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the father begot him by divine will. And when he was once seized by a mortal illness while still in the youth of his age, the father saw appearing to him in a dream-vision the Lord who in the Gospel gave the child to the royal official, and saying to him those things which the Lord said to that man: Go, your son lives. And he himself, imitating his faith, received the same fruit for his faith, receiving the salvation of his son from the loving-kindness of the Lord. This one thing, then, we attribute to the miracles of Samuel; and another is that the same type of sacred ministry was earnestly pursued by both. For both offered peace sacrifices to God, ministering for the destruction of their enemies, the one for the overthrow of heresies, the other doing this against the foreigners.

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But Moses the great is set forth as a common example for all who look to virtue; and no one would err who makes the virtue of the lawgiver the goal of his own life. Therefore, it would be altogether without reproach to show our teacher imitating the lawgiver in his life, in those ways he was able. In what ways, then, was the imitation? A certain princess of the Egyptians, having adopted Moses, educated him in the local learning, while he did not depart from his mother's breast until it was necessary for his earliest years to be nursed with such food. The truth testifies to this also in the case of our teacher. For while being brought up by outside wisdom, he always held to the breast of the Church, growing and strengthening his soul with the teachings from there. After this Moses denied the contrived kinship of his falsely-named mother. Nor did this one remain for long to be considered that of which he was ashamed. For having cast off all the glory from external reasonings, just as that one did the kingdom, he went over to the humble life, just as Moses also considered the Hebrews more precious than the treasures of the Egyptians. But since nature in each one works its own way—for the flesh of each desires against the spirit—neither was this one outside the battle of the Egyptian thought, which it brought against the one striving for purity; but, fighting alongside the better part, he made dead the one who was wickedly rising up against the Hebrew. And a Hebrew thought was the one that is purified and undefiled. For he who, by putting to death the members that are on the earth, fights on the side of the soul, imitates the valor of Moses which he displayed against the Egyptian. It is fitting to pass over many things of the story so as not to bring a great burden to the hearing, [namely] the desire to set forth with exactness all the things that the account contains concerning Moses and the ways in which the teacher's likeness to the lawgiver occurred.

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Moses left Egypt after the death of the Egyptian and spent a long time in the meantime, living apart by himself. This one also left the disturbances in the city and these material distractions, and was in the wilderness, pursuing philosophy with God. That one was illuminated by the light through the bush. We have something akin to this vision to say about this man also; that while it was night, a shining of light came to him in the house as he was praying; and that light was something immaterial, illuminating the dwelling by a divine power, not kindled by any material thing. Moses saves the people, rescuing them from the tyrant. This people bears witness to the same things of our own lawgiver, whom through his priesthood he led toward the promise of God. And what need is there to speak of the individual details, how many this man also led through the water, for how many he bore the pillar of fire by his word, how many he saved by the cloud of the Spirit, how many he nourished with the heavenly food, how he imitated the rock from which the water was once made to gush forth by the wood, that is, which the type of the cross once touched at its mouth, how he gave drink to the thirsty from that water, imitating the abysses by the abundance of its flow, what a tabernacle of witness he also established physically in the suburb, making those who were poor in body to be poor in spirit through his good teaching, so that their poverty became blessed of the

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θείας ὁ πατὴρ ἐτεκνώσατο. καὶ ἀρρωστίᾳ ποτὲ συσχεθέντος ἐπιθανατίῳ ἔτι ἐν τῷ νέῳ τῆς ἡλικίας, εἶδεν ὁ πατὴρ ἐπιφανέντα αὐτῷ κατὰ τὴν ἐνύπνιον ὄψιν τὸν Κύριον τὸν ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ τὸν παῖδα τῷ βασιλικῷ χαρισάμενον, κἀκεῖνα εἰπόντα πρὸς τοῦτον ἃ πρὸς ἐκεῖνον εἶπεν ὁ Κύριος· ὅτι Πορεύου, ὁ υἱός σου ζῇ. οὗ τὴν πίστιν καὶ αὐτὸς μιμησάμενος τὸν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει καρπὸν ἐκομίσατο τὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ σωτηρίαν ἐκ τῆς φιλανθρωπίας τοῦ Κυρίου δεξάμενος. ἓν μὲν δὴ τοῦτο τοῖς θαύμασι τοῦ Σαμουὴλ ἀνατίθεμεν· ἕτε ρον δὲ ὅτι τὸ εἶδος τῆς ἱερουργίας τὸ αὐτὸ τοῖς δύο διεσπουδάσθη. εἰρηνικὰς γὰρ προσήγαγον ἀμφότεροι τῷ Θεῷ τὰς θυσίας ὑπὲρ τῆς τῶν πολεμίων ἀναιρέσεως ἱερουργοῦντες, ὁ μὲν ἐπὶ τῇ καταλύσει τῶν αἱρέσεων, ὁ δὲ κατὰ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων τοῦ το ποιῶν.

