PHILO
VOLUME VII
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY F. H. COLSON
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS LONDON, ENGLAND
First published 1937 Reprinted 1950, 1958, 1968, 1984, 1998
LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY® is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College
ISBN 0-674-99353-5
Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on acid-free paper. Bound by Hunter & Foulis Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland.
CONTENTS
GENERAL INTRODUCTION . . . . 6 «© e« « ix
List or Puito’s WorkKS .... .- . e« Xix
ON THE DECALOGUE (DE DECALOGO) Introduction . . . . . «6 « -« 8 Text and Translation . . .... 6
ON THE SPECIAL LAWS (DE SPECIA- LIBUS LEGIBUS)
Boox I Introduction, . . .... . 98 Text and Translation . . . . . 100 Boox II Introduction . . . . . .- «. . 804 Text and Translation . . . . . 806 Boox III Introduction . . . . - « e« « 472
Text and Translation . . ὁ ὁ .« 474
CONTENTS
APPENDICES I. To De Decalogo . . .
II. To De Specialibus Legibus, i. . III. To De Specialibus Legibus, ii. . IV. To De Specialibus Legibus, iii.
PREFACE TO VOLUME VII
Tuis seventh volume is in a sense a continuation of the sixth, in that both belong to the second main division of Philo’s work, the Exposition of the Laws. But the contents differ so essentially from the bio- graphical treatises, contained in the last volume, that it seemed advisable to add a General Introduc- tion, which will apply not only to the seventh, but also to a large part of the matter which has to be relegated to the eighth.
The only other thing I need say here is that I wish to acknowledge my debt to the German translators, particularly to the great Philonic scholar, I. Heinemann, whose version of three out of these four treatises and still more the notes appended to them have given me valuable help. I have not always felt able to accept his conclusions and differ from him occasionally as to the meaning of particular sentences and phrases. But I have generally, if not always, recorded these cases, so that scholars will be able to judge between us. His more recent work Philons griechische und jiidische Bildung* has also
@ Referred to in the notes as Bildung.
PREFACE
proved very useful. I will also note Prof. E. R. Goodenough’s Jenish Jurisprudence in Egypt, and if I seem to mention it to express disagreement more often than agreement, this does not detract from what I owe to his fresh and illuminating way of treating the many problems which these treat- ises suggest.
F. H.C.
CamsripcE, January 1937.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Tue last volume carried us through the introductory part of the Exposition of the Laws, namely that in which Philo set before his readers the picture of Moses and his predecessors as living embodiments of the laws. In this volume we pass on to the laws them- selves. Inevitably he begins with the Ten Com- mandments, which being given directly by God him- self are to be regarded as the general heads under which the specific enactments given through Moses are to be grouped. While he practically accepts our division of the Ten into duty towards God and duty towards our neighbour, he does not divide them into four and six, but, led perhaps by his love of numerical symmetry, into two sets of five, the place of the Fifth in the first group being justified by the close analogy of parenthood to the creative work of God.
The first of the four treatises in this volume, the De Decalogo, apart from some preliminary considerations about the theophany on Sinai and a short sketch at the end of the system to be followed in the subsequent treatises, deals with the Ten in their literal meaning. He now passes on to the Special Laws. In all four books the treatment of each commandment begins with a dissertation on the commandment itself in its literal sense, similar to, though fuller than, that in the De Decalogo, and then proceeds to a discussion of the
ix
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
particular enactments which he thinks may be set under it. Thusin Book I, which takes the First and Second Commandments, this preliminary dissertation is followed by an account of the regulations about the priests, the sacrifices of various kinds and as appointed for the various feasts and the moral condition required of the sacrificers. As all these are concerned with the right method of worshipping God he considers that they are bound up in the commandment “ Thou shalt have none other God but me.”
The second Book covers all laws which can be assigned to the next three Commandments. Under the Third come all regulations about oaths and vows ; under the Fourth a very wide assortment of subjects. Philo has to some extent already dealt with the other holydays besides the Sabbath, when he enumerated the sacrifices offered at each, but he now returns to them, not so much as we might expect because the Sabbath is only the chief holyday, but because seven is a sacred number and the feasts are either for seven days or for one which is mystically identified with seven. On the same principle the sabbatical year and the year of Jubile, though social rather than religious ordinances, are here included. Under the Fifth, which is briefly treated, we have apart from the duties of parents and children to each other little more than the duty of paying respect to age in general.
‘Book III carries on with the Sixth and Seventh Commandments. It discusses many enactments which deal with sexual irregularities and crimes of violence. In Book IV regulations dealing with various forms of dishonesty come under the Eighth Commandment, and minor regulations as to witnesses x
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
and just judgement under the Ninth. In dealing with the Tenth, Philo, taking οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις to apply to desire in general, reads into it the duty of controlling the appetites and thus finds an oppor- tunity for discussing the Pentateuchal food laws. At this point (iv. 132) 5 he recognizes that there are various precepts and enactments which cannot properly be assigned to any of the Ten but are implied by them all, and in consequence we have here what seems practically a new scheme. The laws in the succeeding part of the Exposition are classified accord- ing to the virtues, justice, courage, humanity, etc., which they may severally be said to promote. The last part of Book IV discusses justice in this sense and is followed by a treatise or rather a set of minor treatises bearing the title De Virtuttbus and this again is supplemented by another (De Praemits), well de- scribed as an epilogue, on rewards and penalties there laid down, with another perhaps entirely separate on blessings and cursings. As all these belong to the next volume I need not say more about them here. It seems to me that on the whole Philo reports with fairness and accuracy the laws which he discusses. They are only a selection and it is not, I think, possible to find any principle on which the selection is based. There is, of course, a great amount of. interpretation and justification and in this it will be found that he is influenced by Greek and Roman Law in the same way that he is influenced by Greek Philosophy in the Commentary. In the same way but not to the same extent ; for though he was well read in Demosthenes
4 In fact if it were not for long established tradition the natural arrangement would be to end Book IV here and join the rest of the book with the De Virtutibus.
xi
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
and very probably had a fair knowledge of Attic Law in general, he was not a jurist in the same sense that he was a philosopher. In his statements of the laws themselves there are several cases where either the whole law or some detail in it has no direct scriptural warrant, but many, if not most, of these are reason- able deductions from what is to be found in Scripture 5 and indeed he says this himself of some of these deductions. Sometimes a scriptural law is applied to contemporary circumstances,° sometimes a non-scrip- tural detail is derived from contemporary practice or his own observation,? sometimes perhaps he has mis- interpreted his text,* and sometimes his memory has gone astray,’ but these last are quite exceptional.?
In the first section of the De Decalogo Philo promises that if any allegorical meaning should
% ¢.g. i. 235, ii. 128, 252, iii. 64, 147 f.
> 4.e. with the phrase “‘ Moses forbade from afar” (πόρ-
ρῶθεν). See note on iii. 63. ¢ ij. 82, iii. 72. 4 e.g. much of what he says of the temple, i. 71 ff., 166, ii. 175. * ili, 86, 140, 150. 71, 72, iii. 82, 205.
9 Here may be mentioned Prof. Goodenough’s thesis elab- orated in his Jewish Jurisprudence in Egypt. He believes that “the laws as expounded by Philo are the law of the Jewish courts in Alexandria” and “that what Philo is doing through- out is to rephrase the prescriptions of the Terah, reinterpret them, or even alter them or deny them in a literal sense altogether, so thatin the end Jewish law resembles now a law of Rome, now one of Greece, or again one of the few laws we still have from Alexandria ”’ (pp. 13, 14). He sustains this view with a wealth of references to, and citations from, a number of modern as well as ancient authorities, with which I am not really competent to cope. And, when I say that he does not seem to me to prove his point, I do not wish to speak dogmatically. My main criticisms may be put as follows: First, it does not seem to me that we know enough either of the limits of jurisdiction allowed to the Jews in Alexandria, or how they administered what they had, to determine
xii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
appear to underlie the laws he discusses he will not fail to state it. The promise is only partially fulfilled. As a matter of fact allegory is almost entirely absent from the De Dec.* itself and only appears occasionally in the civil or social laws of the Spec. Leg.® though many of these have been allegorized at length in the Commentary.° Here again I cannot see any clear principle on which some particular laws are chosen for such treatment. On the other hand, when he is dealing with the sacrifices in Book I and the feasts in Book II allegory or rather symbolism is almost universal. Naturally enough. For both sacrifices and feasts have little meaning for him except the spiritual.
whether, when Philo departs from the substance of the Terah, he is adjusting it to what was administered or to what he himself thought reasonable. Secondly, that Prof. Good- enough much exaggerates, if not the ‘“‘rephrasing and re- interpretation,” at any rate the “‘ alterations and denials.” So that after reading and re-reading the book and with full acknowledgement of the useful and illuminating remarks in which it abounds, I adhere to my view that, with the reserva- tions mentioned above, Philo gives a fair and accurate account of the laws which he discusses. α See, however, § 49. > Sp. Leg. i. 8 ff., 327 ff., ii. 29 ff., iii. 178 ff. | ¢ Two notable examples are Deut. xxi. 18-21, the stoning of the disobedient son, the allegorical sermon on which occupies ἃ large part of De Ebr., and ib. 15-17, the right of the firstborn son of the discarded wife, which is the text for the long allegory in De Sac. 19 ff., and again in De Sob. 21. These two are treated literally without any hint of allegory in Sp. Leg. ii. 232 f. and 135 f. respectively. Still more remarkable is Philo’s treatment of Deut. xx. 5-7 (exemption of the newly-married etc. from military service). In De Agr. 149 an allegory is suggested on the grounds that the sense of the exemption taken literally is at least doubtful (157). In De Virt. 27 ff. it is extolled as a wise measure. A similar inconsistency in dealing with “‘ till the death of the high priest’? (Num. xxxv. 28) is pointed out in the note to Sp. Leg. iii. 131 (App. p. 638). xiii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
What is the purpose of the Exposition ἢ I think it is best expressed in the words of De Vita Moss ii. 44, where he says that if the Jewish people prospered better each nation would abandon its ancestral cus- toms and turn to honouring their laws alone and that these would darken the light of the others as the risen sun darkens the stars. That is to say, by this exposi- tion he wishes to show the world at large how admir- able is the Pentateuchal code, and if this is so, the natural answer to the question for whom was the Exposition written will be, primarily at any rate, for Gentiles. In the introduction to the preceding volume I noted characteristics in the treatises on Abraham and Joseph which pointed that way, and nothing in this volume seems to me to imply the contrary,* while in his insistence on the duty of honouring and welcoming proselytes and on the uni- versal priesthood of the Jewish race we may see positive signs of a desire to interest and conciliate Gentile readers. It is true that the epilogue, the De Praemis, seems to be addressed mainly to the Jews, but if we expand “ primarily for Gentiles ” by the addition “and also for Jews though not of the type which delighted in the tortuous meditations of the Commentary,” it will probably satisfy the facts. It is quite in accordance with Philo’s perpetually shifting mentality that he should have at one moment the first, at another the second class of readers in view.
The impression which the Exposition leaves is by no means uniform. We may naturally be revolted by the ferocity with which he supports the severer
@ T agree with Goodenough (Harvard Theological Review, Apr. 1933, pp. 110 ff.) against Massebieau that such phrases as ** Our Nation ᾽ (De Dec. 1) have no bearing on the question.
xiv
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
sentences of the Pentateuch and sometimes goes beyond it. On the other hand we may well admire the fine liberal spirit shown in the emphasis which he lays on the humaner side of the code and in his con- stant plea for kindness to the poor, the helpless and the stranger. And the spirituality with which he interprets the baldness of ἐπε Levitical ritual, fanciful though it be, does something to illuminate what is the least readable and the least read part of the Old Testament.
Note ON THE TEXT
While the ms. authority for De Dec. and Sp. Leg. iii. is fairly plentiful, something has to be said about the other two treatises in this volume. The some- what meagre evidence for the text of Sp. Leg. i. has received in recent years an important addition by the discovery of ἃ palimpsest which Cohn calls ἢ. The Philo text of this is said to date probably from the Qth century. At a later time there were written across it some commentaries on Aristotle, which sometimes make the original hand hard to read ; so
α ἢ as we have it contains also De Vita Mosis ii. from § 71-end and the whole of De Dec. But as it only came to Cohn’s knowledge between the publication in 1902 of his vol. iv (which includes these two treatises), and the publica- tion of vol. v in 1906, while it is regularly cited in the App. Crit. to Sp. Leg. i. and ii., it is not so with the App. of the two earlier treatises. In his account of the manuscript in Sitzungsberichte der kin. preuss. Ak.der Wissenschaften, 1905, pp.36 ff. he cites some of its readings in De Dec. with approval, most of which I have mentioned in my textual notes, but considers it to be of much less value in that treatise, and still more in De Vit. Mos., than in Sp. Leg. Some words, however, suggest that he did not give it the same careful scrutiny in the books which he had already edited as in those which he had still to publish.
XV
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
that “ R, ut videtur ᾿᾿ occasionally appears in Cohn’s App. Crit. He regards it as of special value, though unfortunately it comes to an end at ii. 95.¢
The state of the text in Book IT is a more compli- cated matter, and though some of the information here given will be found in the notes, it may be well to supply it more fully here.
The Editio Princeps of Philo contained merely the part dealing with the Third Commandment (§§ 1-38). The Fourth Commandment down to § 214 was added by Hoeschel in 1614. But Hoeschel had mss. of Philo to hand only for the first part of this, namely down to the end of § 123. From this point he relied on mss. of Nicetas Serranus, Archbishop of Heraclea,®> which in the absence of any codex of Philo himself he believed to be the genuine text. These, however, did not include the sections on the law of inheritance (§§ 124-139), nor the conclusion of the Fourth Com- mandment (the Basket Rite) (§§ 215-223), while the Fifth Commandment section and the concluding re- marks were absent altogether.°
In the parts which they cover the excerpts supply a considerably abridged? version, with a certain
* It should also be noted that §§ 177-193 of Sp. Leg. i. were absent from the mss. to which Mangey had access. The result is that in the marginal references in this edition to Mangey’s paging p. 240 is not followed by p. 241 till after nine pages of my text instead of after the normal two.
> 1 have no information as to his date. I must apologize for having called him Nicetes in Vol. iii. p. 511 and elsewhere.
¢ Nicetas’s excerpts are part of a commentary on St. Luke, this particular set being quoted on ch. xxi. 1 “ Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh which is called the Passover.”’
¢ The extent of the abridging may be easily seen from the marginal references to Mangey’s pages. A rough calcula- tion will shew that something like half the full text has been omitted in §§ 140-214. xvi
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
amount of variation. Hoeschel’s text was adopted by Mangey and continued to be accepted till 1818, when another manuscript (called M) came to light, containing the full text of the whole book.* The total result is that for more than half of the book we have either M alone or at the best M with Nicetas’s abridgement.?
A few words must be added on the tiresome subject of the traditional divisions, especially in Book I. Here the ms. Headings at different points translated as De Circumctsione, De Monarchia, etc., are sensible enough, if regarded as indicating the main divisions of the book. But if taken as introducing separate treatises, as they are in Mangey’s edition and Yonge’s translation, they are misleading in that they disguise the fact that the whole book® is a systematic dis- sertation on the laws which fall under the two first commandments. Unfortunately they are too often used for reference in fairly recent works to be com- pletely ignored.
In Book IT the separation of the Third, Fourth and Fifth Commandments is justifiable. But the divisions of the Fourth, as they appear in the mss., are quite unnecessary. They are disregarded in Cohn’s head-
* According to Cohn a complete edition of the book from the mss. was first published by Tischendorf in 1868. Yonge, however, translated ‘‘the Basket” and ‘‘ Honouring parents ”’ in 1855 from what he calls ‘‘ Schwichest’s edition.”
> M is called a corrupt manuscript by Cohn. But judging from the emendations recorded its text is far purer than that of De Post. and De Som. ii., where also we have to rely on a single codex.
¢ With the exception of the first 11 sections on circumcision which Philo does not claim to come under a particular com- mandment.
XVii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
ings of the pages and partially 4 in his numeration of chapters.
In Book III the headings and divisions need not trouble us, though I have indicated them in the textual notes. They are really quite useless, being introduced at haphazard and rarely applying to more than a few sections of the matter they might be expected to cover. Fortunately Mangey ignores them in the heading of his pages and Cohn also, as well as in his numeration of chapters, though both insert them in the body of the text. It surely cannot be supposed that they, or indeed any of these headings, are due to Philo himself.
@ See below
Coun’s NuMERATION oF Cuaprers—The Special Laws I.
The point at which each fresh numeration begins is in- dicated in the notes, but to facilitate reference a summary is here appended.
Coun THIS TRANSLATION De Cireumcisione . ‘ . L-IT. I.-II. De Monarchia ‘7.-1X. ΠΙΟΧΙ.
De Templo and De Sacerdoti- b
us. : : 3 . 1.-Χν. XII.-X XVI. (In Mangey called De Mon- archia 11.) De Sacerdotum honoribus . I.-VI. XXVII.-X XXII. De Victimis . ‘ ἃ . .-XV. XXXIII.-XLVII. De Sacrificantibus. : .ς. I.-XVI. XLVIIL-LXIII.
NuMERATION OF Cuaprers—The Special Laws II.
CoHN THIS TRANSLATION The Third Commandment __ I.-IX. [.1Χ. (No special heading) De Septenario . ‘ ‘ I,-X XIV. X.-X XXIII. The Basket Rite . . I-IV. XXXIV.-XXXVITI. (No special heading) De parentibus colendis [.-XI XXXVIIL-XLVITE,
XVili
LIST OF PHILO’S WORKS
SHOWING THEIR DIVISION INTO VOLUMES IN THIS EDITION VOLUME
I. On the Creation (De Opificio Mundi) Allegorical Interpretation (Legum Allegoria)
II. On the Cherubim (De Cherubim) On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain (De Sacrificiis Abelis et Caini) The Worse attacks the Better (Quod Deterius Potiori insidiari solet) On the Posterity and Exile of Cain (De Posteritate Caini) III. On the Unchangeableness of God (Quod Deus im- mutabilis sit) On Husbandry (De Agricultura) On Noah’s Work as a Planter (De Plantatione) On Drunkenness (De Ebrietate) On Sobriety (De Sobrietate)
IV. On the Confusion of Tongues (De Confusione Lin- guarum) On the Migration of Abraham (De Migratione Abrahami) Who is the Heir (Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres) On the Preliminary Studies (De Congressu quaerendae - Eruditionis gratia) V. On Flight and Finding (De Fuga et Inventione) On the Change of Names (De Mutatione Nominum) On Dreams (De Somniis)
VI. On Abraham (De Abrahamo) On Joseph (De Iosepho) Moses (De Vita Mosis)
LIST OF PHILO’S WORKS
VOLUME
VII,
ΝΠ.
X.
On the Decalogue (De Decalogo)
On the Special Laws Books I-III (De Specialibus Legibus)
On i ia Laws Book IV (De Specialibus Legi-
us
On the Virtues (De Virtutibus)
On Rewards and Punishments (De Praemiis et Poenis)
. Every Good Man is Free (Quod Omnis Probus Liber
sit) On the Contemplative Life (De Vita Contemplativa) On the Eternity of the World (De Aeternitate Mundi) Flaccus (In Flaccum) Hypothetica 1 (Apologia pro Iudaeis) On Providence! (De Providentia)
On the Embassy to Gaius (De Legatione ad Gaium) GENERAL InDEx To Votumes I-X
SUPPLEMENT
1. iI.
xx
Questions and Answers on Genesis? (Quaestiones et Solutiones in Genesin)
Questions and Answers on Exodus? (Quaestiones et Solutiones in Exodum) GENERAL INDEx To SupeLeMeEntTs I-IT
1 Only two fragments extant. * Extant only in an Armenian version,
THE DECALOGUE (DE DECALOGO)
INTRODUCTION TO DE DECALOGO
The first part of this treatise deals with some ques- tions raised by the law-giving on Sinai. First, why was it given in the desert? Four reasons are suggested : (a) because of the vanity and idolatry rampant in cities (2-9), (δ) because solitude promotes repentance (10-13), (c) because it was well that laws needed for civic life should begin before the era of that life began (14), (d) that the divine origin of the laws should be attested by the miraculous supply of food in the barren wilderness (15-17). Secondly, observing that the Commandments given by God Himself were ten, we ask why that number, and the answer is given by a disquisition on its perfection as a number (18-31). Thirdly, what was the nature of the voice which announced the commandments ?—not God’s, for He is not a man, but an invisible kind of speech created for the occasion (32-35). Fourthly, why was the singular number “thou” used? (a) Because fit emphasizes the value of the individual soul (36-38), (b) the personal appeal better secures obedience (39), (c) it is a lesson to the great not to despise the humblest (40-44). This part concludes with some words on the grandeur of the scene, particularly the fire from which the voice issued (45-49).
Coming to the Commandments themselves, after noting that they divide into two sets of five (50-51),
3
THE DECALOGUE
we pass to the First. Polytheism is denounced, particularly as taking the form of worship given to the elements or heavenly bodies (52-65). Worse than this is the worship of lifeless images forbidden by the Second Commandment. Its absurdity is exposed (66-76) and with it the worse absurdity of Egyptian animal-worship (77-81). The Third Commandment is taken as forbidding principally perjury (82-91), but also reckless swearing (92-95). The Fourth teaches us to set apart a time for philosophy as opposed to practical life (96-101), and reasons are given for the sanctity of seven and the seventh day in particular (102-105). The Fifth stands on the border-line, because parenthood assimilates man to God and to dishonour parents is to dishonour God (106-111). Children owe all to their parents, and in the duty of repaying kindness they may take a lesson from the lower animals (112-120).
The second set of five opens with the prohibition of Adultery (121). Adultery is denounced as (a) voluptuous (122), (6) involving the sin of another (123-124), (c) destructive of family ties (125-127), (d) cruel to the children (128-131). The second of the set forbids murder as both unnatural and sacrilegious, since man is the most sacred of God’s possessions (132-134). Stealing is forbidden by the third, because theft on the smallest scale may develop into wholesale robbery and _ usurpation (135-137). The fourth forbids false witness, as opposed in itself to truth and justice, and also in law-courts causing Judges to give wrong verdicts and thus break their own oaths (138-141). The last Commandment against “‘ desire ” gives Philo an opportunity of discoursing in Stoical terms on the
4,
THE DECALOGUE
four passions, pleasure, grief, fear, desire, of which the last is the deadliest (142-153).
Sections 154-175 are really a rough synopsis of Books II., III., and IV. 1-131, shewing the nature of the particular laws which will be placed under each commandment. And the concluding sections 176-178 justify the absence of any penalties attached to the commandments on the grounds that God who is the cause of good leaves the punishment for transgression to his subordinates.
ΠΕΡῚ ΤΩΝ ΔΕΚΑ ΛΟΓῺΝ OI KE®AAAIA NOMON ΕἸΣΙΝ
I. Τοὺς βίους τῶν κατὰ Μωυσέα σοφῶν ἀνδρῶν, οὗς ἀρχηγέτας τοῦ ἡμετέρου ἔθνους καὶ “νόμους ἀγράφους at ἱεραὶ βίβλοι δηλοῦσιν, ἐν ταῖς προ- τέραις συντάξεσι μεμηνυκὼς κατὰ τὰ ἀκόλουθα ἑξῆς τῶν ἀναγραφέντων νόμων τὰς ἰδέας ἀκριβώσω μηδ᾽, εἴ τις ὑποφαίνοιτο τρόπος ἀλληγορίας, τοῦτον παρεὶς ἕνεκα τῆς πρὸς διάνοιαν φιλομαθοῦς ἐπι- στήμης, ἧ πρὸ τῶν ἐμφανῶν ἔθος τὰ ἀφανῆ ζητεῖν.
A A A ὶ 2 Πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἀποροῦντας, τί δή ποτε οὐκ ἐν ’ 3 9 9 9 V4 4 A l4 > » πόλεσιν ἀλλ᾽ ev ἐρήμῳ βαθείᾳ τοὺς νόμους ἐτίθει, λεκτέον πρῶτον μέν, ὅτι at πολλαὶ τῶν πόλεων 9 “- ~ [181] ἀμυθήτων κακῶν εἰσι | μεσταί, καὶ τῶν πρὸς TO θεῖον ἀνοσιουργημάτων καὶ τῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους 3 Ul 50." ’ “ A 4 8 ἀδικημάτων. οὐδὲν γάρ ἐστιν ὃ μὴ κεκιβδήλευται, τὰ γνήσια τῶν νόθων παρευημερούντων καὶ τἀληθῆ τῶν εἰκότων, ἃ φύσει μὲν κατέψευσται, πιθανὰς 9 e Ul / A > Ul 9 ’
4 δ᾽ ὑποβάλλει φαντασίας πρὸς ἀπάτην. ἐν πόλεσιν
Φ A e 4 9 4 4 ~ 4 οὖν καὶ ὁ πάντων ἐπιβουλότατος φύεται τῦφος, ὅν τινες τεθήπασι καὶ προσκυνοῦσι τὰς κενὰς δόξας σεμνοποιοῦντες διὰ χρυσῶν στεφάνων καὶ ἁλουρ-
[180] 1
4 See General Introduction to Vol. VI. pp. ix. f. » See General Introduction to this volume, p. xiii. ¢ Lit. “ Οη account of studious knowledge tending to under-
6
THE DECALOGUE
I. Having related in the preceding treatises the 1 lives of those whom Moses judged to be men of wisdom, who are set before us in the Sacred Books as founders of our nation and in themselves unwritten laws,* I shall now proceed in due course to give full descriptions of the written laws. And if some alle- gorical interpretation should appear to underlie them, I shall not fail to state it.2 For knowledge loves to learn and advance to full understanding ¢ and its way is to seek the hidden meaning rather than the obvious.
To the question why he promulgated his laws in 2 the depths of the desert instead of in cities we may answer in the first place that most cities are full of countless evils, both acts of impiety towards God and wrongdoing between man and man. For every- 3 thing is debased, the genuine overpowered by the spurious, the true by the specious, which is intrinsi- cally false but creates impressions whose plausibility serves but to delude. So too in cities there arises 4 that most insidious of foes, Pride, admired and worshipped by some who add dignity to vain ideas ° by means of gold crowns and purple robes and a
standing.”’ I cannot think that the text is right. For further discussion and attempts to emend it see App. p. 609. ἀ Or “ vanity.” ¢ Or “ opinions.”
PHILO
γίδων καὶ πλήθους θεραπόντων καὶ ὀχημάτων, ep ὧν οἱ λεγόμενοι μακάριοι καὶ εὐδαίμονες μετέωροι φέρονται, τοτὲ μὲν ὀρεῖς ἢ ἵππους καταζευγνύντες τοτὲ δὲ καὶ ἀνθρώπους, οἱ τὰ φορεῖα κατὰ τῶν αὐχένων ἀχθοφοροῦσι τὴν ψυχὴν πρὸ τοῦ σώματος δι᾿ ὑπερβολὴν ὕβρεως πιεζόμενοι. 11. τῦφος καὶ πολλῶν ἄλλων κακῶν δημιουργός ἐστιν, ἀλαζονείας, ὑπεροψίας, ἀνισότητος" at εἰσὶν ἀρχαὶ ξενικῶν καὶ ἐμφυλίων πολέμων οὐδὲν μέρος, οὐ κοινόν, οὐκ ἴδιον, οὐ κατὰ γῆν, οὐ κατὰ. 6 θάλατταν, ἡσυχάζειν ἐῶσαι. τί δὲ δεῖ τῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἁμαρτημάτων μεμνῆσθαι; τύφῳ γὰρ καὶ τὰ θεῖα ἐξωλιγώρηται, καίτοι νομιζόμενα τῆς ἀνωτάτω τυγχάνειν τιμῆς" τιμὴ δὲ τίς ἂν γένοιτο, μὴ προσούσης ἀληθείας, ἣ καὶ ὄνομα καὶ ἔργον ἔχει τίμιον, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ ψεῦδος Ἴ ἔμπαλιν ἄτιμον φύσει; ἡ δ᾽ ὀλιγωρία τῶν θείων ἐμφανὴς τοῖς ὀξυδερκέστερον ὁρῶσι μυρίας γὰρ ὅσας διὰ γραφικῆς καὶ πλαστικῆς μορφώσαντες ἰδέας ἱερὰ καὶ νεὼς αὐταῖς προσπεριεβάλοντο καὶ βωμοὺς κατασκευάσαντες ἀγάλμασι καὶ ἕξοάνοις καὶ τοιουτοτρόποις ἀφιδρύμασι τιμὰς ἰσολυμπίους 8 καὶ ἰσοθέους «ἀπένειμαν, ἅπασιν ἀψύχοις. οὗς εὐθυβόλως al ἱεραὶ γραφαὶ τοῖς ἐκ πόρνης γεγο- νόσιν ἀπεικάζουσιν' ὡς γὰρ οὗτοι πάντας, ὅσους ἐραστὰς ἔσχεν ἡ μήτηρ, ἐπιγράφονται πατέρας ἑνὸς ἀγνοίᾳ τοῦ φύσει, οὕτω καὶ οἱ κατὰ πόλεις οὐκ εἰδότες τὸν ὄντα ὄντως ἀληθῆ θεὸν μυρία 9 πλήθη ψευδωνύμων ἐκτεθειώκασιν. εἶτ᾽ ἄλλων παρ᾽ ἄλλοις τιμωμένων, ἡ περὶ τοῦ ἀρίστου κρα-.
8
THE DECALOGUE, 4-9
great establishment of servants and cars, on which these so-called blissful and happy people ride aloft, drawn sometimes by mules and horses, sometimes by men, who bear the heavy burden on their shoulders, yet suffer in soul rather than in body under the weight of extravagant arrogance. II. Pride is also the creator of many other evils, 5 boastfulness, haughtiness, inequality, and these are the sources of wars, both civil and foreign, suffering no place to remain in peace whether public or private, whether on sea or on land. Yet why 6 dwell on offences between man and man? Pride also brings divine things into utter contempt, even though they are supposed to receive the highest honours. But what honour can there be if truth be not there as well, truth honourable both in name and function, just as falsehood is naturally dishonourable ? This 7 contempt for things divine is manifest to those of keener vision. For men have employed sculpture and painting to fashion innumerable forms which they have enclosed in shrines and temples and after build- ing altars have assigned celestial and divine honours to idols of stone and wood and suchlike images, all of them lifeless things. Such persons are happily 8 compared in the sacred Scriptures to the children of a harlot *; for as they in their ignorance of their one natural father ascribe their paternity to all their mother’s lovers, so too throughout the cities those who do not know the true, the really existent God have deified hosts of others who are falsely so called. Then as some honour one, some another god, diver- 9
@ See note on Spec. Leg. i. 332.
1 So R: other mss, ἀνοσιότητος.
PHILO
τήσασα διχόνοια καὶ τὰς πρὸς τὰ ἄλλα πάντα διαφορὰς ἐγέννησεν. εἰς ἃ πρῶτον ἀπιδὼν ἔξω πόλεων" ἐβουλήθη νομοθετεῖν.
