[Thatcher Introduction]:
As is evident from the writings of Seneca, Epictetus and others, philosophy
in the West ceased to be purely speculative, and dealt with moral and
religious questions. This tendency toward the moral and religious was
strengthened by the spread of Jewish and Christian teachings, together with
the development of the Neo-Platonists toward mysticism, and the consequent
mingling of western and eastern thought. Philo Judaeus lived in Alexandria,
Egypt, from 20 B.C. to 40 A.D. He was a Jew in religion but a Greek in
philosophy, and did much to promote this fusion of thought. The selection here
illustrates alike Judaism, Greek philosophy, and allegorical mysticism.
The Creation of the World.
I. OF other lawgivers, some have set forth what they consider to be
just and reasonable, in a naked and unadorned manner, while others, investing
their ideas with an abundance of amplification, have sought to bewilder the
people, by burying the truth under a heap of fabulous inventions. But Moses,
rejecting both of these methods, the one as inconsiderate, careless, and
unphilosophical, and the other as mendacious and full of trickery, made the
beginning of his laws entirely beautiful, and in all respects admirable,
neither at once declaring what ought to be done or the contrary, nor (since it
was necessary to mold beforehand the dispositions of those who were to use his
laws) inventing fables himself or adopting those which had been invented by
others.
And his exordium,.as I have already said; is most admirable, embracing the
creation of the world, under the idea that the law corresponds to the world
and the world to the law, and that a man who is obedient to the law, being, by
so doing, a citizen of the world, arranges his actions with reference to the
intention of nature, in harmony with which the whole universal world is
regulated. Accordingly no one, whether poet or historian, could ever give
expression in an adequate manner to the beauty of his ideas respecting the
creation of the world; for they surpass all the power of language, and amaze
our hearing, being too great and venerable to be adapted to the senses of any
created being. That, however, is not a reason for our yielding to indolence on
the subject, but rather from our affection for the Deity we ought to endeavor
to exert ourselves even beyond our powers in describing them: not as having
much, or indeed anything to say of our own, but instead of much, just a
little, such as it may be probable that human intellect may attain to, when
wholly occupied with a love of and desire for wisdom.
For as the smallest seal receives imitations of things of colossal
magnitude when engraved upon it, so perchance in some instances the exceeding
beauty of the description of the creation of the world as recorded in the Law,
overshadowing with its brilliancy the souls of those who happen to meet with
it, will be delivered to a more concise record after these facts have been
first premised which it would be improper to pass over in silence.
II. For some men, admiring the world itself rather than the Creator of
the world, have represented it as existing without any maker, and eternal; and
as impiously and falsely have represented God as existing in a state of
complete inactivity, while it would have been right on the other hand to
marvel at the might of God as the creator and father of all, and to admire the
world in a degree not exceeding the bounds of moderation.
But Moses, who had early reached the very summits of philosophy, and who
had learnt from the oracles of God the most numerous and important of the
principles of nature, was well aware that it is indispensable that in all
existing things there must be an active cause, and a passive subject; and that
the active cause is the intellect of the universe, thoroughly unadulterated
and thoroughly unmixed, superior to virtue and superior to science, superior
even to abstract good or abstract beauty; while the passive subject is
something inanimate and incapable of motion by any intrinsic power of its own,
but having been set in motion, and fashioned, and endowed with life by the
intellect, became transformed into that most perfect work, this world. And
those who describe it as being uncreated, do, without being aware of it, cut
off the most useful and necessary of all the qualities which tend to produce
piety, namely, providence: for reason proves that the father and creator has a
care for that which has been created; for a father is anxious for the life of
his children, and a workman aims at the duration of his works, and employs
every device imaginable to ward off everything that is pernicious or
injurious, and is desirous by every means in his power to provide everything
which is useful or profitable for them. But with regard to that which has not
been created, there is no feeling of interest as if it were his own in the
breast of him who has not created it.
It is then a pernicious doctrine, and one for which no one should contend,
to establish a system in this world, such as anarchy is in a city, so that it
should have no superintendent, or regulator, or judge, by whom everything must
be managed and governed.
