And in strict consistency with himself, the lawgiver also calls the seventh day " rest, " which the Hebrews call " the sabbath; " not as some persons fancy, because after six days the multitude was restrained from its habitual employments, but because in real truth, the number seven is both in the world and in ourselves free from seditions and from wars, and is of all the numbers that which is the most averse to contention, and the greatest lover of peace. And a proof of what I have here asserted may be found in the powers which exist in us; for six of those powers, namely the five outward senses and uttered speech, stir up continued and ceaseless war, both by sea and land, some of them doing so from a desire for the objects of the outward senses, which if they cannot obtain they are grieved, and the last by divulging with unbridled mouth numbers of things which ought to be buried in silence. But the seventh power is that which proceeds from the domi- nant mind, which is more glorious than the other six powers, and which has by pre-eminent vigour obtained the mastery over them all, and when that retires, choosing solitude, and its own society, and living by itself, as one that has no need of any other, and that is all-sufficient for itself, being then emancipated from the cares and troubles that are found in the human race, embraces a calm and tranquil life.
VI. And the lawgiver magnifies the lover of virtue in such a way, that even when he is giving his genealogy, he does not trace him as he usually does other persons, by giving a cata- logue of his grandfathers and great grandfathers, and ances- tors who are numbered as men and women, but he gives a list of certain virtues; and almost asserts in express words that there is no other house, or kindred, or country whatever to a wise man, except the virtues and the actions in accordance with virtues.
" For these," says he, " are the generations of Noah; Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation, and one who pleased God."* But we must not be ignorant that when he says man * Genesis vL 9.
ON ABRAHAM. 403 here, he does not mean merely to use the common expression for a rational mortal animal, but that he means to indicate in an eminent degree him who verifies the name, having driven away all the untameable and furious passions and brutal wickednesses of the soul; and as a proof of this, after the word man he adds as an epithet, " the just,M saying, " a just man," as if no unjust person were a man at all, but to speak more properly a beast in the likeness of a man, and as if he alone were a man who is an admirer of justice; he also says that he was "perfect," intimating by this expression that he was pos- sessed not of one virtue only but of all, and that being so possessed of them, he constantly exhibited every one of them according to his power and opportunities; and finally crown- ing him like a wrestler who has gained a glorious victory, he honours him moreover with a most noble proclamation, saying that " he pleased God," (and what can there be in nature that is more excellent than this panegyric?) which is the most visible proof of excellence; for if they who displease God are miserable, those who please him are by all means happy.
VII. It is not then without great correctness that after he has praised the man as being possessed of such great virtues he adds, " that he was perfect in his generation." Showing that he was not perfect absolutely, but that he was good in comparison with the others who lived at that time; for in a little time he will also speak of other wise men who were possessed of unconquerable and incomparable virtue, not merely if contrasted with the wicked, nor because they were better than the other men of their age, and as such were .considered worthy of acceptance and pre-eminence, but because having received a well disposed nature, they preserved it with- out any error or change for the worse; not fleeing from evil I habits, but never having once fallen into them, and being by j deliberate purpose practisers of all virtuous actions and j speeches, by which system they have adorned their life.
Those then are the most admirable of all men who have adopted free and noble inclinations, not in imitation of or by way of contrast to others, but from an inclination to genuine virtue and justice for its own sake; he also is to be admired , who is superior to his. own generation and his own age, and who is overcome by none of those things which the multitude follows; and he will be classed in the second rank, and nature D D 2 404 PHILO JUD.EUS.
will give to such men the best of her prizes; and the second prize is of itself a great thing; for what is not a great and most desirable object which God offers to, and bestows upon men? And the greatest proof of this is to be found in the exceeding graces which this man attained to; for as that time bore an abundant crop of injustice and impiety, and so every country, and nation, and city, and house, and every separate individual was full of wicked practices, all men of free will and of deliberate purpose, as if in an arena, living with one another for the first rank in iniquity, and strove with all possible zeal and rivalry, every one seeking to surpass his neighbour in the magnitude of his wickedness, and failing in nothing which might render life blameable and accursed.
