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ALLEGORICAL
INTERPRETATION, II{*} II.
(4) But it is not good for any man to be alone. For there are two kinds of men,
the one made according to the image of God, the other fashioned out of the
earth; for it longs for its own likeness. For the image of God is the antitype
of all other things, and every imitation aims at this of which it is the
imitation, and is placed in the same class with it. And it is not good for
either the man, who was made according to the image of God, to be alone: nor is
it any more desirable for the factitious man to be alone, and indeed it is
impossible. For the external senses, and the passions, and the vices, and
innumerable other things, are combined with and adapted to the mind of this man.
(5) But the second kind of man has a helpmeet for him, who, in the first place,
is created; "For I will make him," says God, "a help-meet for
him." And, in the second place, is younger than the object to be helped;
for, first of all, God created the mind, and subsequently he prepares to make
its helper. But all this is spoken allegorically, in accordance with the
principles of natural philosophy; for external sensation and the passions of the
soul are all younger than the soul, and how they help it we shall see hereafter,
but at present we will consider the fact of their being helpers younger than the
object helped. III.
(6) As, according to the most skilful physicians and natural philosophers, the
heart appears to be formed before the rest of the body, after the manner of the
foundation of a house or the keel of a ship, and then the rest of the body is
built upon it; on which account, even after death, the physicians say, that the
heart still quivers, as having been created before the rest of the body, and
being destroyed after it; so also does the dominant portion of the soul appear
to be older than the whole of the soul, and the irrational part to be younger;
the formation of which Moses has not yet mentioned, but he is about to give a
sketch of it, how the irrational part of the soul is the external sensation, and
the passions which spring from it, especially if the judgments are our own. And
this assistant of God is younger, and created, being thus described with perfect
propriety. (7) But now let us see how that part, which was postponed before,
acts as an assistant: how does our mind comprehend that such and such a thing is
black or white, unless it employs sight as its assistant? and how does it know
that the voice of the man who is singing to his harp is sweet, or, on the
contrary, out of tune, if it has not the assistance of the faculty of hearing to
guide it? And how can it tell that exhalations are fragrant or foul-smelling,
unless it makes use of the sense of smell as its ally? How again does it judge
of the different flavors, except through the instrumentality of its assistant,
taste? (8) How can it distinguish between what is rough and what is smooth,
except by touch? There is also another class of assistants, as I have already
said, namely, the passions: for pleasure also is an assistant, co-operating
towards the durability of our race, and in like manner concupiscence, and pain,
and fear, biting the soul, lead it to treat nothing with indifference. Anger,
again, is a defensive weapon, which has been of great service to many people,
and so too have the other passions in the same manner. On which account Moses
has said, with great felicity, "that he was an assistant to himself:"
for he is in reality an assistant to the mind, as if he were its brother and
near kinsman: for the external sensations and the passions are parts of one
soul, and are its offspring. IV.
(9) Now of assistants there are two kinds, the one consisting in the passions
and the other in the sensations. [...]{1}{A word or two are lost here. Pfeiffer
thinks that several sentences are wanting; and there is a great want of
connection between what follows and what has gone before.} But the prior kind is
that of generation, for Moses says, "And God proceeded and made all the
beasts of the field out of the earth, and all the birds of heaven; and he
brought them to Adam to see what he would call them, and whatever Adam called
any living soul that became its name." You see here who are our assistants,
the beasts of the soul, the passions. For after God had said, "I will make
him a helpmeet for him," Moses adds subsequently, "He made the
beasts," as if the beasts also were assistants to us. (10) But these are
not, properly speaking, assistants, but are called so only in a catachrestic
manner, by a kind of abuse of language, for they are found in reality to be
enemies to man. As also in the case of cities, the allies turn out at times to
be traitors and deserters; and in the case of friendship, flatterers are found
to be enemies instead of companions; and Moses here speaks of the heaven and the
field synonymously, describing the mind in this allegorical manner; for the
mind, like the field, has innumerable periods of rising and budding forth; and,
like the heaven, has brilliant, and divine, and happy characteristics of nature.
(11) But the passions he compares to beasts and birds, because they injure the
mind, being untamed and wild, and because, after the manner of birds, they
descend upon the intellect; for their onset is swift and difficult to withstand;
and the word "besides," as attached to "he made," is not
superfluous. Why so? because he has previously said, that the beasts were formed
before the creation of man, and he shows it in the following words, which are an
account of what was done on the sixth day. "And God said, Let the earth
bring forth living creatures after their kind, four-footed animals, and creeping
things, and wild beasts." (12) Why, then, is it that he makes other animals
now, not being content with those already existing? now this must be stated
according to the principles of moral philosophy. The species of evil are
abundant in created man, so that the most evil things are continually produced
in him; and this other thing must be affirmed on principles of natural
philosophy. First of all, in the six days he created the different kinds of
passions, and the ideas, but now, in addition to them, he is creating the
species. (13) On which account Moses says, "And besides he made..."
and that what had been previously created were genera is plain from what he
says, "Let the earth bring forth living souls," not according to
species but according to genus. And this is found to be the course taken by God
in all cases; for before making the species he completes the genera, as he did
in the case of man: for having first modeled the generic man, in whom they say
that the male and female sexes are contained, he afterwards created the specific
man Adam. V.
(14) This therefore he denominated the species of assistants, but the other part
of the creation, the description, that is, of the formation of the external
sensations, was postponed till he began to form the woman; and having put off
this he then gives an account of the distribution of names; and this is an
explanation, partly figurative and partly literal, which is worthy of our
admiration. It is literal, inasmuch as the Lawgiver has attributed the
imposition of names to the firstborn man; (15) for those also among the Greeks,
who study philosophy, say that they were wise men who first gave names to
things: but Moses speaks more correctly in the first place, because he
attributes this giving of names, not to some of those men who lived in early
times, but to the first man who was created upon the earth; so that, just as he
himself was created to be the beginning of creation to all other animals, he
might also be considered the beginning of conversation and language: for if
there were no such things as names there could be no such thing as language:
and, secondly, because, if many different persons gave names, they must have
been different and devoid of all connection, since different persons would have
given different names: but if only one person did so, the name given by one was
sure to be adapted to the thing: and the same name was likely to be a token to
every one of the existing things signified by it. VI.
(16) But the moral meaning of this passage is as follows:--We often use the
expression ti instead of dia ti; (why?) as when we say, why (ti) have you washed
yourself? why (ti) are you walking? why (ti) are you conversing? for in all
these cases ti is used instead of dia ti; when therefore Moses says, "to
see what he would call them," you must understand him as if he had said dia
ti (why), instead of ti (what): and the mind will invite and embrace each of
these meanings. Is it then only for the sake of what is necessary that the
mortal race is of necessity implicated in passions and vices? or is it also on
account of that which is immoderate and superfluous? And again, is it because of
the requirements of the earth-born man, or because the mind judges them to be
most excellent and admirable things; (17) as for instance, is it necessary for
every created thing to enjoy pleasure? But the bad man flies to pleasure as to a
perfect good, but the good man seeks it only as a necessary; for without
pleasure nothing whatever is done among the human race. Again, the bad man
considers the acquisition of riches as the most perfect good possible; but the
good man looks upon riches only as a necessary and useful thing. (18) Very
naturally, therefore, God desires to see and to learn how the mind denominates
and appreciates each of these things, whether it looks upon them as good, or as
things indifferent, or as evil in themselves, but nevertheless in some respects
necessary. On which account, thinking that everything which he invited towards
himself, and embraced as a living soul, was of equal value and importance with
the soul, this became the name, not only of the thing which was thus invited,
but also of him who invited it: as for instance, if the man embraced pleasure,
he was called a man devoted to pleasure; if he embraced appetite, he was called
a man of appetite; if he invited intemperance, he himself also acquired the name
of intemperate; if he admitted cowardice, he was called cowardly; and so on in
the case of the other passions. For as he who has any distinctive qualities
according to the virtues, is called from that virtue with which he is especially
endowed, prudent, or temperate, or just, or courageous, as the case may be; so
too in respect of the vices, a man is called unjust, or foolish, or unmanly,
when he has invited and embraced these habits of mind and conduct. VII.
(19) "And God cast a deep trance upon Adam, and sent him to sleep; and he
took one of his ribs," and so on. The literal statement conveyed in these
words is a fabulous one; for how can any one believe that a woman was made of a
rib of a man, or, in short, that any human being was made out of another? And
what hindered God, as he had made man out of the earth, from making woman in the
same manner? For the Creator was the same, and the material was almost
interminable, from which every distinctive quality whatever was made. And why,
when there were so many parts of a man, did not God make the woman out of some
other part rather than out of one of his ribs? Again, of which rib did he make
her? And this question would hold even if we were to say, that he had only
spoken of two ribs; but in truth he has not specified their number. Was it then
the right rib, or the left rib? (20) Again, if he filled up the place of the
other with flesh, was not the one which he left also made of flesh? and indeed
our ribs are like sisters, and akin in all their parts, and they consist of
flesh. What then are we to say? (21) ordinary custom calls the ribs the strength
of a man; for we say that a man has ribs, which is equivalent to saying that he
has vigor; and we say that a wrestler is a man with strong ribs, when we mean to
express that he is strong: and we say that a harp player has ribs, instead of
saying that he has energy and power in his singing. (22) Now that this has been
premised we must also say, that the mind, while naked and free from the
entanglement of the body (for our present discussion is about the mind, while it
is as yet entangled in nothing) has many powers, namely, the possessive power,
the progenitive power, the power of the soul, the power of reason, the power of
comprehension, and part of others innumerable both in their genus and species.
Now the possessive power is common to it with other inanimate things, with
stocks and stones, and it is shared by the things in us, which are like stones,
namely, by our bones. And natural power extends also over plants: and there are
parts in us which have some resemblance to plants, namely, our nails and our
hair: (23) and nature is a habit already put in motion, but the soul is a habit
which has taken to itself, in addition, imagination and impetuosity; and this
power also is possessed by man in common with the irrational animals; and our
mind has something analogous to the soul of an irrational animal. Again,
the power of comprehension is a peculiar property of the mind; and the reasoning
power is perhaps common to the more divine natures, but is especially the
property of the mortal nature of man: and this is a twofold power, one kind
being that in accordance with which we are rational creatures, partaking of
mind; and the other kind being that faculty by which we converse. (24) There is
also another power in the soul akin to these, the power of sensation, of which
we are now speaking; for Moses is describing nothing else on this occasion
except the formation of the external sense, according to energy and according to
reason. VIII.
For immediately after the creation of the mind it was necessary that the
external sense should be created, as an assistant and ally of the mind;
therefore God having entirely perfected the first, proceeded to make the second,
both in rank and power, being a certain created form, an external sense
according to energy, created for the perfection and completion of the whole
soul, and for the proper comprehension of such subject matter as might be
brought before it. (25) How then was this second thing created? As Moses himself
says in a subsequent passage, when the mind was gone to sleep: for, in real
fact, the external sense then comes forward when the mind is asleep. And again,
when the mind is awake the outward sense is extinguished; and the proof of this
is, that when we desire to form an accurate conception of anything, we retreat
to a desert place, we shut our eyes, we stop up our ears, we discard the
exercise of our senses; and so, when the mind rises up again and awakens, the
outward sense is put an end to. (26) Let us now consider another point, namely,
how the mind goes to sleep: for when the outward sense is awakened and has
become excited, when the sight beholds any works of painting or of sculpture
beautifully wrought, is not the mind then without anything on which to exercise
its functions, contemplating nothing which is a proper subject for the
intellect? What more? When the faculty of hearing is attending to some melodious
combination of sound, can the mind turn itself to the contemplation of its
proper objects? by no means. And it is much more destitute of occupation, when
taste rises up and eagerly devotes itself to the pleasures of the belly; (27) on
which account Moses, being alarmed lest some day or other the mind might not
merely go to sleep, but might become absolutely dead, says in another place,
"And it shall be to you a peg in your girdle; and it shall be, that when
you sit down you shall dig in it, and, heaping up earth, shall cover your
Shame."{2}{Deuteronomy 23:13.} Speaking symbolically, and giving the name
of peg to reason which digs up secret affairs; (28) and he bids him to bear it
upon the affection with which he ought to be birded, and not to allow it to
slacken and become loosened; and this must be done when the mind, departing from
the intense consideration of objects perceptible by the intellect, is brought
down to the passions, and sits down, yielding to, and being guided by, the
necessities of the body: (29) and this is the case when the mind, being absorbed
in luxurious associations, forgets itself, being subdued by the things which
conduct it to pleasure, and so we become enslaved, and yield ourselves up to
unconcealed impurity. But if reason be able to purify the passion, then neither
when we drink do we become intoxicated, nor when we eat do we become indolent
through satiety, but we feast soberly without indulging in folly. (30)
Therefore, the awakening of the outward senses is the sleep of the mind; and the
awakening of the mind is the discharge of the outward senses from all
occupation. Just as when the sun arises the brightness of all the rest of the
stars becomes invisible; but when the sun sets, they are seen. And so, like the
sun, the mind, when it is awakened, overshadows the outward senses, but when it
goes to sleep it permits them to shine. IX.
(31) After this preface we must now proceed to explain the words: "The Lord
God," says Moses, "cast a deep trance upon Adam, and sent him to
sleep." He speaks here with great correctness, for a trance and perversion
of the mind is its sleep. And the mind is rendered beside itself when it ceases
to be occupied about the things perceptible only by the intellect which present
themselves to it. And when it is not energizing with respect to them it is
asleep. And the expression, "it is in a trance," is very well
employed, as it means that it is perverted and changed, not by itself, but by
God, who presents to it, and brings before it, and sends upon it the change
which occurs to it. (32) For the case is this:--if it were in my own power to be
changed, then whenever I chose I should exercise this power, and whenever I did
not choose I should continue as I am, without any change. But now change attacks
me from an opposite direction, and very often when I am desirous to turn my
intellect to some fitting subject, I am swallowed up by an influx contrary to
what is fitting: and on the other hand, when I conceive an idea respecting
something unseemly, I discard it by means of pleasant notions while God by his
own grace pours into my soul a sweet stream instead of the salt flood. (33) It
is necessary therefore, that every created thing should at times be changed. For
this is a property of every created thing, just as it is an attribute of God to
be unchangeable. But of these beings who have been changed, some remain in their
altered state till their final and complete destruction, though others are only
exposed to the ordinary vicissitudes of human nature; and they are immediately
preserved. (34) On which account Moses says that "God will not suffer the
destroyer to enter into your houses to smite them."{3}{Exodus 12:23.} For
he does permit the destroyer (and change is the destruction of the soul) to
enter into the soul, in order to exhibit the peculiar characteristic of the
created being. But God will not permit the offspring of the seeing X.
(35) "He took one of his ribs." He took one of the many powers of the
mind, namely, that power which dwells in the outward senses. And when he uses
the expression, "He took," we are not to understand it as if he had
said, "He took away," but rather as equivalent to "He counted, He
examined;" as he says in another place, "Take the chief of the spoils
of the captivity."{4} {Numbers 31:26.} What, then, is it which he wishes to
show? (36) Sensation is spoken of in a twofold manner; --the one kind being
according to habit, which exists even when we are asleep, and the other being
according to energy. Now, in the former kind, the one according to habit, there
is no use: for we do not comprehend any one of the objects presented to our view
by its means. But there is use in the second, in that which exists according to
energy; for it is by means of this that we arrive at a comprehension of the
objects perceptible by the outward senses. (37)
Accordingly, God, having created the former kind of sensation, that existing
according to habit, when he was creating the mind (for he was furnishing that
with many faculties in a state of rest), desires now to complete the other kind
which exists according to energy. And this one according to energy is perfected
when the one which exists according to habit is put in motion, and extended as
far as the flesh and the organs of sense. For as nature is perfected when the
seed is put in motion, so, also, energy is perfected when the habit is put in
motion. XI.
(38) "And he filled the space with flesh instead of it." That is to
say, he filled up that external sense which exists according to habit, leading
it on to energy and extending it as far as the flesh and the whole outward and
visible surface of the body. In reference to which Moses adds that "he
built it up into a woman:" showing by this expression that woman is the
most natural and felicitously given name for the external sense. For as the man
is seen in action, and the woman in being the subject of action, so also is the
mind seen in action, and the external sense, like the woman, is discerned by
suffering or being the subject of action. (39) And it is easy to learn this from
the way in which it is affected in practice. Thus the sight is affected by these
objects of sight which put it in motion, such as white and black, and the other
colors. Again, hearing is affected by sounds, and taste is disposed in such or
such a way by flavors; the sense of smell by scents; and that of touch by
hardness or softness. And, on the other hand all the outward senses are in a
state of tranquility until each is approached from without by that which is to
put it in motion. XII.
(40) "And he brought her to Adam. And Adam said, this is now bone of my
bone, and flesh of my flesh." God leads the external sense, existing
according to energy, to the mind; knowing that its motion and apprehension must
turn back to the mind. But the mind, perceiving the power which it previously
had (and which, while it was existing according to habit was in a state of
tranquility), now have to become a complete operation and energy, and to be in a
state of motion, marvels at it, and utters an exclamation, saying that it is not
unconnected with it, but very closely akin to it. (41) For Adam says, "This
now is bone of my bone;" that is to say, this is power of my power; for
bone is here to be understood as a symbol of strength and power. And it is, he
adds, suffering of my sufferings; that is, it is flesh of my flesh. For every
thing which the external sense suffers, it endures not without the support of
the mind; for the mind is its fountain, and the foundation on which it is
supported. (42) It is also worth while to consider why Adam added the word
"now," for he says, "This now is bone of my bone." The
explanation is, external sensation exists now, having its existence solely with
reference to the present moment. For the mind touches three separate points of
time; for it perceives present circumstances, and it remembers past events, and
it anticipates the future. (43) But the external sensations have neither any
anticipation of future events, nor are they subject to any feeling resembling
expectation or hope, nor have they any recollection of past circumstances; but
are by nature capable only of being affected by that which moves them at the
moment, and is actually present. As, for example, the eye is made white by a
white appearance presented to it at the moment, but it is not affected in any
manner by that which is not present to it. But the mind is agitated also by that
which is not actually present, but which may be past; in which cast it is
affected by its recollection of it; or it may be future, in which case it is,
indeed, the influence of hope and expectation. XIII.
(44) "And she shall be called woman." This is equivalent to saying, on
this account the outward sensation shall be called woman, because it is derived
from man who sets it in motion. He says "she;" why, then, is the
expression "she" used? Why, because there is also another kind of
outward sensation, not derived from the mind, but having been created, at the
same moment with it. For there are, as I have said before, two different kinds
of outward sensation; the one kind existing according to habit, and the other
according to energy. (45) Now, the kind existing according to habit is not
derived from the man, that is to say from the mind, but is created at the same
time with him. For the mind, as I have already shown, when it was created was
created with many faculties and habits; namely, with the faculty and habit of
reasoning, and of existing, and of promoting what is like itself, as also with
that of receiving impressions from the outward senses. But the outward
sensation, which exists according to energy, is derived from the mind. For it is
extended from the outward sensation which exists in it according to habit, so as
to become the same outward sense according to energy. So that this second kind
of outward sense is derive from the mind, and exists according to motion. (46)
And he is but a foolish person who thinks that any thing is in true reality made
out of the mind, or out of itself. Do you not see that even in the case of
Rachel (that is to say of outward sensation) sitting upon the images, while she
thought that her motions came from the mind, he who saw her reproved her. For
she says, "Give me my children, and if you give them not to me I shall
Die."{5}{Genesis 30:1.} And he replied: "Because, O mistaken woman,
the mind is not the cause of any thing, but he which existed before the mind;
namely God." On which account he adds: "Am I equal to God who has
deprived you of the fruit of your womb?" (47) But that it is God who
creates men, he will testify in the case of Leah, when he says, "But the
Lord, when he saw that Leah was hated, opened her womb. But Rachel was
Barren."{6}{Genesis 29:31.} But it is the especial property of man to open
the womb. Now
naturally virtue is hated by men. On which account God has honored it, and gives
the honor of bearing the first child to her who is hated. (48) And in another
passage he says: "But if a man has two wives, one of them being loved and
one of them being hated, and if they bear him children, and if the first-born
son be the child of her who is hated; he will not be able to give the honors of
the birthright to the child of the wife whom he loves, overlooking the firstborn
son the child of her who is Hated."{7}{Deuteronomy 21:15.} For the
productions of virtue which is hated, are the first and the most perfect, but
those of pleasure, which is loved, are the last. XIV.
(49) "On this account a man will leave his father and his mother and will
cleave to his wife; and they two shall become one flesh." On account of the
external sensation, the mind, when it has become enslaved to it, shall leave
both its father, the God of the universe, and the mother of all things, namely,
the virtue and wisdom of God, and cleaves to and becomes united to the external
sensations, and is dissolved into external sensation, so that the two become one
flesh and one passion. (50) And here you must observe that it is not the woman
who cleaves to the man, but on the contrary, the man who cleaves to the woman;
that is to say, the mind cleaves to the external sensations. For when that which
is the better, namely, the mind, is united to that which is the rose, namely,
the external sensation, it is then dissolved into the nature of flesh, which is
worse, and into outward sensation, which is the cause of the passions. But when
that which is the inferior, namely, the outward sensation, follows the better
part, that is the mind, then there will no longer be flesh, but both will become
one, namely, mind. And this is a thing of such a nature that it prefers the
affections to piety. (51) There is also another being called by an opposite
name, Levi; he who says to his father and mother: "He saw you not, and he
did not recognize his brethren, and repudiated his
Children."{8}{Deuteronomy 33:9.} This man leaves his father and mother;
that is to say, his mind and the material of his body, in order to have as his
inheritance the one God; "For the Lord himself is his
Inheritance."{9}{Deuteronomy 10:9.} (52) And, indeed, suffering is the
inheritance of him who is fond of suffering; but the inheritance of Levi is God.
Do you not see that "he bids him on the tenth day of the months bring two
goats as his share, one lot for the Lord and one lot for the scape-Goat."{10}{Leviticus
16:7.} For the sufferings inflicted on the scape goat are in real truth the lot
of him who is fond of suffering. XV.
