48.  Nay, the wiser of the Hebrews tell us that there was of old among the Hebrews a most excellent and praiseworthy law,110    Law.  Not definitely enacted, but a custom constantly observed.  It applied to the earlier and later chapters of Ezekiel and the Song of Solomon. that every age was not entrusted with the whole of Scripture, inasmuch as this would not be the more profitable course, since the whole of it is not at once intelligible to everyone, and its more recondite parts would, by their apparent meaning, do a very great injury to most people.  Some portions therefore, whose exterior111    Exterior, Origen, Hom. 5, in Levit., speaks of the ‘body, soul, and spirit of Scripture.’ is unexceptionable, are from the first permitted and common to all; while others are only entrusted to those who have attained their twenty-fifth year, viz., such as hide their mystical beauty under a mean-looking cloak, to be the reward of diligence and an illustrious life; flashing forth and presenting itself only to those whose mind has been purified, on the ground that this age alone112    Alone.  If, as many mss. we read μόλις, “with difficulty.”  This is preferred by the Bened. note. can be superior to the body, and properly rise from the letter to the spirit.

ΜΗʹ. Ἑβραίων μὲν οὖν οἱ σοφώτεροι λέγουσιν, ὡς ἄρα ἦν τις πάλαι νόμος Ἑβραίοις, ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα εὖ ἔχων καὶ ἐπαινούμενος, μὴ πᾶσαν ἡλικίαν πάσῃ Γραφῇ ἐνδίδοσθαι: μηδὲ γὰρ εἶναι τοῦτο λυσιτελέστερον, ὅτι μηδὲ πᾶσαν εὐθέως εἶναι παντὶ ληπτὴν, καὶ τὰ μέγιστα ἂν τοὺς πολλοὺς κακῶσαι τῷ φαινομένῳ, τὴν βαθυτέραν: ἀλλὰ τὰς μὲν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἀνεῖσθαι πᾶσι καὶ εἶναι κοινὰς, ὧν καὶ τὸ σωματικὸν οὐκ ἀδόκιμον: τὰς δὲ μὴ ἄλλοις ἢ τοῖς ὑπὲρ εἰκοστὸν καὶ πέμπτον γεγονόσιν ἔτος πιστεύεσθαι, ὅσαι δι' εὐτελοῦς τοῦ ἐνδύματος τὸ μυστικὸν κάλλος περικαλύπτουσιν, ἆθλον φιλοπονίας καὶ λαμπροῦ βίου, μόνοις τοῖς κεκαθαρμένοις τὸν νοῦν ὑπαστράπτον καὶ φανταζόμενον, ὡς μόνης δυναμένης τῆς ἡλικίας ταύτης ὑπὲρ τὸ σῶμα γενέσθαι, καὶ ἀναβῆναι καλῶς ἐπὶ τὸ πνεῦμα ἀπὸ τοῦ γράμματος.