Inside And Outside

Et exiit, inquit, Moyses ad populum, et locutus et ad eum verba Domini. Donec verba Domini audit Moyses et ab ipso docetur, intus est, et in interioribus consistit atque in intimis secretis habetur. Ubi vero turbis loquitur et populis, ministrat ei qui intus non potest stare, exire dicitur foras. Quid ergo formae talis continet sermo? Quod omnis doctor, et magister Ecclesiae si de profundioribus mysteriis aliquid moveat, is arcanum quid et reconditum de Dei sapientia proferat inter perfectos, donec in profundis sensibus versatur, intus esse, et in interioribus consistere dicendus est. Cum vero loquitur ad turbas, et ea profet quae sufficiant iis qui foris sunt, quae potest vulgus audire, foras dicitur exisse, et loqui ad populum verba Domini. Hoc video et Paulum fecisse, et intus quidem fuisse, cum diceret: Sapientiam autem loquimur inter perfectos, sapientiam autem non hujus mundi, neque principum hujus mundi, qui destruentur. Sed loquimur Dei sapientiam in mysterio absconditam quam nemo principum hujus mundi cognovit. Vides quomodo intus est, et interna atque arcana divinae sapientiae penetrat Paulus, cum haec loquitur. Cum autem procedit ad populum, audi quid loquitur: Omni sermo malus de ore vestro non procedat; et: Qui furabatur, jam non furetur; et: Unusquisque vir uxorem suam habeat; et: Unusquisque proximum suum sicut seipsum diligat; et: Unaquaeque mulier virum suum habeat. Haec et si qua hujusmodi sunt, Paulus secundum Moysis formam foras exiens, ad populum loquitur. Origen, In Numeros, Homilia VI, Interprete Rufino Aquileiense Source: Migne PG 12.607b-c

And Moses went out to the people and he spoke the words of the Lord to them. 1 While Moses hears the words of the Lord and is taught by Him he is inside, and he is firmly fixed in things most profound and he takes hold of the deepest and innermost secrets, but when he speaks to the crowd and ministers to those who were not able to be inside he is said to go outside. What, then, is to be found in such words? That every teacher and instructor of the Church, if he is imbued with the profound mysteries, should be within setting forth the secret and hidden mysteries of God to the perfect, until the deepest understanding is achieved, which is said to be established in the deepest things. When however he speaks to the crowd he should offer to them what is fitting for those who are outside, that which it is possible for the multitude to hear, and then he is said to be outside. I see Paul did this, he who certainly was inside when he said, 'But we speak wisdom among the perfect, not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of the world who shall be ruined, but we speak a hidden wisdom of God in mystery which none of the princes of the world have known.' 2 See how he is inside, and that he grasps the inmost secrets of Divine wisdom when he says these things. But when he goes out to the people, hear what he says: 'Let no evil speech come out of your mouth,' and 'He who has stolen let him stop stealing.' and 'Let each man have his own wife,' and 'Let everyone love his neighbour as himself,' and 'Let every woman have her own husband.' 3 Paul speaks these things and things like them in the manner of Moses going outside. Origen, On Numbers, from the Sixth Homily, Translated by Rufinus of Aquileia. 1 Numb 11.24 2 1 Cor 2.6 3 Ephes 4.29, 4.28, 1 Cor 7.2, Ephes 5.33, 1 Cor 7.2