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330 THE JEWISH QUAETERLY REVIEW
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIAN
Be Somniis, I.
The treatise entitled " concerning the [doctrine] that
dreams are sent by God," begins with a reference to its
predecessor, in which Philo has discussed dreams of the
first kind. This class includes aU dreams which, sent by
the deity, correspond to the predilections or idiosyncrasies
of the sleepers. The second class comprises those dreams
which imply the sympathy of our minds with that of the
universe, in virtue of which we are enabled to anticipate
and forecast the future.
The first dream which belongs to this class is the ladder
which appeared in . the heaven, as is narrated in Gen.
xxviii. 12.-15. In order to understand the significance
of this apparition we must first examine what went befoi'e
it. "Jacob went forth from the well of the oath and
journeyed into Haran, and met a place, for the sun had
set, and he took of the stones of the place and laid them
by his head, and slept in that place (ibid., 10 f.)." Here
are three questions which must be answered : — ^first, " What
is the well of the oath, and why is it so called ? " then,
"What is Haran, and why did he arrive there immedi-
ately ? " and lastly, " What is the place, and why, when
he came there, did the sun set and he sleep ? "
The well is presumably the symbol of knowledge, which
is in all cases hidden and hard to discover. Take any
art you please — not the noblest, but the most obscure,
which no free man bred in a city would consent of his
own will to practise: you will find it hard to acquire
at the price of sweat and thought. And water may not
1 One of a series of articles in which the works of Philo are being
summarized.
PHILO OP ALEXANDKIA 331
reward the toilsome search after all (cf. Gen. xxvi. 33),
for the ends of the sciences are indiscoverable. As a man
advances in knowledge there is always more behind,
beyond, so that when he fancies he is touching the limits of
a science he is but half-way in the judgment of his fellow-
student, and according to the standard of the truth he
has only just begun. The well of knowledge has neither
boundary nor end ; and accordingly the well is " the well
of an oath," since there is no truth which is surer than
this.
But why is it the fourth and last well digged by the
servants of Abraham and Isaac to which this title is given?
There are four elements in the universe, earth, water, air,
and heaven: all are perceptible by our senses except the
heaven, which sends to us no clear knowledge of itself.
All the theories of astronomers are but guesses. No mortal
will ever be able to comprehend clearly the nature of
the heaven itself, of the stars, or of the moon.
So too in us the fourth element is incomprehensible.
Body, sense, speech we can describe. The body moves, and
is the vessel of the soul. There are five senses, each with
its proper organ, and they are the bodyguard of the soul.
Voices are loud or soft, harsh or musical, and in articulate
speech, gift granted only to man, it serves as interpreter
to the prompter, Mind. Well then, this fourth thing within
us, this ruler Mind, is it comprehensible? What is it in
its essence ? Is it spirit, or blood, or body at all ? Surely
it is not body. And if incorporeal, which of the many con-
ceptions suggested by the philosophers shall we adopt?
Again, is it born along with us? Or is it inserted from
without? When we die, is it quenched or does it long
survive, or is it wholly incorruptible? Where does it
reside ? In head or heart ?
Heaven in the world, and mind in man — both ai-e in-
comprehensible. And therefore is the fourth year holy
and praiseworthy (Lev. xix. 34). For the heaven is holy
as the home of the incorruptible and long-lived natures ;
332 THE JEWISH QUAKTEBLY EEVIEW
and mind is holy, being a fragment of God, as Moses says,
"He breathed upon his face a breath of life, and man
became a living soul" (Gen, ii. 7). It is man's peculiar
privilege to worship the "I am," Praiseworthy therefore
is man as the heaven, whose eternal melody would wean
us from our needful food, making us immortal by its songs
could we but hear them as Moses heard,
" They found no water in the fourth well "—what is this
but to say that Leah, who is virtue, bare no more children
after Judah, the perfect fruit. Thanksgiving, her fourth son.
Both symbols set forth the truth that all things thirst for
God, from whom is all birth and nurture. Let little minds
suppose that the Lawgiver speaks all this concerning the
excavation of wells. They who are enrolled in the greater
country, the universe, will know clearly that the search
is not for wells, but for the four parts of the whole, earth,
water, air, heaven — at least for the seers and contemplative.
