1 The first volume of this treatise relates to the subject of the birth and bringing up of Moses, and also of his education and of his government of his people, which he governed not merely irreproachably, but in an exceedingly praiseworthy way; and also of all the events that took place in Egypt, and in the travels and journeyings of the nation, and of the events surrounding their crossing of the Red Sea and in the desert, which are beyond all description; and, moreover, of all the labours which he brought to a successful conclusion, and of the inheritances which he divided in shares among his soldiers. But the book we are now about to compose concerns the events that follow those in due order and bear a certain correspondence and connection to them. 2 For some people say, not without some reason and justice, that the only way cities can be expected to improve is if either the kings practise philosophy or philosophers wield royal power. But Moses will be seen not only to have displayed all these powers--I mean the genius of the philosopher and that of the king--to an extraordinary degree at the same time, but also three other powers, one concerned with legislation, the second with discharging the duties of high priest, and the last with the prophetic office; 3 and it is on these subjects that I have now felt compelled to write at length; for I believe that all these things were fittingly united in him, since by the providential will of God he was both king and lawgiver, high priest and prophet, and because in each office he displayed the most eminent wisdom and virtue. We must now show how everything is fittingly united in him. 4 It is fitting for a king to command what ought to be done, and to forbid what ought not to be done; but commanding what ought to be done and prohibiting what ought not to be done belong especially to the law, so that the king is at once a living law, and the law is a just king. 5 But a king and a lawgiver ought to pay attention not only to human things, but also to divine ones, for the affairs of neither kings nor subjects go well without the intervention of divine providence; for this reason a man such as Moses needed to hold the first priesthood, so that with perfectly conducted sacrifices and a perfect knowledge of the proper way to serve God he might ask the merciful God, who listens favourably to prayers, for deliverance from evil and a share in good, both for himself and for the people he was governing. 6 But since there is an infinite variety of both human and divine circumstances unknown to king, lawgiver and chief priest alike, for a man is no less a created and mortal being for holding all these offices, or for being clothed with such a vast and boundless inheritance of honour and happiness, he was also necessarily invested with the gift of prophecy, so that through the providence of God he might learn all the things he could not grasp by his own reason; for what the mind cannot reach, prophecy masters. 7 So the connection of these four powers is beautiful and harmonious, for, all connected and united with one another, they act in concert, giving and receiving benefits in turn, like the virgin graces, whom an unchangeable law of their nature keeps from ever being parted, and of whom one might fairly say what is usually said of the virtues, that he who has one has them all. 8 And first of all we must speak of the matters that concern his character and conduct as a lawgiver. I am well aware that the man who wants to be an excellent and perfect lawgiver ought to practise all the virtues in their complete integrity and perfection, since in the households of his nation some are close relatives and some distant, but all of them are still related to one another. In the same way we must regard some of the virtues as more closely connected with some matters, and others as more remote from them. 9 Four qualities are closely connected and related to the legislative power: humanity, the love of justice, the love of virtue, and the hatred of iniquity; for everyone who has any desire to exercise his talents as a lawgiver is moved by each of these feelings. It is the role of humanity to put forward for adoption the opinions that will benefit the common good, and to teach the advantages which will proceed from them. It is the role of justice to show how we ought to honour equality and to give every man his due according to his merits. It is the role of the love of virtue to embrace the things that are good by nature, and to give everyone who deserves them unlimited means to enjoy happiness without restraint. And it is the role of the hatred of iniquity to reject all who dishonour virtue and to regard them as common enemies of the human race. 10 So it is a very great thing if anyone has managed to attain even one of the qualities just mentioned, and a marvellous thing, it seems, for any one man to have grasped them all, as Moses in fact appears to be the only person ever to have done, having described these virtues very clearly in the commandments he established. 11 And those who are well versed in the sacred scriptures know this, for without these principles innate in him he would never have compiled those scriptures at God's prompting. And he gave those worthy to use them the most admirable of all possessions: faithful copies and imitations of the originals consecrated and enshrined in the soul, which became the laws he revealed and established, displaying most clearly the virtues I have listed and described above. 12 But there is the clearest possible proof that he himself is the most admirable of all the lawgivers who have ever lived in any country, among either the Greeks or the barbarians, and that his laws are the most admirable of all and truly divine, omitting no particular they ought to cover. As for the laws of other lawgivers, 13 anyone who examines them by reason will find them unsettled on countless pretexts, either because of wars, or of tyrannies, or of some other unexpected events which come upon nations through the various changes and reversals of fortune; and very often luxury, overflowing with every kind of excess and boundless extravagance, has overturned laws, because the multitude cannot bear unlimited prosperity but tends to grow insolent through excess, and insolence is opposed to law. 14 But the enactments of this lawgiver are firm, not shaken by commotions, not liable to alteration, but stamped as it were with the seal of nature herself, and they remain firm and lasting from the day they were first promulgated to the present, and we may well hope that they will remain for all future time, immortal, as long as the sun and the moon and the whole heaven and the whole world endure. 15 At any rate, though the nation of the Hebrews went through so many changes, toward both prosperity and its opposite, not one of his commandments, not even the very smallest and least important, was changed, since everyone, it seems, honoured their venerable and godlike character; 16 and laws that neither famine, nor pestilence, nor war, nor sovereign, nor tyrant, nor the rise of any passions or evil feelings against either soul or body, nor any other evil, whether inflicted by God or arising from men, ever dissolved, we can surely never regard as anything but objects of every admiration, excellent beyond all description. 17 That his laws have been kept securely and unchanged from all time is not so entirely wonderful, though it may fairly be considered a thing of great importance in itself; but far more wonderful, it seems, is that not only the Jews but almost every other nation, especially those that set the greatest store by virtue, have devoted themselves to embracing and honouring them, for they have received this special honour above all other codes of laws, an honour given to no other code. 18 A proof of this is that, of all the cities in Greece and in the lands of the barbarians, there is, if one may put it so, generally speaking, not one single city that pays any respect to the laws of another state. In fact, a city hardly keeps to its own laws with any lasting constancy, but continually modifies them, and adapts them to the changes of times and circumstances. 19 The Athenians rejected the customs and laws of the Lacedaemonians, and the Lacedaemonians likewise repudiated the laws of the Athenians. Nor, again, in the countries of the barbarians do the Egyptians keep the laws of the Scythians, nor do the Scythians keep the laws of the Egyptians; nor, in short, do those who live in Asia heed the laws that prevail in Europe, nor do the inhabitants of Europe respect the laws of the Asiatic nations. In short, it is very nearly a universal rule, from where the sun rises to where it sets in the far west, that every country, nation and city is estranged from the laws and customs of foreign nations and states, and that they think they raise the esteem of their own laws by despising those used by other nations. 20 But this is not so with our laws, which Moses has given us; for they draw all nations after them and influence them, barbarians, and Greeks, the inhabitants of continents and islands, the eastern nations and the western, Europe and Asia; in short, the whole habitable world from one extremity to the other. 21 For who does not honour that sacred seventh day, granting as a result rest and relief from labour to himself and to all those close to him, not to free men only but also to slaves, and even to beasts of burden; 22 for the holiday extends even to every kind of animal and to every beast that serves man, like slaves obeying their natural master, and it affects even every species of plant and tree; for on that day it is not allowed to cut or pluck any shoot, any branch or even any leaf, nor is it lawful to gather any fruit; but everything is free and safe on that day and enjoys, as it were, perfect freedom, with no one ever touching it, in obedience to a universal proclamation. 23 Again, who does not pay all due respect and honour to what is called 'the fast,' and especially to the great yearly one, which is more austere and venerable than the ordinary solemn festival at the full moon? At that festival, indeed, much pure wine is drunk, costly entertainments are provided, and everything to do with eating and drinking is supplied in boundless abundance, inflaming and increasing the insatiable pleasures of the belly. 24 But on this fast it is not lawful to take any food or any drink, so that no bodily passion may disturb or hinder the pure workings of the mind at all, for such passions tend to arise from fullness and excess; and so at this time men observe the holy day by propitiating the Father of the universe with holy prayers, in which they customarily ask for pardon for their former sins and for the gaining and enjoyment of new blessings. 25 That the beauty and dignity of the legislation of Moses are honoured not by the Jews only but also by all other nations is plain, both from what has already been said and from what I am about to state. 26 In ancient times the laws were written in the Chaldaean language,⁠a and for a long time they stayed as they were at first, without changing their language, as long as their beauty had not yet made them known to other nations; 27 but when other nations also came to understand them, through the daily, uninterrupted respect shown to them by those to whom they had been given and through their ceaseless observance of their ordinances, their reputation spread over all lands; for what is truly good, even if envy overshadows it for a short time, still shines again in time through the inherent excellence of its nature. Some people, thinking it scandalous that these laws should be known only to one half of the human race, the barbarians, and that the Greek nation should be wholly and entirely ignorant of them, turned their attention to translating them. 28 And since this undertaking was important, serving the general good not only of private persons but also of rulers, who were few in number, it was entrusted to kings, and to the most illustrious of all kings. 29 Ptolemy, surnamed Philadelphus, was the third in succession after Alexander, the monarch who conquered Egypt; and in all the virtues that can be displayed in government he was the most excellent sovereign, not only of his own time but of all who ever lived; so that even now, after so many generations, his fame is still celebrated, since he left many examples and monuments of his magnanimity in the cities and districts of his kingdom, and even now it has become a sort of proverb to call excessive magnificence, and zeal for honour and splendour in preparation, Philadelphian, after his name; 30 and, in a word, the whole family of the Ptolemies was exceedingly eminent and conspicuous above all other royal families, and among the Ptolemies, Philadelphus was the most illustrious; for all the rest put together scarcely performed as many glorious and praiseworthy deeds as this one king did by himself, being, as it were, the leader of the herd and in a sense the head of all the kings. 31 He, then, a sovereign of this kind, having conceived a great admiration and love for the legislation of Moses, formed the idea of having our laws translated into the Greek language; and he immediately sent ambassadors to the high-priest and king of Judea, for they were the same person. 32 When the king had explained his wishes and asked him to choose a number of men perfectly suited to the task to translate the law, the high-priest, naturally greatly pleased, and thinking that the king could only have felt inclined to undertake such a work under the influence of the providence of God, considered carefully and selected the most respected of the Hebrews around him, men who, besides knowing their national scriptures, had also been well educated in Greek literature, and gladly sent them. 33 And when they arrived at the king's court they were hospitably received by the king; and while they feasted, they in turn feasted their host with witty and virtuous conversation; for he tested the wisdom of each of them, putting a succession of new and extraordinary questions to them; and they, since the occasion did not allow long answers, replied with great aptness and precision, as if delivering apophthegms they had prepared in advance. 34 So when they had won his approval, they at once began to carry out the purpose for which that honourable embassy had been sent; and considering among themselves how important a task it was to translate laws divinely given by direct inspiration, since they could not take away anything, add anything or alter anything, but were bound to preserve the original form and character of the whole composition, they looked for the most thoroughly purified of all the places outside the city. For they distrusted the places within the walls, which were filled with all kinds of animals, because of the diseases and deaths of some and the accursed actions of those who were healthy. 35 The island of Pharos lies off Alexandria,⁠b and its neck runs out like a sort of tongue towards the city; it is surrounded by water of no great depth, mostly shoals and shallows, so that the great noise and roar of the beating waves is kept at a considerable distance and so softened. 36 They judged this the most suitable of all the places in the neighbourhood in which to enjoy quiet and tranquillity, so that their minds might commune with the laws alone; and there they stayed, and taking the sacred scriptures, they lifted them up to heaven, and their hands as well, begging God that they might not fail in their purpose. And he granted their prayers, so that the greater part of mankind, or indeed the whole human race, might benefit by using these philosophical and entirely beautiful commandments to correct their lives. 37 So, settled in a secluded place, with nothing present except the elements of nature, the earth, the water, the air and the heaven, whose creation was the first sacred account they were going to explain--for the account of the creation of the world is the beginning of the law--they prophesied like men inspired, not one saying one thing and another something else, but every one of them using the very same nouns and verbs, as if some unseen prompter had suggested all their words to them.