(15) He that is born in thy house will surely be circum- cised, and those whom thou hast bought with money will be circumcised, and My covenant will be in your flesh for an eternal ordinance.

(15) And now I announce unto thee that the children of Israel will not keep true to this ordinance, and they will not circumcise their sons according to all this law ; for in the flesh of their circumcision they will omit this circumcision of their sons, and all of them, sons of Beliar, will leave their sons uncircumcised as they were born.

(15) And the child on the eighth day ye will circumcise, every male throughout your generations, him that is born in the house, or whom ye have bought with money from any stranger, whom ye have acquired who is not of thy seed.

(16) And Abraham circumcised his son on the eighth day : he was the first that was circumcised according to the covenant which is ordained for ever.

(15) And every one that is born, the flesh of whose foreskin is not circumcised on * the eighth day, belongeth not to the children of the covenant which the Lord made with Abraham, but to the children of destruction ; nor is there, moreover, any sign on him thathe is the Lord's, but (he is destined) to be destroyed and slain from the earth, and to be rooted out of the earth, for he hath broken the covenant of the Lord our God.

(15) And the uncir- cumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day,* that soul will be cut . off from his people, for he hath broken My covenant." I5.a And God said unto Abraham : "As for Sarai thy wife, her name will no more be called Sarai, but Sarah will be her name.

(21) Then those men who will follow after him will introduce circumcision. And he will pronounce judgment upon those who are from the uncircumcision, who are the (true) people. For in fact he sent many preachers beforehand, who preached on his behalf.

(15) This law is for all the generations for ever, and there is no circumcision of the days, and no omission of one day out of the eight days;* for it is an eternal ordinance, ordained and written on the heavenly tables.

(15) And on the selfsame day1 was Abraham circumcised, and all the men of his house, (and those born in the house), and all those, whom he had bought with money from the children of the stranger, were circumcised with, him.

(15) (And I shall give to thee and to thy seed after thee) the land where thou hast been a sojourner, the land of Canaan, that thou mayst possess it for ever, and I shall be their God." II. And the Lord said unto Abraham : " And as for thee, do thou keep My Covenant, thou and thy seed after thee ; and circum- cise ye every male among you, and circumcise your foresKins, and it will be a token of an eternal covenant between Me and you.

(53) His disciples said to Him, "Is circumcision beneficial or not?" He said to them, "If it were beneficial, their father would beget them already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become completely profitable."

(30) For this reason I have written for thee in the words of the Law all the deeds of the Shechemites, which they wrought against Dinah, and how the sons of Jacob spake, saying : " We shall not give our daughter to a man who is uncircumcised ; for that were a reproach unto us."

(20) That they should circumcise their sons, according to the covenant which He had made with them, and not deviate to the right hand or the left of all the paths which the Lord had cmmanded us ; and that we should keep ourselves from all fornication and uncleanness, [and renounce from amongst us all fornication and un- cleanness].*

