About the Planting of Noah (26-30)

Therefore, also, Moses will be summoned upwards, the steward and guardian of the sacred mysteries of the living God. For we read in the book of Leviticus, "He called Moses up to him." [*] Bezeleel also will be summoned up, being thought worthy of the same honours. For him, also, God calls up for the preparation of the sacred furniture and for the care of the sacred works.

But he receives only the second honour of this summons, and the all-wise Moses shall have the first place assigned to him. For the former fashions shadows only, like painters do, in which it is not right to form any living thing. For the very name Bezeleel is interpreted to mean, "working in shadows." But Moses does not make shadows, but the task is assigned to him of forming the archetypal natures of things themselves. And in other places, also, the great Cause of all things is accustomed to reveal his secrets to some in a more conspicuous [*] [*]

Having therefore gone through all the larger plants in the universe, let us see in what manner the all-wise God made the trees which exist in the smaller world, that is to say, in man. In the first place, then, taking our body as if it were a field of deep soil, he created the external senses to be in it as so many channels.

And after that, he arranged the place of each separate one of them, as if it had been a fruit-bearing and most useful tree, assigning the sense of hearing to the ear, that of sight to the eyes, that of smell to the nostrils, and each of the other senses and faculties to their kindred and appropriate organs. And the divine man bears his testimony to this account of mine, speaking thus in his Psalms, "He that planted the ear, doth he not hear? and he that made the eyes, shall he not see?" [*]

Moreover, all the different powers which run down as far as the legs and hands, and all the other parts of the body, whether internal or external, are all those of an unimportant kind.