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THE
SPECIAL LAWS, II II.
(6) And some men display such easiness and indifference on the subject, that,
passing over all created things, they dare in their ordinary conversation to
rise up to the Creator and Father of the universe, without stopping to consider
the place in which they are, whether it be profane or sacred; or the time,
whether it be suitable; or themselves, whether they are pure in body and soul;
or the business, whether it be important; or the occasion, whether it is
necessary; but (as the proverb says), they pollute everything with unwashed
feet, as if it were decent, since nature has bestowed a tongue upon them, for
them to let it loose unrestrained and unbridled to approach objects which it is
impious to approach. (7) When they ought rather to employ that most excellent of
all the organs by which voice and speech (the most useful things in human life,
and the causes of all communion among men) are made distinct and articulate, in
a manner to contribute to the honor, and dignity, and blessing of the great
Cause of all things. (8) But now, out of their excessive impiety, they use the
most awful names in speaking of the most unimportant matters, and heaping one
appellation upon another in a perfect crowd they feel no shame, thinking that by
the frequency and number of their uninterrupted oaths they will attain to the
object which they desire, being very foolish to think so; for a great number of
oaths is no proof of credibility, but rather of a man's not deserving to be
believed in the opinion of men of sense and wisdom. III.
(9) But if any one being compelled to swear, swears by anything whatever in a
manner which the law does not forbid, let him exert himself with all his
strength and by every means in his power to give effect to his oath, interposing
no hindrance to prevent the accomplishment of the matter thus ratified,
especially if neither implacable anger or frenzied love, or unrestrained
appetites agitate the mind, so that it does not know what is said or done, but
if the oath has been taken with sober reason and deliberate purpose. (10) For
what is better than to speak with perfect truth throughout one's whole life, and
to prove this by the evidence of God himself? For an oath is nothing else but
the testimony of God invoked in a matter which is a subject of doubt, and to
invoke God to witness a statement which is not true is the most impious of all
things. (11) For a man who does this, is all but saying in plain words (even
though he hold his peace), "I am using thee as a veil for my iniquity; do
thou co-operate with me, who am ashamed to appear openly to be behaving
unjustly. For though I am doing wrong, I am anxious not to be accounted wicked,
but thou canst be indifferent to thy reputation with the multitude, having no
regard to being well spoken of." But to say or imagine such things as these
is most impious, for not only would God, who is free from all participation in
wickedness, but even any father or any stranger, provided he were not utterly
devoid of all virtue, would be indignant if he were addressed in such a way as
this. (12) A man, therefore, as I have said, must be sure and give effect to all
oaths which are taken for honorable and desirable objects, for the due
establishment of private or public objects of importance, under the guidance of
wisdom, and justice, and holiness. IV.
And in this description of oaths those most lawful vows are included which are
offered up in consequence of an abundance of blessings, either present or
expected; but if any vows are made for contrary objects, it is not holy to
ratify them, (13) for there are some men who swear, if chance so prompts them,
to commit theft, or sacrilege, or adultery, or rape, or to inflict wounds or
slaughter, or any similar acts of wickedness, and who perform them without any
delay, making an excuse that they must keep their oaths, as if it were not
better and more acceptable to God to do no iniquity, than to perform such a vow
and oath as that. The national laws and ancient ordinances of every people are
established for the sake of justice and of every virtue, and what else are laws
and ordinances but the sacred words of nature having an authority and power in
themselves, so that they differ in no respect from oaths? (14) And let every man
who commits wicked actions because he is so bound by an oath, beware that he is
not keeping his oath, but that he is rather violating one which is worthy of
great care and attention to preserve it, which sets a seal as it were to what is
honorable and just, for he is adding wickedness to wickedness, adding lawless
actions to oaths taken on improper occasions, which had better have been buried
in silence. (15) Let such a man, therefore, abstain from committing iniquity,
and seek to propitiate God, that he may grant to him the mercy of that humane
power which is innate in him, so as to pardon him for the oaths which he took in
his folly. For it is incurable madness and insanity to take upon himself twofold
evils, when he might put off one half of the burden of them. (16) But there are
some men who, out of the excess of their wicked hatred of their species, being
naturally unsociable and inhuman, or else being constrained by anger as by a
hard mistress, think to confirm the savageness of their natural disposition by
an oath, swearing that they will not admit this man or that man to sit at the
same table with them, or to come under the same roof; or, again, that they will
not give any assistance to such an one, or that they will not receive any from
him as long as he lives. And sometimes even after the death of their enemy, they
keep up their irreconcileable enmity, not allowing their friends to give the
customary honors even to their dead bodies when in the grave. (17) I would
recommend to such men, as to those I have mentioned before, to seek to
propitiate the mercy of God by prayers and sacrifices, that so they may find
some cure for the diseases of their souls which no man is competent to heal. V.
(18) But there are other persons, also, boastful, puffed up with pride and
arrogance, who, being insatiably greedy of glory, are determined to obey none of
the precepts which point to that most beneficial virtue, frugality; but even if
any one exhorts them to it, in order to induce them to shake off the obstinate
impetuosity of the appetites, they look upon all their admonitions as insults,
and drive their course on headlong to every kind of effeminate luxury, despising
those who seek to correct them, and making a joke of and turning into ridicule
all the honorable and advantageous recommendations of wisdom. (19) And if such
men happen to be in such circumstances as to have any abundance and superfluity
of the means of living, they declare with positive oaths that they will indulge
in all imaginable expense for the use and enjoyment of costly luxury. For
instance, a man who has lately come into the enjoyment of considerable riches,
embraces a prodigal and extravagant course of life; and when some old man, some
relation perhaps, or some friend of his father, comes and admonishes him,
exhorting him to alter his ways and to come over to a more honorable and strict
behaviour, he is indignant beyond all measure at the advice, and being obstinate
in his contentious disposition, swears that as long as he has the means and
resources necessary for supplying his wants he will not
practice any single way which leads to economy or moderation, neither in
the city nor in the country, neither when travelling by sea nor by land, but
that he will at all times and in all places show how rich and liberal he is; but
as it seems to me such conduct as this is not so much a display of riches as of
insolence and intemperance. (20) And yet many men who have before now been
placed in situations of great authority, and even many who now are so, though
they have most abundant resources of all kinds, and enormous riches, wealth
continually and uninterruptedly flowing upon them as if from some unceasing
spring, do nevertheless at times turn to the same things which we poor men use,
to earthenware cups, and small cheap loaves, and olives, or cheese, or
vegetables, for a seasoning to their dinners; and in the summer put on a girdle
and a linen garment, and in winter any whole and stout cloak, and for sleep use
a bed made on the ground, discarding gladly couches made of ivory or wrought in
tortoiseshell and gold, and coverlets of various embroidery, and rich clothes
and purple dyes, and the luxury of sweet and elaborate confectionery, and costly
viands; (21) and the reason of this conduct is not merely that they have a
virtuous and abstemious disposition by nature, but also that they have enjoyed a
good education from their earliest youth, which has taught them to honor what
belongs to man rather than what belongs to authority, which also taking up its
settled abode in the soul, I may almost say reminds it every day of its
humanity, drawing it down from lofty and arrogant thoughts, and reducing it
within due bounds, and correcting whatever is unequal by the introduction of
equality. (22) Therefore such men fill their cities with vigor and abundance,
and with good laws and peace, depriving them of no good thing whatever, but
providing them with all requisite blessings in the most unlimited and unsparing
manner; for this conduct and actions of this sort are the achievements of men of
real nobility, and of men who may truly be called governors. (23) But the
actions of men newly become rich, of men who by some blunder of fortune have
arrived at great wealth, who have no notion, not even in their dreams, of wealth
which is genuine and truly endowed with sight, which consists of the perfect
virtues, and of actions in accordance with such virtues, but who stumble against
that wealth which is blind, leaning upon which, and therefore of necessity
missing the right road, they turn into one which is no road at all, admiring
objects which deserve no honor at all, and ridiculing things that are honorable
by nature; men whom the word of God reproves and reproaches in no moderate
degree for introducing oaths on unfitting occasions; for such men are difficult
to purify and difficult to cure, so as not to be thought deserving pardon even
by God, who is all-merciful by nature. VI.
(24) But the law takes away from virgins and from married women the power of
making vows independently, pronouncing the parents of the one class, and the
husbands of the other, their lords; and with reference to any confirmation or
disavowal of their oaths, declaring that that power belongs in the one case to
the father, and in the other to the husband. And very reasonably, for the one
class by reason of their youth are not aware of the importance of oaths, so that
they stand in need of the advice of others to judge for them; while the other
class do often out of easiness of disposition take oaths which are not for the
interest of their husbands, on which account the law invests the husbands and
fathers with authority either to ratify their oaths or to declare them void.
(25) And let not widows swear inconsiderately, for they have no one who can beg
them off from the effect of their oaths; neither husbands, from whom they are
now separated, nor fathers, whose houses they have quitted when they departed
from home on the occasion of their marriage, since it is unavoidable that their
oaths must stand as being confirmed through the absence of any one to take care
of the interests of the swearers. (26) But if any one knows that any one else is
violating his oath, and does not inform against him, or convict him, being
influenced by friendship, or respect, or fear, rather than by piety, he shall be
liable to the same punishment as the perjured person; {1}{Leviticus 5:21.} for
assenting to one who does wrong differs in no respect from doing wrong one's
self. (27) And punishment is inflicted on perjured persons in some cases by God
and in others by men; but those punishments which proceed from God are the most
fearful and the most severe, for God shows no mercy to men who commit such
impiety as that, but allows them to remain for ever unpurified, and in my
opinion with great justice and propriety, for the man who despises such
important matters cannot complain if he is despised in his turn, receiving a
fate equal to his actions. (28) But the punishments which are inflicted by men
are of various characters, being death, or scourging; {2}{Deuteronomy 19:16.}
those men who are more excellent and more strict in their piety inflicting death
on such offenders, but those who are of milder dispositions scourging them with
rods publicly in the sight of all men; and to men who are not of abject and
slavish dispositions scourging is a punishment not inferior in terror to death. VII.
(29) These then are the ordinances contained in the express language of these
commandments; but there is also an allegorical meaning concealed beneath, which
we must extract by a careful consideration of the figurative expressions used.
We must be aware, therefore, that the correct principles of nature recognize the
power both of the father and of the husband as equal, but still in different
respects. The power of the husband exists because of his sowing the seed of the
virtues in the soul, as in a fertile field; that of the father arises from its
being his natural office to implant good counsels in the minds of his children,
and to stimulate them to honorable and virtuous actions; and because, when he
has done so, he cherishes them with salutary doctrines, which education and
wisdom supply; (30) and the mind is compared at one time to a virgin, and at
another to a woman who is a widow, and again to one who is still united to a
husband. It is compared to a virgin, when it preserves itself pure, and
undefiled, free from the influence of pleasures and appetites, and likewise of
pains and fears, treacherous passions, and then the father who begot it retains
the regulation of it; and her principle, as in the case of a virtuous woman, she
now being united to pure reason, in accordance with virtue, will exert a proper
care to defend her, implanting in her, like a husband, the most excellent
conceptions. (31) But the soul which is deprived of the wisdom and guardianship
of a parent, and of the union of right reason, being widowed of her most
excellent defences, and abandoned by wisdom, if it has chosen a life open to
reproach, must be bound by its own conduct, not having reason in accordance with
wisdom to act as intercessor, to relieve her of the consequences of her sins,
neither has a husband living with her, nor as a father who has begotten her. VIII.
(32) But in the case of those persons who have vowed not merely their own
property or some part of it, but also their own selves, the law has affixed a
price to their vows, not having a regard to their beauty, or their importance,
or to any thing of that kind, but with reference to the number of the
individuals separating the men from the women, and the infants from those who
are full grown. (33) For the law Ordains{3}{Leviticus 27:3.} that from twenty
years of age to sixty the price of a man shall be two hundred drachmas of solid
silver money, and of a woman a hundred and twenty drachmas. And from five years
of age to twenty, the price of a male child is eighty, and of a female child
forty drachmas. And from infancy to five years old, the price of a male is
twenty; of a female child, twelve Drachmas.{4}{Leviticus 10:3.} And in the case
of men who have lived beyond sixty years of age, the ransom of the old men is
sixty, and of the old women forty drachmas. (34) And the law has regulated this
ransom with reference to the same age both in men and women on account of three
most important considerations. First of all, because the importance of their vow
is equal and similar, whether it be made by a person of great or of little
importance. Secondly, because it is fitting that those who have made a vow
should not be exposed to the treatment of slaves; for they are valued at a high
or at a low price, according to the good condition and beauty of their bodies,
or the contrary. Thirdly, which, indeed, is the most important consideration of
all, because inequality is valued among men, but equality is honored by God. IX.
(35) These are the ordinances established in respect of men, but about animals
the following commands are given. If any one shall set apart any beast; if it be
a clean beast of any one of the three classes which are appropriate to
sacrifice, such as an ox, or a sheep, or a goat, he shall surely sacrifice it,
not substituting either a worse animal for a better, or a better for a worse.
For God does not take delight in the fleshiness of fatness of animals, but in
the blameless disposition of the man who has vowed it. But if he should make a
substitution, then he must sacrifice two instead of one; both the one which he
had originally vowed, and the one which he wished to substitute for it. (36) But
if any one vows one of the unclean animals, let him bring it to the most
venerable of the priests; and let him value it, not exaggerating its price, but
adding to its exact value one-fifth, in order that if it should be necessary to
sacrifice an animal that is clean instead of it, the sacrifice may not fall
short of its proper value. And this is ordained also for the sake of causing the
man who has vowed it to feel grieved at having made an inconsiderate vow, having
vowed an animal which is not clean, looking upon it, in my opinion, for the
moment as clean, being led away by error of mind through some passion. (37) And
if the thing which he has vowed be his house, again he must have the priest for
a valuer. But those who may chance to buy it shall not pay an equal ransom for
it; but if the man who has vowed it chooses to ransom it, he shall pay its price
and a fifth besides, punishing his own rashness and impetuous desire for his two
faults, his rashness for making the vow, and his impetuous desire for wishing
for things back again which he had before abandoned. But if any one else brings
it he shall not pay more than its value. (38) And let not the man who has made
the vow make any long delay either in the accomplishment of his vow or in
procuring a proper valuation to be made of it. For it is absurd to attempt to
make strict covenants with men, but to look upon agreements made with God who
has no need of any thing, and who has no deficiency of any thing as unnecessary
to be observed, while those who do so are by their delays and slowness
convicting themselves of the greatest of offences, namely, of a neglect of him
whose service they ought to look upon as the beginning and end of all happiness.
This is enough to say of oaths and Vows. X.
(39) The next commandment is that concerning the sacred seventh day, in which
are comprehended an infinite number of most important festivals. For instance,
there is the release of those men who by nature were free, but who, through some
unforeseen necessity of the times, have become slaves, which release takes place
every seventh year. Again, there is the humanity of creditors towards their
debtors, as they forgive their countrymen their debts every seventh year. Also
there is the rest given to the fertile ground, whether it be in the champaign or
in the mountainous country, which also takes place every seventh year. Moreover,
there are those ordinances which are established respecting the fiftieth year.
And of all these things the bare narration (without looking to any inner and
figurative signification) is sufficient to lead those who are well disposed to
perfect virtue, and to make even those who are obstinate and stubborn in their
dispositions more docile and tractable. (40) Now we have already spoken at some
length about the virtue of the number seven, explaining what a nature it has in
reference to the number ten; and also what a connection it has to the decade
itself, and also to the number four, which is the foundation and the source of
the decade. And now, having been compounded in regular order from the unit, it
in regular order produces the perfect number twenty-eight; being multiplied
according to a regular proportion equal in all its parts, it makes at last both
a cube and a square. I also showed how there is an infinite number of beauties
which may be extracted from a careful contemplation of it, on which we have not
at present time to dilate. But we must examine every one of the special matters
which are before us as comprehended in this one, beginning with the first. The
first matter to be considered is that of the Festivals. XI.
(41) Now there are ten festivals in number, as the law sets them down. The
first is that which any one will perhaps be astonished to hear called a
festival. This festival is every day. The
second festival is the seventh day, which the Hebrews in their native language
call the sabbath. The
third is that which comes after the conjunction, which happens on the day of the
new moon in each month. The
fourth is that of the passover which is called the passover. The
fifth is the first fruits of the corn--the sacred sheaf. The
sixth is the feast of unleavened bread, after which that festival is celebrated,
which is really The
seventh day of seventh days. The
eighth is the festival of the sacred moon, or the feast of trumpets. The
ninth is the fast. The
tenth is the feast of tabernacles, which is the last of all the annual
festivals, ending so as to make the perfect number of ten. We must now begin
with the first festival. THE
FIRST FESTIVAL XII.
(42) The law sets down every day as a festival, adapting itself to an
irreproachable life, as if men continually obeyed nature and her injunctions.
And if wickedness did not prosper, subduing by their predominant influence all
those reasonings about what things might be expedient, which they have driven
out of the soul of each individual, but if all the powers of the virtues
remained in all respects unsubdued, then the whole time from a man's birth to
his death would be one uninterrupted festival, and all houses and every city
would pass their time in continual fearlessness and peace, being full of every
imaginable blessing, enjoying perfect tranquility. (43) But, as it is at
present, covetousness and the system of mutual hostility and retaliation with
which both men and women are continually forming designs against one another,
and even against themselves, have destroyed the continuity of cheerfulness and
happiness. And the proof of what I have just asserted is visible to all men;
(44) for all those men, whether among the Greeks or among the barbarians, who
are practicers of wisdom, living in a blameless and irreproachable manner,
determining not to do any injustice, nor even to retaliate it when done to them,
shunning all association with busy-bodies, in all the cities which they inhabit,
avoid all courts of justice, and council halls, and market-places, and places of
assembly, and, in short, every spot where any band or company of precipitate
headstrong men is collected, (45) admiring, as it were, a life of peace and
tranquility, being the most devoted contemplators of nature and of all the
things in it. Investigating earth and sea, and the air, and the heaven, and all
the different natures in each of them; dwelling, if one may so say, in their
minds, at least, with the moon, and the sun, and the whole company of the rest
of the stars, both planets and fixed stars. Having their bodies, indeed, firmly
planted on the earth, but having their souls furnished with wings, in order that
thus hovering in the air they may closely survey all the powers above, looking
upon them as in reality the most excellent of cosmopolites, who consider the
whole world as their native city, and all the devotees of wisdom as their fellow
citizens, virtue herself having enrolled them as such, to whom it has been
entrusted to frame a constitution for their common city. XIII.
(46) Being, therefore, full of all kinds of excellence, and being accustomed to
disregard all those good things which affect the body and external
circumstances, and being inured to look upon things indifferent as really
indifferent, and being armed by study against the pleasures and appetites, and,
in short, being always laboring to raise themselves above the passions, and
being instructed to exert all their power to pull down the fortification which
those appetites have built up, and being insensible to any impression which the
attacks of fortune might make upon them, because they have previously estimated
the power of its attacks in their anticipations (for anticipation makes even
those things light which would be most terrible if unexpected), their minds in
this manner calculating that nothing that happens is wholly strange, but having
a kind of faint perception of everything as old and in some degree blunted.
These men, being very naturally rendered cheerful by their virtues, pass the
whole of their lives as a festival. (47) These men, however, are therefore but a
small number, kindling in their different cities a sort of spark of wisdom, in
order that virtue may not become utterly extinguished, and so be entirely
extirpated from our race. (48) But if men everywhere agreed with this small
number, and became, as nature originally designed that they should, all
blameless and irreproachable, lovers of wisdom, delighting in all that is
virtuous and honorable, and thinking that and that alone good, and looking on
everything else as subordinate and slaves, as if they themselves were the
masters of them, then all the cities would be full of happiness, being wholly
free from all the things which are the causes of pain or fear, and full of all
those which produce joy and cheerfulness. So that no time would ever cease to be
the time of a happy life, but that the whole circle of the year would be one
festival. XIV.
(49) Wherefore, if truth were to be the judge, no wicked or worthless man can
pass a time of festival, no not even for the briefest period, inasmuch as he
must be continually pained by the consciousness of his own iniquities, even
though, with his soul, and his voice, and his countenance, he may pretend to
smile; for how can a man who is full of the most evil counsels, and who lives
with folly, have any period of genuine joy? A man who is in every respect
unfortunate and miserable, in his tongue, and his belly, and all his other
members, (50) since he uses the first for the utterance of things which ought to
be secret and buried in silence, and the second he fills full of abundance of
strong wine and immoderate quantities of food out of gluttony, and the rest of
his members he uses for the indulgence of unlawful desires and illicit
connections, not only seeking to violate the marriage bed of others, but lusting
unnaturally, and seeking to deface the manly character of the nature of man, and
to change it into a womanlike appearance, for the sake of the gratification of
his own polluted and accursed passions. (51) On which account the all-great
Moses, seeing the pre-eminence of the beauty of that which is the real festival,
looked upon it as too perfect for human nature and dedicated it to God himself,
speaking thus, in these very words: "The feast of the
Lord."{7}{Leviticus 23:2.} (52) In considering the melancholy and fearful
condition of the human race, and how full it is of innumerable evils, which the
covetousness of the soul begets, which the defects of the body produce, and
which all the inequalities of the soul inflict upon us, and which the
retaliations of those among whom we live, both doing and suffering innumerable
evils, are continually causing us, he then wondered whether any one being tossed
about in such a sea of troubles, some brought on deliberately and others
unintentionally, and never being able to rest in peace nor to cast anchor in the
safe haven of a life free from danger, could by any possibility really keep a
feast, not one in name, but one which should really be so, enjoying himself and
being happy in the contemplation of the world and all the things in it, and in
obedience to nature, and in a perfect harmony between his words and his actions,
between his actions and his words. (53) On which account he necessarily said
that the feasts belonged to God alone; for he alone is happy and blessed, having
no participation in any evil whatever, but being full of all perfect blessings.
Or rather, if one is to say the exact truth, being himself the good, who has
showered all particular good things over the heaven and earth. (54) In reference
to which fact, a certain pre-eminently virtuous mind among the people of old,
{8}{Genesis 18:10.} when all its passions were tranquil, smiled, being full of
and completely penetrated with joy, and reasoning with itself whether perhaps to
rejoice was not a peculiar attribute of God, and whether it might not itself
miss this joy by pursuing what are thought delights by men, was timorous, and
denied the laughter of her soul until she was comforted. (55) For the merciful
God lightened her fear, bidding her by his holy word confess that she did laugh,
in order to teach us that the creature is not wholly and entirely deprived of
joy; but that joy is unmingled and the purest of all which can receive nothing
of an opposite nature, the chosen peculiar joy of God. But the joy which flows
from that is a mingled one, being alloyed, being that of a man who is already
wise, and who has received as the most valuable gift possible such a mixture as
that in which the pleasant are far more numerous than the unpleasant
ingredients. And this is enough to say on this subject. THE
SECOND FESTIVAL XV.
(56) But after this continued and uninterrupted festival which thus lasts
through all time, there is another celebrated, namely, that of the sacred
seventh day after each recurring interval of six days, which some have
denominated the virgin, looking at its exceeding sanctity and purity. And others
have called the motherless, as being produced by the Father of the universe
alone, as a specimen of the male kind unconnected with the sex of women; for the
number seven is a most brave and valiant number, well adapted by nature for
government and authority. Some, again, have called it the occasion, forming
their conjectures of that part of its essence which is appreciable only by the
intellect, from the objects intelligible to their outward senses. (57) For
whatever is best among the objects of the external senses, the things by means
of which the seasons of the year and the revolutions of time are brought to
perfection in their appointed order, partake of the number seven. I mean that
there are seven planets; that the stars of the Bear are seven, that the Pleiads
are seven, and the revolutions of the moon when increasing and waning, and the
orderly well-regulated circuits of the other bodies, the beauty of which exceeds
all description. (58) But Moses, from a most honorable cause, called it
consummation and perfection; attributing to the number six the origination of
all the parts of the world, and to the number seven their perfection; for the
number six is an oddeven number, being composed of twice three, having the odd
number for the male and the even number for the female, from the union of which,
production takes place in accordance with the unalterable laws of nature. (59)
But the number seven is free from all such commixture, and is, if one must speak
plainly, the light of the number six; for what the number six engendered, that
the number seven displayed when brought to perfection. In reference to which
fact it may properly be called the birthday of the world, as the day in which
the work of the Father, being exhibited as perfect with all its parts perfect,
was commanded to rest and abstain from all works. (60) Not that the law is the
adviser of idleness, for it is always accustoming its followers to submit to
hardships, and training them to labor, and it hates those who desire to be
indolent and idle; at all events, it expressly commands us to labor diligently
for six days, {9}{Exodus 20:9.} but in order to give some remission from
uninterrupted and incessant toil, it refreshes the body with seasons of moderate
relaxation exactly measured out, so as to renew it again for fresh works. For
those who take breath in this way, I am speaking not merely about private
individuals but even about athletes, collect fresh strength, and with more
vigorous power, without any shrinking and with great endurance, encounter
everything that must be done. (61) And the works meant are those enjoined by
precepts and doctrines in accordance with virtue. And in the day he exhorts us
to apply ourselves to philosophy, improving our souls and the dominant part of
us, our mind. (62) Accordingly, on the seventh day there are spread before the
people in every city innumerable lessons of prudence, and temperance, and
courage, and justice, and all other virtues; during the giving of which the
common people sit down, keeping silence and pricking up their ears, with all
possible attention, from their thirst for wholesome instruction; but some of
those who are very learned explain to them what is of great importance and use,
lessons by which the whole of their lives may be improved. (63) And there are,
as we may say, two most especially important heads of all the innumerable
particular lessons and doctrines; the regulating of one's conduct towards God by
the rules of piety and holiness, and of one's conduct towards men by the rules
of humanity and justice; each of which is subdivided into a great number of
subordinate ideas, all praiseworthy. (64) From which considerations it is plain
that Moses does not leave those persons at any time idle who submit to be guided
by his sacred admonitions; but since we are composed of both soul and body, he
has allotted to the body such work as is suited to it, and to the soul also such
tasks as are good for that. And he has taken care that the one shall succeed the
other, so that while the body is laboring the soul may be at rest, and when the
body is enjoying relaxation the soul may be laboring; and so the best lives with
the contemplative and the active life, succeed to one another in regular
alternations. The active life having received the number six, according to the
service appointed for the body; and the contemplative life the number seven, as
tending to knowledge and to the perfecting of the intellect. XVI.
