XL II I. In this way, then, it is most proper both to 6peak nd to be silent. But the wicked adopt an exactly contrary ourse; for they are admirers of a blamable kind of silence, nd of an interpretation open to reproach, practising both lines f conduct to their own destruction and that of others. But he greater part of their employment consists in saying what hey ought not; for having opened their mouth and leaving it * Exodus xv. 1. f Numbers xxl 17. $ Deut. xxvi. 13.
392 PHILO JUD^EUS.
unbridled, like an unrestrained torrent, they allow their speech to run on indiscriminately, as the poets say, dragging on thou- sands of profitless sayings; therefore those who have devoted themselves to the advocacy of pleasure and appetite, and every sort of excessive desire, building up irrational passion as a fortification against dominant reason, and preparing them- selves for a contentious sort of discussion, have come at last to a regular dispute, hoping to be able to blind the race which is endowed with the faculty of sight, and to throw it down pre- cipices, and into depths from which it will not be able at any future time to emerge. But some have not only put them- selves forward as rivals to human virtue, but have proceeded to such a pitch of folly as to oppose themselves also to divine virtue. Therefore Pharaoh, the king of the land of Egypt, is spoken of as the leader of the company which is devoted to the passions; for it is said to the prophet, " Behold, he is going forth to the river, and thou shalt stand in the way to meet him, on the bank of the river;"* for it is the peculiar characteristic of the one man to go forth to the rapidity and continual pouring forth of the irrational passion; and it is also characteristic of the wise man to oppose with exceeding vigour the arguments on behalf of pleasure and desire, not with his feet, but with his mind, firmly and immoveably, standing on the bank of the river; that is to say, on the mouth and on the tongue, which are the organs of speech.
For standing firmly on these, he will be able to overturn and defeat the plausible specious arguments which advocate the cause of passion. But the enemy of the race which is en- dowed with the power of seeing, is the people of Pharaoh, which never ceased attacking, and persecuting, and enslaving virtue, until...it paid the penalty of the evils which it inflicted...being overwhelmed in the sea of those iniquities...which it excited, So that that period exhibited an extraordinary sight, a victory which was in no doubt, and a joy greater than could have been hoped for.
On which account it is said, " And Israel saw the Egyp- tians dead upon the sea-shore. "f Great indeed was the hand which fought for them, compelling those who had sharpened these organs against the truth to fall by the mouth, and lips, and * Exodus vii. 15. + Exodus xiv. 30.
ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD. 393 speech, so that they who had taken up these weapons against jthers should perish by their own arms and not by those of others. And this announces three most glorious things to the joul; one, the destruction of the passions of Egypt; another, ,hat this has taken place in no other spot than near the salt aid bitter springs, as if on the shore of the sea, by which iophistical reason, that enemy of virtue, is poured forth; and, astly, the sight of the disaster. For no glorious thing can be nvisible, but should be brought to the light and brilliancy of he sun. For so also the contrary, namely evil, should be hrust into deep darkness, and should be accounted deserving >f night. And may it indeed by chance happen to some one o behold this: but what is really good should be always >eheld by more piercing eyes. And what is so good as that hat is good should live, and what is evil should die?
XLIV. There were, therefore, three persons who uttered .trocious words which were to reach even to heaven; these oen devoted themselves to studies against nature, or rather .gainst their own souls, saying that this universe was the only hing which was perceptible to the outward senses, and visible, laving never been created, and being never destined to be estroyed, but being uncreated and imperishable, not requiring ny superintendence, or care, or regulation, or management.
afterwards piling up fresh attempts one upon another, they uilt up a doctrine which was not approved, and raised it to a eight like a tower; for it is said, "And the whole earth spoke ne language,"* an inharmonious agreement of all the portions f the soul, for the purpose of overthrowing that which is the lost comprehensive of all existing principles, namely, aulority.
