Philo: Questions and Answers on Genesis, II

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 he 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.

(18) What is the meaning of the expression, "And the fountains of the deep were broken, and the springs of heaven were opened?" (#Ge 7:11). 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? If 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 the 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.

(19) What is the meaning of the expression, "And the Lord shut him in, closing the doors of the ark?" (#Ge 7:16). 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.

(20) What is the meaning of the expression, "And the water was greatly increased, and bore up the ark which floated upon the water?" (#Ge 7:17). 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.

(21) Why did the water overflow fifteen cubits above all the highest mountains? (#Ge 7:19). 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.

(22) What is the meaning of the expression, "And all flesh capable of motion perished?" (Genesis 7:21). 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 one the other hand sobriety and patience are the causes of safety.

(23) What is the meaning of the expression, "And everything which was on the dry land died?" (#Ge 7:22). 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.

(24) What is the meaning of the words, "It destroyed every living substance which was on the face of the earth?" (#Ge 7:23). 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.

(25) What is the meaning of the words, "Noah remained alone, and they who were with him in the ark?" (#Ge 7:24). 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 things, raises to an eminence.

(26) 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? (#Ge 8:1). 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.

(27) 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? (#Ge 8:1). In the first place, that poetical rule has not been expressed in vain, that he led the bad into the middle; therefore he places the beasts in the middle, between 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 and 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.

(28) What is the meaning of the expression, "He brought a breath over the earth, and the water ceased?" (#Ge 8:2). 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 and 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.

(29) What is the meaning of the expression, "The fountains of the deep were closed, and the cataracts of heaven?" (#Ge 8:2). 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