書信集（CSEL） 第 1 章 第 36/85 段

'I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses, in the cloud and in the sea; and all did eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ.' If therefore a part of the history of the journey out of Egypt is understood spiritually, then the rest also, which by the Apostle were passed over for the shortness of time, are proved to be of the same understanding. For the same prophet who had said in another place, 'I have dwelt with the tents of Kedar; my soul has long been a sojourner,' not being able to bear the absence of the holy land, groans tearfully and says:

These things I remembered, and poured out my soul within me, until I pass over into the place of the wondrous tabernacle, even to the house of God, with the voice of exultation and thanksgiving, the sound of one feasting; and in another psalm: 'Uncover my eyes, and I shall behold the wondrous things of thy law.' Paul too says: 'The law is spiritual'; and the Lord himself: 'If ye believed Moses, ye would also believe me; for he wrote of me'; and the Gospel according to Luke: 'Then beginning from Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things which had been spoken concerning himself.'

Therefore let the Jews, who are little children and cannot swallow solid food but are still nourished on the milk of infancy, read of a fleshly Pharaoh and the Red Sea, through which one sails to India, and manna like coriander seed, and all that is written let them hear in a bodily sense: the leprosy of houses and the leprosy of the skin and of the warp, the ox that kills a man and the beast of burden guilty of adultery, and the ear of the Hebrew, who out of desire to remain a slave for the sake of his wife and children has his ear bored through with an awl.

But we, forsaking Capernaum—once a most beautiful field—and going out with Jesus into the wilderness, are fed with his loaves: if we are foolish and like beasts of burden, with barley loaves; if a rational creature, with wheaten loaves ground from the grain of corn, which, falling into the earth and dying, brought forth much fruit. Egypt was smitten with nine plagues, Pharaoh was broken so that he might let the people of God go; at the last he loses his firstborn, that the firstborn of Israel might be consecrated to the Lord. Those who before had wished to hold them back now urgently drive them out. The destroyer passes by and dares not touch the pastoral land of Goshen, watered by the rains; for their doorposts were marked with the blood of the lamb, and by that deed proclaimed:

'The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is marked upon us.' Whence also that very solemnity is called Phase, which we may render 'passage,' because, passing from worse things to better, we leave behind the dark Egypt. But now it is time that, fulfilling what was promised, we pursue in order the stations of Israel. It is written in the last part of the book of Numbers, which among the Hebrews is called 'Vaiedabber': 'These are the encampments of the children of Israel, who went out from the land of Egypt by their companies under the hand of Moses and Aaron'—which the Greeks call 'aphaireseis' (departures), but we, on account of the property of our language, have more expressively rendered 'mansions,' or, since it is spoken of an army, 'encampments.'

Now a catalogue of the stations is made from the first to the last, and together they are numbered forty-two, concerning which Matthew speaks: 'From Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the carrying away into Babylon fourteen generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon to Christ fourteen generations'—that is, forty-two generations in all. Through these runs the true Hebrew, who hastens to pass from earth to heaven and, leaving behind the Egypt of the world, enters the land of promise.

Nor is it any wonder if under that sacred number we come to the kingdom of heaven, under which the Lord and Saviour came down from the first patriarch to the Virgin—as it were to the Jordan, which, flowing with full stream, overflowed with the graces of the Holy Spirit. And that they are written as having gone out 'under the hand of Moses and Aaron,' understand the law and the priesthood, works and the worship of God, each of which has need of the other. For it profits nothing to practise the virtues unless you know the Creator, nor will the veneration of God avail unto salvation unless you fulfil the precepts of the Maker. With these two hands, as with two seraphim, we break forth into confession of the Holy Trinity, saying: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.'

Now they set out from Ramesses on the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians. And the Egyptians were burying those of them whom the Lord had smitten, every firstborn in the land of Egypt; and upon their gods the Lord executed judgements. Ramesses is by some interpreted 'turbulent commotion,' or 'bitterness and the stirring of a moth'; but we more truly reckon it to be rendered 'thunder of joy.'

To this city, which was on the farthest borders of Egypt, was gathered the people who longed to go out into the wilderness, because, forsaking the tumult of the world, it was being moved away from its former vices and from the moth of sins that had before been devouring it, turning all its bitterness into sweetness, so that it might hear the voice of God thundering from above upon Mount Sinai. And that the divine words and the utterances of the Scriptures are called 'thunders' in the wheel of this world and age, the psalmist declares, saying: 'The voice of thy thunder was in the wheel'; and those who heard the voice of God the Father at the Saviour's baptism thought it had thundered.

