But if the man who has received a deposit as a sacred thing thinks that he ought to keep it without fraud, duly honouring truth and good faith, but yet others who are always plotting against their neighbours' property, such as cutpurses or housebreakers, break in treacherously and steal the deposit so entrusted, then he shall pay as a penalty double the value of what has been stolen by the thieves. And if they are not taken, then the man who received the deposit shall go of his own accord before the divine tribunal, and stretching out his hands to heaven shall swear by bis own life that he himself had no hand in the theft from any desire to appropriate what had been deposited with him, and that he did not voluntarily give it up to any one else; and that, moreover, he is not making a false statement of a robbery which has never taken place. * For it would be absurd to punish a man who has done no wrong, or for a man who had taken refuge in the assist- ance of a friend when he was being injured by others, now to become the cause of injury to that friend.
And deposits consist not only of inanimate things but also of animals: the danger of which last is twofold; first, that while they share in common with inanimate things in being liable to be stolen, and also one which is distinct and peculiar to themselves, that they are liable to die. We have hitherto been speaking only of the first kind of deposit, but we must now also explain the law about the second.
If now any cattle which have been entrusted as a deposit die, then he who has received the deposit shall send for him who committed it to him, and show him the matter, protect- ing himself from any evil suspicion; but if the depositor be absent, then it is not proper to send for any one else, whose notice perhaps the depositor might have been desirous to escape; but when the depositor returns home, his friend shall swear to him that he has not been concealing any * Exodus xxii. 7 364 PHILO JUDiEUS.
364 PHILO JUDiEUS.
unjust appropriation of the animals by a false statement of their death. And if any one receives anything not as a deposit, but because he has borrowed it to use, whether it is a vessel or an animal; then if he be robbed of it, whichever it may be, or if the animal die, while the man who lent it is living with the borrower, the borrower shall not be liable, as the owner himself can be brought as a witness that there is no false pretence in the business; but if the lender be not with him at the time, he shall pay the value. Why so P because it 'is possible that the man who used the animal when the owner was not present may have either worn him out by continual labour so as to kill him, or may have worn out the vessel, from not taking any care of the property of another of which he ought to have been careful, and to have put it away, and not to have given thieves an easy oppor- tunity of stealing it.
But as our lawgiver was acute beyond all other men at discerning the consequences of actions, he proceeds to enact a series of prohibitions, one after another, preserving a due connection between them, and taking care that his later commandments shall be consistent with his earlier ones. And with this harmonious connection of what was to be said by him, he tells us that he was divinely inspired by the person of God speaking to him in this manner: — " Ye shall not steal.
" Ye shall not speak falsely, and bring false accusations against your neighbour.
"And ye shall not swear by my name to compass an unjust end, and ye shall not profane my name."* These injunctions are given with great beauty and very instructively; for the thief being convicted by his own con- science denies and speaks falsely, fearing the punishment which would ensue upon his confession. And he who denies an action seeks to attach the imputation to some one else, bringing a false accusation against him, and imagines devices to make his false accusation appear probable; and every false accuser is at once a perjured man, thinking but little of piety, since he has no just proofs; on which account he has recourse to what is called the inartificial mode of proof, that * Leviticus xix. 11.
ON SPECIAL LAWS. 365 by oaths, thinking that by the invocation of God he shall produce belief among those who hear him.
But let such an one know that he is ungodly and impious, inasmuch as he is defiling that which by nature is undefiled, the good and holy name of God.
THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS.* This is the ninth of the ten commandments, being the fourth in number of those in the second table; but one which is calculated to bestow ten thousand benefits on human life if it be kept, as, on the other hand, it may injure men in innumerable ways if it is neglected; for the false accuser is to be blamed, but he who bears witness to what is false is more guilty still; for the one acts only from a desire to pro- tect himself, but the other is wicked from his wish to co- operate with another in iniquity. And in the comparison of wicked men he who does wrong for his own sake is less unrighteous than he who does so for another. And every "udge looks with suspicion on an accuser, as likely to pay ut little attention to truth for the sake of coming off in safety himself, on which account the accuser stands in need of a preface to beg the attention of the hearer while he is speaking; but if the judge has no prejudice against a witness on any personal grounds he receives his evidence with a willing mind and open ears, while he is covering over those most excellent things, truth and good faith, with specious language. And the false witnesses use seductive words as a sportsman uses bait for the purpose of attaining the objects which he desires and aims at.
