This list is intended to enhance the reader's understanding of The Life of Moses, both through Gregory of Nyssa's own words and his predecessors within and without the Christian tradition. I follow the references and paragraph numberings according to The Life of Moses in The Classics of Western Spirituality (translated and edited by Abraham J. Malherbe and Everett Ferguson, Paulist Press, New York, 1978). I have followed a similar pattern with regard to the Commentary on the Song of Songs, also on the Gregory of Nyssa Home Page. The same paragraph numbering applies to La Vie de Moise, translated by Jean Danielou in Sources Cretiennes, volume 1, Paris, 1955. Excerpts from The Life of Moses appear in italics. I have made this list as full as possible, omitting a few references to which I did not have access; it should also be noted that several authors are quoted in French and Latin.

On occasion, the references which pertain to Gregory of Nyssa's sources are quite extensive, so I had to condense them for the sake of space and convenience; the same applies to some quotes from The Life of Moses itself. I also include references to excerpts from the Old and New Testaments. For anyone unfamiliar with Gregory, all those texts lacking an author belong to him. These are referred to by the letter "J" followed by the appropriate page number taken the critical editions begun under the direction of Werner Jaeger and continued after his death. Also included are references to Gregory's works in J..P. Migne's Patrologia Graece, volummes 44, 45, 46 which are indicated by the letter "M" followed by the appropriate column number. The letters "PN" followed by a page number refer to the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers collection. Similarly, the letters "ACW" followed by a page number refer to the Ancient Christian Writers series. For a list of works by Gregory of Nyssa, refer to that section within this Home Page as well as the bibliography of secondary sources.

Aeschylus: Aeschylus II, translated by S.G. Benardete, Chicago, 1956.

Albinus: The Platonic Doctrines of Albinus, translated by Jeremiah Reedy, Grand Rapids, Mi, 1991.

Ambrose: Patrologia Latinae#16.

Aphraates: The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Grand Rapids, Mi 1956.

Aristotle: The Basic Works of Aristotle, translated by Richard McKeon, Oxford, 1941; The Complete Works of Aristotle, edited by Jonathan Barnes, Princeton, 1984.

Athanasius: Contre les Paiens et Sur L'Incarnation du Verbe, translated by P. Th. Camelot, Sources Cretiennes, volume 18, Paris, 1947.

Athenagoras: Embassy for the Christians, translated by Joseph Hugh Crehan, Westminster, Md., 1956.

Augustine: On Christian Doctrine, Grand Rapids, Mi, 1973 reprint.

Basil the Great: On the Holy Spirit, Crestwood, NY, 1980; Letters, #186-368, translated by Sr. Agnes Clare Way, New York, 1955.

Basil the Great: The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, volume 7, 1974 reprint.

John Chrysostom: Patrologia Graece #48, #62.

Cicero: On Divinization, translated by Hubert M. Poteat, Chicago, 1950.

Clement of Rome and The Letter of Barnabas: The Apostolic Fathers, translated by Francis X. Glimm, New York, 1947 and The Letter to the Corinthians.

Cyprian: PL#4.

Cyril of Alexandria: Patrologia Graece#69.

Cyril of Jerusalem: The Works of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, translated by Leo P. McCauley & Anthony A. Stephenson, Washington, D.C., 1970; Patrologia Graece#33.

Demosthenes: De Corona, translated by C.A. Vince and J.H. Vince, Cambridge, Ma, 1953.

Dio Chrysostom: Sixty-Seventh Discourse; Sixty-Eighth Discourse, H. Lamar Crosby, Cambridge, Ma, 1951.

Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite: The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, translated by Thomas L. Campbell, Washington, D.C., 1981.

Eusebius: The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, volume 1, 1976 reprint; La Preparation Evangelique, Livres viii-ix-x, translated (ix) by Edouard des Places, Sources Cretiennes, volume 369, Paris, 1991.

Gregory of Nazianzus: Discours 1-3, translated by Jean Bernardi, volume 247, Sources Cretiennes, Paris, 1978; Discours 38-41, translated by Paul Gallay, Sources Cretiennes, volume 358, Paris, 1990; Discours 32-37, translated by Claudio Moreschini, Sources Cretiennes, volume 318, Paris, 1985; Discours 42-43, translated by Jean Bernardi, Sources Cretiennes, volume 384, Paris, 1992; Patrologia Graece#36.

Hesiod: Hesiod, translated by Richmond Lattimore, Ann Arbor, Mi, 1959.

Hilary of Poitiers: Traite des Mysteres, translated by Jean-Paul Brisson, Sources Cretiennes, volume 19, Paris, 1947; Patrologia Latinae#9.

Homer: The Odyssey, translation by Allen Mandelbaum, Berkeley, Ca, 1990. The Iliad: translated by A.J. Murry, Cambridge, Ma, 1925.

Homilies Pascales: Sources Cretiennes, volume 36, Paris, 1953.

Homilies Pascales: Sources Cretiennes, volume 48, Paris, 1957.

Horace: Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica, translated by H. Ruston Fairclough, Cambridge, Ma, 1961.

Irenaeus: Proof of the Apostolic Preaching, translated by Joseph P. Smith, Westminster, Md., 1952.

Jerome: Homilies on the Psalms, translated by Sr. Marie Ligouri Ewald, Washington, D.C., 1964.

Josephus: The Works of Flavius Josephus, translated by William Whiston, New York; date: ?

Marcus Aurelius: The Meditations, translated by George Long, New York, 1899.

Melito of Sardis: Melito of Sardis and Fragments, translated by Stuart George Hall, Oxford, 1979.

Midrash Rabbah, Exodus, translated by Rabbi S.M. Lehrman, London, 1983.

Origen: Commentary on John, Washington, DC 1989 & 1993; translation by Ronald E. Heine; Contra Celsum, translated by Henry Chadwick, Cambridge, 1953;

Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, translated by Ronald E. Heine, Washington, DC, 1982;

On First Principles, translated by G.W. Butterworth, Gloucester, Ma, 1973; Homilies sur Jeremie, translated by Pierre Husson & Pierre Nautin, Sources Cretiennes, volume 232, Paris, 1976.

Palladius: Palladius: The Lausiac History, translated by Robert T. Meyer, Westminster, Md, 1965.

Philo: Collected works in Loeb Classical Library, trans. by F.H. Colson. Plato: (Dialogues of Plato translated by Jowett, NY 1920, 2 vols)

Pliny: Natural History, translated by H. Rackham, Cambridge, Ma, 1951

Plotinus (Loeb Classical Library, A.H. Armstrong, Cambridge, MA 1966; Book VI; Enneads of Plotinus, translated by Stepehn MacKenna, Boston, Ma 1916.

Plutarch: De Defectu Oraculorum, translated by Frank C. Babbit, Cambridge, Ma, 1936; Moralia, translated by Harold Cherniss and W.C. Helmbold, Cambridge, Ma, 1939; De Primo Frigido, translated by Harold Cherniss and W.C. Helmbold, Cambridge, Ma, 1957.

Proclus: The Elements of Theology, translation by E.R. Dodds, Oxford, 1963.

Sophocles: The Three Theban Plays, translated by Robert Fagles, New York, 1982.

Tertullian : The Anti-Nicene Fathers, Grand Rapids, Mi 1976 reprint.

Theodoret: Patrologia Graece#80.

1: They do this not because their actions themselves contribute anything to the victory; but in this way, by their good will, they eagerly show in voice and deed their concern for the contestants.

They (young men at Athens) are just like men devoted to horses and exhibitions, as we see, at the horse races; they leap, they shout, raise clouds of dust, they drive in their seats, they beat the air with their fingers as whips, they yoke and unyoke the horses, though they are none of theirs...This is just how the students feel in regard to their own tutors, and their rivals, in their eagerness to increase their own numbers and thereby enrich them. Gregory of Nazianzus, The Panegyric on St. Basil PN.400

While you are competing admirably in the divine race along the course of virtue, lightfootedly leaping and straining constantly for the prize of the heavenly calling.

Philippians 3.14

It is therefore necessary for the soul and body drawing near to God according to the law of piety to be manifested as unstained and pure; they must, lead a pious way of line which the voices of Scripture cry out to us, and to show themselves obedient and docile by the course of virtue. De Instituto Christiano J.43, 13

2: Since the letter which you recently sent requested us to furnish you with some counsel concerning the perfect life, I thought it only proper to answer your request.

You manifest a determination to know how you can perfect your life in accord with virtue so that through all events you may succeed in being blameless in life. I would especially like good examples to be found in my own life for offering instruction in facts rather than in theory. I wish this to be eventually accomplished, even though I do not see such a thing happening in me, and to give my life as an example instead of mere words. In order that it might not appear entirely imperfect nor an unprofitable example for you, I thought of suggesting an outline for right living which begins as follows. On Perfection J.173

For if we who have been appointed to the position of fathers over so many souls to consider it proper here in your old age to accept a commission from youth.

Take the example of an old horse past its prime for racing. Often this animal stomps with desire, keeps its head erect, breathes ardently with attentive eyes, eagerly moves its feet and vigorously strikes its hooves in longing to compete, despite the fact that it can no longer do so. Similarly, our remarks cannot compete due to our age, and we leave the stadium for erudite persons like you among whom you show promise in the prime of life. Concerning Infants Who Have Died Prematurely J.67

Still I cannot see what profit there is in deigning to examine such nonsense. For a man like myself, who has lived to gray hairs, and whose eyes are fixed on truth alone, to take upon his lips the absurd and flippant utterances of a contentious foe, incurs no slight danger of bringing condemnation on himself. Against Eunomius vol. 1, p.403

4: As I would not seem, the words of the Psalmist, "there to tremble for fear, where no fear was," I shall set forth for you more clearly what I think.

Psalm 15.5, lxx

5: ... for every quantitative measure is circumscribed by certain limits proper to itself.

If I may put it in a few words, the teaching presented to us says that creation is divided into two distinct classes, one sensible and material, the other, intelligible and spiritual. The intelligible is infinite and unbouded, while the material is limited, for everything material is determined by quantity and quality. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.173

Quantity is either discrete or continuous. Moreover, some quantities are such that each part of the whole has a relative position to the other parts: others have within them no such relation of part to part. Aristotle, Categories 4b, 20ff

For that divine Apostle...ever running the course of virtue, never ceased "straining toward those" things "that are still to come."

Philippians 3.13

Because no Good has a limit in its own nature but is limited by the presence of its opposite.

