21. Such, then, being the state of the case, the apostle, elevating our power of discernment (above the letter), says somewhere, "Behold Israel after the flesh," [2930] as if there were an Israel "according to the Spirit." And in another place he says, "For they who are the children of the flesh are not the children of God;" nor are "they all Israel who are of Israel;" [2931] nor is "he a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision' which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who is one inwardly;' and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter." [2932] For if the judgment respecting the "Jew inwardly" be adopted, we must understand that, as there is a "bodily" race of Jews, so also is there a race of "Jews inwardly," the soul having acquired this nobility for certain mysterious reasons. Moreover, there are many prophecies which predict regarding Israel and Judah what is about to befall them. And do not such promises as are written concerning them, in respect of their being mean in expression, and manifesting no elevation (of thought), nor anything worthy of the promise of God, need a mystical interpretation? And if the "spiritual" promises are announced by visible signs, then they to whom the promises are made are not "corporeal." And not to linger over the point of the Jew who is a Jew "inwardly," nor over that of the Israelite according to the "inner man"--these statements being sufficient for those who are not devoid of understanding--we return to our subject, and say that Jacob is the father of the twelve patriarchs, and they of the rulers of the people; and these, again, of the other Israelites. Do not, then, the "corporeal" Israelites refer their descent to the rulers of the people, and the rulers of the people to the patriarchs, and the patriarchs to Jacob, and those still higher up; while are not the "spiritual" Israelites, of whom the "corporeal" Israelites were the type, sprung from the families, and the families from the tribes, and the tribes from some one individual whose descent is not of a "corporeal" but of a better kind,--he, too, being born of Isaac, and he of Abraham,--all going back to Adam, whom the apostle declares to be Christ? For every beginning of those families which have relation to God as to the Father of all, took its commencement lower down with Christ, who is next to the God and Father of all, [2933] being thus the Father of every soul, as Adam is the father of all men. And if Eve also is intended by the apostle to refer to the Church, it is not surprising that Cain, who was born of Eve, and all after him, whose descent goes back to Eve, should be types of the Church, inasmuch as in a pre-eminent sense they are all descended from the Church.
22. Now, if the statements made to us regarding Israel, and its tribes and its families, are calculated to impress us, when the Saviour says, "I was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," [2934] we do not understand the expression as the Ebionites do, who are poor in understanding (deriving their name from the poverty of their intellect--"Ebion" signifying "poor" in Hebrew), so as to suppose that the Saviour came specially to the "carnal" Israelites; for "they who are the children of the flesh are not the children of God." [2935] Again, the apostle teaches regarding Jerusalem as follows: "The Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." [2936] And in another Epistle: "But ye are come unto mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and to the Church of the first-born which are written in heaven." [2937] If, then, Israel is among the race of souls, [2938] and if there is in heaven a city of Jerusalem, it follows that the cities of Israel have for their metropolis the heavenly Jerusalem, and it consequently is the metropolis of all Judea. Whatever, therefore, is predicted of Jerusalem, and spoken of it, if we listen to the words of Paul as those of God, and of one who utters wisdom, we must understand the Scriptures as speaking of the heavenly city, and of the whole territory included within the cities of the holy land. For perhaps it is to these cities that the Saviour refers us, when to those who have gained credit by having managed their "pounds" well, He assigns the presidency over five or ten cities. If, therefore, the prophecies relating to Judea, and Jerusalem, and Israel, and Judah, and Jacob, not being understood by us in a "carnal" sense, indicate some such mysteries (as already mentioned), it will follow also that the predictions concerning Egypt and the Egyptians, Babylon and the Babylonians, Tyre and the Tyrians, Sidon and the Sidonians, or the other nations, are spoken not only of these "bodily" Egyptians, and Babylonians, and Tyrians, and Sidonians, but also of their "spiritual" (counterparts). For if there be "spiritual" Israelites, it follows that there are also "spiritual" Egyptians and Babylonians. For what is related in Ezekiel concerning Pharaoh king of Egypt does not at all apply to the case of a certain man who ruled or was said to rule over Egypt, as will be evident to those who give it careful consideration. Similarly, what is said about the ruler of Tyre cannot be understood of a certain man who ruled over Tyre. And what is said in many places, and especially in Isaiah, of Nebuchadnezzar, cannot be explained of that individual. For the man Nebuchadnezzar neither fell from heaven, nor was he the morning star, nor did he arise upon the earth in the morning. Nor would any man of understanding interpret what is said in Ezekiel about Egypt--viz., that in forty years it should be laid desolate, so that the footstep of man should not be found thereon, and that the ravages of war should be so great that the blood should run throughout the whole of it, and rise to the knees--of that Egypt which is situated beside the Ethiopians whose bodies are blackened by the sun.
