The Works of Philo Judaeus

IV. Then also, Si The flaming sword and the cherubim have an abode allotted to them exactly in front of paradise.'' The expression, ■• in front," is used partly to convey the idea of a resisting enemy, and partly as suitable to the notion of judgment, as a person whose cause is being decided appears in front of his judge : partly also in a friendly sense, in order The Greek text here is corrupt and unintelligible. I have followed the Latin translation of Man gey. VOL. I. N that they may be perceived, and may be considered in closer connection by reason of the more accurate view of them that is thus obtained, just as archetypal pictures and statues are placed in front of painters and statuaries. Now the first example of an enemy placed directly in front of one is derived from what is said in the case of Cain, that " he went out from the face of God, and dwelt in the land of Nod, in the front of Eden." Now Nod being interpreted means commotion, and Eden means delight. The one therefore is a symbol of wickedness agitating the soul, and the other of virtue which creates for the soul a state of tranquillity and happiness, not meaning by happiness that effeminate luxury which is derived from the indulgence of the irrational passion of pleasure, but a joy free from toil and free from hardship, which is enjoyed with great tranquillity. And it follows of necessity that when the mind goes forth from any imagination of God, by which it would be good and expedient for it to be supported, then immediately, after the fashion of a ship, which is tossed in the sea, when the winds oppose it with great violence, it is tossed about in every direction, having disturbance as it were for its country and its home, a thing which is the most contrary of all things to steadiness of soul, which is engendered by joy, which is a term synonymous with Eden.

XVI. And one may wonder at the kind of narration which the Jewish lawgiver frequently employs in many instances, where he departs from the usual style. For after giving the history of those parents of the human race who were created out of the earth, he begins to relate the story of the first-born of human parents, concerning whom he says absolutely nothing, as if he had already frequently mentioned his name, and were not now bringing it forward for the first time. Accordingly, he simply says that " she brought forth Cain." What sort of being was he, 0 writer ; and what have you ever said about him before of either great or small importance ? And yet you are not ignorant of the importance of a proper application of Genesis xviii. 11. OF CAIN AND HIS BIRTH. 189 Dames. For before this time, as you proceed in your history, you show this, when speaking in reference to the same person you say, " And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and brought forth a son, and she called his name Seth." Therefore it was much more necessary in the case of the firstborn, who was the beginning of the generation of men from one another, to display the nature of him who was thus conceived and born, in the first place showing that he was a male child, and secondly mentioning his peculiar name, Cain. Since, therefore, it was not owing to inexperience or to ignorance of according to what persons he ought to give names, that he appears to have discarded his usual practice in the case of Cain, we must now consider on what account he thus named those who were born of our first parents, rather mentioning the name in an incidental way than actually giving it. And the cause, as it appears to me, according to the best conjecture that I can form, is this.

XXXV. As all things then are confessed to be the possessions of God, and proved to be so by sound reasonings and testimonies, which cannot possibly be convicted of bearing false witness, for they are the sacred oracles which Moses has recorded in the Holy Scriptures that bear witness ; we must deprecate that mind which fancied that that which originated in a meeting with the outward sense was his own property, and which called it Cain, and said, " I have gotten a man by means of God,'" in this also greatly erring. But in what did he err? Because God was the cause, not the instrument; and what was born was created indeed through the agency of borne instrument, but was by all means called into existence by the great first cause ; for many things must co-operate in the origination of anything ; by whom, from what, by means of what, and why ? Now he by whom a thing originates is the cause ; that from which a thing is made is the material ; that by means of winch it was made is the instrument ; and why, is the object. For come now, suppose any one should say, what things must meet together, that any house or city may be made ? Must there not be a builder, and stones, and timber, and tools ? What then is the builder, but the cause by whom the house or city is built? And what are the stones and timber, but the materials of which the building is made ? And what are the tools, but the things by means of which it is made ? And for what reason is it built, except to serve as a shelter and protection? This is the object. Now passing on from these particular buildings, consider the greatest house or city, namely, this world, for you will find that God is the cause of it, by whom it was made. That the materials are the four elements, of which it is composed ; that the instrument is the word of God, by means of which it was made ; and the object of the building you will find to be the display of the goodness of the Creator. This is the discriminating opinion of men fond of truth, who desire to attain to true and sound knowledge ; but they who say that they have gotten anything by means of God, conceive that the cause is the instrument, the Creator namely, and the instrument the cause, namely, the human mind. And all sound reason would reproach Joseph for saying, " That the true interpretation of the dreams would be found out by means of God ;" for he should have said, that owing to him, as the cause indeed, would be the unfolding and accurate understanding of those things which were obscure ; for we are the instruments by whom the particular energies are developed, both in our states of tension and of relaxation ; but the Creator is " he who gives the blow which sets in motion" the faculties of body and soul, by whom all things are moved. Those then who are unable to distinguish between the differences of things must be instructed as ignorant; but those who, from a contentious spirit, invert the orders of the things signified, must be avoided as disputatious ; but those who, after an accurate investigation into the phasnomena which present themselves to them, assign its proper place to each of the objects discovered, must be praised as men who have attained to a true philosophy, and are void of error. For Moses says to those who fear lest they should be destroyed by the wicked man, who is pursuing them with all his host, " Stand still, and see the salvation which is from the Lord, and which he will work for you ;"f teaching them that salva- Genesis xL 8. + Exodus xiv. 13. tion is effected, not by means of God, but by him as the direct cause. A TREATISE o.v t;:e SACRIFICES OF ABEL ASD CAIN,

