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and also the holy tablets in his hand, which were a divine discovery and gift, having needed no human cooperation to come into being. But each was equally the work of God, both the material and the engravings upon it. And the engravings were the Law. But the people prevented the grace, having run wild into idolatry before the lawgiver arrived. 1.58 For since some not inconsiderable time passed for Moses while he was occupied in conversation with God through that divine initiation, and he was for forty days and as many nights partaking of that eternal life under the darkness and had gone outside of nature itself (for he did not need food for his body during that time), then the people, like a youth who has gotten out of the sight of his tutor, are carried away into disorder with unrestrained impulses, and conspiring against Aaron they bring compulsion upon the priest to lead them in idolatry. 1.59 And when the idol had been made from the material of gold (and the idol was a calf), they rejoiced in their impious act, but Moses, having now come upon them, shatters the tablets which he was carrying from God, so that having been deprived of the God-given grace, they might suffer a punishment worthy of the transgression. 1.60 Then, having purified the pollution by civil bloodshed through the Levites and having propitiated the Deity by his own wrath against the transgressors and having destroyed the idol, thus again by a forty-day attendance he brings the tablets, of which the writing was from divine power, but the material was fashioned by the hand of Moses. These he receives again, having transcended nature in so great a number of days, living in some other way and not according to our custom, having received into his own body none of the things that support through food the need of our nature.

1.61 And thus he both set up the tabernacle for them and set before them the laws, having established the priesthood according to the teaching given to him from God. And when, according to the divine instruction, he had prepared everything through material workmanship—the tabernacle, the forecourts, all the things within, the censer, the altar, the lampstand, the hangings, the veils, the mercy-seat within the holy of holies, the adornment of the priesthood, the anointing oil, the various sacred rites, the purifications, the thank-offerings, the rites for averting evils, the propitiations for transgressions—having arranged everything among them in the proper manner, he stirred up envy against himself among the suitable people, the infirmity congenital to the nature of men, 1.62 so that even Aaron, who was being honored with the honors of the priesthood, and his sister Miriam, having been stirred up by a certain rather womanish jealousy toward the honor given to him from God, uttered something of such a kind on account of which the Deity was provoked to the punishment of the transgression. Here indeed it is worthy to admire something more of the long-suffering of Moses, because while God was punishing the irrational envy of the woman, having made his nature stronger than his anger, he propitiated God on behalf of his sister. 