And when we have been stirred by the trumpet of the Gospel and roused by the joy of the thunder, we go out in the first month, when winter is past and gone away, when the beginning of spring is come, when the earth is in travail, when all things are renewed; and we go out on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the morrow of the Passover, when the moon of the month is full, after eating the spotless lamb, with our feet shod, according to the Apostle, and our loins girt with chastity, and staves prepared in our hands.

For although in Egypt, keeping the Passover on the fourteenth of the month, we ate the lamb, yet the full light is then fulfilled for us when with a high hand we leave Ramesses—which is called 'high,' either because it smote Egypt or because it protected Israel—while the Egyptians look on, who marvel that we go forth from the world and are tormented with envy, and afterwards, wishing to hold us back, are choked in their persecutions; when the Egyptians also bury their firstborn, and dead fathers, oppressed by earthly works, weigh down their dead sons. To me the firstborn of the Egyptians seem to be the doctrines of the philosophers, by which they held men deceived and ensnared. And when the living Israel has escaped these, they surround their dead with them, lest they imitate the example of those who go out.

Further, as to what follows—'upon their gods he executed judgements,' or, as the Septuagint rendered, 'vengeances'—the Hebrews affirm this, that on the night when the people went out, all the temples in Egypt were destroyed, whether by an earthquake or by the stroke of lightnings. But spiritually we learn that, as we go out from Egypt, the idols of errors collapse and every cult of perverse doctrines is shaken. 'And the children of Israel setting out from Ramesses encamped in Succoth.' The second station. Here they bake unleavened loaves and first pitch their tents, whence also the place received its name from the thing. For Succoth is interpreted in our tongue 'tabernacles' or 'tents.'

And for this reason, in the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, is the solemnity of tabernacles. When therefore we have gone out from Egypt, we first pitch tents, knowing that we must press on to things beyond. Then we eat not of the leaven of Egypt, of the leaven of malice and wickedness, but we feed on the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, fulfilling in deed the Lord's precepts: 'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.' In this station it is enjoined upon us that we be ever mindful of the going out from Egypt, that we celebrate the passage, that is, the Phase of the Lord, that we consecrate to the Lord the firstborn of our womb and of all our virtues, in place of the firstborn of Egypt which were smitten. 'And setting out from Succoth they encamped in Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness.'

The third station is offered after the tabernacles, in which the Lord is first seen by night in a pillar of fire and by day in a pillar of cloud, that he might go before the people and become the guide of the journey. Etham in our language means 'strength' and 'perfection,' of which David also sings: 'Thou didst dry up the rivers of Etham,' that is, 'the strong ones.' It is a great strength to leave Egypt and to abide in the farthest wilderness. From this we understand that the place Succoth was still near the regions of Egypt. For in that it is said 'which is in the farthest borders of the wilderness,' it is shown to be on the confines of the desert and of Egypt.

Let us prepare strength for ourselves, let us take up perfect vigour, so that amid the darkness of errors and the confusion of night the light of the knowledge of Christ may appear. Let our day too have a cloud to protect it, that with these as guides we may be able to come to the holy land. 'And setting out from Etham they turned back to Phiahiroth, which is over against Baal-zephon, and encamped over against Migdol.' The fourth station is Phiahiroth, which is interpreted 'mouth of the noble ones,' and is written with the letter heth. Some wrongly think that hiroth means 'villages,' and the error is manifest, since in place of the aforesaid element they read the letter ain.

Baal-zephon is turned into our language as 'lord of the north,' or 'ascent of the watchtower,' or 'having hidden things'; and further Migdol means 'greatness' or 'tower.' Having therefore taken up strength, we are ennobled in the Lord, and we despise the hidden things of the idol Baal-zephon, and we shun its magnificence and its towering pride. For it is not from the south, whence the Lord comes, nor from the noonday, in which the Bridegroom reclines among the flowers, but it is the possessor of the north, of the most frigid wind, from which evils blaze up over the earth; which, though it is most cold, is called by the name 'right hand,' falsely assuming to itself the appellation of virtue and of the right, though it is wholly on the left.