⁠c 38 And yet who does not know that every language, and the Greek language above all others, is rich in variety of words, and that it is possible to vary a sentence and paraphrase the same idea, expressing it in many different ways by fitting many different forms of expression to it at different times? But this, they say, did not happen at all in this translation of the law; rather, in every case, exactly corresponding Greek words were used to translate the appropriate Chaldaic words literally, fitted with great precision to the matters to be explained; 39 for just as, I suppose, the things proved in geometry and logic do not admit any variety of explanation, but the proposition set out at the beginning remains unaltered, so, I believe, these men found words precisely and literally corresponding to the things, words which alone, or more than any others, were suited to explain clearly and forcefully the matters they wished to reveal. 40 And there is very clear proof of this; for if Chaldaeans learned the Greek language, and Greeks learned Chaldaean, and each came across those scriptures in both languages, the Chaldaic and the translation, they would admire and revere them both as sisters, or rather as one and the same in both substance and language, regarding these translators not as mere interpreters but as hierophants and prophets who had been granted, in their honest and guileless minds, to keep pace with the purest spirit of Moses. 41 For this reason, even to this very day, a solemn assembly is held and a festival celebrated every year on the island of Pharos,⁠d to which not only the Jews but a great many people of other nations sail across, revering the place where the first light of interpretation shone out, and thanking God for that ancient kindness, which was always young and fresh. 42 And after the prayers and the giving of thanks some of them pitched their tents on the shore, and some of them lay down without any tents in the open air on the sand of the shore, and feasted with their relations and friends, thinking the shore at that time a more beautiful abode than the king's palace with all its furnishings. 43 In this way those admirable, and incomparable, and most desirable laws were made known to all people, whether private individuals or kings, and at a time, too, when the nation had not prospered for a long time. A cloud generally hangs over the affairs of those who are not flourishing, so that little is known of them; 44 and then, if they make a fresh start and begin to improve, how greatly their renown and glory grow! I think that in that case every nation would abandon its own particular customs, utterly disregard its national laws, and change and come over to honouring such a people only; for their laws, shining together with the prosperity of the nation, will obscure all others, just as the rising sun obscures the stars. 45 What has been said here is quite enough to praise Moses abundantly as a lawgiver. But there is another, more extensive praise contained in his own holy writings themselves, and we must now turn to them to show the virtue of the man who compiled them. 46 These writings of Moses may be divided into several parts: one is the historical part, another deals with commands and prohibitions, a part we will speak about at some other time, once we have first carefully examined the part that comes first in the order of our division. 47 Again, the historical part may be subdivided into the account of the creation of the world, and the genealogical part. And the genealogical part, or the history of the different families, may be divided into the accounts of the punishment of the wicked, and of the honours bestowed on the just; we must also explain why he began his history of the giving of the law with these particulars and placed the commandments and prohibitions second; 48 for he was not like an ordinary compiler of history, eager to leave behind records of ancient events as memorials to future ages merely to give pleasure without any benefit; but he traced the most ancient events back to the beginning of the world, starting with the creation of the universe, in order to make known two most necessary principles. First, that the same being was the father and creator of the world and also the lawgiver of truth; secondly, that the man who kept these laws and held closely to fellowship with and obedience to nature would live in keeping with the order of the universe, in perfect harmony and union between his words and his actions and between his actions and his words. 49 Of all other lawgivers, some, the moment they have promulgated explicit commands about what it is right to do and what it is right not to do, go on to set punishments for those who break those laws; but others, who seem to have followed a better plan, have not begun this way, but have first built and established their city in accordance with reason, then fitted to the city they built the constitution they considered best suited and most akin to it, and confirmed that constitution by giving laws. 50 But he, who thought the first of the two courses mentioned above tyrannical and despotic, as indeed it is, since it lays explicit commands on people as if they were slaves rather than free men, without offering them any relief, and thought the second course better but not entirely to be commended, must appear to every judge superior on each of these counts. 51 For in both his commandments and his prohibitions he suggests and recommends rather than commands, trying with many prefaces and closing exhortations to suggest most of the precepts he wants to enforce, wishing to lure men to virtue rather than drive them to it, and regarding the founding of a city made with hands as a starting point beneath the dignity of his laws for the beginning of his work, looking instead, with the sharpest eye of his mind, at the importance and beauty of his whole legislative system, and thinking it too excellent and too divine to be confined, as it were, within any circle of earthly things; and so he has related the creation of that great metropolis, the world, thinking his laws the most fruitful image and likeness of the constitution of the whole world. 52 At any rate, if anyone chooses to examine carefully the powers of each individual law, he will find them all aiming at the harmony of the universe and corresponding to the law of eternal nature: 53 and so he regards as enemies, not of mankind only but of the entire heaven and world, those men who have had boundless prosperity bestowed on them, and everything that produces health of body, riches, glory and all the other external goods of fortune, but who have rejected virtue and chosen crafty wickedness and every other kind of vice, not under compulsion but of their own free will, regarding the greatest of all evils as the greatest possible advantage; and he says that what awaits them is not ordinary punishment but new and extraordinary punishments, which justice, the constant assessor of God, who detests wickedness, devises and inflicts terribly on them, turning against them the most powerful elements of the universe, water and fire, so that at appointed times some are destroyed by floods and others are burnt with fire, and perish in that way. 54 The seas rose, and the rivers, both the ever-flowing ones and the winter torrents, swelled and swept away and carried off all the cities in the plain; and those in the mountain country were destroyed by the incessant, irresistible force of the rain, which ceased neither by day nor by night, 55 and when, at a later period, the human race had grown again from those who had been spared and had become very numerous, since the following generations did not take the calamities that had happened to their ancestors as a lesson in wisdom and moderation, but turned to acts of intemperance and devoted themselves to evil practices, God determined to destroy them with fire. 56 Therefore on this occasion, as the holy scriptures tell us, thunderbolts fell from heaven, and burnt up those wicked men and their cities; and even to this day monuments of the unprecedented destruction that fell on them can be seen in Syria, in the ruins, and ashes, and sulphur, and smoke, and dusky flame that still rises from the ground as if from a fire smouldering beneath; 57 and so it happened that those wicked men were punished with the chastisements mentioned above, while those eminent for virtue and piety prospered, receiving rewards worthy of their virtue. 58 But when the whole of that district was thus burnt, inhabitants and all, by the impetuous rush of the heavenly fire, a single man in the country, a sojourner, was preserved by the providence of God because he had never shared in the transgressions of the natives, though sojourners generally adopted, for their own safety, the customs of the foreign nations among whom they happened to settle, since, if they despised them, they might be in danger from the inhabitants of the land. And yet this man had not reached any perfection of wisdom that would make him worthy of such an honour because of the perfect excellence of his nature; but he was spared only because he did not join the multitude who were inclined to luxury and effeminacy, and who pursued every kind of pleasure and indulged every kind of appetite, gratifying them abundantly, and inflaming them as one might feed a fire by heaping plenty of rough fuel on it. 59 But in the great deluge almost the whole human race, I may say, was destroyed, while the history tells us that the house of Noah alone was kept free from all evil, since the father and head of the house was a man who had never committed any intentional or voluntary wickedness. And it is worthwhile to relate how he was preserved, as the sacred scriptures tell it to us, both because it is extraordinary and so that it may lead to an improvement in our own dispositions and lives. 60 For he, judged fit not only to be spared the common calamity that was to overwhelm the world but also to be himself the beginning of a second generation of men, built, in obedience to the divine commands conveyed to him by the word of God, an enormous structure of wood, three hundred cubits in length, and fifty in width, and thirty in height, and having prepared a number of connected chambers within it, both on the ground floor and in the upper story, the whole building having three stories, and in some parts four, and having prepared food, brought into it some of every kind of animal, beasts and also birds, both male and female, to preserve a means of propagating the different species in the times to come; 61 for he knew that the nature of God was merciful, and that even if the subordinate species were destroyed, a seed of each whole genus would still be kept safe from destruction, to preserve a likeness of the animals that had existed before and to keep anything deliberately called into existence from being utterly destroyed. For this reason everything was now made obedient to Noah; and even beasts, which up to that time had been savage, became gentle, and being tamed, followed him as their shepherd and superintendent; 62 and after they had all entered into the ark, anyone who had seen the entire collection would not have been wrong to say that it was a representation of the whole earth, containing, as it did, every kind of animal, of which the whole earth had previously produced innumerable species, and will produce again in the future. 63 And what was expected happened not long after; for the evil abated, and the destruction caused by the deluge was diminished every day, the rain being checked, and the water which had been spread over the whole earth, being partly dried up by the flame of the sun, and partly returning into the chasms and rivers, and other channels and receptacles in the earth; for, as if God had issued a command to that effect, every nature received back, as a necessary repayment of a loan, what it had lent, that is, every sea, and fountain, and river, received back their waters; and every stream returned into its appropriate channel. 64 But after all the things beneath the moon had been purified in this way, the earth being thus washed and appearing new again, and looking as it had when it was first created, along with the entire universe, Noah came out of his wooden edifice, himself and his wife, and his sons and their wives, and with his family there also came out, in one company, all the races of animals which had gone in with them, for the generation and propagation of similar creatures in the future. 65 These are the rewards and honours for pre-eminent excellence given to good men, through which not only did they themselves and their families find safety, having escaped the greatest dangers that the change in the character of the elements thus aimed against all men all over the earth; but they also became the founders of a new generation, and the chiefs of a second period of the world, being left behind as sparks of the most excellent kind of creatures, namely, of men, man having received supremacy over all earthly creatures of every kind, being a kind of copy of the powers of God, a visible image of his invisible nature, a created image of an uncreated and immortal Original. 66 We have already, then, gone through two parts of the life of Moses, discussing his character as a king and as a lawgiver. We must now consider him in a third light, as fulfilling the office of the priesthood. This man, Moses, practised more than any other man the most important and most indispensable virtue in a chief priest, namely, piety, partly because he was endowed with the most admirable natural qualities; and philosophy, receiving his nature like a fertile field, cultivated and improved it by the contemplation of excellent and beautiful doctrines, and did not dismiss it until all the fruits of virtue were brought to perfection in him, in both words and actions. 67 Therefore he, with a few other men, was dear to God and devoted to God, being inspired by heavenly love, and honouring the Father of the universe above all things, and being honoured by him in return in a special way. And to be allowed to serve the true and living God was an honour well suited to the wise man. The duty of the priesthood is the service of God. Moses, then, was thought worthy of this honour, and there is no greater honour in the whole world; he was instructed by the sacred oracles of God in everything that related to the sacred offices and ministrations. 68 But, in the first place, before assuming that office, it was necessary for him to purify not only his soul but also his body, so that no passion would be connected with it or defile it, and it would be pure of everything of a mortal nature, from all food and drink, and from all connection with women. 69 He had indeed despised this last thing for a long time, and almost from the first moment that he began to prophesy and to feel a divine inspiration, thinking it proper to be ready at all times to give his whole attention to the commands of God. And he neglected all food and drink for forty days on end, evidently because he had better food than that in the contemplations with which he was inspired from above from heaven,⁠e which also improved him first in his mind and secondly in his body, through his soul, increasing in strength and health both of body and soul, so that those who saw him afterwards could not believe that he was the same person. 70 For, having gone up into the loftiest and most sacred mountain in that district in accordance with the divine commands, a mountain which was very difficult to reach and very hard to climb, he is said to have remained there all that time without eating even the food that is necessary for life; and, as I said before, he descended again forty days afterwards, his face much more beautiful than when he went up, so that those who saw him wondered and were amazed, and could no longer bear to look at him with their eyes, since his face shone like the light of the sun. 71 And while he was still staying on the mountain he was initiated into the sacred will of God, being instructed in all the most important matters which relate to his priesthood, the first in order being the commands of God concerning the building of a temple and all its furniture. 