,

This is what I mean: every passion is composed in every way by a combination of some sensible object, of sense, and of a natural power—I mean, for example, of anger or desire or reason which has been turned aside from what is according to nature. If, therefore, the intellect, having contemplated the goal in their composite relationship to one another—that is, of the sensible object, of sense, and of the natural power dependent on it—is able to distinguish and lead back each of these to its own natural principle, and to contemplate by itself the sensible object without its relationship to sense, and sense without its affinity for the sensible object, and desire, let us say, or any other of the natural powers, without the passionate disposition toward sense and the sensible object (which is the kind of motion that passion prepares for the act of contemplation), it has ground to powder the calf—that is, the composition of whatever passion has occurred—and scattered it on the water of knowledge, completely destroying even the bare fantasy of the passions through the restoration of the things which according to nature constitute it to their own principles. And may we also, by grinding to powder the molten calf of the soul, 14Β_108 destroy it, so that the soul may possess only the unadulterated divine image, not being defiled in any way at all by external things.

And the statement that follows, *and Moses made the children of Israel drink it*, signifies the manner of the teaching that destroys the passions, which is given by teachers to their pupils.

17. CONCERNING THE ANGEL WHO THREATENED MOSES WITH DEATH ON

THE WAY TO EGYPT. 17. QUESTION 17. If God sent Moses to Egypt, for what reason did the angel of God seek to kill the one sent by God, and would have killed him, if his wife had not hurried to circumcise the child and by her own action stopped the angel's assault? And if the circumcision of the child was necessary, why did not God himself, before sending him, gently command him to circumcise the child? And why, when there was a transgression, did the good angel not gently admonish the one sent by God on such a ministry?

Answer. He who with fear of God investigates the meaning of the scriptural enigmas for the sake of divine glory alone, by removing, as it were, the letter as a veil of the spirit, will find everything, according to the word of wisdom, clear, with no impediment found to hinder the blameless movement of the mind towards divine things. We shall therefore pass over the history, which was already fulfilled bodily in the time of Moses, and let us contemplate with intellectual eyes the spiritual power of the history, which is always taking place and, in its taking place, flourishes all the more.

The wilderness, then, from which Moses is sent to Egypt to lead out the children of Israel, is either human nature or this 14Β_110 world or the state deprived of passions; in which state and in which place the intellect, having been instructed in the knowledge that comes through the contemplation of beings, receives a hidden and mystical commission from God in the secret place of the heart to lead out of Egypt—I mean, out of the flesh and sense—like the Israelites, the divine concepts of beings, which labor uselessly with clay, that is, with the passions of the flesh. And the intellect, being entrusted with this divine ministry, together with the wisdom joined to him as a spouse in knowledge and with the noble way and reasoning born from her, surely travels the path of the virtues, the path of the venerable way of life, which in no way admits of those things in it

Οἷον δέ τι λέγω· πᾶν πάθος κατὰ συμπλοκὴν πάντως αἰσθητοῦ τινος καὶ αἰσθήσεως καὶ φυσικῆς δυνάμεως, θυμοῦ λέγω τυχὸν ἢ ἐπιθυμίας ἢ λόγου παρατραπέντος τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν, συνίσταται. Ἐὰν οὖν τὸ πρὸς ἄλληλα κατὰ σύνθεσιν τέλος τοῦ τε αἰσθητοῦ καὶ τῆς αἰσθήσεως καὶ τῆς ἐπ᾽ αὐτῇ φυσικῆς δυνάμεως θεωρήσας ὁ νοῦς δυνηθῇ πρὸς τὸν οἰκεῖον φύσει λόγον τούτων ἕκαστον διακρίνας ἐπαναγαγεῖν καὶ θεωρῆσαι καθ᾽ ἑαυτὸν τὸ αἰσθητὸν ἄνευ τῆς πρὸς αὐτὸ τῆς αἰσθήσεως σχέσεως καὶ τὴν αἴσθησιν δίχα τῆς τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ πρὸς αὐτὴν οἰκειότητος καὶ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν, φέρε εἰπεῖν, ἢ ἄλλην τινὰ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν δυνάμεων χωρὶς τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς ἐπ᾽ αἰσθήσει τε καὶ αἰσθητῷ διαθέσεως, ὡς ἡ τοῦ πάθους ποιὰ παρασκευάζει τὴν θεωρίαν γίνεσθαι κίνησις, ἐλέπτυνε λεάνας τοῦ μόσχου, τουτέστι τοῦ οἱουδήποτε συμβαίνοντος πάθους, τὴν σύστασιν καὶ ὑπὸ τὸ ὕδωρ τῆς γνώσεως ἔσπειρεν, ἀφανίσας παντελῶς καὶ αὐτὴν τῶν παθῶν τὴν ψιλὴν φαντασίαν διὰ τῆς πρὸς ἑαυτὰ τῶν ἀποτελούντων αὐτὸ κατὰ φύσιν πραγμάτων ἀποκαταστάσεως. Γένοιτο δὲ καὶ ἡμᾶς τὸν χωνευτὸν μόσχον λεπτύναντας τῆς ψυχῆς 14Β_108 ἀφανίσαι, μόνην ἐχούσης ἀκίβδηλον τὴν θείαν εἰκόνα, μηδενὶ καθάπαξ τῶν ἐκτὸς μολυνομένην.