If anyone falls away from being, he lacks being. To remain in evil means a lack of true existence, since evil does not exist by itself but is a deficiency of the beautiful. Just as a person has existence in him who exists, the one who lacks being (that is to say, evil), is destroyed, as the psalm says. Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms J.63.4-5

Therefore this good [God] or that which transcends any good has true existence through which it bestows existence and continues to give power and permanence to creation, whereas anything outside it lacks existence; whatever lies outside the realm of existence does not remain in being. Since evil is directly opposed to virtue and God is absolute virtue, evil is alien to God's nature whose nature does not exist in him but which cannot be comprehended by the good; we apply the name of evil to that which outside the good. Evil is opposed to the good as non-being is distinguished from being. Commentary on Ecclesiastes J.406-7

Yet could not he by any exercise of strength or dint of force accomplish his purpose, for the strength of God's blessing over-mastered his own force. His plan, therefore, is to withdraw man from this enabling strength, that thus he may be easily captured by him and open to his treachery. Catechetical Oration PN.481

But to suppose excess and defect in the infinite and unlimited is to the last degree unreasonable: for how can the idea of infinitude remain, if we posited increase and loss in it? We get the idea of excess only by a comparison of limits: where there is no limit, we cannot think of any excess. Perhaps, however, this was not what he was driving at, but he assigns this superiority only by the pregrogative of priority in time, and, with this idea only, declares the Father's being to be alone the supreme one. Against Eunomius vol. 1, p.77

7: The Divine One is himself the Good (in the primary and proper sense of the word), whose very nature is goodness.

Therefore we too ought perhaps to call such people friends, and say that there are several kinds of friendship--firstly and in the proper sense that of good men qua good, and by analogy the other kinds; for it is in virtue of something good and something akin to what is found in true friendship that they are friends, since even the pleasant is good for the lovers of pleasure. Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics 1157a30

Certainly whoever pursues true virtue participates in nothing other than God, because he is himself absolute virtue.

...and thus the soul copies the life that is above, and is conformed to the peculiar features of the Divine nature; none of its habits are left to it except that of love, which clings by natural affinity to the Beautiful. For this is what love is; the inherent affection towards a chosen object. On the Soul and the Resurrection PN.450

For in very truth manifold are the aspects and the products of evil in men's souls, while the good is narrowly confined and scanty. And so most excellent is the advice that we should not keep companty with the many but with the few; for wrongdoing is the associate of the former, but right action of the latter. Philo, On Drunkenness VII

For the exodus of evil works the entrance of virtue, and the opposite is true also. When good withdraws, the evil that is biding its time takes its place. Hardly has Jacob gone out [Gen 27.30] when Esau is with our mind, which is open to all that come. He thinks to efface the image of virtue and impress in its stead, if he can, the stamp of vice. Philo, The Sacrifices of Abel and Cain 135

Abraham, however, must be understood to have cultivated the generative principles of all the just men before him that he had in himself, and to have added to these his own distinctive holy quality so far as his own distinctive seed is concerned, in which those after him who are called "seed of Abraham" could participate. Origen, Commentary on John 20.13

By "God" it (with reference to Phaedrus 82a, b) obviously means the one who is in heaven, not, by Zeus, the one who is above it, the one who does not have virtue but transcends it. Hence once could rightly say that misery is the evil-doing of one's daimon and happiness is a good disposition of it. We may succeed in becoming like unto God if we have suitable natural abilities, good habits and education and discipline in accordance with the law, and most important of all, by using reason, education and teachings that have been handed down (cf. Laws 803a). Albinus, Didaskalikos 28

Wherefore we ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as for as this is possible: and to become like him, is to become holy, just, and wise...Whereas, the truth is that God is never in any way unrighteous--he is perfect righteousness; and he of us who is the most righteous is most like him. Plato, Theaetetus 176b

8: How then would one arrive at the sought-for boundary when he can find no boundary?

You see the spendour over the things of the universe with all the variety begotten of the Ideas; we might we linger here: but amid all these things of beauty we cannot but ask whence they come and whence the beauty. This source can be none of the beautiful objects; were it so, it too would be a thing of parts. It can be no shape, no power, nor the total of powers and shapes that have had the becoming that has set them here; it must stand above all the powers, all the patterns. The origin of all this must be the formless--formless not as lacking shape but as the very source of even shape Intellectual. Plotinus, Enneads VI, 7, 32

For alteration is a kind of movement ever advancing from the present state to another; and there are two forms of this movement; the one being ever towards what is good, and in this the advance has no check, because no goal of the course to be traversed can be reached, while the other is in the direction of the contrary, and of it this is the essence, that it has no subsistence. Catechetical Oration PN.492

The first Good is in its nature infinite, and so it follows of necessity that the participation in the enjoyment of it will be infinite also, for more will be always being grasped, and yet something beyond that which has been grasped will always be discovered, and thissearch will never overtake its Object, because its fund is as inexhaustible as the growth of that which participates in it is ceaseless. Against Eunomius, vol 1, p.112

Love, therefore, is the foremost of all excellent achievements and the first of the commandments of the law. If ever, then, the soul reach this goal, it will be in no need of anything else; it will embrace that plenditude of things which are, whereby alone it seems in any way to preserve within itself the stamp of God's actual blessedness...This True beautythe insolence of satiety cannot touch; and no satiety interrupting this continuous capacity to love the Beautiful, God's life will have its activity in love; which life is thus in itself beautiful, and is essentially of a loving disposition towards the Beautiful, and receives no check to this activity of love. On the Soul and the Resurrection PN.450

Now that which is always in motion, if its progress be to good, will never cease moving onwards to what lies before it, by reason of the infinity of the course to be traversed:--for it will not find any limit of its object such that when it has apprehended it, will at last cease its motion. On the Making of Man PN.410-11

For God alone is truly sweet, desireable and worthy of love. The present enjoyment of God is the starting point for a greater share of his goodness, and it increases our desire for him. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.31.6-9

9: Although on the whole my argument has shown that what is sought for is unattainable, one should not disregard the commandment of the Lord which says, "Therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly father is perfect."

Matthew 5.48

10: For the perfection of human nature consists perhaps in its very growth in goodness.

Now the most beautiful effect of alteration is growth in the good since change to a more divine state is always remaking the man changing for the better. What seems fearful (I mean our mutable nature) can serve as a wing for flight to better things, since it is to our disgrace if we cannot change for the better. No one should lament his mutable nature; rather, by always being changed to what is better and by being transformed from glory to glory (2Cor 3.18), let him so be changed. By daily growth he always becomes better and is always being perfected yet never attains perfection's goal. Perfection consists in never stopping our growth towards the good nor in circumscribing perfection. On Perfection J.213-14

11: For the divine voice says somewhere in the prophecy of Isaiah, "Consider Abraham your father, and Sarah who gave you birth." Scripture gives this admonition to those who wander outside virtue.

Isaiah 51.2

12: ...the corresponding example of virtue for each sex has been exemplified by the divine voice, so that each, by observing the one to which he is akin...may be directed in the life of virtue by the appropriate examples.

Go to a clear window and seek for meetings with holy men and women so that you may see clearly your own heart as in the case with a book of small writing. The comparision will enable you to see your own sluggishness or indifference. Palladius, Lausiac History Prologue

Once when I was urging him (Dorotheus) to rest a little while on a rush mat, he said, saddened at heart, "If you persuade the angels to rest, then you can perhaps persuade the eager man." Palladius, Lausiac History #2, Dorotheus

I do not ay this (regarding Moses' homicide) to make light of homicide, but rather to show that there are virtues which are due to circumstances, when a man does not advance to good of himself. For some virtues are deliberately chosen and others are dependent upon circumstances. Palladius, Lausiac History, #15, Macarius the Younger

13: Perhaps, then, the memory of anyone distinguished in life would be enough to fill our need for a beacon light and to show us how we can bring our soul to the sheltered harbor of virtue where it no longer has to pass the winter amid the storms of life or be shipwrecked.

And He brought thee there not to be carried hither and thither, ever passive amid the surge and eddy and swirl, but that quit of the wild sea though shouldst spend thy days under clear sky and in calm water, and reaching virtue as an achorage or roadstead, or haven of most sure shelter, mightest there find a stable resting-place. Philo, On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain 27.90

14: ...nor again has God been known to the esteemed individuals in Judaea only, nor is Zion, as people commonly think, the divine habitation.

Psalm 75.2, 3

16: Moses is said to have been born when the tyrant's law sought to prevent the birth of male offspring.

Exodus 2.2ff

Already appearing beautiful in swaddling clothes, he caused his parents to draw back from having such a child destroyed by death.

...but after that time Amram, fearing he should be discovered, and by falling under the king's displeasure, both he and his child should perish, and so he should make the promise og God of none effect, he determined rather to intrust the safety and care of the child to God, than to depend on his own concealment of him, which he looked upon as a thing uncertain, and whereby both the child, so privately to be nourished, and himself, should be in imminent danger. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews Book II.4

17: Thus, when the threat of the tyrant prevailed, he was not simply thrown into the Nile but was placed in a basket daubed along its joints with slime and pitch, and so was given to the current. (This was recounted by those who carefully gave a narrative concerning him.)

Exodus 2.3, lxx

Since, then, in consequence of the tyrant's order, his parents had placed the babe in an ark and consigned it to the stream (for so some realted concerning him), but by the will of God the ark was floated by the current and carried to the bank, and found by the princess. Against Eunomius vol. 1, p.310

But when he instinctively refused a stranger's nourishment, he was nursed at his mother's breast through the contrivance of his close relatives.

"And the child grew" {ex 2.10]. She suckled him only for twenty-four months, and you say, "And the child grew?" This is to teach you that he grew abnormally. "And she brought him unto Pharoah's daughter." Pharaoh's daughter used to kiss and hug him, loved him as if he were her own son and would not allow him out of the royal palace...he [Moses] used to take the crown of Pharoah and place it upon his own head, as he was destined to do when he became great. Midrash Rabbah, Exodus 1.26

18: After he had left childhood, and had been educated in pagan learning.

Acts 7.20-22

So now he received as his right the nuture and service due to a prince. Yet he did not bear himself like the mere infant that he was, nor delight in fun and laughter and sport, though those who had the charge of him did not grudge him relaxation or shew him any strictness; but with a modest and serious bearing he applied himself to hearing and seeing what was sure to profit the soul. Philo, Life of Moses, 1.5.21-4

The rest of the usual course of instruction, Greeks taught him in Egypt as a royal child, as Philo says in his life of Moses. He learned, besides, the literature of the Egyptians, and the knowledge of the hevenly bodies from the Chaldeans and the Egyptians...And betaking himself to their philsophy, he increased hiswisdom. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.23

I am speaking about Basil, the vessel of election [cf. Acts 9.15], noted for his honorable life and preaching; from birth he was pleasing to God, possessed a venerable demeanor from youth, was instructed like Moses in all wisdom [cf. Acts 7.20 & 22], was nourished in sacred letters from his adolescence to manhood and continued to flourish and blossom. He instructed everyone in both divine and secular wisdom. In Praise of His Brother Basil J.110

An Egyptian princess adopted Moses and raised him; she did not refuse her breasts for nourishment until he attained childhood [cf. Ex 2.5-11]. This truth also pertains to the teacher: having been nursed by pagan wisdom, he he always grasped the Church's breast which enabled his soul to grow by doctrine and to keep it secure. Like Moses, he did not adhere to his mother's false teaching with which he was raised, nor did he pay this much consideration due his ashamed by it. Having shaken off the glory of all pagan learning, [Basil] was like a king. In Praise of His Brother Basil J.126

...but he returned to his natural mother and attached himself to his own kinsmen.

