Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis

Sefaria · Second Temple > Philo · 622 sections

Book III._.13.3
[41] We must take what he says in this way; He led forth the mind to the outermost bound. For what advantage would it have been for it to leave the body behind and take refuge in sense-perception? What gain in renouncing sense-perception and taking shelter under the uttered word? For it behoves the mind that would be led forth and let go free to withdraw itself from the influence of everything, the needs of the body, the organs of sense, specious arguments, the plausibilities of rhetoric, last of all itself.
Book III._.14.1
[42] For this reason he glories elsewhere saying “The Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, who took me out of my father’s house” (Gen. 24:7); for it is not possible that he whose abode is in the body and the mortal race should attain to being with God; this is possible only for him whom God rescues out of the prison.
Book III._.14.2
[43] For this reason Isaac also, the soul’s gladness, when he meditates and is alone with God, goes forth, quitting himself and his own mind; for it says, “Isaac went forth into the plain to meditate as evening was drawing near” (Gen. 24:63). Yes, and Moses, the word of prophecy, says, “When I go forth out of the city,” the soul to wit (for this too is the city of the living being giving him laws and customs), “I will spread out my hands” (Exod. 9:29), and I will spread open and unfold all my doings to God, calling Him to be witness and overseer of each one of them, from whom evil cannot hide itself, but is forced to remove all disguises and be plainly seen.
Book III._.14.3
[44] When the soul in all utterances and all actions has attained to perfect sincerity and godlikeness, the voices of the senses cease and all those abominable sounds that used to vex it. For the visible calls and summons the sense of sight to itself, and the voice calls the sense of hearing, and the perfume that of smell, and all round the object of sense invites the sense to itself. But all these ceases when the mind goes forth from the city of the soul and finds in God the spring and aim of its own doings and intents.
Book III._.15.1
[45] For truly are “the hands of Moses heavy” (Exod, 17:12); for inasmuch as the bad man’s doings are light and windy, those of the wise man will be weighty and immovable and not easily shaken. Accordingly they are steadied by Aaron, the Word, and Hor, which is “Light”; and life has no clearer light than truth. The prophet’s aim therefore is to show thee by means of symbols that the doings of the wise man are upheld by the most essential of all things, the Word and Truth. And so, when Aaron dies, that is, when he is made perfect, he goes up into Hor, which is “Light” (Numb. 20:25); for the end of the Word is Truth, which casts a beam more far-reaching than light. To this it is the earnest endeavour of the Word to attain.
Book III._.15.2
[46] Mark you not, that when he had received from God (Exod. 33:7) the Tent, namely, wisdom, in which the wise man tabernacles and dwells, he fixed and made it fast and strongly established it, not in the body, but outside it? For to represent the body he uses the figure of a camp, the quarters of an army full of wars and all the evils that war produces, a place that has no part in peace. “And it was called ‘the tent of testimony,’ ” wisdom testified to by God. Yes, for “everyone that sought the Lord went out to it.” Right finely is this said.
Book III._.15.3
[47] For if thou art seeking God, O mind, go out from thyself and seek diligently; but if thou remainest amid the heavy encumbrances of the body or the self-conceits with which the understanding is familiar, though thou mayest have the semblance of a seeker, not thine is the quest for the things of God. But whether thou wilt find God when thou seekest is uncertain, for to many He has not manifested Himself, but their zeal has been without success all along. And yet the mere seeking by itself is sufficient to make us partakers of good things, for it always is the case that endeavours after noble things, even if they fail to attain their object, gladden in their very course those who make them.
Book III._.15.4
[48] Thus it is that while the bad man, who shuns virtue and hides himself from God, takes refuge in his own mind, a sorry resource, the good man, on the other hand, who runs away from himself, returns to the apprehension of the One, thus winning a noble race and proving victor in this grandest of all contests.
Book III._.16.1
[49] “And the Lord God called Adam and said to him, ‘Where art thou?’ ” (Gen. 3:9). Why is Adam alone called, his wife having hid herself with him? Well, first of all we must say, that the mind is called even there where it was, when it receives reproof and a check is given to its defection. But not only is the mind itself called, but all its faculties as well, for without its faculties the mind by itself is found naked and not even existent; and one of the faculties is sense-perception, the which is woman.
Book III._.16.2
[50] Included then in the call of Adam, the mind, is that of sense-perception, the woman; but God does not call her with a special call; why? because, being irrational, she has no capacity derived from herself to receive reproof. For neither sight nor hearing nor any of the senses is susceptible of instruction, so that it cannot perform the act of apprehending subjects. But He who made sense-perception made it capable of distinguishing between material forms only: but the mind it is that receives instruction, and that is why He challenged it but not sense-perception.
Book III._.17.1
[51] The words ποῦ εἶ, “Where art thou?” can be accounted for in many different ways, first as not being interrogative but declarative, as equivalent to “thou art in a place,” ποὺ receiving the grave accent. For whereas thou thoughtest that God walked in the garden and was contained by it, learn that there was something amiss with thee in thinking this, and listen to a most true utterance from the mouth of God who knoweth, to the effect that God is not somewhere (for He is not contained but contains the universe), but that which came into being is in a place, for it must of necessity be contained but not contain.
Book III._.17.2
[52] A second account is this: What is said is equivalent to “Where hast thou arrived, O soul?” In the place of how great goods, what evils hast thou chosen for thyself? When God had invited thee to participate in virtue, art thou going after wickedness, and when He had provided for thy enjoyment the tree of life, that is of wisdom, whereby thou shouldst have power to live, didst thou gorge thyself with ignorance and corruption, preferring misery the soul’s death to happiness the real life?
