For, in short, as the law says, it was not right for the soul to be deprived of " its necessaries, and its garments, and its place of abode," J these three things; but it ought rather to have had each of them allotted to it in a durable manner. Now the necessaries of the soul are those good things which are perceptible only by the intellect, which ought, and indeed are bound by the law of nature, to be attached to it; and the clothing means those things which relate to the exterior and visible ornament of human life; and the place of abode is continued diligence and care respecting each of the species * Exodus xxviii. 36. + Exodus xxviii. 34. X Exodus xxi. 10.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. 67 before mentioned, in order that the objects of the outward senses may appear as the invisible objects of the intellect do J»l80.
XIX. There is, also, a fifth gift, which consists only in the bare fact of existence; and it is mentioned after all the pre- vious ones, not because it is inferior to them, but rather because it overtops and excels them all; for what can be a greater blessing than to be formed by nature, and to be, without any hood or fictitious pretence, really good and worthy of the most perfect praise? " For," says God, " thou shalt be blessed"* (svKoyTjrbg); not merely a person who is blessed (svXoyripsvog), for this latter fact is estimated by the opinions and report of the multitude, but the other depends on a person being, in real truth, deserving of blessings; for as the being praiseworthy (rb evcuverbv thou) differs from being praised, being superior to it; and as the being blameworthy differs from being blamed, in being worse; for the one depends upon a person's natural character, while the other is affirmed only with refer- ence to his being considered such and such. And real genuine nature is a more reliable thing than opinion; so, also, to be blessed by men, that is to say, to be celebrated by their praises and benedictions, is of less value than to be formed by nature so as to be worthy of blessing, even though all men should be silent respecting one, and this last is what is meant in the scriptures by the term blessed (tuXoyrirbg).
XX. These are the good things which are given to him who is about to be wise. But let us now examine what God, for the sake of the wise man, bestows on the rest of mankind also. He says, " I will bless those who bless thee, and curse those who curse thee."t Now that this is said by way of doing honour to the good man, is plain to every one. And this, too, is not the only reason why it is said, but it is said also on account of the harmonious consequence which exists in things; for he who praises a good man is himself worthy of encomium, and he who blames him is, on the other hand, deserving of blame. But it is not so much the power of those who utter or who write praise or blame that is trusted to, as the real character of what is due; so that those persons would not really appear to praise or to blame at all who, in either case, adopt or intro- duce any falsehood of their own. Do you not see flatterers who, * Genesis xii. 2. t Genesis xii. 3.
day and night, weary and annoy the ears of those to whom they address their flatteries, and who not only nod assent to every word that they say, but who also string together long sentences, and connect rhapsodies, and often pray to them with their mouths, but who are continually cursing them in their hearts? What, then, would any one in his senses say? Would he not pronounce that those who speak thus are, in reality, enemies rather than friends, and do in reality blame them rather than praise them, even if they put together whole dramas full of panegyric and sing them in their honour?
Therefore, the vain Balaam, although he sang hymns of exceeding sublimity to God, among which, also, is that one beginning, " God is not as a man,"* the most beautiful of all songs, and who uttered panegyrics on the seeing multitude, Israel, going through a countless body of particulars, is rightly judged by the wise lawgiver to have been an impious man and accursed, and to have been cursing rather than blessing; for he says that he was hired for money by the enemy, and so be- came an evil prophet of evil things, bearing in his soul most bitter curses against the God loving nature, but being com- pelled to utter prophetically with his mouth and tongue the most exquisite and sublime prayers in their favour; for the things that he said, being very excellent, were, in fact, suggested by the God who loves virtue; but the curses which he conceived in his mind (for they were wicked) were the offspring of his mind, which hated virtue.
And the sacred scripture bears testimony to this fact; for it says, " God did not grant to Balaam leave to curse thee, but turned his curses into blessing;"! though, in fact, all the words that he uttered were full of good omen. But he who looks into all that is laid up in the recesses of the heart, and who alone has the power to see those things which are invisible to created beings, from these secret things has passed a con- demnatory decree, being in his own person at once the most indubitable of witnesses and the most incorruptible of judges, since even the contrary thing is praised, namely, for a man who appears to calumniate and to accuse with his mouth, in his heart to be blessing, and praising, and speaking words of good omen. This, as it would seem, is the custom of those who correct youth, and of preceptors, and of parents, and of * Numbers xxiii. 19. t Deuteronomy xxiii. 5.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. 69 elders, and of rulers, and of laws; for they, at times, do each of them reprove and punish, and by these means render the souls of those who are under their instruction better. And of these men no one is an enemy to his pupil, but they are all of them friendly to all of them; but it is the office of friends who have a genuine and unalloyed good will to others to speak freely, without any unfriendly purpose.
