{
"language": "en",
"title": "On the Change of Names",
"versionSource": "https://www.nli.org.il/en/books/NNL_ALEPH001216057/NLI",
"versionTitle": "Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1934",
"status": "locked",
"license": "Public Domain",
"versionNotes": "",
"actualLanguage": "en",
"languageFamilyName": "english",
"isSource": false,
"isPrimary": true,
"direction": "ltr",
"heTitle": "על שינוי השמות",
"categories": [
"Second Temple",
"Philo"
],
"text": {
"Introduction": [
"ON THE CHANGE OF NAMES (DE MUTATIONE NOMINUM)
ANALYTICAL INTRODUCTION",
"This treatise is an exposition of various points arising in Gen. 17:1–5 and 15–22.",
"1. Abraham became ninety-nine years old, and the Lord was seen by Abraham and said to him, “I am thy God: be well pleasing before Me and become blameless.",
"2. And I will set my covenant between Me and between thee.…”",
"3. And Abraham fell upon his face and God spake to him, saying:",
"4. “And I, behold my covenant is with thee.…",
"5. And thy name shall no longer be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham.…”",
"15. And God said to Abraham, “Sarai thy wife, her name shall not be called Sarai. Sarah shall be her name.",
"16. And I will bless her, and give thee a child from her, and I will bless her, and she shall be for nations, and kings of nations shall be from her.”",
"17. And Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and he spake in his mind, saying, “Shall a son be born to one of a hundred years, and shall Sarah being ninety years bear a son?”",
"18. And Abraham said to God, “Let this Ishmael live before thee!”",
"19. And God said to Abraham, “Yes, behold Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac.…",
"20. But as for Ishmael, behold I have heard thee, and behold I have blessed him, I will increase him, I will multiply him; he shall beget twelve nations.",
"21. But my covenant I will establish to Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to thee at this season in the other year.”",
"“Abraham was ninety-nine years old, and the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am thy God.’ ” After a passing remark on the significance of ninety-nine as indicating the approach to the sacred hundred (1–2) we go on to “appeared” or “was seen.” Now God cannot be seen by the eye, but only by the mind (3–6), and indeed God in His essence cannot be apprehended by mind, any more than mind can apprehend itself. And so Moses was told that he could only see what was behind God, not His face (7–10). It follows that no proper name can be given to the God Who IS, and when in Exodus He calls Himself the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob it must be regarded as a κατάχρησις or licence of language (11–14). We must infer then that what appeared to Abraham was not God the Existent but His sovereign potency which in Scripture is called the Lord (15–17), and yet this sovereign potency also says “I am thy God.” Is not God the God of all men? we may ask. No, He is Lord to the bad, God to the earnest striver, God and Lord to the perfect (18–19). Thus He is spoken of as God to Moses, but Lord to Pharaoh and Lord God to Israel (19–23). But not only is God the good man’s God, but also the good man is God’s man, and we must remember that only by living up to the latter relation can we reach the former (24–26). Now while the Existent is absolute His potencies are relative. Kings, benefactors and makers must rule, benefit and make something (27–28). When God is called man’s God, it implies that God has made him, but God did not make the bad at all, and those between good and bad only through His subordinates, as the “Let us make” in Genesis shews (29–31). Therefore to have God for maker in the full sense is the highest honour. Who then are those who can claim this? Philo at first seems to limit the claim to the detached and ascetic kind who have risen entirely above all that is bodily (32–33). But such, he acknowledges, are rare: a thought which he supports with the phrase, “Enoch was not found,” and indeed philosophers have laid down rightly or wrongly that the wise man and wisdom do not actually exist (34–38). We must admit therefore the pos̨sibility of a more social form of goodness which can claim God for its maker, and this is indicated in the next words, “Be well pleasing before Me,” which have a different meaning from “Be well pleasing to Me,” for he who serves men is not only well pleasing to God but well pleasing before God (39–42). This double duty to man and God is symbolized by the two robes of the high priest and other duplicates, and the very fact that God existed before creation and only created out of His beneficence shews that we must combine supreme reverence for Him with due regard for the human nature which He has made (43–46).",
"The next words, “And become blameless,” may indicate that an abstinence from sin is a lower stage than the positive virtue which the Stoics called κατόρθωμα. But Philo does not lay stress on this, for he feels that to man subject so constantly to temptation, such abstinence is the most that can be asked (47–51), and indeed it is to the blameless that God promises to set His covenant “between Me and thee,” that is, to let nothing but His grace stand between the two (51–53).",
"When Abraham heard the promise he fell upon his face, where “fell” indicates the acknowledgement that God stands but humanity cannot stand, and “face” means sense, speech and mind, all of which lie prostrate unless God give the power to stand (54–56). Then comes the reassurance, “And I, behold my covenant is with thee,” words which to Philo’s mind suggest that God is Himself the covenant, and thus some more essentially divine gift is implied than those which God covenants to give to men in general. This special gift is then explained as the bestowal of a new name, and this brings Philo to the subject which occupies the next sixty sections and has somewhat unduly supplied the traditional name of the treatise (57–59).",
"That the divine blessing should take the form of adding an alpha to the name Abram and subsequently of a rho to that of his wife has, Philo tells us, attracted the jeers of the profane, and he mentions the miserable end of one such scoffer (60–62). As a matter of fact he agrees with the criticism if taken literally, and only differs in the inference he draws. That God should add letters to names, and that this should be held a divine benefaction, is absurd (63–64), but this only points to the conclusion that a change of name stands for a change of nature. Philo repeats the explanation given several times elsewhere that Abram which means “uplifted father” stands for the Chaldean, the astrologer, while Abraham is the “elect father of sound,” where father means mind, the father of sound or speech, and the whole therefore stands for the elect or wise mind. The change then is really a moral change from the study of God’s works to the study of God Himself, in fact from astrology to piety, and the text may be taken as a divine instruction that studies of the former kind are of no real value (66–67). So too the change of Sarai’s name to Sarah, that is from “my sovereignty” to “sovereign,” indicates the superiority of generic wisdom to wisdom as shown in the individual (77–80).",
"From these two cases which belong to the subject of the treatise Philo proceeds to deal with others outside it. Jacob the supplanter or wrestler is naturally renamed as Israel who sees God, because the divine vision is the guerdon which awaits the athlete soul (81–82). But it is a curious fact that while Abraham after the renaming is never called Abram, the names of Jacob and Israel are constantly interchanged in the subsequent narrative. To explain this Philo goes back to the familiar antithesis of Abraham as virtue acquired by teaching and Jacob as virtue acquired by practice. Abraham the scholar who has God Himself as teacher advances to knowledge continuously. The Practiser who has only his own will to urge him has many periods of weariness when he returns to his old nature, and this is supported by the observation that Abraham gets the new name from God, Jacob from the angel (83–87). Again, Isaac has no other name‚ and this is appropriate to the Self-taught, who by instinct is perfect from the first, and has not, like Abraham, to learn, or Jacob, to practise (88). In Joseph we have a change of another kind. His original name means addition, and describes the superfluities which the conventional mind desires, but Pharaoh renames him Psonthonphanech or “mouth which judges in answer,” and thus brings out the fact that the man of wealth and prosperity is supposed by the world to be able to pronounce with wisdom on all sorts of questions (89–91). In a somewhat similar way the child who is called by his father Benjamin, “the son of days,” or “sunlight,” and thus represents the vainglory which seems so brilliant to the world, is recognized by the mother, that is the soul, which dies in giving birth to him, as Benoni, or the son of sorrows (92–96). And here the mention of Joseph and his mother seems to lead Philo into an irrelevant interpolation of the analogy between Reuben and Simeon on the one hand and Ephraim and Manasseh on the other. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be to me, said Jacob, as Reuben and Simeon, which Philo interprets as shewing the similarity of the gifted nature, Reuben, to memory, Ephraim, and again of Simeon, the learner, to Manasseh, recollection (97–102).",
"We now return to further examples of double names. In Exodus 2 Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, appears in one place to be called Raguel. Jethro the “superfluous” as in other places is taken as the type of the worldling, and there follows a curiously perverted allusion to the meeting with Moses described in Exodus 18 in which Jethro is made to advise Moses to leave the teaching of the divine ordinances for that of human convention and unequal justice (103–104). Raguel on the other hand is the “shepherding of God,” and indicates the better side of the Jethro nature, when it accepts the authority of the good shepherd, Moses. An elaborate justification of this idea follows. Jethro or Raguel is called the priest of Midian, and while Midian which means “from judgement” sometimes stands for the outcasts excluded by judgement, as it does in the story of the Midianite seduction of Israel and the vindication by Phineas (105–109), it may also stand for the rightly judging nature which is akin to the prophetic. When then we read of the seven daughters who were succoured at the well by Moses, we recognize the seven bodily faculties which after the vain attempt of the enemy to seduce them from their proper office return to their father, the mind. That father is rightly called Raguel, not Jethro, and the welcome which this father proposes in the narrative to extend to Moses indicates the same higher nature (110–120).",
"The next illustration is the change of Joshua’s name from Hoshea, the latter, “he is saved,” signifying a particular individual or concrete embodiment of a state, the former “salvation of the Lord,” and thus a state or condition, which is permanent, while the individual perishes. Philo brings this into comparison with the statement about Caleb, that there was another spirit in him, inferring that though there is no change of name the man himself was wholly changed (121–125). Finally we have the example of the different titles given to Moses himself. First, the name Moses, the “receiving” or “handling,” fitly given to him who receives the power of legislation; secondly, the man of God, given to him as blessing the people, and finally god to Pharaoh, this godship being especially shown in his willingness to intercede for the sinner (125–129).",
"Here we leave the change of names and return to the exposition of the text. But the mention of Sarah’s change of name in §§ 77–80 seems to have drawn Philo away from the discussion of the intervening verses 6–14 to those which describe her blessedness. Verse 16 runs, “I will give to thee a son from her” (130). The words “I will give” surely imply that the gift is the giver’s own to give, and thus they assert that the Isaac, whose name means “laughter,” is the spiritual Isaac, inward laughter or joy, of which God is the true parent (131). This thought of the divine parentage is illustrated by the phrase, “The Lord opened Leah’s womb,” and by the story of Tamar and Judah, which Philo allegorizes, though in a shorter form, as he does in De Fuga, and it is actually asserted by Sarah when she says “The Lord has made laughter (that is Isaac) for me” (132–137). But she also adds, “whoever shall hear (i.e. understand it) will rejoice with me,” thus suggesting that this truth is one which the pagan mind may easily misunderstand, and therefore must be reserved for the ears of the wise, and Philo accordingly presses into his service the words of Hosea, “Thy fruit is from me, the wise will understand,” bringing out the double truth that all is from God and that the wise alone understand this (138–140).",
"The words “from her,” ἐξ αὐτῆς, have been by some interpreted as “outside her,” i.e. by divine agency, and also as the single word ἐξαυτῆς “immediately,” but Philo himself seems to adopt the natural view that, Sarah being assumed to be Virtue or Wisdom, the phrase asserts that none but virtue can be the mother of the good (141–142). And if indeed she has been called barren it is because Virtue is barren of Evil, even as Hannah or Grace was also barren and yet was the mother of the Mystic Seven (143–144). As for “child” the singular brings out that the idea of the good is single in contrast with the many particulars, while the word itself (τέκνον) coming from τίκτω declares the reality of Virtue’s motherhood (145–147). “I will bless her and she shall be for nations” tells us that in the manifold classes or nations of things in general Virtue is the one source of well-being (148–150), and in “kings of nations shall be from her” we can trace the Stoic doctrine that the sage alone is king (151–153).",
"Abraham hearing this falls and laughs. Philo as always refuses to entertain the idea that Abraham and Sarah’s laughter is one of incredulity. His falling is, as before, an acknowledgement of unworthiness; the laughter is humble joy (154–156). At this point he raises the question that as Isaac, laughter or joy, is not yet born, how could Abraham laugh? (157). This strange idea, however, gives him an opportunity for a fine disquisition on anticipation. He describes how young animals and young plants show a joyous promise of their future maturity, how the dawning of day smiles in expectation of the sunrise, how hope gives joy before the fact, just as fear gives grief, and the senses anticipate the feast before it is realized, and so man could laugh while laughter is yet unborn (158–165). Again, the joyous laughter of both Abraham and Sarah teaches us that joy is only for the good. If the wicked seem to smile it has no reality (166–169), and thus the so-called joy of Egypt at the coming of Jacob and his sons was either assumed or at the most a hope that they might seduce them as they had seduced Joseph (170–171); and this supposition leads him to discuss in detail the seeming-kindly promises made to Jacob by Pharaoh, and pronounce them to be nothing more than the temptations of the bodily element which the mind of the wise rejects (172–174).",
"Philo now has to deal with the words so difficult on his premises, “He said in his heart, shall this happen to one of a hundred years old, and shall Sarah being ninety years old bear a son?” His first explanation stresses the words “in his heart”; they imply that the doubt, so inconsistent with Abraham’s faith, was momentary with all the rapidity of thought, and died without reaching the lips (175–180). And if it is argued that it was unworthy of him to doubt even for a moment this is asking too much. The faith of weak mortals cannot be expected to be as the unswerving faith of God (181–187). But Philo would seem himself to incline to a “more courageous” explanation that the words are really a prayer: “Oh, that this perfect birth may take place under the perfect numbers of ninety and a hundred” (188). There follow several examples of a hundred as a special number, though as for ninety he cannot say anything more than that it is the difference between the sacred ten and the more sacred hundred (189–192). This explanation demands that “said in his heart (or mind)” signifies “sincerely,” for sincerity is the mark of the virtuous, whereas the wicked do not speak in or according to their minds. Thus when Shechem, the emblem of foolish labour, is said to have spoken “according to the mind” of Dinah, the emblem of justice, we may understand that he spoke contrary to his own mind (193–195). Thus Shechem stands for the insincere who prate of virtue and deceive the multitude, but are ultimately unmasked by the champions of truth, represented by Simeon and Levi in the story of Shechem’s punishment (196–200).",
"Jacob’s next words are “Let this Ishmael live before thee,” each part of which has to be examined (200–201). First, since Ishmael = hearing God, this seems to distinguish the right hearing from the hearing which hears only to misuse, as did Balaam’s (202–205). This is illustrated by other cases, where Philo supposes that the “this” serves to distinguish outwardly similar but different examples (206–209). Again, “live” points to the true life of the soul, and amounts to a prayer of the same nature as Jacob’s prayer that Reuben or natural goodness should live and not die (209–216), and when he adds “before God” he prays that this God-hearing may have the inestimable blessing of realizing the divine omnipotence (216–217). But we must not suppose that the prayer for Ishmael shows despair of the birth of Isaac. It is rather the cry of the soul which feels its inadequacy to sustain God’s highest gifts (218–219). But this consciousness of our inadequacy must not prevent us from dedicating thankfully such gifts as each of us possesses. If we cannot reach the highest that is no reason why we should not cherish the little we can do (220–227), and we have illustrations of this in Abraham’s plea for Sodom if only a little goodness could be found in it, and Esau’s hope that Isaac might have some blessing yet to give, even if the best was given to Jacob (228–230). Thus the best prayer of the soul is that God should give us what befits our weakness, for “shall not the hand of the Lord suffice” to benefit low as well as high? (231–232).",
"It is primarily to carry on this thought that Philo here introduces the subject of the three different kinds of sin-offering and purification according to the capacity of the offerer, the sheep, the two birds and the fine flour (233–235). But this soon passes into the very different suggestion that the three are atonements for sins of thought, word and deed, otherwise expressed as mind, mouth and hand. He then goes on to shew that while sins of thought are more venial than sins of speech and these than sins of deeds (and this is recognized in the code of punishments), the first-named are really the most difficult to avoid, for thoughts cannot be controlled as language can (235–244). The appropriateness of the three offerings is explained by saying that the sheep the most useful of animals is suited to our noblest part, the mind, the birds to the winged nature of words, and the fine flour as worked by the hand to deeds which the hand commits (245–251).",
"To resume the exposition of the text, the divine reply to this prayer for Ishmael is, “Yes, Sarah shall bear thee a son,” where the “yes” (ναί) marks the divine assent or nod (νεύω). Thus God answers the one request by two gifts (252–255). The greater gift is the self-taught Isaac nature of which, rare as it is in its highest form, we have a foretaste in the fact that our powers of sense and mental processes are acquired without teaching (256–257). Why wonder, then, that the unlaboured virtue symbolized by Isaac should be given direct from heaven, like the manna and the automatic harvest of the sabbatical year? (258–260). Further, this child is free from womanish passion and will be rightly named “laughter,” the natural outcry of the glad (261–262). The next words, “I have blessed Ishmael, but my covenant I will stablish with Isaac,” shews that, while God gives the stronger the higher wisdom of the self-taught, he also gives the weaker the lower wisdom of the schools.",
"The next words are, “whom Sarah shall bear at this season and in the other year.” By season (καιρός) we may understand God Himself, the season or opportunity, which forsakes the wicked but dwells in the good, and by the “other year” is meant eternity, the life of the world of thought which was also meant when Isaac “in that year found the hundredfold crop” (264–269). Finally the words “He completed talking with him and God went up from Abraham” indicate that when we have learnt our lesson we must be left to meditate on and practise it, a truth which every good teacher knows (270).",
"The MS. authority for this treatise seems to be unusually weak. Wendland found only two MSS. of any antiquity (A and B), both of them according to him of the same (and inferior) family. Mangey also used two late MSS. in the libraries of New College, Oxford, and Trinity, Cambridge. I have collated the latter of these, but without any results to speak of. Perhaps this lack of MS. support may serve me as some apology for having introduced so many conjectural emendations of my own into the text."