Haran is a metropolis of the senses, so to speak, for it
means a pit or cave, and in the body are excavated holes
in which each sense may lurk. So when one leaves the
well, which is called Oath, one necessarily comes at once to
Haran. The emigrant from the perfect and infinite know-
ledge needs no escort to guide him to the senses. Too
weak to consort continually with pure intellect he declines
upon the senses and sensible objects. Well for him if he
grow not old therein, and live there his life, but only
sojourn as in a strange country, ever seeking restoration
to his fatherland, Laban reckoned it his home, but Jacob
could not endure to spend many days there as a concession
to the needs of the body (Gen. xxvii. 43 f,). So Abraham,
the grandfather of this practiser of virtue, went forth from
Haran when he was sixty years old (Gen, xii. 4), Terah,
on the other hand, as Scripture expressly says, died there,
being but a spy upon virtue, and not a citizen of virtue,
capable only (as his name denotes) of smelling at wisdom
like a hound. Blessed are they who can sit down at the
holy table and feast, and stUl thirst for knowledge.
PHILO OP ALEXANDEIA 333
We are not to see in this account of the migration of
Terah a literal fact such as we should learn from an
historian. It is recorded in order that a lesson of the
utmost value for life, and fit for a man, should not be
neglected. The Chaldeans are astronomers : the citizens of
Haran are busy with the place of the senses. Here is the
lesson. Why busy thyself with speculations that are high
above thee 1 Contemplate that which is near thee. Search
thyself without flattery. Go to Hai-an, and there prosecute
thy research. Study thy senses, I do not say thy soul
and mind. Fetch down the spy from the heavens and
know thyself if thou wilt attain to human happiness.
This disposition then the Hebrews call Terah, the Greeks
Socrates. They say that Socrates grew old in the accurate
study of self-knowledge, never philosophizing save about
what concerned himself. But he was a man, and Terah
the principle itself. Abraham excelled him, for he learned
to know himself and then renounced self-knowledge that
he might come to accurate knowledge of the truth. The
more a man comprehends himself the more he renounces
[knowledge of] himself, apprehending the universal nothing-
ness of that which comes into being, and he that has
renounced [knowledge of] himself comes to know him
who Is.
The third problem, which arises out of Gen. xxviii. 11,
is "what is the place which he meets?" The word
"place" is used in three senses in Scripture. The first
is the ordinary sense of space occupied by matter or body.
But in the second it denotes the divine Logos, which God
himself has filled through and through with incorporeal
powers. Thus it is written, " I saw the place where stood
the God of Israel " (Exod. xxiv. 10), wherein alone he bade
them perform sacrifice. And thirdly, God himself is called
Place because he contains all things, but is contained by
nothing at all save himself. God is his own place, whereas
you and I are in a place. So we can understand how
Abraham "came to the place which God told him, and
334 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
lifting up his eyes saw the place afar off" (Gen. xxii. 3 f.).
He that is led by wisdom reaches the divine Logos, the
head and end of hpeo-KeCa, but sees the other Place far
removed, since the comprehension of God as he is is far
removed from human understanding.
So here, the place he meets is not God but God's Word,
which he sends into the region of sense to help the virtuous,
and they heal the soul's diseases, setting up the sacred
admonitions as immoveable laws. This place he meets
involuntarily, that is not coming to it of set purpose.
Suddenly the divine Word appears, ready to journey with
the desolate soul and affording greater, because unlooked
for, joy of hope. So Moses leads forth the people to meet
God (Exod. xix. 17), knowing well that he comes unseen
to the souls that yearn for him.
"He met the place" then. And why? "Because the
sun went down" (Gen. xxviii. 11). It is not the pheno-
menal sun which is meant but the brilliant light of the
invisible supreme God, before which the second lights of
the Word or Words pale and, much more, the places of the
sensible material world are overshadowed. Wonder not
that, according to the rules of allegory, the sun is likened
to the father and ruler of all things. Really nothing is
like God, but two things are conventionally compared to
him — soul and sun. The likeness of the soul to God is
clearly implied in the account of the creation of man (Gen.
i. a; ; cf. ix. 6) ; that of the sun is indicated by symbols.
With little reflection it is easy to perceive the likeness.
