ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 2, 3 (LEGUM ALLEGORIA)
ANALYTICAL INTRODUCTION TO BOOK I
In 1–18 Philo deals with Gen. 2:1–3, which tells first of the completion of Heaven and Earth. He takes these to mean the originals of Mind and Sense-perception, and bases on the Greek version a contrast between the numbers 6 and 7, making the former represent things earthly, and the latter things heavenly.
In Gen. 2:2 he finds the origin of Mind and Sense-perception ascribed first to a Book and then to a Day, both Book and Day signifying the Mind or Reason of God. (19–21.)
In the repetition of the word “field” in Gen. 2:5, he sees two fields yielding, respectively, what is intellectually and what is sensibly perceptible: in the rain the power given to the senses of apprehending objects presented to them, a power not needed when material objects did not exist, and in whose absence the Mind is without employment. (22–27.)
Gen. 2:6 tells how Mind, the “spring,” waters the senses, “the face of the earth,” and shows the interdependence of Mind, Sense-perception, and object of sense, and the dependence of Mind on God; as well as the superiority of the living creature in being able to take in and go out to external object. (28–30.)
Going on to Gen. 2:7, he contrasts the earthy man, moulded of clay by the Divine Artificer, with the heavenly Man, stamped with the image of God, and dwells on the change wrought in the former by the inbreathing of Life. He then answers four questions.
To the question why the Divine Breath is given, not to the heavenly, but to the earthy Man, he answers (a) that God loves to give, even to the imperfect; (b) that the inbreathing is on a par with the enjoining of a “positive” duty, which is a duty only because it is enjoined.
To the question as to the meaning of “inbreathed” he answers that it is a pregnant term for “inspired,” and that its aim is to enable us to conceive of God.
To the question why the inbreathing is “into the face,” he answers (a) that the face is the part where the senses are chiefly situated; (b) that the face represents the mind, which acts as God’s deputy in inspiring organs and senses. Such was Moses to Pharaoh. He is thus led to speak of God’s use of agents. Lastly, he says that πνοή intimates a less powerful gift than would have been intimated by πνεῦμα. (31–42.)
We now come to Gen. 2:8. God planting a Garden shows earthly wisdom to be a copy of heavenly wisdom, for it means God causing excellence to strike root on earth. The “Garden” is Virtue. “Eden” tells of its luxuriant yield of happiness. It is “toward the sunrising,” for right reason or virtue ever rises to dispel darkness. Man is placed in the Garden “to tend it,” i.e. to give his whole mind to virtue.
God planting does not justify man in planting a grove by the altar, which is forbidden in Deut. 16:21, for (a) man cannot, like God, plant virtues in the soul; (b) a grove contains some wild trees; (c) what is prohibited is planting “to ourselves” (cf. 2nd Commandment).
It is somewhat startling to be told that the Man placed in the Garden in Gen. 2:15 is not the Man of Gen. 2:8, but the Man of Gen. 1:27. Only the latter can till and guard the virtues. The former sees them only to be driven from them. The one is “made,” the other is “moulded.” The Man of 2:8 has but facility in apprehending (as is signified by the words “placed in the Garden”). The Man of 2:15 has also persistence in doing (“to till it”), and tenacity in keeping (“to guard it”). (43–55.)
Gen. 2:9 tells of the Trees, which are particular virtues, and their activities. Theoretical virtue is denoted by “fair to behold”; practical virtue by “good for food.” The Tree of Life is goodness, virtue, not (as physicians might suppose) the heart. It is “in the midst of the Garden.” Where “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” is, we are not told. Actually it is in the Garden, virtually outside it, for our dominant part is actually in God’s Garden through receiving the impress of goodness, virtually outside by receiving that of wickedness. Just so, my body can be here, my mind elsewhere. (56–62.)
The theme of Gen. 2:10–14 is the Rivers. The four Rivers are the particular Virtues, effluxes of generic Virtue, the River that issues from “Eden,” which is the Wisdom or Reason of God. “Heads” implies the sovereignty of the Virtues: “separated”; their limited, defining, action. “Pheison” is Prudence, God’s fairest treasure, gleaming like gold, and encircling “Evilat” or Graciousness. “Geon” is Courage, beleaguering Ethiopia, which is Lowness or Cowardice. “Tigris” is Self-mastery, set against “Assyria,” the directing force claimed by Desire. Prudence, Courage, and Self-mastery occupy places in the soul corresponding to their spheres of action in the body, head, breast, and abdomen, the seats of Reason, High Spirit, and Lust. “Euphrates” (= fruitfulness) is Justice, or the harmony of the three parts of the soul.
We are then shown another way of reaching the same truth about the four Rivers. “Pheison” signifies “change of mouth,” i.e. transformation of speech into action, the true sign of Prudence. “Evilat” signifies “in travail,” as Folly in its futility always is. (63–76.)
The next eight sections (Gen. 2:12) are a Note on the Gold and Precious Stones. Prudence, the gold, is still God’s, Philo taking “where” (οὗ) as “whose”. “The gold of that land” is universal, as distinguished from particular, Prudence, and to it belongs the epithet “good.” The “ruby” and the “emerald” represent respectively having and exercising good sense. Or the two stones are, perhaps, Judah and Issachar, representing, the one, thankfulness, the other, noble deeds. So in the High-priestly robes, the ruby must, from its position, have borne the name of Judah, and the sapphire that of Issachar. “Stone” is not added after “ruby,” because praise and thanksgiving lift a man out of himself and all that is of earth. Red befits Judah, green Issachar. (77–84.)
Now comes a short Note on Compassing (Gen. 2:11 and 13). “Pheison” and “Geon” are said to “compass” countries, for Prudence and Courage enclose and capture Folly and Cowardice. “Tigris” is said to be “over against the Assyrians,” for Self-mastery can but face and fight Pleasure. “Euphrates,” or Justice, neither encircles nor withstands but makes awards. (85–87).
In 88 f. we see the heavenly Man, the Man whom God had “made” not “moulded,” placed in the garden. This pure and less material Mind is set amid the Virtues (“plants”) to practise (“till”) and remember (“guard”) them.
Since “Adam,” a name not self-imposed, signifies “earth,” probably the “moulded, earthy man” is meant. Moreover the heavenly Man needs no injunction to till and guard; still less does he need prohibition or exhortation.
The command is given by “the Lord God.” Obedience to the “Lord” or ‘Master’ prepares us for boons from “God” the ‘Benefactor.’ So in Gen. 3:23 punishment is inflicted by “the Lord God” in kind severity.
“Every tree” signifies all virtues. The addition of “feedingly” to “eat” signifies spiritual mastication. Eating represents perfunctory obedience: “feeding on,” thoughtful, hearty obedience.
Anent the position of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, illustrations of actual and virtual presence are given in 100.
The fact that the prohibition is addressed to more than one is explained by saying that (a) inferior men are very numerous; (b) the inferior man devoid of concentration is not a unity.
The treatise ends with the drawing of a distinction between the death which all die and the death of the soul.