72 If, then, they had already occupied the country into which they were migrating, it would have been necessary for them to erect a most magnificent temple of the most costly stone in some place unencumbered with wood, and to build vast walls around it, and abundant and well-furnished houses for the keepers of the temple, calling the place itself the holy city. 73 But, as they were still wandering in the wilderness, it was more suitable for people who had no settled home yet to have a moveable temple, so that, in all their journeyings, and military expeditions, and encampments, they might be able to offer up sacrifices, and might not feel the lack of any of the things which related to their holy ministrations, and which those who live in cities need. 74 Therefore Moses now determined to build a tabernacle, a most holy edifice, whose furniture he was taught to supply through precise commands that God gave him while he was on the mountain, contemplating with his soul the incorporeal patterns of bodies which were about to be made perfect, and he was bound to make the furniture in their exact likeness, so that it might be an imitation, perceptible to the outward senses, of an archetypal sketch and pattern that only the intellect can perceive; 75 for it was suitable and consistent that the task of preparing and furnishing the temple be entrusted to the real high priest, so that he might with all due perfection and propriety make all his ministrations in performing his sacred duties correspond to the works which he was now to make. 76 So the general form of the model was stamped on the mind of the prophet, having been accurately painted and fashioned beforehand, invisibly and without any materials, in species that were not apparent to the eye; and the work was completed in the likeness of the model, the maker giving an accurate representation of the impression in material substances corresponding to each part of the model, 77 and the building was designed as follows. There were forty-eight pillars of cedar, which is the most incorruptible of all woods, cut out of solid trunks of great beauty, and they were all veneered with thick gold. Then under each pillar two silver pedestals were placed to support it, and on top of each one golden capital was placed; 78 and of these pillars the architect arranged forty along the length of the tabernacle, one half of them, or twenty, on each side, placing nothing between them, but arranging them and uniting them all in regular order, and close together, so that they might present the appearance of one solid wall; and he arranged the other eight along the inner breadth, placing six in the middle space, and two at the extreme corners, one on each side at the right and left of the centre. Again, at the entrance he placed four others, like the first in all other respects except that they had only one pedestal instead of two, as those opposite to them had, and behind them he placed five more on the outside, which differed only in their pedestals, for the pedestals of these last were made of brass. 79 So all the pillars of the tabernacle taken together, besides the two at the corners which could not be seen, were fifty-five in number, all conspicuous, which is the number made by adding all the numbers from the unit to the complete and perfect decade. 80 And if anyone is inclined to count separately those five pillars of the outer vestibule in the open air, as being in what was called the outer court, there will then be left that most holy number of fifty, being the power of a rectangular triangle, which is the foundation of the creation of the universe, and is here entirely completed by the pillars inside the tabernacle; there being first of all forty, twenty on either side, and those in the middle being six, without counting those which were out of sight and concealed at the corners, and those opposite to the entrance, from which the veil was suspended, being four; 81 and I will now explain why I count the other five with the first fifty, and again why I separate them from the fifty. The number five is the number of the external senses, and the external sense in man at one time inclines towards external things, and at another turns back again to the mind, being as it were a kind of handmaid of the laws of its nature; and for this reason the architect has here allotted a central position to the five pillars, for those inside them leaned towards the innermost shrine of the tabernacle, which, symbolically, is perceptible only to the intellect; and the outermost pillars, which are in the open air, and in the outer courtyard, and which are also perceptible by the external senses, 82 and this is why they are said to have differed from the others only in the pedestals, for they were made of brass. But since the mind is the principal thing in us, having authority over the external senses, and since the object of the external senses is the extremity, and as it were the pedestal or foundation of it, the architect has likened the mind to gold, and the object of the external sense to brass. 83 And these are the measurements of the pillars: they are ten cubits in length, and five cubits and a half in width, so that the tabernacle may be seen to have equal dimensions in all its parts. 84 Moreover the architect surrounded the tabernacle with very beautiful woven work of all kinds, employing work of hyacinth colour, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen for the tapestry; for he had ten cloths made, which in the sacred scriptures he has called curtains, of the kinds which I have just mentioned, each of them twenty-eight cubits in length and four cubits in width, so as to contain the complete number of the decade, and also the number four, which is the essence of the decade, and also the number twenty-eight, which is likewise a perfect number, being equal to its parts; and also the number forty, the most prolific and productive of all numbers, in which, they say, man was fashioned in the workshop of nature. 85 So the twenty-eight cubits of the curtains are distributed like this: there are ten along the roof, for that is the width of the tabernacle, and the rest are placed along the sides, on each side nine, which are extended so as to cover and conceal the pillars, with one cubit from the floor left uncovered so that the beautiful, holy-looking embroidery would not drag. 86 And of the forty which are included in the calculation and made up of the width of the ten curtains, the length takes thirty, since that is the length of the tabernacle, and the chamber behind takes nine. And the remaining one is in the outer vestibule, so that it may be the bond to unite the whole circumference. 87 And the outer vestibule is overshadowed by the veil; and the curtains themselves are nearly the same as veils, not only because they cover the roof and the walls, but also because they are woven and embroidered with the same figures, and with hyacinth colour, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. And the veil, and also what was called the covering, were made of the same materials. The one inside was placed along the five pillars, so that the innermost shrine might be concealed; and the one outside was placed along the five pillars, so that no one who was not a holy man might be able to see the holy rites and ceremonies from any secret or distant place. 88 Moreover, he chose the materials of this embroidery, selecting with great care what was most excellent out of an infinite quantity, choosing materials equal in number to the elements of which the world was made, and having a direct relation to them; the elements being the earth and the water, and the air and the fire. For the fine flax is produced from the earth, and the purple from the water, and the hyacinth colour is compared to the air (for, by nature, it is black), and the scarlet is likened to fire, because each is red;⁠f for it necessarily followed that those who were preparing a temple made by hands for the Father and Ruler of the universe must take essences similar to those from which he made the universe itself. 89 So the tabernacle was built in the way described here, like a holy temple. And all around it a sacred precinct extended a hundred cubits in length and fifty cubits in width, having pillars all placed at an equal distance of five cubits from one another, so that there were sixty pillars in all; and they were divided so that forty were placed along the length and twenty along the breadth of the tabernacle, one half on each side. 90 And the pillars were made of cedar within and of silver on the outer surface; and the pedestals of all of them were made of brass, and their height was five cubits. For the architect thought it proper to make the height of what was called the hall equal to one half of the entire length, so that the tabernacle might appear to be elevated to double its real height. And there were thin curtains fitted to the pillars along their entire length and breadth, like so many sails, so that no one who was not pure might be able to enter. 91 And the layout was as follows. In the middle was placed a tent thirty cubits long and ten cubits wide, including the depth of the pillars. And it was distant from the centre space by three equal intervals, two being at the sides and one along the back chamber. And the interval between measured twenty cubits. But along the vestibule, as was natural, because of the number of those who entered, the distance between them was increased and extended to fifty cubits and more; for in this way the hundred pillars of the hall were intended to be made up, twenty being along the chamber behind, and the thirty that the tent contained being included in the same calculation as the fifty at the entrances; 92 for the outer vestibule of the tabernacle was placed as a sort of boundary in the middle of the two fifties, the one, I mean, towards the east where the entrance was, and the other on the west, the direction in which the length of the tabernacle and the surrounding wall behind lay. 93 Moreover, another outer vestibule, of great size and exceptional beauty, was made at the beginning of the entrance into the hall, by means of four pillars, along which the embroidered curtain was stretched in the same way as the inner curtains were stretched along the tabernacle, and it too was made of similar materials; 94 and along with this many sacred vessels were also made, an ark, and a candlestick, and a table, and an altar of incense, and an altar of sacrifice. The altar of sacrifice was placed in the open air, directly opposite the entrances of the tabernacle, and just as far from it as was necessary to give the ministering officers room to perform the sacrifices that were offered up every day. 95 But the ark was in the innermost shrine, in the inaccessible holy of holies, behind curtains; it was gilded in a most costly and magnificent manner inside and out, and its covering was like what the sacred scriptures call the mercy-seat. 96 Its length and width are accurately described, but its depth is not mentioned, since it is chiefly compared to and resembles a geometrical surface; so that it appears to be an emblem, if looked at physically, of the merciful power of God; and, if regarded from a moral point of view, of a certain intellect spontaneously propitious to itself, which is especially eager to contract and destroy, by means of the love of simplicity united with knowledge, that vain opinion which raises itself up to an unreasonable height and puffs itself up without any grounds. 97 But the ark is the depository of the laws, for in it are placed the holy oracles of God, which were given to Moses; and the covering of the ark, which is called the mercy-seat, is a foundation for two winged creatures to rest upon, which in the native language of the Hebrews are called cherubim, a word the Greeks would translate as vast knowledge and science. 98 Some people say that these cherubim are the symbols of the two hemispheres, placed opposite and facing one another, the one beneath the earth and the other above the earth, for the whole heaven is endowed with wings. 99 But I myself would say that what is represented here in a figure is the two most ancient and supreme powers of the divine God, namely, his creative and his kingly power; and his creative power is called God; by which he arranged, and created, and adorned this universe, and his kingly power is called Lord, by which he rules over the beings whom he has created, and governs them with justice and firmness; 100 for he, being the only true living God, is also really the Creator of the world; since he brought things that did not exist into being; and he is also a king by nature, because no one can rule over created beings more justly than the one who created them. 101 And the space between the five pillars and the four pillars is, properly speaking, the space before the temple, cut off by two curtains of woven work, the inner one called the veil and the outer one called the covering: and the remaining three of the vessels I have listed were placed as follows:--The altar of incense was placed in the middle, between earth and water, as a symbol of the gratitude that it was fitting to offer up for the things that had been done for the Hebrews on both these elements, for these elements have been allotted the central position in the world. 102 The candlestick was placed on the southern side of the tabernacle, since by it the maker indicates figuratively the motions of the stars which give light; for the sun, and the moon, and the rest of the stars, being all at a great distance from the northern parts of the universe, make all their revolutions in the south. And from this candlestick six branches extended, three on each side, projecting from the candlestick in the centre, so as to make seven altogether; 103 and in all the seven there were seven candles and seven lights, symbols of the seven stars that men versed in natural philosophy call planets; for the sun, like the candlestick, being placed in the middle of the other six, in the fourth rank, gives light to the three planets which are above him, and to the same number below him, adapting to circumstances the musical and truly divine instrument. 104 And the table, on which bread and salt are laid, was placed on the northern side, since the north is the most productive of winds, and also because all nourishment comes from heaven and earth, the one giving rain, and the other bringing all seeds to perfection through irrigation with water; 105 for the symbols of heaven and earth are placed side by side, as the holy scripture shows, the candlestick being the symbol of heaven, and what is truly called the altar of incense, on which all the fumigatory offerings are made, being the emblem of the things of earth. 106 But it became usual to call the altar which was in the open air the altar of sacrifice, since it preserved and took care of the sacrifices; indicating figuratively the consuming power of these things, and not the lambs and different parts of the victims which were offered, and which by their nature were made to be destroyed by fire, but the intention of the one who offered them; 107 for if the man who made the offerings was foolish and ignorant, the sacrifices were no sacrifices, the victims were not sacred or hallowed, the prayers were ill-omened, and liable to be answered by utter destruction, for even when they appear to be received, they produce no remission of sins but only a reminder of them. 108 But if the man who offers the sacrifice is pure of heart and just, then the sacrifice remains firm, even if the flesh of the victim is consumed, or rather, I might say, even if no victim is offered up at all; for what can a real and true sacrifice be except the piety of a soul that loves God? Its gratitude is blessed with immortality and, without being recorded in writing, is engraved on a pillar in the mind of God, made as everlasting as the sun, and moon, and the whole world. 109 After these things the architect of the tabernacle prepared a sacred dress for the one who was to be appointed high priest, whose embroidery was a most exceptionally beautiful and admirable work; and the robe was two-fold, one part being called the under-robe and the other the robe over the shoulders. 110 The under-robe was simpler in form and character, for it was entirely of hyacinthine colours, except the lowest and exterior portions, and these were ornamented with golden pomegranates, and bells, and wreaths of flowers; 111 but the robe over the shoulders or mantle was a most beautiful and skilful work, and was made with the most perfect skill from all the kinds of material mentioned above, of hyacinth colour, and purple, and fine linen, and scarlet, with gold thread entwined and embroidered in it. For the leaves were divided into fine hairs, and woven in with every thread, 112 and on the collar two stones were fitted, costly emeralds of exceptional value, on which the names of the patriarchs of the tribes were engraved, six on each, making twelve in all; and on the breast were twelve other precious stones, differing in colour like seals, in four rows of three stones each, and these were fitted into what was called the logeum; 113 and the logeum was made square and double, as a sort of foundation, so that it might bear on it, as an image, two virtues, manifestation and truth; and the whole was fastened to the mantle by fine golden chains, fastened so that it could never come loose; 114 and a golden leaf was made like a crown, having a name of four letters engraved on it which may only be mentioned or heard by holy men whose ears and tongues have been purified by wisdom, and by no one else at all, anywhere. 