Therefore, a great and irresistible hand overthrew them 'hen they were hoping to mount up even to heaven by their evices, for the purpose of destroying the everlasting kingdom; ud it also dashed down the doctrine which they had built jp; and the place is called confusion: a very appropriate ame for such an audacious and wicked attempt; for what can e more productive of confusion than anarchy? Are not ouses which have no manager full of offences and dis- irbanees? And are not cities which are left unprovided ith a king destroyed by the domination of the mob, the * Geiiiids xi. 1.
891 PHILO JUD^EUS.
opposite evil to kingly power, and at the same time the greatest of all evils? And have not countries, and nations, and regions of the earth, the governments of which have been put down, lost all their ancient and great prosperity.?
And why need I speak of matters of human history? For even the other species of animals, flocks of birds, and herds of terrestrial beasts, and shoals of aquatic creatures, never exist without some leader of their company; hut they always desire and always pay attention to their own leader, as being the sole cause of the advantages they receive; at whose absence they are scattered and destroyed. Do we suppose then, that in the case of earthly creatures, which are the most insignificant portion of the universe, authority is the cause of good things and anarchy the cause of evils, but that the world itself is not filled with extreme happiness by reason of the administration of God its king?
Therefore they have suffered punishment corresponding to their iniquities: for having polluted the sacred doctrine, they saw themselves polluted in like manner, all authority being taken away from among them; and being thrown them selves into confusion, but not having really caused any. Bui as long as they were left unpunished, being puffed up b} insane pride, they sought to overthrow the authority of th< universe by unholy speeches; and they set themselves up a; rulers and kings, attributing the irresistible power of Goc to creatures which are perpetually coming to an end am being destroyed.
XLV. Therefore these ridiculous men giving themselve tragic airs and using inflated language, are accustomed t speak thus: we are they who are leaders; we are kings On us all things depend. Who, except ourselves, is the caus of good and of the contrary? To whom, except to us, can th doing well or ill be truly attributed? They talk nonsense to in another manner, saying, that all things depend upon a invisible power, which they fancy presides over all human an divine affairs in the whole world.
Uttering such insolent falsehoods as these, if after intoxic; tion they have become sober, and have come to themselve again, and feel ashamed of the intoxication to which they ha^ given way coming under the dominion of the external sense aud if they reproach themselves for the evil actions which tht ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD. 305 lave been led on to commit by folly, giving ear to their new Counsellor, which never flatters, and which cannot be corrupted, lamely, repentance, having propitiated the merciful power of j he living God by sacred hymns of repentance instead of pro- "ane songs, they will find entire forgiveness.
But if they are restive and obstinate for ever, and indulge jn wanton behaviour, as if they were independent, and free, jind the rulers of others, then by a necessity which is deaf to ill entreaties and implacable, they will learn to feel their own lOthingness in all things both small and great; for the driver vho mounts upon them, putting a bridle, upon this world, as hough it were a winged chariot, drawing back with main trength the reins which before were loose, and pressing the bits everely, will remind them by whip and spur of his authority a master, which they, like wicked servants, have forgotten by eason of the gentle and merciful temper of their manager; for >ad servants, looking upon the gentleness of masters as narchy, fancy themselves entirely free from the power of any Ulster at all, until their owner checks their great and increas- ag disease by applying punishment as a remedy.
For which reason the expression is used of " a lawless soul, diich with its lips distinguishes well-doing and evil-doing, nd then will subsequently announce its own sin."* What ayest thou, 0 soul, full of insolence? For dost thou know 'hat real good or real evil, real justice or real holiness, are? rwhat is suited to what? The knowledge of those things and he power of regulating them belongs to God alone, and to hoever is dear to him. And witness is borne to this assert- ion by the scripture in which it is said, " I will kill and I will ause to live; I will smite and I will heal."f But the mind hich was wise in its own conceit had not even a superficial reaming intimation of the things placed above it: but, •retched that it was, it was so completely carried away by the ind of vain opinion that it swore that those things which it ad erroneously imagined stood firmly and solidly. If. there- to, the violence and convulsion of the disease begin to relax, le sparks of returning health becoming gradually re-kindled, ill compel it at first to confess its error, that is to say, to 3proach itself, and afterwards to become a suppliant at the 396 ' PHILO JQDiEUS.
altar, entreating with prayers, and supplications, and sacrifices, that it may only obtain pardon.
