Verba Filii ad sponsam de tribus generibus Christianorum, figuratis per Iudeos in Egypto existentes, et qualiter ista ad sponsam reuelata sunt transferenda et testificanda et predicanda per Dei amicos personis ignorantibus.
The Three Types of Believers
The Son compares the three types of people among the Israelites in Egypt to the three types of Christians today regarding their faith in God and His messengers.
The Son spoke to the bride, saying: "I am the God of Israel, and I am the one who spoke with Moses." When Moses was being sent to my people, he asked for a sign, saying, 'Otherwise, the people won't believe me.' If, then, they were the Lord's people to whom Moses was sent, why did they doubt? But you should know that there were three types of people among them. Some believed in God and in Moses. The second group were those who believed in God but doubted Moses, fearing that he might have presumed to say or do such things out of his own invention and arrogance. The third group believed in neither God nor Moses. There are now three types of people among Christians, represented by the Hebrews. Some believe in God and in my words. Others believe in God but doubt my words, because they don't know how to discern between a good spirit and an evil spirit. The third group are those who believe neither in me nor in you, through whom I have spoken my words.
The Danger of Doubt
The Son warns that those who doubt God's messengers while still following them into the wilderness risk destruction through a faithless heart.
But, as I said, even though some of the Hebrews doubted Moses, they all crossed the Red Sea with him into the wilderness, where those who doubted worshipped idols and provoked God to anger. That is why they were destroyed by a miserable death, but this was done only by those who had a faithless heart.
Discerning the Spirit
The Son instructs the bride on how to share His words with the ignorant, using the sign of Moses' staff to demonstrate the power and truth of His message against the devil.
Because the human heart is slow to believe, my friend will pass on my words to those who believe in him. They, in turn, will spread them to others who don't know how to tell the difference between a good spirit and an evil one. If, however, those who hear you ask for a sign, show them the staff, just as Moses did—that is, explain my words to them.✦ For just as Moses' staff was straight and terrifying because it turned into a serpent, so my words are straight, such that no falsehood can be found in them.✦1 They are terrifying, because they ring out with righteous judgment. Let them propose and testify that at the word and sound of a single mouth, the devil yielded and retreated from a creature of God—a devil who, if he weren't restrained by my power, could even move mountains. What power did he have then, with God’s permission, when he was driven away by the sound of a single voice? Just as those Hebrews who believed neither God nor Moses moved from Egypt toward the promised land as if forced to go along with the others, so now many Christians will move along with my chosen ones as if against their will, because they don’t trust in my power to save them. They don't believe my words at all, and they have a false hope regarding my power. Yet my words will be fulfilled regardless of their own will, and they will, as it were, be forced toward perfection until they arrive at the place that pleases me.2
Read the original Latin
Filius loquebatur ad sponsam dicens: "Ego sum Deus Israel et ille, qui cum Moyse loquebatur. Moyses, cum ad populum meum mitteretur, peciit signum aliquod, dicens: 'Non credit michi aliter populus.'
Si ergo erat populus Domini, ad quem Moyses mittebatur, quare diffidebat? Sed scire debes, quod in populo illo tria genera hominum erant.
Quidam credebant Deo et Moysi. Secundi erant, qui credebant Deo et diffidebant de Moyse, reputantes, ne forte ex adinuencione propria et presumpcione talia loqui vel facere presumeret. Tercii erant, qui nec Deo nec Moysi credebant.
Si nunc tria genera hominum sunt inter Christianos, qui in Hebreis signantur. Aliqui sunt, qui bene credunt Deo et verbis meis. Alii sunt, qui credunt Deo sed diffidunt de verbis meis, quia nesciunt discernere inter spiritum bonum et spiritum malum. Tercii sunt, qui nec credunt michi nec tibi, cum qua verba mea locutus sum.
Sed, sicut dixi, licet Hebreorum quidam diffidebant de Moyse, tamen omnes cum eo mare rubrum transierunt in heremum, ubi, qui diffidebant, colebant idola et prouocauerunt Deum ad iram. Ideo et consumpti sunt misera morte, sed hoc non fecerunt nisi illi soli, qui malam fidem habuerunt.
Propterea, quia humanus animus tardus est ad credendum, ideo amicus meus transferet verba mea ad eos, qui credunt ei. Ipsi postmodum diffundent ad alios, qui nesciunt discernere inter bonum spiritum et malum.
Si autem audientes pecierint signum, ostendant eis virgam, sicut Moyses fecit, idest verba mea explanent eis. Sicut enim virga Moysi recta erat et terribilis propter immutacionem in serpentem, sic verba mea recta sunt, ut nulla in eis inueniatur falsitas.
Terribilia sunt, quia iudicium rectum sonant. Proponant et testificentur, quod ad verbum et sonum unius oris cessit et recessit diabolus a Dei creatura, qui, nisi potestate mea refrenaretur, eciam mouere posset montes.
Qualis tunc eius potencia cum permissione Dei, qui ad unius vocis sonitum fugabatur? Propterea, sicut illi Hebrei, qui nec crediderunt Deo nec Moysi, processerunt de Egypto in terram promissionis quasi coartando se cum aliis, sic nunc multi Christiani quasi inuiti procedent cum electis meis, quia non confidunt de potencia mea, quod saluare eos possim.
Nullatenus credunt verbis meis, falsam spem habent ad virtutem meam. Attamen verba mea sine voluntate eorum complebuntur et quasi artabunt se ad perfeccionem, usquequo veniant ad locum, qui michi placuerit."
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.4.2-Exod.4.4 — And the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A staff." Exod.4.3 — And he said, "Throw it to the ground." So he threw it to the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. Exod.4.4 — And the LORD said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take hold of its tail." So he reached out his hand and seized it, and it became a staff in his hand.
- ↩Exod.4.3 — And he said, "Throw it to the ground." So he threw it to the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'recta' carries the dual sense of 'straight' (as a rod) and 'upright/true' (as a moral or truthful statement). The translation preserves this play on words.
- 2 ↩The Latin 'artabunt se' suggests a sense of being constrained or pressed into a narrow path, here rendered as 'forced' to capture the involuntary nature of their progress toward perfection.
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