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equally at work. 2.205 The account of this matter would provide us this benefit. Since all the people together were of one mind for evil, and the entire camp became as one man in the principle of wickedness, the scourge against them is indiscriminate. For just as one who torments with blows someone caught in wickedness lacerates whatever part of the body he happens to strike with the scourge, knowing that the pain in the part passes through to the whole, so, as if the entire body that had grown together into wickedness were being punished alike, the scourge working on a part brought the whole to its senses. 2.206 Therefore, if ever, when the same wickedness is seen in many, the indignation of God should act not against all but against some, it is fitting to understand the correction that is worked through love for mankind, with not all being struck, but all being brought to their senses by the partial blows for the turning away from wickedness. 2.207 But this is still the meaning of what is written according to the history. The spiritual interpretation, however, would benefit us in this way. Since the lawgiver says in a public proclamation to all: "Whoever is for the Lord, let him come to me," which is the voice of the law commanding everyone: "If anyone wishes to be a friend of God, let him become a friend to me, the law" (for a friend of the law is certainly also a friend of God), he commands those gathered to him through such a proclamation to use the sword against brother and friend and neighbor. 2.208 And we understand, looking to the consequence of the spiritual interpretation, that everyone who looks to God and the law is purified by the slaughter of those who are wickedly intimate with him. For not every brother or friend or neighbor is named for the better by Scripture. But there is one who is both brother and alien, both friend and enemy, both neighbor and one who stands in opposition. We understand these to be the thoughts that grow with us, whose life works our death, but their death works our life. 2.209 Such a meaning agrees with what has already been examined concerning Aaron, when through his encounter we understood the allied and assisting angel, the one who works the signs against the Egyptians, reasonably understood as preexisting because the angelic and bodiless nature was prepared before our own nature, and clearly a brother because of the kinship of that intelligible reality to our own intelligible reality.

2.210 Since, therefore, the objection is how it is possible to take for the better the encounter of Aaron, who became a servant to the Israelites for their idol-making, the account there moderately indicated the homonymy of brotherhood, as not always the same thing is signified by the same word, when the same name is taken for opposite meanings. But one brother is the one who brings down the Egyptian tyrant, and another again is the one who fashions the idol for the Israelites, even if the name for both is one. 2.211 Against such brothers, therefore, Moses unsheathes the sword. For what he commands others, he clearly legislates the same for himself. And the destruction of such a brother is the annihilation of sin. For everyone who has annihilated some evil established through the counsel of the adversary has killed in himself the one who was once living through sin. 2.212 And our doctrine on this matter would be strengthened all the more if we were to take along some other things from the history for this spiritual interpretation. For it is said that by the command of that Aaron it was necessary for them to take off from themselves the earrings. And the removal of these became the material for the idol. What then do we say? That Moses adorned the hearing of the Israelites with the earring-adornment, which is the law, but the falsely named brother through disobedience takes away the adornment placed on their hearing and makes an idol through it. 2.213 And at the first entry of sin, the counsel to disobey the commandment was the theft of a certain earring, through which he was considered a friend and neighbor to those

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ἐπίσης ἐνεργουμένη. 2.205 Ὁ δὲ περὶ τούτου λόγος ταύτην ἂν ἡμῖν παράσχοιτο τὴν ὠφέλειαν. Ἐπειδὴ πανδημεὶ πάντες πρὸς τὸ κακὸν συνεφρόνησαν καὶ ὥσπερ εἷς ἐγένετο τῷ λόγῳ τῆς κακίας τὸ στρατόπεδον ἅπαν, ἀδιάκριτος ἡ κατ' αὐτῶν γίνεται μάστιξ. Ὡς γάρ τινα τῶν ἐπὶ κακίᾳ πεφωραμένων ὁ πληγαῖς αἰκιζόμενος ὅτιπερ ἂν τύχῃ τοῦ σώματος καταξαίνει διὰ τῆς μάστιγος, εἰδὼς ὅτι ἡ ἐπὶ μέρους ὀδύνη πρὸς τὸ πᾶν διεξέρχεται, οὕτως ὡς παντὸς ὁμοίως κολαζομένου τοῦ εἰς τὴν κακίαν συμφυέντος σώματος ἡ ἐπὶ μέρους ἐνεργουμένη μάστιξ τὸ πᾶν ἐσωφρόνισεν. 2.206 Οὐκοῦν εἴ ποτε τῆς ἴσης κακίας ἐν πολλοῖς θεωρουμένης μὴ κατὰ πάντων, ἀλλὰ κατά τινων ἐνεργήσειεν ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀγανάκτησις, νοεῖν προσήκει τὴν διὰ φιλανθρωπίας ἐνεργου μένην διόρθωσιν, οὐ πάντων μὲν τυπτομένων, πάντων δὲ ταῖς μερικαῖς πληγαῖς πρὸς τὴν τῆς κακίας ἀποστροφὴν σωφρονιζομένων. 2.207 Ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἔτι τῶν καθ' ἱστορίαν γεγραμμένων τὸ νόημα. Ἡ δὲ ἀναγωγὴ τοῦτον ἂν ἡμᾶς τὸν τρόπον ὠφελήσειεν. Ἐπειδή φησιν ἐν κοινῷ κηρύγματι πρὸς πάντας ὁ νομοθέτης ὅτι· εἴ τις πρὸς Κύριον, ἴτω πρός με, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ νόμου φωνὴ πᾶσιν ἐγκελευομένη τό· εἴ τις βούλεται τοῦ Θεοῦ φίλος εἶναι, ἐμοὶ τῷ νόμῳ φίλος γενέσθω (ὁ γὰρ τοῦ νόμου φίλος καὶ Θεοῦ φίλος ἐστὶ πάντως), καὶ τοῖς πρὸς αὐτὸν διὰ τοῦ τοιούτου κηρύγματος ἀθροισθεῖσιν ἐγκελεύεται χρήσασθαι τῷ ξίφει κατὰ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ καὶ τοῦ φίλου καὶ τοῦ πλησίον. 2.208 Νοοῦμεν δὲ πρὸς τὸ ἀκόλουθον βλέποντες τῆς θεωρίας ὅτι πᾶς ὁ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν καὶ τὸν νόμον βλέπων τῷ φόνῳ τῶν κακῶς ᾠκειωμένων αὐτῷ καθαρίζεται. Οὐ γὰρ πᾶς ἀδελφὸς οὐδὲ φίλος, οὐδὲ πλησίον ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον παρὰ τῆς Γραφῆς ὀνομάζεται. Ἀλλ' ἔστι τις καὶ ἀδελφὸς καὶ ἀλλότριος, καὶ φίλος καὶ ἐχθρός, καὶ πλησίον καὶ ἐξ ἐναντίας ἱστάμενος. Τούτους νοοῦμεν τοὺς συμφυομένους ἡμῖν λογισμούς, ὧν ἡ ζωὴ μὲν ἡμέτερον θάνατον, ὁ δὲ θάνατος αὐτῶν ἡμετέραν ζωὴν κατεργάζεται. 2.209 Συμφωνεῖ δὲ τὸ τοιοῦτο νόημα τοῖς ἤδη περὶ τὸν Ἀαρὼν ἐξετασθεῖσιν, ὅτε διὰ τῆς συντυχίας αὐτοῦ τὸν σύμμαχόν τε καὶ παραστάτην ἄγγελον ἐνοήσαμεν, τὸν τὰ σημεῖα κατὰ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων συνεργαζόμενον, προγενέστερον εἰκότως νοούμενον διὰ τὸ προκατεσκεύασθαι τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν τὴν ἀγγελικὴν καὶ ἀσώματον φύσιν, ἀδελφὸν δὲ δῆλον διὰ τὴν συγγένειαν τοῦ νοητοῦ ἐκείνου πρὸς τὸ νοητὸν τὸ ἡμέτερον.

