The Midrash of Philo Reader

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 secure 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 deluge 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, 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.

Since he has the name denoting breadth (namely Japhet), being expanded in his growth and increase, that part of the things of the world which have been assigned by nature for the use of mankind, that is to say, the earth, can no longer hold him, therefore he passes over into the other part, that is to say, the sea and the islands belonging to it. This is the literal meaning of the statement. But if we look to its inner sense, all the external blessings which are bestowed by nature, such as riches, and honour, and principalities, are lavished and poured forth in every direction on those men into whose hands they come, and are also extended widely to others who are not so much within reach; so that in a greater, or at all events, in no less a degree do they surround and hem the man in, in accordance with the greediness of the lovers of riches and glory, since they are eager for principalities, and are never satisfied because of their insatiable desires.

In the actual letter of this statement it is the same thing to feel no envy, and also to provide for the welfare of the wise man who is her husband and her genuine brother; so that she, wishing to find a remedy for her own barrenness by means of her handmaid of whom she was mistress, gives her as a concubine to her husband. But there is a still greater abundance of her affection towards her husband indicated by this; for as she herself was accounted barren, she did not think it reasonable that the family of her husband should be left entirely without offspring, but preferred his advantage to her own dignity.

This is what is indicated by this statement taken literally. But if we look to the inner sense of the passage it bears such an interpretation as this: it becomes those persons who are unable in respect of their virtue to bring forth beautiful works deserving of praise, to apply themselves to the intermediate kind of study, and, if I may so express myself, to procure themselves children from the encyclical branches of knowledge; for an abundance of knowledge is as it were the whetstone of the mind and of the intellect.

And it is with great propriety that she says, The Lord has shut me up; for that which is shut up is generally opened again at a seasonable time. Therefore she was not destitute of hope, nor was her wisdom fixed in the belief that she should be for ever without offspring, but she knew that some day or other she should bring forth. Nevertheless she will not bring forth at present, but when the soul displays the purity of its perfection.

But inasmuch as it is at present imperfect it is satisfied with using a milder kind of learning, such as is attainable by encyclical studies. On which account it is not without a purpose that in the sacred contests at Olympia also, those who are unable to attain to the first prize of victory are contented to be thought worthy of the second; for there is offered to the competitors a first, and a second, and a third prize by the presidents of the games, who are representatives of nature. So now to her the sacred writer attributes the first prize of virtues, and the second prize of encyclical study.

Why, when it was commanded them to avoid eating of one plant alone, the woman made also a further addition to this injunction, saying, "He said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it?" (Genesis 3:3).

Why Cain after some days offers up the first-fruits of his fruits, but when it is said that "Abel offered up first-fruits of the first-born of his flock and of the fat," "after some days" is not added? (Genesis 4:3-4).

It is by this that he made what has been said before worthy of belief. What is man? Man is a being which, beyond all other races of animals, has received a copious and wonderful portion of hope; and this is as it were inscribed on his very nature, and celebrated there; for the human intellect hopes by its own nature.

Why, in the genealogy of Adam, Moses no longer mentions Cain, but only Seth, who, he says, was according to his appearance and form; on which account he proceeds to retain the generations which descend from him in his genealogy? (Genesis 5:3).

What is the meaning of the expression, "My spirit shall not always strive with man, because he is but flesh?" (Genesis 6:3).

Why does God say, "Every creeping thing which lives shall be to you for food?" (Genesis 9:3).

Why has he called Abraham's wife Sarah, for he says, Sarah the wife of Abraham, taking her handmaid Hagar the Egyptian, gave her into his hand? (Genesis 16:2).

What is the meaning of, "Abraham fell on his face?" (Genesis 17:3).

Moses here intimates the difference between a lover of himself, and one who is thoroughly devoted to God; for the one took to himself the first-fruits of his fruits, and very impiously looked upon God as worthy only of the secondary and inferior offerings; for the expression, "after some days," implies that he did not do so immediately; and when it is said that he offered of the fruits, that intimates that he did not offer of the best fruits which he had, and herein displays his iniquity. But the other, without any delay, offered up the first-born and eldest of all his flocks, in order that in this the Father might not be treated unworthily.

It can neither be lawful to enumerate a wicked and sinful murderer either in the list of reason or in that of number; for he must be cast out like dung, as some one said, looking upon him as one of such a character; and on this account the sacred historian neither points him out as the successor of his father who had been formed out of the dust, nor as the head of succeeding generations; but he distributes both these characteristics to him who was without pollution, and names Seth, who is a drinker of water, as having been watered by his father, and as begetting hope in his own increase and progress; on which account it is not inconsiderately and foolishly that he says that he was born according to the form and appearance of his father, to the reproof of his elder brother, who, on account of the foulness of the murder which he had committed, has nothing in him resembling his father, either in body or soul.

