מי יורש קנייני אלוה כ״דWho is the Heir of Divine Things 24
א׳
1[117] Not without reason then did the oracle dedicate “beginnings” to the great Leader, God. And elsewhere he says “The Lord spake unto Moses saying ‘sanctify to me every first born, first in generation, which openeth every womb among the sons of Israel from man to beast. It is to Me’ ” (Ex. 13:1, 2).
ב׳
2[118] Thus it is admitted here also that the first in time and value are God’s possessions and especially the first in generation. For since genus in every case is indestructible, to the indestructible God will it be justly assigned. And that is true too of one who opens the womb of all from man, that is reason and speech, to beast, that is sense and body.
ג׳
3[119] For he that opens the womb of each of these, of mind, to mental apprehensions, of speech, to the activities of the voice, of the senses, to receive the pictures presented to it by objects, of the body, to the movements and postures proper to it, is the invisible, seminal artificer, the divine Word, which will be fitly dedicated to its Father.
ד׳
4[120] And as the beginnings are God’s, so also are the ends. Moses testifies to this when he bids set apart and accord the end to the Lord (Num. 31:28 ff.). And what happens in the world testifies to it also.
ה׳
5[121] How so? you ask. In the plant the seed is the beginning and the fruit the end, and both are the work of nature, not of husbandry. Again in science, the beginning, as has been shewn, is nature, but its limit is actually outside the range of human possibilities. For no one reaches perfection in any of his pursuits, but undoubtedly all perfection and finality belong to One alone. And so we are fain to range in the borderland between beginning and end, learning, teaching, tilling, and whatever work we carry on, labouring with the sweat of our brow, as it were, that the mere creature may seem to accomplish something.
ו׳
6[122] Still more clearly indeed does Moses acknowledge that beginnings and ends are willed by God, when he says in the creation-story, “In the beginning He made”(Gen. 1:1), and afterwards, “God finished the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 2:1, 2).
ז׳
7[123] And so in the text we are treating, He says “take ye for Me,” thus giving to Himself what is His due and bidding us not to adulterate the gifts, but guard them in a way worthy of the Giver. And again elsewhere, He that has no need of aught and therefore takes nothing will acknowledge that He “takes,” in order to train us to piety, and to implant a zeal for holiness, and to spur us to His service, as one who welcomes and accepts the free-will homage and genuine service of the soul.
ח׳
8[124] For He says “behold, I have taken the Levites in place of everyone who opens the womb from among the sons of Israel; they shall be their ransom” (Num. 3:12). So then we take and give, but in the full sense of the word we take only; it is by a license of language that we are said to give, for the reasons which I have mentioned. Note that He gives the Levites a correct name in calling them “ransom.” For nothing so well redeems the mind to freedom, as to take refuge with God and become His suppliant. And such is the profession of the consecrated tribe of Levi.
