Letter 107

To the same person. The almighty God, who marvelously changed the rod of Moses, dried up and unfit for sailing, into a living and breathing creeping thing (for it was a fearsome serpent, and Moses, struck with astonishment, flees the wonder), and who, by his will alone, in the course of a single night, made the rod of Aaron, which had long been dry, apart from earth, and rains, and the temperate blending of the airs, to sprout forth, with most graceful leaves and most beautiful fruit (for all things are possible to God almighty and able to do all things) -- he it is who, in the twinkling of an eye, will raise up at the appointed time the bodies of men, flourishing by his own grace, and made radiant to such a degree that by their divine splendor they overcome the rays of the lifeless sun. And let Moses persuade you, the genuine servant of the Most High, a luminary who came down from Mount Sinai with his skin pierced through with rays of light, that through what was made visible he might foreshow beforehand the grace that is to be granted to men from on high.

Ὁ παντοδύναμος Θεός, ὁ τὴν ῥάβδον Μωϋσέως ἐξηραμμένην καὶ ἄπλοιον παραδόξως μεταβαλὼν εἰς ζῶον ἐμψυχόν τε καὶ ἕρπον (δράκων γὰρ ἦν φοβερός, καὶ φεύγει Μωϋσῆς τὸ θαῦμα καταπλαγείς), καὶ ὁ τὴν ῥάβδον Ἀαρὼν ξηρὰν πολυχρόνιον ὑπάρχουσαν δίχα γῆς, καὶ ὄμβρων, καὶ εὐκρασίας ἀέρων, τῇ θελήσει καὶ μόνῃ διὰ μιᾶς νυκτὸς ἐκβλαστήσαι ποιήσας, φύλλα τε χαριέστατα, καὶ καρπὸν ὡραιότατον (πάντα γὰρ δυνατὰ Θεῷ παντοκράτορι καὶ πάντα ἰσχύοντι)· αὐτὸς ἐν ῥιπῇ ὀφθαλμοῦ ἐξαναστήσει καιρῷ τῷ προσήκοντι τὰ ἀνθρώπινα σώματα, θάλλοντα τῇ ἑαυτοῦ χάριτι, καὶ ἀγλαϊζόμενα ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον, ὥστε ὑπερνικῆσαι τῇ θείᾳ λαμπρότητι τὰς αὐγὰς τοῦ ἀψύχου ἡλίου. Καὶ πειθέτω σε Μωϋσῆς ὁ γνήσιος θεράπων τοῦ κρείττονος, φωστὴρ κατελθὼν ἐκ τοῦ Σιναίου ὄρους, καὶ τὸν χρῶτα δεδηξασμένος ταῖς λαμπηδόσιν, ὅπως διὰ τοῦ φαινομένου προδείξῃ τὴν μέλλουσαν χάριν ὑψόθεν ἀνθρώποις παρέχεσθαι.