And on this account Moses has separated him from the family, and has given his share to his brother, being the noble privilege of the birthright of the first-born.

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, when 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.

Creeping things are of a twofold nature; some being venomous, and others domestic. The venomous ones are serpents, which, instead of feet, use their bellies and breasts, creeping upon the earth; but the domestic ones are those which have legs above their feet. This is the literal meaning of the statement. But if we look to the inward sense of it, then the creeping things represent the foul vices, but the clean ones represent joy; for in connexion with the passion of concupiscence there will exist joy and pleasure; and in connexion with desire there will be will and counsel, and in connexion with sorrow goading and compunction, and in connexion with avidity there will be fear.

Therefore such disordered perturbations of the passions threaten souls with death and destruction; but the joys do really live, as he himself has warned us in an allegory; and they also give life to those who possess them.

The sacred writer here sums up with his approbation the marriage of the good on account of those who are incontinent and lascivious; for those persons despise their wise wives for the sake of concubines, whom they love with a frantic passion: on which account he here introduces the man endued with virtue, the constant husband of one wife, at that time in which it was lawful for him to make use of her handmaid; and his wife in fact indicates that he is wise, that is to say temperate, when he enters into the bed of another woman, since his connection with his concubine was only a connection of the body for the sake of propagating children; but his union with his wife was that of two souls joined together in harmony by heavenly affection.

This is the literal effect of the statement. But if we look to the inner meaning of it, then he who has truly entrusted all his secret wishes to wisdom, and justice, and the other virtues, when once he has received the counsel of wisdom, and has tasted the joys of a matrimonial connection with it, remains constant to it as the partner and companion of his life; although encyclical education would lead him in a beautiful course, since when the man eminent in virtue has become master of the sciences of geometry, and arithmetic, and grammar, and rhetoric, and the other exercises of the mind, he is not the less on that account mindful of the pursuit of honesty, but is borne on towards the one as to a necessary aim, to the other as an accessory.

But it is altogether fair that that fact also should meet with our approbation, -the fact I mean of his calling his handmaid also by the name of wife, because he went up to her bed out of complacency to and at the exhortation of his real wife, and not of his own genuine inclination; on which account he no longer calls her his handmaid, that even if it were not wholly deserved still his handmaid having been given to him to wife might at least obtain the same title.

But those who study allegory may be allowed to say that the exercise of the middle disciplines also stands in the place of a concubine, having nevertheless the shape and ornaments of a wife, for all encyclical learning re-produces in itself and imitates genuine virtue.

The present expression is the interpretation of what has already been promised; for God had said, "Keep thyself free from stain," but there is not other cause of a man leading a life which is disapproved but the outward sense, because that is the origin and source of the passions; on which account he rightly and properly falls on his face, that is to say, the offences caused by the outward senses fall to the bottom, showing that the man is now devoted to all good works.

This is enough to say in the first place, But in the second place we must say that he was so struck by the manifest appearance of the living God that he was scarcely able to behold him through fear, but fell to the ground and offered adoration, being overwhelmed with awe at the appearance which presented itself to him. In the third place, he fell to the ground on account of the revelation thus made to him, at the form of his appearance by the living God who exists alone, whom he knew and regarded as truth opposed to created nature; since the one exists in unvarying constancy and the other vacillates and falls into its proper place, that is to say, to the earth.

What is the meaning of, "And God conversed with him, saying, And I, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of a multitude of nations?" (Genesis 17:4).