20 Μωϋσῆς δὲ ὁ μέγας κοινὸν πρόκειται πᾶσι τοῖς πρὸς ἀρετὴν ὁρῶσιν ὑπόδειγμα· καὶ οὐκ ἄν τις πλημμελοίη τοῦ ἰδίου βίου σκοπὸν τὴν ἀρετὴν τοῦ νομοθέτου ποιούμενος. οὐκοῦν ἀνεπίφθονον πάντως ἂν εἴη δεῖξαι τὸν διδάσκαλον ἡμῶν, ἐν οἷς οἷός τε ἦν, τὸν νομοθέτην ἐπὶ τοῦ βίου μιμούμενον. ἐν τίσι τοίνυν ἡ μίμησις ἦν; ἄρχουσά τις τῶν Αἰγυπτίων εἰσποιησα μένη τὸν Μωϋσέα παιδεύει τὴν ἐγχώριον παίδευσιν, οὐκ ἀποστάντα τοῦ μητρῴου μαζοῦ ἕως ἔδει τὴν πρώτην ἡλικίαν τῇ τοιαύτῃ τροφῇ τιθηνήσασθαι. τοῦτο καὶ τῷ διδασκάλῳ μαρ τυρεῖ ἡ ἀλήθεια. ἀνατρεφόμενος γὰρ ὑπὸ τῆς ἔξω σοφίας ἀεὶ τοῦ μαζοῦ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας εἴχετο, τοῖς ἐντεῦθεν διδάγμασι τὴν ψυχὴν αὔξων καὶ ἁδρυνόμενος. ἠρνήσατο μετὰ ταῦτα ὁ Μωϋσῆς τῆς ψευδωνύμου μητρὸς τὴν σεσοφισμένην συγγένειαν. οὐδὲ οὗτος παρέμεινεν ἐπιπολὺ νομίζεσθαι τοῦτο ᾧ ἐπῃσχύνετο. πᾶσαν γὰρ τὴν ἐκ τῶν ἔξωθεν λόγων δόξαν ἀποσεισάμενος ὥσπερ τὴν βασιλείαν ἐκεῖνος, πρὸς τὸν ταπεινὸν ἀπηυτομόλησε βίον, καθάπερ καὶ τοὺς Ἑβραίους ὁ Μωϋσῆς προτιμοτέρους τῶν Αἰγυπτίων θησαυρῶν ἐποιήσατο. τῆς δὲ φύσεως ἐφ' ἑκάστου τὸ ἑαυτῆς ἐνεργούσης, ἑκάστου γὰρ ἡ σὰρξ ἐπιθυμεῖ κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος, οὐδὲ οὗτος ἐκτὸς ἦν τῆς τοῦ Αἰγυπτίου λογισμοῦ μάχης, ἣν ἐπῆγε τῷ καθαρεύοντι· ἀλλὰ συμμαχῶν τῷ βελτίονι, νεκρὸν ἐποίει τὸν κακῶς τῷ Ἑβραίῳ ἐπεγειρόμενον. Ἑβραῖος ἦν δὲ λογισμὸς ὁ ἐκκεκαθαρμένος καὶ ἀμόλυντος. ὁ γὰρ διὰ τοῦ νεκρῶσαι τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς μέλη τῇ ψυχῇ συμμαχῶν μιμεῖται τοῦ Μωϋσέως τὴν ἀριστείαν ἣν κατὰ τοῦ Αἰγυπτίου ἐνήργησεν. παραδραμεῖν δὲ προσήκει τὰ πολλὰ τῆς ἱστορίας ὡς ἂν μὴ πολὺν ὄχλον ἐπάγοι τῇ ἀκοῇ, τὸ πάντα δι' ἀκριβείας θέλειν ἐκτίθεσθαι ὅσα τε ἐπὶ Μωϋσέως ὁ λόγος κατέχει καὶ ἐν οἷς ἐγένετο τοῦ διδασκάλου ἡ πρὸς τὸν νομοθέτην ὁμοίωσις. 