He [Moses] willingly shook off his royal dignity as though he had removeddust from his feet. For forty years Moses withdrew from the company of men. Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms J.43

Like Moses, he did not adhere to his mother's false teaching with which he was raised, nor did he pay this much consideration due his ashamed by it. Having shaken off the glory of all pagan learning, [Basil] was like a king; he adopted a humble life in the same way Moses preferred the Hebrews to Egyptian treasures. In Praise of His Brother Basil J.126

But Moses, having reached the very pinnacle of human prosperity, regarded as the son of the king's daughter, and in general expectation almost the successor to hisgrandfather's sovreignity, and indeed regularly called the young king, was zealous for the discipline and culture of his kinsmen and ancestors. Philo, Life of Moses 1.7.32

...during a fight between a Hebrew and an Egyptian he sided with his countryman and killed the foreigner.

Exodus 2.11-14

19: Having been rebuffed by the one in the wrong, he made this rejection the occasion for a greater philosophy.

Exodus 2.15-21

He was ever opening the scroll of philosophical doctrines, digested them inwardly with quick understanding,committed them to memory never to be forgotten, and straightway brought his personal conduct praiseworthy in all respects, in conformity with them. For he desired truth rather than seeming. Philo, Life of Moses 1.9.46-50

De plus, tout en gardant sans tache, sous la conduite de sa mere, sa propre vie, que dirigeaient et approuvaient sans cesse les yeux maternels, elle lui montrait d'admirable maniere, par l'exemple de sa vie elle-meme, la direction vers le meme ideal, je veux dire celui de la philosophie, en l'entrainant peu a peu vers la vie immaterielle et depouille. Life of St. Macrina, SC#178.161

This man saw in one act--the attack on the shepherds--the virtue of the young man, how he fought on behalf of the right without looking for personal gain.

Their father was at once struck with admiration of his face, and soon afterwards of his disposition, for great natures are transparent and need no length of time to be recognized. Philo, Life of Moses 1.11.59

20: After he had passed some time in this kind of life, the history says an awe-inspiring theophany occurred.

Exodus 3.2-5

At high noon a light brighter than the sunlight dazzled his eyes.

In the midst of the flame was a form of the fairest beauty, unlike any visible object, an image supremely divine in appearance, refulgent with a light brigher than the light of fire. It might be supposed that this was the image of Him that is; but let us rather all it an angel or herald, since, with a silence that spoke mroe clearly than speech, it employed as it were the miracle of sight to herald future events. Philo, Life of Moses 1.12.66

When he saw the branches of the bush sprouting up in flame as if there were in pure water.

Now, as he was leading the flock to a place where the water and the grass were abundant, and where there happened to be plentiful growth of herbage for the sheep, he found himself at a glen where he saw a most astonishing sight. There was a bramble-bush, a thorny sort of plant, and of the most weakly kind, which, without anyone's setting it alight, suddenly took fire; and though enveloped from root to twigs in a mass of fire, which looked as though it were spouted up from a fountain, yet remained whole. Philo, Life of Moses 1.12.65

21: In order that he might learn more fully the strength implanted in him by God he tested the divine command by the things in his hands.

Exodus 4.1-7

22: Moses went down to Egypt and he took with him his foreign wife and the children she had borne him.

Exodus 4.19-27

23: ...their release from bondage was announced all around to those who were already distressed by the hardships of their labors.

Exodus 4.29-31

24: Pharaoh attempted to counter the divine signs performed by Moses and Aaron with magical tricks performed by his sorcerers.

Exodus 7.10-12

The exhibition of these wonsers to the king and the Egyptian nobles followed very qucikly; so, when all the magnates had collected at the palace, the brother of Moses took his staff, and, after waving it in a very conspicuous manner, flung it on the ground, where it immediately turned into a serpent. Philo, Life of Moses 1.16.91

25: he [Moses] laid a blow upon the whole Egyptian nation, sparing no one from the calamities.

Exodus 7.17ff.

Like an army under orders, the very elements of the universe--earth, water, air and fire which are seen to be in everything--cooperated with him in this attack on the Egyptians, and changed their natural operations to serve human purposes.

Wisdom 19.18

The punishments inflicted on the land were ten--a perfect number for the chastisement of those who brought sin to perfection...He distributed the punishments in this wise: three belonging to the denser elements, earth and water, which have gone to make our bodily qualities what they are, He committed to the brother of Moses; another set of three, belonging to air and fire, the two most productive of life, He gave to Moses alone; one, the seventh, He committed to both in common; and the other three which go to complete the ten He reserved to Himself. Philo, Life of Moses 1.17.96-7

In either case, their action was right, whether one regard it as an act of peace, the acceptance of payment long kept back through reluctance to pay what was due, or as an act of war, the claim under the law of the victors to take their enemies' goods. Philo, Life of Moses 1.26.142

God brought ten plagues upon him, corresponding to the ten trials with which Abraham our father was tried and all of which he withstood. These plagues God brought through Moses and Aaron and with His own hand. Midrash Rabbah, Exodus 15.27

26: At the command of Moses all the water in Egypt turned into blood.

Exodus 7.20-22

27: Similarly frogs covered Egypt in large numbers.

Exodus 8.1-15

28: Likewise, there was no distinction between night and day to the Egyptians, who lived in unchanging gloom.

Exodus 10.21-3

Each [plague] had its natural effect on the Egyptians.

The punishments inflicted on the land were ten--a perfect number for the chastisement of those who brought sin to perfection. Philo, Life of Moses 1.17.96

For the person who has been thoroughly cleansed of all Egyptian plagues--blood, frogs, boils, darkness, locusts, fleas, hail, fire from the sky and the other afflictions which the narrative relates--is worthy of being compared to that power on which the Word is mounted. Commentary on the Song of Songs, J.77.8f

Then the death of the firstborn made the distinction between Egyptians and Hebrews still sharper.

Exodus 11.46; 12.29-31

Salvation was assured to them by the shedding of blood.

Hebrews 11.28

29: Moses led the exodus of the Israelites.

Exodus 12.35 ff; 15; 13.17-19

...and after mobilizing all his subjects for war, he [Pharaoh] pursued the people with his cavalry.

Exodus 14.5-15

While he pursued them with these intentions, hoping to win an uncontested victgory, they, as it happened, were already encamped on the shores of the sea. Philo, Life of Moses 1.30.169

The king of Egypt, accompanied by a very formidable body of infantry and cavalry, came in hot pursuit, eager to overtake them and sochastise them for leaving the country. He had, indeed ,permitted them todo so, induced by unmistakable warnings from God. Philo, Life of Moses 2.45.248

God himself, the history says, gave ear to his voiceless cry.

Exodus 14.15

But the thought which the Prophet had lifted up to God is called a cry, though uttered in silence in the hidden thought of his heart. If, then, Moses cries, though without speaking, as witnessed by Him Who hears, those "groanings which cannot be uttered" [Rom 8.26], is it strange that the Prophet, knowing the Divine will, so far as it was lawful for him to tell it and for us to hear it, revealed it by known and familiar words? Against Eunomius, 2.267-68, p.304.21ff

For the ignorant then it is well to keep silence, but for those who desire knowledge and also love their mast, frank speech is a most essential possession. Philo, Who is the Heir 4.14

30: By divine power a cloud led the people.

Exodus 13.21-2

A cloud shaped like tall pillar, the light of which in the daytime was as the sun and in night as flame, went before the host, so that they should not stray in their journey, but follow in the steps of a guide who could never err. Philo, Life of Moses 1.29.166

The winds did not press the vapors of the air into a misty composition; it was something beyond human comprehension.

What are the winds? Are they these winds so familiar to us, which the natural philosophers tell us are formed from vapours and exhalations: or are they to be understood in another way not familiar to man, when they are called the bases of his throne? Against Eunomius, vol. 1, p.115

She [Wisdom] speaks of a Throne of Godset apart upon the winds, and says that the clouds above are made strong, and the fountains under the heaven sure...What is the throne that is set apart upon the winds? What is the security of the fountains under the heaven? How are the clouds above made strong? Against Eunomius, vol. 2, p.17

During the night it [cloud] became a fire, leading the Israelites as in a procession with its own light from sunset to sunrise.

For what is hidden to the eyes there is offered a light in the night through lamps in the cloud of fire. The text, however, resounds throughout the entire night by psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles as a river of joy flowing through the ears into our minds and filling us with special hope. Resurrection of Christ PG#46.681b

After Philip approached the true light, he drew Nathaniel to partake of this light and lit up for him faith's mystery as with a torch. Commentary on the Song of Songs, J.432.12

31: Moses himself watched the cloud, and he taught the people to keep it in sight.

Exodus 14.16-22

they were not alarmed at the water piled up so close to them on both sides, for the sea had been fixed like a wall on each side of them.

Of the waters thus divided, one part rose up to a vast height, where the break was made, and stood quite firmly, motionaless and still like a wall; those behind were held back and bridled in their forward course, and reaered as though pulled back by invisible reins; while the intervening part, which was the scene ofthe breaking, dried up and became a broad highway. Philo, Life of Moses 1.32.177

32: ...the sea rushed in upon itself to assume its previous form, becoming to the eye a single body of water.

Exodus 14.23-31

33: ...but when he had travelled three days without water he was at a loss how to relieve the thirst of the army.

Exodus 15.22-5

34: They always rested from their march wherever the cloud indicated by stopping, and they departed again whenever the cloud led the way on.

cf. Numbers 9.15-23

By following this guide, they arrived at a place irrigated with drinkable water.

Exodus 15.27

They then arrived at a sceond halting-place, one well wooded and well watered, called Elim, irrigated by twelve springs beside which rose young palm trees, fine and luxuriant to the number of seventy. Philo, Life of Moses 1.34.188

35: Again their guide, the cloud, rose up and led them forth to another place.

Exodus 17.1-7

If anyone disbelives these things, he neither knows God nor has ever sought to know Him; for if he did he would at once have perceived--aye, perceived with a firm apprehension--that these extraordinary and seemingly incredible events are but child's play to God. Philo, Life of Moses, 1.38.212

36: It was also there that the provisions which they had laid in for the journey out of Egypt failed, and the people were famished.

