Prophecy about Christ

by E.A. Wallis Budge, [1932],

MOSES proclaimed in the Law and said, “A prophet like myself shall rise up for you from your brethren, and hearken ye unto him, and every soul that will not hearken unto that prophet ye shall root out from among the people.” And this he said concerning CHRIST the Son of God. And he also prophesied concerning His Crucifixion, and said, “When the serpents afflicted the children of Israel they cried out to MOSES, and MOSES cried out to God to deliver them from the serpents. And God said unto him, Make an image of brass of a serpent and suspend it in a place where it can be known as a sign, and let every one whom a serpent hath bitten look upon that image of brass, and he shall live. And when they failed to look at it they died, and those who looked on it and believed lived.” And in like manner was it with CHRIST; those who paid no heed to Him and did not believe in Him perished in SHEÔL, and those who believed and hearkened unto Him inherited the land of everlasting life, where there will never be pain or suffering.

Now we will make known unto you how they paid no heed to CHRIST, the Word of God. When the children of Israel spake against Moses, saying, “Is it that God hath spoken to MOSES only? How is it that we also do not hear the Word of God that we may believe in Him?” And God, Who knoweth the hearts of men, heard the murmuring of the children of Israel, and He said unto Moses, “Thou dost ask forgiveness for thy people, and yet they murmur against thee, saying, Why doth not God speak with us? And now, if they believe in Me, let them come hither to Me with thee. And tell them to purify themselves, and to wash their apparel, and let the great men of Israel go up to hear what commands I will give them, and let them hear My voice and perform the commandments which I shall give them.” And Moses told the children of Israel what he had been commanded, and the people bowed low before God, and they purified themselves on the third day. And the seventy elders of Israel went up into Mount Sinai, and they departed from the encampment and ascended Mount SINAI. And they were distant from each other the space of the flight of an arrow, and they stood still, each facing his neighbor.

Though there were many of them and they used their endeavours, they were not able to ascend into the cloud with MOSES, and fear and trembling seized upon them, and the shadow of death enveloped them; and they heard the sound of the horn and pipes, and [they felt] the darkness and the winds. And Moses went into the cloud and held converse with God, and all the great men of Israel heard that Voice of God, and they were afraid and quaked with terror, and because of the overwhelming terror which was in their hearts they were unable to stand up. And when Moses came forth they said unto him, “We will not hear this word of God so that we may not die of terror. And behold, we know that God holdeth converse with thee. And if there be anything that He would say unto us, do thou hearken thereto and declare it unto us. Be thou unto us a mouth in respect of God, and we will be unto Him His own people.” Do ye not see that they denied CHRIST and said, “We will not hearken to that Voice so that we may not die in terror”? Now CHRIST was the Word of God, and therefore when they said, “We will not hearken to that Voice,” they meant, “We do not believe in Christ.”

And again MOSES spake unto God and said, “Shew me Thy Face.” And God said unto Moses, “No one can look upon My Face and live, but only as in a mirror. Turn thy face to the west and thou shalt see in the rock the mirroring of My Face.” And when Moses saw the shadow of the Face of God, his own face shone with a brightness which was seven times brighter than the sun, and the light was so strong that the children of Israel could not look upon his face except through a veil. And thereupon he saw that they did not desire to look upon the Face of God, for they said unto him, “Make unto us a veil so that we may not see thy face.” And having said these words it is evident that they hated the hearing of His words and the sight of His Face.

Moreover, when ABRAHAM took his son ISAAC up into Mount ḲARMĔLĔWÔS (CARMEL), God sent down from heaven a ram for the redemption of ISAAC. And ISAAC was not slaughtered, but the ram which had come down from heaven was slaughtered. Now ABRAHAM is to be interpreted God the Father, and ISAAC is to be interpreted as a symbol of CHRIST the Son. And when He came down from heaven for the salvation of ADAM and his sons, the Godhead which had come down from heaven was not slain, but His body which He had put on for our sakes, that earthly body which He had put on from MARY, was slain. Can ye understand and know that likeness and similitude for the earthly being ISAAC, the son of ABRAHAM, who was an offering of the will of his father? The heavenly ram became a redemption (or, substitute), and the son of ABRAHAM was redeemed. And as for Him Who came down, the Son of God, He became the redemption of the Godhead, His body for the earthly, and He died in His body, the Godhead suffering in no wise and remaining unchanged; and the mortal became living in the Resurrection with the Godhead. And it is clearly manifest: in that CHRIST, the Son of God, hath redeemed us, He hath magnified us, men. And we must honour especially, both upon the earth and in heaven, this our Lady MARY the Virgin, the Mother of God.