(65) It is forbidden also on this day to kindle a fire, as being the beginning
and seed of all the business of life; since without fire it is not possible to
make any of the things which are indispensably necessary for life, so that men
in the absence of one single element, the highest and most ancient of all, are
cut off from all works and employments of arts, especially from all handicraft
trades, and also from all particular services. (66) But it seems likely that it
was on account of those who were less obedient, and who were the least inclined
to attend to what was done, that Moses gave additional laws, besides, thinking
it right, not only that those who were free should abstain from all works on the
seventh day, but also that their servants and handmaids should have a respite
from their tasks, proclaiming a day of freedom to them also after every space of
six days, in order to teach both classes this most admirable lesson; (67) so
that the masters should be accustomed to do some things with their own hands,
not waiting for the services and ministrations of their servants, in order that
if any unforeseen necessities came upon them, according to the changes which
take place in human affairs, they might not, from being wholly unaccustomed to
do anything for themselves, faint at what they had to do; but, finding the
different parts of the body active and handy, might work with ease and
cheerfulness; and teaching the servants not to despair of better prospects, but
having a relaxation every six days as a kind of spark and kindling of freedom,
to look forward to a complete relaxation hereafter, if they continued faithful
and attached to their masters. (68) And from the occurrence of the free men at
times submitting to the tasks of servants, and of the servants enjoying a
respite and holiday, it will arise that the life of mankind advances in
improvement towards perfect virtue, from their being thus reminded of the
principles of equality, and repaying each other with necessary services, both
those of high and those of obscure rank. (69) But the law has given a
relaxation, not to servants only on the seventh day, but also to the cattle. And
yet by nature the servants are born free; for no man is by nature a slave. But
other animals are expressly made for the use and service of man, and are
therefore ranked as slaves; but, nevertheless, those that ought to bear burdens,
and to endure toil and labor on behalf of their owners, do all find a respite on
the seventh day. (70) And why need I mention other particulars? The ox, the
animal who is born for the most important and most useful of all the purposes of
life, namely, for the plough, when the earth is already prepared for seed; and
again, when the sheaves are brought into the barn, for threshing in order to the
purification of the crop, is on this day unharnessed, keeping as a festival that
day which is the birthday of the year. And thus its holiness pervades every
thing and affects every creature. XVII.
(71) And Moses thinks the number seven worthy of such reverence that even all
other things which at all partake of it are honored by him; at all events, on
every seventh year he ordains a remission of debts, assisting the poor, and
inviting the rich to humanity; {10}{Deuteronomy 15:1.} that so they, from their
abundance, giving to those that are in want, may also look forward to receiving
services from them in the case of any disaster happening to them. For the
accidents of human life are numerous, and life is not always anchored on the
same bottom, but is apt to change like the fickle wind which blows in different
directions at different times. (72) It is well, therefore, that the kindness
shown by the creditors should extend to all the debtors. But since all men are
not naturally inclined to magnanimity, but some men are the slaves of money, or
perhaps not very rich, the law has appointed that they should contribute what
will not inconvenience them when parted with. (73) For while it does not permit
them to lend on usury to their fellow countrymen, it has allowed them to receive
interest from foreigners; calling the former, with great felicity of expression,
their brothers, in order to prevent any one's grudging to give of his
possessions to those who are as if by nature joint inheritors with themselves;
but those who are not their fellow countrymen are called strangers, as is very
natural. For the being a stranger shows that a person has no right to a
participation in any thing, unless, indeed, any one out of an excess of virtue
should treat even those in the conditions of strangers as kindred and related,
from having been bred up under a virtuous state of things, and under virtuous
laws which look upon what is virtuous alone as good. (74) But the action of
lending on usury is blamable; for a man who lends on usury has not abundant
means of living, but is clearly in some want; and he does so as being compelled
to add the interest to his principal in order to subsist, and so he at last
becomes of necessity very poor; and while he thinks that he is deriving
advantage he is in reality injured, just as foolish animals are when they are
deceived by a present bait. (75) But I should say to such persons, "O you
who lend on usury, why do you seek to disguise your unsociable disposition by an
apparent pretence of good fellowship? And why do you in words, indeed, pretend
to be a humane and considerate person, while in your actions you exhibit a want
of humanity and a terrible hardness of heart, exacting more than you gave, and
sometimes even doubling your original loan, so as to make the poor man an
absolute beggar? (76) Therefore no one sympathises with you in your distress,
when, having endeavored to obtain more, you fail to do so, and besides lose even
what you had before. But, on the contrary, all men are glad of your misfortunes,
calling you a usurer, and a skinflint, and all kinds of names like those,
looking on you as one who lies in wait for human misfortunes, and who esteems
the misfortunes of others his own prosperity." (77) But, as some have said,
wickedness is a most laborious thing; and he who lends on usury is blind, not
seeing the time of repayment, in which he will scarcely, or perhaps not at all,
receive the things which in his covetousness he had hoped to gain. (78) Let such
a man pay the penalty of his avaricious disposition, not recovering back what he
has expended, so as to make a gain of the misfortunes of men, deriving a revenue
from unbecoming sources. But let the debtors be thought worthy of a humanity
enjoined by the law, not paying back their loans and usurious interest upon
them, but paying back merely the original sum lent. For again, at a proper
season, they will give the same assistance to those who have aided them,
requiting those who set the example of kindness with equal services. XVIII.
(79) After having given these commandments, Moses proceeds in regular order to
establish a law full of all gentleness and humanity. "If," says this
law, "one of thy brethren be sold to thee, let him serve thee for six
years; and in the seventh year let him be set free without any
Payment,"{11}{Deuteronomy 15:12.} (80) Here again Moses calls their fellow
countrymen their brothers, implanting in the soul of the owner by this
appellation an idea of relationship to his servant, that he may not neglect him
as a stranger, towards whom he has no bond of goodwill. But that, yielding to a
feeling of affection for him as a relation, in consequence of the lesson which
the holy scripture thus suggests, he may not feel indignant when his servant is
about to recover his freedom. (81) For it has come to pass that such men are
called slaves (douloi), but they are in reality only servants (theµtes),
serving their masters for the sake of their necessities. And even though they
had a thousand times over given their masters absolute power and authority over
them, (82) still their masters ought to be gentle to them, considering these
beautiful injunctions of the law. O man, he is a hireling who is called a slave,
and he also is a man, having a most sublime relationship to you, inasmuch as he
is of the same nation as yourself; and perhaps he is even of the same tribe and
the same borough as yourself, and is now reduced to this condition through want.
(83) Do you, therefore, casting out of your soul that treacherous evil,
insolence, behave to him as if he were a hireling, giving some things and
receiving others. And so he will, with all energy and cheerfulness perform the
services due to you, at all times and in all places, never delaying, but by his
speed and willingness anticipating your commands. And do you, in return, provide
him with food and raiment, and take all other necessary care of him; not yoking
him to the plough like a brute beast, and not oppressing him with heavy burdens
beyond his power to bear, nor treating him with insolence, nor reducing him to
painful despondency by threats and infliction of punishment; but giving him
proper relaxation and well-regulated periods of rest; for the precept, "Let
nothing be too much," applies to every case, and especially to the conduct
of masters to their servants. (84) Therefore, when he has served you for a very
sufficient time, for six years, then, when the most sacred number, the seventh
year is about to arrive, let him who is free by nature depart in freedom; and
grant him this kindness without hesitating as to your part, my good man, but
joyfully, because you have now an opportunity of doing a service to that most
excellent of all animals, man, in the most important of all matters; for there
is no blessing to a slave greater than freedom. (85) Do you, therefore, set him
free joyfully; and, moreover, make him a present from your own property, from
each portion of your possessions, giving to him who has served you faithfully
means to support himself on his journey. For it will tend to your credit if he
does not leave your house in poverty but having a plentiful supply for all his
necessities, so that he may not again, through want, fall into his previous
calamity, namely, slavery, being compelled through want of his daily food to
sell himself, and so your kindness will be lost. This, then, is enough to say
about the poor. XIX.
(86) In the next place Moses commands the people to leave the land fallow and
untilled every seventh year, for many reasons; {12}{Leviticus 25:4.} first of
all, that they may honor the number seven, or each period of days, and months,
and years; for every seventh day is sacred, which is called by the Hebrews the
sabbath; and the seventh month in every year has the greatest of the festivals
allotted to it, so that very naturally the seventh year also has a share of the
veneration paid to this number, and receives especial honor. (87) And the second
reason is this, "Be not," says the lawgiver, "wholly devoted to
gain, but even willingly submit to some loss," that so you may bear with
the more indifference involuntary calamity if it should ever fall upon you, and
not grieve and despond, as if at some new and strange occurrence; for there are
some rich men so unfortunate in their dispositions, as, when want comes upon
them, to groan and despond no less than they might do if they were deprived of
all their substance. (88) But of the followers of Moses, all who are true
disciples, being practiced in good
laws, are accustomed, from their earliest age, to bear want with patience, by
the custom of leaving their fertile land fallow; and being also taught
magnanimity, and one may almost say, to let slip out of their hands, from
deliberate intention, revenues of admitted certainty. (89) The third reason
appears to me to be thus, which is intimated in a somewhat figurative manner,
namely, to show that it does not become any one whatever to weigh down and
oppress men with burdens; for if one is to allow a period of rest to the
portions of the earth which cannot by nature have any share in the feelings of
pleasure or of pain, how much the more must men be entitled to a similar
relaxation, who have not only these outward senses, which are common to the
brute beasts, but also the especial gift of reason, by which the painful
feelings which arise from toil and fatigue, are more vividly imprinted on their
imaginations? (90) Cease, therefore, ye who are called masters, from imposing
harsh and intolerable commands on your slaves, which break the strength of the
body by their compulsion, and compel the soul to faint even before the bodies;
(91) for there is no objection to your exerting a moderate degree of authority,
giving orders by which you will receive the services to which you are entitled,
and in consequence of which your servants will cheerfully do what they are
desired; and then they will discharge their duties but for a short period, as if
early exhausted, and, if one must say the truth, brought by their labors to old
age before their time; but like athletes, preserving their youthful vigor for a
long time, who do not become fat and corpulent, but who are accustomed, by
exertion and sweat, to train themselves, so as to be able to acquire the things
which are necessary and useful for life. (92) Moreover let the governors of
cities cease to oppress them with continual and excessive taxes and tributes,
filling their own stores with money, and in preserving as a treasure the
illiberal vices which defile their whole lives; (93) for they do, on purpose,
select as collectors of their revenues the most pitiless of men, persons full of
all kinds of inhumanity, giving them abundant opportunity for the exercise of
their covetousness; and they, in addition to their own innate severity of
temper, receiving free license from the commands of their masters, and having
determined to do everything so as to please them,
practice all the harshest measures which they can imagine, having no
notion of gentleness or humanity, not even in their dreams; (94) therefore they
throw everything into disorder and confusion, levying their exactions, not only
on the possessions of the citizens, but also on their persons, with insults and
violence, and the invention of new and unprecedented torture. And before now I
have heard of some persons who, in their ferocity and unequalled fury, have not
spared even the dead; but have been so brutal as even to venture to beat the
dead corpses with goads; (95) and when some one blamed their brutality, in that
not even death, that relief and real end of all miseries, could prevent their
victims from being insulted by them, but that, instead of a grave and the
customary funeral rites, they were exposed to continued insult, they made a
defense worse even than the accusation brought against them, saying that they
were insulting the dead, not for the sake of abusing the dumb and senseless
dust, for there was no advantage in that, but for the sake of making those who
through ties of blood or of friendship were nearly connected with them feel
compassion for them, and so inducing them to pay a ransom for their bodies, thus
doing them the last service in their power. XX.