XLVI. After this who can fairly raise the question why the historian of the scriptures has spoken of the river of Egypt only as having banks and has made no such mention of the Euphrates or of an}' other of the sacred rivers; for here he says, " Thou shalt stand in the way to meet him by the bank of the river." And yet perhaps some persons in a spirit of ridicule will say that it is not right to bring such matters as these forward for investigation, for that it rather displays a spirit of cavilling than does any good. But I imagine that such things, like sweetmeats, are prepared in the sacred scrip- tures, for the improvement of those who read them, and that we ought not to condemn the curiosity of those who investigate such matters, but that we should rather blame their indoleuce if they did not investigate them.
For our present discussion is not about the history of rivers but about ways of life, which are compared to the streams of rivers, running in opposite directions to one another. For the life of the good man consists in actions; but that of the wicked man is seen to consist only in worfds. And speech in the tongue, and mouth, and lips, and* A TREATISE O.V THE LIFE OF THE WISE MAN MADE PERFECT BY INSTRUCTION OR, ON THE UNWRITTEN LAW, THAT IS TO SAY, ON ABRAHAM.
I. The sacred laws having been written in five books, the first is called and inscribed Genesis, deriving its title from the creation (ysvzfftc) of the world, which it contains at the beginning • although there are ten thousand other matters also introduced which refer to peace and to war, or to fertility and barrenness, or to hunger and plenty, or to the terrible destructions which have taken place on earth by the agency ol fire and water; or, on the contrary, to the birth and rapid * The rest of this treatise is lost.
ON ABRAHAM. 397 propagation of animals and plants in accordance with the admirable arrangement of the atmosphere, and the seasons of the year, and of men, some of whom lived in accordance with virtue, while others were associated with wickedness.
But since of these things some are portions of the world, and some are accidents, and since the world is the most per- fect and complete of all things, he has nominally assigned the whole book to that subject.
We have then examined with all the accuracy that was in our power, in what manner the creation of the world was arranged in our previous treatises; but since it is necessary, to be consistent with the regular order in which the sacred history proceeds to go on, now to investigate the laws, wre will for the •present postpone the particular laws which are copies as it (were; and first of all examine the more general laws which Eire, as it were, the models of the others. Now these are those men who have lived irreproachably and admirably, whose virtues are durably and permanently recorded, as on pillars in the sacred scriptures, not merely with the object of praising the men themselves, but also for the sake of exhorting those who read their history, and of leading them on to emulate their conduct; for these men have been living and rational laws; and the lawgiver has magnified them for two reasons; first, 'because he was desirous to show that the injunctions which are thus given are not inconsistent with nature; and, secondly, that he might, prove that it is not very difficult or laborious for those who wish to live according to the laws established in these books, since the earliest men easily and spontaneously abeyed the unwritten principle of legislation before any one i )f the particular laws were written dowrn at all.
So that a man may very properly say, that the written laws lare nothing more than a memorial of the life of the ancients, jtracing back in an antiquarian spirit, the actions and reason- lings which they adopted; for these first men, without ever 'having been followers or pupils of any one, and without ever having been taught by preceptors what they ought to do or say, but having embraced a line of conduct consistent with nature from attending to their own natural impulses, and from jbeing prompted by an innate virtue, and looking upon nature herself to be, what in fact she is, the most ancient and duly established of laws, did in reality spend their whole lives in 398 PHILO JUD.EUS.
making laws, never of deliberate purpose doing anything open to reproach, and for their accidental errors propitiating God, and appeasing him by prayers and supplications, so as tc procure for themselves the enjoyment of an entire life of virtue and prosperity, both in respect of their deliberate actions, and those which proceeded from no voluntary purpose.
