論首要原理 第 1 章 第 4/4 段

For the things that are true according to the history are far more numerous than those purely spiritual things that have been woven in.

And again, who would not say that the commandment which says,

"Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you," is useful and indeed to be kept apart from any anagogical sense, especially since the apostle Paul made use of it verbatim? And what need is there to speak concerning the [commandments],

"You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness"? And again, in the Gospel there are commandments written which are not inquired into as to whether one ought to keep them according to the letter or not, such as the one that says:

"But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother," and what follows; and,

"But I say to you, do not swear at all."

And in the apostle the letter is to be kept:

"Admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all"—even if, for those who are more ambitious for meaning, each of these can preserve [a deeper sense], yet without the commandment according to the letter being set aside: the depths of the wisdom of God.

Nevertheless, the exact reader will be drawn this way and that in certain cases, being unable, without much testing, to determine whether this so-called history happened according to the letter or not, and whether the letter of this legislation is to be kept or not.

On this account, the one engaging with the Scriptures must carefully, keeping the Savior's command which says,

"Search the Scriptures," diligently test where the literal sense is true and where it is impossible, and, as far as power allows, track out, from similar expressions, the meaning of Scripture which is scattered everywhere, away from that which is impossible according to the letter.

Since therefore, as will be clear to those who engage with it, the connected sense as to the letter is impossible, but the primary sense is not impossible—indeed, it is even true—one must zealously strive to grasp the whole meaning, joining intelligibly the account concerning the things impossible according to the letter with the things that are not only not impossible but also true according to the history, these being allegorized together with the things that, as far as the letter goes, did not happen.

All Scripture has the spiritual sense, but not all has the bodily sense;

for in many places the bodily sense is proven to be impossible.

Therefore great attention must be brought in by the one who reverently engages with the divine books as divine writings, the character of whose understanding appears to us to be of this kind:

The words report that God chose for himself a certain nation upon the earth, which they call by several names.

For this whole nation is called Israel, and is also called Jacob.

But when it was divided in the times of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the tribes said to be under him—ten in number—were named Israel, while the remaining two and the Levitical, ruled by those of the seed of David, [were named] Judah.

And the whole region which those of the nation inhabited, given to them by God, is called Judea, whose metropolis is Jerusalem—a metropolis, that is, of several cities, whose names lie scattered in many other places as well, but are catalogued together in [the book of] Joshua the son of Nun.

These things being so, raising up our power of thought, the apostle says somewhere:

"Behold Israel according to the flesh"—as though there were a certain Israel according to the spirit.

"For not the children of the flesh, these are the children of God"; "neither are all those of Israel, these are Israel."

"But neither is he a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;

but he is a Jew who is one in secret, and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter."

For if the judgment of the Jew is taken from what is secret, one must understand that, just as there is a race of bodily Jews, so also there is a certain nation of Jews in secret, the soul having acquired this nobility according to certain unspeakable principles.

But also many prophecies prophesy concerning Israel and Judah, recounting the things that shall be for them.

And surely these so numerous promises written for them—being, as far as the letter goes, lowly and presenting no elevation or dignity of a promise of God—do they not need a mystical anagogical interpretation?

And if the promises are intelligible, being reported through perceptible things, then those to whom the promises belong are also not bodily.

And lest we linger over the discourse concerning the Jew in secret and concerning the inward man, the Israelite—these being sufficient for those who are not without a [mental] sting—we return to the matter at hand and say that Jacob is the father of the twelve patriarchs, and they of the chiefs of tribes, and these again of the succeeding Israelites.

So then, do the bodily Israelites have their ascent to the chiefs of tribes, and the chiefs to the patriarchs, and the patriarchs to Jacob and to those still higher?