In the Hymns the Psalmist sings " the Lord is my light "
(Ps. xxvi. 1), and not light only but archetype of every other
light, nay rather older and higher than every archetype.
As the sun shows up hidden bodies so God begat all
things — did not merely bring them to light but made the
things which were not before, being not merely framer
(brjixiovpyos) but actually creator.
Elsewhere the sun stands for the human mind, for per-
ception, and for the divine Word ; as here for the Ruler
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 335
of the universe to whom all things are manifest, even the
invisible workings of the mind's recesses.
To clinch this point Philo cries out like an orator in
a law court, "Eepeat the law." The statute to which he
appeals is Exod. xxii. 2,6 f., " If thou take in pledge the
cloak of thy neighbour thou shalt restore it to him before
the going down of the sun ; for this is his only covering,
this is the cloak <jf his unseemliness. Wherein shall he
sleep? if, therefore, he cry unto me I will hear him: for
I am merciful." Is it not natural that those who think
that the Lawgiver showed such zeal for raiment should
remind us, if not abuse us, saying : " What is this — the
Creator and Governor of the universe call himself merciful
in respect of so trivial a matter as this ? Such a view is
characteristic of those who do not understand the greatness
of the virtue of the all-great God, and without any warrant
attribute human pettiness of mind to the uncreated and
incorruptible nature of God. It is not strange that the
creditors should keep the pledges untU they recover their
own. If the debtors are poor it would have been better
to write a law that they should rather assist them with
alms ; but for what could a man pledge his only garment 1
no one lacks the necessities of life so long as there are
springs of water and the earth bears its yearly harvest.
And why is the garment to be restored at night when
darkness would conceal his shame ? Nothing is said about
the return of the bedclothes in the morning, indeed the
peculiarity of the language is sufficient to lead even the
slowest to perceive some meaning other than the literal.
Such considerations may be urged against the wiseacres
who insist upon a literal interpretation and lift their eye-
brows at any other. Let us follow the laws of allegory,
the cloak is a symbol of speech, the best gift given from
God to man. Speech enables him to resist all revolution-
aries, it conceals his fJaults and leads him to amendment.
But thei-e are some who take his speech in pledge and rob
him of it. Such wage implacable warfare against the
336 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
rational nature, cutting off its shoots, stifling its young
growth, rendering it barren of all noble practices, and
quenching love of philosophic speculation.
The "shame" "which speech hides is ignorance, and
therefore it is added "this cloak is the only cloak of his
unseemliness." In what then will he sleep ? that is to say,
in what then will a man rest and be at peace save in
speech ? For speech lightens the burden of our race, just
as the kindness of familiar friends has often healed those
who are oppressed by grief, or fear, or any other evil, so
not often, but always, the heaviest load of all, which bodily
necessities and unforeseen accidents lay upon us, is warded
off by speech alone. Speech is our friend and familiar
companion, united to us by an indissoluble and invisible
bond. It tells us what will be profitable for us, and when
anything unforeseen comes upon us it is ready of its own
accord to help not only as counsellor but as comrade. If
it fail in plan or act it can still console us, for it is a salve
of wounds and a salvation of the soul's passions — this
speech which we must restore before the rays which God,
in pity for our race, sends into the mind of man have set.
So he that receives man's peculiar possession may cover
the shame of mortal life and profit by the divine gift and
rest calmly. So long, then, as God sheds upon you this
holy light strive in the day to repay the pledge to the
Lord: for at its setting, like all Egypt, you will have
a darkness which can be felt for ever, and smitten
with blindness and ignorance you will be robbed of your
fancied possessions, enslaved perforce by the seer Israel,
whom you held in pledge.
This lengthy digression is necessary to bring out the
meaning of the words " he met the place for the sun had
set." When the rays of God, whereby the clearest concep-
tions of things are produced, desert the soul then the second
and weaker light of words, not of things, arises ; as in this
world the moon rises at sunset. To meet a place or word
is gift sufficient for those who cannot see the God who
PHILO OP ALEXANDEIA 337
transcends place and word : since that pure light has set
for them they reap the fruits of the tempered light.
Some, supposing that the sun is a symbolic expression
for perception and mind, which are considered to be criteria
in ourselves, and that place is the divine Logos, have inter-
preted thus : — the practiser of virtue met the divine Word
when the mortal and human light set. It is only when
mind and sense confess their weakness and, so to speak
set, that right reason comes forward to champion the soul
that has despaired of itself.
