On the religious polity of Moses
Preface. In the previous book I went through the lives of the ancient Hebrews, God-loving men who proved the truth of their name and who, before Moses appeared, were crowned with the prizes of every virtue; and their God-fearing doctrines and teachings, and moreover their all-true and pious theology, for which we have confessed that we came to feel love and longing. I now pass, following the proper order, to the polity of Moses, which holds the second step of piety after that first one, and which was legislated for the Jewish nation alone. For we shall show at the proper time that the ordinances given through Moses were suited to the Jews alone, and no longer to the nations throughout the world, and could not be kept by all people, I mean the Greeks and barbarians who live far from the land of Judea. But now I shall set out the manner of this way of life too, I mean the life according to Moses, not in my own words, but again in the words only of those among them approved in their ancestral learning. For I think it right for me, in the way I began, to provide the testimonies for the proofs through each people's own writers. Just as I called Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Greeks as witnesses from those known among them in their own country, so the present occasion seems to me suitable for bringing in these too, so that we may not be thought to improvise foreign matters ourselves. But before coming to this, I think it necessary to make plain to readers how the oracles among them passed to the Greeks, and how the translation of the divine Scriptures entrusted to them came about: through how many and what sort of men, and with how much royal zeal, they were changed into the Greek language. The setting out of these things too will not be unhelpful for the demonstration of the Preparation in hand. For since the life-giving proclamation of our Savior was very soon to shine out to all people under the rule of the Romans, and no ordinary reason required that the prophecies about him, the life of the God-loving Hebrews of old, and the lessons of their pious teaching, long hidden in their ancestral language, should now at last pass to all the nations to whom the knowledge of God was to be granted: God himself, the cause of these goods, anticipating the future as God by his foreknowledge, arranged that the predictions about the Savior of all people, who was soon to appear and to establish as teacher of the piety of the one God over all among all nations under the sun, should be revealed to all and come to light, accurately translated and deposited in public libraries. He put it into King Ptolemy's mind to do this, in preparation, it seems, for the participation in them that all the nations were very soon to have. For we would not otherwise have obtained from the Jews what they would have hidden from us out of envy; but through the translation arranged by God we have been granted these oracles, translated by men among them approved for understanding and ancestral learning. Aristeas writes about these things, a learned man in other respects, but also present at the events under the second Ptolemy, called Philadelphus, in whose reign the translation of the Jewish Scriptures, accomplished through the king's zeal, was thought worthy of the libraries of Alexandria. It is time to listen to him as he relates it word for word as follows:
Aristeas on the translation of the Jewish Scriptures
"Demetrius of Phalerum, put in charge of the king's library, was given large sums to collect, if possible, all the books in the world; and by making purchases and copies he brought the king's purpose to completion as far as lay in him. When he was asked, then, in our presence, how many tens of thousands of books there were, he said, 'More than two hundred thousand, Your Majesty; and I shall make haste in a short time to make up the rest to five hundred thousand. I have been informed that the laws of the Jews too are worth copying and worthy of your library.' 'What prevents you from doing this, then?' he said. 'Everything needed has been placed at your disposal.' Demetrius said, 'It needs translation; for in Judea they use their own characters, just as the Egyptians use their arrangement of letters, as they also have their own language. They are supposed to use Syriac, but this is not so; it is another kind.' The king, having learned each thing, said that a letter should be written to the high priest of the Jews, so that the matters mentioned might be completed." And after other things he adds: "When this had been done, he ordered Demetrius to submit a memorandum about the copying of the Jewish books. For everything was administered by these kings through decrees and with great exactness, and nothing carelessly or at random. That is why I have set down both the memorandum and the copies of the letters, and the number of the gifts sent and the workmanship of each, because each of them excelled in magnificence and art. The copy of the memorandum is this:
Letter of Demetrius Phalereus to Ptolemy, King of Egypt
To the great king, from Demetrius. Since you commanded, Your Majesty, concerning the books still missing for the completion of the library, that they should be collected and that those that have fallen into disrepair should receive proper restoration, I have taken no casual care in these matters and now report to you. The books of the law of the Jews, with a few others, are missing. For they are written in Hebrew letters and language, and have been copied rather carelessly and not as they are, as is reported by those who know; for they have not received royal care. These too should be present with you in an accurate form, because this legislation is very philosophical and pure, as being divine. For this reason prose writers, poets, and the mass of historians have kept away from mentioning the books just named and the men who lived by them, because the contemplation in them is holy and venerable, as Hecataeus of Abdera says. If, then, it seems good, Your Majesty, a letter will be written to the high priest in Jerusalem to send elders who have lived most excellently and are experienced in their own law, six from each tribe, so that, having examined what is agreed by the majority and obtained accuracy in the translation, we may set it forth clearly, in a manner worthy both of the matter and of your purpose. Farewell always." When this memorandum had been made, the king ordered a letter to be written to Eleazar about these matters, also indicating the release of the captives that had taken place. He also gave, for the making of mixing bowls, cups, a table, and libation vessels, fifty talents' weight of gold, seventy talents of silver, and a considerable quantity of precious stones. He ordered the treasurers to give the craftsmen the choice of whatever they preferred, and money for sacrifices and other things up to a hundred talents. We shall tell you about the workmanship after we have gone through the copies of the letters. The king's letter had this form:
Letter of King Ptolemy, to Eleazar the High Priest of the Jews
"King Ptolemy to Eleazar the high priest, greeting and good health. Since it happens that many Jews have been settled in our country, having been carried off from Jerusalem by the Persians at the time when they held power, and moreover came with our father into Egypt as captives, many of whom he enrolled in the military corps at higher pay, and likewise, judging those already here to be loyal, he built fortresses and handed them over to them, so that the Egyptian nation might be in fear through them; and since we, having received the kingdom, meet all with greater humanity, and much more your fellow citizens, we have freed more than a hundred thousand captives, paying their owners the proper price in silver, and correcting whatever wrong was done through the impulses of crowds, having resolved to do this piously and offering it as a thank-offering to the greatest God, who has preserved our kingdom in peace and the highest glory throughout the whole world. Those in the prime of life we have enrolled in the army, and those able to be about us and worthy of trust at court I have appointed. Wishing to show favor to you and to all the Jews throughout the world, and to those after them, we have resolved that your law be translated into Greek letters from the letters you call Hebrew, so that these too may be in our library with the other royal books. You will do well, then, and worthily of our zeal, to choose men who have lived excellently, elders experienced in the law and able to translate, six from each tribe, so that what is agreed by the majority may be found, since the inquiry concerns matters of great importance. For we think that when this is completed we shall win great glory. We have sent about these matters Andreas, one of the chief bodyguards, and Aristeas, men held in honor by us, to confer with you and bringing first-fruits of offerings for the temple and a hundred talents of silver for sacrifices and other things. Write to us too about whatever you wish; for you will be doing us a favor and an act worthy of friendship, as whatever you choose will be done with all speed. Farewell." To this Eleazar replied appropriately as follows:
Letter of Eleazar the High Priest to King Ptolemy
"Eleazar the high priest to King Ptolemy, true friend, greeting. If you are well, and Queen Arsinoe, your sister, and your children, it would be well and as we wish; we too are in good health. On receiving your letter we rejoiced greatly at your purpose and good counsel; and gathering the whole people we read it to them, so that they might know the piety you have toward our God. We also showed them the bowls you sent, twenty of gold and thirty of silver, five mixing bowls, and a table for dedication, and, for offering sacrifices and for repairs the temple may need, a hundred talents of silver, which Andreas, one of those honored by you, and Aristeas brought, men noble and good, distinguished in education, and in every way worthy of your conduct and justice. They also delivered your messages to us, and have heard from us what accords with your affairs. For we shall comply with everything that is to your advantage, even if it goes against our nature; for this is a sign of friendship and love. For you have done great and unforgettable benefits to our citizens in many ways. So we at once offered sacrifices for you and your sister and your children and your friends, and the whole people prayed that things might always go for you as you choose, and that God, the Lord of all, might preserve your kingdom in peace with glory. And so that the transcription of the holy law might take place profitably and safely, I chose in the presence of all men noble and good, elders, six from each tribe, whom we have sent with the law. You will do well, then, righteous king, to give orders that, when the transcription of the books has been made, the men may be restored to us again safely. Farewell." Next to this, after saying much in between about the undertaking set forth, he adds, after the translation of the Scriptures, in these very words: "When the scrolls had been read, the priests and the elders of the translators and some of those from the community, and the leaders of the people, stood up and said: 'Since it has been translated well and piously and in every respect accurately, it is right that it should remain as it is, and that no revision should take place.' When all had assented to what was said, they ordered, as is their custom, a curse to be pronounced on anyone who should revise it by adding to or altering anything at all of what had been written, or by making any omission; and they did this well, so that it might be preserved always and forever. When this too was reported to the king, he rejoiced greatly; for he thought that the purpose he had was safely accomplished. All of it was also read to him, and he greatly admired the mind of the lawgiver, and said to Demetrius: 'How is it that, when such great things were accomplished, none of the historians or poets undertook to mention them?' He said: 'Because the legislation is venerable and came about through God; and some of those who undertook it were struck by God and desisted from the attempt. For he said he had heard from Theopompus that, when he was about to add to his history, rather rashly, some of the things previously translated from the law, he suffered a disturbance of mind for more than thirty days; and in a remission of it he prayed to propitiate God, that it might become clear to him why this had happened. When it was shown to him in a dream that he wished, from idle curiosity, to bring divine things out to common men, he desisted and so was restored. And I learned from Theodectes the tragic poet that, when he was about to transfer something written in the book into a drama, his eyes were afflicted with cataract; and suspecting that this had happened to him for that reason, he propitiated God and was restored after many days. The king, having received from Demetrius, as I said before, the account of these things, did obeisance and ordered great care to be taken of the books and that they be kept in purity." Let these things be abridged by us from the writing of the author mentioned. Come now, let us view the polity of the legislation of Moses from those eminent among the people. First I shall set out Philo's account of the departure of the Jews from Egypt, which they made under Moses' leadership, from the first book of what he entitled Hypothetica, where, speaking for the Jews as against their accusers, he says this:
Philo on the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt
"Their ancient forefather was from the Chaldeans, and this people set out from Egypt, having migrated long ago from Syria, teeming with countless tens of thousands, the land not being sufficient for them; besides, they had been reared in great youthfulness of spirit, and at the same time God was revealing departure to them through visions and dreams, and they had fallen, by divine impulse, into no less a longing for their ancestral and ancient land. Hence that forefather of theirs, after coming to Egypt, whether because it seemed good to God or by some providence, prospered most of all, so that from him down to the present their nation has come into being and endures and has grown to so great a population. And a little later he says: "A man led them in their departure and journey who, if you like, differed in nothing from the many; so they even reviled him as an impostor and a trickster in words. A fine imposture, though, and villainy, by which he not only preserved the whole people completely in drought and hunger, ignorance of the roads and lack of everything, as if in all abundance and with an escort through the nations lying between, but also kept them free from strife with one another and most obedient to himself. And this not for a short time, but for longer than it is likely even a household could remain in harmony with every abundance. And neither thirst, nor hunger, nor wasting of bodies, nor fear of the future, nor ignorance of what would happen, stirred up the deceived and perishing peoples against that impostor. Yet what do you want us to say: that he had so great an art, or skill in speech, or understanding, as to prevail over so many and such absurdities leading all to destruction? Either the natures of the people under him were not ignorant or difficult, but obedient and not improvident of the future; or they were as wicked as can be, but God softened their difficult temper and, as it were, presided over both present and future. Whichever of these seems to you most likely to be true, it plainly tends to the praise, honor, and emulation of them all. So much for the departure. When they came into this land, how they settled and took possession of the country is shown in the sacred records; but I do not think it right to go through what is probable about them by history rather than by some reasoning. Would you have it that, still prevailing in number of bodies, though worn out to the end, yet still strong and with weapons in hand, they then took the country by force, conquering Syrians and Phoenicians fighting in their own land? Or let us suppose that they were unwarlike and unmanly and altogether few, and lacking in preparations for war, but found respect among these people and received the land from willing hands, and then immediately, not long after, built the temple and established the other things for piety and holy worship? For this shows, it seems, that they were acknowledged as most dear to God even by their enemies. For those whose land they came upon suddenly, as if to take it away, were of necessity their enemies. And if they met with respect and honor among these, how do they not plainly surpass others in good fortune? And what are we to name second after this, or third besides? Their good order and obedience, or their holiness, justice, and piety? But that man, whoever he was, who gave them their laws, they admired so much that whatever seemed good to him seemed good to them too. Whether, then, he spoke from his own reasoning or from hearing a divine voice, they referred all of it to God; and though many years have passed, I cannot say exactly how many, but more than two thousand years, they have not changed even a single word of what he wrote, but would rather endure dying ten thousand times than be persuaded to act against his laws and customs." Having said this, he summarizes the polity laid down for the Jewish nation from the laws of Moses, writing thus:
The same concerning the religious polity of Moses
"Is there among them any of these things, or anything like them, that seems mild and tame, admitting the bringing of lawsuits, pleas, postponements, assessments of penalty and again reductions of them? Nothing; but everything is simple and plain. If you practice pederasty, if you commit adultery, if you violate a child, not to speak of a male but even a female; likewise if you prostitute yourself, if even beyond the age for it you suffer something shameful, or seem to, or intend to: the penalty is death. If you outrage a slave's body or a free person's, if you hold someone in bonds, if you carry someone off and sell him, if you steal profane or sacred things, if you act impiously, not only in deed but even by any chance word, against God himself (may God be gracious to us even for the thought of these things; it is not even fit to speak of it), or against father or mother or your own benefactor, death likewise; and this not an ordinary or common death, but the one who merely spoke must be stoned, as having done nothing less than impiety. Other things again, such as these: wives are to serve their husbands, not with any outrage, but with obedience in all things; parents are to rule over children, for their safety and great care; each is to be master of his own possessions, unless he has called God's name upon them, or given them up as to God. And if he happens even to promise them by word only, it is not permitted to touch or handle them, but he is at once shut out from all of them. Let me not speak of seizing what belongs to the gods, or plundering what others have dedicated; but even of one's own goods, as I said, if a word of dedication slips out and escapes him, once he has spoken it he is deprived of all of it; and if he changes his mind or tries to retract what was said, his life is taken besides. And the same rule holds for the others over whom he has authority. If a husband declares his wife's food sacred, he must withhold her food; if a father does so to a son, or a ruler to a subject, the same. And the release from such declarations: the most perfect and greatest is when the priest annuls it, for he is empowered by God to receive it; and after this, that from those who have greater authority in each case, which is holy, in declaring God propitious, so that it is not necessary to accept the dedication. And countless other things besides these, belonging to unwritten customs and usages, and in the laws themselves: what one hates to suffer, he must not do himself; what he did not deposit, he must not take up, not from a garden bed, nor from a winepress, nor from a threshing floor; he must not filch from a stack anything at all, great or small; he must not grudge fire to one who needs it; he must not shut off flowing water, but must even give food to the poor and maimed who beg, as a pious offering to God. He must not keep a corpse from burial, but must even cast on it as much earth as piety requires; he must not disturb the tombs or monuments of the departed at all; he must not add bonds or any further harm to one in distress; men must not destroy the generative power of males by castration, nor that of women by abortifacients and other devices; he must not treat animals otherwise than God, or some lawgiver, has shown; he must not destroy seed; he must not enslave offspring; he must not substitute an unjust balance, nor an unmeasured bushel, nor false coin; he must not disclose a friend's secrets in enmity. Where, in God's name, are those Buzygian rules of ours? See these others besides: he must not separate parents from children, even if you hold them as captives; nor a wife from her husband, even if you are their master by lawful purchase. Surely these are more solemn and greater things; but there are others small and ordinary. He must not, it says, leave a domestic nest desolate, nor kill animals that take refuge as suppliants, as sometimes happens; nor anything even less than these. You might say these are worth nothing; but the law over them is great and the cause of all care, the warnings are great, and the curses for utter destruction, and God is overseer of such things and avenger everywhere. And after a little he says: "If it should be for a whole day, or rather not one but many, and these not one right after another but at intervals (and these every seven days, the custom against profane activity always prevailing, as is natural), that they transgress none of the commands, do you not wonder at it? Is this for them only an exercise in self-control, so that they may be equally able to toil at work and to abstain from work if need be? Not at all. Rather, the lawgiver thought it necessary, for some great and wonderful purpose, that they should not only be able alike to act and not act in other matters, but also be expert in their ancestral laws and customs. What, then, did he do on these seventh days? He required them to gather together in the same place and, sitting with one another with reverence and order, to listen to the laws, so that no one should be ignorant of them. And indeed they always come together and sit with one another, most of them in silence, except when it is customary to add some acclamation to what is read; and one of the priests who is present, or one of the elders, reads the sacred laws to them and explains them one by one until nearly late evening; and after this they depart, expert in the sacred laws and having advanced much in piety. Do these things not seem to you more necessary for them than any pursuit? Therefore they do not go to expounders of law about what they should do, nor, by not asking, do they act carelessly on their own through ignorance of the laws; but whichever of them you stir up and question about their ancestral customs is ready to answer easily; and husband to wife, father to children, and master to slaves seems able to hand down the laws. And about the seventh year it is likewise easy to speak, though perhaps not in the same way. For they themselves do not cease from work as on those seventh days, but leave the land idle for the future, for the sake of abundance. For it makes a great difference if it takes a rest and is then farmed the next year, rather than being worn out by continual working. You may see the same thing happen with bodies, for their strength; for physicians prescribe intervals and some rests from work not only for health; for what is continuous and always the same, especially in work, seems to do harm. Here is a sign: if someone offered to work the land for them in this seventh year much better than before and to give up to them all the produce entirely, they would by no means accept. For they do not think that they alone must abstain from labor (though there would be nothing remarkable if they did), but that the country should receive some relief and ease, as a fresh beginning for its renewed care and cultivation. For what, in God's name, prevented them from leasing it out the year before and collecting the rent for that year from those who worked it? But, as I said, they accept nothing of the kind in any way, out of care, it seems to me, for the land. And this is truly a great sign of their humanity. Since they themselves abstain from work that year, they do not think they should gather or store the fruits that grow, as they do not come from their own labors; but since God has provided them, the earth sending them up of itself, they think it right that those who wish or need, travelers and others, should use them freely. Enough for you on these matters. As for their having established the law on the seventh days, you would not ask it of me, having perhaps often heard before from many physicians, natural philosophers, and philosophers about this, what power it has for the nature of all things and especially for human nature. This is the account of the seventh." So much from Philo. Josephus too relates similar things in the second book of his work On the Antiquity of the Jews, writing in this way himself:
Josephus on the polity of Moses