Exodus 16, the basis for sections 36-8

After this no long time had elapsed when they were famished for want of food. It seemed as though the forces of ncessity were taking turns to attack them...During all that long period of forty years in which they journeyed, the food required was supplied according to the rules just mentioned, like rations measured out to provide the allotment needed for each. At the same time, they learned to date aright the day of which they had dearly longed to have knowledge...For as we have said, while the surplus of the downpour decayed on the other days, on the day before the seventh it not only did not change, but was actually supplied in double measure. Philo, Life of Moses 1.35 & 37

...and this food was not produced by the earth, which was barren and unfruitful, but heaven rained down before daybreak, not once only but every day for forty years, a clestial fruit in the form of dew, like millet grain. Philo, Life of Moses 2.47.258

39: Then they waged war against a foreign nation.

Exodus 17.8-16

Moses, learning from his scouts that the enemy was not far distant, mustered his men of military age, and, choosing as their general one of his lieutenants named Joshua, hastened himself to take a more important part in the fight. Philo, Life of Moses, 1.39.216

42: Here Moses guided them in a most secret initiation.

Exodus 19.10f

For if the Uncreated, the Incorruptible, the Eternal, Who needs nothing and is the maker of all, the Benefactor and King of kings and God of gods could not brook to despise even the humblest, but deigned to banquet him on holy oracles and statues, as though he sould be the sole guest, as though for him alone the feast was prepared to give good cheer to a soul instructed in the holy secrets and accepted for admission to the greatest mysteries, what right have I, the mortal, to bear myself proud-necked? Philo, The Decalogue 10.41

For when the power of God arrives, needs must be that no part of the world should remain inactive, but all move together to do Him service. Philo, The Decalogue 11.44

While he was still staying on the mount, he was being instructed in all the mysteries of his priestly duties: and first in those which stood first in order, namely the building and furnishing of the sanctuary. Philo, Life of Moses 2.15.71

The people were ordered beforehand to keep themselves from defilements.

The rock is near the wall since the Law was a wall that protected the faith of the Gospel, and the teachings of the Law are closely related to those of the Gospel. What could be closer to "Do not commit adultery" than "Do not lust?" Also, what could be closer to being undefiled by murder than not to defile the heart by anger? Since the shelter of the rock lies close to the wall, your passage from the wall to the rock is short. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.162

43: Then the clear light of the atmosphere was darkened so that the mountain became invisible, wrapped in a dark cloud.

Hebrews 12.18-21

He does not purify the soul by three days' chastity and by water that washes dirt away; nor does He leave all the assembly behind at the foot of the mountain, granting only to one the ascent to its summit, which, moreover, is hidden by a darkness completely concealing the glory of God. On the Lord's Prayer, ACW#18.35

44: This sound was sharp and clear, the air articulating the word by divine power without using organs of speech.

Nous apprenons que si "un feu embrasait la montagne" comme did la Loi, c'est que Dieu etait descendu, au son des trompettes, et que les flammes n'atteignaient pas la substance materielle...ainsi la descente n'etait pas limitee localement, car Dieu est partout. Eusebius, La Preparation Evangelique 8.10

I should suppose that God wrought on this occasion a miracle of a truly holy kind by bidding an invisible sound to be created in the air more marvelous than all instruments and fitted with perfect harmonies, not soulless, nor yet composed of body and soul like a living creature, but a rational soul full of clearness and distinctness, which giving shape and tension to the air and changing it to flaming fire, sounded forth like the breath through a trumpet an articulate voice so loud that it appeared to be equally audible to the farthest as well as the nearest. Philo, De Decal. 9.33

I have not yet mentioned that the utterance of God which is mentioned in scripture is certainly not vibrated air, or any other definition given in the text-books on soun, because it is heard by a superior sense, more divine than physical hearing. Origen, Against Celsus 2.72

It is true that God will have no voice if the voice is vibrated air, or a percussion of air, or a kind of air, or any other definition which experts in these matters may give to the voice...The attributes of God are superior to any which are known not only by human nature, but even by the nature of beings who have risen beyond it. Origen, Against Celsus 6.62

45: The people as a whole were incapable of enduring what was seen and heard. Therefore, a general request from all was brought before Moses that the Law be mediated through him.

cf. 2Corinthians 3

For the person who has attained this lofty height stands midway between the mutable and immutalbe natures and intercedes for both extremes. He offers prayers to God for persons alienated by sin and transmits the mercy of God's transcendent authority to those in need. Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms, J.45

In all his commands and prohibitions he suggests and admonishes rather than commands, and the very numerous and necessary instructions which he essays to give are accompanied by forewords and after-words, in order to exhort rather than to enforce. Philo, Life of Moses, 2.9.51

Since, then, a mediator is not a mediator of one, and God is one, not divided among the Persons in WHom we have been taught to believe...the Lord, therefore, becomes a mediator once for all betwixt God and men, binding man to the Deity by Himself....For the Mediator between God and man entered as it were into fellowship with human nature, not by being merely deemed a man, but having truly become so. Contra Eunomius, vol. 2, p.373-74

...the one who is going to associate intimately with God must go beyond all that is visible and (lifting up his own mind, as to a mountaintop, to the invisible and incomprehensible) believe that the divine is there where the understanding does not reach.

Having reached, as she thought, the summit of her hope, and already thinking that she is united to her beloved, the bride calls "bed" this more perfect participation in the good and calls "night" the time of darkness. By "night," the bride shows us the contemplation of what is unseen, and like Moses, she is in the darkness of God's presence [Ex 20.21]. Of him the prophet says, "He has placed darkness as a concealment round about him" [Ps 17.12]. Commentary on the Song of Songs, J.181.4f

47: While there he received the divine ordinances.

Exodus 20.3-7

Rather, he should believe that the Divine exists, and he should not examine it with respect to quality, quantity, origin, and mode of being, since it is unattainable.

I cannot at present conceive to what, as apart from these, the perceptive activity is to cling. For on all occasions in investigating with the scrutinizing intellect the contents of the world, we must, so far as we put our hand at all on what we are seeking, inevitably touch, as blind men feeling along the walls for the door, some one of those things aforesaid. On the Soul and the Resurrection, PN#46.40c

The Only-begotten God...is God and the truth, that is to say, God in truth, ever being what He is conceived to be and what He is called, Who never at any time was not, nor ever will cease to be, Whose being, such as it is essentailly, is beyond the reach of the curiosity that would try to comprehend it. Against Eunomius, vol. 1, p..230

Vain, therefore, is he who maintains that it is possible to take knowledge of the divine essence, by the knowledge which puffeth up to no purpose. For neither is there any man so great that he can claim equality in understanding with the Lord, for as saith David, "Who is he among the clouds that shall be compared unto the Lord" [Ps 89.6]? Against Eunomius vol. 1, J.255

Because the soul reaches from below to a knowledge of the transcendent and to a comprehension of God's wonderful works, it is unable to proceed further in curiously scrutinizing these works; rather, it marvels and worships him who along is recognizedby his works. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.335

How, then, can we see anything which transcends the senses? Thus the characteristics of both lives remain unknown; we contemplate only the visible while conversely, the senses cannot perceive that which is invisible. Why, oh man, do you suffer such affliction? You are ignorant of this good which we have embraced. Because you are unaware of such a good, you are terrified of it for no reason at all as though it were something horrible. Concerning Those Who Have Died J.44-5

48: General is the law which is destructive of all injustice, namely that one must love his neighbor.

Leviticus 19.18

...it would certainly follow that no one would do any evil to his neighbor.

Romans 13.10

Among the specific laws was established honor for parents, and there was listed a catalogue of prohibited deeds

Exodus 20.12-17

49: With his mind purified by these laws, as it were, he was led to the higher initiation, where a tabernacle was all at once shown to him by the divine power.

Exodus 25-7

It was determined, therefore, to fashion a tabernacle, a work of the highest sanctity, the construction of which was set forth to Moses on the mount by divine pronouncements. He saw with the soul's eye the immaterial objects about to be made and these forms had to be reproduced in copies perceived by the senses, taken from the original draught, so tospeak, and from patterns conceived in the mind. Philo, Life of Moses 2.15

The tabernacle was a sanctuary with beauty of indescribable variety--entrances, pillars, and curtains, table, candlestick, and altar of incense, and unapproachable holy of holies.

Hebrews 9.2f

51: After his descent from the mountain Moses, employing workmen, constructed these things according to the pattern shown to him.

Exodus 25.9, 40; 31.1f; 35.30-8.31

...he was commanded how the priest should be adorned when he entered the sanctuary.

Exodus 28

Next after these, the master prepared for the future high priest a vesture, the fabric of which had a texture of great and marvellous beauty It consisted of two garments, one of which he calls the robe and the other the ephod. Philo, Life of Moses, 2.23

52: Clasps held to ephod together on both sides and provided a setting of gold for emeralds.

The shoulder-pieces designate serious labours, for they are a part of the sacred garment, and sacred things are serious. And there are two forms of labour: one is the desire of pleasing God, and of piety; the other is being beneficent to men, which is called kindness and love of men. He therefore exhorts us to devote oursleves to every labour and to put our shoulders to it. Philo, Questions and Answers on Exodus, 2.108

53: From the clasps down the front the little shield-like ornaments hung loosely.

Exodus 39.15-19 (lxx 36.22-7)

55: The fillet for the head was solid violet, and the metal-leaf frontpiece was of pure gold engraved with the ineffable letters.

Exodus 28.36

57: He carried in his hands the holy tablets, which were a divine invention and gift that needed no human cooperation to be brought into existence.

Exodus 32.15f

Before giving heed to the lawgiver they rebelled in idolatry.

Exodus 32

When Moses had gone up into the mountain, and was there several days communing privately with God, the men of unstable nature, thinking his absence a suitable opportunity, rushed into impious practices unrestrainedly, as though authority had ceased to be, and forgetting the reverence they owed to the Self-Existent, became zealous devotees of Egyptian fables. Philo, Life of Moses 2.31

58: He participated in that eternal life under the darkness for forty days and nights, and lived in a state beyond nature.

The Lord's Gospel offers a way of living upon the earth and tells of that return which the noble prophet sets out upon. Corporeal burdens do not oppress him, and has joined himself to the transcendent powers whose voices proclaim to us that the Lord has advanced to his throne surrounded by the angels. While present upon earth they adjured men to enter when saying "Lift up your ancient gates and be lifted up, ancient doors that the king of glory may enter" [Ps 23.7]. Because he is present wherever he happens to be and contains everything in himself, he makes it deserving by receiving it (For not only was he a man among men but had united his own nature with that of the angels). On the Ascension J.325-6

What especially incited this group and fomented their illness was that Moses to whom they were especially devoted was a mentor for their teaching. They rose up against him in order to quiet him, something which Stephen desired in order to end his bitterness. He exited human nature and before he left the body, with pure eyes gazed upon heaven's gates and the temple's interior, the revelation of divine glory and the effulgence of his glory [cf. Acts 7.55-56]. The stamp of the Father's glory [cf. Heb 1.3] could not be described, and the athlete saw his brilliance among men which accommodated itself to human nature. Thus being outside human nature, he shared the angelic nature which seemed like a miracle to these murderers. His face was changed to assume that of the angels and seeing invisible reality, he proclaimed the grace he had beheld [cf. Acts 7.56]. St. Stephen J.87

Man transcends his own nature, he who was subject to corrutpion in his mortality, becomes immune from it in his immortality, eternal from being fixed in time--in a word, a god from a man. On the Beatitudes ACW#18.156

60: He then purified his people's guilt with their own blood when the Levites slew them.

