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

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 you we listen to the Lord God, and to him we have sacrificed since the days of Asphacath king of Assyria; who settled us here. And Zerubbabel, and Joshua and the leaders of the families said to them: It is not for you and us to build a house for the Lord our God. For we alone will build. Zerubbabel is the practical mind, as being more warlike. And Joshua is the contemplative, as being more priestly. And the leaders of the families are the powers of the soul, under which are both the ways of virtue and the principles of knowledge. And to these approach the demons of the aforementioned passions, wishing to build the house of the Lord with them. For none of these demons hinders the zeal of those who strive according to God; but rather, having deceitfully cut off the deficiencies of good things, they suggest the excesses, as if being zealous with them; so that, having destroyed the equal measure of the mean, we might be secretly carried away to another lodging place dear to them. Therefore they also say, "Like you we listen to the Lord, and to him we sacrifice," that is, we accept the commandments of the Lord, and we cooperate with those who put them into practice, and truly they do not turn away from these, until the purpose of those who put them into practice has inclined toward them, having been turned aside from righteousness. For one might easily perceive the other demons; but those who seem to cooperate in the course of the life according to God, only those like Zerubbabel and Joshua would with difficulty discern, and they would reject their cooperation, knowing well that its admixture brings about the destruction of the whole building. For it does not look to the glory of God, but to the passion, to which the cooperating demons wish to transfer it. Therefore, the demons that make war by way of a deficiency of virtue are those that propose the dishonorable passions arising from anger and desire; but those that do so by way of excess are the ones presiding over the four passions.

διανίστανται πρὸς κακουργίαν. Καὶ προσελθόντες τῷ Ζοροβάβελ, καὶ τῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τοῖς ἡγουμένοις τῶν πατριῶν, λέγουσιν αὐτοῖς· Ἐνοικοδομήσομεν ὑμῖν· ὁμοίως γὰρ ὑμῖν ἀκούομεν τοῦ Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ αὐτῷ ἐπιθύομεν ἀφ' ἡμερῶν Ἀσφακαὰθ βασιλέως Ἀσσούρ· ὃς μετῴκισεν ἡμᾶς ἐνθάδε. Καὶ εἶπον αὐτοῖς Ζοροβάβελ, καὶ Ἰησοῦς καὶ οἱ ἡγούμενοι τῶν πατριῶν· Οὐχ ὑμῖν καὶ ἡμῖν τὸ οἰκοδομῆσαι οἶκον Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν. Ἡμεῖς γὰρ μόνοι οἰκοδομήσομεν. Ζοροβάβελ μὲν ἔστιν ὁ πρακτικὸς νοῦς ὡς πολεμικώτερος. Ἰησοῦς δὲ ὁ θεωρητικὸς, ὡς ἱερώτερος. Ἄρχοντες δὲ τῶν πατριῶν, αἱ τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις, ὑφ' ἃς οἵ τε τρόποι τῆς ἀρετῆς, καὶ οἱ λόγοι τῆς γνώσεως. Προσέρχονται δὲ τούτοις οἱ τῶν εἰρημένων παθῶν δαίμονες, βουλόμενοι συνοικοδομεῖν τὸν οἶκον Κυρίου. Οὐδεὶς γὰρ τῶν δαιμόνων τούτων κωλύει τῶν κατὰ Θεὸν ἀγωνιζομένων τὸ πρόθυμον· ἀλλὰ καὶ μᾶλλον τὰς ἐλλείψεις τῶν καλῶν δολερῶς περικόψας, τὰς ἐπιτάσεις ὑπαγορεύει, καθάπερ συμπροθυμούμενος· ἵνα παραπολέσαντες τὸ ἴσον στάθμιον τῆς μεσότητος, λάθωμεν πρὸς ἄλλο φερόμενοι καταγώγιον τὸ φίλον αὐτοῖς. ∆ιὸ καὶ λέγουσιν, ὅτι Ὁμοίως ὑμῖν ἀκούομεν Κυρίου, καὶ αὐτῷ ἐπιθύομεν, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἀποδεχόμεθα τὰς ἐντολὰς Κυρίου, καὶ συνεργοῦμεν τοῖς ἐνεργοῦσιν αὐτὰς, καὶ ὄντως οὐκ ἀποστρέφονται ταύτας, ἕως πρὸς αὐτοὺς νένευκεν ὁ σκοπὸς τῶν ἐνεργούντων παρατραπεὶς τῆς εὐθύτητος. Τοὺς μὲν γὰρ ἄλλους δαίμονας ῥᾳδίως ἄν τις κατανοήσειε· τοὺς δὲ δοκοῦντας συνεργεῖν τῷ δρόμῳ τοῦ κατὰ Θεὸν βίου, μόλις ἂν οἱ κατὰ τὸν Ζοροβάβελ καὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν διαγνοῖεν, καὶ ἀποκρούσαιντο τὴν συνεργίαν αὐτῶν, εὖ εἰδότες, ὡς ἡ ταύτης ἐπιμιξία, τῆς ὅλης οἰκοδομῆς ποιεῖται καθαίρεσιν. Οὐ γὰρ πρὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ δόξαν ἀμφορᾷ, πρὸς δὲ τὸ πάθος, εἰς ὃ μεταφέρειν οἱ συνεργοῦντες δαίμονες βούλονται. Οἱ μὲν οὖν κατ' ἔλλειψιν ἀρετῆς πολεμοῦντες δαίμονές εἰσιν, οἱ τὰ ἀπὸ τοῦ θυμοῦ καὶ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας πάθη τῆς ἀτιμίας ὑποτιθέμενοι· οἱ δὲ καθ' ὑπερβολὴν, οἱ τῶν τεσσάρων παθῶν προεστηκότες.