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own soul, for he says, " the friend who is like thy soul/'* Am again lie says, " The priest shall not be a man by himself, whei he goeth into the holy of holies, until he cometh out;" f speak ing not with reference to the motions of the body, but to thos< of the soul; for the mind, while it is offering holy sacri to God in all purity, is not a human but a divine mind; bu when it is serving any human object, it then descends fron heaven and becomes changed, or rather it falls to the earth an< goes out, even though the mind may still remain within.
Very correctly, therefore, it is said, he led him out (e^yayi gjw) of the prison according to the body, of the caves existing in ihe external senses, of the sophistries displayed in deceit ful speech; and beyond all this, out of himself and out of tin idea that by his own self-exerted, self-implanted, and hide pendent power he was able to conceive and comprehend.
XVII, And after he has conducted him out, he says to him " Look up to heaven, and count the stars, if thou art able t( number them; thus shall be thy seed. "$ He says very beautifully "Thus shall be thy seed," not so great shall it be, equal in numbe to the stars; for he does not intend here to allude to their mul titude only, but also to an infinite number of other circum stances which contribute to entire and perfect happiness. " Thus shall thy seed be," says God, as the ethereal firmament whicl thou beholdest, so heavenly, so full of unshadowed and pun brilliancy (for night is driven away from heaven, and darknesi from virtue,) most thoroughly like the stars, beautifully adorned having an arrangement which knows no deviation, but which i: always the same and proceeding in the same way. For he mean: him to speak of the soul of the wise man as a copy of heaven, or if one may use such a hyperbolical expression, as an actual heavei upon earth, having pure appearances in the air, and wel arranged motions, and harmonious progress, and periodica revolutions of divine character, star-like and brilliant rays o virtue.
But if it is impossible to find out the number of the star which are perceptible by the outward senses, how much mor so must it be to count those which are discernible only by th intellect? for in proportion, I suppose, as that which judges i better or worse than that which is judged of (for the mind i * Deut. sriii. 6. f Leviticus xvi. 17. J Genesis xv. 5.
)0\ ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS 1 1 1 tter than the outward sense, and the outward sense is duller ban the intellect; in the same ratio do the suhjects of the ment differ: so that the objects of the intellect are ininito 1\ superior to those of the outward senses; for the eyes ii the body are the smallest imaginable portion of the eye of >oul; for the one is like the sun, but the others only reble lamps, which are at one time lighted and at another sxtinguished.
XVIII. Therefore that is a necessary addition which is sub- lined, " Abraham believed in God,"* to the praise of him ,\ lio did thus believe. And yet, perhaps, some one may say, ■ Do you judge this worthy of praise? who would not give his ittention to God when saying or promising anything, even if be were the most wicked and impious of all men?" To whom >\r will reply, " Do not, do not, my good man, without further inquiry, either rob the wise man of his due praise, or attribute to unworthy persons that most perfect of the virtues, faith; and do not blame our opinion on this point; for if you are willing to enter upon a deeper investigation into this subject, and are not content with examining it superficially, you will then see clearly, that without the assistance or addition of something else, it is not easy to believe in God on account of that connection with mortality in which we are involved, which compels us to put some trust in money, and glory, and authority, and friends, and health, and vigour of body, and in numerous other things; but to wash off all these extraneous things, to disbelieve in creation, which is, in all respects, un- trustworthy as far as regards itself, and to believe in the only true and iaithful God, is the work of a great and heavenly mind, which is no longer allured or influenced by any of the circumstances usually affecting human life.
XIX. And it is well added in the scripture, " And it was rouni, d to him for righteousness:" for nothing is so righteous D DO as to have an unalloyed and entire belief in the only God.
But this, although both just and consistent with reason, was considered an incredible thing on account of the incredu- lity of the generality of men, whom the holy scripture con demns, saying, that " to anchor firmly and unchangeably on the only living God, is a thing to be admired among men, who have no possession of true unmingled good, but is not t» * Genesis xv. G.