VIII. At whom God, being naturally indignant, and being angry that that which appeared to be the most excellent of animals, and which had been thought worthy of being reckoned akin to himself by reason of his participation in reason, when he ought to have practised virtue, devoted himself rather to wickedness, and to every species of vice, appointed a fitting punishment for them, and determined to destroy the whole race at that time existing by a deluge; and not only those who dwelt in the champaign country and in the lower districts, but those also who lived in the most lofty mountains, for the great deep,* being raised to a height which it had never reached before, burst through its mouths with its whole col- lective impetuosity into the seas existing among us, and they overflowed and inundated all the islands and continents; and incessant floods of everlasting fountains, and of native rivers and torrents combined together, mingled with one another, and rising to a vast height, so as to surmount everything. Nor indeed was the air tranquil, for a deep and unbroken cloud overspread the whole heaven, and there were fearful storms of wind, and roarings of thunder, and flashes of light- ning, and rapid hurlings of thunderbolts, ceaseless storms orain being poured forth, so that one might have thought tha' all the parts of the universe were hastening to dissolve them selves into the one element of the nature of water, until while the water from above kept pouring down, and that belo\ kept bursting up, the streams were raised to a height abcv * Genesis vii. 11.
ON ABRAHAM. 405 everything, so that they not only overwhelmed and hid from sight all the plains and all the level ground, but even the tops of the highest mountains, for every part of the earth was under water, so that it was wholly buried and carried away, and the world was mutilated of huge portions, and appeared in all its wholeness and integrity, fearful as it is to say or even to imagine such a thing, to be utterly crippled and destroyed.
And likewise the air, with the exception of that small portion which is about the moon, was wholly obscured, being overcast by the violence and impetuosity of the water which overran all the region belonging to it with irresistible might. Then were speedily destroyed all the crops and all the trees, for an unlimited quantity of water is as destructive to them as a scarcity, and innumerable flocks of animals, both tame and wild, perished at the same time; for it was natural when the most excellent race of all, that of man, had been destroyed, that none of the inferior races should be left, since they were only created to be slaves to his necessities, and to be in a manner subject to his authoritative commands as their master.
When such numbers then of such mighty evils had burst forth which that time poured out — for all the portions of the world, except the heaven itself, were moved in an unnatural manner — as if they were stricken with a terrible and deadly disease.
And one house alone, that of the aforesaid just and God- loving man who had received the two highest of all gifts, was preserved; one gift being, as I have said already, the not being destroyed with all the rest of mankind, the other that of becoming himself, at a subsequent period, the founder of a new generation of mankind; for God thought him worthy to be both the end of our race and the beginning of it, the end of those men who lived before the deluge, and the beginning of those who lived after the deluge.
IX. Such was he who was the most virtuous of all the men of his age, and such were the rewards which were allotted to him which the holy scriptures enumerate; and the arrangement and classification of the aforesaid three, whether you call them men or dispositions of the soul, is very symmetrical, for the perfect man is entire from the beginning; but he who has his place 406 PHILO JUD^US.
406 PHILO JUD^US.
changed is but half entire, having appropriated the earlier period of his life to wickedness, and the subsequent time to virtue to which he afterwards came over, and with which that subsequent time he lived. But he who hopes, as his very name shows, has still a defect, for though he is always wishing for what is good, he is not as yet able to attain to it, but hi like those who are on a voyage, who while they are eager to read' the harbour, are still kept at sea without being able to anchor in port.
X. I have now then explained the character of the first triad of those who desire virtue. There is also another more important company of which we must now proceed to speak, for the former resembles those branches of instruction which are allotted to the age of childhood, but this resembles rather the gymnastic exercises of athletic men, who are really prepar- ing themselves for the sacred contests, who, despising all care of getting their body into proper condition, labour to bring about a healthy state of the soul, being desirous of that victory which is to be gained over the adverse passions.
The particulars then on which each individual differs from the other, though all are hastening to one and the same end, we will hereafter examine more minutely; but it is necessary not to pass over in silence what it seems desirable to premise concerning the whole three taken together.
