VII. Having therefore gone through all the larger plants in the universe, let us see in what manner the all-wise Grod made the trees which exist in the smaller world, that is to say, in man. In the first place, then, taking our body as if it were a field of deep soil, he created the external senses to be in it as so many channels. And after that, he arranged the place of each separate one of them, as if it had been a fruit-bearing and most useful tree, assigning the sense of hearing to the ear, that of sight to the eyes, that of smell to the nostrils, and each of the other senses and faculties to their kindred and appropriate organs. And the divine man bears his testimony to this account of mine, speaking thus in his Psalms, " He that planted the ear, doth he not hear? and he that made the eyes, shall he not see? " * Moreover, all the different powers which run down as far as the legs and hands, and all the other parts of the body, whether internal or external, are all those of an unimportant kind. But those which are better and more perfect he has rooted in the more central portion; that which is pre-eminently able to bring forth fruit, the dominant portion of the man. These faculties are perception, comprehension, felicity ot conjecture, study, memory, habit, disposition, the various species of art, the firmness of knowledge of different things, the apprehension of the speculations of universal virtue in such a way as is never forgotten. Now, no mortal is com- petent to plant any one of these things himself. But of all of them together there is one architect, the uncreated God, who has not only made them originally, but who also makes them for and implants them in every individual man that is born.
VIII. Now the account of the planting of Paradise is con- sistent with what has been already said. Por it is stated, " God planted a Paradise in Eden, towards the east; and there he placed the man whom he has made." f Now, to think that it is here meant that God planted vines, or olive trees, or apple trees, or pomegranates, or any trees of such kinds, is mere incurable folly. For why should he have * Psalm xciv. 9. f Genesis ii. 8.
ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 423 done so? any one may ask. Was it that he might have a pleasant abode to spend his time in? Even the whole world could not be considered a dwelling sufficient for God, the governor of the universe. Would it not appear to be deficient in innumerable other things, so that it could never be looked upon as a place worthily suited to the reception of the great King? True, indeed, it is impiety to think that the Cause of all things can be contained in that which he has caused, especially as even those trees do not invariably bear their annual fruit.
For whose enjoyirient and use, then, is it that the Paradise is to produce fruit? For that of no man. For there is absolutely no one at all who is represented as inhabiting the Paradise, since Moses says that God removed the first man who was created out of the earth, by name Adam, from his original place, and placed him here. And, moreover, God has no need of food any more than he has of anything else; for it follows necessarily that he who uses food must first of all stand in need of it. And in the second place, that he must have organs adapted for the reception of it, by means of which he can receive it when it enters him; and then dismiss it from him when he has digested it. But all these things, which are parts of the happiness and blessedness'which surround the Great Cause of all things, are inconsistent with the doctrine of those men who represent him as clothed with human form, and influenced by human passions to the utter destruction of all piety and religious feeling — both great virtues; such notions being contrary to all law and right.
IX. We must therefore have recourse to allegory, which is a favourite with men capable of seeing through it; for the sacred oracles most evidently conduct us towards and instigate us to the pursuit of it. For they say that in the Paradise there were plants in no respect similar to those which exist among us; but they speak of trees of life, trees of immortality, trees of knowledge, of comprehension, of understanding; trees of the knowledge of good and evil. Now these cannot have been trees of the land, but must indisputably have been plants of a rational soil, which was a road to travel along, leading to virtue, and having for its end life and immortality; and another road leading to vice, 424 PHILO JUD.EUS.
having for its end the loss of life and immortality, that is to say, death.
Therefore, we must suppose that the bounteous God plants in the soul, as it were, a paradise of virtues and of the actions in accordance with them, which lead it to perfect happiness. On this account, also, he has assigned a most appropriate place to the Paradise, called Eden (and the name Eden, being interpreted, means " delight"), an emblem of the soul, which sees right things, and revels amid the virtues, and exults by reason of the abundance and magni- tude of its joy; proposing to itself one source of enjoyment in the place of the innumerable things which are accounted pleasant among men, namely the service of the one wise God. He, then, who had drunk of this unmixed source of joy, and was a follower of and fellow rejoicer with Moses, and not one of the least valued of that body, in his Psalms addressed his own mind, saying, " Delight thou in the Lord." * Exciting himself and his mind towards heavenly and divine love by these words, and indignantly turning away from the luxury and effeminacy existing among what are called and believed to be human goods; and being hurried away in his whole heart by divine inspiration and fervour, and finding his joy in God alone.
