On the question, Who is the Heir of Divine Things (81-85)

And the statement, "He led him out" [*] (ἐξήγαγεν αὐτὸν ἔξω), has a bearing also on moral considerations, though some persons, through their want of instruction in moral philosophy, are accustomed to ridicule it, saying, "For is any one ever led out in (ἔξω εἰσάγεται), or led in out (εἰσέρχεται ἔξω)?" "Certainly," I would reply, "you ridiculous and very foolish man; for you have never learnt how to trace the dispositions of the soul; but by this language of yours you only seek to understand those motions of bodies which are exerted in change of place. On which account it seems paradoxical to you to speak of any one coming out into (ἐξέρχεται εἴσω), or going in out (ὲξέρχεται ἔξω); but to those acquainted with Moses none of these things seem inconsistent."

Would you not say that the perfect high priest when, being in the inmost shrine, he is performing his national sacrifices, is both within and without at the same time? within in respect of his visible body, but without in respect of his soul, which is roaming about and wandering? And again, on the other hand, would you not say that a man who was not of the family consecrated to the priesthood, but who was a lover of God and beloved by God, though standing without the holy shrine, was nevertheless in reality in its inmost parts? looking upon his whole life in the body as a sojourning in a foreign land; but while he is able to live only in the soul, then he thinks that he is abiding in his own country.

For every fool is outside of friendship, even though he may not depart for one moment from daily association with people. But every wise man is within friendship, even if he be dwelling at a distance, not merely in a different country, but in another climate and region of the world. But, according to Moses, a friend is so near to one as to differ in no respect from one’s [*] [*]

And again he says, "The priest shall not be a man by himself, when he goeth into the holy of holies, until he cometh out;" [*] speaking not with reference to the motions of the body, but to those of the soul; for the mind, while it is offering holy sacrifices to God in all purity, is not a human but a divine mind; but when it is serving any human object, it then descends from heaven and becomes changed, or rather it falls to the earth and goes out, even though the mind may still remain within.

Very correctly, therefore, it is said, he led him out (ἐξήγαγεν ἔξω) of the prison according to the body, of the caves existing in the external senses, of the sophistries displayed in deceitful speech; and beyond all this, out of himself and out of the idea that by his own self-exerted, self-implanted, and independent power he was able to conceive and comprehend.