],
"": [
[
"[1] “Abraham became ninety-nine years old and the Lord was seen by Abraham and said to him, ‘I am thy God’ ” (Gen. 17:1). Nine plus ninety is next neighbour to a hundred, the number irradiated by the self-taught nature Isaac who is joy, the best of the good emotions. For Isaac is born to Abraham when a hundred years old.",
"[2] A hundred also represents the first-fruits given to the priests by the Tribe of Levi. For when the Levites receive the tenths they offer from them, just as though they were their own produce, other tenths in which we find the hundred (Num. 18:26). For ten is a symbol of progress and a hundred of perfection. Now he who is in the intermediate stage is always pressing forward to the summit, employing the gifts with which nature has blessed him, and it is by such a one that Moses tells us that the Lord of all was seen.",
"[3] Yet do not suppose that the vision was presented to the eyes of the body. They see only the objects of sense and those are composite, brimful of corruptibility, while the divine is uncompounded and incorruptible. It is the eye of the soul which receives the presentation of the divine vision.",
"[4] Moreover what the eyes of the body behold they apprehend through the co-operation of light, and light is something different from either the seer or the thing seen, whereas what the soul beholds it beholds by its own agency without the assistance of any other. For the conceptions of the mind are a light to themselves.",
"[5] Our learning of the sciences follows the same rule. The mind applies its eye which never closes or sleeps to the principles and conclusions set before it and sees them by no borrowed but a genuine light which shines forth from itself.",
"[6] And so when you hear that God was seen by man, you must think that this takes place without the light which the senses know, for what belongs to mind can be apprehended only by the mental powers. And God is the fountain of the purest radiance, and so when He reveals Himself to a soul the rays He puts forth are free from all shadow and of intense brightness."
],
[
"[7] Do not however suppose that the Existent which truly exists is apprehended by any man; for we have in us no organ by which we can envisage it, neither in sense, for it is not perceptible by sense, nor yet in mind. So Moses the explorer of nature which lies beyond our vision, Moses who, as the divine oracles tell us, entered into the darkness (Ex. 20:21), by which figure they indicate existence invisible and incorporeal, searched everywhere and into everything in his desire to see clearly and plainly Him, the object of our much yearning, Who alone is good.",
"[8] And when there was no sign of finding aught, not even any semblance of what he hoped for, in despair of learning from others, he took refuge with the Object of his search Itself and prayed in these words: “Reveal Thyself to me that I may see Thee with knowledge” (Ex. 33:13). And yet he fails to gain his object. To know what lies below the Existent, things material and immaterial alike, is a most ample gift even for the best sort among mortals, as God judges,",
"[9] for we read, “Thou shalt see what is behind Me, but My face thou shalt not see” (ibid. 23). It means that all below the Existent, things material and immaterial alike, are available to apprehension even if they are not all actually apprehended as yet, but He alone by His very nature cannot be seen.",
"[10] And why should we wonder that the Existent cannot be apprehended by men when even the mind in each of us is unknown to us? For who knows the essential nature of the soul, that mystery which has bred numberless contentions among the sophists who propound opinions contrary to each other or even totally and generically opposed?",
"[11] It is a logical consequence that no personal name even can be properly assigned to the truly Existent. Note that when the prophet desires to know what he must answer to those who ask about His name He says “I am He that IS” (Ex 3:14), which is equivalent to “My nature is to be, not to be spoken.”",
"[12] Yet that the human race should not totally lack a title to give to the supreme goodness He allows them to use by licence of language, as though it were His proper name, the title of Lord God of the three natural orders, teaching, perfection, practice, which are symbolized in the records as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For this He says is “My age-long name,” belonging as it were to the age of human existence, not to that when age as yet was not, “a memorial” too, not set, that is, beyond memory or apprehension, and again “to generations” (ibid. 15), not to beings that were never generated.",
"[13] For those who are born into mortality must needs have some substitute for the divine name, so that they may approach if not the fact at least the name of supreme excellence and be brought into relation with it. And this is shown by the oracle proclaimed as from the mouth of the Ruler of all in which He says that no proper name of Him has been revealed to any. “I was seen,” He says, “of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, being their God, and My name of’ ‘Lord’ I did not reveal to them” (Ex. 6:3). For when the transposition is reset in the proper order it will run thus, “My proper name I did not reveal to thee,” but, He implies, only the substitute, and that for reasons already mentioned.",
"[14] So impossible to name indeed is the Existent that not even the Potencies who serve Him tell us a proper name. Thus after the wrestling-bout in which the Man of Practice engaged in his quest of virtue, he says to the unseen master, “Announce to me Thy name,” and he said “Why dost thou ask this my name?” (Gen. 32:29), and he refuses to tell his personal and proper name. “It is enough for thee,” he means, “to profit through my benediction, but as for names, those symbols which indicate created beings, look not for them in the case of imperishable natures.”"
],
[
"[15] Think it not then a hard saying that the Highest of all things should be unnamable when His Word has no name of its own which we can speak. And indeed if He is unnamable He is also inconceivable and incomprehensible.",
"And so the words “The Lord was seen of Abraham” (Gen. 17:1) must not be understood in the sense that the Cause of all shone upon him and appeared to him, for what human mind could contain the vastness of that vision? Rather we must think of it as the manifestation of one of the Potencies which attend him, the Potency of kingship, for the title Lord betokens sovereignty and kingship.",
"[16] While our mind pursued the airy speculations of the Chaldeans it ascribed to the world powers of action which it regarded as causes. But when it migrated from the Chaldean creed it recognized that the world had for its charioteer and pilot a Ruler Whose sovereignty was presented to it in vision.",
"[17] And therefore the words are “The Lord (not “The Existent”) was seen of him,” as though it would say, The king has been manifested, king indeed from the first, but hitherto unrecognized by the soul, which so long unschooled has not remained in ignorance for ever but has received the vision of the Sovereignty which rules over all that is.",
"[18] But the Sovereign when manifested confers a still higher gift on him who sees and hears him. He says to him, “I am thy God.” Which indeed amongst all this multitude of created things does not have Thee for its god? I might ask. But His interpreting word will shew me that He does not here speak of the world of which doubtless He is Creator and God, but of human souls which do not in His eyes deserve to be cared for all alike.",
"[19] His will is to be called the Lord and Master of the bad, the God of those who are on the way to betterment, but of the best and most perfect both at once God and Lord. For instance, when He has set Pharaoh before us as the crowning example of impiety He never calls Himself his God but gives that name to wise Moses, “Behold I give thee as god to Pharaoh” (Ex. 7:1). But He often names Himself as Lord in the oracles which He gives. We find such utterances as these,",
"[20] “These things saith the Lord” (Ex. 7:17), and at the beginning of His speech “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ‘I am the Lord, speak unto Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, all that I speak unto thee’ ” (Ex. 6:29). And Moses says to Pharaoh,",
"[21] “When I go forth from the city I will spread out my hands to the Lord, and the sounds shall cease and the hail and the rain shall not be, that thou mayest know that to the Lord belongs the earth” (that is all the bodily earth-compounded frame), “and thou” (that is the mind which the body carries with it) “and thy servants” (that is the several thoughts which form its guard), “for I know that ye have not yet feared the Lord” (Ex. 9:29), meaning that Lord who is not merely so-called but is Lord in very truth.",
"[22] For none that is created is truly a lord, though he be invested with a rule that spreads from pole to pole. Only the Uncreated is truly ruler, and he who lives in fear and awe under that Ruler’s government receives a prize of truest value in His reproofs, while he who despises them has before him nothing but to perish miserably.",
"[23] So then He is shown to be the Lord of the foolish in that He holds over them the terrors that are proper to the sovereign. Of those who are on the way to betterment He is called in scripture God, as in this present passage, “I am thy God,” or “I am thy God, increase and multiply” (Gen. 35:11). Of the perfect He is both Lord and God as in the Decalogue “I am thy Lord God” (Ex. 20:2), and elsewhere “The Lord God of your fathers” (Deut. 4:1),",
"[24] for it is His will that the wicked man should be under His sway as his Lord, and thus with awe and groaning feel the fear of the Master hanging over him; that the man of progress should be benefited by Him as God and thus through those kindnesses reach perfection; that the perfect should be guided by Him as Lord and benefited by Him as God. For through the one he remains free from lapses, through the other he is most surely God’s man. This is best shown in Moses’ case.",
"[25] “This is the blessing,” we read, “which Moses gave, the man of God” (Deut. 33:1). To what a glorious, what a holy exchange is he promoted that in return for God’s protecting care he should give himself to God.",
"[26] But do not suppose that God becomes man’s in the same way that man becomes God’s, for a man is God’s as His possession, God is man’s to be his glory and assistance. If thou wouldst have God as thy heart’s portion, first become thyself a portion worthy for Him to take, and that thou shalt become if thou escape such faults as are thine own handiwork and come of free will."
],
[
"[27] We should remember this also that the words ‘I am thy God” are used by licence of language and not in their proper sense, for the Existent considered as existent is not relative. He is full of Himself and is sufficient for Himself. It was so before the creation of the world, and is equally so after the creation of all that is.",
"[28] He cannot change nor alter and needs nothing else at all, so that all things are His but He Himself in the proper sense belongs to none. But the Potencies which He has projected into creation to benefit what He has framed are in some cases spoken of as in a sense relative, such as the kingly and the beneficial, for a king is a king of someone and a benefactor the benefactor of someone, while the subject of the kingship and the recipient of the benefit is necessarily something different.",
"[29] Akin to these two is the creative Potency called God, because through this the Father who is its begetter and contriver made the universe, so that “I am thy God” is equivalent to “I am the Maker and Artificer.”",
"[30] And the greatest gift we can have is to have Him for our Architect, Who was also the Architect of the whole world, for He did not form the soul of the bad, since wickedness is at enmity with Him, and in framing the soul which is in the intermediate stage He was not the sole agent according to the holiest of men, Moses, since such a soul would surely admit like wax the different qualities of noble and base.",
"[31] And therefore we read, “Let us make man after our image” (Gen. 1:26), so that according as the wax received the bad or the noble impress it should appear to be the handiwork of others or of Him Who is the framer of the noble and the good alone. Surely then he is a man of virtue to whom God says “I am thy God,” for he has God alone for his maker without the co-operation of others.",
"[32] At the same time Moses teaches us here by implication the doctrine which he so often lays down that God is the maker of the wise and good only. And all that company have voluntarily stripped themselves of the external goods which are so abundantly supplied to us, and further have despised what is dear to the flesh.",
"[33] Fine, lusty and athletic are those who use the body as a menace to the soul. Pale, wasted and withered, so to speak, are the children of discipline. They have made over the bodily muscles to serve the powers of the soul and in fact are resolved into a single form, that of soul, and become unbodied minds.",
"[34] Naturally then the earthly element is destroyed and dissolved when the mind in all its powers has a fixed purpose to be well pleasing to God.",
"But that kind is rare and hardly to be found, though that such should be is not impossible. This is shown by the oracle vouchsafed about Enoch. “Enoch was well pleasing to God and was not found” (Gen. 5:24),",
"[35] for where could one search and find this good thing, what seas should he cross, what islands, what continents should he visit? Shall he look for it among the Greeks or the barbarians?",
"[36] Indeed are there not still among the disciples of philosophy some who say that a wise man is non-existent and therefore wisdom also? None, they say, from the beginning of man’s creation up to the life of to-day has been held to be completely free from fault, for absolute happiness is impossible to one who is imprisoned in the mortal body.",
"[37] Whether these statements are true we will inquire at the proper occasion. At present we will accept the text and say that wisdom is indeed something which exists, and so too is the lover of wisdom, the sage, but, though he exists, we who are evil fail to see him, for good cannot keep company with bad.",
"[38] Therefore we are told that “he was not found,” this type of character which was well pleasing to God, meaning doubtless that though actually existing he was hidden from us and shunned our company. And to confirm this we read that he was “translated” (ibid.), that is, changed his abode and journeyed as an emigrant from the mortal life to the immortal."
