Now, what the fruit is, Moses will tell us himself: " For the Lord God everlasting," says he, " called it by its name.'* Therefore the appellations already mentioned reveal the powers existing in the living God; for one title is that of Lord, according to which he governs; and the other is God, according to which he is beneficent. For which reason also, in the account of the creation of the world, according to the most holy Moses, the name of God is * Genesis xxi. 33. P P 434 PHILO JUB^EUS.
434 PHILO JUB^EUS.
always assumed by him: for it was fitting that the power according to which the Creator, when he was bringing his creatures into the world, arranged and adorned them, should be invoked also by that creation. Inasmuch, therefore, as he is a ruler, he has both powers, that, namely, of doing good, and that of doing harm; regulating his conduct on the principle of requiting him who has done anything. But inasmuch as he is a benefactor, he is inclined only to one of these two courses, namely, to do good. And it would be the greatest possible advantage to the soul no longer to feel any doubt about the power of the king for both purposes, but steadily to emancipate itself from the fear, which is suspended over it, on account of the vastness of his autho- rity, and to kindle and keep alive a most firm hope of the acquisition and enjoyment of blessings arising from his being beneficent by deliberate intention.
Now the expression, "everlasting God," is equivalent to, God who bestows gifts, not sometimes giving and some- times not, but always and incessantly; it is equivalent to, God who does good uninterruptedly; to God who, without intermission, is connecting a flow of benefits, coming one after the other; God, who pours forth blessings upon bless- ings, who is made up of mercies connected and united; God, who never omits any single opportunity of doing good; God, who is also the Lord, so that he is able to injure.
XXI. This also Jacob, the practiser of virtue, asked at the end of his most holy prayers. For he said, " And the Lord shall be to me as God." Which is equivalent to: He will no longer display towards me the despotic power of his absolute authority, but rather the beneficent influence of his universally propitious and saving power, utterly removing the fear with which he is regarded as a master, and filling the soul with affection and benevolence as felt towards a benefactor. What soul could ever conceive thus that the master and ruler of the universe, without changing anything of his own nature, but remaining in the condition in which he always was, is continually kind and uninterruptedly bounteous? owing to which he is, to those who are happy, the most perfect cause of unlimited and overflowing bless- ings. And to trust in a king who is not by reason of the magnitude of his authority elated so as to do injury to bis ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 435 subjects, but who, through his love to mankind, prefers that every one should enjoy happiness without fear, is the greatest possible bulwark of prosperity and security.
XXII. What, therefore, we originally undertook we have now nearly fulfilled, namely, to demonstrate that the fact spoken of must be taken to mean the principle which declares God to be the most glorious of all things. The portion of the subject which follows next, is the demon- stration that perfection is found in no created thing, but that it does appear in them at times owing to the grace of the great Cause of all things. And the fruit of the tree is, that the graces of God endure for ever and ever, and that they are shed incessantly upon mankind, and never cease. Thus, in truth, the wise man, following the practice of the first and greatest planter, displays his knowledge of hus- bandry; and the sacred scripture wishes the labours of husbandry to be performed, even by those of us who are not yet perfect, but who are still reckoned among the middle numbers of those things which are accounted duties; for it says, " When you go forth into the land which the Lord your God giveth to you, and when you plant every tree which is good for food, you shall completely purify its un- cleanness. For three years it shall be unclean as to its fruit, it shall not be eaten; but in the fourth year, all iis fruit shall be holy, being praised by the Lord. And in the fifth year you shall eat the fruit thereof; and everything that it bears shall be useful to you: I am the Lord your God."* Therefore it was impossible for the children of Israel, to plant those trees which are eatable, before they arrived in the country which had been given them by God; for he says, " When you go forth into the land,...and when you plant every tree which is good for food." So that while we are outside of the promised land, we should not be able to cultivate such trees; and this is very natural; for as long as the mind has not entered upon the path of wisdom, but turns aside and wanders out of the road, it cares only for the trees which do not admit of being cultivated or used for food of men, — trees which are barren and useless, and which, though they bear, bear no fruit which is eatable. But when the mind, having entered upon the path of * Leviticus xix. 23.