2.210 Τῆς οὖν ἀντιθέσεως οὔσης ὅτι πῶς ἔστι πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον λαβεῖν τὴν τοῦ Ἀαρὼν συντυχίαν ὃς ὑπηρέτης τοῖς Ἰσραηλίταις τῆς εἰδωλοποιΐας ἐγένετο, κἀκεῖ μετρίως παρεδήλου τὴν τῆς ἀδελφότητος ὁμωνυμίαν ὁ λόγος, ὡς οὐχὶ πάντοτε τοῦ αὐτοῦ σημαινομένου ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς φωνῆς, ὅταν ἐπὶ τῶν ἐναντίων νοημάτων τὸ αὐτὸ λαμβάνηται ὄνομα. Ἀλλ' ἕτερος μὲν ἀδελφὸς ὁ καθαιρῶν τὸν Αἰγύπτιον τύραννον, ἄλλος δὲ πάλιν ὁ ἀποτυπῶν τοῖς Ἰσραηλίταις τὸ εἴδωλον, κἂν ἓν ᾖ ἐπ' ἀμφοτέρων τὸ ὄνομα. 2.211 Κατὰ τῶν τοιούτων οὖν ἀδελφῶν ἀπογυμνοῖ ὁ Μωϋσῆς τὸ ξίφος. Περὶ ὧν γὰρ ἄλλοις διακελεύεται, καὶ ἑαυτῷ δηλαδὴ νομοθετεῖ τὸ ἴσον. Ἀναίρεσις δέ ἐστι τοῦ τοιούτου ἀδελφοῦ ὁ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀφανισμός. Πᾶς γὰρ ὁ τὸ διὰ τῆς συμβουλῆς τοῦ ἀντικειμένου ἐνιδρυνθέν τι κακὸν ἀφανίσας ἐκεῖνον ἀπέκτεινεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τόν ποτε διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ζῶντα. 2.212 Μᾶλλον δ' ἂν ἡμῖν τὸ περὶ τούτου κρατυνθείη δόγμα, εἴ τινα καὶ ἄλλα τῆς ἱστορίας πρὸς τὴν θεωρίαν ταύτην συμπαραλάβοιμεν. Εἴρηται γὰρ ὅτι προστάγματι γίνεται τοῦ Ἀαρὼν ἐκείνου τὸ δεῖν αὐτοὺς περιελέσθαι ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν τὰ ἐνώτια. Καὶ ἡ τούτων περιαίρεσις ὕλη τῷ εἰδώλῳ ἐγένετο. Τί οὖν φαμεν; Ὅτι Μωϋσῆς μὲν ἐν τῷ ἐνωτίῳ κόσμῳ, ὅς ἐστι ὁ νόμος, τὴν τῶν Ἰσραηλιτῶν ἀκοὴν κατεκόσμησεν, ὁ δὲ ψευδώνυμος ἀδελφὸς διὰ τῆς παρακοῆς περιαιρεῖ τὸν ἐντεθέντα τῇ ἀκοῇ κόσμον καὶ ποιεῖ δι' αὐτοῦ εἴδωλον. 2.213 Καὶ παρὰ τὴν πρώτην τῆς ἁμαρτίας εἴσοδον ἐνωτίου τινὸς ὑφαίρεσις ἦν ἡ τοῦ παρακοῦσαι τῆς ἐντολῆς συμβουλή, δι' ἧς ἐνομίσθη φίλος καὶ πλησίον τοῖς