for his advance to battle puts an end to war, builds up peace again, overthrows numbers of long-accustomed evils, preserves the scanty race which loves God, to whom every one who be- comes subject hates and abominates the ranks of the more earthly armies.
* Deut. vii. 7. t Exodus xxiii. 2. t Deut. xx 1.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. 57 XII. "For," says Moses, " you shall not eat those animals which have a multitude of feet, being numbered among all the reptiles that are upon the earth; because they are an abomina- tion."* But the soul is not deserving of being hated which goes upon the earth in one part of itself, but only that which does so with all or with the greatest proportion of its parts, and which is exceedingly greedy about the things of the body, and which, in short, is unable to penetrate into and contem- plate the divine revolutions of the heaven. And, moreover, as the animal with many feet is accursed among reptiles, so also is that which has no feet at all; the one for the cause already mentioned, and the other because it entirely falls upon the ground in all its parts, not being supported off the ground by anything, not even for the briefest minute.
For Moses says that, " Everything which goes upon its belly is unclean;"f meaning, under this figurative expression, to point out those who pursue the pleasures of the belly. But some going far beyond these persons in wickedness, not only indulge in every description of desire, but also acquire that passion which is akin to desire, namely, anger, wishing to excite the whole of the irrational part of the soul and to destroy the mind. For what has been said in words, indeed, is appli cable to the serpent, but in reality it is meant to apply to every man who is irrational and a slave to his passions, being truly a divine oracle, " Upon thy breast and upon thy belly shalt thou go;"| for anger has its abode about the breast, and the seat of desire is in the belly. But the foolish man proceeds always by means of the two passions together, both anger and desire, omitting no opportunity, and discarding reason as his pilot and judge.
But the man who is contrary to him has extirpated anger and desire from his nature, and has enlisted himself under divine reason as his guide; as also Moses, that faithful servant of God, did. Who, when he is offering the burnt offerings of the soul, " washes out the belly;'*§ that is to say, he washes out the whole seat of desires, and he takes away " the breast of the ram of the consecration;" || that is to say, the whole of the war- like disposition, that so the remainder, the better portion of the soul, the rational part, having no longer anything to draw * Leviticus xi. 42. t Leviticus xi. 43. $ Genesis iiL 14.
§ Exodus xxix. 20". || Leviticus viii. 29.
68 PHILO JUDiEUS.
it in a different direction or to counteract its natural impulses, may indulge its own free and noble inclinations towards every- thing that is beautiful; for, in this way, it will improve both in quantity and in magnitude. For it is said, " How long shall this people exasperate me? and till what time will they refuse to believe me in all the signs which I have done among them? I will smite them with death and I will destroy them, and I will make thee and thy father's house into a mighty nation, greater and mightier than this."* For when the great multitude of the passions which indulge in anger and desire in the soul is put to the rout, then imme- diately those affections which depend on its rational nature rise up and become brilliant; for as the reptile with many feet and that with no feet at all, though they are exactly opposite to one another in the race of reptiles, are both pronounced un- clean, so also the opinion which denies any God, and that which worships a multitude of Gods, though quite opposite in the soul, are both profane. And a proof of this is that the law banishes them both "from the sacred assembly,"*)- forbidding the atheistical opinion, as a eunuch and mutilated person, to come into the assembly; and the polytheistic, inasmuch as it prohibits any one born of a harlot from either hearing or speak- ing in the assembly. For he w7ho worships no God at all is barren, and he who worships a multitude is the son of a harlot, who is in a state of blindness as to his true father, and who on this account is figuratively spoken of as having many fathers, instead of one.
XIII. There have now been two gifts of God already men- tioned: the hope of a life devoted to contemplation, and an improvement in good things in respect both of quantity and of magnitude. The third gift is blessing, without which it is not possible that the graces already mentioned can be confirmed; for the scripture says, "And I will bless thee;" that is to say, I will give thee a word which shall be praised; for the portion gy (in iv\oyri<ru, I will bless), is always applicable to virtue. And of speech, one kind is like a spring and another kind is like a stream; that which is in the mind being like the spring, and the utterance through the medium of the mouth and tongue resembling a stream. And it is great riches for either species of speech to be improved, for the mind to be so by exerting * Numbers xiv. 11. t Deuteronomy xxiii. 2.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. 59 soundness of reason in everything, whether important or unim- portant, or for the utterance to be so when under the guidance of right instruction; for many men think, indeed, most excel- lently, but are betrayed by a bad interpreter, namely, speech, because they have not throughly worked up the whole course of encyclical instruction. Others, again, have been exceedingly skilful in explaining their ideas, but very bad hands at forming intentions, as, for instance, those who are called sophists, for the mind of these sophists is destitute of all harmony and of all real learning; but their speeches, which are uttered by the organs of their voice, are full of music and beauty.
