become tb.3 father of happiness, that is to say, of Isaac; and virtue, that is to say, Sarah, laughs also. And the same prophet will further bear witness, speaking thus, "And it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women, and she laughed in her mind and said, such happiness has never yet happened to me to this time, and my lord," that is to say, the divine Lord, "is older than I;" in whose power, however, this thing must inevitably be, and in whose power it is becom- ing to place confidence. For the offspring is laughter and joy. For this is the meaning and interpretation of the name of Isaac. Therefore, let the outward sense be grieved, but let virtue be always rejoicing.
For, also, when happiness, that is Isaac, was born, she says, in the pious exaltation, " The Lord has caused me laughter, and whoever shall hear of it shall rejoice with me."* Open your ears, therefore, O ye initiated, and receive the most sacred mysteries. Laughter is joy; and the expression, " has caused," is equivalent to " has begotten." So that what is here said has some such meaning as this, " The Lord has begotten Isaac." For he is the father of perfect nature, sowing and begetting happiness in the soul.
LXXVIII. " And thy desire," says God, " shall be to thy husband, "f There are two husbands of the outward senses. The one a legal one, the other a destroyer. For the object of sight, acting upon it like a husband, puts the sense of sight in motion; and so does sound affect the sense of hearing, flavour the sense of taste, and so on with each of the outward senses respectively. And these things attract the attention of and call the irrational outward sense to itself, and become the masters of it and govern it. For beauty enslaves the sight, and sweet flowers enslave the sense of taste, and each of the other objects of outward sense enslaves that sense which cor- responds to them. See the glutton, what a slave he is to all the preparations which cooks and confectioners devise. Behold the man who is devoted to the study of music, how he is governed by the harp, or the flute, or by any one who is able to sing. But the sense which turns itself to its legitimate husband, that is to say, to the mind, derives the greatest possible advantage from that object.
LXXIX. Let us now see what account Moses gives of the * Genesis xxi. 7. t Genesis iii. 16.
ON THE ALLEGORIES 0*1 THE SACRED LAWS. 167 mind itself, when it is set in motion in a way contrary to right reason. And God said unto Adam, " Because thou hast listened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee not to eat, because thou hast eaten of it, cursed is the earth in thy actions."* It is a most mis- chievous thing, therefore, for the mind to be swayed by the outward senses, but not for the outward senses to be guided by the mind. For it is at all times proper that that which is better should rule, and that that which is worse should be ruled. And the mind is better than the outward senses. As, therefore, when the charioteer has his horses under command and guides the animals with the rein, the chariot is guided wherever he pleases; but if they become restiff, and get the better of the charioteer, he is often dragged out of his road, and sometimes it even happens that the beasts themselves are borne by the impetuosity of their course into a pit, and every- thing is carried away in a ruinous manner. And, as a ship holds on her right course when the pilot has the helm in his hand and steers her, and she is obedient to her rudder, but the vessel is upset when some contrary wind descends upon the waves and the whole sea is occupied by billows; so when the mind, which is the charioteer or pilot of the soul, retains the mastery over the entire animal, as a ruler does over a city, the life of the man proceeds rightly. But when the outward sense, which is devoid of reason, obtains the supremacy, then a terrible confusion overtakes the man, as might happen if a household of slaves were to conspire and to set upon their master. For then, if one must tell the truth, the mind is set fire to and burnt, the outward senses handling the flame and placing the objects of their operation beneath, as fuel.
LXXX. And Moses, indeed, speaks of and describes such a conflagration of the mind as this which arises in consequence of the operation of the outward senses, when he says, " And the women still burnt additional fires in Moab."f For this expres- sion being interpreted means, from the father, because the mind is our father. " For then," says Moses, " the expounders of rid- dles will say, Come to Heshbon, that the city of Sihon may be built and furnished. Because fire has gone forth out of Hesh- bon, and a flame out of the city of Sihon, and has devoured as far as Moab, and has consumed the high places of Arnon. Woe * Genesis iii. 17. t Numbers xxi. 27.