(53) "And they were both naked, both Adam and his wife, and they were not
ashamed; but the serpent was the most subtle of all the beasts that were upon
the earth, which the Lord God had Made:"{11}{Genesis 2:25; 3:1.}--the mind
is naked, which is clothed neither with vice nor with virtue, but which is
really stripped of both: just as the soul of an infant child, which has no share
in either virtue or vice, is stripped of all coverings, and is completely naked:
for these things are the coverings of the soul, by which it is enveloped and
concealed, good being the garment of the virtuous soul, and evil the robe of the
wicked soul. (54) And the soul is made naked in these ways. Once, when it is in
an unchangeable state, and is entirely free from all vices, and has discarded
and laid aside the covering of all the passions. With reference to this Moses
also pitches his tabernacle outside of the camp, a long way from the camp, and
it was called the tabernacle of Testimony.{12}{Exodus 33:7.} (55) And this has
some such meaning as this: the soul which loves God, having put off the body and
the affections which are dear to it, and having fled a long way from them,
chooses a foundation and a sure ground for its abode, and a lasting settlement
in the perfect doctrines of virtue; on which account testimony is borne to it by
God, that it loves what is good, "for it was called the tabernacle of
testimony," says Moses, and he has passed over in silence the giver of the
name, in order that the soul, being excited, might consider who it is who thus
bears witness to the dispositions which love virtue. (56) On this account the
high priest "will not come into the holy of holies clad in a garment
reaching to the feet; {13}{Leviticus 16:1.} but having put off the robe of
opinion and vain fancy of the soul, and having left that for those who love the
things which are without, and who honor opinion in preference to truth, will
come forward naked, without colors or any sounds, to make an offering of the
blood of the soul, and to sacrifice the whole mind to God the Savior and
Benefactor; (57) and certainly Nadab and Abihu, {14}{Leviticus 10:1.} who came
near to God, and left this mortal life and received a share of immortal life,
are seen to be naked, that is, free from all new and mortal opinion; for they
would not have carried it in their garments and borne it about, if they had not
been naked, having broken to pieces every bond of passion and of corporeal
necessity, in order that their nakedness and absence of corporeality might not
be adulterated by the accession of atheistical reasonings; for it may not be
permitted to all men to behold the secret mysteries of God, but only to those
who are able to cover them up and guard them; (58) on which account Mishael and
his partisans concealed them not in their own garments, but in those of Nadab
and Abihu, who had been burnt with fire and taken upwards; for having stripped
off all the garments that covered them, they brought their nakedness before God,
and left their tunics about Mishael. But clothes belong to the irrational part
of the animal, which overshadow the rational part. Abraham also was naked when
he heard, (59) "Come forth out of thy land and from thy kindred;"{15}
{Genesis 13:1.} and as for Isaac, he indeed was not stripped, but was at all
times naked and incorporeal; for a commandment was given to him not to go down
into Egypt, {16}{Genesis 26:2.} that is to say, into the body. Jacob also was
fond of the nakedness of the soul, for his smoothness is nakedness, "for
Esau was a hairy man, but Jacob," says Moses, "was a smooth
Man,"{17}{Genesis 25:25.} on which account he was also the husband of Leah.
XVI.
(60) This is the most excellent nakedness, but the other nakedness is of a
contrary nature, being a change which involves a deprivation of virtue, when the
soul becomes foolish and goes astray. Such was the folly of Noah when he was
naked, when he drank Wine.{18}{Genesis 9:21.} But thanks be to God, that this
change and this tripping naked of the mind according to the deprivation of
virtue, did not extend as far as external things, but remained in the house; for
Moses says, that "he was stripped naked in his house:" for even if a
wise man does commit folly, he still does not run to ruin like a bad man; for
the evil of the one is spread abroad, but that of the other is kept within
bounds, and therefore he becomes sober again, that is to say, he repents, and as
it were recovers from his disease. (61) But let us now more accurately examine
the statement, "that the stripping of him naked took place in his
house." When the soul, being changed, only conceives some evil thing and
does not put it in execution, so as to accomplish it in deed, then the sin is
only in the private domain and abode of the soul. But if, in addition to
thinking some wickedness it proceeds also to accomplish it and carry it into
execution, then the wickedness is diffused over the parts beyond his house: (62)
and on this account he curses Canaan also, because he related the change of his
soul abroad, that is to say, he extended it into the parts out of doors, and
gave it notoreity, adding to his evil intention an evil consummation by means of
his actions: but Shem and Japhet are praised, because they did not attack his
soul, but rather concealed its deterioration. (63) On this account also the
prayers and vows of the soul are invalidated when "they are made in the
house of one's father or one's husband, {19}{Genesis 25:25.} while the reasoning
powers are in a state of quiescence, and do not attack the alteration which has
taken place in the soul, but conceal the delinquency; for then also "the
master of all things" will purify it: but he hears the prayer of the widow
and of her who is divorced without revoking it; for "whatever," says
he, "she has vowed against her own soul shall abide to her," and very
reasonably; for if, after she has been put away, she has advanced as far as the
parts out of the house, so that not only is her place changed, but that she also
sins in respect of deeds that she has perfected, she remains incurable, having
no communion of conversation with her husband, and being deprived also of the
advocacy and consolation of her father. (64) The third description of stripping
naked is the middle one, according to which the mind is destitute of reason,
having no share in either virtue or vice; and it is with reference to this kind
of nakedness which an infant also is partaker of, that the expression is used
which says, "And the two were naked, both Adam and his wife;" and the
meaning of it is this, neither did their intellect understand, nor did their
outward senses perceive this nakedness; but the former was devoid of all power
of understanding, and naked; and the latter was destitute of all perception. XVII.
(65) And the expression, "they were not ashamed," we will examine
hereafter: for there are three ideas brought forward in this passage.
Shamelessness, modesty, and a state of indifference, in which one is neither
shameless nor modest. Now shamelessness is the property of a worthless person,
and modesty the characteristic of a virtuous one; but the state of being neither
modest nor shameless, is a sign of a person who is void of comprehension, and
who does not act from any settled opinion; and it is of such a one that we are
now speaking: for he who has not yetacquired any comprehension of good or evil,
is not able to be either shameless or modest, (66) therefore the examples of
shamelessness are all the unseemly pieces of conduct, when the mind reveals
disgraceful things, while it ought rather to cover them in the shade, instead of
which it boasts of and glories in them. It is said also in the case of Miriam,
when she was speaking against Moses, "If her father had spit in her face,
ought she not to keep herself retired for seven Days?"{20}{Numbers 12:14.}
(67) For the external sense, being really shameless and impudent, though
considered as nothing by God the father, in comparison of him who was faithful
in all his house, to whom God himself united the Ethiopian woman, that is to
say, unchangeable and well-satisfied opinion, dared to speak against Moses and
to accuse him, for the very actions for which he deserved to be praised; for
this is his greatest praise, that he received the Ethiopian woman, the
unchangeable nature, tried in the fire and found honest; for as in the eye, the
part which sees is black, so also the part of the soul which sees is what is
meant by the Ethiopian woman. (68) Why when, as there are many works of
wickedness, does he mention one only, namely, that which is conversant about
what is shameful, saying, "they were not ashamed:" but were they not
doing wrong, or were they not sinning, or were they not acting indecorously? But
the cause is at hand. No, by the only true God, I think nothing so shameful as
to suppose that I comprehend with my intellect, or perceive by my outward sense.
(69) Is my mind the cause of my comprehending? How so? for does it even
comprehend itself, and know what it is, or how it came to exist? And are the
outward senses the cause of man's perceiving anything? How can it be said to be
so, when it is neither understood by itself nor by the mind? Do you not see,
that he who fancies that he comprehends is often found to be foolish in his acts
of covetousness, in his drunkenness, in his deeds of folly? Where then is his
intellectual capacity shown in these actions? Again, is not the outward
sensation often deprived of the power of exercising itself? Are there not times
when seeing we do not see, and hearing we do not hear, when the mind has its
attention ever so little drawn off to some other object of the intellect, and is
applied to the consideration of that? (70) As long as they are both naked, the
mind naked of its power of exciting the intellect, and the outward sense of its
power of sensation, they have nothing disgraceful in them; but the moment that
they begin to display any comprehension, they become masked in shame and
insolence: for they will often be found behaving with simplicity and folly
rather than with any sound knowledge, and this not only in particular acts of
covetousness, or spleen, or folly, but also in the general conduct of life: for
when the outward sense has the dominion the mind is enslaved, giving its
attention to no one proper object of its intellect, and when the mind is
predominant, the untoward sense is seen to be without employment, having no
comprehension of any proper object of its own exercise. XVIII.
(71) "Now the serpent was the most subtle of all the beasts which are upon
the earth, which the Lord God Made."{21}{Genesis 3:1.} Two things having
been previously created, that is, mind and outward sense, and these also having
been stripped naked in the manner which has already been shown, it follows of
necessity that pleasure, which brings these two together, must be the third, for
the purpose of facilitating the comprehension of the objects of intellect and of
outward sense: for neither could the mind, without the outward sense, be able to
comprehend the nature of any animal or of any plant, or of a stone or of a piece
of wood, or, in short, of any substance whatever; nor could the outward sense
exercise its proper faculties without the mind. (72) Since, therefore, it was
necessary for both these things to come together for the due comprehension of
these objects, what was it which brought them together except a third something
which acted as a bond between them, the two first representing love and desire,
and pleasure not obtaining the dominion and mastery, which pleasure Moses here
speaks of symbolically, under the emblem of the serpent. (73) God, who created
all the animals on the earth, arranged this order very admirably, for he placed
the mind first, that is to say, man, for the mind is the most important part in
man; then outward sense, that is the woman; and then proceeding in regular order
he came to the third, pleasure. But the powers of these three, and their ages,
are different only in the night, for in point of time they are equal; for the
soul brings forward everything at the same moment with itself: but some things
it brings forward in their actuality, and others in their power of existing,
even if they have not yet arrived at the end. (74) And pleasure has been
represented under the form of the serpent, for this reason, as the motion of the
serpent is full of many windings and varied, so also is the motion of pleasure.
At first it folds itself round a man in five ways, for the pleasures consist
both in seeing, and in hearing, and in taste, and in smell, and in touch. But
the most vehement and intense are those which arise from connection with woman,
through which the generation of similar beings is appointed by nature to be
effected. (75) And yet this is not the only reason why we say that pleasure is
various in appearance, namely, because it folds itself around all the divisions
of the irrational part of the soul, but because it also folds itself with many
windings around each separate part. For instance, the pleasures derived from
sight are various, there is all the pleasure which arises from the contemplation
of pictures or statues; and all other works which are made by art delight the
sight. So also do the different stages through which plants go while budding and
flowering and bearing fruit; and likewise the diversified beauty of the
different animals. In the same manner the flute gives pleasure to the sense of
hearing, as does the harp, and every kind of instrument, and the harmonious
voices of the irrational animals, of swallows, of nightingales; and likewise the
melody of such rational beings as nature has made musical, the tuneful voice of
the harp-players, and of those who represent comedy, or tragedy, or any other
historionic performance. XIX.
(76) Why need we enlarge on the pleasures of the belly? For we may almost say
that there are as may varieties of pleasure as there are of gentle flavors which
are presented to the belly, and which excite the outward sense. Was it not then,
with great propriety that pleasure, which is derived form many varied sources,
was presented to an animal endowed with varied faculties? (77) On this account,
too, that part in us which is analogous to the people, and which acts the part
of a multitude, when it seeks "the houses in Egypt,"{22}{Numbers
21:5.} that is to say, in its corporeal habitation, becomes entangled in
pleasures which bring on death; not that death which is a separation of soul and
body, but that which is the destruction of the soul by vice. For Moses says,
"And the Lord God sent among the people deadly serpents, and they bit the
people, and a great multitude of the children of Israel Died."{23}{Numbers
21:6.} For in real truth there is nothing which so much bringeth death upon the
soul as an immoderate indulgence in pleasures. (78) And that which perishes is
not the dominant portion in us but the subject one, that which acts the part of
the multitude; and it receives death up to this point, namely, until it turns to
repentance, and confesses its sin, for the Israelites, coming to Moses, say,
"We have sinned in that we have spoken against the Lord and against you;
pray, therefore, for us to the Lord, and let him take away the serpents from
us." It is well put here, not we have sinned because we have spoken against
the Lord, but because we were inclined to sin we have spoken against the Lord,
for when the mind sins and departs from virtue, it blames divine things,
imputing its own sins to God. XX.
(79) How, then, can there be any remedy for this evil? When another serpent is
created, the enemy of the serpent which came to Eve, namely, the word of
temperance: for temperance is opposite to pleasure, which is a varied evil,
being a varied virtue, and one ready to repel its enemy pleasure. Accordingly,
God commands Moses to make the serpent according to temperance; and he says,
"Make thyself a serpent, and set it up for a sign." Do you see that
Moses makes this serpent for no one else but for himself? for God commands him,
"Make it for thyself," in order that you may know that temperance is
not the gift of every one, but only of that man who loves God. (80) And we must
consider why Moses makes a brazen serpent, when no command was given to him
respecting the material of which it was to be formed. May it not have been for
this reason? In the first place, the graces of God are immaterial, being
themselves only ideas, and destitute of any distinctive quality; but the graces
of mortal men are only beheld in connection with matter. In the second place,
not only does Moses love the incorporeal virtues, but our own souls, not being
able to put off their bodies, do likewise aim at corporeal virtue, (81) and
reason, in accordance with temperance, is likened to the strong and solid
substance of brass, inasmuch as it is form and not easily cut through. And
perhaps brass may also have been selected inasmuch as temperance in the man who
loves God is a most honorable thing, and like gold; though it has only a
secondary place in a man who has received wisdom and improved in it. "And
whomsoever the one serpent bites, if he looks upon the brazen serpent shall
live:" in which Moses speaks truly, for if the mind that has been bitten by
pleasure, that is by the serpent which was sent to Eve, shall have strength to
behold the beauty of temperance, that is to say, the serpent made by Moses in a
manner affecting the soul, and to behold God himself through the medium of the
serpent, it shall live. Only let it see and contemplate it intellectually. XXI.
(82) Do you not see that wisdom when dominant, which is Sarah, says, "For
whosoever shall hear it shall rejoice with Me."{24}{Genesis 21:6.} But
suppose that any were able to hear that virtue has brought forth happiness,
namely, Isaac, immediately he will sing a congratulatory hymn. As, therefore, it
can only be one who has heard the news that can sympathise in one's joy, so also
it can only be he who has clearly seen temperance and God, who is safe from
death. (83) But many souls that have been in love with perseverance and
temperance, when removed to a distance from the passions, have nevertheless
withstood the power of God, and have undergone a change for the worse, while
their Master has made a display of himself and of the work of creation; of
himself, that he is always immovable, and of the work of creation, that it
vibrates as if in a scale, and inclines opposite ways at different times. (84)
For Moses speaks to the Israelites of God, "Who led ye then through that
great and terrible wilderness, where there were biting serpents, and scorpions,
and thirst; where there was no water? who brought forth for thee out of the hard
rock a fountain of water? who fed thee with manna in the desert, which thy
fathers knew Not?"{25}{Deuteronomy 8:14.} Do you not see that not only did
the soul, while longing for the passions which prevailed in Egypt, fall under
the power of the serpents, but that, also, while it was in the wilderness, it
was bitten by pleasure, that affection of varied and serpent-like appearance?
And the work of pleasure has received a most appropriate name, for it is called
a biting. (85) Moreover, not only they who were in the desert were bitten by
serpents, but also they who were scattered abroad, for I, also, often having
left the men who were my kinsmen and my friends, and my country, and having gone
into the desert in order that I might perceive some of those things which are
worthy of being beheld, have profited nothing. But my mind, being separated from
me, or being bitten by passion, has withdrawn towards the things opposite to
them. And there are times when in the midst of a multitude composed of infinite
numbers of men, I can bring my mind into solitude, God having scattered for me
the crowd which perplexes my soul, and having taught me that it is not the
difference of place that is the cause of good an devil, but rather God, who
moves and drives this vehicle of the soul wherever he pleases. (86) Moreover,
the soul falls in with a scorpion, that is to say, with dispersion in the
wilderness; and the thirst, which is that of the passions, seizes on it until
God sends forth upon it the stream of his own accurate wisdom, and causes the
changed soul to drink of unchangeable health; for the abrupt rock is the wisdom
of God, which being both sublime and the first of things he quarried out of his
own powers, and of it he gives drink to the souls that love God; and they, when
they have drunk, are also filled with the most universal manna; for manna is
called something which is the primary genus of every thing. But the most
universal of all things is God; and in the second place the word of God. But
other things have an existence only in word, but in deed they are at times
equivalent to that which has no existence. XXII.
(87) See now the difference between him who turns to sin in the desert and him
who sins in XXIII.
(90) Well, therefore, does the Godloving Moses answer. For truly the actions of
the virtuous man are supported by education as by a rod, tranquillizing the
disturbances and agitations of the mind. This rod, when cast away, becomes a
serpent. Very appropriately. For if the soul casts away instruction, it becomes
fond of pleasure instead of being fond of virtue. On which account Moses fled
from it, for the man who is fond of virtue does flee from passion and from
pleasure. (91) But God did not praise his flight. For it is fitting, indeed, for
your mind, before you are made perfect, to meditate flight and escape from the
passions; but Moses, that perfect man, ought rather to persevere in his war
against them, and to resist them, and to strive against them, otherwise they,
relying on their freedom from danger and on their power, will ascend up to the
citadel of the soul, and take it by storm, and will plunder it entirely, like a
tyrant. (92) On which account God commanded Moses "to take hold of it by
the tail," that is to say, let not the hostile and untameable spirit of
pleasure terrify you, but with all your power take hold of it, and seize it
firmly, and master it. For it will again become a rod instead of a serpent, that
is to say, instead of pleasure it will become instruction in your hand; (93) but
it will be in your hand, that is in the action of a wise man, which, indeed, is
true. But it is impossible to take hold of and to master pleasure, unless the
hand be first stretched out, that is to say, unless the soul confesses that all
actions and all progress is derived from God; and attributes nothing to himself.
Accordingly he, when he saw this serpent, decided to flee from it? But he
prepared another principle, that of temperance, which is the brazen serpent:
that whosoever was bitten by pleasure, when he looked on temperance, might live
a real life. XXIV.
(94) Such a serpent Jacob boasts that Dan is, and he speaks thus: "Dan will
judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel:"{28}{Genesis 49:16.} and
again, "Let Dan be a serpent in the path, sitting upon the road, biting the
heel of the horse, and the rider shall fall backwards, waiting the salvation of
the Lord."{29}{Genesis 49:17.} The fifth son of Leah is Issachar, the
legitimate son of Jacob; but if the two sons of Zilpah are counted he is the
seventh; but the fifth son of Jacob is Dan, the son of Billah, the handmaid of
Rachel; and the cause of this we will investigate in the proper place, but
concerning Dan we must examine further now. (95) The soul produces two kinds,
the one divine and the other perishable; that which is the better kind it has
already conceived, and ends in it; for when the soul was able to confess to God
and to yield everything to him, it was not after that capable of receiving any
more valuable possession; on this account she ceased to bring forth, after she
had borne Judah, the emblem of the disposition of confessing--(96) and now she
begins to form the mortal race--now the mortal race subsists by imbibing; for,
like a foundation, the sense of taste is the cause of the duration of animals;
but the name Billah, being interpreted, means imbibing. From her was born Dan,
which name being interpreted means judgment, for this kind distinguishes between
the separates immortal from mortal things, therefore he prays that he may become
a workman of temperance. But he will not pray for XXV.
(99) "Biting the heel of the horse,"--Very consistently the
disposition which shakes the stability of the created and perishable being is
called the supplanter, and the passions are compared to a horse; for passion has
four legs as a horse has, and is an impetuous beast, and full of insolence, and
by nature a most restive animal. But the reasoning of temperance is wont to
bite, and to wound, and to destroy passion. Therefore passion having been
tripped up, and having fallen, "the horseman will fall backwards." We
must comprehend that the horseman who has mounted upon the passions is the mind,
who falls from the passions when they are reasoned upon closely, and so are
supplanted; (100) and it is well figured, that the soul does not fall forward,
for it must not go before the passions, but rather advance behind them, and
behave with moderation. And
there is sound learning in what he says here. If the mind, though desirous to
act unjustly, comes too late and falls backward, it will not act unjustly; but
if, when it is moved onwards to some irrational passion it does not run forward
but remains behind, it will then receive freedom from the dominion of the
passions, which is a most excellent thing. (101) On which account Moses,
approving of this backward fall from off the vices, adds further, "waiting
for the salvation of the Lord," for, in good truth, he who falls from the
passions is saved by God, and remains safe after their operation. May my soul
meet with such a fall as this, and may it never afterwards remount upon that
horselike and restive passion, in order that it may await the salvation of God,
and attain to happiness! (102) On this account also it was that Moses praised
God in his hymn, because "the horse and his rider has he thrown into the
sea," {30}{Exodus 15:1.} meaning that he has thrown the four passions, and
the miserable mind which is mounted on them, down into ruin as to its affairs,
and into the bottomless pit, and this is almost the burden of the whole hymn, to
which every other part of it is referred, and indeed that is the truth; for if
once a freedom from the passions occupies the soul, it will become perfectly
happy. XXVI.
(103) And we must also inquire, what is the reason why Jacob says, that
"the rider will fall Backward,"{31}{Genesis 49:17.} and Moses says,
that "the horse and his rider have been thrown into the sea." We must
say, therefore, that that which is thrown into the sea is the Egyptian
disposition, which indeed flies and escapes under the water, that is to say,
under the advance of the passions. But the rider who falls backwards is not one
of the persons who loves to yield to the passions; and the proof is, that Moses
calls the one the horseman (hippeus), and the other the rider (anabateµs).
(104) Now it is the business of the horseman to subdue the horse, and when he
resists the rein to make him tractable; but it is the part of the rider to be
conveyed wherever the animal carries him, and in the sea it is the office of the
pilot to guide the ship, and to keep it straight, and to preserve it in the
right course; but it is the part of the sailor to endure all that happens to the
ship. And in reference to this the horseman who subdues the passions is not
drowned in the sea, but dismounting from them awaits the salvation of the
master. (105) Accordingly, the word of God in Leviticus recommends men "to
feed on those creeping things which go on four feet, and which have legs above
their feet, so that they are able to leap with Them;"{32}{Leviticus 11:22}
among which are the locust, and the attacus, and the acris, {33}{these are
different kinds of locusts.} and in the fourth place the serpent-fighter; and
every properly; for if pleasure, like a serpent, is an unprofitable and
pernicious thing, then the nature which contends against pleasure must be a most
profitable and saving thing, and this is temperance. (106) Fight thou then, O my
mind, against every passion, and especially against pleasure, for "the
serpent is the most subtle of all the beasts that are upon the earth, which the
Lord God has made." (107) And of all the passions the most mischievous is
pleasure. Why so? Because all things are the slaves of pleasure; and because the
life of the wicked is governed by pleasure as by a master. Accordingly, the
things which are the efficient causes of pleasure are found to be full of all
wickedness: gold and silver, and glory and honors, and powers and the objects of
the outward senses, and the mechanical arts, and all other things which cause
pleasure, being very various, and all injurious to the soul; and there are no
sins without extreme wickedness; (108) therefore do thou array against it the
wisdom which contends with serpents; and struggle in this most glorious
struggle, and labor to win the crown in the contest against pleasure, which
subdues every one else; winning a noble and glorious crown, such as no assembly
of men can confer. |
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