men who are very excellent and endowed with great virtue the sons of God; and the wicked and depraved men he calls bodies, or flesh.
What is the meaning of the expression: " God considered anxiously, because he had made man upon the earth; and he resolved the matter in his mind?"* 93. Some persons imagine that it is intimated by these words that the Deity repented; but they are very wrong to entertain such an idea, since the Deity is unchangeable. Nor are the facts of his caring and thinking about the matter, and of his agitating it in his mind, any proofs that he is repenting, but only indications of a kind and determinate counsel, according to which he displays care, revolving in his mind the cause why he had made man upon the eartb.
Rut since this earth is a place of misery, even that heavenly being, man, who is a mixture compounded of soul and body, from the very hour of his birth to that of his death, is nothing else but the slave of the body. That the Deity therefore should meditate and deliberate on these matters is nothing surprising; since most men take to themselves wickedness rather than virtue, being influenced by the twofold impulse mentioned above; namely, that of a body by its nature corruptible, and placed in the terrible situation of earth, which is the lowest of all places.
Why God, after having threatened to destroy mankind, says that he will also destroy all the beasts likewise; using the expression, " from man to beast,f and from creeping things to flying creatures;" for how could irrational animals have com- mitted sin?
94. This is the literal statement of the holv scripture, and it informs us that animals were not necessarily and in their primary cause created for their own sake, but for the sake of mankind and to act as the servants of men; and when the men were destroyed, it followed necessarily and naturally that they also should be destroyed with them, as soon as the men, for whose sake they had been made, had ceased to exist.
* Genesi; vi. 6. The translation of our bible is, "It repented God that 1 e had made man upon the earth." t Geneau vi. 7.
330 PH1LO JUD^iUS.
But as to the hidden meaning conveyed by the statement, since man is a symbol for the intellect which exists in us, and animals for the outward sense, when the chief creature has first been depraved and corrupted by wickedness, all the out- ward sense also perishes with him, because he had no relics whatever of virtue, which is the cause of salvation.
Why God says, I am indignant that I made them?* 95. In the first place, Moses is here again relating what took place, as if he were speaking of some illustrious action of man, but, properly speaking, God does not feel anger, but is exempt from, and superior to, all such perturbations of spirit. Therefore Moses wishes here to point out, by an extravagant form of expression, that the iniquities of man had grown to such a height, that they stirred up and provoked to anger even that very Being who by his nature was incapable of anger.
In the second place he warns us, by a figure, that foolish actions are liable to punishment, but that those which proceed from wise and deliberate counsel are praiseworthy.
Why it is afterwards said, that Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord? f 96. In the first place, the time calls for a comparison; since all the rest of mankind has been rejected for their ingratitude, he places the just man in the place of them all, asserting that he had found favour with God, not because he alone was deserving of favour, when the whole universal body of the human race had had benefits and mercies heaped on them, but because he alone had seemed to be mindful of the kindnesses which he had received.
In the second place, when the whole generation had been given over to destruction, with the exception of one single family, it followed inevitably that that remaining household should be asserted to have shown itself worthy of the divine grace, that it might be, as it were, a seed and spark of a new race of mankind. And what could be a greater grace and mercy than that the man, of whom this is said, should be at the same time the end and beginning of the family of mankind?
* GcncsL? vi 7. t Genesis vl. 8.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 337 Why does Moses enumerate the generations of Noah with reference not to his ancestors but to his virtues?* 97. He does this in the first place, because all the men of that age were wicked: secondly, he is here imposing a law upon the will, because, to an anxious follower of virtue, virtue itself stands in the place of a real generation, if indeed men are the means of the generation of men, but the virtues of minds. And on this account it is that he says, he was a just man, perfect, and one who pleased God; but justice, and perfection, and grace before God, are the greatest of virtues.
What was the meaning of Moses when he says, " And all the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with iniquity?"f 98. Moses himself has given us the reason why he speaks thus, in the sentence in which he asserts that iniquity had arisen by reason of the corruption of the earth; for deliverance from iniquity is righteousness, both in all the parts of the world, in heaven, that is, and earth, and among men.