Exodus 32.26-9

The writing on them was done by divine power, but the material was fashioned by the hand of Moses.

Exodus 34.1

61: The workmanship on all the material objects was done according to the divine direction.

Exodus 36.8-40.31, 39.43, 40.14

63: Even Aaron, who was endowed with the honors of the priesthood, and his sister Miriam, driven by a most female-like jealousy against the honor given to Moses by God, so railed against him that deity was provoked to punish their trespass.

Numbers 12.1-15

63: The multitude again fell into disorderliness.

Numbers 11.4-34

65: Next, Moses sent spies into that region which they hoped to inhabit according to the divine promise.

Numbers 13-14

After this battle he came to the conclusion that, since it was now the second year of their travels, he ought to inspect the land in which the nation proposed to settle. He wished them, instead of arguing ignorantly in the usual way, to obtain a good idea of the country by first-hand report, and with thissolid knowledge of the conditions to calculate the proper course of action. Philo, Life of Moses 1.40

66: As they were crossing the desert, water again failed them--as did their memory of the divine power.

Numbers 20.2-3

Nevertheless he performed for them again the miracle of changing that jutting rock into water.

Deuteronomy 8.15; Psalm 113.8; Wisdom 11.4

For the flinty rock is the wisdom of God, which He marked off highest and chiefest from His powers, and from which He satisifies the thirsty souls that love God. And when they have been given water to drink, they are filled also with manna. Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 2.21

...and the water at Marah was made sweet; and a sign of Him that was to be crucified was made, both in the matter of the serpents which bit you...as well as in the type of the extending of the hands of Moses. Justin, Dialogue with Trypho PN.265

That tree was Christ, restoring, to wit, of Himself, the veins of sometime envenomed and bitter nature into the all-salutary waters of baptism. This is the water which flowed continuously down for the people from the "accompanying rock;" for if Christ is "the Rock," without doubt we see baptism blest by the water in Christ. Tertullian, On Baptism PN.673

For often from the slaughters there committed they appar like the Red Sea. And the river which flows by the city has sometimes seemed drier than the waterless desert, and more parched than that in which Israel, as they apssed through it, so suffered for thirst, that they cried out against Moses, and the water flowed for them from the steep rock. Eusebius, The Church History PN.306

The rock was struck for us in the desert. The rock wasstruck and from it water gushed forth, that Rock which says, "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink" [Jn 7.37, 38]; andfrom within Him there flowed rivers. "And gave them water in copious floods." In the desert where there was no water, water has been made to flow in abundance for us. Jerome, Homily 11

67: They were disciplined by very severe scourges: Serpents within the encampment as they bit them injected deadly poison in them.

Numbers 21.6-9

1Corinthians 10.9f

There are, we may roughly say, as many varieties of pleasure, as there are of dishes set before us stirring our senses with their delicious flavours. Pleasure being, then, a thin so variable, was it not fitly compared to a tortuous animal, the serpent? Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 2.19

69: Some of the people again rose up against Moses' leadership and put pressure on him to transfer the priesthood to themselves.

Numbers 16

This too we should not fail to note, that the work of chastising the impious was shared by earth and heaven, the fundamental parts ofthe universe. For they had set the roots of their wickedness on earth, but let it grow so high that it mounted right up to ether above. Theirfore each of the two elements supplied its punishment. Philo, Life of Moses 2.50

70: Moses received rods from the most eminent man in each tribe, each man bringing a rod marked with his own name.

Numbers 17

God commanded him to take twelve rods, corresponding to the number of the tribes, and on eleven of them to inscribe the names of the other patriarchs, but on the twelfth that of his brother who was also high priest, and then to take them into the temple, right into the inner sanctuary. Philo, Life of Moses 2.33

72: ...he swore an oath that the people would not pass through the fields and vineyards but would keep to the royal road, turning aside neither to the right nor to the left.

Numbers 20.14-22, esp. vs. 17

He then turned aside and led the multitude by another way, since he saw that all the roads of that country were barricated by watches set by those who had no cause to expect injury but through envy and malice refused to grant a passage along the direct road. This was the clearest proof of the vexation which these persons felt at the nation's liberation. Philo, Life of Moses 1.43

But Sihon not merely answered the envoys insolently, and came nigh to putting them to death, had he not been prevented by the law of embassies, but also mustered his whole army, and went to the attack thinking to win an immediate victory. Philo, Life of Moses 1.47

73: ...magical arts in the person of a certain Balaam.

Numbers 22.2f

Now there was at that time a man living in Mesopotamia far-famed as a soothsayer, who had learned the secrets of that art in its every form, but was particularly admired for his high proficiency in augury. Philo, Life of Moses 1.48

His augury came from watching the flight of birds.

The Cilicians, moreover, the Pisidians, and their neighbors the Pamphylians--peoples over whom I once execised authority--believe that impending events can be pridicted with unerring accuracy by the songs and the flight of birds. Cicero, On Divinization I.1

Then again he [Balaam] set up seven altars, and, after sacrificing the same number of victims as before, sent him away to seek good omens through birds or voices. In this solitude, he was suddenly possessed, and, understanding nothing, his reason as it were roaming, uttered these prophetic words which were put into his mouth. Philo, Life of Moses 1.51

74: Leaving divination aside, he acted as an interpreter of the divine will.

Numbers 24.2f

75: ...they in turn were overcome by licentious passion for their female captives.

Numbers 25

Knowing that the one way by which the Hebrews could be overthrown was disobedience, he [Balak] set himself to lead them, through wantonness and licentiousness, to impiety, through a great sin to a still greater, and put before them the bait of pleasure...And there is nothing to which a man more easily falls a captive than women's comeliness. Philo, Life of Moses, 1.53

Then the lawgiver, ascending a high mountain, surveyed from afar the land which was prepared for Israel by the divine promise made to the fathers.

Deuteronomy 34

He departed from this human life, leaving behind no sign on the earth nor any grave as a memorial of his departure.

Neither was Moses' tomb found nor was he encompassed by material wealth; rather, upon his death he left behind no evidence of wealth which is usually the custom such as a burial mound, a sign of prosperity. History bears witness to this with regard to Moses, and his grave cannot be found even in our day [cf. Dt 34.5-6]. In Praise of His Brother Basil J.130

Always remaining the same, he preserved in the changeableness of nature an unchangeable beauty.

The marks of divine beauty [on Moses' face] did not fade away, but he preserved the unchangeable beauty in his mutable human nature. Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms J.45.2-4

1: Moses was born at the time Pharaoh issued the decree for male offspring to be destroyed.

Exodus 1.16

2: Everyone knows that anything placed in a world of change never remains the same but is always passing from one state to another, the alteration always bringing about something better or worse.

...that the man who longs for union with God must, like those saints, detach his mind from all worldly business. It is impossible for the mind which is poured into many channels to win its way to the knowledge and the love of God. On Virginity PN.351

...for, as has been before stated, the contrary state to goodness conveyssome such notion of opposition, as wehn we say, for instance, that that which is is logically opposed to that which is not, and that existence is so opposed to non-existence. Since, then, by reason of this impulse and movement of changeful alteration it is not possible that the nature of the subject of this change should remain self-centered and unmoved, but there is always something towards which the will is tending, the appetency for moral beauty naturally drawing it on to movement. Catechetical Oration PN.492

Thus there is in us the principle of all excellence, all virtue and wisdom, and every higher thing that we conceive: but pre-eminent among all is the fact that we are free from necessity, and not in bodnage to any natural power, but have deceision in our own power as we please; for virtue is a voluntary thing, subject to no dominipn: that which is the result of compulsion and force cannot be virtue. On the Making of Man PN.405

By participation in the transcendent it [the intelligible] continually remains stable in the good; in a certain sense it is always being created while ever changing for the better in its growth in perfection. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.174

In my judgment this is the perfection of the Christian life: the name of Christ which demonstrates all his other names shares in our soul, words and life's activities so that the holiness praised by Paul (1Ths 5.23) may be constantly kept in the entire body, mind and spirit with no admixture of evil. If anyone says that the good is difficult to attain--for the Lord of creation is alone immutable while human nature is mutable and inclined to change--how can a mutable nature realize what is fixed and stable in the good? My response is that a person who does not lawfully strive in a contest cannot be crowned (1Tim 2.5); he would not be a legitimate athlete if an opponent were lacking. On Perfection J.212-14

Now, as the soul combining first with one body and then with anotehr undergoes all sorts of changes, either of herself, or through the influence of another soul, all that remains to the player of the game is that he should shift the pieces; sending the better nature to the better place, and the worse to the worse, and so assigning to them their proper portion. Plato, Laws 903d

The austerity and intensity of virtue is the male birth, which is hostile to the tyrant and suspected of insurrection against his rule.

For since the king's command had been annulled by the friendliness and humaneness and power of God, it was proper to give thinks for the males unexpectedly kept alive by making male sacrifices. Philo, Questions and Answers on Exodus 1.7-8

It accords with this too that the midwives, since they feared God, made houses for themselves; for such (souls) as make a quest of God's hidden mysteries--and this is what is meant by "saving the males' lives" or "bringing the males to the birth"--build up the cause of virtue, and in this they have elected to have their abode. Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3.1

To such a woman, therefore, we must not hearken, wicked sense I mean. For "God dealt well with the midwives" [Ex 1.20], because disregarding the injunction of Pharoah, the scatterer, they "saved alive" the male offspring of the soul which he wished to destroyed. Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3.87

The Egyptians, therefore, to whom Pharao gave orders, keep only the female children alive. They hate the males, for they hate virtues. They rear only vices and pleasures...If, therefore, I give alms because it is a work of God, I beget a male child. Origen, Homilies on Exodus 2.3

3: Being born, in the sense of constantly experiencing change, does not come about as the result of external initiative, as in the case with the birth of the body, which takes place by choice.

If separation from evil is directed by an impulse of the intention alone, the Gospel bids us nothing burdensome, for there is no burden in directing the intention; rather, we can arrive at whatever we wish by our thoughts. Thus the heavenly way of life becomes easy by our willingness to have it upon the earth. On the Christian Profession J.140

We are in some manner our own parents, giving birth to ourselves by our own free choice in accordance with whatever we wish to be, whether male or female, molding ourselves to the teaching of virtue or vice.