21 Κατέλιπε τὴν Αἴγυπτον μετὰ τὸν θάνατον τοῦ Αἰγυπτίου ὁ Μωϋσῆς καὶ πολὺν ἐν τῷ μέσῳ διῆγεν χρόνον ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ ἰδιάζων. κατέλιπε καὶ οὗτος τοὺς ἐν ἄστει θορύβους καὶ τὰς ὑλικὰς ταύτας περιηχήσεις, καὶ ἦν ἐπὶ τῆς ἐσχατιᾶς προσφιλοσοφῶν τῷ Θεῷ. κατελάμφθη τῷ φωτὶ διὰ τῆς βάτου ἐκεῖνος. ἔχομέν τι συγγενὲς τῆς ὀπτασίας ταύτης καὶ ἐπὶ τού του εἰπεῖν· ὅτι νυκτὸς οὔσης γίνεται αὐτῷ φωτὸς ἔλλαμψις κατὰ τὸν οἶκον προσευχομένῳ· ἄϋλον δέ τι τὸ φῶς ἦν ἐκεῖνο θείᾳ δυνάμει καταφωτίζον τὸ οἴκημα, ὑπ' οὐδενὸς πράγματος ὑλικοῦ ἐξαπτόμενον. σώζει τὸν λαὸν ὁ Μωϋσῆς ἐκ τοῦ τυράννου ῥυσάμενος. μαρτυρεῖ τὰ ἴσα τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς νομοθέτου ὁ λαὸς οὗτος, οὗ διὰ τῆς ἱερωσύνης πρὸς τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ καθηγήσατο. καὶ τί χρὴ τὰ καθ' ἕκα στον λέγειν, ὅσους διήγαγε καὶ οὗτος διὰ τοῦ ὕδατος, ὅσοις διὰ τοῦ λόγου τὸν στύλον τοῦ πυρὸς ἐδᾳδούχησεν, ὅσους τῇ τοῦ Πνεύματος νεφέλῃ διέσωσεν, ὅσους ἔθρεψε τῇ οὐρανίᾳ τροφῇ, ὅπως ἐμιμεῖτο τὴν πέτραν ᾗ ποτε τῷ ξύλῳ ἀνεστομώθη τὸ ὕδωρ, τουτέστιν, ᾗ ποτε ὁ τοῦ σταυροῦ τύπος τοῦ στόματος ἔθιγεν, ὅπως ἐπότιζε τοὺς διψῶντας τοῦ ὕδατος ἐκείνου τῷ πλήθει τῆς ἐπιρροῆς τὰς ἀβύσσους μιμούμενος, οἵαν μαρτυρίου σκηνὴν καὶ σωματικῶς μὲν ἐν τῷ προαστείῳ κατεσκευάσατο, τοὺς πτωχοὺς τῷ σώματι πτωχοὺς τῷ πνεύματι διὰ τῆς ἀγαθῆς διδασκαλίας εἶναι ποιήσας, ὥστε αὐτοῖς γενέσθαι μακαριστὴν τὴν πτωχείαν τῆς