It's not just a children's tale about animals two-by-two. Ancient interpreters saw layers of meaning in every detail, even the order in which people entered and exited the ark. Philo, a Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, writing in the 1st century CE, was one of these interpreters. He saw profound symbolism in the pairings as Noah and his family left the ark after the flood.
Philo dives deep into what might seem like a minor detail: the order in which Noah and his family entered and exited the ark. He highlights a deliberate shift. Entering, the sons are grouped with the father, the daughters-in-law with the mother-in-law. But upon exiting, husbands and wives are paired together. Why this change?
Philo suggests it's about more than just logistics. He believes the Torah, in its precise wording, is offering a subtle lesson. Before the flood, God commanded them to abstain from marital relations while in the ark. Philo argues this wasn't just a practical matter of limited space or resources. Instead, it was a call to compassion and mourning for the destruction around them. "After a destruction of all things on earth...do not indulge in pleasures, for that is not decorous," Philo imagines God saying. It was a time for somber reflection, not celebration of life's joys.
But when the floodwaters receded, the time for abstinence was over. The paired exits signaled a renewed mandate: "offspring is to be begotten in accordance with nature." The world needed to be repopulated. The Zohar, much later, echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of rebuilding and continuing the chain of existence after catastrophe.
But Philo doesn't stop at the literal level. He then delves into the inner meaning, the allegorical interpretation. He sees the ark as a symbol of the mind, and the flood as a period of cleansing from sin and ignorance. During this inner purification, the "male" – representing intellect and reason – must be separated from the "female" – representing the senses and passions. This separation allows the mind to focus and overcome its weaknesses. It’s a "time of battle," as Philo puts it, where clarity and order are essential.
Once the purification is complete, the intellect and the senses can reunite. The "female race," the senses, can then "clothe themselves with the vigour of the male," meaning they can be guided by reason and wisdom. This union allows the soul to produce virtue, justice, and courage. This idea, of integrating the senses with intellect rather than suppressing them entirely, is a powerful concept that resonates even today.
Philo beautifully illustrates how chaos and confusion can prevent us from creating anything good. "When once a confusion, in the similitude of a deluge, has overwhelmed the intellect...it is utterly impossible that any one should be able, either to sow, or to conceive, or to generate any good thing." Only when we calm the storms within, when we quiet the "lawless counsels" of our passions, can we cultivate virtue and bring forth good works.
So, the next time you hear the story of Noah's Ark, remember Philo's insights. It's not just a tale of survival, but a profound allegory about purification, integration, and the potential for renewal within ourselves. It is a reminder that after even the most devastating floods in our lives, there is always the possibility of new beginnings, and the chance to cultivate a more virtuous and balanced existence.
By the literal statement the sacred writer gives an obscure intimation, in the order in which they entered, that the propagation of seed was taken away, but by the order of their egress he implies the continuance of the process of generation; since, while they are entering, the sons are mentioned together which their father, and the daughters in-law with their mother-in-law, but when they are going forth the wives are all mated again, the father being accompanied by his wife, and each of his sons also by his wife, since he chose to show by fact rather than by words everything which it is fitting for his friends to do. Moreover he had in express words, and not by any vague intimations, commanded the men, as they were about to enter into the ark, that they while there were to keep themselves from connection with women; but now that they were about to depart from it, he plainly intimates to them that offspring is to be begotten in accordance with nature, by the order in which he appoints their going forth; nor did he employ words only, in order to make his proclamation about the state of the ark, saying, "After a destruction of all things on earth, of such a character and of such extent, do not indulge in pleasures, for that is not decorous. It is sufficient, however, for you to have received your lives; but while you are actually in the ark, to ascend up into the marriage bed with your wives would be a proof of your being devoted to lasciviousness." And, indeed, it was natural for them, as being relations to those who were being destroyed, to be moved with compassion for the perishing human race, especially because they themselves also were still in doubt whether, from some quarter or other, calamity might not fall also upon themselves; and besides these considerations it was absurd, while those who were alive were perishing, for those in the ark to be contriving that others who did not exist should be born, being warm at an unreasonable time, and burning with an inopportune desire. But after the anger of God ceased, then he commanded those who had been delivered from the calamity, when they had again gone forth out of the ark in order, to apply themselves to the procreation of a succeeding generation, when he tells us, that the men did not go forth with the men, nor the women with the women, but the wives with their husbands. But with respect to the inner meaning of this fact, we must say this, that when the mind is about to wash off and cleanse away its sins, then it is fit for male to live with male, that is to say, for the intellect, the chief part of the man, to be as a father, united to each separate thought, as a father to his sons, without any admixture of the female race, which is in accordance with the outward sense; since it is a time of battle, in which it is necessary to keep the order of the cohort distinct, and to preserve it strictly in order, that the soldiers may not be mingled in confusion, and so, instead of gaining a victory over the enemy, be conquered themselves; but when the purification is completed, and when the soul is dried up from all ignorance, and when a complete deliverance from everything pernicious has taken place, then it becomes the man to collect his scattered forces together, not in order that masculine counsels may be rendered effeminate by softness, but that the female race, that is to say, the outward senses, may clothe themselves with the vigour of the male, attaining to masculine counsels, and from their receiving seed for the production of a generation; so that, from this time forth they may cherish, in all things, sentiments of wisdom, and honour, and justice, and courage, and, in one word, of virtue. But, besides this, it will be reasonable also to take notice, that when once a confusion, in the similitude of a deluge, has overwhelmed the intellect, and when the different senses, being perplexed by the affairs of this world, like so many bulwarks erected against them, begin to quarrel, it is utterly impossible that any one should be able, either to sow, or to conceive, or to generate any good thing. But when all the hostile attacks of various agitations and passions are checked, and when the ceaseless invasions of lawless counsels are repressed, then the soul produces virtue and excellent works, as the most fertile portion of the earth, when dried, produces fruits.