For which reasons, in many parts of his enactment of the law, he commands that we should not approve of any wicked man or action, t For any approbation of what is not virtuous is likely to lead to giving false evidence; since every one to whom iniquity is a disagreeable and hateful thing is a friend of truth. Now there is no great wonder in a man's having connected himself with one wicked person, who has incited him to an action resembling his own character; but it is a sign of a noble soul, and of a dispo- sition practised in manly resolutions not to follow a multitude to do evil, like a man borne down over a precipice by the * Exodus xx. 16. t Exodus xxiii. 1.
collective force of a torrent. For some people, among the multitude, think some things lawful and just, even though they be most flagitious, not judging correctly; for it is well to follow nature, but this impulse of the multitude is wholly at variance with the following of nature.
If, then, some persons, being assembled together in com- panies and numerous multitudes, attempt to make any innovations, one must not consent to them, since they are adulterating the ancient and approved coinage of the state; for one wise counsel is superior to many attempts, but ignorance, in conjunction with numbers, is a great evil; but some persons practise such an excess of wickedness that they not only accuse mortal men, but adhere and cling to their unrighteousness, so as even to raise their lies as high as heaven, and to bear their testimony against the blessed and happy nature of God.
And by these men I mean soothsayers, and diviners, and augurs, and all other persons who practise what they call divination studying, an art without any art, if one must tell the plain truth, a mere bare imitation of the real inspiration and prophetic gift; for a prophet does not utter anything whatever of his own, but is only an interpreter, another Being suggesting to him all that he utters, while he is speaking under inspiration, being in ignorance that his own reasoning powers are departed, and have quitted the citadel of his soul; while the divine spirit has entered in and taken up its abode there, and is operating upon all the organization of his voice, and making it sound to the distinct manifesta- tion of all the prophecies which he is delivering.
But all those persons who pursue the spurious and pre- tended kind of prophecy are inverting the order of truth by conjectures and guesses, perverting sincerity, and easily influencing those who are of unstable dispositions, as a violent wind, when blowing in a contrary direction, tosses about and overturns vessels without ballast, preventing them from anchoring in the safe havens of truth. For such persons think proper to say whatever they conjecture, not as if they were things which they themselves had found out, but as if they were divine oracles revealed to themselves alone, for the more complete inducement of great and numerous crowds to believe a deceit.
ON SPECIAL LAWS. 367 Such persons our lawgiver very appropriately calls false prophets, who adulterate the true prophecy, and overshadow what is genuine by their spurious devices; but in a very short time all their manoeuvres are detected, since nature does not choose to be always hidden, but, when a suitable opportunity offers, displays her own power with irresistible strength. For as in the case of eclipses of the sun the rays which have, for a brief moment, been obscured, a short time afterwards shine forth again, exhibiting an unclouded and far-seen brilliancy without anything whatever coming over the sun at all, but one unalloyed blaze beaming forth from him in a serene sky; so also, even though some persons may deliver predictions, practising a lying art of prophecy, and disguising themselves under the specious name of prophetic inspiration, falsely taking the name of God in vain, they will be easily convicted. For, again, the truth will come forth and will beam forth, shedding around a most conspicuous light, so that the falsehood which has previously overshadowed it will disappear.
Moreover there also was an excellent* commandment that Moses gave when he ordained that the judge should " not receive the testimony of one witness." t First of all, because it is possible that one person may without design- ing it have a false impression of a thing, or may be careless about it and therefore be deceived. For there are innu- merable false opinions, which frequently arise from an innumerable variety of grounds; and secondly, because it is most unjust to trust to one witness against many persons, or indeed against only one individual; in the first place, because many are more entitled to belief than one, since the one is not superior in number to many, and equality of number is inconsistent with any preponderance; for why should the judge trust a single witness, bearing testimony against another, rather than the defendant pleading in his own behalf? But, as it should seem, it is best to suspend one's opinion, where there is no deficiency and no excess to guide the judgment.
* Numbers xxxv. 30. 7- Deuteronomy xvii. 6: xix. 15.
368 PHILO JUD^US.
ON THE OFFICE AND CHAEACTEE OF A JUDGE.
I. The law thinks that all those who adhere to the sacred constitution, established by Moses, ought to be free from all unreasonable passions, and from all wickedness; and most especially ought all men to be so, who are either appointed by lot or elected to judge between others; for it is an absurdity for these men to be themselves liable to the imputation of error, who undertake to dispense justice to others, whom it becomes to give a faithful copy of the works of nature, presenting an accurate representation of a model picture; for as the power of fire which disperses warmth to all ether things which it reaches, was, long before doing so, warm as far as it was itself concerned, and as, on the contrary, the power of snow cools other things, by the fact of its being itself cooled previously, so also ought the judge to be full of pure unalloyed justice, if he is to irrigate all who come before him with justice, in order that from him, as from a sweet fountain, a wholesome spring may be afforded to all who thirst for a dispensation of good law.
