and not only of the citizen wives; for when God has showered down from above that most requisite benefit of knowledge, self- taught, and having no need of a preceptor, it would be impossible any longer for a man to live with the slavish and concubine arts, having a desire for bastard doctrines as his children.
For the man who has arrived at this honour, is inscribed as the husband of the mistress and princess virtue; and she is called in the Greek language, perseverance, but among the Hebrews her name is Rebekkah. For he who, by reason of the happy constitution of his own nature and by the prolific fertility of his soul, has attained to wisdom without encounter- ing labour or enduring hardship, stands in need of no further improvement; for he has at hand the perfect gifts of God, inspired by means of those most ancient graces, and he wishes and prays that they may remain lasting. In reference to which, it appears to me to be that the Author of all goodness gave him perseverance as his wife, in order that his mercies might endure for ever to the man who had her for his wife.
VIII. Now recollection only comes in the second rank after memory, as inferior to it; and he who recollects is inferior to him who remembers; for the latter resembles a man in an uninter- rupted state of good health, but the other is like a man recover- ing from a disease, for forgetfulness is a disease of the memory; and it follows inevitably that the man who exerts his recollec- tion has previously forgotten what he now recollects. There- fore the sacred scriptures call memory Ephraim, which name, being interpreted, means " fruit-bearing." But the Hebrews call recollection, after forgetfulness, Manasseh; for, in good truth, the soul of the man who remembers does bear as fruit the things which he has learned, losing nothing of them; but the soul of the man who exerts recollection, is only escaping from forgetfulness, by which it was detained before it recol- lected; therefore a citizen wife, memory, lives with the man who is endowed with remembrance. But the concubine recollection, a Syrian by birth, insolent and overbearing, lives with the man who forgets; for the meaning of the name Syria, is 4k sublimity;" and the son of the concubine recol- lection is Machir, as the Hebrews call him; but the Greeks interpret the name to mean " of the father." For those who recollect a thing think that the mind is the father and cause of their recollecting, and do not consider that this same en- IG6 niiLo jud.-eus.
dowment of the mind did also before contain " forgetfulness," though it never would have received it if it had had memory in its power.
for it is said in the scripture, *' And the sons of Manasseh were Ashriel whom she hare, but his concubine, the Aramiti hare Machir; and ftfachir was the father of Gilead."* Nachor, also, the brother of Abraham, had two wives., one a citizen and the other a concubine. And the name of the citizen was Milcah; and the name of the concubine was Human. But let no one who is in his senses suspect that the wise legislator recorded this as a historical genea- logy, but it is rather an explanation of things which are able to benefit the soul by means of symbols. And when we have translated the names into our own language, we shall understand the real meanings intended to be conveyed by them. Come, then, let us now investigate each of them.
II. The name Nachor, being interpreted, means " a rest from light;" and Milcah means "princess;" and Rumah means "she who sees something/' Therefore, to have light in the mind is good; but cessation from light, and tranquillity, and immobility is not perfect good, for it is advantageous to have evils tranquil, but it is desirable to have blessings in motion; for what advantage is there in a man's having a tune- ful voice, if he keeps silent? or in his having the skill of a Mute player, if he does not play the flute? or of his knowing the harp, if lie does not strike it? or, in short, what good is there in any artist whatever, if he does not exercise his art? for theoretical knowledge, without putting it in practice, is of no advantage whatever to those who possess it. For a man, though skilful in the contest of the pancratium, or in boxing, or in wrestling, would derive no advantage from his athletic prowess if his hands were tied behind him; and he who was thoroughly practised in running would derive no advantage from his fleetness of foot if he were afflicted with the gout, or if he were to meet with any other injury to his feet. And the light of the soul, which is the most brilliant and the most like the sun, is knowledge; for as the eyes are lightened up by beams, so is the mind made brilliant by wisdom, and becomes gradually accustomed to see more acutely from being conti- nually anointed with new speculations.
Therefore, Nachor is interpreted " a cessation from light" * 1 Chronicles vii. 14.
