age, according to what is written: those who think of fleshly things shrink from the battle, those who have preferred the temporary and perishable to eternal delight. For observe that even those from Israel, concerning wives and children, speak up and down with the voices of the chosen, brought down to such cowardice and wretchedness. And consider also those who, at the time of the advent of our Savior Christ for all, were harmed in their faith by the voices of the Jews. For our Lord Jesus Christ granted the kingdom of the heavens to those who believe. Yet he called them to courage—clearly, spiritual courage. And he commanded that it is fitting to trample well upon the greed of the devil, saying to those who trusted in him: Behold, I have given you to walk upon snakes and scorpions, and upon every power of the enemy. But they were unwilling to believe, preferring bodily things to love for God.

Called to the wedding, they began, it says, all to beg off from one. And one said, "I bought a field"; another, "I married a wife, and I cannot come." Do you see a brotherhood of passions? Do you see a kinship of diseases? Therefore the Scribes and Pharisees in a way accuse through not wishing to go to the promise of God, nor do they allow others. So then they also heard, "Woe to you legal experts, because you took the key of knowledge. You yourselves do not enter, and you prevented those entering." For the peoples under hand have perished by the voices of the leaders. Somewhere thus through the voice of a prophet God says, "The shepherds became foolish, and did not seek the Lord; therefore the whole pasture did not understand, and they were scattered." So then the great multitude of the Jews slipped away from the promise, and became without a share of the grace through Christ. Yet the remnant has been saved through Christ. A clear type of this would be Caleb son of Jephunneh, and indeed also Joshua; who countless times addressed those from Israel, sharpening them to courage, calling the land good and desirable, and crying out that they would take hold of the nations; but they nearly perished. For it says the whole assembly said to stone them. Yet they have been appointed heirs by God. Who then is Caleb? The name will clarify. For it is interpreted, "whole heart"; and Jephunneh again, "the turning." Therefore those having a perfect heart with God are sons of the turning together with Joshua.

These again would be those who have believed, and understood as a kind of firstfruits among the holy apostles, who have called Israel; and among them the remnant would be understood. And in calling they have taken risks. Nevertheless, they have been appointed heirs of the holy land. For that the sons of conversion—that is, those who have turned from the legal commandments to the worship and grace through faith—have had their whole heart, as it were, perfectly with God, one might learn clearly from Paul writing: they would consider the things in the law as refuse, and count it a loss because of the surpassing knowledge of God, and in order to gain Him and have His justification. That Israel will slip away from the promise, then, but will not be utterly destroyed, but will be saved in a small portion—for this, I think, is the remnant—you will understand very well, as I have already said, seeing Caleb brought in from God's promise, in a way yoked together with, and running alongside, the one who saves; for Jesus is interpreted thus. And indeed the divine angel Gabriel himself was once, when he announced to the holy Virgin the manner of the incarnation of the Only-begotten: "Do not be afraid, Mary," he says, "for you have found grace with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called Son of the Most High." Only the remnant of the Jewish Synagogue, then, has inherited the promises, and entered into the holy land. The many, indeed, are far from it. But the new people in faith have driven together, as it were, with him. For the God of all promised to bring in with Caleb every young child.

This also the divine David signified to us, speaking concerning the inheritance of the saints: "Let this be written for another generation, and the people being built will praise the Lord." For the lot has been reserved not for those being instructed in the law, but for another generation. And what is the other generation? The new people, as I said, and in faith. For we have been built in Christ toward a newness of life, having put off the old man, together with the passions and desires. For Christ is said to build the two peoples into one new man, making peace and reconciling both in one spirit toward the Father. Therefore the infants brought in together with Caleb himself would be a type of the new people. To them also the inspired disciple wrote, saying: "As newborn infants, desire the rational and unadulterated milk, so that you may grow in it unto salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good." And that the inspired Paul also understood the things in the law in this way, and reshapes the type in the writings toward the truth, you will learn clearly, since he wrote to the Hebrews: "That, as the Holy Spirit says: 'Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation on the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me, they tried me, and saw my works. For forty years I was vexed with that generation, and I said: They are always wandering in heart. But they did not know my ways, to whom I swore, and they will not enter into my rest.'