1.63 And when the multitude again turned to disorder (and the immoderation of the pleasures of the belly led the transgression, for whom it was not enough to live healthily and without pain from the food flowing from above, but the desire for meats and the craving for eating flesh made the slavery among the Egyptians more preferable than the goods present to them), he communicates with God about the passion that had befallen them, but He teaches that it should not be so by granting them to obtain what they were longing for, a certain multitude of birds, making their flight close to the ground, allowing them to fly over the camp like a cloud and in flocks, of which the ease of the hunt brought the desire for meat to satiety. 1.64 But the immoderation of the eating suddenly transformed the constitutions of their bodies into corrupting humors, and their gluttony ended in sickness and death, the example of which became sufficient for moderation both for them and for those who look to them. 1.65 Then spies are sent by him of the

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δὲ καὶ τὰς ἱερὰς πλάκας διὰ χειρός, αἳ θεῖον εὕρημα καὶ δῶρον ἦσαν, οὐδεμιᾶς ἀνθρωπίνης συνεργίας εἰς τὸ γενέσθαι προδεηθεῖσαι. Ἀλλ' ἔργον Θεοῦ ἐπίσης ἑκατέρα ἦν, ἥ τε ὕλη καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ χαράγματα. Νομὸς δὲ ἦν τὰ χαράγματα. Ἀλλ' ἐκώλυσε τὴν χάριν ὁ λαός, πρὶν ἐπιστῆναι τὸν νομοθέτην, εἰς εἰδωλολατρείαν ἀφηνιάσας. 1.58 Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ χρόνος τις οὐ βραχὺς τῷ Μωϋσεῖ διεγένετο τῇ πρὸς Θεὸν ὁμιλίᾳ διὰ τῆς θείας ἐκείνης μυσταγωγίας ἀποσχολάζοντι, καὶ ἦν ἐν τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέραις καὶ τοσαύς νυξὶ τῆς ἀϊδίου ἐκείνης ζωῆς ὑπὸ τὸν γνόφον μετέχων καὶ αὐτῆς τῆς φύσεως ἔξω γενόμενος (οὐ γὰρ ἐπεδεήθη κατὰ τὸν χρόνον ἐκεῖνον εἰς τὸ σῶμα τροφῆς), τότε οἷόν τι μειράκιον ὁ λαός, τῶν τοῦ παιδαγωγοῦντος ὄψεων ἔξω γενόμενος, ἀνέτοις ὁρμαῖς εἰς ἀταξίαν ἐκφέρεται καὶ συστὰς ἐπὶ τὸν Ἀαρὼν ἀνάγκην ἐπάγει τῷ ἱερεῖ τῆς εἰδωλολατρείας αὐτοῖς καθηγήσασθαι. 1.59 Καὶ γεγονότος τοῦ εἰδώλου ἐκ χρυσίου τῆς ὕλης (μόσχος δὲ τὸ εἴδωλον ἦν), οἱ μὲν ἐπηγάλ λοντο τῷ ἀσεβήματι, ὁ δὲ Μωϋσῆς κατ' αὐτοὺς ἤδη γενόμενος συντρίβει τὰς πλάκας ἃς θεόθεν ἐκόμιζεν, ὡς ἂν τοῦ πλημμε λήματος ἀξίαν τὴν τιμωρίαν ὑπόσχοιεν τῆς θεοσδότου χάριτος ἀμοιρήσαντες. 1.60 Εἶτα τῷ ἐμφυλίῳ αἵματι διὰ τῶν Λευϊτῶν καθαρίσας τὸ ἄγος καὶ τῷ ἰδίῳ θυμῷ τῷ κατὰ τῶν πεπλημμεληκότων τὸ Θεῖον ἱλεωσάμενος τό τε εἴδωλον ἐξαναφανίσας, οὕτω πάλιν τεσσαράκοντα ἡμερῶν προσεδρείᾳ τὰς πλάκας κομίζε, ὧν ἡ γραφὴ μὲν ἐκ θείας δυνάμεως ἦν, ἡ δὲ ὕλη διὰ τῆς Μωϋσέως ἐξησκήθη χειρός. Ταύτας κομίζεται πάλιν ἐκβὰς τὴν φύσιν ἐν τῷ τοσούτῳ τῶν ἡμερῶν ἀριθμῷ, ἄλλον τινὰ τρόπον καὶ οὐ κατὰ τὸν νενομισμένον ἡμῖν βιοτεύων, οὐδὲν τῶν ὑποστηριζόντων διὰ τροφῆς τὸ τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν ἐνδεὲς τῷ ἰδίῳ σώματι προσδεξάμενος.