(96) Then, O you most worthless of all men! I would say to them, have you not
first learnt what you are now teaching? or do you know how to invite other
people to compassion even by the most inhuman actions, and yet have you
eradicated all merciful and humane feelings from your own souls? And do you act
in this way in spite of not being in want of good advisers, and especially of
our laws, which have released even the earth from its yearly burdens, giving it
a relaxation and a respite? (97) and it, although it seems to be inanimate, is
nevertheless fully prepared to make a requital and to recompence favors,
hastening to pay back any gift which it has received; for as it receives an
exemption every seventh year, and is not forced to exert itself that year, but
is set wholly free for the whole circle of the year, in the subsequent year
produces double, or sometimes, many times, larger crops than usual from its
great productiveness. (98) And in like manner you may see the trainers acting in
the same way towards the athletes; for when they are exercising them with
continual and uninterrupted practice, before they are wholly knocked up, they
refresh them, giving a respite not only from their exertions in training, but
also from their strict regimen of eating and drinking, relaxing the severity of
their diet so as to produce a cheerfulness of soul and good condition of body.
(99) And yet they are not to be looked upon as teachers of indolence and luxury,
inasmuch as their professed business is to train men to the endurance of labors,
but by a certain method and artificial system they add to their natural strength
a strength more powerful still, and to their innate vigor a more energetic vigor
still, increasing their previous powers by reciprocal remission and exertion, as
by a well-regulated harmony. (100) And I have learnt all this from all-wise
nature, which, knowing the industrious and laborious condition of our race, has
distributed them into day and night, giving to us the one for wakefulness, and
the other for sleep; (101) for she felt a natural anxiety, like a careful
mother, that her offspring should not be worn out with toil; for by day she
excites our bodies, and rouses them up to all the necessities and duties
belonging to life, compelling those to work who would gladly be accustomed to
cultivate the leisure of idleness, and an effeminate and luxurious life. But by
night, as if she were sounding a retreat in time of war, she invites us to rest,
and to take care of our bodies. (102) And those men who have laid aside a heavy
weight of business, which has lasted from morning till evening, do now lay their
burdens aside and return home and devote themselves to ease, and indulging in
profound sleep, refresh themselves after the labors of the day. (103) This long
interval between sleeping and waking nature has allotted to men, that they may
by turns labor diligently and by turns rest, so as to have all the parts of
their bodies more ready for action, and more active and powerful. XXI.
(104) And the lawgiver, who is a prophetic spirit, gave us our laws, having a
regard to these things, and proclaimed a holiday to the whole country,
restraining the farmers from cultivating the land after each six years'
incessant industry. But it was not only on account of the motives which I have
mentioned that he gave these injunctions, but also because of his innate
humanity, which he thinks fit to weave in with every part of his legislation,
stamping on all who study the holy scriptures a sociable and humane disposition.
(105) For he commands his people every seventh year to forbear to enclose any
piece of land, but to let all the olive gardens and vineyards remain open, and
all their other possessions, whether they be seed-land or trees, that so the
poor may be able to enjoy the spontaneously growing crops without fear, in a
greater, or at all events not in a less degree than the owners themselves. (106)
On which account he does not allow the masters to cultivate the land, having in
view the object of not causing them any annoyance from the feeling that they are
at all the expense, but that they do not receive any revenue from their lands to
make up for the expense, while the poor enjoy all the crops as their own; and he
permits those who appear to be strangers to enjoy all these things, raising them
from their apparent lowly condition, and from the reproach of being beggars.
(107) Is it not then fit to love these laws which are full of such abundant
humanity? by which the rich men are taught to share the blessings which they
have with and to communicate them to others: and the poor are comforted, not
being for ever compelled to frequent the houses of the indigent to supply the
deficiencies by which they themselves are oppressed; (108) but there are times
when the widows and orphan children, as if they had been deriving a revenue from
their own properties, namely the spontaneously growing crops, as I have said
before, and all other classes of person who are disregarded from not being
wealthy do at last find themselves in the possession of plenty, being on a
sudden enriched by the gift of God, who has called them to share with the
possessors themselves in the number of the sacred seven. (109) And all those who
breed flocks and herds lend their own cattle with fearlessness and impunity to
graze on the land of others, choosing the most fertile plains, and the lands
most suitable for the feeding of their cattle, availing themselves of the
license of the jubilee; and they are not met by any ill-will or illiberality on
the part of the masters, as having the property in these lands by old custom,
which having prevailed for a very long time, so as to become familiar, has now
prevailed even over nature. XXII.
(110) Having laid down these principles as a kind of foundation of gentleness
and humanity, he then puts together seven sevens of years, and so makes the
fiftieth year an entirely sacred year, enacting with reference to it some
ordinances of especial honor beyond those which relate to the ordinary years of
communication of property. (111) In the first place he gives this commandment.
He thinks it fitting that all property that has been alienated should now be
restored to its original masters in order that the inheritances originally
apportioned to the different tribes may be preserved, and that no one who
originally received an allotment may be wholly deprived of his possessions.
(112) Since it often happens that unforeseen circumstances come upon men by
which they are compelled to sell what belongs to them. And so he provided in a
suitable manner for their necessities, and prevented those who purchased the
lands from being deceived, allowing the one to sell their lands, and teaching
the others very plainly the conditions on which they are going to purchase.
(113) For the law says Do not give a price as if for an everlasting possession,
but only for a definite number of years, which must be less than fifty; for the
sale effected ought not to be a sale of the lands owned, but a sale of the
crops, for two most weighty reasons; one, that the whole country is called the
possession of God, and it is impious for any one else to be recorded as the
masters of the possessions of God; and secondly, because a separate allotment
has been assigned to each land-owner, of which the law does not choose the man
who originally received the allotment to be deprived. (114) Therefore, the law
invites the man who is able to recover his original property within the period
of fifty years, or any one of his nearest relations, to use every exertion to
repay the price which he received, and not to be the cause of loss to the man
who purchased it, and who served him at a time when he was in need of
assistance. (115) And at the same time it sympathises with the man who is in too
great a state of indigence to do so, and bestows its compassion on him, giving
him back his former property with the exception of any fields which have been
consecrated by a vow, and are so placed in the class of offerings to God. And it
is contrary to divine law that any thing which has been offered to God should
ever by lapse of time become profane. On which account it is commanded that the
accurate value of those fields shall be fully exacted, without showing any favor
to the man who dedicated the offering. XXIII.
(116) These are the commandments which are given with respect to the divisions
of the land and the inheritances so portioned out. There are others also enacted
with respect to houses. And since of houses some are in cities, being within
walls; while others are open abodes in the country, and not within any walls;
the law has directed that those in the country shall always be redeemed with
money, and that those which are not redeemed before the fiftieth year shall be
restored without any payment to their original owners, just as their other
possessions; {13}{Leviticus 25:31.} for the houses are a portion of the man's
possessions. (117) But those which are within walls shall be liable to be
redeemed by those who have sold them for a full year; {14}{Leviticus 25:19.} but
if they be not redeemed within that year, then after that year they shall be
confirmed to those who had bought them, the jubilee of the fiftieth year not
injuring the claim of the purchasers. (118) And the reason of these enactments
is that God wills to give even to strangers an opportunity of becoming firmly
established in the land. For since they have no participation in the land,
inasmuch as they are not numbered among those to whom the inheritances have been
apportioned, the law has allotted to them a property in houses, being desirous
that they who have come as suppliants to the laws, and who have taken refuge
under their protection, should not be homeless wanderers in the land. (119) For
the cities, when the land was originally portioned out in inheritances, were not
divided among the tribes, nor indeed were they originally built together in
streets, but the inhabitants of the land preferred to make their abode in their
open houses in the fields. But afterwards they quitted these houses and came
together, the feeling of a love of fellowship and communication, as was natural,
becoming stronger after a lapse of time, and so they built houses in the same
place, and cities, of which they allowed a share also to the strangers, that
they might not be destitute of every thing both in the country and in the
cities. XXIV.
(120) And concerning the tribe which was set apart as consecrated for the
priesthood, the following laws are established. The law did not bestow upon the
keepers of the temple any portion of the land, considering the first fruits of
it a sufficient revenue for them. But it allotted them eight and forty cities to
dwell in, and a suburb of two thousand cubits around each City.{15}{Leviticus
35:5..} (121) Therefore, it did not confirm the houses in these cities in the
same manner that it did those in the other cities which are built within walls,
to the purchasers, if those who had sold them were not able to redeem them
within the year, but it permitted them to be redeemed at any time, like the open
houses in the country taken from the gentiles, to which they corresponded. Since
the Levites had received only houses in this district, of which the lawgiver did
not think it fit that those who received them should be deprived any more than
those to whom the allotments of the open houses in the country had fallen. And
this is enough to say about the houses. XXV.
(122) But the laws established with respect to those who owed money to usurers,
and to those who had become servants to masters, resemble those already
mentioned; that the usurers shall not exact usurers' interest from their fellow
countrymen, but shall be contented to receive back only what they lent; and that
the masters shall behave to those whom they have bought with their money not as
if they were by nature slaves, but only hirelings, giving them immunity and
liberty, at once, indeed, to those who can pay down a ransom for themselves, and
at a subsequent period to the indigent, either when the seventh year from the
beginning of their slavery arrives, or when the fiftieth year comes, even if a
man happen to have fallen into slavery only the day before. For this year both
is and is looked upon as a year of remission; every one retracing his steps and
turning back again to his previous state of prosperity. (123) But the law
permits the people to acquire a property in slaves who are not of their own
countrymen, but who are of different nations; intending in the first place that
there should be a difference between one's own countrymen and strangers, and
secondly, not desiring completely to exclude from the constitution that most
entirely indispensable property of slaves; for there are an innumerable host of
circumstances in life which require the ministrations of Servants. (124) Sons
shall inherit their parents' property, but if there should be no sons, then the
daughters would inherit. For just as in their nature men take precedence over
women, so also in families they shall have the first share, inheriting property
and filling the station of those who have died, being held by a law of necessity
that lets no earthborn mortal live forever. (125) But if virgins are left behind
with unmarried, no dowry having been set apart by the parents while they were
still living, they shall receive a share equal to that of the males. But the
presiding power must take care to watch over those who are left behind and of
their growth and of the expenses for sustenance and the training that is
appropriate for girls, and, whenever the time should come, for appropriate
marriage, husbands approved in all things having been selected by merit. (126)
Preferably they should be relatives, but if not, they should at least be of the
same deme and tribe, so that the lots assigned as dowries will not be alienated
through marriages but remain in the tribal allotments as ordered from the
beginning. (127) But if someone should have no offspring, then let the brothers
of the deceased succeed to the inheritance. For the place in the family after
sons and daughters belongs to brothers. And if someone who has no brothers
should die, the uncles on the father's side should succeed to the property, and
if there are no uncles, then the aunts, the closest of the remaining household
members and other relatives. (128) But if scarcity should seize the family, so
that no blood relations are left, then let the tribe be the heir. For the tribe
is also a kind of family, if we draw a larger and more complete circle. (129)
The perplexity raised by some, however, should be laid to rest: Seeing that the
law mentions all members of the family, the deme, and the tribe in the order of
succession to inheritances, why did it remain silent only about parents, who, it
would seem, should be just as eligible to inherit their children's property as
the children are to inherit theirs? Here is the answer, my good fellow! Since
the law is divine, and since it always aims at following the logic of nature, it
did not wish to introduce any ill-omened provisions; for parents pray to leave
behind living offspring who will have succeeded to their name, their lineage,
and their property, while their worst enemies call down the opposite on them as
a curse, namely, that the sons and daughters should die before their parents.
(130) Therefore in order to avoid making explicit provisions for a situation
that would be illfitting and discordant with the harmony and concord that
characterize the administration of the whole cosmos--namely, the case where
children die and parents survive--the law both necessarily and fittingly omitted
ordering that mothers and fathers should inherit the property of sons and
daughters, knowing that this outcome was out of accord with life and nature.
(131) So then, the law was careful not to say in so many words that parents
inherit when their children die, in order not to seem to reproach grieving
parents by allotting to them a benefit that no one would want, and in order not
to call misfortunes to mind; but it allotted the property to them in another
way, as a small consolation for a great evil. (132) How, then, does it do this?
It puts down the father's brother as the heir of his nephews, no doubt rewarding
the uncle for the father's sake--unless anyone is so silly as to suppose that
one who honors someone for the sake of someone else thereby chooses to dishonor
the latter. Those who pay attention to their friends' acquaintances do not
thereby neglect their friends, do they? Do not those who show the most
solicitous care for those whom they honor also welcome their friends? In
precisely the same way, when when the law names the father's brother to share in
the inheritance on account of the father, how much more does it name the father!
It does not do this explicitly, for the reasons cited, but it makes clear the
will of the lawgiver with surer force than an explicit mention. (133) The eldest
son does not share equally with those who came after him but is considered
worthy of a double portion, since two people who were previously husband and
wife became father and mother on account of the first offspring, and once he
came along he was the first to call those who engendered him by these names.