Therefore, as far as blessings, and praises, and prayers, or, on the other hand, reproaches and curses are concerned, one must not so much be guided by what proceeds out of the mouth by utterance, as by what is in the heart, by which, as by the original source of them all, both kinds of speeches are esti- mated.
XXL These, then, are the things which, he says, happen in the first instance to others on account of the good man, when they seek to load him with either praise or blame, or with blessings or curses. But that which comes next in order is the most important thing; that when they are silent, still no portion of the rational nature is left without a participation in the benefits; for God says that, " In thee shall all the nations of the world be blessed." And this is a promise exceedingly full of doctrine; for if the mind is always free from disease and from injury, it then exerts all the tribes of feelings which affect it, and all its powers in a state of sound health, namely, its powers of seeing and of hearing, and all those which belong to the outward senses; and, moreover, all its appetites which are conversant about pleasures and desires, and all those feel- ings likewise which being reduced from a state of agitation to one of tranquillity, receive a better character from the change. Before now, indeed, cities, and countries, and peoples, and nations of the earth, have enjoyed the greatest happiness and prosperity in consequence of the virtue and prudence of the individual; especially so when, in addition to a good disposition and wisdom, God has also given him irresistible power, as he may have given to a musician or to any artist the proper instruments for music, or for carrying out any other art, or as wood is supplied as a material for fire; for in good truth the just man is the prop of all the human race; and he, bringing all that he has into the common stock for the advantage of these who can use it, bestows his treasures ungrudgingly, and what- 70 PHILO JUDiEUS.
ever lie finds that he has not got in himself, he prays for to the only giver of all wealth, the all-bounteous God.
And God, opening the treasures of heaven, pours forth and showers down upon him all kinds of good things together; so that all the channels on earth are filled with them to over- flowing. And these blessings he at all times freely bestows, never rejecting the prayer of supplication which is addressed to him; for it is said in another passage, when Moses ad- dresses him with supplication: "I am favourable to them according to thy word."* And this expression, as it seems, is equivalent to the other: "In thee all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." On which account also the wise Abraham, who had had experience of the goodness of God in all things, believes that even if all other things are destroyed, still a small fragment of virtue would be preserved, like a spark of fire, and that for the sake of this little spark, he pities those other things also, so as to raise them up when fallen, and re- kindle them when extinct.
For even the slightest spark of fire that is still smouldering, when it is fanned and re-kindled will set fire to a large pile: and so too the smallest spark of virtue, when it beams up, being wakened into life by good hopes, gives light to what has previously been dim-sighted and blind, and causes what has been withered to shoot up again, and whatever is barren and unproductive it transforms and brings to abundance of prolific power. Thus a good, which is but rare, is, by the kindness of God, made abundant and showered upon men, making everything else to resemble itself.
XXII. Let us therefore pray that the mind may be 'in the soul like a pillar in a house, and, in like manner, that the just man may be firmly established in the human race for the relief of all diseases; for while he is in vigorous health, one must not abandon all hope of complete safety, as through the medium of him, I imagine God the Saviour extending his nil- healing medicine, that is to say, his propitious and merciful power to his suppliants and worshippers, bids them employ it for the salvation of those who are sick; spreading it like a salve over the wounds of the soul, which folly, and injustice, and all the other multitude of vices, being sharpened up, have * Numbers xiv. 20.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. 71 grievously inflicted upon it. And a most visible example of this is the righteous Noah, who, when so many portions of the soul were swallowed up in the great deluge, himself vigorously overtopped the waves and floated on their surface, and so rose above all the dangers which threatened him; and when he had escaped in safety, he sent out great and beautiful roots from himself, from which, like a tree, the whole crop of wisdom sprang up, which, bearing useful fruit, put forth the three fruits of the seeing creature, Israel, the measures of time, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
For, virtue is, and will be, and has been in everything; which virtue perhaps is at times obscured among men by the want of opportunity, but which opportunity the minister of God again brings to light. Since Sarah, that is to say, pru- dence, brings forth a male child, flourishing, not according to the periodical seasons of the year, but according to those seasons and felicitous occasions which have no connection with time; for it is said, " I will surely return and visit thee according to the time of life; and Sarah, thy wife, shall have a son/'* XXIII. We have now, then, said enough about the gifts which God is accustomed to bestow on those who are to become perfect, and through the medium of them on others also.