Book III._.17.3
[53] Thirdly, there is the interrogative sense, to which two answers might be made. One answer to the question, “Where art thou?” is “Nowhere,” for the soul of the bad man has no place where to find footing or upon which to settle. Owing to this the bad man is said to be “placeless”—“placeless” is used of an evil that defies placing (in any known category). Such is the man that is not good, always restless and unstable, drifting this way and that like a chopping wind, attaching himself absolutely to no fixed principle whatever.
Book III._.17.4
[54] A second answer might be given to this effect. Adam in fact gave it. “Hear where I am; where those are who are incapable of seeing God; where those are who do not listen to God; where those are who hide themselves from the Author of all things; where are those that shun virtue, where are the destitute of wisdom, where those are who owing to unmanliness and cowardice of soul live in fear and trembling. For when Adam says, “I heard Thy voice in the garden and was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself” (Gen. 3:10), he discovers all the traits just enumerated, as I have fully shown in former sections.
Book III._.18.1
[55] Nevertheless Adam is not naked now: “they made for themselves girdles” are the words that occur a little further back. Even by this it is the prophet’s wish to teach thee, that he understands by nakedness not that of the body, but that by which the mind is found unprovided and unclothed with virtue.
Book III._.18.2
[56] “The woman,” he says, “whom Thou gavest with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12). It is well his not saying, “the woman whom Thou gavest to me,” but “with me”; for Thou gavest not sense to me as a possession, but it too Thou didst leave free and at large, in some respects not subservient to the behests of my understanding. For instance, should the mind choose to bid the sight not to see, the sight will none the less see what lies before it. The hearing again, when a sound has reached it, will assuredly give it entrance, even if the mind resolutely command it not to hear. And the sense of smell, when odours have found their way in to it, will smell them, even though the mind forbid it to welcome them.
Book III._.18.3
[57] Owing to this God did not give sense-perception to the living being, but with the living being. What “giving with” means is this. Sense becomes aware of all things with our mind and simultaneously with it. For instance, the visible object arrests simultaneously the attention of the sight and of the mind; for the eye caught sight of the material substance, and at once the mind took in the thing that had been seen, took in that it was black or white or yellow or red or triangular or square or round, or some other colour or shape. Again the hearing received the impression of the sound and the mind with it: in proof that it did, it immediately judged of the sound, pronouncing it weak or loud, tuneful and rhythmical, and on the other hand whether it is out of tune and a discord. We find the same thing in the case of the other senses.
Book III._.18.4
[58] Quite excellent is the addition of the words “she gave me of the tree.” For no one, except sense-perception, ever gives to the mind the tree with its sensibly-discerned bulk. For who gave to the mind the possibility of recognizing the body or whiteness? Did not sight? Who gave it the sound? Did not the hearing? Who the odour? Did not the sense of smell? Who the savour? Did not the taste? Who the rough and the soft? Did not the touch? Rightly and with perfect truth was it said by the mind ‘sense-perception alone gives me opportunities of apprehending bodies.’
Book III._.19.1
[59] “And God said to the woman, ‘What is this thou hast done?’ And she said, ‘The serpent beguiled me and I ate’ ” (Gen. 3:13). God puts a question to sense-perception touching one point, she gives an answer touching another point: for God asks something about the man; she speaks not about him, but says something about herself, for her words are “I ate,” not “I gave.”
Book III._.19.2
[60] Perhaps, then as we read the passage figuratively, we shall solve the puzzle and show that the woman gives a very pertinent answer to the question put to her. For it is a matter of necessity that when she ate, the man too should eat. For when sense-perception, meeting with the object of sense, is filled with the presentation of it, forthwith the mind also is in contact, takes hold and in a way absorbs the sustenance which it provides. This, then, is what she says: My giving it to the man was by no act of will, for even as I struck upon the object, he (so swift is he to move) received the image and impression of it himself.
Book III._.20.1
[61] Now observe that, whereas the man says that the woman gave, the woman says not that the serpent gave but that he beguiled; for to give is characteristic of sense-perception but to cheat and beguile of pleasure with its serpent-like subtilty. For instance, sense-perception gives to the mind that which is by its nature white and that which is black, that which is hot and that which is cold, quite truthfully and with no deception. For, in the opinion of most people who do not overdo precision in their natural philosophy, objects are such as the appearance of them which meets the eye. But pleasure does not report the object to the mind such as it is, but artfully falsifies it, representing as something advantageous that which is of no benefit at all:
Book III._.20.2
[62] even as it is possible to see repulsive courtesans applying pigments to their faces and painting under their eyes to conceal their ugliness. We can note also the immoderate man inclined to gluttony: this man welcomes as a good thing the abundance of strong drink and the well-spread board, though taking harm from them both in body and soul.
Book III._.20.3
[63] Again we may see those who are in love, often quite crazy over women most hideous to behold, while pleasure beguiles them; you might almost say that she assures them of the beauty of form and colouring, the fullness and symmetry, that mark those who are characterized by traits the very reverse of these. Indeed they overlook those endowed with really faultless beauty, and pine for those whom I have mentioned.
Book III._.20.4
[64] All kinds of consummate deception, then, are most proper to pleasure, while giving is the characteristic of sense-perception: pleasure outwits and misleads the mind, showing objects not as they are, but as they are not, whereas sense-perception simply gives the material forms just as nature has made them, without trickery or counterfeit.
Book III._.21.1
[65] “And the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou from among all cattle and from among all the beasts of the earth. Upon thy breast and thy belly shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall watch for thy head, and thou shalt watch for his heel” (Gen. 3:14 f.). For what reason does He curse the serpent without giving it the opportunity to defend itself, though elsewhere, as seems reasonable, He commands that “the two parties between whom the dispute is should stand forth” (Deut. 19:17) and that credit be not given to the one till the other be heard?