Furthermore--and this is the most essential point--the household that was
previously childless became one blessed with a son for the continuance of the
human race. The seed of this continuance is marriage, and its fruit is the
begetting of children, of whom the eldest is the head. (134) I suppose that it
is for this reason that the firstborn sons of the enemies who had given no
quarter, as the holy scriptures reveal, were all cut off in their youth in one
night, while the firstborn of the people of the nation were dedicated to God as
a thank-offering and were thus consecrated. For it was necessary to weigh down
the former with a heavy and inconsolable grief, the destruction of those who
held first place, but to reward the savior God with the firstfruits, whose lot
was the preeminence among the children. (135) But there are some men who after
getting married and having children have at length unlearned prudence and
drifted into incontinence. Lusting after other women, these men have wronged
their first wives and behaved toward their children from them no longer as
fathers but as uncles, imitating the impious behavior of stepmothers toward
previously born children. They have given themselves and their property over
entirely to their new wives and to their sons, having been overcome by pleasure,
the most shameful passion. The law would not have hesitated to bridle these
lusts somehow if it had been possible, lest they kick up their heels even more;
(136) but since it was difficult, or rather impossible, to cure this wild
frenzy, the law abandoned the man as being in the grip of an incurable disease.
It did not, however, overlook the son of the woman wronged on account of the new
love but commanded that he should receive a double share of the distribution
left for the brothers. (137) There are many reasons for this. For in the first
place it punishes the guilty man by compelling him to do something good for the
son whom he has chosen to treat badly; and it makes clear the invalidity of his
inconsiderate judgment in that it profits the one who was in danger of suffering
loss at his hands by putting itself in the role of the parent--the role
abandoned by the natural father with regard to the firstborn son. (138)
Secondly, it shows mercy and compassion on those who have been treated unjustly,
whose burden of distress it lightens by giving them a share in grace and gift;
for the double portion of the inheriting son was no less likely to please the
mother, who will be encouraged by the kindness of the law, which did not permit
her and her offspring to be totally overcome by their enemies. (139) In the
third place, being a good referee of justice, it considered in itself that the
father had freely lavished provisions upon the sons of the beloved wife due to
his affection for her, while he considered the sons of the hated wife to deserve
nothing due to his hatred for their mother. Thus the former had inherited more
than their equal share during his lifetime, while the latter were in danger even
upon his death of being deprived of the whole patrimony. So then, in order to
equalize the distribution to the sons of both wives, it set aside a double
portion as the rightful inheritance of the eldest, the son of the wife who had
been put away. This is enough regarding these things. THE
THIRD FESTIVAL XXVI.
(140) Following the order which we have adopted, we proceed to speak of the
third festival, that of the new moon. First of all, because it is the beginning
of the month, and the beginning, whether of number or of time, is honorable.
Secondly, because at this time there is nothing in the whole of heaven destitute
of light. (141) Thirdly, because at that period the more powerful and important
body gives a portion of necessary assistance to the less important and weaker
body; for, at the time of the new moon, the sun begins to illuminate the moon
with a light which is visible to the outward senses, and then she displays her
own beauty to the beholders. And this is, as it seems, an evident lesson of
kindness and humanity to men, to teach them that they should never grudge to
impart their own good things to others, but, imitating the heavenly bodies,
should drive envy away and banish it from the Soul. (142) The fourth reason is
that of all the bodies in the heaven, the moon traverses the zodiac in the least
appointed time: it accomplishes its orbit in a monthly interval. For this reason
the law has honored the end of its orbit, the point when the moon has finished
at the beginning point from which it began to travel, by having called that day
a feast so that it might again teach us an excellent lesson that in the affairs
of life we should make the ends harmonious with the beginnings. This will happen
if we hold the reins on our first impulses with the power of reason and do not
permit them to refuse the reins and to run free like animals without anyone in
charge of the herd. (143) With regard to the benefits which the moon provides to
all on earth, why is it necessary to run through and detail them? Their proofs
are obvious. Or isn't it by its waxings that rivers and springs overflow, and
again by its wanings that they diminish; that seas sometimes retreat and are
drawn down through their ebb and flow, and at other times suddenly run full
through the tide; that the air experiences all sorts of shifts in the form of
clear weather, cloudy weather, and other changes? Don't the fruits of cultivated
crops and trees grow and come to maturity through the orbits of the moon which
nurses and ripens each of the growing crops through dewladen and very gentle
breezes? (144) But this is not the appropriate occasion, as I said, to speak at
length about the praise of the moon by running through and enumerating the
benefits which it provides to animals and to all on the earth. For these reasons
and others similar to them, the new moon has been honored and taken its place
among the feasts. THE
FOURTH FESTIVAL XXVII.
(145) And after the feast of the new moon comes the fourth festival, that of the
passover, which the Hebrews call pascha, on which the whole people offer
sacrifice, beginning at noonday and continuing till evening. (146) And this
festival is instituted in remembrance of, and as giving thanks for, their great
migration which they made from Egypt, with many myriads of people, in accordance
with the commands of God given to them; leaving then, as it seems, a country
full of all inhumanity and practising every kind of inhospitality, and (what was
worst of all) giving the honor due to God to brute beasts; and, therefore, they
sacrificed at that time themselves out of their exceeding joy, without waiting
for priests. And what was then done the law enjoined to be repeated once every
year, as a memorial of the gratitude due for their deliverance. These things are
thus related in accordance with the ancient historic accounts. (147) But those
who are in the habit of turning plain stories into allegory, argue that the
passover figuratively represents the purification of the soul; for they say that
the lover of wisdom is never practising anything else except a passing over from
the body and the passions. (148) And each house is at that time invested with
the character and dignity of a temple, the victim being sacrificed so as to make
a suitable feast for the man who has provided it and of those who are collected
to share in the feast, being all duly purified with holy ablutions. And those
who are to share in the feast come together not as they do to other
entertainments, to gratify their bellies with wine and meat, but to fulfil their
hereditary custom with prayer and songs of praise. (149) And this universal
sacrifice of the whole people is celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month,
which consists of two periods of seven, in order that nothing which is accounted
worthy of honor may be separated from the number seven. But this number is the
beginning of brilliancy and dignity to everything. THE
FIFTH FESTIVAL XXVIII.
(150) And there is another festival combined with the feast of the passover,
having a use of food different from the usual one, and not customary; the use,
namely, of unleavened bread, from which it derives its name. And there are two
accounts given of this festival, the one peculiar to the nation, on account of
the migration already described; the other a common one, in accordance with
conformity to nature and with the harmony of the whole world. And we must
consider how accurate the hypothesis is. This month, being the seventh both in
number and order, according to the revolutions of the sun, is the first in
power; (151) on which account it is also called the first in the sacred
scriptures. And the reason, as I imagine, is as follows. The vernal equinox is
an imitation and representation of that beginning in accordance with which this
world was created. Accordingly, every year, God reminds men of the creation of
the world, and with this view puts forward the spring, in which season all
plants flourish and bloom; (152) for which reason this is very correctly set
down in the law as the first month, since, in a manner, it may be said to be an
impression of the first beginning of all, being stamped by it as by an
archetypal Seal. (153) Although the month in which the autumnal equinox occurs
is first in sequence according to solar orbits, it is not considered first in
the law. The reason is that at that time, after all the crops have been
harvested, the trees lose their leaves and everything that springtime produced
in the height of its glory is withering under dry winds after it has been made
dry by the flaming heat of the sun. (154) Therefore he thought that to apply the
name "first" to the month in which the hill country and the plain
become barren and infertile, was incongruous and unfitting. For it is necessary
that the most beautiful and desirable phenomena belong to those things which are
first and have received the position of leadership, those phenomena through
which the reproduction and growth of animals and fruit and crops take place, but
not the ominous destructive forces. (155) And this feast is begun on the
fifteenth day of the month, in the middle of the month, on the day on which the
moon is full of light, in consequence of the providence of God taking care that
there shall be no darkness on that day. (156) And, again, the feast is
celebrated for seven days, on account of the honor due to that number, in order
that nothing which tends to cheerfulness and to the giving of thanks to God may
be separated from the holy number seven. (157) And of the seven days, Moses
pronounces two, the first and the last, holy; giving, as is natural, a
preeminence to the beginning and to the end; and wishing, as if in the case of a
musical instrument, to unite the two extremities in harmony. (158) And the
unleavened bread is ordained because their ancestors took unleavened bread with
them when they went forth out of Egypt, under the guidance of the Deity; or
else, because at that time (I mean at the spring season, during hich this
festival is celebrated) the crop of wheat is not yet ripe, the plains being
still loaded with the corn, and it not being as yet the harvest time, and
therefore lawgiver has ordained the use of unleavened food with a view to
assimilating it to the state of the crops. For unleavened food is also imperfect
or unripe, as a memorial of the good hope which is entertained; since nature is
by this time preparing her annual gifts for the race of mankind, with an
abundance and plenteous pouring forth of necessaries. (159) The interpreters of
the holy scriptures do also say that the unleavened food is a gift of nature,
but that barmed bread is a work of art. (160) Since, therefore, the vernal
festival is a commemoration of the creation of the world, and since that it was
inevitable that the most ancient persons, those formed out of the earth, must
have used the gifts of the world without alteration, pleasure not having as yet
obtained the dominion, the lawgiver ordained that food which was the most
suitable to the occasion, wishing to kindle every year a desire to walk in the
paths of a holy and rigid way of Life. (161) The setting out of twelve
loaves--the same number as the tribes--on the sacred table especially guarantees
the things which have been said. For they are all unleavened, the clearest
example of an unmixed food which has been prepared not by human skill for
pleasure but by nature for the most essential use. These things are sufficient
for this topic. THE
SIXTH FESTIVAL XXIX.
(162) There is also a festival on the day of the paschal feast, which succeeds
the first day, and this is named the sheaf, from what takes place on it; for the
sheaf is brought to the altar as a first fruit both of the country which the
nation has received for its own, and also of the whole land; so as to be an
offering both for the nation separately, and also a common one for the whole
race of mankind; and so that the people by it worship the living God, both for
themselves and for all the rest of mankind, because they have received the
fertile earth for their inheritance; for in the country there is no barren soil
but even all those parts which appear to be stony and rugged are surrounded with
soft veins of great depth, which, by reason of their richness, are very well
suited for the production of living Things. (163) The reason is that a priest
has the same relation to a city that the nation of the Jews has to the entire
inhabited world. For it serves as a priest--to state the truth--through the use
of all purificatory offerings and the guidance both for body and soul of divine
laws which have checked the pleasures of the stomach and those under the stomach
and [tamed] the mob [of the Senses]{21}{there is a clear problem with the text
here, i.e., the noun ochlon lacks a verb.} by having appointed reason as
charioteer over the irrational senses; they also have driven back and overturned
the undiscriminating and excessive urges of the soul, some by rather gentle
instructions and philosophical exhortations, others by rather weighty and
forcible rebukes and by fear of punishment, the fear which they brandish
threateningly. (164) Apart from the fact that the legislation is in a certain
way teaching about the priesthood and that the one who lives by the laws is at
once considered a priest, or rather a high priest, in the judgment of truth, the
following point is also remarkable. The multitude of gods, both male and female,
honored in individual cities happens to be undetermined and indefinite. The
poetic clan and the great company of humans have spoken fabulously about them,
people for whom the search for truth is impractical and beyond their capability
of investigation. Yet all do not reverence and honor the same gods, but
different people different gods. The reason is that they do not consider as gods
those belonging to another land but make the acceptance of them the occasion for
laughter and a joke. They charge those who honor them with great foolishness
since they completely violate sound sense. (165) But if he is, whom all Greeks
together with all barbarians acknowledge with one judgment, the highest Father
of both gods and humans and the Maker of the entire cosmos, whose
nature--although it is invisible and unfathomable not only to sight but also to
perception--all who spend their time with mathematics and other philosophy long
to discover, leaving aside none of the things which contribute to the discovery
and service of him, then it was necessary for all people to cling to him and not
as if through some mechanical device to introduce other gods into participation
of equal honors. (166) Since they slipped in the most essential matter, the
nation of the Jews--to speak most accurately--set aright the false step of
others by having looked beyond everything which has come into existence through
creation since it is generate and corruptible in nature, and chose only the
service of the ungenerate and eternal. The first reason for this is because it
is excellent; the second is because it is profitable to be dedicated and
associated with the Older rather than those who are younger and with the Ruler
rather than those who are ruled and with the Maker rather those things which
come into existence. (167) For this reason it amazes me that some dare to charge
the nation with an anti-social stance, a nation which has made such an extensive
use of fellowship and goodwill toward all people everywhere that they offer up
prayers and feasts and first fruits on behalf of the common race of human beings
and serve the really self-existent God both on behalf of themselves and of
others who have run from the services which they should have rendered. (168)
These are the things they do for the entire race of human beings. On the other
hand they give thanks for themselves for many things. The first is that they are
not perpetually wandering here and there among islands and continents and like
foreigners and those without a permanent abode who have settled the lands of
others and occupy others' wealth are reproached since they have acquired no
portion of land from lack of means, but have acquired a land and cities and for
a long time have been in possession of their own inheritance, for which reason
it has been a sacred duty for them to offer the first fruits. (169) The second
is that they did not receive a worthless and common land, but a good and fertile
land both for the breeding of domestic animals and the abundance of unspeakably
great crops. For there is no poor soil in it, and even the parts that seem to be
stony and hardened are broken up with soft and especially deep veins which
because of their richness are good for crop production. (170) In addition to
these things, they did not receive a desolate land, but one in which there was a
populous nation and great cities abounding in men. Yet the cities were emptied
of their inhabitants and the entire race disappeared except for a small part:
some as a result of wars and others as a result of divinely sent attacks because
of their new and strange practices of wrongs and all of the impieties they used
to commit through their great efforts to demolish the laws of nature. These
things happened so that those who replaced them might be sobered by the
calamities of others, and learn from their deeds that those who become devotees
of evil deeds will suffer the same fate but those who have honored a life of
virtue will possess their assigned portion, numbered not among emigrants but
among the native residents. (171) That the first fruit is a handful for their
own land and for all lands, offered in thanksgiving for prosperity and a good
season which the nation and the entire race of human beings were hoping to
enjoy, has been demonstrated. We should not be unaware that many benefits have
come by means of the first fruit: first, memory of God--it is not possible to
find a more perfect good than this; then, the most just recompense to the real
Cause of the fruitfulness. (172) For the things which occur as a result of
agricultural skill are few or none at all: to build up furrows, to dig and spade
all around a plant, to deepen a trench, to cut off excessive growths, or to
perform any similar task. But the things which come from nature are all
essential and useful: the most fertile ground, a land well-watered by springs
and both spring-fed and seasonal rivers and sprinkled with annual rains, mild
temperatures of air moved by breezes which are most conducive for life,
countless types of crops and plants. For which of these has a human either
discovered or engendered? (173) Nature which has engendered these things has not
begrudged a man its own goods, but considered him to be the governing part of
mortal animals because he has a share in reason and good sense. She therefore
chose him on the basis of his merit and summoned him to participate in her own
goods. For these things it is right that the host, God, be praised and admired
since he sees to it that the truely hospitable earth, all of it, is always full
of not only the necessities but even of the things which make for a luxurious
life. (174) In addition to these things, we should not fail to pay our regard to
benefactors. For the person who is thankful to God who needs nothing and is
selfsufficient, will also make it a habit to be thankful to humans who are in
need of how many countless things. And there are many meanings intended by this
offering of the first fruits. In the first place they are a memorial of God;
secondly, they are a most just requital to be offered to him who is the real
cause of all fertility; (175) and the sheaf of the first fruits is barley,
calculated for the innocent and blameless use of the inferior animals; for since
it is not consistent with holiness to offer first fruits of everything, since
most things are made rather for pleasure than for any actually indispensable
use, it is also not consistent with holiness to enjoy and partake of any thing
which is given for food, without first giving thanks to that being to whom it is
becoming and pious to offer them. That portion of the food which was honored
with the second place, namely, barley, was ordered by the law to be offered as
first fruits; for the first honors were assigned to wheat, of which it has
deferred the offering of the first fruits, as being more honorable, to a more
suitable season. THE
SEVENTH FESTIVAL XXX.
(176) The solemn assembly on the occasion of the festival of the sheaf having
such great privileges, is the prelude to another festival of still greater
importance; for from this day the fiftieth day is reckoned, making up the sacred
number of seven sevens, with the addition of a unit as a seal to the whole; and
this festival, being that of the first fruits of the corn, has derived its name
of pentecost from the number of fifty, (penteµkostos). And on it it is the
custom to offer up two leavened loaves made of wheat, as a first fruit of the
best kind of food made of corn; either because, before the fruit of the year is
converted to the use of man, the first produce of the new crop, the first
gathered corn that appears is offered as a first fruit, in order that by an
insignificant emblem the people may display their grateful disposition; (177) We
must disclose another reason. Its nature is wondrous and highly prized for
numerous reasons including the fact that it consists of the most elemental and
oldest of the things which are encased in substances, as the mathematicians tell
us, the rightangled triangle. For its sides, which exist in lengths of three and
four and five, combine to make up the sum twelve, the pattern of the zodiac
cycle, the doubling of the most fecund number six which is the beginning of
perfection since it is the sum of the same numbers of which it is also the
Product.{23}{literally, "being the sum of its own parts to which it is
equal." In mathematical notation: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 = 1 x 2 x 3.} To the second
power, it seems, they produce fifty, through the addition of 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 and
5 x 5. The result is that it is necessary to say that to the same degree that
fifty is better than twelve, the second power is better than the first power.
(178) If the image of the lesser is the most beautiful sphere of those which are
in heaven, the zodiac, then of what would the better, the number fifty, be a
pattern than a completely better nature? This is not the occasion to speak about
this. It is sufficient for the present that the difference has been noted so
that a principal point is not considered to be subordinate. (179)the feast which
takes place on the basis of the number fifty has received the name "the
feast of the first produce" since during the feast it is customary to offer
two leavened loaves made from wheat as the first fruit of grain, the best food.
It is named "the feast of the first produce" Either{24}{the
"or" is in section 181.} because before the annual crop has proceeded
to human use, the first produce of the new grain and the first fruit which has
appeared are offered as first fruit. (180) For it is just and religiously
correct that those who have received the greatest gift from God, the abundance
of the most necessary as well as most beneficial and even the sweetest food,
should not enjoy it or have any use of it at all before they offer the first
fruits to the Supplier. They are giving him nothing since all things and
possessions and gifts are his, but through a small symbol demonstrate a thankful
and God-loving character to the one who needs no favors but showers continuous
and ever-flowing favors. (181) Or else because the fruit of wheat is most
especially the first and most excellent of all productions. (182) And the bread
is leavened because the law forbids any one to offer unleavened bread upon the
altar; not in order that there should be any contradiction in the injunctions
given, but that in a manner the giving and receiving may be of one sort; the
receiving being gratitude from those who offer it, and the giving an
unhesitating bestowal of the customary blessings on those who offer. (183) For
those for whom it is lawful and permissible will use what has once been
consecrated; and it is lawful for those who are consecrated to the priesthood,
who have received the right given by the humaneness of the law to share in the
things offered on the altar which are not consumed by the unquenchable fire,
either as a wage for their services or as a prize for contests in which they
compete on behalf of piety or as a sacred allotment in view of the fact that
with regard to the land they have not acquired their appropriate part in the
same way as the other tribes. (184) And it is permitted to the priests; and the
leaven is also an emblem of two others things; first of all of that most perfect
and entire food, than which one cannot, among all the things of daily use, find
any which is better and more advantageous; and the fruit of wheat is the best of
all the things that are sown; so that it is fitting, that that should be offered
as the most excellent of first fruits, for the most excellent gift. (185) The
second is a more figurative meaning, implying that every thing which is leavened
is apt to inflate and elate; and joy is an irrational elation of the soul. Now
man is not by nature disposed to rejoice at anything that exists more than at an
abundant and sufficient supply of necessaries; for which it is very proper to
give thanks joyfully, making a display of gratitude, for the invisible happiness
affecting the mind, which shall be perceptible to the outward senses through the
medium of the leavened loaves; (186) and these first fruits are loaves, not
corn, because when there is corn there is no longer anything wanting for the
enjoyment of food, for it is said that the wheat is the last of all the grains
which are sown to ripen and to come to harvest. (187) And there are thus two
most excellent acts of thanksgiving having a reference to two distinct times; to
the past, in which we have been saved from experiencing the evils of scarcity
and hunger while living in happiness and plenty; and to the future, because we
have provided ourselves with supplies and abundant preparations for it. THE
EIGHTH FESTIVAL XXXI.
(188) Immediately after comes the festival of the sacred moon; in which it is
the custom to play the trumpet in the temple at the same moment that the
sacrifices are offered. From which practice this is called the true feast of
trumpets, and there are two reasons for it, one peculiar to the nation, and the
other common to all mankind. Peculiar to the nation, as being a commemoration of
that most marvelous, wonderful, and miraculous event that took place when the
holy oracles of the law were given; (189) for then the voice of a trumpet
sounded from heaven, which it is natural to suppose reached to the very
extremities of the universe, so that so wondrous a sound attracted all who were
present, making them consider, as it is probable, that such mighty events were
signs betokening some great things to be accomplished. (190) And what more great
or more beneficial thing could come to men than laws affecting the whole race?
And what was common to all mankind was this: the trumpet is the instrument of
war, sounding both when commanding the charge and the retreat. ... There is also
another kind of war, ordained of God, when nature is at variance with itself,
its different parts attacking one another. (191) And by both these kinds of war
the things on earth are injured. They are injured by the enemies, by the cutting
down of trees, and by conflagrations; and also by natural injuries, such as
droughts, heavy rains, lightning from heaven, snow and cold; the usual harmony
of the seasons of the year being transformed into a want of all concord. (192)
On this account it is that the law has given this festival the name of a warlike
instrument, in order to show the proper gratitude to God as the giver of peace,
who has abolished all seditions in cities, and in all parts of the universe, and
has produced plenty and prosperity, not allowing a single spark that could tend
to the destruction of the crops to be kindled into flame. THE
NINTH FESTIVAL XXXII.
(193) And after the feast of trumpets the solemnity of the fast is celebrated,
Perhaps some of those who are perversely minded and are not ashamed to censure
excellent things will say, "What sort of a feast is this where there is no
eating and drinking, no troupe of entertainers or audience, no copious supply of
strong drink nor the generous display of a public banquet, nor moreover the
merriment and revelry of dancing to the sound of flute and harp, and timbrels
and cymbals, and the other instruments of music which awaken the unruly lusts
through the channel of the ears? (194) For it is in these and through these, it
seems, that they think good cheer consists. They do this in ignorance of the
true good cheer which the all-wise Moses saw with the most sharpsighted eyes and
so proclaimed the fast a feast and named it the greatest of feasts in our
ancestral language, "a Sabbath of Sabbaths," or as the Greeks would
say, a seven of sevens and a holier than things holy. He did this for many
reasons. (195) The first reason is the temperance which the lawgiver is
continually exhorting men to display at all times, both in their language and in
their appetites, both in and below the belly. And he most especially enjoins
them to display it now, when he devotes a day to the particular observances of
it. For when a person has once learnt to be indifferent to meat and drink, those
very necessary things, what can there be of things which are superfluous that he
would find any difficulty in disregarding? (196) The second reason is, that
every one is at this time occupied in prayers and supplications, and since they
all devote their entire leisure to nothing else from morning till evening,
except to most acceptable prayers by which they endeavor to gain the favor of
God, entreating pardon for their sins and hoping for his mercy, not for their
own merits but through the compassionate nature of that Being who will have
forgiveness rather than punishment. (197) The third is an account of the time at
which this fast is fixed to take place; for by this season all the fruits which
the earth has produced during the whole year are gathered in. And therefore to
proceed at once to devour what has been produced Moses looked upon as an act of
greediness; but to fast, and to abstain from touching food, he considered a mark
of perfect piety which teaches the mind not to trust to the food which it may
have prepared as the cause of health or life. (198) Therefore those who, after
the gathering in of the harvest, abstain from the food, do almost declare in
express words, "We have with joy received, and we shall cheerfully store up
the bounteous gifts of nature; but we do not ascribe to any corruptible thing
the cause of our own durable existence, but we attribute that to the Savior, to
the God who rules in the world, and who is able, either by means of these things
or without them, to nourish and to preserve Us. (199) At all events, behold, he
nourished our forefathers even in the desert for forty Years.{29}{Deuteronomy
8:2.} How he opened fountains to give them abundant drink; and how he rained
food from heaven sufficient for each day so that they might consume what they
needed, and rather than hording or bartering or taking thought of the bounties
received, they might rather reverence and worship the bountiful Giver and honor
him with hymns and benedictions such as are due him." (200) The day of the
fast is always celebrated on the tenth day of the month by order of the law. Why
is it on the tenth? As we have specified in our treatments of it, {30}{this is
probably a reference to the tractate Concerning Numbers mentioned in QG 4.110
and Mos. 2.115.} it is named complete perfection by wise Men{31}{panteleia is a
Pythagorean name for the number ten.} and encompasses all the proportions, the
arithmetical and the harmonic and the geometric, and in addition the harmonies:
the 4:3 ratio through four notes, the 3:2 ratio through five notes, the 2:1
ratio through the octave, the 4:1 ratio through the double octave, and it also
has the 9:8 ratio so that it is the most perfect summation of musical theories.
From this fact it is named complete Perfection.{32}{the text literally says:
"the 11/3 through four, the 11/2 through five, the doubled through the
octave, the quadrupled through the double octave, and it also has the 11/8 ratio
..." Philo has a fuller statement in Opif. 48. In each instance he is
following the Pythagoreans who applied number theory to music. For similar
treatments see Plutarch, Moralia 1139D (Mus. 23) and Sextus Empiricus Adv. Math.
7.94û95.} (201) Therefore God has ordained that abstinence from food should
take place in accordance with the perfect number, for the sake of affording the
best nourishment to the best thing which is in us; that no one may suppose that
the interpreter of God's word is enjoining hunger, the most intolerable of all
evils, but only a brief cutting off of the stream which flows into the channels
of the body. (202) For thus the clear stream which proceeds from the fountain of
reason was likely to be borne smoothly and evenly to the soul, since the
uninterrupted use of food inundating the body contributes also to confuse the
reason. But if the supply of food be checked, then the reason getting a firm
footing as in a dry road, will be able to proceed in safety without stumbling;
(203) and besides it was fitting that when the supply of all things had turned
out according to the wishes of the people and become completed, they should,
amid the abundance of their harvest, preserve a commemoration of their previous
want by abstinence from food, and should offer up prayers, in order that they
might never come to a real experience of a want of necessary food. THE
TENTH FESTIVAL XXXIII.
(204) The last of all the annual festivals is that which is called the feast of
tabernacles, which is fixed for the season of the autumnal equinox. And by this
festival the lawgiver teaches two lessons, both that it is necessary to honor
equality, the first principle and beginning of justice, the principle akin to
unshadowed light; and that it is becoming also, after witnessing the perfection
of all the fruits of the year, to give thanks to that Being who has made them
perfect. (205) For the autumn (metopoµron), as its very name shows is the
season which comes after (meta) the fruits of the year (teµn opoµran) are now
gathered into the granaries, on account of the providence of nature which loves
the living creatures upon the earth. (206) And, indeed, the people are commanded
to pass the whole period of the feast under tents, either because there is no
longer any necessity for remaining in the open air laboring at the cultivation
of the land, since there is nothing left in the land, but all ... is stored up
in the barns, on account of the injuries which otherwise might be likely to
visit it from the burning of the sun or the violence of the Rains.{33} (207) For
when the crops which provide nourishment are in the fields, you act as a manager
and guard of those necessities not by having cooped yourself up like a woman who
belongs at home, but by having gone out to the fields. If severe cold or summer
heat befalls you as you live in the open air, the overgrowths of the trees are
handy shelters. If you get under their protection, you will be able to escape
easily the harm from each. But when all the crops are in, go in with them to
look for a more substantial abode for rest in place of the toils which you
endured as you worked the land. Or again, it may be a reminder of the long
journey of our ancestors which they made through a wide desert, living in tents
for many years at each station. (208) And it is proper in the time of riches to
remember one's poverty, and in an hour of glory to recollect the days of one's
disgrace, and at a season of peace to think upon the dangers that are past.
(209) In addition to the pleasure it provides, a not inconsiderable advantage
for the practice of virtue comes from this. For people who have had prosperity
and adversity before their eyes and have pushed the latter away and are enjoying
the free use of the better, of necessity become thankful in disposition and are
being urged on to piety by fear of a change of state to the contrary condition.
As a result they honor God in songs and words for their present wealth and
persistently entreat and conciliate him with supplications that they will no
longer be tested with calamities. (210) Again, the beginning of this festival is
appointed for the fifteenth day of the month, on account of the reason which has
already been mentioned respecting the spring season, also that the world may be
full, not by day only but also by night, of the most beautiful light, the sun
and moon on their rising opposite to one another with uninterrupted light,
without any darkness interposing itself between so as to divide them. (211) And
after the festival has lasted seven days, he adds an eighth as a seal, calling
it a kind of crowning feast, not only as it would seem to this festival, but
also to all the feasts of the year which we have enumerated; for it is the last
feast of the year, and is a very stable and holy sort of conclusion, befitting
men who have now received all the produce from the land, and who are no longer
in perplexity and apprehension respecting any barrenness or scarcity. (212)
Perhaps, however, the first cubic number, the number eight, was assigned to the
feast for the following reason. It is in its Capacity{34}{the term dynamei is
problematic here. It normally means "squared"--as Colson
recognized--but is here understood more generally.} the beginning of solid
substance at the transition from the incorporeal, the end of the intelligible.
The intelligible [make the Transition]{35}{there is no verb in the text. The
translation follows one of Cohn's conjectures [metabainei] which matches
metabasin nicely.} to a solid nature through the scale of ascending powers.
(213) And in fact, the autumnal feast, just as I said, as a kind of summation
and end of all the feasts in the year seems to be more stable and steadier since
people have already received the revenue from the land and are no longer in a
state of fear and baffled by doubts about productivity or dearth. For the
anxious thoughts of farmers are not settled until the crops are in because of
the losses just waiting to happen from so many people and animals. (214) I have
spoken in this way about the sacred week and the sacred number seven at more
than usual length, wishing to show that all the feasts of the year are, as it
were, the offspring of the number seven, which stands in the relation of a
mother. [...]{36}{I have translated this as it is printed in Schwichest's
edition. Mangey makes the treatise end at "mother."} Follies and joys;
and because in such assemblies and in a cheerful course of life there are thus
established seasons of delight unconnected with any sorrow or depression
supporting both the body and the soul; the one by the pleasure and the other by
the opportunities for philosophical study which they Afford.{37} XXXIV.
(215) There is, besides all these, another Festival{38}{Deuteronomy 26:1.}
sacred to God, and a solemn assembly on the day of the festival which they call
castallus, {39}{castallus is interpreted "a basket with a pointed
bottom."} from the event that takes place in it, as we shall show
presently. Now that this festival is not in the same rank, nor of the same
importance with the other festivals, is plain from many considerations. For,
first of all, it is not one to be observed by the whole population of the nation
as each of the others is. Secondly, none of the things that are brought or
offered are laid upon the altar as holy, or committed to the unextinguishable
and holy fire. Thirdly, the very number of days which are to be observed in the
festival are not expressly stated. XXXV.
(216) Nevertheless, any one may easily see that it has about it some of the
characteristics of a sacred festival, and that it comes very near to having the
privileges of a solemn assembly. For every one of those men who had lands and
possessions, having filled vessels with every different species of fruit borne
by fruit-bearing trees; which vessels, as I have said before, are called
castalli, brings with great joy the first fruits of his abundant crop into the
temple, and standing in front of the altar gives the basket to the priest,
uttering at the same time the very beautiful and admirable hymn prescribed for
the occasion; and if he does not happen to remember it, he listens to it with
all attention while the priest recites it. (217) And the hymn is as
follows:--"The leaders of our nation renounced Syria, and migrated to
Egypt. Being but few in number, they increased till they became a populous
nation. Their descendants being oppressed in innumerable ways by the natives of
the land, when no assistance did any longer appear to be expected from men,
became the supplicants of God, having fled for refuge to entreat his assistance.
(218) Therefore he, who is merciful to all who are unjustly treated, having
received their supplication, smote those who oppressed them with signs and
wonders, and prodigies, and with all the marvelous works which he wrought at
that time. And he delivered those who were being insulted and enduring every
kind of perfidious oppression, not only leading them forth to freedom, but even
giving them in addition a most fertile land; (219) for it is from the fruits of
this land, O bounteous God! that we now bring you the first fruits; if indeed it
is a proper expression to say that he who receives them from you brings them to
you. For, O Master! they are all your favors and your gifts, of which you have
thought us worthy, and so enabled us to live comfortably and to rejoice in
unexpected blessings which thou hast given to us, who did not expect them."
XXXVI.
(220) This hymn is sung from the beginning of summer to the end of autumn, by
two choruses replying to one another uninterruptedly, on two separate occasions,
each at the end of one complete half of ten years; because men cannot all at
once bring the fruits of the seasons to God in accordance with his express
command, but different men bring them at different seasons; and sometimes even
the same persons bring first fruits from the same lands at different times;
(221) for since some fruits become ripe more speedily, and others more slowly,
either on account of the differences of the situations in which they are grown,
as being hotter or colder, or from innumerable other reasons, it follows that
the time for offering the first fruits of such productions is undefined and
uncertain, being extended over a great space. (222) And the use of these first
fruits is permitted to the priests, since they had no portion of the land
themselves, and had no possessions from which they could derive revenue; but
their inheritance is the first fruits from all the nation as the wages of their
holy ministrations, which they perform day and night. XXXVII.
(223) I have now said thus much respecting the number seven, and the things
referring to it among the days, and the months, and the years; and about the
festivals which are connected with this number seven, following the regular
connection of the heads of the subject, which I proposed to myself according to
the order in which they are mentioned in the sacred history. And I shall now
proceed in regular order to consider the commandment which comes next, which is
entitled the one about the honor due to Parents.{40} XXXVIII.
(224) Having already spoken of four commandments which, both as to the order in
which they are placed and as to their importance, are truly the first; namely,
the commandment about the lenity of that sovereign authority by which the world
is governed, and that which commands that man should not look upon any
representation or figure of anything as God, and that which forbids the swearing
falsely, or indeed the swearing carelessly and vainly at all, and that
concerning the sacred seventh day--all which commandments tend to piety and
holiness. I now proceed to the fifth commandment, relating to the honor due to
parents; which is, as I showed in the mention I made of it separately before, on
the borders between those which relate to the affairs of men and those which
relate to God. (225) For parents themselves are something between divine and
human nature, partaking of both; of human nature, inasmuch as it is plain that
they have been born and that they will die; and of divine nature, because they
have engendered other beings, and have brought what did not exist into
existence: for, in my opinion, what God is to the world, that parents are to
their children; since, just as God gave existence to that which had no
existence, they also, in imitation of his power, as far at least as they were
able, make the race of mankind everlasting. XXXIX.
(226) And this is not the only reason why a man's father and mother are
deserving of honor, but here are also several other reasons. For among all those
nations who have any regard for virtue, the older men are esteemed above the
younger, and teachers above their pupils, and benefactors above those who have
received kindnesses from them, and rulers above their subjects, and masters
above their slaves. (227) Accordingly, parents are placed in the higher and
superior class; for they are the elders, and the teachers, and the benefactors,
and the rulers, and the masters. And sons and daughters are placed in the
inferior class; for they are the younger, and the pupils, and the persons who
have received kindnesses, and subjects, and slaves. And that every one of these
assertions is correct is plain from the circumstances that take place, and
proofs derived from reason will establish the truth of them yet more undeniably.
XL.
(228) I affirm, therefore, that that which produces is always older than that
which is produced, and that that which causes anything is older than that of
which it is the cause; but those who beget or bring forth a child are in some
sense the causes and producers of the child which is begotten or brought forth,
and they stand in the light of teachers, inasmuch as all that they know
themselves they teach to their children from their earliest infancy, and they
not only exercise and train them in the supernumerary accomplishments,
impressing reasonings on the minds of their children when they come to their
prime, but they also teach them those most necessary lessons which refer to
choice and avoidance, the choice, that is to say, of virtues, and the avoidance
of vices, and of all the energies in accordance with them. (229) For who can be
more completely the benefactors of their children than parents, who have not
only caused them to exist, but have afterwards thought them worthy of food, and
after that again of education both in body and soul, and have enabled them not
only to live, but also to live well; (230) training their body by gymnastic and
athletic rules so as to bring it into a vigorous and healthy state, and giving
it an easy way of standing and moving not without elegance and becoming grace,
and educating the soul by letters, and numbers, and geometry, and music, and
every kind of philosophy which may elevate the mind which is lodged in the
mortal body and conduct it up to heaven, and can display to advantage the
blessed and happy qualities that are in it, producing an admiration of and a
desire for an unchangeable and harmonious system, which they will afterwards
never leave if they preserve their obedience to their captain. (231) And in
addition to the benefits which they heap upon them, they have likewise authority
over the children of whom they are the parents, not as is the case in cities, in
consequence of some drawing of lots or election, so that any one can find fault
with his governor as having become so either by some blunder of fortune and not
by reason, or it may be by the impetuosity of the multitude, the most
inconsiderate and foolish of all things, but being established in this post by
the most excellent and perfect wisdom of the sublime nature, which regulates all
divine and human affairs in accordance with justice. XLI.
(232) For these reasons it is allowable for parents even to accuse their
children, and to reprove them with considerable severity, and even, if they do
not submit to the threats which are uttered to them by word of mouth, to beat
them, and inflict personal punishment on them, and to imprison them; and if they
behave with obstinacy and resist this treatment, becoming stiff-necked through
the greatness of their incurable wickedness, the law permits them to chastise
them even to the extent of putting them to Death.{41}{Deuteronomy 21:18.} But
still this permission is not given to either the father by himself, or to the
mother by herself, by reason of the greatness of the punishment, which it is not
fitting should be determined by one, but by both together, for it is not
probable that both the parents will agree about putting their child to death
unless his iniquities are very grievous, and weigh down by a certain undoubted
preponderance that firm affection which is firmly implanted in the parents by
nature. (233) But parents have received not only the power of a ruler and
governor over their children, but also that of a master, according to both the
very highest characteristics of the possession of servants, namely, possessing
them as born in the house, and also as purchased with money, for they expend a
price many times greater than their real value on their children and for the
sake of their children, in wages to nurses, and instructors, and teachers,
besides all the expenses which they incur for their dress and their food, and
their other care of them when well and when sick, from their earliest infancy
till the time that they are full grown. And not only are those looked upon as
servants born in the house who have actually been brought forth within the
walls, but those also are so regarded who by the laws of nature receive from the
masters of the house a sufficient support to maintain them in life after they
are born. XLII.