It goes on to say that he took of the stones of the place
and laid them at his head and slept in that place. The literal
meaning is sufficiently impressive ; it contains a condemna-
tion of the luxurious life of the miserable people who think
themselves happy, but we must search out the symbolism
of the passage. The divine place and the sacred region are
full of bodiless intelligences, and these are immortal souls.
One of these he takes, choosing the highest, and places it
near his mind, for the mind is, in a way, the head of the
soul. So he will not sleep, in the litei-al sense, but repose
upon the divine Word and rest thereon his whole life, no
heavy load. And the Word gladly hearkens and receives
the athlete for training until his strength becomes irresis-
tible. Then with divine inspirations he changes Jacob's
ears to eyes and calls him Israel the seer, and crowns him
with the crown of victory whose name is numbness (Gen.
xxxii. 25). For it is said the breadth was numbed ; for if
the soul which has been perfected in the contests of virtue
is not elated, but contracts the breadth which is widened
by opinion, and then trips itself up voluntarily, and halts
in order that it may be passed by the bodiless natures, it
will conquer though it appears to be defeated.
Such is the preface of the vision sent by God: now it
is time to turn to the vision itself. "He dreamed, and
lo a ladder planted firmly on the earth, whose head reached
to the heaven, and the angels of God ascended and de-
scended upon it ; but the Lord was set upon it." Now
VOL. XVIII. z
338 THE JEWISH QUAKTEELY REVIEW
the ladder is the air whose foot is the earth, and whose
summit the heaven ; and the air, which gives life to all
creatures, is itself a well-peopled city, whose citizens are
incorruptible and immortal souls, equal in number to the
stars ; some of these souls go down to be imprisoned in
mortal bodies, being akin to earth and fond of bodies.
Others go up, and if they yearn for the conditions of mortal
life return again ; but those which condemn its futility
call the body a prison and a tomb, and escape to the upper
air, there to remain on high for ever. There are other
souls, pure and good, whose thoughts are greater and more
divine, who never desu-ed any earthly thing, but are the
lieutenants of the All -ruler, ever seeing and hearing all
things ; these are the demons of all other philosophers, who
are called in the Law angels or messengers. It is not
that the omnipresent God needs iuformei's, but that it is
expedient for us poor mortals to have intelligences as
mediators and arbitrators, because we quail before the
supreme Judge. So once perceiving this, we besought one
of the mediators, saying, " Speak thou to us, and let not
God speak to us lest we die." God must employ ministers
for his beneficence, else we cannot beax' it.
There is a ladder in man as well as in the universe.
If we look we shall find that the ladder in man is the soul,
whose foot is the earthly sense, and whose head is the
heavenly mind ; now throughout the soul the words of
God go up and down incessantly, now dragging it up with
them, away from the mortal sphere, to see the sight of
those things which alone are worth seeing, and now, not
casting it down, since neither God nor the Word of God
can be the cause of punishment, but descending with it
for love and pity of our race, to help and succour and
revive the soul that is still carried about within the body
as in a river. The Ruler of the universe himself walks
about in the minds of those who are absolutely cleansed
(Lev. XX vi. 12) ; but in the minds of those who are still
being washed, and have not yet washed away the pol-
PHILO OP ALEXANDRIA 339
lutions of bodily life, the angels walk, the words of God
gladdening them with the doctrines of virtue. Strive
then, soul, to become God's house, an holy temple,
a goodly dwelling-place ; for perchance thou too shalt
have the householder of the whole world caring for his
own house, that it may ever be kept well fenced and free
from harm.
Perhaps also the practiser of viiiue conceives of his own
life as like a ladder, for practice is an unequal thing, now
soaring up and now descending. Some one has said that
the life of the practisers of virtue alternates between
waking life and death-like sleep. And this is true, since
they are midway between the wise, whose dwelling-place
is heaven, and the wicked, whose home is the recesses
of hades. Those who are practising virtue walk up and
down as upon a ladder, drawn up or dragged back until
God, the umpire of the struggle, award the prize to the
worthy and destroy the rest.