10 ᾿Ενενόει δὲ κἀκεῖνο δεύτερον, ὅτι τοῦ μέλλοντος ἱεροὺς νόμους παραδέχεσθαι τὴν ψυχὴν ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστιν ἀπορρύψασθαι καὶ ἐκκαθήρασθαι τὰς | δυσ-
[182] εκπλύτους κηλῖδας, ἃς μιγάδων καὶ συγκλύδων ὄχλος ἀνθρώπων κατὰ πόλεις προσετρίψατο. τοῦτο
11 δὲ ἀμήχανον ἕτέρως ἢ διοικισθέντι συμβῆναι, καὶ οὐκ εὐθὺς ἀλλὰ μακρῷ χρόνῳ ὕστερον, ἕως ἂν οἱ τῶν ἀρχαίων παρανομημάτων ἐνσφραγισθέντες τύποι κατὰ μικρὸν ἀμαυρούμενοι καὶ ἀπορρέοντες
12 ἀφανισθῶσι. τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον καὶ οἱ τὴν ἰατρικὴν ἀγαθοὶ σῴζουσι τοὺς κάμνοντας" οὐ γὰρ “πρότερον σιτία καὶ ποτὰ παρέχειν ἀξιοῦσι, πρὶν ἢ τὰ τῶν νόσων αἴτια ὑπεξελέσθαι. μενόντων γὰρ ἀνωφελεῖς αἵ τροφαί, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπιζήμιοι, ὗλαι γινόμεναι τοῦ
13 πάθους. III. εἰκότως οὖν ἐκ τῶν κατὰ πόλεις βλαβερωτάτων συνηθειῶν εἰς ἐρήμην ἀπαγαγών, ἵνα κενώσῃ τὰς ψυχὰς ἀδικημάτων, ἤρξατο προσ- φέρειν ταῖς διανοίαις τροφάς' αὗται δὲ τίνες ἂν εἷεν ὅτι μὴ νόμοι καὶ “λόγοι θεῖοι;
1 Τρίτη δέ ἐστιν αἰτία ἥδε: καθάπερ ot στελ- ὄμενοι μακρὸν πλοῦν, οὐχ ὅταν “ἐπιβάντες τῆς νεὼς ἀπὸ λιμένος ἐξαναχθῶσιν, ἄρχονται κατα- σκευάζειν ἱστία καὶ πηδάλια καὶ οἴακας, ἀλλ᾽ ἔτι μένοντες ἐπὶ γῆς ἕκαστα τῶν συντεινόντων πρὸς πλοῦν εὐτρεπίζονται, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ἠξίωσεν οὐ λαβόντας κληρουχίας καὶ τὰς πόλεις οἰκήσαντας τότε ζητεῖν νόμους, οἷς πολιτεύσονται, ἀλλ᾽ ἑτοιμασαμένους τοὺς τῆς πολιτείας κανόνας καὶ
1 MSS. πόλεως.
10
THE DECALOGUE, 9-14
sity of opinion as to which was best waxed strong and engendered disputes in every other matter also. This was the primary consideration which made him prefer to legislate away from cities.
He had alsoasecond objectinmind. He whois about 10 to receive the holy laws must first cleanse his soul and purge away the deep-set stains which it has con- tracted through contact with the motley promiscuous horde of men in cities. And to this he cannot attain 11 except by dwelling apart, nor that at once, but only long afterwards, and not till the marks which his old transgressions have imprinted on him have gradually grown faint, melted away and disappeared. In this 12 way too good physicians preserve their sick folk : they think it unadvisable to give them food or drink until they have removed the causes of their maladies. While these still remain, nourishment is useless, in- deed harmful, and acts as fuel to the distemper. III. Naturally therefore he first led them away from 13 the highly mischievous associations of cities into the desert, to clear the sins out of their souls, and then began to set the nourishment before their minds— and what should this nourishment be but laws and words of God?
He had a third reason as follows: just as men 14 when setting out on a long voyage do not begin to ἡ provide sails and rudders and tillers when they have embarked and left the harbour, but equip themselves with enough of the gear needed for the voyage while they are still staying on shore, so Moses did not think it good that they should just take their portions and settle in cities and then go in quest of laws to regulate their civic life, but rather should first provide them- selves with the rules for that life and gain practice
11
16
PHILO
ἐνασκηθέντας οἷς ἔμελλον ot δῆμοι κυβερνᾶσθαι σωτηρίως τηνικαῦτα εἰσοικίζεσθαι, χρησομένους εὐθὺς ταῖς τῶν δικαίων παρασκευαῖς ἐν ὁμονοίᾳ καὶ κοινωνίᾳ καὶ διανομῇ τῶν ἐπιβαλλόντων ἑκάστοις.
IV. Φασὶ δέ τινες καὶ τετάρτην αἰτίαν οὐκ ἀπῳδὸν ἀλλ᾽ ἐγγυτάτω τῆς ἀληθείας" ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἔδει πίστιν ἐγγενέσθαι ταῖς διανοίαις περὶ τοῦ μὴ εὑρήματα ἀνθρώπου τοὺς νόμους ἀλλὰ θεοῦ χρησμοὺς σαφεστάτους εἶναι, πορρωτάτω τῶν πόλεων ἀπήγαγε τὸ ἔθνος εἰς ἐρήμην βαθεῖαν καὶ ἄγονον οὐ “μόνον ἡμέρων καρπῶν ἀλλὰ καὶ ποτίμου ὕδατος, ἵ ἵν᾽, ἐὰν ἐν σπάνει γενόμενοι τῶν ἀναγκαίων καὶ δίψει καὶ λιμῷ διαφθαρῆναι προσδοκήσαντες ἐξαπιναίως ἀφθονίαν τῶν ἐπιτηδείων ἀπαυτοματι- σθέντων ἀνευρίσκωσιν, οὐρανοῦ μὲν ὕοντος τροφὰς τὸ καλούμενον μάννα, προσόψημα δὲ τροφῶν ἀπ᾽" ἀέρος ὀρτυγομήτρας φοράν, ὕδατος δὲ πικροῦ γλυκαινομένου πρὸς τὸ πότιμον, πέτρας δὲ ἀκρο- τόμου πηγὰς ἀνομβρούσης, μηκέτι θαυμάζωσιν, εἰ λόγια θεοῦ συμβέβηκεν εἶναι τοὺς νόμους, ἐναργεστάτην βάσανον εἰληφότες ἐ ἐκ τῶν χορηγιῶν, ἃς ἐξ ἀπόρων ἔσχον οὐκ ἐλπίσαντες. ὁ γὰρ πρὸς τὸ ζῆν ἀφθονίαν δοὺς καὶ τὰς πρὸς τὸ εὖ ζῆν ἀφορμὰς ἐδωρεῖτο: πρὸς μὲν οὖν τὸ ζῆν σιτίων ἔδει καὶ ποτῶν, ἅπερ ἀνεύρισκον οὐχ ἑτοιμασάμενοι,
1 So mss. and Cohn. But I should prefer with Mangey to omit ἀπ᾿. I do not know of any case in which οὐρανός includes the lower air, as the text implies, while on the other hand the index gives thirteen examples where heaven, air, water, earth are named as the four parts of the universe. See Spec. Leg. iii. 111, and cf. ibid. 152. With ἀπ᾽ omitted each of the four makes its contribution, earth being given by πέτρας.
12
THE DECALOGUE, 14-17
in all that would surely enable the communities to steer their course in safety, and then settle down to follow from the first the principles of justice lying ready for their use, in harmony and fellowship of spirit and rendering to every man his due.
IV. Some too give a fourth reason which is not out 15 of keeping with the truth but agrees very closely with it. As it was necessary to establish a belief in their minds that the laws were not the inventions of aman but quite clearly the oracles of God, he led the nation a great distance away from cities into the depths of a desert, barren not only of cultivated fruits but also of water fit for drinking, in order that, 16 if after lacking the necessaries of life and expecting to perish from hunger and thirst they suddenly found abundance of sustenance self-produced—when heaven rained the food called manna and the shower of quails from the air to add relish to their food—when the bitter water grew sweet and fit for drinking and springs gushed out of the steep* rock—they should no longer wonder whether the laws were actually the pronouncements of God, since they had been given the clearest evidence of the truth in the supplies which they had so unexpectedly received in their destitution. For He who gave abundance of the means 17 of life also bestowed the wherewithal of a good life ; for mere life they needed food and drink which they found without making provision ; for the good life
¢ Or “hard,” “flinty.” Here, as in Mos. i. 210-211, Philo does not stress the connexion of the word (taken from Deut. viii. 15), with ἀκρός as he does elsewhere. See note on Mos. i. 210. The events alluded to are found in Ex. xv. and xvi.
13
18
PHILO
A \ A On “A / A 4 a. πρὸς δὲ TO εὖ ζῆν νόμων καὶ διαταγμάτων, ois βελτιοῦσθαι τὰς ψυχὰς ἔμελλον.
V. Ald’ εἰσὶν ἐν στοχασμοῖς εἰκόσιν αἰτίαι λεγό- μεναι περὶ τοῦ διαπορηθέντος" τὰς γὰρ ἀληθεῖς
> e A 4 > A 9 Ψ Ψ A οἶδεν ὁ θεὸς μόνος. εἰπὼν δ᾽ ἅπερ ἥρμοττε περὶ τούτων ἑξῆς αὐτοὺς ἀκριβώσω τοὺς νόμους, ἐκεῖνο
A 4 A κατὰ TO ἀναγκαῖον προμηνύσας, ὅτι τῶν νόμων
Δ \ 9 A e \ 9 4 ” > οὗς μὲν αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς οὐ προσχρησάμενος ἄλλῳ δι e “- ’ ’ 9. δ) eA A Ἁ ἑαυτοῦ μόνου θεσπίζειν ἠξίωσεν, οὗς δὲ διὰ προ- φήτου Μωυσέως, ὃν ἀριστίνδην ἐκ πάντων ὡς ἐπι-
19 τηδειότατον ἱεροφάντην ἐπελέξατο. τοὺς
A Ss 9 ’ ’ 9 9 ~
μὲν οὖν αὐτοπροσώπως θεσπισθέντας δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ᾿ ,ὕ 4
μόνου συμβέβηκε καὶ νόμους εἶναι καὶ νόμων
va) U4 oy
τῶν ἐν μέρει κεφάλαια, τοὺς δὲ διὰ τοῦ προ-
90 φήτου πάντας ἐπ᾽ ἐκείνους ἀναφέρεσθαι. VI. λέξω
2]
9 e “4 al εκ A e 4 A ’ὔ δ᾽, ὡς ἂν οἷός τε ὦ, περὶ ἑκατέρων καὶ πρό- τερόν γε τῶν κεφαλαιωδεστέρων'" ὧν
4 , a” ’ A > A ’ὔ ~~ εὐθέως ἄξιον θαυμάσαι τὸν ἀριθμὸν δεκάδι TH
4 4 a , A > ΄- παντελείᾳ περατουμένων, ἢ πάσας μὲν ἀριθμῶν 9 ’ὔ A ΄- A > 4 διαφορὰς ἀρτίων καὶ. περιττῶν καὶ ἀρτιοπερίττων, > 4 N A ΄- A ~ > ’ ἀρτίων μὲν δυοῖν, περιττῶν δὲ τριῶν, ἀρτιοπερίτ- Si ἐξα ad Sid An eyat BID δ ἢ λ των δὲ ἕξ, πάσας δὲ λόγων τῶν ἐν ἀριθμοῖς πολυ- ’ὔ A 9 ~ A ~ πλασίων καὶ ἐπιμερῶν καὶ ὑποεπιμερῶν περιέχει,
’ὔ 9 9 ’ὔ ’ > , a ΄- πάσας δ᾽ ἀναλογίας, τὴν τε ἀριθμητικήν, ἣ τῷ
1 mss. πέντε and so Cohn by an oversight afterwards cor- rected in a note to Treitel’s translation. This must be a mistake of the scribe. Philo could not possibly have made it;
cf. Spec. Leg. ii. 58, and the more elaborate explanation of the even-odds in De Op. 13.
14
THE DECALOGUE, 17-21
they needed laws and ordinances which would bring improvement to their souls.
V. These are the reasons suggested to answer the 18 question under discussion: they are but probable surmises ; the true reasons are know to God alone. Having said what was fitting on this subject, I will proceed to describe the laws themselves in order, with this necessary statement by way of introduc- tion, that some of them God judged fit to deliver in His own person alone without employing any other, and some through His prophet Moses whom He chose as of all men the best suited to be the revealer of verities. Now we find that those which 19 He gave in His own person and by His own mouth alone include both laws and heads summarizing the par- ticular laws, but those in which He spoke through the prophet all belong to the former class. VI. I will 20 deal with both to the best of my ability, taking those which are rather of the nature of summaries first.
Here our admiration is at once aroused by their number, which is neither more nor less than is the supremely perfect,? Ten. Ten contains all different kinds of numbers,® even as 2, odd as 3, and even-odd as 6, and all ratios, whether of a number to its multiples or fractional, when a number is either increased or diminished by some part of itself. So too it contains all the analogies or progressions, the 21 arithmetical where each term in the series is greater
¢ For the Pythagorean origin of the term παντέλεια as applied to ten see note on De Abr. 244.
ὃ This does not seem to mean more than that all the pro- perties and mysteries of numbers must necessarily fall within the decimal system, for “round ten as a turning-point the unlimited series of numbers wheel and retrace their steps,” De Op. 47. ¢ 9. improper or proper fractions.
15
PHILO
ἰσαρίθμῳ ὑπερέχει Kal ὑπερέχεται, οἷον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἕν καὶ δύο καὶ τρία, καὶ τὴν γεωμετρικήν, καθ᾽ ἣν οἷος ὁ λόγος πρὸς τὸν πρῶτον τοῦ δευτέρου, τοιοῦ- τος καὶ ὁ πρὸς τὸν δεύτερον τοῦ τρίτου, ὡς ἔχει ἐπὶ τοῦ ἕν καὶ δύο καὶ τέσσαρα, ἔν τε διπλασίοις καὶ τριπλασίοις καὶ συνόλως πολυπλασίοις καὶ πάλιν ἐν ἡμιολίοις καὶ ἐπιτρίτοις καὶ τοῖς παρα- πλησίοις, ἔτι μέντοι καὶ τὴν ἁρμονικήν, καθ᾽ ἣν ὁ μέσος τῶν ἄκρων τῷ ἴσῳ μορίῳ ὑπερέχει τε καὶ ὑπερέχεται, ὡς ἔχει ἐπὶ τοῦ τρίτου καὶ τετάρτου
22 καὶ ἕκτου. περιέχει δὲ ἡ δεκὰς καὶ τὰς τῶν τριγώνων καὶ τετραγώνων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων πολυγώνων ἐμφαινομένας ἰδιότητας καὶ τὰς τῶν συμφωνιῶν, τήν τε διὰ τεσσάρων ἐν ἐπιτρίτῳ
[184] λόγῳ, τῷ τέσσαρα | πρὸς τρία, καὶ τὴν διὰ πέντε ἐν ἡμιολίῳ, τῷ “τρία πρὸς δύο, καὶ τὴν διὰ πασῶν ἐν διπλασίῳ, τῷ δύο πρὸς ἕν, καὶ τὴν δὶς διὰ πασῶν
28 ἐν τετραπλασίῳ, τῷ ὀκτὼ πρὸς δύο. παρό μοι δοκοῦσι καὶ οἱ πρῶτοι τὰ ὀνόματα τοῖς πράγμασι θέμενοι--σοφοὶ γὰρ ἦσαν--εἰκότως αὐτὴν προσ- αγορεῦσαι δεκάδα, ὡσανεὶ δεχάδα οὖσαν, παρὰ τὸ δέχεσθαι καὶ κεχωρηκέναι τὰ γένη πάντα τῶν ἀριθμῶν καὶ λόγων τῶν κατ᾽ ἀριθμὸν καὶ ἀνα- λογιῶν ἁρμονιῶν τε αὖ καὶ συμφωνιῶν.
24 VIL. τὴν μέντοι δεκάδα πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις καὶ διὰ ταῦτα εἰκότως av τις θαυμάσειε περιέχουσαν τήν τε ἀδιάστατον φύσιν καὶ τὴν διαστηματικήν᾽ ἡ μὲν οὖν ἀδιάστατος τάττεται κατὰ σημεῖον μόνον, ἡ δὲ διαστηματικὴ κατὰ τρεῖς ἰδέας γραμμῆς
25 καὶ ἐπιφανείας καὶ στερεοῦ" τὸ μὲν γὰρ δυσὶ σημείοις περατούμενόν ἐστι γραμμή, τὸ δ᾽ ἐπὶ δύο διαστατὸν ἐπιφάνεια, ῥυείσης ἐπὶ πλάτος
16
THE DECALOGUE, 21-25
than the one below and less than the one above by the same amount,? as for example 1 2 3; the geo- metrical where the ratio of the second to the first term is the same as that of the third to the second, as with 1 2 4, and this is seen whether the ratio is double or treble or any multiple, or again fractional as 3 to 2, 4 to 3, and the like ; once more the har- monic in which the middle term exceeds and is ex- ceeded by the extremes on either side by the same fraction, as is the case with 3, 4, 6.® Ten 22 also contains the properties observed in triangles, quadrilaterals and other polygons, and also those of the concords, the fourth, fifth, octave and double octave intervals, where the ratios are respectively 14, te. 4:3, 14, ἐ.6. 3:2, doubled, z.e. 2:1, fourfold, 1.6. 8:2. Consequently it seems to me that those 23 who first gave names to things did reasonably, wise men that they were, in giving it the name of decad, as being the dechad, or receiver, because it receives and has made room for every kind of number and numerical ratio and progressions and also concords and harmonies. VII. But indeed apart 24 from what has been said, the decad may reason- ably be admired because it embraces Nature as seen both with and without extension in space. Nature exists without extension nowhere except in the point ; with extension in three forms, line, surface, solid. For space as limited by two points is a line, but, 26 where there are two dimensions, we have a surface,
@ Lit. ‘‘ which exceeds and is exceeded by the same number.” See App. p. 609.
> See the more detailed explanation in De Op. 109, where the example given is that 6, 8, 12 are in harmonic progression because 8 exceeds 6 by 4 of 6, and is exceeded by 12 by 4 of 12. Here as often the ordinal is used for the cardinal.
VOL. VII Cc 17
PHILO
γραμμῆς, τὸ δ᾽ ἐπὶ τρία στερεόν, μήκους καὶ πλάτους βάθος προσλαβόντων, ἐφ᾽ ὧν ἵσταται ἡ φύσις" πλείους γὰρ τριῶν διαστάσεις οὐκ ἐγέννησεν. 26 ἀρχέτυποι δὲ τούτων ἀριθμοὶ τοῦ μὲν ἀδιαστάτου σημείου τὸ ἕν, τῆς δὲ γραμμῆς τὰ δύο, καὶ ἐπι- φανείας μὲν τρία, στερεοῦ δὲ “τέσσαρα, ὧν ἡ σύνθεσις ἑνὸς καὶ δυοῖν καὶ τριῶν καὶ τεσσάρων ἀποτελεῖ δεκάδα παραφαίΐνουσαν τοῖς ὁρατικοῖς 27 καὶ ἕτερα κάλλη" σχεδὸν γὰρ ἡ ἀπειρία τῶν ἀριθμῶν ταύτῃ μετρεῖται, διότι οἵ συστήσαντες αὐτὴν ὅροι πέσσαρές εἰσιν, ἕν καὶ δύο καὶ τρία καὶ τέτταρα, οἱ δ᾽ ἴσοι ὅροι ἑκατοντάδα γεννῶσιν ἐκ δεκάδων--δέκα γὰρ καὶ εἴκοσι καὶ τριάκοντα καὶ τεσσαράκοντα γίνονται éxaTov—, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ χιλιάδα ἐξ ἑκατοντάδων καὶ μυριάδα ἐκ χιλιάδων, μονὰς δὲ καὶ δεκὰς καὶ ἑκατοντὰς καὶ χιλιὰς 28 τέσσαρες ὅροι οἱ δεκάδα γεννῶντες" ἥτις δίχα τῶν nates εἰρημένων καὶ ἑτέρας ἀριθμῶν ἐμφαίνει διαφοράς, τόν τε πρῶτον κόσμον, ὃς μονάδι μόνῃ μετρεῖται, οὗ παράδειγμα ὁ τρεῖς, ὁ πέντε, ὁ ἑπτά, καὶ τὸν τετράγωνον, τὸν τέσσαρα, τὸν ἰσάκις ἴσον, καὶ μὲν δὴ τὸν κύβον, τὸν ὀκτώ, ὃς ἐστιν ἰσάκις ἴσος ἰσάκις, καὶ τὸν τέλειον, τὸν ἐξ, ἰσούμενον τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μέρεσι, τρισὶ καὶ δυσὶ καὶ ἑνί. VI. | τί δὲ δεῖ καταλέγεσθαι τὰς δεκάδος ἀρετὰς ἀπείρους τὸ πλῆθος, πάρεργον ποιουμένους ἔργον μέγιστον, ὃ καθ᾽ αὑτὸ συμβέβηκεν αὐταρκεστάτην εἶναι ὑπόθεσιν τοῖς περὶ τὰ μαθήματα διατρίβουσι;
[185] - 29
α This seems to be the meaning, though both 6 ὅροι and γεννάω are used in a different sense from what they have in the earlier part of the sentence, where the ὅροι generate by addition to each
18
THE DECALOGUE, 25-29
as the line has expanded into breadth ; where there are three, we have a solid, as length and breadth have acquired depth, and here Nature comes to a halt, for she has not produced more than three dimen- sions. All these have numbers for their archetypes, 26 1 for the non-extended point, 2 for the line, 3 for the surface, 4 for the solid, and these one, two, three, four added together make the ten which gives a glimpse of other beauties also to those who have eyes to see. For we may say that the infinite series 27 of numbers is measured by ten, because its constituent terms are the four, 1, 2, 3,4, and the same terms produce the hundred out of the tens, since 10, 20, 30, 40 make a hundred, and similarly the thousand is produced out of the hundreds and the ten thousand or myriad out of the thousands, and these, the unit, the ten, the hundred and the thousand are the four starting-points from each of which springs a ten.4 And again, this same ten, apart from what has already 28 been said, reveals other differences in numbers ; the order of prime numbers divisible by the unit alone having for its pattern three, five, seven: the square, that is four, the cube, eight, the products respectively of two and three equal numbers, and the perfect number six equal to the sum? of its factors 3, 2 and 1. VIII. But why enumerate the 29 virtues of Ten, which are infinite in number, and thus treat perfunctorily a task of supreme greatness which by itself is found to be an all-sufficing subject for
other. Presumably the pupids is not named as a new starting- point, because Greek has no special term for ten myriads or beyond.
ὃ Or perhaps “ both the product and sum,” ef. De Op. 13. But the essence of ‘‘ perfection ᾽᾽ lies in the sum, as exempli- fied by 28, cf. Mos. ii. 84 and note.
19
PHILO
Tas μὲν οὖν ἄλλας ὑπερθετέον, μιᾶς δ᾽ οὐκ ἄτοπον ἴσως ἐπιμνησθῆναι δείγματος é ἕνεκα.
80 τὰς γὰρ ἐν τῇ φύσει λεγομένας κατηγορίας δέκά
21
32
μόνας εἶναί φασιν ot ἐνδιατρίβοντες τοῖς τῆς ’ φιλοσοφίας δόγμασιν: οὐσίαν, ποιόν, ποσόν, πρός A / , A a Tl, ποιεῖν, πάσχειν, ἔχειν, κεῖσθαι, τὰ ὧν οὐκ , ἄνευ {πάνταδ, χρόνον καὶ τόπον. οὐδὲν γάρ ἐστι 4 3 @ τούτων ἀμέτοχον: οἷον ἐγὼ μετέχω μὲν οὐσίας Ul 3 4 “ δανεισάμενος ἀφ᾽ ἑκάστου τῶν στοιχείων, ἐξ ὧν 3 Ul Ψ e / ~ A 4 \ ἀπετελέσθη ὅδε ὁ κόσμος, γῆς Kal ὕδατος Kal 59 \ \ \ ἀέρος καὶ πυρός, TA πρὸς τὴν ἐμὴν σύστασιν avT- αρκέστατα' μετέχω δὲ καὶ ποιότητος, καθ᾽ ἣν 4 4 3 \ Ὁ ἄνθρωπός εἶμι, καὶ ποσότητος, ἧ πηλίκος" γίνομαι \ \ Ul A \ δὲ Kal πρός TL, ὅταν μου πρὸς δεξιοῖς τις ἢ πρὸς 4 > > \ \ A εὐωνύμοις H* ἀλλὰ Kal ποιῶ, τρίβων TL ἢ KElpwr,* \ 4 4 δ 4 3 / καὶ πάσχω, κειρόμενος ἢ τριβόμενος ὑφ᾽ ἑτέρων" 3 “A 3 ἐξ iC av β βλ 4 Ls! Kav τῷ exew ἐξετάζομαι, ἢ περιβεβλημένος ἢ ’ A A ὡπλισμένος, Kav τῷ κεῖσθαι, σχέδην" τι καθεζό- μενος ἣ κατακεκλιμένος" εἰμὶ δὲ πάντως κἂν τόπῳ καὶ χρόνῳ, τῶν προειρημένων οὐδενὸς δυναμένου χωρὶς ἀμφοῖν ὑφίστασθαι. \ \ Oy > v4 4 IX. Ταυτὶ μὲν οὖν ἀποχρώντως λελέχθω, συν- / 9 3 “ A 3 ’ὔ \ 4 υφαίνειν δ ἀναγκαῖον τὰ ἀκόλουθα. τοὺς δέκα λόγους ἢ χρησμούς, νόμους ἢ θεσμοὺς πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ὄντας, ἀθροισθέντος τοῦ ἔθνους ἀνδρῶν ὁμοῦ καὶ γυναικῶν εἰς ἐκκλησίαν, ὃ πατὴρ τῶν > σι 4 ὅλων ἐθέσπισεν. ἄρά ye φωνῆς τρόπον προέμενος 1 mss. καίων. Clearly it must correspond with the passive following. But Aristotle in Categ. has καίω and καίομαι as his examples. ? So Mangey with most mss.: Cohn σχεδόν with M. Though
the addition of τὸ may perhaps rather point to σχεδόν I do not see what it can mean here. σχέδην regarded as the
20
ν
THE DECALOGUE, 29-32
students of mathematics? But while we must leave unnoticed the rest, there is one which may without impropriety be mentioned as a sample. Those who study the doctrines of philosophy say 30 that the categories * in nature, as they are called, are ten only, substance, quality, quantity, relation, activity, passivity, state, position and the indis- pensables for all existence, time and place. There 31 is nothing which does not participate in these cate- gories. I have substance, for I have borrowed what is all-sufficient to make me what I am from each of the elements out of which this world was framed, earth, water, air and fire. I have quality in so far as I am a man, and quantity as being of a certain size. I become relative when anyone is on my right hand or my left, I am active when I rub or shave ὃ anything, or passive when I am rubbed or shaved. I am ina particular state when I wear clothing or arms and in a particular position when 1 sit quietly or am lying down, and I am necessarily both in place and time since none of the above conditions can exist without these two.
IX. These points have been sufficiently discussed 32 and may now be left. We must proceed to carry on the discussion to embrace what follows next. The ten words or oracles, in reality laws or statutes, were delivered by the Father of All when the nation, men and women alike, were assembled together. Did He do so by His own utterance in the form of a
@ On the categories see App. pp. 609-610.
δ Or “shear.”” κείρω seems to have been a favourite word
for exemplifying the force of the three voices. See note on De Cher. 79.
adverb of σχέσις, often used by Philo in contrast with κίνησις (see particularly De Sobr. 34), seems quite appropriate here.
21
33
[186]
35
36
PHILO
αὐτός; ἄπαγε, und εἰς νοῦν mor ἔλθοι τὸν ἡμέτερον" οὐ γὰρ ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὁ θεός, στόματος καὶ γλώττης καὶ ἀρτηριῶν δεόμενος. ἀλλά γέ μοι δοκεῖ κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον ἱ ἱεροπρεπέστατόν τι θαυματουργῆσαι κελεύσας ἦχον ἀόρατον ἐν ἀέρι ηἡμιουργηθῆναι, πάντων ὀργάνων θαυμασιώτερον, ἁρμονίαις τελείαις ἡρμοσμένον, οὐκ ἄψυχον ἀλλ’ οὐδ᾽ ἐκ σώματος καὶ ψυχῆς τρόπον ζῴου συνεστη- κότα," ἀλλὰ ψυχὴν λογικὴν ἀνάπλεων; σαφηνείας
\ a 4 καὶ τρανότητος, ἢ τὸν ἀέρα σχηματίσασα καὶ ἐπιτείνασα καὶ πρὸς πῦρ φλογοειδὲς μεταβαλοῦσα καθάπερ πνεῦμα διὰ σάλπιγγος ὠνὴν τοσαύτην ἔναρθρον ἐξήχησεν, ὡς τοῖς ἔγγιστα τοὺς πορρω- τάτω κατ ἴσον ἀκροᾶσθαι δοκεῖν. ἀνθρώπων μὲν γὰρ αἱ φωναὶ πρὸς μήκιστον ἀποτεινόμεναι πεφύκασιν ἐξασθενεῖν, ὡς ἀριδήλους τοῖς μακρὰν. ἀφεστηκόσι μὴ γίνεσθαι τὰς ἀντιλήψεις ταῖς ἐπεκτάσεσιν ἐκ τοῦ κατ᾽ ὀλίγον ἀμαυρουμένας, ἐπειδὴ καὶ τὰ ὄργανα φθαρτά: τὴν δὲ κεκαινουρ- γημένην φωνὴν ἐπιπνέουσα θεοῦ δύναμις ἤγειρε καὶ ἐζωπύρει καὶ ἀναχέουσα πάντῃ τὸ τέλος τῆς ἀρχῆς ἀπέφαινε τηλαυγέστερον, ἀκοὴν ἑτέραν πολὺ βελτίω τῆς δι᾽ ὦτων ταῖς ἑκάστων ψυχαῖς ἐντιθεῖσα" ἡ μὲν γὰρ βραδυτέρα πως οὖσα αἴσθησις ἀτρεμίζει, μέχρις ἂν ὑπ᾽ ἀέρος πληχθεῖσα διακινηθῇ, φθάνει δ᾽ ἡ τῆς ἐνθέου διανοίας ὀξυτάτῳ τάχει προ- ὑπαντῶσα τοῖς λεγομένοις.
Χ, Φωνῆς μὲν δὴ τῆς θείας πέρι τοσαῦτα. δεόντως δ᾽ ἂν τις ἀπορήσαι, τοῦ χάριν, πλείστων
1 MSS. συνεστηκὼς OF -ὸς OF -ότα. 2 Cohn prints ἀνάπλεω, which appears in one s., but I cannot discover any authority for this form of the acc.