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wisdom, marches along with its doctrines, and begins to keep pace with them all, it then cultivates the useful trees, which are capable of bearing eatable fruit, instead of caring for those useless kinds; it cultivates a mastery over, instead of the indulgence of the passions, and knowledge instead of ignorance, and good instead of evil.
Since therefore he who is led into the path of virtue is still at a long distance from the end, it is very naturally laid as an injunction upon the man who plants, to remove the uncleanness of that which is planted. And what this is, we will now consider.
XXIII. These duties which are as it were in the middle, appear to me to be properly looked upon in the same light as those trees, which admit of being cultivated and used for food; for each of them bears most useful fruits, the one for the body, and the other for the soul. But in the middle there must necessarily be many injurious plants springing up with and growing along-side of them, which must be removed in order that the better sorts may not be injured. May I not call the restoration of a deposit a useful plant of the soul? But still this plant requires purification and exceeding attention. What then is the purification? This. Having taken a deposit from a man while he is sober, you must not restore it to him while he is drunk, or intemperate, or mad; for in such a case though he may have received the advantage of having his own back again, he will have no opportunity of being benefited by it. Again. You must not restore a deposit to debtors or to slaves while their creditors or their masters are present; for that is betraying, and not a restoration of a deposit. Nor must you keep faith in small things in the hope merely of gaining confidence, so as to have greater things entrusted to you. For those who fish, and who let down small baits into the sea, with the view of catching larger fish, are not very much to be blamed, as they say that they are providing for the good supply of the market, and in order that they may supply men with unlimited food for every day. But no one should use as a bait, the restoration of a deposit of small value by way of obtaining a larger one, holding forth in his hands, and displaying the deposit of one individual, and that a trifling one, and in his intention ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 437 appropriating the deposits of every body, and those too of un- speakable value. If, therefore, you remove the uncleanness of your deposit, as of these trees, namely, the inquiries threatened by plotters, the evils arising from want of opportunity and treachery, and all things of similar kinds; you will bring into a state of cultivation and usefulness, that which was on the point of becoming wild.
XXIV. And in the case of the tree of friendship, it is necessary to cut down and eradicate these things which shoot up by the side of it for the sake of preserving the more valuable plant. And the evil plants which spring up along-side are these: the tricky blandishments of courtesans towards their lovers, and the deceitfulness of parasites to those whom they flatter. For one may see those who make a traffic of their personal beauty, clinging to their lovers as if they were excessively fond of them; but they love not them but themselves, and they are eager only for their daily gains. And as for flatterers, sometimes they conceal unspeakable hatred towards those whom they flatter; but still, being slaves to gluttony and intemperance, they are on that account induced to pay court to those who can supply their immoderate appetites. But the tree of science and unadulterated friendship having rejected and discarded these things, will bear fruit of the greatest possible service to those who use it, namely, incorruptible good faith. For good- will is a desire that one's neighbour should enjoy good things for his own sake. But courtesans and flatterers are anxious solely for their own advantage, which is the only motive why they should confer pleasure, the first on their lovers, and the latter on the objects of their flatteries. We must therefore cut down all trickeries and flatteries as evil plants growing up near the tree of friendship.
XXV. The due attention to sacred rites, and good faith in the matter of sacrifices, are the most excellent of trees; but along-side of them an evil grows up, namely, superstition, which it is desirable to eradicate before it has time to blossom. For some persons have fancied the sacrificing of oxen to be piety, and they assign a portion of all that they steal or obtain by denials, or by cheating their creditors, or by plundering, to the altars. Impious wretches that they 438 PHILO JVDMVS.