And, hearken ye to this explanation concerning the first man, who is our father ADAM. EVE was created from a man, from a bone in his side, without carnal embrace and union, and she became his companion. And having heard the word of guile, from being the helpmeet of ADAM she became a murderess by making him transgress the command. And in His mercy, God the Father created the Pearl in the body of ADAM. He cleansed EVE’S body and sanctified it and made for it a dwelling in her for ADAM’S salvation. She [i.e., MARY] was born without blemish, for He made her pure, without pollution, and she redeemed his debt without carnal union and embrace. She brought forth in the heavenly flesh a King, and He was born of her, and He renewed his life in the purity of His body. And He slew death with His pure body, and He rose without corruption, and He hath raised us up with Him to immortality, the throne of divinity, and He hath raised us up to Him, and we have exchanged life in our mortal body and found the life which is immortal. Through the seduction of ADAM we suffered affliction, and by the patient endurance of Christ, we are healed. Through the transgression of EVE we died and were buried, and by the purity of MARY we receive the honor and are exalted to the heights.

Ezekiel also prophesied concerning MARY and said, “I saw a door in the east which was sealed with a great and marvelous seal, and there was none who went into it except the Lord of hosts; He went in through it and came forth therefrom.” Hear ye now this explanation: When he saith, “I saw a door,” it was the door of the gate of heaven, the entrance of the saints into the kingdom of the heavens. And when he saith that it was “in the east” he referreth to her purity and her beauty. Men call her the “Gate of Salvation”, and also “the East” whereunto the saints look with joy and gladness. And the “closedness” of which he speaketh referreth to her virginity and her body. And when he saith that she was sealed with “a great, wonderful seal”, this showeth plainly that she was sealed by God, the Great and Wonderful, through the Holy Ghost. And when he saith, “None goeth through it except the Lord of hosts, He goeth in and cometh out,” [he meaneth] the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Creator of the angels and men and the lords. The Lord of hosts is the fruit of the Godhead, Who put on our body from her, CHRIST. He went into and came forth from her without polluting her.

MOSES also prophesied concerning MARY, saying, “I saw a bramble bush on Mount SINAI which the devouring fire consumed not.” And the signification of this fire is the Godhood of the Son of God; and the bramble bush, which burned without the leaves thereof being shriveled, is MARY.

The Murmuring of ISRAEL

Once again the children of ISRAEL murmured concerning the ministration of the priests before the Lord, saying, “Are we not ISRAEL, we the seed of Abraham, and why cannot we also offer up sacrifice like them in the Tent of Witness by the Tabernacle of the Law of God, the holy ZION, with censers and incense and the holy instruments? Why should MOSES, and his brother Aaron, and their children alone do this? Are we not people whom God hath chosen as much as they are, and shall we not do His Will?” And when Moses heard [this] he said unto them, “Do ye whatsoever ye will.” And the elders of Israel went and had made seventy censers wherewith to cense ZION and to praise God, and they took incense and coals in the censers, and went and came into the Holy of Holies to offer up incense. And immediately they threw the incense into the censers, at the first swing of them fire came forth from the censers, and they were burned up straightway and melted away. And as wax melteth before the face of the fire, even so, did they melt away; and as grass withereth when flame approacheth it, even so, were they consumed, together with their instruments, and there was nothing left of them except their centers. And God said, “Sanctify to Me these censers for My Tent” (or, Pavilion), and they shall be used for My offerings, for they are consecrated by the death of those men.”

Now the censer is MARY, and CHRIST, the Son of God, the Godhead, is the coals, and the odor of the incense is the perfume of Christ, and through the perfume of His Apostles, and Prophets, and Martyrs, and Monks, have rejected the world and inherited the kingdom of heaven. And the chains of the censers are the ladder which Jacob saw, to which [the angels] clung as they went up and came down; and upon the perfume of the incense, the prayers of the pure go up to the throne of God.