168 PHILO JUD.EUS.
168 PHILO JUD.EUS.
unto thee, Moab, Chemosh is destroyed: their sons who had sought to escape have been given up, and their daughters have become captive to Sihon, king of the Amorites. And the seed of them shall perish, from Heshbon even to Dibon. Moreover, the women still burnt additional fire in Moab." Heshbon being interpreted means reasonings; and these must here mean enigmas, full of indistinctness. Behold the reasoning of the physician: — " I will purge the sick man, I will nourish him, I will heal him with medicines and with diet, I will ex- tirpate his diseased parts, I will cauterise him." But very often nature has healed the man without these remedies; and very often too has suffered him to die though they were applied: so that the reasonings of the physician have been utterly found out to be dreams, full of all indistinctness and of riddles.
Again, the husbandman says, I will scatter seed, I will plant; the plants shall grow, they shall bear fruit, which shall not only be useful for necessary enjoyment, but which shall also be abundant for superfluity; and then, on a suddeu, fire, or a storm, or continued rains, have destroyed everything. But at times man has brought his labours to their due accomplish- ment, and yet he who formed all these plans has derived no advantage from their being accomplished, but has died before they were accomplished, and has in vain promised himself the enjoyment of the fruits of his labours.
LXXXI. It is best, therefore, to trust in God, and not in uncertain reasonings, or unsure conjectures. " Abraham trusted in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteous- ness."* And Moses governed the people, being testified to that he was faithful with his whole house. But if we distrust our own reason, we shall prepare and build ourselves a city of the mind which will destroy the truth. For Sihon, being interpreted means destroying. In reference to which he who had dreamed, waking up, found that all the motions and all the advances of the foolish man are merely dreams that have no portion of truth in them, for the very mind is found to be a dream; and the only true doctrine is to believe in God, and to trust to vain reasonings is a mere delusion. But irrational impulse goes forth and proceeds to each extremity, while both the reasonings and the mind corrupt the truth. On which * Genesis xv. 6. t Numbers xii. 7.
ON THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACKED LAWS. 169 account. Moses says that " fire went out of Heshbon, and flame out of the city of Sihon." So absurd is it to trust either to plausible reasonings, or to the mind which corrupts the truth.
LXXXII. "Audit devours even as farasMoab;" that is to say, as far as the mind. For what other creature, except the miserable mind, can a false opinion deceive? It devours and consumes, and, in truth, it swallows up the pillars in it; that is to say, all the particular notions which are engraved and impressed upon it, as upon a pillar. But the pillars are Arnon, which, being interpreted, means the light of Arnon, since every one of these facts is made clear by reasoning. Accord- ingly, Moses begins presently to lament over the self-satisfied and arrogant mind in this manner: " Woe unto thee, O city of Moab!" For, if you give attention to the riddles which arise out of the perception of what is probable, you have destroyed the truth by so doing.
" The people of Chemosh," that is to say, thy people and thy power, have been found to be mutilated and blinded. For Chemosh, being interpreted, means feeling with the hand. And this action is the especial characteristic of one who does not see. Now, their sons are particular reasonings — exiles; and their opinions are in the place of daughters, being captives to the king of the Amorites, that is to say, of those who con- verse with the sophist. For the name Amorites, being inter- preted, means talkers, being a symbol of the people who talk much; and their guide and leader is the sophist, and he who is skilful in reasoning and clever in investigating arts; a man by whom all those are deceived who once overpass the boundary of truth.
LXXXIII. Sihon, then, who destroys the sound rule of truth, and his seed also, shall both perish; and so shall Heshbon, namely, the sophistical riddles, as far as Dibon; which, being interpreted, means adjudication. And very con- sistently with nature shall this be. For what is probable and plausible has not a positive knowledge respecting truth, but only a trial and controversy and a litigious contest and strife, and all such things as these. But it was not sufficient for the mind to have its own peculiar evils, which were perceptible only to the intellect; but still the women burnt additional fire, that is to say, the outward senses excited a great con- flagration to have an effect upon it.
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170 PHILO JUD^EUS.
