But nevertheless, though I say that I feel confidence, I do again confess that I am stricken with awe and amazement, and that I do not feel within myself an unmixed spirit of battle, but fear mingled with confidence, as perhaps many people will easily imagine, a closely combined conjunction of the two feelings; therefore I drink insatiably of this well-mixed cup, which persuades me neither to speak freely without prudent caution; nor, on the other hand, to think so much of caution as to lose my freedom of speech. For I have learnt to appre- ciate my own nothingness, and to look up to the excessive and unapproachable height of thy munificence: and whenever I know- that 1 am myself " but dust and ashes," or even, what is still more worthless, if there is any such thing, then I feel confidence to approach thee, humbling myself, and casting myself down to 100 PHILO JCD.EUS.
the ground, so completely changed as scarcely to seem to exist.
VII. Now such a disposition of the soul, Abraham, the inspector, has deeply engraved on my memory. For, says the scripture, " Abraham came near and said, Now have I begun to speak unto the Lord, I that am but dust and ashes;" * since then there was an opportunity given to the creature to approach the Creator, when he recognised his own nothingness. But the expression, " What wilt thou give me?" is not so much the language of one who is in doubt, as of one feeling and expressing gratitude at the multitude and greatness of the blessings which he has already enjoyed. " What wilt thou give me?" for, in fact, what more is there left for me to ex- pect? for, 0 bountiful God! thy graces and mercies are boundless and unlimited, and they have no boundary and no end, bursting up like fountains full of perfection, which are continually drawn upon and are never dry. And it is worth while to contemplate, not merely the ever-abounding torrent of thy bounties, but also those fields of ours which are irri- gated by them; for if a superfluous and too excessive stream be poured over them, then the place will become a marshy and swampy plain instead of fertile land; for our land has need of irrigation, carefully measured out with a view to cause fertility, and not unmeasured. And on this account I will ask, What wilt thou give me, thou who hast already be- stowed on me unspeakable mercies, and almost all things, so that mortal nature is incapable of containing them? For what remains that I wish to know, and to have, and to acquire, is this: who could be worthy of thy works, who could deserve to inherit them?
"I shall depart from life childless;"f having received a short-lived and ephemeral blessing, which speedily passes away, when I prayed for the contrary, namely, for one which should last many days, a long time; which should be free from all mishap, which should never die, but should be able to sow seeds of itself, and to stretch forth roots for the sake of giving it firmness, and which should raise its trunk upwards to heaven, and hold its head on high; for it is necessary that human virtue must walk upon the earth, and must, at the fcame time, strive to reach^kesven L^,ly.L ilmi^ being hospi- v Genesis xviii. 27. sy\\'tf* Z* — — »2r ^tiej^vxv. 2.
5^ ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 101 tably received by immortality, it may pass all future time in freedom from all evil, for I know that thou hatest a barren and unproductive soul, thou who art thyself the supporter of things that have no existence, and the parent of all things. Since thou hast given especial grace to the race which has the faculty of seeing, so that it shall never be barren, and never be childless; and as I myself have been assigned to that race as a part of it, I am justly desirous of an heir; for, perceiving that that race is inextinguishable, I think it would be a most shameful thing of me to be indifferent to the sight of my own nature, separated from all that is good.
Therefore I am a suppliant to thee, and I implore thee, that those seeds and sparks being kindled and cherished, the saving light of virtue may burn up and give light, which being borne on like a torch, delivered from hand to hand in constant suc- cession, may last as long as the world. Moreover, thou hast inspired those men who practise virtue with a desire for chil- dren of the sowing and generation of the soul; and they, having received such a portion have, in their joy, spoken and said, " The children which God hath mercifully given to thy servant,"* of whom migration is the nurse and guardian, whose souls are simple, and tender, and well disposed, being calculated easily to receive the beautiful and most God-like im- pressions of virtue; and teach me also this saying, " Whether the son of Meshech, my servant, born in my house, is compe- tent to become the inheritor of thy graces," for up to this time I have not received the son whom I hoped for, and of the one whom I have received I have no hope.