Since he had previously used the expression, "treaty," he now proceeds to say, do not seek that treaty in letters, since I myself, in accordance with what has been said before, am myself the genuine and true covenant. For after he has shown himself and said, "I," he makes an addition, saying, "Behold, my covenant," which is nothing but I myself; for I am myself my covenant, according to which my treaty and agreement are made and agreed to, and according to which again all things are properly distributed and arranged. Now the form of this prototypal treating is put together from the ideas and incorporeal measures and forms in accordance with which this world was made. Is it not therefore a climax to the benefits which the Father bestowed on the wise man, to raise him up and conduct him not only from earth to heaven, nor only from heaven to the incorporeal world appreciable only by the intellect, but also to draw him up from this world to himself, showing himself to him, not as he is in himself, for that is not possible but as far as the visual organs of the beholder who beholds virtue herself as appreciable by the intellect are able to attain to. And it is on this account that he says, "Be no more a son but a father; and the father, not of one individual but of a multitude; and of a multitude, not according to a part, but of all nations;" therefore of the revealed promises two admit of a literal interpretation, but the third of one which is rather spiritual. One of those which admit of a literal interpretation is to be construed in this way: in truth thou shalt be the father of nations, and shalt beget nations, that is to say, each individual among thy sons shall be the founder of a nation. But the second is of this kind; like a father you shall be clothed with power over, and authority to rule, many nations; for a lover of God is necessarily and at once also a lover of men; so that he will diligently devote his attention, not only to his relations but also to all mankind, and especially to those who are able to go through the discipline of strict attention, and who are of a disposition the reverse of anything cruel or hard, but of one which easily submits to virtue, and willingly gives obedience to right reason. But the third we may explain under this allegory: the multitude of nations spoken of indicates as it were the multifarious inclination of the will in each of our minds, both those inclinations which it is accustomed to form with reference to itself, and also those others which it admits by the agency of the senses, as they enter clandestinely through the intervention of the imagination, and if the mind possesses the supreme authority over all these, it, like a common father, turns them to better objects, cherishing their infant opinions, as it were, with milk, exhorting those which are older and more mature, though still imperfect, to improvement, and honouring with commendation those which perform their duty aright; and again, putting a bridle, by means of discipline and reproof, on those which rebel and act rashly; since, wishing to imitate the Deity, it receives a twofold influx from the virtues of that same being, one from his beneficent attributes and another from his avenging might, as if from two sources; therefore the docile receive his kindness, and towards the rebellious he uses reproof; so that some are led to improvement by praise and others by chastisement: in truth, he who is eminent for virtue is able to be of great, and extensive, and just service to all, according to his power.

What is the meaning of the expression, "As the green herb I have given you all things?" (Genesis 9:3).

Some persons say that by this expression, "As the green herb I have given you all things," the eating of flesh was permitted. But I say that even though God had intended to give that permission, still that before all things he must have intended to establish by law the necessary use of herbs, that is to say of vegetables. And under the general name of herb he includes all the other additional descriptions of green food, without mentioning them expressly in the law. But now the power of this command is adapted not to one nation alone among all the select nations of the earth which are desirous of wisdom, among which religious continence is honoured, but to all mankind, who cannot possibly be universally prohibited from eating flesh. Nevertheless, perhaps the present expression has no reference to eating food, but rather to the possession of the power to do so; for in fact every herb is not necessarily good to eat, nor again is it the uniform and invariable food of all uniform living animals; since God said that some herbs were poisonous and deadly, and yet they are included in the number all. Perhaps therefore, I say, he means to express this, that all brute beasts are subjected to the power of man, as we sow herbs and take care of them by the cultivation of the land.

Why does Moses, revolving and considering the creation of the world, say: "This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when they were created?"

Why, when he had begun with Cain, he still mentions him here in the second place, when he says: "And God had respect unto Abel and unto his offerings; but unto Cain and unto his sacrifices he paid no attention?"(Genesis 4:5).

Why it is said that the days of man shall be a hundred and twenty years? (Genesis 6:4).

On what principle it was that giants were born of angels and women? (Genesis 6:4).

Why, after the entrance of Noah into the ark, did seven days elapse, after which the deluge came? (Genesis 7:10).

Why does he say, "The ark settled in the seventh month on the seven and twentieth day of the month?" (Genesis 8:4).

What is the meaning of the expression, "You shall not eat flesh in the blood of its life?" (Genesis 9:4).

What is the meaning of, "When she saw that she had conceived her mistress was despised before her?" (Genesis 16:4).

The expression, "when they were created," indicates as it seems, an indeterminate time not accurately described. But this argument will confute those authors who calculate a certain number of years reduced to one, from the time when it is possible that the world may have been created. And again, the expression: "This is the book of the generation," is as it were indicative of the book as it follows, which contains an account of the creation of the world; in which it is intimated that what has been related about the creation of the world is consistent with strict truth.

In the first place, because the good man, who is by nature first, is not at first perceived by the outward senses of any man except in his own turn, and by people of virtuous conduct. Secondly, because the good and the wicked man are two distinct characters; he accepts the good man, seeing that he is a lover of what is good, and an eager student of virtue; but he rejects and regards with aversion the wicked man, presuming that he will be prone to that side by the order of nature.

Therefore he says here with exceeding fitness, that God had regard, not to the offerings, but to those who offered them, rather than to the gifts themselves; for men have regard to and regulate their approbation by the abundance and richness of offerings, but God looks at the sincerity of the soul, having no regard to ambition or illusion of any kind.

The poets call those men who were born out of the earth giants, that is to say, sons of the Earth. 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 Hajk 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 styles 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 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.

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 the 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.

It is reasonable here to consider how the beginning of the deluge commences in the seventh month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, and how 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, having for its principle and commencement the spring season.

God appears by this command to indicate that the blood is the substance of the soul; I mean of that soul which exists by the external senses and by vitality, not of that which is spoken of with a certain especial pre-eminence, being the rational and intellectual soul; for there are three parts of the human soul; one the nutritive part, another that which is connected with the external senses, and the third that which exists in reason.

