XX. How, then, can there be any remedy for this evil? When another serpent is created, the enemy of the serpent which came to Eve, namely, the word of temperance: for temperance is opposite to pleasure, which is a varied evil, being a varied virtue, and one ready to repel its enemy plea- sure. Accordingly, God commands Moses to make the serpent according to temperance; and he says, " Make thyself a serpent, and set it up for a sign." Do you see that Moses makes this serpent for no one else but for himself? for God commands him, " Make it for thyself," in order that you may know that temperance is not the gift of every one, but only of that man who loves God. And we must consider why Moses makes a brazen serpent, when no command was given to him respecting the material of which it was to be formed. May it not have been for this reason? In the first place, the graces of God are immaterial, being themselves only ideas, and desti- tute of any distinctive quality; but the graces of mortal men are only beheld in connection with matter. In the second place, not only does Moses love the incorporeal virtues, but our own souls, not being able to put off their bodies, do like- wise aim at corporeal virtue, and reason, in accordance with temperance, is likened to the strong and solid substance of brass, inasmuch as it is firm and not easily cut through. And perhaps brass may also have been selected inasmuch as tempe- rance in the man who loves God is a most honourable thing, and like gold; though it has only a secondary place in a man who has received wisdom and improved in it. " And whomsoever the one serpent bites, if he looks upon the brazen serpent shall live:'' in which Moses speaks truly, for if the mind that has been bitten by pleasure, that is by the serpent which was sent to Eve, shall have strength to behold the beauty of temperance, that is to say, the serpent made by Moses in a manner affecting the soul, and to behold God himself through the medium of the serpent, it shall live. Only let it see and contemplate it intellectually.
XXI. Do you not see that wisdom when dominant, which is Sarah, says, " For whosoever shall hear it shall rejoice with me."* But suppose that any were able to hear that * Genesis xxi. 6.
ON THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS. 101 virtue has brought forth happiness, namely, Isaac, immediately he will sing a congratulatory hymn. As, therefore, it can only be one who has heard the news that can sympathise in one's joy, so also it can only be he who has clearly seen temperance and God, who is safe from death. But many souls that have been in love with perseverance and temperance, when removed to a distance from the passions, have nevertheless withstood the power of God, and have undergone a change for the worse, while their Master has made a display of himself and of the work of creation; of himself, that he is always immovable, and of the work of creation, that it vibrates as if in a scale, and inclines opposite ways at different times. For Moses speaks to the Israelites of God, " Who led ye then through that great and terrible wilderness, where there were biting serpents, and scorpions, and thirst; where there was no water? who brought forth for thee out of the hard rock a fountain of water? who fed thee with manna in the desert, which thv fathers knew not?"* Do you not see that not only did the soul, while longing for the passions which prevailed in Egypt, fall under the power of the serpents, but that, also, while it was in the wilderness, it was bitten by pleasure, that affection of varied and serpent- like appearance? And the work of pleasure has received a most appropriate name, for it is called a biting. Moreover, not only they who were in the desert were bitten by serpents, but also they who were scattered abroad, for I, also, often having left the men who were my kinsmen and my friends, and my country, and having gone into the desert in order that I might perceive some of those things which are worthy of being beheld, have profited nothing. But my mind, being separated from me, or being bitten by passion, has withdrawn towards the things opposite to them. And there are times when in the midst of a multitude composed of infinite numbers of men, I can bring my mind into solitude, God having scat- tered for me the crowd which perplexes my soul, and having taught me that it is not the difference of place that is the cause of good and evil, but rather God, who moves and drives this vehicle of the soul wherever he pleases Moreover, the soul falls in with a scorpion, that is to say, with dispersion in the wilderness; and the thirst, which is that * Deuteronomy viii. 14.
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of the passions, seizes on it until God sends forth upon it the stream of his own accurate wisdom, and causes the changed soul to drink of unchangeable health; for the abrupt rock is the wisdom of God, which being both sublime and the first of" things he quarried out of his own powers, and of.it he gives drink to the souls that love God; and they, when they have drunk, are also filled with the most universal manna; for manna is called something which is the primary genus of every thing. But the most universal of all things is God; and in the second place the word of God. But other things have an existence only in word, but in deed they are at times equivalent to that which has no existence.
