XLVII. And why need I dwell on the subject more, going through each of the senses and animals separately? For this point has been long agreed upon among all the most eminent historians and philosophers, who have all said that nature is the mother of the irrational animals, and the step-mother of men, perceiving the bodily weakness of men, and the surpass- ing strength of brute animals in everything. With great pro- priety, therefore, the artist pounded the calf to pieces; that is to say, dividing it into parts, he showed that all the things which the body has in abundance are very far removed from real good, and are in no respect different from those things which are scattered on the water. On which account the scrip- ture tells us that the calf, after having been pounded to pieces, was scattered on the water, to signify that no genuine plant of good can ever flourish in corruptible matter; for as a seed, when thrown into the stream of a river or into the sea, cannot dis- play its proper powers; for it is impossible, unless it has once taken hold with its roots, as with anchors, of some firm portion of earth, that any branch should be firmly fixed or should shoot up, I do not say to any height, but even as a creeper along the ground, or that it should ever bring forth fruit at the periodical seasons of the year, for any great and violent rush of water coming on washes away all the germinating vigour of the seed. In the same manner all the superfluities contained in the vessel of the soul which are ever spoken of or celebrated are destroyed before they can have any existence, the corporeal substance continually flowing off from them. For how can there be such things as disease and old age and all kinds of corruptions, if there were not a continual drawing off of words, which are theoretical streams; the hierophant, 'therefore, thinks it right* to irrigate our minds with these words, for the sake of burning up the pleasures, of pounding to pieces and re- ducing to a thin and impalpable dust, and utterly destroying the system of the corporeal goods; and of making us recollect that the true good has never at any time germinated or blossomed from any one of them, just as nothing flourishes from seeds which are sown in water.
* I have followed Mangey here in reading dZioT, instead of aVagtot, though he prints the latter in the text as the reading of all the MSS.
ON THE POSTERITY OF CAIN. 325 XLVIII. But bulls, and rams, and goats, which Egypt holds in honour, and all other images of corruptible matter which, in report alone, are accounted God's, have no real existence, but are all fictitious and false; for those who look upon life as only a tragedy full of acts of arrogance and stories of love, impressing false ideas on the tender minds of young men, and using the ears as their ministers, into which they pour fabulous trifles, waste away and corrupt their minds, compelling them to look upon persons who were never even men in their minds, but always effeminate creatures as God's; for the calf was not made of every description of female orna- ment, but only of the earrings of the women. The lawgiver showing us by this that nothing wrought with hands is a visible and true God, but only so by report, and as far as he is thought so, and that, too, the report of a woman and not of a man; for it is the conduct of a soul utterly enervated and ren dered completely effeminate to receive such nonsense.
But he who is truly God is perceived, and felt, and recog- nised, not only by means of one's ears, but also by the eyes of our mind, through his mighty works which are done in the world, and through the rapidity of his operations; on which account in the great song it is said (the speaker as- suming the character of God), " Behold! behold! it is I! "* as if that real existing God could be more easily conceived by the mind than proved by verbal demonstration; but it is not correct to say that the living God is visible, that is rather an abuse of language, arising from referring God himself to his separate acts of power; for even in the passage cited above, he does not say, " Behold me," for it is wholly impossible that God according to his essence should be perceived or beheld by any creature, but he says, " Behold! it is I," that is to say, behold my existence; for it is sufficient for the reasoning powers of man to advance so far as to learn that there is and actually exists the great cause of all things, and to attempt to proceed further, so as to pursue investigations into the essence or distinctive qualities of God, is an absolute piece of folly; for God did not grant this even to the all-wise Moses; not though he addressed innumerable requests to him, all having this object; but an oracle was delivered to him, telling him, "Thou shalt see my back parts, but my face thou 6halt net • Deuteronomy xxxii. 39.
326 PHILO JUD^US.
see; "* and the meaning of this is, that all the things which are behind God are within the comprehension of a virtuous man, but he himself alone is incomprehensible; and he is incomprehensible by any direct and immediate access (for by 6uch means it is only explained what kind of being he is), but he may be understood in his subsequent and consistent faculties; for they, by means of the works accomplished by them, declare not his essence, but his existence.