"Who it was that most successfully established laws and attained the most just belief about God, one may learn from the laws themselves by comparing them; for it is now time to speak of these things. Now the particular differences of customs and laws among all people are endless, but one may go over them in summary. Some have entrusted the authority of their states to monarchies, others to oligarchies, others to the masses; but our lawgiver paid no attention at all to any of these, but made the polity, as one might say by forcing the language, a theocracy, ascribing the rule and power to God, and persuading all to look to him as the cause of all good things, both those common to all people and those they themselves obtained by prayer in difficulties; and that it is not possible to escape his knowledge, neither anything that is done nor anything one thinks in one's heart. He declared him unbegotten and unchangeable for eternal time, surpassing every mortal form in beauty, known to us by his power, but unknown as to what he is in his being. That the wisest of the Greeks were taught to think these things about God, he having supplied the principles, I leave aside for now; but that these thoughts are noble and befitting the nature and majesty of God they have strongly testified. For Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Plato, and the Stoic philosophers after him, and almost all, plainly thought thus about the nature of God. But they, philosophizing for a few, did not dare to bring the truth of the doctrine out to masses held by opinions; while our lawgiver, since he made his deeds agree with his laws, not only persuaded his own contemporaries but implanted an immovable belief about God also in all who would ever be born from them. The reason is that in the manner of his legislation too he far surpassed all others for usefulness. For he did not make piety a part of virtue, but saw and established the other virtues as parts of it, I mean justice, self-control, endurance, and the harmony of citizens with one another in all things. For all our actions, occupations, and words refer to piety toward our God; for he left none of these unexamined or undefined. There are two ways of all education and of forming character: one by teaching in words, the other by the practice of habits. The other lawgivers were divided in their opinions, each choosing the one that seemed good to them and neglecting the other. The Lacedaemonians and Cretans, for example, educated by customs, not by words; while the Athenians and almost all the other Greeks prescribed through their laws what one must do or not, but neglected to accustom people to them by deeds. But our lawgiver joined both with great care. He neither left the practice of habits mute nor allowed the word of the law to go unpracticed; but beginning at once from the first nurture and the way of life of each in the home, he left nothing, not even the smallest thing, to the free will of those who would follow it. He himself set the law as limit and rule about what foods one must abstain from and what one may take, about those who share one's table, and about the intensity of work and, conversely, rest, so that, living under it as under a father and master, we might sin in nothing, whether willingly or through ignorance. For he did not leave even the excuse of ignorance, but showed the law to be the finest and most necessary instruction, commanding that it be heard not once, nor twice or several times, but that every week people should leave their other work and gather to hear the law and learn it exactly; something that all lawgivers seem to have neglected. And most people are so far from living by their own laws that they hardly even know them; but when they do wrong, then they learn from others that they have broken the law. Even those who hold the greatest and most authoritative offices among them confess their ignorance; for they appoint as supervisors of the administration of affairs those who profess to have experience of the laws. But if anyone were to ask any one of us, he would recite all the laws more easily than his own name. Learning them from our very first awareness, we have them engraved, as it were, on our souls. And a transgressor is rare, and escape from punishment impossible. "This above all has produced in us our wonderful unanimity. For to have one and the same opinion about God, and to differ in nothing from one another in way of life and customs, produces the finest harmony in human character. For among us alone will one hear no conflicting statements about God, such as are many among others (for not only do ordinary people say whatever occurs to each in his feelings, but even some of the philosophers have dared it, some attempting by their arguments to do away with the very nature of God, others depriving him of providence for humans); nor will one see any difference in the practices of life, but among us all works are common, and there is one doctrine about God, agreeing with the law, saying that he oversees all things. And about the practices of life, that piety must be the end of all else, one may hear even from women and servants. Hence also the charge brought against us by some, that we have not produced men who are inventors of new works or words, has arisen from this. For the others think it good to abide by nothing ancestral, and attest the cleverness of wisdom to those who most dare to transgress it; but we, on the contrary, have supposed that the one wisdom and virtue is to do or think nothing at all contrary to what was legislated from the beginning. This would fairly be a proof that the law was laid down most excellently. For experience shows that laws not of this kind need correction; but for us, who were persuaded that the law was laid down from the beginning according to God's will, it would not even be pious not to keep it. For what of it could one change? Or what better could one find, or bring over from others as superior? The whole constitution of the polity? And what could be finer or more just than one that has made God leader of all, entrusts the greatest matters to the priests in common, and has committed in turn to the high priest the leadership of the other priests? These the lawgiver did not appoint to the honor at the very first for wealth or any other advantages; but to those of his companions who excelled the rest in persuasiveness and self-control he entrusted the service of God. And this involved exact care of the law and of the other practices; for the priests were appointed overseers of all things, judges of disputes, and punishers of the condemned." "What rule, then, could be holier than this? What honor more fitting to God? The whole people is prepared for piety, the priests have been entrusted with special care, and the whole polity is administered as if it were a sacred rite. For what others, practicing them for a number of days, cannot keep, calling them mysteries and rites, these we keep with great delight and unchangeable resolve throughout our whole life. What, then, are the precepts and prohibitions? They are simple and well known. First comes the one about God, which says: God holds all things, perfect and blessed, sufficient for himself and for all; he is beginning, middle, and end of all things; manifest in his works and gifts, and more evident than anything whatever, but in form and magnitude most hidden from us. All material, however costly, is worthless for an image of him; every art is artless for conceiving a copy of him. We have seen nothing like him, nor do we conceive anything, nor is it holy to make a likeness. We see his works: light, heaven, earth, sun and moon, waters, the births of animals, the yields of fruits. These God made not with hands, not with toil, needing no co-workers; but when he willed them to be beautiful, they were at once beautifully made. All must follow him and serve him by practicing virtue; for this is the holiest way of serving God. One temple of the one God (for like is always dear to like), common to all, of the God common to all. The priests serve him continually, and the first by descent always leads them. He, with his fellow priests, will sacrifice to God, guard the laws, judge disputes, and punish the convicted. Whoever disobeys him will pay the penalty as one impious toward God himself. We offer sacrifices not for our own surfeit and drunkenness (for these things are unwelcome to God, and would become a pretext for insolence and extravagance), but sober, orderly, and simple, so that in sacrificing people may be most self-controlled. And at the sacrifices one must pray first for the common welfare, then for oneself (for we were born for fellowship); and one who prefers this to his own private good would be most pleasing to God. Let appeal and petition be made to God in prayer, not that he may give good things (for he has given them himself willingly and laid them out in common for all), but that we may be able to receive them and, having received them, keep them. For the sacrifices the law has prescribed purifications after a funeral, after childbirth, after intercourse with a woman, and many other things, which it would take long to write now." "Such is our account of God and his worship, and the same is also our law. And what are the laws about marriage? The law knows only the natural union with a woman, and this only if it is for the sake of children. Intercourse of males with males it abhors, and death is the penalty if anyone attempts it. It commands men to marry without regard to dowry, not by violent abduction, nor again by persuading through craft and deceit, but to seek her in betrothal from the one who has authority to give her, and of suitable kinship. 'The woman,' it says, 'is inferior to the man in all things'; let her therefore obey, not for outrage, but so that she may be governed; for God gave authority to the man. The one who has married must be with her alone; to make an attempt on another man's wife is unholy. If anyone does this, there is no escape from death; neither if he violates a virgin betrothed to another, nor if he seduces a married woman. He commanded that all children be raised, and forbade women to cause abortion of what was conceived or to destroy it; if she were discovered, she would be a child-killer, destroying a soul and diminishing the race. So then, if anyone proceeds to the corruption of the marriage bed, he can no longer be clean. And even after the lawful intercourse of husband and wife he required washing, supposing that this involves a division of the soul into another place; for the soul suffers when implanted in bodies, and again when separated from them by death. Therefore he ordained purifications for all such things. Nor did he allow feasting to be held at the births of children and occasions made for drunkenness, but ordained a sober beginning of their upbringing from the very first; and he commanded that children be taught letters concerning the laws and be acquainted with the deeds of their ancestors, the latter so that they may imitate them, and the former so that, growing up with them, they may neither transgress nor have the excuse of ignorance. He provided for piety toward the dead, not by costly funerals or the building of conspicuous monuments; but he ordained that the closest relatives perform the funeral rites, and made it lawful for all passers-by, when someone is being buried, to come and join in the mourning. He commands that the house and its inhabitants be purified after a funeral, so that one who has committed murder may be very far from seeming pure. He ranked honor of parents second after honor toward God, and he hands over to be stoned one who does not repay their kindnesses but falls short in anything. He says that the young must honor every elder, since God is the eldest. He allows nothing to be hidden from friends, for friendship that does not trust in everything is not friendship; and if some enmity arises, he has forbidden telling their secrets. If a judge takes bribes, death is the penalty. One who disregards a suppliant when able to help is liable. What one did not deposit he shall not take up. He shall touch nothing belonging to others. One who lends shall not take interest. These and many like them hold together our fellowship with one another." It is worth seeing too how the lawgiver thought about fairness toward foreigners; for he will be seen to have provided best of all that we should neither corrupt our own ways nor grudge those who choose to share in ours. For all who wish to come and live under the same laws as we, he receives kindly, thinking that kinship consists not in race alone but also in choice of life; but he did not wish those who approach casually to mingle in our intimate fellowship. The other things whose sharing is necessary he has prescribed: to provide fire, water, and food to all who need them, to point out the road, and not to leave anyone unburied. He wished us to be fair even toward those