Collectio dictorum veteris testamenti

 is forced to descend into a foreign state and if the demons should see any good understanding accompanying him, they hasten to subject it to the sowi

 escaping. The heifer, taken first, signified the first generation. For just as the heifer struggles against the yoke, so also the first generation of

 the river, but to keep alive every female. For the devil, the spiritual Pharaoh, also conceived a threefold manner of plotting against the spiritual I

 He interprets what that one speaks spiritually and obscurely, and transforms his weak voice to be more melodious. For I have not come, he says, to abo

 the Gospel according to Christ, had as a son the multitude of those being reborn to it through the Holy Spirit whom she also circumcised with a stone

 and easy to comprehend is the mystery concerning Christ. But God did not lead the Jews to this immediately, but through the long law and the many ridd

 Moses commanded Joshua son of Nun to choose mighty men and go out and fight 77.1196 Amalek, signified that Jesus Christ would be subject to the comman

 of the people of the Jews, and servant of God, he ascends to the highest knowledge of God but the people are prevented from approaching, lest they di

 coming after it, demands this final penalty, as one who, after being freed from the burden of sin, is again voluntarily subjected to it. And He comman

 But the eighth ineffably suggests the mystery of the eternal well-being of the 77.1204 beings. The sixth day is called Preparation, because on it the

 and poverty of intellect, they make their neighbors, that is, those of the same faith, partners, so that through one another they may be raised to hig

 unmixed with wickedness, those partaking of the true Lamb nourish their own soul, throughout the whole weekly age, which is measured by the week. And

 the body bears uncircumcision. Circumcision is mystical, a voluntary removal of the passions. The circumcision of circumcision is the putting away of

 of rational discernment, as Israel did in the time of Moses, commits idolatry. For having cast into the fire of the passions the words concerning theo

 to do good things, and to walk toward good things. Humpbacked is the one bent downwards, and not able to look up from earthly things. Sun-spotted is o

 God, ostracizing stupidity, and wishing his subjects to belong to necessity alone, through the not weaving together of linen and wool, banished variet

 but in heaven God Himself whom alone they both worship and attend. And on the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, an

 they were catechized by the evangelists. Or otherwise, the four types of meanings were a symbol of the four types of moral discourse. Of which the one

 Aaron's rod, as a symbol of watchfulness. For to Jeremiah, seeing a staff of a nut tree, God says: Behold, I am watchful over my words. And it budded

 bracelets, and rings, and armlets, and braided chains. For the leaders of the people in Christ and the eminent often surpass the evangelical commands

 with bodily ways of the ministry of the virtues, they return to the contemplation of kindred intelligible things. A foreign boy and a servant-girl are

 undertaking. For she will pay the penalty for the offense to God, the Father of spirits, and she will be his wife, as having already been joined to hi

 of the other man wherefore he is required to pay the penalty for the murder, but he alone suffers loss in his soul. For this, I think, is what this m

 war for one year he shall cheer his wife, whom he has taken. For it is not right that one who has just taken a spouse for himself should be led out t

 Virtue is the mother of the good deeds from it. And its nest is the soul in which it dwells. It is necessary for those who encounter them to be benefi

 its fruit for three years will be unpurified for you. It shall not be eaten, and in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy to the Lord. But in th

 dragging down to earth, those things that draw up to heaven. Saul, is the natural 77.1249 law, which from the beginning received from the Lord the lot

 David is the law according to the spirit, who reigns over the Christians who worship God spiritually. But Saul is the law according to the letter, who

 the face of the Lord, according to David, and learns the cause of such a famine, that this injustice was against Saul, and against his house, with whi

 taking from the spiritual David, that is, the law according to the spirit, may kill the aforementioned sons and grandsons of 77.1257 Saul then in eve

 of knowledge, if it should receive the divine and discerning word, which brings to memory former sins, and will prefer even to nature itself the heali