22
THE DECALOGUE, 32-36
voice ? Surely not : may no such thought ever enter our minds, for God is not as a man needing mouth and tongue and windpipe. I should suppose that 33 God wrought on this occasion a miracle of a truly holy kind by bidding an invisible sound to be created in the air more marvellous than all instruments and fitted with perfect harmonies, not soulless, nor yet composed of body and soul like a living creature, but a rational soul full of clearness and distinctness, which giving shape and tension to the air and changing it to flaming fire, sounded forth like the breath through a trumpet an articulate voice so loud that it appeared to be equally audible to the farthest as well as the nearest. For it is the nature of men’s voices if 34 carried to a great distance to grow faint so that per- sons afar off have but an indistinct impression which gradually fades away with each lengthening of the extension, since the organism which produces them also is subject to decay.* But the new miraculous voice 35 was set in action and kept in flame by the power of God which breathed upon it and spread it abroad on every side and made it more illuminating in its ending than in its beginning by creating in the souls of each and all another kind of hearing far superior to the hearing of the ears. For that is but a sluggish sense, inactive until aroused by the impact of the air, but the hearing of the mind possessed by God makes the first advance and goes out to meet the spoken words with the keenest rapidity.
X. So much for the divine voice. But we may 36 properly ask why, when all these many thousands were
¢ Or perhaps ‘‘ just as musical instruments (and therefore the sounds which they make) are subject to decay.”
23
97
98
99
40
PHILO
3 ὅσων μυριάδων εἰς ἕν ἠθροισμένων χωρίον, ἕκαστον A A θεσπίζειν τῶν δέκα λογίων ἠξίωσεν ὡς οὐχὶ πρὸς
’ 3 > e A Φ cc 9 4 a) πλείους ἀλλ᾽ ws πρὸς ἕνα, “ οὐ μοιχεύσεις λέ 66 3 4 a) 66 9 λέ a) A A
éywv, “ οὐ φονεύσεις, οὐ κλέψεις ᾿᾿ καὶ τὰ ” 4 , iO Δ 4 4 4 ἄλλα ταύτῃ. λεκτέον οὖν ἕν μέν, ὅτι βούλεται 4 > , 4 \ 3 4 κάλλιστον ἀναδιδάξαι μάθημα τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας ταῖς ἱεραῖς γραφαῖς, ὡς apa καθ᾽ αὑτὸν εἷς ἕκαστος, ὅταν ἢ νόμιμος καὶ θεῷ καταπειθής, ¢ ἰσότιμός ἐστιν ὅλῳ ἔθνει πολυανθρωποτάτῳ, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ πᾶσιν ἔθνεσιν, εἰ δὲ δεῖ περαιτέρω προελθόντα εἰπεῖν, καὶ παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ. διόπερ ἐν ἑτέροις ἐπαινῶν
, ” ’ 4. 3 ’ 3 e \ 4 2) τινα δίκαιον ἄνδρα φησίν" “ ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ θεὸς σός ᾿᾿" ὁ δ᾽ αὐτὸς ἦν καὶ κόσμου θεός, ὡς τοὺς ὑπη- κόους τὴν αὐτὴν τεταγμένους τάξιν καὶ ὁμοίως εὐαρεστοῦντας τῷ ταξιάρχῳ τῆς ἴσης ἀποδοχῆς καὶ τιμῆς μεταλαμβάνειν.
EUTEPOV δέ, ὅτι “κοινῇ μὲν ὡς πλήθει τις ἐκ- κλησιάζων οὐκ. ἐξ ἀνάγκης διαλέγεται ἑνί, ὅτε δὲ προστάττων ἢ ἀπαγορεύων ἰδίᾳ ὡς ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ, τῶν ἐμφερομένων εὐθὺς ἂν δόξαι τὰ πρακτέα καὶ
~ “A 3 A κοινῇ πᾶσιν ἀθρόοις ὑφηγεῖσθαι: εὐπειθέστερος δὲ ὁ τὰς παραινέσεις αὐτοπροσώπως δεχόμενος, ὁ δὲ
A 9 e¢ 7 , A Ν᾿ συλλήβδην μεθ᾽ ἑτέρων κεκώφωται τὸν ὄχλον ἀφηνιασμοῦ παρακάλυμμα ποιούμενος.
Τρίτον, ἵνα μηδείς ποτε βασιλεὺς ἢ τύραννος > A 3 ’ Ξ 4 A > , ἀφανοῦς ἰδιώτου καταφρονήσῃ γεμισθεὶς ἀλαζονείας
α Gen. xvii. 1 xxx; E.V. “I am God Almighty.”
> | have punctuated and translated this sentence in the only way which seems to me possible, if the text is to stand, i.e. I have placed a comma after ἑκάστῳ instead of (as Cohn) after ἀπαγορεύων, and understand ἐκκλησιάζει ΟΥ διαλέγεται after ὅτε δὲ and take τῶν ἐμφερομένων as partitive after
24:
THE DECALOGUE, 36-40
collected in one spot, He thought good in proclaiming His ten oracles to address each not-as to several persons but as to one, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, and so too with the rest. One answer which must 37 be given is that He wishes to teach the readers of the sacred scriptures a most excellent lesson, namely that each single person, when he is law-abiding and obedient to God, is equal in worth to a whole nation, even the most populous, or rather to all nations, and if we may go still farther, even to the whole world. And therefore elsewhere, when He praises a certain 38 just man, He says, I am thy God,? though He was also the God of the world. And thus we see that all the rank and file who are posted in the same line and give a like satisfaction to their commander, have an equal share of approbation and honour.
A second reason is that a speaker who harangues 39 a multitude in general does not necessarily talk to any one person, whereas if he addresses his com- mands or prohibitions as though to each individual separately, the practical instructions given in the course of his speech are at once held to apply to the whole body in common also.® Ifthe exhortations are received as a personal message, the hearer is more ready to obey, but if collectively with others, he is deaf to them, since he takes the multitude as a cover for disobedience. |
A third reason is that He wills that no king or 40 despot swollen with arrogance and contempt should despise an insignificant private person but shouldstudy
πρακτέα = °° among the contents of his speech.”’ But it is ex- ceedingly awkward and some corruption is probable. For further discussion see App. p. 610.
25
[187]
4]
42
43
PHILO
καὶ ὑπεροψίας, ἀλλ᾽ εἰς τὰ τῶν ἱερῶν νόμων διδασκαλεῖα φοιτήσας | χαλάσῃ τὰς ὀφρῦς, ἀπο- μαθὼν οἴησιν εἰκότι μᾶλλον δ᾽ ἀληθεῖ λογισμῷ. εἰ γὰρ ὁ ἀγένητος καὶ ἄφθαρτος καὶ ἀΐδιος καὶ οὐδενὸς ἐπιδεὴς καὶ ποιητὴς τῶν ὅλων καὶ εὐ-- εργέτης καὶ βασιλεὺς βασιλέων καὶ θεὸς θεῶν οὐδὲ τὸν ταπεινότατον ὑπεριδεῖν ὑπέμεινεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτον εὐωχῆσαι λογίων καὶ θεσμῶν ἱερῶν ἠξίωσεν, ὡς μόνον ἑστιᾶν μέλλων καὶ μόνῳ τὸ συμπόσιον εὐτρεπίζεσθαι πρὸς ψυχῆς ἀνάχυσιν ἱεροφαντου- μένης, 4 έμις τὰς μεγάλας τελεῖσθαι τελετάς, ἐμοὶ τῷ θνητῷ τί προσῆκον ὑψαυχενεῖν καὶ πεφυ- σῆσθαι. φρυαττομένῳ πρὸς τοὺς ὁμοίους, οἱ τύχαις μὲν ἀνίσοις ἴση δὲ καὶ ὁμοίᾳ συγγενείᾳ κέχρηνται μίαν ἐπιγραψάμενοι μητέρα τὴν κοινὴν ἁπάντων ἀν ρώπων ύσιν; εὐπρόσιτον οὖν καὶ εὐέντευκτον ἐμαυτὸν παρέξω, κἂν τὸ τῆς γῆς καὶ τῆς θαλάττης κράτος ἀνάψωμαι, τοῖς ἀπορωτάτοις καὶ ἀδοξο- τάτοις καὶ οἰκειοτάτης συμμαχίας ἐρήμοις, ἕκα- τέρου τῶν γονέων ὀρφανοῖς καὶ γυναι L χηρείαν ὑπομενούσαις καὶ πρεσ ύταις ἢ μὴ παιδοποιη- σαμένοις τὸ παράπαν ἢ ἀποβαλοῦσιν ὠκυμόρους οὗς ἐγέννησαν. ἄνθρωπος γὰρ ὧν ὄγκον καὶ σεμνότητα τετραγῳδημένην οὐ δικαιώσω προσ- ίεσθαι, μενῶ δ᾽ ἐντὸς τῆς φύσεως τοὺς ὅρους αὐτῆς μὴ ὑπερβαίνων, ἀλλ᾽ ἐθίζων τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ διάνοιαν ἀνθρωποπαθεῖν, οὐ μόνον διὰ τὰς ἀδήλους πρὸς τἀναντία μεταβολὰς καὶ τῶν εὖ πραττόντων καὶ τῶν ἐν κακοπραγίαις, ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τὸ ἀρ- μόττειν, κἂν ἀτρέπτως καὶ βεβαίως παραμένῃ τὸ εὐτυχεῖν, μὴ ἐπιλανθάνεσθαί τινα ἑαυτοῦ.
26
THE DECALOGUE, 40-48
in the school of the divine laws and abate his super- cilious airs, and through the reasonableness or rather the assured truth of their arguments unlearn his self- conceit. For if the Uncreated, the Incorruptible, the 41 Eternal, Who needs nothing and is the maker of all, the Benefactor and King of kings and God of gods could not brook to despise even the humblest, but deigned to banquet him on holy oracles and statutes, as though he should be the sole guest, as though for him alone the feast was prepared to give good cheer to a soul instructed in the holy secrets and accepted for admission to the greatest mysteries, what right have I, the mortal, to bear myself proud- necked, puffed-up and loud-voiced, towards my fellows, who, though their fortunes be unequal, have equal rights of kinship because they can claim to be children of the one common mother of mankind, nature? So 42 then, though I be invested with the sovereignty of earth and sea, I will make myself affable and easy of access to the poorest, to the meanest, to the lonely who have none close at hand to help them, to orphans who have lost both parents, to wives on whom widow- hood has fallen, to old men either childless from the first or bereaved by the early death of those whom they begot. For as I am a man, IJ shall not deem it 43 right to adopt the lofty grandeur of the pompous stage, but make nature my home and not overstep her limits. I will inure my mind to have the feelings of a human being, not only because the lot both of the prosperous and the unfortunate may change to the reverse we know not when, but also because it is right that even if good fortune remains securely established, a man should not forget what he is.
27
PHILO
διὰ ταῦτά μοι δοκεῖ τοὺς χρησμοὺς ἑνικῶς ἀπο- τεινάμενος ὡς πρὸς ἕνα θεσπίζειν ἐθελῆσαι.
44 ΧΙ. Πάντα δ᾽ ὡς εἰκὸς τὰ περὶ τὸν τόπον ἐθαυματουργεῖτο, κτύποις βροντῶν μειζόνων ἢ ὥστε χωρεῖν ἀκοάς, ἀστραπῶν λάμψεσιν αὐγοει- δεστάταις, ἀοράτου σάλπιγγος ἠχῇ πρὸς μήκιστον ἀποτεινούσῃ, καθόδῳ νεφέλης, ἣ κίονος τρόπον τὴν μὲν βάσιν ἐπὶ γῆς ἠρήρειστο, τὸ δ᾽ ἄλλο σῶμα πρὸς αἰθέριον ὕψος ἀνέτεινε, πυρὸς οὐρανίου φορᾷ καπνῷ βαθεῖ τὰ ἐν κύκλῳ συσκιάζοντος" ἔδει γὰρ θεοῦ δυνάμεως ἀφικνουμένης μηδὲν τῶν τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν ἡσυχάζειν, ἀλλὰ πάντα πρὸς
[188] ὑ ὑπηρεσίαν συγκεκινῆσθαι. παρειστήκει δὲ ὁ
45 λεὼς ἁγνεύσας ὁμιλιῶν τῶν πρὸς γυναῖκας καὶ πασῶν ἡδονῶν ἔξω τῶν πρὸς τροφὰς ἀναγκαίων ἀποσχόμενος, λουτροῖς τε καὶ περιρραντηρίοις καθηράμενος ἐκ τριῶν ἡμερῶν, ἔτι καὶ τὰς ἐσθῆτας ἀποπλυνάμενος, ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα λευχείμων, ἀκρο- βατῶν καὶ ἀνωρθιακὼς τὰ ὦτα, Μωυσέως προ- δηλώσαντος εὐτρεπίζεσθαι πρὸς ἐκκλησίαν: ἔγνω γὰρ αὐτὴν ἐσομένην, ἡνίκα μόνος ἀνακληθεὶς
46 ἐχρησμῳδεῖτο. φωνὴ δ᾽ ἐκ μέσου τοῦ ῥυέντος ἀπ᾽ οὐρανοῦ “πυρὸς ἐξήχει καταπληκτικωτάτη, τῆς φλογὸς εἰς διάλεκτον ἀρθρουμένης τὴν συνήθη τοῖς ἀκροωμένοις, ἧ τὰ λεγόμενα οὕτως ἐναργῶς ἐτρανοῦτο, ὡς ὁρᾶν αὐτὰ μᾶλλον ἢ ἀκούειν δοκεῖν.
47 ἐγγυᾶται δέ μου τὸν λόγον ὁ νόμος, ἐν ᾧ γέγραπται: “πᾶς 6 λαὸς ἑώρα τὴν φωνήν ᾿᾿" ἐμφαντικώτατα'
4 For this and the next section see Ex. xx. 14-19. > So uxx, Ex. xix. 18, cf. De Mig. 47, Mos. ii. 213. 98
THE DECALOGUE, 43-47
Such was the reason, as it seems to me, why he willed to word the series of his oracles in the singular form, and delivers them as though to one alone.
XI.* It was natural that the place should be the 44 scene of all that was wonderful, claps of thunder louder than the ears could hold, flashes of lightning of surpassing brightness, the sound of an invisible trumpet reaching to the greatest distance, the de- scent of a cloud which like a pillar stood with its foot planted on the earth, while the rest of its body extended to the height of the upper air, the rush of heaven-sent fire which shrouded all around in dense smoke. For when the power of God arrives, needs must be that no part of the world should remain inactive, but all move together to do Him service. Near by stood the people. They had kept pure from 45 intercourse with women and abstained from all pleasures save those which are necessary for the sustenance of life. They had cleansed themselves with ablutions and lustrations for three days past, and moreover had washed their clothes. So in the whitest of raiment they stood on tiptoe with ears pricked up in obedience to the warning of Moses to prepare themselves for a congregation which he knew would be held from the oracular advice he received when he was summoned up by himself. Then from 46 the midst of the fire that streamed from heaven there sounded forth to their utter amazement a voice, for the flame became articulate speech in the language familiar to the audience, and so clearly and distinctly were the words formed by it that they seemed to see rather than hear them. What I say is vouched for 47 by the law in which it is written, “‘ All the people saw the voice,’ δ a phrase fraught with much meaning,
29
48
49
50
51
PHILO
A \ \ > / 3 \ S 4 τὴν μὲν yap ἀνθρώπων ἀκουστὴν εἶναι συμβέβηκεν, e \ \ e > A \ A \ 4 v4 id ὁρατὴν δὲ ws ἀληθῶς τὴν θεοῦ. διὰ τί; ὅτι ὅσα nN 4 ’ὔ 9 ¢/ ’ὔ 3 > > 0 Φ ἂν λέγῃ ὁ θεός, οὐ ῥήματά ἐστιν ἀλλ᾽ ἔργα, ἅπερ ὀφθαλμοὶ πρὸ ὦτων δικάζουσι. παγκάλως μέντοι καὶ θεοπρεπῶς εἴρηται ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς ἡ φωνὴ προέρχεσθαι: ἠκρίβωται γὰρ καὶ βεβασάνισται τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγια καθάπερ χρυσὸς πυρί. μηνύει δὲ \ A “- καὶ διὰ συμβόλου τι τοιοῦτον: ἐπειδὴ τοῦ πυρὸς τὸ μὲν φωτίζειν τὸ δὲ καίειν πέφυκεν, οἱ μὲν τοῖς χρησμοῖς ἀξιοῦντες εἶναι καταπειθεῖς ὡς ἐν ἀσκίῳ ωτὶ τὸν ἀεὶ χρόνον βιώσονται τοὺς νόμους αὐτοὺς ἀστέρας ἔχοντες ἐν ψυχῇ φωσφοροῦντας, ὅσοι δ᾽ > ἀφηνιασταί, Kaidpevor Kal κατακαιόμενοι δια- “- ς \ A ” 3 A “a \ τελοῦσιν ὑπὸ τῶν ἔνδον ἐπιθυμιῶν, at φλογὸς 4 A 3 ’ τρόπον πορθήσουσι τὸν σύμπαντα τῶν ἐχόντων ίον.
XII. “A μὲν οὖν ἀναγκαῖον ἦν προδηλῶσαι, a 9 3 4 39 9 9 \ \ ὋΣ 4 \ λό ταῦτ᾽ ἐστίν. ἐπ᾽ αὐτὰ δὲ ἤδη τρεπτέον τὰ λόγια καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν τούτοις ἐρευνητέον διάφορα. δέκα τοίνυν ὄντα διένειμεν εἰς δύο πεντάδας, ἃς
\ δυσὶ στήλαις ἐνεχάραξε, Kal ἡ μὲν προτέρα πεντὰς τὰ πρωτεῖα ἔλαχεν, ἡ δ᾽ ἑτέρα δευτερείων ἠξιοῦτο"
\ 9 > 4 \ A 3 4 e \ καλαὶ δ᾽ ἀμφότεραι καὶ βιωφελεῖς, εὐρείας ὁδοὺς καὶ λεωφόρους ἑνὶ τέλει περατουμένας ἀνα- στέλλουσαι πρὸς ἄπταιστον ψυχῆς ἐφιεμένης ἀεὶ τοῦ βελτίστου πορείαν. ἡ μὲν οὖν ἀμείνων πεντὰς τοιάδε ἢ ἦν" περὶ μοναρχίας, 7) μοναρχεῖται ὃ κόσμος" 4
a
“περὶ ξοάνων καὶ ἀγα μάτων καὶ συνόλως ἀφ-
[189]
ἱἰδρυμάτων χειροκμήτων" περὶ τοῦ μὴ λαμβάνειν ἐπὶ ματαίῳ θεοῦ πρόσρησιν" περὶ τοῦ τὴν ἱερὰν
ἑβδόμην ἄγειν ἱεροπρεπῶς" περὶ γονέων τιμῆς καὶ ἰδίᾳ ἑκατέρου καὶ ἀμφοτέρων κοινῇ" ws εἶναι τῆς
30
THE DECALOGUE, 47-51
for it is the case that the voice of men is audible, but the voice of God truly visible. Whyso? Because whatever God says is not words but deeds, which are judged by the eyes rather than the ears. Admirable 48 too, and worthy of the Godhead, is the saying that the voice proceeded from the fire, for the oracles of God have been refined and assayed as gold is by fire. And it conveys too, symbolically, some such meaning 49 as this: since it is the nature of fire both to give light and to burn, those who resolve to be obedient to the divine utterances will live for ever as in un- clouded light with the laws themselves as stars illuminating their souls, while all who are rebellious will continue to be burnt, aye and burnt to ashes, by their inward lusts, which like a flame will ravage the whole life of those in whom they dwell.
XII. Such are the points which required a pre- 50 liminary treatment. We must now turn to the oracles themselves and examine all the different matters with which they deal. We find that He divided the ten into two sets of five which He engraved on two _tables, and the first five obtained the first place, while the other was awarded the second. Both are ex- cellent and profitable for life; both open out broad highroads leading at the end to a single goal, roads along which a soul which ever desires the best can travel without stumbling. The superior set of five 51 treats of the following matters: the monarchical principle by which the world is governed: idols of stone and wood and images in general made by human hands: the sin of taking the name of God in vain: the reverent observance of the sacred seventh day as befits its holiness : the duty of honour- ing parents, each separately and both in common.
31
52
53
PHILO
μιᾶς γραφῆς τὴν μὲν ἀρχὴν θεὸν καὶ πατέρα καὶ ποιητὴν τοῦ παντός, τὸ δὲ τέλος γονεῖς, OL μιμού- μενοι τὴν ἐκείνου φύσιν γεννῶσι τοὺς ἐπὶ μέρους. ἡ δ᾽ ἑτέρα πεντὰς τὰς πάσας ἀπαγορεύσεις περιέχει" μοιχείας, φόνου, κλοπῆς, ψευδομαρτυριῶν, ἐπι- θυμιῶν.
᾿Επισκεπτέον δὲ μετὰ πάσης ἀκριβείας τῶν λογίων ἕκαστον μηδὲν πάρεργον αὐτῶν ποιου- μένους. ἀρχὴ δ᾽ ἀρίστη πάντων μὲν τῶν ὄντων θεός, ἀρετῶν δ᾽ εὐσέβεια" περὶ ὧν ἀναγκαιότατον πρῶτον διεξελθεῖν. πλάνος τις οὐ μικρὸς τὸ πλεῖστον τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος κατέσχηκε περὶ πράγματος, ὅπερ ἢ μόνον ἢ μάλιστα ἦν εἰκὸς ἀπλανέστατον ταῖς ἑκάστων διανοίαις ἐνιδρῦσθαι. ἐκτεθειώκασι γὰρ οἱ μὲν τὰς τέσσαρας ἀρχάς, γῆν καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ ἀέρα καὶ πῦρ, of δ᾽ ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους πλανήτας καὶ ἀπλανεῖς ἀστέρας, οἱ δὲ μόνον τὸν οὐρανόν, οἱ δὲ τὸν σύμπαντα κόσμον: τὸν δ᾽ ἀνωτάτω καὶ πρεσβύτατον, τὸν γεννητήν, τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς μεγαλοπόλεως, τὸν
στρατάρχην τῆς ἀηττήτου στρατιᾶς, τὸν κυβερνήτην,
Δ 9 A 4
OS OLKOVOLLEL σωτηρίως ἀεὶ τὰ συμπαντα, παρ- , 9
εκαλύψαντο ψευδωνύμους προσρήσεις ἐκείνοις ἐπι-
54 φημίσαντες ἑτέρας ἕτεροι. καλοῦσι γὰρ οἱ μὲν
A “A 4 A 4 \ \ τὴν γῆν Κόρην, Δήμητραν, IAovtwva, τὴν δὲ θάλατταν ἸΠοσειδῶνα, δαίμονας ἐναλίους ὑπάρχους αὐτῷ προσαναπλάττοντες καὶ θεραπείας ὁμίλους
’ 3 ’ \ A Ὁ \ \ μεγάλους ἀρρένων te Kat θηλειῶν, Ἥραν δὲ τὸν
9.9 A A “A Ὁ \ Ψ 9 , ἀέρα καὶ τὸ πῦρ “Ἥφαιστον καὶ ἥλιον ᾿Απόλλωνα
\ / v7 \ ς / 9 ’ καὶ σελήνην Αρτεμιν καὶ ἑωσφόρον ᾿Αφροδίτην 32
THE DECALOGUE, 51-54
Thus one set of enactments begins with God the Father and Maker of all, and ends with parents who copy His nature by begetting particular persons. The other set of five contains all the prohibitions, namely adultery, murder, theft, false witness, covetousness or lust.
We must examine with all care each of the pro- 52 nouncements, giving perfunctory treatment to none. The transcendent source of all that exists is God, as piety is the source of the virtues, and it is very necessary that these two should be first discussed.
A great delusion has taken hold of the larger part of mankind in regard to a fact which properly should be established beyond all question in every mind to the exclusion of, or at least above, all others. For some have deified the four elements, 53 earth, water, air and fire, others the sun, moon, planets ὦ and fixed stars, others again the heaven by itself, others the whole world. But the highest and the most august, the Begetter, the Ruler of the great World-city, the Commander-in-Chief of the invincible host, the Pilot who ever steers all things in safety, Him. they have hidden from sight by the misleading titles assigned to the objects of worship mentioned above. Different people give them different names: some 54 call the earth Koré or Demeter or Pluto, and the sea Poseidon, and invent marine deities subordinate to him and great companies of attendants, male and female. They call air Hera? and fire Hephaestus, the sun Apollo, the moon Artemis, the morning-star
* Greek ‘“‘the other planets,” the sun and moon being regarded as planets. > See App. p. 610.
VOL. VII D 33
PHILO
55 καὶ στίλβοντα Ἑρμῆν" καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀστέρων ἑκάστου τὰς ἐπωνυμίας ᾿μυθογράφοι' παρέδοσαν, οἵ πρὸς ἀπάτην ἀκοῆς εὖ ᾿τετεχνασμένα πλάσματα συνυφήναντες ἔδοξαν περὶ τὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων θέσιν
56 κεκομψεῦσθαι" τόν τε οὐρανὸν εἰς ἡμισφαίρια τῷ λόγῳ διχῇ διανείμαντες, τὸ μὲν ὑπὲρ γῆς. 70 ὑπὸ γῆς, Διοσκόρους ἐκάλεσαν τὸ περὶ THs ἑτερη- μέρου ζωῆς αὐτῶν προστερατευσάμενοι διήγημα.
57 τοῦ γὰρ οὐρανοῦ συνεχῶς καὶ ἀπαύστως ἀεὶ κύκλῳ περιπολοῦντος, ἀνάγκη τῶν ἡμισφαιρίων ἑκάτερον ἀντιμεθίστασθαι “παρ᾽ ἡμέραν ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω γινόμενον ὅσα τῷ δοκεῖν" ἄνω γὰρ καὶ κάτω “πρὸς ἀλήθειαν οὐδὲν ἐ ἐν σφαίρᾳ, πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἡμετέραν |
[190] σχέσιν αὐτὸ μόνον εἴωθε λέγεσθαι τὸ μὲν ὑπὲρ
58 κεφαλῆς ἄνω, κάτω δὲ τοὐναντίον. τῷ δὴ φιλοσοφεῖν ἀνόθως ἐγνωκότι καὶ ἀδόλου καὶ καθαρᾶς εὐσεβείας μεταποιουμένῳ κάλλιστον καὶ ὁσιώτατον ὑφηγεῖται παράγγελμα, μηδὲν τῶν τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν αὐτοκρατῆ θεὸν ὑπολαμβάνειν εἶναι" καὶ γὰρ γέγονε, γένεσις δὲ φθορᾶς ἀρχή, κἂν προνοίᾳ τοῦ πεποιηκότος ἀθανατίζηται, καὶ ἦν ποτε χρόνος, ὅτε οὐκ ἦν’ θεὸν δὲ πρότερον οὐκ ὄντα καὶ ἀπό τινος χρόνου γενόμενον καὶ μὴ διαιωνίζοντα
59 λέγειν οὐ θεμιτόν. XIII. ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἔνιοι περὶ τὰς κρίσεις ἀπονοίᾳ τοσαύτῃ κέχρηνται, ὡς οὐ μόνον τὰ εἰρημένα θεοὺς νομίζειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἕκαστον αὐτῶν μέγιστον καὶ πρῶτον θεόν, τὸν
1 mss. μυθογράφους or -οις.
¢ Or “sparkler,” ‘“ twinkler.’’ For these non-mythological names of the planets see Quis Rerum 224,
34
THE DECALOGUE, 55-59
Aphrodite and the glitterer * Hermes, and each of the 55 other stars have names handed down by the myth- makers, who have put together fables skilfully con- trived to deceive the hearers and thus won a reputa- tion for accomplishment in name-giving. So too in 56 accordance with the theory by which they divided the heaven into two hemispheres, one above the earth and one below it, they called them the Dioscuri and invented a further miraculous story of their living on alternate days.° For indeed as heaven is 57 always revolving ceaselessly and continuously round and round, each hemisphere must necessarily al- ternately change its position day by day and become upper or lower as it appears, though in reality there
is no upper or lower in a spherical figure, and it is merely in relation to our own position that we are accustomed to speak of what is above our heads as upper and the opposite to this as lower.
Now to one who is determined to follow a genuine 58 philosophy and make a pure and guileless piety his own, Moses gives this truly admirable and religious command that he should not suppose any of the parts of the universe to be the omnipotent God. For the world has become what it is, and its becom- ing is the beginning of its destruction, even though by the providence of God it be made immortal, and there was a time when it was not. But to speak of God as “ not being ᾿᾿ at some former time, or having “become ”’ at some particular time and not existing . for all eternity is profanity. XIII. But 59 there are some whose views are affected with such folly that they not only regard the said objects as gods but each of them severally as the greatest and
> Od. xi. 303. See App. p. 610. 35
PHILO
ὄντα ὄντως ἢ οὐκ εἰδότες ἀδιδάκτῳ TH φύσει 7) οὐ σπουδάζοντες μαθεῖν, ἕνεκα τοῦ μηδὲν ἔξω τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἀόρατον καὶ νοητὸν αἴτιον ὑπολαμβάνειν εἶναι, καίτοι σαφεστάτης ἐγγὺς παρακειμένης 60 πίστεως. ψυχῇ γὰρ ζῶντες καὶ βουλευόμενοι καὶ πάνθ᾽ ὅσα κατὰ τὸν ἀνθρώπινον βίον δρῶντες οὐδέποτε ψυχὴν ὀφθαλμοῖς σώματος ἴσχυσαν θεάσασθαι, καΐτοι φιλοτιμηθέντες ἂν πάσας φιλο- τιμίας, εἴ πὼς ἰδεῖν οἷόν τε ἦν τὸ ἄγαλμα τὸ πάντων ἱεροπρεπέστατον, ἀφ᾽ οὗ κατὰ μετάβασιν εἰκὸς ἦν ἔννοιαν τοῦ ἀγενήτου καὶ ἀιδίου λαβεῖν, ὃς ἅπαντα τὸν κόσμον ἡνιοχῶν σωτηρίως ἀόρατος 61 ὧν κατευθύνει. καθάπερ οὖν τοῦ μεγάλου βασιλέως τὰς τιμὰς εἴ τις τοῖς ὑπάρχοις σατράπαις a ἀπένειμεν, ἔδοξεν ἂν οὐκ ἀγνωμονέστατος μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ῥιψοκινδυνότατος εἷναι χαριζόμενος τὰ δεσπότου δούλοις, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον [ἂν] τοῖς αὐτοῖς εἴ τις γεραίρει τὸν πεποιηκότα τοῖς γεγονόσιν, ἴστω πάντων ἀβουλότατος ὧν καὶ ἀδικώτατος, ἴσα διδοὺς ἀνίσοις οὐκ ἐπὶ τιμῇ τῶν ταπεινοτέρων ἀλλ᾽ 62 ἐπὶ καθαιρέσει τοῦ κρείττονος. εἰσὶ δ᾽ ol καὶ προσυπερβάλλουσιν ἀσεβείᾳ μηδὲ τὸ ἴσὸν ἀποδιδόντες, ἀλλὰ τοῖς μὲν τὰ πάντα τῶν ἐπὶ τιμῇ χαριζόμενοι, τῷ δ᾽ οὐδὲν νέμοντες ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ μνήμην, τὸ κοινότατον' ἐπιλήθονται γὰρ οὗ μόνον [191] μεμνῆσθαι. προσῆκον ἦν, | ἐπιτηδεύοντες ot βαρυ- 68 δαίμονες ἑκούσιον λήθην. ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ στομάργῳ κατεχόμενοι λύττῃ τὰ δείγματα τῆς ἐνιδρυμένης ἀσεβείας εἰς μέσον προφέροντες βλασφημεῖν ἐπι-
α So, I think, rather than as Mangey “ utique solius”’ Treitel ‘‘ ausschliesslich,’”? which would rather be μόνου.