I. And Cain said to Abel his brother, " Let us go to the field. And it came to pass, that while they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him."' What Cain proposes to do is this : having by invitation led Abel on to a dispute, to convince him by main force, using plausible and probable sophisms ; for the field to which he invites him to come, we may call a symbol of rivalry and contention, forming our conjectures of things that are uncertain from our perception of those which are manifest. For we see that most contests, both in peace and in war, take place in the open fields. In peace, therefore, all those who practise gymnastic contests, seek for level race-courses and plain fields : and, in a war, it is not usual to have battles, of either infantry or cavalry, on hills ; for many more disasters arise from the" unfavourable character of the ground, than from anything that the enemies do to one another.

XIV. It would therefore have been consistent for Abel to practise prudence, a very saving virtue, and to have remained at home, disregarding the invitation to the arena of discussion and contest, which was given to him, imitating Rebecca, that is perseverance, who, when Esau, the companion of wickedness, was pouring forth threats, advised the practiser of wisdom, Jacob, to retreat before him who was about to plot against him, until he should have relaxed in his fierce hostility to him, for Esau had been holding out an intolerable threat over Jacob, saying, " The days of mourning for my Father are at hand, that then I may slay my brother Jacob ;" for he is wishing only that that species in the nature of things which is void of passions, namely, Isaac (to whom the oracle had been given, that he should not descend into Egypt), t may be the victim of an irrational affection, in order I suppose that he may be wounded by the stings of pleasure or pain, or of any other passion, showing that the man who is not wholly perfect Genesis xxvii. 41. t Genesis xxvi. 2. TEE WORSE PLOTTING AGAINST THE LETTER. 253 and who makes laborious improvements, will receive not merely a wound, but utter destruction. However, the good God will neither allow that invulnerable species among created things to be subdued by passion, nor will he surrender the practice of virtue to bloody and raging destruction. On which account we read in a subsequent passage, " Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him." For according to the first imagination, he suggests the idea that Abel has been killed. But if you look at it according to the most accurate investigation, you will see that he intimates that Cain himself was slain by himself, so that we ought to read it thus : " Cain rose up and killed himself," and not the other. And very reasonably may we attribute this to him. For the soul, which destroys out of itself the virtue -loving and Godloving principle, has died as to the life of virtue, so that Abel (which appears a most paradoxical assertion) both is dead and alive. He is dead, indeed, having been slain by the foolish mind, but he lives according to the happy life which is in God. And the holy oracle which has been given will bear witness, which expressly says, that he cried out loudly, and betrayed clearly by his cries f what he had suffered from the concrete evil, that is from the body. For how could one who no longer existed have conversed ?

XX. And God said, " What hast thou done ? The voice 01 the blood of thy brother cries out to me from out of the ground." The expression, "What hast thou done," shows indignation at an unhallowed action, and also ridicules the man who thought he had committed the murder secretly. The indignation now arises at the intention of the man who has done the deed, because he designed to destroy what was good ; but the ridicule is excited by his thinking that he has plotted against one who is better than himself, and at his having plotted not so much against him as against himself. For, as J have said before, he who appeal's to be dead is alive, inasmuch as he is found to be a suppliant of God and to utter a voice ; and he who believes that he is still alive is dead, as to the death of the soul, inasmuch as he is excluded from virtue, according to which alone he is worthy to live. So that the expression, "What hast thou done?" is equivalent to, "Thou hast done nothing ; thou hast done no good for thyself." For neither was the sophist, Balaam, who was an empty multitude of contrary and contending doctrines, when he was desirous to imprecate curses upon and to injure the good man, able to do so ; since God turned his curses into a blessing, in order to correct the unjust man of wickedness and to display his own love of virtue.