115 And this holy prophet Moses calls the name a name of four letters, perhaps making them symbols of the primary numbers, the unit, the number two, the number three, the number four: since all things are comprised in the number four, namely, a point, and a line, and a surface, and a solid, and the measures of all things, and the most excellent symphonies of music, and the diatessaron in the sesquitertial proportion, and the chord in fifths, in the ratio of one and a half to one, and the diapason in the double ratio, and the double diapason in the fourfold ratio. Moreover, the number four has countless other virtues as well, most of which we have discussed accurately in our dissertation on numbers. 116 And in it there was a mitre, so that the leaf would not touch the head; and a cidaris was also made, for the kings of the eastern countries customarily wear a cidaris instead of a diadem. 117 Such, then, is the dress of the high priest. But we must not fail to mention the meaning it conceals beneath, both as a whole and in its parts. As a whole it is a copy and representation of the world; and the parts are a representation of the separate parts of the world. 118 And we must begin with the long robe reaching down to the feet of the wearer. This tunic is entirely of the colour of a hyacinth, so as to represent the air; for by nature the air is black, and in a measure it reaches down from the highest parts to the feet, stretching from the parts around the moon as far as the ends of the earth, and diffused everywhere. For this reason too, the tunic reaches from the chest to the feet, and is spread over the whole body, 119 and attached to it around the ankles is a fringe of pomegranates, and flowers, and bells. Now the flowers are an emblem of the earth; for it is from the earth that all flowers spring and bloom; but the pomegranates (rhoiskoi) are a symbol of water, since, indeed, they derive their name from the flowing (rhysis) of water, and are very appropriately named; and the bells are the emblem of the concord and harmony that exist between these things; for neither the earth without the water, nor the water without the earthly substance, is sufficient to produce anything; that can only be done by the meeting and combination of both. 120 And the place itself is the clearest possible evidence of what is meant to be expressed here; for as the pomegranates, and the flowers, and the bells, are placed in the hem of the garment which reaches to the feet, so too the things of which they are symbols, namely, the earth and water, have been assigned the lowest position in the world, and being in strict accord with the harmony of the universe, they display their own particular powers in definite periods of time and suitable seasons. 121 Of the three elements out of which and in which all the different kinds of perishable things perceptible to the outward senses are formed, namely, the air, the water and the earth, the garment reaching down to the feet, together with the ornaments attached to it around the ankles, has been plainly shown to provide appropriate symbols; for as the tunic is one, and as the three elements mentioned above are all of one species, since they all have all their revolutions and changes beneath the moon, and as the pomegranates and the flowers are attached to the garment, so in a certain way the earth and the water may be said to be attached to and suspended from the air, for the air is their chariot. 122 And our argument will be able to produce twenty probable reasons to show that the mantle over the shoulders is an emblem of heaven. For in the first place, the two emeralds on the shoulder-blades, which are two round stones, are, in the opinion of some people who have studied the subject, emblems of the stars that are the rulers of night and day, namely, the sun and moon; or rather, as one might argue more correctly and closer to the truth, they are the emblems of the two hemispheres; for, like those two stones, the portion below the earth and the portion above the earth are equal, and neither of them can by nature either increase or diminish like the moon. 123 And the colour of the stones is further evidence in favour of my view; for to the glance of the eye the heaven does look like an emerald; and it follows necessarily that six names are engraved on each of the stones, because each of the hemispheres cuts the zodiac in two parts, and in this way contains within itself six animals. 124 As for the twelve stones on the breast, which are not like one another in colour and are divided into four rows of three stones each, what else can they be emblems of except the circle of the zodiac? For that also is divided into four parts, each consisting of three animals, by which divisions it makes up the seasons of the year, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, distinguishing the four changes, the two solstices, and the two equinoxes, each of which has its limit of three signs of this zodiac, by the revolutions of the sun, according to that unchangeable, and most lasting, and really divine ratio which exists in numbers; 125 and for this reason they attached it to what is very fittingly called the logeum. For all the changes of the year and the seasons are arranged by well-defined, and stated, and firm reason; and, though this seems a most extraordinary and incredible thing, by their seasonable changes they display their undeviating and everlasting permanence and durability. 126 And it is said very correctly, and very beautifully too, that the twelve stones all differ in colour, and that none of them resembles another; for in the zodiac too each animal produces the colour that is akin to it and belongs to it, both in the air, and in the earth, and in the water; and it produces it likewise in all the affections which move them, and in all kinds of animals and of plants. 127 And this logeum is quite rightly described as double, for reason is double, both in the universe and in human nature. In the universe there is the reason concerned with the incorporeal forms, which serve as patterns, from which the world perceptible only by the intellect was made, and also the reason concerned with visible objects, which are copies and imitations of those forms, and from which the world perceptible by the outward senses was made. Again, in man there is one reason that is held within and another that finds expression in speech: the first is like a spring, and the second (the spoken one) flows from it; the seat of the first is the dominant part, that is, the mind, but the seat of the spoken one is the tongue, the mouth and all the other organs of the voice. 128 And the architect made the logeum square, indicating by a very beautiful figure that both the reason of nature and the reason of man ought to penetrate everywhere and never waver in any case; that is why he also assigned to it the two virtues already listed, manifestation and truth; for the reason of nature is true and fitted to make everything manifest and to explain it; and the reason of the wise man, imitating it, ought naturally and fittingly to be completely sincere, honouring truth and not hiding out of envy anything whose knowledge could benefit those to whom it is explained; 129 and he has also assigned the two fitting virtues to the two kinds of reason in each of us, namely the spoken and the concealed, giving clarity of manifestation to the spoken one and truth to the one concealed in the mind; for it suits the mind to admit no error or falsehood, and it suits explanation to hinder nothing that can contribute to the most accurate manifestation. 130 Therefore there is no benefit in reason that spends itself in dignified and pompous language about things that are good and desirable unless consistent practice of fitting actions follows it; that is why the architect fastened the logeum to the robe worn over the shoulder, so that it may never come loose, since he does not approve of words being separated from actions; for he presents the shoulder as the emblem of energy and action. 131 These, then, are the figurative meanings he wishes to convey by the sacred vestments of the high priest; and instead of a diadem he places a cidaris on the head, because he thinks it right that the man consecrated to God as his high priest should, while he exercises his office, be superior to all men, not only to all private individuals but even to all kings; 132 and above this cidaris is a golden leaf engraved with four letters, which they say indicate the name of the living God, since nothing that exists could exist without God being invoked; for it is his goodness and his power combined with mercy that harmonize and unite all things. 133 Equipped in this way, then, the high priest is properly prepared to perform all the sacred ceremonies, so that whenever he enters the temple to offer the prayers and sacrifices customary in his nation, the whole world may enter with him through the imitations of it that he wears: the garment reaching to his feet is the imitation of the air, the pomegranate of the water, the flowery hem of the earth, and the scarlet dye of his robe is the emblem of fire; the mantle over his shoulders represents heaven itself; the round emeralds on the shoulder-blades, each engraved with six characters standing for six signs of the zodiac, further indicate the two hemispheres; and the twelve stones arranged on the breast in four rows of three, namely the logeum, are also an emblem of the reason that holds together and regulates the universe. 134 For the man consecrated to the Father of the world had to have as a paraclete his son, the being most perfect in all virtue, to obtain forgiveness of sins and a supply of unlimited blessings; 135 perhaps he is also warning the servant of God in advance that, even if he cannot make himself worthy of the Creator of the world, he should at least labour incessantly to make himself worthy of the world itself; for he is clothed in its image, and from the moment he puts it on he is bound to carry its pattern in his mind, so that he is in a sense changed from the nature of a man into the nature of the world and, if one may say so (and one may by all means and at all times speak the plain truth in sincerity), becomes a little world himself. 136 Again, outside the outer vestibule, at the entrance, is a bronze laver. The architect did not make it from mere raw material, as is very common, but from vessels that had been made with great care for other purposes, which the women contributed with all possible zeal and eagerness, vying with one another and competing with the men themselves in piety; they had resolved to enter a glorious contest and to exert themselves to the utmost of their power so as not to fall short of the holiness of the men. 137 For though no one required it of them, they contributed, out of their own spontaneous zeal and earnestness, the mirrors they used to adorn and set off their beauty, as the most fitting first fruits of their modesty, of the purity of their married life and, one might say, of the beauty of their souls. 138 The maker then decided to accept these offerings, melt them down and make nothing from them but the laver, so that the priests about to enter the temple might draw from it water of purification for performing the sacred ministrations appointed to them, washing above all their feet and their hands as a symbol of their irreproachable life and of conduct that keeps itself pure in every kind of praiseworthy action, travelling not along the rough road of wickedness, which might more properly be called no road at all, but straight along the level and direct path of virtue. 139 Let him remember, he says: let anyone about to be sprinkled with the water of purification from this laver remember that this vessel was made from mirrors, so that he himself may look into his own mind as into a mirror; and if he sees in it any deformity arising from some irrational agitation, or from a pleasure that excites us and stirs us up against reason, or from a pain that misleads us and turns us from our purpose of keeping to the straight road, or from a desire that lures us and even drags us by force after present pleasures, he seeks to relieve and cure it, desiring only the beauty that is genuine and unadulterated. 140 For the beauty of the body consists in symmetry of parts, a good complexion and a healthy firmness of flesh, and it stays in its prime for only a short time; but the beauty of the mind consists in a harmony of doctrines and a perfect accord of virtues, which do not fade or decline with the passing of time but, as long as they last at all, constantly gain fresh vigour and renewed youth, set off by the preeminent complexion of truth and by the agreement of its words with its actions, of its actions with its words, and also of its intentions with both. 141 And when he had been taught the patterns of the sacred tabernacle, and had in turn taught those gifted with sharp understanding and well suited by nature to understand and carry out the works that absolutely had to be made, then, naturally, once the temple had been built and finished, it was also fitting that the most suitable persons should be appointed as priests and instructed in how they ought to offer their sacrifices and perform their sacred ministrations. 142 Accordingly, Moses chose his brother out of all men to be high priest because of his superior virtue, and appointed the sons of his brother as priests, giving precedence not to his own family but to the piety and holiness he saw in those men; the clearest proof of this is that he did not think either of his own sons worthy of this honour (and he had two), whereas he would certainly have appointed both of them if he had attached any importance to love of family; 143 and he appointed them with the unanimous consent of the whole nation, as the sacred scriptures record, a most novel procedure and one especially worth mentioning; first he washed them all over with the purest, life-giving spring water, and then he gave them their sacred vestments, giving his brother the robe reaching down to his feet and the mantle covering the shoulders, a sort of breast-plate, an embroidered robe adorned with all kinds of figures and representing the universe. And to all his nephews he gave linen tunics, sashes and trousers; 144 the sashes were fastened tight round the loose waists of the tunics so that the wearers might be unimpeded and ready for all their sacred ministrations; and the trousers were given so that nothing that ought to be hidden might be seen, especially when they were going up to the altar or coming down from the high place and doing everything with earnestness and speed. 145 For if their equipment had not been seen to so carefully, both to guard against the uncertain future and to provide for energetic promptness in the sacred ministrations, the men would have appeared naked, unable to keep the seemly order required of holy men dedicated to the service of God. 146 And when he had furnished them with proper vestments in this way, he took a very fragrant ointment made with the skill of the perfumer and first anointed the open-air altar and the laver, sprinkling it with the perfume seven times; after that he anointed the tabernacle and every one of the sacred vessels, the ark, and the candlestick, and the altar of incense, and the table, and the censers, and the vials, and all the other things either necessary or useful for the sacrifices; and last of all he brought the high priest close to him and anointed his head with plenty of oil. 147 When he had done all this, in strict accordance with what was holy, he ordered a heifer and two rams to be brought; the heifer he was to sacrifice for the remission of sins, indicating by a figure that sin is inborn in every created being, however good, simply because it is created, and that God must therefore be propitiated on its behalf with prayers and sacrifices, so that he is not provoked to punish it. 148 And of the rams, he required one for a whole burnt-offering of gratitude for the successful ordering of all things, in which every individual has the share that suits him, benefiting from all the elements: enjoying the earth as his home and for the food it yields; the water for drinking, washing and sailing on; the air for breathing, for perceiving the objects of our outward senses (since the air is the medium in which they all operate) and for the seasons of the year; and enjoying fire, both the kind used for cooking food and for warming oneself and the heavenly kind that serves for light and for all the objects of sight. 