judged enemies. For he does not allow their land to be burned, nor has he permitted cultivated trees to be cut down; he has forbidden stripping those fallen in battle, and has provided for captives, that outrage be kept from them, especially from women. So far-reaching was his zeal to teach us gentleness and humanity that he did not neglect even irrational animals, but permitted only the customary use of them and forbade every other. Those that flee to houses as if in supplication he forbade to kill; nor did he allow the parents to be taken together with their young; and in enemy country one must spare and not kill working animals." "Thus he considered fairness from every side, using the laws mentioned before for teaching, and appointing in turn punitive laws against transgressors, not without reason. For death is the penalty for most transgressors: if anyone commits adultery, if anyone violates a girl, if anyone dares to make an attempt on a male, if the one attempted submits to it. And the law is likewise inexorable in the case of slaves. Moreover, if anyone cheats in measures or weights, or in an unjust and deceitful sale, or steals what belongs to another, or takes up what he did not deposit, there are punishments for all, not such as among others, but more severe. For wrongs against parents, or impiety toward God, even if one only intends it, one is at once put to death. But for those who do everything according to the laws, the prize is not silver or gold, nor a crown of wild olive or celery, nor any such proclamation; but each one, having his own conscience as witness, has believed (the lawgiver having prophesied it and God having given strong assurance) that to those who have kept the laws, and, if they must die for them, have died willingly, God has granted to come into being again and to receive a better life in the turning of the ages. "I would have hesitated to write these things now, were it not plain to all from the facts that many of our people, many times, have chosen to suffer everything nobly rather than utter even a word against the law. And indeed, if our nation did not happen to be known to all people, and our willing obedience to the laws were not in plain view, but someone either said he had written it himself and read it to the Greeks, or claimed that he had met people beyond the known world who had so venerable an opinion of God and had firmly abided for a long age by such laws, I think all would wonder at it, because of the continual changes among themselves. Certainly they accuse those who have tried to write anything similar on polity and laws of having composed marvels, saying that they took impossible premises. I pass over the other philosophers who treated some such subject in their writings; but Plato, admired among the Greeks as one who excelled in dignity of life and surpassed all philosophers in power of speech and persuasion, continues to be all but mocked and ridiculed by those who claim to be skilled in politics. And yet anyone examining his works closely would find them easier, and nearer to the customs of the many. Plato himself admitted that it was not safe to bring out the true opinion about God to the ignorance of the crowds. But some think Plato's works are empty words, written beautifully with great license. Among lawgivers they have admired Lycurgus most, and all praise Sparta because they persevered longest in his laws. Let this, then, be agreed to be a proof of virtue: obedience to the laws. But let those who admire the Lacedaemonians compare their duration with the more than two thousand years of our polity; and let them consider besides that the Lacedaemonians seemed to keep the laws exactly only as long as they had their freedom, but when changes of fortune came upon them they forgot almost all their laws; while we, having been in countless misfortunes through the changes of the kings who ruled Asia, did not betray our laws even in the extremity of dangers." So much from Josephus too about the Jewish polity according to Moses. About the veiled and allegorical meaning in the laws he laid down, though I have much to say, I think the accounts of Eleazar and Aristobulus suffice, men Hebrew by descent who flourished in the times of the Ptolemies. Of these, Eleazar, honored with the dignity of the high priesthood, was mentioned by us a little earlier. To those who came to him from the king on the embassy for the translation of the Hebrew writings into Greek, sketching the manner of the allegorical meaning in the sacred laws, he gave this teaching:
Eleazar the High Priest's sketch of the thought allegorically expressed in the sacred laws. From the writings of Aristeas
"It is worth mentioning briefly what he showed us in answer to our questions. For most people think there is a certain overscrupulousness in some parts of the legislation, I mean concerning foods and drinks and the creatures considered unclean. For when we asked why, there being one creation, some things are considered unclean for eating and some even for touching (for the legislation, we said, is superstitious in most things, and in these again superstitious), he began thus in reply: "You see," he said, "what effect ways of life and associations have: people who associate with the bad acquire perversions and are wretched all their lives; but if they live with the wise and prudent, they gain correction from ignorance for their life. Our lawgiver, then, first set out the matters of piety and justice and taught each point about them, not only by prohibition but by demonstration, showing plainly both the harms and the visitations sent by God on the guilty. For he showed first of all that God is one, and that his power is made manifest through all things, every place being filled with his sovereignty, and nothing done secretly by people on earth escapes him, but whatever anyone does is manifest to him, as also what is to come. Working this out exactly and making it plain, he showed that even if one thinks of doing wrong, he would not escape notice, let alone if he does it, showing God's power throughout the whole legislation. Having made this beginning, he showed that all other people besides us think there are many gods, though they themselves are much more powerful than the things they vainly worship. For they make statues of stones or wood and say they are images of those who discovered something useful to them for life, and they worship them, though their insensibility is before their feet. For if one were to reckon by that, by invention, it is utterly foolish. For they took some of the things in creation and put them together and showed their construction to be most useful, but did not make them themselves; therefore it is empty and vain to deify those like themselves. For even now there are many more inventive and learned than people of old, and they would be quick to worship them too. And those who have fashioned and invented these myths think they are the wisest of the Greeks. As for the other utterly vain people, the Egyptians and the like, what need is there to speak of them, who have placed their reliance on beasts and most of the reptiles and creatures, and worship them, and sacrifice to them both living and dead? Having considered each of these things, then, being wise and equipped by God for the knowledge of all things, the lawgiver fenced us around with unbroken palisades and iron walls, so that we should not mingle in any way with any of the other nations, being pure in body and soul, freed from vain opinions, worshiping the only and mighty God above the whole creation. Hence the leading priests of the Egyptians, who have looked closely into many things and have experience of affairs, call us 'men of God,' a title that belongs to no others, unless one worships the true God; but they are men of food and drink and clothing, for their whole disposition takes refuge in these. But among our people these things are regarded as nothing; their contemplation throughout their whole life concerns the sovereignty of God. So that we might not be defiled by mixing or associating with anything base and so be perverted, he fenced us around on all sides with purifications, in foods and drinks and touch and hearing and sight, by law. For in general all things are alike as regards natural reason, being governed by one power; and each particular thing from which we abstain in use, and which we use, has a deep reason. For an example I shall run through one or two and explain them to you. Do not fall into the discredited view that Moses made these laws out of fussiness about mice and weasels or such things; rather, everything has been solemnly ordained for pure contemplation and the perfecting of character, for the sake of justice. For all the birds we use are tame and distinguished by cleanliness, feeding on grain and pulse, such as pigeons, turtledoves, francolins, partridges, and also geese and others of that sort. But of the birds that are forbidden, you will find that they are wild and carnivorous, and with the strength they have oppress the rest, and get their food by unjustly devouring the tame birds just mentioned. And not only these, but they also seize lambs and kids, and injure people, both dead and living. By these, then, calling them unclean, he gave a sign that those for whom the legislation has been ordained must practice justice in their souls, and oppress no one, trusting in their own strength, nor take away anything, but guide their life by the most just conduct, as the tame creatures among the birds just mentioned eat the pulses that grow on the earth and do not oppress others to destroy them, either those beneath them or their own kind. Through these, then, the lawgiver handed down to the wise the sign that they should be just and do nothing by force, nor oppress others trusting in their own strength. For where it is not even proper to touch the creatures mentioned because of the disposition of each, how must one not guard altogether against one's character being bent toward this? He has set out, then, all that is permitted regarding these and the cattle in a figurative sense. For dividing the hoof and parting the claws of the hoof is a sign of distinguishing each of our actions with a view to what is right. For the strength of the whole body in action rests on the shoulders and the legs. By signifying this through these things, then, he compels us to do everything with discernment toward justice, and further because we have been set apart from all people. For most other people defile themselves by their unions, committing great injustice, and whole countries and cities pride themselves on these things. For they not only have intercourse with males, but even defile mothers who have given birth, and daughters too. But we have been set apart from these things. And concerning the one to whom the manner of separation just mentioned refers, he has marked out that the manner of memory too refers to him. For all creatures that part the hoof and chew the cud plainly set forth to the thoughtful the meaning of memory. For chewing the cud is nothing else than a reminder of life and sustenance. For he considers that life is sustained through food. Therefore he exhorts through Scripture, saying thus: "You shall surely remember the Lord God, who did in you great and wonderful things." For when considered they appear glorious: first the framing of the body, the management of food, and the distinction of each part; and much more the ordering of the senses, the working of the mind and its invisible motion, its quickness in doing each thing, and the invention of arts, which contains a boundless manner. Therefore he exhorts us to remember how the things mentioned are preserved, held together by divine power. For he has appointed every place and time for us to remember continually God who rules, who preserves beginnings, middles, and ends. For in the case of foods and drinks he commands us to offer first-fruits and only then to make use of them. And from our garments too he has given us a token of remembrance; likewise on cities and dwellings, because they shelter us, and on gates and doors he has commanded us to place the oracles, so that there may be remembrance of God; and on the hands he expressly commands the sign to be bound, clearly showing that every action must be done with justice, remembering our own constitution, and above all the fear of God. He commands us also, when lying down and rising up and walking, to meditate on God's works, not in word only but contemplating with understanding the movement and the impression of ourselves when we go to sleep, and the waking, how divine and incomprehensible is the change between them. The excellence of the reasoning concerning separation and memory has been shown to you, as we explained the parting of the hoof and the chewing of the cud. For it has not been legislated at random or as it