X. Having, therefore, now pointed out each variety, the tranquillity of the good man, and the state of agitation in which the bad man lives, let us now consider what follows the statement which we have hitherto been examining. For Moses says that Nod, which name, being interpreted, means the tumult into which the soul has migrated, is opposite to Eden. Now Eden is a symbolical' expression for correct and divine reason, on which account its interpretation is luxury; because divine reason is, above all other things, delighted with and exults among unmingled and pure, and also well filled up and complete pleasure, God, the giver of all good things, raising his virgin and undying graces upon it. But by its own intrinsic nature, the bad is always striving with the good, the unjust with the just, the wise with the foolish, and all the different species of virtue with all the different species of vice. • Genesis ilvi. 4.
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Something like this is the meaning of the statement that Nod is opposite to Eden.
XI. After he had said this he proceeds to say, " And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch."* Is it not here reasonable to raise the question, why Cain knew his wife? for there had been no birth of any one other woman since that of Eve who was formed out of the side of the man, until the woman who is here mentioned; and if any one says that Cain took his sister to wife, putting the impiety of such a connection out of the question, he will speak falsely; for Moses represents the daughters of Adam as born late. What then are we to say? As I imagine, Moses here calls his wife opinion of impious reason which it forms about things, as crowds of those who have studied philosophy do: some of them introducing the same opinions into human life, and others introducing such as are wholly at variance with one another.
What then is the position of the impious man? Why, that the human mind is the measure of all things; which also they say that one of the ancient philosophers, Protagoras, used to employ, being a descendant of the folly of Cain. And from thence I conjecture that his wife, being known to him, brought forth Enoch; and the name Enoch being interpreted means, thy grace. For if man is the measure of all things, then, also, all things are a grace and a free gift of the mind; so that we refer to the eye the grace of sight, to the ears that of hearing, and to each of the other external senses their appropriate object, and also to the speech and utterance do we attribute the power of speaking.
And if we judge in this manner of these things, so also do we with respect to intelligence, in which ten thousand things are comprised, such as thoughts, perceptions, designs, medita- tions, conceptions, sciences, arts, dispositions, and a number of other faculties almost incalculable. WTiat is it then that the gravest philosophers, who have talked in the most grandiloquent manner about divine law and the honour due to God, have determined both to say and to allow to be said, If ye have in ye a mind which is equal to God, which regulating by its own power all the good and bad things which exist among men, occasionally mingles both in certain persons, and sometimes * Genesis iv. 1 7.
ON THE POSTERITY OF CAIN. 295 distributes both good and bad to some in an unalloyed state; and if any one accuses you of impiety, make your defence with a good courage, saying that you have been brought up very admirably by your guide and teacher, Cain, who recommended you to honour the powers that are nearest in preference to that cause which was afar off, to whom you ought to attend for many other reasons, and most especially because he showed the power of his doctrine by very evident works, having conquered Abel the expounder of the opposite doctrine, and having removed and destroyed his doctrine as well as himself. But in my opinion and in that of my friends, death in the company of the pious would be preferable to life with the impious; for those who die in the company of the pious everlasting life will receive, but everlasting death will be the portion of those who live in the other way.
XII. But as after Cain had begotten Enoch, one of the pos- terity of Seth is also subsequently called Enoch, it may be well to consider, whether the two namesakes were men of different or of similar dispositions and characters. And at the same time that we examine this question let us also investigate the differ- ences between other persons bearing the same name. For as Enoch was, so also Methusaleh and Lamech were both descen- dants of Cain, and they were no less the descendants of Seth also. We must therefore be aware that each of the aforesaid names, being interpreted, has a double signification; for Enoch, being interpreted, means, as I have already said, " thy grace," and Methusaleh means, the sending forth of death. Lamech, again means, humiliation. Now the expression, " Thy grace," is by some persons referred to the mind that is in us; and by more learned and sounder interpreters it is referred to the mind of other persons. They therefore who say that all thinking, and feeling, and speaking, are the free gifts of their own soul, utter an impious and ungodly opinion, and deserve to be classed among the race of Cain, who, though he was not able to master himself, yet dared to assert that he had absolute possession of all other things; but as for those persons who do not claim all the things in creation as their own, but who ascribe them to the divine grace, being men really noble and sprung out of those who were rich long ago, but of those who love virtue and piety, they may be classed under Seth as the author of their race. The race of these men is difficult to trace, since they 296 PHILO JUDjEUS.