149 He used the other ram to complete the purification of the priests, and fittingly called it the ram of perfection, since the priests were to exercise their office by teaching proper and fitting rites and ceremonies to the servants and ministers of God. 150 And he took the blood and poured some of it as a libation all round the altar, and part of it he caught in a vial held underneath and with it anointed three parts of the body of the initiated priests, the tip of the ear, the tip of the hand and the tip of the foot, all on the right side, signifying by this that the perfect man must be pure in every word and action and in his whole life, for the hearing judges his words, the hand is the symbol of action, and the foot of the way a man walks in life; 151 and since each of these members is an extremity of the body and is also on the right side, we must take this figure to indicate that improvement in everything comes through a certain dexterity, which is a portion of supreme happiness and the true aim of life, which a man must necessarily labour to attain and to which he ought to direct all his actions, aiming at it in his life as archers aim at a target. 152 Accordingly, he first anointed the three parts of the bodies of the priests already mentioned with the unmixed blood of one of the victims, namely the one called the ram of perfection; and afterwards he took some of the blood on the altar, which was the blood of all the victims mixed together, and some of the ointment already mentioned that the ointment makers had prepared, mixed some of the oil with the mixed blood of the different victims, and sprinkled it on the priests and their garments, intending them to share not only in the purity that was external and in the open air but also in the purity of the inmost shrine, since they were about to minister within the temple. And all the things within the temple were anointed with oil. 153 And when they had brought further sacrifices besides the earlier ones, some offered by the priests for themselves and some by the elders on behalf of the whole nation, Moses entered the tabernacle leading his brother by the hand (it was the eighth and last day of the festival, for the seven previous days had been devoted to the initiation of the hierophants), and he now initiated both him and his nephews. And when he had gone in, he taught him, as a learned teacher might instruct an ignorant pupil, how the high priest ought to perform the ministrations carried out inside the temple. 154 Then, when they had both come out and held up their hands in front of their heads, they offered with a pure and holy mind the prayers that were suitable and fitting for the nation. And while they were still praying, a most marvellous wonder happened: out of the inmost shrine, whether it was a portion of the purest aether or the air had dissolved into fire through some natural change of the elements, a body of flame suddenly shone forth, swept down on the altar with impetuous violence and consumed everything on it, in order, I think, to show as clearly as possible that nothing that had been done had been done without the special providence of God. 155 For it was natural that the holy place should receive a special honour, not only through the things men make with their own work but also through that purest of all essences, fire, so that the ordinary fire men use might not touch the altar, perhaps because it is defiled by ten thousand impurities. 156 For it is used not only on irrational animals roasted or boiled to appease our miserable bellies unjustly, but also on men slain in hostile attacks, not merely in small groups of three or four but in great hosts. 157 At any rate, fire-bearing arrows have been shot at vast fleets before now and burned them, and fire has destroyed whole cities, which blazed until they were consumed down to their very foundations and reduced to ashes, leaving no trace whatever of where they once stood. 158 This, it seems to me, was why God rejected from his sacred altar, as defiled, the fire put to common uses, and instead rained down celestial flame from heaven, to distinguish holy things from profane and to separate what belongs to man from what belongs to God; for it was fitting that a more incorruptible essence of fire than the one serving the common purposes of life should be set apart for sacrifices. 159 And since many sacrifices had to be offered every day, especially on all days of solemn assembly and festival, both for each individual separately and for the whole nation together, for countless different reasons, because the nation was very populous and very pious, a multitude of temple keepers was also needed for the sacred and subordinate ministrations. 160 And again, these officers were chosen in a novel way, not the ordinary one. God chose one of the twelve tribes for its superior excellence and appointed it to supply the keepers of the temple, giving it rewards and special honours in return for its pious conduct. And the deed it performed was as follows. 161 When Moses had gone up the nearby mountain and stayed several days alone with God, the fickle-minded among the people, thinking his absence a favourable opportunity, as if they no longer had any ruler at all, rushed headlong into impiety and, forgetting the holiness of the living God, became eager imitators of the Egyptian inventions. 162 Then they made a golden calf in imitation of the animal that seemed most sacred in that region, offered unholy sacrifices, set up blasphemous dances and sang hymns no different from dirges, and, filled with strong wine, gave themselves up to a twofold intoxication, the intoxication of wine and the intoxication of folly, revelling and spending the night in feasting; and with no thought for the future they passed their time in pleasant sins, though justice had her eye on them, seeing them while they refused to see, and deciding what punishments they deserved. 163 But when the continued outcries in the camp, from men gathered in large, dense crowds, carried over a great distance, so that the sound reached even the summit of the mountain, Moses, hearing the uproar, was in great perplexity, being at once a devout worshipper of God and a friend to mankind: he could not bring himself to leave the company of God, with whom he was conversing alone and in private, nor, on the other hand, could he be indifferent to the multitude so full of anarchy and wickedness; 164 for he recognised the tumult, being very shrewd at inferring, from inarticulate sounds with no distinct meaning, passions of the soul that lay beyond the reach of the conjectures of others, because he perceived at once that the noise came partly from drunkenness, since intemperance had produced satiety and a disposition to insult the law. 165 And drawn both ways, strongly pulled in both directions, he wavered this way and that and did not know what to do; and while he was considering the matter he received the following command. 'Go down quickly; descend from this place, the people have quickly turned to lawlessness; they have fashioned a god made with hands in the form of a bull and are falling down before what is no god and sacrificing to him, forgetting everything they have seen and everything they have heard that might lead them to piety.' 166 So Moses, amazed and also compelled by this command, believes those incredible events and springs down to be a mediator and reconciler, though not at once, for first he addressed supplications and prayers to God on behalf of his nation, begging God to pardon their sins; then this governor and intercessor of his people, having appeased the Ruler of the universe, went down rejoicing and sorrowful at the same time: he rejoiced that God had accepted his supplication, but he was full of anxiety and dejection, being greatly indignant at the lawless transgression of the multitude. 167 And when he came into the middle of the camp and marvelled at how suddenly the multitude had abandoned all their ancient habits, and at the vast falsehood they had embraced instead of truth, he saw that the disease had not spread to all of them, but that some were still sound and still had a disposition that loathed wickedness; wishing to distinguish the incurable from those who were indignant at what had happened, and also to know whether any of the offenders repented of their sin, he had a proclamation made; and it was indeed a shrewd test of the inclination of each individual, showing whether he was disposed to holiness or to its opposite. 168 'Whoever,' he said, 'is on the side of the Lord, let him come to me.' It was only a brief sentence that he spoke, but the meaning hidden in it was important; for his words implied the following: 'If anyone does not consider anything at all made by hands, or anything created, to be a god, but believes that there is only one ruler of the universe, let him come to me.' 169 Of the others, some resisted out of the admiration they had formed for the Egyptian pride and paid no attention to what he said; others lacked the courage to come nearer to him, perhaps out of fear of punishment, or perhaps because they dreaded punishment from Moses or an uprising of the people against them; for the multitude always attacks those who do not share its frenzy. 170 But the one tribe out of them all called the tribe of Levi, on hearing the proclamation, ran with great haste as if by prior agreement, showing their earnestness by their promptness and speed and proving the keenness of the desire of their soul for piety; 171 and when Moses saw them rushing forward as if from the starting post in a race, he said, 'Surely it is not only with your bodies that you are hurrying to me; you will soon bear witness to your eagerness with your minds as well; let each of you take a sword and kill those men who have done things worthy of ten thousand deaths, who have forsaken the true God, and made for themselves false gods out of perishable and created substances, calling them by the name which belongs only to the uncreated and everlasting God; let everyone, I say, kill those men, whether they are his own kinsmen or his friends, counting nothing as friendship or kinship except the holy fellowship of good men.' 172 And the tribe of Levi, outrunning his command with the most eager readiness, since in their minds they had been estranged from those men almost from the moment they saw their lawless iniquity begin, killed them all to a man, three thousand in number, though only a short time before they had been their dearest friends; and as the corpses lay in the middle of the place where the people assembled, the multitude, seeing them, pitied them, and fearing the still fervent, angry and indignant temper of those who had killed them, rebuked them out of fear; 173 but Moses, gladly approving their surpassing virtue, devised and confirmed for them an honour fitting their exploit, for it was right that those who had undertaken a voluntary war for the honour of God and carried it out successfully in a short time should be thought worthy to receive the priesthood and the charge of officiating in his service. 174 But there is not just one order of consecrated priests: some are entrusted with all the prayers, sacrifices and other most sacred ceremonies and are allowed to enter the inmost and most holy shrine, while others, whom some call keepers of the temple, may do none of these things but have the duty of looking after and guarding the temple and all that is in it, day and night; and so a sedition arose over precedence in honour, which brought countless evils on many people in many ways; it now broke out when the keepers of the temple attacked the priests and tried to deprive them of the honour that belonged to them; and they thought they would easily succeed, since they outnumbered the others many times over. 175 But so as not to appear to be planning innovations on their own initiative, they also persuaded the eldest of the twelve tribes to adopt their views, and many of the more fickle of the populace followed that tribe, thinking it entitled to precedence and to the chief share of authority over the whole host. 176 Moses now knew that a great plot was being hatched against him, for he had appointed his brother high priest in accordance with the will of God as it had been declared to him. And now he was falsely accused of having falsified the oracles of God, and of having done so and made the appointment out of family affection and goodwill towards his brother. 177 He was very naturally grieved at this, because these accusations not only made him distrusted while he was showing his good faith in the most genuine way, but also slandered actions of his that aimed at the honour of God and were by their very nature enough to have even a man who had otherwise shown an insincere disposition regarded as acting truthfully in this case; for truth always attends God. But he did not see fit to explain in words his appointment of his brother, knowing how hard it is to persuade people already possessed by contrary opinions to change their minds; instead he begged God to give the people a visible demonstration that he had in no way acted dishonestly in the appointment to the priesthood. 178 And so he commanded that twelve rods be taken, equal in number to the tribes of the nation, and further that the names of the other patriarchs of the tribes be written on eleven of the rods and on the remaining one the name of his brother, the high priest, and that they then all be carried into the temple as far as the inmost shrine; and the officer who carried out the command waited expectantly to see the result. 179 And the next day, at a command from God, he went into the temple while all the people stood around and brought out the rods; the others were no different from when they were put in, but the one bearing the name of his brother had undergone a miraculous change, for like a fine plant it had suddenly put forth shoots all over and was weighed down with an abundant crop of fruit. 180 And the fruit was almonds, a fruit different in character from every other. For in most fruit, such as grapes, olives, and apples, the seed and the eatable part differ from one another, and, being different, occupy different positions, for the eatable part is outside, and the seed is shut up within; but in the case of this fruit the seed and the eatable part are the same, both of them being comprised in one species, and their position is one and the same, being outside, strongly protected and fortified with a twofold fence, made up partly of a very thick bark and partly of what looks no different from a wooden case, 181 by which perfect virtue is figuratively indicated. For as in the almond the beginning and the end are the same, the beginning insofar as it is seed, and the end insofar as it is fruit, so it is also with the virtues; for each one of them is at the same time both beginning and end, a beginning, because it does not proceed from any other power, but from itself; and an end, because the life in accordance with nature hastens towards it. 182 This is one reason; another is also given, clearer and more emphatic than the first: for the part of the almond which looks like bark is bitter, but that which lies inside the bark, like a wooden case, is very hard and impenetrable, so that the fruit, being enclosed in these two coverings, is not very easy to get at. 183 This is an emblem of the soul inclined to the practice of meditation, which he thinks it proper to turn to virtue by showing it that it must first of all face danger. But labour is a bitter, distasteful and harsh thing, yet good is produced from it, and for the sake of that good one must not yield to effeminate indolence; 184 for he who seeks to avoid labour is also avoiding good. And again, whoever bears what is disagreeable with fortitude and manly perseverance is taking the best road to happiness; for it is not the nature of virtue to remain with those who are given up to delicacy and luxury, and who have become effeminate in their souls, and whose bodies are enervated by the incessant luxury which they practise every day; but such conduct subdues it, and it resolves to change its abode, first arranging its departure so that it may go to, and remain with, the ruler of right reason. 