The Works of Philo Judaeus

XXXI. On which account God also calls Bezaleel by name, and says that " He will give him wisdom and knowledge, and that He will make him the builder and the architect of all the things which are in his tabernacle ;" that is to say, of all the works of the soul, when he had up to this time done no work which anyone could praise — we must say, therefore, that God impressed this figure also on the soul, after the fashion of an approved coin. And we shall know what the impression is if we previously examine the interpretation of the name. Now, Exodus xxxl 2. Bezaleel, being interpreted, means God in his shadow. But the shadow of God is his word, winch he used like an instrument when he was making the world. And this shadow, and, as it were, model, is the archetype of other things. For, as God is himself the model of that image which he has now called a shadow, so also that image is the model of other things, as he showed when he commenced giving the law to the Israelites, and said, "And God made man according to the image of God," as the image was modelled according to God, and as man was modelled according to the image, which thus received the power and character of the model.

I. " And Noah began to be a husbandman ; and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and he was drunk in his house. "t The genei'ality of men not understanding the nature of things, do also of necessity err with respect to the composition of names ; for those who consider affairs anatomically, as it were, are easily able to affix appropriate names to things, but those who look at them in a confused and irregular way are incapable of such accuracy. But Moses, through the exceeding abundance of his knowledge of all things, was accustomed to affix the most felicitous and expressive appellations to them. Accordingly, in many passages of the law, we shall find this opinion, which we have expressed, confirmed by the fact, and not least in the passage which we have cited at the beginning of this treatise, in which the just Noah is represented as a hus- Numbers xxxi. 8. t Genesis ix. 20. baudman. For -what man is there who is at all hasty in forming an opinion, who would not think that the being a husband man (y-u.^yia). and the occupying one's self in cultivating the ground (r, yr,; hyacicc). were the same thing? And yet in real truth, not only are these things not the same, but they are even very much separated from one another, so as to be opposed to. and at variance with one another. For a man without any skill may labour at taking care of the land ; but if a man is called a husbandman, he, from his mere name, is believed to be no unskilful man, but a farmer of experience, inasmuch as his name (y-oj^yo:) has been derived from agricultural skill (y-uzyr/.r, r'-yj.r,). of which he is the namesake. And besides all this, we must likewise consider this other point, that the tiller of the ground (o yr,: bydrr,;) looks only to one end, namely, to his wages ; for he is altogether a hireling, and has no care whatever to till the land well. But the husbandman (6 yeupybg) would be glad also to contribute something of his own, and to spend in addition some of his private resources for the sake of improving the soil, and of avoiding blame from those who understand the business ; for his desire is to derive his revenues every year not from any other source, but from his agricultural labours, when they have been brought into a productive state. He therefore occupies himself with improving the character of wild trees, and making them fruitful, and with further improving the character of fruitful trees by his care, and with reducing by pruning those branches which through superfluitv of nourishment are too luxuriant, and with inducing those which are contracted and crowded to grow by the extension of their young shoots. Moreover, those trees which are of good sorts, and which make many shoots, he propagates by extending them under the earth in ditches of no very great depth, and those which do not produce good fruit he endeavours to improve by the insertion of other kinds into their roots, connecting them by the most natural union. For the same thing happens likewise in the case of men, that they firmly unite into their own family adopted sons, who are unconnected with them in blood, but whom they make their own on account of their virtues. The husbandman, therefore, takes up innumerable shoots, with their roots entire, which have by natural process become barren, as far as bearing fruit is concerned, and which even do great injury to those plants which 380 do bear by reason of their being planted near them. Such, then, is the art which is applied to those plants which grow out of the ground. And now let us turn our consideration to the husbandry of the soul in its turn.

