LI. "And about the setting of the sun a trance fell upon Abraham, and, behold, fear with great darkness fell upon him."* Now there is one kind of trance which is a sort of frantic delirium, causing infirmity of mind, either through old age, or melancholy, or some other similar cause. There is another kind which is excessive consternation, arising usually from * Genesis xv. 12.
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things which happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Another kind is mere tranquillity of the rniud, arising when it is inclined by nature to be quiet: but that which is the best description of all is a divinely inspired and more vehement sort of enthu- siasm, which the race of prophets is subject to.
Now the first kind Moses mentions in the curses which are recorded in Deuteronomy: for he says that, " delirium and blindness, and aberration of mind shall seize on the impious,"* so that they shall differ in no respect from blind persons at mid-day, being like people feeling their way in deep darkness. The second kind he mentions in many places; for he says, "And Isaac was astonished with a great astonishment, and said, Who, then, is it who went out to hunt for game for me, and who brought it to me? And I ate of it all before you come, and I have blessed him; yea, and he shall be blessed. "t And, again, with reference to Jacob, who disbelieved those who told him that " Joseph is alive, and is ruler over the whole land of Egypt; for he," says the scripture, " was amazed in his mind, for he believed them not." X And, again, in Exodus, in the assembly of the people, we read: " For the whole of the mountain of Sinai was enveloped in smoke, because God descended upon it in fire. And the smoke went up as the vapour of a furnace, and the whole people was greatly asto- nished.'^ Also, in Leviticus, when speaking of the conse- cration of the priests on the eighth day, when fire came out from heaven and licked up what was on the altar, and the burnt-offerings and the fat, the historian proceeds immediately to tell us, " And the whole people saw it and were astonished, and fell upon their faces;"|| for such astonishment as this causes alarm and consternation.
And ought we not especially to wonder in the case of Esau, that he who was skilful in hunting was nevertheless himself continually caught and supplanted, having acquired his skill to his own injury and not to his advantage, and that he never used any great care to catch anything in his hunts? And also in the case of Jacob, that he hunts without having acquired any skill by learning, but only as he is moved by nature; and that he brings what he has caught to the examiner, who will dis- tinguish whether it deserves to be approved; on which account * Deut. xxviii. 28. + Genesis xxvii. 33. X Genesis xlv. 26. $ Exodus xix. IS. || Leviticus ix. 24.
ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 145 he " eateth of it all."* For everything that relates to medi- tation is wholesome food, whether it be investigation, or consideration, or hearing, or reading, or prayer, or self-restraint, or a contempt for things indifferent: and he ate, as I imagine, the first fruits of them all, but he did not eat the whole of all; for some appropriate food must be left for him who meditates as a reward for his pains. And the words, " before you came," are added out of regard for the nature of the thing; for if passion enters into the soul, we shall not enjoy temperance. And it convicts the worthless man as slow, and hesitating, and procrastinating, as to the works of instruction, but not as to those of intemperance. Therefore Egypt contains inspectors of works, who devote themselves with energy to securing the enjoyment of the passions. But Moses, on the other hand, commands the Israelites to eat the passover in haste, and to celebrate the migration from these passions in this way. And Judah says: " For if we had not delayed, we should by this time have returned, and have arrived again in Egypt; aye, and a second time should we have returned safe from thence."| And very naturally did Jacob wonder whether the mind was still in the body; that is to say, whether Joseph was alive to virtue and ruling over the body, and not being ruled over by it. And any one who chooses to go through all the other instances, would be able to trace out the truth. But our present subject 3 not require any accurate discussion of these matters; on which account we had better return to the point from which we set out.
With respect to the third kind of trance, he philosophises in this manner when speaking of the creation of the woman; 11 For the Lord God," sa.ys Moses, "cast a trance upon Adam, and he slept."J Here calling the quietness and tranquillity of mind a trance; for the slumber of the mind is the awaking of the outward sense: and, again, the awaking of the intellect is the reducing of the outward senses to a state of inactivity.
