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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 attack? And if the circumcision of the child was necessary, why before God sent him, did he not gently command him to circumcise the child? And why, since it was a transgression, did the good angel not gently admonish the one being sent by God for such a ministry?

Response. He who with fear of God investigates the mind of the scriptural enigmas, and only

for the sake of divine glory, removing the letter as a kind of veil for the spirit, will find all things, according to the word of Wisdom, straightforward, finding no obstacle to the blameless movement of the intellect toward divine things. We will, then, pass over the history that was already physically fulfilled in the time of Moses; but the spiritual power of the history, we will contemplate with the eyes of the mind, as something that is always happening, and in its happening, flourishing all the more.

The desert, then, from which Moses is sent to Egypt to lead out the sons of Israel, is either human nature, or this world, or a state deprived of passions; in which state and in which world the mind, having been instructed in knowledge through the contemplation of beings, receives a secret and mystical commission from God, in the hidden part of the heart, to lead out of Egypt—that is, I mean, out of the flesh and the senses—like the Israelites, the divine concepts of beings; which are senselessly laboring over the clay, that is, the passions of the flesh. But the mind, being entrusted with this divine ministry, together with the wisdom joined to it like a spouse according to knowledge, and with the noble disposition and thought born from it—that is, the venerable conduct of life—journeys entirely along the path of the virtues, which in no way admits of any standing still for those who walk on it; but requires them to have a constant and swift race toward the goal of the soul, for the prize of the upward call. Since to stand still in virtue is the beginning of vice, as the mind becomes passionately occupied with some of the material things lying on either side of the path, and makes the pure and completely circumcised disposition and thought of the pious way of life uncircumcised and profane. Therefore, it immediately beholds the reproving word as an angel in the conscience threatening death, and testifying that the cause of the threat is the standing still in virtue (305), which produces the uncircumcision of thought; which thought the wisdom that cohabits with the mind entreats, with the stone which is the word of faith, like Zipporah circumcising the material fantasy that had arisen in the thought which is her child, and drying up every notion of the life of the senses. For it says: "The blood of the child's circumcision was stayed;" that is, the passionate life and fantasy and motion ceased, when the polluted thought was cleansed through wisdom according to faith. After this cleansing, the word that, like an angel, strikes the sinning mind through the conscience ceases, and that accuses its every thought that is moved improperly. For in truth, the path of virtues is filled with many holy angels, that is, with the activating principles and dispositions of each particular virtue, I mean, and with the invisible angels who cooperate with us for good things, and who stir up such thoughts [words, both Seguierani] in us.

The word of Holy Scripture is therefore excellent and sublime, always presenting the spiritual meanings before the historical accounts to those who possess healthy eyes of the soul, and containing no slander either of God or of His holy angels. For it did not have

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ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΙΖ΄ .

Εἰ ὁ Θεός τόν Μωϋσῆν ἀπέστειλεν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, τίνι τῷ λόγῳ τόν ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀπεσταλμένον ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἄγγελος ἀποκτεῖναι ἐζήτει, καί ἄν ἀπέκτεινεν, εἰ μή σπεύσασα ἡ γυνή τό παιδίον περιέτεμεν, καί δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς τήν τοῦ ἀγγέλου ὁρμήν ἔστησε; Καί εἰ ἀναγκαία ἦν ἡ περιτομή τοῦ παιδίου, διά τί πρό τοῦ αὐτόν τόν Θεόν ἀποστεῖλαι, μετά ἡμερότητος οὐκ ἐνετείλατο αὐτῷ περιτεμεῖν τό παιδίον; ∆ιά τί δέ καί ὅτι πταῖσμα ἦν, ὁ ἀγαθός ἄγγελος τόν ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰς τοιαύτην διακονίαν ἀποστελλόμενον, ἡμέρως οὐκ ἐνουθέτησεν;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ τῶν γραφικῶν αἰνιγμάτων φόβῳ Θεοῦ τόν νοῦν διερευνώμενος, καί μόνης

τῆς θείας ἕνεκεν δόξης, οἷον ὡς προκάλυμμα, περιαιρῶν τό γράμμα τοῦ πνεύματος, Εὑρήσει πάντα, κατά τόν τῆς Σοφίας λόγον, ἐνώπια, μηδενός εὑρισκομένου κωλύμματος πρός τήν ἄμεμπτον ἐπί τά θεῖα τῆς διανοίας κίνησιν. Τήν μέν οὖν ἱστορίαν ἤδη πληρωθεῖσαν σωματικῶς ἐν τοῖς κατά Μωσέα καιροῖς, παρήσομεν· τήν δέ τῆς ἱστορίας ἐν πνεύματι δύναμιν, νοεροῖς κατανοήσομεν ὄμμασιν, ἀεί γινομένην, καί τῷ γίνεσθαι, πλέον ἀκμάζουσαν.