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be wondered at if truth guide the judgment; but it is the especial attribute of justice.
XX. The scripture proceeds: " And he said unto him I am God, who brought thee out of the land of the Chaldaeans, so as to give thee this land to inherit it." These words exhibit not only a promise, but a confirmation of an ancient promise; for the good which was previously bestowed upon him was the departure from the Chaldaean philosophy, which was occupied about the things of the air, which taught men to suppose that the world was not the work of God, but was God himself; and that good and evil is caused in the case of all existing things, by the motions and fixed periodical revolutions of the stars, and that on these motions the origin of all good and evil depends; and the equable (6/z.aX^) and regular motion of these bodies in heaven, persuaded those simple men to look upon these things as omens, for the name of the Chalda3ans being interpreted is synonymous with equability (o/xaXdr?^). But the new blessing which is promised is the acquisition of that wisdom which is not taught by the outward senses, but is comprehended by the pure mind, and by which the best of all emigrations is confirmed; when the soul departs from astro- nomy and learns to apply itself to natural philosophy, and to exchange unsure conjecture for certain apprehension, and, to speak with real truth, to quit the creature for the Creator, and the world for its father and maker; for the scriptures tell us, that the votaries of the Chaldgean philosophy believed in the heaven, but that he who abandoned that sect believed in the ruler of the heaven and the manager of the whole world, namely, in God. A very beautiful inheritance, greater per- haps than the power of him who receives it, but worthy of the greatness of the giver.
XXI. But it is not sufficient for the lover of wisdom to have a hope of good things, and to expect all kinds of ad- mirable things, because of the predictions given to him, but unless he also knows the manner in which he is to arrive at the succession of his inheritance, he thinks it very grievous, inasmuch as he thirsts after knowledge, and has an insatiable desire of attaining to it; on which account he puts a question,, saying, " 0 Lord God, how shall I know that I shall inherit it?" Perhaps some one may say that this question is at variance with perfect faith, for that to feel such a difficulty is ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 113 the part of one who doubts, but that it is the part of one who believes to seek for nothing further. We must say, therefore, that he both doubts and has believed, but not about the same matter, far from it, for he has believed that he is to be an in- heritor of wisdom, but he only seeks to know the manner in which this event will take place; that it really will take place he does by all means confidently comprehend, in accordance with the divine promises.
Therefore the teacher having praised the desire for learn- ing which he feels, begins his explanation with the first elementary instruction, in which this is set down as the first and most necessary thing, " Take for me."* The sentence is brief, but the meaning is great; for there are not a few things implied in these words. In the first place you have, says God, no good thing of your own, but whatever you fancy that you have, another has bestowed it upon you. From which it is inferred that all things are the property of God who gives them, but that they do not belong to the creature which only existed after him, and which stretches forth its hands to take them. In the second place, he says, even if you take them, take them not for yourself, but think what is thus given you a loan or deposit, and be ready to restore it to him who has de- posited it with, or contributed it to you, requiting an older favour with a newer one, and an original kindness with one proffered instead of it, as justice and propriety require.
XXII. For many men have become wicked in respect of such sacred deposits, having, through their immoderate covet- ousness improperly used the property of others as their own. Hut do thou, 0 good man! endeavour with all thy strength, not only to present what you have received without injury and without adulteration, but also to take even more care than that of such things, that he who has deposited them with you may hare no grounds to blame the care which has been exercised by you. And what the Creator of man has deposited in your custody are soul, speech, and external sense; which are sym- bolically named a heifer, a ram, and a goat, in the sacred scrip- tures. But these things some persons have at once appropriated through self-love, but others have stored them up so as to be able to return them in due season. Now, of those who have appropriated them, it is impossible to tell the number; for * Genesis xv. 9. VOL. IL I 11 -I PHILO JVDJEUS.
who of us is there who does not think his soul, and his speech, and his external senses, all taken together, to be his own pro- perty, thinking that to feel, and to speak, and to comprehend, depend upon himself alone? But of those who really preserve their faith holy and inviolate, the number is very small.
