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

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 to those crossing over to him in faith, for the sake of those from the Jews who are to inherit salvation. From this one again in the cave is taken away the corner of the double cloak; that is, the ethos of the indecency of moral philosophy; or the sublime thought of the legal symbols and omens of the 77.1280 mantle; having judged him unworthy to have them, he who is enclosed as in a 77.1280 cave in the darkness of sensible things, and in the shadow of the letter. For the double cloak is the twofold nature of the law, both the apparent and the intelligible, the somatic and the pneumatic; the true shepherd, and king, and destroyer of the opposing powers. A shepherd of those who pursue practical philosophy, and who like grass graze on natural contemplation; but a king of those who are led by spiritual laws and words, and through a more divine contemplation are led up to him. The sons of this David are the saints born of him in the spirit. And their tombs are the memorials of their life on earth according to God. And the ascents of their tombs are the heights of the achievements in these memorials, through which they ascended to God; in which are entombed by those who establish them, both the ways according to action, and the principles according to contemplation; into which are received all Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the mind that has commendably died to all existing things; to sensible things, by the laying aside of activity according to sense; and to intelligible things, by the cessation of intellectual motion. Therefore Hezekiah, who is remembered as the strength of God, as a mind strong in action and most brilliant in knowledge, they bury when he has died; that is, having in his will departed from all existing things, and having come to be with him who is beyond existing things. All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, his action according to virtue, and his true contemplation according to knowledge, in the ascent of the tombs of the sons of David, in the height, I say, of the memory of the saints from ages past, having given him glory and honor; glory for the beauty of the image, and honor for the imitation of the likeness. For the one is produced by the true contemplation of spiritual principles; and the other, again, by the precise practice of the divine commandments. And the word, *they buried*, you will understand as, *they placed*. And it is to be observed that no one is recorded as having been buried in the tombs of David, or in the ascent of the tombs of David. For the life in the flesh of our Savior Christ is incomparable and uncontainable, both in manner and in word. For, he says, *his virtue covered the heavens*, that is, also the powers above, by the pre-eminence of its excellence. FROM THE BOOK OF EZRA. Concerning Zerubbabel. And when the young man went out, lifting up his face to heaven, opposite Jerusalem, he blessed the king of heaven, saying: From you is the victory, and from you is the wisdom, and yours is the glory, and I am your servant. Zerubbabel is interpreted as seed of confusion, or rest; for he was sown in Babylon, which signifies confusion, since his parents were held there as captives. And he arose there, from infancy radiating 77.1281 the beauty of virtue, and of knowledge; and having delivered the whole race from the slavery there, he became a rest for them. Henceforth, then, Zerubbabel would be a philosophical mind, first being sown through repentance in the confusion of the passions, then illuminating, and pointing out their shame. Then freeing the thoughts and the soul from such captivity and giving them rest. This one, therefore, when he comes out from the

