For having made regulations concerning foods and drinks and each of the matters relating to touch, he commands that we do nothing rashly, nor listen to anything rashly, nor, making use of the power of speech, turn aside to injustice.
And the same thing may be found also in the case of the wild creatures. For the nature of the weasel and of mice and of those like them, which have been forbidden, is harmful. For mice ruin and harm everything, not only for the sake of their own food, but so as to render completely useless to man whatever they set upon to damage.
The kind of the weasel is peculiar in this respect: apart from what has already been said, it has a harmful disposition. For it is said to conceive through the ears and to give birth through the mouth. And for this reason such a manner is unclean among men. For those who, having received things through hearing, embody them in speech and thereby entangle others in evils, produce no ordinary uncleanness, being themselves utterly defiled by the pollution of impiety.
'And your king does well to put such men to death, as we understand.' And I said, 'I suppose you mean the informers'; for indeed he continually subjects them to torments and to grievous deaths. 'Yes, these are the very ones I mean,' he said; 'for a watchful malice aimed at the destruction of men is unholy. But our law commands that we harm no one, neither in word nor in deed.'
And concerning these matters, so much then to go through briefly, having further shown you that everything has been regulated with a view to righteousness, and that nothing has been ordained at random through the Scripture, nor in a mythical manner, but so that throughout our whole life and in our actions we may practice righteousness toward all men, being mindful of God who rules over all.
Concerning foods, then, and the unclean creatures — reptiles and wild beasts — the whole discourse is directed toward righteousness and toward just conduct among men.
He seemed to me, then, to have given a good account concerning each point. For concerning the calves and rams and goats that are offered, he said that these must be taken from herds and flocks, made tame, and nothing wild, so that those who offer the sacrifices may be conscious of nothing arrogant in themselves, thereby making use of the sign set by him who ordained it.
For he who brings the sacrifice makes an offering of his own soul in every respect. And concerning these things, then, I consider that this discourse has proven worthy of mention, on account of the solemnity of the law, which I have chosen to explain clearly to you, Philocrates, because of the love of learning which you possess.
These things, then, the high priest explained to the Greeks who had come to him, concerning the manner of allegory used in the sacred laws, since they were about to encounter the interpretations of the scriptures that were to be published. And Aristobulus, who besides his ancestral philosophy had also partaken of the philosophy according to Aristotle — (it is now time to hear what he said concerning the things reported in the sacred books as though they were 'limbs of God'; and this is that same man whom the second book of Maccabees also mentions at the beginning of the book) — in his treatise addressed to King Ptolemy, he too explains the matter in the same manner.
However, since sufficient things have been said concerning the questions proposed, you too, O king, exclaimed that in our law hands and arm and face and feet and walking are signified with reference to the divine power; these matters shall receive a fitting explanation, and nothing shall conflict with what we have already said.
I wish to exhort you to take these interpretations in a natural manner, and to hold fast the conception of God that is fitting, and not to fall away into a mythical and merely human disposition.
For in many ways, what our lawgiver Moses wishes to say, while making his statements about other matters — I mean those concerning outward appearance — he is in fact declaring the dispositions of nature and the constitution of great realities.
Those, then, who have the capacity to understand rightly admire the wisdom that is in him and the divine spirit, on account of which he has also been proclaimed a prophet; among these are the philosophers already mentioned, and many others, and poets too, who have taken great material from him, for which reason they also are admired.
But to those who do not share in this capacity and understanding, but who cling only to the written letter, he does not appear to be setting forth anything grand.
I will begin, then, to take up each thing signified, so far as I am able. But if I do not attain the truth, nor persuade you, do not attach the irrationality to the lawgiver, but to me, who am unable to set out clearly the things he has conceived.
'Hands,' then, are understood plainly and in a more common way also in our own case. For whenever you, being king, send forth your forces, wishing to accomplish something, we say, 'the king has a great hand,' since those who hear it are carried in thought to the power which you possess.
This is also indicated through our legislation, Moses saying thus: 'With a mighty hand God brought you out of Egypt.' And again, God says, 'I will send my hand, and I will strike the Egyptians.' And concerning the death of the cattle, Moses says to Pharaoh: 'Behold, the hand of the Lord shall be upon your cattle, and upon all that is in the field there shall be a very great death.' So then, 'hands' are understood with reference to the power of God. For indeed one may understand that the whole strength of men and their activities lie in their hands.
For this reason the lawgiver has fittingly transferred the term to what is grand, saying that the accomplishments are the 'hands' of God. And 'divine standing' might rightly be said, with reference to grandeur, to be the constitution of the world.