XXII. See now the difference between him who turns to sin in the desert and him who sins in Egypt. For the one is bitten by serpents which cause death, that is to say by insatiable pleasures which inflict death; but the other, he who meditates in the wilderness, is only bitten by pleasure and driven astray, but is not killed. And the one, indeed, is healed by temperance, which is the brazen serpent which was made by the wise Moses; but the other is supplied by God with a most beautiful draught to drink, namely, wisdom, from the fountain which He himself has brought forth out of his own wisdom. Nor, indeed, does the pleasure which is in the form of a serpent, abstain from attack ing that most sincere lover of God, Moses, for we read as follows; " If, therefore, they will not obey me, nor listen to my voice — for they will say, God has not been seen by you — what shall 1 say to them? And the Lord said unto Moses, What is that which is in thy hand? And he said, A rod. And God said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thy hand, and take hold of it by the tail. And having stretched forth his hand, he took hold of it by the tail, and it became a rod in his hand. And the Lord said unto him, That they may believe thee." * How can any one believe God? If he has learnt that all other things are changed, but that he alone is unchangeable. Therefore, God asks of the wise Moses what there is in the prac- tical life of his soul; for the hand is the symbol of action. And * Exodus iv. 3.
ON THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS. 1 03 he answers, Instruction, which he calls a rod. On which account Jacob the supplanter of the passions, says, " For in my staff did I pass over this Jordan." * But Jordan being interpreted means descent. And of the lower, and earthly, and perishable nature, vice and passion are component parts; and the mind of the ascetic passes over them in the course of its education. For it is too low a notion to explain his saying literally; as if it meant that he crossed the river, holding his staff in his hand.
XXIII. Well, therefore, does the God-loving Moses answer. For truly the actions of the virtuous man are supported by education as by a rod, tranquillizing the disturbances and agita- tions of the mind. This rod, when cast away, becomes a ser- pent. Very appropriately. For if the soul casts away instruc- tion, it becomes fond of pleasure instead of being foiid of virtue. On which account Moses fled from it, for the man who is fond of virtue does flee from passion and from pleasure. But God did not praise his flight. For it is fitting, indeed, for your mind, before you are made perfect, to meditate flight and escape from the passions; but Moses, that perfect man, ought rather to persevere in his war against them, and to resist them, and to strive against them, otherwise they, relying on their freedom from danger and on their power, will ascend up to the citadel of the soul, and take it by storm, and will plunder it entirely, like a tyrant. On which account God commanded Moses " to take hold of it by the tail," that is to say, let not the hostile and untameable spirit of pleasure terrify you, but with all your power take hold of it, and seize it firmly, and master it. For it will again become a rod instead of a serpent, that is to say, instead of pleasure it will become instruction in your hand; but it will be in your hand, that is in the action of a wise man, which, indeed, is true.
But it is impossible to take hold of and to master pleasure, unless the hand be first stretched out, that is to say, unless the soul confesses that all actions and all progress is derived from God; and attributes nothing to himself. Accordingly he, when he saw this serpent, decided to flee from it. But he prepared another principle, that of temperance, which is the brazen serpent: that whosoever was bitten by pleasure, when he looked on temperance, might live a real life.
XXIV. Such a serpent Jacob boasts that Dan is, and he * Genesis xxxii. 10.
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speaks thus: " Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel:"* and again, "Let Dan be a serpent in the path, sitting upon the road, biting the heel of the horse, and the rider shall fall backwards, waiting the salvation of the Lord."+ The fifth son of Leah is Issachar, the legitimate son of Jacob; but if the two sons of Zilpah are counted he is the seventh; but the fifth son of Jacob is Dan, the son of Billah, the hand- maid of Eachel; and the cause of this we will investigate in the proper place, but concerning Dan we must examine further now. The soul produces two kinds, the one divine and the other perishable; that which is the better kind it has already conceived, and ends in it; for when the soul was able to confess to God and to yield everything to him, it was not after that capable of receiving any more valuable possession; on this account she ceased to bring forth, after she had borne Judah, the emblem of the disposition of confessing — and now she begins to form the mortal race — now the mortal race sub- sists by imbibing; for, like a foundation, the sense of taste is the cause of the duration of animals; but the name Billah, being interpreted, means imbibing. From her was born Dan, which name being interpreted means judgment, for this kind distinguishes between and separates immortal from mortal things, therefore he prays that he may become a workman of temperance. But he will not pray for Judah, for Judah already has the capacity of praying to and pleasing God; " Therefore let Dan," says he, " be a serpent in the path." — One path is the soul.