185 But, to tell the truth, the most sacred company of prudence, temperance, courage and justice seeks the society of those who practise virtue, and of those who admire a life of austerity and rigid duty, devoting themselves to fortitude and self-denial, with wise economy and abstinence; and through these virtues reason, the most powerful of all the principles within us, improves and attains perfect health and vigour, overthrowing the violent attacks of the body, which the immoderate use of wine, and epicurism, and licentiousness, and other insatiable appetites stir up against it, engendering a fullness of flesh which is the direct enemy of shrewdness and wisdom. 186 Moreover, it is said that of all the trees that are accustomed to blossom in the spring, the almond is the first to flourish, bringing as it were good news of abundance of fruit; and that afterwards it is the last to lose its leaves, prolonging the yearly old age of its foliage longest of all; and in each of these respects it is an emblem of the priestly tribe, since Moses indicates under the figure of this tree that this tribe will be the first of the whole human race to flourish, and also the last, for as long as it pleases God to liken our life to the yearly cycle of spring, destroying covetousness, that most treacherous of passions, and the fountain of all unhappiness. 187 Since, then, I have now stated that the absolutely perfect governor ought to have four things: royal power, the legislative disposition, the priesthood and the prophetic office (so that by his legislative disposition he may command what is right to do and forbid what is not proper to do, by his priesthood he may arrange not only all human but also all divine things, and by his prophetic office he may predict what reason cannot comprehend): having fully discussed the first three, and having shown that Moses was a most excellent king, and lawgiver, and high priest, I come last to show that he was also the most illustrious of prophets. 188 I am well aware, then, that everything written in the sacred books consists of oracles delivered by him; and I will set out what concerns him more particularly once I have first mentioned this one point: that some of the sacred oracles are presented as delivered in the person of God by his interpreter, the divine prophet, while others are put in the form of question and answer, and others are delivered by Moses in his own character as a divinely-prompted lawgiver possessed by divine inspiration. 189 So all the first oracles are manifestations of all the divine virtues together, and especially of the merciful and bountiful character by means of which he trains all men to virtue, and especially the race which is devoted to his service, for which he opens the road to happiness. 190 The second class involve a kind of mixture and partnership, the prophet asking about the matters that perplex him, and God answering and instructing him. The third sort are attributed to the lawgiver, God having given him a share of his prescient power, through which he will be able to foretell the future. 191 So for the present we must pass over the first, for they are too great for any man to praise adequately; indeed, even heaven itself and the nature of the universe could scarcely praise them worthily; and they are also uttered by the mouth, as it were, of an interpreter. But interpretation and prophecy differ from one another. As for the second kind, I will at once try to explain the truth about them, joining to them the third kind as well, in which the speaker's inspiration is shown, and for which he is most especially and properly regarded as a prophet. 192 And we must here begin by fulfilling the promise. There are four places in the exposition of the law where the oracles are given as question and answer, and they have a mixed character. For, first, the prophet feels inspiration and asks questions, and then the father prophesies to him, giving him a share of his discourse and replies. And the first case where this occurs is one that would have provoked not only Moses, the holiest and most pious man who ever lived, but anyone who had had even a slight taste of piety. 193 A certain man, illegitimately born of two unequal parents, namely, an Egyptian father and a Jewish mother, disregarded the national and hereditary customs he had learnt from her and, as it is reported, inclined to the Egyptian impiety, seized with admiration for the ungodly practices of the men of that nation; 194 for the Egyptians, almost alone of all men, set up the earth as a rival to heaven, treating the earth as entitled to honours equal to those of the gods and giving heaven no special honour, just as if it were proper to pay respect to the extremities of a country rather than to the king's palace. For in the world heaven is the most holy temple, and the earth is its outermost extremity; this too is in itself worthy of honour, but compared with the aether it is as far inferior to it as darkness is to light, or night to day, or corruption to immortality, or a mortal to God. 195 For since that country is watered not by rain, as all other lands are, but by the floods of the river that overflows its banks every year, the Egyptians, in their impious reasoning, make a god of the Nile, as if it were a copy and a rival of heaven, and use pompous language about the virtue of their country. 196 Accordingly, this man of mixed race, having quarrelled with someone of the consecrated and well-instructed house of Israel, and being carried away by his anger, and unable to restrain himself, and being also an admirer and follower of the impiety of the Egyptians, extended his impiety from earth to heaven, cursing it with his accursed, and polluted, and defiled soul, and with his wicked tongue, and with the whole power of all his vocal organs in the superfluity of his ungodliness; though heaven ought to be blessed and praised, not indeed by all men, but only by the most virtuous and pious, as those who have received perfect purification. 197 So Moses, marvelling at his insanity and at the extravagance of his audacity, although he was filled with a noble impetuosity and indignation, and desired to kill the man with his own hand, nevertheless feared that he might be inflicting on him too light a punishment; for he believed that no one could possibly devise a punishment adequate to such enormous impiety. 198 And since it necessarily followed that a man who did not worship God could not honour his father, his mother, his country or his benefactors either, this man, besides not revering them, dared to speak ill of them. What extreme of wickedness, then, did he stop short of? And yet speaking ill, compared with cursing, is the lighter evil of the two. But when intemperate language and an unbridled tongue are subservient to lawless folly, then inevitably and invariably some iniquitous conduct must follow. 199 Man! does anyone curse God? What other god can he invoke to ratify and confirm his curse? Is it not plain that he must invoke God to give effect to his curses against himself? Away with such profane and impious ideas! It would be well to cleanse that miserable soul which has been insulted by the voice, and which has used the ears as its servants, keeping the external senses blind. 200 Why was neither the tongue of the man who uttered such impiety loosened, nor the ears of the one destined to hear such things closed up? Unless, indeed, this happened through some providential arrangement of justice, which does not think that any extraordinary good or any enormous evil should be kept in darkness, but that such things should be revealed so as to manifest virtue or vice most completely, so that it may judge the one worthy of acceptance and the other of punishment. 201 On this account Moses ordered the man to be thrown into prison and bound with chains; and then he addressed propitiatory prayers to God, begging him to be merciful to the necessities of the external senses (by means of which we both see what it is not proper to see, and hear what it is not lawful to hear), and to point out what the author of such a strange and unprecedented blasphemy and impiety ought to suffer. 202 And God commanded him to be stoned, considering, as I imagine, the punishment of stoning to be a suitable and appropriate one for a man who had a stony and hardened heart, and wishing at the same time that all his fellow countrymen should share in punishing him, as he knew that they were very indignant and eager to kill him; and the only punishment that so many myriads of men could possibly join in was the throwing of stones. 203 But after the punishment of this impious blasphemer, a new commandment was enacted, one never before thought worth putting in writing; but unexpected innovations lead to new laws devised to repress the evils they bring. In any case, the following law was at once introduced: 'Whoever curses God shall be guilty of sin, and whoever names the name of the Lord shall die.' 204 Well done, all-wise man! You alone have drunk of the cup of unalloyed wisdom. You have seen that it was worse to name God than even to curse him; for you would never have treated lightly a man who had committed the heaviest of all impieties, and inflicted the heaviest punishment possible on those who committed the slightest faults; but you fixed death, which is the very greatest punishment imaginable, as the penalty for the man who appeared to have committed the heaviest crime. 205 But, it seems, he is not speaking here of the God who was the first of all beings to exist, and the Father of the universe, but of those reckoned gods in the various cities; and they are falsely called gods, being only made by the arts of painters and sculptors, for the whole inhabited world is full of statues and images, and other such objects; yet one must refrain from speaking ill of them, so that none of the disciples of Moses may ever become at all accustomed to treating the title of God with disrespect; for that name always most deserves to win the victory, and is especially worthy of love. 206 But if anyone were, I will not say to blaspheme the Lord of gods and men, but even to dare to utter his name at the wrong moment, he must suffer the punishment of death; 207 for people who properly respect their parents do not lightly mention the names of their parents, though they are only mortal, but avoid using their personal names out of the reverence they feel for them, and instead call them by the titles that indicate their natural relationship, that is, father and mother, names by which they at once indicate the unsurpassable benefits they have received from them, and their own grateful disposition. 208 So those who, from a glib tongue, have spoken at the wrong moment, and, too free with their words, have carelessly repeated the most holy and divine name of God, must not be thought worthy of pardon. 209 Moreover, in accordance with the honour due to the Creator of the universe, the prophet hallowed the sacred seventh day, seeing, with eyes sharper than those of mortals, its pre-eminent beauty, which had already been deeply impressed on heaven and the whole universal world, and which nature herself had carried about as an image in her own bosom; 210 for first of all Moses found that day to be without any mother, having no share in female generation, born of the Father alone, without propagation from seed and without conception by any mother. Then he saw not only that it was very beautiful and without any mother, neither born of corruption nor subject to corruption; and then, in the third place, by further inquiry he discovered that it was the birthday of the world, which heaven keeps as a festival, as do the earth and all things in and on the earth, rejoicing and delighting in the all-harmonious number of seven, and in the sabbath day. 211 For this reason the all-great Moses thought it fitting that all who were enrolled in his sacred polity should follow the laws of nature and meet in a solemn assembly, passing the time in cheerful joy and relaxation, abstaining from all work, and from all arts that tend to produce anything, and from all business connected with seeking a living, and that they should keep a complete truce, abstaining from all laborious and fatiguing thought and care, and devoting their leisure, not, as some scoffingly claim, to sports, or exhibitions of actors and dancers, for the sake of which those who run madly after theatrical amusements suffer disasters and even encounter miserable deaths, and for whose sake the most dominant and influential of the outward senses, sight and hearing, make the soul, which should be heavenly in nature, their slave. 212 Instead they give up their time wholly to the study of philosophy, not the kind of philosophy that word-catchers and sophists try to reduce to a system, selling doctrines and arguments as they would any other goods for sale in the market. Men who (earth and sun!) employ philosophy against philosophy, and yet never wear a blush on their face; the others, by contrast, apply themselves to the kindred philosophy, made up of these component parts, intention, words and actions, all united into one kind, for the acquisition and enjoyment of happiness. 213 Now someone, disregarding this injunction even while the sacred words of God about the holy seventh day were still ringing in his ears, words God had uttered without the prophet as intermediary and, most wonderful of all, by a visible voice which affected the eyes of those who were present even more than their ears, went out through the middle of the camp to pick up sticks, well knowing that all the people in the camp were perfectly quiet and doing nothing, and was seen and detected even as he was committing the iniquity, since all concealment was impossible; 214 for some people who had gone out of the gates to a quiet spot, so that they might pray in a secluded and peaceful place, saw a most unholy spectacle, this man carrying a bundle of sticks, and in their great indignation were about to put him to death; but on reflection they restrained the violence of their anger, so that they, mere private persons, might not appear to punish anyone in place of the magistrates, and an uncondemned man at that, though in other respects the transgression was obvious and undeniable; they also wished that no pollution from an execution, however righteously inflicted, should defile the sacred day. Instead they seized him and led him away to the magistrate, with whom the priests were sitting as assessors, and the whole multitude gathered to hear the trial; 215 for it was always the custom, desirable on other days too but especially on the seventh day, as I have already explained, to discuss matters of philosophy; the ruler of the people beginning the explanation, and teaching the multitude what they ought to do and to say, and the populace listening so as to improve in virtue, and being made better both in their moral character and in their conduct through life; 216 and in keeping with this custom the Jews to this day hold philosophical discussions on the seventh day, disputing about their national philosophy, and devoting that day to the knowledge and consideration of the subjects of natural philosophy; for what are their houses of prayer in the various cities but schools of wisdom, and courage, and temperance, and justice, and piety, and holiness, and every virtue, by which human and divine things are appreciated, and placed upon a proper footing? 