VIII. But who Meshech is, and who her son is, must be examined in no superficial manner. Now the interpretation of the name Meshech is, " out of a kiss;" but a kiss differs from loving; for the one exhibits usually a discovery of souls united together by good-will, but the other intimates only a bare and superficial salutation when some necessity has brought the two parties to the same place. For as the meaning " to stoop " (x-jrrTnv) is not contained in (avuxvvreiv) " to lift up the head," nor "to drink" {rrim) in, " to absorb" {xararrhu), nor "a horse" (Ir-roc) in the word (fidpo-icrvoz) "a bag," so also "to love" (<pjXe?v) is not. necessarily contained in "to kiss" (>cara- (piXiTv); since me^^fcljag "»ji> Jbfe. bitter necessities of life % •*> "~* v UeneSis-x^x-iii. 5.
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offer this salutation to numbers of their enemies. But what that salutation is which consists of a kiss, but not of sincere friendship for us, I will explain without any reservation o<- concealment. It is, forsooth, that life which exists in union with the external senses, which is called Meshech, being com- pletely secured and defended, which there is no one who does not love, which men in general look upon as their mistress, but which virtuous men consider their handmaid, not a foreign slave or one bought with a price, but born in the house, and in some sense, a fellow citizen with themselves. Well, one class of these men have learnt to kiss this, not to love it; but the other class have learnt to love it to excess, and to think it an object of desire above all things.
But Laban, the hater of virtue, will neither be able to kiss the virtues which are assigned to the man who is inclined to the practice of virtue, but, making his own life to depend on hypocrisy and false pretences, he, as if indignant, for he is not in reality affected, says, " I was not accounted worthy to kiss my children and my daughters;"* speaking very naturally and decorously, for we have all been taught to hate irony irreconcileably. Do thou, therefore, love the virtues, and embrace them with thy soul, and then you will be not at all desirous to kiss, which is but the false money of friendship; — " For have they not yet any part or inheritance in thy house? have they not been reckoned as aliens before thee? and hast not thou sold them and devoured the money?t" so that you could neither at any subsequent time recover it, after having devoured the price of their safety and their ransom. Do you pretend, therefore, to wish to kiss, or else to wage endless war against all the judges? But Aaron will not kiss Moses, though he will love him with the genuine affection of his heart. " For," says the scripture, " he loved him, and they embraced one another." J IX. But there are three kinds of life. The first life, to God; the second, with respect to the creature; the third, is on the borders of both, being compounded of the two others. Now, the life to God has not descended to us, and has not come to the necessities of the body. Again, life with respect to the creature has not wholly ascended up to heaven, nor has it sought to ascend, but it lurks in unapproachable recesses, and * Genesis xxxi. 28. + Genesis xxxi. 14. i Exodus xviii. 7.
ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 103 rejoices in a life which is no life. And the mingled kind is that one which often ascends upwards, being conducted up- wards by the better part, and it gazes on divine things, and contemplates them; but still it often turns back, being dragged in the contrary direction by the worse part: and when the portion of the better life, as if placed in the balance of a scale, outweighs the whole, then the weight of the opposite kinds of life is dragged in the contrary direction, so that the lightest weight appears to be in the opposite scale.
But Moses having, without any contest or doubt, given the crown of victory to that kind of life which is life to God, brings that forward as the best, likening the other two kinds to two women, one of whom he calls beloved, and the other hated, giving them both most appropriate names. For who is there who is not at times influenced by the pleasures and delights which he receives by means of his eyes, or by those which reach him through the medium of his ears, or of his sense of taste, or of his sense of smell and touch? And who is there who does not hate the contrary things, want and self-denial, and a life of austerity, and seeking after knowledge, which has never any share in amusement or laughter, but is full of gravity, and cares and labours, loving contemplation, an enemy to ignorance, superior to money, and glory, and pleasure, but under the do- minion of temperance and true glory, and of that wealth which sees and is not blind? These, then, are at all times the eldest offspring of wisdom.