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are; thinking that thus they are paying a price to huy themselves off from suffering punishment for their offences. But to such persons I would say, O ye men, the tribunal of God is not to be corrupted by bribes; so that those who have guilty minds will be rejected, even if they sacrifice a hundred oxen every day; and those who are innocent will be received, even if they never sacrifice at all. For God delights in altars on which no fire is burned, but which are frequented by virtues, and which do not blaze with great flame, such as those sacrifices do kindle which are offered by impious men, and which are no sacrifices at all, and which serve to remind one of the ignorances and wickedness of each of the sacrificers; for Moses has somewhere spoken of a sacrifice " reminding one of sin."* All such things therefore, being the causes of great injury, it is necessary to cut off and eradicate, in obedience to the oracle in which it is enjoined " to remove the uncleanness of the tree which has been planted, bearing eatable fruit."f XXVI. But we, even after we have been instructed, make no progress in learning; but some persons, having a self-taught natural instinct, purify what is good from the evils which surround it, as Jacob did, he who was surnamed the practicer of virtue; for he " peeled the rods, leaving on the white bark, having stripped off all the green;" J in order that the dark and dusky vanity in the middle being taken away in every case, a white appearance might be dis- played, which should be produced so as to be akin to it, not by diversified art but by nature; in reference to which it is also commanded in the law which was established in cases of leprosy, that " the man who was not infected with any variation of colour, but who was white all over from the head to the extremity of his feet, should be pure."§ In order that, according to the similitude of the body, those who have discarded the crafty, and unscrupulous, and ambiguous, and uncertain disposition of mind, may embrace the simple, uncoloured, unambiguous, plain complexion of truth; there- fore, to say that the tree is purified, contains a principle, the assertion of which is founded surely in truth, but to make the same statement with respect to the fruit is saying what X Genesis xxx. 37. § Leviticus xiii. 12.
ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 439 is not equally clear or credible; for no cultivator of figs or grapes, or, in sort, of any fruit whatever, purifies them.
XXVII. And again Moses says, "Its fruit shall be impure for three days, it shall not be eaten;"* as if in fact it were customary for it to be purified for ever. "We must, therefore, say that this is one of those expressions which have a concealed meaning, since the words themselves are not quite consistent with it; for the expression is an ambiguous one; for it bears one sense of this' kind, the fruit shall remain for three years; and then there is a distinct injunction, " it shall not be eaten before it is purified." But there is also another meaning, " the fruit of the tree shall for three years be unpurified, and while in that state it shall not be eaten." According, then, to the former statement one may understand it in this manner: the three years being taken for time which is divided into three portions; for it is the nature of time to be divided into the past, the present, and the future; therefore the fruit of education will exist, and will endure, and will last unimpaired through all the divisions of time, a statement equivalent to — it will never receive any corruption, for the nature of good is imperishable.
But the fruit which is not purified shall not be eaten; inasmuch as virtuous reasons, duly purified and rendered sound, nourish the soul, and give vigour to the mind; but the opposite kinds are not nutritious, but bring disease and destruction on the soul.
According to the other meaning, as in the disputes of dialecticians, the word "undemonstrated" is used in a double sense, either of a proposition which it is hard to demonstrate by reason of its difficulty, or of one which is intrinsically so plain as to require no demonstration, and the truth of which is established not by the testimony of any one else, but by its own internal evidence. So also fruit may be understood as not being purified, either when it is so impure as to be difficult to purify, or when it requires no purification, but is bright, and clear, and pure of itself.
Such now is the fruit of education; being for three years, that is to say for all time, divided as it is into three portions, most completely pure and brilliant, being overshadowed by no injurious thing, and having no need whatever of any * Leviticus xix. 23.
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washings or purifications, or any thing else whatever which tends to cleansing.
XXVIII. " But in the fourth year," says the scripture, " all the fruit of the tree shall be sacred, being praised by the Lord."* The prophetic books appear often to dignify the number four in many places of the exposition of the law, and most especially in the account of the creation of the universe; for the light which is perceptible by the outward senses, and held in honour, being that which throws the most brilliant light both upon itself and upon other things, and upon its own parents the sun and the moon, and upon the most sacred company of the stars, which by their rising and setting fix the boundaries of night and day, and, more- over, of months and years, and which have shown the nature of number, to which, also, the greatest good of the soul is attributed, Moses says was created on the fourth day. And now he honours this day in a remarkable degree, assigning the fruit of the trees to God, in accordance with no other time than with the fourth year after they are planted; for this has a principle in it very consistent with nature and with good morals.
