The Works of Philo (complete)

In the second place, in this instance something marvellous did take place ; for he was supposed to be carried off in such a way as to be invisible, for then he was not found : and a proof of this is, that he was sought for as being invisible, not only as having been carried away from their sight, since translation into another place is nothing else than a placing of a person in another situation ; but it is here suggested, that he was translated from a visible place, perceptible by the outward senses, into an incorporeal idea, appreciable only by the intellect. This mercy also was bestowed on the great prophet, for his sepulchre also was known to no one. And besides these two there -was another, Elijah, whc ascended from the things of earth into heaven, according to the divine appearance which was then presented to him, and who thus followed higher things, or, to speak with more exact propriety, was raised up to heaven. How it was that immediately upon the nativity of Noah his father says, " He will make us rest from labours and sorrows, and from the earth, which the Lord God has cursed ?"* 87.

The fathers of the saints did not prophesy except for grave reasons and on important occasions ; for although those who were rendered worthy of prophetical panegyric did not prophecy at all times or on all subjects, they did so at all events on one occasion and on one subject, with which they were acquainted. Nor is this of no importance, but it is an emblem and an example, since Noah is a kind of surname of righteousness, of which, when the intellect is made a partaker, it causes us to rest from all wicked works, and releases us from sorrows and from fears, and renders us secure and joyful. It also causes us to rest from that earthly nature which has been previously laid under a curse, which this body, when affected by pain, is connected with, especially in those persons who give cause for it, and who wear out their lives with pleasure. Nevertheless, if we examine attentively the events and circumstances, and compare them with the letter of the scriptures, the prophecy which has been already produced is deceived, because, in the time of this man, there did not arise any putting down of evils, but a more vehement obstinacy in sin and great afflictions, and the unprecedented event of the deluge.

But you must note carefully, that Noah is the tenth in generation from the earth-born Adam. What is meant by the three sons of Noah being named Shem, Ham, and Japhet?* 88. These names are the symbols of three human things, what is good, what is bad, and what is indifferent ; Shem is the symbol of what is good, Ham of what is bad, and Japhet of what is indifferent. Why from the time that the deluge drew near, the human race is said to have increased so as to become a multitude ? J 89. Divine mercies do always precede judgment ; since the first work of God is to do good, and to destroy follows afterwards ; but he himself (when terrible evils are about to happen) loves to provide and is accustomed to provide that previously an abundance of many and great blessings shall be produced. On this principle also Egypt, when there was about to be a barrenness and famine for seven years as the prophet himself says,* was for an equal number of years continuously made exceedingly fertile by the beneficent and saving power of the Creator of the universe.

And in the same way in which he showers benefits upon men, he also teaches them to depart and to abstain from sin ; that these blessings may not be turned into the contrary. And on this account now, by the freedom of their institutions, the cities of the world have increased in generous virtue, so that if any corruption supervenes subsequently they may disapprove of their own acts of wickedness as extraordinary and irremediable ; not at all looking upon the divinity as the cause of them, for that has no connection with wickedness or misery, for the task of the Deity is only to bestow blessings. What is the meaning of the expression, " My spirit shall not always strive with man, because he is but flesh? " t 90. An oracle is here promulgated as if it were a law ; for the divine spirit is not a motion of the air, but intellect and wisdom ; just as it also flows over the man who with great skill constructed the tabernacle of the Lord, namely upon Bezaleel, when the scripture says, " And he filled him with the divine spirit of wisdom and understanding."

Therefore that spirit comes upon men, but does not abide or persevere in them ; and the Lord himself adds the reason, wdien he says, " Because they are flesh." For the disposition of the flesh is inconsistent with wisdom, inasmuch as it makes a bond of alliance with desire ; on which account it is evident that nothing important can be in the way of incorporeal and light souls, or can be any hindrance to their discerning and comprehending the condition of nature, because a pure disposition is acquired together with constancy. Why it is said that the days of man shall be a hundred and twenty years ? J 91.

God appears here to fix the limit of human life by this number, indicating by it the manifold prerogative of honour ; for in the first place this number proceeds from the units, according to combination, from the number fifteen : but the principle of the number fifteen is that of a more transparent appearance, since it is on the fifteenth day that the moon is rendered full of light, borrowing its light of the sun at the approach of evening, and restoring it to him again in the morning ; so that during the night of the full moon the darkness is scarcely visible, but it is all light. In the second place, the number a hundred and twenty is a triangular number, and is the fifteenth number consisting of triangles. Thirdly, it is so because it consists of a combination of odd and even numbers, being contained by the power of the faculty of the concurring numbers, sixty-four and fifty-six ; for the equal number of sixty-four is compounded of the uniting of these eight odd numbers, one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen ; the reduction of which, by their parts into squares, makes a sum total of sixty-four, and that is a cube, and at the same time a square number.

But again from the seven double units there arises the unequal number of fifty-six, being compounded of seven double pairs, which generate other productions of them, two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen ; the sum total of which is fifty-six. In the fourth place, it is compounded of four numbers, of one triangle, namely fifteen ; and of another square, namely twenty-five ; and of a third quinquangular figure, thirty-five ; and of a fourth a sexangular figure forty-five, by the same analogy : for the fifth is always received according to each appearance ; for from the unity of the triangles the fifth number becomes fifteen ; again the fifth of the quadrangular number from the unit makes twenty-five ; and the fifth of the quinquangular number from the unit makes thirty-five ; and the fifth of the sexangular number from the unit makes forty-five. But every one of these numbers is a divine and sacred number, consisting of fifteens as has been already shown ; and the number twenty-five belongs to the tribe of Levi.* And the number thirty-five comes from the double diagram of arithmetic, geometry, and harmony ; but sixteen, and eighteen, and nineteen, and twenty-one, the combination of which numbers amounts to seventy-four, is that according to which seven months' children are born.

And forty-five consists of a triple diagram ; but to this number, sixteen, nineteen, twentytwo, and twenty-eight, belong : the combination of which makes eighty-five, according to which nine months' children are produced.

Fifthly, this diagram has fifteen parts, and a twofold composition, peculiarly belonging to itself ; forsooth when divided by two it gives sixty, the measure of the age of all mankind ; when divided by three it gives forty, the idea of prophecy ; when divided by four it gives thirty, a nation ; when divided by five, it makes twenty-four, the measure of day and night ; when divided by six, it gives twenty, a beginning ; when divided by eight, we have fifteen, the moon in the fulness of brilliancy ; when divided by ten, it makes twelve, the zodiac embellished with living animals ; when divided by twelve, it makes ten, holy ; when divided by fifteen, it gives eight, the first ark ; when divided by twenty, it leaves six, the number of creation ; when divided by twenty-four, it makes five, the emblem of the outward sense ; when divided by thirty it makes four, the beginning of solid measure ; when divided by forty, it gives three, the symbol of fulness, the beginning, the middle, and the end ; when divided by sixty, it makes two, which is woman ; and when divided by the whole number of a hundred and twenty, the product is one, or man.

And every one of all these numbers is more natural, as is proved in each of them, but the composition of them is twofold, for the product is two hundred and forty, which is a sign that it is worthy of a twofold life ; for as the number of years is doubled, so also we may imagine that the life is doubled too ; one being in connection with the body, the other being detached from the body, according to which every holy and perfect man may receive the gift of prophecy. Sixthly, because the fifth and sixth figures arise, the three numbers being multiplied together, three times four times five, since three times four times five make sixty ; so in like manner the next following numbers four times five times six make a hundred and twenty, for four times five times six make a hundred and twenty. Seventhly, when the number twenty has been taken in, which is the beginning of the reduction of mankind, I mean twenty, and being added to itself two or three times, so as to make twenty, forty, and sixty, these added together make a hundred and twenty.

But perhaps the number a hundred and twenty is not the general term of human life, but only of the life of those men who existed at that time, and who were to perish by the deluge after an interval of so many years, which their kind Benefactor prolonged, giving them space for repentance ; when, after the aforesaid term, they lived a longer time in the subsequent ages. On what principle it was that giants were born of angels and women ?* 92. The poets call those men who were born out of the earth giants, that is to say, sons of the earth. f But Moses here uses this appellation improperly, and he uses it too very often merely to denote the vast personal size of the principal men, equal to that of Hajkf or Hercules. But he relates that these giants were sprung from a combined procreation of two natures, namely, from angels and mortal women ; for the substance of angels is spiritual ; but it occurs every now and then that on emergencies occurring they have imitated the appearance of men, and transformed themselves so as to assume the human shape ; as they did on this occasion, when forming connexions with women for the production of giants.

But if the children turn out imitators of the wickedness of their mothers, departing from the virtue of their fathers, let them depart, according to the determination of the will of a depraved race, and because of their proud contempt for the supreme Deity, and so be condemned as guilty of voluntary and deliberate wickedness. But sometimes Moses style* the angels the sons of God. inasmuch as they were not produced by any mortal, but are incorporeal, as being spirits destitute of any body; or rather that exhorter and teacher of virtue, namely Moses, calls those + the Greek name riyag is said to be derived from yrj and yivvaw, " to bring forth." X Hajk is an addition of the Armenian translator ; it ie the name of a fabulous patriarch of the Armeuiaj na.ion. men who are very excellent and endowed with great virtue the sons of God ; and the wicked and depraved men he calls bodies, or flesh. What is the meaning of the expression : " God considered anxiously, because he had made man upon the earth ; and he resolved the matter in his mind?"* 93.

