Miscellanies 6.15.132

In this way the most learned among the Greeks dedicate the fruit of the pomegranate to Hermes, who they say is speech, because of interpretation; for speech has many hiding places. Fittingly, then, Joshua the son of Nun saw Moses, when he was taken up, as double: one with the angels, and the other being honored with burial on the mountains, in the ravines. Joshua saw this sight below, lifted up by the Spirit, together with Caleb. But the two did not see alike: one came down more quickly, bearing much weight, while the other, coming down afterward, described the glory he had seen, having been able to discern more than the other, since he had become purer. The story shows, I think, that knowledge does not belong to all, since some look at the body of the Scriptures, the words and the names, as at the body of Moses, while others see through to the meanings and to what the names signify, searching after the Moses who is with the angels. Indeed, of those who called upon the Lord himself, the many said, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” but few knew him as the Son of God, like Peter, whom he also called blessed because flesh and blood had not revealed the truth to him, but his Father who is in heaven; this shows that the one who knows recognizes the Son of the Almighty not through his flesh that was conceived but through the Father's power itself. Not only, then, for those who happen upon it simply as it comes is the acquisition of the truth difficult; the story of Moses teaches that even to those to whom understanding is proper, contemplation is not given all at once, until, having grown used to looking straight at it, as the Hebrews at the glory of Moses and the saints of Israel at the visions of angels, so we too can look straight at the flashing rays of the truth.