Again, the affairs of men are like a ladder. One day,
as some one said, puts down one man from on high and
raises another up. Princes become commoners, commoners
become princes. Rich become poor, and poor rich. Such
and such is the road of human affairs, up and down ; full of
unstable fortunes whose inequality time plainly shows.
Now the di'eam showed the archangel, the Lord fixed on
the ladder. For we must suppose that as a charioteer
stands above his chariot, or a pilot above his ship, so
the Absolute stands over bodies, souls, things, words,
angels, earth, air, heaven, perceptible powers, invisible
natures, over whatever can or cannot be seen. God is
the charioteer of nature. But if God is fixed thereon it
is only because he is the prop and firm foundation of all
things.
He that stands upon the ladder of heaven says " I am
the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac "
(Gen. xxviii. 13). The difference in the phrases is not
without meaning. Isaac stands for the knowledge which
z a
340 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
is self-taught, bu.t Abraham for the knowledge which is
being taught. The one is a son of the soil, the other a
settler who has forsaken the language of the astronomers,
and come to that which befits a rational being, the worship
of the Cause of all things. Abraham then needs two
powers, governance and beneficence, while Isaac needs only
the gifts which are showered down from above. God is
the name of the gracious Power, Lord is the name of the
kingly Power, so Jacob prays that the Lco-d would be to
him a Gk)d, for he wished no longer to fear him as Ruler,
but to honoud" and love him as Benefactor.
Shall we then be blind to all but the literal meaning
of scripture 1 Nay, truly, if we close the eye of the soul,
and will not or cannot look up, do thou, Hierophant,
prompt and direct us till thou initiate us into the hidden
light of sacred words, and show us the beauties which
are hid from the gaze of the profane. And ye souls who
have tasted the divine desires rise up from your deep sleep,
scatter the mist, press on to the glorious spectacle, quitting
your slow and hesitating fear, that ye may perceive what
sights and sounds for your advantage the president of
the great games hath made ready.
The oracle calls Jacob's grandfather his father, and does
not add the title to his real father. It is well worth while
to examine carefully the reason for this. Virtue is said
to be acquired either by nature, or by practice, or by
learning. So there are three chieftains of the nation all
wise, but not stai"ting from the same point, although they
press towards the same end. Abraham, the eldest of these,
used instruction as his guide upon the way leading to
virtue ; Isaac self-taught nature ; Jacob toilsome practices.
All three are types or kinds of minds. Thus Jacob, if he
run strenuously towards the goal, becomes Israel, and then
has Isaac, not Abraham, for his father. This is not my
own legend, but an oi-acle inscribed in the sacred records.
Scripture says '■' Israel removed, he and all that were his,
and came to the well of the oath, and sacrificed a sacrifice
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 34 1
to tbe God of hi& father Isaac" (Gen. xlvi. i). Now do
you Tinderstand that the text does not concern corruptible
men, but the nature of things ?
God bids Jacob " fear not," Abraham he taught, Isaac he
begat. Abraham was his disciple, Isaac his son. How
shall we fear who have God as our defender? To Jacob
God promises the earth, that is fruitful virtue, whereon he
sleeps. The race of wisdom is likened to the sand of
the earth, for instruction checks the flood-tides of sin. The
wise man is not a blessing to himself alone, but to all
who share a rational nature. If any one in house or city
or district or Biation become a lover of wisdom, that house,
city, district, or nation must lead a better life, influenced
by the sweet savour of his wisdom.
But the greatest benefit for the soul that labours and
strives is to have the omnipresent God for comrade on
his journey. For lo, he says, "I am with thee." What
wealth then could we need ? Thee we have who alone art
the true wealth, guarding us on the way, which in all
its windings leads to virtue. Very well is it said, " I will
return thee to this land." It were best that the reason
should remain in its own sphere, and not migrate to the
sphere of the senses ; it is next best that it should return
to its own sphere again. And perhaps also there is here
a hint of the doctrine of the soul's immortality ; for it left
its heavenly place and came, as it were, into a strange
country, the body. So the father that begat it says that
he wiU not leave it for ever imprisoned, but taking pity
will loose its chains and send it free to its metropolis,
and will not cease before his promise is made good.