What is the meaning of his saying, " All flesh had cor- rupted his way upon the earth?"J 99. In the first place, the sacred historian calls the man who is devoted to the love of himself, flesh; therefore, when he had already said he was flesh, he introduces not the same flesh, but the flesh of the same being, namely, of man, or per- haps he is speaking even of man abstractedly considered; for every one who passes a life destitute of all civilisation, and bewildered by intemperance, is flesh.
In the second place, he supposes here the cause of spiritual corruption to be, as in truth it is, the flesh, because that is the seat of desire; and from it, as from a living spring, arise all the peculiar appetites, and passions, and other affections.
In the third place, he very naturally says, that all flesh had corrupted his way; for " his" is a partial case, declined from the nominative case of the pronoun " he, she, or it;" for as for the being to whom we refer honour, we scarcely dare to speak of him by his own name, but we call him He. And it is from this that the principle of the Pythagorean philosophers was derived, who said, " He said it," speaking of their master in a * Genesis vi. 9. t Genesis vi. 11. + Genesis vi. 12.
VOL. IV. Z VOL. IV. Z 338 PHILO JUDJEUS.
glorious manner, since they feared to speak of him by name. And the same custom has obtained in cities and in private houses; for the servants, when speaking of the arrival of their master, say, " Here he comes;" and so when the prince of any individual city arrives, they use the same form of speech, " He comes," when they speak of him.
But what is the purpose of this prolix enumeration of all these instances on my part? The truth is, that I wished to show that it is the Father of the universe who is spoken of here; since, indeed, all his good qualities, and all his marvel- lous names, are widely celebrated by the praise bestowed upon the virtues; and, therefore, out of reverence he has used that name more cautiously, because he was about to bring on the world the destruction of the flood; but the case of the pronoun " He" is used by way of honour in these phrases. " All flesh had corrupted His way," inasmuch as it is truly convicted of having corrupted the way of the Father, in accordance with the lusts, and desires, and pleasures of the body; for these are the enemies and opposers of the laws of continence, and par- simony, and chastity, and fortitude, and justice; by which the road which leads to God is found out and widened, so that it should everywhere be a beaten and plain road.
What is the meaning of the statement, "All the time of man has come against me, because the earth is filled with iniquity?"* 100. Those who resist the order of fate proceed upon these and many other arguments, especially in that of sudden death, which oftentimes produces great slaughter in a short period of time; as, for instance, in the overthrow of houses, in confla- grations, in shipwrecks, in civil tumults, in battles of cavalry, in wars by land and in wars by sea, and in pestilences. To all those who advance arguments of this kind we repeat the same assertions which are here made by the prophet, on the principle which is derived from himself. If indeed that ex- pression, " All the time of man has come against me," has a meaning of this kind, the term which has been determined as the period of living for all mankind, behold it is now brought to one point and terminated at once by the deluge; and since this is the case, they will not live any longer according to the * Genesis vi. 13. The version given here does not in the least resemble that in our Bible.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 339 principle of fate which has been fixed; so that the time of each separate individual is now reduced to one, and has received its destined termination at the same time, by I know not what harmony and periodical revolution of the stars, by which bodies the whole race of mankind is continually pre- served or destroyed. Let those, therefore, all receive these things in any manner in which they choose who study these things, and those too who argue against them.
Nevertheless we must first of all make this statement, that nothing can be found so contrary to, so opposite to, so wholly repugnant to, the wonderful virtue of the Deity as iniquity; therefore, after he said, " All the time of all mankind has come up against me," he adds also the reason of its contrariety to him, that the earth is filled with iniquity.
In the second place, Time, under the name of Chronos or Saturn, is looked upon as a god by the wickedest of men, who are desirous to lose sight of the one essential Being, on which account he says, " The time of all mankind has come up against me," because in fact the heathen make human time into a god, and oppose him to the real true God. But, how- ever, it is now insinuated, in other passages also of scripture, which run thus, " Time has departed to a distance from them, but the Lord is in us:"* just as if he were to say, time is looked upon by wicked men as the cause of the world, but by wise men and virtuous men time is not looked upon in this light, but God only, from whom all times and seasons do proceed.
Again, God is the cause, not of all things, but only of good things and good men, and of those men and things which are in accordance with virtue; for as he is free from all wicked- ness, so likewise he cannot be the cause of it.