],
[
"[39] These are men inspired with heaven-sent madness, men who have gone out into the wild. But there are others who have followed a tame and gentle wisdom, and such are both eminent in the practice of piety and do not despise human things. This is attested by the oracle in which it is said to Abraham, with God as speaker, “Be well pleasing before Me” (Gen. 17:1), that is, “be well pleasing not to Me only but to My works, while I as judge watch and survey thee.”",
"[40] For if you honour parents or show mercy to the poor or do kindness to your friends or defend your country or observe with care your duties to all men in general, you will surely be well pleasing to all with whom you have to do, but also well pleasing before God. For He with an eye that never sleeps beholds all things, and what is good He summons to Himself and approves with special favour.",
"[41] And therefore the Practiser in his prayer will show us the same truth. “The God,” he says, “to whom my fathers were well pleasing,” and adds “before Him” (Gen. 48:15) to show us the difference in fact between being pleasing “to Him” and “before Him.” The latter embraces both kinds of well pleasing, the former is confined to one only.",
"[42] And so Moses in his Exhortations charges them in these words: “Thou shalt do what is well pleasing before the Lord thy God” (Deut. 12:28), meaning do such things as shall be worthy to appear before God, and when seen to be approved by Him, and such deeds as these commonly extend to our fellow-men.",
"[43] It was this thought which prompted Moses when he wove the tabernacle, dividing its precincts into two, and set a curtain between the parts to distinguish the inner from the outer (Ex. 26:33); when too he gilded the sacred ark which holds the laws both within and without (Ex. 25:10), and gave the high priest two robes, the linen robe to be worn within, the many-coloured one with the long skirt to be worn outside (Ex. 28:4, Lev. 6:10).",
"[44] These and the like are symbols of a soul which in inward things is undefiled towards God and in outward things is pure towards the world of our senses and human life. And so those were fitting words which were said to the victorious wrestler when he was about to be crowned with garlands of triumph. For “Thou hast been strong with God and mighty with men” (Gen. 32:28) were the words which proclaimed his victory.",
"[45] To win honour in both spheres, in our duty both towards the uncreated and the created, requires no petty mind, but one which stands in very truth midway between the world and God. And in sum the man of worth should follow in the steps of God, for the Ruler and Father of all cares for His creatures.",
"[46] We all know that before the creation of the world God was sufficient unto Himself and that after the creation He remained the same, unchanged. Why then did He make the things which were not? Why, save because He was good and bountiful? Shall not then we His slaves follow our Master with profoundest awe and reverence for Him Who is the Cause, yet not forgetting the calls of our common humanity? "
],
[
"[47] After saying “Be well pleasing before Me” He adds further “and become blameless.” This is in close sequence to the preceding. “Best it is,” He means, “to set your hand to excellence and thus be well pleasing, but failing this at least abstain from sins and thus escape blame.” For positively righteous conduct brings praise to the doer, but abstention from iniquity saves him from censure.",
"[48] The highest prize of “well pleasing” may be won by positive well-doing, the second, freedom from blame, by avoidance of sin. And yet perhaps for the creature of mortal kind the former is declared by Scripture to coincide with the latter. For who, as Job says, is pure from defilement, even if his life be but for one day? (Job 14:4).",
"[49] Infinite indeed are the defilements that soil the soul, which it is impossible to wash and scour away altogether. For there still remain evils which are bound up with the life of every mortal, which may well be abated but cannot be wholly destroyed.",
"[50] Should we then seek to find in the medley of life one who is perfectly just or wise or temperate or good in general? Be satisfied, if you do but find one who is not unjust, is not foolish, is not licentious, is not cowardly, is not altogether evil. We may be content with the overthrow of vices, and the complete acquisition of virtues is impossible for man, as we know him.",
"[51] With good reason then did He say, “Become blameless,”for He holds that freedom from sin and guilt is a great furtherance towards a happy life. And to him who has elected to live in this fashion He promises to leave a covenanted portion such as is fitting for God to give and man to receive, for He says",
"[52] “I will set my covenant between Me and between thee” (Gen. 17:2). Now covenants are drawn up for the benefit of those who are worthy of the gift, and thus a covenant is a symbol of the grace which God has set between Himself Who proffers it and man who receives.",
"[53] And this is the crowning benefaction, that there is nothing between God and the soul save the virgin grace. But I have dealt with the whole subject of covenants in two treatises, and I willingly pass it over to avoid repetition, and also because I do not wish to interrupt the continuity of the discussion."
],
[
"[54] The next words are “Abraham fell on his face.” Ah, what else should he do, when he heard the divine promises, but know himself and the nothingness of our mortal race, and fall at the feet of Him Who stands, to show what conception he held of himself and God? He knew that God stands with place unchanged, yet moves the universal frame of creation, His own motion being the motion of self-extension (not the movement of the legs, for He is not of human form), but a motion whereby He shows His unalterable, unchanging nature.",
"[55] He knew that he himself is never firmly set in a stable position, that he is ever subject to various changes, and that throughout his life, which is one long slipping, he trips and falls, woe to him! and how great is that fall.",
"[56] Sometimes it is through involuntary ignorance, sometimes through voluntary yielding to temptation, and so we read also that it was on his face that he fell. By face is meant his senses and his mind and his speech, and the gesture is little less than a loud insistent utterance. Fallen is sense, it cries, unable of itself to perceive, were it not by a dispensation of God’s saving providence set on its feet to the perception of material substances: fallen is speech, because it were unable to express in language anything that is, did not He Who framed and adjusted to harmony the instrument of the voice beat out the music of its notes, opening the mouth and giving strength to the nerves of the tongue: fallen too is the royal mind, robbed of its powers of apprehension, did not the Framer of all that lives raise it up and establish it, and planting in it far-piercing eyes, lead it to the sight of the immaterial world."
],
[
"[57] The frame of mind which shrank from Him and fell spontaneously won God’s high approval by thus acknowledging of the Existent that it is He alone Who stands and that all below Him are subject to change and mutation of every kind. He addresses him with an insistence which is also a call to partnership. “And I,” He says, “—see, My covenant is with thee” (Gen. 17:4).",
"[58] The meaning suggested is to this purport—there are very many kinds of covenant, assuring bounties and gifts to the worthy, but the highest form of covenant is “I myself.” He shews and points to Himself, as far as He can be shewn Who is above all shewing, by the words “And I,” and adds, “behold my covenant,” the beginning and the fountain of all bounties is “I myself.”",
"[59] For to some God is wont to extend His benefactions by other means, earth, water, air, sun, moon, heaven, and other agencies not material, but to others by Himself alone, making Himself the portion of those who receive Him.",
"[60] On these He presently bestows as their due a different name. “Thy name shall not be called Abram (Ἀβράμ),” we read, “but Abraham (Ἀβραάμ)” (Gen. 17:5).",
"Some of the quarrelsome and captious type of people who wish to attach blame where it is not due, not so much to material things as to actions andideas, and wage war to the death against what is holy, when they find anything which seems to them to fall short in propriety if taken literally, while really it is a symbol of the nature-truth which loves concealment, make no careful search for that truth, but disparage it and hold it up to obloquy. And this they do especially with the changes of names.",
"[61] Not long ago I heard the scoffing and railing of a godless and impious fellow who dared to speak thus: “Vast and extraordinary indeed are the gifts which Moses says come from the hand of the Ruler of all. What a boon He is supposed to have provided by adding a single letter, an alpha, and again by another addition of a rho, for He 〈turned Abram (Ἀβράμ) into Abraham (Ἀβραάμ) by doubling the alpha, and〉 Abraham’s wife Sarai (Σάρα) into Sarah (Σάρρα) by doubling the rho.” And in a sneering way he ran over the list of such cases without a moment’s pause.",
"[62] Well, it was not long before he paid the penalty which his wicked folly called for. For a slight and trivial cause he hastened to hang himself, and thus even a clean death was denied to the unclean miscreant."
],
[
"It is only right that to prevent any other falling a victim to the same errors we should eradicate misgivings of this sort by resorting to the truths of nature and shewing that what we thus read is worthy of our most earnest consideration.",
"[63] Letters, whether vowels or consonants and the parts of speech in general, are not the gifts of God’s grace, seeing that when He created the plants and animals He summoned them to man as their ruler, set apart by Him from them all in virtue of his knowledge, that he might give each kind their distinguishing names. “Everything,” he says, “which Adam called them, that was their name” (Gen. 2:19).",
"[64] If God did not think fit to assign names even in their completed form, but committed the task to a man of wisdom, the founder of the human race, is it proper to suppose that parts of names or syllables or single letters, not merely vocal vowels but mute consonants, were added and altered by Himself, and a gift and pre-eminent benefaction alleged to be conferred thereby? It is quite impossible.",
"[65] Such changes of name are signs of moral values, the signs small, sensible, obvious, the values great, intelligible, hidden. And these values are found in noble verities, in unerring and pure notions, and in soul-betterments.",
"The proof of this is easy, starting from the change of name here before us,",
"[66] for Abram is interpreted as “uplifted father,” Abraham as “elect father of sound.” How the two differ we shall understand more clearly if we first discover the meaning of each.",
"[67] Resorting then to allegory we say that “uplifted” is one who rising from earth to the heights surveys the supraterrestrial, conversing with and studying the phenomena of the upper world, investigating the size of the sun and its courses, how it regulates the seasons of the year by its revolutions as it advances and retreats at the same rate of speed; one who considers also the different illuminations of the moon, its phases, its waning and waxing, and the movement of the other stars both in the fixed and the planetary order.",
"[68] To inquire into such matters bespeaks a soul not devoid of natural gifts or unproductive, but highly gifted and capable of engendering offspring perfect and without blemish; and therefore he called the student of the upper world “father” because he is not unproductive of wisdom."
],
[
"[69] Such is our definition of the meanings conveyed under the symbol of the name Abram; those conveyed by “Abraham” are such as I proceed to describe. They are three in number—“father,” “elect” and “of sound.” We say that sound stands for the uttered word, for in living creatures the instrument of sound is the vocal power. Its father is the mind, since the stream of speech issues from the understanding as its fount. The elect mind is the mind of the wise, since it contains what is best.",
"[70] So then the first set of signs delineated the lover of learning, the meteorologist, while those just sketched reveal the wisdom-lover or rather the wise. Cease then to suppose that the Deity’s gift was a change of name, instead of a betterment of character symbolized thereby.",
"[71] Him who was erstwhile busied in the study of the nature of heaven—the astrologer as some call him—He summoned to a partnership in virtue and both made him and named him wise, giving to the spiritual outlook thus recast the title of Abraham, as the Hebrews would call it, and in our language, Elect Father of Sound.",
"[72] For what purpose, He asks, do you investigate the rhythmic movements and revolutions of the stars? Why this great leap from earth up to the realm of ether? Is it just to busy yourself in idle labour with what is there? And what good can result from all that idle busying? How will it serve to subdue the urge of pleasure, to overthrow the power of lust, to suppress fear or grief? What surgery has it for passions which agitate and confound the soul?",
"[73] Just as there is no use for trees, if they are not capable of bearing fruit, so too also with nature-study, if it is not going to bring the acquisition of virtue.",
"[74] For virtue is its fruit, and therefore some of the ancients, comparing the study of philosophy to a field, likened the physical part to plants, the logical to the walls and fences, and the ethical to the fruit. ",
"[75] They considered that the walls round the field are built by the owners to guard the fruit and the trees grown to produce it, and that in the same way in philosophy physical and logical research should be brought to bear on ethics by which the character is bettered and yearns to acquire and also to make use of virtue.",
"[76] This is how we have learned to regard the story of Abraham. Literally his name was changed, actually he changed over from nature-study to ethical philosophy and abandoned the study of the world to find a new home in the knowledge of its Maker, and from this he gained piety, the most splendid of possessions."
],
[
"[77] We will now deal with the case of Sarah his wife. Her name Sarai (Σάρα) is changed to Sarah (Σάρρα) by the addition of one letter, rho. These are the names, now for the facts indicated by them. Sarai means my sovereignty, Sarah sovereign.",
"[78] The former is a symbol of specific virtue, the latter of generic, and in the same measure as the genus is greater than the species is the second name greater than the former. The species is small and perishable, the genus is large and imperishable.",
"[79] And the gifts which God wills to bestow are great and immortal in exchange for small and perishable, and to give such is a work well suited to Him. Wisdom in the good man is a sovereignty vested in himself alone, and its possessor will not err if he says “The wisdom in me is my sovereignty.” But in the wisdom which is its archetype, the generic wisdom, we cease to have the sovereignty of the particular individual, but sovereignty its very self.",
"[80] And therefore that specific wisdom will perish with its possessor, while the other which like a seal gave it its shape, being free from all mortal element, will continue for ever imperishable. So too with the arts: the specific arts perish with their owners, the geometricians, the grammarians, the musicians: the generic arts remain imperishable. Incidentally another lesson suggested at the same time is that every virtue is a queen and a sovereign and a ruler of the course of human life."
],
[
"[81] We shall also find that the change of Jacob’s name to Israel is much to the purpose. Why so? Because Jacob is the supplanter, and Israel he who sees God. It is the task of a supplanter in the practice of virtue to disturb and shake and upset the supports on which passion rests, and all the firmness and stability which they have. That is a work which cannot commonly be done without hard effort and the stains of the arena, but only when one maintains the contests of wisdom to the end, and drilled in the gymnastics of the soul wrestles with the thoughts which oppose and hold it fast in their grip. The task of him who sees God is not to leave the sacred arena uncrowned, but carry off the prizes of victory.",
"[82] And what garland more fitting for its purpose or of richer flowers could be woven for the victorious soul than the power which will enable him to behold the Existent with clear vision? Surely that is a glorious guerdon to offer to the athlete-soul, that it should be endowed with eyes to apprehend in bright light Him Who alone is worthy of our contemplation."
],
[
"[83] It is worth inquiring why Abraham, after the change of name, is not called by his old name, but always receives the same title as his right, whereas Jacob, after he is addressed as Israel, is in spite of this called Jacob many and many a time. We must reply that these are signs differing according as virtue acquired by teaching differs from virtue acquired by practice.",
"[84] He who is improved through teaching, being endowed with a happy nature, which with the co-operation of memory assures his retentiveness, gets a tight grip and a firm armhold of what he has learned and thus remains constant. The Practiser on the other hand, after strenuous exercise, takes a breathing-space and a relaxation while he collects and recovers the force which has been enfeebled by his labours. In this he resembles the athletes who anoint their bodies. When they are weary with exercise they pour oil upon their limbs to prevent their forces being utterly shattered by the intensity and severity of the contest.",
"[85] Again, the Man of Teaching has to aid him the voice of his monitor ringing in his ears, deathless as that monitor himself, and thus never swerves: the Man of Practice has only his own will which he exercises and drills to aid him to overthrow the passion natural to created being, and, even if he reaches the consummation, yet through weariness he returns to his old kind.",
"[86] He is more patient of toil, the other more blessed by fortune. This last has another for his teacher, while the toiler, self-helped only, is busied in searching and inquiring and zealously exploring the secrets of nature, engaged in labour ceaseless and unremitting.",
"[87] Therefore did Abraham in token of the even tenor of his future life receive his new name from God, the unchangeable, that the stability of his future might be set on a firm foundation by Him Who stands and is ever the same in nature and condition. But Jacob was re-named by an angel, God’s minister, the Word, in acknowledgement that what is below the Existent cannot produce permanence unswerving and unwavering, but only such harmony as is found in a musical instrument wherein the tones now stretched to a high pitch, now relaxed to a low, are blended into melody by the artist’s skill. "
],
[
"[88] Again, while the race has three founders it is the first and last of these, Abraham and Jacob, whose names were changed, while the middle founder, Isaac, has the same name throughout. Why is this? Because both the scholar’s form of virtue and the practiser’s are open to improving influences, since the former desires to know what he is ignorant of, the latter desires crowns of victory and the prizes offered to a soul which rejoices to toil and seek the vision of the truth. On the other hand the kind which has no teacher or pupil but itself, being made what it is by nature rather than by diligence, goes on its way from the first equal and perfect like an even number with no other needed as complement.",
"[89] Not so with the controller of bodily necessaries, Joseph. For he changes his name and receives the title of Psonthomphanech (Gen. 41:45) from the king of the country. The meaning of this also needs explanation. Joseph is by interpretation “addition,” and conventional goods are an adjunct of natural goods. The former are such as gold, silver, chattels, revenues, services of menials, abundant stocks of heirlooms and furniture and all other luxuries, and the instruments of pleasure ready to hand in numberless forms.",
"[90] The provider and superintendent of these, Joseph, is found to have the appropriate name of “Addition,” since he is invested with the direction of the imported adventitious wealth which is an addition to the natural. This is attested by the oracles which state that he stored up the food and managed the provisioning of the whole land (ibid. 48) of the body."