So Jacob cries out repentant, "It is not as I thought;
the Lord contains and is not contained, according to the
true theory." But this visible universe is nothing else than
the house of God, that ia of one of the powers of the
Absolute, his beneficence. Further, he calls the universe
the gate of true heaven. What then does this mean 1 It
is impossible to conceive of the world of ideas save by
342 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
migration from the material world. We must enter in by
the gate appointed.
But enough of this. There is another dream which
belongs to the same class, which is thus narrated by the
dreamer : — " The angel of God said to me in sleep, Jacob ;
and I said, What is it ? and he said, Look up with thine
eyes, and behold the goats and the rams mounting upon
the sheep and the goats, white and spotted and ring-
straked ; for I have seen all that Laban doth to thee.
I am the God that was seen of thee in God's place, where
thou didst anoint for me a pillar, and didst vow unto
me a vow. Now, therefore, rise up and come forth from
this land, and depart into the land of thy birth, and I
will be with thee" (Gen. xxxi. 11-13). Hence we see that
dreams, which come thi'ough the interpreters and attendant
angels of the First Cause, are also reckoned as sent by
God. Notice what follows. To some the Holy Word speaks
as a king in command : to others it suggests as a teacher
to his disciples what will be beneficial for them : to others
as a counsellor it introduces the best thoughts, and so
benefits those who of themselves are ignorant of what is
expedient: to others again, like a friend, it brings up
unspeakable things, which none of the uninitiated may
hear. Here, as to Moses at the bush and to Abraham at
the sacrifice of his beloved and only son, it speaks as to
a friend, first calling him by name. And Jacob looks up
to discern the meaning of the symbols presented to him.
The he-goat and the ram are leaders of their flocks. The
flocks are souls ; the he-goats and the rams are the right
reason of wisdom.
And when he looked up — saw with the eye of his mind
which before was closed — he beheld the perfect Reasons,
sharpened to the diminution of vice and the increase of
right action, mounting upon the young and tender souls,
not seeking empty pleasure, but sowing the invisible seed
of the doctrines of knowledge. Go then, sow your seed,
ye Eeasons, pass by no soul of good and virgin soil, for
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 343
such will bear good fruit, all male offspring, ringstraked,
speckled, and grisled.
We must inquire into the force of each of these terms,
"ringstraked, speckled, and grisled." " Eingstraked " is
literally very white, hidXevKoi — for 8ia has an intensive force
in compounds. So the meaning is that the firstborn of
the soul that receives sacred seed are " very white," like
the clearest brightest light of unclouded noon.
"Speckled" does not refer to the irregular spots of
leprosy, which represent the unsettled life of an unstable
mind, but to the regular and harmonious markings which
fit into and correspond with each other. The word is
commonly appropriated to weaving or embroidery ; but the
universe itself is a piece of embroidery, an harmonious
combination of different elements which calls for reverential
respect for the work, the art, and the artificer.
The thu-d ofispring is described as "grisled," dust-
coloured, sprinkled (o-n-oSoeiSeis pavroC). What sane man
would not say that these also belong to the class of speckled
or variegated? Such zeal for minute details is not con-
cerned with the difference of cattle, but with the path
which leads to virtue. The meaning is that he who walks
thereon is sprinkled with dust and water, because the
story goes that earth and water were mixed and moulded
by the Creator and transformed into our body, which is
no handiwork, but a work of invisible nature. It is then
the beginning of wisdom not to forget oneself, but ever
to hold before oneself that out of which one is compounded
so may one be cleansed from haughtiness, the evil which
God most detests. For, who bethinking himself that ashes
and water are his beginnings of being (t^s yei'ea-ews), can
be puffed up and exalted by pride? Therefore, the law-
giver ordained (eStKaiwo-ev) that those about to perform the
sacred rites should be sprinkled therewith, thinking none
worthy to sacrifice who had not first known himself and
perceived the nothingness of man, inferring from the
elements of which he is composed his utter unworthiness.
344 THE JEWISH QUAETEELY REVIEW
The great highpriest, whenever he is about to perform
the ritual ordained by law, must first be sprinkled
with ashes and water (Exod. xxix. 4) to remind him of
himself, just as the wise Abraham when he went to entreat
God said that he was earth and dust (Gen. xviii. 37).
Then he must put on the coat reaching to his feet, and
the varied thing which is called the breastplate, the image
of the stars.
