45. The letter of the promise is so clear that the lan- guage does not stand in need of any explanation whatever; but with respect to the inward meaning of it we must have recourse to an allegory of this kind.
The mind which is endowed with virtue is rather a sojourner in the corporeal space allotted to it, than a regu- lar inhabitant of it; for its real country is the air and the heaven; and the earth, and the earthly body in which it is said to sojourn, is only a colony; therefore the Father, con- * Genesis xvii. 6 t Genesis xvii. 8.
448 PHILO JUDiEUS.
ferring a benefit upon it, gives to it the sovereign authority over all the things of the earth for ever and ever, as he says himself, for an everlasting possession; so that it for the future shall not be governed by the body, but shall always be its master and ruler, having the body for its servant and attendant.
"What is the meaning of, " And every male of you shall be circumcised, and you shall circumcise, or you shall be cir- cumcised in, the flesh of your foreskin? "* 4G. I see here a twofold circumcision, one of the male creature, and the other of the flesh; that which is of the flesh takes place in the genitals, but that which is of the male creature takes place, as it seems to me, in respect of his thoughts.
Since that which is, properly speaking, masculine in us is the intellect, the superfluous shoots of which it is necessarv to prune away and to cast off, so that it, becoming clean and pure from all wickedness and vile, may worship Grod as his priest.
This therefore is what is designated by the second cir- cumcision, where Grod says by an express law, " Circumcise the hardness of your hearts," that is to say, your hard and rebellious thoughts and ambition, which when thev are cut away and removed from you, your most important part will be rendered free.
Why orders he the males only to be circumcised? f 47. For in the first place, the Egyptians, in accordance with the national customs of their country, in the fourteenth year of their age, when the male begins to have the power of propagating his species, and when the female arrives at the age of puberty, circumcise both bride and bridegroom.
But the divine legislator appoints circumcision to take place in the case of the male alone for many reasons: the first of which is, that the male creature feels venereal plea- sures and desires matrimonial connexions more than the female, on which account the female is properly omitted here, while he checks the superfluous impetuosity of the male by the sign of circumcision.
• Genesis xvii. 10. f Genesis xvii. 11.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 449 But the second reason is, that the material of the female is supplied to the son from what remains over of the eruption of blood, while the immediate maker and cause of the son is the male. Because therefore the male supplies the most indispensable part in the act of generation, God deservedly represses his pride by the figure of circumcision, but the material or feminine cause, as being inactive, does not display ambition in the same degree. And this is enough to say on this head.
But afterwards we must note this likewise, that the intellect in us is endued with the power of sight, therefore it is necessary to cut away its superfluous shoots. And these superfluous shoots are empty opinions, and all the actions which are done in accordance with them. So that the intellect after circumcision may only bear about with itself what is necessary and useful; and that whatever causes pride to increase may be cut away; with which also the eyes are circumcised as if they did not see.
Why did he say, " And let the child, every male child, be circumcised at eight days old? " * 48. He orders the freeborn to be circumcised, which, in the first place, was permitted on account of diseases that might arise; for it is more difficult to heal a disease in the genitals, and it is commonly done by burning by fire those parts over which a membrane grows, but this rarely affects those who have been circumcised.
And in truth, if it were possible that other infirmities also could be avoided by amputating any member or any part of the body, so that though it was amputated still the ope- ration of each necessary part would not be hindered, then without the knowledge of mortal man he would be transmit- ted into immortality.
But that here it was thought fit that man should be cir- cumcised out of a provident care for his mind without any previous infirmity is plain, since not the Jews alone, but also the Egyptians, and Arabians, and Ethiopians, and nearly all the nations who live in the southern parts of the world, down to the torrid zone are circumcised.
What then is the chief reason of this fact? except that * Genesis xvii. 12.
TOL. IV q q.
450 PHILO JUDjEUS.
in those districts, and especially in the summer, when the genitals are protected with a skin, it burns and is injured by inflammation, but when that covering is laid bare by circum- cision it is cooled, and the disease is repelled; and on this account the northern nations and others, to whom the cooler portion of the habitable earth has been allotted, are not circumcised, for not only is the solar heat moderate in those regions, but so is also all inflammatory disease which affects the membranes of the members. Let every one take a firm judgment, and from that time when the disease comes in more vigorously; for it never comes at all in the winter, but in the summer it shows itself and flourishes and ripens; lor it loves, if I may so say, like fire to burn in those parts.