(234) Since this, then, is the case, those who do honor their parents are not
doing anything worthy of praise, since even any single one of the commandments
already mentioned is sufficient to invite them to regard their parents with
reverence. But are not those men worthy of blame, and accusation, and the very
extremity of punishment, who neither respect them as older than themselves, nor
listen to them as their teachers, nor think them worthy of any requital as their
benefactors, nor obey them as their rulers, nor fear them as their masters?
(235) Therefore the law says, "Honor thy father and thy mother next after
God;"{42}{Deuteronomy 5:16.} assigning to them the second place in honor,
on the same principle as nature herself has ranked them in her decision of their
proper place and duties. And you will not honor them more by any line of conduct
than by endeavoring and appearing to be virtuous persons. As the being such is a
seeking of virtue without pride and without guile, and appearing such aims at
virtue in connection with a good reputation and praise from one's associates;
(236) for parents, thinking but little of their own advantage, think the virtue
and excellence of their children the perfection of their own happiness, for
which reason it is that they are anxious that they should obey the injunctions
which are laid upon them, and that they should be obedient to all just and
beneficial commands; for a father will never teach his child anything which is
inconsistent with virtue or with truth. XLIII.
(237) And any one may conjecture that pious respect is due to parents, not only
from what has been said above, but also from the manner in which persons behave
to those who are of the same age with their parents; for the man who shows
respect to an old man, or to an old woman, who is no relation to him, must
appear in some degree to be remembering his own father and mother, and, out of
this consideration, to be looking upon them as the images of his parents, who
are the real models. (238) On which account, in the sacred scriptures, it is not
only commanded that young men should rise up and give the best seats to their
elders, but also that they should rise up before them when they pass by;
{43}{Leviticus 19:32.} showing honor to the grey hairs of old age, to which
there is a hope that they may come themselves if they now yield precedence to
them. (239) And this commandment also seems to me to have been enacted with
exceeding beauty and propriety; for the law says, "Let each man fear his
father and his Mother,"{44}{Leviticus 19:3.} enjoining fear rather than
affection, not as being more advantageous and profitable with reference to the
present occasion, for the first of these feelings affects foolish persons when
they are being instructed or reproved, and folly cannot be cured by any other
means than fear. But the second feeling, namely, affection towards their
parents, it is not fitting should be inculcated on children by the injunctions
of a lawgiver, for nature requires that that should be spontaneous. For it has
implanted it so deeply from very infancy in the souls of those who are so
completely united by blood, and by the services done by the parents to the
children, that it is always selftaught and spontaneous, and has no need of
commandments to enforce it. (240) But the law has enjoined fear, because
children are accustomed to feel an easy indifference. For though parents attend
to their children with an exceeding violence of affection, providing them with
necessary things from all quarters, and bestowing all good things upon them, and
shrinking from no labor and from no danger, being bound to them by love stronger
than any oaths, still some persons do not receive their affection as if it aimed
solely at their good, being full of luxury and arrogance; and coveting a
luxurious life, and becoming effeminate both in body and soul, permitting them
in no respect to entertain proper dispositions as through the native powers of
their minds, which they are not ashamed to overthrow, and to enervate, and to
deprive of each separate energy, and so they come not to fear their natural
correctors, their fathers and mothers yielding to and indulging their own
private passions and desires. (241) But we must also urge on the parents of such
persons that they employ more weighty and severe admonitions in order to cure
this impetuous obstinacy of their children, and we must warn the children to
reverence their parents, fearing them as their rulers and natural masters; for
it is with difficulty even by these considerations that they will be brought to
hesitate to act unjustly. XLIV.
(242) I have now then gone through all the five heads of laws in the first
table, and have noticed also all the particular points which had any reference
to any individual. I must also now point out the punishments affixed to the
transgression of these laws. (243) Now there is one common penalty affixed to
them all, namely, death, through which all such offences have a kind of
relationship to one another. But the causes of this sentence being pronounced in
such cases are different, and we must begin with the last, the one that relates
to parents, since it is in reference to this one that the words are still
ringing in our ears, "If any one shall beat his father or his mother, let
him be Stoned."{45}{Exodus 21:15.} And very justly, for it is not fit that
that man should live who insults those who are the causes of his living; (244)
but some of the men of high rank, and some of the lawgivers, looking rather at
the vain opinions of men than at the truth, have softened this commandment, and
instituted as a penalty, for those who beat their fathers, that their hands
should be cut off; and for the sake of bearing a good reputation in the eyes of
hasty and inconsiderate persons, they profess to them that it is becoming, that
the parts with which such men have struck their parents should be cut off; (245)
but it is a piece of folly to be angry with the servants rather than with those
who are the causes of such folly; for it is not the hands that behave with such
insolence, but insolent men perform their actions with their hands, and it is
the men who must be punished, unless indeed it can be called fitting to let men
go who have committed murder with the sword, and to content one's self with
throwing away the sword; and unless, on the contrary, one ought not to give
honor to those who have shown preeminent valor in war, but to the inanimate
coats of armor, by means of which they have behaved themselves valiantly; (246)
and unless again it is reasonable, in the case of those who have gained the
victory in the gymnastic games, in the stadium, or the double race, or the long
straight course, or in the contest of boxing, or in the pancratium, to attempt
to crown only the legs and arms of the conquerors, and to let the whole of their
bodies remain unhonored. Surely it would be a ridiculous thing to lay down such
principles as these, and to abstain in consequence from punishing or honoring
those who were the real causes of the results in question; for we do not pass
over a man who has given a splendid exhibition of musical skill, playing
exquisitely on the flute or the lyre, and think the instruments themselves
worthy of proclamations and honors. (247) Why, then, should we deprive of their
hands men who beat their fathers, O you most noble lawgivers? Is it that they
may for the future be wholly useless for any purpose whatever, and that they may
exact as a tribute, not once a year but every day, from those whom they have
treated with iniquity, compelling them to supply them with necessary food, as
being unable to provide for themselves? For their father is not so wholly
hard-hearted as to endure to see even a son who has so grievously offended
against him dying of hunger, after his anger has been blunted by time. (248) And
even if he has not laid hands upon his parents, but has only spoken ill of those
whom he was bound to praise and bless, or if he has in any other manner done
anything which can tend to bring his parents into disrepute, still let him
Die.{46}{Exodus 21:16.} For since he is a common enemy, and if one may tell the
plain truth, he is a public enemy of all men, to whom else can he be kind and
favorable when he is not so to the authors of his being, by whose means he came
into this world, and of whom he is a sort of supplement? XLV.
(249) Again, let the man who has profaned the sacred seventh day as far as it
may have lain in his power, be liable to the punishment of death. For, on the
contrary, it is proper rather to provide whatever is profane, be it a thing or
be it a person, with means of purification, in order to induce a change for the
better, since "envy," as some one has said, "goes forth out of
the divine company." But to dare to adulterate or to deface the holy
coinage is an act which displays an extraordinary degree of impiety. (250) In
that ancient migration which took place when the people of Israel left Egypt,
and when the whole multitude was travelling through the pathless wilderness,
when the seventh day came all those myriads of men which I have described before
rested in their tents in perfect tranquility; but one man, and he not one of the
most despised or lowest class of the people, disregarding the commands which
were laid upon the nation, and ridiculing those who attended to them, went forth
to pick up sticks, but in reality to show his contempt for and violation of the
law. (251) And he indeed came back bearing with him a faggot in his arm, but the
men who remained in their tents although inflamed with anger and exasperated by
his conduct, nevertheless did not at once proceed to very harsh measures against
him that day by reason of the holy reverence due to the day, but they led him
before the ruler of the people, and made known his impious action, and he having
committed him to prison, after a command had been given to put him to death,
gave the man up to those who had originally seen him to execute. As therefore,
in my opinion, it was not permitted to kindle a fire on the seventh day for the
reason which I have already mentioned, so likewise it was not lawful to collect
any fuel for a fire. XLVI.
(252) Against those who call God as a witness in favor of assertions which are
not true, the punishment of death is ordained in the law; {47}{Deuteronomy
19:19.} and very properly, for even a man of moderate respectability will never
endure to be cited as a witness, and to have his name registered in support of a
lie. But it seems to me that he would look upon any one who proposed such a
thing to him as a thoroughly faithless enemy; (253) on which account we must say
this, that him, who swears rashly and falsely, calling God to witness an unjust
oath, God, although he is merciful by nature, will yet never release, inasmuch
as he is thoroughly defiled and infamous from guilt, even though he may escape
punishment at the hands of men. And such a man will never entirely escape, for
there are innumerable beings looking on, zealots for and keepers of the national
laws, of rigid justice, prompt to stone such a criminal, and visiting without
pity all such as work wickedness, unless, indeed, we are prepared to say that a
man who acts in such a way as to dishonor his father or his mother is worthy of
death, but that he who behaves with impiety towards a name more glorious than
even the respect due to one's parents, is to be borne with as but a moderate
offender. (254) But the lawgiver of our nation is not so foolish as, after
putting to death men who are guilty of minor offences, then to treat those who
are guilty of heavier crimes with mildness, since surely it is a greater
iniquity than even to speak disparagingly or to insult one's parents, to show a
contempt for the sacred name of God by means of perjury. (255) And if even he
who swears in an unbecoming manner is guilty and blamable, of what punishment is
that man worthy who denies the one only true and living God and now honors the
creature above the Creator, and chooses to honor not only the earth and the
water, or the air, or the fire, the elements of the universe, or again the sun
and moon, and the planets and fixed stars, and the whole of heaven, and the
universal world, but even stocks and stones, which mortal workmen have
fashioned, and which by them have been shaped into human figures? (256)
Therefore, let such a man be himself likened to images carved by the hand; for
it ought not to be that that man should have any soul himself who honors things
destitute of soul or life, and especially after he has been a disciple of Moses,
whom he has often heard announcing to him and under the influence of divine
inspiration declaring those most sacred and holy admonitions, "Take not the
name of any other gods into thy soul for a remembrance of them, and utter not
their names with thy voice, but keep both thy mind and thy speech far from all
other interpositions, and turn them wholly to the Father and Creator of the
universe, that thus thou mayest cherish the most virtuous and godly thoughts
about his single government, and mayest speak words that are becoming and most
profitable both to thyself and to those that hear Thee."{48}{Exodus 23:13.}
XLVII.
(257) We have now then mentioned the punishments which are ordained against
those who neglect the five commandments. But the rewards which are offered to
those who keep them, even though the law has not set them forth in express words
of injunction, are nevertheless figuratively intimated. (258) Therefore the fact
of not thinking that there are any other gods but the true God, nor imagining
that things made by the hand of man are gods, and the fact of not committing
perjury, are things which have no need of any other reward, for the mere fact,
in my opinion, of practising these virtues is itself a most excellent and most
perfect reward. For at what circumstance can a lover of truth feel more really
delighted than at the devotion of himself to one God, and attending in a
guileless and pure manner to his service? (259) And when I speak of witnesses, I
mean not such persons as are slaves to pride, but such as are devoted to an
admiration of goodness free from all error, by whom the truth is honored. For
wisdom itself is the reward of wisdom; and justice, and each of the other
virtues, is its own reward. And truth, as being the most beautiful in the whole
company, and as being the chief of all the holy virtues, is in much greater
degree its own recompense and reward, affording as it does happiness to all who
practice it, and blessings of which they cannot be deprived to their
children and descendants. XLVIII.
(260) Again, those who properly keep the sacred sabbath are benefited in two
most important particulars, both body and soul; as to their body, by a rest from
their continual and incessant labors; and as to their soul, by forming most
excellent conceptions respecting God as the Creator of the universe and the
careful protector of all the things and beings which and whom he has made. And
he made the whole universe in one week. It is plain, therefore, from these
things that the man who honors the seventh day will himself find honor. (261) In
the same way let not him who honors his parents dutifully seek for any further
advantage, for if he considers the matter he will find his reward in his own
conduct. Not but what, since this commandment is inferior in importance to the
first five commandments, which have a more divine character, inasmuch as this is
concerned with mortal subjects, God has given an inducement to obey this one,
saying, "Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee,
and that thy days may be long in the Land;"{49}{Exodus 20:12.} (262)
affixing thus two rewards to this injunction, one being in fact the
participation in virtue, for "well" means virtue, or at least cannot
subsist without virtue; while the other is, if one is to say the truth,
immortality by length of days, and a life of long duration, which thou wilt
preserve even in the body living with thy soul, purified with a perfect
purification. These things have now been discussed at sufficient length. Let us
after this, since the opportunity offers, consider the commandments in the
second table. |
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