X. And the statement that "the Paradise was in the east," is a proof of what has been here said. Por folly is a thing of darkness and setting, and which brings on the night; but wisdom is a most brilliant thing, radiant all around, and in the truest sense of the word, rising. And, as the sun, when it arises, fills the whole circle of the heaven with its light, so in the same manner, when the beams of virtue shine forth, they make the whole place occupied by the mind full of pure light. Therefore the possessions of man have guards and keepers, very fierce beasts, for the repulse of invading and attacking enemies. But the posses- sions of God have rational natures for their guards. Por "there," says Moses, "God placed the man whom he had made; " that is to say, he placed him among the rational virtues alone; therefore the practices and uses of the virtues have received from God this especial honour beyond the souls of other animals. And therefore, also, it is most * Psalm xxxvii. 4.
ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 425 expressly and plainly declared that God placed that man which is really man in us, namely, the mind, among the most sacred shoots and plants of excellence and virtue. But among those animals which have no share in mind, no one has ever cultivated any plant worth speaking of, since there is not one of them capable by nature of receiving comprehension.
XI. We cannot therefore raise any question as to why it was ordained that all the different species of animals should be collected in the ark which was made at the time of the great deluge, while none were brought into the Paradise. For the ark was an emblem of the body, which of necessity there- fore contained all the most tameable and ferocious evils of the passions and vices; but the Paradise contained only the virtues: and the virtues do not receive anything savage or in short anything destitute of reason. And Moses also speaks very carefully, not representing the man who was made after God's own image, but the man who was formed of clay, as the one who was placed in the paradise. For the one who was made after the image of God, and stamped with the truth of God, does, as it appears to me, in no respect differ from the tree which bore as its fruit everlasting life. For they are both imperishable, and have both been thought worthy of the most central position in the dominant part of man. For it is said that " the tree of life is in the midst of the Paradise."
But the other man, he of the composite and more earthly body, who has no justification in uncreated and simple nature, the cultivator of which is the only person who knows how to dwell in the house and in the courts of the Lord. For Jacob is represented " as a plain man dwelling in a house," * having a disposition full of ingenuity, and com- pounded and made up of all kinds of materials. It was natural therefore to place and firmly root the mind in the middle of the paradise, that is, of theuniversal world, havingin itself faculties which draw it in contrary directions, so that it should be kept in a state of doubt when called upon to discriminate as to what it should choose and what it should avoid, since if it chose the better part it would reap immor- • Genesis xxv. 27, where the expression, however, is "dwelling in lent*."
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tality and glory; and if it chose the worse it would meet with reproach and death.
XII. Such then are the trees which the only wise God has planted in rational souls. But Moses, pitying those who were exiled and compelled to quit the paradise of the virtues, addresses a prayer to the absolute authority of God and to his merciful and propitious powers, entreating that in the place from which the earthly mind, Adam, was banished, there a people capable of seeing the truth might be planted. For he says, " Bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thy inheritance which thou dost give them; thou hast made them to sit in thy seat, 0 Lord; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have made. The Lord shall shall be king of ages, for ever and ever." * Therefore he had learnt, as plainly as any man that ever lived, that God, having fixed the roots and seeds of every- thing down in the earth, is the cause also of the greatest of all plants, namely this world, shooting up; which world he here seems to speak of enigmatically in the song which I have just quoted, where he calls it the mountain of his inheritance; since that which is made isthemostappropriatepossessionand inheritance, of him who has made it. Thereforehepraysthatwe may be planted in it,notin order thatwe may become irrational and unmanageable in our natures; but that, in due obedience to the arrangement of the all-perfect governor, imitating his perpetual and undeviating consistency, we may live a temperate and innocent life. For to be able to live in a strict uniformity with nature, is what the men of old have defined as the end of happiness.