 The Lord in the desert I mean in the world, and in the nature of men, digging out and cleansing the hearts of the worthy from material weight and min

 of the city. Since Hezekiah is interpreted as 'strength of God,' every mind 77.1265 that through practical philosophy has acquired divine strength, wh

 through themselves they again turn him away, as he flees into his land which is the fixed habit of evil, whom his sons kill as he is fleeing, and the

 the king of the Assyrians, flees to God, and silently cries out to Him, through progress in virtue and knowledge, and receives an angel as an ally th

 at once a philosopher and a lover of God has both Judah and Jerusalem the one taken as the habit of confession and repentance for Judah is interpret

 becomes a lofty and exalted mind, and in the good things given to it by God, boasts as if in its own accomplishments. There comes by providence upon t

 the spear and the flask of water that is, the power of practical virtue, and the grace of gnostic contemplation, even if he again gives these things

 of king Darius, I mean of the natural law, having conquered by him, lifts up his face to heaven, that is, the disposition of the soul, in which are th

 not being guarded. For lead is a symbol of punishment, but silver of brightness. And the seven eyes of this practical faith are the seven gifts of the

 constituted. For since matter is indeed a tetrad, because of the tetraktys of its elements, and form is a pentad, because of the fivefold nature of se

 they rise up for mischief. And approaching Zerubbabel, and Joshua and the leaders of the families, they say to them: We will build with you for like

of rational discernment, as Israel did in the time of Moses, commits idolatry. For having cast into the fire of the passions the words concerning theology as earrings; and as a necklace of ornament, the right doctrines according to natural contemplation, and as bracelets for the hands, the practice of practical virtue, it fashions an imaginary idol of sin, then worships it through action. Moses, having pitched his own tent outside the camp, that is, having established his own judgment and thought outside of visible things, begins to worship God, and entering into the darkness, the invisible and immaterial place of knowledge, there he is initiated into the most holy mysteries. Behold, he says, a place by me. The place is the Holy Spirit, in whom one having come to be, is deemed worthy of divine contemplation. And the rock is firm faith; and its cleft is the dim contemplation through it. And the "back parts" of God are the ancient origins of the world, which Moses alone saw, he alone having prophesied the past. There are three kinds of prophecy: that which declares the past, that which declares the present, that which declares the future. Just as Moses the lawgiver bore a veil upon his face, so also the things legislated by him bore a veil, obscurity. And the cause of both this and that veil was the weakness of the Hebrews, being unable to see either the radiance of the face of Moses or the immateriality of the writings, since they were earthly-minded; but it was treasured up for us, who saw the face of Christ, of whom Moses was a type, without a veil, through our apostles and teachers, according to his humanity, and we have known the truth of the obscure things. When the creations after God, and the excellences concerning the nature of God were revealed to Moses; for these are the "back parts" of God; and when the face of his soul was glorified, that is, his mind was enlightened and made brilliant; the people could not bear such glory, nor converse directly with the contemplation. Therefore, a veil was needed, I mean the denseness of the letter, overshadowing the brilliance of the contemplation of the thoughts. OF LEVITICUS CONCERNING SACRIFICES. God does not delight in animal sacrifices; for this belongs to one with passions. 77.1216 But symbolically through these he legislated spiritual sacrifices, I mean the mortification of passions slaughtered by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and the offering of the natural powers, being wholly consumed by the fire of the Spirit. For the ram is a symbol of the rational faculty, because of its leadership; the bull, of the spirited faculty; and the goat, of the appetitive faculty. Moses, by commanding to remove from the sacrificial victims the kidneys, and the fat, and the breast, and the lobe of the liver, signified through these the removal of the unnatural powers and activities of both the spirited and appetitive faculties, and to consume them with the divine fire of the power according to spiritual knowledge; the appetite being signified by the kidneys, and its activity, which is pleasure, by the fat. And again, the spirited faculty, by the breast; and its activity by the lobe of the liver, in which the bitter and most sharp bile is fixed. The one who ministers to God through pious speech the hearts of others, to which the breast corresponds, and their practical power, to which the arm corresponds, setting them apart for the work of the commandments, has become a priest, receiving from those who offer themselves as a sacrifice to God the breast and the arm. Unfit for the priestly ministry is the one blind in mind, and the one lame by not walking uprightly in life and doctrines; and the one with a mutilated nose by not having perfect discernment. And a fracture of hand and foot, the breaking of the power of the