X. But Moses thinks those things which, though younger in point of time are nevertheless honourable by nature, worthy of the first honours of the birth-right, giving them a double share, and taking from the others half of their share; for, says he, " If a man have two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and if they both bear children, then when he is about to distribute his property, he shall not be able to give the portion belonging to the first-born to the son of her who is beloved,"* namely, to the son of pleasure; for he is but young, even though in point of time he maybe old; but he looks upon the son of her who is hated, namely, of wisdom, as the elder, ever since he was a child; and, accordingly, to him he has assigned a double share.
But because we have, on a previous occasion, explained the * Deuteronomy xxi. 15.
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figurative sense of this passage, we will now pass on to what comes next, to the passage before us; after we have first ex- plained this point, that " God is said to have opened the womb of her who was hated," and thus to have caused to arise an offspring of virtuous practices and good actions, while the wife, who was reputed to be beloved, was from that time forth barren: " For the Lord," says the scripture, " seeing that Leah was hated, opened her womb, but Kachel was barren."* Is it not then the case, that when the soul is pregnant, and begins to bring forth such things as are becoming to the soul, then all those objects of the outward senses are barren and unproductive, objects to which the salutation belongs, which is given by a kiss and not by genuine affection?
XI. Each individual then among us is the son of life ac- cording to the outward sense, which he calls Meshech, honour- ing and admiring the foster-mother and nurse of the mortal race, namely, the outward sense, whom also, when the earthly mind, by name Adam, saw after it had been created, he named her life his own death; for, says the scripture, " Adam called his wife's name Eve (^w^), because she was the mother of all living/'f thatus to say, of those who are in real truth dead as to the life of the soul; but they who really live have wisdom for their mother and the outward sense for their slave, which has been created by nature for the purpose of minister- ing to knowledge; and the name of that man who was born of life {Z,m)y whom we have recognized by a kiss, he calls Damascus, which name, being interpreted, means " the blood of a sack;" by this figurative language, calling the body a sack, with great power and felicity; and by blood, he means the life which depends on the blood.
For since the soul is spoken of in two ways, first of all as a whole, secondly, as to the dominant part of it, which, to speak properly, is the soul of the soul, just as the eye is both the whole orb, and also the most important part of that orb, that namely by which we see; it seemed good to the law-giver that the essence of the soul should likewise be two-fold; blood being the essence of the entire soul, and the divine Spirit being the essence of the dominant part of it: accordingly he says, in express words, " The soul of all flesh is the blood thereof/'t He does wrell here to attribute the flow of blood to ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 105 the mass of flesh, combining two things appropriate to one another; but the essence of the mind he has not made to de- pend on any created thing, but has represented it as breathed into man by God from above. For, says Moses, " The Crea- tor of the universe breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul,"* who also, it is recorded, was fashioned after the image of the Creator.
XII. So that the race of mankind also is twofold, the one being the race of those who live by the divine Spirit and reason; the other of those who exist according to blood and the pleasure of the flesh. This species is formed of the earth, but that other is an accurate copy of the divine image; and that description of us which is but fashioned clay, and which is kneaded up with blood, has need, in no slight degree, of as- sistance from God; on which account it is said, this Damas- cus of Eleazar.f But the name Eleazar, being interpreted, means, " God is my helper." Since the mass of the body, which is filled with blood, being of itself easily dissolved and dead, has its existence through, and is kept alive by, the pro- vidence of God, who holds his arm and shield of defence over it, while our race cannot, by any resources of its own, exist in a state of firmness and safety for a single day.
Do you not see that the second of the sons of Moses has also the same name as this man? For " the name of the second," says the scripture, " was Eleazar.";}; And he adds the reason: " for the Lord has been my helper, and has delivered me out of the hand of Pharaoh." But those who are still companions of that life which owes its existence to blood, and which is appreciable by the outward senses, are attacked by that disposition which is such a formidable disperser of piety, by name Pharaoh; from whose sovereignty, full as it is of law- lessness and cruelty, it is impossible to escape, unless Eleazar be born in the soul, and unless one puts one's hope of succour in the only Saviour.