'And setting out from Phiahiroth they passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and walked a three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and encamped from Etham.' The fifth station is Marah, which is interpreted 'bitterness.' They could not come to the depths of the Red Sea and see Pharaoh perishing with his army, until after they had in their mouth the noble things—that is, in confession of the Lord the virtues—when they believed God and Moses his servant, and heard from him: 'The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace'; and, as victors, with Miriam leading the song upon timbrels, the bodies resounded the chants of the triumphant: 'Let us sing to the Lord; for gloriously is he honoured; the horse and the rider he hath cast into the sea.'

After the preaching of the Gospel, after the tabernacles of those who pass over, after strength taken up, after the nobility of confession, perils again present themselves. From this we learn that snares are ever to be guarded against and the mercy of God to be invoked, that we may be able to escape the pursuing Pharaoh and that he may be drowned for us in the spiritual baptism. As they came out from the Red Sea, the wilderness of Shur met them, which is also called the wilderness of Etham, in which, going for three days, they had no water and came to Marah, which received its name from bitterness. The spring had water, but had not sweetness. The people murmur, seeing the waters and not being able to drink.

Understand Marah to be the waters of the killing letter, into which, if the confession of the cross be cast and the sacraments of the Lord's passion be joined, everything that seemed undrinkable and sad and harsh is turned into sweetness. Whence also it is written: 'God appointed for the people a law and judgements, and tested him.' For where there is greatness of grace, there is greatness of trial. And be not terrified if after victory you come to bitterness, because those who keep the true Passover eat the unleavened bread with bitter herbs, and trial brings forth proof, proof hope, and hope gives birth to salvation.

Among physicians too a certain antidote that tempers noxious humours takes its name from bitterness, which is shown to be sweet, restoring health; just as, on the contrary, pleasure and luxury end in bitterness, as the Scripture says: 'Which for a time makes thy throat fat, but at the last thou shalt find it more bitter than gall.' 'And setting out from Marah they came into Elim, where were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and there they encamped.' The sixth station is turned into 'rams and strong ones.' How beautiful the order of the virtues! After victory, trial; after trial, refreshment.

From bitterness we come to the rams and the robust leaders of the flock, whom the Lord in Ezekiel says he will judge, because some of them have trampled the waters and pressed upon the sheep, while others have been gentle and peaceable. Of these the twenty-eighth psalm also speaks: 'Bring to the Lord, ye sons of God, bring to the Lord the offspring of rams.' We hold the lodging of the sixth station. Never before did the purest springs meet us, save where the teaching of the masters bursts forth. And there is no doubt that the discourse is about the twelve apostles, from whose springs the derived waters water the drought of the whole world.

Beside these waters grew seventy palm trees, which we also understand to be teachers of the second rank, as the evangelist Luke testifies that there were twelve apostles and seventy disciples of a lesser grade, whom the Lord also sent before him two by two. Of these Paul too relates that the Lord appeared first to the twelve, then to all the apostles, wishing us to understand some as the first and others as the second disciples of Christ. Let us drink from springs of this kind and, devouring the sweet fruits of victory, let us prepare for the remaining stations. 'And setting out from Elim they encamped at the Red Sea.' The Red Sea, which in Hebrew is called 'yam suph,' is the seventh station.

And it is asked how, after the crossing of the Red Sea and the spring of Marah and Elim, they again came to the Red Sea—unless perhaps, as they went on their way, some gulf of the sea met them, beside which they encamped. For it is one thing to cross through the sea, and another to pitch tents near it. From this we are admonished that, even after evangelical discipline, amid the sweetest foods of triumphs, the sea sometimes appears to us and past perils are set before our eyes—although there is much difference between crossing the sea and seeing the sea from afar. The word 'yam suph' among the Hebrews is composed of 'sea' and 'red'; and 'suph' is called both 'red' and 'rush' (bulrush).

Whence we may suppose that they came to a certain marsh and lake, which was full of sedge and rushes. And that the Holy Scripture calls all gatherings of waters 'sea,' there is no doubt. This station is not found in Exodus, but in its place it is written that they came from the Red Sea to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month of their going out from Egypt—that is, the thirty-first day after they went out from Ramesses. 'And setting out from the Red Sea they encamped in the wilderness of Sin.' The eighth station, though according to the order of Exodus it is the seventh.