And this will be the case if any one who undertakes the office of a judge looks upon it as if he were at the same time judging and being judged himself, and when he takes up the pebble with which he is to give his vote, were at the same time to take up wisdom so as not to be deceived, and justice so as to dispense to each party what they deserve, and courage so as never to yield to supplications or to feelings of compassion, so as to diminish the punish- ment due to convicted offenders; for the man who studies these virtues may reasonably be looked upon as a common benefactor, like a good pilot tranquillising the storms of affairs in such a manner as to secure the preservation and safety of those who have committed their interests to him.
II. In the first place the law enjoins the judge not to listen to vain reports.* Why is this? The law says, " My good man, let thy ears be purified." And they will be purified if they are continually washed out with a stream of * Exodus xxiii. 1.
ON SPECIAL LAWS. 369 virtuous language, never admitting the long, and false, and vain, and hackneyed protestations, so deserving to be ridi- culed, of fabulists or vain babblers, or hyperbolical exagge- rations, who make a great deal of things of no importance; and this is what is meant by the injunction not to listen to vain reports, and also by another precept in some degree consistent with the former.
For, says the lawgiver, he who attends to those who give evidence on hearsay is attending to vanity and not to sound reason; because the eyes do indeed dwell with the very things which are done, taking hold of them as one may say, and comprehending and seizing upon them in all their parts, the light co-operating with them, by means of which all things are illuminated and clearly proved; but the ears, as one of the philosophers of old has very truly said, are less trustworthy than the eyes, inasmuch as they are not themselves present at the transactions, but are attracted by words as the interpreter of facts, which are not always disposed to tell the truth; for which reasons some of the lawgivers among the Greeks, having transcribed some of the laws from the two tables of Moses, appear to have estab- lished very wise regulations, forbidding any one to mention in his testimony anything that he has heard, on the ground that it is right to look upon what a man has seen as trust- worthy, but on what he has heard as not in all respects Certain.
III. The second commandment given to a judge is not to receive gifts; * for gifts, says the law, blind the eyes that see, and pervert justice, and do not permit the mind to travel along the level road which leads to righteousness; and to receive bribes to aid in unjust actions is the action of very wicked men indeed; and even to do so for the purpose of furthering good objects is the conduct of persons who are half wicked; for there are some judges speciously disguised, half wicked, something between just and unjust, armed indeed in the cause of those who are injured, as their champions against those who injure them, but still not desirous to cause them to prevail, without deriving any advantage to themselves from their victory, * Exodus xxiii. 8. VOL. III. B B 370 PHILO JUD^US.
though they ought to prevail; but making their decision corrupt and mercenary.
Then, when any one blames them, they affirm that they have not perverted justice; for that those have been defeated who ought to have been defeated, and that those have gained their cause who ought to have got the better; alleging a most unworthy and false defence; for a righteous judge ought to exhibit two things, a judgment in strict accordance with the law, and incorruptibility; but he who is a judge for bribes, even though he decides justly, does with- out perceiving it defile a thing which is beautiful by nature.
Moreover, he also offends in two other points; in the first place, because he is accustoming himself to be covetous of money; which is the beginning of the very greatest ini- quities; and secondly, because he is injuring the man whom he ought to benefit; by making him pay a price for justice; on which account Moses has very instructively commanded, that the judge shall pursue what is righteous in a righteous manner; * intimating under this figurative expression, that it is possible to do so in an unrighteous manner, because of those men who sell just and legal decisions for money, not only in the courts of justice, but everywhere in every part of land and sea, and I had almost said in all the transactions of life.
For instance, it has happened before now, that a man who has received a deposit of small value, has given it back again when demanded, more by way of laying a snare for him who receives it back, than with any idea of serving him, in order that by showing good faith in things of small value as a bait he may cover over the look of his faithlessness in greater things, and such conduct is nothing else than pursu- ing justice in an unrighteous manner; for the restitution of what did not belong to him was just, but it was done in an unrighteous manner, inasmuch as it was only done as a bait to attract more.
And the cause of all such offences is principally the incli- nation to and the familiar habit of falsehood, which, from their very birth and swaddling clothes, their nurses and mothers, and all the whole multitude in the house, whether free-born persons or slaves, habituate them to and familia- * Deuteronomy xvi. 19.
ON SPECIAL LAWS. 371 rise them with both by words and actions, adapting it to and uniting it with their souls, as a necessary part of them by nature, though, if it had in truth been implanted in them by nature, it would have been necessary to eradicate it by instilling good habits into them instead.
And what in life is there equally beautiful with truth, which the all-wise legislator erected in the most sacred place, in that part of the dress of the chief priest, where the dominant part of the soul lies, wishing to adorn it with the most beautiful and glorious of all ornaments? And next to truth he has placed power as akin to it, which he has in this case called manifestation, being the two images of the two kinds of speech which exist in us, the secret speech and the lettered speech, for the lettered speech requires manifest- ation, by which the secret thoughts in all our hearts are made known to our neighbour, but the secret speech has need of truth for the perfection of life and actions, by means of which the road to happiness is found out.