In the third place, by that expression which he uses in this manner, he indicates the excess of impiety, saying, " that the time of all mankind has arrived," that is to say, that all men, in every part of the world, have agreed together, with one mind, to work wickedness; but the other assertion which is here made, that the whole earth is filled with iniquity, amounts to this, that there is no part of it whatever free from wicked- ness, and which is also to receive and to bear righteousness.
* Numbers xiv. 9. Compare with this Isaiah viii., Jeremiah xlvi. 21—28, Psalm lxxx 16.
And the expression, " against me," establishes the proof of what has been said, inasmuch as it is only the judgment of divine election which is altogether firm and lasting.
QUESTIONS, AND SOLUTIONS TO THOSE QUESTIONS, WHICH ARISE IN GENESIS.
BOOK II.
What is the preparation of Noah?* 1. If any one should wish to make an examination of the question of that ark of Noah's on more natural principles, he will find it to have been the preparation of the human body, as we shall see by the examination of each particular respect- ing it separately.
Why does he make the ark of squared pieces of wood?f 2. He does this in the first place, because the figure of a square, wherever it may be placed, is steady and firm, consist- ing as it does of right angles, and it is confirmed in a purer and clearer manner by the nature of the human body.
In the second place, he does this because, although our body is an instrument, and although every portion of it is rounded off, nevertheless the limbs which are compounded of all these portions do, by some manner or other, evidently reduce that circular orb to the figure of a quadrangle or square. For ex- ample, take the breast which is rather square than circular; in the same manner take the belly, after it is swollen with food or by any natural excess, for there are some men pot- bellied by nature, who are to be excepted from our present argument. But if any one looks upon the arms and hands, and back and thighs, and feet of a man, he will find all these limbs compounded of a mixture of the square, with the cir- cular figure at the same time.
In the third place, a quadrangular piece of wood shows in its extension nearly every 6ort imaginable of uneven distinction, inasmuch as its length is greater than its breadth, and its breadth greater than its depth. And such also is the forma- tion of our bodies, which are compounded of one extension * Genesis vi. 11. t Genesis vi. 16.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 341 which is great, of another which is of moderate size, of another which is small, great in its length and small in its depth.
Why does God say, you shall make the ark in nests?* 3. He gives this order very naturally, for the human body is formed of holes like nests; every one of which is nourished and grows like a young bird, a certain spiritual force which ex- ists in it from its earliest origin penetrating through it, as, for instance, some of the holes and nests are the eyes, in which the faculty of sight has its abode; other nests are the ears, which are the place where hearing is situated. A third class of nests are the nostrils, in which the sense of smell is lodged. The fourth nest, which is of larger dimensions than those already mentioned, is the mouth, which is the seat of the taste; and it has been made of large size, since, besides taste, there is also another still more important instrument, which is that of articulate speech, reposing in it, namely, the tongue, which, as Socrates was wont to say, by beating in every direction in various manners, and by touching different parts, composes and forms a word, being, in truth, an instru- ment under the immediate guidance of reason.
And the nest is placed under the skull, and that which is called the membrane of the brain is a certain nest, as it were, of the genius of each man: as also the chest is a nest, in which abide the lungs and the heart, and both these things are receptacles of other internal organs; the lungs being the place in which the power of breathing is lodged, and the heart being the abode of both the blood and the breath, for it has two venticles, which are, as it were, a certain kind of nests or receptacles in the breast; blood, from which the veins, as if they could perceive its operations, are irrigated; and a breath- ing-hole, which again is extended over and irrigates the per- ceptive channels of respiration.
And both the harder as well as the softer parts do, like nests prepared for the purpose, nourish the bones as real nests nourish young birds; the harder portion of which, namely, the marrow, is the nest, and the softer flesh is the nest of pleasure and pain; and if any one should wish to investigate the other parts, he will find that, in every respect, the nature of man has much the same foundation as the ark.
* Genesis vi. 14. The word in our Bible is rooms, not neats.
342 PHILO JUD^JUS.
Why does God command the ark to be smeared with pitch, both on the inside and on the outside?* 4. Pitch is so called by reason of its bird-lime like tenacity, because it glues together whatever was disunited before, so as to form one indissoluble and indivisible joint. For everything which is held together by bird-lime is immediately held to a natural union; but our body being composed of many parts is united on the outside, and is held together by its own proper habit, but the previous habit of connection which binds those things together is the soul, which, being situated in the middle, penetrates through every part till it reaches the surface, and then is turned back again from the surface to the centre, so that our spiritual nature is rolled up compactly in a double fold, being united in a firm solidity and union.