In the next passage it is said, that " Abraham went as the Lord commanded him."f And this is the end which is cele- brated among those who study philosophy in the best manner, namely, to live in accordance with nature. And this takes place when the mind, entering into the path of virtue, treads in the steps of right reason, and follows God, remembering his commandments, and at all times and in all places confirm- ing them both by word and deed; " for " he went as the Lord commanded him." And the meaning of this is, as God com- mands (and he commands in a beautiful and praiseworthy manner), in that very manner does the virtuous man act, guiding the path of his life iu a blameless way, so that the actions of the wise man are in no respect different from the divine commands. At all events, God is represented in another passage as saying, " Abraham has kept all my law." J And law is nothing else but the word of God, enjoining what • Genesis xviii. 10. t Genesis xii. 4. + Genesis xxvi. 5.
72 rniLO jud^eus.
72 rniLO jud^eus.
is right, and forbidding what is not right, as lie bears witness, where he says, "He received the law from his words."* If, then, the divine word is the law, and if the righteous man does the law, then by all means he also performs the the word of God. So that, as I said before, the words of God are the actions of the wise man. Accordingly, the end is according to the most holy Moses, to follow God; as he says also in another passage, " Thou shalt walk after the Lord thy God; "f not meaning that he should employ the motion of his legs; for the earth is the support of a man, but whether the whole world is sufficient to be the support of God, I do not know; but he seems here to be speaking allegorically, intend- ing to represent the way in which the soul follows the divine doctrines, which has a direct reference to the honour due to the great cause of all things.
XXIV. And he also, with a wish further to excite an irre- sistible desire of what is good, enjoins one to cleave to it; for he says, " Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve; and thou shalt cleave to him.";]; What, then, is this cleaving? What? Surely it is piety and faith; for these virtues adapt and invite the mind to incorruptible nature. For Abraham also, when he believed, is said to have " come near to God."§ If, therefore, while you are walking you are neither fatigued, so as to give way and stumble, nor are so careless as to turn to either the right hand or to the left hand, and so to stray and miss the direct road which lies between the two; but if, imitating good runners, you finish the course of life without stumbling or error, you will deservedly obtain the crown and worthy prize of victory when you have arrived at your desired end.
For is not this the crown and the prize of victoiy not to miss the proposed end of one's labours, but to arrive at that goal of prudence which is so difficult to be reached? What, then, is the object of having right wisdom? To be able to condemn one's own folly and that of every created being. For to be aware that one knows nothing is the end of all knowledge, since there is only one wise being, who is also the only God. On which account Moses very beautifully has represented the father of the universe as being also the inspector and superin- * Deut. xxxiii. 4. + Deut. xiii. 4.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. 73 , tendcnt of all that ho has created, saying, 4i God saw all that j he had made, and hehold it was very good."* For it was not I possible for any one to have an accurate view of all that had been created, except for the Creator.
Come, then, ye who are full of arrogance, and ignorance, and of exceeding insolence, ye that are wise in your own conceit, i and who say not only that ye know accurately what each thing is, but that you are also able to explain the causes why it is so, i showing daring with great rashness, as if ye had either been present at the creation of the world, and had actually seen how and from what each separate thing was made, or had been counsellors of the Creator concerning the things which were created. Come, and at once abandoning all other things, learn to know yourselves, and tell us plainly what ye yourselves are in respect of your bodies, in respect of your souls, in respect of your external senses, and in respect of your reason.