Some persons imagine that it is intimated bv these words that the Deity repented ; but they are very wrong to entertain such an idea, since the Deity is unchangeable. Nor are the facts of his cariug and thinking about the matter, and of his agitating it in his mind, any proofs that he is repenting, but only indications of a kind and determinate counsel, according to which he displays care, revolving in his mind the cause why he had made man upon the earth. But since this earth is a place of misery, even that heavenlv being, man, who is a mixture compounded of soul and body. from the very hour of his birth to that of bis death, is nothing else but the slave of the body. That the Deity therefore should meditate and deliberate on these matters is nothing surprising ; since most men take to themselves wickedness rather than virtue, being influenced by the twofold impulse mentioned above : namely, that of a body by its nature corruptible, and placed in the terrible situation of earth, which is the lowest of all places.

Why God. after having threatened to destroy mankind, says that he will also destroy all the beasts likewise ; using the expression, "from man to beast, \ and from creeping things to flying creatures : " for how could irrational animals have committed sin ? 94. This is the literal statement of the holv scripture, and it informs us that animals were not necessarily and in their primary cause created for their own sake, but for the sake of mankind and to act as the servants of men ; and when the men were destroyed, it followed necessarily and naturally that they also should be destroyed with them, as soon as the men, for whose sake they had been made, had ceased to exist. that ! e had made man upon the earth." t Genesis vi. 7. But as to the hidden meaning conveyed by the statement, since man is a symbol for the intellect winch exists in us, and animals for the outward sense, when the chief creature has first been depraved and corrupted by wickedness, all the outward sense also perishes with him, because he had no relics whatever of virtue, which is the cause of salvation. Why God says, I am indignant that I made them?* 95.

In the first place, Moses is here again relating what took place, as if he were speaking of some illustrious action of man, but, properly speaking, God does not feel anger, but is exempt from, and superior to, all such perturbations of spirit. Therefore Moses wishes here to point out, by an extravagant form of expression, that the iniquities of man had grown to such a height, that they stirred up and provoked to anger even that very Being who by his nature was incapable of anger. In the second place he warns us, by a figure, that foolish actions are liable to punishment, but that those which proceed from wise and deliberate counsel are praiseworthy. Why it is afterwards said, that Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord ? f 96. In the first place, the time calls for a comparison ; since all the rest of mankind has been rejected for their ingratitude, he places the just man in the place of them all, asserting that he had found favour with God, not because he alone was deserving of favour, when the whole universal body of the human race had had benefits and mercies heaped on them, but because he alone had seemed to be mindful of the kindnesses which he had received.

In the second place, when the whole generation had been given over to destruction, with the exception of one single family, it followed inevitably that that remaining household should be asserted to have shown itself worthy of the divine grace, that it might be, as it were, a seed and spark of a new race of mankind. And what could be a greater grace and mercy than that the man, of whom this is said, should be at the same time the end and beginning of the family of mankind ? Why does Moses enumerate the generations of Noah with reference not to his ancestors but to his virtues ?* 97. He does this in the first place, because all the men of that age were wicked : secondly, he is here imposing a law upon tbe will, because, to an anxious follower of virtue, virtue itself stands in the place of a real generation, if indeed men are the means of the generation of men, but the virtues of minds. And on this account it is that he says, he was a just man, perfect, and one who pleased God ; but justice, and perfection, and grace before God, are the greatest of virtues. What was the meaning of Moses when he says, "

And all the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with iniquity ?"f 98. Moses himself has given us the reason why he speaks thus, in the sentence in which he asserts that iniquity had arisen by reason of the corruption of the earth ; for deliverance from iniquity is righteousness, both in all the parts of the world, in heaven, that is, and earth, and among men. What is the meaning of his saying, " All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth ?"$ 99. In the first place, the sacred historian calls the man who is devoted to the love of himself, flesh; therefore, when he had already said he was flesh, he introduces not the same flesh, but the flesh of the same being, namely, of man, or perhaps he is speaking even of man abstractedly considered ; for every one who passes a life destitute of all civilisation, and bewildered by intemperance, is flesh. In the second place, he supposes here the cause of spiritual corruption to be, as in truth it is, the flesh, because that is the seat of desire ; and from it, as from a living spring, arise all the peculiar appetites, and passions, and other affections.

In the third place, he very naturally says, that all flesh had corrupted his way ; for " his" is a partial case, declined from the nominative case of the pronoun " he, she, or it ;" for as for the being to whom we refer honour, we scarcely dare to speak of him by his own name, but we call him He. And it is from this that the principle of the Pythagorean philosophers was derived, who said, " He said it," speaking of their master in a glorious manner, since they feared to speak of him by name. And the same custom has obtained in cities and in private houses ; for the servants, when speaking of the arrival of their master, say, " Here he comes ;" and so when the prince of any individual city arrives, they use the same form of speech, " He comes," when they speak of him. But what is the purpose of this prolix enumeration of all these instances on my part?

The truth is, that I wished to show that it is the Father of the universe who is spoken of here ; since, indeed, all his good qualities, and all his marvellous names, are widely celebrated by the praise bestowed upon the virtues ; and, therefore, out of reverence he has used tbat name more cautiously, because he was about to bring on the world the destruction of the flood ; but the case of the pronoun " He" is used by way of honour in these phrases. " Ail flesh had corrupted His way," inasmuch as it is truly convicted of having corrupted the way of the Father, in accordance with the lusts, and desires, and pleasures of the body ; for these are the enemies and opposers of the laws of continence, and parsimony, and chastity, and fortitude, and justice ; by which the road which leads to God is found out and widened, so that it should everywhere be a beaten and plain road. What is the meaning of the statement, "All the time of man has come against me, because the earth is filled with iniquity?"* 100.

Those who resist the order of fate proceed upon these and many other arguments, especially in that of sudden death, which oftentimes produces great slaughter in a short period of time ; as, for instance, in the overthrow of houses, in conflagrations, in shipwrecks, in civil tumults, in battles of cavalry, in wars by land and in wars by sea, and in pestilences. To all those who advance arguments of this kind we repeat the same assertions which are here made by the prophet, on the principle which is derived from himself. If indeed that expression, "All the time of man has come against me," has a meaning of this kind, the term which has been determined as the period of living for all mankind, behold it is now brought to one point and terminated at once by the deluge ; and since this is the case, they will not live any longer according to the resemble that in our Bible. principle of fate which has been fixed ; so that the time of each separate individual is now reduced to one, and has received its destined termination at the same time, by I know not what harmony and periodical revolution of the stars, by which bodies the whole race of mankind is continually preserved or destroyed.

Let those, therefore, all receive these things in any manner in which they choose who study these things, and those too who argue against them. Nevertheless we must first of all make this statement, that nothing can be found so contrary to, so opposite to, so wholly repugnant to, the wonderful virtue of the Deity as iniquity ; therefore, after he said, " All the time of all mankind has come up against me," he adds also the reason of its contrariety to him, that the earth is filled with iniquity. In the second place, Time, under the name of Chronos or Saturn, is looked upon as a god by the wickedest of men, who are desirous to lose sight of the one essential Being, on which account he says, " The time of all mankind has come up against me," because in fact the heathen make human time into a god, and oppose him to the real true God. But, however, it is now insinuated, in other passages also of scripture, which run thus, "

Time has departed to a distance from them, but the Lord is in us :"* just as if he were to say, time is looked upon by wicked men as the cause of the world, but by wise men and virtuous men time is not looked upon in this light, but God only, from whom all times and seasons do proceed. Again, God is the cause, not of all things, but only of good things and good men, and of those men and things which are in accordance with virtue ; for as he is free from all wickedness, so likewise he cannot be the cause of it.

In the third place, by that expression which he uses in this manner, he indicates the excess of impiety, saying, " that the time of all mankind has arrived," that is to say, that all men, in every part of the world, have agreed together, with one mind, to work wickedness ; but the other assertion which is here made, that the whole earth is filled with iniquity, amounts to this, that there is no part of it whatever free from wickedness, and which is also to receive and to bear righteousness. 21—28, Psalm lxxx 16. And the expression, " against me," establishes the proof of what has been said, inasmuch as it is only the judgment of divine election which is altogether firm and lasting.

What is the preparation of Noah ?* 1. If any one should wish to make an examination of the question of that ark of Noah's on more natural principles, he will find it to have been the preparation of the human body, as we shall see by the examination of each particular respecting it separately. Why does he make the ark of squared pieces of wood. ?f 2. He does this in the first place, because the figure of a square, wherever it may be placed, is steady and firm, consisting as it does of right angles, and it is confirmed in a purer and clearer manner by the nature of the human body. In the second place, he does this because, although our body is an instrument, and although every portion of it is rounded off, nevertheless the limbs which are compounded of all these portions do, by some manner or other, evidently reduce that circular orb to the figure of a quadrangle or square. For example, take the breast which is rather square than circular; in the same manner take the belly, after it is swollen with food or by any natural excess, for there are some men potbellied by nature, who are to be excepted from our present argument.