23. And perhaps as those here, dying according to the death common to all, are, in consequence of the deeds done here, so arranged as to obtain different places according to the proportion of their sins, if they should be deemed worthy of the place called Hades; [2939] so those there dying, so to speak, descend into this Hades, being judged deserving of different abodes--better or worse--throughout all this space of earth, and (of being descended) from parents of different kinds, [2940] so that an Israelite may sometimes fall among Scythians, and an Egyptian descend into Judea. And yet the Saviour came to gather together the lost sheep of the house of Israel; but many of the Israelites not having yielded to His teaching, those from the Gentiles were called....And these points, as we suppose, have been concealed in the histories. For "the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." [2941] Let us notice, then, whether the apparent and superficial and obvious meaning of Scripture does not resemble a field filled with plants of every kind, while the things lying in it, and not visible to all, but buried, as it were, under the plants that are seen, are the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge; which the Spirit through Isaiah [2942] calls dark and invisible and concealed, God alone being able to break the brazen gates that conceal them, and to burst the iron bars that are upon the gates, in order that all the statements in the book of Genesis may be discovered which refer to the various genuine kinds, and seeds, as it were, of souls, which stand nearly related to Israel, or at a distance from it; and the descent into Egypt of the seventy souls, that they may there become as the "stars of heaven in multitude." But since not all who are of them are the light of the world--"for not all who are of Israel are Israel" [2943] --they become from seventy souls as the "sand that is beside the sea-shore innumerable."
[2812] te enargeia ton blepomenon.
[2813] oude ton didaskalon pleonazonton.
[2814] te dia 'Iesou theosebeia.
[2815] meizon e kata anthropon to pragma einai.
[2816] chresmous.
[2817] Matt. x. 18.
[2818] Cf. Matt. vii. 22, 23.
[2819] soteria dogmata.
[2820] proepheteuthe ho Christos.
[2821] ek ton meron.
[2822] epidemese.
[2823] ouk eti basileis 'Ioudaian echrematisan.
[2824] Cf. Hos. iii. 4. Quoted from the Septuagint.
[2825] Termed by Rufinus "Patriarch."
[2826] Deut. xxxii.
[2827] Deut. xxxii. 21.
[2828] Cf. 1 Cor. i. 26-28.
[2829] Ps. xlv. 1, 2.
[2830] Cf. Ps. lxxii. 7.
[2831] Ps. lxxii. 8.
[2832] eteke kai en gastri esche, kai eteken huion.
[2833] Cf. Isa. viii. 8, 9.
[2834] Cf. Mic. v. 2 with Matt. ii. 6.
[2835] Cf. Dan. ix. 25.
[2836] Cf. Job xl. and xli.
[2837] to mega ketos.
[2838] Cf. Luke x. 19.
[2839] hos en epitom*.
[2840] dia touto tes apo ton ethnon ekloges kekratekota.
[2841] ichnos enthousiasmou.
[2842] to huper anthropon ton noematon.
[2843] ho technikos logos.
[2844] Sphodra tou pros ti kai heneka tinos heuriskomenou tois touton epimelomenois, peri tas hormas, kai tas phantasias, kai phuseis ton zoon, kai tas kataskeuas ton somaton.
[2845] chreokopeitai.
[2846] en eutelei kai eukataphroneto lexei.
[2847] kathemaxeumenai.
[2848] 1 Cor. ii. 4.
[2849] tes stoicheioseos.
[2850] entupothesetai.
[2851] chronois aioniois.
[2852] hos en epidrome.
[2853] ta hagia anagnosmata.
[2854] pos dei ephodeuein.
[2855] hoi idiotai ton ek tes peritomes.
[2856] aisthetos.
[2857] Cf. Zech. ix. 10.
[2858] Cf. Isa. vii. 15.
[2859] Cf. Isa. xi. 6, 7.
[2860] para to deon.