217 On this day, then, the man who had done this deed of impiety was led away to prison; and Moses, at a loss as to what should be done to the man (for he knew that he had committed a crime worthy of death, but did not know the most suitable way to punish him), came with his invisible soul to the invisible judgment seat, and asked the Judge who hears everything before it is told to him what his sentence was. 218 And that Judge pronounced sentence that the man must die, and by no other means than stoning, since in his case, as in the case of the criminal mentioned above, his mind had been changed to a dumb stone, and he had committed the most complete of offences, one that comprises nearly every other sin that can be committed against the laws enacted about the reverence due to the seventh day. 219 Why so? Because not only the mere handicraft trades but nearly all other activities and businesses, especially those concerned with providing or seeking the means of life, are carried on either by fire itself or at least with instruments made by fire. For this reason Moses, in many places, forbids anyone to handle a fire on the sabbath day, since fire is the most primary and efficient source of things and the most ancient and important work; and if fire were brought to rest, he thought, all particular works would probably come to a standstill as well. 220 And wood is the material of fire, so that a man picking up wood is committing a crime akin and closely connected to the crime of burning fire, in fact doubling his transgression, first in that he was collecting what had been commanded to remain unmoved, and second in that what he was collecting was the material of fire, the beginning of all arts. 221 So both the instances I have mentioned concern the punishments of wicked men, appointed and confirmed by question and answer. And there are two other instances, not of the same character but of a different one: one concerns the succession of an inheritance; the other, at least as it appears to me, a sacrifice performed at an improper time. And we must first discuss the latter of the two. 222 Moses sets the beginning of the vernal equinox as the first month of the year, giving the chief honour not, as some do, to the periodic cycles of the year as a measure of time, but rather to the graces and beauties of nature that it makes shine upon men; for it is through the bounty of nature that the seeds which are sown to produce the necessary food of mankind are brought to perfection. And the fruit of trees in their prime, which is second in importance only to the necessary crops, is engendered by the same power, and, being second in importance, it also ripens later; for we always find in nature that what is less necessary comes second to what is indispensable. 223 Wheat and barley are among the very necessary things, as are all the other kinds of food without which it is impossible to live. But oil, wine and almonds are not necessities, since men often live without them into extreme old age, extending their life over a number of years. 224 Accordingly, in this month, about the fourteenth day of the month, when the orb of the moon is usually about to become full, the public universal feast of the passover is celebrated, which in the Chaldaic language is called pascha; at which festival not only do private individuals bring victims to the altar and the priests sacrifice them, but also, by a particular ordinance of this law, the whole nation is consecrated and officiates in offering sacrifice; every separate individual on this occasion bringing forward and offering up with his own hands the sacrifice due on his own behalf. 225 So all the rest of the people rejoiced and looked joyful, everyone thinking that he himself was honoured by this participation in the priesthood. But the others spent the festival in tears and groans, mourning their own relations who had recently died, and were overwhelmed with a twofold sorrow: besides their grief for their relations who had been killed, they also felt the pain of being deprived of the pleasure and honour that come from offering sacrifice, as they were not purified or cleansed on that day, since their mourning had not yet lasted beyond the appointed and legitimate period of lamentation. 226 These men came to the ruler of the people after the assembly was over, full of melancholy and depression, and told him what had happened, namely, 'that the recent death of their relations was an unavoidable affliction to which they could not help yielding, and that it was a further grief that because of it they were unable to take their share in the sacrifice of the passover. 227 Then they begged him to let them, too, make their offerings just as the others did, and that the misfortune which had happened to them in the death of their kinsmen might not be reckoned against them as an iniquity of theirs, so as to bring them punishment instead of compassion; for they thought they were worse off than even the dead, since the dead had no sense of the grievous privation, while they themselves, still alive, would seem to die the death perceptible to the outward sense.' 228 When he heard this, he saw that the justification they gave was not inconsistent with reason and truth, and that their excuse for not having offered their sacrifice earlier was grounded in necessity, and that they were entitled to merciful consideration. And while he wavered in his opinion, leaning this way and that as if on the balance of a scale, since compassion and justice pulled him one way and on the other side the law of the sacrifice of the passover weighed him down, which appoints the first month and the fourteenth day of the month for offering the sacrifice, Moses, perplexed and torn between consent and refusal, begged God to decide the question and to announce his decision to him by an oracular command. 229 And God listened to his entreaty and gave him an oracle bearing not only on what had taken place but on everything that might happen in future on the same subject, if people ever again found themselves in a similar case. Out of the abundance of his providence he also gave further, general directions about any others who, for one reason or another, might at any time be unable to offer their sacrifice with all the rest of the nation. 230 We must now, then, go on to relate the oracular commands God gave about these cases. He says, 'The mourning for a relation is a necessary sorrow to those who are related by blood, and it is not counted as guilty indifference. 231 So as long as it lasts, until the time the law appoints for it to end, let the man be kept away from the sacred precincts, which must be kept pure not only from all intentional pollution but also from all involuntary pollution. But when the legal time for mourning has expired, let the mourners no longer be deprived of an equal share in performing the sacrifices, so that the living may not become an adjunct to the dead. And let them, as a second class, come in the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month, and sacrifice in the same manner as the first sacrificers, performing the sacrifice in the same way as they did, in a similar manner and under similar rules.' 232 Let the same regulations also be observed for those who are prevented, not by mourning but by a distant journey, from offering their sacrifice together with the whole nation and at the same time. 'For those who are travelling abroad or living in another country do no wrong that would deserve to deprive them of equal honour with the rest, especially since one country cannot hold the entire nation because of its great numbers, but has sent out colonies in every direction.' 233 Having given this account of those who were too late to sacrifice the passover festival with the rest of the nation because of some unexpected circumstance, but who wanted to fulfil the omitted duty in the required manner, even though late, I now turn to the last injunction, which concerns the succession to inheritances; it too is of a mixed character, consisting of question and answer. 234 There was a certain man, named Shalpaath, a man of high character and of a distinguished tribe. He had four daughters, but not a single son. And after their father's death the daughters, afraid that they would be deprived of his inheritance because such inheritances were allotted to the male heirs, came to the ruler of the people with the modesty befitting maidens, not because they were eager for riches but because they wanted to preserve their father's name and reputation. 235 And they said to Moses, 'Our father is dead; and he died without having been mixed up in any of those seditions in which so many thousands have been killed; instead he cultivated a life free from trouble and notoriety; unless, indeed, it is to be counted a crime that he had no male offspring. And we are here now, orphans in appearance, but in fact hoping to find a father in you; for a lawful ruler is as closely bound to his subjects as a Father.' 236 And Moses marvelled at the wisdom of the maidens, and at their affection for their father; nevertheless he hesitated, swayed somewhat by other considerations, according to which it seemed proper for the men to divide the inheritances among themselves, so that they might receive the due reward for their military service and for the wars they had fought. But nature, which has exempted women from all such contests, by that very act plainly deprives them as well of any right to a share in what is offered as the reward for facing them. 237 So the mind of Moses was, very naturally, undecided and pulled in different directions, and he laid his perplexities before God, whom he knew to be the only being who could settle such delicate differences with true and unerring judgment and a complete display of truth and justice. 238 But the Creator of the universe, the Father of the world, who holds together earth and heaven, and the water and the air, and everything which is composed of any one of these things, and who rules the whole world, the King of gods and men, did not think it unbecoming to take on the role of arbitrator for these orphan maidens. And as arbitrator he did more for them, in my opinion, than if he had merely been a judge of the law, since he is merciful and beneficent and has filled all things everywhere with his beneficent power; for he gave great praise to the maidens. 239 Master, how can anyone sing your praises adequately, with what mouth, with what tongue, with what organisation of voice? Can the stars become a chorus and pour forth any melody worthy of the subject? Even if the whole of the heaven were to be dissolved into voice, would it be able to recount even a portion of your virtues? 'The daughters of Shalpaath have spoken very rightly,' says God. 240 Who can fail to see how great a praise this is, when God bears witness in their favour? Come now, you who are violent; you who give yourselves airs over your virtuous actions; you who hold up your hands higher than nature justifies and raise your eyebrows; you who laugh at a woman's widowhood, though it is a most pitiable evil, and who in your thoughts mock the desolation of orphan children even more shamefully than the distress just mentioned. 241 So now, seeing that those who appeared to be in such a low and unfortunate condition were not counted by God among the neglected and obscure, though all the kingdoms of the whole inhabited world are the most insignificant part of his dominion, since the whole circumference and expanse of the world is only the outer edge of his works, learn a necessary lesson from this fact. 242 But Moses, having praised what the maidens said, neither left them without their due honour and reward nor raised them to the same honour as the men who bear the brunt of war; to the men he allotted the inheritances as the prizes due to them as a reward for the gallant exploits they had performed. But the maidens he thought worthy of grace and kindness, not of reward, as he showed most plainly by the words he used, speaking of 'gifts' and 'presents,' not of 'requital' or 'recompense.' For the language of requital suits those who receive what they have a right to, and the language of gifts suits those who are treated with gratuitous favour. 243 And having given his divine ruling on the petition the orphan maidens had brought, he goes on to lay down a more general law concerning the succession to inheritances, calling the sons first to share their father's property and, if there are no sons, the daughters second; to them, he says, the inheritance is properly attached as an external and adventitious ornament, not as a possession that belongs to them and is rightly connected with them; for whatever is attached to a thing has no real kinship with the thing it adorns, since it lacks all harmony and union with it. 244 And after the daughters he calls the brothers to share it in the third place, and in the fourth place he assigns the property to the uncles on the father's side, indicating by this figure that fathers, if alive, may be the heirs of their sons. For it is very foolish to imagine that, when he allots a nephew's inheritance to his father's brother out of regard for that brother's relationship to the father, he has excluded the father himself from the succession. 245 But since the law lets children inherit their parents' property but does not let the parents themselves inherit, he refrained from mentioning the subject explicitly, as something ill-omened and to be deprecated, so that the father and mother might not seem to gain anything from the inconsolable grief of losing children who died early; but he indirectly signalled their right to be called to such an inheritance when he granted it to the uncles, and in this way achieved the best of aims: observing propriety and preventing the estate from passing improperly out of the family. And after the uncles, the fifth class of heirs was to be the nearest relatives, and he always assigns the inheritance to the closest of them. 246 Having gone through, as I had to, the whole account of the sacred commands concerning a mixed possession of an inheritance, I shall now go on to set out the oracles given through the prophet by divine inspiration, for this is a subject I promised to explain. His divine inspiration, which also marked the beginning of his nation's prosperity, began when he was sent out of Egypt with many thousands of his countrymen to settle in the cities of Syria; 247 for men and women together, having completed a long and desolate journey through a wilderness without any beaten road, at last reached the sea called the Red Sea. Then, naturally, they were in great perplexity, unable to cross over for lack of vessels and not thinking it safe to go back the way they had come. 248 And while they were all in this state of mind, a still greater evil was hanging over them; for the king of the Egyptians, having gathered a far from contemptible force, a vast army of cavalry and infantry, set out in pursuit of them and hurried to overtake them, to take revenge on them for the departure that undeniable messages from God had compelled him to allow. But the disposition of wicked men, it seems, is unstable, so that, like anything on a finely balanced scale, it tips one way and then another for the slightest reasons. 249 So now the Hebrews, trapped between their enemies and the sea, despaired of their safety; some regarded even the most miserable death as a blessing to pray for, and others, thinking it better to perish through the parts of nature than to become a laughing-stock to their enemies, were inclined to throw themselves into the sea; and now, weighed down with heavy burdens, they sat down on the shore, so that when they saw the enemy near they could leap into the sea more readily. 250 For now, hemmed in by a necessity from which they saw no way of escape, they were in great agitation, fully expecting a miserable death. But when the prophet saw the whole nation penned in like a shoal of fish and in great consternation, he was no longer master of himself, but became inspired and prophesied as follows:--251 'The fear is necessary, and the terror is inevitable, and the danger is great; in front of us lies the wide open sea, there is no retreat to flee to, we have no vessels, and behind us are the enemy's phalanxes, ready to attack, marching on and pursuing us without ever stopping for breath. Where can anyone turn? Which way can anyone look to escape? Everything on every side has suddenly turned against us: the sea, the land, men, and the elements of nature. 