I. In the former part of this treatise we have spoken of the art of husbandry as to its genus, dwelling on it at as great a length as the time admitted of; but in this book we will discuss the question of his cultivation of his vineyard with regard to the species as far as it is in our power. Eor Moses represents the just Noah not only as a husbandman, but also especially as occupied with the cultivation of vines, saying, " Noah began to be a husbandman of the earth ; and he planted a vineyard." And it is fitting that a man who was about to discuss the whole question of separate plants and manners of cultivation, should first of all acquire an accurate comprehension of the most perfect plants in the universe, and of the great planter and superintendent of them. He then who is the greatest of all planters and the most perfect in art, is the Euler of the universe ; and his plant is not one which comprises within itself only individual plants, but rather infinite numbers of them springing up like suckers from one root, namely, this world. Eor after the Creator of the world, reducing that substance, which was in its own nature destitute of order and regularity, into a state of order, and bringing it from a condition of confusion into a distinct system, began to fashion and shape it, he placed the earth and the water in the middle, and the plants of air and fire he drew up from their previously central position to a lofty eminence ; and the aether he arranged all round, placing it as a boundary to and preservation of the things within, from which also it seems that the heaven f derives its name, causing the earth to be borne upon the water in such a way that it continues dry, which, however, there was reason to fear might be dissolved by water ; and this great worker of marvels, moreover, united the air, which was exceedingly Genesis ix. 20. | Ovpavbc, "heaven;" as if derived from opog or ovpog, "a boundary." ABOUT THE PLANTING OF NOAH. 417 cold by its own nature, to fire which is very hot ; a most surprising miracle. For how can it be looked upon as anything but a prodigy, for that which would dissolve another thing, to be held together by that which it would dissolve : that is to say, for water to be held together by earth ; and again, for that which is the hottest of all things to be placed upon that which is the coldest without its nature being destroyed, that is to say, for fire to be placed upon air? And these are the elements of this most perfect plant ; but the very great and all productive plant is this world, of which the aforesaid branches are the main shoots.

I. Having examined in the preceding treatise what has been said by the lawgiver about wine and the nakedness which attends upon it, we will now begin to connect the the following essay with the statements advanced in that work. Now in the sacred scriptures we come to the following words immediately after the account we have just been examining, "And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew all that his younger son had done to him. " Sobriety is confessed to be a most advantageous thing, not only for souls but also for bodies, for it drives away the diseases which arise from immoderate repletion, and it sharpens the outward senses to an exceeding degree of acuteness, and it altogether prevents Genesis ix. 23. ON SOBRIETY. 501 bodies from being: weighed down so as to fall, but keeps them light, and raises them up. and incites them to the exercise of their appropriate energies, implanting in every part a promptness and vigour ; and in short, sobriety is the cause of exactly as many good things, as drunkenness, on the contrary, is of evils. Since then sobriety is most advantageous to those bodies to which the drinking of wine is naturally suitable, is it not much more so to souls, with which all perishable food is inconsistent : for what thing in human nature can be more noble than a sober mind r what glory can be more glorious : what wealth can be more rich F what authority more powerful ': what strength more vigorous r of all admirable things what can be more admirable? Let there only be the eye of the soul lit to act. which is able to penetrate every where and to open every thing, being in no part hindered or dimmed by the suffusion of its own moisture ; for being then n exceedingly sharpsighted as to its comprehension, and looking into wisdom itself, it will meet with images such as are intelligible only by the intellect, the contemplation of which attracts the soul and will not suffer it any longer to turn aside to the objects which belong to the outward senses. And why should we wonder it' there is no created thing equal in honour to a man who is sober in his soul, and gifted with acute vision "r for the eyes of the body and the light which is appreciable by the outward senses are honoured in an excessive degree by all of us. Accordingly, many who have lost their sight, have voluntarily also thrown away life, thinking as far as they were concerned, that death itself was a lighter evil than such deprivation. In proportion then as the soul is superior to the body, in the same proportion also is the mind better than the eyes ■ and the mind while it is free from injury and imperfection, not being oppressed by any of the iniquities or passions which are produced by insane drunkenness, renounces sleep as a thing which causes forgetfulness and hesitation in what is to be done ; but it embraces wakefulness, and uses acuteness of vision, with respect to every object worthy of being beheld, being kept awake by exceedingly perfect memory, and committing actions winch are in accordance with the knowledge th; acquires.