Eclogae on Exodus through Judges 281–395

the words “The Lord God hardened Pharaoh's heart,” let them say whether they believe that these words are spoken truly by God through Moses when he was inspired, or falsely. If falsely, then on their view God is no longer just, nor true, and as far as these words go not even God; but if truly, let them consider whether he does not blame Pharaoh as one having free will, when he says, “But if you will not send him away,” and elsewhere, “How long will you not be willing to respect me?” For “How long will you not be willing to respect me?” is said reproachfully to Pharaoh, who did not show respect, not because he could not but because he would not. And what Moses says to Pharaoh, “That you may know that the earth is the Lord's; and you and your servants, I know that you have never feared the Lord,” shows that they will fear; which fits the argument against the heterodox, both about God's goodness and about there being no perishing nature. [Exod 3:21–22] “And I will give this people favour before the Egyptians; and when you depart, you shall not go away empty.” This promise had been given beforehand to Abraham, when God said, “After these things they shall come out here with baggage.” [Exod 7:13–14] “And Pharaoh's heart was strengthened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had commanded them. And the Lord said to Moses: Pharaoh's heart is made heavy, so that he does not send away the people.” “Pharaoh's heart is made heavy,” said by the Lord after Aaron's rod had turned into a serpent and swallowed the magicians' rods: it is worth seeing whether this differs from “Pharaoh's heart was hardened,” which is said often, and from “was strengthened.” For this too is said thus: “And Pharaoh's heart was strengthened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.” It seems to me that the heart that yields to divine things is softened and has no strength to resist the divinity, and is not made heavy nor dragged

down to earth and matter; while the heart that resists and opposes the divine will is hardened and resists like stone, and repels the word, and in desperation resists with a falsely named strength. And such a heart, dragged down by vice, which tends downward, must be made heavy. Yet these things do not happen to the heart in the same sense, even if being strengthened and being made heavy both happen to one and the same wicked heart. In one respect, as is said somewhere, the heart becomes stony and is hardened; in another it does not yield to the divine nature as the better, but standing to fight against God it is said also to be strong. [Exod 9:29] “And Moses said to him: When I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord, and the voices will cease, and the hail and the rain will be no more.” For the creator of all has nature yielding to his command. [Of the same.] It should be noted that Moses works wonders not with the rod alone, but also with his hands and his word, lest the many should think that the rod accomplished them by magical deceits. [Exod 12:3] “Let each take a sheep by fathers' houses,” and so on. From the tenth day, it says, they are to take a sheep and keep it until the fourteenth, and to name it, saying, “This sheep is sacrificed for so-and-so and so-and-so,” the names not exceeding ten; and on the fourteenth it is sacrificed between the evenings, as the fifteenth begins; so that from the taking to the sacrificing there are five days, when the moon's light is full. [Exod 12:5] “A perfect sheep, male, a year old, it shall be for you.” Christ is the year-old sheep; for that he lacks in nothing and has no deficiency is shown through the year. [Exod 12:6] “And the whole multitude of the congregation of the sons of Israel shall slaughter it toward evening.” We are commanded to slaughter the sheep toward evening, since our true sheep, the Saviour, came into the world in the last hour. [Exod 12:7] “And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel, in the houses,” and so on. We sacrifice, and we anoint our houses with the blood (I mean the body), if indeed the anointing is faith in him, through which I believe that the power of the destroyer is abolished. After we have been anointed, that is, have believed in Christ, then we are commanded to come also to the eating; neither raw, nor boiled in water, but roasted with fire. [Exod 12:15] “Whoever eats leaven, that soul shall be destroyed from Israel.” A man will be destroyed because of leaven! And the God of all, who issues the laws, as he destroys an adulterer, as he destroys a fornicator, as he destroys a corrupter of boys, so destroys the one who has leaven in his house on the day of unleavened bread. Is this worthy of God? Is this in keeping with the heavenly law? But I would say that if you have the leaven