So that we too, thrusting away accursed unbelief and casting it as far as possible from our own soul, might be found heirs of the promise, he again addressed us: "See, brothers, lest at any time there be in any of you a wicked heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort yourselves each day, until what is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceit of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our existence firmly until the end, in that it is said: 'If you hear his voice today, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation.' For some, having heard, provoked, but not all who came out of Egypt through Moses. And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that he would not enter into his rest, if not to the disobedient? And we see that they were unable to enter because of their disobedience. For that which is unbridled and not yielding to divine decrees procured for them, who wish to practice it, the selling off of hope. But the opposite would benefit not a little, and it will persuade us no less when he says: 'Let us therefore fear lest, when the promise of entering into his rest is left behind, any of you should seem to have fallen short.' For we too have been evangelized, just as they were. But the word of hearing did not benefit them, not being mingled with faith in those who heard. For we enter into his rest, we who have believed in the Savior and Redeemer of us all.

I mean Christ, through whom and with whom glory is given to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit for all eternity. Amen. That Christ has become for us the bread of life. α. The divine prophet Jeremiah, rebuking the love of learning of the Jews, and quite reasonably, said: "How will you say that we are very wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? If a false rope has been made in vain for the Scribes. The wise were ashamed, they were terrified, and they were caught, because they rejected the word of the Lord. What wisdom is there in them?" For indeed, the Scribes and Pharisees, greatly puffed up with the knowledge of the laws and raising their eyebrows high, and looking down arrogantly on the common crowd, being very sick with foolishness, were proved from the facts themselves to be unwise and of little understanding. For they rejected the wisdom from above and from heaven, the Word from God the Father, who became for us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. By this they have become worthless and heartless, foolish and blind, according to the very voice of the Savior. Since they thrust aside the divine word, and darted as far as possible from the life-giving grace, and grieved God with their excessive disobediences, they were caught in countless ways and perished by famine. And this was what was said by God through the voice of the prophets: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will bring a famine upon the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. And waters will be shaken, as far as the sea, and from the north to the east they will run around seeking the word of the Lord, and they will not find it.

For those who could possess him abundantly, yet most foolishly reject him, are punished by divine decree, losing the best of all things and the means by which they might have been enriched with the goods from above. But for those who choose to disobey those goods and impiously outrage the divine and admirable grace, a famine of divine teachings has been brought upon them, and very rightly so. For us who believe in him, Emmanuel has become the bread of life, bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world. In him and through him, having overcome the god-hated power of corruption and having put on the grace from above and from heaven, that is, incorruption, we have been offered to God the Father, bright and holy. And what of such things do we not possess in abundance in the world? The legal text sets us before such considerations. It reads thus: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, When you enter the land into which I am leading you there, and it shall be, when you eat from the breads of the land, you shall take a portion, a set-apart offering for the Lord, a first portion of your dough; you shall set apart that bread as a portion, as a portion from the threshing floor, so you shall set it apart; a first portion of your dough, and you shall give a portion to the Lord for your generations. But when you err and do not perform all these commandments which the Lord spoke to Moses, as the Lord your God commanded you by the hand of Moses from the day the Lord commanded you, and beyond for your generations.

And it shall be, if it happens involuntarily from the eyes of the congregation, the whole congregation shall offer one calf from the cattle, without blemish, as a whole burnt offering, for a sweet savor to the Lord, and its sacrifice and its libation according to its ordinance, and one he-goat from the goats for a sin offering. And the priest shall make expiation for the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them, because it is involuntary; and they have brought their gift, an offering to the Lord for their sin before the Lord, for their involuntary acts. And it shall be forgiven to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, and to the proselyte who joins you, because it is involuntary for the whole people. But if one soul sins involuntarily, he shall bring one yearling she-goat for a sin offering. And the priest shall make expiation for the soul that has been subjected to an involuntary act and has sinned involuntarily before the Lord, to make expiation for him. And it shall be forgiven to the native among the sons of Israel, and to the proselyte who is attached among them. There shall be one law for them, whoever commits an involuntary act. And these things are in the book of Numbers; but in Leviticus the mystery is shaped differently, yet the considerations are not very far from dissimilarity. Come then, let us also recall those passages, since they are very necessary for knowledge, and let us weave together the narrative as one over both. And it is written thus again: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, When you enter the land that I give you, and you harvest its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaves of your harvest to the priest.