τῆς λογικῆς διακρίσεως, ὡς πάλαι τοῦ Μωσέως ὁ Ἰσραὴλ, εἰδωλολατρεῖ. Ῥίψας γὰρ εἰς τὸ πῦρ τῶν παθῶν ὡς μὲν ἐνώτια τοὺς περὶ θεολογίας λόγους· ὡς δὲ περιτραχήλιον κόσμου, τὰ ὀρθὰ κατὰ τὴν φυσικὴν θεωρίαν δόγματα, ὡς δὲ ψέλλια χειρῶν, τὴν ἐνέργειαν τῆς πρακτικῆς ἀρετῆς, ἀποτελεῖ φαντασίαν εἴδωλον ἁμαρτίας, εἶτα λατρεύει τούτῳ διὰ τῆς πράξεως. Ὁ Μωσῆς ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς πηξάμενος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ σκηνὴν, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἔξω τῶν ὁρωμένων ἱδρυσάμενος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γνώμην καὶ διάνοιαν, προσκυνεῖν ἄρχεται τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ εἰς τὸν γνόφον ἐλθὼν, τὸν ἀειδῆ καὶ ἄϋλον τῆς γνώσεως τόπον, ἐκεῖ τελεῖται τὰς ἱερωτάτας μυήσεις. Ἰδοὺ, φησὶ, τόπος παρ' ἐμοί. Τόπος τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, ἐν ᾧ τις γενόμενος, θεωρίας ἀξιοῦται θείας. Πέτρα δὲ ἡ στεῤῥὰ πίστις· ὀπὴ δὲ αὐτῆς ἡ ἀμυδρὰ δι' αὐτῆς θεωρία. Ὀπίσθια δὲ Θεοῦ, ἡ ἀρχαιογονία τοῦ κόσμου, ἃ μόνος εἶδε Μωσῆς, μόνος τὰ παρελθόντα προφητεύσας. Τρία δὲ εἴδη προφητείας· τὸ τὰ παρελθόντα δηλοῦν, τὸ, τὰ ἐνεστῶτα, τὸ, τὰ μέλλοντα. Ὥσπερ Μωσῆς ὁ νομοθέτης ἐπὶ τοῦ προσώπου κάλυμμα ἔφερεν· οὕτω καὶ τὰ παρ' αὐτοῦ νομοθετηθέντα κάλυμμα ἔφερε, τὴν ἀσάφειαν. Αἴτιον δὲ καὶ τούτου κἀκείνου τοῦ καλύμματος, ἡ τῶν Ἑβραίων ἀσθένεια, μήτε τὴν αἴγλην τοῦ προσώπου Μωσέως, μήτε τὴν ἀϋλίαν τῶν γεγραμμένων, οἵων τε ὄντων ἰδεῖν, οἷα γεώδη φρονούντων· ἐθησαυρίζετο δὲ ἡμῖν, οἳ καὶ τὸ Χριστοῦ πρόσωπον, οὗ τύπος ἦν ὁ Μωσῆς, χωρὶς ἐπικαλύμματος εἴδομεν, διὰ τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ διδασκάλων ἡμῶν, κατὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, καὶ τὴν τῶν ἀσαφῶν ἀλήθειαν ἔγνωμεν. Ἀποκαλυφθέντων Μωσῇ τῶν μετὰ Θεὸν δημιουργημάτων, καὶ τῶν περὶ τὴν φύσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ πλεονεκτημάτων· ταῦτα γὰρ ὀπίσθια τοῦ Θεοῦ· καὶ τοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ προσώπου δοξασθέντος, ἤτοι τοῦ νοὸς αὐτοῦ φωτισθέντος καὶ λαμπρυνθέντος· ὁ λαὸς οὐκ ἐδύναντο φέρειν τὴν τοιαύτην δόξαν, οὐδ' ἀμέσως ὁμιλεῖν τῇ θεωρίᾳ. Λοιπὸν οὖν καλύμματος ἐδεήθη, λέγω δὴ τῆς παχύτητος τοῦ γράμματος, ἐπισκιαζούσης τὴν λαμπρότητα τῆς θεωρίας τῶν νοημάτων. ΤΟΥ ΛΕΥΙΤΙΚΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΘΥΣΙΩΝ. Οὐχ ἥδεται ζωοθυσίαις ὁ Θεός· ἐμπαθοῦς γὰρ τοῦτο. 77.1216 Συμβολικῶς δὲ διὰ τούτων τὰς πνευματικὰς θυσίας ἐνομοθέτησε, νέκρωσιν λέγω παθῶν σφαζομένων τῇ μαχαίρᾳ τοῦ Πνεύματος, ὅ ἐστι ῥῆμα Θεοῦ, καὶ προσαγωγὴν τῶν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων, τῷ πυρὶ τοῦ πνεύματος ὁλοκαυτουμένων. Σύμβολον γὰρ ὁ μὲν κριὸς τοῦ λογιστικοῦ, διὰ τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν, ὁ δὲ ταῦρος τοῦ θυμικοῦ, ἡ αἲξ δὲ τοῦ ἐπιθυμητικοῦ. Ὁ Μωσῆς κελεύσας ἀφαιρεῖν τῶν ἱερείων τοὺς νεφροὺς, καὶ τὸ στέαρ, καὶ τὸ στηθύνιον, καὶ τὸν λοβὸν τοῦ ἥπατος, ᾐνίξατο διὰ τούτων ἀφαιρεῖν τὰς παρὰ φύσιν δυνάμεις καὶ ἐνεργείας τοῦ τε θυμοῦ καὶ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας, καὶ τῷ θείῳ πυρὶ τῆς κατὰ τὴν πνευματικὴν γνῶσιν δυνάμεως ἐκτήκειν αὐτάς· τῆς μὲν ἐπιθυμίας διὰ τῶν νεφρῶν δηλουμένης, τῆς δὲ ἐνεργείας αὐτῆς, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἡ ἡδονὴ, διὰ τοῦ στέατος. Καὶ αὖθις τοῦ μὲν θυμοῦ, διὰ στηθυνίου· τῆς δὲ ἐνεργείας αὐτοῦ διὰ τοῦ λοβοῦ τοῦ ἥπατος, ἐν ᾧ πέπηγεν ἡ πικρὰ καὶ δριμυτάτη χολή. Ὁ ἱερουργῶν τῷ Θεῷ δι' εὐσεβοῦς λόγου τὰς τῶν ἄλλων καρδίας αἷς ἀναλογεῖ τὸ στηθύνιον· καὶ τὴν πρακτικὴν αὐτῶν δύναμιν, ᾗ ἀναλογεῖ ὁ βραχίων, ἀφορίζων τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ τῶν ἐντολῶν, γέγονεν ἱερεὺς, λαμβάνων παρὰ τῶν ἑαυτοὺς θυσίαν, τῷ Θεῷ προσαγόντων τὸ στηθύνιον καὶ τὸν βραχίονα. Ἀνεπιτήδειος εἰς ἱερουργίαν ὁ τυφλὸς τὸν νοῦν, καὶ ὁ χωλὸς τῷ μὴ ὀρθοποδεῖν ἐν βίῳ καὶ δόγμασι· καὶ ὁ κολοβόῤῥιν τῷ μὴ τελείαν ἔχειν διάκρισιν. Σύντριμμα δὲ χειρὸς καὶ ποδὸς, ἡ θραῦσις τῆς δυνάμεως τοῦ