It happens then that they are all three of one household and of one family, for the last of the three is the son of the middle one, and the grandson of the first; and they are all lovers of God, and beloved by God, loving the only God, and being loved in return by him who has chosen, as the holy scriptures tell us, by reason of the excess of their virtues in which they lived, to give them also a share of the same appel- lation as himself; for having added his own peculiar name to their names he has united them together, appropriating to himself an appellation composed of the three names: " For,'' says God, " this is my everlasting name: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," * using there the relative term instead of the absolute one; and this is very natural, for God stands in no need of a name But though he does not stand in any such need, nevertheh isj he bestows his own title on the human race that they mu;> * Exodus iii. 15.
ON ABRAHAM. 407 have a refuge to which to betake themselves in supplications and prayers, and so may not be destitute of a good hope.
XI. This then is what appears to be said of these holy men; and it is indicative of a nature more remote from our knowledge than, and much superior to, that which exists in the objects of outward sense; for the sacred word appears thoroughly to investigate and to describe the different dispo- sitions of the soul, being all of them good, the one aiming at what is good by means of instruction, the second by nature, the last by practice; for the first, who is named Abraham, is a symbol of that virtue which is derived from instruction; the intermediate Isaac is an emblem of natural virtue; the third, Jacob, of that virtue which is devoted to and derived from practice. But we must not be ignorant that each of these men was endowed with all these powers, but that each derived his name from that one which predominated in him and mastered the others; for neither is it possible for instruc- tion to be made perfect without natural endowments and practice, nor is nature able to arrive at the goal without instruction and practice, nor is practice unless it be founded on natural gifts and sound instruction.
Very appropriately, therefore, has he represented, as united by relationship, these three, which in name indeed are men, but in reality, as I have said before, virtues, nature, instruction, and practice, which men also call by another name, and entitle them the three graces (^ag/rs$), either from the fact of God having bestowed {j.iy^i^icQai) on our race those three powers, in order to produce the perfection of life, or because they themselves have bestowed themselves on the rational soul as the most glorious of gifts, so that the eternal name, as set forth in the scriptures, may not be used in conjunction with three men, but rather with the aforesaid powers; for the nature of mankind is mortal, but that of the virtues is im- mortal; and it is more reasonable that the name of the ever- lasting God should be conjoined with what is immortal than with what is mortal, since what is immortal is akin to what is imperishable, but death is hostile to it.
XII. We must, however, not remain in ignorance that the sacred historian has represented the first man, him who was formed out of the earth as the father of all those who existed before the deluge; and him who, with his whole familv, was 408 PHTLO JUD/EUS.
408 PHTLO JUD/EUS.
the only person left out of so universal a destruction, because of his justice and his other excellencies and virtues, as the founder of the new race of men which was to flourish hereafter. And that venerable, and estimable, and glorious triad is compre- hended by the sacred scriptures under one class, and called, "A royal priesthood, and a holy nation."* And its name shows its power; for the nation is further called, in the lan- guage of the Hebrews, Israel, which name being interpreted means, " seeing God."
But of sight, that which is exercised by means of the eyes is the most excellent of all the outward senses, since by that alone all the most beautiful of existing things are compre- hended, the sun and the moon, and the whole heaven, and the whole world; but the sight of the soul which is exercised, through the medium of its dominant part excels all the other powers of the soul, as much as the powers of the soul excel all other powers; and this is prudence, which is the sight of the mind. But he to whose lot it falls, not only by means of his knowledge, to comprehend all the other things which exist in nature, but also to behold the Father and Creator of the universe, has advanced to the very summit of happiness. For there is nothing above God; and if any one, directing towards him the eye of the soul, has reached up to him, let him then pray for ability to remain and to stand firm before him; for the roads which lead upwards to him are laborious and slow, but the descent down the declivity, being rather like a rapid dragging down than a gradual descent, is swift and easy. And there are many things urged downwards, in which there is no use whatever, when God having made the soul to depend on his own powers, drags it up towards himself with a more vigorous attraction.
XIII. Let thus much, then, be said generally about the three persons, since it was absolutely necessary; but we must now proceed in regular order, to speak of those qualities in which each separate individual surpasses the others, beginning with him who is first mentioned. Now he, being an admirer of piety, the highest and greatest of all virtues, laboured earnestly to follow God, and to be obedient to the injunctions delivered by him, looking not only on those things as his com- mands which were signified to him by words and facts, but * Exodus xix. 6.
