XXI. (114) Something of this kind, now, is the contribution made by the princes, selected and appointed with reference to worth and merit, which they made when the soul being properly prepared and adorned by philosophy, was celebrating the festival of the dedication in a sacred and becoming manner, giving thanks to God its teacher and its guide; for it “offers up a censer full of frankincense, ten golden shekels in Weight,”{28}{#nu 7:14.} in order that the wise man alone may judge of the odours which are exhaled by prudence and by every virtue. (115) But when they appear to be made propitious, then Moses will sing a sacred hymn over them, saying, “The Lord has smelt the smell of a sweet savour,” using the word to smell here as equivalent to approving of; for God is not formed like a man, nor has he any need of nostrils, or of any other organ parts. (116) But as he proceeds onwards he speaks also of the divine abode, the tabernacle, and its ten Curtains;”{29}{#ex 26:1.} for, in fact, the compound edifice of entire wisdom has been assigned the perfect number, the number ten. And wisdom is the court and palace of the all governing and only absolute and independent king. (117) Accordingly, this is his abode, discernible only by the intellect; but the world is perceptible by the outward senses; since Moses made the curtains of such things as are symbols of the four elements, for they were made of fine flax, and of hyacinthine colour, and of purple, and of scarlet, –four numbers, as I have said before. Now the fine flax is an example of the earth, for the flax grows out of the earth; and the hyacinthine colour is a symbol of the air, for it is black by nature; purple (porphyra), again, is a symbol of the water; for the cause of this dye is derived from the sea, being the shell-fish of the same name (heµ porphyra); and scarlet is a symbol of fire, for it most nearly resembles a flame. (118) Again, that omnipotent overseer and ruler of the universe reproved the state of Egypt, when rebellious against the rein, when it was extolling with grandiloquent words the mind as an adversary of God, and bestowing on it all the ensigns of kingly authority, such as the throne, the sceptre, the diadem; and chastised it with ten stripes and severe punishment. (119) And in the same manner, also, he promises the wise Abraham that he will work for him the overthrow and complete destruction of ten Nations{30}{#de 7:1.} exactly, neither more nor less, and that he will give the country of those who are thus destroyed to his descendants; in every instance choosing to employ the number ten, both for praise and for blame, and also for honour and for punishment. And yet why do we mention these things? (120) For what is more important than this is the fact, that Moses gave laws to that sacred and divine assembly in a code of ten commandments in all. And these are the commandments which are the generic heads, and roots, and principles of the infinite multitude of particular laws; being the everlasting source of all commands, and containing every imaginable injunction and prohibition to the great advantage of those who use them.
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