But the intelligible Israelites, of whom the bodily ones were types, are they not from tribes, the tribes having come from clans, and the clans from some one—having a generation not bodily of this kind, but the better one, that one too having come into being from Isaac, and he in turn having descended from Abraham, all being carried up to Adam, whom the apostle says to be the Christ? For every beginning of the families that are lower with respect to the God of all things began from Christ, who, after the God and Father of all things, is thus the father of every soul, as Adam is the father of all men.

And if Eve too has been successfully interpreted by Paul as referring to the Church, it is no wonder, since Cain came into being from Eve, and all the rest have their ascent to Eve, being fallings-away from the Church, since all came into being from the Church in a primary sense.

And if the things we have said concerning Israel and his tribes and his clans are striking, when the Savior says,

"I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," we do not take these things as the Ebionites do, who are poor in understanding (the Ebionites being named after the poverty of their understanding, for "ebion" is the name for "poor" among the Hebrews), so as to suppose that Christ sojourned primarily for the fleshly Israelites.

"For not the children of the flesh, these are the children of God."

"But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to a festal gathering and a church of the firstborn enrolled in the heavens."

If, then, there is an Israel in the genus of souls, and a city Jerusalem in heaven, it follows that the cities of Israel have as their metropolis the Jerusalem that is in the heavens, and accordingly the whole of Judea.

Therefore whatever is prophesied concerning Jerusalem and said about her—if we hear it as [the word] of God and of one uttering wisdom—we must understand the Scriptures to be reporting concerning the heavenly city and the whole region comprising the cities of the holy land.

For perhaps the Savior, leading us up to those cities, gives to those who have proved worthy by having administered the minas well, charge over ten or five cities.

If, then, the prophecies concerning Judea and concerning Jerusalem and Israel and Judah and Jacob—when we do not take these in a fleshly manner—suggest such mysteries as these, it would follow that the prophecies concerning Egypt and the Egyptians, and Babylon and the Babylonians, and Tyre and the Tyrians, and Sidon and the Sidonians, or the rest of the nations, prophesy not only concerning these bodily Egyptians and Babylonians and Tyrians and Sidonians.

For if there are intelligible Israelites, it follows that there are also intelligible Egyptians and Babylonians.

For what is said in Ezekiel concerning Pharaoh king of Egypt does not at all fit being said about some man who ruled or shall rule Egypt, as will be evident to those who pay attention.

Likewise the things concerning the ruler of Tyre cannot be understood concerning some man who shall rule Tyre.

And the things said in many places concerning Nebuchadnezzar, and especially in Isaiah, it is not possible to take concerning that man:

for the man Nebuchadnezzar neither fell from heaven, nor was he the morning star, nor did he rise early upon the earth.

Nor indeed will anyone who has understanding take the things said in Ezekiel concerning Egypt—as being about to be made desolate for forty years, so that no foot of man should be found there, and as being about to be so warred upon at some time that throughout the whole of it blood should come up to the knees—to be concerning the Egypt that lies adjacent to the Ethiopians, whose bodies are blackened by the sun.

<...> And perhaps just as those who die here according to the common death are disposed of from the things done here—if they are judged worthy of the so-called region of Hades—to obtain different places according to the proportion of their sins;

so those who die from there, so to speak, descend into this Hades, being judged worthy of the different dwellings of the whole earthly region, better or worse, and to be with these or those fathers;

so that it is possible at some time for an Israelite to fall among the Scythians, and for an Egyptian to come down into Judea.

Nevertheless, the Savior came to gather together the lost sheep of the house of Israel;

and since many of Israel did not yield to his teaching, those from the nations also are called.

<......> <...> And these things, as we suppose, are hidden in the histories.

For indeed "the kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man having found, hid; and in his joy he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field."

[the matters concerning] Israel, whether being near or far off, and the descent into Egypt of the seventy souls, so that there they might become, in multitude, like the stars of heaven.

But since not all of those from them are light of the world (for not all those of Israel, these are Israel), there come to be, from the seventy, also those who are like the innumerable sand that is by the shore of the sea.