And it is with particular beauty that he speaks of Damascus with reference, not to his father, but to his mother; in order to show that the soul depending on blood, by means of which the brute animals live, is akin properly to the female race; the race of his mother, and has no share in the male race. But this is not the case with virtue, that is with Sarah; for she * Genesis ii. 7. T Genesis xv. 2. J Exodus xviii. 4.
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100 PHILO JUD/EUS.
lias none but a male offspring, being borne only of God who [$ the father of all things, being that authority which lias no mother. " For truly," says the scripture, " she is my sister by my father's side, but not by my mothers."* XIII. We have now explained what it was necessary for you to be apprised of as a preliminary. For the first part of the argument had a sort of enigmatical obscurity. But we must examine with more accurate particularity what the man who is fond of learning seeks. Perhaps then it is something of this sort: to know whether any one who is desirous of that life which is dependent on blood and who claims an interest in the objects of the outward sense, can become an inheritor of incorporeal and divine things? for of such only he who is inspired from above is thought worthy, having received a portion of heavenlv and divine inheritance, being in fact the most pure mind, disregarding not merely the body but also the other fragment of the soul, which being devoid of reason is mixed up with blood, kindling the fervid passions and excited appetites. Accordingly it pushes its inquiries in this manner: since you have not given to me a seed which is capable of becoming its own instructor, namely, that seed which is able to be com prehended by the intellect, " Shall the slave born in my house be my heir?" the offspring of that life which is dependenl upon blood. Then God, making haste, anticipated the speaker sending, as one may say, instruction on in advance of speech, " For immediately," says the scripture, " the voice of God came to him, saying, He shall not be thy heir;"J nor any one else of those who come to an exhibition of the outward senses, For the incorporeal natures are the inheritors of those things which can only be appreciated by the intellect.
And it has been especially observed here, that the scripture does not say he spoke to him or conversed with him, but the expression is, " The voice of God came to him;" as if God uttering a loud and unceasing sound,. in order that the voice being thus distributed into every soul, might leave no part destitute of proper instruction, but that all parts might everj where be filled with healthy learning.
XIV. Who, then, shall be the heir? Not that reasoning which remains in the prison of the body according to its own voluntary intention, but that which is loosened from those * Genesis xx. 12. t Genesis xv. 3.
ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 107 ►onds and emancipated, and which has advanced beyond the vails, and if it be possible to say so, has itself forsaken itself. \* For he," says the scripture, " who shall come out from thee, ie shall be thy heir." Therefore if any desire comes upon knee, 0 soul, to be the inheritor of the good things of God, < ive not only thy country,* the body, and thy kindred, the putward senses, and thy father's house, that is speech; but ilso flee from thyself, and depart out of thyself, like the Cerybantes, or those possessed with demons, being driven to frenzy, and inspired by some prophetic inspiration. For while the mind is in a state of enthusiastic inspiration, and while it is no longer mistress of itself, but is agitated and drawn into frenzy by heavenly love, and drawn upwards to that object, truth removing all impediments out of its way, and making every thing before it plain, that so it may advance by a level and easy road, its destiny is to become an inheritor of the things of God.
But, 0 mind! take confidence, and explain to us how you de- part and emigrate from those former things, you who utter things perceptible only by the intellect to those who have been taught to hear rightly, always saying, I emigrated from my sojourn in the body when I learnt to despise the flesh, and I emigrated from the outward sense when I learnt to look upon the objects of outward sense as things which had no existence in reality — condemning its judicial faculties as spurious and corrupted, and full of false opinion, and also condemning the objects submit- ted to that judgment as speciously devised to allure and to de- ceive, and to snatch the truth from out of the middle of nature. Again, I departed from speech when I convicted it of great unreasonableness, although it talked of sublime subjects and puffed itself up; for it dared a not inconsiderable deed of daring, namely, to show me bodies through the medium of shadows, and things by means of words, which was impossible; therefore it kept stumbling about over repeated obstacles, and kept on talking vainly, being unable by common expressions to give a clear representation and understanding of the peculiar proper- ties of the subjects with which it was dealing. But I, learning liv experience, like an infant and untaught child, decided that it was better to depart from all these things, and to attri- bute the powers of each to God, who makes and consolidates * Genesis xiL!• 108 PHILO JUD.EUS.
the body, and who prepares the outward senses so as to feei appropriately, and who gives to speech the power of speakine at its desire; and in the same manner in which you have de parted from the other things, now rise up and emigrate from thyself. But what is the meaning of this expression? Dc not treasure up in thyself the faculties of perceiving, and think- ing, and comprehending, hut offer and dedicate these things to him who is the cause of thinking accurately, and of compre- hending without being deceived.
