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to come, He prophesies that the man who was left from the destruction of the whole nation, that is, every one of them who has believed in the Christ of God, will nourish "a heifer and two sheep," and "from making much milk," he will "eat butter and honey." And you will understand these things to have been fulfilled in our Savior's apostles according to a mystical contemplation. 2.3.91 Each of whom, in the churches which he established with the power of Christ, having nourished two sheep, that is, two orders coming together like sheep into the flock of Christ, one still being instructed, the other already enlightened through the laver, and besides these one "heifer," the ecclesiastical authority of the presidents, with divine and rational nourishment, brought forth from them productive "milk" and "honey," the fruit of the nourishment he had provided. 2.3.92 Therefore, there is no need to say how the divine word is accustomed to liken the multitudes of the less perfect to sheep, since all scripture teaches this; but how it compares the more perfect one who cultivates the many, the leader of the church, to the husbandman of the oxen, the holy apostle establishes, saying: 2.3.93 "Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Or does he say this entirely for our sake? Because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope of a share." 2.3.94 But if anyone should stumble at such allegories, it is time for him not to contemplate the so-called flies or bees, nor the razor, nor the beard, nor the hairs of the feet according to the intellect, but to fall into absurd and incoherent mythologies. But if it is necessary to accept these things in no other way than by contemplation alone, it is clear that the following things are also similar. 2.3.95 40. "In that day the mountains and the hills and the forests will be quenched, and it will devour from soul to flesh; and he who flees will be as he who flees from a burning flame; and those who are left of them will be a number, and a little child will write them. And it will be in that day that the remnant of Israel will no longer be added to, and those of Jacob who are saved will no longer trust in those who wronged them, but they will trust in the God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth, and the remnant of Israel will turn to the mighty God. 2.3.96 And if the number of the sons of Israel should be as the sand of the sea, their remnant will be saved. For he is finishing the word and cutting it short in righteousness, because God will make a shortened word in the whole world." 2.3.97 And here attend to this, that in the threat of the gloomy things, it says, "he who flees will be as he who flees from a burning flame; and those who are left of them will be a number, and a little child will write them." Through which it represents the rarity of those fleeing the destruction of the people of the circumcision and the burning of Jerusalem. "And these who are left," it says, "will be a number," 2.3.98 that is, they will become countable by number, being so few and easy to count. Therefore, such were those who have believed in our Savior and Lord in comparison with the whole multitude of the Jewish nation, who were also deemed worthy of being written by him, as the word indicates, saying: "and a child will write them," having taught beforehand what the child was, in what he said: "behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son," 2.3.99 and "before the child knows to call father or mother." And since here it says, "a child will write them," it was fittingly said in the preceding words, also "the remnant in Zion and what is left in Jerusalem will be, they will be called holy, all who are written for life." Just as, therefore, in those passages "the remnant" was named, and these same ones were "written for life," so also here "those who are left of them will be a number and a child will write them." 2.3.100 But this "remnant from Israel and those who are saved from Jacob will no longer," it says, be "trusting in those who wronged them, but they will be trusting in the God, the Holy One of