ON SEEKING INSTRUCTION. 1G7 very naturally; for, inasmuch as he is a relation of the wise Abraham, he partakes of that light which is according to wisdom; but inasmuch as he did not join him in his emigra- tion from the created to the uncreated being, from the world to the Creator of the world, he has acquired only a lame and imperfect knowledge, intermittent and delaying, or rather put together like a lifeless statue; for he does not depart and quit his abode in the Chaldcean country, that is to say, he does not Lrate himself from the speculations concerning astronomy; honouring that which is created rather than him who created it, and the world in preference to God; or rather, I should say, looking on the world itself as an absolute independent God, and not as the work of an absolute God.
X. And he takes Milcah for his wife, not being some queen who by the dispensations of fortune governs some nation of men, or some city, but only one who bears a common name, the same as here. For, just as a person would not be widely wrong who called the world, as being the most excellent of all created things, the king of the objects of the external sense; so, also, one may call the knowledge which is conversant about the heaven, v/hich knowledge those who study astronomy and the Chaldaeans possess in an eminent degree, the queen of all the sciences. This, therefore, is the wife who is a citizen; but the concubine is she who sees one only of all existing things at a time, even though it may be the most worthless of all. It is given, therefore, to the most excellent race to see the most excellent of things, namely, the really living God; for the name Israel, being interpreted, means " seeing God."
But to him who aims at the second prize, it is allowed to see that which is second best, namely, the heaven which is percep- tible by the external senses, and the harmonious arrangement of the stars therein, and their truly musical and well-regulated motion. The third class are the sceptics, who do not apply themselves to the most excellent objects, either of the intellect or of the external senses, which exist in nature, because they are always occupying themselves with petty sophistries, and small cavils, and criticisms. These have for their companions the concubine Rumah, who sees something which is very minute, because they are unable to approach the investigation of better things, by means of which they might benefit their own life. For, as among physicians that which is called 1G8 PHILO JUD.EUS.
1G8 PHILO JUD.EUS.
theoretical medical skill, is a long way from doing any good to those that are sick — for diseases are cured by medicines, and by operations, and by regimen, and not by discussions or theories; so also in philosophy, there is a set of wora- traffiekers and word-eaters, who have neither the will nor the skill to heal a life which is full of infirmities, but who, from their very earliest infancy to the extremity of old age, are not nshamed to cavil, and quibble, and wrangle about figurative expressions, as if happiness consisted in an interminable and profitless minuteness of accuracy in the matter of nouns and verbs, and not in the improving and ameliorating the moral character, the true fountain of the persons' disposition; and in expelling the vices, and driving them out of its boundaries, and establishing the virtues as settlers within them.
XL Now the wicked also have a desire for concubines, that is, for vain opinions and doctrines; accordingly Moses tells us that Thimna, the concubine of Eliphah the son of Esau, bore Amalek to Eliphah.* Alas, for the eminent ignobleness of the descendant! And you will see this ignobleness the more clearly, if you abandon the idea that this expression is used about a man, and rather consider the soul, with a kind of anatomical dissection. The historian then calls the irrational and immoderate desires and impetuosity of the passions, Amalek; now the name Amalek, being interpreted, means "the people looking up." For as the power of fire consumes the materials which are offered to it, so in the same manner does passion, when boiling over lick up and destroy everything with which it meets. And the father of this passion is very properly described as Eliphah; for this name, being interpreted, means " God has scattered me." But does it not follow that when God scatters, and disperses, and discards the soul, banish- ing it from himself, irrational passion. is at once engendered? For He plants the mind which can really behold him, and which is really attached to God, the vine of a good kind, stretching out its roots so as to make them everlasting, and giving it abun- dance of fruit for the acquisition and enjoyment of the virtues. On which account Moses prays, saying, "Bring them in and plant them in,'"t in order that those divine shoots may not be ephemeral, but long-lived and lasting for ever and ever.
And banishing the unjust and ungodly soul, he disperses it * Genesis xxxvi. 12. + Exodu3 xv. 17.
ON SEEKING INSTRUCTION. 169 and drives it to a distance from himself to the region of the pleasures and appetites and acts of injustice; and this region is, with exceeding appropriateness, called the region of the impious, more fitly than that one which is fabled as existing in the shades below. For indeed, the real hell is the life of the wicked, which is audacious, and flagitious, and liable to all kinds of curses.