But it should be known that the whole wilderness up to Mount Sinai is called Sin, and that from the entire province even the place of a single station has taken its name, just as Moab is the name both of a city and of a province. In this wilderness are five stations: yam suph, of which we spoke above, and the wilderness of Sin, and Dophkah, and Alush, and Rephidim, of which we shall speak in what follows. Now Sin is interpreted 'bush' or 'hatred,' each of which serves the mystical understandings: that, after we have come to that place where the Lord is to speak with us, we deserve the great hatred of the enemy. Then we shall see the bush burning and not consumed, the Church inflamed with persecutions and, with the Lord speaking in her, not perishing.

And note that in the eighth station, in which are our winepresses—whence the eighth psalm is prefaced with this title—we take up the wilderness of the bush, because 'more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath a husband.' 'And setting out from the wilderness of Sin they encamped in Dophkah.' The ninth station. This name among the Hebrews is called 'krousma,' that is, a knocking, according to which the Lord also says: 'Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.' But in the book of Hebrew Names we rendered it 'adhesion and remission,' which ought not to disturb the reader. Nor let him think that we write things at variance; for there we set it forth according to what is commonly held, if the middle word be written with the letter beth;

but here in the Hebrew volume I found it written with phe, which element sounds rather 'knocking' than 'glue.' And the sense is manifest: after the answers of the Lord, after the eighth number of the resurrection of Christ, we begin to knock at the sacraments. I would ask the prudent and diligent reader to know that I translate the names according to the Hebrew verity; otherwise, in the Greek and Latin codices we have found all things corrupted, save a few.

And I wonder that certain learned and ecclesiastical men have wished to translate things that are not in the Hebrew, and to seek out fabricated explanations from ill-interpreted words—as here for Dophkah they read Raphaka, putting one letter for another, because res and daleth are distinguished by a small point, and they interpret it 'healing,' and thence pursue a similar tropology. 'And setting out from Dophkah they encamped in Alush.' The tenth station is not found in Exodus, and is believed to be contained in the wilderness of Sin, the same book relating: 'The whole multitude of the children of Israel set out from the wilderness of Sin by their stations according to the mouth of the Lord, and came to Rephidim.' From this it is plain that several stations are indicated by the name of a single region.

Alush is interpreted 'leaven,' which a woman took and mingled with three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. In this wilderness the people murmur because of hunger, and turning, they behold afar in the cloud the glory of God, and receive in the evening the quail and in the morning of the next day the manna. And note that in the tenth station leaven is set, and after the eating of flesh manna is given, and the Scripture is fulfilled: 'Man ate the bread of angels.' 'And setting out from Alush they encamped in Rephidim; and there was no water there for the people.' The eleventh station, which I found violently interpreted in the book of Hebrew Names as 'he saw a mouth sufficient for them,' or certainly 'a vision of the mouth of the strong';

and it is better rendered 'the loosening of the strong' or 'the health of the strong,' or, according to the property of the Syriac tongue, 'the relaxing of the hands.' This too is read in Exodus after the departure from the wilderness of Sin. In it the people complain from the burning of thirst; a spring bursts from the rock of Horeb and flows out, and, because they tempted God, the place Rephidim was also allotted the name of 'temptation,' that is, 'Massah.' Moses ascends the mountain; Joshua fights against Amalek; at the sign of the cross the enemy is overcome; when the hands of him who prays are let down, the foe pursues as victor.

Moses sits upon the stone of Zechariah, which had seven eyes, and in the book of Samuel is called Eben-ezer, that is, 'the stone of help'; and both his hands Aaron and Hur—that is, 'the mountainous and the shining'—support. The adversary being overcome, Jethro comes upon them, brings Zipporah and both her sons, gives counsel of seventy elders, and, as a type of the Church gathered from the nations, the diminution of the law is fulfilled at the suggestion of the Gospel. And beautifully is Rephidim called 'the loosening' and 'the health of the strong,' either because of Amalek scattered or because of Israel healed.

But if Rephidim, according to the Syrians, sounds 'the relaxing of the hands,' we shall say that this name was imposed on the place because of the people's offence, in that it murmured against the Lord. These things we touch upon rather than expound, content to have briefly indicated that after the leaven—Alush—and the 'Massah' of the Church, manifold temptations of demons are wont to rise up against us. 'And setting out from Rephidim they pitched their camp in the wilderness of Sinai.' The twelfth station. Let the number of the apostles at once come into your mind. It is one among many, but the greater is not separated from all in order and excels in merit. They come to this place on the forty-seventh day, the Scripture saying:

'In the third month of the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt, on this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai; and setting out together from Rephidim they came into the desert of Sinai and encamped in the wilderness, and there Israel sat over against the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called him from the mountain, saying'—and the rest. And again: 'Go,' he says, 'to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow; and let them wash their garments and be ready against the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.' Which also was done.

