Selected Writings

Philo, Hans Lewy

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486437347
• eBook ISBN: 9780486149097
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy of Religion

A contemporary of Jesus Christ, Philo of Alexandria ranks among the greatest of Jewish and Greek thinkers. He was not only the first theologian — that is, the first who attempted to reconcile the teachings of supernatural revelation with the conclusions of speculative thought — but also the first psychologist of faith, the first mystic among monotheists, and the first systematizer of biblical allegory. His contributions to these and other fields of inquiry endow his writings with an importance of the first degree in the history of religious thought.
Chosen by Hans Lewy, a distinguished scholar of Jewish-Hellenistic culture, these selections illuminate Philo's crucial role in assimilating Greek philosophy to biblical religion and accommodating Jewish belief to Greek thought. An introductory essay on the philosopher’s life and works is followed by meditations on God and the world, God and man, and man and the world. Additional topics include the knowledge of God; the mystic way; the soul and her God; man's humility, hope, faith, and joy; vices and virtues; and Israel and the nations.
The most thorough and most representative documents illuminating Hellenistic Judaism, these works are essential reading for students of philosophy and theology.

IV

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

THE WAY OF WISDOM

WISDOM is a straight high road, and it is when the mind’s course is guided along that road that it reaches the goal which is the recognition and knowledge of God. Every comrade of the flesh hates and rejects this path and seeks to corrupt it. For there are no two things so utterly opposed as knowledge and pleasure of the flesh.

On the Unchangeableness of God, 143 (111, p. 81 ff.)

WHY HEAVEN WAS CREATED AFTER EARTH

On the fourth day, the earth being now finished, God ordered the heaven in varied beauty. Not that He put the heaven in a lower rank than the earth, giving precedence to the inferior creation, and accounting the higher and more divine worthy only of the second place; but to make clear beyond all doubt the mighty sway of His sovereign power. For being aware beforehand of the ways of thinking that would mark the men of future ages, how they would be intent on what looked probable and plausible, with much in it that could be supported by argument, but would not aim at sheer truth; and how they would trust phenomena rather than God, admiring sophistry more than wisdom; and how they would observe in time to come the circuits of sun and moon, on which depend summer and winter and the changes of spring and autumn, and would suppose that the regular movements of the heavenly bodies are the causes of all things that year by year come forth and are produced out of the earth; that there might be none who owing either to shameless audacity or to overwhelming ignorance should venture to ascribe the first place to any created thing, ‘let them,’ said He, ‘go back in thought to the original creation of the universe, when, before sun or moon existed, the earth bore plants of all sorts and fruits of all sorts; and having contemplated this let them form in their minds the expectation that hereafter too shall it bear these at the Father’s bidding, whensoever it may please Him’. For He has no need of His heavenly offspring on which He bestowed powers but not independence: for, like a charioteer grasping the reins or a pilot the tiller, He guides all things in what direction He pleases as law and right demand, standing in need of no one besides: for all things are possible to God. This is the reason why the earth put forth plants and bore herbs before the heaven was furnished.

On the Creation of the World, 45-6 (1, p. 35 ff.)

THE CREATION OF THE HEAVEN AND THE RISING OF PHILOSOPHY

Its Maker arrayed the heaven on the fourth day with a most divine adornment of perfect beauty, namely the light-giving heavenly bodies; and, knowing that of all things light is best, He made it the indispensable means of sight, the best of the senses; for what the intellect is in the soul, this the eye is in the body; for each of them sees, one the things of the mind, the other the things of sense; and they have need, the mind of knowledge, that it may become cognisant of incorporeal objects, the eye of light, for the apprehending of bodily forms. Light has proved itself the source of many other boons to mankind, but pre-eminently of philosophy, the greatest boon of all. For man’s faculty of vision, led upwards by light, discerned the nature of the heavenly bodies and their harmonious movement. He saw the well-ordered circuits of fixed stars and planets, how the former moved in unchanging orbit and all alike, while the latter sped round in two revolutions out of harmony with each other. He marked the rhythmic dances of all these, how they were marshalled by the laws of a perfect music, and the sight produced in his soul an ineffable delight and pleasure.²² Banqueting on sights displayed to it one after another, his soul was insatiate in beholding. And then, as usually happens, it went on to busy itself with questionings, asking What is the essence of these visible objects? Are they in nature unoriginate, or had they a beginning of existence? What is the method of their movement? And what are the principles by which each is governed? It was out of the investigation of these problems that philosophy grew, than which no more perfect good has come into the life of mankind.