Therefore this ark is smeared with pitch, both on the inside and the outside, for the reason here given.
But that ark which is placed in the holy of holies, and is covered over with gold, is the similitude of the world ap- preciable only by the intellect, as is declared in the account given of it: since just as there is a world appreciable by the intellect incarnate in incorporeal figures existing at the same time, consisting of a union of all figures by a certain invisible harmony; for, in proportion as gold is a more noble material than pitch, in the same ratio is that ark, which is in the holy of holies, superior to this one of which we are now speaking.
And again, God ordained that its measure^ should be qua- drangular, from a regard to usefulness; but Ins object in the other ark was not so much that it should be useful as that it should be exempt from all possibility of decay; for the nature of incorporeal things, appreciable only by the intellect, is to be exempt from decay, being incorruptible and permanent. The one ark is tossed to and fro by the winds and the waters, but the other has its station constantly in the holy of holies; and being stable it is akin to divine nature, as the other, which is tossed about in every direction, and moved from one place to another, is akin to and the emblem of created nature. Besides this, that ark of the flood being, as it were, an example of cor- ruption, is raised on high, but the other, which is in the holy of holies, imitates the incorruptible condition of eternity * Genesis vi. 14.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 343 Why did God give the measures of the ark in the following manner; the length to be of three hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof to be fifty cubits, and the height to be thirty cubits: and above it was to be raised to a point in one cubit, being brought together gradually like an obelisk? * 5. It was necessary that so vast a work should be con- structed in conformity with literal directions, in order that so many animals, some of them of vast size, should be received into it, as indviduals of each class were introduced with the food necessary for them; but if the matter is considered pro- perly with reference to its symbolical meaning, then, for the comprehension of the formation of our body, we shall require to make use not of the quantity of cubits, but of the certain principles and proportions which are observed in them.
But the proportions which are contained in them are of sixfold, and double, and other portions are added. For three hundred is six times as many as fifty, and ten times as many as thirty; and again fifty is by two thirds a larger number than thirty. Such then are also the proportions of the body; for if any one should choose to investigate the matter and inquire into it carefully in all its points, he will find that man is made in an exact proportion of measurement, neither being too long or too little; and if a string be let down from his head to his feet, he will find that to reach that distance it requires a string six times as long as the width of his chest, and ten times as long as the depth of his ribs and thei r breadth as a second part of depth added thereto. Such is the certain proportion, received in accordance with nature, of the human body formed on exact measurement of the most excel- lently made men, who are incorrect neither in the way of excess nor of defect.
But again, it was with great wisdom and propriety that God ordained the summit to be completed in cne cubit; for the upper part of the ark imitates the unity of the body; the head being forsooth as the citadel of the king, having for its inhabitant the chief of all, the intellect.
But those parts which are below the head are divided into separate portions, as for instance into the hands, and in an especial degree into the lower parts, since the thighs, and legs, • Genesis vi. 1 5.
344 PHILO JUDiEUS.
and feet are all kept distinct from one another, therefore who- ever should wish to understand these matters, on the prin- ciple which I have pointed out, will easily comprehend the analogy of the cubits as I have related it.
But above all things he must not be ignorant that each of these different numbers of cubits has separately a certain ne- cessary proportion and principle, beginning with the first, those in the length of the ark. Therefore in its length it is composed of three hundred units, placed next to one another in continuation, according to the augmentation of units, from these twenty-four numbers, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty- one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four. But the twenty- fourth number is above all others a natural number, being distributed among the hours of day and night, and also among the characters of language * and literal speech; and it is also com- pounded of three cubes, being complete, full, and compacted in equality.
For the number three constantly exhibits, as belonging to itself, the first equality of all, having a beginning, and a mid- dle, and an end, all of which are equal to one another; and eight is the first cube, because it again has declared its first equality with the rest.