When the flame had burned up the sinners, the people who were kinsmen of these who had been destroyed reviled MOSES and AARON, and said unto them, “Ye have made our elders to perish”; and they took up stones to stone MOSES and AARON And God was exceedingly wroth with Israel, and He abominated as a filthy rag the counsel of DATHAN and ABIRAM, the sons of KORAH. And the Word of God made a sign to the earth, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, together with all their companions, and their wives, and their children, and their beasts. They went down into SHEÔL alive, and the earth shut herself up over them. And as for the people who had been associated with them and had heard their revilings [of Moses] God sent upon them a plague, and they died forthwith. And MOSES and AARON came with incense and censers, and they wept before God, and entreated Him for forgiveness for the people, saying, “Remember, O Lord, ABRAHAM Thy friend, and ISAAC Thy servant, and Israel Thy holy one, for we are their seed, and the children of Thy people. Cool Thy wrath in respect of us, and make haste to hear us, destroy us not, and remove Thy punishment from upon Thy people.” And God the Merciful saw the sincerity of MOSES, and had compassion upon them.

And God spake unto Moses and said unto him, “Speak thou to this people and say unto them, ‘Sanctify ye yourselves, and bring ye for each of the houses of your fathers a rod,’ and write ye [the name] upon it so that ye may know their rods, thou and thy brother AARON. Now of your houses let AARON write upon his rod, but upon thine own rod make no mark, for it shall be a perfect miracle for the children of thy people, a vindication for the wicked, and a sign of life for all those who believe. If thou didst write [thy name] now with them, they would say unto thee, ‘This hath been a worker of miracles from of old by the word of God’; let them say this when I have shown them a miracle by it (i.e., the rod). But for the house of thy father write upon the rod of AARON.”

The Rod of MOSES and the Rod of AARON

MOSES spake these words unto them, and they brought a rod into each of the houses of their fathers which they had chosen for purity, and there were twelve rods. And Moses wrote upon their rods the names of their fathers: on the rod of AARON was written the name of LEVI, and on the rod of KARMÎN was written the name of JUDAH, and on the rod of ADÔNYÂS was written the name of REUBEN, and on the rod of every man of all the houses of ISRAEL was written in like manner the name of his father. And God said unto Moses, “Carry [the rods] to ZION, to the Tent of Witness, and shut them up therein until the morning, and [then] take them out before the men and give unto each of them his rod, according to the houses of their fathers whose names are written on the rods, and the man on whose rod a mark shall be found is he whom I have chosen to be priest to Me.” And Moses told the people these words, and they did according as God had commanded them. And then, when the morning had come, Moses took the rods, and all the elders of Israel and AARON came. And MOSES came before them, and he lifted up the rods and brought them before all the people, and the rod of Aaron was found with the fruit and flower of an almond which emitted a fragrant perfume. And Moses said unto them, “Look ye now. This is the rod which the Lord your God hath chosen, fear ye Him and worship Him”; and all the people bowed down before God.

Now, this rod is MARY. And the rod which without water burst into bloom indicateth MARY, from whom was born, without the seed of man, the Word of God. And that He saith “I have chosen, I will make manifest a miracle, and he shall be priest to Me,” meaneth that God chose MARY out of all the congregation of Israel, even as DAVID her father prophesied, saying, “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob,” and he further said, “Marvellous is His speech concerning thee, O city of God.”And when he saith, “more than all the habitations of Israel” and “her gates” [he referreth to] the silence of her mouth, and the purity of her lips, and the praise which goeth forth from her mouth, like honey which floweth from her lips, and the purity of her virginity which was without spot or blemish or impurity before she brought forth; and after she had brought forth she was pure and holy, and so shall it be, even as it was, unto all eternity. And in the heavens, she goeth about with the angels a pure thing, and she is the rod of AARON. She liveth in ZION with the pot which is filled with manna, and with the two tables that were written with the Finger of God. And the heavenly, spiritual ZION is above them, the ZION, the making and constitution of which are wonderful, of which God Himself is her Maker and Fashioner for the habitation of His glory.

