21. The Doctrine of Eternal Progress30 (The Life of Moses,
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The mitre which adorns the head signifies the crown that is stored up for those who have lived good lives; and this is adorned with mysterious letters inscribed on a golden plate.
There are, however, no sandals for the priest garbed in this costume; and this is that he may not be encumbered in his movement and slowed up in his progress by the covering of dead skins, in accordance with the interpretation we have already given in our consideration of the Mount. For how indeed could he adorn his feet with sandals when he had already cast them off as an impediment to his progress in his first mystical initiation?
21. The Doctrine of Eternal Progress30 (The Life of Moses, 397D-405A; ed. Danielou, ii.219-239) In following the course of our exegesis we have allowed ourselves to be drawn into a spiritual interpretation of the text. Let us now return to our main topic. Here we have a man who affirms, according to the inspired word, that he has enjoyed so many visions in which he has seen God clearly, so much so that he describes them as being face to face, as one might talk to a friend. How can a man who has enjoyed this still ask God to show Himself, as though He Who was constantly visible had not yet appeared to him, and as though he had never enjoyed that grace which we believe he did in virtue of the inspired word ? The voice from heaven does indeed grant his request, and does not refuse to bless him with this favor. Yet at the same time it leads him once more to despair insofar as it reveals that what he is seeking sur passes human nature. God, however, tells him that there is
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a place with Him, and in the place a rock, and a hole of the roc\ (Exod. 33.21); and here He wishes Moses to stay. And then the Lord puts His hand over the mouth of the hole, and He calls to Moses as he passes by. At this call, Moses comes out of the hole of the roc\ and sees His bac\ (Exod.
33-23) j and thus he feels he has seen Him Whom he sought, so that the promise made by the voice of God was not proven false.
Now if we considered this merely in its literal sense, the meaning would remain very difficult for us to discover, and it would give us an idea that is incompatible with the divine nature. For we may not speak of front and back save of things which have dimension. But the dimensions of every body are limited. Hence if you imagine that God has dimen sion, you cannot avoid giving Him a corporeal nature. Fur ther, all bodies are composites; and composites exist by means of the union of their various parts. Hence a composite cannot be incorruptible. And what is corruptible cannot be eternal, since corruption is simply the separation of the parts of a composite.
If then we were to take this text about God's back literally, we would be logically forced into an absurd conclusion.
Front and back are said of dimension; dimension applies only to bodies; and bodies, like all composites, are essentially corruptible. What is corruptible cannot be eternal. Thus if you were completely dependent on the literal meaning, you would be logically forced to admit corruption in God. Yet God is incorporeal and incorruptible.
What meaning then will do justice to the sacred text if we reject the obvious meaning? And if this text which is part of the entire context forces us to seek another interpretation,
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then surely we must interpret all of it in the same way. For what we understand of a part must necessarily apply to the whole; for every whole is a coalescence of parts. Thus the place with God, the rock in that place, Moses' going to the spot that is called the hole of the roc\, Moses' entrance, and the placing of the divine hand over the mouth of the hole, the call of Moses, and his vision of God—all this would more suitably be interpreted in an allegorical sense.
What then is the meaning of the passage ? All heavy bodies that receive a downward motion, even if they receive no further impulse after the first contact, are rapidly carried downwards of themselves, provided that any surface on which they are moving is graded and sloping, and that they meet no obstacle to interrupt their motion. So too, the soul moves in the opposite direction, light and swiftly moving upwards once it is released from sensuous and earthly at tachments, soaring from the world below up towards the heavens. And if nothing comes from above to intercept its flight, seeing that it is of the nature of Goodness to attract those who raise their eyes towards it, the soul keeps rising ever higher and higher, stretching with its desire for heav enly things to those that are before (Phil. 3.13), as the Apostle tells us, and thus it will always continue to soar ever higher. For because of what it has already attained, the soul does not wish to abandon the heights that lie beyond it. And thus the soul moves ceaselessly upwards, always reviving its tension for its onward flight by means of the progress it has already realized. Indeed, it is only spiritual activity that nourishes its force by exercise; it does not slacken its tension by action but rather increases it.