LII. An instance of the fourth kind of trance is the one which we are now considering: " And about the setting of the sun a trance fell upon Abraham," he being thrown into a state of enthusiasm and inspired by the Deity. But this is not the only thing which shows him to have been a prophet, but also the express words which are engraven in the sacred scriptures * Genesis xxvii. 33. + Genesis xliii. 9. J Genesis ii. 21.
VOL. II. L as on a pillar. When some one endeavoured to separate Sarah, that is, the virtue which is derived from nature, from him, as if she had not been the peculiar property of the wise man alone, but had also belonged to every one who made any pretence to wisdom, God said, " Give the man back his wife, because he is a prophet, and he will pray for thee, and thou slialt live;''* and the sacred scriptures testify in the case of every good man, that he is a prophet; for a prophet says nothing of his own, but everything which he says is strange and prompted by some one else; and it is not lawful for a wicked man to be an interpreter of God, as also no wicked man can be properly said to be inspired; but this statement is only appropriate to the wise man alone, since he alone is a sounding instrument of God's voice, being struck and moved to sound in an invisible manner by him.
Accordingly, all those whom Moses describes as just persons he has also represented as inspired and prophesying. Noah was a just man; was he not also by that fact a prophet? or did he, without being possessed by any divine inspiration, utter those prayers and curses which he applied to the gene- rations which should come hereafter, and all of which were eventually confirmed by the reality of the facts? Why should I speak of Isaac? Why of Jacob? For these also are mani- festly found to have been prophets by many other circum- stances, and especially by their addresses to their children. For the annunciation, " Assemble yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in the last days,"| was the expression of a man possessed by inspiration; for the know- ledge of the future is not appropriate to, or natural to, man. What shall we say of Moses? is he not celebrated everywhere as a prophet? For the scripture says, "If there shall be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will make myself known unto him in a vision,"! out t0 Moses God appeared in his ac- tual appearance and not by a riddle. And again we read, " There arose not any more any prophet like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.'§ Very admirably, therer fore, does the historian here point out, that Abraham was under the influence of inspiration when he says that, " About the setting of the sun a trance fell upon him."
* Genesis xx. 7. + Genesis xlix. 2.
+ Numbers xii. 6. § Deuteronomy xxxiv. 10.
ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 147 LIII. And under the symbol of the sun he intimates our mind: for what reasoning is in us, that the sun is in the world. Since each of them gives light, the one casting a light which is perceptible by the outward senses, to shine upon the uni- verse; and the other shedding their beams, discernible only by the intellect by means of our apprehensions, upon ourselves. As long therefore as our mind still shines around and hovers around, pouring as it were a noontide light into the whole soul, we, being masters of ourselves, are not possessed by any extraneous influence; but when it approaches its setting, then, as is natural, a trance, which proceeds from inspiration, takes violent hold of us, and madness seizes upon us, for when the divine light shines the human light sets, and when the divine light sets this other rises and shines, and this very frequently happens to the race of prophets; for the mind that is in us is removed from its place at the arrival of the divine Spirit, but is again restored to its previous habitation when that Spirit departs, for it is contrary to holy law for what is mortal to dwell with what is immortal.
On this account the setting of our reason, and the darkness which surrounds it, causes a trance and a heaven-inflicted madness. After that the historian connects with his preced- ing account what follows in consistency with it, saying, " Aud it was said to Abraham — for in real truth the prophet, even when he appears to be speaking, is silent, and another being is employing his vocal organs, his mouth and tongue, for the explanation of what things he chooses; and operating on these organs by some invisible and very skilful act, he makes them utter a sweet and harmonious sound, full of every kind of melody.
LIV. And it is well to hear what the things are which are thus said to have been predicted to Abraham. In the first place, that God does not grant to the man who loves virtue to dwell in the body as in his own native land, but only to sojourn in it as in a foreign country. "For knowing," says the scripture, "thou shalt know that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land which is not theirs."* But the district of the body is akin to every bad man. and in it he is desirous to abide as a dweller, not as a sojourner. Accordingly, these words contain this as one lesson; another is, that the things which bring 148 PHILO JUD.EUS.
slavery and disaster and bitter humiliation, as the prophet himself tells us, upon the soul are the dwellings upon earth. For the affections of the body are truly spurious and foreign, being produced by the flesh, in which they are rooted. And this slavery lasts four hundred years in accordance with the powers of the four passions.