XLIX. Therefore the mind having generated tbe foun- dation of good...f and the primary principle of virtue, namely Seth, or irrigation, boasts with an honourable and holy boast; for she says, " God has raised up to me another 6eed, instead of Abel whom Cain slew,"^ for it has been said with great exactness and neatness, that no single divine seed ever falls to the ground, but that they all rise up from the things of earth, and leave them, and are borne upwards to heaven; but the seeds which are sown by mortals, whether for the generation of animals or of plants, do not all come to perfection; but we must be content if more are not wasted than those which remain above; and God sows nothing in our souls which is incomplete; but his seed is all so seasonable and so perfect that every one of them is at once borne forward -to produce abundance of its appropriate fruit.
L. But when Moses says here that Seth sprung up as another or different seed, he does not say from which it was different; was it different from Abel who was treacherously slain, or from Cain who slew him? But may we not say perhaps that the original seed from which each of these sprung was different? That from which Cain sprung, in- asmuch as it was hostile; for a thirst for virtue is the most hostile thing possible to that deserter, wickedness; that from which Abel sprung, as friendly and kindred; for that which is beginning to exist is a different thing from, but not a contrary thing to, that which is perfected; and so that which pertains to creation is different from that which pertains to the uncreate.
On this account Abel, after having quitted the mortal body, * Exodus xxxiii. 23.
t There is again a hiatus in the text here. Mangey conjectures liayuy j)c, " way of life," to be the word which has fallen out. Z Genesis iv. 25.
ON THE POSTERITY OF CAIN. 327 departed to the better nature, and took up his abode with that. But Seth, as being the seed of human virtue, will never quit the race of mankind. But first of all he will receive his growth up to the number ten, that perfect number, according to which the just Noah exists; and then he will receive a second and a better growth from his son Shem, end- ing in a second ten, from which the faithful Abraham is named. And he will also have a third growth, and one more perfect than the number ten, extending from him to Moses, that man who is wise in all things, for he is the seventh from Abraham, not revolving, like an initiated worshipper, in the circle which is exterior to holy things, but like a hierophaut, making his abode in the inmost shrines.
LI. And consider the advances towards improvement made by the soul of the man who is eager for, and insatiable in, his craving after good things; and the illimitable riches of God, who gives the end of some things to be the beginnings of others; for the end of the knowledge which is according to Seth is the beginning of the just Noah; and his perfection again is the beginning of the education of Abraham; and the most perfect wisdom of Abraham is the first instruction of Moses; and the two daughters of Lot, the man who was sub- dued and overthrown by the weakness of the soul, namely, intention and agreement, desire to become pregnant by the mind, that is to say, by their father, acting in opposition to him who said, " God has raised up for me..."* For that which the living God did for him, this they affirm that the mind is able to do for them, introducing the doctrine of an intoxicated and frenzied soul.
It is indeed the act of sober reason, both to confess that God is the Creator and the Father of the universe; and the conduct of one utterly fallen in intoxication and drunkenness, to fancy that he himself is the bringer about of each of human affairs. Evil opinions therefore will not come into association with their father, before a great quantity of the unmixed wine of folly has been found upon him, and destroyed any sense that may have previously been in him; for it is written, " They made their father drink wine." So that if they do not give him drink, they will never receive legitimate seed from him while he is sober; but when he has been soaked in wine, and * Genesis xix. 32.
328 PHILO JUDiEUS.
has become utterly intoxicated and senseless, then they will become pregnant, and have a culpable labour and offspring, which will be truly accursed.
LI I. On which account Moses has separated his impious and obscure progeny from the whole of the divine company; for he says, " The Ammonites and the Moabites shall not come into the assembly of the Lord:"* and these are the descendants of the daughters of Lot, supposing that everything is generated of the outward sense and of mind, being male and female like a father and mother, and looking upon this as in real truth the cause of all generation: but as, even if we were to commit such an error as this, still emerging as it were out of that troubled sea, we may lay hold on repentance, which is a firm and saving thing, and must never let it go till we have completely escaped from the billowy sea, the headlong violence of sin: as Rachel, when formerly praying for mind, as if that were able to raise up chil- dren, and when she received the answer, "Am I equal to God?"f attended to what was said to her, and when she understood it, made a most pious recantation; for the recantation of Ra- chel is recorded in scripture, a most God-loving prayer, " May God grant to me another son,"J such a prayer as no foolish person is permitted to make, who pursues no object but his own pleasure, and who thinks everything else mere folly and ridiculousness.