This is the reason why we say that the great Moses, moving
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ever forwards, did not stop in his upward climb. He set no limit to his rise to the stars. But once he had put his foot upon the ladder on which the Lord had leaned (Gen. 28.13), as Jacob tells us, he constantly kept moving to the next step; and he continued to go ever higher because he always found another step that lay beyond the highest one that he had reached.
Moses refused to pose as the son of the Egyptian princess.
He became the avenger of the Jews. He moved out to a deserted spot which was untroubled by human existence. He allows a herd of tame animals to find pasture within his soul.
He saw the light of the fire. As he moves towards the flame he unburdens himself by removing his sandals. He restored liberty to his family and his race. He saw his enemies sink and drown beneath the waves. He lived out of doors under the cloud; assuaged his thirst at the rock; harvested bread from heaven; then he fought the foreign foe by lifting up his hands; he heard the trumpet sound; he entered into the darkness; he penetrated the secret recesses of that tabernacle not made by human hand; he learnt the secrets of the divine priesthood; he destroyed the idol; he besought God; he re stored the Law, smashed because of the sins of the Jews; he shone in glory. And yet, though raised to such heights, he is still restless with desire, is more and more dissatisfied, and still thirsts for that which had filled him to capacity. And just as though he had received nothing, he still begs God to give him more; he asks God to show Himself to him, not now by way of analogy, but as He is in Himself.
What Moses was experiencing, I think, was a longing which filled his soul for the Supreme Good; and this long ing was constantly being intensified by his hope in the Tran-
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scendent, arising from the beauty which he had already glimpsed; and this hope constantly inflamed his desire to see what was hidden because of all that he had attained at each stage. Thus it is that the ardent lover of beauty, constantly receiving an image, as it were, of what he longs for, wants to be filled with the very impression of the archetype.31 The bold demand of the soul that climbs the hills of desire tends towards the direct enjoyment of Beauty, and not merely through mirrors or reflections.
In refusing Moses' request, the voice of God in a sense grants it, by pointing out in a few words an infinite abyss of contemplation. For God in his bounty granted that his desire would be fulfilled; but He did not promise that his desire would ever cease or be fully satisfied. Indeed He would not have shown Himself to His servant if the vision would have been such as to terminate Moses' desire; for the true vision of God consists rather in this, that the soul that looks up to God never ceases to desire Him. For this reason He says:
Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me and live (Exod. 34.20). Now this does not mean that the vision could cause the death of those who enjoy it. For how could the face of life ever become the cause of death for those who approach it? Rather, since the divinity by its very nature is life-giving, and since it is characteristic of it to transcend all knowledge, it follows that the man who thinks that God can be known does not really have life; for he has been falsely diverted from true Being to something devised by his own imagination. For the true Being is true Life, and cannot be known by us. If then this life-giving nature transcends knowledge, what our minds attain in this case is surely not life. And that which is not life is naturally incapable of pro-
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during life. Thus it is that Moses' desire is filled by the very fact that it remains unfulfilled.
By these words, then, Moses is taught that the divine is by its very nature infinite and cannot be circumscribed by any definite term. For if we think of the divine nature as being limited, we must necessarily think of some reality which is outside of this limit. Everything that is limited is limited by something else. Thus birds are limited by the air, and fishes by the sea. The fish is limited on every side by the water, and the bird in the same way by the air; the term of limitation for the fish consists in the surface of the water that surrounds him, and this is his receptacle; and so too for the bird, the air about it, which is its receptacle. In the same way, if we conceive of God as being limited we must necessarily grant that His nature is received into something else. Now the container is greater than the thing contained, as logical demonstration can show. But everyone agrees that the divine nature is essential Beauty. And that which is different from Beauty must be something that is not beautiful. Now if, as we have shown, the container must be greater than the thing contained, it follows that those who conceive of God as lim ited must conceive Him as being received by evil. Granting too that the thing contained is always smaller than the con tainer, it should follow that what is greater is also superior.
Hence anyone who imagines that the divine nature is limited makes beauty inferior to its opposite. But this is absurd.
We can conceive then of no limitation in an infinite na ture; and that which is limitless cannot by its nature be understood. And so every desire for the Beautiful which draws us on in this ascent is intensified by the soul's very progress towards it. And this is the real meaning of seeing