],
[
"[91] Such a character the tokens given lead us to find in Joseph. Let us consider the nature of Psonthomphanech. His name means “mouth which judges in answer.” For every fool thinks that the man of wealth who lives surrounded by a sea of outward kinds of substance must of necessity be able to reason aright, be capable of answering questions put to him and capable of originating judgements of value. And in general the fool holds wisdom to be subordinate to chance, instead of chance to wisdom, as he should do, since the unstable ought to be guided on its course by the stable.",
"[92] And also his uterine brother is addressed by his father as Benjamin and by his mother as Son of sorrow, and that is true to facts. For Benjamin by interpretation is Son of days, and the day is illumined by the sunlight visible to our senses, to which we liken vainglory.",
"[93] Such glory has a certain brilliance to the outward sense, in the laudations bestowed by the vulgar multitude, in the decrees which are enacted, in the dedications of statues and images, in purple robes and golden crowns, in chariots and four-horse cars and crowded processions. He who affects these things was with good reason named the Son of days, that is of the visible light and of the brilliance of vainglory.",
"[94] This name which exactly expresses the fact is given him by his father the head of the house, the reason. But the soul gives him the one that agrees with the experience by which she herself has learned. She calls him a son of sorrow. Why? Because those who are swept along by the current of empty opinion are thought to be happy, but are in reality most unhappy,",
"[95] for many are the counterblasts, envy, jealousies, continuous quarrelling, rancorous enmities unreconciled till death, feuds handed down successively to children’s children, an inheritance which cannot be possessed.",
"[96] And so God’s interpreter could not but represent the mother of vainglory as dying in the very pangs of childbirth. Rachel died, we read, in hard labour (Gen. 35:16, 19), for the conception and birth of vainglory, the creature of sense, is in reality the death of the soul."
],
[
"[97] Again, when the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, were likened to the two elder sons of Jacob, Reuben and Simeon, have we not something perfectly true to nature? Jacob says, “Thy two sons who were born in Egypt before I came to Egypt are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be as Reuben and Simeon to me” (Gen. 48:5). Let us observe how the two pairs tally with each other.",
"[98] Reuben, whose name is by interpretation “Seeing son,” is the symbol of natural excellence, because the man who enjoys facility of apprehension and natural excellence is endowed with sight. Ephraim, as we have often said elsewhere, is the symbol of memory. For he is by interpretation “Fruit-bearing,” and memory is the best fruit of the soul. And no two things can be so close akin as memory and natural excellence.",
"[99] Again, Simeon is another name for learning and teaching, since Simeon is by interpretation “hearing,” and it is the peculiar mark of the learner that he hears and attends to what is said, while Manasseh is the symbol of recollection, for his name is “From forgetfulness.”",
"[100] The advance from forgetfulness necessarily involves recollection, and recollection is akin to learning. For what he has acquired often floats away from the learner’s mind, because in his weakness he is unable to retain it, and then emerges and starts again. When it flows away we say he is in a state of forgetfulness, and when it returns we call it a state of recollection.",
"[101] Surely then memory closely corresponds to natural excellence and recollection to learning. And the same relation which Simeon or learning bears to Reuben or nature is borne by Manasseh or recollection to Ephraim or memory.",
"[102] For just as natural excellence which resembles sight is better than learning which resembles hearing, the inferior of sight, so memory is in every way the superior of recollection, since while that is mixed with forgetfulness memory remains from first to last free from mixture or contamination."
],
[
"[103] Again, the chief prophet’s father-in-law is sometimes called in the oracles Jethro and sometimes Raguel. He is Jethro when vanity is flourishing, for Jethro is by interpretation “superfluous,” and vanity is to the verities of life a superfluity deriding as it does equalities and the mere necessaries of life and glorifying surplusage and inequality. ",
"[104] Jethro values the human above the divine, custom above laws, profane above sacred, mortal above immortal, and in general seeming above being. And he ventures to come self-bidden and take the position of an adviser and suggests to the sage that he should not teach the only thing worth learning, the ordinances of God and the law, but the contracts which men make with each other, which as a rule produce dealings where the partners have no real partnership. And the great ones of the earth accept all he says, and think that it is right to give great justice to the great and little justice to the little. ",
"[105] Yet often this wiseacre changes round and leaves the flock which had him in his blindness for their leader: he seeks the herd of God and becomes therein a member without reproach, so much does he admire the nature of its herdsman and reverence the skill in governing which he shews in the charge of his flock. For the meaning of Raguel (Ex. 2:18) is “the shepherding of God.”"
],
[
"[106] I have stated the sum of the matter, Moses will shew us the proofs. In the first place he describes him as one who honours judgement and justice. For the word Midian when translated appears as “from judgement or sifting.” This has a twofold significance. It means in one sense sifting out and sifting off, which we often see in the case of those who enter for the so-called sacred games. For thousands of these who have been judged to be unfit have been known to be sifted out by the stewards.",
"[107] Midianites, in this sense, initiated in the unholy rites of Baal Peor (Num. 25:3), and widening all the orifices of the body to receive the streams which pour in from outside (for the meaning of Baal Peor is “mouth of skin above ”), flood the ruling mind and sink it to the lowest depths, so that it cannot float up to the top or rise ever so little.",
"[108] And this was its condition until the Man of Peace, an evident priest of God, Phinehas (ibid. 12, 13), came a self-bidden champion. He is a hater of evil by nature and possessed by zeal for the good. And when he took the lance, that is the sharp-edged word, able to probe and explore each thing, power was granted him, that duped by none and armed with mighty strength he should pierce passion through the womb, that it should henceforth bring to birth no plague of God’s sending (ibid. 7, 8).",
"[109] It is against these Midianites that the nation of vision sets on foot the greatest of wars in which none of their combatants was “lost” (Num. 31:49), but returned safe and unwounded, crowned with the garlands of victory."
],
[
"[110] The above is one of the types indicated by the word Midian; another is the judicial, justice-dispensing type which by marriage is akin to the prophetic sort. “The priest” of judgement and justice, he says, “had seven daughters” (Ex. 2:16).",
"[111] The daughters stand as a symbol for the seven faculties of the unreasoning element, namely reproductive power, speech, and the five senses. “Daughters,” it adds, “who kept the sheep of their father,” for through these seven faculties come the advances and growths which repeated apprehension produces in the father, the mind. Each of these faculties “arrives at” its own, sight at colours and forms, hearing at sounds, smell at scents, taste at flavours, and the others at the objects appropriate to each in particular. Each “draws up,” so to speak, external objects of sense until they “fill the troughs” of the soul “from which they water the sheep of the father,” and by these I mean the purest of flocks, the flock of reasoning which brings with it at once protection and adornment. ",
"[112] But then “arrive” the comrades of envy and malice, the shepherds of an evil herd, and drive them from the uses prescribed by nature (ibid. 17). For whereas the daughters take outside objects inside to the mind, which is as it were their judge and king, hoping thus under the best of rulers to perform their duty aright,",
"[113] the others beset and pursue them and give the opposite orders, namely that they should entice the mind outside and there deliver over phenomena into its hand. And in this way they will persist until the mind which loves virtue and is inspired by God, called Moses, shall “arise” from his former seeming quietude, protect and “save” the maidens from their subjugators, and nourish the flock of the father with words and thoughts, sweet as water to drink.",
"[114] And when the maidens have escaped the onset of those who are the mind’s enemies and have no aspiration but for the superfluities of life as though life were mere play-acting, they return not now to Jethro but to Raguel. For they have discarded their kinship with vanity, and become affiliated to the guidance and rule of law, resolved to become a part of the holy herd which is led by God’s Word as its name shews, for Raguel means “the shepherding of God.”"
],
[
"[115] And since God cares for His own flock He has ready at hand a multitude of gifts for those of His charges who obey Him and do not rebel. In the Psalms there is a hymn of this kind, “The Lord is my shepherd, and nothing shall be lacking to me” (Ps. 23(22):1).",
"[116] So then we shall not be surprised to find the mind which has the Divine Word for its shepherd and king asking of its seven daughters, “Why have ye returned with such speed and so eagerly to-day?” (Ex. 2:18). For at other times when you visited the objects of sense you spent a long time out there and almost refused to return, so greatly were you enticed by them. But now something or other has induced you to come back with this unwonted eagerness.",
"[117] So they will reply that this hasty breathless racing out to the world of sense and back again is not due to themselves but to the man who rescued them from the shepherds of the savage herd, and they call Moses an Egyptian (ibid. 19), Moses who was not only a Hebrew, but of that purest Hebrew blood which alone is consecrated. They cannot, that is, rise above their own nature.",
"[118] For the senses are on the border-line between the intelligible realm and the sensible, and all that we can hope is that they should desire both realms and not be led by the latter only. To suppose that they will ever give their affections to the things of mind only would be the height of folly, and therefore they give both titles. By the word “man” they point out the world which reason alone discerns, by “Egyptian” they represent the world of sense.",
"[119] On hearing this the father will ask again, where is the man? (ibid. 20). In what part of your surroundings does the element of the reason dwell? Why have you left him so easily, and why when you once fell in with him did you not take to your arms that treasure, so beautiful above all, so profitable to yourselves? But if you have not as yet,",
"[120] at least now “invite him that he may eat” (ibid. 20) and feed on your advance to higher stages of goodness and a closer affinity to him. Perhaps he will even dwell among you and wed the winged, inspired and prophetic nature called Zipporah (ibid. 21)."
],
[
"[121] So much for this. But Moses also changes the name of Hoshea to Joshua (Num. 13:17), thus transforming the individual who embodies a state into the state itself. For Hoshea by interpretation is “he,” that is a particular individual, “is saved.” But Joshua is “safety of the Lord,” a name for the best possible state.",
"[122] For states are better than the individuals who embody them, as music is better than the musician and medicine than the physician, and every art than every artist, better both in everlastingness and in power and in unerring mastery over its subject matter. The state is everlasting, active, perfect; the individual is mortal, acted on, imperfect; and the imperishable is higher and greater than the mortal, the acting cause than that on which it acts, and the perfect than the imperfect.",
"[123] Thus in the above also we see the coin which represents the man re-minted in a better form.",
"But in Caleb we have a total change of the man himself. For we read “there was another spirit in him” (Num. 14:24), as though the ruling mind in him was changed to supreme perfection. For Caleb is by interpretation “all heart,”",
"[124] and this is a figurative way of shewing that his was no partial change of a soul wavering and oscillating, but a change to proved excellence of the whole and entire soul which dislodged anything that was not entirely laudable by thoughts of repentance; for when it thus washed away its defilements, and made use of the lustrations and purifications of wisdom, it could not but be clean and fair."
],
[
"[125] The chief of the prophets proves to have many names. When he interprets and teaches the oracles vouchsafed to him he is called Moses; when he prays and blesses the people, he is a Man of God (Deut. 33:1); and when Egypt is paying the penalties for its impious deeds he is the god (Ex. 7:1) of Pharaoh, the king of the country.",
"[126] Why these three? Because to enact fresh laws for the benefit of those to whom they would apply is the task of one whose hands are ever in touch with divine things, one who is called up (Ex. 24:1) by the Lawgiver who speaks in oracles, one who has received from Him a great gift, the power of language to express prophet-like the holy laws. For Moses, if translated, is a “receiving” and it also means a handling, as shewn above. ",
"[127] Secondly, to pray and bless is not for any chance person but for a man who has had no eyes for his kinship to created being and has given himself to be the portion of Him who is ruler and father of all.",
"[128] For one must be content if it be granted to him to follow right reasoning himself, but to procure the good gift for others is what only a greater, more perfect, truly God-inspired soul can promise, and the possessor of such a soul will with good reason be called God’s man. Thirdly, this same person is a god, because he is wise and therefore the ruler of every fool, even though that fool boast ever so loudly in the support of his royal sceptre. And he is a god for this reason in particular.",
"[129] It is the will of the ruler of all that though there be some doomed to punishment for their intolerable misdeeds, they should have mediators to make intercession for them, who imitating the merciful power of the Father will dispense punishment with more moderation and in a kindlier spirit. Beneficence is the peculiar prerogative of a god. "
],
[
"[130] We have now dealt sufficiently with the change and substitution of names and will proceed to the next points in our inquiry. What followed at once was the promise of the birth of Isaac. For after calling his mother Sarah instead of Sarai He says to Abraham, “I will give thee a child from her” (Gen. 17:16). Each part of this must be severally examined.",
"[131] First, then, the giver of anything in the proper sense of the word must necessarily give something which belongs to himself, and if this is so Isaac must be not the man Isaac but the Isaac whose name is that of the best of the good emotions, joy, the Isaac who is the laughter of the heart, a son of God, who gives him as a means to soothe and cheer truly peaceful souls.",
"[132] It were a monstrous thing that one should be a husband, and another the parent, parent therefore of bastards born in adultery, and yet Moses writes of God as the husband of the virtue-loving mind when he says, “The Lord seeing that Leah was hated opened her womb” (Gen. 29:31),",
"[133] for moved by pity and compassion for the virtue hated by our mortal race and for the soul that loves virtue he sends barrenness 〈on the favourite and gives honour〉 to the nature which loves excellence and opens the fountain of happy parentage by granting her welfare in childbirth.",
"[134] And Tamar too; she bore within her womb the divine seed, but had not seen the sower. For we are told that at that hour she veiled her face (Gen. 38:15), just as Moses when he turned aside fearing to look upon God (Ex. 3:6). But she closely scanned the symbols and tokens, and judging in her heart that these were the gifts of no mortal she cried aloud, “To whomsoever these belong, he it is by whom I am with child” (Gen. 38:25).",
"[135] Whose is the ring, the pledge of faith, the seal of the universe, the archetypal idea by which all things without form or quality before were stamped and shaped? Whose is the cord, that is, the world-order, the chain of destiny, the correspondence and sequence of all things, with their ever-unbroken chain? Whose is the staff, that is the firmly planted, the unshaken, the unbending; the admonition, the chastening, the discipline; the sceptre, the kingship! whose are they? Are they not God’s alone?",
"[136] And therefore the temper which makes confession of thankfulness, that is Judah, pleased at the divine inspiration which masters her, says with all boldness, “She is justified since I gave her to no mortal” (ibid. 26), for he holds it impiety to defile the divine with things profane."
],
[
"[137] So, too, the wisdom which as in motherhood brought forth the nature of the self-taught declares that God had begotten it. For when the child is born she says with pride, “The Lord has made laughter for me” (Gen. 21:6). That is the same as saying “He formed, He wrought, He begot, Isaac,” since Isaac and laughter are the same.",
"[138] But this saying is not for all to hear, so strongly does the evil tide of superstition flow in our minds and drown unmanly and degenerate souls. And therefore she adds “Whoever shall hear will rejoice with me” (ibid.) as though there were few whose ears are opened and pricked up to receive these holy words, which teach us that to sow and beget the excellent is the peculiar task of God alone. To this lesson all but those few are deaf.",
"[139] I remember too an oracle given by a prophet’s mouth in words of fire which runs thus: “From Me thy fruit has been found. Who is wise and he shall understand them, who is understanding and he shall know them?” (Hos. 14:9, 10). Under the prophet’s words I recognized the voice of the invisible master whose invisible hand plays on the instrument of human speech, and I was lost in admiration at the saying also.",
"[140] For all that is good in the range of existing things or rather the whole heaven and universe is in very truth God’s fruit, the inseparable growth, as it were, of the tree of His eternal and never-fading nature. And to know and confess such things is for the wise and understanding, not for men of no account."