And accordingly what is said afterwards is in strict agree- ment with what is said before, namely, that the world is the beautiful and properly prepared house of God, appreciable by the external senses; and that he himself made it and that it is not uncreated, as some persons have thought. And he uses the word " sanctuary," as meaning a splendour emitted from holy objects, an imitation of the archetypal model; since those things which are beautiful to the external senses are to the intellectual senses models of what is beautiful.
The expression that "it was prepared by the hands of God," means that it was made by his world-creating powers. * Exodus xv. 17.
ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 427 But in order that no one may suppose that the Creator had need of any one of the things which he created, he adds the most necessary assertion, " Being King of ages for ever and ever." But a king is in need of nothing, but everything which is subject to him is inevitably in need of the king. And some.persons have said that God is and is properly called the inheritance of Grod, the use and enjoyment of which Moses has now prayed may be afforded to us. For, says he, representing us as children just beginning to learn by means of the doctrines and speculations of wisdom, and not leaving us destitute of the elements of knowledge, plantthemin sublime and heavenly reason. For this is the most thoroughly prepared inheritance; the house most completely ready, the abode most entirely suitable, which "thou hast made holy." For, O master, thou art the maker of all good and holy things, as, on the other hand, corruptible creationisof what is evil and profane. Reign thou throughout infinite eternity over the suppliant soul; not leaving it for a single moment without a governor. For an uninterrupted service under them is not only better than freedom, but even than the most extensive dominion.
XIII. In many people perhaps an inquiry may suggest itself as to what is the meaning of the expression, " In the mountain of thy inheritance." It is plain that God bestows inheritance, but perhaps it is not reasonable to think that he receives inheritances, since everything in the world belongs to him. But perhaps this is said of those who are subject to him as their master, according to some special computation of connection; just as kings govern indeed all their subjects, but rule their own servants in a different and peculiar manner, whom they are accustomed to employ as ministers for the care of their bodies and the rest of their manner of life. And again, though they are lords of all the possessions in their whole country, even of those which appear to belong to pri- vate individuals, they nevertheless are accounted owners only of those portions which they can entrust to superintendents and overseers, from whom they receive yearly revenues, which properties they often visit for the sake of relaxation and amusement, when they lay aside for a while the heaviest portion of the burden of the cares which arise to them in the administration of public affairs and in the govern* 428 PHILO JUD^EUS.
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ment of their kingdoms; and these possessions are called especially the royal properties.
Moreover all the silver and gold, and other t/easures which are stored up in the coffers of tneir subjects, do all in reality belong more to the rulers than to those who possess them. But nevertheless there are some which are peculiarly called the royal treasures, in which those who are appointed col- lectors of the produce lay up the revenues which are derived from the country. Do not wonder, therefore, if the com- pany of wise souls is pronounced to be the especial inheritance of the all-powerful God who has authority and dominion over everything, since he sees most acutely of all beings, exercising the irreproachable and unadulterated eye of the mind, which is never shut, but is always wide open and looking intensely into every thing.
XIV. And on this account, indeed, it is said in the greater prayer, " Inquire of thy father, and he will tell thee; of thy elders, and they will reply to thee, when the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he fixed the boundaries of the nations, according to the number of the angels of God, and the portion of the Lord himself was his people Israel."* For, behold, here again, he uses the expression, " the portion and inheritance of God," mean- ing that disposition which is capable of seeing him, and which sincerely worships him; and he says that the children of the earth, whom he calls the sons of Adam, were scattered and dispersed, and brought together again, and that a company was formed of them, since they were unable to use right reason as their guide. For, in real truth, virtue is the cause of harmony and unity, and the opposite disposition is the cause of dissolution and disagreement. Indeed, it is a proof of what has been said, what happens every year on the day called the day of atonement; for on that day the people are enjoined " to take by lot two goats, one for the Lord, and one to be the scapegoat;"f that is to say, two reasons, the one in accordance with God, the other consistent with creation. He, therefore, who wishes to exalt the Cause of all things will acquire honour to himself; but he who attributes honour to creation will be banished, being driven from the * Deuteronomy xxxii. 7. t Deuteronomy xv. 6.
ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 429 most sacred places, and compelled to fall into inaccessible and wicked gull's.