Joseph therefore went through the same experience as his mother Rachel. She too imagined that a created being has some power, for she says "Give me children" [Gen 30.1]. But the Supplanter will find fault with her and say, "Thou hast greatly erred, for I am not in the place of God, who alone hath power to open the wombs of souls, and to sow virtues in them, and to make them pregnant with noble things, and to give birth to them. Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3.63

For the union of human beings that is made for the procreation of children, turns virgins into women. But when God begins to consort with the soul, He makes what before was a woman into a virgin again, for He takes away the degenerate and emasculate passions which unmanned it and plants instead the native growth of unpolluted virtues. Philo, On the Cherubim 14

Now in a marriage where the union is brought about by pleasure, the partnership is between body and body, but in the marriage made by wisdom it is between thoughts which seek purification and perfect virtues. Now the two kinds of marriage are directly opposed to each other. Philo, On Abraham 20

The boastful man, then, is thought to be apt to claim the things that bring glory...and the mock-modest man on the other hand to disclaim what he has or belittle it, while the man who observes the mean is one who calls a thing by its own name, being truthful both in life and in word, owning to what he has, and neither more nor less...But each man speaks and acts and lives in accordance with his character, if he is not acting for some ulterior object. Aristotle, Nichomean Ethics 4.7

Multo tamen magis exsecrabilis est generalis illa fornicatio, in qua omne genus peccati pariter continetur. Generalis autem fornicatio dicitur, cum anima quae in consortium Verbi Dei ascita est, et matrimonio ejus quodammodo sociata, ab ullo alieno scilicet, et adversario illius viri qui eam sibi despondit in fide, corrumpitur et violatur. Origen, Homilies on Numbers PG#12.728c

For me, birth seems timely and does not suffer abortion when, as Isaiah says [26.17], a person conceives by the fear of God and begets salvation through the pangs of his soul. Similarly, we become fathers when by choosing the good we form ourselves, come to birth and enter the light. We do this in order to manifest God in ourselves after having become sons of God [Jn 1.12], children of virtue [Jud 18.2] and children of the most High [Lk 6.35]. Commentary on Ecclesiastes J.380

For while all things else that are born are subject to the impulse of those that begat them, the spiritual birth is dependent on the power of him who is being born...when to every one a free choice is thus open, it wre well, I think, for him who is moved towards the begetting of himself, to determine by previous reasoning what kind of father is for his advantage, and of what element it is better for him that his nature should consist. Catachetical Oration PN.506

4: The rational faculties are what become the parents of virtue.

One'sspeech must be in accord with the nature of the references. Now since naming is a part of speaking just as a now is a part of speech, correct and incorrect naming will depend not upon some random convention but upon the natural appropriateness of the word for the thing. The best name-giver will be that person who is able to signify the nature of the thing through the name coined for it. The name is an instrument which refers to a thing chosen not arbitrarily but appropriately for its nature. Albinus, Didaskalikos (p.150, 27 Hermann)

Now they could not be in one and the same genus, for (a) if they were gods, they were not like each other,but being uncreated were unlike (created things are like their models and uncreated things unlike, having no relation to a model or to an origin); if, however, (b) these beings were complementary parts of a natural kind--like hand, eye, and foot in one body--making a complete whole out of themselves, then God would still be one. Thus, Socrates, since he was begotten mortal, can be divided up into parts, whereas God is unbegotten, impassible, and indivisible, and so is not composed of parts. Athenagoras, Embassy 8

Here by ecstasy [cf. Gen 2.21] he means passivity and tranquillity of mind. For sleep of mind is waking of sense, since waking of the understanding is inaction of sense. Philo, Who is the Heir 51

6: I am speaking of life as a stream made turbulent by the successive waves of passion, which plunge what is in the stream under the water and drown it.

For substance is like a river in a continual flow, and the activities of things are in constant change, and the causes work in infinite varieties; and there is hardly anything which stands still. And consider this which is near to thee, this boundless abyss of the past and of the future in which all things disappear. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.23

For it is clear to everyone that God, like an artist, is still working on His universe, as indeed the Lord also taught when He said, "My Father worketh until now" [Jn 5.17]. But when the rivers rest from their emptying into the receptacle of the sea, and the light is perfectly separated from the darkness...and the predetermined number of men is completed, then must there also be no further procreation of children. But now must cooperate in the production of God's image, so long as the universe still exists and continues to be formed. Methodius, Symposium 2

7: ...they make him safe in an ark so that when he is given to the stream he will not be drowned.

Exodus 2.3

And he was laid near the water; for the Law, and those daily sprinklings of the Hebrews which were a little later to be made plain in the perfect and marvelous Baptism, are near to grace. On the Baptism of Christ PN.522

The Church, therefore, coming to the waters of baptism, also took up the Law. The Law, however, had been enclosed in a basket and smeared with pitch and bitumen. The basket is a kind of covering woven together from twigs or papyrus or even formed from the bark of trees. The infant placed within this basket was seen exposed. The Law, therefore, was lying helpless enclosed in coverings of this kind...It was dirty and enclosed in cheap and offensive meanings of the Jews until the Church should come from the Gentiles and take it up from the muddy and marshy places and appropriate it to itself within courts of wisdom and royal houses. Origen, Homilies on Exodus 2.4

10: Since the daughter of the king, being childless and barren (I think she is rightly perceived as profane philosophy), arranged to be called his mother by adopting the youngster.

Exodus 2.10

The king of the country had but one cherished daughter, who, we are told, had been married for a considerable time but had never conceived a child, though she naturally desired one, particularly of the male sex, to succeed to the magnificent inheritance of her father's kingdom. Philo, Life of Moses 1.4

I think Pharao's daughter can be regarded as the Church which is gathered from the Gentiles. Although she has an impious and hostile father, nevertheless, the prophet says to her, "Hear, O daughter, and behold and incline your ear. Forget your people and the house of your father because the king has desired your beauty" [Ps 44.11]. Origen, Homilies on Exodus 2.4

Scripture concedes that his relationship with her who was falsely called his mother should not be rejected until he had recognized his own immaturity.

I remember, for instance, that in Rome I undertook to arbitrate between two brothers, of whom one had the reputation of being a philosopher. But he was, as it appears, not only a brother but also a philosopher, masquerading under a false name and appellation; for when I asked him to conduct himself as brother to brother and as philosopher to laymen, "What you say," said he, "as to his being a layman is correct, but I account it no momentous or important matter to have sprung from the same loins." Plutarch, Moralia 479e

11: For truly barren is profane education, which is always in labor but never gives birth.

But as for the deeper meaning, no one will find any evil greater than childlessness and infertility of soul. And this is ignorance and lack of education, which make barren the deliberative mind. Philo, Questions and Answers on Exodus 2.19

Isaiah 26.18

Do not all who are full of wind and never come to term miscarry before they come to the light of the knowledge of God?

But, though in travail, it never brings to the birth, for the soul of the worthless man has not by nature the power to bring forth any offspring. What it seems to produce turn out to be wretched abortions and miscarriages, devouring half of its flesh, an evil tantamount to the death of the soul. Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 1.24

An archer hostile to our souls has directed the fiery weapons of sins against human life. He does not cease to aim them until he has sapped our strength. Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms J.164

Thus he [Gregory] became great by his acquaintance and attention to pagan philosophy which augments Greek [wisdom] and leads to an understanding of Christianity. Having forsaken the erroneous religion of their ancestors, he sought the truth, for such foreign teaching is not in harmony with regard to Greek beliefs. Since [Gregory] knew that philosophy concerning the divinity was two-fold, Greek and barbarian, he pondered over these conflicting teachings and attempted to confirm each by close attention to their words. He abandoned them to their own devices as though they were engaged in civil war and apprehended the firm position of faith minus logical, convoluted technical tricks; rather, he honored every person who understood them by using simple words while he himself had faith which transcends knowledge [cf. Eph 3.19]. Gregory the Wonderworker J.9-10

12: Now after living with the princess of the Egyptians for such a long time that he seemed to share in their honors, he must return to his natural mother.

Quite a different woman claims our compliance, a woman such as Sarah is seen to have been, even paramount virtue. The wise Abraham complies with her when she recommends the course to follow. For at an earlier time when he had not yet become perfect...she advises him to beget children out of the handmaiden, that is school-learning, even Hagar [Gen 16.2f]. Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3.87.244

Indeed he was not separated from her while he was being brought up by the princess but was nursed by his mother's milk, as the history states.

Exodus 2.7-9

...we should not separate ourselves from the nourishment of the Church's milk.

This truth also pertains to the teacher: having been nursed by pagan wisdom, he he always grasped the Church's breast which enabled his soul to grow by doctrine and to keep it secure. In Praise of His Bother Basil J.126

"When I was a child" [1Cor 14.20], may be elegantly expounded thus: that is, when I was a Jew (for he was a Hebrew by extraction) I thought as a child, when I followed the law; but after becoming a man, I no longer entertain the sentiments of a child, that is, of the law, but of a man, that is, of Christ, whom alone the Scripture calls man. Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor PN.218

13: Moses slays with his own hand the one who rises in opposition to true religion.

Moses "smoke the Egyptian and hid him in the sand" [Ex 2.12]. This means that he took full account of the man who maintains that the things of the body have the pre-eminence and holds the things of the soul to be naught, and regards pleasures as the end and aim of life. Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3.12.

He [Moses] evidently regarded both doctrines as having the same author, the doctrine that pleasure is the prime and greatest good, and the doctrine that atoms are the elementary principles of the universe. Another attack was directed against him who splits up the nature of good into subdivisions, and assigns one to soul, one to body, one to things outside us. Philo, On Flight and Finding 26

14: One may, moreover, find this same conflict in us, for man is set before competitors as the prize of their contest. He makes the one with whom he sides the victor over the other.

But the person knowing that he is in the midst of two lives, crosses over from mortality to immortality. By eliminating the former, the bad one, he gives victory to the latter. By death, therefore, man exchanged true life for this mortal life. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.351

As for those who practice virtue, you can see some dead to one passion but alive to others. We observe some putting intemperance to death, but they still foster pride or

other passions destructive to the soul such as cupidity, anger, ambition, love of honor, or

anything else of the sort. If these evil passions abide in the soul, one cannot show myrrh

on one's fingers, for mortification and estrangement from evil do not extend throughout one's life. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.344

Because what is opposed to the light cannot be mixed or joined with it, the person having both elements (that is, light and darkness) does not eliminate one of them by setting them in opposition to each other; he is divided because light and darkness are simultaneously present in his life. While faith lets in light, a dark life obscures one's splendor. Light's fellowship can neither be joined nor reconciled with darkness; for this reason the person embracing one of these opposing elements has war within himself. He has a division between virtue and evil drawn up in himself much like a hostile battle-order. On Perfection J.180

[Moses] was not expert at the rational combat of the Egyptian whom he killed; rather, by fighting for something better he put to death that which was evil for the Hebrew. The Hebrew reasoning power had been purified and is uncontaminated. By mortifying his members on earth [Basil] imitates in soul the valor of Moses' combat which was effective against the Egyptian. We must pass over much of the historical account and not faithfully explain every detail which pertains to Moses; the same applies to the teacher. In Praise of His Brother Basil, J.126-7

The fight of the Egyptian against the Hebrew is like the fight of idolatry against true religion, of licentiousness against self-control, of injustice against righteousness, of arrogance against humility, and of everything against which is perceived by its opposite.

There are some things which people destroy only to raise them up another time, and shatter as if they would again put them together. But it is His will that those things which are opposed to the good and beautiful, when once they have been destroyed and shattered, shall not again undergo repair but shall always remain destroyed. Philo, Questions and Answers on Exodus 2.17

He makes the one with whom he sides the victor over the other.

"If the devil sees fit to turn himself into a serpent or a turtle in every well, and falls into our drinking supply, shall you forever remain thirsty?" And he went out and drew water from the same well, and was the first to break his thirst by swallowing. He said, "Where the cross goes, the evil of everything loses ground." Palladius, Lausiac History, #2, Dorotheus

18: In the same way we shall life a solitary life, no longer entangled with adversaries.

For another forty years Moses pastured sheep, withdrawing into solitude and giving himself over to contemplation. And after these forty years he was made worthy of a vision of God. Basil, Commentary on Isaiah the Prophet PL#30.129a

Moses left Egypt after the Egyptian's death and dwelt alone for a long time [cf. Ex 2.11-15]. He forsook the city's tumult and the clamor of material attractions and engaged in divine philosophy in solitude. [Moses] was illumined by the bush [cf. Ex 3.2-5]. We may draw a comparison with his vision: at night [Basil] was illumined while at prayer in his house; an immaterial light filled the house by divine power which had no material source. In Praise of His Brother Basil J.126

The person who raises his mind to this lofty height once again receives a superior position and is more exalted. In the fourth part of the psalter we go like Paul [2Cor 11.2] beyond the third heaven and are raised higher than the other heights previously attained. Such a person makes these ascents no longer as a mere man, but he now clings to God...Such was that noble Moses of whom we have heard. He willingly shook off his royal dignity as though he had removed dust from his feet. Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms J.43-4

...but we shall live among those of like disposition and mind who are fed by us while all the movements of our soul are shepherded, like sheep, by the will of guiding reason.

After hearing this the mind turns away from pleasure and cleaves to virtue, for it apprehends her loveliness so pure, so simple, so holy to look upon. Then too it becomes a shepherd of the sheep, one who guides the chariot and controls the helm of the unreasoning faculties of the soul. Philo, Sacr 10

After the marriage, Moses took charge of the sheep and tended them, thus receiving his first lesson in command of others; for the shepherd's business is a training-ground and a preliminary exercise in kingship for one who is destined to command the herd of mankind, the most civilized of herds...And thus unreasoning animals are made to serve as material wherewith to gain practice in government in the emergencies of both peace and war. Philo, Life of Moses 1.11

Then he fled from Egypt and fed sheep, being thus trained beforehand for pastoral rule. For the shepherd's life is a preparation for sovreignity in the case of him who is destined to rule over the peaceful flock of men, as the chase for those who are by nature warlike. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata PN.336

Car lorsque le Sauveur dit "Je suit le Bon Pasteur" [Jn 10.11], je ne l'entends pas seulement d'une maniere generale, comme tous le font, en ce sens qu'il est Pasteur descroyants--encore que ce sens soit sain et vrai--mais je dois avoir aussi dans mon ame a l'interieur de moi le Christ, a l'interieur de moi le Bon Pasteur, qui tient sous sa houlette ce qui en moi est mouvements depourvus de raison. Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah 5.6

If we are true pastors and are vigilant over flocks, the angels' voice comes to us which announces this great joy. We gaze intently at the heavenly army, look at the angels and hear their divine song. On the Day of Christ's Birth PG#46.1137b

20: And if the flame by which the soul of the prophet was illuminated was kindled from a thorny bush, even this fact will not be useless for our inquiry.

For the burning bramble was a symbol of those who suffered wrong, as the flaming fire of those who did it. Yet that which burned was not burnt up, and this was a sign that the sufferers would not be destroyed by their aggressors, who would find that the aggression was fain and profitless while the victims of malice escaped unharmed. Philo, Life of Moses 1.12

Le buisson brule sous les yeux de Moise et pourtant ne se consume pas: c'est l'Eglise evidement qui est embrasee des flammes des persecutions et des attaques des pecheurs selon ce que did l'Apotre: "Bien que supportant des angoisses et souffrant la pauvrete, nous ne sommes pas abandonnes" [2Cor 4.8-9]. Hilary of Poitiers, Traite des Mysteres 1.30

In the midst of the flame was a form of the fairest beauty, unlike any visible object, an image supremely divine in appearance, refulgent with a light brighter than the light of fire. Philo, Life of Moses 1.12 (in reference to the angel of Lord)

Arrete, excellent Moise, n'approche pas avant d'avoir denoue les sandales de tes pieds. Car sainte est la terre que tu foules, et c'est le verbe divin qui flamboie et jaillit pour toi du buisson. Courage, mon fils, entends mes paroles; voir mon visage, c'est impssible a un mortel, mais tu peux entendre mes paroles, et je suis venu pour cela. Eusebius, La Preparation Evangelique 9.29

Have you perceived, sirs, that this very God whom Moses speaks of as an Angel that talked to him in the flame of fire, declares that He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob? Justin, Dialogue with Trypho PN226-7

For when the Almighty Lord of the universe began to legislate by the Word, and wished His power to be manifested to Moses, a godlike vision of light that had assumed a shape was shown him in the burning bush (the bush is a thorny plant); but when the Word ended the giving of the law and His stay with men, the Lord was again mystically crowned with thorn. Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor PN257

Two facts are thus signified: that it is impossible for man to see God; and that, through the wisdom of God, man shall see Him in the last times, in the depth of a rock, that is, in His coming as a man. And for this reason did He confer with him face to face on the top of a mountain, Elias being also present, as the Gospel relates, He thus making good in the end the ancient promise. Irenaeus, Against Heresies PN.490

..the Gospel testifies by these sublime and divine names to the God who made himself visible to us in the flesh.

John 8.12 & 14.6

After having transformed those of a thorny nature which resulted from sin, Christ fashioned a crown for himself through the dispensation of his death; he changed the thorn into honor and glory by his suffering. Once Christ bore the world's sin and received on his head a crown woven from thorns in order to make a crown of honor and glory, there is no small danger of finding a burr and thorn resulting from an evil life which was then inserted in the Lord's crown by union with his body. On Perfection J.206

Through the Church, God's manifold wisdom was made known to the transcendent powers since it effects great wonders by means of contrary elements. How can life come through death, justification through sin, blessing through a curse, glory through disgrace, and strength through weakness? In previous ages the transcendent powers knew only the simple, uniform working of God's wisdom which effected wonders. (There was no vanity in what they beheld; by its own power, the divine nature made all creation, bringing created beings into existence by one impulse of the will; it made all things exceedingly beautiful, as they welled up from the fountain of divine beauty.) On the other hand, the manifold quality of wisdom which arose from a union of opposites is now clearly manifested through the Church. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.255-6

22: ...but the dead and earthly covering of skins, which was placed around our nature at the beginning when we were found naked because of disobedience to the divine will, must be removed from the feet of the soul.

The purification indicates man's return from defilement of his natural purity; the circumcision means the casting off of the dead skins which we put on when we had been stripped of the supernatural life after the transgression. On the Beatitudes ACW#18.166

And he put on him the robe, not another one, but the first robe, of which he had been deprived by his disobedience, when he had tasted of the forbidden fruit and seen his own nakedness. On the Lord's Prayer ACW#18.41

An ineffable light illumined Moses after which he washed the foot of his soul from its coverings of dead skin. Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms J.44

For after, as he tells us, the earliest of mankind were brought into contact with what was forbidden, and thereby were stripped naked of that primal blessed condition, the Lord clothed these, His first-formed creatures, with coats of skins...For to what sort of slain and flayed animals did this clothing devised for these humanities belong? But since all skin, after it is separated from the animal, is dead, I am certainly of opinion that He who is the healer of our sinfulness, of His foresight invested man subsequently with that capacity of dying which had been the special attribute of the brute creation. Catechetical Oration, PN.482-3

If, then, such is the lesson of this Finding of the lost, viz. that we should restore the divine image from the foulness which the flesh wraps round it to its primitive sate, let us become that which the First Man was at the moment when he first breathed. And what was that? Destitute he was then of his covering of dead skins, but he could gaze without shrinking upon God's countenance. On Virginity PN.358

As at our physical birth there comes into the world with us a potentiality of being again turned to dust, plainly the Spirit also imparts a life-giving potentiality to the children begotten by Himself. What lesson, then, results from these remarks? This: that we should wean ourselves from this life in the flesh, which has an inevitable follower, death. On Virginity PN.359

Just as if a man, who, clad in a ragged tunic, has divested himself of the garb, feels more its disgrace upon him, so we too, when we have cast off that dead unsightly tunic made from the skins of brutes and put upon us (for I take the "coasts of skins" to mean that conformation belonging to a brute nature with which we were clothed when we became familiar with passionate indulgence), shall, along with the casting off of that tunic, fling from us all the belongings that were round us of that skin of a brute. On the Soul and the Resurrection PN.464-5

In his wisdom God employed contradictory means, that is, he used irrational nature as clothing. The garment of skin has all the properties belonging to an irrational nature: pleasure, anger, gluttony, greed, and similar tendencies which allow man to choose between virtue and evil. Concerning Those Who Have Died J.524

The priest has entered the sanctuary and inner chamber of the tent where Christ our precursor has preceded us [cf. Heb 6.19-20] after he removed the garment of skin. No longer does he minister by an image and shadow of heavenly reality but intercedes face to face with God on our behalf and the people who are unenlightened. He has discarded the tunics of skins since he has no need for them in paradise. On the other hand, once he has put on the clothing which he had weaved by a pure life, he brought glory upon himself. Concerning Bishop Meletius J.454-5

She did what she had heard, that is, she removed her garment of skin [Gen 3.21] with which she clothed herself after her sin. The bride also washed from her feet the dust with which she was covered when returning to earth after her time in paradise because she had heard "You are dust and unto dust you shall return" [Gen 3.19]. Therefore, the bride opened a way into her soul for her spouse by removing the veil from her heart, that is, her flesh. By flesh I mean the old man. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.327