But if any one looks upon the arms and hands, and back and thighs, and feet of a man, he will find all these limbs compounded of a mixture of the square, with the circular figure at the same time. In the third place, a quadrangular piece of wood shows in its extension nearly every sort imaginable of uneven distinction, inasmuch as its length is greater than its breadth, and its breadth greater than its depth. And such also is the formation of our bodies, which are compounded of one extension which is great, of another which is of moderate size, of another which is small, great in its length and small in its depth. Why does God say, you shall make the ark in nests ?* 3. He gives this order very naturally, for the human body is formed of holes like nests ; every one of which is nourished and grows like a young bird, a certain spiritual force which exists in it from its earliest origin penetrating through it, as, for instance, some of the holes and nests are the eyes, in which the faculty of sight has its abode ; other nests are the ears, which are the place where hearing is situated.

A third class of nests are the nostrils, in which the sense of smell is lodged. The fourth nest, which is of larger dimensions than those already mentioned, is the mouth, which is the seat of the taste ; and it has been made of large size, since, besides taste, there is also another still more important instrument, which is that of articulate speech, reposing in it, namely, the tongue, which, as Socrates was wont to say, by beating in every direction in various manners, and by touching different parts, composes and forms a word, being, in truth, an instrument under the immediate guidance of reason.

And the nest is placed under the skull, and that which is called the membrane of the brain is a certain nest, as it were, of the genius of each man : as also the chest is a nest, in which abide the lungs and the heart, and both these things are receptacles of other internal organs ; the lungs being the place in which the power of breathing is lodged, and the heart being the abode of both the blood and the breath, for it has two venticles, which are, as it were, a certain kind of nests or receptacles in the breast; blood, from which the veins, as if they could perceive its operations, are irrigated ; and a breathing-hole, which again is extended over and irrigates the perceptive channels of respiration. And both the harder as well as the softer parts do, like nests prepared for the purpose, nourish the bones as real nests nourish young birds ; the harder portion of which, namely, the marrow, is the nest, and the softer flesh is the nest of pleasure and pain ; and if any one should wish to investigate the other parts, he will find that, in every respect, the nature of man has much the same foundation as the ark.

Why does God command the ark to be smeared with pitch, both on the inside and on the outside ?* 4. Pitch is so called by reason of its bird-lime like tenacity, because it glues together whatever was disunited before, so as to form one indissoluble and indivisible joint. For everything which is held together by bird-lime is immediately held to a natural union ; but our body being composed of many parts is united on the outside, and is held together by its own proper habit, but the previous habit of connection which binds those things together is the soul, which, being situated in the middle, penetrates through every part till it reaches the surface, and then is turned back again from the surface to the centre, so that our spiritual nature is rolled up compactly in a double fold, being united in a firm solidity and union. Therefore this ark is smeared with pitch, both on the inside and the outside, for the reason here given.

But that ark which is placed in the holy of holies, and is covered over with gold, is the similitude of the world appreciable only by the intellect, as is declared in the account given of it : since just as there is a world appreciable by the intellect incarnate in incorporeal figures existing at the same time, consisting of a union of all figures by a certain invisible harmony ; for, in proportion as gold is a more noble material than pitch, in the same ratio is that ark, which is in the holy of holies, superior to this one of which we are now speaking. And again, God ordained that its measure should be quadrangular, from a regard to usefulness ; but his object in the other ark was not so much that it should be useful as that it should be exempt from all possibility of decay ; for the nature of incorporeal things, appreciable only by the intellect, is to be exempt from decay, being incorruptible and permanent.

The one ark is tossed to and fro by the winds and the waters, but the other has its station constantly in the holy of holies ; and being stable it is akin to divine nature, as the other, which is tossed about in every direction, and moved from one place to another, is akin to and the emblem of created nature. Besides this, that ark of the flood being, as it were, an example of corruption, is raised on high, but the other, which is in the holy of holies, imitates the incorruptible condition of eternity Why did God give the measures of the ark in the following manner ; the length to be of three hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof to be fifty cubits, and the height to be thirty cubits : and above it was to be raised to a point in one cubit, being brought together gradually like an obelisk ? * 5.

It was necessary that so vast a work should be constructed in conformity with literal directions, in order that so many animals, some of them of vast size, should be received into it, as indviduals of each class were introduced with the food necessary for them ; but if the matter is considered properly with reference to its symbolical meaning, then, for the comprehension of the formation of our body, we shall require to make use not of the quantity of cubits, but of the certain principles and proportions which are observed in them. But the proportions which are contained in them are of sixfold, and double, and other portions are added. For three hundred is six times as many as fifty, and ten times as many as thirty ; and again fifty is by two thirds a larger number than thirty.

Such then are also the proportions of the body ; for if any one should choose to investigate the matter and inquire into it carefully in all its points, he will find that man is made in an exact proportion of measurement, neither being too long or too little ; and if a string be let down from his head to his feet, he will find that to reach that distance it requires a string six times as long as the width of his chest, and ten times as long as the depth of his ribs and thei r breadth as a second part of depth added thereto. Such is the certain proportion, received in accordance with nature, of the human body formed on exact measurement of the most excellently made men, who are incorrect neither in the way of excess nor of defect. But again, it was with great wisdom and propriety that God ordained the summit to be completed in cne cubit ; for the upper part of the ark imitates the unity of the body ; the head being forsooth as the citadel of the king, having for its inhabitant the chief of all, the intellect.

But those parts which are below the head are divided into separate portions, as for instance into the hands, and in an especial degree into the lower parts, since the thighs, and legs, » Genesis vi. 15. and feet are all kept distinct from one another, therefore whoever should wish to understand these matters, on the principle which I have pointed out, will easily comprehend the analogy of the cubits as I have related it. But above all things he must not be ignorant that each of these different numbers of cubits has separately a certain necessary proportion and principle, beginning with the first, those in the length of the ark. Therefore in its length it is composed of three hundred units, placed next to one another in continuation, according to the augmentation of units, from these twenty-four numbers, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twentyone, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four. But the twentyfourth number is above all others a natural number, being distributed among the hours of day and night, and also among the characters of language,* and literal speech ; and it is also compounded of three cubes, being complete, full, and compacted in equality.

For the number three constantly exhibits, as belonging to itself, the first equality of all, having a beginning, and a middle, and an end, all of which are equal to one another ; and eight is the first cube, because it again has declared its first equality with the rest. But the number twenty-four has likewise a great number of other virtues, since it is the substance of the number three hundred, as has been already pointed out ; this then is its first virtue ; and it has another, since it is compounded of twelve quadrangular figures, joined to one another by a continuous unity ; and besides of two long figures, and twelve double figures, being forsooth compounded of twos separately increased by two and two. Therefore the angular numbers which make up together the twelve quadrangular figures are these ; one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-one, and twenty-three ; but the quadrangular figure combines the following numbers, one, four, nine, sixteen, twenty-five, thirty-six, forty-nine, sixty-four, eighty-one, a hundred, a hundred and twenty-one, and a hundred and twenty-four. four letters.

But those angular numbers which compose the other long figures are these ; one, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, twenty-two, twenty-four, being twelve in all ; and after these come the compound numbers, two, six, twelve, twenty, thirty, forty-two, fifty-six, seventy-two, ninety, a hundred and ten, a hundred and thirty-two, and a hundred and fifty-six; being also twelve. And if you put together the twelve quadrangular figures, you will find a hundred and forty-four, and if you add the other twelve long figures, you will find a hundred and fifty-six ; and from the combination of the two you will get the number three hundred, and the concord of full, and complete, and perfect nature rising up to the equal and infinite harmony ; for a complete and perfect nature is the maker of equality, according to the nature of a triangle ; but the equal and the infinite are the factors of inequality, according to the composition of the other long figure. But the universe consists of a combination of equality and inequality, on which account the Creator himself, even amid the destruction of all earthly things, placed a sort of fixed pattern of stability in the ark. This then is enough to say about the number three hundred.

We must now proceed to speak of the fifty cubits, on the following principle ; for in the first place it is composed of the right angle of the quadrangular figures ; for a right angle is compounded of three, four, and five ; and the square of these is nine, sixteen, and twenty-five, the sum total of which when added together is fifty ; in the second place, the perfect number fifty is composed of these four triangles linked together, one, three, six, ten ; and again of these four equal quadrangles also united together, one, four, nine, sixteen ; therefore these triangles when collected together make twenty ; and the quadrangles make thirty; and twenty and thirty added together make fifty. But if the triangle and the quadrangle are added together, they make a heptangular figure : so that it is contained by its virtue in the number of fifty, that divine and holy number ; to which the prophet had regard when he proclaimed the jubilee festival ; and the whole of the jubilee year is free and a deliverer.

The third theorem is three triangles beginning with the unit, connected together in a continuous series, and three cubes beginning also with the unit, and connected together in a similar manner, which together make fifty ; the examples of the first are one, four, and nine, which make fourteen ; the examples of the second are, one, eight, and twenty-seven, which together make thirty-six ; and the sum total of the two when added together is fifty.

Again, thirty is in an especial manner a natural number, for as in the series of units the number three is, so is the number thirty in the series of decimals ; and that makes up the cycle of the moon, being the collection of separate months in full delineation ; secondly, it is composed of four numbers, which are united in the continual series of these quadrangular figures, one, four, nine, and sixteen, which together make up thirty ; on which account it was not without some foundation and sufficient reason that Heraclitus called that number "generation," when he said : a man in thirty years from the time of his birth can become a grandfather, inasmuch as he arrives at the age of puberty in his fourteenth year, at which age he is capable of becoming a father ; and at the end of the year his offspring arrives at the birth, and again in fifteen years more begets another offspring like himself; and out of these names of grandfathers, fathers, and sons, as also out of the names of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters, a generation complete in its offspring is produced. What is the meaning of a door in the side : for he says, " Thoushalt make a door in the side ? " * 6.

