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this great vision; but when he had said this, he no longer received the wonder of the light with his eyes alone, but, what is most paradoxical of all, his hearing was also illumined by the rays of the light. For the grace of the light, being divided for both senses, illumined his sight with the flashes of its rays, and guided his hearing with its pure doctrines. For the voice of that light prevents Moses from approaching the mountain, weighed down by dead sandals, but having loosened the sandal from his feet, so to touch that ground which was lit up by the divine light.

1.21 Upon this (for I think the account should not linger too long on the mere history of the man, so that it might take up the matters at hand) empowered by the theophany that had appeared, he is commanded to deliver his kinsmen from the slavery of the Egyptians. And that he might best learn the power that was in him from God, he makes the test from the things in his hands by divine command. And the test was this: A rod, having fallen from his hand, was animated and became a living creature (and the creature was a serpent), and again, being taken up by his hand, it became that which it was before its transformation into a beast. And the surface of his hand, now thrust out from his bosom, was changed to the whiteness of snow, and again, having gone within the same, it returns to its own nature. 1.22 As Moses was going down to Egypt, bringing with him both his foreign wife and the children born to him from her, it is said that an angel also met him, bringing the fear of death, whom the wife appeased with the blood of the child's circumcision. Then the meeting with Aaron takes place, he too being urged by God to the encounter. 1.23 Then by both of them the people in Egypt are gathered into a common assembly and deliverance from slavery is announced to those who were already worn out by the misery of their labors, and word about this is brought to the tyrant himself. At this, the indignation of the tyrant against both the taskmasters of the works and against the Israelites themselves was greater than before; and the tribute of bricks is increased and the command is sent down more onerously, with them suffering hardship not only with the clay but also struggling for the chaff and the straw. 1.24 But when Pharaoh (for that was the name of the tyrant of the Egyptians) attempted to counter-devise against the signs performed by them from God through the sorcery of the magicians, then again when Moses turned his own rod into a beast in the sight of the Egyptians, sorcery was thought to perform an equal wonder with the rods of the magicians. And the sophism was refuted by its effect, when the serpent transformed from Moses’ staff showed by devouring the magical wood pieces, supposedly serpents, that the rods of the magicians had no defensive or life-giving power, except for the shape which sorcery, having devised it, presented to the eyes of the easily deceived. 1.25 Then Moses, seeing that all the subject people were of one mind with the leader of evil, brings a common plague upon the whole nation of the Egyptians, exempting no one from the experience of evils. And moving with him against the Egyptians in such an assault were, like a subject army, the very elements of beings that are seen in the universe, both earth and water and air and fire, altering their effects along with the moral choices of men; for by the same power, at the same time and in the same place, both the disobedient was punished and the one free from evil remained unharmed. 1.26 For then, when the entire nature of the waters throughout Egypt was turned into blood by the command of Moses, so that the fish perished as the water was transformed into a fleshy thickness, the blood was water only for the Hebrews when they drew it, whence sorcery also found an opportunity to fraudulently produce the appearance of blood in the water found among the Hebrews. 1.27 Likewise also when the frogs crept upon the

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τὸ μέγα ὅραμα τοῦτο· εἰπόντα δὲ μηκέτι μόνοις τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τὸ θαῦμα τοῦ φωτὸς δέξασθαι, ἀλλ' ὃ πάντων ἐστὶ παραδο ξότατον καὶ τὴν ἀκοὴν ταῖς ἀκτῖσι τοῦ φέγγους ἐναυγασθῆ ναι· πρὸς γὰρ ἀμφοτέρας τὰς αἰσθήσεις ἡ τοῦ φωτὸς μερισθεῖσα χάρις, τὰς μὲν ὄψεις ταῖς τῶν ἀκτίνων μαρμα ρυγαῖς περιηύγαζε, τὴν δὲ ἀκοὴν τοῖς ἀκηράτοις δόγμασιν ἐφωταγώγει. Κωλύει γοῦν ἡ τοῦ φωτὸς ἐκείνου φωνὴ προσβῆναι τῷ ὄρει τὸν Μωϋσέα τοῖς νεκροῖς ὑποδήμασι βεβαρημένον, ἀλλ' ἐκλύσαντα τῶν ποδῶν τὸ ὑπόδημα οὕτω τῆς γῆς ψαύειν ἐκείνης ὅση τῷ θείῳ φωτὶ κατελάμπετο.