occurred to the mind, but for truth and as a sign of right reason. For having given orders about foods and drinks and touch, he commands us in each case neither to do nor to hear anything at random, nor, using the power of speech, to turn to injustice. And the same can be found with the creatures. For the character of the weasel and of mice and things like them, which are expressly named, is harmful. For mice spoil and damage everything, not only for their own food, but so that whatever they set about to harm becomes altogether useless to man. And the weasel's kind is peculiar; for besides what has been said, it has a destructive nature. For it conceives through the ears and gives birth through the mouth. For this reason such a character is unclean for humans. For those who take in things by hearing and give them body by speech, involving others in evils, have produced no ordinary uncleanness, being themselves wholly defiled by the pollution of impiety. And your king does well to put such people to death, as we learn." I said, "I think you mean informers; for he continually subjects them to tortures and painful deaths." "Yes, I mean these; for watchfulness for people's destruction is unholy. Our law commands us to harm no one in word or deed. So much, then, to go through briefly about these things, showing you besides that everything has been regulated for justice, and nothing has been ordained at random through Scripture or in a fabulous way, but so that throughout our whole life and in our actions we may practice justice toward all people, remembering God who rules. Concerning foods, then, and unclean things, reptiles and creatures, the whole account points to justice and just dealings among people." "He seemed to me to have made a good defense on each point. For about the calves, rams, and goats that are offered he said that these must be taken from herds and flocks and be tame, nothing wild, so that those who offer the sacrifices may be conscious of no arrogance in themselves, using the sign given by the one who ordained them. For the one who brings the sacrifice makes an offering of his own soul in its whole character. And about these things, then, I think what was said in the conversation is worth recording, because of the solemnity of the law, which I have chosen to make clear to you, Philocrates, because of your love of learning." These things the high priest explained to the Greeks who came to him about the allegorical meaning in the sacred laws, as to men who were going to meet the translations of the Scriptures that would be published. Aristobulus too, who had a share in the philosophy of Aristotle besides his ancestral one (it is time to hear what he set out about the things said in the sacred books as if about God's limbs; he is the very man mentioned at the beginning of the book of Second Maccabees), in his treatise to King Ptolemy himself also explains it in this way:
Aristobulus on the mention of limbs as belonging to God
"But when enough had been said in answer to the questions set before us, you too, Your Majesty, asked why through our law hands, arm, face, feet, and walking are signified in the case of the divine power. These will receive a fitting explanation and will in no way contradict what we have said before. I want to urge you to take the interpretations in a natural sense and to hold the fitting conception of God, and not to fall into a mythical and human view. For often what our lawgiver Moses wishes to say, he expresses by speaking of other things, I mean things in appearance, while he declares natural dispositions and the constitutions of great matters. Those, then, who are able to understand rightly admire his wisdom and the divine spirit by which he has been proclaimed a prophet; among them are the philosophers mentioned before and many others, and poets, who have taken great starting points from him, for which they too are admired. But to those who have no share of power and understanding, but cling only to the letter, he does not appear to be explaining anything grand. I shall begin to take each thing signified as far as I am able. And if I do not attain the truth or persuade, do not attach the absurdity to the lawgiver, but to me, who am unable to distinguish what he understood. Hands, then, are clearly understood in a more common way even with us. For when you, being king, send out forces, wishing to accomplish something, we say, 'The king has a mighty hand,' the hearers being carried to the power you have. Moses indicates this through our legislation too, saying thus: "With a mighty hand God brought you out of Egypt." And again: "I will stretch out my hand," says God, "and strike the Egyptians." And about the death of the cattle Moses says to Pharaoh: "Look, the hand of the Lord will be on your cattle, and on all that are in the fields, a great death." So the hands are understood of the power of God. For one may understand that all human strength and activities are in the hands. Therefore the lawgiver has well transferred it to the grand sense, saying that the accomplishments of God are his hands. And the constitution of the world might well be called, in the grand sense, the standing of God. For God is over all, and all things have been subjected and have received standing; so that people perceive these things to be unmoved. I mean this: that heaven never became earth, nor earth heaven, nor the sun the shining moon, nor again the moon the sun, nor rivers the sea, nor the sea rivers. And again the same account holds for living creatures. A man will not become a beast, nor a beast a man. And the same holds for the rest, plants and the others: they are unchangeable, though they undergo the same changes and perishings within themselves. The divine standing, then, might be spoken of in this sense, all things being subject to God. And through the writing of the law a divine descent upon the mountain is said to have taken place at the time when he gave the law, so that all might see the working of God. For this descent is plain; and about these things one might explain thus, wishing to preserve the right account of God. For it is shown that the mountain was burning with fire, as the legislation says, because God had descended; and that the sounds of trumpets and the blazing fire were irresistible. For the whole multitude, not less than a million, apart from those under age, being assembled around the mountain, the circuit of it being not less than five days' journey, from every place of sight to all of them gathered around, as they were encamped, the blazing fire was seen; so that the descent was not local; for God is everywhere. But the power of the fire, being wonderful beyond all things because it consumes all, he would not have shown blazing irresistibly yet consuming nothing, unless the power from God were present with it. For though the things growing on that mountain are very readily consumed, it consumed none of them, but the green of all remained untouched by the fire; and the sounds of trumpets were heard more vehemently together with the lightning-like flashing of the fire, though no such instruments were present, nor anyone to sound them, but all things came about by divine arrangement. So it is clear from these things that the divine descent took place, because those who saw it clearly perceived each thing: that the fire burned nothing, as has been said, and that the sounds of the trumpets came about through no human working or construction of instruments, but that God, without anything, displayed his own majesty through all things." So Aristobulus. Since we have gone through the precepts of the sacred laws and the manner of the allegorical meaning among them, it would follow next to point out also that the whole Jewish nation is divided into two parts. The lawgiver led the multitude by the precepts of the laws enjoined in their literal sense, but the other order, of those with trained understanding, he released from this and thought them worthy to attend to a diviner philosophy, raised above the many, and to the contemplation of what is signified by the laws in their meaning. This was a class of Jewish philosophers, whose discipline of life countless outsiders admired, and the most distinguished of their own people thought them worthy of unforgettable memory: Josephus, Philo, and many others. Passing over most of them, I shall be content for now, merely as a sample, with the testimony of Philo, which he has set down about them in many of his own works. Take and read these words from his Apology for the Jews:
Philo on the virtuous life of those Jews who of old time studied philosophy, from his Apology for the Jews
"Our lawgiver trained countless of his disciples for a life in common; they are called Essenes, having been thought worthy of the name, I think, because of their holiness. They live in many cities of Judea, and in many villages, and in large and populous groups. Their choice is not by birth (for birth is not counted in matters of free will), but by zeal for virtue and longing for humanity. No Essene, at any rate, is a mere child, nor even a youth with a first beard, or a young man, since their characters are unstable and change with the immaturity of their age; but they are full-grown men already declining toward old age, no longer flooded by the flow of the body nor led by the passions, but enjoying the true and only real freedom. Their life bears witness to their freedom. No one is willing to acquire any private property at all, not a house, not a slave, not a field, not flocks, nor any of the other supplies and resources of wealth; but placing everything together in common, they enjoy the common benefit of all. They live together, formed into fellowships, companies, and common meals, and continue doing everything for the common good. But different people have different occupations, to which they strip and labor without hesitation, making no excuse of cold, or heat, or any changes of weather; turning to their usual tasks before sunrise, they return when it has scarcely set, rejoicing no less than those tested in athletic contests. For they suppose that whatever they practice are exercises more useful for life and more pleasant to soul and body, and more lasting than those of athletes, since they do not fade with the body's prime. For some of them are farmers, skilled in sowing and cultivation; others are herdsmen, leaders of all kinds of flocks; some tend swarms of bees. Others are craftsmen in the various arts, so as to suffer none of the things that necessary needs compel, putting off nothing that leads to blameless provision. From those so differing, each receives his wages and gives them to the one elected treasurer; and he, on receiving them, at once buys what is needed and provides abundant food and the other things of which human life has need. They live and eat together every day, content with the same things, lovers of frugality, avoiding extravagance as a disease of soul and body. Not only the table but also clothing is common to them. For thick cloaks are laid out for winter and cheap tunics for summer, so that anyone who wishes may easily take whichever he likes, since what belongs to one is considered to belong to all, and conversely what belongs to all to each. Moreover, if any of them falls ill, he is nursed from the common resources, cared for with the attention and concern of all. And the old men, even if they happen to be childless, are accustomed to end their lives in a most fortunate and comfortable old age, as though they had not only many children but very good ones, being thought worthy of privilege and honor by so many who think it right to care for them by free choice rather than by the necessity of nature. Further, perceiving with keener sight what alone or most of all would dissolve their community, they renounced marriage, together with practicing self-control in a special degree. For no Essene takes a wife, because a wife is selfish, excessively jealous, and clever at ensnaring a man's character and leading him on by continual enchantments. For having practiced flattering words and the other forms of play-acting, as on a stage, when she has ensnared the eyes and ears, deceiving them like subjects, she cheats the ruling mind. And if children are born, filled with pride and boldness of speech, she blurts out with more daring audacity what she previously hinted at slyly in irony, and shamelessly forces him to do things each of which is hostile to community. For one who is bound by a wife's love-charms, or anxious for his children by the necessity of nature, is no longer the same toward others, but has become another without noticing it, a slave instead of a free man. So enviable, at any rate, is their life that not only private persons but even great kings, admiring the men, are amazed, and further dignify their dignity with approval and honors. Let these be set down from the treatise mentioned; and from the work That Every Good Man Is Free I shall quote the following:
On the same, from the treatise That every good man is free
"Palestinian Syria too is not barren of nobility of character; it is inhabited by no small part of the very populous nation of the Jews. Some among them are called Essenes, more than four thousand in number; in my opinion, by an inexact form of the Greek language, derived from holiness, since they have become servants of God in the highest degree, not by sacrificing animals, but by resolving to make their own minds fit for holiness. These, first of all, live in villages, avoiding the cities because of the habitual lawlessness of their inhabitants, knowing that from companions, as disease from a pestilential air, an incurable attack arises in souls. Of them, some till the soil, others pursue the crafts that cooperate with peace, benefiting themselves and their neighbors; they do not hoard silver and gold, nor acquire large tracts of land from desire for revenue, but provide only what is needed for the necessary uses of life. For they alone of almost all people, having become without money and without possessions by deliberate practice rather than by lack of good fortune, are considered very rich, judging frugality and contentment, as indeed they are, to be abundance. You would find among them no maker of arrows, javelins, daggers, helmet, breastplate, or shield, nor in general any armorer, engine-maker, or anyone engaged in the business of war, nor even in the things of peace that easily slip into wickedness; for they do not even dream of trade, retail, or shipping, banishing the occasions of greed. There is not a single slave among them, but all are free, serving one another in turn. They condemn masters, not only as unjust, corrupting equality, but also as impious, destroying the ordinance of nature, which, having begotten and nourished all alike as a mother, made them genuine brothers, not in name but in truth. This kinship, scheming greed has overthrown by prevailing, producing estrangement instead of intimacy and enmity instead of friendship. Of philosophy, they leave the logical part, as not necessary for the acquisition of virtue, to word-hunters, and the natural part, as too great for human nature, to talkers about the heavens, except so much of it as concerns the existence of God and the origin of the universe; but the ethical part they work at very thoroughly, using as trainers their ancestral laws, which a human soul could not possibly have conceived without divine inspiration. They are taught these at other times too, but especially on the seventh days. For the seventh day is held sacred; on it they abstain from other work and come to sacred places called synagogues, where they sit in rows by age, the young below the elders, listening with fitting decorum. Then one takes the books and reads, and another of the most experienced comes forward and explains what is not understood; for most things are treated philosophically among them through symbols, with an ancient zeal. They are taught piety, holiness, justice, household management, citizenship, and knowledge of what is truly good, bad, and indifferent, what to choose and what opposites to flee, using a threefold set of rules and standards: love of God, love of virtue, and love of humanity. Of love of God they give countless proofs: continual and unbroken purity throughout their whole life, abstention from oaths, truthfulness, and the belief that the divine is the cause of all good and of no evil. Of love of virtue: freedom from love of money, of fame, and of pleasure, self-control, endurance, and further frugality, simplicity, contentment, modesty, respect for law, steadiness, and all such things. Of love of humanity: goodwill, equality, and a fellowship beyond all description, about which it is not out of place to say a little. First, then, no one's house is his own, but it is common to all. For besides their living together in fellowships, it is open to those of like zeal who come from elsewhere. Then there is one treasury for all and common expenses; common are the garments, common the food, for they hold common meals. For living under one roof, one way of life, and one table would not be found more firmly established in practice among others; and perhaps reasonably so. For whatever they receive as wages for their day's work they do not keep as their own, but put it out in common and make its benefit available to those who wish to use it. And the sick are not neglected because they cannot earn, having ready from the common funds what they need for nursing, so that they may spend with all freedom from a plentiful supply. They show respect and care for the elders, such as genuine children give their parents, nursing them in old age in all abundance with countless hands and thoughts. Such athletes of virtue does philosophy produce, free of the fussiness of Greek terms, setting before them praiseworthy actions as exercises, by which unenslaved freedom is made secure. A proof of this: many rulers at various times have risen up against the country, differing in nature and policy. Some, striving to outdo the savagery of wild beasts in untamability, leaving nothing undone in cruelty, slaughtering their subjects in herds, or even cutting them up alive, like cooks, part by part and limb by limb, did not stop until they themselves suffered the same calamities from the justice that oversees human affairs; others, changing their frenzy and madness into another form of wickedness, practicing unspeakable bitterness, talking quietly, displaying a wrathful character under the pretense of a gentler voice, fawning like venomous dogs, became the causes of incurable evils, and left behind in the cities, as monuments of their impiety and hatred of humanity, the unforgettable calamities of those who suffered. But none, either of the very savage or of the very deceitful and treacherous, was able to bring a charge against the company of the Essenes or Holy Ones; but all, overcome by the men's nobility of character, treated them as independent and free by nature, praising their common meals and their fellowship beyond all description, which is the clearest proof of a perfect and very happy life." Let these, then, set forth the philosophical discipline and way of life among the Jews; the rest of the life, which the divine laws prescribed for the multitude of the whole nation, the discussion has already set out. What, then, remains after this but to show also that the theology of the later Jews agrees with the piety of their ancestors, so that our account of this subject too may be complete? Since the oracles of the inspired Scripture have been set out in the previous book, come, let us now look at the thought of the wise men among the Jews, so that we may learn what sort of men the sons of the Hebrews have been both in theology and in excellence of speech. We must again bring in Philo, from the first of his books On the Law:
Philo concerning God, and that the earth was created
"For some, admiring the world rather than its maker, declared it unbegotten and eternal, impiously and falsely charging God with great inactivity; whereas they ought, on the contrary, to have been struck with amazement at his powers as maker and father, and not to have glorified the world beyond measure. But Moses, having reached the very summit of philosophy and having been taught by oracles most and the most essential things of nature, knew that it is most necessary that among existing things there be an active [cause and a passive one, and that the active] is the mind of the universe, most pure and unmixed, better than knowledge, and better than the good itself and the beautiful itself; while the passive is lifeless and unmoved of itself, but, moved, shaped, and ensouled by the mind, changed into the most perfect work, this world. Those who say it is unbegotten fail to notice that they are cutting away the most useful and necessary of the things that lead to piety: providence. For reason requires that the father and maker care for what has come into being. A father aims at the preservation of his offspring and a craftsman of his works; he drives away by every means whatever is harmful and longs to provide in every way whatever is useful and profitable. But toward what has not come into being, one who did not make it has no attachment. And it is a contentious and unprofitable doctrine that sets up anarchy, as in a city, for this world, which then would have no overseer, umpire, or judge, by whom all things should rightly be managed and governed. But the great Moses, considering the unbegotten to be most foreign to what is visible (for everything perceptible is in becoming and change and never the same), assigned eternity to the invisible and intelligible, as its brother and kin, and gave to the perceptible its proper name, becoming. Since, then, this world is visible and perceptible, it must necessarily also have come into being; hence not without purpose did he record its origin, speaking of God with great reverence." So much on the world's having come into being. The same man also goes through, very vigorously, in his On Providence, the case that the universe is governed by providence, first setting out the objections of the godless and then answering them in order. Though these may seem rather long, I shall set out most of them, abridged, as necessary. He constructs the argument in this way:
The same author on The government of the world by God's Providence
"Do you say there is a providence amid such great confusion and disorder of affairs? For what in human life has been set in order? What, rather, is not full of disorder and ruin? Or are you alone ignorant that good things come in riotous abundance to the worst and most wicked: wealth, reputation, honors among the masses, again power, health, keen senses, beauty, strength, unhindered enjoyment of pleasures, through abundance of resources and the most settled good condition of body; while the lovers and practicers of wisdom and every virtue are, I may almost say, all poor, obscure, without honor, and lowly?" After saying these and countless other things by way of objection, he next resolves the objections as follows: "God is not a tyrant, practicing cruelty and violence and all the deeds of a despot of savage rule, but a king who has taken up a gentle and lawful rule, and governs the whole heaven and world with justice. And for a king there is no more fitting title than father. For what parents are to children in families, a king is to a city, and God to the world, having joined by the unmoved ordinances of nature, in indissoluble union, the two finest things: governance with care. Just as parents do not neglect their prodigal sons, but, taking pity on their misfortune, care for and tend them, considering it the work of implacable enemies to trample on misfortunes, but of friends and kin to lighten their failings; and often they lavish favors on these even more than on the sensible, knowing clearly that for the latter self-control is an abundant resource for prosperity, while for the former their parents are their one hope, and if they fail of it they will lack even necessities; in the same way God too, being the father of rational understanding, cares for all who have been allotted reason, and provides even for those who live blameworthily, at once giving them time for correction and not transgressing his own merciful nature, whose attendants are virtue and love of humanity, worthy to keep watch about the divine house." "Receive this one argument, my soul, as his deposit for now, and another in harmony and accord with it, as follows: may you never be so deceived about the truth as to think any of the wicked happy, even if he is richer than Croesus, sharper-sighted than Lynceus, braver than Milo of Croton, and more beautiful than Ganymede, 'whom the gods carried off to be cupbearer to Zeus, for his beauty.' For having made his own daemon, I mean his own mind, the slave of countless masters, love, desire, pleasure, fear, grief, folly, licentiousness, cowardice, injustice, he could never be happy, even if the many, mistaken in their judgment, think so, bribed by a twin evil, vanity and empty opinion, which are clever at ensnaring and leading astray unballasted souls, over which the greater part of the human race is ruined. But if you were willing to strain the eye of the soul and look around at God's providence, as far as human reason can, gaining a clearer impression of the true good, you will laugh at the things among us that you used to admire. For in the absence of the better, the worse are always honored, inheriting their rank; but when the better appear, the worse withdraw, content with second prizes. Struck with amazement, then, at that godlike good and beautiful, you will surely realize that none of the things