That door in the side very plainly betokens a human building, which he has becomingly indicated by calling it, " in the side," by which door all the excrements of dung are cast out. In truth, as Socrates says, whether because he learnt it from Moses or because he was influenced by the facts themselves, the Creator, having due regard to the decency of our body, has placed the exit and passage of the different ducts of the body back out of the reach of the sense, in order that while getting rid of the fetid portions of bile, we might not be disgusted by beholding the full appearance of our excrements. Therefore he has surrounded that passage by the back and posteriors, which project out like hills, as also the buttocks are made soft for other objects. Why has he said that the lower part of the ark was to be made with two and with three stories ?* 7.

He has here admirably indicated the receptacles of food, calling them the inner parts of the house ; since food is corruptible, and what is corruptible belongs to the inward part, because it is borne downwards, since some small portions of meat and drink which we take are borne upwards, but the greater part is secreted and cast out into dung ; and the intestines have been made in two and in three stories, because of the providence of the Creator in order to supply abundant support to his creatures ; for if he had made the receptacles of food and its passage having a direct communication between the bowels and the buttocks, some awkward circumstances must have taken place ; in the first place there would have been a frequent deficiency, and want and hunger, and sudden evacuations also arising from divers unseasonable events ; in the second place there would have been an immense hunger, for when the receptacles are emptied, it is inevitable that hunger and thirst must immediately supervene, like absolute mistresses in difficulty from pregnancy, and then it follows also that the pleasant appetite for food must be perverted into greediness and into an unphilosophical state ; for nothing is so very inconvenient as for the belly to be empty.

And in the third place, there will be death waiting at the door ; since those persons must speedily be overtaken by death who the very moment that they have done eating begin again to be hungry, and the moment that they have drunk are again thirsty, and who before they are thoroughly filled are again evacuated and oppressed by hunger ; but owing to the long coils and windings of the bowels wTe are delivered from all feelings of hunger, from all greediness, and from being prematurely overtaken by death ; for while the food which has been taken remains within us, not for such a time only as the distance to be passed requires, but for so long as was necessary for us, a change in it is effected ; since by the pressure to which it is subjected, the strength of the food is extracted in the first instance in the belly ; then it is warmed in the liver, and drawn out ; after that whatever predominant flavour there was is emitted upwards to the separate parts, in the case of boys in order to contribute to their growth, and in the case of full-grown men to add to their strength ; and then nature, collecting the remaining portions into dung and excrement, casts them out.

Therefore a great deal of time is necessarily required for the arrangement of so many and such important affairs, nature effecting its operations without difficulty by perseverance.

Moreover the ark itself appears to me to be very fitly compared to the human body ; for as nature is exceedingly prolific of living creatures, for that very reason it has prepared an opposite receptacle similar to the earth for the creatures corrupted and destroyed by the flood ; for whatever was alive and supported on the earth, the ark now bore within itself in a more general manner, and on that account God ordained it, being borne upon the waters as it was, to be as it were like the earth, a mother and a nurse, and to exhibit the fathers of the subsequent race as if pregnant with it, together with the sun and moon, and the remaining multitude of the stars, and all the host of heaven ; because men beholding by means of that which was made by art, a comparison and analogy to the human body, might in that manner be more manifestly taught, for this was the cause of the various disputes among mankind ; since there is nothing which has so much contributed to keep man in a servile condition as the essential humours of the body, and the defects which arise in consequence of them, and most especially the vicious pleasures and desires.

Why does he say that the deluge will be to the corrupting of all flesh in which there is the breath of life beneath the heaven?* 8. One may almost say that what he had previously spoken in riddles he has now made plain ; for there was no other cause for the corruption of mankind, except that, being slaves to pleasure and to desire, they did everything, and were anxious about everything for that reason only ; moreover they passed a life of extreme misery. But he added also, in a very natural manner, the place where the breath of life is, using the expression, " under heaven," because forsooth there are living beings also in heaven ; for a happy body has not been made out of a heavenly substance, as if in truth it had received some peculiar and admirable condition, superior to that of other living creatures, but heaven appears to have been made especially worthy of and for the sake of these admirable and divine living beings, all of which are intellectual spirits ; so that they give a share and participation in themselves and in the essence of vitality even to the creatures which exist upon the earth, and give life to all those which are capable of receiving it.

Why does he say, all things which existed upon the earth shall be consumed ; for what sin can the beasts commit ? * 9. In the first place, as, when a sovereign is slain in battle the military valour of the kingdom is also crushed, so also he now has thought it reasonable that when the whole human race, bearing analogy to a sovereign, is destroyed, he should also destroy simultaneously with it the species of beasts likewise, on which account also in pestilences the beasts die first, and especially those which are bred up with and associate with men, such as dogs and similar animals, and afterwards the men die too. In the second place, as, when the head is cut off, no one blames nature if the other portions of the body also, numerous and important as they are, are destroyed along with it, so too now no one can find fault with anything, since man is as it were the head and chief of all animals, and when he is destroyed it is not at all strange if all the rest of the beasts are destroyed also along with him.

In the third place, animals were originally made, not for their own sakes, as has been said by the philosophers, but in order to do service to mankind, and for their use and glory ; therefore it is very reasonable that when those beings are destroyed for the sake of whom they had their existence, they also should be deprived of life, and this is the reason of this assertion in its literal sense ; but with respect to its hidden meaning we may say, when the soul is exposed to a deluge from the overflow of vices, and is in a manner stifled by them, those portions also which are on the earth, the earthly parts I mean of the body, must of necessity likewise perish along with it ; for life passed in wickedness is death ; the eyes though they see perish, inasmuch as they see wrongly ; the ears also though they hear perish, inasmuch as they hear wrongly ; and • Genesis vi. 18. the whole body of the senses perishes, inasmuch as they are all exercised wrongly. What is the meaning of the expression, I will set up my treaty with you ?* 10.

In the first place, he here warns us that no man is the inheritor of the divine substance, except him who is endowed with virtue ; since the inheritance of men is possessed when they themselves are no longer in existence, but when they are dead ; but as God is everlasting he grants a participation in his inheritance to wise men, rejoicing at their entering into possession of it ; for he who has entered into possession of everything is in want of nothing, but they who are in distress from a want of all things are in the possession of no portion of truth. And on this account God, showing himself favourable to the virtuous, benefits them, bestowing on them those things of which they have need. In the second place, he bestows on the wise man a certain and more ample inheritance ; for he does not say, I will set up my treaty for you, but with you ; that is to say, you are yourself a just and true treaty, which I will set up for the race endued with reason, who have need of virtue, for a possession and a glory to them. Why does he say : "

Enter thou and all thy house into the ark, because I have seen that thou art a just man before me in that generation ? " f 11. In the first place, certain faith receives approbation, inasmuch as for the sake of one man who is just and worthy many men are saved by reason of their relationship to him ; as is the case too with sailors and armies, when the one have a good captain and the others an excellent and skilful general. In the second place, he extols the just man with praise, who thus acquires virtues, not for himself alone, but also for his whole family, which in this way deserves safety. And it is with peculiar propriety that this expression is added, namely, " I have seen that thou art a just man before me ; " for men approve of the life of any one upon one principle, and God on quite a different one ; for they judge by what is visible, but he derives his tests from the invisible designs of the soul. Moreover, that is a very remarkable expression which is added as an insertion, namely, the one which says, "

I have seen that thou art a just man in this generation;" that he might not appear to condemn those who had gone before, nor cut off the future hope of coming generations. This is the sense of the passage taken according to the letter. But if we look at its inward meaning, when God will save the intellect of the soul, which is the principal part of the man, that is to say, the head of the family, then also he will save the whole family along with him ; I mean all the parts, and all those who bear an analogy to the parts, and to the word which is uttered, and to the circumstances of the body ; for what the intellect is in the soul, that also is the soul in the body. All the parts of the soul are in good condition, owing to tbe result of counsels, and all its family derives the benefit along with it. But when the whole soul is in a good condition, then also its habitation is again found to be benefited by its advantages, that is to say, the body is benefited by purity of morals and sobriety, those overstrained desires which are the causes of diseases being cut off.

Why does he order seven of each of the clean animals, male and female, to be taken into the ark, but of the unclean animals only two, male and female, in order to preserve seed upon all the earth? 12. By divine ordinance he has asserted the number seven to be clean, and the number two to be unclean ; since the number seven is clean by nature, inasmuch as that is a virgin number, free from all admixture, and without any parent. Nor does it generate any tbing, nor is it generated, as each of those numbers which are below the number ten, on account of their similitude to the unit, because it is uncreated and unbegotten, and nothing is generated by it, although it is itself the cause of creation and generation ; because it rouses the virtues of all things which are well-arranged, for the generation of created beings. But the number two is not clean. In tbe first place, because it is empty, not solid ; and because it is not full, therefore neither is it clean ; because it is likewise the beginning of infinite immensity by reason of its materiality.

It also labours under inequality on account of the other long numbers; for all the other numbers after two which are increased in a twofold proportion are long numbers. But that which is unequal is not clean, as neither is that which is material ; but that which proceeds from such is fallible and inelegant, being destitute of the purity of reason to conduct it to completeness and perfection ; and it conducts it to such by its own intrinsic power, and by songs of harmony and equality. This is enough to say on the physical part of the subject; it remains for us to speak of its moral bearings. The irrational parts of our soul which are destitute of intellect are divided into seven ; that is to say, into the five senses, and the vocal organ, and the seminal organ.