For when pleasure rules, the mind is elated and puffed up, being carried away by empty vanity. Again, when appetite gets the upper hand, a desire for absent things is engendered, which suspends the mind upon unaccomplished hopes, as if in a halter; for then the mind is always thirsting and yet is unable to drink, enduring the punishment of Tantalus. Again, when under the influence of grief, the mind is tortured and contracted, like trees the leaves of which are falling off and withering; for all its flourishing and nutritious particles are dried up. Also, when fire obtains the supremacy, no one any longer chooses to remain, but betakes to flight and running away, thinking that that is the only way in which he can be saved. For appetite, having an attractive power even if the object which is desired retreats, compels one to pursue it; and fear, on the other hand, causing alienation, separates one from it, and makes one remove to a distance from what is presented to one's view.
LV. But the supremacy of these different passions before mentioned inflicts terrible slavery on those who are ruled over by them, until God, the umpire and judge of all things, sepa- rates that which is ill treated from that which is inflicting ill treatment, and delivers the former and blesses it with perfect freedom, and inflicts upon the other a retribution for the wickedness which it has committed. For we read in the next verse, "And the nation to which they shall be slaves I will judge, and after that they shall go forth with great substance."* For it is inevitable that a mortal man must obey the nature of the passions, and that a man who has been born must endure the fate which is allotted to him as appro- priate; but it is the will of God to lighten the evils which are planted contemporaneously with our birth. So that even if we at the beginning suffer such evils as are properly assigned to us, become slaves of cruel masters, and if God also performs what is his peculiar work, proclaiming emancipation and freedom to Genesis xv. 14.
ON WHO IS THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 149 the souls which address their supplications to him, then he not only gives men a release from their bondage and a means of departure from their prison all guarded round as it is, but he also gives them the means of travelling, which he here calls substance.
And what is this? When the mind having come down from above from heaven becomes entangled in the necessities of the body, then, although it is not allured by any of these, still, like a eunuch or impotent person, it embraces pleasant evils. But if it remains in its own nature, then, being truly a man, it resists and discards them instead of being overthrown by them, being initiated in all the parts of complete encyclical learning; from which it derives a desire for contemplation, and acquires temperance and patience, very vigorous virtues, leaving its former abode, and finding a means of return back to its own country, and bringing with it all the lessons of instruction, which are here called supplies for the journey.
LYI. Having said thus much on these subjects, the histo- rian proceeds: " And thou shalt depart to thy fathers, having lived in peace, in a good old age."* Therefore we, who are imperfect, are made war upon, and we become slaves, and only with difficulty do we find any relief from the dangers which impend over us. But the perfect race, exempt from slavery and free from the perils of war, is bred up in peace and the firmest freedom. And there is a particular lesson to be learnt from his representing the good man not as dying but depart- ing, in order to show that the race of the soul, which is completely purified, cannot be extinguished and cannot die, but only departs in the way of migration from this earth to heaven, not undergoing that dissolution and destruction which death appears to bring with it And after the words, " Thou shalt depart," he adds, " to thy fathers. It is here worth while to consider what kind of fathers is meant; for God can never mean those who had passed their lives in the country of the Chaldeans, among whom alone he had lived as being his relations, because he had been commanded by a sacred oracle to depart from those who were his kinsmen by blood.
For, says the historian, " The Lord said unto Abraham, Depart from out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, to a land which I will show thee; and I will * Genesis xv. 15.
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make thee into a great nation."* For how can it be reason- able for him who was once been removed from his abode by the interference of Divine Providence, to return and dwell again in the same place? And how could it be reasonable for one who was about to be the leader of a new nation and 01 another race to be again assigned to his ancient one? For God would never have given to him a new character, and a new nation and family, if he had not wholly and entirely sepa- rated him from his ancient one. For that man is truly a chief of a nation and ruler of a family, from whom, as from a root, sprang that branch so fond of investigating and contemplating the affairs of our nature, by name Israel, since an express com- mand has been given " to remove the old things from before the face of those which are new."| For where is any longer the use of investigations into antiquity, and ancient, and long- established customs, to those in whom on a sudden, when they have no such expectation, God rains all kinds of new blessings in a mass?