See, now, what the meaning is of what is here said. We who very often by night desist from energizing according to any one of the outward senses, receive absurd impressions respect- ing many different things, since our souls exist in a state of perpetual motion and are capable of an infinite variety of changes. There were, therefore, things quite sufficient for its destruction which it brought forth out of itself. But now, as it is, the multitude of the outward senses has brought against it a most incalculable multitude of evils, partly from objects of sight and partly from sounds; and besides that, from flavours and from such essences as affect the sense of smell. And one may almost say that the flavour which arises from them has a more pernicious influence on the disposition of the soul than that which is engendered in the soul itself, without any co- operation or agency of the organs of sense.
LXXXIV. One of these women is Pentephoe, the wife of Pharaoh's chief cook.* We must now consider how a man who was a eunuch can be represented as having a wife. For there will here be something which will seem to offer a reasonable ground for perplexity to those who do not take the expressions of the law in an allegorical sense. For the mind is really a eunuch, and really the chief of cooks, using not merely such pleasures as are simple, but those also which are superfluous, and is therefore called a eunuch and barren of all wisdom, being the eunuch and slave of no other master than of that squan- derer of all good things, Pharaoh. On another principle, therefore, it might appear a most desirable thing to be a eunuch, if our soul, by that means escaping vice, might be able also to avoid all knowledge of passion. On which account Joseph, that is to say, the disposition of continence, says to Pleasure, who accosts him with, "Lie with me, and being a man behave as a man, and enjoy the pleasant things which life can afford." He, I say, refuses her, saying, " I shall be sinning against God, who loves virtue, if I become a votary of pleasure; for this is a wicked action."
LXXXV. And, at first, he only skirmishes, but presently he fights and resists valiantly, when the soul enters into her own dwelling, and, having recourse to her own strength and energy, renounces the temptations of the body, and performs her own appropriate actions as those which are the proper occu- * Genesis xxxix. 1.
ON THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS. 171 pation of the soul; not appearing in the house of Joseph, nor of Pentepboe, but in the house. Nor does Moses add a word to describe whose house he means, in order to give you oppor- tunity to interpret allegorically, in an inquisitive spirit, the meaning of the expression, " to do his business." The house, therefore, is the soul, to which he runs, leaving all external affairs, in order that what is spoken of may there be done.
But may we not say that the conduct of the temperate man is what it is, and is directed by the will of God? For there was not present any inconsistent idea of all those which are accustomed to find their place within the soul Moreover, pleasure never ceases from struggling against the yoke, but, seizing hold of his clothes, she cries, " Lie with me." Now, clothes are, as it were, the covering of the body, just as life is protected by meat and drink. And she says here, " Why do you renounce pleasure, without which you cannot live? Behold, I take hold of the things which cause it; and I say that you could not possibly exist unless you also made use of some of the things which cause it."
What, then, says the temperate man? " Shall I," says he, "become a slave to passion, on account of the material which causes passion? Nay, I will depart out of reach of the passion." For, leaving his garment in her hand, he fled, and escaped out of doors.
LXXXVI. And who, some one perhaps, may say, ever escapes in-doors? Do not many do so? Or have not some people, avoiding the guilt of sacrilege, committed robberies in private houses, or though not beating their own fathers, have not they insulted the fathers of others? Now these men do escape from one class of offences, but they run into others. But a man who is perfectly temperate, ought to avoid every description of offence, whether greater or less, and never to be detected in any sin whatever. But Joseph, for he is a young man, and because as such he was unable to struggle with the Egyptian body and to subdue pleasure, runs away. But Phineas the priest, who was zealous with a great zeal for God's service, did not provide for his own safety by flight; but having taken to himself a yoke horse, that is to say, zeal com- bined with reason, would never desist till he had wounded the Midianitish woman (that is to say the nature which was con- 172 PHILO JUD^EUS.
cealed in the divine company), through her belly,* in order that no plant or seed of wickedness might ever be able to shoot out from it.