[2861] Cf. Jer. xv. 14.
[2862] Cf. Ex. xx. 5.
[2863] Cf. 1 Sam. xv. 11.
[2864] Cf. Isa. xlv. 7.
[2865] Cf. Amos iii. 6.
[2866] Cf. Mic. i. 12.
[2867] Cf. 1 Sam. xvi. 14; xviii. 10.
[2868] idiotikon.
[2869] epipnoias.
[2870] kanonos.
[2871] tupous einai ta gegrammena.
[2872] 1 Cor. ii. 12, 13, and 16 ad fin.
[2873] Murion hoson kakei, hos di opes, megiston kai pleiston noematon ou bracheian aphormen parechonton.
[2874] aporrheta.
[2875] pantele musteria.
[2876] Luke xi. 52.
[2877] The Septuagint: Kai su de apograpsai auta seauto trissos, eis bsulen kai gnosin epi to platos tes kardias sou ; didako oun se alethe logon, kai gnosin alethe hupakouein, tou apokrinesthai se logous aletheias tois proballomenois soi. The Vulgate reads: Ecce, descripsi eam tibi tripliciter, in cogitationibus et scientia, ut ostenderem tibi firmitatem et eloquia veritatis, respondere ex his illis, qui miserunt te.
[2878] Cf. note 4, ut supra.
[2879] 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7.
[2880] paranomo numphio.
[2881] ton kato noematon.
[2882] pepoliomenois.
[2883] Cf. 1 Cor. ix. 9 and Deut. xxv. 4.
[2884] Cf. 1 Cor. ix. 9, 10.
[2885] Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7, 8.
[2886] 1 Cor. x. 11.
[2887] 1 Cor. x. 4.
[2888] Cf. Ex. xxv. 40 and Heb. viii. 5.
[2889] allegoroumena.
[2890] Col. ii. 16.
[2891] Heb. viii. 5.
[2892] hos theion andra.
[2893] Rom. xi. 4; cf. 1 Kings xix. 18. [3 Kings according to the Septuagint and Vulgate enumeration. S.]
[2894] tinas apo tou theiou genous, i.e., Israelites.
[2895] peri ton aistheton demiourgematon.
[2896] glaphuron.
[2897] autothen.
[2898] hupo tes lexeos helkomenoi to agogon akraton echouses.
[2899] en te diegesei tes peri ton noeton akolouthias.
[2900] kata to soma.
[2901] Oude touton pante akraton ten historian ton prosuphasmenon kata to somatikon echonton, me gegenemenon ; oude ten nomothesian kai tas entolas pantos to eulogon emphainonta . One ms. reads gegenemenen, referring to historian, on which one editor remarks, "Hic et in sequentibus imploro fidem codicum!"
[2902] dia dokouses istorias kai ou somatikos gegenemenes.
[2903] kata ten lexin.
[2904] hoson epi to kath' heautous tereisthai.
[2905] Gen. xvii. 14.
[2906] Ex. xvi. 29.
[2907] psuchras paradoseis.
[2908] topon hekasto einai dischilious pecheis.
[2909] Eis aperantologian eleluthasi.
[2910] Luke x. 4.
[2911] ei me ara peponthos ti para phusin tunchanoi.
[2912] 1 Cor. vii. 18.
[2913] eike.
[2914] kai te kata to rheton chresimon nomothesia.
[2915] gegonen.
[2916] kata to aistheton.
[2917] Cf. Gen. xlviii. 22 and Josh. xxiv. 32.
[2918] Cf. Ex. xx. 12 and Eph. vi. 2, 3.
[2919] choris pases anagoges.
[2920] Cf. Ex. xx. 13-16.
[2921] [Matt. v. 22.]
[2922] Matt. v. 34.
[2923] 1 Thess. v. 14.
[2924] Ei kai para tois philotimoterois dunatai sozein hekaston auton, meta tou me atheteisthai ten kata to rheton hentolen, bathe Theou sophias.
[2925] perielkusthesetai.
[2926] John v. 39.
[2927] hoproegoumenos.
[2928] Olon ton noun philotimeteon katalambanein, suneironta ton peri ton kata ten lexin adunaton logon noetos tois ou monon ouk adunatois, alla kai alethesi kata ten historian, sunallegoroumenois tois hoson epi te lexei, me gegenemenois.