36 ἢ
THE DECALOGUE, 59-63
primal God. Incapacity for instruction or indifference to learning prevents them from knowing the truly Existent because they suppose that there is no in- visible and conceptual cause outside what the senses perceive, though the clearest possible proof lies ready at their hand. For while it is with the soul that they 60 live and plan and carry out all the affairs of human life, they can never see the soul with the eyes of the body, though every feeling of ambition might well have been aroused in the hope of seeing that most august of all sacred objects, the natural stepping- stone to the conception of the Uncreated and Eternal, the invisible Charioteer who guides in safety the whole universe. So just as anyone who rendered 61 to the subordinate satraps the honours due to the Great King would have seemed to reach the height not only of unwisdom but of foolhardiness, by be- stowing on servants what belonged to their master, in the same way anyone who pays the same tribute to the creatures as to their Maker may be assured that he is the most senseless and unjust of men in that he gives equal measure to those who are not equal, though he does not thereby honour the meaner many but deposes the one superior. And there are some who in a further 62 excess of impiety do not even give this equal payment, but bestow on those others all that can tend to honour, while to Him they refuse even the commonest of all tributes, that of remembering Him. Whom duty bids them remember, if nothing more,* Him they forget, a forgetfulness deliberately practised to their lasting misery. Some again, seized 63 with a loud-mouthed frenzy, publish abroad samples of their deep-seated impiety and attempt to blas-
37
64
65
66
PHILO
χειροῦσι τὸ θεῖον, ἀκονησάμενοι κακήγορον γλῶτ- ταν, ἅμα καὶ λυπεῖν ἐθέλοντες τοὺς εὐσεβοῦντας, οἷς ἄλεκτον καὶ ἀπαρηγόρητον εὐθὺς εἰσδύεται πένθος τὴν ὅλην πυρπολοῦν ψυχὴν δι’ ὦτων' ἡ γὰρ τῶν ἀνοσίων ἐλέπολις τοῦτ᾽ ἐστίν, ᾧ “μόνῳ τοὺς φιλοθέους ἐπιστομίζουσι νομίζοντας ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ παροξύνειν ἐν τῷ παρόντι κάλλιστον ἡσυχίαν. XIV. πᾶσαν οὖν τὴν τοιαύτην τερθρείαν ἀπωσά- μενοι τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς φύσει μὴ προσκυνῶμεν, εἰ καὶ καθαρωτέρας καὶ ἀθανατωτέρας οὐσίας ἔλαχον --ἀδελφὰ δ᾽ ἀλλήλων τὰ γενόμενα καθὸ γέγονεν, ἐπεὶ καὶ πατὴρ ἁπάντων εἷς ὁ ποιητὴς τῶν ὅλων ἐστίν,--ἀλλὰ καὶ διανοίᾳ καὶ λόγῳ καὶ πάσῃ δυνάμει τῇ τοῦ ἀγενήτου καὶ ἀιδίου καὶ τῶν ὅλων αἰτίου θεραπείᾳ σφόδρα εὐτόνως καὶ ἐρρωμένως ἐπαποδυώμεξ α, μὴ ὑποκατακλινόμενοι μηδ᾽ ὑπ- είκοντες ταῖς τῶν πολλῶν ἀρεσκείαις, ὑφ᾽ ὧν καὶ οἵ δυνάμενοι σῴζεσθαι διαφθείρονται. πρῶτον. μὲν οὖν παράγγελμα καὶ παραγγελμάτων ἱερώ- τατον στηλιτεύσωμεν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, ἕνα τὸν a ἀνωτάτω νομίζειν τε καὶ τιμᾶν θεόν: δόξα δ᾽ ἡ πολύθεος μηδ᾽ ὦτων ψαυέτω καθαρῶς καὶ ἀδόλως ἀνδρὸς εἰωθότος ζητεῖν ἀλήθειαν.
᾿Αλλ’ ὅσοι μὲν ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης καὶ τοῦ σύμπαντος οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ κόσμου καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὁλοσχερε- στάτων μερῶν ὡς θεῶν ΄πρόπολοί - τε καὶ Gepamevrat, διαμαρτάνουσι μὲν--πῶς γὰρ οὔ;--τοὺς ὑπηκόους πρὸ τοῦ ἄρχοντος᾽ ᾿ ἀποσεμνύνοντες, ἧττον δὲ τῶν ἄλλων ἀδικοῦσι τῶν ξύλα καὶ λίθους ἀργυρόν τε
¢ Mangey strangely says that the brothers are the angels. But clearly they are the heavenly bodies, which are “ souls divine and without blemish throughout’”’ (De Gig. 8, where
38
THE DECALOGUE, 63-66
pheme the Godhead, and when they whet the edge of their evil-speaking tongue they do so in the wish to grieve the pious who feel at once the inroad of a sorrow indescribable and inconsolable, which passing through the ears wastes as with fire the whole soul. For this is the battery of the unholy, and is in itself enough to curb the mouths of the devout who hold that silence is best for the time being to avoid giving
provocation. XIV. Let us then reject all such im- 64
posture and refrain from worshipping those who by nature are our brothers,* even though they have been given a substance purer and more immortal than ours, for created things, in so far as they are created, are brothers, since they have all one Father, the Maker of the universe. Let us instead in mind and speech and every faculty gird ourselves up with vigour and activity to do the service of the Uncreated, the Eternal, the Cause of all, not submitting nor abasing ourselves to do the pleasure of the many who work the destruction even of those who might be saved. Let us, then, engrave deep in our hearts this as the first and most sacred of commandments, to acknow- ledge and honour one God Who is above all, and let the idea that gods are many never even reach the ears of the man whose rule of life is to seek for truth in purity and guilelessness.
ὑ But while all who give worship and service to sun and moon and the whole heaven and universe or their chief parts as gods most undoubtedly err by magnifying the subjects above the ruler, their offence is less than that of the others who have given shape to stocks
see note), though elsewhere, as in De Op. 144, admitted to have bodies. Philo always, I think, distinguishes them from angels.
> Here begins the Second Commandment.
39
65
66
67 [192]
68
69
70
PHILO
καὶ χρυσὸν Kal τὰς παραπλησίους ὕλας μορφω- σάντων ὡς φίλον ἑκάστοις, εἶτ ἀγαλμάτων καὶ oy καὶ τῶν ἄλλων χειροκμήτων, ὧν πλαστικὴ i ζωγραφία δημιουργοὶ μεγάλα ἔβλαψαν τὸν βίον τὸν ἀνθρώπινον, καταπλησάντων τὴν οἰκου- μένην. τὸ γὰρ κάλλιστον ἔρεισμα τῆς | ψυχῆς ἐξέκοψαν, τὴν περὶ τοῦ ζῶντος ἀεὶ θεοῦ προσ- ἤκουσαν ὑπόληψιν, ὥσπερ τε ἀνερμάτιστα σκάφη σαλεύουσιν ὧδε κἀκεῖσε διαφερόμενοι τὸν αἰῶνα, μηδέποτ᾽ εἰς λιμένα κατᾶραι μηδ᾽ ἐνορμίσασθαι βεβαίως ἀληθείᾳ δυνάμενοι, τυφλώττοντες περὶ τὸ θέας ἄξιον, πρὸς ὃ μόνον ὀξυδορκεῖν ἀναγκαῖον ἦν. καί μοι δοκοῦσι τῶν τὰς τοῦ σώματος ὄψεις πεπηρωμένων ἀθλιώτερον ζῆν: ἐκεῖνοι μὲν γὰρ ἀκουσίως ἐβλάβησαν ἢ νόσον ὀφθαλμῶν χαλεπὴν ὑποστάντες ἢ πρὸς ἐχθρῶν ἐπιβουλευθέντες, οἱ ὃ ἑκουσίῳ γνώμῃ τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμμα οὐκ ἠμαύρωσαν μόνον ᾿ἀλλὰ καὶ παντελῶς ἀποβα εἶν ἠξίωσαν. ὅθεν τοῖς μὲν ἔλεος ὡς ἠτυχηκόσι, τοῖς δὲ κόλασις ὡς μοχθηροῖς ἕπεται δικαίως, ot μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων οὐδὲ τὸ προχειρότατον ἐνενόησαν, ὃ καὶ παῖς “ ἔγνω νήπιος,᾽᾽ ὅτι τοῦ τεχνιτευθέντος 6 τεχνίτης ἀμείνων, καὶ χρόνῳ---πρεσβύτερος γὰρ καὶ τρόπον τινὰ τοῦ δημιουργηθέντος πατήρ---καὶ δυνάμει" τὸ γὰρ δρῶν τοῦ πάσχοντος ἐπικυδέστερον. καὶ δέον, εἴπερ ἄρα ἐξημάρτανον, τοὺς ζωγράφους αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀνδριαντοποιοὺς ὑπερβολαῖς τιμῶν ἐκτεθειωκέναι, τοὺς μὲν εἴασαν ἀφανεῖς οὐδὲν πλέον παρασχόντες, τὰ δ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνων δημιουρ-
“ΟἹ Iliad, xvii. 32, and Hesiod, Op. 218 παθὼν δέ τε νήπιος ἔγνω, quoted as a proverb Plato, Symp. 222 8,
40
THE DECALOGUE, 66-70
and stones and silver and gold and similar materials each according to their fancy and then filled the habitable world with images and wooden figures and the other works of human hands fashioned by the craftsmanship of painting and sculpture, arts which have wrought great mischief in the life of mankind. For these idolaters cut away the most excellent 67 support of the soul, the rightful conception of the Ever-living God. Like boats without ballast they are for ever tossed and carried about hither and thither, never able to come to harbour or to rest securely in the roadstead of truth, blind to the one thing worthy of contemplation, which alone demands keen-sighted vision. To my mind they live a more miserable life 68 than those who have lost the sight of the body, for those have been disabled through no wish of their own but either through suffering from some grievous disease of the eyes or through the malice of their enemies, but these others have of deliberate purpose not only dimmed but without scruple cast away en- tirely the eye of the soul. And therefore pity for 69 their misfortune waits upon the former, punishment for their depravity quite justly on the latter. In their general ignorance they have failed to perceive even that most obvious truth which even “ a witless infant knows, ὦ that the craftsman is superior to the product of his craft both in time, since he is older than what he makes and in a sense its father, and in value, since the efficient element is held in higher esteem than the passive effect. And while if they 70 were consistent in their sin, they should have deified the sculptors and painters themselves and given them honours on a magnificent scale, they leave them in obscurity and bestow no favour on them, while they
41
PHILO
γηθέντα πλάσματα Kat ζωγραφήματα θεοὺς ἐνό- 71 μισαν. καὶ οἱ μὲν τεχνῖται πολλάκις ἄποροι καὶ ἄδοξοι κατεγήρασαν ἀτυχίαις ἐπαλλήλοις ἐναπο- θανόντες, τὰ δὲ τεχνιτευθέντα πορφύρᾳ καὶ χρυσῷ καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις πολυτελείαις, ἃς πλοῦτος χορηγεῖ, σεμνοποιεῖται καὶ θεραπεύεται, οὐ πρὸς ἐλευθέρων μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐπατριδῶν καὶ τὸ σῶμα καλλίστων: ἱερέων γὰρ καὶ τὸ γένος ἐξετάζεται μετὰ πάσης ἀκριβείας, εἰ ἀνεπίληπτον, καὶ ἡ κοινωνία τῶν τοῦ σώματος μερῶν, εἰ σύμπασα 72 ὁλόκληρος. καὶ οὔπω τοῦτο δεινόν, καίτοι δεινὸν ὄν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνο παγχάλεπον: ἤδη γάρ τινας οἷδα τῶν πεποιηκότων τοῖς πρὸς ἑαυτῶν γεγονόσιν εὐχομένους τε καὶ θύοντας, οἷς πολὺ βέλτιον ἦν ἑκατέραν τῶν χειρῶν προσκυνεῖν, εἰ δὲ μὴ βούλοιντο δόξαν φιλαυτίας ἐκτρεπόμενοι, σφύρας γοῦν καὶ ἄκμονας καὶ γραφίδας καὶ καρκίνους καὶ 73 τὰ ἄλλα ἐργαλεῖα, δι᾽ ὧν ἐμορφώθησαν αἱ ὗλαι. [198] XV- | kairo πρὸς τοὺς οὕτως ἀπονοηθέντας ἄξιον παρρησιασαμένους εἰπεῖν" εὐχῶν ἀρίστην εἶναι συμβέβηκεν, ὦ γενναῖοι, καὶ τέλος εὐδαιμονίας τὴν Π4 πρὸς θεὸν ἐξομοίωσιν. εὔχεσθε οὖν καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐξομοιωθῆναι τοῖς ἀφιδρύμασιν, ἵνα τὴν ἀνωτάτω καρπώσησθε εὐδαιμονίαν, ὀφθαλμοῖς μὴ βλέποντες, ὠσὶ μὴ ἀκούοντες, μυκτῆρσι μήτε ἀναπνέοντες μήτε ὀσφραινόμενοι, στόματι μὴ φωνοῦντες μηδὲ γευόμενοι, χερσὶ μήτε αμβάνοντες μήτε διδόντες μήτε δρῶντες, ποσὶ μὴ βαδίζοντες, μηδ᾽ ἄλλῳ τινὶ τῶν μερῶν ἐνεργοῦντες, ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ ἐν εἱρκτῇ τῷ ἱερῷ φρουρούμενοι καὶ φυλαττόμενοι, pel ἡμέραν τε καὶ νύκτωρ τὸν ἀπὸ τῶν θυομένων ἀεὶ καπνὸν
42
THE DECALOGUE, 70-74
regard as gods the figures and pictures made by their workmanship. The artists have often grown 71 old in poverty and disesteem, and mishap after mis- hap has accompanied them to the grave, while the works of their art are glorified by the addition of purple and gold and silver and the other costly em- bellishments which wealth supplies, and are served not merely by ordinary freemen but by men of high birth and great bodily comeliness. For the birth of priests is made a matter for the most careful scrutiny to see whether it is unexceptionable, and the several parts which unite to form the body whether they make a perfect whole. Horrible as all 72 this is, we have not reached the true horror. The worst is still to come. We have known some of the image-makers offer prayers and sacrifices to their own creations though they would have done much better to worship each of their two hands, or if they were disinclined for that because they shrank from» appearing egotistical, to pay their homage to the hammers and anvils and pencils and pincers and the other tools by which their materials were shaped. XV. Surely to persons so demented we might well say 73 boldly, “΄ Good sirs, the best of prayers and the goal of happiness is to become like God. Pray you there- 74 fore that you may be made like your images and thus enjoy supreme happiness with eyes that see not, ears that hear not, nostrils which neither breathe nor smell, mouths that never taste nor speak, hands that neither give nor take nor do anything at all, feet that walk not, with no activity in any parts of your bodies, but kept under watch and ward in your temple-prison day and night, ever drinking in the smoke of the
@ Philo clearly has in mind Ps. exv. 5-8; ef. Spec. Leg. ii. 256. 43
PHILO
~ a A ’ὔ ~ ? 9 : OTTWVTES* EV yap μονον TOUT ἀγαθὸν προσανα-
75 πλάττετε τοῖς ἀφιδρύμασιν. ἀλλ᾽ ἔγωγε νομίζω
76
~ > aA ταῦτα ἀκούοντας οὐχ ὡς ἐπ᾽ εὐχαῖς ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἐπὶ Ul > 4 κατάραις ἀγανακτήσειν καὶ τρέψεσθαι' πρὸς λοιδο- ’ὔ ” > ~ plas auvvav ἀντικατηγοροῦντας: ὃ μέγιστον ἂν 3 4 “- 9 εἴη τεκμήριον τῆς ἐπιπολαζούσης ἀσεβείας ἀνθρώ- Ἁ 7 “a πων θεοὺς νομιζόντων, οἷς ὅμοιοί ποτε Tas φύσεις > 4 9 a“ ’ὔἢ A > ~ ἀπεύξαιντ᾽ ἂν γενέσθαι. XVI. μηδεὶς οὖν τῶν > / \ > 4 \ ἐχόντων ψυχὴν ἀψύχῳ τινὶ προσκυνείτω: πάνυ \ ~ > 4 yap τῶν ἀτόπων ἐστὶ τὰ φύσεως ἔργα πρὸς θερα- ’ὔ 4 “- πείαν τετράφθαι τῶν χειροκμήτων. > 4 9 Αἰγυπτίοις" δ᾽ οὐ μόνον τὸ κοινὸν ἔγκλημα χώρας e 4 1AAG A @ 9 ’ὔ 3 4 4 ἁπάσης, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἕτερον ἐξαίρετον ἐπάγεται δεόν- A \ , \ \ ~ τως" πρὸς yap Eodvois καὶ ἀγάλμασιν ἔτι καὶ ζῷα »» 4 3 ~ 4 \ ἄλογα παραγηόχασιν εἰς θεῶν τιμάς, ταύρους Kal \ A 4 3,39 ¢ 4 ,ὔ 4 κριοὺς Kal τράγους, ἐφ᾽ ἑκάστῳ μυθικόν τι πλάσμα
, \ A \ Y ” \ 77 TETEPATEVMEVOL. Καὶ ταῦτα μεν ἴσως EXEL τινα
4 e , \ \ 9 ’ ~ 4 λόγον, ἡμερώτατα yap Kal ὠφελιμώτατα TH βίῳ" ἀροτὴρ ὁ βοὺς αὔλακας ἀνατέμνει καιρῷ σπορᾶς, ἀλοῆσαι πάλιν, ὅταν δέῃ τὸν καρπὸν καθαίρεσθαι,
“- 4 δυνατώτατος" 6 κριὸς TO κάλλιστον τῶν σκεπασμά- των, ἐσθῆτα, παρέχει" γυμνὰ γὰρ ἂν τὰ σώματα διεφθεί αδί ἢ διὰ θάλ ἡ διὰ κρύο
ιεφθείρετο ῥᾳδίως, ἢ διὰ θάλπος ἢ pvos | ” \ \ A > 4? ἐκ, A \ ἄμετρον, τοτὲ μὲν τῷ ἀφ᾽ ἡλίου φλογμῷ, τοτὲ
A “A > 9 5.3 4 \ de 78 δὲ TH am ἀέρος περιψύξει. νυνὶ δὲ προσυπερ-
1 mss. τρέψασθαι.
2 So Cohn from the αἰγυπτίων of some authorities. The αἰγύπτω of the majority agrees well with χώρας, though not so well with the plurals which follow.
4 Rather a strange phrase for mankind, but justified by 44
THE DECALOGUE, 74-78
victims. For this is the one good which you imagine your idols to enjoy.” As a matter of fact 1 expect 75 that such advice would be received with indignation as savouring of imprecations rather than of prayers and would call forth abusive repudiations and retorts, and this would be the strongest proof of the wide extent of impiety shown by men who acknowledge gods of such a nature that they would abominate the idea of resembling them. XVI. Letno one,then, who 76 has a soul worship a soulless thing, for it is utterly preposterous that the works of nature 5 should turn aside to do service to what human hands have wrought. But the Egyptians are rightly charged not only on the count to which every country is liable, but also on another peculiar to themselves. For in addition to wooden and other images, they have advanced to divine honours irrational animals,? bulls and rams and goats, and invented for each some fabulous legend of wonder. And with these perhaps 77 there might be some reason, for they are thoroughly domesticated and useful for our livelihood. The ox is a plougher and opens up furrows at seed-time and again is a very capable thresher when the corn has to be purged ; the ram provides the best possible shelter, namely, clothing, for if our bodies were naked they would easily perish, either through heat or through intense cold, in the first case under the scorching of the sun, in the latter through the re- frigeration caused by the air. But actually the 78 Egyptians have gone to a further excess and chosen
the antithesis to χειρόκμητα. Possibly our “ brethren,” the stars, which would also have to worship the images, if they were worthy of worship, are included.
ὃ For other references to Egyptian animal worship see App. pp. 610-611.
45
PHILO
βάλλοντες καὶ τῶν ἀνημέρων τὰ ἀγριώτατα Kal ἀτιθασώτατα, λέοντας καὶ κροκοδείλους καὶ ἐρ- πετῶν τὴν ἰοβόλον ἀσπίδα, γεραίρουσιν ἱεροῖς καὶ τεμένεσι θυσίαις τε καὶ πανηγύρεσι καὶ πομπαῖς καὶ τοῖς παραπλησίοις: ἀφ᾽ ἑκατέρου γὰρ τῶν εἰς [194] χρῆσιν δοθέντων ἀνθρώποις ὑπὸ θεοῦ, γῆς καὶ ὕδατος, διερευνησάμενοι τὰ ἀγριώτατα οὔτε <TaV) χερσαίων λέοντος θηριωδέστερον ἀνεῦρον οὔτε κροκοδείλου τῶν ἐνύδρων ἀγριώτερον, ἃ σέβουσι 79 καὶ τιμῶσι. πολλὰ μέντοι καὶ ἄλλα ζῷα, κύνας, αἰλούρους, λύκους, καὶ πτηνὰ ἴβιδας καὶ ἱέρακας, καὶ πάλιν ἰχθύων ἢ ὅλα τὰ σώματα ἣ μέρη τούτων ἐκτεθειώκασιν" ὧν τί ἂν γένοιτο καταγελαστότερον; 80 καὶ δὴ τῶν ξένων ot πρῶτον εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἀφικό- μενοι, πρὶν τὸν ἐγχώριον τῦφον εἰσοικίσασθαι ταῖς διανοίαις, ἐκθνήσκουσι χλευάζοντες: ὅσοι δὲ παι- δείας ὀρθῆς ἐγεύσαντο, τὴν ἐπ᾽ ἀσέμνοις πράγμασι σεμνοποιίαν καταπλαγέντες οἰκτίζονται τοὺς χρω- μένους, ἀθλιωτέρους, ὅπερ εἰκός, ὑπολαμβάνοντες εἶναι τῶν τιμωμένων, μεταβεβληκότας εἰς ἐκεῖνα τὰς ψυχάς, ὡς ἀνθρωποειδῆ θηρία περινοστεῖν 81 δοκεῖν. ἀνελὼν οὖν ἐκ τῆς ἱερᾶς νομο- θεσίας πᾶσαν τὴν τοιαύτην ἐκθέωσιν ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ. πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ὄντος θεοῦ τιμὴν ἐκάλεσεν, ἑαυτοῦ τιμῆς οὐ προσδεόμενος--οὐ γὰρ ἑτέρου χρεῖος ἦν ὁ αὐταρκέστατος ἑαυτῷ---, βουλόμενος δὲ τὸ γένος τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀνοδίαις πλαζόμενον εἰς ἀπλανε- στάτην ἄγειν ὁδόν, ἵν᾽ ἑπόμενον τῇ φύσει τὸ ἄριστον εὕρηται τέλος, ἐπιστήμην τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος, ὅς ἐστι τὸ πρῶτον ἀγαθὸν καὶ τελεώτατον, ἀφ᾽ οὗ τρόπον 46
THE DECALOGUE, 78-81
the fiercest and most savage of wild animals, lions and crocodiles and among reptiles the venomous asp, all of which they dignify with temples, sacred precincts, sacrifices, assemblies, processions and the like. For after ransacking the two elements given by God to man for his use, earth and water, to find their fiercest occupants, they found on land no creature more savage than the lion nor in water than the crocodile and these they reverence and honour. Many other 79 animals too they have deified, dogs, cats, wolves and among the birds, ibises and hawks; fishes too, either their whole bodies or particular parts. What could be more ridiculous than all this? Indeed strangers on their first arrival in Egypt 80 before the vanity of the land has gained a lodge- ment in their minds are like to die with laughing at it, while anyone who knows the flavour of right instruction, horrified at this veneration of things so much the reverse of venerable, pities those who render it and regards them with good reason as more miserable than the creatures they honour, as men with souls transformed into the nature of those creatures, so that as they pass before him, they seem beasts in human shape. So 81 then He gave no place in His sacred code of laws to all such setting up of other gods, and called upon men to honour Him that truly is, not because He needed that honour should be paid to Him, for He that is all-sufficient to Himself needs nothing else, but because He wished to lead the human race, wandering in pathless wilds, to the road from which none can stray, so that following nature they might win the best of goals, knowledge of Him that truly 1s, Who is the primal and most perfect good, from
47
PHILO
πηγῆς ἄρδεται τῷ κόσμῳ καὶ τοῖς ἐν αὐτῷ τὰ ἐπὶ μέρους ἀγαθά.
82 XVIT. Διειλεγμένοι καὶ περὶ τῆς ΓΝ παρ- αἰνέσεως ὅσα οἷόν τε ἦν, τὴν ἑπομένην κατὰ τὸ ἑξῆς ἀκριβώσωμεν' ἔστι δὲ μὴ λαμβάνειν ὄνομα θεοῦ ἐπὶ ματαίῳ. τὰ μὲν οὖν τῆς τάξεως γνώριμα τοῖς τὴν διάνοιαν ὀξυδορκοῦσιν: ὄνομα γὰρ ἀεὶ δεύτερον ὑποκειμένου πράγματος, σκιᾷ παραπλήσιον, ἣ παρ-
88 ἔπεται σώματι. προειπὼν οὖν περὶ τῆς ὑπάρξεως καὶ τιμῆς τοῦ ἀεὶ ὑπάρχοντος, ἑπομένως τῷ τῆς ἀκολουθίας εἱρμῷ τὰ πρέποντα καὶ περὶ τῆς κλήσεως εὐθὺς παρήγγειλε: πολύτροποι γὰρ καὶ πολυειδεῖς αἷ περὶ τοῦτο τὸ μέρος τῶν ἀνθρώπων
84 ἁμαρτίαι. κάλλιστον δὴ καὶ βιωφελέ- στατον καὶ ἁρμόττον λογικῇ φύσει τὸ ἀνώμοτον,
[196] οὕτως | ἀληθεύειν ἐφ᾽ ἑκάστου δεδιδαγμένῃ, ὡς τοὺς λόγους ὅρκους εἶναι νομίζεσθαι. δεύτερος δέ, φασί, πλοῦς τὸ εὐορκεῖν: ἤδη γὰρ ὅ γε ὀμνὺς
A io A 85 εἰς ἀπιστίαν ὑπονοεῖται. μελλητὴς οὖν ἔστω καὶ VA 4 3 aA 4 3 βραδύς, εἴ πως ἐνδέχοιτο ταῖς ὑπερθέσεσιν ἀπ- 3 / > / σασθαι τὸν ὅρκον' εἰ δέ τις ἀνάγκη
βιάζοιτο, περισκεπτέον οὐ παρέργως ἕκαστα τῶν A > \ “A
ἐμφερομένων: TO yap πρᾶγμα ov μικρόν, εἰ Kal TH A / / 3 A \
86 ἔθει καταφρονεῖται. μαρτυρία yap ἐστι θεοῦ περὶ / \
πραγμάτων ἀμφισβητουμένων ὅρκος" μάρτυρα δὲ
aA > A 4 Ἁ > ’ 3 ’ὔ 3
καλεῖν ἐπὶ ψεύδει θεὸν ἀνοσιώτατον. ἴθι γάρ, εἰ βούλ Ὁ λόγῳ διάκυψον εἰς τὴν τοῦ μέλλοντο
οὔλει, τῷ λόγῳ διάκυψον εἰς τὴ μ ς 3 ’ ’ > AN ’ / \. 3 \ 3
ὀμνύναι διάνοιαν ἐπὶ ψεύδει" θεάσῃ γὰρ αὐτὴν οὐκ
@ See note on De Som. i. 44. 48
THE DECALOGUE, 81-86
Whom as from a fountain is showered the water of each particular good upon the world and them that dwell therein.
XVII. We have now discussed as fully as possible 82 the second commandment. Let us proceed to examine carefully the next in order, not to take God's name in vain. Now the reason for the position of this commandment in the list will be understood by those who have clear-sighted minds, for the name always stands second to the thing which it represents as the shadow which follows the body. So after speaking 83 first about the existence of the Ever-existent and the honour due to Him as such, He follows it at once in orderly sequence by giving a commandment on the proper use of His title, for the errors of men in this part of their duty are manifold and multiform.
To swear not at all is the best course 84 and most profitable to life, well suited to a rational nature which has been taught to speak the truth so well on each occasion that its words are regarded as oaths; to swear truly is only, as people say,
a “second-best voyage, 5 for the mere fact of his swearing casts suspicion on the trustworthiness of the man. Let him, then, lag and linger in the hope g5 that by repeated postponement he may avoid the oath altogether. But, if necessity be too strong for him, he must consider in no careless fashion all that an oath involves, for that is no small thing, though custom makes light of it. For an oath is an 86 appeal to God as a witness on matters in dispute, and to call Him as witness to a lie is the height of profanity. Be pleased, I beg you, to take a look with the aid of your reason into the mind of the in- tending perjurer. You will see there a mind not at
VOL. VII E 49
87
88
PHILO
ἠρεμοῦσαν, ἀλλὰ θορύβου καὶ ταραχῆς μεστήν, κατηγορουμένην καὶ πάσας ὕβρεις καὶ βλασφημίας ὑπομένουσαν. 6 γὰρ ἑκάστῃ ψυχῇ συμπεφυκὼς καὶ συνοικῶν ἔλεγχος, οὐδὲν εἰωθὼς παραδέχεσθαι τῶν ὑπαιτίων, μισοπονήρῳ καὶ φιλαρέτῳ χρώ- μενος. ἀεὶ τῇ φύσει, κατήγορος ὁμοῦ καὶ δικαστὴς ὁ αὐτὸς ὦν, διακινηθεὶς ὡς μὲν κατήγορος αἰτιᾶται, κατηγορεῖ, δυσωπεῖ, πάλιν δ᾽ ὡς δικαστὴς διδάσκει, νουθετεῖ, παραινεῖ μεταβάλλεσθαι: κἂν μὲν ἰσχύσῃ πεῖσαι, γεγηθὼς καταλλάττεται, μ μὴ δυνηθεὶς δὲ ἀσπονδεὶ πολεμεῖ μήτε μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν μήτε νύκτωρ ἀφιστάμενος, ἀλλὰ κεντῶν καὶ τιτρώσκων ἀνίατα, μέχρις ἂν τὴν ἀθλίαν καὶ ἐπάρατον ζωὴν ἀπορρήξῃ.