But the great Moses, thinking that a thing which has not been uncreated is
as alien as possible from that which is visible before our eyes (for
everything which is the subject of our senses exists in birth and in changes,
and is not always in the same condition), has attributed eternity to that
which is invisible and discerned only by our intellect as a kinsman and a
brother, while of that which is the object of our external senses he had
predicated generation as an appropriate description. Since, then, this world
is visible and the object of our external senses, it follows of necessity that
it must have been created; on which account it was not without a wise purpose
that he recorded its creation, giving a very venerable account of God.
III. And he says that the world was made in six days, not because the
Creator stood in need of a length of time (for it is natural that God should
do everything at once, not merely by uttering a command, but by even thinking
of it); but because the things created required arrangement; and number is
akin to arrangement; and, of all numbers, six is, by the laws of nature, the
most productive: for of all the numbers, from the unit upwards, it is the
first perfect one, being made equal to its parts, and being made complete by
them; the number three being half of it, and the number two a third of it, and
the unit a sixth of it, and, so to say, it is formed so as to be both male and
female, and is made up of the power of both natures; for in existing things
the odd number is the male, and the even number is the female; accordingly, of
odd numbers the first is the number three, and of even numbers the first is
two, and the two numbers multiplied together make six. It was fitting,
therefore, that the world, being the most perfect of created things, should be
made according to the perfect number, namely, six: and, as it was to have in
it the causes of both, which arise from combination, that it should be formed
according to a mixed number, the first combination of odd and even numbers,
since it was to embrace the character both of the male who sows the seed, and
of the female who receives it. And he allotted each of the six days to one of
the portions of the whole, taking out the first day, which he does not even
call the first day, that it may not be numbered with the others, but entitling
it one, he names it rightly, perceiving in it, and ascribing to it the nature
and appellation of the unit.
IV. We must mention as much as we can of the matters contained in his
account, since to enumerate them all is impossible; for he embraces that
beautiful world which is perceptible only by the intellect, as the account of
the first day will show: for God, apprehending beforehand, as a God must do,
that there could not exist a good imitation without a good model, and that the
things perceptible to the external senses nothing could be faultless which was
not fashioned with reference to some archetypal idea conceived by the
intellect, when he had determined to create this visible world, previously
formed that one which is perceptible only by the intellect, in order that so
using an incorporeal model formed as far as possible on the image of God, he
might then make this corporeal world, a younger likeness of the elder
creation, which should embrace as many different genera perceptible to
the external senses, as the other world contains of those which are visible
only to the intellect.
But that world which consists of ideas, it were impious in any degree to
attempt to describe or even to imagine: but how it was created, we shall know
if we take for our guide a certain image of the things which exist among us.
When any city is founded through the exceeding ambition of some king or
leader who lays claim to absolute authority, and is at the same time a man of
brilliant imagination, eager to display his good fortune, then it happens at
times that some man coming up who, from his education, is skillful in
architecture, and he, seeing the advantageous character and beauty of the
situation, first of all sketches out in his own mind nearly all the parts of
the city which is about to be completed---the temples, the gymnasia, the
prytanea, the markets, the harbor, the docks, the streets, the arrangement of
the walls, the situations of the dwelling houses, and of the public and other
buildings. Then, having received in his own mind, as on a waxen tablet, the
form of each building, he carries in his heart the image of a city,
perceptible as yet only by the intellect, the images of which he stirs up in
memory which is innate in him, and, still further, engraving them in his mind
like a good workman, keeping his eyes fixed on his model, he begins to raise
the city of stones and wood, making the corporeal substances to resemble each
of the incorporeal ideas. Now we must form a somewhat similar opinion of God,
who, having determined to found a mighty state, first of all conceived its
form in his mind, according to which form he made a world perceptible only by
the intellect, and then completed one visible to the external senses, using
the first one as a model.
V. As therefore the city, when previously shadowed out in the mind of
the man of architectural skill had no external place, but was stamped solely
in the mind of the workman, so in the same manner neither can the world which
existed in ideas have had any other local position except the divine reason
which made them; for what other place could there be for his powers which
should be able to receive and contain, I do not say all, but even any single
one of them whatever, in its simple form? And the power and faculty which
could be capable of creating the world, has for its origin that good which is
founded on truth; for if any one were desirous to investigate the cause on
account of which this universe was created, I think that he would come to no
erroneous conclusion if he were to say as one of the ancients did say: "That
the Father and Creator was good; on which account he did not grudge the
substance a share of his own excellent nature, since it had nothing good in
itself, but was able to become everything." For the substance was of itself
destitute of arrangement, of equality, of animation, of distinctive character,
and full of all disorder and confusion; and it received a change and
transformation to what is opposite to this condition, and most excellent,
being invested with order, quality, animation, resemblance, identity,
arrangement, harmony, and everything which belongs to the more excellent
idea.
VI. And God, not being urged on by any prompter (for who else could
there have been to prompt him?) but guided by his own sole will, decided that
it was fitting to benefit with unlimited and abundant favors a nature which,
without the divine gift, was unable of itself to partake of any good thing;
but he benefits it, not according to the greatness of his own graces, for they
are illimitable and eternal, but according to the power of that which is
benefited to receive his graces. For the capacity of that which is created to
receive benefits does not correspond to the natural power of God to confer
them; since his powers are infinitely greater, and the thing created being not
sufficiently powerful to receive all their greatness would have sunk under it,
if he had not measured his bounty, allotting to each, in due proportion, that
which was poured upon it. And if any one were to desire to use more
undisguised terms, he would not call the world, which is perceptible only to
the intellect, any thing else but the reason of God, already occupied in the
creation of the world; for neither is a city, while only perceptible to the
intellect, anything else but the reason of the architect, who is already
designing to build one perceptible to the external senses, on the model of
that which is so only to the intellect---this is the doctrine of Moses, not
mine. Accordingly he, when recording the creation of man, in words which
follow, asserts expressly, that he was made in the image of God---and if the
image be a part of the image, then manifestly so is the entire form, namely,
the whole of this world perceptible by the external senses, which is a greater
imitation of the divine image than the human form is. It is manifest also,
that the archetypal seal, which we call that world which is perceptible only
to the intellect, must itself be the archetypal model, the idea of ideas, the
Reason of God.
VII. Moses says also, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth:" taking the beginning to be, not as some men think, that which is
according to time; for before the world time had no existence, but was created
either simultaneously with it, or after it; for since time is the interval of
the motion of the heavens, there could not have been any such thing as motion
before there was anything which could be moved; but it follows of necessity
that it received existence subsequently or simultaneously. It therefore
follows also, of necessity, that time was created either at the same moment
with the world, or later than it---and to venture to assert that it is older
than the world is absolutely inconsistent with philosophy. But if the
beginning spoken of by Moses is not to be looked upon as spoken of according
to time, then it may be natural that to suppose that it is the beginning
according to number that is indicated; so that, "In the beginning he created,"
is equivalent to Afirst of all he
created the heaven"; for it is natural in reality that that should have been
the first object created, being both the best of all created things, and also
made of the purest substance, because it was destined to be the most holy
abode of the visible gods who are perceptible by the external senses; for if
the Creator had made everything at the same moment, still those things which
were created in beauty would no less have had a regular arrangement, for there
is no such thing as beauty in disorder. But order is a due consequence and
connection of things precedent and subsequent, if not in the completion of a
work, at all events in the intention of the maker; for it is owing to order
that they become accurately defined and stationary, and free from confusion.
In the first place therefore, from the model of the world, perceptible only
by intellect, the Creator made an incorporeal heaven, and an invisible earth,
and the form of air and of empty space: the former of which he called
darkness, because the air is black by nature; and the other he called the
abyss, for empty space is very deep and yawning with immense width. Then he
created the incorporeal substance of water and of air, and above all he spread
light, being the seventh thing made; and this again was incorporeal, and a
model of the sun, perceptible only to intellect, and of all the light-giving
stars, which are destined to stand together in heaven.