LXXXVII. On which account after folly has been utterly eradicated, the soul receives a two-fold prize, and a double inheritance, peace and holiness, two kindred and sister like virtues. We must therefore refuse to listen to such a woman, that is to say to a wicked temptation of the outward senses, since " God gave a good reward to the midwives,"f because they disregarded the commands of the wasteful Pharaoh, lt saving the male children of the soul alive," which he wished to destroy, being a lover of the female offspring alone, and rejecting all knowledge of the Cause of all things, and saying, " I know him not."J But we must give our belief to another woman, such as it was ordained that Sarah should be, Sarah being in a figure the governing virtue; and the wise Abraham was guided by her, when she recommended him such actions as were good. § For before this time, when he was not yet perfect, but even before his name was changed, he gave his attention to subjects of lofty philosophical speculation; and she, knowing that he could not produce anything out of perfect virtue, counselled him to raise children out of her handmaid, that is to say out of encyclical instruction, out of Agar,|j which name being interpreted means a dwelling near; for he who meditates dwelling in perfect virtue, before his name is enrolled among the citizens of that state, dwells among the encyclical studies, in order that through their instrumentality he may make his approaches at liberty towards perfect virtue.
After that, when he saw that he was now become perfect, and was now able to become a father, although he himself was full of gratitude towards those studies, by means of which he had been recommended to virtue, and thought it hard to renounce them; he was well inclined to be appeased by an oracle from God which laid this command on him. " In everything which Sarah says, do thou obey her voice." 1 Let that be a law to every one of us to do whatever seems good to virtue; for if we are willing to submit to everything which virtue recommends we shall be happy.
§ Genesis xxi. 12. || Genesis xvi. 2. if Genesis xxi. 11.
ON THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS. 173 LXXXVIII. And the expression, " And thou eatest of the tree of which alone I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat,"* is equivalent to saying, You made a covenant with wickedness, which you ought to have repelled with all your strength. On this account, " Cursed art thou jw nor,, cursed is the earth for thy works. What, now, is the reason of this? That serpent, pleasure, which is an irrational elevation of the soul, this is intrinsically accursed in its own nature; and being such, attaches itself only to the wicked man, and to no good man. But Adam is the intermediate sort of mind which at one time if investigated is found to be good, and at another time bad; for inasmuch as it is mind, it is not by nature either good or bad, but from contact with virtue or with vice, it frequently changes for the better or for the worse; therefore it very naturally is not accursed of its own nature, as neither being itself wickedness nor acting according to wickedness, but the earth is accursed in its works: for the actions which proceed from the entire soul, which he calls the earth, are open to blame and devoid of innocence, inasmuch as he does every- thing in accordance with vice. In reference to which fact God adds, that " In sorrow thou shalt eat of it." Which is equivalent to saying, you shall enjoy your soul in sorrow; for the wicked man does enjoy his own soul with great pain the whole of his life, having no legitimate cause for joy; for such cause is only produced by justice and prudence, and by the virtues which are enthroned as companions with them.
LXXXIX. " Thorns, therefore, and thistles shall it bring forth to you." But what is it which is produced and which shoots up in the soul of the foolish man except the passions which goad and sting and wound it? Which Moses here, speaking symbolically, calls thorns, and which irrational appetite rushes upon at first like fire, and so hastens to meet, and afterwards uniting itself to them, it consumes and destroys all its own nature and actions. For Moses speaks thus: — " But if fire when it has gone forth finds thorns, and shall also burn a threshing-floor, or a crop of wheat, or a field of corn, then he who kindled the fire shall pay the damage." t You see therefore when it has gone forth, that is to say, irrational impetuosity, it does not only burn the thorns, but finds them: for being inclined to seek out the passions, it attains to what it • Genesis iii. 17. t Exodus xxii. 6.
J 74 PHILO JUD^EUS.
J 74 PHILO JUD^EUS.
has been desiring to find; but -when it has found it, it consumes these three things, — perfect virtue, improvement, and goodness of disposition. Moses therefore here compares virtue to a threshing-floor; for as the crops when collected are brought to the threshing-floor, so also are the good things •which exist in the soul of the wise man brought to virtue; and improvement he likens to the crop of wheat, inasmuch as both the one and the other are imperfect, aiming at the end; and goodness of disposition he compares to a field of corn, because it is well adapted to receive the seeds of virtue; and each of the passions he calls thistles (r^/jSo'X/a), because they are divisible into three parts: the passion itself, the efficient cause, and the effect which arises from the combined operation of the two. As for instance pleasure, what is pleasant, and the being pleased; appetite, the object of appetite, and the indulgence of appetite; pain, what is painful, and the suffering pain; fear, what is fearful, and the being in a state of fear.