LIU. And the leader of this opinion is Onan the brother of the skin-wearing Er. " For he," says the scripture, " knowing that the seed would not be his, when he went in unto his brother's wife, spilled his seed upon the ground:"§ he transgressed all the boundaries of self-love and of fondness for pleasure. Should I not say to this man, If you have a regard to your own advantage you will destroy everything that is excellent, and that too with- out deriving any advantage therefrom? You will put an end to the honour due to parents, the attention of a wife, the education of children, the blameless services of servants, the management of a house, the government of a city, the firm establishment of laws, the guardianship of morals, reverence to one's elders, the habit of speaking well of the dead, good fellowship with the living, piety towards God as shown both in words and in deeds: for you are overturning and throwing into confusion all these * Deuteronomy xxiii. 3. t Genesis xxx. 2.
J Genesis xxx. 24. $ Genesis xxxviii. 9.
ON THE POSTERITY OF CAIN. 329 thing3, sowing seed for yourself alone, and nursing up pleasure, that gluttonous intemperate origin of all evil.
LIV. From which that priest and servant of the only good God, Phineas, rising up* — that wise regulator of all the corpo- real words and expressions, so as never to behave erroneously or insolently through the medium of them; for the interpretation of the name Phineas is " the bridle of the mouth" — having taken a coadjutor, that is to say, having inquired into and examined the nature of things, and having found that nothing is more honourable than virtue, stabbed and slew with a sword the crea- ture devoted to pleasure, and hostile to virtue, and all the places from which all false and illegitimate delights and enjoyments spring: for the law says that, " he thrust the woman through her belly."
Thus, therefore, having caused the difference that existed in him to cease, and having discarded bis own pleasure, and burn- ing with zeal for God, the First Cause and holy God, he was honoured and crowned with the two most valuable of all prizes, peace and the priesthood; with the one because both his name and his conduct are akin to peace: for it follows of necessity that a consecrated mind, being its minister and servant, must do everything in which its master delights; and he delights in the firm establishment of good law, and tranquillity, and stability, and in the discarding of wars and f meaning not only such as cities make upon one another, but also those which take place in the soul; and these are more important and more inju- rious, inasmuch as they injure the more divine portion of us, namely, our reason, while arms and weapons can only reach to the injury of our bodies or possessions, but b""* never any power to injure a healthy soul.
Rightly therefore have cities established a cuotom, that before they turn arms and engines of destruction against one another to lead to slavery and utter destruction, they should seek to per- suade all the citizens to put anj end to the great and formidable >-a unceasing factions which exist in themselves, for faction • Numbers xxv. 11.
+ There is another hiatus here, which Mangey proposes to fill up with the words tat araaeuv, " and seditions."
t The text is corrupt here. The text has Karayrja, a word mani- festly mutilated. Mangey proposes KarapyrieaoQcu, and translates it " ut tollerent " 330 PHILO JUDJEUS.
and sedition, if we must speak the truth, is the archetypal model of wars, and if that be destroyed, there will no longer be any wars which are made in imitation of it; but the race of mankind will attain to the blessing and enjoyment of profound peace, being taught by the law of nature, that is, by virtue, to honour God, and to cleave to the employment of serving him, for this is the source of happiness and length of life.
A TREATISE ON THE GIANTS.
