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.And he who possesseth the Pearl isinterpreted as the Word of God, Christ.And the spiritual Pearl which isgrasped is to be interpreted as Mary, the Mother of the Light, throughwhom Akrâtôs, the Unmixed, assumed a body.In her He made aTemple for Himself of her pure body, and from her was born the Light ofLight, God of God, Who was born of His own freewill, and was not madeby the hand of another, but He made a Temple for Himself through anincomprehensible wisdom which transcendeth the mind of man.And on another occasion, when God brought Israel out of Egypt, theythirsted for water in ¬âdês, and they murmured and wept before Moses;and Moses went to God and made Him to know this.And God said untohim, Take thy rod and smite this rock ;103 and Moses smote the rocklengthwise and breadthwise in the form of the Cross, and water flowedforth, twelve streams.And they drank their fill of the water, their peopleand their beasts, and when they had drunk that rock followed after them.And the rock is to be interpreted as Christ, and the streams of water as theApostles, and that which they drank as the teaching of the Apostles, andthe rod is the wood of the Cross.And the rock is stable, as it saith in theGospel, He who buildeth upon a rock shall not be moved by thedemons. 104 And again He saith, I am the gate, and again He saith, Iam the door. 105 And observe ye that when speaking He distinguishedbetween his disciples even as He did between those who [came] after them,the Bishops and the Christian Community. Thou art the rock, He saidunto Peter, and upon thee I will build the Christian people. 106 Andagain He said, I am the Shepherd of the sheep, 107 and He said unto him103Exodus xvii, 6.104Matthew vii, 24, 25.105John x, 7, 9.106Matthew xvi, 18.107John x, 11, 14.153 Kebra Nagastthrice, Feed my sheep. 108 And again He said I am the stem of the vine, and unto them He said, Ye are its branches and its clusters of fruit. 109And the rod of Moses by means of which he performed the miracle is tobe interpreted as the wood of the Cross, whereby He delivered Adam andhis children from the punishment of devils.And as Moses smote the waterof the river therewith, and turned it into blood, and slew their fish, in likemanner Christ slew Death with His Cross, and brought them out of Sheôl.And as Moses smote in the air with his rod, and the whole land of Egyptbecame dark for three days and three nights110 with a darkness whichcould be felt so that [the Egyptians] could not rise from their couches, soalso Christ, being crucified upon the Cross, lightened the darkness of thehearts of men, and rose up from the dead on the third day and third night.And as the rod of Moses changed itself and transformed itself111 by theWord of God, being dry yet possessing life, and possessing life yet becamea dry thing, even so Christ with the wood of His Cross made life for theChristian people who believed on Him, and with the Sign of the Crossmade them to drive away devils.For the demons and the Christiansbecame changed; the spiritual beings became reprobates, and throughtransgressing the commandment of their Lord they became exiled ones bythe might of His Cross.And we have become spiritual beings throughreceiving His Body and Blood in the place of those spiritual beings whowere exiled, and we have become beings worthy of praise who havebelieved in His Cross and in His holy Resurrection.And as Moses smotethe mountains by stretching out his hands with his rod, and brought forthpunishments by the command of God, even so Christ, by stretching out Hishands upon the wood of the Cross, drove out the demons from men by themight of His Cross.When God said unto Moses, Smite with thy rod, Hemeant, Make the Sign of the Cross of Christ, and when God said unto108John xxi, 17.109John xv, 5, 16.110Exodus x, 21, 22.111Exodus vii, 10.154 Kebra NagastMoses, Stretch out thy hand, 112 He meant that by the spreading out ofHis hand Christ hath redeemed us from the servitude of the enemy, andhath given us life by the stretching out of His hand upon the wood of theCross.And when Amalek fought with Israel, Moses went up into themountain, and Aaron was with him; they went up to pray because Amalekwas prevailing.And God commanded Moses and said unto him, Stretchout thy hand until Israel obtaineth the power [over Amalek]. 113 And itsaith in the Tôrâh that the hands of Moses were held out until the sunset;but the hands of Moses became heavy, and being aweary he dropped hishands that bad been stretched out, and then Israel ceased to prevail andtheir enemies overcame them.And when Moses kept his hand up andstretched out straight, Amalek was overcome, and Israel put to flight andvanquished their enemy Amalek.And when Aaron and Hôr (Hur) sawthis, they piled up stones on the right and on the left of Moses, and theymade the hands of Moses to rest on the stones which they had built up, andAaron on his right and Hôr on his left held Moses up with their shoulders,so that his hands might not drop from their stretched out position.And now I will explain this to you.The war of Amalek against Israel isthe war of believers against the demons, and before Christ was crucifiedthe demons conquered the believers.But when He stretched out His handon the wood of the Cross because of the sin of Adam and his children, andwhen He stretched out His hand and His palm was pierced [with the nails],those who were sealed with the Sign of the Cross of Christ conquered them(i.e.the demons)
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