1.61 Καὶ οὕτως αὐτοῖς τήν τε σκηνὴν ἐπήξατο καὶ τὰ νόμιμα παρατίθεται, τὴν ἱερωσύνην κατὰ τὴν γενομένην αὐτῷ θεόθεν διδασκαλίαν καταστησάμενος. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ πάντα κατὰ τὴν θείαν ὑφήγησιν διὰ τῆς ὑλικῆς δημιουργίας κατεσκευά σατο, τὴν σκηνήν, τὰ προπύλαια, τὰ ἐντὸς πάντα, θυμιατή ριον, θυσιαστήριον, λυχνίαν, παραπετάσματα, καταπετάσ ματα, τὸ τῶν ἀδύτων ἐντὸς ἱλαστήριον, τὸν τῆς ἱερωσύνης κόσμον, τὸ μῦρον, τὰς διαφόρους ἱερουργίας, τὰ καθάρσια, τὰ χαριστήρια, τὰ τῶν κακῶν ἀποτρόπαια, τὰ ἐπὶ τοῖς πλημμεληθεῖσιν ἱλεωτήρια, πάντα κατὰ τὸν δέοντα τρόπον ἐν αὐτοῖς διατάξας, ἐκίνησεν ἐν τοῖς ἐπιτηδείοις τὸν φθόνον καθ' ἑαυτοῦ, τὸ συγγενὲς τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀρρώστημα, 1.62 ὡς καὶ τὸν Ἀαρὼν ταῖς τιμαῖς τῆς ἱερωσύνης τιμώμενον καὶ τὴν ἀδελφὴν αὐτοῦ Μαριάμ, ζηλοτυπίᾳ τινὶ γυναικω δεστέρᾳ πρὸς τὴν γενομένην αὐτῷ θεόθεν τιμὴν ὑποκινηθεῖσαν, φθέγξασθαί τι τοιοῦτον, ἐφ' ᾧ παρεκινήθη τὸ Θεῖον εἰς τὴν τοῦ πλημμελήματος κόλασιν. Ἔνθα δὴ καὶ πλέον τι θαυμάζειν ἄξιον τῆς ἀνεξικακίας τὸν Μωϋσέα, ὅτι τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν ἄλογον βασκανίαν τοῦ γυναίου κολάζοντος, ἰσχυροτέραν τὴν φύσιν τῆς ὀργῆς ποιησάμενος, τὸν Θεὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀδελφῆς ἱλεώσατο. 1.63 Τοῦ δὲ πλήθους πάλιν εἰς ἀταξίαν τραπέντος (ἡγεῖτο δὲ τῆς πλημμελείας ἡ τῶν κατὰ γαστέρα ἡδονῶν ἀμετρία, οἷς οὐκ ἤρκει τὸ ζῆν ὑγιεινῶς τε καὶ ἀλύπως ἐκ τῆς ἄνωθεν ἐπιρρεούσης τροφῆς, ἀλλ' ἡ τῶν σαρκῶν ἐπιθυμία καὶ ὁ τῆς κρεωβορίας πόθος προτιμοτέραν ἐποίει τῶν παρόντων αὐτοῖς ἀγαθῶν τὴν παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις δουλείαν), ὁ μὲν κοινοῦται τῷ Θεῷ περὶ τοῦ κατασκήψαντος ἐν αὐτοῖς πάθους, ὁ δὲ παιδεύει τὸ μὴ δεῖν οὕτως ἔχειν διὰ τοῦ δοῦναι τυχεῖν ὧν ἐφίεντο, ὀρνέων τι πλῆθος, πρόσγειον ποιουμένων τὴν πτῆσιν, ἐφιεὶς τῷ στρατοπέδῳ νεφεληδὸν καὶ κατ' ἀγέλας ἐφίπτασθαι, ἐφ' ὧν ἡ εὐκολία τῆς ἄγρας εἰς κόρον τὴν τῶν κρεῶν ἐπιθυμίαν προήγαγεν. 1.64 Ἡ δὲ ἀμετρία τῆς βρώσεως ἀθρόως αὐτοῖς τὰς τῶν σωμάτων κράσεις εἰς φθοροποιοὺς χυμοὺς μετεσκεύασε καὶ ἡ πλησμονὴ αὐτοῖς εἰς νόσον καὶ θάνατον ἔληξεν, ὧν τὸ ὑπόδειγμα αὐτοῖς τε ἐκείνοις καὶ τοῖς πρὸς ἐκείνους ὁρῶσιν ἰκανὸν πρὸς σωφροσύνην ἐγένετο. 1.65 Εἶτα κατάσκοποι παρ' αὐτοῦ πέμπονται τῆς