And the priest shall present the sheaf before the Lord, acceptable to you, on the day after the first day; he shall present it. And on the day on which you bring the sheaf, you shall offer a one-year-old unblemished sheep as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And its sacrifice: two tenths of fine flour mixed with oil, a sacrifice to the Lord for a sweet savor to the Lord, and its libation: a quarter of wine and bread. And you shall not eat new parched grains until this very day, until you have offered the gifts of your God. An eternal ordinance for your generations, in every dwelling of yours. 2. Now the sheaf is the firstfruits of the crops and a symbol of new fruitfulness. But bread is of wheat that has been gathered and heaped up for threshing, and perhaps even brought into the storehouses. And he has commanded that these things be made a dedication to God for those already dwelling in the land of promise, so that Christ might be understood through both: bread from heaven and life-giving, and the firstfruits of the dough of those being renewed into a newness of life in him. For Adam became the firstfruits of the older dough; but since he disregarded the given commandment and slipped into transgression, he was immediately accursed, and the human race was condemned in him to death and corruption. But Christ is the firstfruits of the second dough, who escaped the curse, evidently because of the curse that came upon him for our sake. And he drives away the power of corruption, again because of him who is free among the dead. For he revived, having trampled death.

Almost as a brilliant offering and gift-bearing, and as a kind of first-fruit of humanity, renewed into incorruption, he ascended to the Father. For the bread being brought into the holy tent and laid up in the Holy of Holies for God would indicate, and quite reasonably, the ascent into the heavens of Emmanuel. For he ascended not to something handmade from somewhere, nor to the antitypes of the true things, but to heaven itself, to appear now before the face of God on our behalf, according to what is written. And that the bread from heaven and from above is life-giving, and moreover releases from sins and frees from ignorances those on earth, offering himself up to God and Father on their behalf as a sweet fragrance, you will understand well with the eyes of your mind, as if seeing a calf being slaughtered as a whole burnt offering, and a goat for the ignorances of the people. For who will understand transgressions? according to what is written. Observe then how the lawgiver clearly called the purification through Christ incomparably superior to the worship in the law. For if you pass by the things of Moses, he says, and some should disregard the commandment of the legal worship, then, at that time, you will find that the forgetfulness through bloods is confirmed for you, by a calf being sacrificed and a goat being offered. And this was a type of Christ. Therefore, the law defines the punishment of transgressors, but the precious blood of Christ releases from penalty and frees from charges arising from ignorance. For he gave his life for us, in order to destroy the sin of the world. Therefore, Christ is understood as in bread, as life and life-giver.

as again being wholly burnt up in a calf, and offering himself to God the Father as a sweet-smelling savor; and as having become, in the form of a goat, sin for our sake, and being slaughtered for sins. A sheaf, again, might be understood in another way. And who this is, as far as possible, will be stated. One might compare the human race to ears of grain in the field, which somehow spring up from the earth, await their proper fulfillment, and are cut down in time by reaping death. Thus Christ himself said to his holy disciples: "Do you not say that it is still four months, and the harvest is coming? Behold, I tell you: lift up your eyes and see the fields, that they are already white for harvest. And the reaper receives his wage and gathers fruit for eternal life." Therefore, as I just said, the people on earth are very well to be compared to crops in the field. And Christ became like us, springing up like an ear of grain from the holy Virgin. For he also called himself a grain of wheat, saying: "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." And he became, as it were, an offering to the Father on our behalf, and in the form of a sheaf, as a firstfruit of the earth, which through what it has produced bears witness to its fertility. And being understood as one ear of grain, just as we ourselves are, he is not one ear, but is brought as a sheaf—that is, a single bundle from many ears. And this thing is necessary for benefit and fulfills the type of a mystery.

One only is Jesus Christ, but he is conceived as manifold in the form of a sheaf, and he is, because he has all the faithful in himself, by spiritual union, of course. For in what manner does the blessed Paul write: "We have been raised together with him, and we have sat down together in the heavens." Since he is like us, we have become of the same body with him, and we have obtained union with him through the body. Therefore we say that we are all in him. And indeed he himself says somewhere to the Father and God in the heavens: "I wish that, just as I and you are one, so also they may be in us." So that he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit. A sheaf, then, as having all in himself, and being offered up for all, and as a first-fruit of humanity perfected in faith and already destined to be conveyed to the treasuries above and in heaven. And it says that the sheaf must be presented on the morrow of the first, that is, on the third day. For he rose from the dead on the third day, and he himself ascended into heaven, into the true tabernacle, and into the Holy of Holies. But just as bread was signified also in the calf for the holocaust and for a sweet-smelling savor, and indeed also in the goat representing sins of ignorance, so again, even if he should be understood as a sheaf, yet he himself is the yearling sheep, that is, the perfect one. For Christ is all-perfect and without need in his own nature. And besides this, he is also wholly without blemish. For he has not known sin, nor is there any guile in his mouth.