IY. The third commandment given to a judge is to inves- tigate the transactions themselves, in preference to showing any regard to the parties to the suit; and to attempt, in every imaginable manner, to separate himself from all respect of persons; constraining himself to an ignorance and forgetfulness of all those things of which he has any knowledge or recollection; such as relations, friends, coun- trymen or foreigners, enemies or "hereditary connections, so that neither affection nor hatred may overshadow his know- ledge of justice; for he must stumble like a blind man, who is advancing without a staff, and who has no one to guide him in whom he can rely firmly.
Eor which reason it is fitting that a righteous judge should have it even concealed from him who the parties to the suit are, and that he should look at the undisguised, simple nature of the transactions themselves; so as not to be liable to judge in accordance with random opinion, but according to real truth, and to be guided by such an opinion as this, that judgment is of God;* and that the judge is the minister jand steward of his judgment; and a steward is not allowed to give away the things of his master, as he has received as a pledge the most excellent of all the things * Deuteronomy i. ] 7. B B 2 372 PHILO JUD.EUS.
which exist in human life, from the most excellent of all beings.
V. And in addition to what has already been said, there is another most admirable precept given which enjoins the judge " not to show pity upon the poor man in his judg- ment."* "While in other precepts the lawgiver has filled nearly the whole of the law with precepts of mercy and humanity, and has uttered great threats against arrogant and insolent men, and has proposed great rewards for those who endeavour to make amends for the misfortunes of their neighbours, and who look upon their superfluities not as their own exclusive possessions, but as the common property of every one in want; for it was a felicitous and true saying of one of the wise men of old, that men never act in a manner more resembling the gods than when they are bestowing benefits; and what can be a greater good than for mortal men to imitate the everlasting God?
Let not then the rich man collect in his house vast quantities of silver and gold, and store them up, but let him bring them forward freely in order by his cheerful bounty to soften the hard condition of the poor; nor let any man be puffed up with vain glory, and raise himself and boast himself in pride and arrogance, but let a man rather honour equality, and allow freedom of speech to those of low estate. And let the man who enjoys vigour of body be the prop of those who are weaker, and let him not like the men at the gymnastic contests strive by every means to overthrow those who are inferior in strength, but let him be willing and eager to assist with his own power those who, as far as they themselves are concerned, are ready to faint. For all those who have drunk deep of the fountains of wisdom, having banished envy entirely out of their minds, are of their own accord, and without any prompting, ready to undertake the assistance of their neighbours, pouring the streams of their words into their souls through their ears, so as to impart to them a participation in similar knowledge with themselves. And when they see young men of good dispositions spring- ing up like flourishing and vigorous shoots of a vine, they rejoice, thinking that they have found proper inheritors for * Exodus xxiii. 3.
ON SPECIAL LAWS. 373 this wealth of their souls, which is the only real riches, and having taken them they cultivate their souls with doctrines and good meditations, until they arrive at full strength and maturity, so as to bring forth the fruit of excellence.
Many such ornaments as these are woven into and in- serted among the laws, in order to enrich the poor on whom it is always proper to have compassion except at the time of giving judgment, for compassion is due to misfortunes; but he who behaves wickedly with deliberate purpose is not unfortunate but unrighteous, and punishment is due to the unrighteous just as honours should be confirmed to the just, so that no wicked man who is in difficulties, and who conceals the truth, ought to escape punishment through the pity excited by his poverty, since he has done what deserves not pity (how should it?) but great anger.
And let the man who undertakes the duty of a judge, like a skilful money-changer, divide and distinguish between the natures of things, in order that confusion may not be caused by the mixing together of what is good with what is spurious. And there are many other things which may be said with respect to false witnesses and judges; but for the sake of avoiding prolixity we must proceed now to the last of the ten commandments, which is delivered also in a concise and summary form as each of the others is: and this commandment is, " Thou shalt not covet."
ON COVETING.
ON COVETING.
I. Every passion is open to and deserving of blame, inas- much as every immoderate and violent impulse, and everv irrational and unnatural emotion of the soul is also faulty and blameable, for what is either of these things but an ancient passion spread over a wider extent? If any one, therefore, does not set limits to these feelings, nor put a bridle on them as on restive horses, he will be afflicted by an evil difficult to remedy, and then, without being aware of it, he will, because of their unrestrainable character, be carried away by them, as a charioteer sometimes is by a chariot, and hurried into ravines and pits from which it is difficult to rise up, and very hard to escape with safety.
But of all the passions there is not one so grievous as a covetous desire of what one has not got, of things which 374 PHILO JUDJ3US.