mentioned before has in itself been thought worthy by God of the rank of good; for mines of silver and gold are the meanest part of the earth, falling short in every way of the part given over to the growing of crops. For abundance of money is not like food, without which it is impossible to live. The clearest test of these is famine, by which what is truly necessary and useful is proved; for anyone would gladly exchange all the treasures everywhere for a little food. But when an abundance of necessities, flowing in a vast and unchecked flood of produce, pours over the cities, luxuriating in the goods of nature we do not think fit to stop at them alone, but making insolent satiety the guide of life, and stripping for the acquisition of silver and gold, we struggle with everyone from whom we hope to gain anything, like blind men, no longer seeing with the mind, because of love of money, that these are lumps of earth, over which, instead of peace, there is continual and unceasing war. Garments, as the poets somewhere say, are the flower of sheep, and, as regards the craftsman's art, the praise of weavers. And if anyone prides himself on reputation, welcoming the approval of the wicked, let him know that he too is wicked; for like rejoices in like. Let him pray to obtain purifications and be healed in his ears, through which the great diseases fall upon the soul. And let those too who are puffed up with physical vigor learn not to hold their heads high, looking at the countless herds of tame and wild animals, to which strength and might are innate. For it is among the most absurd things for one who is a man to pride himself on the excellences of beasts, and that when he is surpassed by them. And why would anyone in his right mind exult in bodily beauty, which a short time extinguishes before it has bloomed for long, darkening its deceptive prime; especially when he sees the works of painters, sculptors, and other craftsmen in lifeless things admired, in paintings, statues, and embroidered fabrics, esteemed in every city in Greece and the barbarian world? None of these, then, as I said, has been thought worthy by God of the rank of good. And why do we wonder if not by God? Not even by God-beloved men, among whom what is truly good and beautiful is honored, who have been allotted a fortunate nature and have adorned that nature with study and discipline, of whom genuine philosophy is the maker. But those who pursued a spurious education did not even imitate the physicians who treat the body, the soul's slave, though they claimed to heal its mistress. For they, when some fortunate man falls sick, even if he is the great king, pass by everything: the colonnades, the men's quarters, the women's quarters, paintings, silver, gold, coined and uncoined, the abundance of cups and fabrics, the rest of the kings' celebrated finery, and further the crowd of servants and the attendance of friends or kinsmen or subjects in office, and of the bodyguards; reaching the bed, and disregarding what is around the body itself, not admiring the beds inlaid with stones and all of gold, nor the spider-fine or linen-sewn coverings, nor the various kinds of clothing, they even strip off the cloaks about him, touch his hands, and, pressing the veins, examine the pulse exactly, whether it is healthy; and often, drawing up his tunic, they examine whether the belly is overfull, whether the chest is fevered, whether the heart leaps irregularly; and then they apply the proper treatment. So too the philosophers, who profess to practice medicine for the soul, by nature a queen, ought to despise everything that empty opinions fashion for the blind, and, going within, touch the mind itself, to see whether its pulses are uneven and moved against nature by anger; touch the tongue too, whether it is harsh and abusive, whether it is licentious and unrestrained; touch the belly, whether it is swollen with the insatiable shape of desire; and in general search out each of the passions, diseases, and infirmities, whether it seems to be mixed in, so that they may not miss what is suitable for saving it. But as it is, dazzled by the brilliance of external things, and unable to see the intelligible light, they have gone on wandering forever, unable to reach the king, reason, barely arriving at the entrance gates, and admiring and doing obeisance to those at virtue's doors: wealth, reputation, health, and things akin to them. But just as it is the height of madness to use the blind as judges of colors or the deaf of musical sounds, so too to use wicked men as judges of true goods. For they too are maimed in the most important part within them, the mind, over which folly has poured deep darkness. Do we now wonder, then, if Socrates and this or that one of the earnest lived in poverty, men who never practiced anything for gain, and did not even think fit to accept what was offered by wealthy friends or by kings holding out great gifts, because they held the possession of virtue alone to be good and beautiful, and toiling for it, disregarded all other goods? And who would not disregard the spurious for the sake of care for the genuine? And if, having a share of a mortal body and full of human fates, and living with so great a multitude of the unjust that it is not easy even to count them, they were plotted against, why do we blame nature, when we should condemn the cruelty of the attackers? For if they had been born in a pestilential air, they would certainly have fallen ill; and vice is more destructive than a pestilential condition, or no less. Just as, when there is rain, the wise man, if he lives in the open air, must be drenched, and when a cold north wind blows must be pinched with cold, and in the height of summer must be heated (for it is a law of nature that bodies suffer with the yearly changes of season), in the same way one who lives in such places, where murders are committed and other kinds of deadly evils, must necessarily receive the penalties that come from such things. For as for Polycrates, for the terrible wrongs and impieties he committed, retribution met him, and worse was the misery of his life; add that he was punished by the great king and nailed up, fulfilling an oracle: 'I know,' he said, 'that I myself, not long ago, dreamed that I was raised aloft, anointed by the sun and washed by Zeus.' For these riddling sayings expressed through symbols, obscure of old, received their most evident confirmation through the events. And not only at the end, but throughout his whole life from the beginning, he was unaware that his soul was impaled before his body. For always fearing and trembling, he was terrified of the multitude of those plotting against him, knowing well that no one was well disposed, but all were enemies, implacable because of their misery." "The historians of Sicily are witnesses to the endless and continual caution of Dionysius, who say that he suspected even his dearest wife. Here is a sign: he ordered the entrance to his chamber, through which she was to come to him, to be floored with planks, so that she might never creep in unnoticed, but announce her arrival by the noise and clatter of her step; and that she should come in not only unclothed but naked even in those parts that it is not lawful for men to see; and besides this, that the continuous floor along the way be cut through to the width and depth of a farm ditch, for fear that something might be hidden there for a plot, which would be detected by leaps or long strides. With how many evils, then, was he filled who watched and contrived such things against a wife whom he ought to have trusted before all others? He was like those who climb along a sheer mountain to observe the bodies in heaven more clearly, who, having barely reached a projecting ridge, can neither go back, having given up on the height that remains, nor dare to go down, dizzy at the sight of the chasms. For having fallen in love with tyranny as a divine and enviable thing, he thought it safe neither to remain nor to run away. If he remained, unspeakable evils poured upon him one after another; if he wished to flee, the danger to his life hung over him, since people were armed against him, if not in body, at least in mind. The deed Dionysius is said to have used against the man who called the tyrant's life blessed also shows this. Inviting him to a most splendid and costly banquet, he ordered a sharpened axe to be hung over him by a very fine thread. When, having reclined, he suddenly saw it, neither daring to get up because of the tyrant nor able to enjoy any of the things prepared because of fear, disregarding the abundant and rich pleasures, he stretched up his neck and eyes, waiting for his own destruction. Dionysius, perceiving it, said, 'Do you now understand our celebrated and envied life? It is like this, unless one wishes to deceive oneself; for it contains abundant resources, but enjoyment of nothing good, only continual fears, incurable dangers, and a disease worse than a spreading or wasting one, always bringing incurable ruin.' But most of the unreflecting, deceived by the brilliant appearance, suffer the same as those hooked by ugly courtesans, who, hiding their deformity with clothes and gold and eye-paint, for lack of genuine beauty, fashion a counterfeit to ensnare the onlookers. With such misery are the very fortunate filled, the excess of which they themselves judge and do not keep to themselves; but, like those who are compelled to speak of their ailments, they let out the truest cries of suffering, living in the company of punishments both present and expected, like animals fattened for sacrifice. For these too receive the greatest care in order to be slaughtered for a feast of much meat. And there are those who, for impiety concerning money, paid penalties not hidden but manifest; to list them all would be superfluous labor, and one deed suffices as an example of all. It is said by those who wrote the history of the Sacred War in Phocis that, there being a law that a temple-robber be thrown from a cliff, drowned, or burned, the three who plundered the temple at Delphi, Philomelus, Onomarchus, and Phayllus, divided the punishments among them. One, falling from a rough and rocky hill when a rock broke away, was hurled down and stoned; the second, his horse bolting and carrying him down to the sea, was overwhelmed by the sea and sank with the beast into the vast deep; and Phayllus wasted away with consumption (for there are two accounts about him), or perished, burned in the temple at Abae. To say these things happened by chance is most contentious. For if some had been punished at different times or by other penalties, it would be reasonable to plead the instability of fortune; but since all were punished together, at one time, and not by other penalties but by those contained in the laws, it is reasonable to say that they were caught by God's judgment." "And if some of the violent who remain, who rose up against the masses and enslaved not only other peoples but their own homelands too, have gone unpunished, it is no wonder. First, man and God do not judge alike, for we search out what is manifest, but he, entering silently into the recesses of the soul, sees the mind as in bright sunlight, stripping off the trappings in which it is wrapped, viewing its intentions naked, and at once discerning the counterfeit and the genuine. Let us never, then, prefer our own tribunal to the divine and say it is more truthful and better advised; for it is not holy. In the one there are many things that mislead: deceptive senses, treacherous passions, the most grievous siege-works of vices; in the other, nothing that makes for deceit, but justice and truth, by which everything judged is naturally set right in a praiseworthy way. Next, my good friend, do not think that tyranny, at the right time, is unprofitable. For punishment is not unprofitable either; rather, to inflict penalties is either more beneficial to the good or not less. That is why it is included in all rightly written laws, and those who wrote them are praised by all. For what a tyrant is in a people, punishment is in law. When, then, a terrible want and scarcity of virtue seizes cities, and an abundance of folly overflows, then God, eager to drain off the flood of wickedness like the stream of a torrent, so that he may cleanse our race, gives strength and power to those who are by nature fit to rule. For vice is not purged without a harsh soul. And just as cities maintain executioners for murderers, traitors, and temple-robbers, not approving the men's disposition but examining the usefulness of their service, so too the guardian of this great city, the world, sets tyrants over cities as public executioners, wherever he perceives violence, injustice, impiety, and other evils overflowing, so that they may at last stop and abate. Then he thinks fit to pursue the guilty