XII. There is also in another place the following sentence deeply engraven: " When the Most High came down to scatter the nations, as he dispersed the sons of Adam,"* he drove out all earthly dispositions, which had no desire to see any good thing from heaven; depriving them of house and city, and rendering them truly wanderers on the face of the earth. For no house, nor city, nor anything else which relates to society and participation, is preserved for any one of the wicked; but they are deprived of all settled habitation, and dispersed abroad, being moved in every direction, and living a life of continued emigration, and not being able to become settled any where. Therefore the wicked man has for his children, wicked- ness, by his wife who is a citizen, and passion by his concubine; for the whole soul, like a free citizen, is a companion of reason, but that which is open to reproach brings forth wickedness. But the nature of the body is a concubine, b}r means of whom the birth of the passion is beheld; and the body is the region of the pleasures and passions, and it is called Thamnah, w7hich name, being interpreted, signifies a "fluctuating abandonment." For the soul becomes faint and powerless by reason of the passions having received much tossing about and agitation from the body, on account of the violent storm which bursts forth from immoderate impetuosity.
But as the head is the chief of all the aforementioned parts of an animal, so is Esau the chief of this race, whose name is at one time interpreted " an oak," and at another, " a thing made." It is interpreted an oak, in reference to his being unbending, and implacable, and obstinate, and stiff-necked by nature, and having folly for his chief fellow counsellor, and being as such of a truly oaken character. And it is interpreted " a thing made," inasmuch as a life according to folly is an invention and a fable, full of tragic pomp and vain boasting; and, on the other hand, of mockery and comic ridicule, having in it nothing * Deuteronomy xxxii. 8.
170 PI1ILO JUDJEUS.
Bound, being full of falsehood, having utterly cast off truth, and disregarding as a thing of no value, that nature which is void of distinctive qualities, or of particular species, but plain and sincere, which the practiser of virtue loves. And Moses bean witness to this, when he says that "Jacob was a man without artifice, dwelling in a house;"-'1 so that he wdio is contrary to him. must necessarily he destitute of a house, the companion of invention, and of things made, and of fabulous nonsense, or rather bring himself a theatre and a fable.
XI LI. The connection therefore between the reason which is devoted to contemplation and those powers which are citizen wives, or concubines, has here been explained to the best of my power. We must now proceed to investigate what follows, and endeavour to frame a proper connection for an argument. " Abraham. " says the sacred historian, ''listened to the voice of Sarah. "f For it is necessary for him who is a learner to be obedient to the injunctions of virtue: but yet all men are not so obedient, but only those who are inspired with an exceedingly vehement love for knowledge. Since almost every day the places where then anything to hear and the theatres are crowded, and those who study philosophy go on without ever stopping to take breath in one long continued discussion about virtue. But still what advantage is derived from all that is said? For men, instead of attending, turn their mind in other directions, some to marine and mercantile affairs, others to rents and agriculture. some to public honours and affairs of state, some to the gains to be derived from each different profession and art, others to revenging themselves upon their enemies, others again to the enjoyments to be derived from the indulgence of the amorous appetites, and in short every body is under the influence of some distracting idea or other: so that, as fai as the subjects of the discussion are concerned, they are completely deaf, and are present with their bodies only, but are at a distance as to their minds, being in no particular different from images or statues. And if any persons do attend, they sit all that time only listening, and when they have departed they do not recollect a word of what has been said, but they have come in fact rather to be pleased through the medium of thei" hearing than with the view of deriving any solid advantage; * Genesis xxv. 27. t Genesis xvl 2.
ON SEEKING INSTRUCTION. J 71 so that their soul lias not been able to comprehend any- thing or to become pregnant with any new idea, and even the can-' which at first excited their pleasure soon ceases and their attention is. extinguished.
re is a third kind of persons to whom what is said is for a time attended to and remembered, as if still Bounding in their ears: but still they are found to be sophists rather than philosophers: of these men the language indeed is praiseworthy but the life is blameable; for they are powerful at speaking, but have no ability to do what is best. It is therefore hardly ible to find a man who is inclined to attend and endowed with a good memory, honouring deeds rather than words; as is testified to in the praise of the man fond of hearing in the the words, " He listened to the voice of Sarah." For he is not represented merely as hearing but also as listening to: and this last is a particularly felicitous expression to indicate one who approves of and is influenced by what he hears.