ON ABRAHAM. 409 those also which were indicated by more express signs through I the medium of nature, and which the truest of the outward senses comprehends before the uncertain and untrustworthy , hearing can do so; for if any one observes the arrangement which exists in nature, and the constitution according to which . the world goes on, which is more excellent than any kind of ; reasoning, he learns, even though no one speaks to him, to i study a course of life consistent with law and peace, looking to ; the example of good men. But the most manifest demon- strations of peace are those which the scriptures contain; and we must mention the first which also occurs the first in the order in which they are set down.
XIV. He being impressed by an oracle by which he was i commanded to leave his country, and his kindred, and his father's house, and to emigrate like a man returning from a : foreign land to his own country, and not like one who was about to set out from his own land to settle in a foreign district, hastened eagerly on, thinking to do with promptness what he was commanded to do was equivalant to perfecting ' the matter. And yet who else was it likely would be so undeviating and unchangeable as not to be won over by and as * not to yield to the charms of one's relations and one's country?
I The love for which has in a manner — " Grown with the growth and strengthened with the strength," of every individual, and even more, or at all events not less than the limbs united to the body have done.
And we have witnesses of this in the lawgivers who have enacted the second punishment next to death, namely, banish Iment, against those who are convicted of the most atrocious crimes: a punishment which indeed is not second to any, as it lappears to me, if truth be the judge, but which is, in fact, -much more grievous than death, since death is the end of all : misfortunes, but banishment is not the end but the beginning of new calamities, inflicting instead of our death unaccompanied Iby pain ten thousand deaths with acute sensation.
Some men also, being engaged in traffic, do out of desire for gain sail over the sea, or being employed in some embassy, or being led by a desire to see the sights of foreign countries, or by a love for instruction, having various motives which attract them outwards and prevent their remaining where they are, 410 PHILO JUD.EUS.
some being led by a love of gain, others by the idea of 1 able to benefit their native city at its time of need in the n necessary and important particulars, others seeking to arrive at the knowledge of matters of which before they were ignorant, a knowledge which brings, at the same time, both delight and advantage to the soul. For men who have never travelled are to those who have, as blind men are to those who see clearly, are nevertheless anxious to behold their father's threshold and to salute it, and to embrace their acquaintances, and to enjov the most delightful and wished-for sight of their relations and friends; and very often, seeing the affairs, for the sake o: which they left their country, protracted, they have abandonee them, being influenced by that most powerful feeling of longing for a union with their kindred.
But this man with a very few companions, or perhaps 1 might say by himself, as soon as he was commanded to do so left his home, and set out on an expedition to a foreign countn in his soul even before he started with his body, his regard fo mortal things being overpowered by his love for heavenly things Therefore giving no consideration to anything whatever, neithe to the men of his tribe, nor to those of his borough, nor to hi fellow disciples, nor to his companions, nor to those of his bloo< as sprung from the same father or the same mother, nor to hi country, nor to his ancient habits, nor to the customs in whic' he had been brought up, nor to his mode of life and his mate< every one of which things has a seductive and almost irresist ible attraction and power, he departed as speedily as possibh yielding to a free and unrestrained impulse, and first of a] he quitted the land of the Chaldaeans, a prosperous distrir and one which was greatly flourishing at that period, and wei: into the land of Charran, and from that, after no very distar interval, he departed to another place, which we will speak ( hereafter, when we have first discussedt he country of Charrai XV. The aforesaid emigrations, if one is to be guided b the literal expressions of the scripture, were performed by wise man; but if we look to the laws of allegory, by a soi devoted to virtue and busied in the search after the true Go< For the Chaldaeans were, above all nations, addicted to tl study of astronomy, and attributed all events to the motioi of the stars, by which they fancied that all the things in tl world were regulated, and accordingly they magnified tl ON ABRAHAM. 41] visible essence by the powers which numbers and the analogies of numbers contain, taking no account of the invisible essence appreciable only by the intellect. But while they were busied in investigating the arrangement existing in them with refer- ence to the periodical revolutions of the sun, and moon, and the other planets, and fixed-stars, and the changes of the seasons of the year, and the sympathy of the heavenly bodies with the things of earth, they were led to imagine that the world itself was God, in their impious philosophy comparing the creature to the Creator.