VIII. And air and light he considered worthy of the pre-eminence. For
the one he called the breath of God, because it is air, which is the most
life-giving of things, and of life the causer is God; and the other he called
light, because it is surpassingly beautiful: for that which is perceptible
only by the intellect is as far more brilliant and splendid than that which is
seen, as I conceive, the sun is than darkness, or day than night, or the
intellect than any other of the outward senses by which men judge (inasmuch as
it is the guide of the entire soul), or the eyes than any other part of the
body. And the invisible divine reason, perceptible only by intellect, he calls
the image of God. And the image of this image is that light, perceptible only
by the intellect, which is the image of the divine reason, which has explained
its generation. And it is a star above the heavens, the source of those stars
which are perceptible by the external senses, and if any one were to call it
universal light, he would not be very wrong; since from that the sun and the
moon, and all the other planets and fixed stars derive their due light, in
proportion as each has power given it; that unmingled and pure light being
obscured when it begins to change, according to the change from that which is
perceptible by the external senses; for none of those things which are
perceptible to the external senses is pure.
IX. Moses is right also when he says, that Adarkness was over the face of the
abyss.@ For the air is in a manner
spread above the empty space, since having mounted up it entirely fills all
that open, and desolate, and empty place, which reaches down to us from the
regions below the moon. And after the shining forth of that light, perceptible
only to the intellect, which existed before the sun, then its adversary
darkness yielded, as God put a wall between them and separated them, well
knowing their opposite characters, and the enmity existing between their
natures. In order, therefore, that they might not war against one another from
being continually brought in contact, so that war would prevail instead of
peace, God, turning want of order into order, did not only separate light and
darkness, but did also place boundaries in the middle of the space between the
two, by which he separated the extremities of each. For if they had
approximated they must have produced confusion, preparing for the contest, for
the supremacy, with great and inextinguishable rivalry, if boundaries
established between them had not separated them and prevented them from
clashing together, and these boundaries are evening and morning; the one of
which heralds in the good tidings that the sun is about to rise, gently
dissipating the darkness: and evening comes on as the sun sets, receiving
gently the collective approach of darkness. And these, I mean morning and
evening, must be placed in the class of incorporeal things, perceptible only
by the intellect; for there is absolutely nothing in them which is perceptible
by the external senses, but they are entirely ideas, and measures and forms,
and seals, incorporeal as far as regards the generation of other bodies. But
when light came, and darkness retreated and yielded to it and boundaries were
set in the space between the two, namely, evening and morning, then of
necessity the measure of time was immediately perfected, which also the
Creator called Aday@; and it is spoken of thus, on account of
the single nature of the world perceptible only by the intellect, which has a
single nature.
X. The incorporeal world then was already completed, having its seat in
the Divine Reason: and the world, perceptible by the external senses, was made
on the model of it; and the first portion of it, being also the most excellent
of all made by the Creator, was the heaven, which he truly called the
firmament, as being corporeal; for the body is by nature firm, inasmuch as it
is divisible into three parts; and what other idea of solidity and of body can
there be, except that it is something which may be measured in every
direction? Therefore, he very naturally contrasting that which was perceptible
to the external senses, and corporeal with that which was perceptible only by
the intellect and incorporeal, called this the firmament. Immediately
afterwards he, with great propriety and entire correctness, called it the
heaven, either because it was already the boundary of everything, or because
it was the first of all visible things which was created; and after its second
rising he called the time day, referring the entire space and measure of a day
to the heaven, on account of its dignity and honor among the things
perceptible to the external senses.
XI. And after this, as the whole body of water in existence was spread
over all the earth, and had penetrated through all its parts as if it were a
sponge which had imbibed moisture, so that the earth was only swampy land and
deep mud, both the elements of earth and water being mixed up and combined
together, like one confused mass into one undistinguishable and shapeless
nature, God ordained that all the water which was salt, and destined to be a
cause of barrenness to seeds and trees should be gathered together, flowing
forth out of all the holes of the entire earth; and he commanded dry land to
appear, that liquid which had any sweetness in it being left in it to secure
its durability. For this sweet liquid, in due proportions, is as a sort of
glue for the different substances, preventing the earth from being utterly
dried up, and so becoming unproductive and barren, and causing it, like a
mother, to furnish not only one kind of nourishment, namely meat, but both
sorts at once, so as to supply its offspring with both meat and drink:
wherefore he filled it with veins, resembling breasts, which, being provided
with openings, were destined to pour forth springs and rivers. And in the same
way he extended the invisible irrigations of dew pervading every portion of
arable and deep-soiled land, to contribute to the most liberal and plenteous
supply of fruits. Having arranged these things, he gave them names, calling
the dry, "land," and the water which was separated from it, he called
"sea."