XVIII. τί λέγεις, εἴποιμ᾽ ἂν πρὸς τὸν ἐπίορκον, τολμήσεις. τινὶ τῶν σεαυτοῦ γνωρίμων φάναι προσελθών" ὦ οὗτος, ἃ μήτ᾽ εἶδες μήτ᾽ ἤκουσας, ὡς ἰδών, ὡς ἀκούσας, ὡς παρηκολουθηκὼς ἅπασιν, ἀφικόμενός μοι μαρτύρησον; ἐγὼ μέν ye’ οὐκ οἶμαι: μανίας yap ἀθεραπεύτου τὸ ἔργον.
89 ἐπεὶ τίσιν ὀφθαλμοῖς νήφων καὶ ἐν σεαυτῷ δοκῶν
εἶναι προσιδὼν τὸν φίλον ἐρεῖς" διὰ τὴν ἑταιρίαν ἀδικοπράγει, παρανόμει, συνασέβει μοι; δῆλον γὰρ ὡς, εἰ ταῦτ᾽ ἀκούσαι, πολλὰ χαίρειν φράσας ἑταιρίᾳ τῇ νομιζομένῃ καὶ κακίσας αὑτόν, ὅτι τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀνδρὶ τοιούτῳ φιλίας ἐκοινώνησεν, ἀπο- πηδήσεται καθάπερ ἀπὸ θηρὸς ἀγριαίνοντος καὶ
90 λελυττηκότος. εἶτα, πρὸς ἃ μηδὲ φίλον ἄγειν
\ “-- “A τολμήσεις, ἐπὶ ταῦτα θεὸν μάρτυρα καλῶν οὐκ 3 ~ \ 4 \ e “-- ἐρυθριᾷς, τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἡγεμόνα τοῦ κόσμου;
1 See App. p. 611.
@ For this double function of “ Conviction ᾽᾽ or the “ Inward Monitor” cf. Quod Deus 135 ff.
50
THE DECALOGUE, 86-90
peace but full of uproar and confusion, labouring under accusation, suffering all manner of insult and reviling. For every soul has for its birth-fellow 87 and house-mate a monitor? whose way is to admit nothing that calls for censure, whose nature is ever to hate evil and love virtue, who is its accuser and its judge in one. If he be once roused as accuser he censures, accuses and puts the soul to shame, and again as judge, he instructs, admonishes and exhorts
it to change its ways. And if he has the strength to persuade it, he rejoices and makes peace. But if he cannot, he makes war to the bitter end, never leaving it alone by day or night, but plying it with stabs and deadly wounds until he breaks the thread of its miserable and ill-starred life. XVIII. How 88 now! I would say to the perjurer, will you dare to accost any of your acquaintance and say, ‘‘ Come, sir, and testify for me that you have seen and heard and been in touch throughout with things which you did not see nor hear.” My own belief is that you would not, for it would be the act of a hopeless lunatic.
If you are sober and to all appearance in your right 89 mind, how could you have the face to say to your friend, ‘‘ For the sake of our comradeship, work iniquity, transgress the law, join me in impiety’? | Clearly if he hears such words, he will turn his back upon his supposed comradeship, and reproaching himself that there should ever have been the tie of friendship between him and such a person, rush away from him as from a savage and maddened beast. Can it be, then, that on a matter on which you would 90 not dare to cite even a friend you do not blush to call God to witness, God the Father and Ruler of the
51
[196
] 91
PHILO
4 9 ’ Ὁ 4 > ec A \ 4 πότερον ἐπιστάμενος, ὅτι πάνθ᾽ ὁρᾷ Kal πάντων 3 ~ ~ ᾿ Ss “~ ἀκούει, ἣ τοῦτ᾽ ἀγνοῶν; | εἰ μὲν οὖν ἀγνοῶν, 10 ’ > \ δὲ Ul LO 4, 10 4 ΒΕ ἀθεός τις εἶ, πηγὴ δὲ πάντων ἀδικημάτων ἀθεότης
\ “A a πρὸς δὲ τῷ ἀθέῳ καὶ KaTaoTpaTnyels TOV ὅρκον, > A ὀμνὺς κατὰ τοῦ μὴ προσέχοντος ὡς ἐπιμελουμένου τῶν ἀνθρωπείων πραγμάτων: εἰ δ᾽ ὅτι προνοεῖ σαφῶς οἶδας, ὑπερβολὴν ἀσεβείας οὐκ ἀπολέλοιπας λέγων, εἰ καὶ μὴ στόματι καὶ γλώττῃ, τῷ γοῦν συνειδότι πρὸς θεόν: τὰ ψευδῆ μοι μαρτύρει, συγ- κακούργει, συρρᾳδιούργει" μία μοι τοῦ παρ᾽ ἀνθρώ-
ὃ A 2r \ A λύ θ 4 A ποις εὐδοκιμεῖν ἐλπὶς TO παρακαλύψασθαί σε τὴν ἀλήθειαν: ὑπὲρ ἑτέρου πονηρὸς γενοῦ, ὑπὲρ τοῦ
’ lo χείρονος ὁ κρείττων, ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπου καὶ ταῦτα “A 4 μοχθηροῦ θεὸς 6 πάντων ἄριστος.
92 XIX. εἰσὶ δ᾽ of μηδὲ κερδαίνειν τι μέλλοντες ἔθει
πονηρῷ κατακόρως καὶ ἀνεξετάστως ὀμνύουσιν ἐπὶ τοῖς τυχοῦσιν, οὐδενὸς ἀμφισβητουμένου τὸ παρά- παν, τὰ κενὰ τῶν' ἐν τῷ λόγῳ προσαναπληροῦντες ὅρκοις, ὡς οὐκ ἄμεινον ὃν ἀποκοπὴν ῥημάτων ~ \ \ 3 4 e ~ “A 4 μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ἀφωνίαν ὑποστῆναι παντελῆ" φύεται
93 γὰρ ἐκ πολυορκίας ψευδορκία καὶ ἀσέβεια. διὸ
\ \ 4 > 4 4 93 9 ~ 3 χρὴ τὸν μέλλοντα ὀμνύναι πάντ᾽ ἐπιμελῶς ἐξ- ’ aA “- > ητακέναι Kal σφόδρα περιττῶς, TO πρᾶγμα, εἰ εὐμέγεθες καὶ εἰ γέγονεν ὄντως καὶ εἰ πραχθὲν κατείληφε παγίως, ἑαυτόν, εἰ καθαρεύει ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα καὶ γλῶτταν, τὴν μὲν παρανομίας, τὸ δὲ / \ δὲ λ ΑΝ ον 9 \ wd ὃ 9 μιασμάτων, τὴν δὲ βλασφημιῶν: οὐ γὰρ ὅσιον, δι 1 So Cohn by a later correction for ms. τὰ μὲν αὐτῶν. See
App. p. 611. ᾿
52
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THE DECALOGUE, 90-98
world? Do you do so with the knowledge that He sees and hears all things or in ignorance of this? If in ignorance, you are an atheist, and atheism is 91 the source of all iniquities, and in addition to your atheism you cut the ground from under the oath, since in swearing by God you attribute a care for human affairs to one who in your view has no regard for them. But if you are convinced of His provi- dence as a certainty, there is no further height of impiety which remains for you to reach when you say to God, if not with your mouth and tongue, at any rate with your conscience, “‘ Witness to a falsehood for me, share my evil-doing and my knavery. The one hope I have of maintaining my good name with men is that Thou shouldest disguise the truth. Be wicked for the sake of another, the superior for the sake of the inferior, the Divine, the best of all, for a man, and a bad man to boot.” . XIX. There are some who without even any gain in 92 prospect have an evil habit of swearing incessantly and thoughtlessly about ordinary matters where there is nothing at all in dispute, filling up the gaps in their talk with oaths, forgetting that it were better to submit to have their words cut short or rather to be silenced altogether, for from much swearing springs false swearing and impiety. Therefore one who is 93 about to take an oath should have made a careful and most punctilious examination, first of the matter in question, whether it is of sufficient importance, whether it has actually happened, and whether he has a sound apprehension of the facts; secondly, of himself, whether his soul is pure from lawlessness, his body from pollution, his tongue from evil-speaking, for it would be sacrilege to employ the mouth by
53
PHILO
οὗ στόματος TO ἱερώτατον ὄνομα προφέρεται τις,
94 διὰ τούτου φθέγγεσθαί τι τῶν αἰσχρῶν. ἐρευνάτω δὲ καὶ τόπον καὶ καιρὸν ἐπιτήδειον" οἷδα γὰρ οἶδά τινας ἐν βεβήλοις καὶ ἀκαθάρτοις χωρίοις, ἐν οἷς οὔτε πατρὸς οὔτε μητρὸς ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ τῶν ὀθνείων πρεσβύτου τινὸς εὖ βεβιωκότος ἄξιον μεμνῆσθαι,
ιομνυμένους καὶ ὅλας ῥήσεις ὅρκων συνείροντας, τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ πολυωνύμῳ καταχρησαμένους ὀνόματι
95 ἔνθα μὴ δεῖ πρὸς ἀσέβειαν. ὁ δὲ τῶν λεχθέντων ὀλιγώρως ἔχων ἴστω τὸ μὲν πρῶτον μιαρὸς καὶ ἀκάθαρτος ὦν, εἶθ᾽ ὡς αἰεὶ at μέγισται τῶν τιμωριῶν ἐφεδρεύουσιν αὐτῷ, τῆς ἐφόρου τῶν ἀνθρωπείων δίκης ἀτρέπτως καὶ ἀπαρηγορήτως ἐπὶ τοῖς οὕτω μεγάλοις ἀδικήμασιν ἐχούσης, ἥτις, ὅταν μὴ παραχρῆμα κολάζειν ἀξιοῖ, ἐπὶ πολλῷ
[197] δανείζειν ἐ ἔοικε τὰς τιμωρίας, | as, ὅταν ἦ καιρός, ἀναπράττει μετὰ τοῦ κοινῇ συμφέροντος.
96 XX. Τέταρτόν ἐστι παράγγελμα τὸ περὶ τῆς ἱερᾶς ἑβδόμης, iv εὐαγῶς καὶ ὁσίως ἄγηται. ταύτην ἔνιαι μὲν τῶν πόλεων ἑορτάζουσιν ἅπαξ τοῦ μηνὸς ἀπὸ τῆς κατὰ σελήνην" νουμηνίας διαριθμού- μεναι, τὸ δὲ ᾿Ιουδαίων ἔθνος συνεχῶς ζἡμέραςΣ ἐξ
97 διαλείποντες αἰεί. λόγος δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἀναγραφεὶς ἐν τοῖς κατὰ τὴν κοσμοποιίαν, περιέχων αἰτίαν ἀναγκαίαν" ἐν γὰρ ἕξ ἡμέραις φησὶ κτισθῆναι τὸν κόσμον, τῇ δ᾽ ἑβδόμῃ παυσάμενον τῶν ἔργων τὸν
98 θεὸν ἄρξασθ αι τὰ γεγονότα καλῶς θεωρεῖν. ἐκέ- λευσεν οὖν καὶ τοὺς μέλλοντας ἐν ταύτῃ ζῆν τῇ
πολιτείᾳ καθάπερ ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις καὶ κατὰ τοῦθ᾽
1 Other mss. θεὸν, which Cohn prints, though later he declared for σελήνην, which appears in R. See App. p. 611.
@ See App. p. 611. 54
THE DECALOGUE, 93-98
which one pronounces the holiest of all names,
to utter any words of shame. And let him seek for a 94
suitable time and place. For I know full well that there are persons who, in profane and impure places where it would not be fitting to mention either a father or mother or even any good-living elder out- side his family, swear at length and make whole speeches consisting of a string of oaths and thus, by their misuse of the many forms of the divine name in places where they ought not to do so, show their impiety.. Anyone who treats what I have said with contempt may rest assured, first, that he is polluted and unclean, secondly, that the heaviest punishments are waiting to fall upon him. For justice, who surveys human affairs, is inflexible and implacable towards such grave misdeeds, and when she thinks well to refrain from immediate chastisement, be sure that she does but put out her penalties to loan at high interest, only to exact them when the time comes to the common benefit of all.
XX. The fourth commandment deals with the sacred seventh day, that it should be observed in a reverent and religious manner. While some states celebrate this day as a feast once a month,? reckoning it from the commencement as shown by the moon, the Jewish nation never ceases to do so at continuous
95
96
intervals with six days between each. There is an 97
account recorded in the story of the Creation con- taining a cogent reason for this: we are told that the world was made in six days and that on the seventh God ceased from His works and began to contem- plate what had been so well created, and therefore He bade those who should live as citizens under this world-order follow God in this as in other matters.
55
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99
100
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PHILO
ἕπεσθαι θεῷ, πρὸς μὲν ἔργα τρεπομένους ἐφ᾽ ἡμέρας ἕξ, ἀνέχοντας δὲ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ καὶ φιλο- σοφοῦντας καὶ θεωρίαις μὲν τῶν τῆς φύσεως σχο- λάζοντας, ἐπισκοποῦντας δὲ καὶ εἴ τι μὴ καθαρῶς ἐν ταῖς προτέραις ἐπράχθη, “λόγον καὶ εὐθύνας ὧν εἷπον ἢ ἔδρασαν παρ᾽ ἑαυτῶν λαμβάνοντας ἐν τῷ τῆς ψυχῆς βουλευτηρίῳ, συνεδρευόντων καὶ συν- εξεταζόντων τῶν νόμων εἴς τε τὴν τῶν παρ- οραθέντων κατόρθωσιν καὶ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ μηδὲν αὖθις ἐξαμαρτάνειν προφυλακήν. ἀλλ᾽ ὁ μὲν θεὸς ἅπαξ κατεχρήσατο ταῖς ἐξ ἡμέραις πρὸς τὴν τοῦ κόσμου τελείωσιν μήκους χρόνων οὐ προσδεόμενος" ἀνθρώπων δ᾽ ἕκαστος. ἅτε θνητῆς φύσεως μετέχων καὶ μυρίων ἐνδεὴς ὧν πρὸς τὰς ἀναγκαίας τοῦ βίου χρείας ὀφείλει μὴ κατοκνεῖν ἐκπορίζειν τὰ ἐπιτήδεια μέχρι τελευτῆς τοῦ βίου διαναπαυόμενος τὰς ἱερὰς ἑβδομάδας. dp’ οὐ παγκάλη παραίνεσις καὶ πρὸς πᾶσαν ἀρετὴν ἱκανωτάτη προτρέψασθαι καὶ διαφερόντως εἰς εὐσέβειαν; “᾿ ἕπου ᾿᾿ φησίν “αἰεὶ θεῷ: παράδειγμα προθεσμίας ἔστω σοι πράξεων ἕν ἑξαήμερον' αὐταρκέστατον, ἐν ᾧ τὸν κόσμον ἐδημιούργει:" παράδειγμα καὶ τοῦ δεῖν φιλοσοφεῖν ἡ ἑβδόμη, καθ᾽ ἣν ἐπιδεῖν λέγεται ἃ εἰργάσατο, ὅπως καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπιθεωρῇς τὰ φύσεως καὶ τὰ ἴδια ὅσα συντείνει πρὸς εὐδαιμονίαν.᾽᾽
τοιοῦτον οὖν ἀρχέτυπον τῶν ἀρίστων βίων, πρα- κτικοῦ τε καὶ θεωρητικοῦ, μὴ παρέλθωμεν, ἀλλ᾽ αἰεὶ πρὸς αὐτὸ βλέποντες ἐναργεῖς εἰκόνας καὶ τόπους ταῖς ἑαυτῶν διανοίαις ἐγχαράττωμεν ἐξ- ομοιοῦντες θνητὴν φύσιν ὡς ἔνεστιν ἀθανάτῳ κατὰ
1 mss. ἕν ἑἐξάμετρον or ἑξὰς μέτρον.
56
THE DECALOGUE, 98-101
So He commanded that they should apply themselves to work for six days but rest on the seventh and turn to the study of wisdom, and that while they thus had leisure for the contemplation of the truths of nature they should also consider whether any offence against purity had been committed in the preceding days, and exact from themselves in the council-chamber of the soul, with the laws as their fellow-assessors and fellow-examiners, a strict account of what they had said or done in order to correct what had been neglected and to take precaution against repetition
of any sin. But while God once for all made a final 99
use of six days for the completion of the world and had no further need of time-periods, every man being a partaker of mortal nature and needing a vast multitude of things to supply the necessaries of life ought never to the end of his life to slacken in pro- viding what he requires, but should rest on the sacred seventh days. Have we not here a most admirable injunction full of power to urge us to every virtue and piety most of all? “ Always follow God,’ it says, “find in that single six-day period in which, all-suffi- cient for His purpose, He created the world, a pattern of the time set apart to thee for activity. Tind, too, in the seventh day the pattern of thy duty to study wisdom, that day in which we are told that He sur- veyed what He had wrought, and so learn to meditate thyself on the lessons of nature and all that in thy own life makes for happiness.’’ Let us not then neglect this great archetype of the two best lives, the practical and the contemplative, but with that pattern ever before our eyes engrave in our hearts the clear image and stamp of them both, so making mortal nature, as far as may be, like the immortal by saying
δ᾽
100
101
PHILO
[198] τὸ λέγειν καὶ πράττειν ἃ χρή. πῶς δὲ | λέγεται
102
103
ἐν ἐξ ἡ ἡμέραις γεγενῆσθαι τὸν κόσμον ὑπὸ θεοῦ τοῦ μηδὲ “χρόνων εἰς τὸ ποιεῖν _Seopevon, μεμήνυται διὰ τῶν ἀλληγορηθέντων € ἐν ἑτέροις.
ΧΧΙ, Τὴν μέντοι προνομίαν, ἧς ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἑβδομὰς ἠξίωται, δηλοῦσιν οἱ περὶ τὰ μαθήματα ιατρίψαντες, ἐπιμελῶς πάνυ καὶ πεφροντισμένως αὐτὴν ἐξιχνεύσαντες. ἧδε γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἐν ἀριθμοῖς παρθένος, ἡ ἀμήτωρ φύσις, ἡ. μονάδος οἰκειοτάτη καὶ ἀρχῆς, ἡ ἰδέα τῶν πλανήτων, ἐπεὶ καὶ τῆς ἀπλανοῦς odaipas μονάς" ἐκ γὰρ μονάδος καὶ ἑβδομάδος οὐρανὸς 6 ἀσώματος, τὸ παράδειγμα τοῦ ὁρατοῦ. πέπηγε δ᾽ ὁ οὐρανὸς ἔκ τε τῆς ἀμερίστου φύσεως καὶ τῆς μεριστῆς" ἡ μὲν οὖν ἀμέριστος τὴν πρώτην καὶ ἀνωτάτω καὶ ἀπλανῆ περιφορὰν εἴληχεν, ἣ ἣν μονὰς ἐπισκοπεῖ, ἡ δὲ μεριστὴ τὴν καὶ υνάμει καὶ τάξει δευτέραν, ἧς ἐπιτροπεύει ἑβδομάς, ἥτις ἑξαχῇ διανεμηθεῖσα τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους ἑπτὰ πλάνητας εἰργάσατο"
\ 104 οὐκ ἐπειδὴ πεπλάνηταί TL τῶν κατὰ TOV οὐρανὸν
’ὔ ld \ 4 4 θείας καὶ μακαρίας καὶ εὐδαίμονος φύσεως μετ- 4 @ A \ > 4 Ἁ εσχηκότων, οἷς πᾶσι τὸ ἀπλανὲς οἰκειότατον---τὴν “A 4 4 / γοῦν ἐν ὁμοίῳ ταυτότητα σῴζοντα δολιχεύει τὸν
α 6. ἴῃ Leg. All. i. 2-4: “ Moses wished to exhibit things mortal and immortal as having been formed in a way corres- ponding to their proper numbers ”’ (ὃ 4). The reason why six is the appropriate number for mortal things, as seven for immortal, is given just before.
> For the Pythagorean origin of these epithets see note on Mos. ii. 210.
¢ Or “ archetype.”
@ For the mystical identity of One and Seven cf. De Post. 64, Quod Deus 11, and § 159 below.
¢ This whole section, like its parallel, De Cher. 22, is based
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THE DECALOGUE, 101-104
and doing what we ought. But in what sense the world is said to have been created by God in six days when no time-period of any kind was needed by Him for his work has been explained elsewhere in our allegorical expositions.@
XXI. As for the number seven, the precedence awarded to it among all that exists is explained by the students of mathematics, who have investigated it with the utmost care and consideration. It is the virgin ὃ among the numbers, the essentially mother- less, the closest bound to the initial Unit, the ‘‘idea’’ ¢ of the planets, just as the unit is of the sphere of the fixed stars, for from the Unit and Seven springs the incorporeal heaven which is the pattern of the visible.¢
Now the substance from which the heaven has been framed is partly undivided and partly divided. To the undivided belongs the primal, highest and undeviating revolution presided over by the unit ; to the divided another revolution, second- ary both in value and order, under the governance of Seven, and this by a sixfold partition has produced the seven so-called planets, or wanderers.* Not that any of the occupants of heaven wander, for sharing as they do in a blessed and divine and happy nature, they are all intrinsically free from any such tendency. In fact they preserve their uniformity unbroken and
upon Plato, T¢maeus 36 c-p, where the heaven is conceived of as consisting of two revolving circles, the exterior, the sphere of the fixed stars, and the interior subdivided into seven con- centric circles, one for each planet. ‘“* The exterior motion he called the motion of the Same (ταὐτόν, cf. Philo’s ταυτότης), the interior the motion of the Other” (so in De Cher.). The terms for ‘‘ undivided” and “‘he divided” are doytoros and σχίσας, but Plato has ἀμέριστος and μεριστὴ οὐσία a little before (35 a).
59
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PHILO
IA U 9 4 A Α 4 αἰῶνα μηδεμίαν ἐνδεχόμενα τροπὴν καὶ μεταβολήν > “- “A —, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι περιπολοῦνται ὑπεναντίως TH ἀμερίστῳ A > 4 ’ 4 > 4 9 καὶ ἐξωτάτω σφαίρᾳ, πλάνητες ὠνομάσθησαν οὐ ’ κυρίως ὑπ᾽ ἀνθρώπων εἰκαιοτέρων, ot τὴν ἰδίαν πλάνην τοῖς οὐρανίοις ἐπεφήμισαν, ἃ τὴν τοῦ θείου 105 στρατοπέδου τάξιν οὐδέποτε λείπει. διὰ μὲν δὴ lo A ” 4 4 e e Ul > 3 ταῦτα καὶ ἔτι πλείω τετίμηται ἡ ἕβδομάς: ἐπ A , 4 9 A οὐδενὶ δ᾽ οὕτω προνομίας ἔτυχεν ἢ TH μάλιστα TOV A \ ’ ~ Ὁ 9 ’ 3 ποιητὴν καὶ πατέρα τῶν ὅλων ἐμφαίνεσθαι δι αὐτῆς" ὡς γὰρ διὰ κατόπτρου φαντασιοῦται ὁ νοῦς θεὸν δρῶντα καὶ κοσμοποιοῦντα καὶ τῶν ὅλων ἐπιτροπεύοντα. A A A \ ~ e 4 106 XXII. Mera δὲ τὰ περὶ τῆς ἑβδόμης παραγγέλ- , ’ \ \ . on λει πέμπτον παράγγελμα TO περὶ γονέων τιμῆς A \ A 4 ~ A τάξιν αὐτῷ δοὺς τὴν μεθόριον τῶν δυοῖν mevTddwv> A \ 5) “ 4 > Ὁ 1 ε τελευταῖον γὰρ ὃν τῆς προτέρας, ἐν ἧ τὰ ἱερώτατα MPOOTATTETAL, συνάπτει καὶ τῇ δευτέρᾳ περιεχούσῃ \ \ > 4 4 3 > e εν 107 τὰ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους δίκαια. αἴτιον δ᾽ ὡς οἶμαι 4 ~ 4 e 4 > 4 \ “. τόδε: τῶν γονέων ἡ φύσις ἀθανάτου καὶ θνητῆς 4 A οὐσίας ἔοικεν εἶναι μεθόριος, θνητῆς μὲν διὰ τὴν \ > 4 A A v “A 4 [199] πρὸς | ἀνθρώπους καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ζῷα συγγένειαν “- > + 9 4 κατὰ TO TOU σώματος ἐπίκηρον, ἀθανάτου δὲ διὰ τὴν τοῦ γεννᾶν πρὸς θεὸν τὸν γεννητὴν τῶν ὅλων 108 ἐξομοίωσιν. ἤδη μὲν οὖν τινες τῇ ἑτέρᾳ μερίδι προσκληρώσαντες ἑαυτοὺς ἔδοξαν τῆς ἑτέρας a 3 A 9 4 \ ὀλιγωρεῖν: ἄκρατον yap ἐμφορησάμενοι τὸν εὖὐ- ’ 4 \ 4 4 a~ + σεβείας πόθον, πολλὰ χαίρειν φράσαντες ταῖς ἄλλαις
1 So Cohn for Ms. πρὸς τὰ πέντε. See App. pp. 611-612. 60
THE DECALOGUE, 104-108
run their round to and fro for all eternity admitting no swerving or alteration. It is because their course is contrary to that of the undivided and outermost sphere that the planets gained their name which was improperly applied to them by the more thought- less people, who credited with their own wanderings the heavenly bodies which never leave their posts in the divine camp.* For these reasons and many others beside Seven is held in honour. But nothing so much assures its predominance as that through it is best given the revelation of the Father and Maker of all, for in it, as in a mirror, the mind has a vision of God as acting and creating the world and controlling all that is.
XXII. After dealing with the seventh day, He gives the fifth commandment on the honour due to parents. This commandment He placed on the border-line between the two sets of five; it is the last of the first set in which the most sacred injunctions are given and it adjoins the second set which contains the duties of man to man. The reason I consider is this : we see that parents by their nature stand on the border-line between the mortal and the immortal side of existence, the mortal because of their kinship with men and other animals through the perishable- ness of the body ; the immortal because the act of generation assimilates them to God, the generator of the All. Now we have known some who associate themselves with one of the two sides and are seen to neglect the other. They have drunk of the unmixed wine of pious aspirations and turning their backs upon all other concerns devoted their
α Cf. Plato, Laws 821 c-p, where the name of “‘ wanderers” is said to be a blasphemy.
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PHILO
/ ω 9. » \ 2 κα / a πραγματείαις ὅλον ἀνέθεσαν Tov οἰκεῖον βίον θερα- 109 πείᾳ θεοῦ. οἱ δ᾽ οὐδὲν ἔξω τῶν πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ’ δικαιωμάτων ἀγαθὸν ὑποτοπήσαντες εἶναι μόνην τὴν πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ὁμιλίαν ἠσπάσαντο, τῶν τε A \ A lon \ ἀγαθῶν τὴν χρῆσιν ἐξ ἴσου πᾶσι παρέχοντες διὰ κοινωνίας ἵμερον καὶ τὰ δεινὰ κατὰ δύναμιν 9 ’ 9 “- 4 \ On 110 ἐπικουφίζειν ἀξιοῦντες. τούτους μὲν οὖν φιλ- θ ’ A δὲ lA λ θ 4 > δί ανθρώπους, τοὺς δὲ προτέρους φιλοθέους ἐνδίκως aA 4 \ ἂν εἴποι Tis, ἡμιτελεῖς τὴν ἀρετήν: ὁλόκληροι γὰρ e A 4.9 ot παρ᾽ ἀμφοτέροις εὐδοκιμοῦντες. ὅσοι δὲ μήτ a 9 4 ἐν τοῖς πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἐξετάζονται, συνηδόμενοι \ A A a A > 3" μὲν ἐπὶ τοῖς κοινοῖς ἀγαθοῖς, συναλγοῦντες δ᾽ ἐπὶ a 9 3 ’ τοῖς ἐναντίοις, μήτ᾽ εὐσεβείας καὶ ὁσιότητος περι- , , , n 3 , έχονται, μεταβεβληκέναι δόξαιεν ἂν εἰς θηρίων a “A , A e φύσιν: ὧν τῆς ἀγριότητος οἴσονται TA πρωτεῖα οἱ A e 3 > \ γονέων ἀλογοῦντες, ἑκατέρας μερίδος ὄντες ἐχθροὶ on δ \ aA Kal τῆς πρὸς θεὸν καὶ τῆς πρὸς ἀνθρώπους. 111 XXIII. ἐν δυσὶν οὖν δικαστηρίοις, ἃ δὴ μόνα ἐστὶν A 4 \ ’ 4 ἐν TH φύσει, μὴ ἀγνοείτωσαν ἕαλωκότες, ἀσεβείας μὲν ἐν τῷ θείῳ, διότι τοὺς ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ 4 \ A εἶναι παραγαγόντας Kal κατὰ τοῦτο μιμησαμένους θεὸν οὐ περιέπουσι, μισανθρωπίας δ᾽ ἐν τῷ κατ᾽ ’ Ss 4 ~ 112 ἀνθρώπους. τινα γὰρ ἕτερον εὖ ποιησουσιν οἱ τῶν συγγενεστάτων καὶ τὰς μεγίστας παρασχομένων Α > lo = 3 3 e \ 90.9 δωρεὰς ὀλιγωροῦντες, ὧν ἔνιαι δι᾽ ὑπερβολὴν οὐδ ἀμοιβὰς ἐνδέχονται; πῶς γὰρ ἂν ὁ γεννηθεὶς “- 4 “- ᾿ ἀντιγεννῆσαι δύναιτο τοὺς σπείραντας, κλῆρον A 4 A ἐξαίρετον τῆς φύσεως χαρισαμένης πρὸς παῖδας A 3 aA γονεῦσιν εἰς ἀντίδοσιν ἐλθεῖν οὐ δυνάμενον; ὅθεν 69
THE DECALOGUE, 109-112
personal life wholly to the service of God. Others 109 conceiving the idea that there is no good outside doing justice to men have no heart for anything but companionship with men. In their desire for fellow- ship they supply the good things of life in equal - measure to all for their use, and deem it their duty to alleviate by anything in their power the dreaded hardships. These may be justly called lovers of 110 men, the former sort lovers of God. Both come but halfway in virtue; they only have it whole who win honour in both departments. But all who neither take their fit place in dealings with men by sharing the joy of others at the common good and their grief at the reverse, nor cling to piety and holiness, would seem to have been trans- formed into the nature of wild beasts. In such bestial savagery the first place will be taken by those who disregard parents and are therefore the foes of both sides of the law, the godward and the manward. XXIII. Let them not then fail to understand that 111 in the two courts, the only courts which nature has, they stand convicted ; in the divine court, of impiety because they do not show due respect to those who brought them forth from non-existence to existence and in this were imitators of God; in the human court, of inhumanity. For to whom else will they show 112 kindness if they despise the closest of their kinsfolk who have bestowed upon them the greatest boons, some of them far exceeding any possibility of re- payment? For how could the begotten beget in his turn those whose seed he is, since nature has bestowed on parents in relation to their children an estate of a special kind which cannot be subject to the law
63
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[200]
PHILO
καὶ σφόδρα προσῆκεν ἀγανακτεῖν, εἰ μὴ πάντα ἔχοντες ἀντιχαρίζεσθαι μηδὲ τὰ κουφότατα ἐθε- λήσουσιν. οἷς δεόντως ἂν εἴποιμι: τὰ θηρία πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἡμεροῦσθαι δεῖ: καὶ πολ- λάκις ἔγνων ἡμερωθέντας λέοντας, ἄρκτους, | παρδάλεις, οὐ μόνον “πρὸς τοὺς τρέφοντας διὰ τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀναγκαίοις χάριν, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους, ἕνεκά μοι δοκῶ τῆς πρὸς ἐκείνους ὁμοιότητος: καλὸν γὰρ ἀεὶ τῷ κρείττονι τὸ
114 χεῖρον ἀκολουθεῖν διὰ βελτιώσεως ἐλπίδα. νυνὶ δ᾽
11ὅ
116
ἀναγκασθήσομαι τἀναντία λέγειν: μιμηταὶ θηρίων ἐνίων, ἄνθρωποι, γίνεσθε. τοὺς ὠφεληκότας ἀντ- ὠφελεῖν ἐκεῖνα οἷδε καὶ πεπαίδευται" κύνες οἰκουροὶ προασπίζουσι καὶ προαποθνήσκουσι τῶν δεσποτῶν, ὅταν κίνδυνός τις ἐξαπιναίως καταλάβῃ" τοὺς δ᾽ ἐν ταῖς ποίμναις φασὶ προαγωνιζομένους τῶν θρεμμάτων ἄχρι νίκης ἢ θανάτου παραμένειν ὑπὲρ τοῦ διατηρῆσαι τοὺς ἀγελάρχας ἀζημίους. εἶτ᾽ οὐκ αἰσχρῶν ἐστιν αἴσχιστον, ἐν χαρίτων ἀμοιβαῖς ἄνθρωπον ἡττηθῆναι κυνός, τοῦ θηρίων θρασυτάτου τὸ ἡμερώτατον ζῷον; ἀλλ᾽ εἰ μὴ τοῖς χερσαίοις ἀναδιδασκόμεθα, πρὸς τὴν πτηνὴν καὶ ἀεροπόρον μετίωμεν φύσιν ἃ χρὴ παρ᾽ αὐτῆς μαθησόμενοι. τῶν πε αργῶν οἱ μὲν γηραιοὶ κατα- μένουσιν ἐν ταῖς νεοττιαῖς ἀδυνατοῦντες ἵπτασθαι, οἱ δὲ τούτων παῖδες ὀλίγου δέω φάναι γῆν καὶ
1 mss. ἀνθρώπων.