II. Since then the beginning of all participation in good things is hope, and since the soul devoted to virtue pioneer;- and opens this path as a plain and easy one, being anxious tc attain to that which is really honourable, the sacred historiar has named the first lover of hope, Enos, giving him the com mon name of the whole race as an especial favour. For th( Chaldasans call man Enos; as if he were the only real man who lived in expectation of good things, and who is establishec in good hopes; from which it is evident that they do not loot upon the man devoid of hope as a man at all, but rather as ar animal resembling a man, inasmuch as he is deprived of tha most peculiar possession of the human soul, namely hope For which reason, being desirous to deliver an admirabh panegyric on the hopeful man, the sacred historian tells us first, that " he hoped in the father and creator of th< uui verse," * and adds in a subsequent passage, •* This is thi book of the generation of men," f and of their fathers, &m grand-fathers who had existed previously; but he conceive* that they were the ancestors of the mixed race, that is to say of that purer and thoroughly sifted race which is the reall; rational one; for, as the poet Homer, though the number o poets is beyond all calculation, is called " the poet " by way o distinction, and as the black [ink] with which we write i called " the black," though in point of fact everything whicl is not white is black; and as that archon at Athens i especially called " the archon." who is the archon eponymu and the chief of the nine archons, from whom the chronolog is dated; so in the same manner the sacred historian call him who indulges in hope, "a man," by way of pre-eminenc< passing over in silence the rest of the multitude of huma beings, as not being worthy to receive the same appellation. And he has very properly called his first volume, the Boo of the Generation of the Real Man, speaking with perfect eoi rectness; because the man who is full of good hope is wortl * Genesis iv. 26. Genesis v. 1.
ON ABRAHAM. 399 )f being described and remembered, not with such a memory is is given by a record in papers, which are hereafter to be lestroyed by bookworms, but by that which exists in immortal lature. where the virtuous actions are regularly recorded.
If then any one were to reckon the generations, from the irst man, who was made out of the earth, he will find him vho, by the Chaldceans is called Enos, and in the Greek lan- guage uvOgwKog (the man), to be the fourth in succession, and n numbers the number four is honoured among other philoso- )hers, who have studied and admired the incorporeal essences, ippreciable only by the intellect, and especially by the all-wise Closes, who magnifies the number four, and says that it is ' holy and praiseworthy;,,# and the reasons for which this cha- acter has been given to it are mentioned in a former treatise. iVnd the man who is full of good hope is likewise holy and )raise\vorthy; as, on the contrary, he who has no hope is ac- ursed and blameable, being always associated with fear, which s an evil counsellor in any emergency; for they say, that here is no one thing so hostile to another, as hope is to fear nd fear to hope, and perhaps this may be correctly said, for •oth fear and hope are an expectation, but the one is an ex- tectation of good things, and the other, on the contrary, of evil hings; and the natures of good and evil are irreconcileable, nd such as can never come together.
III. What has now been said about hope is sufficient; and lature has placed her at the gates to be a sort of doorkeeper D the royal virtues within, which no one may approach who as not previously paid homage to hope. Therefore the law- ivers, and the laws in every state on earth, labour with great iligence to fill the souls of free men with good hopes; but he •ho, without any recommendation and without being enjoined 3 be so, is nevertheless hopeful, has acquired this virtue by an nwritten, self-taught law, which nature has implanted in him.
That which is placed in the next rank after hope is repent- nce for errors committed, and improvement; in reference to 'hich principle Moses mentions next in order to Enos, the lan who changed from a worse system of life to a better, who 5 called among the Hebrews Enoch, but as the Greeks would w, " gracious," of whom the following statement is made, that Enoch pleased God, and was not found, because God ftasported him."f For transportation shows a change and * Leviticus xix. 24. f Genesis v. 24 4.00 PHILO JUD^US.
4.00 PHILO JUD^US.
alteration: and such a change is for the better, • because i takes place through the providence of God; for every tbim that is with God is in every case honourable and advantageous since that which is destitute of any divine superintendence i useless and unprofitable.