Tell us now with respect to one, and that the smallest, perhaps, of the senses, what sight is, and how it is that you see; tell us what hearing is, and how is it that you hear; tell ns what taste is, what touch is, what smell is, and how it is that you exercise the energies of each of these faculties; and what the sources of them are from which they originate. For do not tell me long stories about the moon and the sun, and all the other things in heaven and in the world, which are at such a distance from us and which are so different in their natures, empty-minded creatures that you are, before you examine into and become acquainted with yourselves; for when you have learnt to understand yourselves, then perhaps one may believe you when you enter into explanations respecting other things. But till you are able to tell what you yourselves are, do not expect ever to be looked upon as truth-telling judges or witnesses with respect to others.
XXV. Since, then, these things are in this state, the mind, when it is rendered perfect, will pay its proper tribute to the God who causes perfection, according to that most sacred scrip- ture, "For the law is, that tribute belongs to the Lord,"f When does the mind pay it? When? " On the third day it comes to the place which God has told it of,";}; having passed by the greater portions of the differences of time, and being now passing over to that nature which has no connection with • Genesis L 31. t Numbers xxxi 40. J Genesis xxii. 4.
74 PHILO JUD.EUS.
74 PHILO JUD.EUS.
time; for then it will sacrifice its beloved son, not a man (for the wise man is not a slayer of his children), but the male off- spring of a virtuously living soul, the fruit which germinates from it, as to which it knows not how it bore it, the divine shoot, which, when it appears, the soul then having appeared to be pregnant, confesses that it does not understand the good which has happened to it, saying, " Who will tell to Abraham?"* as if, in fact, he would refuse to believe about the rising up of the self-taught race, that " Sarah was suckling a child," not that the child was being suckled by Sarah. For the self-taught offspring is nourished by no one, but is itself the nourishment of others as being competent to teach, and having no need to learn; for "I have brought forth a son, " not like the Egyptian women, in the flower of my age and in the height of my bodily vigour, but like the Hebrew souls, " in my old age,"f when all the objects of the outward senses and all mortal things are faded, and when the objects of the intel- lect and immortal things are in their full vigour and worthy of all estimation and honour.
And I have brought forth, too, without requiring the aid of the midwife's skill; for we bring forth even before any skill or knowledge of man can come to us, without any of the ordi- nary means of assistance to help us, God having sown and generated an excellent offspring, which, in accordance with the law made concerning gratitude, very properly requites its creator with gratitude and honour. For, says God, " My gifts, and my offerings, and my first fruits, you have taken care to bring to me." J XXVI. This is the end of the path of those who follow the arguments and injunctions contained in the law, and who walk in the way which God leads them in; but he who falls short of this, on account of his hunger after pleasure and his greedi- ness for the indulgence of his passions, by name Amalek; § for the interpretation of the name Amalek is, " the people that licks up " shall be cut off. And the sacred scriptures teach us that this disposition is an insidious one; for when it per- ceives that the most vigorous portion of the power of the soul has passed over, then, " rising up from its ambuscade, it cuts to pieces the fatigued portion like a rearguard."
J Numbers xxviii. 2. § Deut uronorny xxv. 17.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. 75 And of fatigue there is one kind which easily succumbs through the weakness of its reason which is unable to support the labours, which are to be encountered in the cause of virtue, and so, like those who are surprised in the rearguard, it is easily overcome. But the other kind is willing to endure honourable toil, vigorously persevering in all good things, and not choosing to bear anything whatever that is bad, not even though it be ever so trifling, but rejecting it as though it were the heaviest of burdens.
On which account, the law has also, by a very felicitous appellation, called virtue Leah, which name, being interpreted, means " wearied; " for she very naturally thought the life of the wicked heavy and burdensome, and in its own nature wearisome; and did not choose even to look upon it, turning her eyes only on what is beautiful; and let the mind labour not only to follow God without any relaxation or want of vigour, but also to walk onwards by the straight path, turning to neither side, neither to the right nor yet to the left, as the earthly Edom did, seeking out of the way lurking places, at one time being full of excesses and superfluities, and at another of differences and short comings; for it is better to proceed along the middle road, which is that which is really the royal road, and which the great and only King, God, has widened to be a most suitable abode for the souls that love virtue. On which account some also of those who prosecute a gentle kind of philosophy, which is conversant chiefly about the society of mankind, have pronounced the virtues to be means, placing them on the confines between two extremes. Since, on the one hand, excessive pride, being full of much insolence is an evil, and to take up with a humble and selfabasing demeanour is to expose one's self to be trampled upon; but the mean, which is compounded of both, in a gentle manner is advantageous.