But God gives no imperfect gifts to his subjects, but all his presents are complete and perfect. On which account he now dispenses blessing not to one section only, that of speech, but to both portions; thinking it proper that the man who has re- ceived a benefit should also conceive the most excellent notions, and should also be able to explain what he has conceived in a powerful manner; for perfection, as it seems, consists in the two points, of being able to form clear and just conceptions and intentions, and also of being able to interpret them correctly. Do you not see that Abel (and the name Abel is the name of one who mourns over mortal things, and attributes happiness to immortal things), has a mind wholly free from all liability to reproach? And yet, from not being practised in discussions, he is defeated by one who is clever as an antagonist in such things, Cain being able to get the better of him more through superiority of skill than of strength; for which reason, though I admire him on account of the good fortune with which he was endowed by nature, I nevertheless blame the disposition in him that, when he was challenged to a contest of discussion, he came forward to contend, when he ought to have abided by his usual tranquillity, discarding all love for contention. But if hr was determined by all means to enter into such a contest, then still he ought not to have engaged in it until he had sufficiently practised himself in the exercises of the art; for men who have been long versed in political strife are usually accus- tomed to get the better of men of uncultivated acuteness.
XIV. For this reason also the all-accomplished Moses deprecates coming to a consideration of reasonable looking and plausible arguments, from the time that God began to causo the light of truth to shine upon him; through the 00 rUILO JUDiEUS.
immortal words of his knowledge and wisdom. But he is not the less led on to the contemplation of these arguments, not for the sake of becoming skilful in many things (for the contemplation of God himself and of his most sacred powers, are quite sufficient fur a man who is fond of contemplation), but with a view to get the better of the sophists in Egypt, where fabulous and plausible inventions are looked upon as entitled to higher honour than a clear statement of truth.
When, therefore, the mind walks abroad among the affairs of the ruler of the universe, it requires nothing further as an object of contemplation, since the mind alone is the most piercing of all eyes as applied to the objects of the intellect; but when it is directed towards those things which are properly objects of the outward senses, or to any passion, or substance, of which the land of Egypt is the emblem, then it will have need of skill and power in argument. On which account Moses is directed also to take Aaron with him as an addition, Aaron being the symbol of uttered speech, "Behold," says God, "is not Aaron thy brother?"* For one rational nature being the mother of them both, it follows of course that the offspring are brothers, "I know that he will speak." For it is the office of the mind to comprehend, and of utterance to speak. "He," says God, ''will speak for thee." For the mind not being able to give an adequate exposition of the part which is assigned to it, uses its neighbour speech as an interpreter, for the purpose of explaining what it feels.
Presently he further adds, " Behold he will come to meet thee," since in truth speech when it meets the conceptions, and embodies them in words, and names stamps what had before no impression on it, so as to make it current coin. And further on he says, "And when he seeth thee he will rejoice in himself;" for speech rejoices and exults when the conception is not indistinct, because it being clear and evident employs speech as an unerring and fluent expositor of itself, having a full supply of appropriate and felicitous expressions full of abundant distinctness and intelligibility.
XV. At all events when the conceptions are at all indistinct and ambiguous, speech is the treading as it were on empty air, and often stumbles and meets with a severe fall, so as never to be able to rise again. " And thou shalt speak to * Exodus iv. 11.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. 61 him, and thou shalt give my words into his mouth," which is equivalent to, Thou shalt suggest to him conceptions which are in no respect different from divine language and divine arguments. For without some one to offer suggestions, speech will not speak; and the mind is what suggests to speech, as God suggests to the mind. "And he shall speak for thee to the people, and he shall be thy mouth, and thou shalt be to him as God. " And there is a most emphatic meaning in the expression, " He shall speak for thee, " that is to say, He shall interpret thy conceptions, and "He shall be thy mouth." For the stream of speech being borne through the tongue and mouth conveys the conceptions abroad. But speech is the interpreter of the mind to men, while again mind is by means of speech the interpreter to God; but these thoughts are those of which God alone is the overseer.
Therefore it is necessary for any one who is about to enter into a contest of sophistry, to pay attention to all his words with such vigorous earnestness, that he may not only be able to escape from the manoeuvres of his adversaries, but may also in his turn attack them, and get the better of them, both in skill and in power. Do you not see that conjurors and enchanters, who attempting to contend against the divine word with their sophistries, and who daring to endeavour to do other things of a similar kind, labour not so much to display their own knowledge, as to tear to pieces and turn into ridicule what was done? * For they even transform their rods into the nature of serpents, and change water into the complexion of blood, and by their incantations they attract the remainder of the frogs to the land, and, like miserable men as they are, thej increase everything for their own destruction, and while thinking to deceive others they are deceived themselves. And how was it possible for Moses to encounter such men as these unless he had prepared speech, the interpreter of his mind, namely Aaron? who now indeed is called his mouth; but in a subsequent passage we shall find that he is called a prophet, when also the mind, being under the influence of divine inspiration, is called God.