Now these in a man endued with virtue are all clean, and by nature feminine, inasmuch as they belong to the irrational species ; but to a man who has come into full possession of his inheritance they are masculine ; for men endued with virtue are also the parents of the virtue of counsel to themselves, the best part of them not permitting them to come to the external senses in a precipitate and unbridled manner, but repressing them and leading them back to right reason. But in the wicked man there exists a twofold wickedness ; since the unjust man is full of doubts and perplexities, as a hesitating person, mingling things which ought not to be mixed, and connecting them with one another, confounding those things wbich may very easily be kept separate. Such are those passions which imbue the soul with some particular colour, like a man spotted and leprous in body, the originally sound counsel being infected and contaminated by that which is destructive and fatal. But the principle of the entrance and of the custody of animals is added in a natural manner; for he says, "for the sake of nourishing seed."

If we take the expression according to the letter, inasmuch as, although particular individuals may be destroyed, still at least a race is preserved to be the seed of future generations ; forsooth that the intention of God, conceived at the formation of the world, might remain for ever and ever unextinguishable, the different races of creatures being preserved. But if we regard the inward meaning of the words, it is necessary that in the irrational parts of the soul, likewise, there should be motions which are clean, as certain seminal principles, although the animals 'themselves are not clean; since the nature of mankind is capable of admitting contrarieties, for instauce, virtue and wickedness ; each of which he delineated at the creation of the world, by the tree bearing the name of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Forsooth our intellect, in which there is both knowledge and intelligence, comprehends both good and evil ; but good is akin to the number seven, and evil is the brother of duality.

Moreover, the law of wisdom, which abounds in beauty, says expressly and carefully, that seed is to be nourished, not in one place only, but in all the earth, both naturally, in the first instance, and also morally, in its peculiar sense ; because it is very natural, and suitable to the character of God, to cause that which in all parts and divisions of the world is said again to be the seed of living beings, to fill places which have been evacuated a second time with similar creatures, by a repeated generation ; and not altogether to desert our body, inasmuch as it is an earthly substance, as if it were a thing deserted by and void of all principle of life. Since, if we practise the drinking of wines and the eating of meats, and indulge in the ardent desire of the female, and in short practise in all things a delicate and luxurious life, we are then only the bearers of a corpse in the body ; but if God, taking compassion on us, turns away the overflow of vices and renders the soul dry, he will then begin to make the body living, and to animate it with a purer soul, the governing principle of which is wisdom.

Why, after the entrance of Noah into the ark, did seven days elapse, after which the deluge came?"* 13. The kind Saviour of the world allows a space for the repentance of sinners, in order that when they see the ark placed in front of them as a sort of type, made with respect to the then present time, and when they see all the different kinds of living creatures shut up in it which the earth used to bear on its surface, according to its parts adapted to the different species, they might believe the predictions of tli9 deluge which had been made to them, so that, fearing total destruction above all things, they might be speedily converted, destroying and eradicating all their iniquity and wickedness. In the second place, this' language is a most manifest representation of the exceeding great abundance of the kind mercy of the beneficent Saviour, by destroying the wickedness of many years, which from the time of their birth to old age has extended itself over their conduct in those persons who practise penitence for a few days, for the divine nature forgets all evil and is a lover of virtue.

When therefore it beholds faithful virtue in the soul, it gives it honour in a wonderful degree, in order, in the first place, to take away all kinds of evil which impend over it from its sins. In the third place, the number of seven days after the entrance of Noah into the ark, during which the command of God kept off the flood, is a recollection of the creation of the world, the birthday festival of which is kept on the seventh day, showing manifestly the authority of the Father; just as if he were to say, " I am the Creator of the world, commanding things to exist which have no existence ; and at the same time I am he who am now about to destroy the world with a great flood. But the original cause of the creation of the world was the goodness which is in me, and my kindness ; and the cause of its impending destruction is the ingratitude and impiety of those persons who have been loaded by benefits by me."

Therefore he causes an interval of seven days, in order that the unbelieving may remember, and that those who have abandoned their faith in the Parent of the world may in a suppliant spirit return to the Creator of all things, and so may entreat him again that his works may be everlasting ; and that they may offer their entreaty, not with mouth and tongue, but rather with the heart of amendment and penitence. Why did the rain of the deluge last forty days and an equal number of nights ?* 14. In the first place, the word day is used in a double sense. The one meaning that time which is from morning to evening, that is to say, from the first rising of the sun in the east to his sinking in the west. Therefore they who make definitions, say, " That is day, as long as the sun shines on the earth." In another sense, the word day is used of the day and night together. And in this sense we say that a month consists of thirty days, combining together and computing the period of night in the same calculation.

These premises having been first laid down thus, I say that the word now spoken of has not been incorrectly employed, inasmuch as it implies forty days and forty nights ; but is also so used in order to suggest a double number determined for the generation of mankind, namely, forty and eighty, as many men skilled in medicine, and indeed also in physical science, have suggested ; but it is especially described in the sacred law, which was to them also the first principle of natural science. Since therefore destruction was on the point of overwhelming all men and women every where on account of the excessive combination of iniquities and quarrels, the Judge of all considered it becoming to allot an equal time to their destruction to that which he had consumed in the original creation of nature and to the work of giving life to the world ; for the principle of procreation is the perseverance of seed in the different parts ; but it was necessary to honour the male creature with pure light, which knows not the shade ; but the woman had a mixture in her body of night and darkness.

Therefore, in the creation of the whole world, the excess of the male or the unequal number, being composed of unity, becomes the parent of square numbers ; but the woman who is an unequal number, being compounded of duality, becomes the parent of other long numbers. Moreover, the square is splendour and light combining together by the equality of the sides ; but the other numbers being long necessarily exhibit night and darkness by reason of their inequality, since that which is in excess throws a shade over that which lies beneath the excess. In the second place, the number forty is the produce of many virtues, as has been suggested in another place. It is also often used for the judgment of legislation, both with reference to those persons who have done any thing rightly deserving of praise and honour, and also with reference to those who on account of their sins meet with reproaches and punishments; so that it is superfluous to adduce proofs to demonstrate what is evident. What is the meaning of the expression, " I will destroy every living substance that I have made from off the face of the earth?"* 15.

Do you not all shrink back in astonishment when you hear these words, by reason of the beauty of the sentence ? for he has not said, " destroy from the earth," but " from the face of the earth," that is to say from its surface ; in order, that is, that in the lowest depth of the earth the vital efficacy of all seeds might be preserved unhurt, and free from all injury which could possibly bring damage to it ; since the Creator was not forgetful of his original design, but destroys tbose only who come in his way, and who move only on the surface of the earth, but leaves the roots in the depth, in order to produce the generation of other causes. Moreover, that expression, " I will destroy," was also written by divine inspiration ; for it happens that if we remove the letters which require to be removed, the whole table for the reception of letters remains the same. By which he proves that he will destroy the fickle generation on account of their impiety, but the conversation and essence of the human race he will preserve for ever and ever to be the seed of future generations.

And what follows agrees with this, since to the expression, "I will destroy," this other is also added, all natural existence, every thing which exists, or rises upon the earth ; but existence is the destruction of the opposite characteristics ; and that which is dissolved loses quality, but retains body and materiality. This is the letter of what is said. But in the inward meaning, the flood is symbolically representative of spiritual dissolution. When therefore by the grace of the Father we desire to throw away and to wash off all sensible and corporeal qualities by which the intellect was infected as by swelling sores, then the muddy slime is got rid of as by a deluge, sweet waters and wholesome fountains supervening. Why does he say : " Noah did every thing which the Lord commanded (or ordered) him? "I 16. A noble panegyric for the just man. In tne first place, because with an ingenuous mind and a purpose full of affection towards God he performed, not a part of what he had been commanded, but the whole of God's commands.

But the second is the more true expression, because he does not choose so much to command as to order him ; for masters command their slaves, but friends order friends, and especially elder friends order younger ones. Therefore it is a marvellous gift to be found even in the rank of servants, and in the list of ministers of God ; and it is a superabundant excess of kindness for any one to be a beloved friend to the most glorious Uncreated Essence. Moreover, the sacred writer has here carefully employed both names, the Lord God, as declaratory of his superior powers of destroying and benefiting, using the word Lord first, and placing the name God, giving the idea of beneficence, second ; since it was a time of judgment let the name which is the indication of his destroying power come first. But still, as he is a kind and merciful king, he leaves as relics the seminal elements by which the vacant places may be replenished, for which reason, at the first beginning of the account of the creation, the expression, " Let there be," was not an exterminating act of power, but a beneficent one.

Therefore, at the creation, he changed the appellations and use of names ; but as the name God is an indication of his beneficent power, the sacred writer has more frequently employed that in his account of the creation of the universe, but after everything was perfected then he called him Lord, in reference to the creation itself, for this name betokens royal power and the ability to destroy ; since, where the act of generation is God is used first in order, but when punishment is spoken of the name Lord is placed before the name God. Why did the deluge take place in the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, and in the seventh month, and on the twentyseventh day of the month ? * 17. Perhaps it happened that the just man was born at the beginning of the month, at the first beginning of the commencement of that very year which they are accustomed to call the sacred year, out of honour, otherwise the sacred historian would not have been so carefully accurate in fixing the day and month when the deluge began to the seventh month and the twenty-seventh day of the month.