In the second place, it was not only from a regard to sound health that our ancestors diligently employed this method of cure, but also from a regard to the multiplication of the human race, seeing that nature was very vivacious and too eager to propagate the human species.
Therefore they knew, like wise men, how the seed when poured over the folds of the membrane is often accustomed to be wasted and so to become unfruitful; but if no impedi- ment arises then it would easily be able to arrive at the situation suited to receive it. On which account also those nations which adopt the practice of circumcision have grown into an exceedingly numerous population: and our legislator, weighing the consequences also, commanded the circumcision of infants to be performed at an earlier age, keeping in view the same effect of circumcision with regard to the popula- Therefore it is in truth, as it seems to me, that the Egyptians also in the fourteenth year of their children's age, in which the desire to propagate the species usually begins, have said that it is suitable to circumcise them with the view of increasing the population; but it was better and more carefully done in our nation, where the circumcision of infants was ordained, since perhaps the man when grown up would delay the operation out of fear, because he then has a will of his own...
In the third place, he says this with a view to cleanliness in the sacred oblations; for in truth those who enter into the courts of the temples are made clean by sprinkling and QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 451 ablutions. Moreover the Egyptians scrape the whole body, removing all the hairs which cover and envelop the body, so as to appear white all over; but the circumcision of the skin is no small assistance towards cleanliness, otherwise everyone would abhor it when he beheld it as it is in itself.
In the fourth place, there are in us two generative prin- ciples, one in the soul and one in the body; the generative principle of the soul is the intellect, and that of the body is the corporeal organ; therefore the ancients chose to refer the generative principle of the body to an imitation of the intellect which is rather the generative principle of the heart. And in truth there is nothing to which it is found more like than the circumcision of the heart; these therefore are real facts like the celebrated reasons for things which have been inves- tigated. But we must now speak of those which have greater symbols belonging to them and which exhibit a certain principle.
Therefore the circumcision of the skin is said to be a symbol, but as one indicating that it is proper to cut away all superfluous and extravagant desires, by studying conti- nence and religion; for as the skin of the prepuce is quite superfluous for generation, and is moreover especially injurious by reason of the disease of inflammation which burns within it, so also an over abundance of desire is as super- fluous as it is pernicious, superfluous because it is not necessary, and pernicious because it is the cause of diseases to both body and soul; and by the greater desire he also warns us that all the other desires are likewise to be cut off. And that is called the greater desire which has a regard to the matrimonial connexion of the male and the female; since it is the beginning of a great thing, namely, of gene- rating; and since it creates* a great affection on the part of the father towards her who is to bring forth; for it is natural for them both to be influenced by love and affection for their offspring. Therefore, he here warns us to cut away not only all the superfluous desires, but also pride, as being a great wickedness and an associate of wickedness.
For pride, as the language of the ancients tells us, is what keeps men back and hinders them in their im- provement; since it will not exhibit that honesty which it really possesses, thinking that it is itself an adequate G G 2 452 PHILO JTJDiEUS.
cause for anything. Moreover it naturally influences those who think themselves the causes of generation; so that they scarcely ever turn their minds at all to behold the true Father of the universe. For he is in truth the one real and genuine Father of all; and we, who are called lathers, are only instruments of his, serving to generation; since, as in a wonderful resemblance, all things which are repre- sented in appearance are yet in reality inanimate, but that which strengthens the nerves is invisible, and yet is itself the cause of virtue, and of motion, and of sight So, in like manner, from everlasting and invisible space there extends the Creator of the universe, and we, like so many pup- pets, are strengthened by him with nerves for the purpose which belongs to us, namely, sowing seed and raising a veneration; unless we choose to fancy that a flute is blown by itself, and is not made by an artist in a way adapted for the production of harmony, by whom it was constructed as an instrument for service and for its own necessary end.