On the Creation of the World, 53-4 (1, p. 41)

ON MAN’S CREATION AFTER THE IMAGE OF GOD

Moses tells us that man was created after the image of God and after His likeness (Gen. i. 26). Right well does he say this, for nothing earth-born is more like God than man. Let no one represent the likeness as one to a bodily form; for neither is God in human form, nor is the human body God-like. No, it is in respect of the Mind, the sovereign element of the soul, that the word ‘image’ is used; for after the pattern of a single Mind, even the Mind of the Universe as an archetype, the mind in each of those who successively came into being moulded. It is in a fashion a god to him who carries and enshrines it as an object of reverence; for the human mind evidently occupies a position in men precisely answering to that which the great Ruler occupies in all the world. It is invisible while itself seeing all things, and while comprehending the substances of others, it is as to its own substance unperceived; and while it opens by arts and sciences roads branching in many directions, all of them great highways, it comes through land and sea investigating what either element contains. Again, when on soaring wing it has contemplated the atmosphere and all its phases, it is borne yet higher to the ether and the circuit of heaven, and is whirled round with the dances of planets and fixed stars, in accordance with the laws of perfect music, following that love of wisdom which guides its steps. And so, carrying its gaze beyond the confines of all substance discernible by sense, it comes to a point at which it reaches out after the intelligible world, and on descrying in that world sights of surpassing loveliness, even the patterns and the originals of the things of sense which it saw here, it is seized by a sober intoxication, like those filled with Corybantic frenzy, and is inspired, possessed by a longing far other than theirs and a nobler desire. Wafted by this to the topmost arch of the things perceptible to mind, it seems to be on its way to the Great King Himself; but, amid its longing to see Him, pure and untempered rays of concentrated light stream forth like a torrent, so that by its gleams the eye of the understanding is dazzled.

On the Creation of the World 69-71 (1, p. 55 ff.)

WHY MAN CAME LAST IN THE WORLD’S CREATION

It is obvious to inquire why man comes last in the world’s creation; for, as the sacred writings show, he was the last whom the Father and Maker fashioned. Those, then, who have studied more deeply than others the laws of Moses and who examine their contents with all possible minuteness, maintain that God, when He made man partaker of kinship with Himself in mind and reason best of all gifts, did not begrudge him the other gifts either, but made ready for him beforehand all things in the world, as for a living being dearest and closest to Himself, since it was His will that when man came into existence he should be at a loss for none of the means of living and of living well. The means of living are provided by the lavish supplies of all that makes for enjoyment; the means of living well by the contemplation of the heavenly existences, for, smitten by their contemplation, the mind conceives a love and longing for the knowledge of them. And from this philosophy took its rise, by which man, mortal though he be, is rendered immortal. Just as givers of a banquet do not send out the summonses to supper till they have put everything in readiness for the feast; and those who provide gymnastic and scenic contests, before they gather the spectators into the theatre or the stadium, have in readiness a number of combatants and performers to charm both eye and ear; exactly in the same way the Ruler of all things, like some provider of contests or of a banquet, when about to invite man to the enjoyment of a feast and a great spectacle, made ready beforehand the material for both. He desired that on coming into the world man might at once find both a banquet and a most sacred display, the one full of all things that earth and rivers and sea and air bring forth for use and for enjoyment, the other of all sorts of spectacles, most impressive in their substance, most impressive in their qualities, and circling with most wondrous movements, in an order fitly determined always in accordance with proportion of numbers and harmony or evolutions. In all these one might rightly say that there was the real music, the original and model of all other,²³ from which the men of subsequent ages, when they had painted the images in their own souls, handed down an art most vital and beneficial to human life.