shew a life of plotting, and cunning, and wickedness, and disso- luteness, full of passion and wickednesses, as such a life must be. For all those whom God, since they pleased him well, has caused to quit their original abode, and has transformed from the race of perishable beings to that of immortals, are no longer found among the common multitude.
XIII. Having, therefore, thus distinguished the indications intended to be afforded by the name of Enoch, let us now proceed in regular order to the name of Methuselah; and this name is interpreted, a sending forth of death. Now there are two meanings contained in this word; one, that according to which death is sent to anyone, and the other, that according to which it is sent away from any one. He, therefore, to whom it is sent, immediately dies, but he, from whom it is sent, lives and survives. Accordingly, he who receives death is akin to Cain, who is dying as to the life in accordance with virtue; but he from whom death is sent away and kept at a distance, is most nearly related to Seth, for the good man enjoys real life. And again, the name Lamech, which means humili- ation, is a name of ambiguous meaning; for we are humiliated either when the vigour of our soul is relaxed, according to the diseases and infirmities which arise from the irrational pas- sions, or in respect of our love for virtue, when we seek to restrain ourselves from swelling self-opinions.
Now the former kind of humiliation arises out of weakness, being a species of that multiform disease of many changes, leprosy. " For when his appearance seems more humble,"* being broken as to its level and fresh face, than the lawgiver says that that humble disease leprosy exists. But the second kind of humiliation arises from the strength of perseverance, which is followed by propitiation, according to the perfect number of the decade; for the people are enjoined to humble their souls on the tenth day of the month, and this means to put away all high boasting, the putting away of which works the rejection of all offences, both voluntary and involuntary. Accordingly, the Lamech who is humbled in this sense, is the descendant of Seth, and the father of the just Noah; but he who is humbled in the former manner is the descendant of Cain.
XIV. And it may become us next to consider on what * Leviticus xiiL 3.
ON THE POSTERITY CF CAIN. 297 account this same man is represented as founding and building a city, for it is only a multitude of men who have need of a city to dwell in; but the three who were the only human beings in existence at that time might have thought the foot of a mountain, or a small cave, a most sufficient abode. And I said, indeed, the three; but in all probability I might have spoken of him by himself; for the parents of Abel, who had been so treacherously slain, would never have endured to inhabit the same city with his murderer — a man who had committed fratricide, which is a greater pollution than even homicide.
For it is plain that it is not only extraordinary, but utterly contrary to all reason, that one man should build a city. In what manner could he do it? He could not build even the most trifling portion of a house, unless he employed other men as his assistants. Would the same man be able at the same time to cut stones, to cut vrood, «> work in iron and in brass, and to throw the vast circumference of walls round the city 'I to build up propylaea, and inter-walls, and temples, and sacred precincts, and porticoes, and docks, and houses, and all the other public aud private buildings which one is accustomed to find in a city? And moreover, besides all these things, would he be able to carry burdens, to move away masses of earth, to widen narrow passages, to make fountains and water-courses, and all the other things with which a city ought to be provided? Perhaps, therefore, since all these ideas are inconsistent with truth, it would be better to look upon the statement as an alle- gory, and to say that Cain determined to build up his own doctrine like a city.
