Why a sign is put on him who had slain his brother, that no one should kill him who found him: when it would have been natural to do the contrary, namely, to give him over to the hands of an executioner to be put to death?* 76. This is said because, in the first place, the change of the nature of living is one kind of death; but continual sorrow and unmixed fear are destitute of joy and devoid of all good hope, and so they bring on many terrible and various evils which are so many sensible deaths.
In the second place, the sacred historian designs at the very beginning of his work to enunciate the law about the incorruptibility of the soul, and to confute as deceitful those who look upon the life which is contained in this body as the only happy lite; for behold one of the two brothers is guilty of those enormous crimes which have already been men- tioned, namely, impiety and fratricide; and he is still alive, and begetting offspring, and building cities. But the other who was praised in respect of his piety is treacherously put to death; while the voice of the Lord not only clearly cries out that that existence which is perceptible by the outward senses is not good, and that such a death is not evil, but ttlso that that life which is in the flesh is not life, but that there is another given to man free from old age, and more immortal, which the incorporeal souls have received; for that expression of the poet about Scylla, "That is not mortal but an endless woe,"t * Crenel's iv. 16.
t The line occurs, Homer, Odyss. xii. 118.
»; ot Tot ov t)vi}Tr) ciAA' aUdiaruv kok6v tanv.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 323 is asserted in the same familiarity about a person who lives ill and passes a long life for many years in the practice of wickedness.
In the third place, since Cain had perpetrated this fra- tricide of enormous guilt above all other crimes, he presents himself to him, quite forgetful of the injury that he has done imposing on all judges a most peaceful law for the first crime- not that they are not to destroy malefactors, but that resting for a while with great patience and long suffering, they shall study compassion rather than severity.
But God himself, with the most perfect wisdom, has laid down the rule of familiarity and intelligence with reference to the first sinner: not slaying the homicide, but destroying him in another manner; since he scarcely permitted him to be enumerated among the generations of his father, but shows him proscribed not only by his parents but by the whole race of mankind, allotting him a state separate from that of others, and secluded from the class of rational animals, as one who had been expelled, and banished, and turned into the nature of beasts.
"Why Lamech, after the fifth generation, blames himself for the fratricide of his elder Cain; saying, as the scripture reports, to his wives, Adah and Zillah; " I have slain a man to my injury and a young man to my hurt; since if vengeance is taken upon Cain sevenfold, it shall certainly be taken on Lamech seventy and sevenfold? " * 77. In numerals one is before ten, both in order and in virtue, for it is the first beginning and element and measure of all things. But the number ten is subsequent, and is measured by the other, being inferior to it, both in order and virtue; therefore, also, the number seven is antecedent in its origin to and more ancient than the number seventy, but the number seventy is younger than the number seven, and contains the calculation of generations.
These premises being laid down, he who first committed sin, as if he had been really always ignorant of evil, like the first odd number, namely, the unit, is chastised more simply; but the second offender, because he had the first for an example, so that there cannot possibly be any excuse * Genesis iv. 23. Y 2 321 P11IL0 JUD42US.
made for him, is guilty of a voluntary crime, and because he did not receive honourable wisdom from that more sim- ple punishment, the consequence will be that he will both suffer all that first punishment, and will, moreover, receive this second one, which is contained in the number ten.
For as in the horse-races they pay the groom who has trained the horse twice as great a reward as they give to the driver, so some wicked men, inclined to acts of injustice, gain the miserable triumph of victory and then are punished with a double punishment, both by the first one which is contained in the unit, and also by the second which is contained in the number ten; besides, Cain being the author of a homicide, when he was ignorant of the great- ness of the pollution which he was incurring, because no death had hitherto taken place in the world, suffered a more simple punishment, namely, only a sevenfold penalty in the order of the unit; but as his imitator could not take refuge in the same plea of ignorance, he ought to be subjected to a twofold punishment, not only to one equal and similar to that which had been inflicted on the first offender, but also another, which should be the seventh among the decades. In truth, according to the law, the trial which is before the tribunal is a sevenfold one; first of all, the eyes are put on their trial, because they beheld what was not lawful; secondly, the ears are impeached, because they heard what they ought not to have heard; thirdly, the smell is brought into question, as having been reduced by smoke and vapour; fourthly, the taste is accused, as being subservient to the pleasures of the belly; fifthly, a charge is brought against the taste, by means of which, besides the operations of the senses above-mentioned, in respect of those things which prevail over the spirit, other things, also, are superadded separately, such as the takings of cities, the captivities of men. the destructions of those citadels of cities in which wisdom dwells; sixthly, an accusation is urged against the tongue and other instruments of speech, for being silent as to what should be spoken of, and speaking of what should be buried in silence; and, in the seventh place, the lower part of the belly is impeached for inflaming and exciting the passions by immoderate lust.