Book III._.21.2
[66] Yet you see, no doubt, that He did not thus give credit to Adam, and prejudge the case against the woman, but gives her opportunity to defend herself, when He inquires “What is this that thou hast done?” (Gen. 3:13), and she acknowledges that she failed owing to the deception practised on her by subtle serpent-like pleasure. When, then, the woman said “the serpent beguiled me,” what was there to prevent His inquiring here too from the serpent, whether he beguiled her, instead of prejudging the case and pronouncing the curse without listening to any defence?
Book III._.21.3
[67] We have to say, then, that sense-perception comes under the head neither of bad nor of good things, but is an intermediate thing common to a wise man and a fool, and when it finds itself in a fool it proves bad, when in a sensible man, good. Reasonably then, since it has no evil nature on its own account, but halts between good and evil, inclining to either side, it is not pronounced guilty till it has owned that it followed evil.
Book III._.21.4
[68] But the serpent, pleasure, is bad of itself; and therefore it is not found at all in a good man, the bad man getting all the harm of it by himself. Quite appropriately therefore does God pronounce the curse without giving pleasure an opportunity of defending herself, since she has in her no seed from which virtue might spring, but is always and everywhere guilty and foul.
Book III._.22.1
[69] For this reason in the case of Er also God knows him to be wicked and puts him to death without bringing an open charge against him (Gen. 38:7). For He is well aware that the body, our “leathern” bulk (“leathern” is the meaning of “Er”), is wicked and a plotter against the soul, and is even a corpse and a dead thing. For you must make up your mind that we are each of us nothing but corpse-bearers, the soul raising up and carrying without toil the body which of itself is a corpse. And note, if you will, how strong the soul is.
Book III._.22.2
[70] The most muscular athlete would not have strength to carry his own statue for a short time, but the soul, sometimes for as long as a hundred years, easily carries the statue of the human being without getting tired; for it is not now (at the last) that God slays Er; nay, but the body which He made and which Er represents was a corpse to begin with.
Book III._.22.3
[71] By nature, as I have said, it is wicked and a plotter against the soul, but it is not evident to all that it is so, but to God alone and to anyone who is dear to God; for we read “Er was wicked in the sight of the Lord.” For when the mind soars aloft and is being initiated in the mysteries of the Lord, it judges the body to be wicked and hostile; but when it has abandoned the investigation of things divine, it deems it friendly to itself, its kinsman and brother. The proof of this is that it takes refuge in what is dear to the body.
Book III._.22.4
[72] On this account there is a difference between the soul of an athlete and the soul of a philosopher. For the athlete refers everything to the well-being of the body, and, lover of the body that he is, would sacrifice the soul itself on its behalf; but the philosopher being enamoured of the noble thing that lives in himself, cares for the soul, and pays no regard to that which is really a corpse, the body, concerned only that the best part of him, his soul, may not be hurt by an evil thing, a very corpse, tied to it.
Book III._.23.1
[73] You see that Er is slain not by the Lord, but by God. For it is not as Ruler and Governor employing the absolute power of sovereignty that He destroys the body, but in the exercise of goodness and kindness. For “God” is the name of the goodness pertaining to the First Cause, and is so used that thou mayest know that He hath made the inanimate things also not by exercising authority but goodness, even as by goodness He hath made the living creatures. For it was necessary with a view to the clear manifestation of the superior beings that there should be in existence an inferior creation also, due to the same power, even the goodness of the First Cause. And that goodness is God.
Book III._.23.2
[74] When, then, O soul, wilt thou in fullest measure realize thyself to be a corpse-bearer? Will it not be when thou art perfected, and accounted worthy of prizes and crowns? For then shalt thou be no lover of the body, but a lover of God. And thou shalt win the rewards if Judah’s daughter-in-law become thy wife, even Tamar, which means a palm-tree, the sign of victory. Here is a proof of it. When Er has married her, he is immediately found to be wicked and slain. For we read, “And Judah took for Er his firstborn a wife whose name was Tamar” (Gen. 38:6), and the next words are, “And Er was wicked before the Lord, and God slew him” (ibid. 7). For when the mind has carried off the rewards of victory, it condemns the corpse-body to death.
Book III._.23.3
[75] Thou seest that God both curses the serpent without allowing him to defend himself—for he is pleasure—and slays Er without bringing an open charge against him; for he is the body. And if thou wilt consider, my friend, thou wilt find that God has made in the soul some natures faulty and blameworthy of themselves, and others in all respects excellent and praiseworthy, just as is the case with plants and animals.
Book III._.23.4
[76] Seest thou not that among the plants the Creator has made some repaying cultivation and useful and wholesome, and others wild and injurious and productive of disease and destruction, and the same with animals? As, doubtless, He has made the serpent, our present subject, for the creature is of itself destructive of health and life. What a serpent does to a man, that pleasure does to the soul, and therefore the serpent was taken to represent pleasure.
Book III._.24.1
[77] Exactly, then, as God has conceived a hatred for pleasure and the body without giving reasons, so too has he promoted goodly natures apart from any manifest reason, pronouncing no action of theirs acceptable before bestowing his praises upon them. For should anyone ask why the prophet says that Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord God (Gen. 6:8) when as yet he had, so far as our knowledge goes, done no fair deed, we shall give a suitable answer to the effect that he is shown to be of an excellent nature from his birth, for Noah means “rest” or “righteous.” But it cannot but be that he who rests from sinful and unrighteous acts and rests upon what is noble and lives in fellowship with righteousness, should find favour with God.
Book III._.24.2
[78] Now finding favour is not as some suppose equivalent only to being well-pleasing, but something of this kind besides. The righteous man exploring the nature of existences makes a surprising find, in this one discovery, that all things are a grace of God, and that creation has no gift of grace to bestow, for neither has it any possession, since all things are God’s possession, and for this reason grace too belongs to Him alone as a thing that is His very own. Thus to those who ask what the origin of creation is the right answer would be, that it is the goodness and grace of God, which He bestowed on the race that stands next after Him. For all things in the world and the world itself is a free gift and act of kindness and grace on God’s part.
Book III._.25.1
[79] Melchizedek, too, has God made both king of peace, for that is the meaning of “Salem,” and His own priest (Gen. 14:18). He has not fashioned beforehand any deed of his, but produces him to begin with as such a king, peaceable and worthy of His own priesthood. For he is entitled “the righteous king,” and a “king” is a thing at enmity with a despot, the one being the author of laws, the other of lawlessness.
Book III._.25.2
[80] So mind, the despot, decrees for both soul and body harsh and hurtful decrees working grievous woes, conduct, I mean, such as wickedness prompts, and free indulgence of the passions. But the king in the first place resorts to persuasion rather than decrees, and in the next place issues directions such as to enable a vessel, the living being I mean, to make life’s voyage successfully, piloted by the good pilot, who is right principle.
Book III._.25.3
[81] Let the despot’s title therefore be ruler of war, the king’s prince of peace, of Salem, and let him offer to the soul food full of joy and gladness; for he brings bread and wine, things which Ammonites and Moabites refused to supply to the seeing one, on which account they are excluded from the divine congregation and assembly. These characters, Ammonites deriving their nature from sense-perception their mother, and Moabites deriving theirs from mind their father, who hold that all things owe their coherence to these two things, mind and sense-perception, and take no thought of God, “shall not enter,” saith Moses, “into the congregation of the Lord, because they did not meet us with bread and water” (Deut. 23:3 f.) when we came out from the passions of Egypt.
Book III._.26.1
[82] But let Melchizedek instead of water offer wine, and give to souls strong drink, that they may be seized by a divine intoxication, more sober than sobriety itself. For he is a priest, even Reason, having as his portion Him that is, and all his thoughts of God are high and vast and sublime: for he is priest of the Most High (Gen. 14:18), not that there is any other not Most High—for God being One “is in heaven above and on earth beneath, and there is none beside Him” (Deut. 4:39)—but to conceive of God not in low earthbound ways but in lofty terms, such as transcend all other greatness and all else that is free from matter, calls up in us a picture of the Most High.
Book III._.27.1
[83] What good thing had Abram already done, that he bids him estrange himself from fatherland and kindred there and dwell in whatever land God Himself may give him? (Gen. 12:1). And that is a city good and large and very prosperous, for great and precious are God’s gifts. But this character also did God create in such a shape as to merit esteem, for “Abram” means “father high-soaring,” and both epithets are grounds for praise.
Book III._.27.2
[84] For when the mind does not, like a master, frighten the soul with threats, but governs it as a father, not granting it the things that are pleasant to it, but giving it even against its will the things that are good for it; when, in all matters turning away from what is base and from all that draws it to things mortal, it soars aloft and spends its time in contemplation of the universe and its different parts; when, mounting yet higher, it explores the Deity and His nature, urged by an ineffable love of knowledge; it cannot continue to entertain the principles it imbibed originally, but in its desire to improve itself seeks to change its abode for a better one.
Book III._.28.1
[85] Some even before their birth God endows with a goodly form and equipment, and has determined that they shall have a most excellent portion. Dost thou not see what He says concerning Isaac to Abraham when unable to trust that he shall ever become the father of such an offspring, nay when he actually laughed at the promise and said, “Shall it come to pass to him that is a hundred years old, and shall Sarah who is ninety years old bear a child?” (Gen. 17:17). He ratifies and confirms it saying, “Yes, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with Him for an everlasting covenant” (ibid. 19).
Book III._.28.2
[86] What is it, then, that has made this one too to be praised before his birth? Some good things benefit us when they have reached us and are present, as health, excellence of bodily senses, wealth perhaps, fame—for even these may be loosely called “good things”;—some again not only when they have come, but when their coming has been foretold. For instance joy, a happy condition of the soul, gladdens not only when it is present and in active operation, but, when still an object of hope, brings an anticipatory brightness. For here again is a peculiar advantage which it possesses. While other good things take effect in virtue of their own particular goodness only, joy is both a particular and a general good. See how it comes to add to and enrich them all. We rejoice over health, and over liberty, and over honour, and over the other good things, so that we say with literal truth that nothing is good unless joy be attached to it.
Book III._.28.3
[87] But we rejoice over the other good things not only when they have already come about beforehand and are present, but also when they are looked for in the future, as when we hope that we shall grow rich, or shall obtain office, or shall win praise, or shall discover a way of getting rid of disease, or shall obtain our share of health and strength, or shall be no longer ignorant, but men of knowledge, we are glad in no small measure. Seeing then, that joy, not only when present but when hoped for, causes the soul to overflow with gladness, God fitly held Isaac, even before he was begotten, worthy of his great name and therein of a vast endowment: for “Isaac” means laughter of soul and joy and gladness.
Book III._.29.1
[88] Once again, of Jacob and Esau, when still in the womb, God declares that the one is a ruler and leader and master, but that Esau is a subject and a slave. For God the Maker of living beings knoweth well the different pieces of his own handiwork, even before He has thoroughly chiselled and consummated them, and the faculties which they are to display at a later time, in a word their deeds and experiences. And so when Rebecca, the soul that waits on God, goes to inquire of God, He tells her in reply, “Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy belly, and one people shall be above the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23).
Book III._.29.2
[89] For in God’s judgement that which is base and irrational is by nature a slave, but that which is of fine character and endowed with reason and better is princely and free. And this not only when either is full-grown in soul, but even if their development is still uncertain. For it is universally the case that even a slight breath of virtue is an evidence not of liberty merely but of leadership and sovereignty, and on the other hand that the most casual beginning of wickedness enslaves the reasoning faculty, even if its offspring have not yet come forth fully developed.
Book III._.30.1
[90] What led this same Jacob, when Joseph brought to him his two sons, the elder Manasseh and the younger Ephraim, to cross his hands and place his right hand on Ephraim the younger son and his left hand on Manasseh the elder; and when Joseph was distressed by it and imagined that his father had made an unintentional mistake in so placing his hands, to say it was no error, but “I know, my child, I know, this one too shall be a people, this one too shall be exalted, but his younger brother shall be greater than he”? (Gen. 48:19).
Book III._.30.2
[91] What, then, does it behove us to say but this, that two exceedingly necessary faculties were created in the soul by God, memory, and recollection? Of these memory is the better, recollection the inferior. For while the former keeps everything that it has apprehended fresh and distinct, so as to go wrong in nothing owing to ignorance, recollection is in all cases preceded by forgetfulness, a maimed and blind affair.
Book III._.30.3
[92] But the inferior of these, recollection, is discovered to be older than the superior one, memory: [while recollection has many gaps of forgetfulness, memory is] unbroken and uninterrupted. For when we are being first introduced to the various arts we are unable at once to master their principles; so finding ourselves liable to forgetfulness at the outset, we afterwards recollect, until as the result of repeated forgetting and repeated recollecting an unfailing memory shall subsequently win the day. Accordingly memory, being late-born, is formed as recollection’s younger sister.
Book III._.30.4
[93] So then Ephraim is the figurative name of Memory, meaning “fruit-bearing,” for the soul of the student has borne its proper fruit when it is able by means of memory to hold securely the principles of the art that is being learned. Manasseh, however, represents recollection, for the name is said to mean “out of forgetfulness” when translated, and he who escapes from forgetfulness necessarily recollects. Most rightly, therefore, does Jacob, the overthrower of the passions and the trained seeker of virtue, lay his right hand on Ephraim as fruitful memory, and count Manasseh, who is recollection, worthy of the second place.
Book III._.30.5
[94] Moses also, to take another case, awards special praise among the sacrificers of the Passover to those who sacrificed the first time, because when they had separated themselves from the passions of Egypt by crossing the Red Sea they kept to that crossing and no more hankered after them, but to those who sacrificed the second time he assigns the second place, for after turning they retraced the wrong steps they had taken and as though they had forgotten their duties they set out again to perform them, while the earlier sacrificers held on without turning. So Manasseh, who comes “out of forgetfulness,” corresponds to those who offer the second Passover, the fruit-bearing Ephraim to those who offer the earlier one.
Book III._.31.1
[95] This, moreover, is the reason of God’s proclaiming Bezalel by name, and saying that He has given him wisdom and knowledge, and that He will appoint him artificer and chief craftsman of all the works of the Tabernacle, that is of the soul (Exod. 31:2 ff.), though He has so far pointed to no work or deed of Bezalel’s, such as to win him even commendation. We must say, then, that here too we have a form which God has stamped on the soul as on the tested coin. What, then, the image impressed on it is we shall know if we first ascertain accurately the meaning of the name.
Book III._.31.2
[96] Bezalel means, then, “in the shadow of God”; but God’s shadow is His Word, which he made use of like an instrument, and so made the world. But this shadow, and what we may describe as the representation, is the archetype for further creations. For just as God is the Pattern of the Image, to which the title of Shadow has just been given, even so the Image becomes the pattern of other beings, as the prophet made clear at the very outset of the Law-giving by saying, “And God made the man after the Image of God” (Gen. 1:27), implying that the Image had been made such as representing God, but that the man was made after the Image when it had acquired the force of a pattern.
Book III._.32.1
[97] Let us observe therefore what the character impressed is. The first men sought to find how we came to conceive of the Deity. Next those whose philosophy was reputed the best declared that it was from the world and its constituent parts and the forces subsisting in these that we gained our apprehension of the First Cause.
Book III._.32.2
[98] Should a man see a house carefully constructed with a gateway, colonnades, men’s quarters, women’s quarters, and the other buildings, he will get an idea of the artificer, for he will be of opinion that the house never reached that completeness without the skill of the craftsman;
Book III._.32.3
[99] and in like manner in the case of a city and a ship and every smaller or greater construction. Just so anyone entering this world, as it were some vast house or city, and beholding the sky circling round and embracing within it all things, and planets and fixed stars without any variation moving in rhythmical harmony and with advantage to the whole, and earth with the central space assigned to it, water and air flowing in set order as its boundary, and over and above these, living creatures, mortal and immortal beings, plants and fruits in great variety, he will surely argue that these have not been wrought without consummate art, but that the Maker of this whole universe was and is God. Those, who thus base their reasoning on what is before their eyes, apprehend God by means of a shadow cast, discerning the Artificer by means of His works.
Book III._.33.1
[100] There is a mind more perfect and more thoroughly cleansed, which has undergone initiation into the great mysteries, a mind which gains its knowledge of the First Cause not from created things, as one may learn the substance from the shadow, but lifting its eyes above and beyond creation obtains a clear vision of the uncreated One, so as from Him to apprehend both Himself and His shadow. To apprehend that was, we saw, to apprehend both the Word and this world.
Book III._.33.2
[101] The mind of which I speak is Moses who says, “Manifest Thyself to me, let me see Thee that I may know Thee” (Exod. 33:13); ‘for I would not that Thou shouldst be manifested to me by means of heaven or earth or water or air or any created thing at all, nor would I find the reflection of Thy being in aught else than in Thee Who art God, for the reflections in created things are dissolved, but those in the Uncreate will continue abiding and sure and eternal.’ This is why God hath expressly called Moses and why He spake to Him.
Book III._.33.3
[102] Bezalel also He hath expressly called, but not in like manner. One receives the clear vision of God directly from the First Cause Himself. The other discerns the Artificer, as it were from a shadow, from created things by virtue of a process of reasoning. Hence you will find the Tabernacle and all its furniture made in the first instance by Moses but afterwards by Bezalel, for Moses is the artificer of the archetypes, and Bezalel of the copies of these. For Moses has God for Instructor, as He says “thou shalt make all things according to the pattern that was shown to thee in the mount” (Exod. 25:40),
Book III._.33.4
[103] but Bezalel is instructed by Moses. And all this is just as we should expect. For on the occasion likewise of the rebellion of Aaron, Speech, and Miriam, Perception, they are expressly told “If a prophet be raised up unto the Lord, God shall be known unto him in a vision” and in a shadow, not manifestly; but with Moses, the man who is “faithful in all His house, He will speak mouth to mouth in manifest form and not through dark speeches” (Numb. 12:6–8).
Book III._.34.1
[104] Seeing then that we have found two natures created, undergoing moulding, and chiselled into full relief by God’s hands, the one essentially hurtful, blameworthy, and accursed, the other beneficial and praiseworthy, stamped the one with a counterfeit, the other with a genuine impression, let us offer a noble and suitable prayer, which Moses offered before us, “that God may open to us His own treasury” (Deut. 28:12) and that sublime reason pregnant with divine illumination, to which He has given the title of “heaven”; and that He may close up the treasuries of evil things.
Book III._.34.2
[105] For there are with God treasuries as of good things so also of evil things, as He saith in the great Song, “Are not these laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My treasuries in the day of vengeance, when their foot shall have slipped?” (Deut. 32:34 f.). You see that there are treasuries of evil things. And the treasury of good things is one, for since God is One, there is likewise one treasury of good things. But of evil things there are many treasuries, for countless too are those that sin. But here too observe the goodness of Him who IS. The treasury of good things He opens, those of evil things He closes. For it is God’s property to hold out good things and to be beforehand in bestowing them, but to be slow to inflict evil things.
Book III._.34.3
[106] But Moses, magnifying God’s love of giving gifts and granting favours, says that the treasuries of evil things are sealed up not only at other times, but also when the soul fails to direct its steps in keeping with the right principle; and yet then it might justly have been deemed worthy of punishment. For he says that the treasuries of evil things were sealed in the day of vengeance, the sacred word thus showing that not even against those who sin will God proceed at once, but gives time for repentance and for the healing and setting on his feet again of him who had slipped.
Book III._.35.1
[107] “And the Lord God said to the serpent, Cursed art thou from among all cattle and from among all the beasts of the earth” (Gen. 3:14). Just as joy, being a good condition of soul, deserves prayer, so pleasure, the passion par excellence, deserves cursing; it shifts the standards of the soul and renders it a lover of passion instead of a lover of virtue:—“Accursed,” says Moses in the Curses, “is he who removes his neighbour’s landmarks” (Deut. 27:17):—for God set as a landmark and law for the soul virtue, the tree of life. This is removed by the man who has fixed as landmark in its stead wickedness, the tree of death.
Book III._.35.2
[108] “Cursed again is he who causes a blind man to go astray in the way” (Deut. 27:18), “and he that smiteth his neighbour craftily” (ibid. 24). And these also are acts of pleasure, the utterly godless one; for sense by itself is a blind thing, inasmuch as it is irrational, for it is the reasoning faculty that confers sight. Accordingly it is with the reason only that we apprehend matters; sense does not carry us so far; for by means of sense we gain impressions only of the material forms of things.
Book III._.35.3
[109] Pleasure, then, has cheated poor maimed sense of the power of apprehending matters, inasmuch as, when it could have had recourse to mind and have secured it for its charioteer, it has prevented it, leading it to what can be perceived externally only, and by giving it a craving for that which produces pleasure, to the end that sense, being a maimed thing, may follow a blind guide, namely that which sense can perceive, and that the mind, led by this pair of blind guides, may be brought to the ground and robbed of self-control.
Book III._.35.4
[110] For if there had been any correspondence with what nature prescribes, it would have been incumbent upon the maimed faculties to follow the reasoning faculty which has eyes, for in this way the damage incurred would have been diminished. As it is, pleasure has organized such a shrewd device against the soul, that it has compelled it to employ blind guides, inducing it by delusive wiles to change virtue for evil things, and to surrender its innocence and receive wickedness in lieu of it.
Book III._.36.1
Such an exchange too is forbidden by the holy word, when it says, “Thou shalt not change good with evil” (Lev. 27:33).
Book III._.36.2
[111] Accursed on these grounds is pleasure. Let us see how appropriate the curses are which He pronounces upon it. He says that it is cursed from all cattle (Gen. 3:14). Our irrational faculty of sense-perception, then, is of the cattle kind, and each of our senses curses pleasure as a most deadly enemy: for it is in very deed hostile to sense, as is proved by the fact that, when we have glutted ourselves with immoderate pleasure, we cannot see nor hear nor smell nor taste nor feel with clearness, but our contact with objects of sense is dim and feeble.
Book III._.36.3
[112] This is what we experience when we have ceased from indulging in pleasure; but when we are in the very midst of the enjoyments it affords, we find ourselves utterly deprived of the support that we obtain through the co-operation of the senses, to such an extent that we seem to have been maimed. How, then, should not sense rightly lay curses on pleasure that maims it?
Book III._.37.1
[113] It is cursed also beyond all the wild beasts. By these I mean the passions of the soul, for by these the mind is wounded and destroyed, Why, then, is it accounted worse than the other passions? Because it is, we may say, at the bottom of them all, like a kind of starting-point and foundation. Lust comes into play through love of pleasure; pain arises as pleasure is withdrawn; fear again is engendered owing to a dread of being without pleasure. It is clear, then, that all the passions depend on pleasure, and these would perchance never have taken shape at all, if first there had not been deposited that which is productive of them, pleasure.
Book III._.38.1
[114] “On thy breast and belly shalt thou go” (Gen. 3:14). For passion has its lair in these parts of the body, the breast and the belly. When pleasure has the materials it needs to produce it, it haunts the belly and the parts below it. But when it is at a loss for these materials, it occupies the breast where wrath is; for lovers of pleasure when deprived of their pleasures grow bitter and angry.
Book III._.38.2
[115] Let us look still more carefully at the thing signified. Our soul consists of three parts, and has one part given to reasoning, a second to high spirit, a third to desire. Some philosophers have distinguished these parts from each other in regard to function, some in regard also to the places which they occupy. These have gone on to assign to the reasoning part the region of the head, saying that, where the king is, there are also his bodyguards, and that the senses which are in the region of the head are bodyguards of the mind, and that it follows that the king must be there too, having had it allotted to him, like a castle in a city, for his dwelling. To the spirited part they assign the breast, pointing out that nature has given that part firmness by means of a strong and solid array of continuous bones, as though she were arming a good soldier with shield and breastplate for defence against opponents. To the lustful portion of the soul they assign the quarter about the abdomen and the belly, for there it is that lust, irrational craving, has its abode.
Book III._.39.1
[116] If, therefore, O mind, thou art ever inquiring what quarter pleasure has for her portion, do not consider the place occupied by the head, where the reasoning faculty resides, for thou wilt assuredly not find it there, since reason is at war with passion, and cannot remain in the same place with it. For when reason prevails pleasure is gone, and when pleasure conquers, reason is an exile. But look for it in the breast and belly, where high spirit and desire are, portions of the irrational: for in the irrational is to be found alike our faculty of choice and the passions.
Book III._.39.2
[117] Well, there is nothing to prevent the mind from going out from the purely intellectual interests which are proper to it and giving itself up to its inferior. This happens when war prevails in the soul; for then reason, that is in us not as a combative but as a peaceful inmate, cannot fail to become a prisoner of war.
Book III._.40.1
[118] For look now: the Sacred Word knowing how strong is the impulse of either passion, of both high spirit and lust, puts a curb on each of them, by setting over them reason as a charioteer and pilot. And in the first place this is how it discourses concerning high spirit, aiming at curing and healing it:
Book III._.40.2
[119] “And thou shalt put on to the oracle of the judgements the Showing and the Truth, and it shall be upon Aaron’s breast, whenever he enters into the Holy Place before the Lord” (Exod. 28:30). The “oracle,” then, is in us the organ of speech, which is the uttered word:
Book III._.40.3
[120] and this may either be rejected as spoken at random or may be approved as well-judged: but the sacred writer is leading us to think of the word spoken with judgement and discernment; for he tells us that the oracle is not the untested or counterfeit one, but “the oracle of the judgements,” an expression tantamount to “well tested and examined.” To this approved word he says that the two virtues belong, the highest possible, clearness and truthfulness. Quite rightly does he say so. For reason at the outset fell short of making matters clear and evident to another, since we have no power to exhibit the affection called out in the soul by external things nor to convey an idea of its character.
Book III._.41.1
Wherefore we were compelled to resort to signs given by means of the voice, nouns and verbs, which cannot fail to be intelligible, that the other may get a clear and unmistakable idea of our meaning. (This was reason’s first inadequacy.) In the second place, it was inadequate to report things truly.
Book III._.41.2
[121] For what is the good of giving a clear and distinct expression, if it be in other respects false? For under these circumstances the hearer must needs be deceived and incur a very great misfortune, being not merely ignorant but ill-taught into the bargain. For what if, pointing to the letter alpha I say to the boy clearly and distinctly that it is gamma, or to eta and tell him that it is omega? Or what if the music-master tells the beginner as he points to the enharmonic genus that it is the chromatic, or says of the chromatic that it is the diatonic, or of the note on the highest string that it is the central, or of the conjunct that it is the disjunct tetrachord, or of the highest tone in the tetrachord scale that it is the lowest?
Book III._.41.3
[122] He will speak clearly and distinctly, it may be, but not truly. But in this way he will be a doer of evil—of the evil that belongs to speech. But when he attains both of these requisites, both clearness and truthfulness, he will render the word beneficial to the pupil, bringing into play its two virtues, perhaps the only virtues indeed which it possesses.
Book III._.42.1
[123] It says, then, that the tested word, having the virtues which are peculiarly its own, was enthroned upon the breast (Aaron’s namely), that is, upon the spirited element, that this might first of all be guided by reason, and not injured by its own irrationality; in the next place by clearness, for it is not the nature of anger to be a friend of clearness. Do we not see in those who are enraged how not their understanding only but their words also are full of disturbance and confusion? It was appropriate therefore that anger’s lack of clearness should be set right again by clearness.
Book III._.42.2
[124] It must be guided in the third place by truthfulness, for together with its other faults anger has this one also as peculiarly its own, that of lying. As a matter of experience, of those who give way to this passion, hardly one speaks the truth. They are victims of an intoxication not of body but of soul. These are antidotes for the region of anger; reason, clearness of speech, truth of speech. For the three are virtually one, since reason, accompanied by the two virtues of truthfulness and distinctness, acts as a healer of anger, that sore sickness of the soul.
Book III._.43.1
[125] To whom, then, does it pertain to bear these? Not to my understanding or to that of any chance comer, but to that which exercises its priesthood and offers sacrifices in purity, that of Aaron, and not even to this always, for many a time it turns and fails, but when it continues free from turning, when it enters into the Holy Place, when the reasoning faculty enters in together with holy resolves and does not abandon these.
Book III._.43.2
[126] But full often does the mind enter with these into sacred and holy and purified opinions, but these are mere human opinions, as for instance those concerning simple duties, those concerning high-standard actions, those concerning usages resting on human enactment, those concerning virtue conforming to human standards. Not even he who is in such case as this is sufficient to bear the oracle upon his breast with the virtues that belong to it, but he only who goes in in the sight of the Lord, that is he who does all things for God’s sake, and overvalues none of the things that are of less importance than God, but accords to these also all they deserve, not, however, stopping at them, but mounting up in the endeavour to acquaint himself with and know and honour the One.
Book III._.43.3
[127] For he who is in this case will have his spirited element charioteered by purified reason, which will abolish all that is irrational in him, and by clearness, which will heal all that is uncertain and confused, and by truthfulness, which will eliminate falsehood.
Book III._.44.1
[128] Aaron, then, being inferior to Moses who cuts the breast, that is the spirited element, clean out—suffers it not to be carried away by random impulses, for he is afraid that, if it be given the rein, it may some day get unmanageable, as a horse does, and trample down all the soul. No, he curbs and controls it, first by reason, that being driven by an excellent charioteer it may not get too restive; next he employs the virtues of speech, distinctness, and truth. For if high spirit be trained in this manner, so as to yield to reason and distinctness, and also to exercise itself in eschewing falsehood, it will not only rid itself of much ferment, but will render the whole soul gentle.
Book III._.45.1
[129] Well, Aaron, as I have said, having this passion, attempts to cure it by the saving medicines that have been mentioned. Moses, on the other hand, thinks it necessary to use the knife on the seat of anger in its entirety, and to cut it clean out of the soul, for no moderation of passion can satisfy him; he is content with nothing but complete absence of passion. That what I say is true Holy Writ testifies: for it says, “Moses took the breast and removed it as a crowning offering before the Lord from the ram of consecration and it became Moses’ portion” (Lev. 8:29). Very good; for it was the business of the man who loved virtue and was beloved of God, when he had contemplated the entire soul, to seize the breast, which is the spirited element, and to cut it off and take it away, in order that, through the excision of the warlike part, the remainder might have peace. He removes it, not from this or that animal, as it may happen, but from the ram of consecration, although there was a heifer offered too. But he passed this by and went to the ram, because it is a creature naturally prone to butt, owing to its being full of spirit and ready for the fray. It is owing to this that engineers make most of the engines of war in the shape of rams.
Book III._.45.2
[130] The part of us, then, that resembles a ram in his reckless readiness for a fight is the wrangling species; and wrangling is the mother of anger; accordingly it is those who contend most eagerly in debates and other gatherings that most easily lose their tempers. So Moses cuts out, as he needs must, anger, discordant offspring of the soul that loves wrangling and contention.
Book III._.45.3
[131] He does this that she may be rendered barren, and cease bearing hurtful progeny, and that that this may become a portion befitting the lover of virtue, not the breast nor the seat of high spirit, but the removal of these: for God assigned to the wise man a share of surpassing excellence, even the power to cut out the passions. You observe how the perfect man always makes perfect freedom from passion his study. But Aaron, the man who is making gradual progress, holding a lower position, practises moderation, as I have said;
Book III._.45.4
[132] for his power does not go so far as to enable him to cut out the breast and the high-spirited element, but he brings to it, as charioteer and guide, reason with the virtues attached to it, and this is the oracle on which is Clear-showing and Truth.
Book III._.46.1
[133] But he shall bring out the difference more clearly by means of the following words: “The breast of the offering put on, and the shoulder of the part removed, I have taken at the hands of the children of Israel from the sacrifices of your salvation, and have given to Aaron and his sons” (Lev. 7:34).
Book III._.46.2
[134] You see that these are not capable of taking the breast by itself, but must take it with the shoulder, whereas Moses takes it without the shoulder. Why is this? Because he, being perfect, has no small or petty aims, nor any desire to moderate his passions, but goes so far as to cut off all passions everywhere; while those others set out to wage war on the passions on an insignificant, not on a grand, scale, but seek to come to terms and arrange a truce with them, putting forward the word of pacification, that this like a charioteer may curb their excessive impetuosity.
Book III._.46.3
[135] Furthermore the shoulder is a symbol of toil and hardship; and this is the character of him who attends to and ministers in holy things, subject to toil and discipline. But the man on whom God bestows in overflowing measure his good things in perfection is free from toil. He who acquires virtue by toil is found to come short of full achievement, as compared with Moses, who received it easily and without toil from the hands of God. For, as toiling itself falls short of the toilless achievement and is inferior to it, so does the imperfect fall short of the perfect, and that which learns of that which is self-taught. This is why Aaron takes the breast with the shoulder, but Moses without the shoulder.
Book III._.46.4
[136] The reason why he calls it the breast of “the special offering put on” is that it is necessary that the reason should be put and set firmly on the seat of anger, as though it were a kind of charioteer keeping straight a stiff-necked and restive horse. But when he comes to the shoulder he speaks of it not as in the case of the breast, as belonging to “the offering put on,” but as belonging to “that which was removed.” The reason he does so is this. It is necessary that the soul should not ascribe to itself its toil for virtue, but that it should take it away from itself and refer it to God, confessing that not its own strength or power acquired nobility, but He who freely bestowed also the love of it.
Book III._.46.5
[137] Neither breast nor shoulder is taken except from the sacrifice of salvation. That is fitting. For only then does the soul begin to be saved, when the seat of anger has received reason as its charioteer, and toil has come to create in it, not self-satisfaction, but a readiness to yield the honour to God, the Bestower of the boon.
Book III._.47.1
[138] We have already mentioned that pleasure goes not only on its breast but also on its belly, and pointed out that the stomach is a place most appropriate to pleasure, for we may almost describe it as a reservoir of all the pleasures. For when the belly has been filled, cravings after the other pleasures also become vehement, but when it has been emptied, these are quieted and become more still.

Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1929. Via Sefaria (sefaria.org), Sefaria-Export. Version source: https://www.nli.org.il/en/books/NNL_ALEPH001216057/NLI Licence: Public Domain. Source.