" For," says God, " I give thee as a God to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet, "f 0 the harmonious and well- organised consequence! For that which interprets * Exodus vii. 12. t Exodus vii. 1.
62 PIIILO JUDiEUS.
the will of God is the prophetical race, being under the influence of divine possession and frenzy. Therefore " the rod of Aaron swallowed up their rods,"* as the holy scripture tells us. For all sophistical reasons are swallowed up and destroyed by the varied skilfulness of nature; so that they are forced to confess that what is done is "the finger of God,"f an expression equivalent to confessing the truth of the divine scripture which asserts that sophistry is always subdued by wisdom. For the sacred account tells us that "the tables" on which the commandments were engraved as on a pillar, "were also written by the finger of God. "{ On which account the con- jurors were not able to stand before Moses, but fell down as in a wrestling match, being overcome by the superior strength of their antagonist.
XVI. What then is the fourth gift? The having a great name, for God says, "I will magnify thy name;"§ and the meaning of this, as it appears to me, is as follows; as to be good is honourable, so also to appear to be so is advantageous. And truth is better than appearance, but perfect happiness is when the two are combined. For there are great numbers of people who apply themselves to virtue in genuine honesty and sincerity, and who admire its genuine beauty, having no regard to the reputation which they may have with the multitude, and who in consequence have been plotted against, being thought wicked though in reality they are good. And indeed there is no advantage whatever in seeming, unless being has also been added long before, as is the case with respect to bodies; for if all men were to fancy that one who was labouring under a disease was in good health, or that one in good health was labouring under a disease, still their opinion would not of itself create either disease or good health. But the man to whom God has given both things, namely both to be good and virtuous and also to appear so, that man is truly happy, and has a name which is really magnified. And one must have a prudent regard for a good reputation as a thing of great importance, and one which greatly benefits the life which is dependent -on the body. And it falls to the lot of every one who, rejoicing with contentment, changes none of the * Exodus vii. 12. + Exodus viii 19.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. C3 existing laws, but zealously preserves the constitution of his native land.
For there are some men, who, looking upon written laws as symbols of things appreciable by the intellect, have studied some things with superfluous accuracy, and have treated others with neglectful indifference; whom I should blame for their levity; for they ought to attend to both classes of things, applying themselves both to an accurate investigation of invisible things, and also to an irreproachable observance of those laws which are notorious. But now men living solitarily by themselves as if they were in a desert, or else as if they were mere souls unconnected with the body, and as if they had no knowledge of any city, or village, or house, or in short of any company of men whatever, overlook what appears to the many to be true, and seek for plain naked truth by itself, whom the sacred scripture teaches not to neglect a good reputation, and not to break through any established customs which divine men of greater wisdom than any in our time have enacted or established. For although the seventh day is a lesson to teach us the power which exists in the uncreated God, and also that the creature is entitled to rest from his labours, it does not follow that on that account we may abrogate the laws which are established respecting it, so as to light a fire, or till land, or carry burdens, or bring accusations, or conduct suits at law, or demand a restoration, of a deposit, or exact the repayment of a debt, or do any other of the things which are usually permitted at times which are not days of festival. Nor does it follow, because the feast is the symbol of the joy of the soul and of its gratitude towards God, that we are to repudiate the assemblies ordained at the periodical seasons of the year; nor because the rite of circumcision is an emblem of the excision of pleasures and of all the passions, and of the destruction of that impious opinion, according to which the mind has imagined itself to be by itself competent to produce offspring, does it follow that we are to annul the law which has been enacted about circumcision. Since we shall neglect the laws about the due observance of the ceremonies in the temple, and numbers of others too, if we exclude all figurative interpretation and attend only to those things which are expressly ordained in plain words.
But it is right to think that this class of things resembles 64 PIIILO JUD^US the body, and the other class the soul; therefore, just as we take care of the body because it is the abode of the soul, so also must we take care of the laws that are enacted in plain terms: for while they are regarded, those other things also will be more clearly understood, of which these laws are the symbols, and in the same way one will escape blame and accu- sation from men in general. Do you not see that Abraham also says, that both small and great blessings fell to the share of the wise man, and he calls the great things, " all that he had," and his possessions, which it is allowed to the legitimate son alone to receive as his inheritance; but the small things he calls gifts, of which the illegitimate children and those born of concubines, are also accounted worthy. The one, therefore, resemble those laws which are natural, and the other those which derive their origin from human enactment.