This is the meaning of that expression, according to which a sevenfold vengeance was taken upon Cain, but a seventy QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 325 and sevenfold vengeance upon Lamech for the causes above mentioned, because he was the second offender, not having been taught by the punishment of the first delinquent, and therefore he is altogether worthy to receive his punishment, which is the more simple one, like the unit in numerals, and, also, a manifold punishment too equal to the number ten.
Why Adam, when he begat Seth, introduces him saying, " God has raised up for me another seed in the place of Abel whom Cain slew? "* 78. In real truth Seth is another seed and the beginning of a second nativity of Abel, in accordance with a certain natural principle; for Abel is like to one who comes down below from above, on which account it was that he perished injuriously; but Seth resembles one who is proceeding up- wards from below, on which account he also increases. And in proof of this argument Abel is explained as having been brought back and offered upwards to God. But it is not proper that everything should be raised and borne upwards, but only that which is good, for God is in no respect whatever the cause of evil.
Therefore, whatever is indistinct and uncertain, and mingled, and in confusion and disorder, has also, very properly, blame and praise mingled together: praise, be- cause it honours the cause, and blame, since as the occurrence happened fortuitously, so it is without any plans having been formed or any gratitude expressed. Moreover, nature also separated the two sons from him; it rendered the good one worthy of immortality, resolving him into a voice inter- ceding with God; but the wicked one it gave over to corruption.
But the name Seth is interpreted " watered," according to the variation of plants which grow by being watered, and put forth shoots and bear fruit. But these things a:-e the symbols of the soul, so that it is not lawful to assert that the Divinity is the cause of all things equally, of the bad as well as of the good, but only of the good, and that alone ought to be planted alive.
Why Enos, the son of Seth, hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God?f * Genesis iv. B& t Genesis iv. 2G.
3 3S PHILO JUDJEUS.
79. The name Enos is interpreted "man;" and it is received as meaning, not the whole of the combined man, but as the rational part of the soul, namely, the intellect, to which it is peculiarly becoming to hope, for irrational animals are devoid of hope; but hope is a sort of presage of joy, and before joy there is an expectation of good things.
Why, after the mention of hope, Moses says, " This is the book of the generations of men? "* 80. It is by this that he made what has been said before worthy of belief. "What is man? Man is a being which, beyond all other races of animals, has received a copious and wonderful portion of hope; and this is as it were inscribed on his very nature, and celebrated there; for the human intellect hopes by its own nature.
Whv, in the genealogy of Adam, Moses no longer men- tions Cain, but only Seth, who, he says, was according to his appearance and* form; on which account he proceeds to retain the generations which descend from him in his genealogy?t 81. It can neither be lawful to enumerate a wicked and sinful murderer either in the list of reason or in that of number; for he must be cast out like dung, as some one said, looking upon him as one of such a character; and on this account the sacred historian neither points him out as the successor of his father who had been formed out of the dust, nor as the head of succeeding generations; but he distributes both these characteristics to him who was with- out pollution, and names Seth, who is a drinker of water, as having been watered by his father, and as begetting hope in his own increase and progress; on which account it is not inconsiderately and foolishly that he says that he was born according to the form and appearance of his father, to the reproof of his elder brother, who, on account of the foulness of the murder which he had committed, has nothing in him resembling his father, either in body or soul.
A nd on this account Moses has separated him from the QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 327 family, and has given his share to his brother, being the noble privilege of the birthright of the first-born.
What is the meaning of the verse, Enoch pleased God after he begat Methuselah, two hundred years?* 82. God appointed by the law the fountains of all good things to be under the principles of generation itself. And what I mean is something of this sort. A little while before he appointed mercy and pardon to exist, now again he de- crees that penitence shall exist, not in any degree mocking or reproaching these men, who are believed to have offended, and at the same time giving the soul an opportunity to mount up from wickedness to virtue, like the conversion of those who are proceeding towards a snare. For behold, the man being made a husband and a father together with his birth, makes a beginning of honesty.