And the expression, "to the voice," is not inconsiderately or incorrectly used in preference to saying — he listened to Sarah Bpeaking. For it is the especial character of a learner to listen to the voice and words of his teacher; for by these alone is he taught. But he who acquires what is good by practice, and solitary meditation, and not by instruction, does not attend to what is said but rather to those who say it, imitating the lives of those men in their actions which are in each parti- cular irreproachable. For it is said, in the case of Jacob when lie was sent away to form a marriage among his kinsmen, "Jacob listened to his mother and his father, and went into Mesopo- tamia."* He listened not to their voice, nor to their words, for it was fitting that he who was an imitator of their actions should be a practiser of virtue not a listener to speeches. For this is the peculiar character of one who is being taught, but the other is the mark of one who is enduring labours, in order that from this instance we may comprehend the difference between a practiser and a learner, the one being regu- lated with regard to him who is speaking, and the other wtih regard to his speech.
XIV. Therefore, continues the sacred historian, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, having taken Hagar, the Egyptian woman, her own handmaiden, ten years after Abraham had begun to * Genesis xxviii. 7.
172 PHILO JUD.EUS.
dwell in the land of Canaan, gave her to Abraham hef "husband, to be his wife."* Wickedness is by nature an envious, and bitter, and evil-disposed thing, but virtu gentle, and inelined to communion, and friendly; wishing jn every possible manner to benefit those who are well disp< either by its own power or by the means of others. So now accordingly, as we are not able to become the fathers of children by prudence, she espouses us to her own handmaiden, encyclical instruction, as I have said before, and all but endures to be the bridesmaid and manager of the marriage: for it is said that Sarah herself took this woman and gave her to her own husband.
And here it is worth while to raise the question why it is that now again Moses calls the wife of Abraham Sarah, when he had already repeatedly told us what her name was before; for he was not a writer who ever indulged in that worst description of prolixity, tautology. "What, then, are we to say? Since she is about to betroth to him the handmaiden of wisdom, encyclical instruction, he says that she did not forget the duty which she owed to her mistress, but knew that she was, both in law and in her master's feelings, his wife, and that she her- self was only such because of necessity and the force of oppor- tunity. And this happens to every man who is fond of learning. And he who has experienced it may be looked upon as the most trustworthy witness to this fact. At all events I, when I was first excited by the stimulus of philosophy to feel a desire for it, when I was very young connected myself with one of her handmaidens, namely, grammar; and all the offspring of which I became the father by her, such as writing, reading, and the acquaintance with the works of the poets and historians, I attributed to the mistress. And at a subsequent time, forming connection with another of her handmaidens, geometry, and admiring her beauty (for she had beautiful symmetry and proportions in all her parts), I still appropriated none of the offspring, but carried them to the citizen wife, and bestowed them on her. I was desirous also to form a similar connection with a third, and she was full of good rhythm, well arranged, and well limbed, and was called music. And by her I became the parent of diatonic, and chromatic, and harmonic, and combined and separate melodies, and all the different concords belonging to fourths and to fifths, * Genesis xvi 3.
ON SEEKING INSTRUCTION. 173 and to the diapason. And, again, I concealed none of all these things, in order that my legitimate citizen wife might become wealthy, being ministered unto by a multitude of ten thousand servants; for some men, being attracted by the charms of handmaidens, have neglected their true mistress, philosophy, and have grown old, some in poetry, and others in the study of painting, and others in the mixture of colours, and others in ten thousand other pursuits, without ever being able to return to the proper mistress; for each act has its own peculiar brilliancies, certain attractive powers, by which some persons are allured and overcome, forgetting all the covenants which they have made with philosophy; but he who abides by the agreements which he has made, provides every thing from all quarters with a view to pleasing her.
