is it the heavenly? But I would say that if you have the leaven 12.285 of wickedness, and you do not destroy all leaven of malice from your governing faculty; for this is your true house; the God of all legislates that you be destroyed for not having cast away the old leaven from yourself. For it is necessary for you, having come to the time of new things, having become new, to have nothing old. "The old things have passed away," and so forth. See how it was necessary to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread in the month of new things. "You shall touch the lintel, and upon both of the doorposts, with the blood that is by the door." The lintel, as one of our predecessors has interpreted, is the rational part; and the two doorposts, the spirited and appetitive parts. From the same. For we do not cast out the destroyer by ingenuity after he has come inside, but we take guard through the law so that he might not even enter in the first place. And the guard and security is this: that the lintel and the posts of the entrance be marked with the blood of the lamb. "And it came to pass at midnight, that the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt." For God inflicts these death-bearing plagues through angels, as we also know from the Books of Kings how in one night the angel slew 185,000 of the Assyrians. "This is the law of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat of it. And every slave of anyone, and one bought with money, you shall circumcise him, and then he shall eat of it;" and so forth. Following what has been set forth, this is the third law, which the Lord spoke again in addition to the two laws. But pay attention to the precision of the Scripture, that the Lord did not speak this law concerning the Passover in the beginning. For if He had said, while they were still in Egypt before Israel departed from Egypt, "No foreigner shall eat of it. And every slave of anyone, and one bought with money, you shall circumcise, and then he shall eat of it," the large mixed multitude that came out of Egypt would not have come out. He therefore kept this law, so that after those who wished had come out, another law might be given. And a little after. If we allegorize these things with respect to our soul, we will say that those born in the house are the words that have grown with us and have been cultivated, and have come to be, beginning from innate concepts; but those bought with money are as many as come to us from outside from teaching and studies. He says, therefore, to circumcise and to purify all, both those born in the house and those bought with money. But one must not accept any foreigner, such as those who admit a foreign dogma; for he does not accept a foreigner, who wishes to profane the feast of the Lord. And a little after. For if you eat the words of God in the Church, but you also eat in the synagogue of the Jews, you transgress the commandment that says, "It shall be eaten in