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γενησομένου, τὸν καταλειφθέντα ἄνθρωπον ἐκ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς ἔθνους ἀπωλείας, τοῦτ' ἔστιν πάντα τὸν ἐξ αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ πεπιστευκότα, θρέψειν «δάμαλιν βοῶν καὶ δύο πρόβατα» προφητεύει, «ἀπό τε τοῦ πλεῖστον ποιεῖν γάλα», «φάγεσθαι βούτυρον καὶ μέλι». νοήσεις δὲ καὶ ταῦτα κατὰ μυστικὴν θεωρίαν ἐπὶ τῶν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἀποστόλων τετελεσμένα. 2.3.91 ὧν ἕκαστος, ἐν αἷς σὺν τῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ δυνάμει συνεστήσατο ἐκκλησίαις, δύο πρόβατα, τοῦτ' ἔστιν δύο τάγματα δίκην προβάτων ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ποίμνην συνιόντα, τὸ μὲν εἰσέτι στοιχειούμενον, τὸ δ' ἤδη διὰ τοῦ λουτροῦ πεφωτισμένον, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις μίαν «δάμαλιν» τὴν ἐκκλησιαστικὴν τῶν προέδρων ἀρχὴν ταῖς ἐνθέοις καὶ λογικαῖς τροφαῖς ἐκθρέψας, γόνιμον ἐξ αὐτῶν «γάλα» καὶ «μέλι», τῆς πονηθείσης αὐτῷ τροφῆς τὸν καρπόν, ἀπηνέγκατο. 2.3.92 ὅπως μὲν οὖν τὰ τῶν ἀτελεστέρων πλήθη προβάτοις εἴωθεν ὁ θεῖος ἀφομοιοῦν λόγος, οὐδὲν δεῖ λέγειν, πάσης γραφῆς τοῦτο διδασκούσης· τὸν δέ γε ἐντελέστερον καὶ τοὺς πολλοὺς γεωργοῦντα τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἡγούμενον ὅπως τῷ γεωπόνῳ τῶν βοῶν παραβάλλει, συνίστησιν ὁ ἱερὸς ἀπόστολος, λέγων· 2.3.93 «μὴ τῶν βοῶν μέλει τῷ θεῷ, ἢ δι' ἡμᾶς πάντως λέγει; ὅτι ὀφείλει ἐπ' ἐλπίδι ὁ ἀροτριῶν ἀροτριᾶν καὶ ὁ ἀλοῶν ἐπ' ἐλπίδι τοῦ μετέχειν». 2.3.94 Εἰ δὲ προσκόπτοι τις ταῖς τοιαῖσδε τροπολογίαις, ὥρα τοῦτον μηδὲ τὰς ὀνομαζομένας μυίας ἢ μελίσσας μηδὲ τὸ ξυρὸν μηδὲ τὸν πώγωνα μηδὲ τὰς τρίχας τῶν ποδῶν κατὰ διάνοιαν θεωρεῖν, εἰς ἀτόπους δὲ καὶ ἀσυστάτους ἐκπίπτειν μυθολογίας. εἰ δ' ἀνάγκη ταῦτα μὴ ἄλλως ἢ κατὰ μόνην θεωρίαν δέχεσθαι, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ τὰ ἀκόλουθα παραπλησίως. 2.3.95 μʹ. «Τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἀποσβεσθήσεται τὰ ὄρη καὶ οἱ βουνοὶ καὶ οἱ δρυμοί, καὶ καταφάγεται ἀπὸ ψυχῆς ἕως σαρκῶν· καὶ ἔσται ὁ φεύγων ὡς ὁ φεύγων ἀπὸ φλογὸς καιομένης· καὶ οἱ καταλειφθέντες ἀπ' αὐτῶν ἔσονται ἀριθμός, καὶ παιδίον μικρὸν γράψει αὐτούς. καὶ ἔσται ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ οὐκέτι προστεθήσεται τὸ καταλειφθὲν τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, καὶ οἱ διασωθέντες τοῦ Ἰακὼβ οὐκέτι πεποιθότες ὦσιν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀδικήσαντας αὐτούς, ἀλλ' ἔσονται πεποιθότες ἐπὶ τὸν θεὸν τὸν ἅγιον τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, καὶ ἀναστρέψει τὸ καταλειφθὲν τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἐπὶ θεὸν ἰσχύοντα. 2.3.96 καὶ ἐὰν γένηται ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς θαλάσσης, τὸ κατάλειμμα αὐτῶν σωθήσεται. λόγον γὰρ συντελῶν καὶ συντέμνων ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, ὅτι λόγον συντετμημένον ποιήσει ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῇ οἰκουμένῃ ὅλῃ». 2.3.97 Κἀνταῦθα πρόσσχες, ὅτι ἐν τῇ τῶν σκυθρωπῶν ἀπειλῇ, φησίν, «ἔσται ὁ φεύγων ὡς ὁ φεύγων ἀπὸ φλογὸς καιομένης· καὶ οἱ καταλειφθέντες ἀπ' αὐτῶν ἀριθμὸς ἔσται, καὶ παιδίον μικρὸν γράψει αὐτούς». δι' ὧν τὸ σπάνιον τῶν φευξομένων τὸν ὄλεθρον τοῦ ἐκ περιτομῆς λαοῦ καὶ τὸν τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐμπρησμὸν παρίστησιν. «οἱ δὲ καταλειφθέντες» οὗτοι, φησίν, «ἀριθμὸς ἔσονται», 2.3.98 τοῦτ' ἔστιν ἀριθμῷ ληπτοὶ γενήσονται, οὕτω βραχεῖς καὶ εὐαρίθμητοι ὄντες. τοσοῦτοι δ' οὖν ὡς ἐν συγκρίσει τοῦ παντὸς πλήθους τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους οἱ εἰς τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ κύριον ἡμῶν πεπιστευκότες γεγόνασιν, οἳ καὶ κατηξιώθησαν τῆς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γραφῆς, ὡς δηλοῖ φάσκων ὁ λόγος· «καὶ παιδίον γράψει αὐτούς», προδιδάξας, ὅ τι ποτὲ ἦν τὸ παιδίον, ἐν οἷς ἔλεγεν· «ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει, καὶ τέξεται υἱόν», 2.3.99 καὶ «πρὶν ἢ γνῶναι τὸ παιδίον καλεῖν πατέρα ἢ μητέρα». καὶ ἐπειδήπερ ἐνταῦθα «παιδίον», φησίν, «γράψει αὐτούς», εἰκότως ἐν τοῖς πρόσθεν ἐλέγετο καὶ «ἔσται τὸ ὑπολειφθὲν ἐν Σιὼν καὶ τὸ καταλειφθὲν ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἅγιοι κληθήσονται πάντες οἱ γραφέντες εἰς ζωήν». ὥσπερ γοῦν ἐν ἐκείνοις «τὸ καταλειφθὲν» ὠνόμαστο, οἱ δ' αὐτοὶ «γραφέντες» ἦσαν «εἰς ζωήν», οὕτως καὶ ἐνταῦθα «οἱ καταλειφθέντες ἀπ' αὐτῶν ἀριθμὸς ἔσονται καὶ παιδίον γράψει αὐτούς». 2.3.100 τοῦτο δὲ τὸ «καταλειφθὲν ἐκ τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ οἱ διασωθέντες ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰακὼβ οὐκέτι», φησίν, ἔσονται «πεποιθότες ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀδικήσαντας αὐτούς, ἀλλ' ἔσονται πεποιθότες ἐπὶ τὸν θεὸν τὸν ἅγιον τοῦ