LVII. Therefore, when he says " fathers," he means not those whose souls have departed from them, and who are buried in the tombs of the land of Chaldea; but, as some say, the sun, and the moon, and the other stars: for some affirm that it is owing to these bodies that the nature of all the things in the world has its existence. But as some other persons think he means the archetypal ideas, those models of these things which are perceptible by the outward senses and visible; which models, however, are only perceptible by the intellect and invisible; and that it is to these that the mind of the wise man emigrates. Some, again, have fancied that by " fathers," are here meant the four principles and powers of which the world is composed — the earth, the water, the air, and the fire; for they say, that all created things are very properly dissolved into these elements. For as nouns, and verbs, and all the other parts of speech, consist of the elements of grammar, and again are resolvable into these ultimate prin- ciples, so, in the same manner, each individual among us, being compounded of the four elements, and borrowing small portions from each essence, does, at certain fixed periods, repay what he has borrowed, giving what he has dry to the earth, * Genesis xii. 1. + Lsviticus xxvi. 10 ON WHO IS THE nEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. ] 5 1 what moisture he has to the water, what heat he has to the fire, and what cold he has to the air.
These then are the things of the body; but the intellectual and heavenly race of the soul will ascend to the purest aether as to its father. For the fifth essence, as the account of the ancients tells us, may he a certain one, which brings things round in a cycle, differing from the other four as being superior to them, from which the stars and the whole heavens appear to be generated, and of which, as a natural consequence, one must lay it down that the human soul is a fragment.
LVIII. And the expression, "After having lived in peace," is used with much propriety; because nearly all or the greater portion of the human race lives rather in war and among all the evils of war. And of wars, one kind proceeds from external enemies, and is brought on by want of reputation, and by low- ness of origin, and by other things of that kind. But another kind arises from one's domestic enemies: some about the body, such as weaknesses, stains, all kinds of mutilations, and a whole body of other unspeakable evils; and others affecting the soul, such as passions, diseases, infirmities, terrible and most grievous inflictions, and incurable calamities arising from folly and injustice, and other similar evils.
Therefore he speaks of him who has lived in peace, who has enjoyed a serene and tranquil life, as a man truly happy and blessed. When then shall this happen? When all external things prosper with me, in such a way as to tend to my abundance and to my glory. When the things relating to the body are in a favourable state, so as to give me good health and strength; and when the things relating to my soul are in a sinnlar state, so as to enable it to enjoy the virtues. For each of these requires its own appropriate body-guards. Now the body is attended in that capacity by glory, and abundance, and a sufficient provision of wealth; and the soul by the wholeness, and soundness, and thoroughly healthy state of the body; and the mind by those speculations which are concerned about the sciences.
Since it is plain to all those who are versed in the holy scriptures, that when peace is here mentioned, it is not that peace which cities enjoy. For Abraham bore a part in many terrible wars, out of which he appears to have come tri- umphantly. And indeed the being forced to depart from his 152 PHILO JUD^EUS 152 PHILO JUD^EUS native country, and to leave his home, and his inability to dwell in his native city, and his being driven hither and thither, and wandering about by desolate and unfrequented roads, would have been a terrible war for one who had not put his trust in certain divine oracles and promises.
There was also a third calamity, of a formidable nature, also to be borne by him, a famine, worse than the departure from his home, or than all the evils of war. What peace then did he enjoy? For I imagine to be driven from his former home, and to have no settled abode, and to be unable to make any effectual resistance to very powerful monarchs, and to be oppressed with hunger, seem like indications, not of one war, but of many wars of various kinds. But, according to those interpretations which are figurative, every one of these events is an instance and proof of unalloyed peace. For an absence of the passions, and a complete scarcity of them, and the destruction of inimical acts of iniquity, and a departure from the opinions of the Chaldaeans to the doctrine which loves God, that is to say, from the created being, perceptible by the- outward senses, to the great Cause and Creator of all things, who is appreciable only by the intellect, are things which supply a good system of laws and stability.