XVII. I also admire Leah, that woman endued with all virtue, who, at the birth of Asher, who is the symbol of that bastard wealth, which is perceptible by the outward senses, says, " Blessed am I, because all women shall call me happy."* For she sees plainly that she will have a favourable reputation, thinking that she deserves to be praised, not only by those reasonings which are really masculine and manly, which have a nature free from all spot and stain, and which honour that which is really honest and incorrupt, but also by those more feminine reasonings which are in every respect overcome by those things which are visible, and which are unable to com- prehend any object of contemplation which is beyond them. But it is the part of a perfect soul to set up a claim, not only to be, but also to appear to be, and, to labour earnestly not merely to have a good reputation in the houses of the men, but also in the secret chambers of the women.
On which account Moses also committed the preparation of the sacred works of the tabernacle not only to men, but also to women, who were to aid in making them; for all " the woven works of hyacinthine colour, and of purple and of scarlet work, and of fine linen, and of goats' hair, do the women make;" and they also contribute their own ornaments without hesi- tation, " seals, and ear-rings, and finger-rings, and armlets, and tablets, all jewels of gold,"t — everything, in short, of which gold was the material, gladly giving up the ornaments of their • Genesis xxx. 13. t Exodus xxxv. 22.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. 65 person in exchange for piety; and, moreover, carrying their zeal to a still higher degree, they likewise consecrated even their mirrors, that a laver might be made of them,"* in order that those who were about to assist at the sacrifices, washing their hands and their feet, that is to say, those works about which the mind is occupied and on which it is fixed, may have a view of themselves in a mirror according to the recollection of those mirrors of which the laver was made; for in this way they will never permit anything disgraceful to remain in any portion of the soul. And now they will dedicate the offering of fasting and patience, the most beautiful and sacred, and perfect of offerings.
But these real citizens and virtuous women are really as it were the outward senses, by whom Leah, that is virtue, desires to be honoured. But they who kindle an additional tire against the miserable mind are destitute of any city. For we read in the scripture that even, " women still burnt additional fire to Moab."f But may we not in this way say that so each of the outward senses of the foolish man when set on fire by the appropriate objects of outward sense, does also set fire to the mind, spreading over it an exceeding and interminable flame with irresistible vigour and impetuosity. At all events it is best to propitiate the array of women, that is to say, of the outward senses in the soul, just as it is desirable to do so with respect to the men, that is to say, with respect to the particular reasonings. For in this manner we shall arrange a more excellent system of life in a very beautiful manner.
XVIII. On this account also the self-instructed Isaac prays to the lover of wisdom, that he may be able to comprehend both those good things which are perceptible by the outward senses, and those which are appreciable only by the intellect. For he says, " May God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, "J a prayer equivalent, to May he in the first place pour upon thee a continual and heavenly rain appre- ciable by the intellect, not violently so as to wash thee away, but mildly and gently like dew, so as to benefit thee. And in the second place, may he bestow upon thee that earthly wealth which is perceptible by the outward senses, fat and fertile, having drained off its opposite, namely poverty, from the soul and from all its parts.
• Exodus xxxviii. 8. + Numbers xxi. 30. + Genesis xxvii. 2$ VOL. II. G 60 PHILO JUD/EUS.
But if you examine the great high priest, that is to say reason, you will find him entertaining ideas in harmony with these, and having his sacred garments richly embroidered by all the powers which are comprehensible either by the outward senses or by the intellect; the other portion of which clothing would require a more prolix explanation than is practicable on the present occasion, and we must pass it by for the present. But the extreme portions, those namely at the head and at the feet, we will examine, There is then on the head " a golden leaf,"* pure, having on it the impression of a seal, " Holiness to the Lord." And on the feet there are, " on the fringe of the inner garment, bells and small flowerets. "f But this seal is an idea of ideas, according to which God fashioned the world, being an incor- poreal idea, comprehensible only by the intellect. And the flowerets and the bells are symbols of distinctive qualities perceptible by the outward senses; of which the facul- ties of hearing and of seeing are the judges. And he adds, with exceeding accuracy of investigation, " The voice of him shall be heard as he enters into the holy place," in order that wdien the soul enters into the places appreciable by theintel- lect, and divine, and truly holy, the very outward senses may likewise be benefited, and may sound in unison, in accordance with virtue; and our whole system, like a melodious chorus of many men, may sing in concert one well-harmonised melody composed of different sounds well combined, the thoughts in- spiring the leading notes (for the objects of intellect are the leaders of the chorus); and the objects of the external senses, singing in melodies, accord the symphonies which follow, which are compared to individual members of the chorus.