XC. " And thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread." He here speaks of the herb of the field and of bread, as if they were synony- mous, or identical with one another. The herb of the field is the food of the irrational animal; but the irrational animal is a worthless creature, which has been deprived of right reason. The outward senses are also irrational, though they are part of the soul. But the mind, which is eager for the attainment of those things which are the objects of the outward sense by means of the irrational outward senses, does not attain its desires without labour and sweat; for the life of the foolish man is very full of distress and very burdensome, since he is always aiming at and greedily coveting the things which give pleasure, and all such things as wickedness is wont to do.
And how long shall this last? "Until," says God, " you return to the dust from which you were taken." For is he not now ranked among the things of the earth, and among things which have no consistency, ever since he deserted the wisdom which is from heaven? We must consider therefore to what point he is coming back; but may we not consider whether what he says has not some such meaning as this, that the foolish mind is at all times averted from right reason, and that it has been originally taken not from any sublime nature, but from some more earthly material, and whether it is stationary.
ON THE CHEItUBIM, ETC, 175 or whether it is in motion, it is always the same, and desirous of the same objects. On which account, God adds that, " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." And this is equivalent to what has been said before.
Moreover this sentence also signifies, the beginning and the end are one and the same thing. For there hadst thou beginning in the perishable bodies of the earth; and again, thou shalt end in them, during the interval of your life, between its beginning and its end, passing along a road which is not plain and easy, but rough, full of briars and thorns, the nature of which is to tear and wound thee.
A TREATISE ON THE CHERUBIM; AND ON THE FLAMING SWORD; AND ON THE FIRST-BORN CHILD OF MAN, CAIN. PART I.
I. "And God cast out Adam, and placed him opposite the paradise of happiness; and he placed there the cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.* In this place Moses uses the expression, " He cast out," but previously he said, "He sent out," not using the various expressions at random, but being well aware with reference to what parts he was employing them with propriety and felicity. Now a man who is sent out is not hindered from returning at some subsequent time; but he who is cast out by God must endure an eternal banishment, for it is granted to him who has not yet been completely and violently taken prisoner by wickedness, to repent, and so to return back to virtue, from which he has been driven, as to his great country; but he who is weighed down by, and wholly subjected to, a violent and incurable disease, must bear his misfortunes for ever, being fcr all times unalterably cast out into the place of the wicked, * Genesis iii. 24.
17 6 PHILO JUDiEUS.
17 6 PHILO JUDiEUS.
that there he may endure unmitigated and everlasting misery.* Since we see Agar,t by whom we understand the middle kind of instruction which is confined to the encyclical system, twice going forth from Sarah, who is the symbol of predominant virtue, and once returning back by the same road, inasmuch as after she had fled the first time, without being banished by her mistress, she returned to see her master's house, having been met by an angel, as the holy scriptures read: but the second time, she is utterly cast out, and is never to be brought back again.
II. And we must speak of the causes of her first flight, and then again of her second perpetual banishment.
Before the names of the two were changed, that is to say, before they had been altered for the better as to the charac teristics of their souls, and had been endowed with better dispositions, but while the name of the man was still Abrara, or the sublime father, who delighted in the lofty philosophy which investigates the events which take place in the air, and the sublime nature of the beings which exist in heaven, which mathematical science claims for itself as the most excellent part of natural philosophy, and the name of the woman was still Sarai; the symbol of my authority, for she is called my authority, and she had not yet changed her nature so as to become generic virtue, and all genus is imperishable, but was as yet classed among things particular and things in species; that is to say, such as the prudence which is in me, the temperance which is in me, the courage, the justice, and so on in the same manner, and these particular virtues are perishable, because the place which receives them, that is to say I, am also perishable. Then Agar, who is the middle kind of encyclical instruction, even if she should endeavour to escape from the austere and stern life of the lovers of virtue, will again return to it, since it is not, as yet, able to receive the generic and imperishable excellencies of virtue, but can only touch the particular virtues, and such as are spoken of in species, in which it is sufficient to attain to mediocrity instead of extreme perfection.