At all events it so happens that the roots of the universe, the elements of which the world is composed, are four — earth, water, air, and fire. Also, that the seasons of the year are equal in number, namely, winter and summer, and those others which are between these two, spring and autumn. And as this is the most ancient of all square numbers, it is found to exist in right angles, as the figure of a square in geometry shows. And right angles are manifest examples of correctness of reason. And right reason is an everlasting fountain of virtues. It follows, therefore, of necessity that the sides of a square must be all equal to one another. And equality is the parent of justice, which is the mistress and ruler of all the virtues, so that it is now proved that this number four is the symbol of equality, and justice, and of all virtue, beyond any other number. And the number four is likewise called "all," because it comprehends in its power the numbers up to ten, and the number ten itself.
XXIX. That it comprehends all the numbers up to itself is manifest to every one; but that it also comprehends * Leviticus xix. 25.
ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 44 1 the numbers which come after it, is very easily seen by a calculation of numbers, when we have put them together, one, two, three, four, we shall find what we were doubting about; for of one and four, the number five will be found to be composed, and of two and four six are made up; the number seven, again, consists of three and four; agaia, according to a triple combination of one, and three, and four, the number eight is composed; also of two, and three, aud four, the number nine; and the number ten is made of all the numbers together, for one, and two, and three, and four make ten. On this account also, Moses said that in the fourth year all the fruit of the tree shall be holy; for this number has an even, and an entire, and a full, and (as one may almost say) every possible reason in it, because the number ten, of which four is the parent, is the first starting place of all the numbers when put together after the unit; and the number four and the number ten are both also called u all," but the number ten is so called by reason of its operation, this number four with reference to its potentiality. XXX. And Moses very appropriately says that the fruit of education is not only holy but also praised; for every one of the virtues is a holy thing, but most especially is gratitude holy; but it is impossible to show gratitude to God in a genuine manner, by those means which people in general think the only ones, namely offerings and sacrifices; for the whole world could not be a temple worthy to be raised to his honour, except by means of praises and hymns, and those too must be such as are sung, not by loud voices, but by the invisible and pure mind, which shall raise the shout and song to him. At all events there is an old saying often quoted, originally invented by wise men, but, as is often the case, handed down in succession to future ages, and one which has not escaped our ears, which are always greedy of instruction, and it is to this effect, " When," say they, "the Creator had finished the whole world, he asked of one of his ministers, whether he felt that any thing that was wanting which had not been created of all the things that are in the earth, or in the water, or of all that have received the sublime nature of the air, or the loftiest nature of all the universe, namely, that of the heaven; and he replied, that every thing every where was perfect and 442 PHILO JUD^EUS.
complete; but that he wished for one thing only, namely for reason, which should be able duly to praise it all, and which should not so much praise as give an accurate account of the exceeding excellence existing throughout, even in these things which appeared the most unimportant and the most obscure; for he said that an exact account of the works of Grod was their most complete and adequate panegyric, since they required no addition of external things to set them forth, but were of such a character that the bare plain truth was their most perfect encomium." And when the Father had heard what he said he praised it all, and at no distant time produced a race, which should be capable of receiving all learning, and of composing hymns of praise, producing them from one of the faculties existing around him, the virgin memory, whose name men in general distort and call her Mnemosyne.
XXXI. This is then the purport of that legend of the ancients, and we in accordance with that story say, that it is the most appropriate work of God to confer benefits, and of created beings to show gratitude, since they are unable to give any requital of those benefits beyond gratitude; for whatever he might be inclined to give as a requital for the other things which he has received, will be found to be the private property of him who is the Creator of all things, and not of the nature which offers it. Having learnt there- fore that there is only one employment possible for us of all the things that seem to contribute to the honour of God, namely the display of gratitude, let us at all times and in all places study this, with our voice, and with useful writings, and let us never desist composing encomiastic orations and poems, in order that both the Creator and the world may be honoured by every description of utterance which can be exhibited in either speaking or singing; the one being, as some has said, the best of all causes, and the other the most perfect of all created things.