],
[
"[141] So much for the phrase “I will give to thee.” We must now explain “from her.” Some understand by it that which comes into being outside her, thinking that in the judgement of right reason the best decision is that the soul should declare that nothing good belongs to herself, but all is an addition from outside, through the high benevolence of God Who showers His gifts of grace.",
"[142] Others take it as “immediate,” “with speed.” They say that ἐξ αὐτῆς is equivalent to “straightway,” “at once,” “without postponement,” “without delay,” and this is the way in which the gifts of God are wont to be given, outrunning even the moments of time. There is a third class who say that virtue is the mother of any good that has come into being, receiving the seeds of that being from nothing that is mortal.",
"[143] Again, some ask whether the barren can bear children, since the oracles earlier describe Sarah as barren and now admit that she will become a mother. Our answer to this must be that it is not in the nature of a barren woman to bear, any more than of the blind to see or of the deaf to hear. But as for the soul which is sterilized to wickedness and unfruitful of the endless host of passions and vices, scarce any prosper in childbirth as she. For she bears offspring worthy of love, even the number seven according to the hymn of Hannah, that is, grace, who says “The barren hath borne seven, but she that is much in children hath languished” (1 Sam. 2:5).",
"[144] She applies the word “much” to the mind which is a medley of mixed and confused thoughts, which, because of the multitude of riots and turmoils that surround it, brings forth evils past all remedy. But the word “barren” she applies to the mind which refuses to accept any mortal sowing as fruitful, the mind which makes away with and brings to abortion all the intimacies and the matings of the wicked, but holds fast to the “seventh” and the supreme peace which it gives. This peace she would fain bear in her womb and be called its mother."
],
[
"[145] Such is the meaning of “from her.” Let us now examine the third part of the phrase used, namely “child.” First then we may well wonder why He does not say He will give many children, but will grant one only. Why? Because excellence cannot be estimated by number but rather by value.",
"[146] For, to take examples at random, there are ever so many musical, grammatical and geometrical things, and just and prudent and courageous and temperate things, but music and grammar and geometry in the abstract and again justice and temperance and prudence and courage in the abstract are each of them one thing, the original, the same as the archetypal idea, and from this origin the many and indeed infinite particulars have been formed.",
"[147] So much for His saying that He will give one, but the word actually used in this passage, “bairn,” is used not without care or consideration. He wishes to shew that the child is not alien or supposititious, nor again adopted or bastard, but the truly genuine and free-natured offspring of a free-born soul. For “bairn” derived from “bearing” is used to bring out the affinity which is the natural tie between parents and children."
],
[
"[148] “I will bless her,” He continues, “and she shall be for nations.” He shews hereby that not only is generic virtue divided into its proximate species and their subdivisions, as into nations, but also that actions and ideas have nations in a sense, just as living creatures have, and that to these nations the addition of virtue is most beneficial.",
"[149] For everything that lacks or has lost prudence is a source of mischief, just as all must be in darkness on which the sun does not shine. By virtue the husbandman takes better care of his plants; by virtue the charioteer guides his chariot in the horse-race without a fall; by virtue the helmsman steers his vessel safe through the voyage. Virtue again produces better conditions in households, city and country, by producing men who are good household managers, statesmanlike and neighbourly.",
"[150] Virtue, too, introduces the best laws, and sows everywhere seeds of peace. And in proof of this we see that where the opposite condition prevails the natural result is the opposite of these blessings, namely war, lawlessness, misgovernment, confusion, disasters at sea, revolutions, and in the realm of the sciences that most painful disease knavery, which causes them to be called perversions of art, rather than arts. Virtue then will necessarily extend to nations, that is, large and comprehensive combinations both of living creatures and of actions and ideas, and will thus benefit those who receive her."
],
[
"[151] Next we read “And kings of nations shall be from her,” for those whom she conceives and bears are all rulers, chosen not for a short time by the uncertainty of lot or by the votes of men for the most part hirelings, but rulers appointed for ever by Nature herself.",
"[152] And this is no invention of mine, but a statement made by the most holy oracles, wherein certain people appear as saying to Abraham “Thou art a King from God among us” (Gen. 23:6). They did not consider his material resources, for what such were there in an emigrant, who was not even the inhabitant of a city but a wanderer over a wide and desolate and trackless land? Rather they perceived the kingship in his mind, and thus Moses confesses that the Sage alone is king. ",
"[153] For in truth the prudent man is ruler of the imprudent, for he knows what he should and should not do, and the temperate of the intemperate, for he has studied carefully how to choose and how to avoid: the brave man of the coward because he has learned with certainty what he should and should not endure: the just of the unjust, because he aims at unbiased equality in what he has to award: the holy of the unholy because high and true conceptions of God prevail with him."
],
[
"[154] These promises might well have puffed up the mind to soar into the heights. But to convict us, so often proud-necked at the smallest cause, he falls down and straightway laughs (Gen. 17:17) with the laughter of the soul, mournfulness in his face, but smiles in his mind, where joy vast and unalloyed has made its lodging.",
"[155] For the sage who receives an inheritance of good beyond his hope these two things are simultaneous—to fall and to laugh. He falls as a pledge that the proved nothingness of mortality keeps him from vaunting: he laughs to shew that the thought that God alone is the cause of good and gracious gifts makes strong his piety.",
"[156] Let created being fall with mourning in its face; it is only what nature demands, so feeble in footing is it, so sad of heart in itself. Then let it be raised up by God and laugh, for God alone is its support and its joy.",
"[157] One might reasonably question how it is possible for anyone to laugh, when laughter had not yet come into being among us. For Isaac is laughter, which according to the view before us is not yet born. For as we cannot see without eyes nor hear without ears, nor smell without nostrils nor use the other senses without the corresponding organs, nor apprehend without the power of thought, so the act of laughing would be against all probability if laughter had not yet been created.",
"[158] What shall we say then? Nature often provides signs which shew us beforehand future happenings. Do you not often see how the fledgling, before it actually oars its way in the air, likes to flutter or shake its wings, thus giving a welcome promise of ability to fly hereafter?",
"[159] Or how the lamb or the he-goat or the youngling ox, if one provoke it, fronts its opponent and starts to defend itself with those parts from which spring the weapons of defence which Nature provides?",
"[160] Again, in the arena the bulls do not at once gore their antagonists, but set their legs well apart, bend their necks slightly, and turn them either way with a truly bull-like glare, and only then do they attack and shew a mind to set to in earnest. This kind of thing, one impulse, that is, precluding another, is called orousis, or “springing,” by those who practise word-coining."
],
[
"[161] Much the same often befalls the soul. When good is hoped for, it rejoices in anticipation, and thus may be said to feel joy before joy, gladness before gladness. We may find in this a likeness to what happens in the vegetable world. They too, when they are going to bear fruit, put forth shoots, flowers and leaves in anticipation.",
"[162] Observe the cultivated vine, what a wonderful piece of nature’s handiwork it is, with its twigs, tendrils, suckers, petals, leaves, which seem almost to break out into speech and proclaim their joy at the coming fruit of the tree. And the day laughs in forecast while the dawning is still young because the sunrise is coming. For beam heralds beam and the dimmer light leads the way for the clearer.",
"[163] And so the good when it has come is accompanied by joy, and when it is expected, by hope. For we rejoice at its arrival and hope when it is coming. Similarly with their opposites. The presence of evil produces grief, and its expectation fear. And so fear is grief before grief, just as hope is joy before joy. For fear, I think, bears the same relation to grief as hope does to joy.",
"[164] The senses, too, carry with them clear signs of what is here stated. Smell presides over taste and passes judgement in advance on practically all that serves for food or drink. And therefore some looking to the obvious fact have given to smell the apposite name of fore-taster. And so it is natural for hope to taste beforehand as it were the coming good and to recommend it to the soul which will have it for its solid possession.",
"[165] Again the hungry or thirsty traveller, if he suddenly sees in his journeying springs of water or trees of every kind laden with refreshing fruits, finds a preliminary satisfaction in the hope of future enjoyment, before he eats or drinks and even before he draws the water or plucks the fruit. And if we can find a feast in what feeds the body before we actually eat, can we possibly suppose that what feeds the mind is unable to give us a foretaste of gladness when the feast it provides is still to come?"
],
[
"[166] Well then might he laugh even though laughter seems to have been as yet unborn in our mortal race, and not only did he himself laugh but his wife also. For again we find Sarah laughed, saying in herself, “Not yet has this befallen me till now,” this unstudied, self-sprung good. Yet He that promised, she says, is “my Lord” (Gen. 18:12) and “older” than all creation, and I needs must believe Him. ",
"[167] At the same time Moses teaches us this lesson that virtue is by its very nature a thing for joy, and that he who possesses it ever rejoices, while vice on the contrary is grievous and its possessor most unhappy. After this need we extol those philosophers who declare that virtue is a state of happy feeling ?",
"[168] For, see, we find in Moses the primary authority for this wise doctrine, since he pictures the good man as rejoicing and laughing, and elsewhere not the good man only but those also who come into company with him. “Seeing thee,” he says, “he will rejoice at it” (Ex. 4:14). He suggests that the mere sight of the worthy is enough to make the mind cast off the soul’s most hateful burden, grief, and to fill it with joy.",
"[169] And to none of the wicked is rejoicing permitted, as indeed the orations of the prophets proclaim: “Rejoicing is not for the impious, said God” (Is. 48:22). It is indeed a divine saying and oracle that the life of every worthless man is one of gloom and sorrow and full of misery, even though he affect to wear a smiling face.",
"[170] I would not say that the Egyptians really rejoiced when they heard that Joseph’s brethren had come. Rather they assumed in hypocrisy the appearance of joy. For no fool when confronted by conviction is pleased with it, any more than the dissolute man on his sick-bed with the physician. For the profitable is followed by toil, the noxious by ease. And fools because they prefer ease to toil are naturally at enmity with those who would advise them to their profit.",
"[171] And so when you hear that “Pharaoh rejoiced and his servants” (Gen. 45:16) at the coming of the brothers of Joseph, do not suppose that they were really pleased, except perhaps at one thought: they expected once more to lead away the mind to desert its foster-brethren the goods of the soul for the numberless lusts of the body, and to debase its old ancestral coinage, the coinage of virtue its birth-fellow."
],
[
"[172] With such hopes the pleasure-loving mind is not content merely to angle with the baits of every lust for the younger sort, the novices in the training-schools of temperance, but revolts from the idea that it should be unable to subjugate the older thinking, in which the frenzy of passion has passed its prime. ",
"[173] He makes other offers, offers which mean loss though he speaks of them as profit. “Take your father and your wealth,” he says, “and come to me” (ibid. 18) into Egypt, come, that is, to this King of terror, who when our paternal and our truly real wealth had in virtue of its natural liberty left the body behind in its advance, draws it back and throws it with violence into a prison of exceeding bitterness; and over this prison he sets for keeper, as the oracular text tells us, Potiphar (Gen. 39:1) the eunuch and chief cook : eunuch, because he has scant store of excellence and has lost by mutilation the soul’s organs of generation, unable further to sow and beget anything that tends to discipline; cook, because in cook-like fashion he slaughters living beings, chops and divides them, piece by piece, limb by limb, and moves in a chaos of lifeless carcasses, immaterial rather than material; and with his elaborately seasoned dishes arouses and excites the appetites of fruitless passions, appetites which should rather be tamed and calmed.",
"[174] And also, says the Pleasure-lover, “I will give you of all the good things of Egypt, and ye shall eat the marrow of the land” (Gen. 45:18). But we will answer him, “We do not accept the body’s good, for we have seen the things of the soul. For so deeply has our strong yearning for these sunk into us that it can make us forget all that is dear to the flesh.”"
],
[
"[175] Such indeed is the joy falsely so-called of the fool. The true joy has been described above, the joy which befits the virtuous alone. “And so Abraham fell and laughed” (Gen. 17:17). He fell not from God but from himself, for in clinging to the immovable Being he stood, but fell from his own conceit.",
"[176] And so when the spirit which is wise in its own conceits had been thrown to the ground and the spirit of love to God raised up and firmly planted round Him who alone never bends, he laughed at once and said in his mind, “Shall this happen to one of a hundred years old, and shall Sarah being ninety years old bear a son?”",
"[177] But do not think, good reader, that when “he said” is followed by “in his mind” instead of “with his mouth,” the addition has little meaning. No, it is made with very careful purpose. Why so? Because in saying “Shall this happen to one of a hundred years,” he seems to doubt the birth of Isaac in which in an earlier place he was said to believe, as was shown by the oracular words delivered a little time before. Those ran, “He shall not be thine heir, but one who shall come from thee,” and then immediately followed the words, “And Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:4, 6).",
"[178] So then, since doubt was not consistent with his past belief, Moses has represented the doubt not as long-lived, or prolonged to reach the mouth and tongue, but staying where it was with the swiftly moving mind. For, says the text, “He said in his mind,” which none of the creatures whose swiftness of foot we admire can outrun, and indeed no form of bird nature has such speed.",
"[179] This is, I think, the reason why the poet most highly esteemed among the Greeks says, “like a bird’s wing or a thought.” He is showing the swiftness of the mind’s intensity, and to bring this out more strongly he puts thought after the bird’s wing. For the mind moves at the same moment to many things material and immaterial with indescribable rapidity and reaches at once the boundaries of land and sea, covering and dividing distances of infinite magnitude. At the same time it leaps so high from the earth that it passes through the lower to the upper air and scarcely comes to a stop even when it reaches the furthermost sphere of the fixed stars.",
"[180] For its fiery fervent nature forbids it to rest and its onward journey carries it across wide spaces outside the limits of all this world of sense to the world framed from the ideas to which it feels itself akin. So then in the case of the virtuous man the swerving was short, instantaneous and infinitesimal, not belonging to sense but only to mind, and so to speak timeless."
],
[
"[181] But perhaps it may be said, why did he, when once he had believed, admit any trace or shadow or breath of unbelief whatsoever? It seems to me that this question amounts to a wish to make out the created to be uncreated, the mortal immortal, the perishable imperishable, and if it is not blasphemy to say it, man to be God.",
"[182] Such a person asserts that the faith which man possesses should be so strong as to differ not at all from the faith which belongs to the Existent, a faith sound and complete in every way. For Moses says in the Greater Song, “God is faithful and there is no injustice in Him” (Deut. 32:4),",
"[183] and it argues great ignorance to think that the soul of man can contain the unwavering, absolutely steadfast excellences of God. Enough for man is the power to possess the images of these, images in the scale of number and magnitude far below the archetypes.",
"[184] And surely this is to be expected, for the excellences of God must needs be unmixed since God is not compounded but a single nature, whereas man’s excellences are mixed, since we, too, are mixtures, with human and divine blended in us and formed into a harmony in the proportions of perfect music, and a compound of more than one ingredient is subject to natural counter-forces drawing it to each of these ingredients.",
"[185] Happy is he to whom it is granted to incline towards the better and more godlike part through most of his life. For it is impossible that it should be so with him throughout the whole length of life, since sometimes the opposing load of mortality throws its weight into the scales, and biding its time waits to find its chance in the mischances of reason and so prove too strong for him."