He himself is the fine flour, bright and oiled, that is, life as in richness and cheerfulness. For we live rejoicing in him because of the hope that lies ahead, and we are watered by the grace of the Holy Spirit, according to that saying in the Psalms: "You anointed my head with oil." For we have become objects of mercy through faith in Christ, with whom we are in a way also offered together, holding a second rank, just as, of course, what are called coarse meal stands in relation to that fine flour. For we call coarse meal the flours from legumes. For that, even if he has become like us by economy, Christ would reasonably be understood as above us, no one would doubt. Therefore his life is incomparably more precious. For it is entirely holy and blameless. But our affairs are lesser and secondary, and as in the order of coarse meal, compared, I mean, to fine flour from wheat. And fine flour is a type of life. Yet the coarse meal is brought up together with the fine flour to the altar. For we are offered together, as I said, with Christ, and we all give off fragrance with him, and we are acceptable together with him to God the Father. And those who do not have Christ are not at all suitable for sacrifice. For "without me," he says, "you can do nothing." "You shall not eat," he says, "until this very day, until you offer the sheaf." For neither the time of the law nor the chorus of holy prophets had the new food, that is, the teachings through Christ, nor indeed the renewal of human nature itself, except perhaps in name only.

Since our Lord Jesus Christ has now risen again, and, as a kind of first sheaf, has offered himself—the firstfruits of humanity—to God the Father, then, at that very moment, we are transformed into a new life, as it were. For we conduct ourselves according to the Gospel, not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit, through whom and with whom glory is given to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen. Concerning the red heifer that was burned outside the camp. 1. But somewhere the inspired David says: "What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has given back to me?" This utterance would be most fitting for us as well. For what shall we have that is equal in value to God the Father? He gave his own Son for us, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life—sparing, as it were, even the affection that befits him. For he gave himself for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and we have been saved; but he himself has been weakened because of our sins, and suffers for us, and has undergone even the death of the flesh—not that he might be seen to have remained among the dead with us, but so that, running with him and through him into life, and hastening back to incorruption, we may joyfully say: "Where is your victory, O Death? Where is your sting, O Hades?" What path, then, leads to this? The grace of baptism, through which, washing away every defilement, we are shown to be partakers of the divine nature, with Christ dwelling in us through the Spirit.

For then, then, sprinkled in our conscience from dead works, as the blessed Paul writes, and having become partakers of the mystical blessing, and filling our own mind with the grace from above, we are seen as objects of emulation and regard, and why not indeed among such things? You would see the truth of what I have said, if you understand what was ordained concerning the heifer. And the Lord spoke, it says, to Moses and Aaron, saying: This is the ordinance of the law, all that the Lord commanded, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and let them take for you a red heifer, without blemish, which has no defect in it, and upon which a yoke has not been placed. And you shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and they shall lead her out of the camp to a clean place, and they shall slaughter her before him. And Eleazar shall take some of her blood, and shall sprinkle it seven times opposite the front of the tabernacle of testimony, with her blood. And they shall burn her before him, and her hide, and her flesh, and her blood together with the dung shall be burned. And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and they shall cast them into the midst of the heifer's burning. And the priest shall wash his garments, and bathe his body with water, and after this the priest shall enter the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until evening. And the one who burns her shall wash his garments, and bathe his body with water, and shall be unclean until evening. And a clean man shall gather the ashes of the heifer. And in what follows:

And it shall be for the sons of Israel and for the proselytes who are among you an eternal ordinance. The lawgiver adds to these things that touching a dead body defiles some and renders them profane. And he who suffers this shall be unclean for seven full days. He shall be purified on the third day and also on the seventh with the ash of the heifer mixed with water, the blood having been sprinkled. But if he does not do this, he says, he will have his uncleanness unwashed. And he will also pay the penalty for having defiled the Lord's tabernacle. His soul shall be cut off from Israel, he says, because the water of sprinkling was not sprinkled upon him. And if it happens in a house, he says, that someone has died, then let the accusation of uncleanness be defined for the hearth itself and for all things in it, I mean the vessels. And if any of the vessels lie empty of covers, let these also be considered polluted. And no less profane, he says, is one who touches in a field either a wounded man, or a bone of a dead person, or a tomb. To what then has he prescribed that such things be wiped away, we shall say, unfolding as far as possible the obscurity of the Letter with fitting reasonings skillfully.