For indeed God is over all things, and all things have been subjected to him, and have received their standing; so that men perceive these things to be unmoved. And I mean something of this sort: heaven has never become earth, nor earth heaven; nor has the sun ever shone as the moon, nor the moon again as the sun; nor have rivers become sea, nor the sea rivers.
And again, the same account holds for living creatures. For man will not become a beast, nor a beast a man. And the same holds true also for the rest — plants and other things: they are unchangeable in kind, yet within themselves they undergo the same changes and dissolutions.
The divine 'standing,' then, might in this sense be spoken of, since all things are subject to God. And it is said, through the writing of the Law, that a divine 'descent' occurred upon the mountain, at the very time he was giving the law, so that all might behold the working of God. For this descent is manifest; and concerning these things, then, one might interpret in this way, if one wishes to preserve a proper conception of God.
For it is made clear that the mountain was burning with fire, as the legislation says, because God had descended, and there were both sounds of trumpets and fire blazing with irresistible force.
For of the whole multitude, not less than a hundred myriads, apart from the minors gathered together all around the mountain — the circuit around it being not less than five days' journey — from every point of vantage, to all of them encamped as they were all around, the fire was seen blazing.
So that the descent is not local; for God is everywhere. But the power of fire, marvelous beyond all things because it consumes everything, would not have shown itself blazing with irresistible force yet consuming nothing, unless the power from God had been present with it.
For though the plants growing on that mountain were exposed to being fiercely consumed, it consumed none of them, but the verdure of them all remained untouched by the fire; and the sounds of trumpets were heard resounding more vehemently together with the lightning-like manifestation of the fire, though no such instruments were present, nor anyone to sound them, but all these things came about through divine arrangement.
So that it is clear from these things that the divine descent had truly occurred, because those who witnessed it perceived each thing manifestly: that the fire, as has been said, had burned nothing, and that the sounds of the trumpets did not come about through human agency or the making of instruments, but that God, without any instrument, displayed his own majesty through all these things.
These are the words of Aristobulus. Now since we have gone through both the precepts of the sacred laws and the manner of the allegorical form used among them, it would next be fitting to note this also: that the whole nation of the Jews is divided into two parts, and the multitude he subjected to the precepts of the laws according to their literal sense, while the other class — those of settled character — he released from this, and deemed it right for them to attend to a certain more divine philosophy that surpasses the many, and to the contemplation of the things signified according to the [inner] meaning in the laws.
This was a class of Jewish philosophers, whose manner of life and discipline countless outsiders admired greatly, while among their own people the most illustrious deemed them worthy of unfading remembrance — Josephus, and Philo, and several others. Passing over most of these, for the sake of a single example, I shall for the present be content with the testimony of Philo, which he has set forth concerning these matters in many of his own treatises. Take, then, and read these words, taken from his Apology on Behalf of the Jews.
Our lawgiver trained countless of his disciples for community life; these are called Essenes, having been deemed worthy of this title, as it seems to me, on account of their holiness. They dwell in many cities of Judea, and in many villages, forming great and populous communities.
Their manner of life is not by birth (for lineage is not what is written of in matters of voluntary choice), but through zeal for virtue and a longing for love of mankind.
Among the Essenes, then, there is no one at all who is a mere infant, nor even a young man just come of age, nor an adolescent, since the unstable characters of these, owing to the fickleness proper to their years, are apt to change along with them; rather they are full-grown men, and already inclining toward old age, no longer overwhelmed by the flood of bodily impulses, nor led by the passions, but enjoying the true and only genuine freedom.
Their manner of life bears witness to their freedom. No one endures to acquire anything at all as his own — not a house, not a slave, not land, not flocks, nor any of the other equipment and provisions of wealth; but having laid down all things together in common, they enjoy the common benefit of all things.
They dwell together in the same place, having formed themselves into associations of fellowship and common meals, and they continue to occupy themselves in everything for the common good.
But different men have different occupations, to which they apply themselves and toil untiringly, pleading neither cold nor heat nor any of the changes of the weather as an excuse; before the sun rises they turn to their accustomed tasks, and only when it sets do they return, at last, rejoicing no less than those examined in gymnastic contests.
For they suppose that whatever exercises they practice are more beneficial to life, and more pleasant to soul and body, and longer-lasting than those in athletic contests, since they do not grow old together with the body's prime.
For some of them are farmers, skilled in matters of sowing and agriculture; others are herdsmen, in charge of every kind of livestock; and some tend swarms of bees.
Others are craftsmen skilled in various arts, who, so that they may suffer nothing of what the necessities of life force upon a man, put off none of the tasks that lead to a blameless livelihood.