Τὸ δὲ ἐπιφερόμενον καὶ ἐπότισεν αὐτὸ Μωυσῆς τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ τὸν τρόπον σημαίνει τῆς τῶν παθῶν καθαιρετικῆς διδασκαλίας, τοῖς μανθάνουσι παρὰ τῶν διδασκόντων διδόμενον.

ΙΖ (17). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΓΕΛΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΑΠΕΙΛΗΣΑΝΤΟΣ ΤΩ ΜΩΥΣΗ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΝ ΕΝ

ΤΗ Ο∆Ω ΑΙΓΥΠΤΟΥ. 17. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΙΖ' Εἰ ὁ Θεὸς τὸν Μωυσῆν ἀπέστειλεν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, τίνι τῷ λόγῳ τὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ

Θεοῦ ἀπεσταλμένον ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἄγγελος ἀποκτεῖναι ἐζήτει, καὶ ἂν ἀπέκτεινεν, εἰ μὴ σπεύσασα ἡ γυνὴ τὸ παιδίον περιέτεμεν καὶ δι᾽ ἑαυτῆς τὴν τοῦ ἀγγέλου ὁρμὴν ἔστησε; Καὶ εἰ ἀναγκαία ἦν ἡ περιτομὴ τοῦ παιδίου, διὰ τί πρὸ τοῦ αὐτόν τὸν Θεὸν ἀποστεῖλαι μετὰ ἡμερότητος οὐκ ἐνετείλατο αὐτῷ περιτεμεῖν τὸ παιδίον; ∆ιὰ τί δέ, καὶ ὅτε πταῖσμα ἦν, ὁ ἀγαθὸς ἄγγελος τὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰς τοιαύτην διακονίαν ἀποστελλόμενον ἡμέρως οὐκ ἐνουθέτησεν;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ τῶν γραφικῶν αἰνιγμάτων φόβῳ Θεοῦ τὸν νοῦν διερευνώμενος καὶ μόνης

τῆς θείας ἕνεκεν δόξης, οἷον ὡς προκάλυμμα περιαιρῶν τὸ γράμμα τοῦ πνεύματος, εὑρήσει πάντα, κατὰ τὸν τῆς σοφίας λόγον, ἐνώπια, μηδενὸς εὑρισκομένου κωλύματος πρὸς τὴν ἄμεμπτον ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα τῆς διανοίας κίνησιν. Τὴν μὲν οὖν ἱστορίαν ἤδη πληρωθεῖσαν σωματικῶς ἐν τοῖς κατὰ Μωσέα καιροῖς παρήσομεν, τὴν δὲ τῆς ἱστορίας ἐν πνεύματι δύναμιν νοεροῖς κατανοήσωμεν ὄμμασιν, ἀεὶ γινομένην καὶ τῷ γίνεσθαι πλέον ἀκμάζουσαν.

Ἔρημος τοίνυν, ἀφ᾽ ἧς πέμπεται Μωυσῆς εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἐξαγάγαι τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραήλ, ἔστιν ἢ ἡ ἀνθρωπεία φύσις ἢ ὁ κόσμος 14Β_110 οὗτος ἢ ἡ παθῶν ἐστερημένη ἕξις· καθ᾽ ἣν καὶ ἐν ᾧ τὴν διὰ τῆς θεωρίας τῶν ὄντων παιδευθεὶς γνῶσιν ὁ νοῦς ἐπιτροπὴν δέχεται παρὰ Θεοῦ κρυφίαν τε καὶ μυστικὴν κατὰ τὸ ἀφανὲς τῆς καρδίας ἐξαγαγεῖν τῆς Αἰγύπτου, λέγω δὲ τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τῆς αἰσθήσεως, καθάπερ Ἰσραηλίτας, τὰ θεῖα τῶν ὄντων νοήματα, περὶ τὸν πηλόν, τὰ πάθη λέγω τῆς σαρκός, ἀνονήτως πονούμενα. Ταύτην δὲ τὴν θείαν ὁ νοῦς πιστευόμενος διακονίαν, μετὰ τῆς συνημμένης αὐτῷ συμβίου δίκην κατὰ τὴν γνῶσιν σοφίας καὶ τοῦ ἐξ αὐτῆς γεννηθέντος εὐγενοῦς τρόπου τε καὶ λογισμοῦ, τῆς κατὰ τὸν βίον σεμνῆς πολιτείας τὴν ὁδὸν πάντως ὁδεύει τῶν ἀρετῶν, τὴν μηδαμῶς ἐπιδεχομένην τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