of wickedness and do not destroy all the leaven of vice from your ruling faculty (for this is your true house), the God of all legislates that you be destroyed if you have not cast the old leaven out from yourself. For having come to the time of new things, you must, having become new, have nothing old: “The old things have passed away,” and so on. See how one ought to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the month of new things. [Exod 12:22] “You shall touch the lintel and both doorposts with the blood that is by the door.” The lintel, as one of those before us explained, is the rational part; the two doorposts, the spirited and the desiring. [Of the same.] For we do not cast out the destroyer by some contrivance once he has got inside; rather, we keep guard through the law so that he may not slip in at all. And the guard and safety is to mark the lintel and doorposts of the entrance with the blood of the lamb. [Exod 12:29] “And it came to pass at midnight, and the Lord struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt.” For God brings these death-bearing plagues through angels, as we know also from the Kingdoms how in one night the angel killed a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians. [Exod 12:43–44] “This is the law of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat of it. And every servant of anyone, and one bought with money, you shall circumcise him, and then he shall eat of it,” and so on. Following what has been set out, this is a third law, which the Lord spoke again besides the two laws. Attend to the precision of Scripture: the Lord did not speak this law about the Passover at the beginning. For if he had said, while they were still in Egypt, before Israel set out from Egypt, “No foreigner shall eat of it; and every servant of anyone and one bought with money you shall circumcise, and then he shall eat of it,” the great mixed crowd that went out of Egypt would not have gone out. He kept this law back, then, so that after those who wished had gone out, another law might be given. And a little later. If we allegorize these things of our soul, we shall say that the house-born are the reasonings that have grown up with us and been cultivated, having begun to take their stand from innate notions; those bought with money are all that come to us from outside through teaching, from the sciences. He says, then, that all are to be circumcised and cleansed, both the house-born and the bought. But we must take in no foreigner, as those do who admit a foreign doctrine; for he does not accept a foreigner, who would profane the feast of the Lord. And a little later. For if you eat the words of God in the church and eat also in the synagogue of the Jews, you transgress the commandment that says, “It shall be eaten in one house.” And if you partake of the words of God in one house, the church, and then, leaving it, you undertake to partake of God in a heretical synagogue,

although the commandment says, “It shall be eaten in one house,” you do not eat in one house. Understand, then, the one house to be the church; never, then, eat of the sheep when you have gone outside the church. [Exod 12:46] “And you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house.” One must not present the church's teaching outside the church, just as one must not carry the meat outside the house; I mean, into a synagogue of Jews or of heretics; for it is like throwing pearls before swine. [Exod 12:48] “No uncircumcised person shall eat of it.” Every intelligible offspring of the soul that goes beyond material things (the material are the female) must be circumcised and cleansed, so that one may then partake of the flesh of the Passover. And the proselyte becomes like a native of the land; for God does not prefer noble seed, but accepts choice. [Of the same.] He calls uncircumcised in the flesh the one who does not circumcise the things of the flesh, just as uncircumcised in the eyes the one who looks at what he should not. [Of the same.] See that none of you is uncircumcised in heart, that none has failed to be circumcised with the circumcisions which the word teaches. And what are these? Some are reproached for being uncircumcised in their ears; and all who are not circumcised in hearing are unclean. Uncircumcised in lips is the one who does not cut away contrary and unclean words. So also one may call uncircumcised in the flesh the one who does not circumcise the deeds of the flesh; and uncircumcised in the eyes the one who looks at what he should not and does not cleanse his sight; and uncircumcised in the flesh the one who does what he should not. [Exod 13:20] “And the sons of Israel set out from Succoth and camped at Etham beside the desert.” In Numbers it is said that the sons of Israel camped “from Boutha to the mouth of Hiroth, which is opposite Baal-zephon, toward the north.” [Exod 14:7] “And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the cavalry of the Egyptians, and tristatai over all.” Those able to fight against three; or those who stand in the battle line in the third rank, after the front-rank man and the second-rank man. Others say that they made chariots large enough for battle to hold three, so that one drives and two fight; or those mounted on three horses, for in wars the ancients rode out as charioteers drawn by two or three horses. Or he calls tristates the one who stands third when the king is seated, that is, who has the third seat; as David was beside Saul, as you will find in the first book of Kingdoms. [Exod 15:25] “There God set for him ordinances and judgments, and there he tested him.” When God tests, he tests for benefit, not to do harm; therefore it was also said, “God is untempted by evils,” as the word also adds a little later: “If you listen attentively to the voice of the Lord your God, every disease which I brought upon the

Egyptians I will not bring upon you.” The one who bears trials nobly, then, is crowned. But it is otherwise with the devil: he tempts so as to put to death those who obey him. And God tests, not as ignorant of what will be, but as giving man leave to do what he wills, because of his free will. [Exod 16:23] “This is the word which the Lord spoke: Tomorrow is the Sabbath, a holy rest to the Lord.” I set down what is said about the Sabbath, first according to the letter, so that they may see what the letter signifies; and second according to the higher sense, in which I would say that a day of Sabbath has arrived for the righteous man who has put an end to the works of the world and glorifies God and is at leisure: neither departing from the place in which he stands, Christ, nor kindling fire, in the sense of committing no sin, nor lifting burdens. Every sin is a burden heavier than a mountain; therefore the Psalmist said, “Like a heavy burden they weighed upon me.” And another account of the Sabbath would be that in which “a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God,” a sacred and holy rest. The one who has done all his works is judged worthy of that Sabbath, being at leisure for nothing but the contemplation of truth and wisdom. These things we have set forth because Moses here mentions keeping the Sabbath. [Exod 17:6] “And you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it.” Christ is likened to a rock because he is unshaken and immovable; for the divine and supreme nature is firmly fixed in the good. [Exod 20:5–6] “For I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, repaying the sins of fathers upon children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Whom has this text not troubled? If the father sinned, then the son and the third and fourth generation receive the sin; so that some even accuse the God who gave the laws, while others do not accuse him, but truly hope for some such thing and expect that their sons will receive the penalty of their sins. The Jews think this, without exchanging their God for another. The Samaritans suppose this, as they too think they have a share in the one God. Those from the heresies, not content that a God who repays the sins of fathers into the bosom of their children can be good or just, say that the God of the law is not just, is not good, since he repays the sins of fathers upon the sons, but that there is another God greater than he. But the churchman neither hears what is said in a bodily way, like a Jew, nor fashions another God, like a heretic, but stands midway between both and says: These things are well written, but I do not know the meaning of what is written. Lift up your minds, then, all of you, and ask that it may be revealed to you how he is good who repays the sins of fathers upon children. Who are the fathers? Bring the Scriptures as witnesses; let the holy oracles