1.21 Ἐπὶ τούτοις (χρὴ γὰρ οἶμαι μὴ λίαν ἐμβραδύνειν τῇ ψιλῇ περὶ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἱστορίᾳ τὸν λόγον, ὡς ἂν καὶ τῶν προκειμένων ἔχοιτο) δυναμωθεὶς τῇ ὀφθείσῃ θεοφανείᾳ λυτρώσασθαι τὸ ὁμόφυλον τῆς δουλείας τῶν Αἰγυπτίων προστάσσεται. Καὶ ὡς ἂν μάλιστα μάθοι τὴν ἐγγινομένην αὐτῷ θεόθεν ἰσχύν, ἐκ τῶν ἐν χερσὶ ποιεῖται τὴν πεῖραν θείῳ προστάγματι. Ἡ δὲ πεῖρα ἦν αὕτη· Ῥάβδος ἐκπεσοῦσα τῆς χειρὸς ἐψυχώθη καὶ ζῷον ἐγένετο (δράκων δὲ τὸ ζῷον ἦν) καὶ πάλιν ὑπὸ τῆς χειρὸς ἀναληφθεῖσα, ὅπερ ἦν πρὸ τῆς θηριώσεως ἐκεῖνο ἐγένετο. Καὶ ἡ τῆς χειρὸς ἐπιφάνεια νῦν μέν, προβληθεῖσα τοῦ κόλπου, εἰς χιόνος μετεποιήθη λευκό τητα, πάλιν δέ, εἴσω τοῦ αὐτοῦ γενομένη, ἐπὶ τὴν ἰδίαν ἐπανέρχεται φύσιν. 1.22 Κατιόντος δὲ τοῦ Μωϋσέως ἐπὶ τὴν Αἴγυπτον καὶ συνεπαγομένου τήν τε γαμετὴν τὴν ἀλλόφυλον καὶ τοὺς ἀπ' ἐκείνης αὐτῷ γεγονότας παῖδας, ὅτε τις καὶ ἄγγελος αὐτῷ συναντῆσαι λέγεται, τὸν περὶ τοῦ θανάτου φόβον ἐπάγων, ὃν ἡ γυνὴ τῷ αἵματι τῆς περιτομῆς τοῦ παιδὸς ἱλεώσατο, τότε συντυχία γίνεται τοῦ Ἀαρὼν καὶ αὐτοῦ θεόθεν παρορμηθέντος πρὸς τὴν συνάντησιν. 1.23 Εἶτα παρ' ἀμφοτέρων εἰς ἐκκλησίαν κοινὴν ὁ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ λαὸς συναγείρεται καὶ ἡ τῆς δουλείας ἀπαλλαγὴ τοῖς πεπονηκόσιν ἤδη τῇ κακοπαθείᾳ τῶν ἔργων περιαγγέλλεται καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν τὸν τύραννον περὶ τούτου γίνεται λόγος. Ἀγανάκτησις ἐπὶ τούτοις τοῦ τυράννου κατά τε τῶν ἐπιστατούντων τοῖς ἔργοις καὶ κατὰ τῶν Ἰσραηλιτῶν αὐτῶν μείζων ἢ πρότερον· καὶ ὁ τῆς πλινθείας φόρος ἐπαύξεται καὶ ἐπιπονώτερον τὸ ἐπίταγμα καταπέμπεται, οὐ τῷ πηλῷ μόνον κακοπα θούντων, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τὸ ἄχυρόν τε καὶ τὴν καλάμην ταλαιπορούντων. 1.24 Τοῦ δὲ Φαραώ (τοῦτο γὰρ ἦν ὄνομα τῷ τυράννῳ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων) τοῖς θεόθεν παρ' αὐτῶν γενομένοις σημείοις ἀντισοφιστεύειν διὰ τῆς τῶν γοήτων μαγγανείας ἐπιχει ροῦντος, τότε πάλιν τοῦ Μωϋσέως ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς τῶν Αἰγυπ τίων τὴν ῥάβδον ἑαυτοῦ θηριώσαντος, τὸ ἴσον ἐνομίσθη θαυματοποιεῖν ἡ γοητεία ἐν ταῖς τῶν μάγων ῥάβδοις. Καὶ ἠλέγχθη διὰ τῆς ἐνεργείας τὸ σόφισμα, δείξαντος τοῦ δράκοντος τοῦ ἐκ τῆς Μωϋσέως βακτηρίας μεταβληθέντος ἐκ τοῦ καταφαγεῖν τὰ γοητικὰ ξύλα, τοὺς ὄφεις δῆθεν, ὅτι οὐδεμίαν ἀμυντικὴν οὐδὲ ζωτικήν τινα δύναμιν εἶχον αἱ τῶν γοήτων ῥάβδοι, πλὴν τοῦ σχήματος ὃ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τῶν εὐεξαπατήτων ἡ γοητεία σοφισαμένη παρέδειξε. 1.25 Τότε συμφρονοῦντας ἰδὼν ὁ Μωϋσῆς τῷ καθηγουμένῳ τῆς κακίας ἅπαν τὸ ὑποχείριον, κοινὴν ἐπάγει παντὶ τῷ ἔθνει τῶν Αἰγυπτίων πληγήν, οὐδένα τῆς τῶν κακῶν πείρας ὑπεξελόμενος. Συνεκινεῖτο δὲ αὐτῷ πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην κατὰ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ὁρμὴν οἷόν τις στρατὸς ὑποχείριος αὐτὰ τὰ στοιχεῖα τῶν ὄντων τὰ ἐν τῷ παντὶ θεωρούμενα, γῆ τε καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ ἀὴρ καὶ πῦρ, ταῖς προαιρέσεσι τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὰς ἐνεργείας συνεξαλλάσσοντα· τῇ γὰρ αὐτῇ δυνάμει κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν καὶ χρόνον καὶ τόπον τό τε ἀτακτοῦν ἐκολάζετο καὶ ἀπαθὲς διέμενε τὸ κακίας ἐλεύθερον. 1.26 Πάσης γὰρ τότε τῆς τῶν ὑδάτων φύσεως κατὰ τὴν Αἴγυπτον τῷ προστάγματι τοῦ Μωϋσέως εἰς αἷμα τρα πείσης, ὡς καὶ τοὺς ἰχθύας εἰς σαρκώδη παχύτητα τοῦ ὕδατος μετατεθέντος διαφθαρῆναι, τοῖς Ἑβραίοις ἀρυομένοις μόνοις ὕδωρ τὸ αἷμα ἦν, ὅθεν ἔσχε καὶ ἡ μαγγανεία καιρὸν ἐν τῷ παρὰ τοῖς Ἑβραίοις εὑρισκομένῳ ὕδατι τὸ αἱματῶδες εἶδος παρασοφίσασθαι. 1.27 Ὡσαύτως καὶ τῶν βατράχων ἐφερψάντων τῇ