Miscellanies 5.8.51

It is not unlikely, then, that the barbarian philosophy too, of which we propose to speak, prophesies in some places hiddenly and through symbols, as has been shown. Such, at any rate, are Moses' exhortations, these familiar ones: “You shall not eat the pig, nor the eagle, nor the hawk, nor the raven.” For the pig indicates pleasure-loving and unclean desire for food and sex, greedy and polluted licentiousness, always itching, material, lying in mud, fattened for slaughter and destruction. Conversely he permits eating what parts the hoof and chews the cud, showing, says Barnabas, that one must “cling to those who fear the Lord, and to those who meditate in their heart on the distinction of the word they have received, to those who speak the Lord's ordinances and keep them, to those who know that meditation is a work of gladness and who ruminate on the word of the Lord. And what is parting the hoof? That the righteous man both walks in this world and awaits the holy age.” Then he adds: “See how well Moses legislated. But how could they understand or grasp these things? We, rightly understanding the commandments, speak as the Lord wished. That is why he circumcised our hearing and our hearts, so that we might understand these things.”