A heifer, then, that is completely unblemished, utterly free from every defilement, and knowing no transgression, is our Lord Jesus Christ. For he dared to say, "The ruler of this world comes, and in me he will find nothing." And indeed to the Jews, "Which of you will convict me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?" Yet observe this: at one time it is called a calf, at another a heifer in the sacred writings, so that through the male it signifies him as a guide, and through the female as being in a lesser and subordinate position. For God is the guide of all things, and he holds authority over all together with God the Father; for he willingly came under the law, and he observed the ordinances of Moses, as one who was preeminent, even if he was a servant. And it is no wonder that he was called a prophet and appeared in the form of a servant, although he is Lord and God of the prophets. The heifer is red; for the mystery of the incarnation was accomplished through blood, since it is true that he became obedient to the Father unto death, death by the cross, and he came saving the world under heaven with his own blood. And the redness would be a sign of blood, clearly indeed. But even if he became obedient to the Father, and with us was under the law economically as a man, even if he was called a servant, not dishonoring the flesh that was assumed, yet he was and is thus free, because he is God by nature, and is least of all bound by the yoke of servitude, and is unacquainted with it, not at all. For he comes from above, and is above all, having sprung from the free substance itself of God the Father.

He said, then, that this heifer must be led forth, red and unblemished, and unacquainted with the labors of the yoke. For if the Only-Begotten has emptied himself and descends willingly in the form of a slave, how or whence could it be disputed that the descent is entirely from the heights, the emptying from the fullness? And the descent from innate and more ancient freedom, as, I say, in the form of a slave. The heifer, then, signifies being in subjection and under law as under a ruler; red, because the manner of the economy was accomplished in blood for our sake and on our behalf; unblemished, because of its faultlessness, for it knows no sin; unacquainted with work and yoke, because of its freedom in divinity and its unfamiliarity with slavery, even though it has become like us and in the form of a slave. But they will give, he says, the heifer to Eleazar the priest, and they will lead it out of the camp to a clean place, and they will slaughter it before him. The priest would be a type of the sacred and sanctified, anointed with the Holy Spirit, since it is said somewhere to us believers through a holy voice: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." To us, then, the sacred ones, the chosen race, and the holy nation, Christ has been given from God the Father, sanctification and redemption, wisdom and righteousness, Savior and Redeemer, and, as the divine Paul writes, he suffered outside the gate. There he said that we also must go, bearing his reproach, that is, his own cross. This the Savior himself also said:

If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. That it is most fitting and proper for the holy and sanctified to have, so to speak, the dead Christ before their eyes for their benefit, he would suggest by the law that a heifer must be slaughtered as if in the sight of the priest. And when we remember Christ, who died for us and on our behalf, then indeed, then we marvel all the more at the divine Paul speaking to us about him: "For one died for all, so that the living might no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died and rose for us." And again: "For I died through the law to the law, that I might live for God, I am crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And I live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for us." Therefore, let the slaughter endured for us be set, as it were, before the eyes of the mind. For we will thus live no longer for ourselves, but rather for God, as those purchased by the blood of Christ, who gave himself for us, according to the Scriptures. Moreover, he commanded that the holy tent be sprinkled with blood by the hand of the priest, and this seven times; and that the heifer be burned, with none of its parts whatsoever cast out, but together with the flesh and dung, the hide and the rest of the body. For Christ sanctifies the truer tent, that is, the Church, with his own blood; and he sanctifies it completely, that is, abundantly. For this, I think, is what it means for the tent to be sprinkled seven times with blood.

A sign of perfection is the number that extends to seven. And the heifer being consumed by fire after the slaughter seems to suggest the trial unto death which Christ underwent for us. For silver is tested in fire, according to what is sung in the Psalms, that "You have tested us, O God, you have burned us, as silver is burned." And that Christ was, in a way, tested through obedience unto death, that would, I think, not obscurely indicate something. For somewhere he said through the voice of the prophet Zechariah, perhaps to those justified in faith, that is, for whom he died: "And I will say to them: If it is good in your sight, give, having set my wage, or renounce it." Then the prophet says: "And they set my wage, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me: Put them into the smelting furnace, and see if it is genuine, in the way I was tested for them." Therefore, as I said, the heifer being consumed by fire after the slaughter would suggest that Christ was tested unto death. But nothing of it is to be rejected. For Christ is entirely holy, both the flesh and the hide, that is, both the things hidden in concealment and the manifest and obvious things. For he was God by nature, having become like us, but not knowing sin. And cedar wood, and also hyssop, and a scarlet thread are thrown into the ash, the cedar indicating to us elegantly incorruption—for cedar is superior to decay—and the hyssop, purification—for the plant is cleansing and naturally dissolves impurities in the bowels.