ones too, as having served from an impure and pitiless soul, last of all, as ringleaders. For just as the power of fire, when it has consumed the material laid before it, at last feeds on itself, in the same way those who have taken power over the masses, when they have consumed the cities and made them empty of men, are themselves destroyed in turn, paying the penalty for all. And why do we wonder if through tyrants God drives out vice that has spread in cities, countries, and nations? Often, using no other servants, he does this himself through himself, bringing famine, pestilence, earthquake, and other god-sent things, by which great and populous multitudes perish every day and much of the inhabited world is made desolate, out of care for virtue." "Enough, then, I think, has been said for the present about no wicked person being happy; by which especially it is established that there is providence. But if you are not yet persuaded, state boldly the doubt still lurking within you; for by examining it together we shall both know how the truth stands." And after other things he says again: "God did not make the movements of winds and rains to harm sailors or farmers, as you thought, but for the benefit of our whole race. For with waters he cleanses the earth, and with winds the whole region below the moon; and with both he nourishes, increases, and perfects animals and plants. And if they sometimes harm untimely sailors or farmers, it is no wonder; for these are a small part, while his care is for the whole human race. Just as in the gymnasium oil is provided for benefit, but often the gymnasiarch, because of civic needs, changes the order of the usual hours, by which some of those being anointed have missed out, so too God, caring for the whole world as for a city, is accustomed to make wintry summers and spring-like winters for the benefit of the whole, even if some shipowners or tillers of the earth are going to be harmed by their irregularities. The changes of the elements into one another, then, of which the world was put together and consists, he keeps unhindered, knowing it to be a most necessary work. Frosts and snows and the like follow upon the chilling of the air, and again lightnings and thunders upon the collision and friction of clouds; none of these perhaps is by providence, but rains and winds are causes of life, nourishment, and growth for things on earth, and these are their consequences. Just as, when a gymnasiarch out of generosity often makes lavish expenses, some of the vulgar, being drenched with oil instead of water, let drops fall on the ground, and at once very slippery mud forms; but no one in his right mind would say that the mud and the slipperiness came about by the gymnasiarch's forethought, but that these were incidental consequences of the abundance of his provisions. Again, the rainbow, the halo, and the like are consequences of rays mixing with the clouds, not primary works of nature but incidental to natural works. Yet these too provide a necessary use to the more prudent; for from them they infer and foretell calms and winds, fair weather and storms. Do you not see the colonnades in the city? Most of them face south, so that those walking in them may be warmed in winter and cooled by the breeze in summer. But something else follows, which does not come about by the builder's intention. What is this? The shadows cast from the feet mark the measures of the hours. And fire is a most necessary work of nature, and smoke a consequence of it; yet it too sometimes provides some benefit. In daytime fire signals, at any rate, when the fire is outshone by the sun's rays and becomes faint, the approach of enemies is announced by smoke. The same account as for the rainbow applies to eclipses. For eclipses follow on the divine natures of the sun and moon; and they are signs either of the death of kings or of the destruction of cities, as Pindar too hinted when an eclipse took place, in the words quoted earlier. The circle of the Milky Way shares the same substance as the other stars; and if it is hard to explain, let those accustomed to investigate nature not shrink from it. For the discovery is most useful, and the search in itself most pleasant to lovers of learning. Just as the sun and moon came into being by providence, so did all things in heaven, even if we, unable to track the natures and powers of each, keep silent. Earthquakes, pestilences, strokes of lightning, and the like are said to be sent by God, but in truth they are not, for God is the cause of no evil at all; but the changes of the elements produce these, not as primary works of nature, but following on the necessary and primary ones as consequences. And if some of the more virtuous share in the harm from these, the government of the world is not to be blamed. First, if some are thought good among us, they are not necessarily so in truth, since God's standards are more exact than all those of the human mind. Second, providence loves to look to the things that most hold the world together, as in kingdoms and military commands it looks to the cities and the armies, not to some one neglected and obscure person who happens along. Some say that, just as in the punishment of tyrants it is lawful to put their kinsmen to death too, so that wrongdoing may be checked by the greatness of the penalty, in the same way in pestilential diseases some of the guiltless perish together with the rest, so that others far off may be brought to self-control; besides the fact that those who are in diseased air must fall ill, just as those on a storm-tossed ship are equally in danger. And the fierce beasts came into being (for this must not be passed over in silence, even though, being clever at speaking, you have anticipated and disparaged the defense) for training for the contests of war. For exercises and continual hunts harden and brace bodies well, and, before bodies, accustom souls to disregard sudden attacks of enemies through strength and endurance. But those of peaceful nature may live free from attack not only within walls but even shut up in their chambers, having abundant herds of tame animals to enjoy; since boars, lions, and the like, following their own nature, have been driven far from the city, content to suffer nothing from the plots of men. And if some, out of carelessness, unarmed and unprepared, live fearlessly in the lairs of beasts, let them blame themselves for what happens, not nature, since they neglected to guard themselves when they could. I have seen some at chariot races give way to thoughtlessness: when they should have sat down and watched in order, they stood in the middle, were knocked over by the rush of the four-horse chariots, and were trampled by hooves and wheels, reaping the reward of their folly." "Enough has been said about these things. The venomous reptiles came into being not by providence but as a consequence, as I said before. For they are brought to life when the moisture within changes to greater heat. Some, too, decay has ensouled, as worms are produced by the decay of food and lice by sweat. But whatever has its origin from its own matter by a seminal and primary nature is rightly ascribed to providence. I have also heard two accounts of these as having come into being for man's benefit, which I would not conceal. One was this: some said that venomous creatures help with many medical needs, and that those who practice the art, using them skillfully for what is needed, have an abundance of antidotes for the unexpected rescue of those most dangerously ill; and to this day one can see those who undertake to practice medicine not carelessly or negligently using each of them with attention in compounding their drugs. The other account was not medical but philosophical, it seems. It said that these have been prepared by God as punishments for sinners, as scourges or the sword are for generals and governors; and for this reason, though at rest the rest of the time, they are roused to strength against the condemned, whom nature in her incorruptible court has sentenced to death. That they lurk in houses more is false; for they are seen outside the city in the countryside and deserts, fleeing man as their master. Yet even if it is true, it has a reason. For in corners rubbish and a mass of refuse are heaped up, into which they like to creep, besides the fact that the smell has an attractive power. And if swallows live with us, it is no wonder; for we refrain from hunting them. And the longing for safety is implanted in souls not only rational but also irrational; but none of the animals good to eat lives with us, because of our plots against them, except among those for whom the use of such animals is forbidden by law. There is a city of Syria on the sea named Ascalon. Being there at the time when I was on my way to the ancestral temple to pray and sacrifice, I saw an enormous number of doves at the crossroads and in every house. When I asked the reason, they said it was not lawful to catch them, for their use had been forbidden to the inhabitants from of old. So tame has the creature become through freedom from fear that it is not only under the roof but always at the table, and revels in the truce. In Egypt there is something more wonderful to see. For the man-eating crocodile, most troublesome of beasts, born and reared in the most sacred Nile, perceives, though it lives in the deep, what benefits it. Among those who honor it, it multiplies most; but among those who harm it, it does not appear even in a dream; so that, of those sailing, in one place even the very bold dare not dip the tip of a finger, as they come in herds, while in another even the very timid leap out and swim playfully. In the land of the Cyclopes, since their race is the invention of myth, cultivated fruit does not grow without sowing and farmers, just as nothing comes into being from what is not. Nor is Greece to be accused of being poor and barren; for in it too there is much deep soil. And if the barbarian world excels in fertility, it has more food but is inferior in those who are fed, for whose sake the food exists. For Greece alone truly bears human beings, a heavenly plant and divine offshoot brought to perfection, bringing forth reasoning akin to knowledge. The cause is that the mind is naturally sharpened by the fineness of the air. That is why Heraclitus too says, not beside the mark, 'A dry ray of light is the wisest and best soul.' One might prove it also from the fact that the sober and frugal are more intelligent, while those always filled with drink and food are least prudent, since their reasoning is drowned by what comes upon it. That is why in the barbarian world shoots and stems grow to great height through rich nourishment, and the most prolific of irrational animals, but it produces mind least of all; because the continual and successive exhalations of earth and water have overpowered the air, preventing it from rising. The kinds of fish, birds, and land animals are not charges against nature as inviting us to pleasure, but a serious reproach of our own incontinence. For it was necessary for the completion of the whole, so that there should be order in each part, that the forms of all animals should come into being; but it was not necessary that man, the thing most akin to wisdom, should rush to enjoy them, changing into the savagery of beasts. That is why even now those who care for self-control abstain from all of them altogether, using as relishes green vegetables and the fruits of trees, a most pleasant enjoyment. But for those who think feasting on such things to be according to nature, teachers, correctors, and lawgivers have been set up in the cities, whose concern it was to restrain the immoderation of desires, not permitting the unrestricted use of all things to all. And roses, crocus, and the rest of the variety of flowers came into being for health, not for pleasure. For their powers are immense: they benefit by themselves through their scents, filling all with fragrance, and much more in the medical compounding of drugs. For some, when mixed, make their own powers more evident, just as the union of male and female does for the generation of an animal, neither being able by itself to do what both do together. These things have necessarily been said in answer to the rest of the doubts you raised, able to produce sufficient belief, in those who are not contentious, that God takes care of human affairs." These things I have abridged from the man mentioned, showing at once what the sons of the Hebrews have been like in recent times, and making plain their pious conception of God and their agreement with their ancestors. It is time now to pass on to the testimonies of outsiders on the same matters.
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Preparation for the Gospel, Book 8
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