Neither is a person soiled again with dust from the earth after having washed his feet. "I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them" [5.3]?, says the bride. For by a divine command Moses removed from his feet the covering of dead skins because he walked upon holy, enlightened ground [Ex 3.5]. The text says that Moses never again put his sandals on, even when, according to the pattern received on the mountain, he fashioned the priestly garments with gold, purple, linen, hyacinth, and scarlet, combining these splendid colors into a woven material, that their combined beauty may shine forth [Ex 28.5,8]. Still, Moses fashioned no adornment for his feet, for the priests' feet were bare and without any covering. A priest must tread on holy ground, and here it is unlawful to tread with dead skins. Therefore, the Lord forbids his disciples to wear sandals since he bids them to go on the way of sanctity [Mt 10.5-6]. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.329

You certainly understand what these words mean: through baptism the bride has once and for all removed her sandals. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.331

Thus the ascent to God always indicates something unbecoming in the bride. In

comparison with her current purity, that removed tunic, therefore, becomes a garment to

be removed again by those who find the bride, the guards going about the city (the soul

is the city). Those whose task it is to guard the city walls remove the bride's veil by

striking and wounding her. A certain benefit lies in this removal of her veil: her eye is

free and unhindered to contemplate her beloved. Commentary on the Song of Songs J.360

For because in virtue of the very existence of the souls these vehicles are animated by them and are congenital to them, they undergo all manner of changes in sympathy with the souls' activities and accompany them everywhere: when the souls suffer passion, they suffer with them; when they have been purified, they are restored with them; when they are led upwards, they rise with them, craving their own perfection--for all things are perfected when they attain to their proper integrity. Proclus, Elements of Theology 209

It is desired as good, and the desire for it is directed to good, and the attainment of it is for those who go up to the higher world and are converted and strip off what we put on in our descent; (just as for those who go up to the celebrations of sacred rites there are purifications, and strippings off of the clothes they wore before, and going up naked) until, passing in the ascent all that is alien to the God, one sees with one's self alone That alone, simple single and pure, from which all depends and to which all look and are and live and think: for it is cause of life and mind and being. Plotinus, Enneads I.6.7

But according to the deeper meaning, the tunic of skin is symbolically the natural skin of the body. for when God formed the first mind, He called it Adam; then he formed the sense, which He called Life; in the third place, of necessity He made his body also, calling it symbolically a tunic of skin, for it was proper that the mind and sense should be clothed in the body as in a tunic of skin, in order that His handiwork might first appear worthy of the divine power. Philo, Questions and Answers On Genesis I.53

Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced more true than the truth itself. Irenaeus, Against Heresies PN.315

Hence the apostle, when he calls circumcision "a putting off (or spoliation) of the flesh" [Col 2.11], affirmed the skin to be a coat or tunic. Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh PN.550

From the beginning, the Lord made everything fine and delicate; everyone is coarsened, therefore, by his own vice and is reduced to earth. A wound in the body, for example is swollen and hard and full of pus, but when the doctor lances it, the swelling goes down, it heals, and the body is restored to its former condition. Jerome, Homily 51

Nam si ex animalibus occisis facta sunt indumenta, perspicuum est quod occisorum animalium genus defecerit, cum Deus paulo ante masculum et feminam creasset, nec adhuc ulli partus exstitissent. Praetera nemo existimare potest Deum animalia jugulari praecepisse, quando nondum esus carnium erat permissus hominibus. Multo minusdecet nos arbitrari Deum vestes quae non erant, produxisse: qui homine creato desiit quidquam creare, quod non esset, quasi in ipso creationem universi mundi concludens. Theodoret, Quaestiones in Genesim PG#80b

And the statement that the man who was cast out of the garden with the woman was clothed with "coats of skins," which God made for those who had sinned on account of the transgression of mankind, has a certain secret and mysterious meaning, superior to the Platonic doctrine of the descent of the soul which loses its wings and is carried hither "until it finds some firm resting-place" [Phaedrus 246b,c]. Origen, Against Celsus 4.40

It says, "with skin tunics," which are a symbol of the mortality which he received because of his skin and of his frailty which came from the corruption of the flesh. But if you have been already washed from these and purified through the Law of God, then Moses will dress you with a garment of incorruptibility so that "your shame may never appear" [Ex 20.26] and "that this mortality may be absorbed by life" [2Cor 5.4]. Homilies on Leviticus 6.2

The human charioteer drives his in a pair; and one of them is noble and of noble breed, and the other is ignoble and of ignoble breed; and the driving of them of necessity gives a great deal of trouble to him...The soul in her totality has the care of inanimate being everywhere, and traverses the whole heaven in divers forms appearing:--when perfect and full winged she soars upward, and orders the whole world; whereas the imperfect soul, losing her wings and drooping in her flight at last settles on the solid ground--there, finding a home, she receives an earthly frame which appears to be self-moved, but is really moved by her power; and this composition of soul and body is called a living and mortal creature. Plato, Phaedrus 246b-c

Alors il est ecarte a la fois de l'arbe de vie, du paradis et de dieu a cause de sa malignite, et il revet les tuniques de peau, c'est-a-dire peut-etre la chair epaissie, mortelle et rebelle, et il connait en premier lieu sa propre honte et se cache de Dieu. A cela il gagne cependant quelque chose: la mort et l'interruption du peche, afin que son mal ne soit pas immortel; et le chatiment devient amour de l'homme. C'est ainsi, j'en suis sur, que Dieu punit. Gregory Nazianzus, Discours 38.12

23: But truth is the sure apprehension of real Being.

For being, what one could truly call being, is real being; and this is that which has nothing lacking to its existence. Since it is completely it has no need of anything for its preservation and existence but is cause to the other things, which seem to exist, of their seeming existence. If this is a correct statement, it must necessarily be in life, and in perfect life; or, if it falls short of this, it will be no more existent than non-existent. Plotinus, Enneads 3.6.6

So, whoever applies himself in quietness to higher philosophical matters over a long period of time will barely apprehend what true Being is, that is, what possesses existence in its own nature.

Nothing, then, is gained even if we suppose eternal substances, as the believers in the Forms do, unless there is to be in them some principle which can cause change; nay, even this is not enough, nor is another substance besides the Forms enough; for if it is not to act, there will be no movement. Further, even if it acts, this will not be enough, if its essence is potency; for there will not be eternal movement, since that which is potentially may possibly not be. There must, then, be such a principle, whose very essence is actuality. Further, then, these substances must be without matter; for they must be eternal, if anything is eternal. Therefore they must be actuality. Aristotle, Metaphysics XII, 1071b

24: ...but that the transcendent essence and cause of the universe, on which everything depends, alone subsists.

Exodus 3.14

Time, then, and the heaven came into being at the same instant in order that, having been created together, if ever there was to be a dissolution of them, they might be dissolved together. It was framed after the pattern of the eternal nature, that it might resemble this as far as possible; for the pattern exists from eternity, and the created heaven has been, and is, and will be, in all time. Such was the mind and thought of God in the creation of time. Plato, Timaeus 38c

There [the heaven above the heavens] abides the very being with which true knowledge is concerned; the colourless, formless, intangible essence, visible only to mind, the pilot of the soul. Plato, Phaedrus 247d

Not-being has been acknowledged by us to be one among many classes diffused over all being.

True.

And thence arises the question, whether not-being mingles with opinion and language.

How so?

If non-being has no part in the proposition, then all things must be true; but if not-being has a part, then false opinion and false speech are possible, for to think or to say what is not--is falsehood, which thus arises in the region of thought and in speech. Plato, Sophist 260c

"I am that I am, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and the God of your fathers" [Ex 3.6], this signified that they, even though dead, are yet in existence, and are men belonging to Christ Himself. For they were the first of all men to busy themselves in the search after God. Justin, First Apology PN.184

But when our doctrine introduces one God, creator of all this world, Himself unbegotten (for it is not Being that is subject to Becoming, but not-Being), and says that all things are made by the Word that proceeds from Him, we are wrongfully assailed on both sides by our calumniators and by our prosecutors. Athenagoras, Embassy for the Christians 4

Wherefore, as I have already stated, no other is named as God, or is called Lord, except Him who is God and Lord of all, who also said to Moses, "I am that I am..." For it is He who descended and ascended for the salvation of men. Irenaeus, Against Heresies PN.419

It is this same Father of His, then, who being one is manifested by many powers. And this was the import of the utterance, "No man knew the Father" [Lk 10.22; Jn 17.25], who was Himself everything before the coming of the Son. So that it is veritably clear that the God of all is only one good, just Creator, and the Son in the father, to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen. Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor PN.228

And all things that exist derive their share of being from him who truly exists, who said through Moses, "I am that I am" [Ex 3.14]; which participation in God the Father extends to all, both righteous and sinners, rational and irrational creatures and absolutely everything that exists. Origen, First Principles 1.3.6

First tell them that I am He Who is, that they may learn the difference between what is and what is not, and also the further lesson that no name at all can properly be used of Me, to Whom alone existence belongs. Philo, Life of Moses 1.14

25: And the apprehension of it [real Being] is the knowledge of truth.

He who from these ascending under the influence of true love, begins to perceive that beauty, is not far from the end. And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty. Plato, Symposium 211ab

For the life of the Supreme Being is love, seeing that the Beautiful is necessarily lovable to those who recognize it, and the Deity does recognize it, and so this recognition becomes love, that which He recognizes being essentially beautiful...In fact, in the Beautiful no limit is to be found so that love should have to cease with any limit of the Beautiful...Moreover, as every being is capable of attracting its like, and humanity is, in a way, like God, as bearing within itself some resemblances to its Prototype, the soul is by a strict necessity attracted to the kindred Deity. On the Soul and the Resurrection PN.450

26: In the same way that Moses on that occasion attained to this knowledge, so now does everyone who, like him, divests himself of the earthly covering and looks to the light shining from the bramble bush.

And the wood of the Cross is of saving efficacy for all men, though it is, as I am informed, a piece of a poor tree, less valuable than most trees are. So a bramble bush showed to Moses the manifestation of the presence of God...And all these things, though they were matter without soul or sense, were made the means for the performance of the great marvels wrought by them, when they received the power of God. On the Baptism of Christ PN.519-20

...the Radiance which shines upon us through this thorny flesh and which is (as the Gospel says) the true light and the truth itself.

John 1.9 & 14.6

...and to deliver to freedom everyone held in evil servitude.

And would you say that the soul of such a one is the soul of a freeman, or of a slave?

He has the soul of a slave, in my opinion.

And the State which is enslaved under a tyrant is utterly incapable of acting voluntarily?

Utterly incapable.

And also the soul which is under a tyrant (I am speaking of the soul taken as a whole) is least capable of doing what she desires; there is a gadfly which goads her, and she is full of trouble and remorse?

Certainly. Plato, Republic 577d

27: These seem to me to signify in a figure the mystery of the L