For as in the roads one may behold a great variety of living beings, inanimate and animate, irrational and rational, good and bad, slaves and free, young and old, male and female, strangers and natural citizens, sick and healthy, mutilated and perfect; so also in the soul there are motions inanimate, and imperfect, and diseased, and slavish, and female, and innu- merable others of the class of evils; and on the other hand, there are motions which are living, and perfect, and mas- culine, and free, and healthy, and ripe, and virtuous, and genuine, and really legitimate. Let then the principle of temperance be a serpent in the soul, which makes its advance through all the circumstances of life, and let it sit in the path. But what is the meaning of this expression? — The * Genesis xlix. 16. + Genesis xlix. 17.
ON THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS. 105 field of virtue is not trodden down; for they are few who walk along it, but that of vice is trodden and worn? And he recommends him here to occupy and to fill, with ambush and stratagem, the well-trodden path of passion and vice, in which the thoughts which are deserters from virtue pass their life.
XXV. " Biting the heel of the horse." — Very consistently the disposition which shakes the stability of the created and perishable being is called the supplanter, and the passions are compared to a horse; for passion has four legs as a horse has, and is an impetuous beast, and full of insolence, and by nature a most restive animal. But the reasoning of temperance ia wont to bite, and to wound, and to destroy passion. There- fore passion having been tripped up, and having fallen, " the horseman will fall backwards." We must comprehend that the horseman who has mounted upon the passions is the mind, who falls from the passions when they are reasoned upon closely, and so are supplanted; and it is well figured, that the soul does not fall forward, for it must not go before the passions, but rather advance behind them, and behave with moderation.
And there is sound learning in what he says here. If the mind, though desirous to act unjustly, comes too late and falls backward, it will not act unjustly; but if, when it is moved onwards to some irrational passion it does not run forward but remains behind, it will then receive freedom from the do- minion of the passions, which is a most excellent thing. On which account Moses, approving of this backward fall from off the vices, adds further, " waiting for the salvation of the Lord," for, in good truth, he who falls from the passions is saved by God, and remains safe after their operation. May my soul meet with such a fall as this, and may it never after- wards remount upon that horselike and restive passion, in order that it may await the salvation of God, and attain to happiness!
On this account also it was that Moses praised God in his hymn, because " the horse and his rider has he thrown into the sea,"* meaning that he has thrown the four passions, and the miserable mind which is mounted on them, down into ruin as to its affairs, and into the bottomless pit, and this is almost the burden of the whole hymn, to which every other part of it is referred, and indeed that is the truth; for if once a freedom * Exodus xv. 1.
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from the passions occupies the soul, it will beeome perfectly happy.
XXVI. And we must also inquire, what is the reason why Jacob says, that " the rider will fall backward,"* and Moses says, that " the horse and his rider have been thrown into the sea." We must say, therefore, that that which is thrown into the sea is the Egyptian disposition, which indeed flies and escapes under the water, that is to say, under the advance of the passions. But the rider who falls backwards is not one of the persons who loves to yield to the passions; and the proof is, that Moses calls the one the horseman (knrtis), and the other the rider {amfiarris)- Now it is the business of the horseman to subdue the horse, and when he resists the rein to make him tractable; but it is the part of the rider to be conveyed wherever the animal carries him, and in the sea it is the office of the pilot to guide the ship, and to keep it straight, and to preserve it in the right course; but it is the part of the sailor to endure all that happens to the ship.
And in reference to this the horseman who subdues the passions is not drowned in the sea, but dismounting from them awaits the salvation of the master. Accordingly, the word of God in Leviticus recommends men " to feed on those creeping things which go on four feet, and which have legs above their feet, so that they are able to leap with them;"f among which are the locust, and the attacus, and the acris.J and in the fourth place the serpent-fighter; and very pro- perly; for if pleasure, like a serpent, is an unprofitable and pernicious thing, then the nature which contends against pleasure must be a most profitable and saving thing, and this is temperance.
