ACC ~ Acts 7 v17 - 22

OVERVIEW:

We here draw from the Antiochene and Alexandrian traditions concerning Moses’ upbringing. Antioch is today known for having produced more historically-minded critics than Alexandria, and yet here we have a comment from Chrysostom, who is unusually terse and figurative, while from Origen and Gregory of Nyssa we see a use of Scripture for a practical purpose: the question of the degree to which Christians should engage themselves in pagan learning. For the Alexandrians, although they are using an allegorical reading technique, Moses was a prime example that the treasures of pagan wisdom could be plundered, as was their gold, provided the student received proper guidance.

7:21 | Pharaoh’s Daughter Adopted Moses

A FIGURE OF THE RESURRECTION. CHRYSOSTOM: If it was astonishing that Joseph was sold by his brothers, here is something even more astonishing. The king who was to perish nourished the one who was to overthrow his rule. Do you see in all this a figurative enacting, so to speak, of the resurrection of the dead? Yet it is not the same for God himself to do something and for it to come to pass as an act by human choice. For these things indeed came to pass by human choice. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 16.

7:22 | All the Wisdom of the Egyptians

HUMAN RATIONALITY AND DIVINE WISDOM. ORIGEN: During the time Moses was in Egypt and “was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” he was not “feeble in speech” or “slow in tongue,” nor did he profess to be ineloquent. For, so far as concerned the Egyptians, his speech was sonorous and his eloquence incomparable. But when he began to hear the voice of God and recognize divine communications, then he perceived his own voice to be meager and feeble, and he understands his own tongue to be slow and impeded. When he began to recognize that true Word which “was in the beginning with God,” then he announces that he is mute. But let us use an analogy that what we are saying may be more easily understood. If a rational person is compared with the dumb animals, although he may be ignorant and unlearned, he will appear eloquent in comparison with those who are devoid of both reason and speech. But if he is compared with learned and eloquent people who are most excellent in all wisdom, he will appear ineloquent and dumb. But if someone should contemplate the divine Word himself and look at the divine wisdom itself, however learned and wise he be, he will confess that he is a dumb animal in comparison with God to a much greater extent than the cattle are in comparison with us. HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3.1.

THE PLUNDER OF THE EGYPTIANS. GREGORY OF NYSSA: Thus Moses led the people out of Egypt, and everyone who follows in the steps of Moses in this way sets free from the Egyptian tyrant all those guided by his word. Those who follow the leader to virtue must, I think, not lack the wealth of Egypt or be deprived of the treasures of the foreigners, but having acquired all the property of their enemies, they must have it for their own use. This is exactly what Moses then commanded the people to do. … It commands those participating through virtue in the free life also to equip themselves with the wealth of pagan learning by which foreigners to the faith beautify themselves. Our guide in virtue commands someone who “borrows” from wealthy Egyptians to receive such things as moral and natural philosophy, geometry, astronomy, dialectic, and whatever else is sought by those outside the church, since these things will be useful when in time the divine sanctuary of mystery must be beautified with the riches of reason.

Those who treasured up for themselves such wealth handed it over to Moses as he was working on the tent of mystery, each one making his personal contribution to the construction of the holy places. It is possible to see this happening even now. For many bring to the church of God their profane learning as a kind of gift: Such a man was the great Basil, who acquired the Egyptian wealth in every respect during his youth and dedicated this wealth to God for the adornment of the church, the true tabernacle. LIFE OF MOSES 2.112, 115-16.