],
[
"[186] “Abraham then has believed God,” but only as a man, so that you may recognize the weakness, the distinctive mark of the mortal, and learn that, if he swerves, his swerving arises only according to nature. But if that swerving is short and momentary, thanks are due, for many others have been overwhelmed by the rushing of the tide and died a violent death in the waters.",
"[187] For, good friend, if you believe the holy Moses, virtue is not sound-footed in our mortal and bodily nature, but limps ever so little and is subject to a sort of stiffness, for we are told that “the width of the thigh was stiffened, and he halted on it” (Gen. 32:25, 31).",
"[188] But perhaps some more courageous spirits might come forward and say that the utterance does not even indicate any disbelief, but a prayer, that if joy, the best of good emotions, is to be born, its birth should be confined to the numbers ninety and a hundred, that so the perfect good may enter on its existence under perfect numbers.",
"[189] The numbers here named are perfect numbers, particularly according to the sacred writings. Let us consider each of them separately. To begin with Shem, the son of the just Noah, the ancestor of the nation of vision; he is said to have been a hundred years old when he begat Arphaxad (Gen. 11:10), the meaning of whose name is “he disturbed affliction.” And surely it is excellent that the soul’s offspring should harass and confound and destroy injustice, afflicted and full of evils as it is.",
"[190] Abraham too “plants an acre” and adopts the hundred in measuring out the plot (Gen. 21:33), and Isaac “finds barley a hundredfold” (Gen. 26:12); and Moses in building the court of the tabernacle takes a hundred cubits in measuring out the distance from east to west (Ex. 27:9).",
"[191] And a hundred too appears in the firstfruit of firstfruit which the Levites offer to the consecrated priest (Num. 18:28), for when they receive the tenths from the nation, they are bidden to treat them as their own possessions and to give to the priest what may be called a holy tenth of tenths.",
"[192] And by observation we might discover contained in the laws many other examples in praise of the number here mentioned, but the above is quite sufficient for the present.",
"But if you separate from the hundred a tenth as the sacred first offering to God who brings the fruits of the soul to their beginning, their increase and their fulfilment, you will leave behind another perfect number, ninety, for it must needs be perfect, placed as it is in a debatable land between the first and the tenth ten, and thus serve to a separate sanctities from sanctities like the veil in the midst of the tabernacle (Ex. 26:33). by which things of the same genus are distinguished through division into their respective species."
],
[
"[193] The virtuous man then spoke truly virtuous words and “with his mind.” But the wicked man sometimes gives admirable expression to noble thoughts, but his actions are most vile and their method equally so. Such a one is Shechem, the son of folly, for his father is Hamor whose name is translated by “ass,” while his own is interpreted as “shoulder,” the symbol of toil. The toil which is fathered by unintelligence is miserable and full of affliction, just as that which has intelligence for its congener is profitable.",
"[194] Thus the oracles say that Shechem spake “according to the mind of the virgin” after first humiliating her (Gen. 34:2, 3). Are not these words “according to the mind of the virgin” added with exact thought so as almost to shew that his actions were the opposite of his words? For Dinah is incorruptible judgement, the justice which is the assessor of God, the ever virgin, for the word “Dinah” by interpretation is either judgement or justice.",
"[195] The fools who attempt to seduce her by their plottings and their practices repeated day by day seek by means of specious talking to escape from conviction. Now they should either make their actions conform to their words or if they persist in iniquity keep still. For by keeping still men say evil is halved. And so Moses by rebuking him who adjudges the chief honours to creation and only the second to the imperishable God says, “Thou hast sinned, be still” (Gen. 4:7). ",
"[196] For to rant and boast of evil doings is a double sin. But what regularly happens with the multitude is this: they are ever addressing words of friendship and fairness to the maiden Virtue, but they let no occasion slip without using it to outrage and maltreat her if they can. What city is not crowded with those who hymn virtue the ever virgin?",
"[197] They tear to pieces the ears of all they meet with such disquisitions as these, prudence is necessary, imprudence is harmful, temperance deserves our choice, intemperance our hatred; courage is worthy of perseverance therein, cowardice of avoidance; justice is profitable, injustice unprofitable; holiness is honourable, unholiness disgraceful; piety is praiseworthy, impiety blameworthy; right purposing, speaking and acting is most conformable to man’s nature, wrong purposing, speaking and acting most alien to the same.",
"[198] With a perpetual string of this or suchlike talk they deceive the law-courts, the theatres, the council-chambers and every gathering and group of men, like people who set handsome masks on the ugliest of faces to prevent the ugliness being detected by the eyes of others.",
"[199] But it is all useless. The vindicators will come strong and doughty, inspired with zeal for virtue. They will strip off all this complication of wraps and bandages which the perverted art of the talkers has put together, and beholding the soul naked in her very self they will know the secrets hidden from sight in the recesses of her nature; and then exposing to every eye in clear sunlight her shame and all her disgraces they will point the contrast between her real character, so hideous, so despicable, and the spurious comeliness which disguised in her wrappings she counterfeited.",
"[200] And the champions who stand ready to repel such profane and impure ways of thinking are two in number, Simeon and Levi, but they are one in will. That is why in the blessings, while their father ranked them under a single head (Gen. 49:5), because their minds are in concord and harmony and their purpose set in one and the same direction, Moses ceases even to mention the pair, but compresses the whole of Simeon into Levi (Deut. 33:8), and thus blending the two natures he makes them one, bearing the stamp of a single form, and unites hearing with action."
],
[
"[201] So when he understood the promise and spoke “according to his mind” these words, so full of reverence and pious awe, the man of worth was moved by a twofold feeling, faith towards God, distrust of the creature. It is natural then that he should pray in these words, “Let this Ishmael live before thee” (Gen. 17:18), and each of the phrases here included, namely, “this,” “live,” “before Thee,” are applied by him appropriately. I say appropriately because many are deceived by the application of the same terms to denote different things.",
"[202] What I mean by this should be considered. Ishmael by interpretation is “hearing God,” but the divine truths are heard by some to their profit, by some to the harm of themselves and others.",
"Observe that dealer in augury, Balaam. He is described as “hearing the oracles of God and knowing knowledge from the Most High” (Num. 24:16),",
"[203] but what did he profit from such hearing or such knowledge, he who attempted to bring ruin on the soul’s best eye which alone has been trained to see God? But yet what he willed he could not, so strong was the Saviour’s invincible might. Therefore, stabbed by his own madness, he received many wounds and perished “in the midst of the wounded” (Num. 31:8) because with his soothsayer’s mock wisdom he defaced the stamp of heaven-sent prophecy.",
"[204] Rightly then it is “this Ishmael” for whose health alone the man of virtue prays, because of those others who do not hear with honest mind the holy instructions, whom Moses absolutely forbade to resort to the assembly of the Ruler of all. Such as in their pride extol their own mind and senses as the sole causes of all that happens amongst men—",
"[205] these are they who have spiritually lost the organs of generation by crushing or complete mutilation; such again as love the creed which holds that gods are many and pays all honour to that fellowship of deities—these are the children of the harlot who knows not the one husband and father of the virtue-loving soul,—are not all such with good reason expelled and banished? (Deut. 23:1, 2). ",
"[206] The parents too who accuse their son of wine-bibbing seem to make a like use of the pronoun. They say “This son of ours is disobedient” (Deut. 21:20), and thus by the addition of “this” they shew that they have other sons, strong-willed and self-controlling, who obey the injunctions of right reason and instruction. For these two are the soul’s parents who can never lie, and to be accused by them is the greatest disgrace, as their praise is the highest glory. ",
"[207] To take another instance, “It is this Moses and Aaron whom God bade lead the sons of Israel from Egypt” (Ex. 6:26), or “These are they who talked with Pharaoh the king” (ibid. 27). In neither of these cases must we suppose that the words are used carelessly and that the demonstrative pronouns served no other purpose than to indicate the names.",
"[208] For since Moses is mind at its purest, and Aaron is its word, and each have been trained to holy things, the mind to grasp them as a God should and the word to express them worthily, the professors of false wisdom mimic and debase this authentic coin, and say that what they think of the most excellent is just, and what they say of it worthy of praise (Ex. 7:11). And so that when the spurious is set beside the authentic we may not be deceived by the likeness of the stamp he has given us a touchstone by which they may be distinguished.",
"[209] What is this touchstone? It is that he brought out of the land of the body the mind which could see and which loved wisdom and the vision. For he who could do this is “This Moses,” and he who could not, who had but the name and clothed himself with a multitude of grand-sounding titles, is made a laughing-stock.",
"When he prays that Ishmael may live, he is not concerned with the life of the body, but prays that what he hears from God may abide for ever with the soul and stir him into living flame;"
],
[
"[210] and while Abraham prays, as we have said, that the grace of hearkening to holy words and learning holy truths may live, Jacob, the Man of Practice, prays for the life of natural goodness, for he says “Let Reuben live and not die” (Deut. 33:6). Is he here praying that he should never know death and corruption, a gift impossible for a man? Surely not.",
"[211] Let us say then what he wishes to shew us. All that is heard or learned is a superstructure, built on the foundation of a nature receptive of instruction, for if nature be not there to begin with all else is useless. For those who are ungifted by nature would seem to differ not at all from an oak or mute stone, for nothing can adhere or fit into them, but all is shaken off and rebounds as from a solid substance.",
"[212] But in the souls of the naturally good we see a duly-tempered mixture like smooth wax, neither too solid nor too soft; a mixture which easily receives all that is seen and heard and itself reproduces perfectly the forms impressed upon it in lifelike copies preserved by memory. ",
"[213] Thus he was bound to pray that the nation of reason should possess natural goodness free from disease and death. For the life of virtue, which is LIFE in its truest form, is shared by few, and these few are not found among the vulgar herd, none of whom has part or lot in true life, but are only those to whom it is granted to escape the aims which engross humanity and to live to God alone.",
"[214] And therefore the Man of Practice and Courage wondered exceedingly that one who was borne along in the midstream of human life is not swept down by any rush of the swirling waters, but can breast the strong current of riches and stem the tide of pleasure’s ceaseless urge and keep his feet against the hurricane of vainglory.",
"[215] And so Jacob says to Joseph, though indeed it is rather the holy Word speaking to every man who in addition to bodily welfare is placed amidst abundance of the gear which makes for luxury, yet is proof against it all, “For thou still livest” (Gen. 46:30). A marvellous utterance, which has travelled beyond the range of the common life which we lead, we who if we but catch a puff of the air of prosperity loosen every reef and let the breeze blow fresh and clear, and then with our strong steady wind to swell our canvas speed on to the enjoyments of the passions, and never do we draw in the loose and slack licence of our lusts until we strike the rocks and wreck the whole bark of the soul."
],
[
"[216] We do well indeed then when we pray that this Ishmael may live. And so he adds “before God,” holding that in this lies the crown of happiness—that the mind should be privileged to live under the survey and watchful care of the Supreme Excellence.",
"[217] For when the tutor is present his charge will not go amiss; the teacher at the learner’s side brings profit to him; the company of his senior gives to the youth the grace of modesty and self-control; the mere sight of father or mother can silently prevent the son from some intended wrongdoing. Imagine then the vastness of the blessings which we must suppose will be his who believes that the eye of God is ever upon him, for if he reverences the dignity of Him who is ever present, he will in fear and trembling fly from wrongdoing with all his might.",
"[218] But when he prays that Ishmael may live he does not despair of the birth of Isaac, as I have said before, but while he has trusted in God 〈he recognizes the weakness of humanity〉, for the gifts which God can give are not all such as man in his turn can receive, since for Him it is easy to bestow gifts, ever so many, ever so great, but for us it is no light matter to receive the proffered boons.",
"[219] For it is enough for us to obtain the good fruits of toil and effort, those more familiar gifts which grow up with us, but such as spring up independently without art or any form of human devising, which come ready-made to the recipient, we cannot even hope to attain. These are gifts of God, and therefore to discover them is the inevitable destiny of natures closer to God and undefiled and released from the mortal body.",
"[220] Yet Moses taught us to make our acknowledgements of thanks according to the power of our hands (Num. 6:21), the man of sagacity dedicating his good sense and prudence, the master of words consecrating all the excellences of speech in praises to the Existent in poem or prose, and from others offerings after their kind, natural philosophy, ethical philosophy, the lore of the arts and sciences from the several students of the same.",
"[221] In this way the sailor will dedicate success of voyage, the husbandman fruitfulness of crops, the herdsman the teeming increase of his livestock, the physician the health of his patients, or again the general his victory in war, the statesman or crowned head his lawful pre-eminence or sovereignty, and in short he who is not self-centred will avow as the cause of all goods of the soul or body or outside the body Him who in very truth is the one sole Cause of aught.",
"[222] Let none then of the lowly or obscure in repute shrink through despair of the higher hope from thankful supplication to God, but even if he no longer expects any greater boon, give thanks according to his power for the gifts which he has already received.",
"[223] Vast is the number of such gifts, birth, life, nurture, soul, sense-perception, mental picturing, impulse, reasoning. Now “reasoning” as a name is but a little word, but as a fact it is something most perfect and most divine, a piece torn off from the soul of the universe, or, as it might be put more reverently following the philosophy of Moses, a faithful impress of the divine image."
],
[
"[224] Well may we commend those members of the scouting party who tried to pluck up by the roots the trunk of virtue and carry it away, and when they could not, took at least a branch and a single cluster, which was all they could carry (Num. 13:24), as a specimen and part of the whole.",
"[225] We should indeed pray that our course may lie amid the collected body of the many virtues. But if this be too great for human nature, let us be content whenever it be granted to consort with one of the specific virtues, with temperance, or courage, or justice or humanity. Let the soul carry in its womb and bring to the birth one good thing at least and not be unfruitful and barren of them all.",
"[226] Would you lay upon your own son such injunctions as these? If you do not treat your servants kindly, neither must you have neighbourly dealings with your equals. If you do not behave well to your wife, you must not honour your parents either. If you despise your father and mother, you must also shew impiety towards God. If you delight in pleasure, you must not refrain from covetousness. Do you covet great riches? Then also give way to vain conceit.",
"[227] What, I would ask, do you mean that it is wrong to use self-control in some things if you cannot do so in all? The son would surely reply, What do you mean, father? Would you have your son become either completely bad or completely good, and will you not be satisfied if he chooses the midway course in preference to the extremes?",
"[228] It was such a feeling that made Abraham, in the case of the destruction of Sodom, begin with fifty and end with ten (Gen. 18:24 f.) when he besought and supplicated that if the means of complete release to liberty (Lev. 25:10), which is symbolized by fifty, be not forthcoming in created beings, the lower training, which is numerically reckoned as ten, may be accepted to respite the soul which stands on the verge of condemnation. ",
"[229] The trained have the advantage over the untrained, and those who are familiar with the culture of the schools over minds untuned to the muse; they start with better opportunities for growth, because as a rule from boyhood they have been bathed in a stream of ideas which deal with endurance and self-control and every virtue. And therefore if these have not entirely scoured and washed away their iniquity in the cleansing process, they are in a moderate and half-way degree purged.",
"[230] Esau’s words to his father seem to have a like meaning: “Hast thou one blessing, my father? bless me also, O my father” (Gen. 27:38). For different blessings should be set apart for different persons: perfect blessings for the perfect, half-way for the imperfect, just as we find with men’s bodies: for the healthy and the sick require different exercises and different diet, and in all other matters which affect their way of living the same treatment is impossible. The healthy need what agrees with them to prevent their falling sick at all, and the sick need what fits their condition to bring them round to better health.",
"[231] Since then the goods which nature has to bestow are many, grant me, O Lord, that which befits me in Thy sight, though it be but the smallest, looking to one thing only, that the gift be such as I can bear with ease, not one that slight as it is will bring me, poor weakling, fainting to the ground.",
"[232] And what do we suppose is meant by the words, “Shall not the hand of the Lord suffice?” (Num. 11:23). Surely this, that the powers of the Existent reach everywhere to benefit not only the highly placed but also those of lowlier reputation. And on these He bestows what befits them, according to the soul-measurements and appraisements of each, measuring and appraising in Himself by the rule of equality the due proportion to each."