Therefore the rational part is the substance of the divine spirit according to the sacred writer Moses: for in his account of the creation of the world, he says, "God breathed into his face the breath of life," as being what was to constitute his life. But of that part of the soul which is connected with the external senses and with vitality, blood is the substance; for he says in another place, "The blood exists in every breath of flesh."

It is with great propriety in fact that he has called the blood the breath of all flesh, because there are in the flesh senses and passions, but not intellect nor thoughts. But again by the expression "the spirit of blood," he intimates that the spirit is one thing and the blood another; so that the essence of the soul is truly and beyond all possible question spirit. But that spirit has a place not by itself separately, apart from the blood in the body; but it is interwoven and mingled with the blood.

As also the veins which exhibit a pulse, as if they were vessels to convey breathing, bear with them most unmixed and pure air, but blood likewise, though perhaps in a less degree; for there are two vessels, the veins and the breathing channels; but the veins have more blood than breath, and the breathing channels have more breath than blood. Therefore the proper admixture in each vessel is distinct, as the greater and the lesser proportion.

This is the meaning of these words when taken literally; but if we look to their inner meaning, he calls the blood of the soul that warm and fiery virtue belonging to it which we name courage. And he who is full of this wisdom despises all food, and every pleasure of the belly, and of those parts which are below the belly. But if any one adopts a profligate life, and becomes a wanderer like the wind, and gradually inactive from laziness and a luxurious life, he in fact does nothing else but fall upon his belly, as a reptile creeping upon the earth, and greedily licking up earthly things, closing his life without ever tasting of that heavenly food which the souls which are desirous of wisdom receive.

The sacred writer now carefully calls Sarah the mistress when it might else have been thought that her dignity was diminished, and that she was surpassed by her handmaid, that she, that is, who had no children, was surpassed by her who was gifted with offspring. But this kind of language is extended to nearly all the necessary affairs of human life: for a poor man who is wise is more approved of and is superior in authority to a rich man who is destitute of wisdom and reputation, or than a boasting man; and even a sick man who is wise is better than a foolish man who is well; for whatever is united with wisdom is genuine, and is endued with an authority of its own, but whatever is combined with folly is found to be slavish and inconstant.

But it has been excellently said not that she despised her mistress, but that her mistress was despised; for the one statement would imply an accusation of the person, but the other contains only a declaration of an event. The scripture forsooth does not intend here to impute blame to any one while praising another, but only to hand down in an intelligible manner the pure truth of the facts. This is what is indicated by the literal statement.

But if we seek the inner meaning of the words, whoever honours and embraces rank before genius and wisdom, and whoever esteems and considers the external senses of more importance than prudence and counsel, is departing from the real character of things, thinking that they have brought forth much offspring, and that having produced a great generation of visible things they are great and perfect goods, and in a singular degree noble, but that barrenness in this respect is evil, and deserving of disapprobation, because they do not see that invisible seed and that offspring which is appreciable only by the intellect, which the mind is accustomed to generate in itself and by itself.

Why did the rain of the deluge last forty days and an equal number of nights? (Genesis 7:4).

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 form off the face of the earth?" (Genesis 7:4).

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 those 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.

What is the object of saying, "And God made every green herb of the field, before it was upon the earth, and every grass before it had sprung up?"

In the first place she says this, because taste and every other sense after its kind consists in the touch appropriate to it. In the second place she says it that it may seem to condemn them themselves, who did what they had been forbidden. For if even the mere act of touching it was prohibited, how could they who, besides touching the tree, presumed to eat of the fruit, and so added a greater transgression to the lesser one, be anything but condemners and punishers of themselves?

What is the meaning of the expression, "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil?" (Genesis 3:5).

What is the meaning of the distinction here made between a gift and a sacrifice? (Genesis 4:4).

The man who slays a sacrifice, after having made a division, pours the blood around the altar and takes the flesh home; but he who offers it as a gift, offers as it should seem the whole to him who accepts it. Therefore, the man who is a lover of self is a distributor, like Cain; but he who is a lover of God is the giver of a free gift, as was Abel.

How it was that Cain became aware that his offering had not pleased God? (Genesis 4:5).

Why does he say: "Noah did every thing which the Lord commanded (or ordered) him?" (Genesis 7:5).

What is the meaning of the expression, "The blood of your souls will I require from every beast, and from the hand of man's brother will I require the life of man?" (Genesis 9:5).

Why does Sarah as it were repent of what she has done, saying to Abraham, I am receiving injury from you: I gave my handmaid into your bosom, and now, because she sees that she has conceived, I am despised before her? (Genesis 16:5).