From these differing occupations, then, each having received his wages gives them to one appointed steward; and he, having received them, immediately buys what is needed, and supplies abundant food and the other things that human life requires.
They share the same manner of living and the same table every day, being content with the same fare, lovers of contentment with little, avoiding extravagance as a disease of soul and body.
Not only their table but also their clothing is held in common. For thick cloaks are laid out for winter, and cheap sleeveless tunics for summer, so that it is easy for whoever wishes to take whichever he desires, since it is understood that what belongs to one belongs to all, and conversely what belongs to all belongs to each one.
And indeed, if any of them falls ill, he is cared for from the common funds, tended by the attention and concern of all. And the elderly, even if they happen to be childless, just as if they were blessed not merely with many children but with excellent children, are accustomed to end their life in the most fortunate and comfortable old age, being deemed worthy of such privilege and honor by so many, who consider it right to serve them out of voluntary choice rather than the compulsion of nature.
Furthermore, having perceived more keenly that which alone, or above all, was likely to dissolve their community, they renounced marriage, together with practicing continence to an exceptional degree. For none of the Essenes takes a wife, because a woman is self-loving and jealous beyond measure, and skilled at winning over a man's character and bringing him under continual enchantments.
For having practiced flattering words and other pretense, as though upon a stage, whenever she has enticed his sight and hearing she deceives the governing mind, as though it were a subject already led astray.
And if children are born, filled with pride and boldness, whatever things she had previously hinted at slyly, under a show of irony, these she now speaks out with more audacious boldness, and, shameless, forces him to do them — each of which is hostile to community life.
For the man who is bound by a wife's love-charms, or who is anxiously devoted to his children by natural necessity, is no longer the same toward others, but has become, without realizing it, another man — a slave instead of a free man.
So then, their way of life is so highly admired that not only ordinary people, but even great kings, marveling, have been struck with awe at these men, and by their receptions and honors make their dignity even more august.
Let these things, then, be set down from the treatise mentioned; and from the work That Every Good Man Is Free I shall set forth what follows, which runs thus.
Among them there are some called by the name Essenes, numbering more than four thousand — in my opinion named thus not by an exact form of the Greek dialect, but as being derived from 'holiness,' since above all they have become worshippers of God, not by sacrificing living creatures, but by deeming it right to render their own minds fit for sacred service.
These, in the first place, dwell village-wise, avoiding the cities, because of the habitual lawlessness of those engaged in civic life, knowing from association with them that, just as an incurable disease arises for the body from corrupting air, so too an incurable affliction arises for souls.
Of these, some engage in farming, others pursue crafts that are co-workers with peace, and thereby benefit both themselves and those near them, not hoarding treasures of silver and gold, nor acquiring great tracts of land out of desire for revenues, but providing only what is needed for the necessary requirements of life.
For they alone, almost of all mankind, having become moneyless and possessionless — more by deliberate practice than by any lack of good fortune — are considered the wealthiest of all, judging contentment with little and ease of life, which indeed it truly is, to be abundance.
You would find among them no maker of arrows or javelins, or daggers, or helmet, or breastplate, or shield; nor at all any armorer, or engineer, or anyone pursuing anything pertaining to war — nor even any of those peaceful trades that easily slide into vice. For of commerce, or retail trading, or shipowning, they know not even in a dream, warding off all occasions leading to greed.
Among them there is not even a single slave, but all are free, rendering service to one another; and they condemn masters not only as unjust men who ruin equality, but also as impious men who destroy the ordinance of nature, which, having borne and nurtured all alike after the manner of a mother, has made them genuine brothers — not merely so called, but truly being so.
Their kinship, treacherous greed, having gained the upper hand, has shattered, producing alienation in place of intimacy, and enmity in place of friendship.
As for philosophy, its logical part, as not being necessary for the acquisition of virtue, they leave to word-hunters, and its physical part, as being greater than what belongs to human nature, they leave to sky-gazing babblers — except for that portion of it which philosophizes concerning the existence of God and the generation of the universe; but the ethical part they labor at most diligently, using as their trainers the ancestral laws, which it would be impossible for a human soul to have devised without divine possession.
In these laws they are instructed also at other times, but especially on the seventh days. For the seventh day is held sacred, on which, refraining from other work, they come to sacred places called synagogues, and, arranged by age in ranks, the younger sit beneath the elders, keeping proper order as they listen. One takes up the books and reads, and another of the most experienced comes forward and explains whatever is not well understood; for most of their teaching is philosophized by means of symbols, in the manner of an ancient tradition.
They are trained in piety, holiness, justice, household management, right conduct in society, and the knowledge of what is truly good, evil, and indifferent, together with the choices one must make and the avoidance of their opposites, employing laws and a threefold standard: love of God, love of virtue, and love of mankind.
Of their love of God, then, countless proofs are supplied by the continuous and unbroken holiness maintained throughout their whole life, their refusal to swear oaths, their truthfulness, and their belief that the Divine is the cause of all good things but of no evil at all. Of their love of virtue: their freedom from love of money, from love of glory, from love of pleasure, their self-control, their endurance, and further their contentment with little, their simplicity, their easy-going temper, their freedom from arrogance, their observance of law, their steadiness, and all qualities akin to these. Of their love of humanity, the proofs are goodwill, equality, and that fellowship surpassing all description, concerning which it is not out of place to say a few words briefly.
In the first place, then, no one has any house of his own which is not, as it happens, common to all; for besides dwelling together in companies, it stands open also to those of like zeal who arrive from elsewhere.
Then there is one storehouse for all, and common expenses; their garments are common, and common too their food, since they have made their meals common. For living under the same roof, sharing the same manner of life, and eating at the same table—this one could not find more firmly established in fact among any other people, and perhaps not without reason;
for whatever wages they receive by working during the day, they do not keep as their own possession, but placing it in the common fund, they provide from it a benefit common to all who wish to make use of it; and the sick are not neglected on the ground that they are unable to provide for themselves, since they have ready at hand, from the common funds, resources for their care, so that they may spend without any anxiety, drawing from a more abundant supply.
There is reverence for elders and care for them, such as that shown by genuine children toward their parents, who are tended in their old age by countless hands and minds, amid every abundance. Such athletes of virtue does philosophy—without the elaborate apparatus of Greek terminology—produce, setting forth as its exercises praiseworthy deeds, by which unenslaved freedom is made secure.
A proof of this is that, although many rulers of differing natures and purposes have from time to time risen up against the land—some of them, striving to surpass in wildness the untamed savagery of beasts, and leaving out nothing that pertains to cruelty, slaughtering their subjects like herds of cattle, or even while they were still alive, mangling them limb by limb after the manner of butchers—such men did not cease until they themselves suffered the same calamities at the hand of Justice, who watches over human affairs;
Others, transposing their deranged and rabid fury into another kind of vice, cultivated an unspeakable bitterness, speaking softly, displaying under the pretense of a calmer voice a temper full of heavy wrath, fawning like venomous dogs, and becoming the authors of incurable evils—they left behind in the cities, as monuments of their own impiety and hatred of mankind, the unforgettable calamities of those who had suffered.
But indeed, not one—neither of those exceedingly savage in temper nor of those thoroughly deceitful and treacherous—had the power to bring any charge against the aforesaid community of the Essenes, or Holy Ones; but all of them, proving weaker than the nobility of these men, treated them as though they were by nature self-governing and free, extolling their common meals and that fellowship surpassing all description, which is the clearest proof of a perfect and truly blessed life.
Let this, then, suffice as our presentation of the philosophical discipline and manner of life among the Jews; as for the rest of their life, which the divine laws prescribed for the multitude of the whole nation, our discourse has already set it forth beforehand.
What, then, remains after this except to set forth also the ways in which the theology of their more recent teachers accords with the piety of their forefathers, so that our treatment of this subject too may be rendered complete for us?
Since, then, the oracles of the divinely inspired Scripture have been set forth in the treatise before this one, come, let us now in the present work survey the thought of the wise men among the Jews, that we may learn what sort of men, both in theology and in excellence of discourse, the children of the Hebrews have proved to be. Let us, then, again bring forward Philo, from the first book of his work On the Law.
For some, admiring the world rather than its Maker, have declared it to be uncreated and eternal, thereby impiously and falsely charging God with great inactivity—whereas, on the contrary, they ought to have marveled at his powers as Maker and Father, and not to have exalted the world beyond due measure.
But Moses, having attained to the very summit of philosophy, and having been taught by divine oracles the most numerous and most comprehensive truths concerning nature, recognized that among existing things it is most necessary that the one be an active cause and the other a passive object; and that the active cause is the Mind of the universe, utterly pure and unadulterated, superior to knowledge itself, and superior even to the Good itself and the Beautiful itself; while the passive object is of itself soulless and immovable, but when set in motion, given shape, and ensouled by the Mind, it was transformed into this most perfect work, the world—which those who declare to be uncreated have, without noticing it, cut away the most beneficial and most necessary of the doctrines conducive to piety: namely, providence.