And God promises the man who enjoys such a peace as this a glorious old age, not indeed one which shall last an exceeding time, but he promises him a life with wisdom. For tranquillity and happiness are better than length of years, in proportion as a short period of light is better than everlasting darkness. For well did one of the prophets say: " He had rather live one day in company with virtue, than ten thousand years in the shadow of death;"* under this figurative expression of shadow, intimating the life of the wicked. And Moses says the very same thing, intimating it by his actions rather than by his words. For the man who he says shall enjoy a glorious old age, he has at the same time represented as more short-lived than almost any one of those who preceded him. Speaking in a philosophical manner, and teaching us who it is who does truly enjoy a happy old age, that we may not conceive pride respecting old age from anything that affects the visible body, as such pride is full of shame and many disgraceful circum- stances. But, that keeping our eyes fixed on wisdom of * Psalm Ixxxiv. 11.
ON WHO 13 THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS. 153 counsel, and steadiness of soul, we may ascribe to such men and testify in their favour that they have a glorious old age, (yrigag) akin to, and bearing nearly the same name as honour (yepag). Listen, therefore, in such a spirit as to think his words a good lesson, to this statement of the lawgiver, that the good man alone has a happy old age, and that he is the most long-lived of men; but that the wicked man is the most Bhort-lived of men, living only to die. or rather having already died as to the life of virtue.
LIX. In the next verses it is said, " And in the fourth ge- neration they shall return hither," not merely in order that the time may be exactly marked out to him, in which his descendants shall become inhabitants of the holy land, but also in order to represent to him the perfect and complete re-establishment of virtue; and this takes place as it were in the fourth generation, but how it does so it is worth while to consider.
The child, after it is brought forth, during its age of in- fancy, till it has completed its first period of seven years, has a pure unmixed nature, very like a smooth waxen tablet, which has not yet been stamped with the indelible impressions of good or evil; for all the things which appear to be engraved upon it are soon confused and effaced by reason of its mois- ture: this is as it were the first age of the soul.
The second is that which, after the age of infancy is passed, begins to live among evils, some of which it is also accustomed to generate from itself, and others it cheerfully receives from other sources, for the teachers of evil deeds are infinite in number; nurses, and tutors, and parents, and the laws in dif- ferent states, whether written or unwritten, which make ob- jects of admiration out of things which ought to be laughed at; and even without teachers nature itself is easily inclined to learn what is improper, so as to be continually weighed down by the abundance of its evils; " For," says the scripture, " the mind of man is carefully devoted to evil from his youth."* This is that most accursed period which is figura- tively called an age, but also especially the age of youth, in which the body is full of youthful vigour, and the soul is puffed up; the passions, which have hitherto lain hid, being now • Genesis viii. 21.
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fanned into a flame, and burning up the threshing-floors, and crops, and fields, and whatever they meet with.
This diseased generation or age must be remedied by some third age, acting towards it the part of medical philosophy, s<> that it shall be charmed with salutary and saving words, by means of which it will receive an evacuation of the immoderate satiety of evil actions, and a fulness of a sort of hungry empti- ness, and terrible desolation of good deeds. Therefore, after the application of this cure, there comes first the age, in which power and vigour grow up in the soul, in accordance with the most certain comprehension of wisdom, and the undeviating and solid character which exists in all the virtues. This is the meaning of the expression, " And in the fourth generation they shall return hither." For according to the fourth number thus pointed [out the soul, which has turned away from doing evil, is proclaimed as the inheritor of wisdom; for the first number is that into which it is not possible to receive any idea of either good or evil, since the soul is as yet destitute of all impressions; and the second is that in which we indulge in a rapid course of the passions; and the third is that in which we are healed, repelling the infections of disease, and at last ceasing to feel the evil vigour of the passions; the