XV. Since, therefore, every city consists of houses aud inhabitants, and laws, the houses, in Cain's case, are the reasons which he alleges to prove his point; by which, as from a wall, he fights against the persuasive attacks of his enemies; inventing fabulous devices against the truth. The inhabitants are the companions of impiety, ungodliness, self-love, haughti- ness, falsehood, vain opinions; the men wise in their own conceit, the men who know not wisdom as relating to truth, the men who are full of ignorance, and stupidity, and folly; and all the other similar and kindred evils. The laws are. lawlessness, injustice, inequality, intemperance, boldness, folly, * Leviticus xxiii. 27.
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insolence, immoderate indulgence in pleasure, and innume- rable appetites in despite of nature.
Now of such a city as this, every impious man is found to be a builder in his own miserable soul, until God deliberately causes complete and great confusion to their sophistical arts * And this will be, when not only " they build a city and tower, the head of which will reach to heaven," that is to say,f...the mind or the reason of each individual as conversant about making great works, which they represent as having for its head a conception peculiar to itself, which is called in symbol- ical language heaven. For it is plain that the head and object of every reasoning must be the aforesaid mind; for the sake of which, long digressions and sentences are in the habit of being used by men who write histories.
XVI. And to such a pitch of accursed impiety have they gone, that not only do they attempt to raise up such cities by themselves, but they even compel the virtue-loving multitude of Israel to join them, appointing superintendents and teachers of evil actions to govern them. For it is said that, when they were ill-treated by the superintendents, they built three cities for the prince of the country, Peithom, Rameses,J and On, which is Heliopolis. And these cities, if taken symbolically, mean mind, the outward sense, and the faculty of speech, which are the three principal things in us; for Peithom means speech, because persuasion (rb vi/dnv) arises from speech; and the interpretation of Peithom is, a mouth-uttering, since the reasoning of the wicked man comes from without, and occupies itself with endeavouring to overturn all that is good: and Rameses is the inward sense; for the mind is eaten out and destroyed by each separate one of the outward senses as by a moth, being shaken to pieces and lacerated; for the imaginations which enter it, not according to pleasure, make life itself mutilated and laborious. But On is said to be a hill, and it means, symbolically, the mind; for all reasonings are stored up in the mind: and the lawgiver himself is a witness of this, calling On, Heliopolis, the city of the sun. For as the sun, when he rises, shows visibly the things * Genesis xi. 4.
•f There is a hiatus in the text here: Mangey translates it as if the deficiency were to be supplied by rbv vovv, " the mind." I Exodus i. 11.
ON THE POSTERITY OF CAIN. 299 which have been hidden by night, so also the mind, sending forth its own proper light, causes all bodies and all things to be seen visibly at a distance. On which account, a man would not be wrong who called our minds the sun of our composition; as the mind, if it does not rise and shed its own light in man, who may be looked upon as a small world, leaves a great dark- ness diffused over all existing things, and suffers nothing to be brought to light.
XVIII. This hill Jacob, the wrestler with God, in his agreements with Laban, calls a witness, showing in a most express manner, and in the form of a precept, that the mind is a witness to each individual of the determinations which he comes to in secret; and conscience, which is the most incor- ruptible and truth-telling witness of all, was built before these cities; for Moses says that the spies came to Chebron, and these three are Acheman, and Jesein, and Thalamein, of the sons of Enoch: and this he adds, " and Chebron was built seven years before Tanis, in Egypt,"* and these synonymous appellations are distinguished according to their species in a most natural manner.
Chebron, being interpreted, means compunction, and this is of two kinds; one with reference to the soul being joined to the body, the other with reference to its being adapted to virtue. Now the soul that subjects itself to bodily conpunc- tions has the beforementioned inhabitants. Acheman, being interpreted, means, my brother, and Jesein means " outside of me," and Thalamein means, some one in suspense; for it follows of necessity, that the body must be thought akin to the souls that love the body, and that external good things must be exceedingly admired by them, and all the souls which have this kind of disposition depend on dead things, and, like persons who are crucified, are attached to corruptible matter till the day of their death.
