The Works of Philo Judaeus

XV. On which account in another passage also he boasts, saying " the Lord the God of Heaven, and the God of earth who took me out of the house of my father." For it is not possible for one who dwells in the body and belongs to the race of mortals to be united with God, but he alone can be so whom God delivers from that prison house of the body. On which account also, that joy of the soul, Isaac, when he is conversing and discoursing privately with God, comes forth forsaking himself and his own mind, for he says, " Come forth, 0 Isaac, to converse in the plain towards evening," f and Moses, that word of prophecy, says, "When I go forth from the city," that is from my soul, (for the soul is the city of the living creature, in as much as it is the soul which gives it its laws and customs), " I will stretch forth my hands, "$ and I will reveal and unfold all my actions to God, invoking him as a witness and inspector of every one of them, from whom it is impossible by its own nature that vice should be hidden, but to whom it must be unfolded and by whom it must be clearly discerned. When therefore the soul is made manifest in all its sayings and doings, and is made a partaker of the divine nature, the voices of the external senses are reduced to silence, and so likewise are all troublesome and ill-omened sounds, for the Genesis xxiv. 7. t Genesis xxiv. 62. £ Exodus ix. 29. ] 9 objects of sight often speak loudly and invite the sense of sight to themselves ; and so do voices invite the sense of hearing; scents invite the smell, and altogether each varied object of sense invites its appropriate sense. But all these things are put at rest when the mind going forth out of the city of the soul, attributes all its own actions and conceptions to God.

XLII. Most correctly, therefore, after the servant has said, " Give me a little water to drink," does she make answer, not in the manner corresponding to his request : "I will give you to drink," but " Drink." For the one expression would have been suited to one who was displaying the riches of God, which are poured forth for all who are worthy of them and who are able to think of them ; but the other expression is appropriate to one who professes that she will teach. But nothing which is connected with mere professions is akin to virtue. But he describes in a most skilful manner the language used by her who teaches and benefits her pupils. For " she made haste," he says, and took down the pitcher on her arm." Her alacrity to serve the man was displayed by her making haste, and such alacrity is seated m the mind, beyond which envy is castaway. But by the expression, " taking down the pitcher on her arm," we see intimated the prompt and eager attention of the teacher to the pupil ; for those teachers are foolish who attempt to regulate their explanations not by a reference to the capacity of their pupils, but to their own superior ability, not being aware that there is a vast difference between making a display and giving a lesson. I 9 For he who is making a display, relying on the good fortune of his present way of proceeding, brings into sight, without any trouble, the works at which he has for a long while been labouring at home, like the works of painters or sculptors,, seeking for praise from the multitude. But he who is endeavouring to teach others, like a good physician, has a regard not to the greatness of his own skill, but to the capacity of his patient who is to be healed ; not thinking how much he can do by his art, for it is unspeakable how much this may be ; but what the patient requires, aiming at moderation, and bringing forward what may improve him.

IV. It has therefore been proved, that in many passages Moses is in the habit of calling a person young, having regard not to the age of the body, but to the desire of the soul for innovation ; and also Ave will now proceed to show that he calls some persons elders, not because they are oppressed by old age, but as being worthy of honour and respect. Who then of those persons, who are acquainted with the sacred scriptures, is ignorant that the wise Abraham is represented as less long lived than almost any one of his ancestors ? And yet of all those who lived to the most extreme old age there is not one, as I think, who is called an elder, but he alone has this title given to him. Therefore, the sacred scriptures say, that " Abraham was now old and advanced in years," and, "The Lord blessed Abraham in all things." # This appears to me to be added as a sort of explanatory cause for what has been said before, namely, why the wise man is called the elder. For when the rational part of the soul is made of a good disposition by the kind providence of Grod, and when it reasons not only about one species, but about everything which is presented to it, using older opinion, it then becomes blessed, and is itself the older part of the people. Tims also he is accustomed to call the members of the assembly of the Grod-loving people which consists of the Genesis xxiv. 1. ON SOBRIETY. 505 number of ten sevens, elders. For we read in the scripture the direction given to Moses, " Assemble for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you yourself know that they are elders." # Therefore, it is not only those persons who are looked upon by ordinary people as old men, inasmuch as they are hierophants, but those whom the wise man alone knows, whom he thinks worthy of the appellation of elders. For those whom he rejects, like a skilful money-changer, from the coinage of virtue, being alloyed, are all in their souls inclined to innovation ; but those whom he wishes to make friends to himself, are of necessity well tested and approved, and elders as to their minds. Y. Therefore, the scripture is seen to prove each particular of what I have said more plainly to those who have taught themselves to obey one injunction of the law. " For if," says the scripture, " a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and if she who is beloved bears him a child, and also she who is hated, and if the child of the wife who is hated be the first born, then, on the day on which he bestows on his sons the inheritance of his substance, he shall not be able to give the share of the first born to the son of her who is beloved, overlooking his real first born son, the child of her who is hated ; but he must recognize the son of her who is hated as his first born, to give him a double share of all the possessions that belong to him, because he is the beginning of his children, and the rights of the first born belong to him." f You observe here now that he never calls the son of the Avife that is beloved the first born or the elder, but he often gives this title to the son of her who is hated ; and yet he has already pointed out that the son of her who is beloved was in point of time the first, and the son of her who is hated the last, at the very beginning of this injunction ; for he says, " If the beloved wife and she who is hated both bear children." But nevertheless the offspring of the first mentioned, even though it may be considerably earlier in point of time is looked upon as younger by right reason when it comes to decide between them. But the offspring of her who is spoken of in the second place, even though it may come after as to the time of its birth, is thought worthy of the more important and elder share. Numbers xi. 16. t Deuteronomy xsi. 15. Why so ? because wo say that she who is beloved is the Bymbol of pleasure, and she who is hated is the emblem of prudence. For the chief multiude of men love the company of the one to excess, inasmuch as she, from her own treasures, proffers them most seductive charms and allurements, from the very first moment of their birth to the extremity of old age ; but of the other they detest excessively the austere and very dignified look, just as silly children dislike the profitable but unpleasant reproofs of their parents and guardians. And both the wives become mothers : the one bringing forth that disposition in the soul which loves pleasure, and the other that which loves virtue ; but the lover of pleasure is imperfect, and in reality is always a child, even if he reaches a vast age of many years. But, on the other hand, the lover of virtue, though he is in old age as to his wisdom, while still in his swaddling clothes, as the proverb has it, will never grow old. In reference to which Moses says very emphatically with respect to the son of virtue, which is hated by the generality of men, that " he is the beginning of his children," being, forsooth, the first both in order and is>> precedency. And to him belong the rights of the first-born by the law of nature, and not by the lawless principle existing among men.