Ἔρημος τοίνυν ἀφ᾿ ἧς πέμπεται Μωσῆς εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἐξαγαγεῖν τούς υἱούς Ἰσραήλ, ἐστίν ἤ ἡ ἀνθρωπεία φύσις, ἤ ὁ κόσμος οὗτος, ἤ ἡ παθῶν ἐστερημένη ἕξις· καθ᾿ ἥν καί ἐν ᾧ τήν διά τῆς θεωρίας τῶν ὄντων παιδευθείς γνῶσιν ὁ νοῦς, ἐπιτροπήν δέχεται παρά Θεοῦ κρυφίαν τε καί μυστικήν, κατά τό ἀφανές τῆς καρδίας, ἐξαγαγεῖν τῆς Αἰγύπτου, λέγω δή τῆς σαρκός καί τῆς αἰσθήσεως, καθάπερ Ἰσραηλίτας, τά θεῖα τῶν ὄντων νοήματα· περί τόν πηλόν, τά πάθη λέγω τῆς σαρκός, ἀνοήτως πονούμενα. Ταύτην δέ τήν θείαν ὁ νοῦς πιστευόμενος διακονίαν μετά τῆς συνημμένης αὐτῷ συμβίου δίκην κατά τήν γνῶσιν σοφίας, καί τοῦ ἐξ αὐτῆς γεννηθέντος εὐγενοῦς τρόπου τε καί λογισμοῦ, τῆς κατά τόν βίον σεμνῆς πολιτείας, τήν ὁδόν πάντως ὁδεύει τῶν ἀρετῶν, τήν μηδαμῶς ἐπιδεχομένην τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ βαδιζόντων στάσιν· ἀλλ᾿ ἀεικίνητον καί ὀξύν ἐχόντων κατά σκοπόν τῆς ψυχῆς, πρός τό βραβεῖον τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως τόν δρόμον. Ἐπειδή τῆς ἀρετῆς ἡ στάσις, κακίας ἐστίν ἀρχή, τοῦ νοῦ περί τι τῶν ἑκατέρωθεν τῇ ὁδῷ παρακειμένων ὑλικῶν ἐμπαθῶς ἀσχοληθέντος· καί τόν καθαρόν, καί διόλου περιτετμημένον τρόπον τε καί λογισμόν τῆς εὐσεβοῦς ἀγωγῆς, ἀκρόβυστον ποιουμένου καί βέβηλον. ∆ιό τόν ἐλέγχοντα λόγον εὐθύς ὡς ἄγγελον κατά συνείδησιν θάνατον ἀπειλοῦντα θεωρεῖ, καί τῆς ἀπειλῆς αἰτίαν εἶναι τήν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν στάσιν (305) διαμαρτυρόμενον, τήν τῆς ἀκροβυστίας· τοῦ λογισμοῦ περιποιητικήν· ὅν ἡ σύνοικος τῷ νῷ δυσωπεῖ σοφία, ψήφῳ τῷ λόγῳ τῆς πίστεως, ὡς ἡ Σεπφόρα τήν ἐγγενομένην ὑλικήν τῷ λογισμῷ παιδί φαντασίαν περιτέμνουσα, καί πᾶσαν αἰσθητῆς ζωῆς ἔννοιαν ἀποξηραίνουσα. Φησί γάρ· " Ἔστη τό αἷμα τῆς περιτομῆς τοῦ παιδίου·" τουτέστιν, ἔληξεν ἡ ἐμπαθής ζωή καί φαντασία καί κίνησις, καθαρθέντος διά τῆς σοφίας κατά τήν πίστιν τοῦ μολυνθέντος λογισμοῦ μεθ᾿ ἥν κάθαρσιν, παύεται καθάπερ τις ἄγγελος ὁ διά τῆς συνειδήσεως πλήττων τόν ἁμαρτάνοντα νοῦν, καί ἐνδιαβάλλων αὐτοῦ πᾶν νόημα παρά τό προσῆκον κινούμενον λόγος. Πολλῶν γάρ ἐπ᾿ ἀληθείᾳ πεπλήρωται τῶν ἀρετῶν ἡ ὁδός ἁγίων ἀγγέλων, τῶν ἑκάστης ἀρετῆς κατ᾿ εἶδος ἐνεργητικῶν, φημί, λόγων τε καί τρόπων, καί τῶν ἀοράτων πρός τά καλά συνεργούντων ἡμῖν ἀγγέλων· καί τούς τοιούτους ἡμῖν ἀνακινούντων λογισμούς [λόγους ambo Seguierani] .

Καλῶς οὖν ἔχει καί μεγαλοφυῶς τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς ὁ λόγος, παριστῶν ἀεί τά νοούμενα πρό τῶν ἱστορουμένων, ἐν τοῖς ὑγιῆ κεκτημένοις τῆς ψυχῆς τά ὄμματα καί μηδεμίαν ἔχων διαβολήν ἤ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἤ τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ ἀγγέλων. Οὐ γάρ εἶχε