And God spake unto Moses [saying], “Make a Tabernacle of wood which is indestructible [by worms and rot], and cover it over with plates of fine gold, every part thereof.” And the gold is the fineness of the Godhead that came down from heaven, for the Godhead comprehendeth all heaven and earth; and in like manner is plated with gold the Tabernacle, the abode of the heavenly ZION. And the Tabernacle is to be interpreted as MARY, and the wood which is indestructible is to be interpreted as Christ our Redeemer. And the Gômôr, which is the pot of gold inside the Tabernacle, is to be interpreted as MARY, and the manna which is in the pot is to be interpreted as the Body of Christ which came down from heaven, and the Word of God which is written upon the two tables is to be interpreted as Christ, the Son of God. And the spiritual ZION is to be interpreted as the light of the Godhead. The spiritual Pearl which is contained in the Tabernacle is like a brilliant gem of great price, and he who hath acquired it holdeth it tightly in his hand, grasping it and hiding it in his hand, and whilst the gem is in his hand its owner goeth into the Tabernacle, and he is an inmate therein. And he who possesseth the Pearl is interpreted as the Word of God, CHRIST. And the spiritual Pearl which is grasped is to be interpreted as Mary, the Mother of the Light, through whom “’AKRÂTÔS“, the “Unmixed”, assumed a body. In her He made a Temple for Himself of her pure body, and from her was born the Light of Light, God of God, Who was born of His own free will, and was not made by the hand of another, but He made a Temple for Himself through an incomprehensible wisdom which transcendeth the mind of man.

And on another occasion, when God brought Israel out of Egypt, they thirsted for water in KÂDÊS, and they murmured and wept before MOSES; and Moses went to God and made Him know this. And God said unto him, “Take thy rod and smite this rock”; and Moses smote the rock lengthwise and breadthwise in the form of the Cross, and water flowed forth twelve streams. And they drank their fill of the water, their people and their beasts, and when they had drunk that rock followed after them. And the rock is to be interpreted as Christ, and the streams of water as the Apostles, and that which they drank as the teaching of the Apostles, and the rod is the wood of the Cross. And the rock is stable, as it saith in the Gospel, “He who buildeth upon a rock shall not be moved by the demons.” And again He saith, “I am the gate,” and again He saith, “I am the door.” And observe ye that when speaking He distinguished between his disciples even as He did between those who [came] after them, the Bishops and the Christian Community. “Thou art the rock,” He said unto Peter, “and upon thee, I will build the Christian people.” And again He said, “I am the Shepherd of the sheep, and He said unto him thrice, “Feed my sheep.” And again He said “I am the stem of the vine,” and unto them, He said, “Ye are its branches and its clusters of fruit.”

The rod of MOSES by means of which he performed the miracle is to be interpreted as the wood of the Cross, whereby He delivered ADAM and his children from the punishment of devils. And as Moses smote the water of the river therewith, and turned it into blood, and slew their fish, in like manner Christ slew Death with His Cross, and brought them out of SHEÔL. And as Moses smote in the air with his rod, and the whole land of Egypt became dark for three days and three night with a darkness which could be felt so that [the Egyptians] could not rise from their couches, so also Christ, being crucified upon the Cross, lightened the darkness of the hearts of men, and rose up from the dead on the third day and third night. And as the rod of MOSES changed itself and transformed itself by the Word of God, being dry yet possessing life, and possessing life yet became a dry thing, even so CHRIST with the wood of His Cross made life for the Christian people who believed on Him, and with the Sign of the Cross made them to drive away devils.

For the demons and the Christians became changed; the spiritual beings became reprobates, and through transgressing the commandment of their Lord they became exiled ones by the might of His Cross. And we have become spiritual beings through receiving His Body and Blood in the place of those spiritual beings who were exiled, and we have become beings worthy of praise who have believed in His Cross and in His holy Resurrection. And as Moses smote the mountains by stretching out his hands with his rod, and brought forth punishments by the command of God, even so, CHRIST, by stretching out His hands upon the wood of the Cross, drove out the demons from men by the might of His Cross. When God said unto Moses, “Smite with thy rod,” He meant, “Make the Sign of the Cross of Christ,” and when God said unto Moses, “Stretch out thy hand,” He meant that by the spreading out of His hand CHRIST hath redeemed us from the servitude of the enemy, and hath given us life by the stretching out of His hand upon the wood of the Cross.