Such men attribute to God these three things: the soul, the external sense, and speech. For they have received all these things, not for themselves, but for him, in whose favour they naturally and appropriately confess that the energies ac- cording to each of these three things depend upon him, namely, the imaginations and apprehensions of the mind, the explana- tions of speech, and the perceptions of the outward senses. Those, now, who attribute these things to themselves, have received an allotment worthy of their own perverseness, namely, a soul fond of plotting against others, polluted with irrational passions, and enveloped in a multitude of vices; at one time eager to indulge in violent insolence through its gluttony and lasciviousness, as though it were in a brothel; at another time held fast by the multitude of its iniquities as in a prison, with wicked (not men but) actions which deserve to be led before all the judges. Secondly, speech insolent, loquacious, sharp- ened against the truth injurious to ail who come in its way, and bringing disgrace upon those who possess it. Thirdly, the external sense, insatiable, always filling itself with the objects of the outward senses, but through its immoderate appetites never able to be satisfied, disregarding all its monitors and cor- rectors, so as to refuse to look upon or to listen to them, and to reject with disdain all that they say to it for its good. But those who take these things not for themselves but for God, attribute each one of them to him, guarding that which they have acquired in a truly holy and religious manner, keeping their mind, so that it shall think of nothing else but the things relating to God and to his excellencies, and their speech so as to make it, with unrestrained mouth, and with encomiums, and hymns, and announcements of happiness, honour the father of the universe, collecting together and exhibiting all its powers of interpretation and utterance in this one office; and regulating the external senses, so that forming a conception of the whole of that world which is perceptible by them, they may, in a guileless, honest, and pure manner, relate to the soul all the heaven and earth, and the natures whose home is between the ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 1 15 two, an J all animals and plants, and their respective energies and faculties, and all their motions and their stationary existence.
For God has implanted in the mind a power of comprehend- ing that world, which is appreciable only by the intellect, by its own power, but the invisible world by means of the external senses. And if any one were able in all his parts to live to God rather than to himself, looking by means of the external senses into those things which are their proper objects, for the sake of finding out the truth; and through the medium of the soul, investigating in a philosophical spirit the proper objects of intelligence, and those things which have a real existence, and by means of his organs of voice, singing hymns in praise of the world and of its Creator, he will have a happy and a blessed life.
XXII I. I think then that this is what intimated in the words, " Take for me; " God, intending to send down the per- fection of his divine virtue from heaven to earth, out of pity for our race, in order that it might not be left destitute of a better portion, prepared in a symbolical manner the sacred tabernacle and the things in it, a thing made after the model and in imitation of wisdom. For he says that he has erected his oracle as a tabernacle in the midst of our impurity, in order that we may have something whereby we may be purified, washing off and cleansing all those things which dirt and defile our miserable life, full of all evil reputation as it is.
Let us now then see in what manner he has commanded us to bring in the different things which are to contribute to the furnishing of the tabernacle. " The Lord, " says the scripture, M spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take ye first-fruits for me of whatever it shall seem good to your heart to take my first-fruits." * Therefore here also there is an injunction to take not for themselves but for God, examining who it is who gives these things, and doing no injury to what is given, but preserving it free from danger, and free from spot, perfect and entire. And the injunction, by which he orders the first fruits to be offered to himself, is full of doctrine; for in real truth the beginnings both of bodies and of things are investigated with reference to God alone; and search if you wish to understand everything, plants and animals, and arts and sciences.
Are then the first castings of the seed of plants, the actions * Exodus xxv. 1. I 2 110 PHILO JUDiEUS.
of husbandry or the invisible works of invisible nature? What more need I ask? What are the works of men and other animals? Have not they parents as co-operating causes, as it were, and also nature as the primary and more important and real cause? And is not nature the fountain, and root, and foundation of all arts and sciences, or any other name you please to give to the oldest of principles, nature, upon which all speculations are built up? And if nature be not first laid as the foundation, everything is imperfect, and on this account some one seems to me to have said with great felicity: — The first beginning is quite half the whole.