And he is said to please God, for although he does not persevere in piety from the moment that he is born, never- theless, all that remaining period is counted to him as having been spent in a praiseworthy mode of life, because he pleased God for so many years. And these things are said, not be- cause it perhaps was, but it might perhaps have seemed different; but he approves of the order of things, for indulgence having been exemplified, in this case of Gain, after no long interval of time, he introduces this statement, that Enoch practised repentance, warning us by it that repentance alone can procure indulgence.
Why Enoch, who cultivated repentance, is said to have lived before his repentance a hundred and sixty-five years, but two hundred after his repentance?f 83. This number of a hundred and sixty-five is combined of the singular addition of ten numbers from the unit to ten; as one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, the total of which is fifty-five. And again, from that by the addition of ten numbers, which, removing the unit proceed upwards by twos, as two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, which make a * Genesis v. 22.
* Genesis v. 22.
t Ibid. This is at variance with the statement in the Bible, which says he lived sixty-five years before the birth of Methuselah, and walked with God three hundred years.
S28 PHILO JUD.EUS.
hundred and ten; the combination of which, with the num- bers first mentioned, produces a hundred and sixty-five; and in this addition the even numbers amount to twice as much as the odd numbers; for the woman is more violent than the man, in the preposterous manner in which the wicked man rules over the virtuous man, the outward sense over the mind, the body over the outward sense, and matter over its cause.
But the number two hundred, in which repentance was practised, is combined of two numbers of one hundred, the first hundred of which intimates a purification from injustice, but the other indicates the plenitude of perfect virtue. In truth, before anything else is done, the first thing is to cut off from a sick body every diseased part, and after that means of cure are to be applied to it, for this is the first step, and the other the second. Moreover, the number two hundred consists of fours, for it is produced as from seed, from four triangular numbers, and from four tetragons, and from four pentagons, and from four hexagons, aud from four heptagons; and, as one may say, it fixes its step on the number seven. Now the four triangles are these, one, three, six, ten, which make twenty; the four tetragons are one, four, nine, six- teen, which make thirty; from the four pentagons, one, five, twelve, twenty-two, is made the number forty. Moreover, the four hexagons, one, six, fifteen, twenty-eight, make fifty; and the four heptagons, one, seven, eighteen, thirty-four, make sixty; and all these numbers put together make two hundred.
Why the man who lives a life of repentance is said to have lived three hundred and sixty-five years?* 84. In the first place, the year contains three hundred and sixty-five days; therefore, by the symbol of the solar orbit, the sacred historian here indicates the life of the repentant man. In the second place, as the sun is the cause of day and night, performing his revolutions by day above the hemisphere of the earth, and his course by night under the earth, so also the life of the man of repentance consists of alternations of light and darkness; of darkness, that is, of times of agitation and cir- cumstances of injury; and of light, when the light of virtue and its radiant brilliancy arises.
• Genesis v. 23.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 329 In the third place, he has assigned to him a complete num- ber, as the sun is ordained to be the chief of the stars of heaven, under an appointed number, in the time which came before the period of his repentance, to lead to the oblivion of the sins previously committed; since, as God is good, he be- stows the greatest favours most abundantly, and, at the same time, he effaces the former offences of those who devote them- selves to him, and which might deserve chastisement, by a recollection of their virtues.
Why, when Enoch died, the sacred historian adds the assertion, " He pleased God?"* 85. In the first place, he says this because, by such a statement, he implies that the soul is immortal, inasmuch as after it is stripped of the body, it still pleases a second time.
In the second place, he honours the repentant man with praise, because he has persevered in the same alteration of manners, and has never receded till he has arrived at com- plete perfection of life; for behold, some men appear to be readily sated after they have only tasted of excellence; and after a hope of recovery has been given to them, they relapse again into the same disease.
What is the meaning of the expression, " He was not found because God translated him?"t 86. In the first place, the end of virtuous and holy men is not death but a translation and migration, and an approach to some other place of abode.
In the second place, in this instance something marvellous did take place; for he was supposed to be carried off in such a way as to be invisible, for then he was not found: and a proof of this is, that he was sought for as being invisible, not only as having been carried away from their sight, since translation into another place is nothing else than a placing of a person in another situation; but it is here suggested, that he was translated from a visible place, perceptible by the outward senses, into an incorporeal idea, appreciable only by the intel- lect. This mercy also was bestowed on the great prophet, for his sepulchre also was known to no one.
And besides these two there was another, Elijah, who * Genesis v. 2-i. + Ibid.
330 pniLO JUDiEUS.
ascended from the things of earth into heaven, according to the divine appearance which was then preseuted to him, and who thus followed higher things, or, to speak with more exact propriety, was raised up to heaven.