one house." But if you partake of the words of God in one house, the Church, then leaving it, you suppose you partake of God in a heretical synagogue, 12.288 while the commandment says, "It shall be eaten in one house," you are not eating in one house. Therefore, understand the one house to be the Church; therefore, nowhere eat of the lamb, being outside the Church. "And you shall not carry any of the flesh out of the house." One must not profess an ecclesiastical doctrine outside the Church, just as one is not to carry the flesh outside the house; I mean, into a synagogue of Jews or of heretics; for it is similar to casting pearls before swine. "Every uncircumcised person shall not eat of it." Every intelligible offspring of the soul that transcends material things (and material things are the female things) one must circumcise and purify, so that one may thus partake of the flesh of the Passover; and the proselyte becomes as one born in the land; for God does not prefer noble seeds, but accepts free choice. From the same. He speaks of being uncircumcised in the flesh as one who does not circumcise carnal things, just as also one is uncircumcised in the eyes who looks at what he ought not. From the same. See that none of you is uncircumcised in heart; that none is not circumcised with the circumcisions which the Word teaches to be circumcised. And which are these? Some are reproached for being uncircumcised in the ears; and as many as have not circumcised their hearing, are unclean. Uncircumcised in lips,

τὸν οὐράνιόν ἐστιν; Ἀλλ' εἴποιμι ἂν ὅτι ἐὰν ἔχῃς ζύμην 12.285 πονηρίας, καὶ μὴ ἐξολοθρεύσῃς πᾶσαν ζύμην κακίας ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ σου· αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀληθινὴ οἰκία σου· ὁ Θεὸς τῶν ὅλων νομοθετεῖ ἐξολοθρευθῆ ναί σε μὴ ἀποβαλόντα τὴν ζύμην τὴν παλαιὰν ἀπὸ σεαυτοῦ. Χρὴ γάρ σε ἐλθόντα εἰς τὸν καιρὸν τῶν νέων, νέον γενόμενον μηδὲν ἔχειν ἀρχαῖον. «Τὰ ἀρ χαῖα παρῆλθε,» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Ὅρα πῶς ἔδει ἑορτά ζειν ἐν μηνὶ τῶν νέων τὴν ἑορτὴν τῶν ἀζύμων. «Καθίξετε τῆς φλιᾶς, καὶ ἐπ' ἀμφοτέρων τῶν σταθ μῶν, ἀπὸ τοῦ αἵματος ὅ ἐστι παρὰ τὴν θύραν.» Φλιᾶς μὲν, ὡς ἀποδέδωκέ τις τῶν πρὸ ἡμῶν, τοῦ λο γικοῦ· ἀμφοτέρων δὲ σταθμῶν, θυμικοῦ καὶ ἐπιθυ μητικοῦ. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ. Οὐ γὰρ ἐντὸς γενόμενον τὸν ὀλο θρευτὴν δι' ἐπινοίας ἐκβάλλομεν, ἀλλ' ὅπως ἂν μηδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν παρεισδύῃ, φυλακὴν διὰ τοῦ νόμου ποιού μεθα. Φυλακὴ δέ ἐστι καὶ ἀσφάλεια, τὸ, τῷ αἵματι τοῦ ἀμνοῦ τήν τε φλιὰν καὶ τοὺς σταθμοὺς τῆς εἰσό δου κατασημαίνεσθαι. «Ἐγενήθη δὲ μεσούσης τῆς νυκτὸς, καὶ Κύριος ἐπάταξε πᾶν πρωτότοκον ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ.» ∆ι' ἀγ γέλων γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς τὰς θανατηφόρους ταύτας ἐπάγει πληγὰς, ὡς καὶ ἐν ταῖς Βασιλείαις ἔγνωμεν πῶς ἐν μιᾷ νυκτὶ ὁ ἄγγελος ἀνεῖλε τῶν Ἀσσυρίων ρπεʹ χιλιά δας. «Οὗτος ὁ νόμος τοῦ Πάσχα· Πᾶς ἀλλογενὴς οὐκ ἔδεται ἀπ' αὐτοῦ. Καὶ πάντα οἰκέτην τινὸς, καὶ ἀρ γυρώνητον περιτεμεῖς αὐτὸν, καὶ τότε φάγεται ἀπ' αὐτοῦ·» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Ἀκολούθως τοῖς παρατεθεῖσι τρίτος ἐστὶν οὗτος νόμος, ὃν εἶπε πάλιν ὁ Κύριος παρὰ τοὺς δύο νόμους. Πρόσχες δὲ τῇ ἀκριβείᾳ τῆς Γραφῆς, ὅτι οὐκ εἶπε τοῦτον τὸν νόμον τὸν περὶ τοῦ Πάσχα ὁ Κύριος ἐν τῇ ἀρχῇ. Εἰ γὰρ εἰρήκει ἔτι ὄν των ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ πρὶν ἀπᾷραι ἐκ τῆς Αἰγύπτου τὸν Ἰσραὴλ, τὸ, «Πᾶς ἀλλογενὴς οὐκ ἔδεται ἀπ' αὐτοῦ. Καὶ πάντα οἰκέτην τινὸς, καὶ ἀργυρώνητον περιτε μεῖς, καὶ τότε φάγεται ἀπ' αὐτοῦ,» οὐκ ἂν ἐξελη λύθησαν ὁ πολύμικτος πολὺς ὄχλος ὁ ἐξελθὼν ἐξ Αἰ γύπτου. Ἐτήρησεν οὖν τὸν νόμον τοῦτον, ἵνα μετὰ τοῦ ἐξελθεῖν τοὺς βουλομένους δοθῇ ἄλλος νόμος. Καὶ μετ' ὀλίγα. Ἐὰν ἀλληγορῶμεν ταῦτα εἰς τὴν ψυ χὴν ἡμῶν, ἐροῦμεν ὅτι οἰκογενεῖς μέν εἰσιν οἱ συμ πεφυκότες ἡμῖν καὶ γεωργηθέντες λόγοι, καὶ ἐπιστῆ ναι ἀπὸ συμφύτων ἐννοιῶν ἀρξάμενοι· ἀργυρώνητοι δὲ, ὅσοι ἐκ διδασκαλίας ἡμῖν ἐπιγίνονται ἔξωθεν ἀπὸ τῶν μαθημάτων. Πάντας οὖν φησι περιτέμνειν καὶ καθαίρειν, καὶ τοὺς οἰκογενεῖς, καὶ τοὺς ἀργυρωνή τους. Ἀλλογενῆ δὲ οὐδένα δεῖ προσλαμβάνειν, οἷον ἀλλότριον δόγμα προσιεμένους· ἀλλογενῆ γὰρ οὐ πα ραδέχεται, ὃς βούλεται βεβηλῶσαι τὴν ἑορτὴν τοῦ Κυρίου. Καὶ μετ' ὀλίγα. Εἰ γὰρ ἐν Ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐσθίεις λόγους Θεοῦ, ἐσθίεις δὲ καὶ ἐν Ἰουδαίων συναγωγῇ, παραβαίνεις τὴν λέγουσαν ἐντολὴν, «Ἐν οἰκίᾳ μιᾷ βρωθήσεται.» Εἰ δὲ μεταλαμβάνεις λόγων Θεοῦ, ἐν οἰκίᾳ μιᾷ τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ· εἶτα καταλιπὼν αὐτὴν, ὑπο λαμβάνεις μεταλαμβάνειν Θεοῦ ἐν αἱρετικῇ συναγω 12.288 γῇ, λεγούσης τῆς ἐντολῆς, «Ἐν οἰκίᾳ μιᾷ βρωθήσε ται,» σὺ οὐκ ἐσθίεις ἐν οἰκίᾳ μιᾷ. Μίαν οὖν νοήσαι οἰκίαν τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν· μηδαμοῦ οὖν ἔσθιε τοῦ προβά του ἔξω γενόμενος τῆς Ἐκκλησίας. «Καὶ οὐκ ἐξοίσετε ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας τῶν κρεῶν ἔξω.» Ἐκκλησιαστικὸν λόγον οὐ δεῖ ἔξω τῆς Ἐκκλησίας πρεσβεύειν, ὡς ἔξω τῆς οἰκίας μὴ ἐκφέρειν τὰ κρέα· φημὶ δὲ εἰς συναγωγὴν Ἰουδαίων ἢ αἱρετικῶν· ὅμοιον γάρ ἐστι τῷ ῥίψαι τοὺς μαργαρίτας ἔμπροσθεν τῶν χοίρων. «Πᾶς ἀπερίτμητος οὐκ ἔδεται ἀπ' αὐτοῦ.» Πᾶν γέν νημα ψυχῆς νοητὸν ὑπερβαῖνον τὰ ὑλικὰ (ὑλικὰ δὲ τὰ θήλεα) περιτέμνειν καὶ καθαίρειν δεῖ, ἵνα οὕτως μεταλαμβάνῃ τις τῶν κρεῶν τοῦ Πάσχα· ὡς αὐτόχθων δὲ τῆς γῆς, καὶ ὁ προσήλυτος γίνεται· οὐ γὰρ τὰ σπέρ ματα προτιμᾷ ὁ Θεὸς τὰ εὐγενῆ, ἀλλὰ προαίρεσιν ἀποδέχεται. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ. Ἀπερίτμητον τῇ σαρκὶ τὸν μὴ περι τεμνόμενον τὰ σαρκικά φησιν, ὥσπερ καὶ ἀπερί τμητον ὀφθαλμοῖς τὸν βλέποντα πρὸς ἃ μὴ δεῖ. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ. Ὁρᾶτε μή τις ὑμῶν ἀπερίτμητός ἐστι τῇ καρδίᾳ· μή τις οὐ περιτέτμηται τὰς περιτομὰς ἃς ὁ λόγος διδάσκει περιτέμνεσθαι. Ποίας δὲ ταύτας; ἀπερίτμητοι τὰ ὦτα ὀνειδίζονταί τινες ὄντες· καὶ ὅσοι οὐ περιτέτμηνται τὴν ἀκοὴν, ἀκάθαρτοί εἰσιν. Ἀπερίτμητος χείλεσιν,