],
[
"[233] I am profoundly struck by the law enacted for those who put off their sins and appear to be repentant. It bids them bring first as the victim a ewe without blemish, but “if his hand,” it continues, “have not strength for a sheep, he shall bring for the sin which he has committed two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for sin and one for a burnt offering.",
"[234] But if his hand does not find a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, he shall bring for his gift fine flour the tenth of an ephah. He shall not pour upon it oil, nor put upon it frankincense, because it is a sin offering, and shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take from it a complete handful and lay the memorial upon the altar” (Lev. 5:7 ff.).",
"[235] Moses, then, employs for propitiation the three methods of repentance here mentioned, beasts or birds or wheaten flour, adapted doubtless to the capacity of the penitent who is purified, for small things do not need great, nor great things small purifications, but such as are like and equal on the principle of proportion.",
"[236] Why then there should be three ways of repentance is worth inquiry. Practically cases both of sinning and of achieving righteousness fall into three classes, thoughts and words and deeds. And therefore in his Exhortations Moses, when he is shewing that the acquisition of the good is neither impossible nor hard to pursue, says,",
"[237] “You need not fly up to heaven nor go to the ends of earth and sea to lay hold of it, but near and very near (and with the next words he shews the nearness as it were almost visible to the eye) is every work to thy mouth and heart and hands” (Deut. 30:12 ff.). In these three words he figures words, thoughts and intentions, deeds. For good thinking and intending, good speaking and good doing make up, he means, human happiness just as their opposites make up unhappiness,",
"[238] since achievement of righteousness and sinning are found in all these three places, heart, mouth and hand. For indeed some think and intend with excellent judgement and speak what is best and do what they should do. Of the three wrong thinking and intending is the least serious, and actually carrying out injustice is the most serious, while saying what we should not stands midway between the two.",
"[239] Yet in practice the least serious proves to be the most difficult to rid ourselves from, for it is a hard matter to bring to a standstill the soul’s changing movements. Their irresistible stream is such that we could sooner stem the rush of a torrent, for thoughts. after thoughts in countless numbers pour on like a huge breaker and drive and whirl and upset its whole being with their violence.",
"[240] This then is the best and most perfect form of purification, never even to admit any heinous thoughts, but to live with our fellow-citizens in peace and law observance, that order of which justice is the guiding influence. And the second best is to abstain from sinfulness of word, either by lying or perjury or subtlety or calumny, and in general from aiming at the ruin of others by giving a free rein to the mouth and tongue which it were better to bridle and bind with chains of adamant."
],
[
"[241] It is easy to see why wrong-speaking is a graver matter than wrong-thinking. A man’s thoughts are sometimes not due to himself, but come without his will. He is compelled to admit ideas on subjects which he has no wish to consider, and where there is no will no blame is due.",
"[242] But speaking is voluntary, so that if a man gives utterance to language which offends, he is wronging others, unhappy in this, that even when there is an opportunity of speaking something of a kinder nature he is not willing to use it. Such a person would do best to court complete freedom from disturbance, and if he has not this freedom he can surely if he wills it keep silence.",
"[243] But the unjust action is a more grievous sin than any speaking, for the word is the shadow of the act, men say, and if the shadow be harmful, the act must be more harmful. And therefore Moses exempts mere intention from accusation and penalty. He knew that it was largely subject to involuntary changes and swervings, and rather the passive victim of the thoughts which flock into it than an active agent. But all that issues through the mouth he requires to make its defence and stand its trial on the principle that our speech is in our own power.",
"[244] But in these trials words are judged more leniently, culpable actions more severely, for he appoints great penalties for the authors of great misdeeds, those who carry into actual execution what their ill-intended intentions have planned or their reckless tongues have uttered."
],
[
"[245] For the purgation of these three, thought, speech and action, he has named the sheep, the pair of doves or pigeons and the tenth of an ephah, the sacred measure, of fine flour, holding that thought should be purged with the sheep, speech with the birds, action with the fine flour.",
"[246] Why? Because just as the mind is the best element in us, so the sheep takes the same place among the unreasoning animals considered as a whole, in virtue of its superior gentleness and the annual produce which it raises by itself, to benefit men and adorn them at the same time. For raiment averts mischief from frost and heat, and by veiling what nature would have hidden promotes decency in the wearers.",
"[247] Let us take then the best animal, the sheep, as representing in a figure the purging of our best part, the mind, and similarly the birds as representing speech. For speech is light and winged by nature, moving swifter than an arrow, and flashing its way in every direction. For the word once spoken cannot return, but when carried outside races at a high speed, strikes the ears, and passing right through the whole region of hearing straightway turns into sound.",
"[248] Also speech is twofold, partly true and partly false, and thence I think its comparison to a pair of doves or pigeons. Moses directs that one bird should serve as a sin offering, and that the other should be offered by fire in its entirety, because it is a condition of true speech that it is entirely holy and perfect while false speech is the product of sin and needs reformation.",
"[249] The fine flour is, as I have said, the symbol of action, for it is a condition of flour that it is not brought into a pure state without art and contrivance but is sifted by the hands of corn-grinders, who have made a practice of this process. It accords with this when he says: “The priest shall take a complete handful and offer its memorial”—by the handful bringing out the thought of handiwork and action.",
"[250] And he makes a very careful contrast in speaking of the beasts and the birds. Of the first he says “If his hand be not strong enough for the sheep,” and of the second “If his hand do not find.” Why is this? Because it needs great strength and a very high degree of power to suppress the changing movements of the mind, but it needs no great might to restrain trespasses of speech.",
"[251] For against trespasses committed with the voice there is a remedy as I have said before in quietude, of which everyone can easily avail himself, though many through their loquacity and measureless chattering do not find any limit to put upon their words."
],
[
"[252] These and similar ways of analysing and distinguishing things become familiar to the man of virtue through breeding and practice, and does it not therefore seem natural that he should pray that Ishmael may live, if he cannot as yet be the parent of Isaac?",
"[253] What then does God in His kindness do? Abraham had asked for one thing, God gives him two. He had prayed for the less, God grants him the greater. He said to him, we read, “Yes, Sarah thy wife shall bear a son” (Gen. 17:19). How significant is that answer “Yes,” fraught as it is with inner meaning. For what can be more befitting to God than to grant and promise His blessings in a moment and with a sign of assent?",
"[254] Yet those who receive a sign of assent from God are refused assent by every fool. Thus the oracles represent Leah as hated and for this reason she received such a name. For by interpretation it means “rejected and weary,” because we all turn away from virtue and think her wearisome, so little to our taste are the commands she often lays upon us.",
"[255] But from the Ruler of all she was awarded such acceptance that her womb which He opened received the seed of divine impregnation (Gen. 29:31), whence should come the birth of noble practices and deeds.",
"Learn then, soul of man, that Sarah also, that is virtue, shall bear thee a son, as well as Hagar, the lower instruction. For Hagar’s offspring is the creature of teaching, but Sarah’s learns from none other at all than itself.",
"[256] And wonder not that God, who brings about all good things, has brought into being this kind also, and though there be few such upon earth, in Heaven vast is their number. You may learn this truth from the other elements, out of which man is constituted. Have the eyes been taught to see, do the nostrils learn to smell, do the hands touch or the feet advance in obedience to the orders or exhortations of instructors?",
"[257] As for our impulses and mental pictures, which are the primal conditions of the soul, according as it is in motion or at rest, are they made what they are by teaching? Does our mind attend the school of the professor of wisdom and there learn to think and to apprehend? All these exempt from teaching make use of self-worked independent nature for their respective activities.",
"[258] Why then need you still wonder that God showers virtue without toil or trouble, needing no controlling hand but perfect and complete from the very first? And if you would have further testimony of this can you find any more trustworthy than Moses, who says that while other men receive their food from earth, the nation of vision alone has it from heaven?",
"[259] The earthly food is produced with the co-operation of husbandmen, but the heavenly is sent like the snow by God the solely self-acting, with none to share his work. And indeed it says “Behold I rain upon you bread from heaven” (Ex. 16:4). Of what food can he rightly say that it is rained from heaven,",
"[260] save of heavenly wisdom which is sent from above on souls which yearn for virtue by Him who sheds the gift of prudence in rich abundance, whose grace waters the universe, and chiefly so in the holy seventh (year) which he calls the Sabbath? For then he says there will be a plentiful supply of good things spontaneous and self-grown, which even all the art in the world could never raise, but springing up and bearing their proper fruit through self-originated, self-consummated nature."
],
[
"[261] Virtue, then shall bear thee a true-born, male child, one free from all womanish feelings, and thou shalt call his name by the feeling which he raises in thee, which feeling is most surely joy. And therefore thou shalt give him a name significant of joy, even laughter.",
"[262] Just as fear and grief have their own special ejaculations, which the overpowering force of emotion coins, so moods of happy planning or of gladness compel us to break out into natural utterances, as aptly and exactly expressing our meaning as any which an adept in the study of names could devise.",
"[263] Therefore he says: “I have blessed him, I will increase and multiply him: he shall beget twelve nations (that is, the whole round and train of the early branches of the professional schools), but my covenant will I establish with Isaac” (Gen. 17:20 f.). Thus both forms of virtue, one where the teacher is another, one where teacher and learner are the same, will be open to human kind. And where man is weak he will claim the former, where he is strong the latter which comes ready to his hands."
],
[
"[264] “But at this season,” he continues, “she shall bear to thee,” that is, wisdom shall bear joy. What is the season you set before us, Master? Wonder of wonders! Is it not the season which is as no other, which no created being can set forth? For the true season, the dayspring of the universe, when all is well and seasonable with earth and heaven, and the intermediate natures, both living creatures and plants, can be no other than Himself.",
"[265] And therefore Moses feared not to say to the fugitives from danger who shrank from waging the war for virtue against their antagonists, “The season hath departed from them, but the Lord is among you” (Num. 14:9). Here he acknowledges with hardly any disguise that God is the Season which departs far away from all the impious, but walks in rich and fertile souls.",
"[266] “For I will walk among you,” he says, “and will be your God” (Lev. 26:12). But they who say that season means the changes of the year strain the terms from their proper meaning, for they have not carefully studied the real natures of things but are deeply tainted with looseness of thought."
],
[
"[267] He goes on to say—thereby heightening the glory of the child to be—that he will be born “in the other year” (Gen. 17:21). And by other year he does not mean an interval of time which is measured by the revolutions of sun and moon, but something truly mysterious, strange and new, other than the realm of sight and sense, having its place in the realm of the incorporeal and intelligible, and to it belongs the model and archetype of time, eternity or aeon. The word aeon signifies the life of the world of thought, as time is the life of the perceptible.",
"[268] In this same year, too, is “the hundredfold crop of barley found” (Gen. 26:12) by him who sows the gifts of God to produce an increase of blessings, and thereby increases to the uttermost the number of those who shall deservedly partake of it. But note that the sower generally reaps.",
"[269] Yet he, though he sowed, and thereby displayed the virtue which hates envy and vice, is not said to reap but to find. For He who ripened the ear of His benefits and filled it with corn was Another, even He who prepares and matures higher hopes and more abundant bounties and puts them forth to be found by those who seek."
],
[
"[270] The words “he completed talking to him” (Gen. 17:22) are equivalent to “He perfected the hearer himself,” who before was devoid of wisdom, and filled him with thoughts that cannot die. And when the learner had become perfect, “the Lord went up from Abraham,” says Moses (ibid.). He does not mean that Abraham was parted from Him, for by his very nature the sage is God’s attendant, but he wished to shew the independence of the learner. His purpose is that when the superintendence of the master is withdrawn, and no compulsion is applied, the pupil may make an exhibition of his own powers, and shewing a diligence which is voluntary and self-imposed may work out by his own efforts what he has learnt. For it is the way of a teacher to give his pupil opportunity of independent practice without suggestions from himself, and thus set upon him the stamp of indelible memory in its surest form."