But the soul that is united to virtue has for its inhabitants those persons who are pre-eminent for virtue, persons whom the double cavern has received in pairs, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Eebekah, Leah and Jacob, virtues and those who possess them; Chebron itself keeping the treasure-house of the memorials of knowledge and wisdom, which is more ancient than Janis and the whole land of Egypt, for nature * Numbers xiii. 23.
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has made the soul more ancient than the body, that is than Egypt, and virtue more ancient than vice, that is than Janis, (and the name Janis, being interpreted, means the com- mand of answer), estimating seniority rather by dignity than by length of time.
XVIII. On which principle also it is that he also calls Israel, who was the younger brother in point of time, " the first born son,"* judging of him by his merit, signifying thereby that, since to see God is the most clear proof of pri- mogeniture, he is in consequence pardoned as the eldest offspring of the uncreate incomprehensible God, conceived by that virtue which is hated among men, and to whom the law enjoins that " the honours due to seniority shall be paid, as being the eldest." f On this account also the number seven is produced in its order, subsequently to the number six, but in power it is superior to every other number, and differs not from the unit, and Moses also shows us this in the conclusion of his account of the creation, where he says, " And God ceased on the seventh day from all the works that he had made; and God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it," because on it he ceased from all his works which God had begun to make, J and after that he concludes his account in these words, " This is the book of the generation of heaven and of earth when they were made, on the day in which God made the heaven and the earth; and these things were done in the first day, so that the seventh day is referred to the unit which is the first day and the beginning of the whole.
I have dwelt at length on this topic, with the object of showing more plainly the opinion which Cain thought it right to build up like a city.
XIX. Now the son of Enoch is called Gaidad,§ which, being interpreted, means a flock of sheep, very consistently with what has gone before; for he who attributes everything to the mind, which is not able to comprehend even its own nature, so as to pronounce what kind of thing it is, would be very likely to beget a number of irrational powers collected into one flock; for such is not the opinion of men who are able to reason. But every flock which has not a shepherd to * Exodus iv. 22. t Deuteronomy xxi. 17.
t Genesis ii. 2. § Genesis iv. 18.
ON THE POSTERITY OF CAIN. 301 go1 em it does of necessity meet with great disasters, inas- much as it is not able, of its own power, to repel what is injurious to it, and to choose what will be advantageous; in respect of which Moses says in his prayer, " Let the Lord, the God of spirits and of all flesh, look out a man who shall be over this assembly, who shall go out before their faces, and who shall come in, and who shall bring them out, and who shall bring them in, and so the synagogue of the Lord shall not be like unto sheep which have no shepherd."* For when the president, or superintendent, or father, or whatever we like to call him, of our composite body, right reason, is de- parted, having left the flock that is in us, it being neglected and suffered to go its own way, perishes; and the loss to its master is great. But the irrational and wandering flock, being deprived of its shepherd, who ought to admonish and instruct it, strays away to a great distance from rational and im- mortal life.
XX. On which account the son of Gaided is called Mehel, the name which, being interpreted, means, " from the life of God." For since the flock is devoid of reason, and God is the fountain of reason, it follows of necessity, that a man who lives in an irrational manner is separated from the life of God; for to live according to God is defined by Moses to consist in loving him; for Moses says to the children of Israel, " Your life is to love the living God."f And he gives as an example of the opposite lot the goat, on which the lot falls to be the scape-goat, for he says, " He shall place it living before the Lord, that he may offer prayers over it, and send it out into the wilderness,";}; giving these directions with great exactness. For as no one in bis senses would greatly extol old men for abstaining from pleasure, because old age, which is a long and incurable disease, has relaxed and enfeebled the nerves of their appetites; but one would praise young men, because, while their appetites are influenced by the vigour of youth, nevertheless they, being well supplied with instruments to check them, namely, with reasons derived from good instruc- tion, have allayed the great conflagration and boiling over of the passions: so, in the case of these men, whom no disease is accustomed to detach from any evil way of life, less praise is due to them, because they are fortunate without any express • Numbers xxvi. 1G. f Deut xxx. 20. £ Leviticus xvi. 10.