Fight thou then, 0 my mind, against every passion, and especially against pleasure, for " the serpent is the most subtle of all the beasts that are upon the earth, which the Lord God has made." And of all the passions the most mis- chievous is pleasure. Why so? Because all things are the slaves of pleasure; and because the life of the wicked is go- verned by pleasure as by a master. Accordingly, the things which are the efficient causes of pleasure are found to be full of all wickedness: gold and silver, and glory and honours, » Genesis xlix. 17. f Leviticus xi. 22.
J These are different kinds of locusts.
ON THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS. ] 07 and powers and the objects of the outward senses, and the mechanical arts, and all other things which cause pleasure being very various, and all injurious to the soul; and there are no sins without extreme wickedness; therefore do thou array against it the wisdom which contends with serpents; and struggle in this most glorious struggle, and labour to win the crown in the contest against pleasure, which subdues every one else; winning a noble and glorious crown, such as no assembly of men can confer.
THE THIED BOOK OF THE TREATISE ON THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS, AFTER THE WORK OF THE SIX DAYS OF THE CREATION.
I. " And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God in the midst of the trees of the Paradise."* A doctrine is introduced here which teaches us that the wicked man is inclined to run away. For the proper city of wise men is virtue, and he who is incapable of becoming a partaker in that is driven from his city; and no bad man is capable of becoming a partaker of it; therefore the bad man alone is driven away and becomes a banished man. But he who is banished from virtue is at once concealed from the face of God, for if the wise men are visible to God, inasmuch as they are dear to him, it follows plainly that the wicked are all concealed from him, and enveloped in darkness, as being enemies and adversaries to right reason. Now that the wicked man is destitute of a city and destitute of a home, Moses testifies in speaking of that hairy man who was also a man of varied wickedness, Esau, when he says, " But Esau was skilful in hunting, and a rude man."t For it is not natural for vice which is inclined to be subservient to the passions to inhabit the city of virtue, inasmuch as it is devoted to the pursuit of rudeness and ignorance, with great folly. But Jacob, who is full of wis- * Genesis viil 8. t Genesis xxv. 27.
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dom, is both a citizen and one who dwells in a house, that is to say, in virtue. Accordingly Moses says of him, " But Jacob is a man without guile, dwelling in a house; " On which account also " the mid wives, since they feared God made themselves houses. " * For they, being inclined to seek out the secret mysteries of God, one of which was that the male children should be pre- served alive, build up the actions of virtue, in which they had previously determined to dwell. Accordingly, in this account it is shown how the wicked man is destitute of a city and des- titute of a home: inasmuch as he is an exile from virtue, but that the virtuous man has a city and is allotted a home, namely wisdom.
II. And let us in the next place consider how any one is said to be concealed from God; but unless any one receives this as an allegorical saying it would be impossible to compre- hend what is here stated. For God has completed everything and has penetrated every thing, and has left no one of all his works empty or deserted. What kind of place then can any one occupy in which God is not? And Moses testifies to this in other passages, when he says, " God is in the heaven above, and in the earth beneath; and there is nothing anywhere but he."f And in another place he speaks in this manner, " I stood here before you did." J For God is of older date than any created being, and he will be everywhere, so that it cannot be possible for any one to be concealed from him: and what need we wonder at? For even if any thing were to happen to us we should not be able to escape the notice of, and to conceal ourselves from the most elementary of created things; for i stance, let any one try to flee from the earth, or the water, or the air, or the heaven, or the entire universe, and he will fail; for it is impossible but what he must be contained in these things, for no one will be able to flee out of the world.
Again how could any man who is unable to conceal himself from the parts of the world, and from the whole world itself, be able to escape the notice of God? He never could do so. What then is the meaning of the expression, " they hid them- selves f The bad man thinks that God is in a certain place, in t surrounding it, but being surrounded by it. On which a. count also he thinks that he can conceal himself from him, ON THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS. 109 as if God were without any prevailing reason at a distance from that part of the world in which he has determined to lurk.