(1) At length I send a word to thee, O Love of my heart, and recall to thy memory the many anxieties and solicitudes, which I have formerly undergone on thy account." For thou rememberest with what a mild and benevolent disposition I have been accustomed to rebuke thy obstinacy in error, although with scant reason, in order that I might uproot those vain opinions with which thou wast deceived. But now, adoring the supreme toleration of the Divine long-suffering towards thee, I offer thee my congratulations, O part of my soul, now that you are turning your eyes to your soul's health. For, even the very things which formerly you delighted to spurn, you now delight to affirm; and the things that you used to reject with scorn, you now delight to enforce. For, often have I set before you, and that with great precision, what even Moses committed to writing, that man was first made by God, from mud, and the sins of the world were punished by the flood, and in process of time, that the same Moses, united in friendship with God, - performed many wonders, both in Egypt and the exodus from Egypt, by the power and action of the same God. Nor Moses only, but other divine prophets subsequently, published similar things, not infrequently, who long before foretold that God should take the nature of man from a Virgin. To which statement of mine, not once, but often, you replied, that you did not know whether these things were true, and that you were entirely ignorant, even who that Moses was, and whether he was white or black. Further, that you rejected with scorn the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Who is God of all Majesty--which you used to call mine. Further, that Paul, the globe trotter, and a scatterer of words, who was calling people from things terrestrial to things celestial, you were unwilling to receive. Lastly, you reproach me, as a turncoat, who had left the customs of my country's religion, and was leading people to iniquitous sacrilege, and urged me to unlearn the things in which I was placing my trust; or, at least, that I should put away other people's things, and deem it sufficient to keep what was my own, lest I should be found to detract from the honour due to divine deities, and the institutions of my fathers. But, after the supernal light of the paternal glory of His own will sent the rays of His own splendour upon the darkness of your mind, at once He put into my inmost heart, that I should recall to your mind the whole counsel of God. How, for instance, when we were staying in Heliopolis (I was then about twenty-five, and your age was nearly the same as mine), on a certain sixth day, and about the sixth hour, the sun, to our great surprise, became obscured, through the moon passing over it, not because it is a god, but because a creature of God, when its very true light was setting, could not bear to shine. Then I earnestly asked thee, what thou, O man most wise, thought of it. Thou, then, gave such an answer as remained fixed in my mind, and that no oblivion, not even that of the image of death, ever allowed to escape. For, when the whole orb had been throughout darkened, by a black mist of darkness, and the sun's disk had begun again to be purged and to shine anew, then taking the table of Philip Aridaeus, and contemplating the orbs of heaven, we learned, what was otherwise well known, that an eclipse of the sun could not, at that time, occur. Next, we observed that the moon approached the sun from the east, and intercepted its rays, until it covered the whole; whereas, at other times, it used to approach from the west. Further also, we noted that when it had reached the extreme edge of the sun, and had covered the whole orb, that it then went back towards the east, although that was a time which called neither for the presence of the moon, nor for the conjunction of the sun. I therefore, O treasury of manifold learning, since I was incapable of understanding so great a mystery, thus addressed thee--"What thinkest thou of this thing, O Apollophanes, mirror of learning?" "Of what mysteries do these unaccustomed portents appear to you to be indications?" Thou then, with inspired lips, rather than with speech of human voice, "These are, O excellent Dionysius," thou saidst, "changes of things divine." At last, when I had taken note of the day and year, and had perceived that, that time, by its testifying signs, agreed with that which Paul announced to me, once when I was hanging upon his lips, then I gave my hand to the truth, and extricated my feet from the meshes of error. Which truth, henceforth, I, with admiration, both preach and urge upon thee--which is life and way, and true light,--which lighteth every man coming into this world,--to which even thou at last, as truly wise, hast yielded. For thou yieldedst to life when thou renounced death. And surely thou hast, at length, acted in the best possible manner, if thou shalt adhere henceforth to the same truth, so as to associate with us more closely. For those lips will henceforth be on our side, by the splendour of whose words, as blunting the edge of my mind, thou hast been accustomed by pretexts brought from various quarters, and by a gorgeous glow of eloquence, to vex the innermost recesses of our breast;--yea, even sometimes to probe us sharply by occasional stings of malice. Wherefore as formerly, as thou thyself used to say, the knowledge of Christian doctrine, although savoury, was not savoury to thee, but when you had brought yourself to it, merely to taste, it shrank from your mental palate, and as it were, disdained to find a resting-place in your stomach; so now, after you have acquired a heart, intelligent and provident, elevate thyself to things supernal, and do not surrender, for things that are not, things which really are. Therefore in future, be so much more obstinate against those who have urged you to the false, as you showed yourself perverse towards us, when we invited you, with all our force, to the truth. For thus, I, in the Lord Jesus, Whose Presence is my being and my life, will henceforth die joyful, since thou also livest in Him. End of Dionysius the Areopagite. May his prayer be with us! Next: Preface Sacred Texts | Christianity « Previous: The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite: Letters: Letter X.... Index Next: The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite: Liturgy: Preface » Sacred Texts | Christianity

(2) Declare and say to the children of Israel the law of this day both that they should keep Sabbath thereon, and that they should not forsake it in the error of their hearts; (and) that it is not lawful to do any work there- on which is unseemly, to do thereon their own pleasure,* and that they should not prepare thereon anything to be eaten or drunk, jand (that it is not lawful) to draw water, or bring in or take out thereon through their gates any burden, | which they had not 1 viz. the Sabbath. * viz. Jacob. after their oyon pleasure above. For the law about " bringing in or taking out . . . any burden " on the Sabbath, cf. ii. ,

(5) "Wherefore thus saith the Lord, Every alien son is uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh" (that is, unclean in body and soul): "there shall not enter one of the strangers into the midst of the house of Israel, but the Lerites." He calls those that would not believe, but would disbelieve, strangers. Only those who live purely being true priests of God. Wherefore, of all the circumcised tribes, those anointed to be high priests, and kings, and prophets, were reckoned more holy. Whence He commands them not to touch dead bodies, or approach the dead; not that the body was polluted, but that sin and disobedience were incarnate, and embodied, and dead, and therefore abominable.

(65) He did all this, yet Moses was born, Had he but seen the Eternal workshop, Within his house was Moses safe and sound, Just so the slave of lusts who pampers his body Fancies that some other man bears him ill-will; Saying this one is my enemy, and this one my foe, While it is his own body which is his enemy and foe, He is like Pharaoh, and his body is like Moses, He runs abroad crying, "where is my foe?" While lust is in his house, which is his body,

(50) The man who doetli any of these things on the Sabbath shall die, so that the children of Israel shall observe the Sabbaths accord- ing to the commandments regarding the Sabbaths of the land, as it is written in the tables, which He gave into my hands that I should write out for thee t lie laws of the seasons, and the seasons according to the division of their days. 6 Forbidden; Exod. xxxv. ; cf. Num. xv. f. Forbidden by the Jewish oral law.

When Abraham [was able] to see what he was to see, [he] circumcised the flesh of the foreskin, thus teaching us that it is necessary to destroy the flesh.

(1) And after this they will turn to Me in all uprightness and with all (their) heart and with all (their) soul, and I shall circumcise the foreskin of their heart and the foreskin of the heart of their seed, and I shall create in them a holy spirit, and I shall cleanse them so that they shall not turn away from Me from that day unto eternity.