When AMALEK fought with ISRAEL, MOSES went up into the mountain, and AARON was with him; they went up to pray because AMALEK was prevailing. And God commanded Moses and said unto him, “Stretch out thy hand until ISRAEL obtaineth the power [over AMALEK].” And it saith in the TÔRÂH that the hands of MOSES were held out until the sunset; but the hands of Moses became heavy, and being weary he dropped his hands that had been stretched out, and then ISRAEL ceased to prevail and their enemies overcame them. And when Moses kept his hand up and stretched out straight, AMALEK was overcome, and ISRAEL put to flight and vanquished their enemy AMALEK. And when Aaron and HÔR (HUR) saw this, they piled up stones on the right and on the left of MOSES, and they made the hands of Moses rest on the stones which they had built up, and AARON on his right and HÔR on his left held MOSES up with their shoulders, so that his hands might not drop from their stretched out position.

Now I will explain this to you. The war of AMALEK against Israel is the war of believers against the demons, and before Christ was crucified the demons conquered the believers. But when He stretched out His hand on the wood of the Cross because of the sin of Adam and his children, and when He stretched out His hand and His palm was pierced [with the nails], those who were sealed with the Sign of the Cross of Christ conquered them (i.e., the demons). The stretching out of the hand of MOSES indicateth the Cross of Christ; and that AARON and HÔR built up stones indicateth the wood of the Cross and the nails. And AARON indicateth the thief on the right, and HÔR the thief on the left; and AMALEK indicateth the demons, and the king of AMALEK indicateth SATAN. And as concerning that they (the AMALEKITES) were conquered, this indicateth that we have conquered the demons and SATAN by the Resurrection of Christ and by His Cross.

And again when Israel went out of Egypt they came to bitter water, and they lacked drink because the water was bitter; and first of all, they murmured because of the bitterness of the water. And God said unto MOSES, “Lift up thy rod, and cast it into the water, and sign it with the Sign of the Cross right and left.” Now mark what followeth. Had God said unto him, “Let it become sweet,” then would the water not have become sweet? But He made manifest that by the Sign of the Cross everything becometh good, and bitter water becometh sweet, and that by the might of the Cross of JESUS CHRIST every polluted thing becometh good and pleasant.

And here I will declare unto thee yet other matters from the rest of the Prophets concerning His Crucifixion. DAVID saith, “They have pierced for me my hands and My feet”; now this referreth clearly to the nails of His hands and His feet. And again he saith, “They made me drink vinegar for my thirst,” and this showeth clearly that He drank vinegar because of the sin of ADAM. The Breath of Life that had breathed upon ADAM drank vinegar, and the Hand that had founded the earth was pierced with a nail. He Who for the sake of ADAM abased Himself was born and took the form of a servant.

The Two Servants

It is said that a certain king had two slaves: the one was arrogant and strong, and the other was humble and weak. And the arrogant slave overcame the humble one, and smote him and all but slew him, and robbed him, and the king upon his throne saw them. And the king descending seized the arrogant slave, and beat him, and crushed him, and bound him in fetters, and cast him into a place of darkness. And he raised up his humble and weak slave, and embraced him, and brushed away the dust from him, and washed him, and poured oil and wine into his wounds, and set him upon his ass, and brought him into his city and set him upon his throne, and seated him on his right hand. Now the king is in truth CHRIST, and the arrogant servant whom I have mentioned is SATAN, and the humble servant is ADAM. And when CHRIST saw how the arrogant servant overcame the humble one and cast him down in the dust, He came down from His throne and raised up ADAM, His servant, and bound SATAN in fetters in the terror of SHEÔL.

He seated the body of Adam upon the throne of His Godhead, and magnified him, and exalted him, and honored him; and he was praised by all the beings whom He had created, the angels and the archangels, thousands of thousands, and tens of thousands of thousands of spiritual beings. For He brought low the arrogant and raised up the humble, and reduced the arrogant to shame and exalted to honor the humble, and rejected the arrogant and loved the humble, and scorned the haughty and had pity on the lowly. He cast down the arrogant from his high place and lifted the poor up out of the dust. He snatched away the mighty one from his honor, and raised up the poor from corruption, for with Him are honor and disgrace. Whom He wisheth to honor He honoureth, and whom He wisheth to disgrace He disgraceth.