How it was that immediately upon the nativity of Noah his father says, " He will make us rest from labours and sorrows, and from the earth, which the Lord God has cursed?"* 87. The fathers of the saints did not prophesy except for grave reasons and on important occasions; for although those who were rendered worthy of prophetical panegyric did not prophecy at all times or on all subjects, they did so at all events on one occasion and on one subject, with which they were acquainted. Nor is this of no importance, but it is an emblem and an example, since Noah is a kind of surname of righteousness, of which, when the intellect is made a partaker, it causes us to rest from all wicked works, and releases us from sorrows and from fears, and renders us secure and joyful.
It also causes us to rest from that earthly nature which has been previously laid under a curse, which this body, when affected by pain, is connected with, especially in those persons who give cause for it, and who wear out their lives with pleasure. Nevertheless, if we examine attentively the events and circumstances, and compare them with the ietter of the scriptures, the prophecy which has been already produced is deceived, because, in the time of this man, there did not arise any putting down of evils, but a more vehement obstinacy in sin and great afflictions, and the unprecedented event of the deluge. But you must note carefully, that Noah is the tenth in generation from the earth-born Adam.
What is meant by the three sons of Noah being named Shem, Ham, and Japhet?* 88. These names are the symbols of three human things, what is good, what is bad, and what is indifferent; Shem is the symbol of what is good, Ham of what is bad, and Japhet of what is indifferent.
Why from the time that the deluge drew near, the human race is said to have increased so as to become a multitude? J 89. Divine mercies do always precede judgment; since * Genesis v. 29. f Genesis v. 32. + Genesis vi. 1 QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 331 tho first work of God is to do good, and to destroy follows afterwards; but he himself (when terrible evils are about to happen) loves to provide and is accustomed to provide that previously an abundance of many and great blessings shall be produced. On this principle also Egypt, when there wns about to be a barrenness and famine for seven years as the prophet himself says,* was for an equal number of years continuously made exceedingly fertile by the benefi- cent and saving power of the Creator of the universe.
And in the same way in which he showers benefits upon men, he also teaches them to depart and to abstain from sin; that these blessings may not be turned into the contrary. And on this account now, by the freedom of their institutions, the cities of the world have increased in generous virtue, so that if any corruption supervenes subsequently they may dis- approve of their own acts of wickedness as extraordinary and irremediable; not at all looking upon the divinity as the cause of them, for that has no connection with wickedness or misery, for the task of the Deity is only to bestow blessings.
What is the meaning of the expression, " My spirit shall not always strive with man, because he is but flesh? "t 90. An oracle is here promulgated as if it were a law; for the divine spirit is not a motion of the air, but intellect and wisdom; just as it also flows over the man who with great skill constructed the tabernacle of the Lord, namely upon Bezaleel, when the scripture says, " And he filled him with the divine spirit of wisdom and understanding." Therefore that spirit comes upon men, but does not abide or persevere in them; and the Lord himself adds the reason, when he says, " Because they are flesh." For the disposition of the flesh is inconsistent with wisdom, inasmuch as it makes a bond of alliance with desire; on which account it is evident that nothing important can be in the way of incorporeal and light souls, or can be any hindrance to their discerning and com- prehending the condition of nature, because a pure disposition is acquired together with constancy.
Why it is said that the days of man shall be a hundred and twenty years? J 91. God appears here to fix the limit of human life by • Genesis xli. 28. t Genesis vi. 3. £ Genesis vi. 4.
832 PHILO JUD.EUS.
this number, indicating by it the manifold prerogative of honour; for in the first place this number proceeds from the units, according to combination, from the number fifteen; but the principle of the number fifteen is that of a more transparent appearance, since it is on the fifteenth day that the moon is rendered full of light, borrowing its light of the sun at the approach of evening, and restoring it to him again in the morning; so that during the night of the full moon the darkness is scarcely visible, but it is all light.
In the second place, the number a hundred and twenty is a triangular number, and is the fifteenth number consisting of triangles.
Thirdly, it is so because it consists of a combination of odd and even numbers, being contained by the power of the faculty of the concurring numbers, sixty-four and fifty-six; for the equal number of sixty-four is compounded of the uniting of these eight odd numbers, one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen; the reduction of which, by their parts" into squares, makes a sum total of sixty-four, and that is a cube, and at the same time a square number.
But again from the seven double units there arises the unequal number of fifty-six, being compounded of seven double pairs, which generate other productions of them, two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen; the sum total of which is fifty-six.