But the number twenty-four has likewise a great number of other virtues, since it is the substance of the number three hundred, as has been already pointed out; this then is its first virtue; and it has another, since it is compounded of twelve quadrangular figures, joined to one another by a continuous unity; and besides of two long figures, and twelve double figures, being forsooth compounded of twos separately increased by two and two.
Therefore the angular numbers which make up together the twelve quadrangular figures are these; one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-one, and twenty-three; but the quadrangular figure combines the following numbers, one, four, nine, sixteen, twenty-five, thirty-six, forty-nine, sixty-four, eighty-one, a hundred, a hundred and twenty-one, and a hundred and twenty-four.
* He is referring to the Greek alphabet, which consists of twenty- four letters.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 345 But those angular numbers which compose the other long figures are these; one, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, twenty-two, twenty-four, being twelve in all; and after these come the compound numbers, two, six, twelve, twenty, thirty, forty-two, fifty-six, seventy-two, ninety, a hundred and ten, a hundred and thirty-two, and a hundred and fifty-six; being also twelve. And if you put together the twelve quadrangular figures, you will find a hun- dred and forty-four, and if you add the other twelve long figures, you will find a hundred and fifty-six; and from the combination of the two you will get the number three hundred, and the concord of full, and complete, and perfect nature rising up to the equal and infinite harmony; for a complete and perfect nature is the maker of equality, according to the nature of a triangle; but the equal and the infinite are the factors of inequalitv, according to the composition of the other long figure.
But the universe consists of a combination of equality and inequality, on which account the Creator himself, even amid the destruction of all earthly things, placed a sort of fixed pattern of stability in the ark.
This then is enough to say about the number three hundred. We must now proceed to speak of the fifty cubits, on the fol- lowing principle; for in the first place it is composed of the right angle of the quadrangular figures; for a right angle is compounded of three, four, and five; and the square of these is nine, sixteen, and twenty-five, the sum total of which when added together is fifty; in the second place, the perfect number fifty is composed of these four triangles linked toge- ther, one, three, six, ten; and again of these four equal quadrangles also united together, one, four, nine, sixteen; therefore these triangles when collected together make twenty; and the quadrangles make thirty; and twenty and thirty added together make fifty.
But if the triangle and the quadrangle are added together, they make a heptangular figure: so that it is contained by its virtue in the number of fifty, that divine and holy number; to which the prophet had regard when he proclaimed the jubilee festival; and the whole of the jubilee year is free and a deliverer.
The third theorem is three triangles beginning with the unit, connected together in a continuous series, and three 346 PHILO JUD^EUS.
cubes beginning also with the unit, and connected together in a similar manner, which together make fifty; the examples of the first are one, four, and nine, which make fourteen; the ex- amples of the second are, one, eight, and twenty-seven, which together make thirty-six; and the sum total of the two when added together is fifty.
Again, thirty is in an especial manner a natural number, for as in the series of units the number three is, so is the number thirty in the series of decimals; and that makes up the cycle of the moon, being the collection of separate months in full delineation; secondly, it is composed of four numbers, which are united in the continual series of these quadrangular figures, one, four, nine, and sixteen, which together make up thirty; on which account it was not without some foundation and sufficient reason that Heraclitus called that number " genera- tion," when he said: a man in thirty years from the time of his birth can become a grandfather, inasmuch as he arrives at the age of puberty in his fourteenth year, at which age he is capable of becoming a father; and at the end of the year his offspring arrives at the birth, and again in fifteen years more begets another offspring like himself; and out of these names of grandfathers, fathers, and sons, as also out of the names of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters, a generation complete in its offspring is produced.
What is the meaning of a door in the side: for he says, " Thou shalt make a door in the side? " * 6. That door in the side very plainly betokens a human building, which he has becomingly indicated by calling it, " in the side," by which door all the excrements of dung are cast out. In truth, as Socrates says, whether because he learnt it from Moses or because he was influenced by the facts them- selves, the Creator, having due regard to the decency of our body, has placed the exit and passage of the different ducts of the body back out of the reach of the sense, in order that while getting rid of the fetid portions of bile, we might not be disgusted by beholding the full appearance of our excrements. Therefore he has surrounded that passage by the back and posteriors, which project out like hills, as also the buttocks are made soft for other objects.
* Genesis vi. 1 6.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 347 Why has he said that the lower part of the ark was to be made with two and with three stories?*