III. And we must understand this in the following manner. In the wicked man the true opinion concerning God is over- shadowed and kept out of sight, for he is full of darkness, having no divine irradiation, by means of which he may be able to contemplate things as they are. And such a man is a fugitive from the divine company just as a leper is or a man with any other impure disease, the one bringing together into the same place God and Creation, two opposite natures of two different complexions, as the causes of things, when there is really but one cause, the great Creator; and the other, a man afflicted with a foul disease, believing that everything is created from the world, and again is dissolved into the world, but thinking that nothing has been created by God, being a follower of the doctrine of Heraclitus introduces covetousness and indigence, and one universe, and all kinds of things alter- nately. In reference to which the Holy Scripture says " Let them send forth from the holy soul every leper, and every one afflicted with foul disease, and. every one who is impure in his soul, both male and female, and all mutilated persons, and all these who are emasculated, and all whoremongers," * men who flee from the authority of one God, and who are expressly forbidden " to come into the assembly of God;" f but wise reasons are not only not concealed, but are even eager to manifest themselves. Do you not see that Abraham was still standing in the place of the Lord, and coming near to him said " do not then destroy the righteous with the impious, " J him who is manifest to you and well known by you, with him who flees from you and seeks to escape your notice, for he indeed is impious, but the righteous man is one who stands before you and does not flee. For it is right indeed master that you alone should be honoured, but it does not follow that as an impious man is discovered so also is a pious man; but it is sufficient if he is just. On which account he says •' do not then destroy the righteous with the wicked." For not even one single man on earth honours God in a worthy manner, but only according to righteousness. For when it is not possible for a man to exhibit due gratitude even to his parents, for it is impossible for him to become their parents in HO PHILO JUDGED 8.
his turn; how can it be anything but absolutely impossible adequately to requite God, or worthily to praise him who created the whole universe out of things that had no previous existence. " For God made all virtue."
VI. Be thou therefore 0 my soul in all your entirety always visible to God, for three separate times, that is to say for time divided according to a threefold division; not drawing after you the female passion arising from external sensation, but offering up to him manly thought, the encourager to and prac- tiser of persevering courage. " For at three seasons of the year every male must appear before the Lord the God of Israel"* this is the injunction of the holy scriptures. On this account Moses when he appears to God in visible form, flees from the dispersing disposition, that is from Pharaoh, wbo boasts, saying, that he does not know the Lord, "for Moses," says he, " retreated from the presence of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian"f that is to say, being interpreted, in the judgment of the nature of things; and sat down upon a well, waiting to see what good which might be drank in God would rain upon his thirsting and eager soul. Accordingly he retreats from the impious opinion which is the mistress of the passions, namely from Pharaoh; and he retreats into Midian, that is to say into judgment, considering anxiously whether he ought to live in tranquil inactivity or whether he ought again to contend with that wicked man to his own destruction.
And he considers whether if he attacks him he shall be able to gain the victory, from which consideration he restrains him- self waiting, as I have already said, to see if God will give to his deep and not frivolous consideration, a fountain sufficient to wash away the impetuosity of the king of Egypt, that is to say of his own passions. And he is thought worthy of grace, for having fought the good fight in behalf of virtue he never ceases from warring till he sees the pleasures overthrown and baulked of their object.
And •with this view Moses does not flee from Pharaoh, for if he had done so he would have fled without returning; but withdraws for a time, that is to say he makes a truce from the war, after the fashion of a wrestler who seeks a respite and collects his breath again, until, having aroused the alliance of prudence and the other virtues he attacks his enemy once * Deuteronomy xvi. 16. + Exodus ii. 15.
ON THE ALLEGORIES OP THE SAORED LAWS. Ill more, by divine reason, with the most vigorous power. But Jacob, for he is a supplanter, having acquired virtue by regu- lar system and discipline, not without hard labour, for his name had not a3 yet been changed to Israel, " fled from the affairs of labour *" that is to say from colours and figures, and in short from bodies the nature of which is to wound the soul through the objects of outward sense; for since, when he was present, he could not entirely and utterly subdue them, he fled, fearing to be subdued by them. And he is very worthy of praise for so doing; for " says Moses you will make the children of Israel cautious,"}"" but not bold, or covetous of those things, which do not belong to them.