And they washed their garments, and, having separated from intercourse with their wives, on the third day the Lord came down upon the mountain; and while it smoked and, with lightning, thunder, thick darkness, and the voice of the trumpet terrifying the hearts of mortals, Moses spoke and the Lord answered him. Let us reckon the number and we shall find that on the fiftieth day of Israel's going out from Egypt the law was given on the summit of Mount Sinai. Whence also the solemnity of Pentecost is celebrated, and afterwards the sacrament of the Gospel is fulfilled by the descent of the Holy Spirit; so that, as to the former people the law was given on the fiftieth day—in the true jubilee and the true year of remission and the true fifty and five hundred

denarii, which are remitted to debtors, the law was given—so upon the apostles too and those who were with them, constituted in the number of a hundred and twenty (the number of the Mosaic age), the Holy Spirit descended, and, the tongues being divided among the believers, the whole world was filled with the evangelical preaching. It would be long, if I wished to unfold what was enjoined in the law, how the tabernacle was fashioned, what variety of victims, what diversity of vessels, what vestments of the high priest, what ceremonies of priests and Levites, what they did, how the people was numbered:

this only will I say, that the middle part of Exodus and the whole book of Leviticus and no small precepts of Numbers, and the distribution of the people through the individual tribes, and the oblation of the princes, are described in this station; and the disputation of many volumes could scarcely suffice for this place. Now Sinai is interpreted 'bushes,' not one, as above in the wilderness of Sin, but several, so that there is a beginning, here a perfecting; there a solitary number, here a manifold one. For it is one thing to possess a single grace and another to possess all the graces. 'And setting out from the wilderness of Sinai they encamped at the graves of lust.' The thirteenth station, whose name is set forth with its interpretation, is among the Hebrews called 'Kibroth-hattaavah.'

Now the sense is that of the Gospel, that Jesus, having been baptized, was straightway led by the Spirit into the wilderness and was tempted by the devil. And so Israel too, after familiar converse with God, after it had abode by Mount Sinai for one year and four days, went out by a wondrous arrangement of the camp into the wilderness of Paran, which is interpreted 'wild ass' or 'wildness,' and there it succumbs to the evil beast, loathing the heavenly bread and desiring the flesh of the Egyptians, when a sudden fire devoured many, and by the intercession of Moses the devouring flame consumed only smoke. Then they receive quails and devour them even to nausea and vomiting.

Seventy elders are chosen, they go to the door of the tabernacle; two remain, Eldad and Medad, not from neglecting the command, but submissive in humility, since they judged themselves unworthy of the honour, wherefore, though absent, they prophesy. And when the people were sated, while the food was yet in their mouth, the wrath of God rose up upon them and slew their fat ones and fettered the elect of Israel, that they might not run swiftly to evil; wherefore the place was called 'graves of lust,' or, as we read in the Septuagint, 'monuments of desire.'

From all which we are taught, we who have dismissed worldly wisdom and despised the fleshpots of Egypt, not to murmur against the heavenly bread of the Scriptures, nor to seek the broths of the Egyptians, who are men of great flesh, but to seek the simple food of manna; otherwise, if we again desire those things, we shall devour even to nausea and shall straightway be tormented by the fire of the Lord, and our desire will be turned into tombs, so that we become whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful to men, but within are full of the bones of the dead and of all uncleanness. 'And setting out from the graves of lust they encamped in Hazeroth.' The fourteenth station in the wilderness of Paran, which is turned into 'courts.'

In this Aaron and Miriam murmur against Moses on account of the Ethiopian woman, and as a type of zeal against the Church gathered from the nations, the people of the Jews is drenched with the filth of leprosy, and does not return to the tabernacle and recover its former health, until it fulfil the appointed time of the fullness of the nations. And attend to this, prudent reader: that after virtue was consummated in the twelfth number, because Israel grew proud and at the graves of lust desired the Egyptian flesh, it again lays another foundation and enters the courts—that is, the vestibules—of virtue, showing us both that those who stand can fall, and that those who have fallen can rise again. Jesus is set for the ruin and resurrection of many, and he himself speaks through the prophet: