Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis

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Book III._.47.2
[139] And so the prophet says in another passage, “Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth all the time upon four feet, which hath many feet, is unclean” (Lev. 11:42). The lover of pleasure answers to this description, always going after the belly and the pleasures of the adjoining parts. With that which creepeth after the belly he has associated that which walketh upon four feet; and quite naturally; for the passions that come under the head of those in the realm of pleasure are four in number, as has been mentioned in a treatise specially devoted to that subject. Accordingly a man is unclean who is given up to the one thing, pleasure, as well as the man who has all four passions for his stay.
Book III._.47.3
[140] Now that we have said this, note once more how a perfect man differs from one making gradual progress. We have already discovered the perfect man cutting out the seat of anger entirely from the wrangling soul, and so rendering it gentle and submissive and peaceable, and cheerfully ready to face every demand both in act and word; while the man of gradual improvement was found powerless to cut away the passion, for the breast is Aaron’s portion, but schooling it by well-tested speech, attended by two virtues, clearness and truth.
Book III._.48.1
In a corresponding manner we shall now find Moses, the wise man, in his perfection, scouring away and shaking off pleasures, but the man of gradual improvement not so treating pleasure in its entirety, but welcoming simple and unavoidable pleasure, while declining that which is excessive and overelaborate in the way of delicacies.
Book III._.48.2
[141] For in the case of Moses he uses this language: “And he washed with water the belly and the feet of the whole burnt-offering” (Lev. 9:14). It is excellently said; for the wise man consecrates his whole soul as being worthy to be offered to God, owing to its freedom from voluntary or involuntary blemish; and, being in this condition, he washes out and bathes away and scours off the whole belly and the pleasures that it and the parts adjoining it yield, not so dealing with some part of it, but filled with such contempt for the whole, that he rejects even necessary food and drink, being fed by the contemplation of things divine.
Book III._.48.3
[142] And therefore witness is borne to him in another place also: “for forty days he ate no bread and drank no water” (Exod. 34:28), when he was in the holy mount and listened to the divine communications made by God as He declared His laws. But not only does he renounce the whole belly, but with it he scours away the feet, that is, the supports of pleasure; but the things that create pleasure are its supports,
Book III._.48.4
[143] for the man of gradual improvement is said to wash the inwards and the feet (Lev. 1:9), not the whole belly: for he is not sufficient to thrust from him pleasure in its completeness, but is content if he can get rid of its inwards, that is, of the delicacies, produced by the elaborate skill of dainty cooks and confectioners, of which we are told by the epicures that they serve, if we may so speak, as a means of giving succulence to the principal pleasures.
Book III._.49.1
[144] He lays further stress upon the mere moderating of passion in the man of gradual advance, by representing the wise man as declining without any bidding all the pleasures of the belly, while the man of gradual advance acts under orders; for in the wise man’s case what is said is “he washed with water the belly and the feet” (Lev. 9:14), spontaneously and unbidden, but in the case of the priests it is on this wise: “the inwards and the feet,” not “they washed” but “they shall wash” (Lev. 1:9). This shows great exactness. For it must needs be that while the perfect man moves of himself towards virtuous actions, the man who is practising should do so with the aid of reason which gives him guidance what he should do, obedience to whose directions is a noble thing.
Book III._.49.2
[145] We must not fail to notice that Moses, when he refuses the entire belly, that is the filling of his stomach, practically renounces the other passions too. The lawgiver uses one portion to give from it a clear presentation of the whole; and having mentioned the most essential matter, virtually treats of the rest about which he has been silent.
Book III._.50.1
For the filling of the belly is the most essential matter, and the foundation, so to speak, of the other passions. None of them, as we see, can take shape unless it have the belly to support it, for nature has made the belly the basis of all things.
Book III._.50.2
[146] Hence it comes that when Leah’s sons, the good things of the soul, had been born before Jacob’s other sons, and had ceased with Judah, who is “praise” (Gen. 29:35), God, being about to create representatives of the forward striving of the body as well, causes Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid, to bear children even before her mistress. Now Bilhah is “swallowing.” For the prophet knew that no part or organ of the body can subsist without “swallowing” and the belly, but this holds sway and sovereignty over all the body and over all the material frame whose concern is with mere living.
Book III._.50.3
[147] Do not let any subtle point escape your notice, for you will not find a single pointless expression. Moses removes the breast; the belly he does not remove, but washes (Lev. 8:29, 9:14). Why is this? Because the perfect wise man can, by wholly renouncing anger, utterly avert and drive off the uprising of the spirited element in him, but to exscind the belly he is powerless. Even the man of fewest needs who scorns the very necessaries of life and trains himself in abstinence from them, is forced by nature to take necessary food and drink. Let him therefore wash the belly and cleanse it from superfluous and unclean provisions; for this too is a sufficiently great gift from God to the lover of virtue.
Book III._.51.1
[148] It is owing to this that when treating of the soul suspected of adultery he says (Num. 5:27), that if it have forsaken the right principle, which is the lawful husband, and be discovered to have had intercourse with soul-defiling passion, “it will swell up in the belly,” which signified that it will have ever unfilled and insatiable the pleasures and desires of the belly, and will never cease to be insatiate owing to gross stupidity, but, with a countless throng of them pouring in, will keep its passion for ever.
Book III._.51.2
[149] To cite an instance, I know many brought to such disaster over the craving of the belly, that after resorting to emetics they fly back again to strong drink and all the rest. For the craving of the soul that is out of control is not restricted as the bodily organs are by their size. These are vessels of a fixed capacity admitting nothing that exceeds it, but ejecting all that is superfluous. Desire is never filled up, but continues always thirsty and in want of more.
Book III._.51.3
[150] This explains “the breaking up of the thigh,” being added as the sequel to the swelling of the belly. For then it is that the soul experiences the breaking up of the right principle, the principle that is the seed whence all noble things are begotten. We see this from the words that follow, “If she have not been defiled and be pure, she shall be free and shall conceive seed” (Numb. 5:28), if she have not been defiled by passion, but have been chaste and faithful to her lawful husband, the princely and wholesome principle, she will have a soul fruitful and productive, yielding the offspring of sound sense and righteousness and all excellence.
Book III._.52.1
[151] Is it possible, then, that we, tied as we are to a body, should not comply with bodily requirements? How can it be possible? But look. The sacred guide tells the man who feels the pressure of bodily necessity the way to deal with it, namely, to comply with it only so far as he is actually obliged to do so. First he says, “Let there be to thee a place outside the camp” (Deut. 23:12), meaning by “the camp” virtue, in which the soul has pitched its camp. For good sense and indulgence of a bodily necessity cannot occupy the same quarters.
Book III._.52.2
[152] Next he says, “Thou shalt go forth there without.” Why go forth? Because the soul cannot have dealings with any of the body’s friends while it abides with good sense and spends its days in the house of wisdom. For then it is nourished by food more divine, which it finds in all knowledge, and for the sake of this it actually disregards the flesh. For when it has gone forth from the sacred dwellings of virtue, it is then that it turns to material things which treat the body ill and weigh it down. How then shall I deal with them?
Book III._.52.3
[153] “Let there be to thee, he says, a shovel upon thy girdle, and thou shalt dig with it” (Deut. 23:13), that is to say, reason shall be upon the passion digging it out, tucking it up, not suffering it to clothe thee about. For God would have us gird up our passions, not wear them flowing and loose.
Book III._.52.4
[154] So at the crossing over from them, which is called Passover, He bids that their “loins should be girded up” (Exod. 12:11), in other words that their desires should be restrained. Let a shovel then, that is, reason, follow the passion, preventing it from spreading abroad, for by this means we shall comply only with demands which are urgent, but from all that goes beyond this we shall abstain.
Book III._.53.1
[155] When we are present at entertainments and are about to take and enjoy the viands provided, if we take our places at table with reason like some weapon to parry blows, we shall neither gorge ourselves with food beyond measure like cormorants, nor overdosed with unlimited strong drink shall we succumb to intoxication with its resultant foolish talk; for reason will curb and bridle the impetuous rush of the passion.
Book III._.53.2
[156] I, to mention myself in proof of what I say, know by frequent experience how true it is. Many a time have I been present at a gathering with little that was sociable about it or at costly suppers. When I did not arrive with reason for my companion, I found myself the slave of the enjoyments provided, at the mercy of harsh masters, entertainments for eye and ear and all that brings pleasure by way of taste or smell. But whenever I arrive with convincing reason at my side, I find myself a master not a slave, and, putting forth all my strength, win the noble victory of endurance and self-mastery, in a vigorous and pertinacious encounter with everything that excites the unruly desires.
Book III._.53.3
[157] “Thou shalt dig,” you see he says, “with the shovel” (Deut. 23:13), that is, thou shalt lay bare and distinguish by means of reason, the nature which each passion possesses, eating, drinking, sexual indulgence, that thou mayest discern them and learn the truth about them. For then shalt thou know that in none of these is there the thing which is good, but that which is useful only and necessary.
Book III._.53.4
[158] “And bringing the shovel to bear on it then shalt thou cover thine unseemliness” (ibid.). ’Tis well said. Bring then, O soul, reason to bear on all things, wherewith all unseemliness of flesh and passion is covered, and hidden, and put out of sight. For all that is unaccompanied by reason is unsightly, just as that with which reason is present is comely. We get this result.
Book III._.53.5
[159] The lover of pleasure moves on the belly; the perfect man washes out the entire belly; the man who is making gradual progress washes out the contents of the belly, the man who is just beginning his training will go forth without, when he intends to curb passion by bringing reason (figuratively called a shovel) to bear upon the demands of the belly.
Book III._.54.1
[160] There is an excellent point in the next words too: “Thou shalt go upon thy breast and thy belly” (Gen. 3:14). For pleasure does not belong to the category of things becalmed and stationary, but to that of things moving and full of turmoil. For as the flame is in movement, so, not unlike a blazing thing, passion moving in the soul does not suffer it to be calm. Thus the prophet does not agree with those who say that pleasure is tranquil. For stillness pertains to a stone and a log and to everything without life, but it is alien to pleasure. For pleasure hankers after an excitement that is actually convulsive, and in some people so far from its being an experience of tranquillity, it is an indulgence in intense and violent movement.
Book III._.55.1
[161] The sentence “Earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” (Gen. 3:14) is an apt one. For the food of the body brings pleasures of earth; and fitly so, it would seem. For there are two things of which we consist, soul and body. The body, then, has been formed out of earth, but the soul is of the upper air, a particle detached from the Deity: “for God breathed into his face a breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). It is in accordance with reason, therefore, that the body fashioned out of earth has food akin to it which earth yields, while the soul being a portion of an ethereal nature has on the contrary ethereal and divine food; for it is fed by knowledge in its various forms and not by meat and drink, of which the body stands in need.
Book III._.56.1
[162] That the food of the soul is not earthly but heavenly, we shall find abundant evidence in the Sacred Word. “Behold I rain upon you bread out of heaven, and the people shall go out and they shall gather the day’s portion for a day, that I may prove them whether they will walk by My law or not” (Exod. 16:4). You see that the soul is fed not with things of earth that decay, but with such words as God shall have poured like rain out of that lofty and pure region of life to which the prophet has given the title of “heaven.” To proceed.
Book III._.56.2
[163] The people, and all that goes to make the soul, is to go out and gather and make a beginning of knowledge, not all at once but “the day’s portion for a day.” For to begin with it will be unable to contain all at once the abundant wealth of the gracious gifts of God, but will be overwhelmed by them as by the rush of a torrent. In the second place it is better, when we have received the good things sufficient of themselves as duly measured out to us, to think of God as Dispenser of those that still remain. He that would fain have all at once earns for himself lack of hope and trust, as well as great lack of sense.
Book III._.56.3
[164] He lacks hope if he expects that now only but not in the future also will God shower on him good things; he lacks faith, if he has no belief that both in the present and always the good gifts of God are lavishly bestowed on those worthy of them; he lacks sense, if he imagines that he will be, though God will it not, a sufficient guardian of what he has gathered together; for the mind that vaingloriously ascribes to itself sureness and security has many a time been rendered by a slight turn of the scale a feeble and insecure guardian of all that it looked on as in its safe-keeping.
Book III._.57.1
[165] Gather together, therefore, O soul, what is adequate of itself and suitable, and neither more than sufficient so as to be excessive, nor on the other hand less so as to fall short, that dealing in right measures thou mayest do no wrong. For thou art required also, when making it thy study to cross over from the passions and when sacrificing the Passover, to take the forward step, whose symbol is the lamb, not without measure, for he says “each man shall reckon what suffices for him as a lamb” (Exod. 12:4).
Book III._.57.2
[166] Both in the case of manna then, and in the case of every boon which God confers upon our race, it is good to take what is fixed by strict measure and reckoning and not that which is above and beyond us; for to do this is to be over-reaching. Let the soul, then, gather the day’s portion for a day (Exod. 16:4), that it may declare not itself but the bountiful God guardian of the good things.
Book III._.58.1
[167] And the reason for the injunction we are considering seems to me to be this. The day is a symbol of light, and the light of the soul is training. Many, then, have acquired the lights in the soul for night and darkness, not for day and light; all elementary lessons for example, and what is called school-learning and philosophy itself when pursued with no motive higher than parading their superiority, or from desire of an office under our rulers. But the man of worthy aims sets himself to acquire day for the sake of day, light for the sake of light, the beautiful for the sake of the beautiful alone, not for the sake of something else. And this is why he goes on with the words: “that I may prove them whether they will walk in My law or no” (Exod. 16:4); for this is the divine law, to value excellence for its own sake.
Book III._.58.2
[168] The right principle, therefore, tests all aspirants as one does a coin, to see whether they have been debased in that they refer the soul’s good to something external, or whether, as tried and approved men, they distinguish and guard this treasure as belonging to thought and mind alone. Such men have the privilege of being fed not with earthly things but with the heavenly forms of knowledge.
Book III._.59.1
[169] He gives a further elucidation of this point, when he says, “in the early morning when the dew ceased it appeared all round the camp, and lo! upon the face of the wilderness a fine thing as it were coriander seed, white like hoar-frost on the ground. And when they saw it, they said one to another, ‘What is this?’ for they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them, ‘This bread, which the Lord hath given us to eat, is this word, which the Lord hath prescribed’ ” (Exod. 16:13 ff.). You see of what sort the soul’s food is. It is a word of God, continuous, resembling dew, embracing all the soul and leaving no portion without part in itself. But not everywhere does this word show itself, but on the wilderness of passions and wickednesses, and it is fine and delicate both to conceive and be conceived, and surpassingly clear and transparent to behold, and it is as it were coriander seed. Tillers of the soil say that if you cut a coriander seed and divide it into countless pieces, each of the portions into which you cut it, if sown, grows exactly as the whole seed could have done. Such too is the word of God, able to confer benefits both as a whole and by means of every part, yes any part you light upon.
Book III._.59.2
It is possible that a resemblance between the word of God and the pupil of the eye, is also intended.
Book III._.59.3
[170] For as the pupil of the eye is a very small part of it and sees the zones of the universe in their completeness, and the boundless ocean, and the vast expanse of air and of the infinite heaven, all that is bounded by the rising and the setting sun, so the word of God also has keenest sight, and is able to survey all things, … wherewith they shall clearly see all that is worth beholding.
Book III._.59.4
[171] Accordingly it is also white; for what could be brighter or more far-shining than the divine word, by communion with which even other things dispel their mist and their gloom, eagerly desiring to become sharers in the light of the soul?
Book III._.60.1
[172] An affection peculiar to it is produced by this word. When it has summoned the soul to itself, it brings about a congealment in all that part of us that is earthly, bodily, sense-bound; and this accounts for the words “as it were hoar-frost on the earth” (Exod. 16:14). For we also find that when he that sees God is studying flight from the passions, the waves become fixed as if frozen, that is to say the rush and growth and vainglory of the passions; “for the waves became solid in the midst of the sea” (Exod. 15:8), in order that he that seeth Him that IS might pass beyond passion.
Book III._.60.2
[173] The souls, therefore, that have indeed already had experience of the word, but are not able to answer the question, inquire one of another “What is it?” (Exod. 16:15). For it often happens that on finding a sweet taste in our mouths we are uncertain as to the flavour which has given rise to it, and that when we catch the scent of pleasant odours we do not know what they are. In the same way then the soul, when it has been gladdened, is often unable to say what the thing that gladdens it is. But it is taught by the hierophant and prophet Moses: he will tell it, This bread (ibid.) is the food which God hath given to the soul, for it to feed on His own utterance and His own word; for this bread, which He hath given us to eat, is “this word.”
Book III._.61.1
[174] He says in Deuteronomy also: “And He afflicted thee and made thee weak by hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that He might proclaim to thee, that not on bread alone shall man live, but on every word that goeth forth through the mouth of God” (Deut. 8:3). This afflicting is propitiation; for on the tenth day also by afflicting our souls He makes propitiation (Lev. 16:30). For when we are being deprived of pleasant things, we think we are being afflicted, but in reality thereby we have God propitious to us.
Book III._.61.2
[175] He occasions famine also to us, not a famine of virtue, but a famine of the creations of passion and wickedness. We have a proof of this in His feeding us with His own most “generic” word; for “manna” means “something,” and this is the most generic of all terms. And the word of God is above all the world, and is eldest and most all-embracing of created things. This word “the fathers knew not.” This does not mean the real forefathers, but those whose hair was grey from age who said, “Let us appoint a leader and let us return to Egypt,” that is, “to passion” (Numb. 14:4).
Book III._.61.3
[176] Let God then proclaim to the soul, “Not on bread only shall men live, but on every utterance that goeth forth through the mouth of God,” that is to say he shall be fed both by all the word and by a part of it; for the mouth is a symbol of utterance or speech, and the statement is a part of speech. The soul of the most perfect is fed by the word as a whole; we may well be content should we be fed even by a portion of it.
Book III._.62.1
[177] Now those of whom we have been speaking pray to be fed with the word of God. But Jacob, looking even higher than the word, says that he is fed by God Himself. He speaks on this wise: “The God to Whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac were well-pleasing, the God Who feedeth me from my youth up unto this day, the Angel who delivereth me out of all my ills, bless these boys” (Gen. 48:15 f.). How beautiful is his tone and temper! He looks on God as feeding him, not His Word; but the Angel, who is the Word, as healer of ills.
Book III._.62.2
[178] This is the language of a true philosopher. He thinks it meet and right that He that IS should Himself in His own Person give the principal boons, while His Angels and Words give the secondary gifts; and secondary are such as involve riddance from ills. For this reason, I think, God bestows health in the simplest sense, preceded by no illness in our bodies, by Himself only, but health that comes by way of escape from illness He bestows both through medical science and through the physician’s skill, letting both knowledge and practitioner enjoy the credit of healing, though it is He Himself that heals alike by these means and without them. Now His mode of dealing is the same in the case of the soul. The good things, the food, He Himself bestows with His own hand, but by the agency of Angels and Words such as involve riddance of ills.
Book III._.63.1
[179] In offering this prayer Jacob passed a censure on Joseph the statesman, who had ventured to say “I will nourish thee there.” His words were, “Make haste and go up to my father and say to him ‘thus saith’ ” and so on, and then “come down to me and tarry not,” finishing with “and I will nourish thee there, for there shall be famine for five years” (Gen. 45:9, 11). So Jacob at once chides and instructs the man wise in his own conceit when he says: “You must know, fine Sir, that the foods which nourish the soul are various forms of knowledge, and that these are not bestowed by the word of bodily sense but by God. He who reared me from youth and early prime to full-grown manhood (cf. Gen. 48:15) will Himself satisfy my needs.”
Book III._.63.2
[180] Joseph therefore went through the same experience as his mother Rachel. She too imagined that a created being has some power, for she says “Give me children” (Gen. 30:1). But the Supplanter will find fault with her and say, ‘Thou hast greatly erred, for I am not in the place of God, who alone hath power to open the wombs of souls, and to sow virtues in them, and to make them pregnant with noble things, and to give birth to them. Take note of Leah thy sister, and thou wilt find her receiving seed and offspring out of no created being but by God’s own gift’; “for the Lord, when he saw that Leah was hated, opened her womb, but Rachel was barren” (Gen. 29:31).
Book III._.63.3
[181] But note again the delicate subtilty here. God opens the wombs of virtue, sowing in them noble doings, but the womb, after receiving virtue at God’s hand, does not bear to God—for He that IS is in need of no one—but bears sons to me Jacob; for it may well be that it was for my sake, not for His own sake that God sowed seed in virtue. Accordingly One is found to be husband to Leah, who is passed over in silence, and another to be father of the children born of Leah. For He that openeth the womb is husband, but father of the children is he to whom she is said to bear these.
Book III._.64.1
[182] “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman” (Gen. 3:15). In reality pleasure is a foe to sense, albeit thought by some to be a close friend. But just as no one would call the flatterer a comrade, since flattery is friendship diseased, and no one would say that the courtesan is kindly to her lover, since her tenderness is not for him but for his presents, so when you put pleasure to the test you will find that she is disguised under a counterfeit semblance of friendship with sense.
Book III._.64.2
[183] You know how when we have surfeited ourselves with pleasure, our organs of sense relax their vigour. Or do you not observe men intoxicated with wine or love, how seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear and how they are deprived of the power to exercise their other senses with any precision? It sometimes happens that owing to much overeating the vigour of all the senses is relaxed as sleep overtakes the man. Indeed sleep got its name from this relaxing of the senses. For at such a time the organ of perception grows slack, just as when we wake up its intensity is heightened, and the impressions which we receive from without are no longer dull, but are clear and ringing, and carry the sound all the way to the mind; for the mind has to become cognizant of what is without by receiving a blow, and so to gain a vivid impression of it.
Book III._.65.1
[184] Observe that the words are not “I will set enmity for thee and the woman,” but “between thee and the woman.” Now why is it put so? Because it is over that which is between pleasure and sense, over that which lies in their boundary so to speak, that the warfare of these two arises. But what is between them both are drinkables, eatables, what is adapted to all such purposes, each one of them being both an object of sense and a thing productive of pleasure. When pleasure, therefore, has indulged immoderately in these, it forthwith inflicts injury on sense.
Book III._.65.2
[185] The expression again “between thy seed and her seed” is full of philosophical truth: for every seed is a starting-point of existence, but the starting-point of pleasure is passion, an irrational impulse, that of sense the mind; for from the mind as from a fountain the faculties of sense flow forth and extend. This is certainly taught by Moses, the holy prophet, who says that the woman was fashioned out of Adam, sense.(that is) out of mind. What pleasure, then, is to sense, that passion is to mind. Since, therefore, the former pair are mutually hostile, the latter must also be at war with each other.
Book III._.66.1
[186] And their warfare is patent. When mind is victorious, devoting itself to immaterial things its proper object, passion quits the scene: and on the other hand, when passion has won an evil victory, mind gives in, being prevented from giving heed to itself and to all its own occupations. Moses elsewhere says, “Whenever Moses lifted up his hands, Israel prevailed, but when he dropped them, Amalek prevailed” (Exod. 17:11), showing that when the mind lifts itself up away from mortal things and is borne aloft, that which sees God, which is Israel, gains strength, but when it has lowered its special powers and grown weak, immediately passion, named “Amalek,” which means “a people licking out,” will become strong: for in very deed it eats up the whole soul and licks it out, leaving behind in it no seed or spark of virtue.
Book III._.66.2
[187] In keeping with this are the words “Amalek the first of the nations” (Numb. 24:20), because passion rules and lords it over promiscuous hordes that have drifted together without purpose or meaning. Through passion all the war of the soul is fanned into flame, and so God promises to minds to which He vouchsafes the gift of peace, that He will blot out “the memorial of Amalek from under heaven” (Exod. 17:14).
Book III._.67.1
[188] The sentence “he shall watch thy head, and thou shalt watch his heel” (Gen. 3:15) is a barbarism, but has a perfectly correct meaning. It is addressed to the serpent concerning the woman, but the woman is not “he” but “she.” What is to be said then? He has left off speaking about the woman and passed on to her seed and origin; but the mind is the origin of sense; and mind is masculine, in speaking of which we should use the pronouns “he” and “his” and so on. Rightly, then, is it said to Pleasure, “the Mind shall watch thy chief and principal doctrine, and thou shalt watch it, the Mind, as it acts and rests upon its accepted tenets.” This basing of conduct and principle on tenets is naturally represented by the word “heels.”
Book III._.68.1
[189] The word “shall watch” has two meanings, one like “shall guard and preserve,” the other equivalent to “shall watch for to destroy.” Now the mind must needs be either bad or good. The foolish mind will show itself a guardian and steward of pleasure, seeing that its delight is in pleasure; but the good mind will prove its enemy, watching eagerly for the moment when it shall set upon it and achieve its utter destruction. And mark this: Pleasure on the other hand watches over and preserves the procedure of the foolish mind, but endeavours to break up and destroy the way of life of the wise mind, holding that the latter is planning her ruin, while the former is devising the best means to preserve her.
Book III._.68.2
[190] But in spite of her expecting to throw and cheat the good mind, she shall herself be thrown by Jacob who is practised in wrestling, not the bodily wrestling but that in which the soul engages against dispositions that are her antagonists, fighting as she does with passions and wickednesses. And Jacob shall not let go the heel of his adversary, passion, till it has given in, and acknowledged that it has been twice thrown and vanquished, both in the matter of the birthright and in the blessing. For says Esau, “Rightly was his name called Jacob, for he hath supplanted me twice already; then he took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing” (Gen. 27:36).
Book III._.68.3
[191] The bad man regards bodily things as more worshipful, the good man the things of the soul, as they are in reality, not in age but in value and dignity more worshipful, and really first, as is a magistrate in a city; and it is the soul that is sovereign over our composite being.
Book III._.69.1
[192] He therefore that is first in virtue has received the things that are first, which indeed were his portion; for he has received the blessing also accompanied by perfect prayers. But vainly deeming himself wise is he who says, “My blessings and my birthright hath he taken”: not thine, man, does he take, but those which are opposite to thine; for those which are thine have been accounted meet for slavery, but his for lordship.
Book III._.69.2
[193] And if thou shalt consent to become a slave of the wise one, thou shalt cast from thee ignorance and boorishness, plagues of the soul, and be partaker of admonition and correction. For in his prayer thy father says to thee, “To thy brother shalt thou be a slave” (Gen. 27:40); but not now shall this be, for he will not put up with thy restiveness, but when thou shalt have loosed the yoke from thy neck” (ibid.), casting from thee vaunting and insolence which thou didst acquire by yoking thyself to a chariot of passions, of which folly was the driver.
Book III._.69.3
[194] Now indeed thou art a slave of the harsh and insufferable masters within thee, to whom it is a fixed law to set no one free. But if thou escape and abandon these, a master to whom his slaves are dear shall welcome thee, holding out bright hopes of liberty and shall not give thee up again to thy former masters. For he has learned from Moses a lesson and rule inviolable, “that a man deliver not up to his master a servant who has been handed over to him by the Lord; for he shall dwell with him in whatever place it liketh him best” (Deut. 23:15 f.).
Book III._.70.1
[195] But so long as thou hast not run away, but art still governed by the bit and bridle of thine old masters, thou art unworthy to be slave to a wise man. Thou affordest most sure proof of a servile character unworthy of a free man by saying “my birthright and my blessings” (Gen. 27:36); for these utterances are those of men who are sunk in boundless ignorance, seeing that to speak of “Mine” befits God only, for all things are in reality the property of Him alone.
Book III._.70.2
[196] For this reason He shall also testify, when he says, “Thou shalt preserve My gifts, My grants, My fruits” (Numb. 28:2), that “gifts” excel “grants.” For the term “gifts” brings out the sense of great and perfect boons, which God bestows upon the perfect; “grants” have shrunk to a very meagre compass: these are for those of natural excellence who practise and make progress.
Book III._.70.3
[197] Because this is so, Abraham also in harmony with the will of God retains the property which had come to him from God, but gets rid of the horses of the king of Sodom (Gen. 14:21 ff.), as also of the possessions of the concubines. Moses, moreover, thinks fit to judge the weightiest cases and issues, but the investigation of the insignificant questions he commits to inferior officers (cf. Exod. 18:26).
Book III._.70.4
[198] Whoever dares to say that anything is his own will thereby have registered himself a slave in perpetuity, even as the man who says “I have come to love my master and my wife and my children: I decline to go away free” (Exod. 21:5). It is well that he acknowledged himself a slave; for how can the man be other than a slave who says “mine is the master, even mind,” that is its own master and absolute lord; “mine also is sense-perception,” a means of judging material forms that is dependent upon none; “mine also are the offspring of these,” Mind’s proper objects being Mind’s offspring, and sensible objects the offspring of sense; “for in my power it is to exercise mind and to exercise the senses.”
Book III._.70.5
[199] But let him not only give evidence against himself. Let him be condemned also by God, and submit to a slavery eternal and inexorable when God bids his ear to be pierced, in order that it may not admit words of virtue, and bids him be slave for ever to Mind and to Sense, bad and pitiless masters.
Book III._.71.1
[200] And to the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrows and thy groaning” (Gen. 3:16). Woman, who is, as we have seen, Sense, is the subject of an experience peculiarly her own, namely grief, which is called “sorrow”; for there is a quarter of our being in which gladness takes rise, and in that same quarter does grief also take rise: but it is through the senses that we feel gladness, so that of necessity we feel grief also through them. But the excellent and cleansed Mind grieves least, for the senses assail him least. But the foolish Mind experiences grief abundantly, having no antidote in the soul, with which to repel the deadly ills that come from the senses and their objects.
Book III._.71.2
[201] The athlete and the slave take a beating in different ways, the one submissively giving in and yielding to the stripes, while the athlete opposes and withstands and shakes off the blows that are falling upon him. You crop a man in one way, a (sheep’s) fleece in another. The sheep has the role of mere passivity, whereas, in the man’s case, there is not only an active reciprocity, but his very submission is, so to speak, also reciprocal, as he adapts his position and posture to the process of being cropped.
Book III._.71.3
[202] Just in the same way the man who does not reason yields to another as slaves do, and submits to sorrows as intolerable mistresses, and is powerless to look them in the face, not able to draw forth free and manly reasonings, and accordingly a vast mass of painful experiences pours in upon him through the senses. The man of knowledge on the contrary, stepping out like an athlete to meet all grievous things with strength and robust vigour, blows a counter-blast to them, so that he is not wounded by them, but regards each of them with absolute indifference; and, methinks, he might with youthful spirit address to grief the proud vaunt in the play, saying:
Book III._.71.4
Burn me, consume my flesh, drink my dark blood, Take fill of me; for sooner shall the stars Go ’neath the earth, and earth go up to sky, Than thou shalt from these lips hear fawning word.
Book III._.72.1
[203] Now as for sense God has appointed all woeful things in larger measure, so on the earnest soul has He bestowed without stint an abundance of good things. For example in the case of perfect Abraham He speaks in this wise: “By Myself I have sworn, saith the Lord, for Whose sake thou hast done this thing, and on My account hast not spared thy son, thine only son, verily blessing will I bless thee, and multiplying will I multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is by the sea shore” (Gen. 22:16 f.). Good is it both that He confirmed the promise by an oath, and that He did so by an oath befitting God; you mark that God swears not by some other thing, for nothing is higher than He, but by Himself, who is best of all things.
Book III._.72.2
[204] Some have said, that it was inappropriate for Him to swear; for an oath is added to assist faith, and only God and one who is God’s friend is faithful, even as Moses is said to have been found “faithful in all His house” (Numb. 12:7). Moreover, the very words of God are oaths and laws of God and most sacred ordinances; and a proof of His sure strength is that whatever He saith cometh to pass, and this is specially characteristic of an oath. It would seem to be a corollary from this that all God’s words are oaths receiving confirmation by accomplishment in act.
Book III._.73.1
[205] They say indeed that an oath is a calling God to witness to a point which is disputed; so if it is God that swears, He bears witness to Himself, which is absurd, for he that bears the witness must needs be a different person from him on whose behalf it is borne. What then must we say? First that there is nothing amiss in God bearing witness to Himself. For who else would be capable of bearing witness to Him? Secondly He Himself is to Himself all that is most precious, kinsman, intimate, friend, virtue, happiness, blessedness, knowledge, understanding, beginning, end, whole, everything, judge, decision, counsel, law, process, sovereignty.
Book III._.73.2
[206] Besides if we once take “by Myself have I sworn” in the right way, we shall quit this excessive quibbling. Probably then the truth of the matter is something like this. Nothing that can give assurance can give positive assurance touching God, for to none has He shown His nature, but He has rendered it invisible to our whole race. Who can assert of the First Cause either that It is without body or that It is a body, that It is of such a kind or that It is of no kind? In a word who can make any positive assertion concerning His essence or quality or state or movement? Nay He alone shall affirm anything regarding Himself since He alone has unerringly exact knowledge of His own nature.
Book III._.73.3
[207] God alone therefore is the strongest security first for Himself, and in the next place for His deeds also, so that He naturally swore by Himself when giving assurance as to Himself, a thing impossible for another than He.
Book III._.73.4
It follows that men who say that they swear by God should be considered actually impious; for naturally no one swears by Him, seeing that he is unable to possess knowledge regarding His nature. No, we may be content if we are able to swear by His Name, which means (as we have seen) the interpreting word. For this must be God for us the imperfect folk, but, as for the wise and perfect, the primal Being is their God.
Book III._.73.5
[208] Moses too, let us observe, filled with wonder at the transcendency of the Uncreate, says, “and thou shalt swear by His Name” (Deut. 6:13), not “by Him,” for it is enough for the created being that he should be accredited and have witness borne to him by the Divine word: but let God be His own most sure guarantee and evidence.
Book III._.74.1
[209] The words, “for Whose sake thou hast done this thing” (Gen. 22:16) are a token of piety; for it is pious to do all things for the sake of God only. That is why we are unsparing of that only child of virtue, even the happiness we have attained, surrendering it to the Creator, deeming such offspring meet to be reckoned a possession of God, but not of any created being. Beautifully significant are the words, “blessing I will bless” (ibid. 17);
Book III._.74.2
[210] for there are some people who do many things that are of the nature of benedictions, when their underlying character is not fraught with blessing. Why, even the bad man does some things that it is his duty to do without acting from a dutiful character. Yes, and the drunken man and the madman now and then utter sober words and do sober deeds, but not from a sober mind; and those who are still quite young children not from a fixedly rational state (for nature has not yet trained them to be rational), do and say many things that rational men do and say. But the lawgiver wishes the wise man to be accounted a man of benediction not as the outcome of a passing mood, or of being easily led by others, or as though by chance, but as the result of a fixed state and disposition charged with benediction.
Book III._.75.1
[211] To return to our text. It was not enough for ill-starred sense to experience sorrows in large measure, it must indulge in “groaning” also. Groaning is intense and excessive sorrow. For we often grieve without groaning; but when we groan over them, we let our sorrows bring on us a very storm of trouble and distress. Now groaning is of two kinds. One kind is found in men who desire and long for opportunities of wrongdoing and cannot get them, and this a bad kind. Another kind is that which is seen in those who repent and are vexed over their defection in former days and cry “Hapless we, how long a time had we, as is now evident, been ill all unaware of it with the illness of folly and senselessness and unrighteousness in our conduct.”
Book III._.75.2
[212] But this does not come about unless the king of Egypt, the godless and pleasure-loving disposition, shall have met his end and died out of the soul: “for after those many days the king of Egypt died.” Then straightway when wickedness has died, he that seeth God groans over his own failure, “for the children of Israel groaned by reason of their material and Egyptian works” (Exod. 2:23). For while the king and pleasure-loving temper is alive in us it induces the soul to rejoice over the sins it is committing, but when he has died, it groans.
Book III._.75.3
[213] And thus it is that it cries out to the Master beseeching that it may turn no more nor receive its consummation imperfectly. For many souls have desired to repent and not been permitted by God to do so, but have gone away backward as though drawn by a change of current. This befell Lot’s wife, who became stone owing to her being enamoured of Sodom and reverting to the characters that had been overthrown by God.
Book III._.76.1
[214] Now, however, he says “their cry ascended to God” (Exod. 2:23), bearing witness by so saying to the grace of the existent One; for had He not powerfully called to Himself the suppliant word, it would not have ascended, that is, it would not have been caused to mount, and have grown in volume and begun to soar on high after escaping from the baseness of the things of the earth. Wherefore in the sequel He says, “Behold, the cry of the children of Israel hath come to Me” (Exod. 3:9).
Book III._.76.2
[215] Very beautiful is it that the entreaty reached as far as God: but it would not have reached so far, but for the kindness of Him that called. Some souls He anticipates and goes forth to meet: “I will come to thee and will bless thee” (Exod. 20:24). Thou seest how great is the grace of the First Cause, as He is beforehand with our hesitation, and anticipates and meets us, bringing unlimited gain to the soul. And what is said is a divine intimation full of instruction. For if a thought of God come into the mind, He forthwith blesses it and heals all its sicknesses.
Book III._.76.3
[216] Sense, however, is always sorrowing and groaning, and with pangs and incurable pain bringing forth perception, as God Himself says, “In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children” (Gen. 3:16); sight brings forth seeing, the ear hearing, taste tasting, in a word sense perceiving: but not without sore distress to the foolish one does she do each of these things, for to such an one pain is caused as he sees and hears and tastes and smells and generally exercises any sense.
Book III._.77.1
[217] On the other hand, you will find virtue full of exceeding joy at her pregnancy, and the good man begetting with laughter and a glad heart, and the offspring of them both laughter itself. That the wise man begets with joy not sorrow, the Divine word shall testify in these words, “God said to Abraham, Sarai thy wife shall not be called Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name: I will bless her and will give thee a child of her” (Gen. 17:15 f.); then he says further, “And Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said, Shall he that is a hundred years old have a son, and shall Sarah who is ninety years old bear?” (ibid. 17).
Book III._.77.2
[218] Abraham evidently rejoices and laughs, because he is to beget Isaac (who is), Happiness; and Sarah, who is Virtue, laughs also. The same book shall witness to this when it says, “It ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women, and she laughed in her mind and said, Not yet hath happiness befallen me till now but my Lord (the divine Word) is greater (Gen. 18:11 f.), to whom this must needs belong and whom I must believe when he promises good.” Moreover, the offspring is laughter and joy, for that is what “Isaac” means. Let sense-perception therefore be sorrowful, but let virtue always rejoice:
Book III._.77.3
[219] for again when Happiness has been born she says with pride “the Lord hath made laughter for me; for whosoever shall hear of it will rejoice with me” (Gen. 21:6). Therefore, O ye initiate, open your ears wide and take in holiest teachings. The “laughter” is joy, and “made” is equivalent to “beget,” so that what is said is of this kind, the Lord begat Isaac; for He is Himself Father of the perfect nature, sowing and begetting happiness in men’s souls.