On the Creation of the World, 77-8 (1, p. 61 ff.)

‘KNOW THYSELF’

The information that Terah left the land of Chaldea and migrated to Haran, taking with him his son Abraham and his kindred, (Gen. xi. 31) is given us not with the object that we may learn as from a writer of history, that certain people became emigrants, leaving the land of their ancestors, and making a foreign land their home and country, but that a lesson well suited to man and of great service to human life may not be neglected. What is this lesson? The Chaldeans are astronomers, while the citizens of Haran busy themselves with the place (or topic) of the senses. Accordingly Holy Writ addresses to the explorer of the facts of nature certain questions —‘Why do you carry on investigations about the sun, as to whether it is a foot in diameter, whether it is larger than the whole earth, whether it is many times its size? And about the illuminations of the moon, whether it has a borrowed light, or whether it employs one entirely its own? And why do you search into the nature of the other heavenly bodies, or into their revolutions or the ways in which they affect each other and affect earthly things? And why, treading as you do on earth do you leap over the clouds? And why do you say that you are able to lay hold of what is in the upper air, when you are rooted to the ground? Why do you venture to determine the indeterminate? And why are you so busy with what you ought to leave alone, the things above? And why do you extend even to the heavens your learned ingenuity? Why do you take up astronomy and pay such full and minute attention to the higher regions? Mark, my friend, not what is above and beyond your reach but what is close to yourself, or rather make yourself the object of your impartial scrutiny. What form, then, will your scrutiny take? Go in spirit to Haran, “excavated” land,²⁴ the openings and cavities of the body, and hold an inspection of eyes, ears, nostrils, and the other organs of sense, and engage in a course of philosophy most vital and most fitting to a human being. Try to find out what sight is, what hearing is, what taste, smell, touch are, in a word what sense-perception is. Next, ask what it is to see and how you see, what it is to hear and how you hear, what it is to smell or taste or handle, and how each function is habitually performed. But before you have made a thorough investigation into your own tenement, is it not an excess of madness to examine that of the universe? And there is a weightier charge which I do not as yet lay upon you, namely to see your own soul and the mind of which you think so proudly: I say, “see”, for to comprehend it you will never be able. Go to! Mount to heaven and brag of what you see there, you who have not yet attained to the knowledge of that of which the poet speaks in the line

All that existeth of good and of ill in the halls of thy homestead. (Odyssey, iv, 392.)

But bring the explorer down from heaven and away from these researches draw the “Know thyself”, and then lavish the same careful toil on this, too, in order that you may enjoy the happiness proper to man.’ This character Hebrews call ‘Terah,’ Greeks ‘Socrates’. For they say that ‘Know thyself’ was likewise the theme of life-long pondering to Socrates, and that his philosophy was concerned exclusively with his own self Socrates, however, was a human being, while Terah was self-knowledge²⁵ itself, a way of thinking set before us as a tree of great luxuriance, to the end that lovers of virtue might find it easy, as they pluck the fruit of moral knowledge, to take their fill of nourishment saving the most sweet. Such do we find those to be whose part it is to explore good sense: but more perfect than theirs is the nature with which those are endowed who train themselves to engage in the contest for it. These, when they have thoroughly learned in all its details the whole study of the sense-perceptions, claim it as their prerogative to advance to some other greater object of contemplation, leaving behind them those lurking-places of sense-perception, to which the name of Haran is given. Among these is Abraham who gained much progress and improvement towards the acquisition of the highest knowledge: for when most he knew himself, then most did he despair of himself, in order that he might attain to an exact knowledge of Him Who in reality is. And this is nature’s law: he who has thoroughly comprehended himself, thoroughly despairs of himself, having as a step to this ascertained the nothingness in all respects of created being. And the man who has despaired of himself is beginning to know Him that is.