252 But take heart; do not lose courage; stand still without wavering in your minds; await the invincible assistance of God; it will come at once of its own accord; it will fight on our behalf unseen. You have often experienced it before, defending you invisibly. I see it now preparing to join the contest, casting halters round the necks of the enemy, who, as if violently dragged onward, are now sinking like lead into the depths of the sea. You see them now, still alive; but I already picture them dead. And this very day you yourselves shall also see them dead.' 253 He said these things to them, things greater than anything they could have hoped for. And very soon they experienced the truth of his divine words in actual fact; for what he predicted through the power divinely given to him came to pass more marvellously than words can express. The sea was broken apart and each part drew back; the waves along each broken-off section solidified through their whole breadth and depth, so that they stood up like the strongest walls; and a road was miraculously cut in a straight line, a path for the Hebrews between the congealed waters, 254 so that the whole nation passed through the sea on foot without any danger, as if on a dry road over stony ground; for the sand was dried up, and its usually fine grains were now united into one compact substance. Then their enemies rushed on in pursuit without stopping for breath, hurrying to their own destruction; the cloud that guarded the rear of the Hebrews, on which there was a divine apparition of fire giving off a brilliant blaze, drove forward; the sea, which until that moment had been cut in two and stood apart, flowed back; and the part that had been cut off and dried up suddenly returned to its original channel, 255 and the enemy was utterly destroyed, overwhelmed by the walls of the sea, which had been congealed and now turned back again, while the sea, pouring down and rushing into what had just been a road as if into some deep ravine, washed away everything; the completeness of the destruction was evident in the bodies which floated on the waters and strewed the surface of the sea; and a great surge of the waves cast all the dead up in a heap on the opposite shore, a necessary spectacle for those who had been delivered, and who had been granted not merely to escape from their dangers, but also to behold their enemies punished, too marvellously for description, by no human power but a divine one. 256 For this mercy Moses very naturally honoured his Benefactor with hymns of gratitude. For, having divided the host into two choruses, one of men and one of women, he himself led the chorus of the men and appointed his sister to lead the chorus of the women, so that they might sing hymns to their father and Creator, answering one another in harmony through a blend of dispositions and melody: the dispositions eager to make the same return for the mercies they had received, and the melody a symphony of deep male and high female voices, for men's voices are deep and women's are high; and when the two are perfectly and harmoniously combined, the result is a most delightful and thoroughly harmonious melody. 257 And he persuaded all those myriads of men and women to be of one mind, and to sing in concert the same hymn at the same time in praise of those marvellous and mighty works which they had seen and which I have just been relating. Rejoicing at this, and seeing the exceeding joy of his nation as well, and unable himself to contain his delight, the prophet began the song. And those who heard him, divided into two choruses, sang with him, taking up the words he uttered. 258 This is the beginning and preface of the prophecies Moses uttered under inspiration. After this he prophesied about the first and most necessary of all things, namely, food, which the earth did not produce, for it was barren and unfruitful; and heaven rained down, not just once but every day for forty years, before dawn, an ethereal fruit in the form of a dew very like millet seed. 259 And Moses, when he saw it, commanded them to gather it and, full of inspiration, said: 'You must believe in God, since you have already experienced his mercies and benefits in matters beyond all your hopes. This food must not be stored up or laid away in granaries. Let no one leave any of it until morning.' 260 When they heard this, some whose piety was not firm, thinking perhaps that what they had just been told was not an oracle from God but merely their leader's advice, left some until the next day. And it rotted, first filling the whole camp with its foul smell and then turning to worms, which always arise from corruption. 261 And when Moses saw this, he was naturally indignant with the disobedient; for how could he not be, when people who had seen so many great works, which could not possibly be twisted into mere fictions and clever illusions but had been easily accomplished by divine providence, not only doubted but disbelieved outright, and were the hardest of all men to convince? 262 But the Father established the oracle of his prophet by two most conspicuous manifestations: one he gave immediately, through the spoiling of what had been left, the foul stench that arose, and its change into worms, the vilest of animals; the other he gave later, for whatever was left over after the multitude had gathered was always melted away by the sun's rays and so consumed and destroyed. 263 He gave a second instance of his prophetic inspiration not long afterwards, in the oracle he delivered about the sacred seventh day. For though it had had a natural precedence over all other days, not only since the creation of the world but even before the origin of heaven and all the objects perceptible to the outward senses, men still did not know it, perhaps because, owing to the repeated and continual destructions by water and fire, later generations had not been able to receive from earlier ones any tradition of the arrangement and order established in the sequence of earlier times. Since this order was unknown, Moses, now inspired, declared it to his people in an oracle attested by a visible sign from heaven. 264 And the sign was this. On the previous days a small portion of food came down from the air, but on the day before the seventh day a double portion. And on the previous days, if any was left over, it liquefied and melted away until it had turned entirely into dew and so was consumed; but on this day it underwent no change and remained as it was; and when this was reported to Moses and he saw it himself, he did not so much conjecture as receive the impulse of divine inspiration under which he prophesied about the seventh day. 265 I pass over the fact that all such conjectures are akin to prophecy, for the mind could never make such correct and felicitous conjectures unless a divine spirit guided their feet into the way of truth; 266 and the miraculous nature of the sign lay not merely in the food being doubled, nor in its remaining unspoiled, contrary to its usual course, but in both these things happening on the sixth day counting from the day on which this food first began to come from heaven, the day from which the most sacred number seven began to be counted; so anyone who reckons it up will find that this heavenly food was given in exact correspondence with the order established at the creation of the world. For God began to create the world on the first day of a six-day week, and he began to rain down the food just mentioned on the same first day; 267 and the two images are alike; for as he produced that most perfect work, the world, bringing it out of non-existence into existence, so in the same way he produced plenty in the wilderness, changing the elements to meet the pressing need, so that the air rather than the earth might give food without labour or trouble to those who had no chance to provide food for themselves at their leisure. 268 After this he delivered to the people a third and most marvellous oracle: that on the seventh day the air would not supply the usual food, and not even the slightest portion would fall on the earth as it did on other days; 269 and so it turned out in fact; for he delivered this prediction the day before, but some who were unstable in disposition went out to gather it and, disappointed in their expectations, came back empty-handed, reproaching themselves for their unbelief and calling the prophet the only true prophet, the only one who knew the will of God, and the only one with any foreknowledge of what was uncertain and still to come. 270 These, then, are the predictions he delivered under inspiration about the food that came down from heaven; but he also delivered a series of others of great necessity, though they looked more like recommendations than actual oracles. One of them is the prediction he delivered about their greatest abandonment of their national customs, which I have already spoken of, when they made a golden calf in imitation of Egyptian worship and folly, set up dances, prepared an altar and offered sacrifices, forgetting the true God and discarding the noble disposition of their ancestors, which had been fostered by piety and holiness, 271 at which Moses was very indignant: first, that the whole people, which only a short time before had been the most sharp-sighted of all nations, had so suddenly become blind; and second, that an empty invented fable could extinguish such surpassing brilliance of truth, which neither the sun in eclipse nor the whole company of the stars could ever darken; for truth is seen by its own light, intelligible and incorporeal, and compared with it the light perceptible to the external senses is like night compared with day. 272 And, moved by this, he no longer remained as he had been, but leaped, as it were, out of his former appearance and disposition, became inspired, and said, 'Who has not consented to this error, and has not sanctioned what should not be sanctioned? Let all such come over to Me.' 273 And when one tribe had come over to him, with their minds no less than their bodies, a tribe that had for some time been eager to slaughter the impious evildoers and had looked for a leader and commander who would rightly show them the opportunity and proper way to put down their wickedness, he, seeing that they were enraged and full of confidence and courage, became inspired still more than before and said, 'Let every one of you take a sword, and go swiftly through the whole army, and kill not only strangers but also those of his own friends and relatives who are nearest and dearest to him, attacking them all and judging the act a most holy one, since it defends truth and the honour due to God, and to fight for these and be their champion is the lightest of labours.' 274 So they rushed out with a shout and killed three thousand, especially the leaders of this impiety, and they were not only cleared of any part in the wicked boldness of the others but were also enrolled among the noblest of valiant men and judged worthy of an honour and reward most fitting to their action, namely the priesthood. For it was inevitable that the men who had shown themselves valiant in its defence and had fought bravely as its champions should be ministers of holiness. 275 I have also another, still more marvellous and prodigious oracle to report, which I have mentioned before in relating the circumstances of the prophet's high priesthood: one he uttered himself when fully inspired by the divine spirit, and which was fulfilled not some time afterwards but at the very moment it was delivered. 276 There were two classes of ministry in the temple, the higher belonging to the priests and the lower to the temple keepers; and at this time there were three priests but many thousands of temple keepers. 277 These men, puffed up by the sheer size of their own numbers, despised the scanty numbers of the priests, and so they plotted two impious schemes at once: one to destroy their superiors, the other to promote the inferior body, the subjects, as it were, attacking the leaders, to the confusion and overthrow of the most excellent and beneficial thing a people has, namely order. 278 Then, banding together in one place, they raised an outcry against the prophet, alleging that he had given the priesthood to his brother and his nephews out of regard for their kinship with him, and had misrepresented their appointment, as if it had not taken place under the direction of divine providence, as we have shown it did. 279 And Moses, being vexed and grieved beyond measure at these things, although he was the meekest and mildest of men, was nevertheless so stirred to just anger by his disposition, which hated iniquity, that he begged God to reject their sacrifice. Not that there was any chance of that most righteous Judge accepting the unholy offerings of wicked men; but the soul of the man who loved God could not stay silent on its part, so eager was it that the wicked should not prosper but should always fail in their purpose; 280 and while he was still seething and inflamed with this lawful indignation, he became inspired, was changed into a prophet, and uttered the following oracles. 'Apostacy is an evil thing, but these faithless men shall be taught, not only by words but also by actions; they shall learn my truth and good faith through their own suffering, since they would not learn it through ordinary instruction; 281 and this shall be seen in the way their lives end: if they die the ordinary death of nature, then I have invented these oracles; but if they meet a new and unprecedented destruction, then my truth will be confirmed; for I see chasms in the earth opening against them and gaping to their widest, and crowds of men perishing in them, dragged down into the gulf with all their kindred, their very houses swallowed up, and the men going down alive into hell.' 282 And when he stopped speaking, the earth, shaken by an earthquake, split apart and burst open, especially where the tents of those wicked men stood, so that they were all swallowed up together and hidden from sight. For the torn parts came together again as soon as the purpose for which they had been divided was accomplished. 283 And a little after this thunderbolts fell suddenly from heaven, and killed two hundred men, the leaders of this sedition, and destroyed them all together, leaving no part of their bodies for burial. 284 And the speed and relentlessness of the punishment, and the magnitude of each blow, made the prophet's piety conspicuous and celebrated everywhere, since he had thus brought God forward as witness to the truth of his oracular denunciations. 285 Nor must we overlook the fact that both earth and heaven, the first principles of the universe, took their share in punishing these wicked men, for they had rooted their wickedness in the earth and extended it up to the sky, raising it to that vast height, 286 and so each of the elements contributed its part to their chastisement: the earth burst apart and split open to drag down and swallow up those who were then weighing it down, and heaven tore them up and destroyed them by raining down a mighty storm of fire, a most novel kind of rain; and the end was the same, 287 for both those swallowed up by the earth and those destroyed by the thunderbolts, since neither group was seen any more: the first was hidden by the earth, the chasm closing and meeting again as before to make solid ground, and the second was consumed entirely by the fire of the thunderbolts. 288 And some time afterwards, when he was about to depart from here to heaven to make his home there, leaving this mortal life to become immortal, summoned by the Father, who now changed him from a double being, composed of soul and body, into the nature of a single body, transforming him wholly and entirely into a most sun-like mind; then, wholly possessed by inspiration, he no longer seems to have prophesied to the whole nation together, but to have predicted to each tribe separately what would happen to it and to its future generations; some of these things have already come to pass and some are still awaited, for the predictions already fulfilled are the clearest testimony to the future. 289 For it was very appropriate that those who differed in the circumstances of their birth and in the mothers they were descended from should also differ in the variety of their designs and counsels and in the extreme diversity of their pursuits in life, and so should receive as their inheritance, as it were, a different share of oracles and predictions. 290 These things, therefore, are wonderful; and most wonderful of all is the end of his sacred writings, which is to the whole book of the law what the head is to an animal. 291 For when he was on the point of being taken away and was standing, as it were, at the very starting-line, ready to fly away and complete his journey to heaven, he was once more inspired and filled with the Holy Spirit, and while still alive he prophesied admirably what would happen to him after his death: that is, he related how he died when he was not yet dead,⁠g and how he was buried with no one present to know his tomb, because in fact he was entombed not by mortal hands but by immortal powers, so that he was not laid in the tomb of his ancestors, having received a special grace which no man ever saw; and he told further how the whole nation mourned him with tears for a whole month, showing their private and public sorrow for his unspeakable benevolence towards each individual and towards the whole host together, and for the wisdom with which he had ruled them. 292 Such was the life and such the death of Moses, king, lawgiver, high priest and prophet, as recorded in the sacred scriptures.