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a traversed one, according to which upon a light cloud, of flesh formed for him from the Holy Spirit, he came into this life, tropologically called Egypt, and also physically into Egypt itself, to which he was brought while still a child by his mother and Joseph; then, according to certain ineffable reasons, were shaken and moved, being troubled by his presence, the demons who formerly dwelled in and worked through the man-made idols everywhere; which is indicated by the prophecy that says, and the man-made things of Egypt shall be shaken. These things will also be fulfilled according to his second and glorious kingdom from the heavens, during which it would be fitting for it to be shaken; and then the assigned man-made things of Egypt will be more violently shaken, whose heart they say will be defeated, in them the divine Word having subjugated to himself and then humbling every high thing that is now exalted against the knowledge of God; and all the following parts of the prophecy will be rendered through tropology alone. Ps. 11. On that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians, and a pillar at its border to the Lord; and the Lord shall be for a sign forever in the land of 190 Egypt; for they shall cry to the Lord because of those who afflict them, and he shall send them a man who shall save them, judging he shall save them; and the Lord shall be known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day; and they shall make sacrifices and a gift; and they shall vow vows to God. And who else could be the man sent by the Lord, who saved the Egyptians by judging, than the Christ of God, who took the form of a servant and was found in fashion as a man. And with Egypt being understood tropologically as the life of men, the Egyptians would be the superstitious and those who have suffered from material things, whom the God of all pitied, as they were afflicted by the demons who tyrannized them, sending the aforementioned man, who saved with a salvation befitting God, so that those who were long ago barred by the law from the church of the Lord, through the epiphany that came to them, might know the Lord, the Lord himself making himself known to them; and it is clear how in the declared land of the Egyptians an altar was established to the Lord from the assemblies that perform prayers and the worship of God in every place. And one might say, commenting on the phrase, 'and there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians,' if indeed the altar is a place of sacrifices, where irrational animals are slaughtered for the sake of the Word of God, most justly a greater and truer altar for God would have come into being through Christ in the whole earthly region, which is tropologically called Egypt, on account of the martyrs everywhere who are offered up as victims and, as it were, 191 sacrifices to God for the race of men, and also in the physical land of the Egyptians itself, where so many and so great martyrs glorified God with their own blood; but if those of the circumcision are disbelieving toward what has been rendered, let them say themselves when and where and by whom an altar was established to the Lord in Egypt, and who is the man who saved the Egyptians, and in what way and when the Lord became known to the Egyptians, so that they, having abandoned their former error, might receive the knowledge concerning him; for such is it to know the Lord. And the whole of the rest of the prophecy depends on a deeper meaning, which the present time is not for unfolding. Ps. 12. Lord, in affliction I remembered you; in a little affliction your instruction is to us; and as she who is in labor draws near to giving birth, and in her pangs she cried out, so have we become to your beloved. A certain inscription in the Psalms is titled 'for the beloved'; and again it is said, 'the king of hosts of the beloved'; and it is shown in those places that the one called the beloved of God is none other than Christ. For this reason we have also marked the beloved at hand; supposing him to be that very one, whom also from

