К. Те, которым поручено было все излишнее в святой скинии, возят это на колесницах; каафиты же шествовали, не на колесницы возложив Святое Святых, и не на что-либо другое, но на свои плечи.

П. Так что же это значит?

К. То, друг мой, сказал бы я, что закон тяжел и есть бремя неудобоносимое; ясным же указанием на сие может быть то, что излишнее не носимо было на плечах, ради немощи находившихся под игом закона. Посему Божественные ученики и говорили тем, которые после принятия веры обращались к служению по закону: «Что же вы ныне искушаете Бога, [желая] возложить на выи учеников иго, которого не могли понести ни отцы наши, ни мы?» (Деян.15, 10.) Каафиты же, возложив на плеча свои то, чем знаменуется Христос, несли бремя легкое и удобоносимое. Не это ли есть, очевидно, то, о чем Сам Христос сказал: «иго Мое благо и бремя Мое легко есть» (Мф.11, 30)?

П. Кажется.

К. Прибавил бы я к сказанному еще и следующее, так как это не бесполезно было бы для полной уверенности: в первой переписи левитов (Чис.3, 15 и далее) сыны Гедеоновы поставлены в начале, потом в средине Кааф и последним Мерари (это были роды Левитские); во второй же, что от двадцати пяти лет (Чис.4), впереди других поставлен Кааф и наименован первым, а потом после него Гедеон и Мерари, служению которых подлежало излишнее в скинии. И кроме того каждый из сих двух родов (Гедеонов и Мерарин) имеет по два отдельных семейства, а предшествующий (Каафов) простирается даже до четырех. Разумеешь ли прикровенный смысл сего?

П. Нимало.

К. Израиль призван был первым, когда же привзошло в средину общество язычников, поставлен позади его: и «последние» стали «первые», по слову Спасителя, а «первые последними» (Мф.20, 16).

P. Pravda.

K. And that the people of Judah are small in number, while the innumerable crowd of pagans far surpasses them, this is clear.

P. How could it be otherwise?

K. Therefore God says to the priest Moses: "Leave Me therefore, that My wrath may be kindled against them, I will smite him with a plague, and I will destroy him, and I will make of you a people more numerous and stronger than he" (Exodus 32:10, and Num. 14:12). And to think of that which is higher than this, and to seek more than that which is ordained and ordained for him by God, causes punishment and destruction; and this is shown by experience itself; for in the same book of Numbers it is written: "Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and Abnan the son of Thaleth, the sons of Reuben, rose up against Moses, and [with them] of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty men, the leaders of the congregation, called to the assemblies, men of renown. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, It is enough for you; the whole society, all are holy, and the Lord is in their midst! Why then do you set yourselves above the people of the Lord? When Moses heard this, he fell on his face, and said to Korah and to all his companions, saying, "Tomorrow the Lord will show who is His and who is holy, that He may draw him near to Himself. and whomsoever He chooses, He will also draw near to Himself; This is what you shall do: Korah and all his accomplices, take for yourselves censers, and tomorrow put fire in them, and pour incense into them before the Lord; and whomsoever the Lord chooses, the same will be holy. Enough of you, sons of Levi! And Moses said to Korah, Hearken, O sons of Levi. Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, and has brought you near to himself, that you may perform the services at the tabernacle of the Lord, and stand before the congregation, ministering for them? He hath brought thee near, and with thee all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, and ye also seek the priesthood" (16:1-10). The sons of Kohath, having the service of carrying the Holy of Holies on their shoulders, foolishly rushed to the highest rank and disputed the dignity of the priests, admiring their own honor, according to what is written (Heb. 5:4), neglecting the commandment of God, impiously transgressing the laws of the sacrament, imputing the honor of the primates to absolutely nothing. For they said to Moses and Aaron, "It weighs upon you as the whole assembly, all are holy, and the Lord is in them." You hear how they look low at the degree granted to them, and almost say that the honor of a bishop is a common property, and that not only their family, but all others as well, and that in general in them (Moses and Aaron) there is nothing special or more glorious, even though they are considered superior to others, having received their privilege by definition from God: and this obviously means to condemn the highest definitions and to impute the will of the Lawgiver to nothing. But the divine Moses, acting with his usual meekness, exhorted them as if they were sick, and not yet thinking about how great wrath would befall them, he rebuked them, saying: "May it prevail over you, sons of Levi." For "food is little for you," he says, "that God of all things has made you chosen out of all for a service so honorable and wonderful? But they were still hard-hearted, indestructible, and unbridled in their arrogance, until their madness brought them to such a calamity that "the earth shall open its mouth," seize them with their descendants and tents, and plunge them into extraordinary destruction, for "they have descended... alive into hell," as it is written (Num. 16:30 and 33; cf. Psalm 54:16). Therefore, it is impious and guilty of death by the judgment of God to rebel against the head and not to submit to those who have been appointed to rule and who have received preferential honor from God. The fruit of higher intelligence is to treasure what one has, and to be grateful for it, and not to rush rashly at that which is above the measure determined for us, and not to strive for that which has not yet been granted to us, considering common and accessible to many that which is governed only by a wave from above.

P. You said it well.

K. Thus, the order of the priesthood should not be disturbed by the merging of offices: it is proper to be so, and it should not be otherwise.

P. You speak well.