be examined. The Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ says to sinners: “You are of your father the devil, and you wish to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not stand in the truth.” So if anyone sins, he is of his father the devil, and for this reason the devil's sin is repaid upon the son. He, however, is the first sinner, who suggested the sin to me; and I am the second sinner, who did not cast out his will but accepted his working, when I ought to have stood armed with the full armour of God and holding the shield of faith, so that all the flaming darts of the evil one might be quenched by the shield of my faith. If, then, I sin, I do the things of the devil, who has cast into my heart that I should commit this sin or that. First I accept his dart, and when I have accepted it, then I accept him too. For so it is written in the case of Judas: Satan did not enter into him first, but first the devil had cast into the heart of Judas Simon Iscariot that he should betray him; then, after the morsel, Satan entered into him. So I have a father: if I am holy, God; if I am a sinner, I have the devil as father, and also, say, the one who worked in me directly, the Antichrist, or some angel of the devil, or a demon, whose working I accepted. In short, I have countless fathers if I become a sinner; just as, again, if I become righteous, my father is God, as the Saviour says: “Little children, yet a little while I am with you”; and again, “Daughter, your faith has saved you”; and again, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” So too I know other fathers, according to what is written to Abraham: “But you shall go to your fathers”; not to his fathers according to the flesh, for they were not faithful, they were not holy, as is clear from the history written about them. For if his father had been holy, it would not have been said to him, “Go out from your land and from your kindred and from your father's house.” For the word has the bodily sense, and it has the spiritual too. If you have understood who the fathers are, see now that it is you who receive the penalty, you who accepted the working from the devil, or from one of the spirits under him, and so sinned. Having become their son, then, you receive it from the good God, who visits you. For he does not visit your father, but visits you, and says to you, “Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear,” and so on; and he gives to you as one who is good. For he visits you, the son of the evil father, repaying the sins: “I will visit with a rod the transgressions” of you saints, “and with scourges their iniquities.” Why? So that “I may not scatter my mercy from them.” For when he

abandons someone, he no longer punishes him nor scourges him. For he scourges not all, but “every son whom the Lord receives.” And it is said in the prophet about those who are utter sinners: “I will not punish your daughters when they commit sexual immorality, nor your brides when they commit adultery.” For so long a time, since the creation and foundation of the world, the devil has been sinning, and neither fire nor scourge comes upon him; for he is not worthy of the punishments that come from God. For the devil cannot say, “Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath,” and so on. Let each one, then, who is conscious of sins pray to be punished. It is good to have done nothing worthy of punishment; but if we have done something worthy of punishment, let us be punished in such a way that we receive it here, and after this rest in the bosom of Abraham. [Exod 21:1–2] “And these are my statutes, which you shall set before them: If you buy a Hebrew servant,” and so on. It is necessary to examine what law is, and what an ordinance, and what statutes, judgments, testimonies, and commandments are. Statutes, then, are what is said here, “If you buy a Hebrew servant,” and what follows about him; a judgment, that if a priest's daughter commits adultery she is to be burned with fire; commandments, “You shall have no other gods”; an ordinance, “Go down and charge the people, and let them wash their garments”; testimonies, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today.” [Exod 21:2] “Six years he shall serve you; but in the seventh year he shall go out free, for nothing.” The release in the seventh year, and also the rest from works on the Sabbath, signify the freedom given to us in grace through Christ. [Exod 21:6] “His master shall bring him to the judgment seat of God.” Aquila and Symmachus said “to the gods.” They call the judges gods, and their vote God's judgment seat. [Exod 23:14–16] “Three times in the year keep a feast to me. Keep the feast of unleavened bread; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time of the month of new things, for in it you came out of Egypt. You shall not appear before me empty. And you shall keep the feast of the harvest of the first-fruits of your works.” The feasts of God, then, for those who have the Spirit, are spiritual; and no earthy man keeps the feasts spiritually. “For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?” not to quote what follows. An earthy man cannot keep spiritual feasts, just as a spiritual man cannot keep an earthy feast. And a little later. What is the month of new things? If you say the perceptible fruits, the month of new things has not yet come when the year, say, is late. And if there should ever be a year in which the earth bears no fruits at all, can we keep the feast in the month of new things, as God commanded those who keep the feast? Yet the feast must be kept every year. I raise a difficulty again about the second law too, concerning the second feast. For it says, “the feast of the harvest of the first-fruits.” If someone sows, and his fruits come not first but last,