XXVII. We must also inquire what the meaning of the expression, " He went with Lot," * is. Now, the name Lot, being interpreted, means " declination;" and the mind declines or inclines, at one time rejecting what is good, and at another time what is evil. And both these declinations are often seen in one and the same thing. For there are some hesitating and wavering people who incline to both sides in turn, like a * Genesis xii. 4.
76 miLO jud^eus.
ship which is tossed about by different winds, or like the different sides of a scale, being unable to rest firmly on one thing; people whom one cannot praise even when they turn to the better side, for they are influenced by impulse, and not by deliberate meaning. Now, of these men Lot is a spectator, who Moses here says went with the lover of wisdom. But it was very well that when he began to accompany him he should unlearn ignorance, and should never again return to it. But still he goes with him, not in the hope of deriving improve- ment from an imitation of a better man, but with a view of persecuting him also with a counter attraction and allurements in an opposite direction, and of leading him where there was a chance of his falling.
And a proof of this is, that the one. having fallen back again into his ancient disease, departs, having been taken prisoner by those enemies who are in the soul; but the other, having guarded against all his designs, concealed in ambuscade, took every ima- ginable care to live at a distance from him. But the separate habitation he will arrange hereafter, but not yet. For at pre- sent, his speculations, as would be likely to be the case with a man who has but lately begun to apply himself to divine contem- plation, have a want of solidity and steadiness in them. But when they have become more compact, and are established on a firmer footing, then he will be able to separate from himself the alluring and flattering disposition as an irreconcileable enemy, and one difficult to subdue: for this is that disposition which attaches itself to the soul in such a manner as to be difficult to shake off, hindering it from proceeding swiftly on its progress towards virtue.
This, too, when we'leave Egypt, that is to say, the whole of the district connected with the body, being anxious to unlearn our subjection to the passions, in accordance with the language and precepts of the prophet Moses, follows us close, checking and impeding our zeal in the departure, and out of envy causing delay to the rapidity of setting forth; for it is said, " And a great mixed multitude went up with them, and sheep, and oxen, and very much cattle."* But this mixed multitude, if one is to speak the plain truth, are the cattle-like and irrational doctrines of the soul.
XXVIII. And it is with particular beauty and propriety that * Exodus xii. 38.
ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM. 77 he calls the soul of the wicked man a mixed multitude: for it is truly a company which has been collected and brought toge- ther from all quarters, and composed of a promiscuous body of numerous and antagonist opinions, being, though only one in point of number, of infinite variety by reason of its versatility and diversity; on which account, besides the word " mixed," there is also added the epithet " great:" for he who looks at one end only is truly simple, and unmixed, and plain; but he who proposes to himself many objects of life is manifold, and mixed, and rough, in real truth: on which account the sacred scrip- tures say, that that practiser of virtue, Jacob, was a smooth man, and that Esau, the practiser of what is shameful, was a hairy or rough man.
On account, then, of this mixed and rough multitude collected together from mixed opinions collected from all imaginable quarters, the mind which was able to exert great speed when it was fleeing from the country of the body, that is, from Egypt, and which was able in those days to receive the inheritance of virtue, being assisted by a threefold light, the memory of past things, the energy of present things, and the hope of the future, passed that exceeding length of time, forty years, in going up and down, and all around, wandering in every direction by reason of the diversity of manners, when it ought rather to have pro- ceeded by the straight and most advantageous way.
This is he who not only rejoiced in a few species of desire, but who also chose to pass by none whatever entirely, so that he might obtain the whole entire genus in which every species is included; for it is said that, " the mixed multitude that was among them desired all kinds of concupiscence,"* that is to say, the very genus of concupiscence itself, and not some one species; and sitting down they wept. For the mind is conscious that it is possessed of but slight power, and when it is not able to ob- tain what it desires, it weeps and groans; and yet it ought to rejoice when it fails to be able to indulge its passions, or to be- come infected with diseases, and it ought to think their want and absence a very great piece of good fortuue. But it very often happens to the followers of virtue, also, to become languid and to weep, either because they are bewailing the calamities of the foolish, on account of their participation in their common * Numbers xi. 4.
78 PHILO JUDJSU& nature, and their natural love for their race, or through excess of joy.