XXIV. Very appropriately therefore does the sacred scrip- ture command the first-fruits to be offered up to the all-ruling God. And in another passage we read "The Lord spake unto Moses saying, Sanctify to me all the-first born: all tha.t is first brought forth, all that openeth the womb among the children of Israel, whether of man or beast is mine,"* so that it is openly asserted in these words, that all the first things, whether in point of time or of power, are the property of God, and most especially all the first-born; since the whole of that race which is imperishable shall justly be apportioned to the immortal God; and if there is anything, in short, which openeth the womb, whether of man which here means speech and reason, or of beast which signifies the outward sense and the body; for that which openeth the womb of all these things, whether of the mind, so as to enable it to comprehend the things appreciable only by the intellect, or of the speech so as to enable it to exercise the energies of voice, or of the external senses, so as to qualify them to receive the impressions which are made upon them by their appropriate subjects, or of the body to fit it for its appropriate stationary conditions or motions, is the invisible, spermatic, technical, and divine Word, which shall most properly be dedicated to the Father.
And, indeed, as are the beginnings of God so likewise are the ends of God; and Moses is a witness to this, where he commands to " separate off the end, and to confess that it is due to God."f The things in the world do also bear witness.
* Exodus xiii. 2.
•f There ia probably some corruption here. The marginal reference ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. ] 17 How so? The beginning of a plant is the seed, and the end is the fruit, each of them being the work, not of husbandry, but of nature. Again, of knowledge the beginning is nature, as has been shown, but the end can never reach mankind, for no man is perfect in any branch of study whatever; but it is a plain truth, that all excellence and perfection belong to one Being alone; we therefore are borne on, for the future, on the confines of beginning and end, learning, teachiug, tilling the ground, working up everything else, as if we were really effect- ing something, that the creature also may seem to be doing something; therefore, with a more perfect knowledge, Moses has confessed that the first-fruits and the end belong to God, speaking of the creation of the world, where he says, "In the beginning God created..."* And again he says, " God finished the heaven and the earth." Now therefore he says, " Take for me," assigning to himself what becomes him, and admonishing his hearer not to adulterate what is given to him, but to take care of it in a manner worthy of its importance. And again, in another passage, he who has need of nothing, and who on this account takes nothing, will confess that he docs take something, for the sake of giving to his worshippers the feeling of piety, and of implanting in them an eagerness after holiness, and moreover sharpening their zeal in his ser- vice, as one who favourably receives the genuine worship and service of a willing soul, " For behold," says he, " I have taken the Levites instead of all the first-born that openeth the womb among the children of Israel; they shall be their ran- som;'^ therefore we take and give, but we are said to take with strict accuracy, but it is only by a metaphorical abuse of the term that we are said to give, for the reasons which I have already mentioned. And it is very felicitously that he has called the Levites a ransom, for nothing so completely con- ducts the mind to freedom as its fleeing for refuge to and becoming a suppliant of God; and this is what the consecrated tribe of the Levites particularly professes to be.
XXV. Having now, therefore, said as much as is proper on these subjects, let us proceed onwards to what comes next; for we have postponed the consideration of many things which ia to Numbers xxi. 41, and there are only thirty-five verses in the chapter. The same thing has occurred in one or two previous instancest * Genesis LI. | Num. iii. 12.