On Dreams, 1, 52-62 (v, p. 323 ff.)

ON THE APPREHENSION OF GOD

Doubtless hard to unriddle and hard to apprehend is the Father and Ruler of all, but that is no reason why we should shrink from searching for Him. But in such searching two principal questions arise which demand the consideration of the genuine philosopher. One is whether the Deity exists, a question necessitated by those who practise atheism, the worst form of wickedness, the other is what the Deity is in essence. Now to answer the first question does not need much labour, but the second is not only difficult but perhaps impossible to solve. Still, both must be examined. We see²⁶ then, that any piece of work always involves the knowledge of a workman. Who can look upon statues or painting without thinking at once of a sculptor or painter? Who can see clothes or ships or houses without getting the idea of a weaver and a shipwright and a housebuilder? And when one enters a well-ordered city in which the arrangements for civil life are very admirably managed, what else will he suppose but that this city is directed by good rulers? So then he who comes to the truly Great City, this world, and beholds hills and plains teeming with animals and plants, the rivers, spring-fed or winter torrents, streaming along the seas with their expanses, the air with its happily tempered phases, the yearly seasons passing into each other, and then the sun and moon ruling the day and night, and the other heavenly bodies fixed or planetary and the whole firmament revolving in rhythmic order, must he not naturally or rather necessarily gain the conception of the Maker and Father and Ruler also? For none of the works of human art is self made, and the highest art and knowledge is shown in this universe, so that purely it has been wrought by one of excellent knowledge and absolute perfection. In this way we have gained the conception of the existence of God.

As for the divine essence,²⁷ though in fact it is hard to track and hard to apprehend, it still calls for all the inquiry possible. For nothing is better than to search for the true God, even if the discovery of Him eludes human capacity, since the very wish to learn, if earnestly entertained, produces untold joys and pleasures. We have the testimony of those who have not taken a mere sip of philosophy but have feasted abundantly on its reasonings and conclusions. For with them the reason soars away from earth into the heights, travels through the upper air and accompanies the revolutions of the sun and moon and the whole heaven and in its desire to see all that is there finds its powers of sight blurred, for so pure and vast is the radiance that pours therefrom that the soul’s eye is dizzied by the flashing of the rays. Yet it does not therefore faintheartedly give up the task, but with purpose unsubdued presses onwards to such contemplation as is possible, like the athlete who strives for the second prize since he has been disappointed of the first. Now second to the true vision stands conjecture and theorizing and all that can be brought into the category of reasonable probability. So then just as, though we do not know and cannot with certainty determine what each of the stars is in the purity of its essence, we eagerly persist in the search because our natural love of learning makes us delight in what seems probable, so too, though the clear vision of God as He really is is denied us, we ought not to relinquish the quest. For the very seeking, even without finding, is felicity in itself, just as no one blames the eyes of the body because when unable to see the sun itself they see the emanation of its rays as it reaches the earth, which is but the extremity of the brightness which the beams of the sun give forth.

It was this which Moses, the sacred guide, most dearly beloved of God, had before his eyes when he besought God with the words, ‘Reveal Thyself to me’ (Ex. xxxiii. 13). In these words we may almost hear plainly the inspired cry: ‘This universe has been my teacher, to bring me to the knowledge that Thou art and dost subsist. As Thy son, it has told me of its Father, as Thy work, of its contriver. But what Thou art in Thy essence I desire to understand, yet find in no part of the All any to guide me to this kno...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Bibliographical Note
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• I - GOD AND WORLD
• II - GOD AND MAN
• III - MAN AND WORLD
• IV - THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
• V - THE MYSTIC WAY
• VI - THE SOUL AND HER GOD
• VII - ON MAN’S HUMILITY, HOPE, FAITH AND JOY
• VIII - ON VICES AND VIRTUES
• IX - ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS
• NOTE ON THE EDITOR