Why does he order circumcision to be performed on the ei ght h day?* 49 The number eight has many beauties in it; for it is, in the first place, a cubic number. Secondly, it has beauties, because it everywhere contains in itself the form of equality, because longitude, and breadth, and depth, which are all equal to one another, are indicated by the first number 61gln* the third place, the composition of the number eight produces agreement, namely, the number thirty-six, which the Pythagoreans call agreement, since that is the first number in which odd numbers being added together a^ree with even numbers. If, indeed, four odd numbers from the unit are separately taken and added together and four even numbers beginning with two, they united make thirty-six. Now the odd numbers are these: one, three, five seven, which make sixteen. And the even numoers are these: two, four, six, eight, which make twenty And the addition of the two together makes thirty-six, which is in truth a more fertile number...,' Since it is a square, having each side composed ol tne * Genesia xvii. 12.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 453 number six; the first of which is both odd and even; which some persons most correctly call harmony or matrimony; and it was by the employment of this numbor that the Cre- ator of the universe made the world, as the holy and admirable book of Moses relates.
In the fourth place, the idea of eight produces sixty- four, which is the first number, which is a cube and also a square, being the type of incorporeal substance appreciable only by the intellect and invisible, and also of corporeal substance. Of incorporeal substance, inasmuch a3 it produces superficies according to the square; and of corporeal sub- stance, as producing a solid according to the cube.
In the fifth place, it is always a kindred number to the virgin number seven, for seven makes up the parts of eight; because four is the half of it, two is the fourth part of it, one the eighth of it, and four, two, and one, added together, make seven.
In the sixth place, the power of eight is sixty-four, which we call the first number, being both a cube and a square.
In the seventh place, taken separately from the units by these doubled numbers, one, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, the sum makes sixty-four.
And the number eight has also other more distinguished virtues still, which we have enumerated in another place; but now it seems better to explain the principle which cor- responds to the present question, and which depends on the grounds now laid down.
But in the first place we must premise this: that nation to whom it is enjoined, having the commandments given to it, that it should be circumcised on the eighth day, is called in the Chaldaic language Israel, that is to say, " he that seeth by day." Therefore God wills, in the first place, that he should be a partaker both of his own just rights, and also of those which exist according to election, and according to the principle of Genesis (or creation), by that first number six, which immediately followed the creation. This number, in fact, the Father and Creator of all things evidently exhibited to the world as the festival of generation, com- pleting the world on the sixth day. And the other number that which is according to election, he exhibited by the number eight, which is the beginning of the second seven; 454 PHILO JUDjEUS.
454 PHILO JUDjEUS.
as eight is seven and one, so the race which has been honoured is always a race receiving that number also in ad- dition, so that it should be elect, both by nature and in accordance with the decree of the Father.
In the second place, the number eight exhibits equality everywhere, showing that all its separations are equal, as has been aleadv said, I mean its length, and breadth, and depth. And e'quality it is which is the parent of equity and justice, by which he shows that the nation which loves God is adorned with equity or justice, and has advanced to complete possession.
In the third place, eight is not only a measure ot com- plete equity in all its dimensions, but is the very first number that is so, for it is the first cube; since the number eight indicates equality, and so it has the second and not the first rank: therefore it demonstrates in a symbolical manner that that nature was the first which was ever com- pletely furnished with consummate and perfect equity and ustice, and that it is the first nature of the human race, not in point of creation or of time, but in the dignity of virtue, as if justice united with equality were a connatural part In the fourth place, since there are four elements, the ap- pearances of earth, water, air, and fire; fire has received for its figure a shape becoming a similar name, a pyramid;» and air has received for its figure an eight-sided one; water, a twenty-sided one; and the earth, a cube. Therefore he thought it necessary that the earth, which was to be the allotment of the race of man, who were endowed with virtue, should participate in the cubic number, as the whole earth has been formed in its figure. And a part of it receives the parts of that which should bring forth, because by nature the earth is very fertile, producing all the various and distinct species of every kind of animal and plant.
Why does he order all slaves to be circumcised, those born in the family and also those who are bought?t 50. The literal meaning is plain; for it is fitting that servants should imitate their masters on account ot then? * TTwpa/itc, resembling the word rrvp, " fire." + Genesis xvii. 12.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 455 necessary employment, and the services to which they are bound in life. But with respect to the inner object of the command, those dispositions are what may be called born in the family which are influenced by nature itself, and those are bought which can be changed for the better by teaching and instruction. Each of these has its appropriate employ- ment, and requires like a plant to be cleared and pruned in order that the good and fruitful parts may acquire constancy; for fertile plants produce many superfluous things by reason of their fecundity, and those superfluities must be cut away; but those who are taught by instructors cut away their ignorance.