]
],
"Appendix": [
"APPENDIX TO DE MUTATIONE NOMINUM",
"§ 7. Into the darkness. Philo treats this text in much the same way in De Post. 14 ff., and follows it up in the same way with Ex. 33:13. But there he insists on a point which he does not make here, viz. that the search is not altogether fruitless, since to realize that τὸ ὄν is incomprehensible is in itself a vast boon.",
"§ 12. The three natural orders, etc. This favourite idea of the “educational trinity” stated by Aristotle in the form παιδεῖᾳ δεῖν τριῶν, φύσεως, διδασκαλίας, ἀσκήσεως, is several times applied by Philo to Isaac, Abraham, and Jacob respectively. See note on De Sac. 5–7. But the representation of Isaac as τελειότης (Joh. Dam.) or ὁσιότης (MSS.) instead of as φύσις or αὐτομαθής does not seem appropriate, and is not, as far as I have seen, paralleled elsewhere. It may be worth consideration whether Philo wrote τῶν τριῶν, φύσεως, διδασκαλίας, ἀσκήσεως, and when φύσεως had been corrupted to φύσεων the blank thus created for Isaac was variously filled up. That the things symbolized should then be given in their ordinary order and the symbols in their historical order would not, I think, be unnatural. Mangey proposed φύσεως in place of ὁσιότητος, which seems somewhat more arbitrary.",
"§ 13. ὄνομά τι. This reading, which, supported as it is by the MSS. ὀνόματι, has almost as much authority as Joh. Dam.’s τὸ ὄνομα, seems to me decidedly preferable in sense. In the next sentence Philo seems to lay down that τὸ ὄνομά μου κύριον is not a natural way of expressing “my proper name,” and it is unlikely that he would himself adopt this order of the words.",
"Ibid. Transposition. Hyperbaton defined as an “arrangement of words or thoughts changed from the consecutive order” (λέξεων ἢ νοήσεων ἐκ τοῦ κατʼ ἀκολουθίαν κεκινημένη τάξις) is a wide term of which the grammarians give several subdivisions, including tmesis and parenthesis. Quoted examples somewhat similar to the hyperbaton here as supposed by Philo are “transtra per et remos” and γέλασσε δὲ πᾶσα περὶ χθών (for περιεγέλασε). See Ernesti s.v. and indices to Greek and Latin Grammarians.",
"§ 28. In a sense relative. On ὡσανεὶ πρός τι Drummond writes (Philo Judaeus, vol. ii. pp. 48, 49): “When we ascribe to Him titles which are descriptive of relation, we refer only to certain aspects of His being, certain ‘powers’ which, because they are directed towards objects, are quasi-relative. The limitation quasi seems to imply that the dependence of the correlative terms is not mutual, but is all on one side, and that not the divine side. The powers of the self-existent are put forth into exercise without experiencing any alteration in their intrinsic character through the reaction of the objects to which they are applied; so that, although their names involve a relation, it would be truer to say that their objects are relative to them than that they are relative to their objects.” It is perhaps worth noting that ὡς πρός τι (quasi ad aliquid) was an accepted grammatical name for exclusive opposites as “night,” “day,” and “life,” “death,” distinguished from πρός τι, e.g. “father,” “son.” See index to Grk. Gramm. Philo, however, cannot be using ὡσανεί in this sense, as βασιλεύς and εὐεργέτης are clearly πρός τι.",
"§ 32. And all that company. Compare the Stoic dogma αὐστηροὺς εἷναι πάντας τοὺς σπουδαίους, Diog. Laert. vii. 117, S. V. F. iii. 637–639. At the same time it is strange to find Philo limiting the wise entirely to this kind, in view of what he says in §§ 39 ff., and though his alternations between the Stoic strictness and the τιθασὸς καὶ ἥμερος σοφία of the Peripatetics are often startling, I think it may be worth while to consider the textually easy suggestion in the footnote: <τοι>οῦτος δὲ πᾶς ὁ θίασος <ὃς>.",
"§ 34. Was not found. This wording of the LXX suits Philo’s argument admirably, since one phrase of theirs was that the wise man μεχρὶ τοῦ νῦν ἀνεύρετός ἐστι (S. V. F. iii. 32, p. 216).",
"§ 36. A wise man is non-existent. Other Stoic pronouncements more or less in this sense, though not quite so absolute, are that the wise man like the Phoenix appears once in 500 years, Seneca, Ep. 42. 1; that there have been not more than one or two of them, Eusebius, Pr. Ev. vi. 8. 13; that Hercules or Ulysses may have realized the ideal, Seneca, De Const. 2. 1, and that Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus all fell short of it, Quintilian xii. 1.",
"§ 46. Because He was good. Evidently taken from Timaeus 29 D, E λέγωμεν δὴ διʼ ἥν τινα αἰτίαν γένεσιν καὶ τὸ πᾶν τόδε ὁ ξυνιστὰς ξυνέστησεν. ἀγαθὸς ἧν, ἀγαθῷ δὲ οὐδεὶς περὶ οὐδενὸς οὐδέποτε ἐγγίγνεται φθόνος· τούτου δʼ ἐκτὸς ὢν πάντα ὅ τι μάλιστα γενέσθαι ἐβουλήθη παραπλήσια ἑαυτῷ. But by stopping short at ἀγαθός and ignoring the last ten words Philo seems rather to miss Plato’s point. See note on De Cher. 125.",
"§ 47. Positively righteous conduct. Philo here uses κατορθόῦ in a sense slightly different from the regular Stoic use. With them the κατόρθωματα are actions done from a good motive and part of a generally virtuous course of conduct, and are opposed to καθήκοντα or common duties; here it is opposed to simple abstention from evil-doing. See note on Quod Deus 100.",
"§ 57. ἐνηχεῖ. The word is inadequately treated in the Lexica. L. & S. “whisper, prompt,” cited from Philo (omitted in later editions) cannot be maintained in face of Quis Rerum 67, where it is coupled with ἐμβοῆσαι. The six examples quoted from Philo in the index as well as in others from later writers in Stephanus suggest that, as with κατηχεῖν, the main idea is insistent or reiterated address, thus passing easily (again like κατηχεῖν) into “instruction.” So perhaps here, where the thought may be that generally the teacher stands superior to the taught, but in this case treats him as an equal. Cf. also Quis Rerum 71.",
"§ 61. Wendland’s expunging of στοιχείῳ περιττεύει is rather arbitrary. Short of this there are three possibilities: (a) read as Markland στοιχείου περιττόν. This seems pointless, unless we might take it as a reference to the cacophony of a repeated a (the combination αα is certainly rare); (b) <ὡς> στοιχείῳ περιττεύει<ν>, i.e. to be better off by a letter—again somewhat pointless; (c) <τὸ> στοιχείῳ περιττεύει<ν> and transfer to after παρεσχῆσθαι—“a fine boon—to be better off by a letter.” This would certainly be effective, if the transference is not too drastic.",
"For τοῦ ἑνὸς ἅλφα perhaps read ἑνός, τοῦ ἄλφα. Cf. § 77.",
"Need we suppose with Wendland that a clause has slipped out after παρεσχῆσθαι? Abraham’s case has been dealt with; Sarah’s has not. It is possible, I think, to regard τὴν <γὰρ> Ἀβρὰμ … παραλαβών as a parenthetic explanation by Philo himself of the addition of rho.",
"§ 62. Misgivings of this sort. Or simply “ideas,” i.e. that God actually changes names, cf. ὑπονοεῖν, § 64. In this case the insertion of τοιαύτας seems necessary. Possibly, however, ὑπονοίας is used in the regular Philonic sense of underlying or allegorical meanings, and the corruption lies in ἐκκόψαιμεν (ἐκκαλύψαιμεν?). In this case the insertion of τοιαύτας is not needed.",
"§ 65. Signs. The use of χαρακτήρ here, as compared with 70 and 83, all of which must stand together, is difficult. Ordinarily χαρ., if it does not mean literally a stamp, is not a type or symbol, but a trait or characteristic, and this suits § 83, for the two kinds of virtue. It may with some forcing suit § 70, for though the names are the χαρακτῆρες they represent characteristics. But here this is not so, for the χαρ. which are small, sensible, and obscure must be the names and not what they represent. I have tried to evade the difficulty by translating “signs.”",
"§ 77. Facts. Philo here uses τυγχάνοντα more or less in the sense in which it was used in the Stoic theory of speech. They distinguished between (1) φωνή, the actual word spoken; (2) σημαινόμενον or σημαινόμενον πρᾶγμα, otherwise called λεκτόν, the meaning understood by the hearer; (3) τύγχανον, the actual object spoken of. Cf. S. V. F. ii. 166. Philo seems to make this distinction in Leg. All. ii. 15 τοῦ τυγχάνοντος ἢ τοῦ σημαινομένου. Here he perhaps uses τυγχ. for σημ., and though in Plutarch Adv. Colotem 1119 E the Epicureans are censured by the Stoics for eliminating σημ. and retaining only φωνή and τύγχ., the Stoics themselves are said to do the same in S. V. F. ii. 236.",
"§ 106. The so-called sacred games. Cf. De Agr. 116 f, where after describing the pentathlum and other contests he says τούτων μὲν δὴ τῶν ἀγώνων πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ἱερὸς οὐδείς, κἂν πάντες ἄνθρωποι μαρτυρῶσιν … ὁ τοίνυν Ὀλυμπιακὸς ἀγὼν μόνος ἂν λέγοιτο ἐνδίκως ἱερὸς, οὐχ ὃν τιθέασιν οἱ τὴν Ἧλιν οἰκοῦντες, ἀλλʼ ὁ περὶ κτήσεως τῶν θείων καὶ ὀλυμπίων ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀρετῶν.",
"§ 113. If Mangey’s correction of φαινόμενα to ποιμαινόμενα is adopted the picture becomes clear. The shepherd-mind and its sheep “the flock of reasoning” are naturally inseparable, and if the mind is enticed out into the bodily region, the flock will be easily given over by the senses into the hands of the “shepherds of an evil herd.”",
"§ 114. Guidance and rule of law. In the Stoic sense of law see S. V. F. iii. 613, 614 λόγος ὀρθὸς προστακτικὸς μὲν ὧν ποιητέον, ἀπαγορευτικὸν δὲ ὧν οὐ ποιητέον, and therefore the wise man alone is νόμιμος.",
"§ 121. ποιὸς οὗτος. Siegfried in a pamphlet, Die hebräischen Worterklärungen des Philo, pp. 21, 22, has the following note which I transcribe for the benefit of Hebraists: “τὸν Ὠσηὲ μετονομάζει Μωυσῆς εἰς τὸν Ἰησοῦν, indem er den irgendwie beschaffenen zu einer bestimmten Qualität umprägt. Denn Ὠσηέ ist = ποῖος οὗτος ‘irgendwie beschaffen ist dieser’ Hebräisch dachte sich Philo Ὠσηέ etwa = אֵיוֶת. Er mochte meinen אַי bediente an sich ‘irgendwie,’ da אי mit בת = אֵיבָת = ‘wie’ ist.”",
"However plausible this explanation may be as far as the Hebrew goes, it cannot be fitted into the Greek. ποῖος is not “irgendwie beschaffen,” which would rather be ὁποιοσοῦν or even ἄποις. And even if ποῖος can mean this, it is incompatible with the use in the next sentence and in the references given in the footnote to Leg. All. Mangey makes the same mistake when he translates “salus qualiscumque.”",
"§ 135. Chain of destiny. Though there is no real philological connexion between εἰμαρμένη and εἰρμός, it seems to have been regularly assumed. See S. V. F. ii. 915–921, e.g. 918 ἡ εἰμαρμένη εἱρμός τις οὖσα αἰτιῶν ἀπαράβατος· οὕτω γὰρ οἱ Στωικοὶ ὁρίζονται.",
"§ 138. Superstition, etc. It is noticeable that here also as in De Cher. 48 Philo insists on the esoteric character of the doctrine, that God was the father of the child of a human mother, as something which should not be mentioned to profane ears. See also Leg. All. iii. 219. Presumably he felt that it easily lent itself to confusion with pagan myths.",
"§ 144. ἀμβλίσκουσαν for ἀναλίσκουσαν. In support of this conjecture and the suggestion that Philo may have in mind Theaetetus 149 D, it may be noted that Plato in the same passage speaks of the midwives regulating συνουσίαι, also that, in the parallel passage in Hannah’s hymn, Quod Deus 14, we saw some reason to suspect a quotation from the Theaetetus. He alludes again to the treatise in § 212 and quotes it at some length in De Fuga 63 and 82.",
"It may be objected, no doubt, that ἀμβλίσκειν used transitively would properly apply to the fruits of the συνουσία, rather than to the συνουσία itself; but this does not come out clearly from the words of the Theaetetus. I do not at any rate think that ἀναλίσκουσαν can be right.",
"§ 146. Many and indeed infinite particulars. For this “recognized formula of the Platonic school” cf. particularly Philebus 14 C, 15 B ff.",
"§ 150. Perversions of art. Cf. Quintilian ii. 15. 2 “(rhetoricen) quidam pravitatem quandam artis, id est κακοτεχνίαν, nominaverunt.”",
"§ 152. The Sage alone is king. This Stoic “paradox,” see S. V. F. iii. 617, has already appeared in De Sobr. 57 and De Mig. 197, and appears later in De Som. ii. 244.",
"§ 153. The definitions of the four virtues are those regularly accepted by the Stoics, see S. V. F. iii. 262. Cf. Leg. All. i. 63.",
"§ 160. Orousis. See S. V. F. iii. 169, where it is defined as φορὰ διανοίας ἐπί τι μέλλον, but (ibid. 173) the ὁρμὴ πρὸ ὁρμῆς is called ἐπιβολή.",
"§ 167. Virtue is … a thing for joy. Cf. Cicero, Tusc. Disp. v. 43 “semper sapiens beatus est. Atque etiam omne bonum laetabile est.”",
"Ibid. A state of happy feeling. Who are the philosophers alluded to? Hardly the Stoics. I have found no evidence that they identified εὐπάθεια with ἀρετή, and it is prima facie unlikely. Outside Stoicism the word seems to be used rather with the suggestion of bodily welfare, or at least without the higher sense which Philo, who several times couples it with ἀρετή, often gives it. See note on De Mig. 219. I can hardly think, however, that he speaks without authority and should conjecture that there were philosophers who like him used it as = εὐδαιμονία and naturally therefore equated it with ἀρετή, perhaps also like him colouring it with the Stoic insistence on joy as “the best of the higher emotions.”",
"The MSS. reading ἀπάθειαν was retained by Mangey, and has in its favour that the Stoics definitely identified ἀπ. with ἀρ. (οἱ Στωικοὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν τίθενται ἐν τῇ ἀπαθείᾳ Ps.-Plut. Hom. 134, cf. S. V. F. iii. 201), but the context clearly makes it impossible.",
"§ 197. Worthy of perseverance. Though neither Mangey nor Wendland question the reading, this use of ὑπομονή seems to me strange, for ἀνδρεία consists of ὑπομονή, or at least of knowledge of ἃ δεῖ ὑπομένειν, cf. § 153, and no one could be said ὑπομένειν ἀνδρείαν. I think ἐπιμονῆς should be read, used by Philo for “persistence,” e.g. Quod Det. 118. The phrase then = δεῖ ἐπιμένειν τῇ ἀνδρείᾳ. A tempting emendation would be <ὑπομονὴ> ὑπομονῆς ἀξίων ἡ ἀνδρεία, φυγὴ ἡ δειλία, which would be in exact accordance with the Stoic definition, but definition would be somewhat out of place here.",
"§ 207. Demonstrative pronouns … indicate. Both δείξεις and παρεμφαίνειν are technical terms in Greek grammar, the former, however, being used to describe the function performed by pronouns in general, personal as well as demonstrative. Possibly therefore “pronouns” would be a better translation here than “demonstrative pronouns,” see Grk. Gramm. Part II. vol. i. p. 9. The meaning of παρεμφαίνειν is best seen from the use of ἀπαρέμφατος as the regular term for the infinitive, because it does not particularize any gender, number, or person like the “paremphatic” words. See an article by myself in the Journal of Theological Studies, January 1921.",
"§ 217. His charge. Mangey and Wendland question ὁ ἀγομένος, proposing ὁ εἰσαγόμενος or ὁ παιδαγωγούμενος. I understand Philo to be thinking of the derivation of παιδαγωγός from παῖς and ἄγω, and probably also of the fact that one chief function of the παιδ. was to escort the boy to school.",
"§ 242. Freedom from disturbance. This translation is put forward as a desperate attempt to give some sense to the text as it stands. If we take ἡσυχία in the natural sense of “silence,” as it clearly is used, with reference to this passage, in § 251, the whole becomes absurdly pointless. Even with Wendland’s conjecture of ἐπεί τοι for κἄπειτα, “if a man does not keep silence he can surely be silent if he wishes” is strangely inept. I believe the passage is corrupt. The sense required is, speaking is voluntary, and therefore abstention from kind words and speaking unkind words are equally wrong. This might be obtained by correcting to ὁ μηδʼ ἐκ τύχης ἐθέλων τι τῶν ἐπιεικεστέρων φθέγξασθαι, οὗ δὲ (or καὶ οὗ) λυσιτελὲς τὴν ἀσφαλεστάτην ἡσυχίαν δεξιοῦσθαι, μὴ ἡσυχάζων· ἐπεί τοι τις κτλ. In this case εἰ μὴ … φωνήν would mean “if he fails to speak kindly.”",
"§ 243. The word is the shadow of the act. This saying is ascribed to Democritus, Diog. Laert. ix. 37, Ps.-Plut. De Lib. Educandis 14."
]
},
"schema": {
"heTitle": "על שינוי השמות",
"enTitle": "On the Change of Names",
"key": "On the Change of Names",
"nodes": [
{
"heTitle": "הקדמה",
"enTitle": "Introduction"
},
{
"heTitle": "",
"enTitle": ""
},
{
"heTitle": "הערות",
"enTitle": "Appendix"
}
]
}
}