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ought to be examined into with exactness. " Take for me,' says (rod, " a heifer which has never been yoked and has never been ill-treated, tender and young,"* and exulting; that is to say, a soul adapted easily to receive government, and instruction, and superintendence. " Take for me also a ram," that is to say, speech contentious and perfect, capable of dis- secting and overthrowing the sophistries of those who advance contrary opinions, and capable also of ensuring safety, and good order, and regularity to him who uses it. " Take for me," also the external sense, which lives and directs all its energies to the world, which is perceptible by it, that is, "a goat," three complete years old, enjoying solid strength in a perfect number, having beginning, middle, and end. Besides all these things, " a turtle dove and a pigeon," that is to say, divine and human wisdom, both of them being winged, and being animals accustomed to soar on high, still different from one another, as much as genus differs from species or a copy from the model; for divine wisdom is fond of lonely places, loving solitude, on account of the only God, whose possession she is; and this is called a turtle-dove, symbolically; but the other is quiet and tame, and gregarious, haunting the cities of jnen, and rejoicing in its abode among mortals, and so they liken her to a pigeon.
XXVI. Moses appears to me to have intended figuratively to represent these virtues when he calls the midwives of the Egyptians, Shiphrah and Puah,t for the name Shiphrah, being interpreted, means " a little bird," and Puah means " red." Now it is the especial property of divine wisdom, like a bird, to be always soaring on high; but it is the characteristic of human wisdom to study modesty and temperance, so as to blush at all objects which are worthy to cause a blush; and as a very manifest proof of this the scripture says, " He took for himself all these things.''^ This is the praise of a virtuous man, who preserves the sacred deposit of those things which he has received, the soul, the outward sense, speech, divine wisdom, human knowledge, in a pure and guileless manner, not for himself, but only for him who has trusted him. After this the scripture proceeds to say, " And he divided them in the middle," not explaining who did so, in order that you may understand that it was the untaught God who divided them, ON WHO 13 THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 110 and that lie divided all the natures of bodies and of things one after another, which appeared to be closely fitted together and united by his word, which cuts through everything; which being sharpened to the finest possible edge, never ceases dividing all the objects of the outward senses, and when it has gone through them all, and arrived at the things which are railed atoms and indivisible, then again this divider begins from them to divide those things which may be contemplated by the speculations of reason into unspeakable and indescriba- ble portions, and to " beat the gold into thin plates,"* like hairs, as Moses says, making them into one length without breadth, like unsubstantial lines. Each therefore of the three victims he divided in the midst, dividing the soul into the ra- tional and the irrational part, speech into truth and falsehood, and the outward sense into imaginations which can be and which cannot be comprehended; and these divisions he im- mediately places exactly opposite to one another, that is, the rational part opposite to the irrational, truth to falsehood, what is- comprehensible to what is incomprehensible, leaving the birds undivided; for it was impossible to divide the incorporeal and divine sciences into contrarieties at variance with one another.
XXV IT. "But as the discussion on the subject of a division into equal portions, and on that of opposite contrarieties, is of great extent and of necessary importance, we will not wholly pass it by, nor will we dwell on it with prolixity, but, investi- gating it as it is, we will be content w7ith such things as seem suitable to the occasion.
For as the Creator divided our soul and our limbs in the middle, so also, in the same manner, did he divide the essence of the universe when he made the world; for, having taken it, he began to divide it thus: in the first instance, he made two divisions, the heavy and the light, separating that which was thick from that which was more subtle. After that, he again made a second division of each, dividing the subtle part into air and fire, and the denser portion into water and earth; and, first of all, he laid down those elements, which are perceptible by the outward senses, to be, as it were, the foundations of the world which is percep- tible by the outward senses. Again, he subdivided heavy and * Exodus xxxix. 3.
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light according to other ideas, for lie divided the light into cold and hot; and the cold he called air, and that which \va9 hot by nature he called fire. The heavy, again, he divided into wet and dry; and the dry he called land, and the wet he called water — and each of these, again, received other further subdivisions; for the land was divided into continents and islands, and the water into sea and rivers, and all drinkable springs, and the air was divided into the solstices of summer and winter; fire, also, was divided into what is useful (but fire is a most insatiable and destructive thing), and also by a dif- ferent division into what is saving; and this division was assigned for the conformation of the heaven.