I. " And it came to pass when there began to be many men upon the earth, that daughters also were born to them."* I think it here worth while to raise the question why, after the birth of Noah and his sons, our race increased to a degree of great populousness. But, perhaps, it is not difficult to explain the cause of this; for it always happens if anything appears to be rare that its contrary is found exceedingly numerous. Therefore, the good disposition of one displays the evil disposi- tion of myriads, and the fact of those things which are done in accordance with art, and science, and virtue, and beauty, being few, shows how incalculable a number of things devoid of art, and of science, and of justice, and, in short, utterly worthless, lie concealed beneath. Do you not see that in the universe, also, the sun, being one body, by his shining forth dissipates the thick and dense darkness which is shed over earth and sea? With great propriety, therefore, the generation of the just Noah and his sons is represented as bringing into existence a great number of unjust persons; for it is by the contrary that it is especially the nature of contraries to be known. And no unjust man at any time implants a masculine generation in the soul, but such, being unmanly, and broken, and effeminate in their minds, do naturally become the parents of female children; having planted no tree of virtue, the fruit of which must of necessity have been beautiful and salutary, but only trees of wickedness and of the passions, the shoots of which are womanlike.
On account of which fact these men are said to have become the fathers of daughters, and that no one of them is said to * Genesis vL 1 ON THE GIANTS. 331 nave begotten a son; for since the just Noah had male chil- dren, as being a man who followed reason, perfect, and upright, and masculine, so by this very fact the injustice of the multi- tude is proved to be altogether the parent of female children. l\>r it is impossible that the same things should be born of opposite parents; but they must necessarily have an opposite offspring.
II. " And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, they took unto themselves wives of all of them whom they chose."* Those beings, whom other philosophers call demons, Moses usually calls angels; and they are souls hovering in the air. And let no one suppose, that what is here stated is a fable, for it is necessarily true that the universe must be filled with living things in all its parts, since every one of" its primary and elementary portions contains its appropriate animals and such as are consistent with its nature; — the earth containing terrestrial animals, the sea and the rivers containing aquatic animals, and the fire such as are born in the fire (but it is said, that such as these last are found chiefly in Macedonia), and the heaven containing the stars; for these also are entire souls pervading the universe, being unadulterated and divine, inasmuch as they move in a circle, which is the kind of motion most akin to the mind, for every one of them is the parent mind.
It is therefore necessary that the air also should be full of living beings. And these beings are invisible to us, inasmuch as the air itself is not visible to mortal sight. But it does not follow, because our sight is incapable of perceiving the forms of souls, that for that reason there are no souls in the air; but it follows of necessity that they must be comprehended by the mind, in order that like may be contemplated by like. Since what shall we say? Must we not say that these animals which are terrestrial or aquatic live in air and spirit? What? Are not pestilential afflictions accustomed to exist when the air is tainted or corrupted, as if that were the cause of all such assuming vitality? Again, when the air is free from all taint and innocent, such as it is especially wont to be when the north wind prevails, does not the imbibing of a purer air tend to a more vigorous and more lasting duration of life? It is then natural that that medium by which all other animals, whether * Genesis vL 2.
832 PHILO JUD^EUS.
aquatic or terrestrial, are vivified should itself be empty and destitute of souls? On the contrary, even if all other animals were barren, the air by itself would be bound to be productive of life, having received from the great Creator the seeds of vitality by his especial favour.
III. Some souls, therefore, have descended into bodies, and others have not thought worthy to approach any one of the portions of the earth; and these, when hallowed and sur- rounded by the ministrations of the father, the Creator has been accustomed to employ, as hand-maidens and servants in the administration of mortal affairs. And they having de- scended into the body as into a river, at one time are carried away and swallowed up by the voracity of a most violent whirl- pool; and, at another time, striving with all their power to resist its impetuosity, they at first swim on the top of it, and afterwards fly back to the place from which they started.
These, then, are the souls of those who have been taught some kind of sublime philosophy, meditating, from beginning to end, on dying as to the life of the body, in order to obtain an inheritance of the incorporeal and imperishable life, which is to be enjoyed in the presence of the uncreate and everlasting God. But those, which are swallowed up in the whirlpool, are the souls of those other men who have disregarded wisdom, giving themselves up to the pursuit of unstable things regu- lated by fortune alone, not one of which is referred to the most excellent portion of us, the soul or the mind; but all rather to the dead corpse connected with us, that is to the body, or to things which are even more lifeless than that, such as glory, and money, and offices, and honours, and all other things which, by those who do not keep their eyes fixed on what is really beautiful, are fashioned and endowed with apparent vitality by the deceit of vain opinion.