And the expression, " he was not found,"* is very apprc priately employed of him whose place was changed, eithe from the fact of his ancient blameable life being wiped out am effaced, and being no longer found, just as if it bad never exists at all, or else because he whose place has been changed, and wh is enrolled in a better class, is naturally difficult to be di vered. For wickedness is a very multiform and extensiv thing, on which account it is known to many persons; bu virtue is rare, so that it is not comprehended even by a few And besides, the bad man runs about through the markel place, and theatres, and courts of justice, and council hall.- and assemblies, and every meeting and collection of men whal ever, like one who lives with and for curiosity, letting loose hi tongue in immoderate, and interminable, and indiscriminat conversation, confusing and disturbing every thing, mixing u what is true with what is false, what is unspeakable with wha is public, private with public things, things profane with thing sacred, what is ridiculous with what is excellent, from neve having been instructed in what is the most excellent thing i season, namely silence. And pricking up his ears, because ( the abundance of his leisure, and his superfluous curiosity, an love of interference, he is eager to make himself acquainte with the business of other people, whether good or bad, so a at once to envy those who are prosperous, and to rejoice ove those who are not so; for the bad man is by nature envioi and a hater of all that is good, and a lover of all that is evil.
IV. But the good man, on the contrary, is a lover of tht mode of life which is not troubled by business, and withdraw and loves solitude, desiring to escape the notice of the man not out of misanthropy, for he is a lover of mankind, if ar one in the world is so, but because he eschews wickednes which the chief multitude eagerly embraces, rejoicing at wh it ought to mourn over, and grieving at what it is becomir rather to rejoice. On which account the good man shuts hit self up, and remains for the most part at home, scarcely goii * This is not the translation of the bible which says " and Eno walked with God, and he was not, for God took him " ON ABRAHAM. 401 over his threshold, or if he does go out, for the sake of avoiding the crowds who come to visit him, he generally goes out of the city, and makes his abode in some country place, living more pleasantly with such companions as are the most virtuous of all mankind, whose bodies, indeed, time has dissolved, but whose virtues the records which are left of them keep alive, in poems and in prose, histories by which the soul is naturally improved and led on to perfection.
It is on this account that the sacred historian has said that the man whose place was changed was not found, inasmuch as he is difficult to find and hard to seek out. Therefore, such a man emigrates from ignorance to instruction, and from folly to wisdom, and from cowardice to courage, and from impiety to piety; and, again, from devotion to pleasure to temperance, nd from vain-gloriousness to simplicity, qualities superior to ill riches, and more valuable as a possession than any royal or mperial power. For if one may speak the plain truth, that Wealth which is not blind, but which is clear-sighted, is the jibundance of virtues, which we must at once conclude to be he genuine and legitimate predominance of good in compan- ion of all other bastard and falsely named powers, and to be he just and lawful superior of them all. But we must not be gnorant that repentance occupies the second place only, next liter perfection, just as the change from sickness to convales- cence is inferior to perfect uninterrupted health. Therefore, hat which is continuous and perfect in virtues is very near i. i vine power, but that condition which is improvement i dvancing in process of time is the peculiar blessing of a wellisposed soul, which does not continue in its childish pursuits, ut by more vigorous thoughts and inclinations, such as really jecome a man, seeks a tranquil steadiness of soul, and which Itains to it by its conception of what is good. V. For which reason the sacred historian very naturally asses the lover of God and the lover of virtue next in order to i in who repents; and this man is in the language of the lebrews called Noah, but in that of the Greeks, " rest," or the just man," both being appellations very well suited to le wise man. That of " the just man" most evidently so, r nothing is better than justice, which is the chief among jrtues, and which receives the highest honours like the most oiutiful member of a company; and the appellation " rest " VOL. II. D D 402 PHILO JUDiEUS.
is likewise appropriate, since the opposite quality to rest is unnatural agitation, the cause of confusions, and tumults, and seditions, and wars, which the wicked pursue; while those who pay due honour to excellence cultivate a tranquil, and quiet, and stable, and peaceful life.