[53] Thus it is that in the many, those, that is, who have set before them many ends in life, the divine spirit does not abide, even though it sojourn there for a while. One sort of men only does it aid with its presence, even those who, having disrobed themselves of all created things and of the innermost veil and wrapping of mere opinion, with mind unhampered and naked will come to God.
[54] So too Moses pitched his own tent outside the camp (Exod. 33:7) and the whole array of bodily things, that is, he set up his judgement where it should not be removed. Then only does he begin to worship God and entering the darkness, the invisible region, abides there while he learns the secrets of the most holy mysteries. There he becomes not only one of the congregation of the initiated, but also the hierophant and teacher of divine rites,
[55] which he will impart to those whose ears are purified.
He then has ever the divine spirit at his side, taking the lead in every journey of righteousness, but from those others, as I have said, it quickly separates itself, from these to whose span of life he has also set a term of a hundred and twenty years, for he says “their days shall be a hundred and twenty years” (Gen. 6:3).
[56] Yet Moses also departs from mortal life, just when he has reached that number of years (Deut. 34:7). How then can it be reasonable that the years of the guilty should match those of the sage and prophet? Well, for the present it will be enough to say that things which bear the same name are not in all cases alike, often indeed differ altogether in kind, and that the bad and the good, since they come before us knit in a twin existence, may be equally matched in times and numbers, and yet their powers may be widely different and far apart from each other.
[57] But the closer discussion of this matter of a hundred and twenty years we will postpone till we inquire into the prophet’s life as a whole, when we have become fit to learn its mystery. Now let us speak of the words which follow next.