XXVII. And as to the manner in which the mind becomes accursed upon the earth, he adds further information immediately afterwards, saying : " The earth which opened her mouth to receive the blood of thy brother." For it is very difficult for the mouths of the outward senses to be opened and widened, as even when they are not open the flood of the objects appreciable only by them rushes in like an overflowing river, nothing being capable of resisting their evident impetuosity ; for then the mind is found to be overwhelmed, being wholly absorbed by so vast a wave, and being utterly unable to swim against it, or even to raise its head above it ; but it is necessary to employ all these things not so much for whatever objects can possibly be effected, but for those that are best ; for the sight can perceive all colours and all shapes ; but still it ought to behold only things worthy of light, and not of darkness. Again, the ear can receive all kinds of sounds ; but some it ought to disregard ; for myriads of the things that are said are disgraceful. Nor, 0 foolish and arrogant man, because nature has given you the faculty of taste, ought you to fill yourself insatiably with everything, like a cormorant ; for there are many things not merely among such as are nutritious, but of those which are exceedingly so, which have, nevertheless, produced diseases accompanied with great suffering. Nor does it follow that, because for the sake of the perpetuation of your race you have been endowed with the powers of generation, you ought to pursue pollutions and adulteries and other impure connections ; but only such as, in a legitimate manner, engender and propagate the race of mankind. Nor, because you have been made endowed with a mouth and a tongue and the organs of speech, ought you to say everything and to reveal what ought not to be spoken, for there are times when to hold one's peace is useful. And, in my opinion, these who have learnt to speak have also learnt to be silent, the same capacity teaching a man both lines of conduct. But those men who relate what they ought not, do not display the faculty of eloquence, but the weakness of their faculty of silence. On which account we labour to bind each of the mouthpieces of the senses before-mentioned with the imperishable bonds of temperance. " For whatever is not bound with a bond," says Moses, in another passage, "is impure," as if the cause of its unhappiness was the fact of the parts of the soul being relaxed and open and dissolved ; but that the fact of their being compacted and tightly bound together contributed to goodness and soundness of life and reason. He, therefore, curses the godless and impious Cain with deserved curses ; because, having opened the caverns of this concrete creature, he opened his mouth for all external things, praying to receive them in an insatiable manner and to contain them, to the utter destruction of the God-loving doctrine, Abel.

I. "And Cain went out from before the face of God, and dwelt in the land of Nod, opposite to Eden." Now we may raise the question whether we are to take the expressions winch occur in the books that have been handed down to us by Moses and to interpret them in a somewhat metaphorical sense, while the ideas which readily present themselves as derived from the names are very deficient in truth. For if the living God has a face, and if he who desires to leave it can with nerfect ease rise G.uesis iv. 16. up and depart to another place, why do we repudiate the impiety of the Epicureans, or the godlessness of the Egyptians, or the mythical suggestions of which life is full ? For the face is a portion of an animal ; but God is a whole, not a part : so that it becomes necessary to invent for him other parts also, a neck, and a chest, and hands, and moreover a belly, feet, and generative organs, and all the rest of the countless number of internal and external faculties. And the fact of God's having passions like unto those of man follows of necessity from the fact of his having a form like that of man : since all those limbs are not superfluous and mere exuberances, but have been made by nature as assistants of the weakness of those who possess them, and she has adapted them in a manner suitable to and consistent with their natural necessities and offices. But the living God has need of nothing ; so that as he does not at all require the assistance to be derived from the parts of the body, he cannot possibly have such parts at all.

XXXVI. Therefore, concerning the wives of Lamech and his children, I think that enough has been said. Let us now consider what we may look upon as the resurrection of Abel, who was treacherously slain. Moses tells us, " And Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and brought forth a son, and he called his name Seth ; for, said he, " God has raised me up another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew."§ The interpretation of the name Seth, is " irrigation." As, therefore, the seeds and plants which are put into the ground grow and blossom through being irrigated, and are thus made fertile for the production of fruits, Deuteronomy xxxii. 15. + Numbers xiv. 9. £ Leviticus iii." 16. § Genesis iv. 2 5. 1 5 but if they are deprived of moisture they wither away, so likewise the soul, as it appears when it is watered with the wholesome stream of wisdom, shoots forth, and brings fruit to perfection. Now, irrigation may be looked upon in a' two -fold light : with regard to that which irrigates, and with regard to that which is irrigated. And might one not say that each of the outward senses is irrigated by the mind as by a fountain, which widens and extends all their faculties, as if they were so many channels for water ? No one, therefore, in his senses would say, that the eyes see, but that the mind sees by means of the eyes ; or that the ears hear, but that the mind hears by the instrumentality of the ears ; or that the nostrils smell, but that the predominant part of man smells through the medium of the nostrils.

XLIX. Therefore the mind having generated the foundation of good .... | and the primary principle of virtue, namely Seth, or irrigation, boasts with an honourable and holy boast ; for she says, " God has raised up to me another seed, instead of Abel whom Cain slew, "J for it has been said with great exactness and neatness, that no single divine seed ever falls to the ground, but that they all rise up from the things of earth, and leave them, and are borne upwards to heaven ; but the seeds which are sown by mortals, whether for the generation of animals or of plants, do not all come to perfection ; but we must be content if more are not wasted than those which remain above ; and God sows nothing in our souls which is incomplete ; but his seed is all so seasonable and so perfect that every one of them is at once borne forward to produce abundance of its appropriate fruit.