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