XXXII. Since therefore all the fruit of the soul is con- secrated in the fourth year and the fourth number; in the fifth year we ourselves shall be allowed the use and enjoy- ment of it for ourselves; for the scripture says, " In the fifth year ye shall eat the fruit thereof;" since it has been established by a perpetual law of nature, that account shall ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 443 be taken of the creation after the Creator in every thing; so that even if we are thought worthy of the second place, it must be considered a marvellous thing; and on this account it assigns to us the fruit of the fifth year, because the number five is the number appropriate to the outward sense: and if one must tell the truth, that which nourishes our minds is the outward sense, which by means of our eyes sets before us the distinctive qualities of colours and forms, and by means of our ears presents us with all the various peculiarities of sounds, and with smells by means of the nose, and with tastes through the medium of the mouth, and which enables us to judge of the yielding softness and resisting hardness, or of softness and roughness, or again of heat and cold, by means of the faculty which is dispersed over the whole body, which we usually denominate touch.
XXXIII. But the most correct example of what has been said, is afforded by the sons of Leah, that is of virtue, not all her sons, but the fourth and fifth; for with respect to the fourth, Moses says that, then she ceased to bring forth,* and his name was called Judah, which, being in- terpreted, is " confession to the Lord," and the fifth she called Issachar, and the name being interpreted, means " reward;" and after she had brought forth in this manner, the soul immediately spoke and related what it had suffered; for says Moses, " She called his name Issachar, which means reward. "f Therefore Judas, the mind which blesses God, and which is without ceasing, devoted to pouring forth hymns of praise and gratitude to him, is himself in truth "the holy and praiseworthy fruit," J being produced not by the trees of the earth but by a rational and virtuous nature. In reference to which, the nature which brought him forth is said to have desisted, from bringing forth, since she knew not which way to turn, when she had come to the limit of perfection; for of all successful actions which are brought forth, the best and most perfect production is a hymn to the Father of the universe; and the fifth son is in no respect different from the enjoyment of the trees planted in the fifth year; for the tiller of the earth after a fashion takes his reward from the trees in the fifth year, and he takes the offspring of the soul, Issachar, who was called the " reward," * Genesis xxix. 35. t Genesis xxx. 18. X Leviticus xix. 24.
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and very naturally, being brought forth after the grateful Judah; for to a grateful person gratitude is a most sufficient reward. Therefore, the fruits of the trees are called the produce of the owners of the trees; but the fruit of in- struction and wisdom is no longer the produce of man, but as Moses says, " of the universal Governor alone;" for after he has spoken of his produce, he adds, " I am the Lord your God," asserting most distinctly that there is one God, whose fruit is the produce of the soul.
And with this assertion, this oracle delivered by one of the prophets is consistent, " Fruit from me has been found by you. "What wise man will understand this? Will any in- telligent person comprehend it?"* For it does not belong to every one, but only to the wise man, to understand whose the fruit of the mind is.
XXXIV. Therefore, concerning that most ancient and sacred husbandry, which the Cause of all things uses with reference to the world, that most productive of trees, and concerning that other kind in imitation of it which the vir- tuous man studies, and concerning the ordinary quaternion of prizes, and the laws and precepts which all tend to the same point, we have now spoken to the best of our power.
Let us now consider the vine-planting of the just Noah which is a species of husbandry.
For it is said that " Noah began to be a husbandman of the earth, and he planted a vineyard, and drank of the wine, and got drunk. "f Therefore, the wise man here cultivates with skill and science the tree of drunkenness, though fools enter upon its management in an unartistic and negligent manner, so that it is necessary for us now to speak in a fitting manner about drunkenness; for we shall presently know the power also of that tree which gives rise to it. Afterwards, we will examine with accuracy what has been said by the lawgiver concerning drunkenness, but at present we will ex- amine what determination others have come to on this subject.