What is the meaning of, " And it shall be my covenant (or agreement) in your flesh? " * 51. God is willing to do good, not only to the man who is endued with virtue, but he wishes that the divine word should regulate not only his soul but his body also, as if it had become its physician. And it must be its care to prune away all excesses of seeing, and hearing, and taste, and smell, and touch, and also those of the instrument of voice and articulation, and also all the redundant and pernicious impulses of the genitals, as also of the whole body, the effect of which is, that at times we are delighted by our passions and at times pained by them.
"Why is it that he pronounces a sentence of death on an infant, saying, " Every male child who is not circumcised, who has not been circumcised (or, as the Greek has it, who shall not be circumcised) in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul shall be cut off from his generation? "f 52. The law never declares a man guilty for any un- intentional offence; since even those who have committed an unintentional homicide are pardoned by it, cities being set apart into which such men may flee and there find security; for whoever escapes to them is rendered secure and free from danger; and no one has the power to drag him forth, or to cite him before the tribunal of the judge for the deed.
Therefore, if a boy is not circumcised on the eighth day * Genesia xvii. 13. f Genesis xvii. 14.
456 PHILO JUDjEUS.
after his birth, what offence will he have committed that he is to be held guilty, and suffer the penalty of death?
Some persons may perhaps say that the form of the command points to the parents themselves, for they look upon them as despisers of the command of the law. But others say that it has here exerted excessive severity against infants, as it seems, imposing this heavy penalty 'in &order that grown up persons who break the' law may thus be irrevocably subjected to most severe punishment. This is the literal effect of the words.
But if we look to their inward meaning, then what is male in us is most especially the intellect, and that God here commands to be circumcised on the eighth day, for the reason previously stated, not in any other part, but in the flesh of the foreskin, by this expression symbolically indi- cating those parts which in the flesh do subsequently become the organs of pleasure and impulse. And on this account it is that he introduces a legitimate reason, warning men that the intellect, which is not circumcised and cleared away from the flesh and the vices of the flesh, is corrupt and cannot be saved.
But that this language is not to be applied to the man, but to the intellect, which is thus put in a sound condition, he tells us in the subsequent words, saying, " that soul shall be cut off," not that human body, or that man, but that soul and mind. Cut off from what? From its generation; for the whole generation is incorrupt. Therefore the wicked man is removed from incorruption to corruption.
Why does God say, " Sara thy wife shall not be called Sara, but Sarra shall be her name? " * 53. Here again some foolish persons may laugh at the addition cf one single letter, that is to say, of a hundred, for in Greek characters the letter g means 'a hundred; but if they jest in this way they are foolish, as being unwilling to behold the inward merits of things and to cleave to the footsteps of truth; for that element, g, which is here thought of merely as the addition of one letter, is the parent of all harmony, making things great instead of small, general instead of particular, and mortal instead of im- * Genesis xvii. 15 QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 457 mortal; since Sara, when called Sara with one g, is inter- preted " thy princedom," but with two ^'s, Sarra, " princess." Let us then be careful, and see how these two names are distinguished from one another. In me wisdom (or prudence), integrity (or temperance), justice, and fortitude have only a prince-lute power and are mortal; moreover, when I die they die too.
But this wisdom is herself a princess, and justice is a prince too, and each separate one of these virtues is not the principal or princely part in me, but is itself a mistress and a queen, an everlasting monarchy and sovereignty. Do you not now see the magnitude of the gift? By this slight change, God changes the part into the whole, the species into the genus, the corruptible into the incorruptible. And all these things are previously dispensed on account of the impending birth of a more perfect joy than all joys, whose name is Isaac.
Why does he say, "And from her I will give thee child- ren, and I will bless him, and he shall be over the nations, and kings of the nations shall come forth from him? " * 54. It is scarcely proper to inquire why he has said children in the plural number, when he meant their only and beloved son; for the intention of God's words applies to his offspring, from which nations and kings should arise.
This is the literal meaning of the words. But if we look to their more inward sense, when the soul possesses that virtue, small and mortal as it is, which is only particular, she is still barren. But from the time that it acquires a share of the divine and incorruptible virtue, it begins to conceive and to bring forth varieties of nations, namely, of all other holy and sacred persons; for every one of the ever- lasting virtues is subject to an immense number of voluntary laws, which bear in themselves a similarity to nations and kingdoms; for virtue and the generations of virtue are royal things, being previously instructed by nature what it is which rejoices in princely power, and has no knowledge of a servile condition.