XV. Moses, therefore, has such intimate connection with God, that, relying upon this in a very great degree, he is in the habit of using more fervent and energetic expressions and doctrines than are calculated for the ears of us inferior persons; for he not only thinks it fit to speak of God as an inheritor, but even, which is a more startling thing to the comprehension, he calls him the inheritance of others; for to the entire tribe which came to him as a fugitive and a sup- Sliant, he did not think fit to allot only a portion of land, as he id to the other eleven tribes, but he chose that they should receive an especial honour, namely, the priesthood, a posses- sion not of earth, but of heaven. " For thou shalt not be," says God, as Moses represents, "a portion to the tribe of Levi, nor any inheritance among the children of Israel, because the Lord himself is their inheritance."* And again he speaks in the person of God, in his holy oracles, in this manner: " I am thy portion and inheritance."f For, in real truth, the mind which is perfectly purified, and which knows all the things of creation, knows and recognizes one only God, the Uncreate, whom it approaches, and by whom it is re- ceived. For to whom is it permitted to say, " He alone is my God," except to the man who is attached to none of the objects which are inferior to him? And this is the custom of the Levites; for the name of Levi, being interpreted, means, " he is to me," because different things are honoured by different people, but by him only that which is highest and most excellent, the Cause of all things.
XVI. They tell an old story, that some man in ancient times, who had fallen madly in love with the beauty of wis- dom, as if it had been the beauty of a most lovely woman, once, when he saw a most sumptuous preparation of un- bounded and costly magnificence, looked towards some of his friends, and said, " Behold, 0 companions, how many things there are of which I have no need!" And yet he had nothing whatever of even necessary things beyond his mere clothes, so that he was not pufied up with the magni- tude of his riches, which has been the case with numbers of 430 PHILO JUDGE'S.
people; so that, on this account, he spoke arrogantly against pomp and show.
The lawgiver teaches us that we should account those people wise who are not eager to be rich in created things, but who despise all created things in comparison of the friendship of the uncreated G-od, whom they look upon as the only true wealth, and the boundary of most perfect happiness. Never, then, let those men boast, who have acquired power and sovereignty, as some do, because they have subdued one city, or country, or nation; and others, because they have acquired the dominion over all the coun- tries of the earth, to its furthest borders, and over all Gre- cian and barbarous nations, and over all the rivers and seas, infinite both in number and magnitude. For if, besides these things, they had made themselves masters (which it is impious even to mention) of that sublime nature which was the only thing that the Creator made free from the bond of slavery and servitude, they would still be looked upon but as private individuals in comparison with the great kings who have received God for their inheritance; for in pro- portion as that nature which has acquired a possession is better than the possession itself, and the Creator than the thing created, by so much also are they more royal.
XVII. Therefore, some people considered, that they who said that everything was the property of the one good Being, were speaking in an unreasonable manner, looking at the deficiencies and abundance which existed externally, and thinking no one rich who was in want of either money or possessions. But Moses thinks wisdom a thing of such pre-eminent value, and deserving to be so eagerly sought after, that not only the whole world deserves to be his inheritance, but that he even looks upon the Governor of the universe in that light; and these are the doctrines, not of men who are halting between two opinions, but of those who are occupied in a firm and sure faith; since, even now, there are some persons among those who make a show and pretence of piety, who calumniate the literal meaning of this saying, saying that it is neither pious nor safe to speak of God as the inheritance of a man. You say this — I should say to them — because ye have come not from genuine passion, but from a supposititious and illegitimate one, to ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 431 the investigation of things. For you thought it a matter of equal consequence for God to be called the inheritance of possessions, of vineyards, and oliveyards, and such matters, and of wise men; and ye did not perceive that paintings are said to be the inheritance of painters, and, in short, that any art is said to be the inheritance of the artist, not looked at as an earthly possession, but as a heavenly prize; for none of such things are the property of any master, but still they are an advantage to those who possess them: so that you, O sycophants, hear of the living God as an inheritance, not in the sense of being a possession, like those which I have enumerated, but as being the most beneficial and greatest of goods to those who think fit to worship the Cause of all good.