¢ Clearly an allusion to the Attic law by which a citizen nominated to perform a “‘leiturgia’’ might call upon a person
not so nominated whom he considered to be wealthier than
himself to exchange properties with him. Here, as often, 64
THE DECALOGUE, 112-116
of “exchange’’*? And therefore the greatest indigna-
tion is justified if children, because they are unable. |
to make a complete return, refuse to make even the slightest. Properly,® I should say to them, “beasts ought to become tame through association with men.” Indeed I have often known lions and bears and panthers become tame, not only with those who feed them, in gratitude for receiving what they require, but also with everybody else, presumably because of the likeness to those who give them food.° That is what should happen, for it is always good for the inferior to follow the superior in hope of improve- ment. But as it is I shall be forced ta say the opposite of this, ““ You men will do well to take some beasts for your models.’’ They have been trained to know how to return benefit for benefit. Watch-dogs guard and die for their masters when some danger suddenly overtakes them. Sheep-dogs, they say, fight for their charges and hold their ground till they conquer or die, in order to keep the herdsmen unscathed. Is it not, then, a very scandal of scandals that in returning kindnesses a man should be worsted by a dog, the
113
jem
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115
most civilized of living creatures by the most auda- |
cious of brutes ? But, if we cannot learn from the land animals, let us turn for a lesson in right conduct to the winged tribe that ranges the air. Among the storks the old birds stay in the nests when they are unable to fly, while their children fly, I might almost say, over sea and land, gathering
Phila shews his knowledge of Attic law, as he found it in Demosthenes. ὃ The sense is “‘ the natural and proper thing is for beasts to learn from men; in this case men have to learn from beasts.”’ ¢ 2,6. these animals come to associate the human form with kindness, 4 See App. p. 612.
VOL. VII F 65
jams
16
PHILO
> 4 > 4 θάλατταν ἐπιποτώμενοι πανταχόθεν ἐκπορίζουσι aA “- 9 ’ “ 117 τοῖς γονεῦσι τὰ ἐπιτήδεια: καὶ οἱ μὲν ἀξίως τῆς AA 4 > A > 9 ’ ὃ λ ~ “-- 4 ἡλικίας ἠρεμοῦντες ev ἀφθονίᾳ διατελοῦσι TH πάσῃ ~ e > 4 τρυφῶντες, οἱ δὲ τὰς εἰς TOV πορισμὸν κακοπαθείας > “A aA \ ~ A ἐπελαφριζόμενοι τῷ εὐσεβεῖν Kal τῷ προσδοκᾶν ~ > 4 ἐν γήρᾳ τὰ αὐτὰ πείσεσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἐκγόνων aA > “ A ἀναγκαῖον ὄφλημα ἀντεκτίνουσιν, ἐν καιρῷ Kal ’ 3 Α A > 4 Ὁ 3 > 4 λαβόντες αὐτὸ Kal ἀνταποδιδόντες, ὅτ᾽ οὐδέτεροι τρέφειν αὑτοὺς δύνανται, παῖδες μὲν ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς aA ~ ~ ’ , γενέσεως, γονεῖς δ᾽ ἐπὶ τελευτῇ τοῦ βίου: ὅθεν 3 4 ~ ’ 4 αὐτοδιδάκτῳ TH φύσει νεοττοτροφηθέντες ynpo- : - Ss » > A 118 τροφοῦσι χαίροντες. ἄρ᾽ οὐκ ἄξιον ἐπὶ ld “- > τούτοις ἀνθρώπους, ὅσοι γονέων ἀμελοῦσιν, ἐγ- A e 4 > 4 καλύπτεσθαι Kai Kakilew ἑαυτούς, ὠλιγωρηκότας @ “᾿ ᾽ὔ nv A ~ ” 9 A > ὧν ἢ μόνων ἢ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων ἀναγκαῖον ἦν ’ \ a 95 ᾽ 4 ~ “ πεφροντικέναι, καὶ ταῦτ᾽ od διδόντας μᾶλλον ἢ 3 / / ‘ ov ς , Δ ‘ ἀποδιδόντας; παίδων yap ἴδιον οὐδέν, ὃ μὴ ’ 3 ’ a“ 3 3 ’ καὶ A > » γονέων ἐστίν, ἢ οἴκοθεν ἐπιδεδωκότων ἢ τὰς αἰτίας “A / A 119 τῆς κτήσεως παρασχομένων. εὐσέβειαν δὲ καὶ ὁσιότητα, τὰς ἀρετῶν ἡγεμονίδας, apd γ᾽ ἐντὸς ὅρων ἔχουσι τῶν ψυχῶν; ὑὕὑπερορίους μὲν οὖν ἀπ- ’ A 4 ~ \ e 4 εληλάκασι καὶ πεφυγαδεύκασι: θεοῦ yap ὑπηρέται e A [201] πρὸς | τέκνων σπορὰν ot γονεῖς" ὁ δ᾽ ὑπηρέτην 4 \ ~ 120 ἀτιμάζων συνατιμάζει καὶ τὸν ἄρχοντα. τῶν δ᾽ εὐτολμοτέρων ἀποσεμνύνοντες τὸ γονέων ὄνομά ’ e Ν A A 4 > a φασί τινες, ὡς ἄρα πατὴρ καὶ μήτηρ ἐμφανεῖς εἰσι 4 ~ a θεοί, μιμούμενοι τὸν ἀγένητον ἐν τῷ ζῳοπλαστεῖν'
«8566 App. p. 612. 66
THE DECALOGUE, 116-120
from every quarter provision for the needs of their parents ; and so while they in the inactivity justi- fied by their age continue to enjoy all abundance of luxury, the younger birds making light of the hardships sustained in their quest for food, moved by piety and the expectation that the same treatment will be meted to them by their offspring, repay the debt which they may not refuse—a debt both in- curred and discharged at the proper time—namely that in which one or other of the parties is unable to maintain itself, the children in the first stage of their existence, the parents at the end of their lives. And thus without any teacher but their natural instinct they gladly give to age the nurture which fostered their youth. With this example before them may not human beings, who take no thought for their parents, deservedly hide their faces for shame and revile themselves for their neglect of those whose welfare should necessarily have been their sole or their primary care, and that not so much as givers as repayers of a due? For children have nothing of their own which does not come from their parents, either bestowed from their own re- sources or acquired by means which originate from them. Piety and religion are the queens among the virtues. Do they dwell within the confines of such souls as these ? No, they have driven them from the realm and sent them into banishment. For parents are the servants of God for the task of begetting children, and he who dishonours the servant dis- honours also the Lord. Some bolder spirits, glorify- ing the name of parenthood, say that a father and a mother are in fact gods revealed to sight who copy the Uncreated in His work as the I'ramer of life. He,
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120
PHILO
ἀλλὰ τὸν μὲν εἶναι τοῦ κόσμου θεόν, τοὺς δὲ μόνων
ὧν ἐγέννησαν. ᾿ἀμήχανον δ᾽ εὐσεβεῖσθαι τὸν
121
122
123
124
125
ἀόρατον ὑπὸ τῶν εἰς τοὺς sets Kal ἐγγὺς ὄντας ἀσεβούντων.
XXIV. Τοσαῦτα καὶ περὶ γονέων τιμῆς φιλο- σοφήσας τέλος ἐπιτίθησι τῇ ἑτέρᾳ καὶ θειοτέρᾳ πεντάδι. τὴν δ᾽ ἑτέραν ἀναγραψάμενος περιέχουσαν ἀπαγορεύσεις τῶν πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἀπὸ μοιχείας ἄρχεται, μέγιστον ἀδικημάτων τοῦτ᾽ εἶναι ὑπο- λαβών. πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ πηγὴν ἔχει φιληδονίαν, ἣ καὶ τὰ σώματα θρύπτει τῶν ἐχόντων καὶ τοὺς τῆς ψυχῆς ἐκλύει τόνους καὶ τὰς οὐσίας διαφθείρει πάντα δίκην ἀσβέστου πυρὸς ὧν ἂν προσάψηται καταφλέγουσα καὶ μηδὲν σῷον ἀπολείπουσα τῶν κατὰ τὸν ἀνθρώπινον βίον. ἔπειτ᾽ ἀναπείθει τὸν μοιχὸν οὐκ ἀδικεῖν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ διδάσκειν συναδικεῖν ἐν ἀκοινωνήτοις πράγμασι κοινωνίαν τιθέμενον: οἴστρου γὰρ [τοῦ]; κατασχόντος, ἀ- μήχανον λαβεῖν τέλος δι᾿ ἑνὸς μόνου τὰς ὀρέξεις, ἀλλὰ δεῖ πάντως δύο κοινοπραγῆσαι, τὸν μὲν ὑφηγητοῦ τὸν δὲ γνωρίμου τάξιν λαβόντα, “πρὸς ἀκρασίας καὶ λαγνείας βεβαίωσιν, αἰσχίστων κακῶν. οὐδὲ γὰρ τοῦτ᾽ ἔνεστιν εἰπεῖν, ὡς τὸ σῶμα μόνον. διαφθείρεται τῆς ᾿μοιχευομένης γυ- ναικός, ἀλλ᾽, εἰ δεῖ τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, ἡ ψυχὴ πρὸ τοῦ σώματος εἰς ἀλλοτρίωσιν ἐθίζεται διδασκομένη πάντα τρόπον ἀποστρέφεσθαι καὶ μισεῖν τὸν ἀνδρα.
καὶ ἧττον ἂν ἦν δεινόν, εἰ τὸ μῖσος
᾿ 39 ’ὔ 3 , \ \ 3 / ta | ἐπεδείκνυτο ἐμφανές---τὰ yap ἐν πέριοῖτῳ paov
φυλάξασθαι----νυνὶ δὲ δυσυπονόητον καὶ δυσθήρατόν
1 Or, as Mangey, read τούτου.
68
THE DECALOGUE, 120-125 they say, is the God or Maker of the world, they of
those only whom they have begotten, and how can reverence be rendered to the invisible God by those who show irreverence to the gods who are near at hand and seen by the eye?
XXIV. With these wise words on _ honouring parents He closes the one set of five which is more concerned with the divine. In committing to writing the second set which contains the actions prohibited by our duty to fellow-men, He begins with adultery, holding this to be the greatest of crimes. For in the first place it has its source in the love of pleasure which enervates the bodies of those who entertain it, relaxes the sinews of the soul and wastes away the means of subsistence, consuming like an unquench- able fire all that it touches and leaving nothing whole- some in human life. Secondly, it persuades the adulterer not merely to do the wrong but to teach another to.share the wrong by setting up a partner- ship in a situation where no true partnership is pos- sible. For when the frenzy has got the mastery, the appetites cannot possibly gain their end through one agent only, but there must necessarily be two acting in common, one taking the position of the teacher, the other of the pupil, whose aim is to put on a firm footing the vilest of sins, licentiousness and lewdness. We cannot even say that it is only the body of the adulteress which is corrupted, but the real truth is that her soul rather than her body is habituated to estrangement from the husband, taught as it is to feel complete aversion and hatred for him.
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And the matter would be less terrible if the hatred 125
were shown openly, since what is conspicuous is more easily. guarded against, but in actual fact it easily
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128 [209]
129
PHILO
ἐστι, πανούργοις τέχναις συσκιαζόμενον Kal τὴν ἐναντίαν ἔστιν ὅτε τοῦ φιλεῖν δόξαν ἐμποιοῦν γοητείαις τισὶ καὶ ἀπάταις. ἀναστάτους γε μὴν τρεῖς ἀποδείκνυσιν' οἴκους, τόν τε τοῦ παρα- σπονδουμένου ἀνδρός, ὃς τὰς ἐπὶ γάμοις εὐχὰς καὶ τὰς ἐπὶ γνησίοις παισὶν ἐλπίδας περικόπτεται, καὶ δύο δ᾽ ἑτέρους τόν τε τοῦ μοιχοῦ καὶ τὸν τῆς γυναικός, καὶ γὰρ τούτων ἑκάτερος ὕβρεως καὶ ἀτιμίας καὶ τῶν μεγίστων ὀνειδῶν ἀναπίμπλαται. κἂν πολυάνθρωποι μὲν τύχωσιν αἱ συγγένειαι διὰ τὰς ἐπιγαμίας καὶ τὰς ἄλλων πρὸς ἄλλους ἐπι- μιξίας, ἅψεται καὶ τῆς πόλεως ἁπάσης ἐν κύκλῳ βαδίζον τἀδίκημα. παγχάλεπόν γε μὴν. | καὶ 6 τῶν τέκνων ἐπαμφοτερισμός- μὴ γὰρ ἁγνευούσης γυναικός, ἀμφίδοξον καὶ ἄδηλον, τὰ ἀποκυόμενα τίνος ἐστὶ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ πατρός" εἶτα λανθάνοντος τοῦ πράγματος, οἱ μοιχίδιοι τὴν τῶν γνησίων παρασπασάμενοι τάξιν ἀλλοτρίαν γενεὰν νοθεύουσι καὶ κλῆρον ὅσον τῷ δοκεῖν πατρῷον οὐδὲν προσήκοντα διαδέξονται. καὶ 6 μὲν μοιχὸς ἐφυβρίσας καὶ ἐναπερυγὼν τὸ πάθος, ἐπίληπτον σπορὰν σπείρας, ὅταν ἀποπλησθῇ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας, οἰχήσεται καταλιπών, γέλωτα θέμενος τὴν τοῦ παρανομηθέντος ἄγνοιαν: ὁ δ᾽ οἷα τυφλὸς μηδὲν τῶν ὑποικουρημένων ἐπιστάμενος ὡς οἰκειότατα ἔκγονα τὰ ἐκ τῶν πολεμιωτάτων θεραπεύειν
> 4 A 9 3 ’ 2Q/ 130 ἀναγκασθήσεται. φανερὸν δ᾽ εἰ γένοιτο τἀδίκημα,
, , 7 4 ε ν 2 , κακοδαιμονέστατοι YevowT αν Ob μηδὲν ἠδικηκότες
1 Cohn with some ss. ἀποδεικνύουσιν, but the ms. authority is almost as good for the singular, which seems better suited
70
THE DECALOGUE, 125-130
eludes suspicion and detection, shrouded by artful knavery and sometimes creating by deceptive wiles the opposite impression of affection. Indeed it makes havoc of three families : of that of the husband who suffers from the breach of faith, stripped of the pro- mise of his marriage-vows and his hopes of legitimate offspring, and of two others, those of the adulterer and the woman, for the infection of the outrage and dishonour and disgrace of the deepest kind extends to the family of both. And if their connexions include a large number of persons through intermarriages and widespread associations, the wrong will travel all round and affect the whole State. Very painful, too, is the uncertainstatus of the children, for if the wife is not chaste there will be doubt and dis- pute as to the real paternity of the offspring. Then if the fact is undetected, the fruit of the adultery usurp the position of the legitimate and form an alien and bastard brood and will ultimately succeed to the heritage of their putative father to which they have no right. And the adulterer having in insolent triumph vented his passions and sown the seed of shame, his lust now sated, will leave the scene and go on his way mocking at the ignorance of the victim of his crime, who like a blind man knowing nothing of the covert intrigues of the past will be forced to cherish the children of his deadliest
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129
foe as his own flesh and blood. On the other hand, if 130
the wrong becomes known, the poor children who have done no wrong will be most unfortunate, unable
to the context than the plural, which would presumably have ἀπάται or τέχναι for its subject. The sequel refers to adultery in general rather than the deceptions which usually accom- pany it.
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PHILO
ἄθλιοι παῖδες, μηδετέρῳ γένει προσνεμηθῆναι δυνάμενοι, μήτε τῷ τοῦ γήμαντος μήτε τῷ τοῦ μοιχοῦ. τοιαύτας συμφορὰς ἀπεργαζομένης τῆς ἐκνόμου μίξεως, εἰκότως στυγητὸν καὶ θεομίσητον πρᾶγμα, μοιχεία, πρῶτον ἀδικημάτων ἀνεγράφη. XXV. Δεύτερον δὲ πρόσταγμα μὴ ἀνδροφονεῖν. ἀγελαστικὸν γὰρ καὶ σύννομον ζῷον τὸ ἡμερώτατον ἄνθρωπον ἡ φύσις γεννήσασα πρὸς ὁμόνοιαν καὶ κοινωνίαν ἐκάλεσε, λόγον δοῦσα συναγωγὸν εἰς ἁρμονίαν καὶ κρᾶσιν ἠθῶν. ὁ δὴ κτείνων τινὰ μὴ ἀγνοείτω νόμους φύσεως καὶ θεσμοὺς ἀνατρέπων καλῶς καὶ συμφερόντως ἅπασι γραφέντας. ἴστω μέντοι καὶ ἱεροσυλίας ἔνοχος ὧν τὸ ἱερώτατον τῶν
A ~ 4 τοῦ θεοῦ κτημάτων σεσυληκώς:" τί γὰρ σεμνότερον
ἢ ἁγιώτερον ἀνάθημα ἀνθρώπου; χρυσὸς μὲν καὶ
ἄργυρος καὶ λίθοι πολυτελεῖς καὶ ὅσαι ἄλλαι τιμαλφέσταται ὗλαι κόσμος οἰκοδομημάτων ἐστίν,
ἄψυχος ἀψύχων" ἄνθρωπος δέ, ζῷον ἄριστον κατὰ Ἁ τὸ κρεῖττον τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ, τὴν ψυχήν, συγγενέ- ’
στατος τῷ καθαρωτάτῳ τῆς οὐσίας οὐρανῷ, ὡς
’ 6 τῶν πλείστων λόγος, καὶ τῷ τοῦ κόσμου πατρί,
A 2 \ a ¢ + 3 , > , ans os YS ATAVTWV ee patties ate
Kal μίμημα τῆς ἀιδίου Kal εὐδαίμονος ἰδέας τὸν νοῦν λαβών.
XXVI. Τρίτον δ᾽ ἐστὶ τῆς δευτέρας πεντάδος παράγγελμα μὴ κλέπτειν. ὁ γὰρ τοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις ἐπικεχηνὼς κοινὸς πόλεως ἐχθρός, βουλήσει μὲν τὰ πάντων δυνάμει δὲ τά τινων ὑφαιρούμενος, τῷ τὴν μὲν πλεονεξίαν ἐπὶ μήκιστον ἐκτείνεσθαι, τὸ
α Literally “ blending of temperaments or characteristics.” See note on Mos. ii. 256,
72
THE DECALOGUE, 130-135
to be classed with either family, either the husband’s
or the adulterer’s. Such being the disasters wrought 131 by illicit intercourse, naturally the abominable and God-detested sin of adultery was placed first in the list of wrongdoing.
XXV. The second commandment is to do no 132 murder. For nature, who created man the most civilized of animals to be gregarious and sociable, has called him to shew fellowship and a spirit of partnership by endowing him with reason, the bond which leads to harmony and reciprocity of feeling.“ Let him, then, who slays another know full well that he is subverting the laws and statutes of nature so excellently enacted for the well-being of all. Further, 133 let him understand that he is guilty of sacrilege, the robbery from its sanctuary of the most sacred of God’s possessions. For what votive offering is more hallowed or more worthy of reverence than a man ? Gold and silver and costly stones and other sub- stances of highest price serve as ornaments to build- ings which are as lifeless as the ornaments themselves. But man, the best of living creatures, through that 134 higher part of his being, namely, the soul, is most nearly akin to heaven, the purest thing in all that exists, and, as most admit, also to the Father of the world, possessing in his mind a closer likeness and copy than anything else on earth of the eternal and blessed Archetype.
XXVI. The third commandment in the second 135 five forbids stealing, for he who gapes after what belongs to others is the common enemy of the State, willing to rob all, but able only to filch from some, because, while his covetousness extends in-
73
PHILO
3 ‘ δ᾽ ἀσθενὲς ὑστερίζον εἰς βραχὺ στέλλεσθαι Kat [208] 4 A 4 > 3 λί 4 ’ ~ μόνον | φθάνειν én’ ὀλίγους. ὅσοι τοίνυν τῶν ; “- 3 \ MN Ὁ ~ 4 κλεπτῶν ἰσχὺν προσέλαβον ὅλας συλῶσι πόλεις ἀλογοῦντες τιμωριῶν διὰ τὸ ἐπικυδέστεροι τῶν νόμων εἶναι δοκεῖν: οὗτοι δ᾽ εἰσὶν οἱ ὀλιγαρχικοὶ τὰς φύσεις, of τυραννίδων καὶ δυναστειῶν ἐπι- θυμοῦντες, of τὰς μεγάλας ἐργαζόμενοι κλοπάς, σεμνοῖς ὀνόμασι τοῖς ἀρχῆς καὶ ἡγεμονίας ἐπι- , ’ > A » 3 a 137 κρύπτοντες λῃστείαν τἀληθὲς ἔργον. ἐκ πρώτης > e , 9 , A Ul ~ οὖν ἡλικίας ἀναδιδασκέσθω τις μηδὲν λάθρα τῶν 3 , e a BS) 4 ey 4 ἀλλοτρίων ὑφαιρεῖσθαι, κἂν βραχύτατον ἢ, διότι ἐγχρονίζον ἔθος φύσεως κραταιότερόν ἐστι καὶ τὰ μικρὰ μὴ κωλυόμενα φύεται καὶ ἐπιδίδωσι πρὸς μέγεθος συναυξανόμενα. 18 ΧΧΥΠΙ. Κλέπτειν δ᾽ ἀπειπὼν ἑξῆς ψευδο- a a / \ μαρτυρεῖν ἀπαγορεύει, πολλοῖς καὶ μεγάλοις Kat πᾶσι χαλεποῖς τοὺς ψευδομάρτυρας ἐνόχους εἰδώς. τὸ μὲν γὰρ πρῶτον φθείρουσι τὴν σεμνὴν ἀλήθειαν, ἧς οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν βίῳ κτῆμα ἱερώτερον,' ἡλίου τρόπον φῶς τοῖς πράγμασι περιτιθείσης, ἵνα μηδὲν αὐτῶν 3 U4 4, A A a 4 139 ἐπισκιάζηται. δεύτερον δὲ πρὸς τῷ ψεύδεσθαι καὶ τὰ πράγματα οἷα νυκτὶ καὶ σκότῳ βαθεῖ περι- \ A e αμπίσχουσι Kal συμπράττουσι μὲν τοῖς ἁμαρτά- νουσιν, ἐπιτίθενται δὲ τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις, ἃ μήτ᾽ 4 εἶδον μήτ᾽ ἤκουσαν μήτ᾽ ἴσασι παγίως εἰδέναι Kal σφόδρα κατειληφέναι διαβεβαιούμενοι. \ 4 A 140 προσεξεργάζονται δὲ καὶ τρίτον παρανομήμα τῶν προτέρων apyadewrepov’ ὅταν γὰρ σπάνις ἀπο- ’ Ν᾿ A 4 “A A , > A “ δείξεων ἢ διὰ λόγων ἢ διὰ γραμμάτων, ἐπὶ μάρ- 74.
THE DECALOGUE, 135-140
definitely, his feebler capacity cannot keep pace with it but restricted to a small compass reaches only to afew. So all thieves who have acquired the strength rob whole cities, careless of punishment because their high distinction seems to set them above the laws. These are oligarchically-minded persons, am- bitious for despotism or domination, who perpetrate thefts on a great scale, disguising the real fact of robbery under the grand-sounding names. of govern- ment and leadership. Let a man, then, learn from his earliest years to filch nothing by stealth that belongs to another, however small it may be, be- cause custom in the course of time is stronger than nature, and little things if not checked grow and thrive till they attain. to great dimensions.
XXVIII. Having denounced theft, he next pro- ceeds to forbid false witness, knowing that false witnesses are guilty under many important heads, all of them of a grave kind. In the first place, they corrupt truth, the august, the treasure as sacred as anything that we possess in life, which like the sun pours light upon facts and events and allows none of them to be kept in the shade. Secondly, apart from the falsehood, they veil the facts as it were in night and profound darkness, take part with the offenders and against those who are wronged, by affirming that they have sure knowledge and thorough ap- prehension of things which they have neither seen nor heard. And indeed they commit a third transgression even more heinous than the first two. For when there is a lack of proofs, either verbal or written, disputants have resort to
1 So R, other mss. ἱερώτατον : Cohn proposes as an alter- native «κάλλιον», ἱερώτατον agreeing with φῶς.
75
136
137
138
139
140
PHILO
Tupas καταφεύγουσιν ot Tas ἀμφισβητήσεις ἔχοντες, ὧν τὰ ῥήματα κανόνες εἰσὶ τοῖς δικασταῖς περὶ ὧν μέλλουσιν ἀποφαίνεσθαι: μόνοις γὰρ τούτοις ἐπανέχειν ἀνάγκη, μηδενὸς ὄντος ἕτέρου τῶν εἰς ἔλεγχον" ἐξ οὗ συμβαίνει, τοὺς μὲν καταμαρτυρου- μένους ἀδικεῖσθαι νικᾶν δυναμένους, τοὺς δὲ προσέχοντας δικαστὰς ἀδίκους καὶ παρανόμους
141 ψήφους ἀντὶ νομίμων καὶ δικαίων γράφειν. τὸ μέντοι. πανούργημα φθάνει καὶ πρὸς ἀσέβειαν' οὐ γὰρ ἀνωμότοις δικάζειν ἔθος, ἀλλὰ. μετὰ φρικω- δεστάτων ὅρκων, οὗς παραβαίνουσι πρὸ τῶν ἀπατωμένων οἱ φενακίζοντες, ἐπειδὴ τῶν μὲν τὸ σφάλμα οὐ κατὰ γνώμην, οἱ δ᾽ ἐπιστήμῃ κατα- στρατηγοῦσι καὶ ἐκ προνοίας ἁμαρτάνοντες καὶ τοὺς κυρίους τῆς ψήφου συνεξαμαρτάνειν ἀνα- πείθοντες οὐκ εἰδότας ὃ δρῶσιν ἐπὶ τιμωρίᾳ τῶν
[204] οὐδεμιᾶς ἀξίων κολάσεως. | διὰ μὲν δὴ ταῦτά μοι δοκεῖ ψευδομαρτυρίαν ἀπειπεῖν.
142 XXVIII. Τελευταῖον δ᾽ ἐπιθυμεῖν ἀπαγορεύει VEWTEPOTOLOV Kal “ἐπίβουλον τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν εἰδώς. πάντα μὲν γὰρ τὰ ψυχῆς πάθη χαλεπά, κινοῦντα καὶ σείοντα αὐτὴν παρὰ φύσιν καὶ ὑγιαίνειν οὐκ ἐῶντα, χαλεπώτατον δ᾽ ἐπιθυμία: διὸ' τῶν μὲν ἄλλων ἕκαστον θύραθεν ἐπεισιὸν καὶ προσπῖπτον
1 Perhaps read, as Cohn later, διότι. See note d.
α 4.¢e. the jurymen.
> Perhaps understand the jurymen, but the salons of § 91 points rather to ‘‘ oaths.”’
¢ It will be seen that Philo extends the meaning of the word from covetousness of what is another’s to desire in general, and this enables him to enter on a disquisition on the four passions of the Stoics. Driver notes that the Hebrew
76
THE DECALOGUE, 140-142
witnesses whose words are taken by the jurymen as standards in determining the verdicts they are about
to give, since they are obliged to fall back on these |
alone if there is no other means of testing the truth. The result is that those against whom the testimony is given suffer injustice when they might have won their case, and the judges who listen to the testimony record unjust and lawless instead of just and lawful votes. In fact, the knavery of the action amounts to impiety, for it is the rule that jurymen must be put on their oaths and indeed oaths of the most terrific character which are broken not so much by the vic- tims 5 as by the perpetrators of the deception, since the former do not err intentionally, while the latter with full knowledge set the oaths at nought.2 They deliberately sin themselves and persuade those who have control of the voting to share their sin and, though they know not what they do, punish persons who deserve no chastisement. It was for these reasons, I believe, that He forbade false witness. XXVIII. The last commandment is against covet- ousness or desire ὁ which he knew to be a subversive and insidious enemy. For all the passions of the soul which stir and shake it out of its proper nature and do not let it continue in sound health are hard to deal with, but desire is hardest of all. And therefore ὁ while each of the others seems to be involuntary, an
word also is general and only gets its bad sense from the context. For some analogies with Stoic phraseology see App. p. 612.