But, perhaps, by this minuteness he intended manifestly to indicate the precise time of the vernal equinox, for that always occurs on the twenty-seventh day of the seventh month. But why was it that the deluge fell on the day of the vernal equinox ? Because about that time the birth and increase of everything take place, whether living creatures or plants ; therefore the vengeance and punishment inflicted brings with it the more terrible and dreadful threats, as happening at the period of plenty and fertility of the sheaves of corn, and indeed, in the very midst of that productiveness, and bringing the evil of utter destruction as a reproof of the impiety of those who are exposed to the punishment. For behold, says he, all nature contains its own productions within itself in the greatest abundance, namely, wheat and barley, and everything else which is produced from seed, brought on to complete generation, as, also, it begins to generate the fruits of trees ; but you, like mortals, corrupt its mercies, perverting the divine gifts, and purposes, and mysteries.

But if the deluge had taken place at the autumnal equinor, when there was nothing growing on the earth, but when all the crops were collected into their proper storehouses, it would not have, in any degree, been looked upon as a punishment, but rather as a benefit, as the water would have cleansed the plains and the mountains. But as the first man who was produced out of the earth was also created at the same season of the year, he whom the divine writer calls Adam, because in fact it was on every account proper that the grandfather, or original parent, or father of the human race, or by whatever name we may choose to designate that original founder of our kind, should be created at the season of the vernal equinox, when all earthly productions were full of their fruit ; but the vernal equinox takes place in the seventh month, which is also called the first in other passages, with reference to a different idea. Since, therefore, the first beginning of the generation of our race, after the destruction caused by the deluge, commenced with Noah, men being again sown and procreated, therefore lie also is recognised as resembling the first man born of the earth, as far as such resemblance or recognition is possible.

And the six hundredth year has for its origin the number six ; and the world was created under the number six, therefore, by this same number does he reprove the wicked, putting them to shame because he would, unquestionably, never, after he had created the universe by means of the number six, have destroyed all the men who lived on the earth under the form of six, if it had not been for the preposterous excess of their iniquities. For the third power of six and the minor power is the number six hundred, and the mean between both is sixty, since the number ten more evidently represents the likeness of unity, and the number a hundred represents the minor power. What is the meaning of the expression, " And the fountains of the deep were broken, and the springs of heaven were opened ?"* 18. The literal meaning is plain enough, for it suggests the two extremities of the universe, the heaven and the earth, to have met together for the destruction of mortals deserving of condemnation, the waters running forth to meet one another from all quarters, for part of them bubbled up from out of the earth, and part descended downwards from heaven ; and in truth, that expression is very explicit, "

The fountains were broken up," for when a rupture is effected then the thing confined rushes forth without any hindrance. But with reference to the interior meaning of the expression we may as well say this : the heaven is symbolically the human intellect, and the earth is the sense and body, therefore there is great distress and calamity when neither remains, but when each threatens a secret attack. But what is the exact meaning of my words ?

It often happens that acuteness of intellect exhibits cunning and wickedness, and bears itself with bitterness in every respect when the lusts of the body are restrained and bridled ; but the contrary fact often prevails, and the lusts rejoice in their opportunities and proceed onward, gaining strength from luxury and abundance of means ; therefore, the gate of these lusts is the outward sense combined with the body ; but when the intellect, neglecting outward circumstances, is consistent with itself, then the senses lie harmless, as if completely abandoned ; but when both are united, the intellect in exerting all cunning and wickedness, and tbe body irrigated with all the senses and gorged with every kind of vice to satiety, then we are exposed to a deluge ; and this is in fact a great deluge, when the streams of the intellect are opened by iniquity, and folly, and greedy desire, and injustice, and arrogance, and impiety, and when the fountains of the body are opened by lust, and desire, and intemperance, and obscenity, and gluttony, and lasciviousness, with relations and sisters, and all irremediable diseases. What is the meaning of the expression, "And the Lord shut him in, closing the doors of the ark ? "* 19.

Since we have said that the structure of the human body is symbolically indicated by the ark, we must take notice, also, that on the outside this body is enclosed by a hard and dense skin, to be a covering to all its parts ; for nature has made this as a sort of coat, to prevent either cold or heat from being able to do man injury. The literal meaning of the expression is plain enough, for the door of the ark is carefully shut by divine virtue for the sake of security, lest the water should enter in at any part, as it was to be tossed about by the waves for an entire year. What is the meaning of the expression, " And the water was greatlj increased, and bore up the ark which floated upon the water ? "f 20. The literal meaning is plain enough, but it contains an allegorical reference to our bodies, which ought to be borne up as if on the water, and by fluctuating with our necessities to subdue hunger and thirst, cold and heat, by which it is agitated, disturbed, and kept in motion. Why did the water overflow fifteen cubits above all the highest mountains ?J 21.

With respect to the literal statement we must remark that the excess was not merely one of fifteen cubits above all high mountains but above those which were a great deal more lofty and high than some others ; therefore it was a great deal more than that height above the lower ones. But we must interpret this statement allegorically ; for the loftier mountains shadow forth the senses in our body, because it has been permitted to them to occupy the abode of stability in the lofty region of our head. And there are five numbers of these, each to be considered separately, so that they amount in all to fifteen. As, there is the faculty of sight, the thing which is visible, the act of seeing. The faculty of hearing, the thing which is audible, and the act of hearing. The faculty of smelling, the thing which can be smelled, and the act of smelling. The faculty of taste, the thing which can be tasted, and the act of tasting. The faculty of touch, the thing which can be touched, and the act of touching. These are the fifteen cubits in excess ; for they also are overwhelmed by the overflow, being destroyed by the unseasonable influx of infinite vices and evils.

What is the meaning of the expression, " And all flesh capable of motion perished?"* 22. It is with especial propriety, and strictly in accordance with natural truth, that the sacred historian has here pronounced all flesh capable of motion devoted to destruction ; for flesh excites pleasures, and is excited by pleasures ; and such affections are the causes of the destruction of souls, as on the other hand sobriety and patience are the causes of safety. What is the meaning of the expression, " And everything which was on the dry land died ? "f 23. The literal meaning is notorious, because in that great deluge everything which was upon the earth was destroyed and perished ; but with respect to the secret meaning, as, since the material of timber, when it is parched and dry, is readily consumed by fire, so, likewise, when the soul is not mingled with wisdom, and justice, and piety, and the other enduring virtues, which alone are able to impart real joy to the thoughts, then it, being parched up and dried like a plant which is deprived of any power of budding or producing seed, or like a withered trunk, dies, being handed over to the mercy of the overwhelming overflow of the body.

What is the meaning of the words, " It destroyed every living substance which was on the face of the earth?"* 24. The literal meaning of these words only announces a plain statement of a fact, but it may be turned into an allegory in this manner. It is not without reason that the sacred historian has used the words " a living substance," for that is characteristic of ambition and pride, which lead men to despise both divine and human laws ; but ambition and arrogance do rather appear on the face of our earthly and corporeal nature with an elated countenance and contracted brows. Since there are some persons who come nearer to one with their feet, but with their chests, and necks, and heads lean back, and are actually borne backwards and bend away like a balance, so that with one half of their body, in consequence of the position of their feet, they project forward, but backward with the upper portion of their chests, drawing themselves back like those persons whose muscles and nerves are in pain, by which they are prevented from stooping in a natural manner.

But men of this kind it was determined to put an end to, as one may see from the records of the Lord and the divine history of the scriptures. What is the meaning of the words, " Noah remained alone, and they who were with him in the ark ?" f 25. The literal meaning of this is evident ; but with respect to its concealed sense we may advance an opinion, that the intellect which is desirous of studying justice and wisdom does, like a tree, discard all noxious shoots which bud forth about it, and rejects all extravagant humours of superfluous vigour, I mean immoderate excess of the affections, and wickedness, and all the effects of such. Therefore he is here said to have been left alone with those of his own kindred, and his kindred are properly all those designs and thoughts of each individual, which are regulated in accordance with virtue, on which account the statement is added "

And he remained alone, and they who were with him," in order to reveal a more genuine joy; but he remained in the ark, that is to say, in the body, because it was purified from every vice and spiritual disease, as the intellect was not yet put in such a condition as to be wholly incorporeal. And on this account also, we must render thanks to the merciful Father, because he received his consort and colleague no longer as one endowed with superior power, but to be subordinate to his own power, on which account also the body is not submerged in the deluge, but rising above the flood is not at all destroyed by the eddies of the cataracts, which a crapulous, libidinous, vanity-loving will, overflowing all thing3, raises to an eminence. Why is it that the sacred writer says, " And God was mindful of Noah, and of the beasts, and of the cattle," but does not add that he remembered his wife and children ?* 26.

As the husband agrees with and is equal to his wife, and as the father is equal to his sons, there is no need of mentioning more names than one, but one, the first, is sufficient; therefore, by naming Noah he, in effect, names all those who were with him of his family ; for when husband, and wife, and children, and relations are all agitated by discord, then it is no longer possible for such to be called one family, but instead of being one they are many; but when harmony exists then one family is exhibited by one superior of the house, and all are seen to depend upon that one, like the branches of a tree which shoot out from it, or the fruit upon a vine branch which does not fall off from it. And in another part, also, the prophet has said, " Have a regard to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who brought you forth," where, because in fact it was one family, he displays the agreement by mentioning the woman. Why is it that the sacred writer made mention first of the beasts and afterwards of the cattle, saying that God remembered Noah, and the beasts, and the cattle ? t 27.