XVIII. Having, therefore, now said what is proper con- cerning the original planter and the original plant, let us next proceed, in due order, to the consideration of matters of instruction and imitation.
In the first place, then, the wise Abraham is said " to have planted a field at the well of the oath, and to have called upon the name of the everlasting Lord God."* And here there is no peculiar property of the plants mentioned, but only the magnitude of the place. And they who are in the habit of investigating these matters say, that everything which belongs to God has been very carefully and accurately described, both tree and place, and the fruit of the tree. Accordingly, they say that the tree was the field itself, not like those trees which sprung up out of the ground, but rather to those which grow according to the firmly-rooted mind of the man who loves God: and the place, they say, is the well of the oath, and the fruit, the change of the name of the Lord into that of " The Eternal God."
And it is necessary further to give the probable explana- tion of each point of the things here mentioned. The field, then, being in length a hundred cubits, and as many in breadth, multiplied together according to the nature and character of a square, is composed of ten thousand superficial cubits; and this is the greatest limit of those numbers which increase from the unit, and also the most perfect: so that the limit is the beginning of numbers, and the end, in those calcu- * Genesis xxi. 33.
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lations, according to the first combination, is the number ten thousand; in reference to which fact, some persons have not erred greatly, who have compared the limit to the starting- place, and the number ten thousand to the goal, and all the numbers between these two to those who contend in a race; for they, beginning to start from the unit, as from the start- ing place, come to the number ten thousand as to the goal. Therefore, some persons, departing from these numbers, as from signals, have said that Grod is the beginning and end of everything, which is a doctrine admirably calculated to engender piety. This doctrine, being implanted in the soul, produces a most beautiful and nutritious fruit, holiness; and the place most suitable for this fruit, is the well which is called the oath, in which there is a report that no water could be found. For, says Moses, " the children of Israel, coming thither, reported to him concerning the well which they had digged: and they said, We found no water; and he called that place, " The Oath."* Let us now consider what is the meaning of this statement.
XIX. Those who investigate the nature of things as they actually exist, and who conduct their examinations of each individual matter in no negligent manner, behave very lite those men who dig wells; for they also are seeking springs in an obscure place. And all men have one common desire, to find something to drink. But some men's nature is to be nourished by the food of the soul, and that of others by the food of the body. As, therefore, some of those who have dug wells have often done so without finding water; so likewise those who advance far in knowledge, and who have made great progress in it, are still often unable to attain do the end which they desire. At all events, they say that men of extensive learning often find fault with their terrible ignorance, for they only just know how far they are removed from the truth. And there is a story that some man of old time, when he was admired for his wisdom, said, that it was a fine thing that he should be admired, who only just knew that he knows nothing.
And choose, if you like, any art you please, whether trifling or important, and the man, too, who is most excel- lent, and most highly thought of in regard of his skill in it, xxvi. 32.
ABOUT THE PLANTING OP NOAH. 433 and then consider if the professions held out by the art are equal to the performances of the artist; for if you duly examine the matter, you will find that the performance falls short of the profession, not by a small, but by a vast dis- tance, it being almost impossible for a man to be perfect in any art whatever, which is in continual motion like a fount- ain, and is constantly pouring forth various species of all kinds of speculations. On this account, it is most appro- priately denominated an oath, being the most certain sign of faith, comprehending also the testimony of God: for as he who swears, calls God to be a witness to a matter concerning which a question is raised, so it is not possible to swear so truly about any matter, as to the fact that the perfection of no art whatever can be found in the artist who professes it.
And the same assertion holds good also with respect to all the other powers which exist in us, or very nearly so; for, as they say, that no water was found in the well which had been mentioned, so also neither was there the faculty of seeing in the eyes, or that of hearing in the ears, or that of smelling in the nostrils, or, in short, any one of the senses in its corresponding organ; and similarly in the mind, there was not the faculty of comprehension. For how could it have happened that any one should have made a mistake in what he saw, or in what he heard, or in what he understood, if the comprehensions of each of these faculties had been well established, and if they had had a trustworthy nature of themselves without God implanting accuracy in them?
XX. Having now, therefore, discussed the place suf- ficiently in which the tree flourishes, let us now, in con- clusion, examine also the subject of the fruit: —