Wby did Abraham fall on his face and laugh? f * Genesis xvii. 16. f Genesis xvii. 17.
458 PHILO JUDiEUS.
55. Two things are indicated by his falling on his face. One an act of adoration on account of the excess of his divine ecstacy; the other that it corresponds to and is suitable to the aforesaid harmony, by which the intellect has confessed that God alone exists in a continual and unvarying exist- ence. But those creatures which owe their existence to creation and generation, all are subject to changes in time; for they fall to a certain extent, inasmuch as they are accustomed to rise up, and to be corrected in accordance with their original appearance.
And it was very natural for Abraham to laugh at the promise, as he was then filled with the great hope that the things which he expected should be accomplished, especially because he had received a manifest revelation from that appearance, by which he became more thoroughly acquainted with him who exists for everlasting without variation, and with him also who is continually stooping and falling.
Why did Abraham appear to hesitate about the promise, for the sacred writer says, He said in his mind, shall there be a son to one who is a hundred years old; and shall Sarra, who is ninety years old, bring forth a child?* 56. This expression, "he said in his mind," is not added without an object or gratuitously, for words which are articulated in the tongue and the mouth incur guilt, and become liable to punishment, but those which are restrained within the mind are not liable to punishment, because the mind without any intention on its part is led away by irregularities, all kinds of passions being introduced from different quarters, which it for a while resists, being in- dignant at them, and wishing to keep aloof from their representations.
But perhaps wTe should not say that he hesitated, but rather that he was struck by wonderment at the amazing nature of the gift, and so said, " Behold my body is^ ad- vanced in years, and has passed the age of generation; nevertheless all things are possible to God, so that he may transmute old age into youth, and lead those who have no seed nor fruit to fertility and generation: and if a man who is a hundred years and a woman who is ninety years old * Genesis xxii. 18.
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 459 become parents, all common-place occurrences and all regularity of nature will be done away, and it will be clearly seen that it is only the power and the grace of God."
But what virtue the number one hundred has must now be explained.
In the first place, a hundred is the power of the number ten.
In the second place, the number ten thousand is the power of this number a hundred, and ten thousand is the brother of the unit, for as one times one is one, so ten thousand times one is ten thousand.
In the third place, every part of the number a hundred is honourable.
In the fourth place, this number consists of thirty-six and sixty-four, which is a cube, and at the same time a triangle.
In the fifth place, it is composed of all these separate odd numbers: one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, nineteen, which added together make a hundred.
In the sixth place, it is composed of these four numbers: one and its double, and four and its double; as one, two, four, eight, which make fifteen, and of these four numbers also added together, one, four, fifteen, sixty-four, which make eighty-five. And the principle of doubling pervades all these numbers, containing that principle which is by fours and by fives: and the principle of four times and twice pervades them all.
In the seventh place, it is composed of five numbers taken simply, one, two, three, four, which make ten; and of five triangular numbers, one, three, six, ten, which make twenty; and of five quadrangular numbers, one, four, nine, sixteen, which make thirty; and of five quinquangular numbers, one, five, twelve, twenty-two, which make forty: and all these added together make a hundred.
In the eighth place, it is composed of four cubes taken simply beginning with the unit, for after giving one, two, three, four, their cubes one, eight, twenty-seven, sixty-four, make a hundred.
In the ninth place, it is divided into forty and sixty, each of which is a very natural number; and in accordance with 460 PHILO JUDJEUS.
the first order of decimals up to ten thousand in a quin- quanguiar figure the number a hundred holds the middle place; for instance: one, ten, a hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, where a hundred is the middle number of one, ten, a hundred, one thousand, and ten thousand.
But we ought also not to pass over in silence the number ninety as far as it concerns the visible characters.
As it seems to me the number ninety is second only to the number a hundred, inasmuch as the tenth part of it, that is to say ten, is taken away, since I see that in the law two-tenths of the first-fruits were set apart, first a tenth of the whole, secondly a tenth of the remainder, for when a tenth of the fruits of the earth, of corn, or wine, or oil, is taken, another tenth is also taken from the remainder; therefore of these two that which is the first and principal one is honoured with the greater share; and in the second place that which follows it, since the number a hundred of the years of the wise man comprises both the first-fruits with which it is consecrated, both the first and the second kind; but the number ninety of the years of the female parent, comprehends the second and lesser first-fruits, namely, the remainder of the first, which is the great one among the sacred numbers.