@ The logic of **therefore’’ is not at all: clear ; ; neither, however, is Cohn’s later substitute of ‘‘ because.”’ Perhaps however χαλεπά may be taken=“ baneful”’ or “evil,” and Philo is, as so often, insisting on the difference in guilt be- tween voluntary and involuntary sins.
V7
PHILO
Ὺ > / Φ A 4 3 3 ’ \ ἔξωθεν ἀκούσιον εἶναι δοκεῖ, μόνη δ᾽ ἐπιθυμία τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐξ ἡμῶν αὐτῶν λαμβάνει καὶ ἔστιν ἑκούσιος.
τί δ᾽ ἐστὶν ὃ λέγω; τοῦ παρόντος καὶ
’ 3 “A 4 4 \
νομισθέντος ἀγαθοῦ φαντασία διεγείρει καὶ διαν- ίστησι τὴν ψυχὴν ἠρεμοῦσαν καὶ σφόδρα μετέωρον 9 / 4 3 4 ἐξαίρει καθάπερ ὀφθαλμοὺς φῶς ἀναστράψαν" καλεῖται δὲ τουτὶ τὸ πάθος αὐτῆς ἡδονή.
, Qo 9 ’ 9 ms / ¢ ἢ , 1 144 τὸ δ᾽ ἐναντίον ἀγαθῷ κακόν, ὅταν εἰσβιασάμενον
’ \ πληγὴν ἐπενέγκῃ καίριον, συννοίας καὶ κατηφείας εὐθὺς αὐτὴν ἀναπίμπλησιν ἄκουσαν: ὄνομα δὲ
145 [καὶ] τούτῳ τῷ πάθει λύπη. ὅταν δὲ
τὸ κακὸν μήπω μὲν εἰσῳκισμένον θλίβῃ, μέλλῃ δ᾽ ἀφικνεῖσθαι καὶ παρευτρεπίζηται, πτοίαν καὶ ἀγωνίαν, ἀποφράδας ἀγγέλους, προεκπέμπει δειμα- τοῦντας:" φόβος δὲ προσαγορεύεται τὸ πάθος. ἐπειδὰν δὲ λαβών τις ἔννοιαν ἀγαθοῦ μὴ παρόντος ὀρέγηται τυχεῖν αὐτοῦ, πρὸς μήκιστον τὴν ψυχὴν ἐλαύνων" καὶ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἐκτείνων, ψαῦσαι τοῦ ποθουμένου γλιχόμενος, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τροχοῦ κατατείνεται, σπεύδων μὲν συλλαβεῖν, ἐφικνεῖσθαι δ᾽ ἀδυνατῶν καὶ ταὐτὸν πεπονθὼς τοῖς τοὺς ἐξαναχωροῦντας διώκουσιν ἐλάττονι μὲν τάχει προθυμίᾳ δ᾽ ἀνανταγωνίστῳ. ὅμοιον δέ τι καὶ περὶ τὰς αἰσθήσεις ἔοικε συμ- βαίνειν. ὀφθαλμοί τε γὰρ πολλάκις ὁρατοῦ τινος πάνυ μακρὰν ἀφεστῶτος εἰς κατάληψιν ἐλθεῖν ἐπειγόμενοι, τείνοντες αὑτούς, εὖ μάλα καὶ πλέον τῆς δυνάμεως ἐνεχθέντες, ὦλισθον κατὰ κενοῦ περὶ τὴν ἀκριβῆ τοῦ ὑποκειμένου γνῶσιν σφαλέντες καὶ
1 So Cohn by a later correction for ἐκβιασάμενον, in which the prefix seems very inappropriate. One s. gives ἐμβ-. No
78
THE DECALOGUE, 142-147
extraneous visitation, an assault from outside, desire alone originates with ourselves and is voluntary.
What is it that [mean ? The presenta- tion to the mind of something which is actually with us and considered to be good, arouses and awakes the soul when at rest and like a light flashing upon the eyes raises it to a state of great elation. This sensa- tion of the soul is called pleasure. And when evil, the opposite of good, forces its way in and deals a home thrust to the soul, it at once fills it all against its will with depression and dejection. This sensation is called grief, or pain. When the evil thing is not yet lodged inside nor pressing hard upon us but is on the point of arriving and is making its preparation, it sends in its van trepidation and distress, messengers of evil presage, to sound the alarm. This sensation is called fear. But when a person conceives an idea of something good which is not present and is eager to get it, and propels his soul to the greatest distance and strains it to the greatest possible extent in his avidity to touch the desired object, he is, as it were, stretched upon a wheel, all anxiety to grasp the object but unable to reach so far and in the same plight as persons pur- suing with invincible zeal, though with inferior speed, others who retreat before them. We also find a similar phenomenon in the senses. The eyes are often eager to obtain apprehension of some very far off object. They strain themselves and carry on bravely and indeed beyond their strength,
143
144
145
146
147
then hit upon a void and there slip, failing to get —
an accurate knowledge of the object in question,
such verb is known to the dictionaries, but it has the analogy of ἐμβάλλω. 2 mss. ἐλαύνει. 79
148
PHILO
προσέτι τὴν ὄψιν τῷ βιαίῳ καὶ συντόνῳ τῆς ἀτενοῦς προσβολῆς ἀσθενήσαντες ἀἁμαυροῦνται.
καὶ. θροῦ πάλιν ἀσαφοῦς ἐκ μακροῦ διαστήματος φερομένου, τὰ ὦτα ἀνεγερθέντα καὶ ἐπουρίσαντα ἵ ἵεται καὶ σπεύδει προσελθεῖν εἰ οἷόν τε ἐγγυτέρω, πόθῳ τοῦ τρανωθῆναι ταῖς ἀκοαῖς
149 τὸν ἦχον" ὁ δ᾽ --ἔτι γὰρ ἀἁμαυρὸς ὡς ἔοικε προσ-
mimre.— οὐδὲν τῶν εἰς γνῶσιν τηλαυγέστερον ἐπιδίδωσιν, ὡς ἔτι μᾶλλον τὸν ἀνήνυτον καὶ ἀ- διεξίτητον ἐπιτείνεσθαι τοῦ καταλαβεῖν ἵμερον, Ταντάλειον τιμωρίαν ἐπιφερούσης τῆς ἐπιθυμίας" ἐκεῖνός τε “γὰρ ὧν ὀρεχθείη πάντων ὁπότε μέλλοι ψαύσειν, ἀπετύγχανεν, ὅ τε κρατηθεὶς ἐπιθυμίᾳ,
[206] | διψῶν ἀ ἀεὶ τῶν ἀπόντων, οὐδέποτε πληροῦται περὶ 160 κενὴν ἰλυσπώμενος τὴν ὄρεξιν. ὥσπερ τε τὰ
16)
ἑρπηνώδη τῶν νοσημάτων, εἰ μὴ προανακρουσθείη τομαῖς 7 καύσεσιν, ἐπιθέοντα σύμπασαν ἐν κύκλῳ καταλαμβάνει τὴν τοῦ σώματος κοινωνίαν οὐδὲν ἀπαθὲς μέρος ἐῶντα, οὕτως, εἰ μὴ λόγος ὁ κατὰ φιλοσοφίαν ἰατροῦ δίκην ἀγαθοῦ ῥέουσαν τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ἐπίσχοι, πάντ᾽ ἐξ ἀνάγκης τὰ τοῦ βίου πράγματα κινηθήσεται παρὰ φύσιν' οὐδὲν γάρ ἐστιν ὑπεξῃρημένον ὃ διαφεύγει τὸ πάθος, ἀλλ᾽ ὅταν ἄδειαν apy καὶ ἐκεχειρίαν, ἐπινέμεται. καὶ σίνεταιῦ πάντα διὰ πάντων. εὔηθες ἴ ἴσως μακρηγορεῖν ἐστι περὶ τῶν οὕτως ἐμφανῶν, ἃ ἃ τίς ἀνὴρ ἢ πόλις ἀγνοεῖ καθ᾽ ἑκάστην οὐχ ἡμέραν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ὥραν ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν ἔλεγχον ἐναργῆ παριστάντα; ; χρημάτων ἔρως ἢ γυναικὸς
ἢ δόξης ἢ τινος ἄλλου τῶν ἡδονὴν ἀπεργαζομένων
1 For text see App. p. 618. 2 MSS. eral: 80
THE DECALOGUE, 147-151
and furthermore they lose strength and their power of sight is dimmed by the intensity and violence of their steady gazing. And again when an in- distinct noise is carried from a long distance the ears are roused and pressed forward at high speed? and are eager to go nearer if they could, in their longing to have the sound made clear to the hearing. The noise however, whose impact evidently continues to be dull, does not shew any increase of clearness which might make it knowable, and so a still greater in- tensity is given to the ceaseless and indescribable longing for apprehension. For desire entails the punishment of Tantalus; as he missed everything that he wished for just when he was about to touch it, so the person who is mastered by desire, ever thirsting for what is absent remains unsatisfied, fumbling around his baffled appetite. And just as diseases of the creeping type, if not arrested in time by the knife or cautery, course round all that unites to make the body and leave no part uninjured, so unless philosophical reasoning, like a good physician, checks the stream of desire, all life’s affairs will be necessarily distorted from what nature prescribes. For there is nothing so secreted that it escapes from passion, which when once it finds itself in security and freedom spreads like a flame and works universal
]
1
μ
48
49
δ0
destruction. It may perhaps be foolish 15]
to dilate at this length on facts so obvious, for what man or city does not know that they provide clear proof of their truth, not only every day but almost every hour? Consider the passion whether for money or a woman or glory or anything else that produces
α For the use of ἐπουρίζω (here intransitive) see note on De Ab. 20 and Mos. i. 283.
VOL. VII G | 81
PHILO
Ss A A , » ἄρά γε μικρῶν καὶ τῶν τυχόντων αἴτιος γίνεται 152 κακῶν; οὐ διὰ τοῦτον' συγγένειαι μὲν ἀλλοτριοῦνται 4 \ > 4 τὴν φυσικὴν εὔνοιαν μεθαρμοζόμεναι πρὸς avnke- “" \ 4 στον ἔχθραν, χῶραι δὲ μεγάλαι καὶ πολυάνθρωποι A fon \ \ 4 στάσεσιν ἐμφυλίοις ἐρημοῦνται, γῆ δὲ καὶ θάλαττα “-- “ \ ~ πληροῦται τῶν καινουργουμένων αἰεὶ συμφορῶν 153 ’ 2 A aA An e A “EAA 4 ναυμαχίαις" καὶ πεζαῖς στρατιαῖς; ol yap ήνων Ἁ 4 4 e Ἁ \ \ LAA: Ar καὶ βαρβάρων πρός τε ἑαυτοὺς καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους 4 > \ A “A τραγῳδηθέντες πόλεμοι πάντες ἀπὸ μιᾶς πηγῆς ἐρρύησαν, ἐπιθυμίας ἢ ἢ χρημάτων ἢ δόξης ἢ ἡδονῆς" περὶ γὰρ ταῦτα κηραίνει τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος. 1[Ἀ ΧΧΙ͂Χ. Ἅλις μὲν δὴ τούτων. χρὴ δὲ μηδ᾽ > A > aA 4 e 4 4 4 4 ἐκεῖνο ἀγνοεῖν, ὅτι ot δέκα λόγοι κεφάλαια νόμων \ ~ > ὺ A / 3 a εἰσὶ τῶν ἐν εἴδει παρ᾽ ὅλην τὴν νομοθεσίαν ἐν Tats e A ’ὔ > 4 ἐ \ ~ ~ 155 ἱεραῖς βίβλοις ἀναγραφέντων. ὁ μὲν πρῶτος τῶν , & \ ~ 7 Δ “ περὶ μοναρχίας" οὗτοι δὲ δηλοῦσιν, ὅτι ἕν αἴτιον “- 4 ty \ @ e ~ τοῦ κόσμου Kal ἡγεμὼν καὶ βασιλεὺς εἷς ὁ ἡνιοχῶν “" ’ \ καὶ κυβερνῶν ta ὅλα σωτηρίως, ὀλιγαρχίαν ἢ > ’ > 4 ’ 4 3 ὀχλοκρατίαν, ἐπιβούλους πολιτείας φυομένας παρ > a ’ \ ἀνθρώποις τοῖς κακίστοις ἐξ ἀταξίας καὶ πλεον- , A “ εξίας, ἐξεληλακὼς ἐκ τοῦ καθαρωτάτου τῆς 3 ,ὔ 9 “- e \ 4 4 156 οὐσίας, οὐρανοῦ. ὁ δὲ δεύτερος κεφά- λαιόν ἐστι πάντων, ὅσα περὶ χειροκμήτων ἐνομο- a > θετεῖτο, ἀγάλματα καὶ ξόανα καὶ συνόλως ἀφ- / e \ \ \ \ ιδρύματα, ὧν γραφικὴ Kat πλαστικὴ βλαβεραὶ δημιουργοί, κατασκευάζειν οὐκ ἐῶν οὐδ᾽ ὅσα μύθων πλάσματα προσίεσθαι, θεογαμίαν καὶ θεο- \ \ > 4 e 4 > 4 [206] γονίαν καὶ τὰς ἀμφοτέραις ἑπομένας | ἀμυθήτους 1 MSS. τοῦτο. 2 Cohn (in note to Treitel’s translation) vavpayixais. But,
82
THE DECALOGUE, 151-156
pleasure: are the evils which it causes small or casual? Is it not the cause why kinsmen become estranged and change their natural goodwill to deadly hatred, why great and populous countries are desolated by internal factions, and land and sea are filled with ever-fresh calamaties wrought b battles on sea and campaigns on land? For all the wars of Greeks and barbarians between themselves or against each other, so familiar to the tragic stage, are sprung from one source, desire, the desire for money or glory or pleasure. These it is that bring disaster to the human race.
XXIX. Enough on this subject, but also we must not forget that the Ten Covenants are summaries of the special laws which are recorded in the Sacred Books and run through the whole of the legislation. The first summarizes the laws on God’s monarchical rule. These laws declare that there is one First Cause of the World, one Ruler and King, Who guides the chariot and steers the bark of the universe in safety, and has expelled from the purest part of all that exists, namely heaven, those mischievous forms of government, oligarchy and mob-rule, which arise among the vilest of men, produced by dis- order and covetousness. The second sums up all the enactments made concerning the works of men’s hands. It forbids the making of images or wooden busts and idols in general produced by the baneful craftsmanship of painting and sculpture, and also the acceptance of fabulous legends about the marriages and pedigrees of deities and the number- less and very grave scandals associated with both
even if the word exists, which seems doubtful, I see no reason for the change.
83
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
PHILO
καὶ ἀργαλεωτάτας κῆρας. τῷ δὲ τρίτῳ ὑποστέλλει τά τε ἀνώμοτα πάντα καὶ ἐφ᾽ οἷς ὀμνύναι δεῖ καὶ ὁπότε καὶ ὅπου χρὴ καὶ τίνα καὶ πῶς ἔχοντα κατά τε ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα καὶ ὅσα ἐπ᾽ εὐόρκοις καὶ τοὐναντίον ἐχρήσ η.
XXX. Τὸ δὲ τέταρτον, τὸ περὶ τῆς ἑβδομάδος, οὐδὲν ἀλλ᾽ ἢ κεφάλαιον νομιστέον ἑορτῶν καὶ τῶν ιατεταγμένων εἰς ἑκάστην ἁγνευτικῶν, περιρραν- τηρίων τε αἰσίων καὶ ἐπηκόων εὐχῶν καὶ θυσιῶν τελείων, αἷς ἡ λατρεία ἐγίνετο. “ἑβδόμην δὲ λέγω καὶ τὴν σὺν ἑξάδι τῇ γονιμωτάτῃ καὶ τὴν ἄνευ ἑξάδος, ἐπιπροσθοῦσαν αὐτῇ, μονάδι ὁμοιουμένην, ὧν ἑκατέρᾳ τὰς ἑορτὰς παραριθμεῖ' μονάδι μὲν τήν τε ἱερομηνίαν, ἣν σά λπιγξιν ὑποσημαίνουσι, καὶ νηστείαν, ἐν ἡ σιτίων καὶ ποτῶν ἀποχὴ διείρηται, καὶ ἣν Ἑβραῖοι πατρίῳ γλώττῃ Πάσχα προσαγορεύουσιν, ἐν ἡ θύουσι πανδημεὶ αὐτῶν' ἕκαστος τοὺς ἱερεῖς αὐτῶν οὐκ ἀναμένοντες, ἱερωσύνην τοῦ νόμου χαρισαμένου τῷ ἔθνει παντὶ
1 Cohn suggests αὐτὸς on the ground that the stress lies on each man sacrificing himself.
@ Or “the number seven.”’ See App. p. 613.
δ Six is the most creative of numbers, because its factors 2 and 8 represent the odd (or male) and the even (or female) principle. See De Op. 13.
2 The seventh (or seven) which does not include six, seems to mean that in view of the mystical identity of seven and one (566 on § 102) a feast which occupies one day only may be regarded as coming under the law of the seventh day.
¢ Or perhaps ‘‘supersedes it.” The verb, derived from the adverb ἐπίπροσθεν, seems to be used of a thing which gets in front of something else and obscures it (Spec. Leg. iv. 52). So here the idea may be that the unit or monad does not need six to make it equivalent to seven.
84:
THE DECALOGUE, 157-159
of these. Under the third he includes directions as to all the cases where swearing is for- bidden and as to the time, place, matters, persons, state of soul and body which justify the taking of an oath, and all pronouncements concerning those who swear truthfully or the reverse.
XXX. The fourth, which treats of the seventh day,* must be regarded as nothing less than a gathering under one head of the feasts and the purifications ordained for each feast, the proper lustrations and the acceptable prayers and flawless sacrifices with which the ritual was carried out. By the seventh I mean both the seventh which includes the most creative of numbers, six,? and that which does not include it ¢ but takes precedence of it ὦ and resembles the unit. Both these are employed by him in reckoning the feast-times.° The unit is taken in the case of the holy-month-day*’ which they announce with trumpets, and the fast-day on which abstinence from food and drink is commanded, and the day called by the Hebrews in their own tongue the Pasch on which the whole people sacrifice, every member of them, without waiting for their priests, because the law has granted to the whole nation for
¢ The seven feasts which follow are enumerated again in Spec. Leg. ii. 41 and described at length in the following sections. ‘They appear there, however, in the order in which they occur in the year and are not classified according to the number of days observed. Also there are three which do not appear in this list, the Sabbath itself, the feast of ‘* Every Day ”’ and the monthly New Moon. The first of these is of course implied here, and the omission of the second is not unnatural, but it is curious that the New Moon should be left out. Has τὴν νουμηνίαν fallen out before τήν τε ἱερομηνίαν ?
7 Or opening of the holy month, see App. pp. 613-614.
85
157
158
159
PHILO
\1 , ε» 55 2 A A ” 9 Κατα pPlav μεραν ἐξαίρετον ανα πᾶν ΕεΕτος εις
9 ’ ~ \ »* \ > «a / 160 αὐτουργίαν θυσιῶν" καὶ ἔτι τὴν ἐν ἧ προσφέρεται
161
162
[207]
163
δράγμα χαριστήριον evyovias καὶ φορᾶς τῆς πε- διάδος δι᾽ ἀσταχύων πληρώσεως: καὶ τὴν ἀπὸ ταύ- της καταριθμουμένην ἑπτὰ ἑβδομάσι πεντηκοστὴν - ἡμέραν, ἐν ἧ προσάγειν ἄρτους ἔθος, ot καλοῦνται πρωτογεννημάτων ἐτύμως, ἐπειδήπερ εἰσὶν ἀπαρχὴ γεννημάτων καὶ καρπῶν ἡμέρου τροφῆς, ἣν ἀνθρώπῳ τῷ ἡμερωτάτῳ ζῴων ἀπένειμεν ὁ θεός. ἑβδομάδι δὲ τὰς μεγίστας καὶ πολυημέρους ἑορτὰς προσένειμε κατὰ τὰς τοῦ ἔτους ἰσημερίας, ἐαρινὴν καὶ μετοπωρινήν, δύο δυσὶν ἀναθείς, ἑκατέραν ἐφ᾽ ἡμέρας ἕπτά, τὴν μὲν κατὰ τὸ ἔαρ ἐπὶ τελειώσει τῶν σπειρομένων, τὴν δὲ μετοπωρινὴν ἐπὶ συγ- κομιδῇ καρπῶν ἁπάντων, οὗς καὶ τὰ δένδρα ἤνεγκεν. ἑπτὰ δ᾽ ἡμέραι ἀπενεμήθησαν εἰκότως ἑπτὰ μησὶ τῆς ἰσημερίας ἑκατέρας, ἵνα μὴν ἕκαστος λαμβάνῃ γέρας ἐξαίρετον μίαν ἱερὰν ἡμέραν: ἑορτώδη πρὸς εὐθυμίαν καὶ ἀπόλαυσιν ἐκεχειρίας. ἐμφέρονται δὲ καὶ ἄλλοι νόμοι πάνυ καλῶς τεθέντες, εἰς ἡμερότητα καὶ κοινωνίαν ἀτυφίαν τε καὶ ἰσότητα προκαλούμενοι: τούτων οἱ μέν εἰσι περὶ τοῦ λεγομένου ἑἕβδοματικοῦ," καθ᾽ ὃ διείρηται πᾶσαν ἀργὴν τὴν χώραν ἐᾶν μήτε σπείροντας μήτε ἀροῦντας μήτε δένδρα διακαθ- αίροντας ἢ τέμνοντας 7) ὅσ᾽ ἄλλα τῶν κατὰ γεωργίαν ἐπιτελοῦντας: ἕξ γὰρ ἐνιαυτοῖς τήν τε πεδιάδα
1 Mss. καὶ.
? Perhaps, as Mangey suggests, ἔτους (or ἐνιαυτοῦ) has fallen out. Ch. J osephus, Ant. xi. 8. 6 τὸ ἑβδοματικὸν ἔτος... . οὐδὲ yap αὐτοὺς σπείρειν ἐν αὐτῷ. But why add λεγομένου It sug-
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THE DECALOGUE, 159-163
one special day in every year the right of priest- hood and of performing the sacrifices themselves. Also the day on which a sheaf is brought as a thanksgiving for fertility and for the produce of the lowlands as shown in the full corn in the ear ; then by reckoning seven sevens after this the fiftieth day, when it is the custom to bring loaves the nature of which is properly described by their title of ‘‘ loaves of the first-products,” as they are the sample of the crops and fruits produced by civilized cultivation which God has assigned for his nourishment to man, the most civilized of living things. To seven he gives the chief feasts prolonged for many days, two feasts,* that is, for the two equinoxes, each lasting for seven days, the first in the spring to celebrate the ripeness of the sown crops, the second in the autumn for the ingathering of all the tree-fruits ; also seven days were naturally assigned to the seven months of each equinox,’ so that each month may have, as a special privilege, one festal day consecrated to cheerfulness and enjoyment of leisure. Other laws, too, come under the same head, admirable enactments exhort- ing men to gentleness and fellowship and simplicity and equality. Some of them deal with the hebdo- madal year, as it is called, in which the land is ordered to be left entirely idle without any sowing or plough- ing or purging or pruning of trees or any other opera- tion of husbandry. For when both the lowlands and
@ 2,6. Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles, but the latter had eight days. See Spec. Leg. ii. 211.
> According to the ordinary inclusive reckoning each equinox occurs in the 7th month after the preceding.
gests rather that the simple τὸ «83. had become a recognized phrase for the sabbatical year. 87
160
161
162
163
PHILO
καὶ τὴν ὀρεινὴν εἰς καρπῶν γένεσιν καὶ δασμῶν ἐτήσιον φορὰν πονηθείσας ἀνέσεως ἠξίωσε τοῦ ιαπνεῦσαι χάριν καὶ ἀπελευθεριάσαι 'χρησαμένας"
164 ἀνεπικελεύστῳ τῇ φύσει. ἕτεροι δ᾽ εἰσὶ περὶ τοῦ πεντηκοστοῦ ἔτους, ἐν ᾧ τά τε λεχθέντα ἀρτίως ἐπιτελεῖται καὶ-τὸ ἀναγκαιότατον.--τῶν κληρου- χιῶν ἀποκατάστασις εἰς τοὺς ἐξ ἀρχῆς λαχόντας οἴκους, πρᾶγμα φιλανθρωπίας καὶ δικαιοσύνης μεστόν.
165 XXXI. To δὲ πέμπτον, τὸ περὶ γονέων τιμῆς, πολλοὺς καὶ ἀναγκαίους νόμους ὑπαινίττεται, τοὺς ἐπὶ πρεσβύταις καὶ νέοις ἀναγραφέντας, τοὺς ἐπ᾽ ἄρχουσι καὶ ὑπηκόοις, τοὺς ἐπ᾽ εὐεργέταις καὶ εὖ πεπονθόσι, τοὺς ἐπὶ δούλοις καὶ δεσπόταις.
166 γονεῖς μὲν γὰρ ἐν τῇ κρείττονι τῶν εἰρημένων εἰσὶ τάξει, ἐν ἡ πρεσβύτεροι, ἡγεμόνες, εὐεργέται, δεσπόται, παῖδες δὲ ἐν τῇ καταδεεστέρᾳ, ἐν 4
167 νεώτεροι, ὑπήκοοι, εὖ πεπονθότες, δοῦλοι. πολλὰ δὲ καὶ ἄλλα προστέτακται, νέοις μὲν εἰς ἀποδοχὴν γήρως, πρεσβύταις δ᾽ εἰς ἐπιμέλειαν νεότητος, καὶ ὑπηκόοις μὲν εἰς πειθαρχίαν ἡγεμόνων, ἡγεμόσι δ᾽ εἰς ὠφέλειαν τῶν ἀρχομένων, καὶ εὖ μὲν πεπον- θόσιν εἰς χαρίτων ἀμοιβάς, ἄρξασι δὲ δωρεῶν εἰς τὸ μὴ ζητεῖν καθάπερ ἐν δανείοις ἀπόδοσιν, καὶ θεράπουσι μὲν εἰς ὑπηρεσίαν φιλοδέσποτον, δεσπό-
“ταῖς δ᾽ εἰς ἤἠπιότητα καὶ πρᾳότητα, δι᾽ ὧν ἐξισοῦται A 3 τὸ ἄνισον.
168 XXXII. Καὶ ἡ μὲν προτέρα πεντὰς ἐν τούτοις περατοῦται" κεφαλαιώδη τύπον περιέχουσα, τῶν δ᾽ ἐν εἴδει νόμων οὐκ ὀλίγος ἀριθμός. τῆς δ᾽ ἑτέρας
\ Ων
πρῶτόν ἐστι κεφάλαιον τὸ κατὰ μοιχῶν, ᾧ ὕὑπο-
[᾿ 1 MSS. χρησάμενος. 2 MSs. περαιοῦται.
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THE DECALOGUE, 163-168
the uplands have been worked for six years to bring forth fruits and pay their annual tribute, he thought well to give them a rest to serve as a breathing-space
in which they might enjoy the freedom of undirected nature. And there are other laws about the fiftieth 164 year which is marked not only by the course of action just related, but also by the restoration of inheritance
to the families which originally possessed them, a very necessary procedure abounding in humanity and justice.
XXXI. In the fifth commandment on honouring 165 parents we have a suggestion of many necessary laws drawn up to deal with the relations of old to young, rulers to subjects, benefactors to benefited, slaves to masters. For parents belong to the superior class 166 of the above-mentioned pairs, that which comprises seniors, rulers, benefactors and masters, while chil- dren occupy the lower position with juniors, subjects, receivers of benefits and slaves. And there are many 167 other instructions given, to the young on courtesy to the old, to the old on taking care of the young, to subjects on obeying their rulers, to rulers on pro- moting the welfare of their subjects, to recipients of benefits on requiting them with gratitude, to those who have given of their own initiative on not seek- ing to get repayment as though it were a debt, to servants on rendering an affectionate loyalty to their masters, to masters on showing the gentleness and kindness by which inequality is equalized.
XXXII. The first set having each of them the form 168 of a summary contains these five and no more, while the number of the special laws is considerable. In the other set the first head is that against adultery,
89
PHILO
τέτακται πλεῖστα διατάγματα, TO κατὰ φθορέων, τὸ κατὰ παιδεραστῶν, τὸ κατὰ τῶν λαγνίστερον βιούντων ὁμιλίαις τε καὶ μίξεσιν ἐκνόμοις καὶ
169 ἀκολάστοις χρωμένων. τὰς δὲ ἰδέας ἀναγέγραφεν
[208] οὐχ ὑπὲρ τοῦ μηνῦσαι τὸ | πολύχουν καὶ πολύτροπον τῆς ἀκρασίας, ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὲρ τοῦ τοὺς ἀσχημόνως ζῶντας ἐμφανέστατα δυσωπεῖν ἐπαντλοῦντα' τοῖς ὠσὶν αὐτῶν ἀθρόα ὀνείδη, δι᾿ ὧν ἐρυθριάσουσι.
170 δεύτερον δὲ κεφάλαιον ἡ τοῦ μὴ ἀνδροφονεῖν ἀπαγόρευσις, ὑφ᾽ ἥν εἰσι πάντες οἱ περὶ βιαίων, ὕβρεως, αἰκίας, τραυμάτων, πηρώσεως ἀναγκαῖοι νόμοι καὶ σφόδρα κοινωφελεῖς.
171 τρίτον δὲ τὸ περὶ τοῦ μὴ κλέπτειν, ᾧ ὑποτέτακται τὰ ἐπὶ χρεωκοπίαις ὁρισθέντα καὶ ἐξάρνοις παρα- καταθηκῶν καὶ ᾿ἀκοινωνήτῳ κοινωνίᾳ καὶ ἀναισ- χύντοις ἁρπαγαῖς καὶ συνόλως πλεονεξίαις, ὑφ᾽ ὧν πείθονταί τινες φανερῶς 7 λάθρα τἀλλότρια
172 Aries τέταρτον δὲ TO περὶ τοῦ μὴ ψευὸ ομαρτυρεῖν, ᾧ πολλὰ “ἐμφέρεται, τὸ μὴ ἀπατᾶν, τὸ μὴ συκοφαντεῖν, τὸ μὴ τοῖς ἐξαμαρ- τάνουσι συμπράττειν, τὸ μὴ ποιεῖσθαι προκάλυμμα πίστιν ἀπιστίας, ἐφ οἷς ἅπασι νόμοι. προσήκοντες
173 ἐτέθησαν. πέμπτον δὲ τὸ ἀνεῖργον τὴν τῶν ἀδικημάτων πηγήν, ἐπιθυμίαν, ἀφ᾽ ἧς ῥέουσιν at παρανομώταται πράξεις, ἴδιαι Kal κοιναί, μικραὶ καὶ μεγάλαι, ἱεραὶ καὶ βέβηλοι, περί τε σώματα
1. So Cohn for ms. ἐπαντλοῦντας. But strict grammar requires ἐπαντλῶν. " Mangey corrected to ἀνίεραι (dviepor?), ‘* neque sane actiones ἱεραὶ possunt ab impuro fonte cupiditatis profluere.”’
But an antithesis is clearly required and the deed may remain ‘‘ sacred’ though done from an impure motive.
¢ Τ understand this to refer to cases where a man repays a
90
)
THE DECALOGUE, 168-173
under which come many enactments against seducers and pederasty, against dissolute living and indulgence in lawless and licentious forms of intercourse. The characteristics of these he has described, not to show the multiform varieties which incontinence assumes, but to bring to shame in the most open way those who live a disreputable life by pouring into their ears a flood of reproaches calculated to make them blush. The second head forbids murder, and under it come the laws, all of them indispensable and of great public utility, about violence, insult, outrage, wounding and mutilation. ο. The third is that against stealing under which are included the decrees made against defaulting debtors, repudiations of deposits, partnerships which are not true to their name, shameless robberies and in general covetous feelings which urge men openly or secretly to appro- priate the possessions of others. The fourth against bearing false witness embraces many prohibitions. It forbids deceit, false accusation, co- operation with evil-doers and using honesty as a screen for dishonesty,? all of which have pece the subjects of appropriate laws. The fifth blocks that fount of injustice, aesice: from which flow the most iniquitous actions, public and private, small and great, dealing with things sacred or things profane, affecting bodies and souls and what
small sum or returns a small deposit in order to induce the other party to entrust him with something greater which he can embezzle. Philo has referred to this form of dishonesty in De Cher. 14 and De-Plant. 101. One would expect it to come under the head of stealing, but Philo notes it in Spec. Leg. iv. 67 under the ninth commandment. Possibly, how- ever, it may refer more generally to the false assumption of a truthful air.
91
169
170
171
172
173
PHILO
A \ A \ 4 3 4 ᾽ὔ \ καὶ ψυχὰς καὶ Ta λεγόμενα ἐκτός" διαφεύγει yap οὐδέν, ὡς καὶ πρότερον ἐλέχθη, τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν, > 9 4a ἢ 3 e , A , ἀλλ᾽ ofa φλὸξ ev ὕλῃ νέμεται δαπανῶσα πάντα
A 4 \ \ \ “ e 4
174 Kat φθείρουσα. πολλὰ δὲ καὶ τῶν ὑποπιπτόντων αὐτῇ διατέτακται πρός τε νουθεσίας ἐπανόρθωσιν ἐνδεχομένων καὶ πρὸς κόλασιν ἀφηνιαστῶν ὅλον τὸν βίον ἐνδεδωκότων τῷ πάθει.
175 ΧΧΧΠΙ. Τοσαῦτα καὶ περὶ τῆς δευτέρας πεντά- δος ἀποχρώντως λέλεκται πρὸς ἐκπλήρωσιν τῶν δέκα λογίων, ἅπερ ἱεροπρεπῶς “ἔχρησεν αὐτὸς ὁ θεός. ἦν γὰρ ἁρμόττον αὐτοῦ τῇ φύσει, κεφάλαια μὲν τῶν ἐν εἴδει “νόμων αὐτοπροσώπως θεσπίσαι, νόμους δὲ τοὺς ἐν τῷ μέρει διὰ τοῦ τελειοτάτου
“~ “~ a 3 τῶν προφητῶν, ὃν ἐπικρίνας ἀριστίνδην καὶ ἀνα- πλήσας ἐνθέου πνεύματος ἑρμηνέα τῶν χρησμῳ- δουμένων εἵλετο.
\ \ A , \ 27 2 ἃ ν 3
176 Μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα λέγωμεν τὴν αἰτίαν, δι᾽ ἣν τοὺς δέκα λόγους 7 νόμους ἀπεφήνατο ψιλαῖς προστάξεσι καὶ ἀπαγορεύσεσι κατὰ τῶν παραβησομένων, ὡς ἔθος νομοθέταις, μηδὲν ὁρίσας ἐπιτίμιον: θεὸς ἦν, εὐθὺς δὲ κύριος ἀγαθός, μόνων ἀγαθῶν αἴτιος,
A > 3 4 3 4 Oy e A e ~
177 κακοῦ δ᾽ οὐδενός. οἰκειότατον οὖν ὑπολαβὼν αὑτοῦ
τῇ φύσει τὰ σωτήρια κελεύειν ἀμιγῆ καὶ ἀμέτοχα
’ 3, 4 [209] τιμωρίας, ἵνα μή πως | φόβῳ τις ἄφρονι συμβούλῳ χρησάμενος ἄκων ἀλλ᾽ ἔμφρονι λογισμῷ καθ᾽
ἑκούσιον γνώμην αἱρῆται τὰ βέλτιστα, μετὰ
@ Or “fuel.”
> I do not think that Treitel and Mangey bring out the full sense of this. ‘The essential characteristic of God as θεός is goodness, cf. e.g. Spec. Leg. i. 307. It is in His other aspect of κύριος that He gives the commandments, and is indeed the κολαστικὴ δύναμις, but the goodness of θεός is so
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THE DECALOGUE, 173-177
are called external things. Tor nothing escapes de- sire, and as I have said before, like a flame in the forest, it spreads abroad and consumes and destroys everything. And there are many ordinances which come under this head intended for the admonition of those who are capable of reformation and the punishment of the rebellious who have made a life- . long surrender to passion.
XXXIII. This is all that need be said regarding the second five to complete our account of the ten oracles which God gave forth Himself as well befitted His holiness. For it was in accordance with His nature that the pronouncements in which the special laws were summed up should be given by Him in His own person, but the particular laws by the mouth of the most perfect of the prophets whom He selected for his merits and having filled him with the divine spirit, chose him to be the interpreter of His sacred utter- ances.
Next let us pass on to give the reason why He ex- pressed the ten words or laws in the form of simple commands or prohibitions without laying down any penalty, as is the way of legislators, against future transgressors. He was God, and it follows at once that as Lord ὃ He was good, the cause of good only and of nothing ill. So then He judged that it was most in accordance with His being to issue His saving commandments free from any admixture of punish- ment, that men might choose the best, not involun- tarily, but of deliberate purpose, not taking senseless fear but the good sense of reason for their counsellor.
far extended to κύριος that the execution of punishment, and indeed here the sentencing, is entrusted to subordinates. For a similar thought to this cf. De Fuga 66.
03
174
175
176
178
PHILO
κολάσεως οὐκ ἠξίωσε θεσπίζειν, οὐκ ἀουλίαν Tots ἀδικοπραγοῦσι διδούς, ἀλλ᾽ εἰδὼς τὴν πάρεδρον αὑτῷ δίκην καὶ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἔφορον πραγ- μάτων οὐκ ἠρεμήσουσαν ἅτε φύσει μισοπόνηρον καὶ ὥσπερ τι συγγενὲς ἔργον ἐκδεξομένην τὴν κατὰ 4 », >
τῶν ἁμαρτανόντων ἄμυναν. ἐμπρεπὲς γὰρ ὑπ- ηρέταις μὲν καὶ ὑπάρχοις θεοῦ καθάπερ τοῖς πολέμου στρατηγοῖς ἐπὶ λιποτάκταις ot λείπουσι τὴν τοῦ δικαίου τάξιν ἀμυντηρίοις χρῆσθαι, τῷ δὲ μεγάλῳ βασιλεῖ τὴν κοινὴν ἀσφάλειαν ἐπιγεγράφθαι τοῦ παντός, εἰρηνοφυλακοῦντι καὶ τὰ τῆς εἰρήνης ἀγαθὰ πάντα τοῖς πανταχοῦ πᾶσιν ἀεὶ πλουσίως καὶ ἀφθόνως χορηγοῦντι: τῷ γὰρ ὄντι ὁ μὲν θεὸς πρύτανις εἰρήνης, οἵ ὑποδιάκονοι πολέμων ἡγεμόνες εἰσίν.
04
THE DECALOGUE, 177-178
He therefore thought right not to couple punishment with His utterances, though He did not thereby grant immunity to evil-doers, but knew that justice His assessor, the surveyor of human affairs, in virtue of her inborn hatred of evil, will not rest, but take upon herself as her congenital task the punishment of sinners. For it befits the servants and lieutenants of 178 God, that like generals in war-time they should bring vengeance to bear upon deserters who leave the ranks of justice. But it befits the Great King that the general safety of the universe should be ascribed to Him, that He should be the guardian of peace and supply richly and abundantly the good things of peace, all of them to all persons in every place and at every time. For indeed God is the Prince of Peace while His subalterns are the leaders in war.
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THE SPECIAL LAWS (DE SPECIALIBUS LEGIBUS)
VOL. VII H
INTRODUCTION TO DE SPECIALIBUS LEGIBUS, I
This treatise opens with a discussion of circumcision and its hygienic value (1-7), followed by its allegorical interpreta- tion as signifying the excision of voluptuousness and conceit (8-11). The treatment of the First Commandment which follows (12-20) is much on the lines of that in De Dec., as also is that of the Second (21-31) with the addition that it inter- prets “‘idols’’ symbolically also, as representing the vain things, such as wealth, which humanity worships.
In 32-35 the proof of God’s existence, and in 36-50 the value of meditation on the Divine nature, inscrutable though it is, are set forth. While proselytes are to be welcomed, apostates must be put to death without mercy, as in the story of Phinehas (51-57). The prohibition of divination and like practices, for which the prophetic gift is the divinely-assigned substitute, concludes what he has to say about the laws which inculcate a proper conception of God (58-65). The rest of the treatise down to 298 is concerned with regulations of worship.
These begin with the Temple itself; the reasons that there is but one (66-70), a general description of it (71-75), its revenues (76-78) ; then the priests and Levites, the bodily qualifications required of them (79-81), their dress (82-83), and that of the high priest with the spiritual lessons sym- bolized by it (84-97), their abstinence from intoxicants while officiating (98-100), rules about their marriage, including some special rules applying only to the high priest (101-111), restrictions as to contact with dead bodies (112-116), and use of the sacrificial meats (117-130).
The revenues of the priests consist partly of tithes, including the ransom of the first-born (131-144), and the portions of the sacrifices allotted to them (145-155), similarly the revenues of the Levites or temple-attendants include the tithes as well as their forty-eight cities (156-161).
The animals allowed for sacrifices are doves, pigeons, sheep, goats, and oxen, all of which must be flawless (162- 167). ‘The various offerings follow as prescribed, daily or on the Sabbath (168-176), on the new moons (177-179), on the other feasts (180-189). There is also required on each occasion a he-goat as a Sin-offering (190-193). These sacri- fices may be classified as (a) whole-burnt-offerings, (δ) ‘preservation”’ (or ‘‘peace”’) offerings, (c) sin-offerings
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THE SPECIAL LAWS, I
(194-197). ‘The first class, whose motive is the honouring of God, is described in detail with full explanation of its symbolism (198-211). So, too, the second, which is a prayer for human betterment, with some reflections on the signi- ficance of the parts of the victim (212-223), and on a sub- division of them called ‘“‘ praise-offering’’ (224-225). The third, the sin-offering, which asks for pardon of the past, varies with the class of person offering it and whether the sin is voluntary or involuntary (226-246). Finally, we have an account of the special case of the Nazirite or ‘* great”? vow in which the offering of the Self partakes of the nature of all the three described above (247-254), In all these the offering has been given by laymen, but the priests also must make their oblation of fine flour (255-256).
What is required of the worshipper himself? Purity of soul (257-260), also of the body, but the method used of sprinkling with hyssop dipped in water poured on the ashes of a heifer is really a symbol of soul-purification (261-272). The same is shown by the superiority assigned to the altar of incense as against that on which animals are immolated (273- 279), and by the prohibition of bringing the harlot’s hire into the temple (280-284), and the high qualities required in the altar of the worshipper’s soul are shown by the fire maintained on the altar (285-288), and the order that salt should always and honey and leaven never be used in the oblation (289-295). The next point, that the lamp on the sacred candlestic is to be kept alight all night as a thank-offering for the blessings of sleep seems somewhat irrelevant (296-298).
The spiritual lessons given above are all conveyed in the form of symbolical ritual. We pass on to the exhortations to virtue given in Deuteronomy (299-318). This leads him on to ibid. xxiii. 18, which he understands to be directed against “mysteries”? as opposed to open preaching of righteousness (319-323), and then to ibid. 1-3, where various classes are ex- cluded from the congregation (324-326).
A long allegory concludes the treatise. The five classes which he finds there symbolized are (a) the deniers of the Platonic Forms or Ideas (327-329), (6) atheists (330), (c) poly- theists (331-332), (d) those who honour the human mind (333-336), or (46) human senses (337-343), rather than God, to whom the true disciple of Moses looks (344-345).
For Cohn’s Numeration of Chapters see Gen. Int. p. xvii.
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ΠΕΡῚ ΤΩΝ EN MEPEI ΔΙΑΤΑΓΜΑΤΩΝ
ΠΕΡῚ TON ANA®EPOMENON ἘΝ EIAEI NOMON ΕἸΣ AYO KE®AAATA TON AEKA - ΛΟΓΊΩΝ, TO TE MH NOMIZEIN EHO TOY ΕΝΟΣ @®EOYX ETEPOYX AYTOKPATEI® KAI TO MH XBEIPOKMHTA ΘΕΟΠΛΑΣ- TEIN
[210] \ \ 4 “- 3 3 4 e
1 1. Ta μὲν γένη τῶν ev εἴδει νόμων, ot mpocayo- ρευόμενοι δέκα λόγοι, διὰ τῆς προτέρας ἠκρίβωνται συντάξεως, τὰ δ᾽ ἐν μέρει διατάγματα κατὰ τὴν τῆς γραφῆς ἀκολουθίαν νῦν ἐπισκεπτέον. ἄρξομαι δ᾽
9 ἀπὸ τοῦ γελωμένου παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς. γελᾶται δὲ ἡ τῶν γεννητικῶν περιτομή. πρᾶγμα σπουδαζό- μενον οὐ μετρίως καὶ παρ᾽ ἑτέροις ἔθνεσι καὶ μάλιστα τῷ Αἰγυπτιακῷ, ὃ καὶ πολυανθρωπότατον καὶ ἀρχαιότατον καὶ φιλοσοφώτατον εἶναι δοκεῖ.
8 παρὸ καὶ προσῆκον ἦν παιδικὴν χλεύην μεθεμένους φρονιμώτερον καὶ σεμνότερον ἀναζητῆσαι τὰς αἷ-
@ Or “ gods with absolute powers,’ > see § 13.
> In the mss. this chapter is headed epi περιτομῆς.
¢ Or (as Mangey and Heinemann) “in the order indicated in the scriptures,” ¢.e. though the laws are not actually grouped in the Pentateuch τῆι ἈΝ the Ten Commandments, such an order is suggested by the Decalogue. γραφή, how- ever, in this sense seems to be regularly coupled with ἱερά.
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THE SPECIAL LAWS BOOK I
ON THE SPECIAL LAWS WHICH FALL UNDER THE TWO HEADS OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, ONE OF WHICH IS DIRECTED AGAINST THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF OTHER SOVEREIGN GODS®% SAVE THE ONE, AND THE OTHER AGAINST GIVING HONOURS TO THE WORKS OF MEN’S HANDS
I. >The Ten Words, as they are called, the main heads under which are summarized the Special Laws, have been explained in detail in the preceding treatise. We have now, as the sequence of our dis- sertation ° requires, to examine the particular ordin- ances. I will begin with that which is an object of ridicule among many people. Now the practice which is thus ridiculed, namely the circumcision of the genital organs, is very zealously observed by many other nations, particularly by the Egyptians, a race regarded as pre-eminent for its populousness, its antiquity and its attachment to philosophy. And therefore it would be well for the detractors to desist from childish mockery and to inquire in a wiser and more serious spirit into the causes to which the For the meaning given in the translation cf. De Hbr. 1, De
Som. i. 1. ὦ For circumcision in Egypt see App. p. 615.
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Tias, ὧν χάριν ἐκράτησε τὸ ἔθος, καὶ μὴ προεξανα- στάντας καταγινώσκειν μεγάλων ἐθνῶν εὐχέρειαν, λ 4 e 3 ’ 1 ᾽ὔ (ὃ θ᾽ [211] λογιζομένους, ὡς εἰκός, τοσαύτας | μυριάδας κα ἑκάστην γενεὰν ἀποτέμνεσθαι, μετὰ χαλεπῶν ἀλ- ~ \ ~ γηδόνων ἀκρωτηριαζούσας τά τε ἑαυτῶν καὶ τῶν 3 4 . ’ Ἁ 9- > \ οἰκειοτάτων σώματα, πολλὰ δ᾽ εἶναι τὰ προ- “- “- “-. \ τρέποντα τὴν εἰσήγησιν τῶν παλαιῶν διατηρεῖν καὶ 3 A \ 9 > / 4 Δ 4 ἐπιτελεῖν, τὰ δ᾽ ἀνωτάτω TETTAPA’ ἕν \ a / \ , , 2 5 μὲν χαλεπῆς νόσου καὶ δυσιάτου, ποσθένης," ἀπ- ’ “ 5 A > \ lon 4 3 αλλαγήν, ἣν ἄνθρακα καλοῦσιν, ἀπὸ τοῦ καίειν ἐν- τυφόμενον, ὡς οἶμαι, ταύτης τῆς προσηγορίας τυ- χόντα, ὅπερ εὐκολώτερον τοῖς ἀκροποσθίας ἔχουσιν > 4 4 Ἁ Ἁ 9 Ψ “ ’ 5 ἐγγίνεται" δεύτερον δὲ τὴν St ὅλου τοῦ σώματος Pi καθαριότητα πρὸς TO ἁρμόττον τάξει ἱερωμένῃ, παρὸ καὶ ξυρῶνται τὰ σώματα προσυπερβάλλοντες e 9 3 ’ὔ “σ᾿ e 4 e V4 \ 3 οἱ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τῶν ἱερέων" ὑποσυλλέγεται γὰρ καὶ e 4 \ \ \ 4 ” ~ 3 ὑποστέλλει καὶ θριξὶ καὶ ποσθίαις ἔνια τῶν ὀφει- ’ 4 4 \ \ \ [4 6 λόντων καθαίρεσθαι: τρίτον δὲ τὴν πρὸς καρδίαν ὁμοιότητα τοῦ περιτμηθέντος μέρους: πρὸς γὰρ γένεσιν ἄμφω παρεσκεύασται, τὸ μὲν ἐγκάρδιον “-Ἠο 4 , πνεῦμα νοημάτων, τὸ δὲ γόνιμον ὄργανον ζῴων"
1 So Cohn with some ss. in preference to the ὡς οὐκ εἰκὸς of the better mss. This would mean “‘ reflecting that it is not likely that so many nations would,” etc. (without some good reason). But this last can hardly be understood, and Mangey suggests the insertion of μάτην.
2 Perhaps, as Cohn suggests, read πόσθης. See Hermes, 1908, p. 185. The suggestion of ποσθαίνης (H. Grégoire, Hermes, 1909, p. 319) is open to the objection that the names
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THE SPECIAL LAWS, I. 3-6
persistence of this custom is due, instead of dismissing the matter prematurely and impugning the good sense of great nations. Such persons might natur- ally reflect that all these thousands in every genera- tion undergo the operation and suffer severe pains in mutilating the bodies of themselves and their nearest and dearest, and that there are many circum- stances which urge the retention and performance of a custom introduced by the men of old. The principal reasons are four in number. One 4 is that it secures exemption from the severe and almost incurable malady of the prepuce called anthrax or carbuncle, so named, I believe, from the slow fire @ which it sets up and to which those who retain the foreskin are more susceptible. Secondly, it pro- motes the cleanliness of the whole body as befits the consecrated order, and therefore the Egyptians carry the practice to a further extreme and have the bodies of their priests shaved. For some substances which need to be cleared away collect and secrete themselves both in the hair and the foreskin. Thirdly, it assimilates ὃ the circumcised member to the 6 heart. For as both are framed to serve for genera- tion, thought being generated by the spirit force in the heart,° living creatures by the reproductive organ,
Ct
α Or “inward and secret fire.”’ Lit. ‘‘ burns smouldering.” Heinemann less accurately, I think, “ stark brennt.’”” Mangey ‘* urit cum inflammatione.”’
δ Lit. “the likeness,” not meaning that they are naturally alike, but that they are made so by circumcision, for ὁμοιότητα, like ἀπαλλαγήν and καθαριότητα above, must give the result of the process.
¢ See App. p. 615.
of diseases in -a:va, like φλύκταινα and γάγγραινα, do not seem to be formed like the names in -ἰτὶς from the part attacked. The text is very confused in the different mss.
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PHILO
ἐδικαίωσαν yap οἱ πρῶτοι τῷ ἀφανεῖ καὶ κρείττονι, du οὗ τὰ νοητὰ συνίσταται, τὸ ἐμφανὲς καὶ ὁρατόν, ᾧ τὰ αἰσθητὰ γεννᾶσθαι πέφυκεν, ἐξομοιῶσαι" τέταρτον δὲ καὶ ἀναγκαιότατον τὴν πρὸς πολυγονίαν παρασκευήν' λέγεται γὰρ ὡς εὐοδεῖ τὸ σπέρμα μήτε σκιδνάμενον μήτε περιρρέον εἰς τοὺς τῆς ποσθίας κόλπους" ὅθεν καὶ τὰ περιτεμνόμενα τῶν ἐθνῶν πολυγονώτατα καὶ πολυανθρωπότατα εἶναι δοκεῖ.
II. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν εἰς ἀκοὰς ἦλθε τὰς ἡμετέρας, ἀρχαιολογούμενα παρὰ θεσπεσίοις ἀνδράσιν, οἱ τὰ Μωυσέως οὐ παρέργως διηρεύνησαν. ἐγὼ δὲ πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις καὶ σύμβολον ἡγοῦμαι τὴν περι- τομὴν δυοῖν εἶναι τοῖν ἀναγκαιοτάτοιν" ἑνὸς μὲν ἡδονῶν ἐκτομῆς, at καταγοητεύουσι διάνοιαν' ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τὰ νικητήρια φέρεται τῶν ἐν ἡδοναῖς diAtpwv ἡ ἀνδρὸς πρὸς γυναῖκα συνουσία, τὸ ὑπηρετοῦν ταῖς τοιαύταις ὁμιλίαις ὄργανον ἀκρωτη- ριάζειν ἔδοξε τοῖς νομοθέταις, αἰνιττομένοις περι- τομὴν. περιττῆς ἐκτομὴν καὶ πλεοναζούσης ἡδονῆς, οὐ μιᾶς, ἀλλὰ διὰ μιᾶς τῆς βιαστικωτάτης καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπασῶν" ἑτέρου δὲ τοῦ γνῶναί τινα ἑαυτὸν καὶ τὴν βαρεῖαν νόσον, οἴησιν, ψυχῆς ἀπώσασθαι: ἔνιοι γὰρ ὡς ἀγαθοὶ ζῳοπλάσται ζῴων τὸ κάλλιστον, ἄνθρωπον, ηὔχησαν δύνασθαι δη- μιουργεῖν καὶ φυσηθέντες ὑπ᾽ ἀλαζονείας ἑαυτοὺς ἐξεθείωσαν, τὸν ὡς ἀληθῶς αἴτιον γενέσεως ὄντα θεὸν παρακαλυψάμενοι, Kaitou γε ἐκ τῶν συνήθων
@ Lit. ‘‘ For the earliest men.”” Here as often in Philo γάρ refers to the sentence before the last, and gives the reason why they adopted circumcision. For the attribution of wisdom to the πρῶτοι ef. De Dec. 23 σοφοὶ yap ἦσαν, though there, as in De Op. 133, it is concerned with the giving of names to things. In De Plant. 49 it is as here more general.
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the earliest men held that the unseen and superior element to which the concepts of the mind owe their existence should have assimilated to it the visible and apparent, the natural parent of the things perceived by sense. The fourth and most vital reason is its adaptation to give fertility of offspring, for we are told that it causes the semen to travel aright without being scattered or dropped into the folds of the fore- skin, and therefore the circumcised nations appear to be the most prolific and-populous.
II. These are the explanations handed down to us from the old-time studies of divinely gifted men who made deep research into the writings of Moses. To these I would add that I consider circumcision to be a symbol of two things most necessary to our well- being. One is the excision of pleasures which be- witch the mind. For since among the love-lures of pleasure the palm is held by the mating of man and woman, the legislators thought good to dock the organ which ministers to such intercourse, thus making circumcision the figure of the excision of excessive ὃ and superfluous pleasure, not only of one pleasure but of all the other pleasures signified by one, and that the most imperious. The other reason is that a man should know himself and banish from the soul the grievous malady of conceit. For there are some who have prided themselves on their power of fashioning as with a sculptor’s cunning the fairest of creatures, man, and in their braggart pride assumed godship, closing their eyes to the Cause of all that comes into being, though they might find
ὃ The equation of περιτομή with περιττῆς ἐκτομή is of course an intentional play upon words; or even perhaps an etymology.
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1l ἐπανορθώσασθαι τὴν ἀπάτην δυνάμενοι": πολλοὶ μὲν γὰρ παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς εἰσιν ἄνδρες ἄγονοι, πολλαὶ δὲ στεῖραι γυναῖκες, ὧν ἀτελεῖς αἱ ὁμιλίαι καταγηρα- σάντων ἐν ἀπαιδίᾳ. πονηρὰν οὖν δόξαν ἐκτμητέον τῆς διανοίας καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ὅσαι μὴ φιλόθεοι.
12 Τούτων μὲν δὴ πέρι τοσαῦτα" τρεπτέον δ᾽ ἐπὶ τοὺς κατὰ μέρος ἤδη νόμους καὶ πρώτους, ἀφ᾽ ὧν
[213] ἄρχεσθαι καλόν, τοὺς περὶ μοναρχίας ὁρισθέντας.
13 , ΠΙ. Τινὲς ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους
ἀστέρας ὑπέλαβον εἶναι θεοὺς αὐτοκράτορας, οἷς
τὰς τῶν γινομένων ἁπάντων αἰτίας ἀνέθεσαν.
Μωυσεῖ δ᾽ ὁ κόσμος ἔδοξεν εἶναι καὶ γενητὸς καὶ
καθάπερ πόλις ἡ μεγίστη, ἄρχοντας ἔχουσα καὶ
ὑπηκόους, ἄρχοντας μὲν τοὺς ἐν οὐρανῷ πάντας ὅσοι πλάνητες καὶ ἀπλανεῖς ἀστέρες, ὑπηκόους δὲ τὰς μετὰ σελήνην ἐν ἀέρι καὶ περιγείους φύσεις" 14 τοὺς δὲ λεχθέντας ἄρχοντας οὐκ αὐτεξουσίους, ἀλλ᾽ ἑνὸς τοῦ πάντων πατρὸς ὑπάρχους, οὗ μιμουμένους τὴν ἐπιστασίαν κατορθοῦν πρυτανεύοντος κατὰ δίκην καὶ νόμον ἕκαστον τῶν γεγονότων" τοὺς δὲ μὴ βλέποντας τὸν ἐπιβεβηκότα ἡνίοχον τοῖς ὑπ- εζευγμένοις ὡς αὐτουργοῖς τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ γινο- 15 μένων ἀνάψαι τὰς αἰτίας. ὧν τὴν ἄγνοιαν ὁ ἱερώτατος νομοθέτης εἰς “ἐπιστήμην μεθαρμόζεται λέγων ὧδε" ᾿ἣ μὴ ἰδὼν τὸν ἥλιον. καὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας καὶ πάντα τὸν κόσμον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ
1 The variant πρυτανεύοντας is adopted by Heinemann, but see § 207.
* At this point the mss. insert the heading Οἱ περὶ μοναρχίας νόμοι, ἐ.6.. the laws about the sole sovereignty (of God), and the chapters which follow down to the end of § 65 are treated by
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in their familiars a corrective for their delusion. For in their midst are many men incapable of begetting and many women barren, whose matings are in- effective and who grow old childless. The evil belief, therefore, needs to be excised from the mind with any others that are not loyal to God.
So much for these matters. We must now turn to the particular laws, taking those first with which it is well to begin, namely those the subject of which is the sole sovereignty of God.
III. *Some have supposed that the sun and moon and the other stars were gods with absolute powers and ascribed to them the causation of all events. But Moses held that the universe was created and is in a sense the greatest of commonwealths, having magistrates and subjects ; for magistrates, all the heavenly bodies, fixed or wandering ; for subjects, such beings as exist below the moon, in the air or on the earth. The said magistrates, however, in his view have not unconditional powers, but are lieutenants of the one Father of All, and it is by copying the example of His government exercised according to law and justice over all created beings that they acquit themselves aright; but those who do not descry the Charioteer mounted above attribute the causation of all the events in the universe to the team that draw the chariot as though they were sole agents. From this ignorance our most holy lawgiver would convert them to knowledge with these words : “ Do not when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars and all the ordered host of heaven go astray and
Mangey and others as a separate treatise. Cohn observes this in his numeration of the chapters but not of the sections ; see Gen. Introd. p. xviii. .
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PHILO
πλανηθεὶς προσκυνήσῃς αὐτοῖς. εὐθυβόλως πάνυ καὶ καλῶς πλάνον εἶπε τὴν τῶν εἰρημένων ὡς θεῶν ἀποδοχήν. ot γὰρ ἰδόντες ἡλίου μὲν προσόδοις καὶ ἀναχωρήσεσι τὰς ἐτησίους ὥρας συνισταμένας, ἐν αἷς αἱ [ ζῴων καὶ φυτῶν καὶ καρπῶν γενέσεις ὡρισμέναις χρόνων περιόδοις τελεσφοροῦνται, σε- λήνην δ᾽ ὑπηρέτιν καὶ διάδοχον ἡλίου νύκτωρ τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν καὶ προστασίαν ἀνειληφυῖαν ὧν μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἥλιος, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀστέρας κατὰ τὴν πρὸς τὰ ἐπίγεια συμπάθειαν μυρία τῶν ἐπὶ διαμονῇ τοῦ παντὸς ἐνεργοῦντάς τε καὶ δρῶντας, πλάνον ἐπλανήθησαν ἀνήνυτον μόνους εἶναι τούτους θεοὺς ὑποτοπήσαντες. εἰ δ᾽ ἐσπούδασαν διὰ τῆς ἀ- πλανοῦς βαδίζειν ὁδοῦ, κἂν εὐθὺς ἔγνωσαν ὅτι, καθάπερ αἴσθησις ὑποδιάκονος νοῦ γέγονε, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ οἱ αἰσθητοὶ πάντες ὑπηρέται τοῦ νοητοῦ κατέστησαν, ἀγαπήσαντες εἰ δευτερείων
3 ’ 4 A 3) 4 ς \ “- ἐφίξονται. παγγέλοιον γὰρ οἴεσθαι, ὅτι ὁ μὲν νοῦς
3 A ~ ὁ ev ἡμῖν βραχύτατος ὧν καὶ ἀόρατος ἡγεμὼν τῶν > A > > A \