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intention of their own, according to the good fortune of their nature: but those whom such a disease does rise up against and attack, receive greater praise; if they, making a fair stand, are willing and prove able to destroy it; for to be able, by a vigorous exertion, to destroy the baits of attractive pleasure, properly receives that praise which belongs to good actions, done with a deliberate purpose.
Since, therefore, * but diseases and in firmities which have been sent against us flourish; let us endeavour to overturn and destroy them. For to offer prayers over them has nearly such an effect as this: it is confessing that, though we have them in our soul living and flourishing, we nevertheless do not yield, but make a stand against them all, and resist them vigorously, until we have entirely sent away the scape-goat and made atonement.
XXI. What, then, follows a man who lives not in accordance with the will of God but the death of the soul? And this is named Methuselah, the interpretation of which name is, " the sending out of death," on which account he is the son of Mehel, who has quilted his own life, to which death is sent, that is to say the death of the soul, which is nothing else than a conversion of it by irrational passion. This passion, there- fore, when it has conceived, brings forth incurable diseases and infirmities with great pains, by which it is thrown down and convulsed, and humbled and tortured. For each of the diseases oppresses it, bringing upon '.t an unspeakable burden, such that no one is able even to raise his head beneath it. And this is named Lamech; the interpretation of which name is, " humiliation;" so that Lamech is properly represented as the son of Methuselah, being the passion of the death of the soul, humble, yielding, an infirmity which is the offspring of irra- tional desire.
XXII. "And Lamech took to himself two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah." f Everything which a wicked man taketh himself is altogether blameable, as being polluted by his impure mind; and so, on the contrary, all deliberate actions of virtuous men are praise- * There is something lost from the text here, and Mangey professes himself unable to supply it without the assistance of some MS. which may be hereafter discovered.
t Genesis iv 1 9.
ON THE POSTERITY OP CAIN. 303 worthy; on which account now, Lamech, who is taking wives unto himself, is choosing the greatest possible evils. Again, when Abraham, Jacob, and Aaron take to themselves wives, they choose appropriate good things to dwell with. Now Moses speaks thus in the case of Abraham: " And Abraham and Nachortook unto themselves wives; the name of Abraham's wife was Sarai." * And in the case of Jacob he says, " Rise up and go into Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take unto thyself a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother." f In the case of Aaron he says, and Aaron took Elizabeth, the daughter of Aminadab, the sister of Naassom, unto him to be his wife." \ Isaac too and Moses take unto themselves wives, but they do not take them of their own act entirely; but Isaac, " When he went into the house of his mother," § is said to have taken a wife; and to Moses, " The man with whom he lodged gave his daughter Zipporah to be his wife." || XXIII. Now it is not without a purpose that the differ ences between these persons are recorded by the lawgiver. For in the case of those who practise virtue and improve, and become better, their deliberate choice of the good bears testi- mony that their labour shall not be dismissed without its reward; but in the case of those who are endued with self- taught and naturally implanted wisdom, it follows that reason is betrothed to them not by their own act, but by God, and that they take unto themselves knowledge, the fitting com- panion through life of the wise. But he who is wholly devoted to the things of ordinary men, the lowly and grovelling- minded Lamech, first of all takes for his wife Adah, which name being interpreted, means " witness," having been his own manager of this marriage. For he thinks that Leah, which means the motion and passage out of the mind accord- ing to easy perceptions, without anything interfering to hinder its easy comprehension of all things, is the first good for man. " For what," says he, " could be better than that one's thoughts, one's contemplations, one's conjectures, one's sus- picions, in a word, all one's ideas, should, as I may say, proceed on well-set feet, so as to arrive at their desired goal without