IV. If, therefore, you consider that souls, and demons, and angels are things differing indeed in name, but one and iden- tical in reality, you will then be able to discard that most heavy burden, superstition. But as men in general speak of good and evil demons, and in like manner of good and evil souls, so also do they speak of angels, looking upon some as worthy of a good appellation, and calling them ambassadors of man to God, and of God to man, and sacred and holy on account of this blameless and most excellent office; others, ON THE GIANTS. S3S again, you will not err if you look upon as unholy and unworthy of any address. And the expression used by the writer of the psalms, in the following verse, testifies to the truth of my assertion, for he says, " He sent upon them the fury of His wrath, anger, and rage, and affliction, and he sent evil angels among them."* These are the wicked who, assuming the name of angels, not being acquainted with the daughters of right reason, that is with the sciences and the virtues, but which pursue the mortal descendants of mortal men, that is the pleasures, which can confer no genuine beauty, which is perceived by the intellect alone, but only a bastard sort of elegance of form, by means of which the outward sense is beguiled; and they do not all take all the daughters in mar- riage, but some of them have selected some of that innumerable company to be their wives; some choosing them by the sight, and others by the ear, others again being influenced by the sense of taste, or by the belly, and some even by the pleasures below the belly; many also have laid hold of those the abode of which is fixed at a great distance, putting in action various desires among one another. For, of necessity, the choices of all the various pleasures are various, since different pleasures are established in different places.
V. And, in all such matters, it is impossible for the spirit of God to remain and to pass all its time, as the law-giver him- self shows. " For," says Moses, " the Lord said, My spirit shall not remain among men for ever, because they are flesh. "t For, at times, it does remain; but it does not remain for ever and ever among the greater part of us; for who is so destitute of reason or so lifeless as never, either voluntarily or involunta- rily, to conceive a notion of the all good God. For, very often, even over the most polluted and accursed beings, there hovers a sudden appearance of the good, but they are unable to take firm hold of it and to keep it among them; for, almost imme- diately, it quits its former place and departs, rejecting those inhabitants who come over to it, and who live in defiance of law and justice, to whom it never would have come if it had not been for the sake of convicting those who choose what is dis- graceful instead of what is good.
But the spirit of God is spoken of in one manner as being air flowing upon the earth, bringing a third element in addition * Psalm lixvii. 49. t Genesis vi. 3.
334 PHILO JUD^EUS.
to water. In reference to which. Moses says, in his account of the creation of the world, " The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."* Since the air, as it is very light, is raised and borne aloft, having water, as it were, for its founda- tion; and, in another manner, unalloyed knowledge is said to be so, which every wise man naturally partakes of. And Moses shows us this, when speaking of the creator and maker of the holy work of the creation, in these words: " And God summoned Bezaleel, and filled him with his Holy Spirit, and with wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, to be able to devise every work."f So that, what the spirit of God is, is very definitively described in these words.
VI. Such also is the spirit of Moses, which came upon the seventy elders, for the sake of making them differ from, and be superior to the rest of the Israelites, who could not possibly be elders in real truth, unless they had partaken of that all- wise spirit. For it is said, " I will take of my spirit which is upon thee, and I will pour it upon the seventy elders." J But think not that thus this taking away, could be by means of cutting off or separation; but it is here, as is the case in an operation effected by fire, which can light ten thousand torches, without itself being diminished the least atom, or ceasing to remain as it was before. Something like this also is the nature of knowledge. For though it has made all its pupils, and all who have become acquainted with it, learned, still it is in no degree diminished itself, but very often it even becomes improved, just as, they say, that fountains sometimes are by being drained dry; for, it is said, that they sometimes become sweeter by such a process.
For continual association with others, engendering diligence and practice, gradually works out entire perfection. If, then, the individual spirit of Moses, or of any other creature, was about to be distributed to so great a multitude of pupils, then, if it were divided into such a number of small portions, it would be diminished. But now, the spirit which is upon him is the wise, the divine, the indivisible, the undistributable, the good spirit, the spirit which is everywhere diffused, so as to fill the uni- verse, which, while it benefits others, is not injured by having a participation in it given to another, and if added to some- ON THE GIANTS. 335 thing else, either as to its understanding, or its knowledge, or its wisdom.