XV. But it is the holier of the all-sacred places in the temple which receives this offering; for it appears that there are two; the one discernible only by the intellect, and the other perceptible by the outward senses. Now, of these creatures which are perceptible by the outward senses, this world is the receptacle; but of those things which are truly invisible, the world, which is discernible only by the intellect, is the maga. zine: but he that goes out from us and desires to become an attendant of God, is the inheritor of the much celebrated wealth of nature; he bears witness, who says, " He brought him out, and said unto him, Look up to heaven;" * since that is the treasury of the good things of God. " May the Lord," says he, " open to thee the treasury of his good things,f" — that is, the heaven; out of which he who furnishes the supply does incessantly rain the most perfect joys.
Look up, then, so as to convict the blind race of common men, which, though it appears to see, is blind. For how can it be otherwise than blind, when it sees evil instead of good, and what is unjust instead of what is just, and the indulgence of the passions, instead of a mastery over them, and things mortal, instead of things immortal, and when it runs away from its monitors and correctors, and from conviction and in- struction, and admits flatterers, and the reasonings of idleness, and ignorance, and luxury, all exerted in the cause of pleasure? The good man, then, alone sees; in reference to whom the ancients also called the prophets, seers.} But he who advanced further outwards, not only seeing, but seeing God, was called Israel; the meaning of which name is, "seeing God." But others, even if they ever do open their eyes, still bend them down towards the earth, pursuing only earthly things, and being bred up among material objects; for the one raises his eyes to the sky, beholding the manna, the divine ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 109 Hid, the heavenly, incorruptible food of the soul, which is food : contemplation: but the others fix their eyes on garlic and lions, food which causes pain to the eyes, and troubles the jght, and makes men wink, and on other unsavoury food, of eks, and dead fish, the appropriate provender of Egypt. . For," says the scripture, " we remembered the fish which we 1,6 in Egypt without payment, and the gourds, and the cucum- •is. the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our soul is v, and our eyes behold nothing but manna."* j XVI. And the statement, "He led him out"t (t%qyovytv uvtov ;w), has a bearing also on moral considerations, though some arsons, through their want of instruction in moral philosophy, *e accustomed to ridicule it, saying, " For is any one ever led it in (g^w sJcdysrai), or led in out (iitripyjrcu '£%&)? " " Certainly," would reply, " you ridiculous and very foolish man; for you ive never learnt how to trace the dispositions of the soul; it by this language of yours you only seek to understand those otions of bodies which are exerted in change of place. On hich account it seems paradoxical to you to speak of any one >ming out into (s%eg%erai g'/<rw)> or gomg *n out (^siXirai ;«); but to those acquainted with Moses none of these things ;era inconsistent."
Would you not say that the perfect high priest when, being i the inmost shrine, he is performing his national sacrifices, is )th within and without at the same time? within in respect : his visible body, but without in respect of his soul, which is >aming about and wandering? And again, on the other hand, ould you not say that a man who was not of the family msecrated to the priesthood, but who was a lover of God and 'loved by God, though standing without the holy shrine, was 'vniheless in reality in its inmost parts? looking upon his hole life in the body as a sojourning in a foreign land; but hile he is able to live only in the soul, then he thinks that ' is abiding in his own country.
For every fool is cutside of friendship, even though he may )t depart for one moment from daily association with people ut every wise man is within friendship, even if he be dwelling a distance, not merely in a different country, but in another imate and region of the world. But, according to Moses, a iend is so near to one as to differ in no respect from one's * Numbers xi. 5. t Genesis xv. 5.
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