In the fourth place, it is compounded of four numbers, of one triangle, namely fifteen; and of another square, namely twenty-five; and of a third quinquangular figure, thirty-five; ;uid of a fourth a sexangular figure forty-five, by the same analogy: for the fifth is always received according to each appearance; for from the unity of the triangles the fifth num- ber becomes fifteen; again the fifth of the quadrangular number from the unit makes twenty-five; and the fifth of the quinquangular number from the unit makes thirty-five; and the fifth of the sexangular number from the unit makes forty-five.
But every one of these numbers is a divine and sacred number, consisting of fifteens as has been already shown; and the number twenty-five belongs to the tribe of Levi.* And the number thirty-five comes from the double diagram of arithmetic, geometry, and harmony; but sixteen, and eighteen, * See Numbers viii. 24.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 333 and nineteen, and twenty-one, the combination of which numbers amounts to seventy-four, is that according to which seven months' children are born. And forty-five consists of a triple diagram; but to this number, sixteen, nineteen, twenty- two, and twenty-eight, belong: the combination of which makes eighty-five, according to which nine months' children are produced.
Fifthly, this diagram has fifteen parts, and a twofold compo- sition, peculiarly belonging to itself; forsooth when divided by two it gives sixty, the measure of the age of all mankind; when divided by three it gives forty, the idea of prophecy; when divided by four it gives thirty, a nation; when divided by five, it makes twenty-four, the measure of day and night; when divided by six, it gives twenty, a beginning; when divided by eight, we have fifteen, the moon in the fulness of brilliancy; when divided by ten, it makes twelve, the zodiac embellished with living animals; when divided by twelve, it makes ten, holy; when divided by fifteen, it gives eight, the first ark; when divided by twenty, it leaves six, the number of creation; when divided by twenty-four, it makes five, the emblem of the outward sense; when divided by thirty it makes four, the beginning of solid measure; when divided by forty, it gives three, the symbol of fulness, the beginning, the middle, and the end; when divided by sixty, it makes two, which is woman; and when divided by the whole number of a hundred and twenty, the product is one, or man.
And every one of all these numbers is more natural, as is proved in each of them, but the composition of them is twofold, for the product is two hundred and forty, which is a sign that it is worthy of a twofold life; for as the number of years is doubled, so also we may imagine that the life is doubled too; one being, in connection with the body, the other being detached from the body, according to which every holy and perfect man may receive the gift of prophecy.
Sixthly, because the fifth and sixth figures arise, the three numbers' being multiplied together, three times four times five, since three times four times five make sixty; so in like man- ner the next following numbers four times five times six make a hundred and twenty, for four times five times six make a hundred and twenty.
334 PHILO JUDiEUS.
334 PHILO JUDiEUS.
Seventhly, when the number twenty has been taken in, which is the beginning of the reduction of mankind, I mean twenty, and being added to itself two or three times, so as to make twenty, forty, and sixty, these added together make a hundred and twenty. But perhaps the number a hundred and twenty is not the general term of human life, but only of the life of those men who existed at that time, and who were to perish by the deluge after an interval of so many years, which their kind Benefactor prolonged, giving them space for repent^ ance; when, after the aforesaid term, they lived a longer time in the subsequent ages.
On what principle it was that giants were born of angels and women?* 92. The poets call those men who were born out of the earth giants, that is to say, sons of the earth. f But Moses here uses this appellation improperly, and he uses it too very often merely to denote the vast personal size of the principal men, equal to that of Hajkf or Hercules.
But he relates that these giants were sprung from a combined procreation of two natures, namely, from angels and mortal women; for the substance of angels is spiritual; but it occurs every now and then that on emergencies occurring they have imitated the appearance of men, and transformed them- selves so as to assume the human shape; as they did on this occasion, when forming connexions with women for the production of giants. But if the children turn out imitators of the wickedness of their mothers, departing from the virtue of their fathers, let them depart, according to the determination of the will of a depraved racs, and because of their proud contempt for the supreme Deity, and so be condemned as guilty of voluntary and deliberate wickedness.
But sometimes Moses styles the angels the sons of God, inasmuch as they were not produced by any mortal, but are incorporeal, as being spirits destitute of any body; or rather that exhorter and teacher of virtue, namely Moses, calls those * Genesis vi. 4.
+ The Greek name ftyag is said to be derived from y/J and ytvvdui, " to bring forth."
X Hajk is an addition of the Armenian translator; it is the name of a fabulous patriarch of the Armeuiaj na.ion.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. f 335