For there are, it would seem, two temples of God — the
one, this world in which God's firstborn, the divine Logos,
is highpriest ; and the other the rational soul, whereof the
true man is priest, whose material image is he who performs
the ancestral prayers and sacrifices, who is commanded to
put on the aforesaid coat, the counterpart of the whole
heaven, that the world may join with man and man with
the universe in the rite.
What then of the third class — the pure white? When
this same highpriest enters into the inmost place of the
sanctuaxy, he puts off his varied garment and takes a
second made of finest linen. This is the symbol of har-
mony, of incorruptibility, of most brilliant light: for this
fine linen is unbroken and is made of nothing that dies,
and, moreover, has a bright and shining colour, being not
carelessly purified. Thus I read this riddle. None of those
who guilelessly and purely worship the Absolute (to Sp)
but must first be determined to despise the affairs of men,
which beguile and harm and bring weakness : then, derid-
ing the vain inventions of mortals, he aims at immoitality ;
and last, he is illuminated by the shadowless brilliant light
of truth, no longer entertaining any vain opinion.
In strong contrast with the highpriest who is clad thus
and thus we read of Joseph with his coat of many colours.
He is not sprinkled with holy purifications, whence he
might have known himself to be a compound of ashes and
water; nor may he touch the white and radiant garment,
virtue. His coat is the varied coat of politics, wherein the
smallest portion of truth is mingled with many large portions
PHILO OP ALEXANDRIA 345
of specious lies. Hence have sprung up all the sophists of
Egypt, augurs, ventriloquists, diviners, from whose trea-
cherous arts it is very hard to escape. So it is but natural
that Moses speaks of his coat as being drabbled with blood
(Gen. xxxviii. 31), since all the life of the politician is
bedrabbled, warring, and warred upon, smitten by unfore-
seen contingencies. Examine the great leader of the people,
unaffected by the general admiration which he commands.
You will find many diseases lurking within him : dangers
are dogging his footsteps : each individual is raising itself
by violence and secretly wrestling with him, while the
many are discontented with his rule, or a moi-e powerful
rival is rising up against him. Envy is always a terrible
enemy, ever clinging to our fancied success. But if we
don the embroidered robe of virtue we shall escape the
snares of Laban (Gen. xxxi. 1 2).
When the sacred Word has cleansed us with the purifi-
catory sprinklings and adorned us with the unspeakable
words of true philosophy, it condemns the envious trea-
cherous disposition, and we must not quail who have the
hope of God's alliance.
But when it is said I am the God who was seen of thee
in the place of God we must ask: "Are there then two
Gods," as the phrase suggests? He that is truly God is
one, but they who are loosely so called are many. Where-
fore the holy Word uses the definite article of him who
is truly God, and not of the many. In the present instance
it is his most ancient Logos that is called God — not that
the writer is superstitious about the application of terms,
but because he sets one goal before himself to keep to his
system. For no name belongs rightly to the Absolute, who
is of a nature to exist simply, not to be described. There
is an old legend that the deity at different times visits
different cities in human form, seeking out cases of unright-
eousness and lawlessness. Perhaps it is not true, but even
so it is profitable and expedient that it should be current.
And Scripture, though it employs more reverent conceptions
346 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
of the Absolute, does at the same time liken God to man,
speaking of his face, voice, anger, and so forth, for the profit
of the learner. Some are so dull that they cannot conceive
of God at all without a body. So it is written, on the one
hand, that God is not as a man (Num. xxiii. 19), and, on
the other, "the Lord thy God shall school thee as a man
might school his son " (Deut. viii. 5). Why then should
we wonder if God is made like angels, and sometimes even
men, for the assistance of the needy ?
Why then, soul, dost thou still labour in vain ? Why
dost thou not attend upon the ascetic, that thou mayest
learn to wield the weapons that overcome passion and vain
opinion ? For, perchance, having learned thou shalt be lord
of a flock, approved rational and varied. So wilt thou
bewail the piteous race of men, and never cease entreating
the Godhead, So shalt thou continually glorify God and
engrave holy hymns on pillars, that thou mayest not only
recount fluently but also sing musically the virtues of
him who is. For so shalt thou be able to return to thy
father's house and escape the endless storm that rages
abroad.
J, H. A. Hart.