he could not keep the beginning of the harvest of first-fruits; for you must have produce in order to be able to keep the feast. And what if I have no land? How could I keep this feast, when the wording says, “And you shall keep the feast of the harvest of the first-fruits of your works, whatever you sow in your field”? I did not sow, I am a builder; I did not sow, I am a weaver; I have no field; how can I keep the second feast? And the same applies to the third: “And the feast of completion at the end of the year.” And after other things. What does the word mean to tell us when it commands us to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the month of new things? Put off the old man with his deeds. And so that you may keep the feast in the month of new things, become new yourself too, so that the month of the feast of new things may be your month as well. For this month belongs to new things, not to old. How, then, will you too need to become new? Having understood the feasts, the feast of new things, the apostle Paul says: “Having put off the old man with his deeds, and having put on the new, which is being renewed unto knowledge according to the image of the one who created him.” So, in order to celebrate the feast in the month of new things, you must become new and put off all oldness. Then, what feast do you keep first? That it is the feast of unleavened bread, learn from the Apostle: “For Christ our Passover,” he says, “was sacrificed for us; so let us keep the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” At the same time gather together what is legislated about the feast of unleavened bread, and you will see the unreasonableness of those who do not attend to the letter as spiritual and who despise spiritual things as useless. [Exod 23:15] “You shall not appear before me empty.” Know that every human being is either empty or full. For if he does not have the Holy Spirit, does not have knowledge of the Creator, has not received the life, Jesus Christ; if he does not know the Father in heaven, does not live according to the Word, is not self-controlled according to the heavenly law, does not act justly, such a one is empty. But if he has made room for the God who said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God,” he is not empty, but full. [Exod 23:17] “Three times in the year every male of yours shall appear before the Lord your God.” What the text means I would say thus: what we do is either female or male. If what we do is female, it is either bodily or fleshly; for when we sow to the flesh, we make the offspring of the soul female, not male, but unnerved, soft and material. If, however, looking at eternal things and having our mind on the better, we bear the fruits of the Spirit, all our offspring are male. The things, then, brought before the

[Exod 20:4] “You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor a likeness of anything.” An idol is one thing and a likeness another. It is a likeness if you make, by craftsmanship or by painting, a likeness of a fish or a quadruped or a wild beast. An idol is whatever the soul makes when it forms images not from existing things as originals; for instance, the animal mixed of man and horse.

[Lev 1:1] “And he called Moses.” The book is named Leviticus because what concerns the priesthood and the sacrifices, and all such things as God commanded, is contained in this Leviticus. Exodus too contains God's legislation; but how the priests were consecrated by anointing, and how the tabernacle was set up and fitted together, and many other things, Leviticus narrates. If it contains some other things as well, that is not surprising; for the title, Leviticus, indicates what is most important in it. [Of the same.] Those who do not look rightly into the account of the sacrifices either despise it as a mean legislation with nothing worthy of the Creator, or impiously condemn the Creator himself as legislating mean things. But one who has understood the words of David and of the Apostle, the one saying, “Uncover my eyes, and I will perceive the wonders of your law,” and the other crying out, “The law is spiritual,” can see that the teachings hidden in these things are worthy of God. [Lev 1:2] “Any man of you, if he brings gifts to the Lord.” We have observed in many places of the Scriptures that “gifts” is used of living creatures and “sacrifices” of things without life, as is said in Genesis: “And God looked upon Abel and upon his gifts, but to Cain and his sacrifices he paid no attention.” This too must be said, that of living offerings it says, “Any man of you, if he brings gifts,” but of lifeless ones, “if a soul.” In the lifeless offering the soul is named, so that of the irrational only the rational is left, and of the lifeless, overcome by the fire, only the living remains. [Lev 1:5] “They shall pour the blood upon the altar.” The altar of burnt offering is the one on which the whole burnt sacrifices are offered; the altar of incense is the inner altar. [Of the same.] Since the Jews delighted in sacrifices, having become accustomed to them in Egypt, as the making of the calf in the desert also testifies, God permitted them to offer these to himself, curbing in this way the disorderly impulses of polytheism and keeping them from sacrificing to demons.