Tn the first place, that poetical rule has not been expressed in vain, that he led the bad into the middle ; therefore he places the heasts in the middle, hetween the domestic animals, that is to say the men and the cattle, in order that they might be tamed and civilized by having an intimate association with both. In the second place, he thought it scarcely reasonable to bestow a provident benefit on the beasts by themselves, because he was about immediately to add a statement of the beginning of the diminution of the deluge. This is the explanation of the statement taken literally. But with respect to the inner meaning, that just intellect, dwelling in the body as if in the ark, possesses both beasts and living animals, not those particular ones which bite and hurt, but, that I may use such an expression, those general kinds which contain in themselves the principles of seed aud origination ; since without these the soul cannot be manifest in the body. Moreover, the soul of the foolish man employs all poisonous and deadly animals, but that of the wise man those only which have changed the nature of wild beasts into that of domestic creatures. What is the meaning of the expression, "

He brought a breath over the earth, and the water ceased ? "* S8. Some people say that what is here meant by " a breath " is the wind, at which the deluge ceased. But I am not aware that water is diminished by wind, but only that it is disturbed and agitated into waves, for if it were otherwise the vast extent of the sea would have been wholly dried up long ago. Therefore it appears to me that the sacred writer here means the breath of the Deity, by which the whole universe obtains security at the same time with the calamities of the world, and with those things which exist in the air, and in every mixture of plants and animals. Since the deluge of that time was no trifling infliction of water, but an immense aud boundless overflow, extending almost beyond the pillars of Hercules and the great Mediterranean Sea, since the whole earth and all the spaces of the mountains were covered with water ; and it is scarcely likely that such a vast space could have been cleared by a wind, but rather, as I have said, it must have been done by some invisible and divine virtue. QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS. 3G5 What is the meaning of the expression, "

The fountains of the deep were closed, and the cataracts of heaven ? "* 29. In the first place, it is agreed upon by all that in the first period of forty days the waters of punishment fell uninterruptedly, the lowest fountains of the earth being burst asunder ; and from above, the cataracts of heaven being opened, and pouring down until all places, both level and mountainous, were covered with the inundation ; and for another period of a hundred and fifty entire days the waters did not cease to fall, nor did the streams cease to flow, nor the springs to burst up, though still in milder quantities, not so as to increase the existing flood, but only so as to secuie the duration of the existence of the deluge, which was also assisted from on high ; and this is what is indicated in the meantime by the statement that after a hundred and fifty days the fountains and the cataracts were closed up ; therefore, while as yet they were not closed up it is plain that they were in action.

In the second place, it was necessary that that which afforded the excessive supply of waters for the deluge, namely, the double reservoir of water, the one from the fountains of the earth, and the other from the pourings forth of heaven, should be both closed, for the more the stores from which any material is supplied fail, the more it is consumed by itself, especially when divine virtue has given the command. This is the literal meaning of the expression.

But with respect to the inner sense of the passage, since the delude of the mind arises from two things, for it arises partly from counsel, as if from heaven, and in another degree also from the body and from sense, as if from earth, the vices being reciprocally introduced by the passions and the passions by the vices, it was inevitably necessary that the word of the divine physician entering in as a salutary visitation for the purpose of healing the disease, should prevent both kinds of overflow for the future ; for it is the first principle of the medical art to drive away the cause of the infirmity and to leave no longer any materials for disease ; and the scripture teaches this, also, in the case of the leper, for when the leprosy is checked and is prevented from extending further, • Genesis viiL 2. it then fixes the station and abode of the leprous man in the same place by a law, because the character of being stationary implies cleanliness, for that which is moved contrary to nature is unclean. What is the meaning of the statement that after a hundred and fifty days the water began to abate ? * 30.

We must here inquire whether those hundred and fifty days, during which the water was abating, are to be distinguished from the four months, or whether they have a reference to the days previously mentioned, during which the deluge went on unceasingly, as still increasing. Why does he say, " The ark settled in the seventh month on the seven and twentieth day of the month ? "f 31. It is reasonable here to consider how the beginning of the deluge commences in the seventh month, on the twentyseventh day of the month, and bow the diminution, when the ark rested on the top of the mountains, again took place in the seventh month and on the twenty-seventh day of the month ; therefore we must say, that there is here an homonymy of months and days, for the beginning of the flood took place in the seventh month, beginning at the birthday of the just man, near the time of the vernal equinox, and its diminution took place in the seventh month, beginning from the highest point of the flood at the autumnal equinox, since the two equinoxes are separated from one another by seven months, having an interval of five months between them.

For the seventh month of the equinox is also by its virtue the first month, because the creation of the world took place in it, on account of the abundance of all things at that season. And, in like manner, the seventh month of the autumnal equinox, which> according to time, is the first in dignity, having its principle of that number seven derived from the air; therefore, the deluge took place in the seventh month, not according to time but according to nature, haviug for its principle and commencement the spring season. Why does he say, " In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the heads of the mountains appeared ? "t 32. As in numerals the number ten is the extreme bound of the units, being a definitive and perfect number, so too it is the cycle and end of the units, and also the beginning and cycle of the decades, and of infinity of numbers ; thus the Creator, on the cessation of the deluge, condescended that the tops of the mountains should appear in the number of the decade, being a definitive and perfect number. Why was it after forty days that the just man opened the window of the ark ? * 33.

We must observe carefully that the divine historian uses the same number in speaking of the influx of the deluge and in mentioning the cessation and complete removal of the evil ; forsooth on the twenty-seventh day of the seventh month in the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, that is to say in the six hundredth year after his nativity, the deluge began at the spring season ; but on the twenty -seventh day of the seventh month, the ark rested on the top of the mountains at the vernal equinox. But it is plain from these circumstances that the deluge became invisible in the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, again on the seventh month and the twenty-seventh clay of it, so that after the lapse of an entire year, it again settled and established the earth as it was at the moment of its destruction, in the spring season, budding forth and covered with verdure and full of all kinds of fruits.

But again in a similar manner the overflow of the deluge took place for forty days, the cataracts of heaven being opened and fountains bursting upwards from the lowest depths of the earth ; and again a hope of renewal took place at intervals of forty days after a sufficient cessation of the rains, when he opened the window ; and again the duration of the permanent deluge lasted for a period of a hundred and fifty days, as also its gradual diminution occupied a period of a hundred and fifty days ; so that we may well admire the equality of the arrangement, for the evil increased and ceased according to the same number, like the moon, which from its first rise proceeds in its increase according to an equal number, going onward to its perfect fulness of light, and then again with an equal number in its decrease, returning back to its original state, after having been previously full ; and in like manner in the case of divine chastisements, the Creator preserves a regular order, banishing all irregularity from the divine borders. What is the window of the ark, which the just man opens ?* 34.

The literal statement scarcely admits of any difficulty or doubt, inasmuch as it is plain ; but with reference to the inner meaning we have this to say : each separate part of the senses has imitated the windows of the body, since it is through them as through windows that the comprehension of sensible objects enters into the intellect, and again it is through them that the intellect stretches forth as if escaping ; but a portion of these windows, the senses, the more noble portion too, I say, is the sight ; inasmuch as that above all the rest is akin to the soul, and it is intimately acquainted with light, the., most beautiful of the essences, and it is the minister of sacred things ; moreover that is the one which first laid open the road to philosophy.

For beholding the regular motion of the sun, and of the moon, and the erratic course of the other planets, and the unerring circular motion of the whole heaven, and the order and harmony there existing beyond all calculation, as if it were the one real creator of the whole world, it by itself related to its one chief counsellor and director all that it saw : and then intellect, seeing those things with its acute eye, and by those things discerning superior demonstrative ideas, and the cause of all those things, immediately perceived that there was a God at the same moment that it arrived at the conception of generation and providence, because forsooth it was plain that this visible nature was not created by itself : for it was impossible that such a harmony, and order, and reason, and most consistent analogy, and that a concord of such a character and extent, and that such true and perfect felicity should exist by its own power : but it was necessaiy that there must be some Creator and parent of it acting like a governor and director, who generated these things, and then having generated them preserves them safe and sound. Why did he send out a raven first ? f 35.

If we look to the literal statement, the raven is said to be an animal particularly set apart for being sent on messages and employed in offices ; for to this very day many people watch its mode of flight and its chattering, judging that it gives some intimation of unknown facts ; but with respect to the hidden meaning, as a raven is a black, and arrogant, and speedy animal, it is a sign of wickedness, which brings night and darkness over the soul, and it is also swift to meet all the things of the world in its flight. iVnd also that it is very bold, so as at times to cause the destruction of those who seek to catch it, since pride produces also rash impudence, the opposite of which is virtue, which is consistent with the brilliancy of light, and is by nature decorated with a modest bashfulness ; therefore it is quite natural that if there was any darkness remaining behind in the intellect, darkness which exists in accordance with folly, he should expel that and send it out beyond his borders. Why did the raven after it had gone forth not return, when there was not yet any part of the earth dried ?* 36.