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πεπερασμένην, καθ' ἣν ἐπὶ νεφέλης κούφης, τῆς ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου συστάσης αὐτῷ σαρκὸς, εἰς τὸν βίον τοῦτον, Αἴγυπτον τροπικῶς ὀνομαζόμενον, παρελήλυθε, καὶ εἰς αὐτὴν δὲ σωματικῶς τὴν Αἴγυπτον, εἰς ἣν ἔτι παῖς ὢν πρὸς τῆς μητρὸς καὶ τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ διεκομίσθη· τηνικαῦτα δὲ κατά τινας ἀπορρήτους λόγους ἐσείσθησαν καὶ ἐκινήθησαν ὑποταραχθέντες αὐτοῦ τῇ παρουσίᾳ οἱ ἐν τοῖς πανταχόσε χειροποιητοῖς ξοάνοις ἐνοικοῦντές τε καὶ ἐνεργοῦντες τὸ πρότερον δαίμονες· ὅπερ δηλοῦται διὰ τῆς λεγούσης προφητείας, καὶ σεισθήσεται τὰ χειροποίητα Αἰγύπτου. Ταῦτα δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὴν δευτέραν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔνδοξον ἀπ' οὐρανῶν βασιλείαν πληρωθήσεται, καθ' ἣν καὶ αὐτὴν σεισθήσεσθαι εἰκὸς ἂν εἴη· καὶ τότε μᾶλλον κλονηθήσεσθαι τὰ ἀποδεδομένα χειροποιητὰ Αἰγύπτου, ὧν καὶ τὴν καρδίαν ἡττηθήσεσθαι φασὶν, ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῦ θείου Λόγου καθυποτάξαντος ἑαυτῷ καὶ ταπεινώσοντος τότε πᾶν ὕψωμα τὸ νῦν ἐπαιρόμενον κατὰ τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ· τὰ δ' ἑξῆς τῆς προφητείας ἅπαντα διὰ μόνης ἀποδοθήσεται τροπολογίας. Ψ. ΙΑʹ. Τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἔσται θυσιαστήριον τῷ Κυρίῳ ἐν χώρᾳ Αἰγυπτίων, καὶ στήλη πρὸς τὸ ὅριον αὐτῆς τῷ Κυρίῳ· καὶ ἔσται εἰς σημεῖον εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα Κύριος ἐν χώρᾳ 190 Αἰγύπτου· ὅτι κεκράξονται πρὸς Κύριον διὰ τοὺς θλίβοντας αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἀποστελεῖ αὐτοῖς ἄνθρωπον ὃς σώσει αὐτοὺς, κρίνων σώσει αὐτούς· καὶ γνωστὸς ἔσται Κύριος τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις· καὶ γνώσονται οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι τὸν Κύριον ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ· καὶ ποιήσουσιν θυσίας καὶ δῶρον· καὶ εὔξονται εὐχὰς τῷ Θεῷ. Καὶ τίς ἂν ἄλλος εἴη ὁ ἀποσταλεὶς ὑπὸ Κυρίου ἄνθρωπος, καὶ σώσας τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους διὰ τοῦ κρίνειν, ἢ ὁ Χριστὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ μορφὴν δούλου λαβὼν καὶ σχήματι εὑρεθεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος. Αἰγύπτου δὲ τροπικῶς νοουμένου τοῦ τῶν ἀνθρώπων βίου, εἶεν ἂν οἱ δεισιδαίμονες καὶ τοῖς ὑλικοῖς προπεπονθότες Αἰγύπτιοι, οὓς ὁ τῶν ὅλων Θεὸς κατελεήσας θλιβομένους ὑπὸ τῶν κατατυραννούντων αὐτοὺς δαιμόνων, ἀποστείλας τὸν προειρημένον ἄνθρωπον, ὃς ἔσωσεν σωτηρίαν Θεῷ πρέπουσαν, ὥστε τοὺς πάλαι κατὰ τὸν νόμον εἰργομένους τῆς ἐκκλησίας Κυρίου διὰ τῆς γενομένης αὐτοῖς ἐπιφανίας ἐπιγνῶναι τὸν Κύριον, αὐτοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου γνωστὸν αὑτὸν αὐτοῖς ἐμποιοῦντος· σαφὲς δ' ὅπως ἐν τῇ δηλωθείσῃ τῇ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων χώρᾳ συνέστη τῷ Κυρίῳ θυσιαστήριον ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ εἰς εὐχὰς καὶ Θεοῦ θρησκείαν ἐπιτελουμένων ἀθροισμάτων. Εἴποι δ' ἄν τις ἐπιβαίνων τῇ λέξει εἰς τὸ, καὶ ἔσται θυσιαστήριον τῷ Κυρίῳ ἐν χώρᾳ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων, εἰ δὴ τὸ θυσιαστήριον τόπος τίς ἐστιν θυμάτων, ἐπὶ λόγῳ Θεοῦ ζῴων ἀλόγων σφαγιαζομένων, δικαιότατα ἂν μεῖζον καὶ ἀληθέστερον διὰ Χριστοῦ γεγονέναι τῷ Θεῷ θυσιαστήριον ἐν ὅλῳ τε τῷ περιγείῳ τόπῳ, Αἰγύπτῳ τροπικῶς χρηματίζοντι, διὰ τοὺς πανταχόσε μάρτυρας θύματα καὶ οἱονεὶ 191 σφάγια ὑπὲρ τοῦ γένους τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀναφερομένων τῷ Θεῷ καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ δὲ τῇ σωματικῇ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων χώρᾳ, ἔνθα τοσοῦτοι καὶ τηλικοῦτοι μάρτυρες ἐδόξασαν τὸν Θεὸν τῷ ἰδίῳ αὐτῶν αἵματι· ἀλλ' εἰ δυσπειθῶς ἔχοιεν πρὸς τὰ ἀποδεδομένα οἱ ἐκ περιτομῆς, λεγέτωσαν αὐτοὶ πότε καὶ ποῦ καὶ πρὸς τίνος θυσιαστήριον κατέστη τῷ Κυρίῳ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, τίς δὲ ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁ σώσας τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους, τίνα τε τρόπον καὶ πότε γνωστὸς ἐγένετο Κύριος τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις, ὥστε αὐτοὺς ἀποστάντας τῆς προτέρας πλάνης τὴν περὶ αὐτοῦ γνῶσιν ἀναλαβεῖν· τοιοῦτον γάρ ἐστι τὸ ἐπιγνῶναι Κύριον. Καὶ ὅλα δὲ τὰ ἑξῆς τῆς προφητείας βαθυτέρας ἤρτηται διανοίας, ἣν οὐχ ὁ παρὼν ἀναπτύσσειν καιρός. Ψ. ΙΒʹ. Κύριε, ἐν θλίψει ἐμνήσθην σου· ἐν θλίψει μικρᾷ ἡ παιδεία σου ἡμῖν· καὶ ὡς ἡ ὠδίνουσα ἐγγίζει τοῦ τεκεῖν, καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ ὠδῖνι αὐτῆς ἐκέκραξεν, οὕτως ἐγενήθημεν τῷ ἀγαπητῷ σου. Ἐπιγραφή τις ἐν Ψαλμοῖς ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἀγαπητοῦ φέρεται· καὶ πάλιν εἴρηται, ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν δυνάμεων τοῦ ἀγαπητοῦ· δείκνυται δ' ἐν τοῖς τόποις οὐκ ἄλλος ὢν τοῦ Χριστοῦ λεγόμενος ἀγαπητὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ. Τούτου χάριν ἐπεσημηνάμεθα καὶ τὸν ἐν χερσὶν ἀγαπητόν· αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον ὑπολαμβάνοντες εἶναι, ὃν καὶ ἐξ