The man who had been bred up in this doctrine, and who for a long time had studied the philosophy of the Chaldaeans, as if suddenly awakening from a deep slumber and opening the eye of the soul, and beginning to perceive a pure ray of light instead of profound darkness, followed the light, and saw what he had never seen before, a certain governor and director of the world standing above it, and guiding his own work in a salutary manner, and exerting his care and power in behalf of all those parts of it which are worthy of divine superin- tendence.
In order, therefore, that he may the more firmly establish the sight which has thus been presented to him in his mind, the sacred word says to him, My good friend, great things are often* made known by slight outlines, at which he who looks increases his imagination to an unlimited extent; therefore, having dismissed those who bend all their attention to the heavenly bodies, and discarding the Chaldeean science, rise up and depart for a short time from the greatest of cities, this world, to one which is smaller; for so you will be the better able to comprehend the nature of the Ruler of the universe.
It is for this reason that Abraham is said to have made his first migration from the country of the Chaldacans into the land of Charran.
XVI. But Charran, in the Greek language, means " holes," which is a figurative emblem of the regions of our outward senses; by means of which, as by holes, each of those senses is able to look out so as to comprehend the objects which belong to it. But, some one may say, what is the use of these holes, unless the invisible mind, like the exhibition of a puppet show, does from within prompt its own powers, which at one time losing and allowing to roam, and at another time holding Uick and restraining by force? He gives sometimes an harmo- 412 PHILO JUDi£US.
412 PHILO JUDi£US.
nious motion, and sometimes perfect quiet to his puppets. And having this example at home, you will easily comprehend that being, the understanding of whom you are so anxious to arrive at; unless, indeed, you fancy that the world is situated in you as the dominant part of you, which the whole common powers of the body obey, and which each of the outward senses fol- lows; but that the world, the most beautiful, and greatest, and most perfect of works, of which everything else is but a part, is destitute of any king to hold it together, and to regulate it, and govern it in accordance with justice.
And if it he invisible, wonder not at that, for neither can the mind which is in thee be perceived by the sight. Any one who considers this, deriving his proofs not from a distance but close at hand, both from himself and from the circumstances around him, will clearly see that the world is not the first God, but that it is the work of the first God and Father of all things, who, being himself invisible, displays every thing, showing the nature of all things both small and great. For he has not chosen to be beheld by the eyes of the body, perhaps because it was not consistent with holiness for what is mortal to touch what is everlasting, or perhaps because of the weakness of oui sight; for it would never have been able to stand the rays which are poured forth from the living God, since it cannoi even look straight at the rays of the sun.
XVII. And the most visible proof of this migratior in which the mind quitted astronomy and the doctrines o the Chaldaeans, is this. For it is said in the scripture; that the very moment that the wise man quitted his abode " God appeared unto Abraham,"* to whom, therefore, i is plain that he was not visible before, when he was adher ing to the studies of the Chaldaeans, and attending to tin motions of the stars, not properly comprehending any natur whatever, which was well arranged and appreciable by th< intellect only, apart from the world and the« essence perceptibl by the outward senses. But after he changed his abode ani went into another country he learnt of necessity that the worl was subject, and not independent; not an absolute ruler, bu governed by the great cause of* all LUIlJUSjwijohad created ii whom the mind then for the ft'^Hn^l^^SjiWHmd saw; fc previously a great mist was skelT over it l^tb$^^j^ts of tb ' FAK\ ON ABRAHAM. 413 external senses, which she, having dissipated by fervent and vivid doctrines, was scarcely able, as if in clear fine weather, to perceive him who had previously been concealed and invisible.
But he, by reason of his love for mankind, did not reject the soul which came to him, but went forward to meet it, and I showed to it his own nature as far as it was possible that he who was looking at it could see it. For which reason it is said, not that the wise man saw God but that God appeared to I the wise man; for it was impossible for any one to comprehend by his own unassisted power the true living God, unless he i himself displayed and revealed himself to him.