Book III._.78.1
[220] “And to thy husband,” He says, “shall be thy resort” (Gen. 3:16). Sense has two husbands, the one lawful, the other a seducer. After the fashion of a seducing husband the thing seen acts on the sight, the sound on the hearing, the flavour on the palate, and so with the rest one by one. And these turn away and invite to themselves the irrational sense and get the mastery of it and domineer over it. Beauty enslaves the sight, the pleasant savour the palate, and the several objects of sense enslave the sense corresponding to them.
Book III._.78.2
[221] Look at that glutton, what a slave he is to the dishes prepared by the skill of cooks and confectioners. Mark that one wild with excitement over music, how he is swayed and held spellbound by harp or flute or it may be by a good singer. But to sense that has been turned from all else to Mind, her lawful husband, vast benefit befalls.
Book III._.79.1
[222] Let us observe in the next place how he discourses respecting Mind itself when acted upon in violation of the right principle. “To Adam God said, ‘Because thou hast listened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee not to eat [of it thou hast eaten], cursed is the ground in respect of thy labours’ ” (Gen. 3:17). Most profitless is it that Mind should listen to Sense-perception, and not Sense-perception to Mind: for it is always right that the superior should rule and the inferior be ruled;
Book III._.79.2
[223] and Mind is superior to Sense-perception. When the charioteer is in command and guides the horses with the reins, the chariot goes the way he wishes, but if the horses have become unruly and got the upper hand, it has often happened that the charioteer has been dragged down and that the horses have been precipitated into a ditch by the violence of their motion, and that there is a general disaster. A ship, again, keeps to her straight course, when the helmsman grasping the tiller steers accordingly, but capsizes when a contrary wind has sprung up over the sea, and the surge has settled in it.
Book III._.79.3
[224] Just so, when Mind, the charioteer or helmsman of the soul, rules the whole living being as a governor does a city, the life holds a straight course, but when irrational sense gains the chief place, a terrible confusion overtakes it, just as when slaves have risen against masters: for then, in very deed, the mind is set on fire and is all ablaze, and that fire is kindled by the objects of sense which Sense-perception supplies.
Book III._.80.1
Moses, moreover, gives intimations of such a conflagration of the mind as this, occasioned by the senses, when he says:
Book III._.80.2
[225] “And the women kindled yet further a fire in Moab.” For “Moab” means “out of a father,” and our father is the Mind, His words are, “Then shall they that propound riddles say, Come to Heshbon that it may be built, and that the city of Sihon may be constructed. For a fire hath gone forth from Heshbon and a flame from the city of Sihon, and it devoured as far as Moab and drank up the boundaries of Arnon. Woe to thee, Moab, thou art undone, O people of Chemosh. Their sons were given up as fugitives, and their daughters as prisoners of war to Sihon, king of the Amorites, and their seed shall perish, Heshbon unto Dibon, and their women yet further kindled a fire against Moab” (Numb. 21:27–30).
Book III._.80.3
[226] “Heshbon” means “reasonings”: and “reasonings” are riddles full of obscurity. Look at a doctor’s reasonings: “I will purge the patient, I will feed him up, I will prescribe medicines and put him on a diet that will make him well, I will operate, I will cauterize.” But many a time has nature either brought recovery without these means being used, or brought death when these have been resorted to, proving all the doctor’s calculations to be vain dreams, nothing but guesswork in the dark. Again, the farmer says,
Book III._.80.4
[227] “I will sow, I will plant, the plants will grow, seeds and plants will yield crops, not only useful as affording food that we cannot do without, but so abundant as to give us enough and to spare.” Then all of a sudden a fire, or a storm, or persistent rain spoils everything. Sometimes all that he had reckoned on comes to pass, but the reckoner dies first without having had the benefits of them, and his expectation of enjoying the fruits of his toil proves a vain one.
Book III._.81.1
[228] So then it is best to trust God and not our dim reasonings and insecure conjectures: “Abraham believed God and was held to be righteous” (Gen. 15:6); and the precedence which Moses takes is testified to by the words he is “faithful in all My house” (Numb. 12:7). But if we repose our trust in our own reasonings, we shall construct and build up the city of Mind that corrupts the truth: for “Sihon” means “corrupting.”
Book III._.81.2
[229] Accordingly the dreamer finds on rising up that all the movements and exertions of the foolish man are dreams void of reality. Yea Mind itself turned out to be a dream. And this is so, because to trust God is a true teaching, but to trust our vain reasonings is a lie. An irrational impulse issues forth and goes its rounds, both from our reasonings and from Mind that corrupts the truth; wherefore also he says, “There went forth a fire from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon” (Numb. 21:28). In this way trust in plausible reasonings or in Mind corrupting that which is true, is irrational.
Book III._.82.1
[230] “It devours even as far as Moab,” that is to say as far as Mind. For whom else does false opinion deceive but wretched Mind? It devours and eats up yea and swallows down the boundary-stones in it, that is, each particular thought or judgement, which are graved and chiselled as though upon a boundary-stone. The stones are Arnon, which means “their light,” since it is in reasoning that each matter is elucidated.
Book III._.82.2
[231] This is how he begins the dirge over the headstrong and selfish Mind: “Woe to thee, Moab: thou art undone”; for if thou heedest guesses made according to what is probable, thou hast lost truth. “The people of Chemosh,” that is thy people and its power has been found to be maimed and blinded; for “Chemosh” means “as a groping,” and groping is characteristic of one who cannot see.
Book III._.82.3
[232] These find their sons, each particular reasoning, fugitives, while their judgements, corresponding to daughters, are captives of war to the king of the Amorites, that is “the lecturer of men fond of talking”; for the Amorites, if we translate the name, are “men fond of talking,” being a figure of the uttered word, and the prince of these is the lecturer or sophist clever at searching after verbal artifices, and those who transgress the boundary of truth place themselves at the mercy of his quibbling.

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.