Very appropriately, therefore, does the sacred scripture, admiring his good faith in respect of his legitimate wife, say that even now Sarah was his true wife, inasmuch as he only took his handmaid into his bed out of complaisance towards her; and, indeed, in the same manner as the encyclical brunches of education contribute to the proper comprehension of philosophy, so also does philosophy aid in the acquisition of wisdom; for philosophy is an attentive study of wisdom, and wisdom is the knowledge of all divine and human things, and of the respective causes of them. Therefore, just as encyclical accomplishments are the handmaidens of philosophy, so also is philosophy the handmaiden of wisdom; but philosophy teaches temperance with regard to the belly, and temperance with regard to the parts below the belly, and also temperance and restraint of the tongue. Now these qualities are said to be worthy of praise for their own sakes, but they would appear more respectable still if they were cultivated for the sake of doing honour to and giving pleasure to God.
We must, therefore, always remember the legitimate mis- 1r< bs when we are about to espouse her handmaidens; and let us be said indeed to be the husbands of the latter, but still let our legitimate mistress be our real wife, and not be merely called such.
XV. Again, she gives Hagar to him, not the first moment that he arrives in the country of the Canaanites, but after he has abode there ten years. And what the meaning of this statement is we must investigate in no careless manner.
174 PIIILO JUD-EU5.
Now, at the beginning of our existence, our soul dwelt among the passions alone as its foster-brethren, griefs, pains, fears, desires, and pleasures, which reach it through the medium of the external senses, before reason was as jet aide to see good and evil, and to distinguish accurately the points wherein these things differ from one another, but while it was still wavering and hesitating, and as it were closing its eyes in profound sleeep; but as time advances, when advancing out of the age of infancy we are on the point of becoming young men, then, without any delay, the double trunk of virtue and wicked- ness springs forth out of one root, and we attain to a compre- hension of them both, but still we by all means choose one of the two; those who are well disposed choosing virtue, and those of the contrary character choosing wickedness. These things, now, being previously sketched out in this manner, we must become aware that Egypt is the symbol of the passions and the land of the Canaanites, the emblem of the wickednesses; so that it is in strict accordance with natural probability that God, after having roused his people and mode them depart from Egypt, leads them into the country of the Canaanites: for the man, as I have said before, at his very earliest birth had the Egyptian passions assigned him to dwell among, being deeply rooted in pleasures and in pains; and at a subsequent time he departs as if to found a colony, and migrates towards wickedness. His reason now being inclined to a more acute sight, and comprehending accurately both the opposite extremes of good and of evil, but nevertheless choosing the worse part, because it has a great share in mortal nature, to which what is evil is in some degree akin, as also the contrary, namely, good, is akin to the divine nature.
XVI. But these are the different countries of each respect- ive nature; passions, that is to say, Egypt, being the country of the age of childhood; and wickedness, that is the land of Canaan, being the country of the age of youth. But the sacred scripture, although it is well acquainted with the different countries of the mortal race, suggests to us what ought to be done and what will be advantageous to us, enjoin ing us to hate the heathen, and their laws, and their customs, in that passage where he says, " And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God; ye shall not behave according ON SEEKING INSTRUCTION. 175 to the customs of Egypt in which ye dwelt among them, and ve shall not walk in their laws. Ye shall do my judgments, and ve shall not do according to the customs of the land of Canaan, into which I am leading you to dwell there. And ye shall keep my commandments, and ye shall walk in them. I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep all my command- ments and my judgments, and ye shall do them. He that doeth them the same shall live in them. I am the Lord your God: and ye shall keep all my commandments and my judg ments."'* Therefore, real true life, ahove everything else, consists in the judgments and commandments of God, so that the customs and practices of the impious must he death: but there are some races which take no note of passions and of wickednesses, from whom the multitudes of impious persons and wickedness are sprung.
Therefore, ten years after our departure to settle in the land of the Canaanites let us marry Hagar, since from the first moment that we become rational beings, we seek for ignorance and a deficiency of knowledge which is pernicious in its own nature; but at a subsequent period, and at a perfect number, namely, the legal number of the decade, we come to feel a desire for that instruction which is able to benefit us.
XVII. But the sons of the musicians have accurately and carefully investigated the question respecting the decade; and the most sacred Moses has composed a hymn, with no slight i degree of skill, attributing the most excellent things to this i number of the decade, such as prayers, first-fruits, the , continual and unceasing offerings of the priests, the observance of the passover, the atonement,f the remission of debts, and the return to the ancieut allotments of property at the end of