For reason dictates that the father and maker should care for that which has come into being. For a father cares for the preservation of his offspring, and a craftsman for the preservation of what he has fashioned, and by every device wards off whatever is harmful, while he longs by every means to provide whatever is beneficial and advantageous; but toward that which has not come into being, there is no affinity for one who has not made it.
It is a contentious and unprofitable doctrine to establish, as it were, anarchy in a city, for this world—as though it had no overseer, umpire, or judge, by whom it is right that all things should be governed and administered.
But the great Moses, holding that the unbegotten is utterly alien to the visible (for everything perceptible by the senses is subject to becoming and change, and is never in the same state), assigned eternity to the invisible and intelligible, as being its brother and kin, while to the sensible he applied the name proper to it, namely becoming.
Since, then, this world is visible and perceptible by the senses, it must necessarily also be generated; wherefore it was not without purpose that he recorded also its coming into being, discoursing on theology with the utmost dignity.
This much, then, concerning the world's being generated. The same man also discusses most vigorously, in his work On Providence, the fact that the universe is governed by providence, setting forth first the objections of the atheists and then answering them in turn. Of these arguments—though they might seem rather lengthy—I shall set forth most of them in abridged form, as being necessary. He constructs the argument in the following manner:
'Do you say there is providence, amid so great a turmoil and confusion of affairs? For what in human life is ordered? Is there anything that is not full of disorder and turbulence? Or are you alone ignorant that upon the most wicked and most depraved an unstinting abundance of good things comes flooding in—wealth, good repute, honors from the multitudes; and again, power, health, keenness of the senses, beauty, strength, unimpeded enjoyment of pleasures, through both an abundance of resources and the most peaceful good fortune of body? Whereas the lovers and practitioners of wisdom and of all virtue are, I might almost say without exception, poor, obscure, without honor, and lowly.'
Having said these things by way of refutation, along with countless others still more numerous than these, he next resolves the objections in the following manner: 'God is no tyrant, one who has practiced cruelty and violence and all the works of a master exercising a savage rule, but a king who has taken up a mild and lawful sovereignty, and who, with justice, governs the whole heaven and the universe.'
For a king there is no title more fitting than 'father.' For what parents are to children within the ties of kinship, that is a king to his city, and God to the universe—having joined together, by the unshakeable ordinances of nature and in indissoluble union, the two most excellent things: sovereignty together with providential care.
Just as, then, parents do not overlook their prodigal sons, but taking pity on their misfortune, attend to them and care for them, considering it the work of implacable enemies to trample further upon those already in distress, but the work of friends and kinsmen to lighten their offenses;
and often they even lavish gifts on these more generously than on the prudent ones, knowing well that for the latter, prudence itself is an ample resource for prosperity, while for the former their one hope is their parents, and should they fail of this, they would lack even the necessities.
In the same way God also, being the father of rational understanding, cares for all who have a share in reason, and shows forethought even for those living blameworthily, at once giving them time for correction, and at the same time not overstepping his own gracious nature, whose attendants virtue and love of mankind have become, worthy to circle round the divine household.
Receive, then, O soul, this one argument for the time being as a deposit entrusted to you; and here is another, in accord and harmony with it: never be so far deceived of the truth as to suppose any one of the base to be happy, even should he be wealthier than Croesus, sharper-sighted than Lynceus, braver than Milo of Croton, or more beautiful than Ganymede, whom the gods themselves once carried off, for the sake of his beauty, to pour wine for Zeus.
For one who has rendered his own guiding spirit—I mean his own mind—a slave to countless masters (erotic passion, desire, pleasure, fear, grief, folly, licentiousness, cowardice, injustice), could never possibly be happy, even though the multitude, erring from true judgment, may suppose him so, bribed as they are by that twin evil, vainglory and empty opinion—powers skilled at deceiving and leading astray souls without ballast, in which sort of thing the greater part of mankind is sick and perishing.
If, however, you should be willing to strain the eye of your soul and gaze intently upon the providence of God—so far as is possible for human reasoning—having attained a clearer conception of that which is truly good, you will laugh at the things among us which you formerly admired. For always, in the absence of what is better, the inferior is honored, inheriting the rank of the former; but once the better things appear, it retreats, content with the second prizes among the contests.
Struck with awe, then, at that godlike Good and Beautiful, you will surely understand that in God's sight none of the things previously mentioned has, of itself, been deemed worthy of a share in the good, because mines of silver and gold are the meanest portion of the earth, falling wholly and entirely short of that portion which is devoted to producing fruit for all.
For an abundance of wealth is not the same thing as food, without which it is impossible to live. There is one clearest test of these matters: hunger, by which what is truly necessary and useful is put to proof; for a man would gladly exchange all the treasures everywhere for a scrap of food at the right moment.