This passage admits of an allegorical interpretation since injustice is contrary to the light of justice ; so that in comparison of the admirable actions of the man endued with virtue, it thinks it more desirable to rejoice with its kinsman the deluge ; for injustice is a lover of confusion and corruption. Why does he speak here in an incorrect manner, " Till the water was dried up from the earth ;" when it was not the water which was dried up from the earth, but the earth which was dried from the water ? f 37. He uses this expression in an allegorical sense, indicating by the fall of the waters the immensity of vices, by which when saturated and vigorous the soul is corrupted, but when they are dried up and withered, it is preserved ; for then they cannot inflict any mischief upon it, since they are become impotent and dead. Why does he in the second place send forth the dove, and why does he send it forth from himself to see whether the water had ceased, when he uses no such expressions about the raven ?

J In the first place, the dove is a clean animal, and in the second place it is tame, civilised, and one which associates with mankind, on which account also the honour has been allotted to it of being offered up upon the altar in sacrifices ; and on this account the sacred writer, sanctioning this honour and adding the weight of his assertion, has said, he sent it forth from himself, declaring by this expression that it dwelt with him ; and again, by the expression that it was to see whether the water was abated, he displays the common anxiety felt by both. But those birds, the raven and the dove, are symbols of wickedness and virtue : for the one, whether it is wickedness or the raven, has no house, nor habitation, nor city, being an insolent unsociable bird ; but the other, namely virtue, has a regard to humanity, and to the public good : and so the man endowed with virtue sends that bird forth as his ambassador for desirable and salutary objects, wishing to receive from it desirable information ; and she, like an ambassador, brings us back genuine pleasure, so that what is hurtful may be guarded against, and what is useful may be diligently and carefully admitted.

Why did the dove, when it found no rest for its feet, return to Noah?* 39. Is not the reason of this evident, and is it not a plain proof that wickedness and virtue are symbolically indicated by the raven and the dove ? For bebold the dove, which is the last sent out, finds no rest. How, then, could the raven, who departed previously, while the calamity of the deluge was still prevailing, find any place, and make a settlement ? For the raven was neither a swan nor an ibis, nor did he belong to the class of aquatic birds. But the sacred writer here points out in an enigmatical manner, that wickedness, when it has gone forth out of doors, to the swelling whirlpools of the vices and passions which overflow and corrupt the soul and life, joyfully admits them, and dwells with and takes up its abode with them, as with its nearest friends and relations ; but virtue, turning away with loathing from even the first sight of them, at once springs back, and does not return, scarcely finding rest for its feet; finding, in fact, no standing ground anywhere, and no place worthy of itself.

For what other greater evil can there be than this, that virtue should not be able to find iu the soul any place ever so small for rest and for abiding in ? What is the meaning of the statement, " Putting forth his hand, he received her, and brought her in to himself?"* 40. The literal meaning is plain, but with respect to the hidden sense we must elicit the truth carefully. The wise man employs truth as an overseer of and ambassador in important affairs, which, when it perceives that those natures are worthy of it, abides among and dwells with them, correcting them, and making them better, since wisdom is a very common, and equal, and useful thing. But when, with reference to the opposite natures, it sees that in some points they are preposterously redundant and in others altogether deficient, it returns to its proper place ; and the man endowed with virtue admits it in word, putting forth his hand to take it, and in fact opening all his intellect for its reception, and unfolding it by the perfect number, full and equal, with all imaginable promptitude.

Nor even then, when he had sent her forth from himself to examine the natures of other things, had be separated it from himself, but had only acted like the sun, which seuds forth his beams to give light to all things, because it is not at all consistent with the character of his boundless light to be separated at all. Why did he, after waiting yet seven other days, send forth the dove a second time ?f 41. This is an excellent example for life, since although it will behold natures obstinate at first, still the hope of changing them into better natures is scarcely allowed to drop ; and as a prudent physician does not hi a moment apply a perfect cure to a disease, or effect a complete restoration to health, but employs salutary medicines after he has given nature an opportunity of first opening the way to recovery, so too the man endowed with virtue behaves with respect to the employment of the word which is in accordance with the law of wisdom. But the number seven is the sacred and dominical number, according to which the Father of the universe, when he made the world, is said to have looked upon his work.

And the contemplation of the world, and of all the things contained in it, is nothing else but philosophy, and that excellent and select portion of it which wisdom contains, comprehending within itself also a work still more necessary to be seen. What is the meaning of the expression, " The dove returned a second time to him about evening, having in her mouth a leaf and a thin branch of olive ?"* 42. All these separate points are selected and approved signs — the returning, the returning about evening, the having an olive-leaf and a thin branch of that tree, and oil, and the having it in her mouth ; but yet every one of these signs can be examined with a certainty beyond certainty, for the return is distinct from its previous return, for that one bore with it an announcement of nature being wholly corrupted and rebellious, and being wholly destroyed by the deluge, that is to say, by great ignorance and insolence ; but this second return brings the news of the world beginning to repent, but to find repentance is not an easy task, but is a difficult and laborious business.

And it is on this account that the dove arrived in the evening, having passed the whole day from morning to evening in its visitations ; in word, indeed, examining places, but in fact investigating the different parts of nature itself by continual visitation, and seeing them all clearly from beginning to end, for the evening is the indication of the end. The third sign, again, is its bringing a leaf; but a leaf is a small part of a tree, still it does not exist without a tree. And the beginning of displaying repentance is somewhat corresponding to this, since the beginning of correction has some slight indications about it, which we may call a leaf, by which it appears to receive guardianship, but can easily be shaken off ; so that the hope shall in that case not be great of attaining the desired improvement, which is typified by the leaf of no other tree but of the olive alone, and oil is the material of light. For wickedness, as I have said before, is profound darkness, but virtue is luminous" brilliancy, and repentance is the beginning of light.

But you must not yet suppose that the beginning of repentance is only visible in branches just germinating and beginning to look green, but that it exists too while they are still dry, and while the seminal principle is dry and quiescent. And it is on this account that the fifth sign is shown, that, namely, of the dove when it comes bearing a slender branch. And the sixth sign is that this slender branch was in its mouth, for the number six is the first perfect number, since virtue bears in its mouth, that is to say in its conversation, the seeds of wisdom and justice, or, in one word, of honesty of the soul ; and not only bears this, but gives some portion of participation in it even to the foolish, by drawing up water for their souls, and irrigating them with the desire of repentance for their sins. Why is it said, " And Noah knew that the waters had ceased from off the earth?"* 43. The literal statement is plain, since if the leaf had been taken up from off the water it would have been wet and soaked, but now he says that it was dry and slender, as if it had become dry by being on the earth which was dried.

But with reference to its inward meaning, the wise man takes it as a symbol of repentance, and wishes to check the calamities of excessive obstinacy by taking the leaf, since it was not yet green, but slender, for the reason which has been already mentioned. At the same time we may admire the Father on account of his exceeding kindness, for although corruption had prevailed over all the men who lived on the earth from the excess of their iniquities, still there remained some relics of antiquity and of that which was from the beginning, and a slight seed of previous virtues ; by which it is intimated nevertheless that the memory of all the good deeds that have been done from the beginning is not wholly destroyed. On which account a certain prophet, the kinsman and friend of Moses, uttered an oracle of this kind, " If the omnipotent Lord had not left us a seed, we should have been like blind and barren people," t able neither to know the truth nor to generate it. And the Chaldaeans in their native language call blindness and sterility Sodom and Gomorrah. Why, in the third place, after seven other days, did he again send forth the dove, which did not again return to him ? 44.

According to the word, the dove made no more return to him ; but what in fact is meant is virtue, which, however, is not an indication of alienation, since, as I have said before, she was not separated from him at that time, but sent forth like a sun-beam to pay a visit of examination to the natures of others, but then, not finding any one to listen to her precepts of correction, she returns, and properly comes to him alone. But this time she is no longer the possession of one single individual, but is rather a common good to all those who have been willing to receive the emanations of wisdom as if coming up from the earth, those persons, that is, who from the very beginning have laboured under a great thirst of perfect wisdom. Why in the six hundred and first year of the life of Noah, and on the first day of the first month, did the waters of the deluge cease from off the earth ? * 45.

The word first, according to the defect of time, is spoken of with reference either to the month or the man, and each interpretation has reason to support it ; for if we are bound to maintain that the water began to abate in the first month, we are equally obliged to consider that the sacred historian intended also to speak of the seventh month, that is, of that month which is the second equinox, since the same month is both the first and the seventh ; that is to say, the first as respects nature and virtue, and the seventh in point of time. Therefore in another place he says,f " This month is unto you the beginning of months, the first among the months of the year ;" calling that the first which is so in respect of nature and virtue, and which as to number is in time the seventh month, since the equinox has its appointed order in regular series, and in point of time is assigned the better season of the year.

But if you take that word first to have reference to the man, then it will be used with more truth, and with strict propriety, for the just man was truly and properly the first, as in a vessel the captain is the first man, and in a state the prince. But he is first not only in virtue, but also in order, inasmuch as in the very circumstances of the regeneration of the second sowing of the human race he was the beginning and the first.

Moreover, it is very admirably considered with reference to this passage, that the deluge took place during the life of the first man, and that again, when it abated, things returned to their former steadiness, since after the deluge took place he had to live by himself with his whole family, and after that evil was removed he alone was found upon the earth during the latter period of his life until the regeneration of mankind began. , But it is not to no purpose that this testimony is given both of the preceding portion of his life, and also of the later period, for he alone burnt with a desire for that genuine life which is in accordance with virtue, while all the rest of the world were hastening on to death by reason of their fatal wickednesses.