The red thread signifies very well the convergence of the Word with flesh. For the Word was entwined, as it were, with flesh and blood, and was tested for our sake both by fire and unto death, as I said recently. But his passion and the manner of his incarnation were the source of incorruption and purification for us. For we are justified in him, having repelled the defilement in soul and inward parts, if indeed the saving baptism and the laying aside of power is not the removal of filth from the flesh, but a question of good conscience toward God, through which forgiveness of transgressions would occur; grace will certainly follow the confessions of faith. That Christ's dying for us became a path to incorruption and life is in no way disputable. The one who burns the heifer and mixes the cedar wood, the hyssop, the red thread, and the one who collects the ashes—these are unclean, it says, until evening, even though they wash their garments and are clean. The law perhaps indicates the weakness of human nature, and that if our affairs are examined subtly and precisely, no one appointed to service—clearly the divine and sacred service—is entirely blameless, but even if someone happens to be among those chosen to live in the best way and is as pure as possible, he will not have a faultless service. For no one is worthy to touch the mysteries of our Savior. And this is not surprising; the sacred word will persuade us, speaking thus: "Stars are not pure before him.

Therefore, if our condition were compared to the purity of Christ, it would be unclean and defiled, and subject to divine judgment. One might also very reasonably marvel at the divine Melodist saying, "If you observe transgressions, Lord, who will stand? For with you is atonement." So even one who seems to be pure is rebuked. For it is far better, as I said, than human nature, to be completely without fault, and for the purity in us to approach Christ. He said that the water of purification must be poured out outside the camp, and not rather within the camp itself. For the purification in Christ is outside the Jewish Synagogue, as it were. For it departed from it most completely, saying, "Behold, your house is left to you desolate." And the purifying grace has since flowed over to the nations, as it were; and as Paul says, "Those who were far off have become near." For they have been called through faith, and have acquired righteousness in Christ, while those from Israel chose to disobey. And that the water of purification would cleanse every form of impurity very easily, he explained by saying, "If someone touches a corpse, he will be defiled; but he would not be freed from what has happened otherwise than by being sprinkled with the water of purification on the third and seventh day." And deadness, the corruption of bodies, is a symbol of impurity. The sprinkling of water, mixed with the ashes of the heifer and the other things, would be a type of holy baptism. Therefore, one who is involved in dead works and in corrupting defilements—

We say that the works of death are the unholy and profane passions of the flesh: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire. Purity could not be otherwise unless one were purified and washed away the defilement through holy baptism, both on the third day and the seventh. And the third signifies the time of the resurrection, the final and, as it were, ultimate time, in which the Only-begotten became man. And if a house is defiled, it says, by a dead person in it, those entering it are unclean. And every vessel and unsealed container is abominable; but these too are cleansed by the water of purification in the same manner, on the third and seventh day. The lawgiver seems to indicate to us in these things the defiled house, the vessels in it, and the unsealed container, perhaps the Lord-murdering Synagogue of the Jews: collectively, as understood as a house; individually, as through the vessels. For man is a vessel on earth. And that their mind is not secure, but is very ready for defilements and to admit anything whatsoever of the things that customarily do harm, he hints somehow through the unsealed containers, into which it is easy for those who wish to slip, whether they be lizards or some other of the household animals. But the mind of those justified in faith is not like this. For it is secure and sealed, and not susceptible to the things that customarily do harm. But if someone touches, it says, either a wound, or a dead bone, or a tomb, even so let him be defiled.

And we say that one is wounded who is not healthy in heart, but is, as it were, stricken, either by worldly desires or by worldly, that is, fleshly, wills. We would accept a bone of a dead person as a remnant of impurity; and a tomb, as a kind of memorial and recollection of impurity that has died. For Satan sometimes strikes the heart. And being defeated in part by the passions of the flesh, we ourselves are not entirely sick with sin in every respect, but we still stand in its remnants and continue in the world. What do I mean? Someone strives to control anger or love of money, but does not entirely escape the excess. This, I think, is what it means to be in remnants of impurity, of which the bone of the dead person would be a sign. But also, when a passion has already been overcome, we sometimes let our mind down into recollection, and approaching buried pleasure, we transgress not a little. We are delivered from such accusations when Christ cleanses us and purifies us by his own passion. For he died for us, and we were healed by his wound. And he himself takes away our sins, and is an advocate before the Father concerning sins—not only concerning ours, but also concerning the whole world, as the divine John has written to some. In him, therefore, is all purification, all justification, sanctification, redemption; and with him and through him, glory to God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.