τὸ δόρυ καὶ τοῦ ὕδατος τὸν φακόν· τοῦτ' ἔστιν, τὸ κράτος τῆς πρακτικῆς ἀρετῆς, καὶ τὴν χάριν τῆς γνωστικῆς θεωρίας, εἰ καὶ ταῦτα πάλιν δίδωσι τοῖς πρὸς αὐτὸν κατὰ τὴν πίστιν διαβαίνουσι, διὰ τοὺς ἐξ Ἰουδαίων μέλλοντας κληρονομεῖν σωτηρίαν. Οὗπερ πάλιν ἐν τῷ σπηλαίῳ τὸ τῆς διπλοΐδος ἀφαιρεῖται πτερύγιον· τοῦτ' ἔστι, τὸ ἦθος τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἠθικὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἀσχημοσύνης· ἢ τὸ ἐν νοήμασιν ὑψηλὸν τῆς τῶν νομικῶν συμβόλων καὶ οἰωνισμάτων περι 77.1280 βολῆς· οὐκ ἄξιον κρίνας ἔχειν αὐτὰ, τὸν ὡς ἐν σπη77.1280 λαίῳ τῷ σκότει τῶν αἰσθητῶν, καὶ τῇ σκιᾷ τοῦ γράμματος ἐγκεκλεισμένον. ∆ιπλοῒς γὰρ, τὸ διπλοῦν τοῦ νόμου, τὸ φαινόμενόν τε καὶ τὸ νοούμενον, τὸ σωματικόν τε καὶ τὸ πνευματικόν· ὁ ἀληθινὸς ποιμὴν, καὶ βασιλεὺς, καὶ τῶν ἀντικειμένων ἀναιρέτης δυνάμεων. Ποιμὴν μὲν τῶν τὴν πρακτικὴν μετερχομένων φιλοσοφίαν, καὶ πόας δίκην νεμομένων φυσικὴν θεωρίαν· βασιλεὺς δὲ τῶν νόμοις καὶ λόγοις πνευματικοῖς ἀγομένων, καὶ διὰ θεωρίας θειοτέρας πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀναγομένων. Τούτου τοῦ ∆αβὶδ μὲν υἱοὶ, οἱ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεννηθέντες ἐν πνεύματι ἅγιοι. Τάφοι δὲ τούτων αἱ μνῆμαι τῆς κατὰ Θεὸν αὐτῶν ἐπὶ γῆς πολιτείας. Ἀναβάσεις δὲ τῶν τάφων αὐτῶν, τὰ ὕψη τῶν ἐν ταῖς μνήμαις ταύταις κατορθωμάτων, δι' ὧν ἐκεῖνοι πρὸς Θεὸν ἀνέβησαν· οἷς ἐνθάπτουσιν οἱ ἐνιδρύοντες, οἵ τε κατὰ πρᾶξιν τρόποι, καὶ οἱ κατὰ θεωρίαν λόγοι· εἰς οὓς λαμβάνονται πᾶς Ἰούδα, καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες Ἱερουσαλὴμ, τὸν τοῖς οὖσιν ἅπασιν ἐπαινετῶς ἀποθανόντα νοῦν· τοῖς μὲν αἰσθητοῖς, τῇ ἀποθέσει τῆς κατ' αἴσθησιν ἐνεργείας· τοῖς δὲ νοητοῖς, τῇ ἀποπαύσει τῆς νοερᾶς κινήσεως. Τὸν τοίνυν Ἐζεχίαν κράτος Θεοῦ μνημονευόμενον, ὡς νοῦν κραταιὸν περὶ πρᾶξιν καὶ περὶ γνῶσιν λαμπρότατον, θάπτουσιν ἀποθανόντα· τοῦτ' ἔστιν, πάντων τῶν ὄντων κατὰ γνώμην ἀπογενόμενον, καὶ πρὸς τὸν ὑπὲρ τὰ ὄντα γενόμενον. Πᾶς Ἰούδα καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ἡ κατ' ἀρετὴν πρᾶξις αὐτοῦ δηλονότι, καὶ ἡ κατὰ γνῶσιν ἀληθὴς θεωρία, ἐν ἀναβάσει τάφων υἱῶν ∆αβὶδ, ἐν τῷ ὕψει, λέγω, τῆς τῶν ἀπ' αἰῶνος ἁγίων μνήμης, δεδωκότες αὐτῷ δόξαν καὶ τιμήν· δόξαν μὲν διὰ τὸ κατ' εἰκόνα κάλλος, τιμὴν δὲ διὰ τὸ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν μίμημα. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ ποιεῖ λόγων πνευματικῶν ἀληθὴς θεωρία· τὸ δὲ πάλιν ἀκριβὴς πρᾶξις τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν. Τὸ, ἔθαψαν, δὲ νοήσεις, ἀντὶ τοῦ ἔθηκαν. Παρατηρητέον δὲ ὅτι οὐδεὶς ἀναγέγραπται ταφεὶς ἐν τάφοις ∆αβὶδ, ἢ ἐν ἀναβάσει τάφων ∆αβίδ. Τοῦ γὰρ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Χριστοῦ ἀσύγκριτος καὶ ἀχώρητος ὁ ἐν σαρκὶ βίος, κατὰ τρόπον ὁμοῦ καὶ λόγον. Ἐκάλυψε γάρ, φησὶν, οὐρανοὺς ἡ ἀρετὴ αὐτοῦ, τοῦτ' ἔστι, καὶ τὰς ἄνω δυνάμεις τῇ ὑπεροχῇ τῆς ὑπερβολῆς. ΕΚ ΤΗΣ ΒΙΒΛΟΥ ΕΣ∆ΡΑ. Περὶ Ζοροβάβελ. Καὶ ὅτε ἐξῆλθεν ὁ νεανίσκος, ἄρας τὸ πρόσ ωπον εἰς οὐρανὸν, ἐναντίον Ἱερουσαλὴμ, εὐ λόγησε τὸν βασιλέα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, λέγων· Παρὰ σοῦ ἡ νίκη, καὶ παρὰ σοῦ ἡ σοφία, καὶ σὴ ἡ δόξα, καὶ ἐγὼ σὸς οἰκέτης. Ὁ Ζοροβάβελ σπορὰ συγχύσεως, ἢ ἀνάπαυσις ἑρμηνεύεται· ἐσπάρη γὰρ ἐν Βαβυλῶνι, ἢ σημαίνει σύγχυσιν, αἰχμαλώτων ἐκεῖ κατεχομένων τῶν γεννητόρων αὐτοῦ. Καὶ ἀνέτειλεν ἐκεῖ, νηπιόθεν αὐγά 77.1281 ζων τὸ κάλλος τῆς ἀρετῆς, καὶ τῆς γνώσεως· καὶ ἀπαλλάξας ὅλον τὸ γένος τῆς ἐκεῖ δουλείας, ἀνάπαυσις αὐτοῖς γέγονεν. Λοιπὸν οὖν εἴη ἂν Ζοροβάβελ, νοῦς φιλόσοφος, πρῶτον μὲν διὰ μετανοίας σπειρόμενος ἐν τῇ συγχύσει τῶν παθῶν, εἶτα φωτίζων, καὶ ὑποδεικνύων τὴν αἰσχύνην αὐτῶν. Ἔπειτα ἐλευθερῶν τοὺς λογισμοὺς καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπὸ τῆς τοιαύτης αἰχμαλωσίας καὶ ἀναπαύων αὐτούς. Οὗτος τοίνυν ὅτε ἐξέλθῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