Chapter IX. Eleazar the High Priest’s Sketch of the Thought Allegorically Expressed in the Sacred Laws. From the Writings of Aristeas

[ARISTEAS] [1] ‘IT is worth while to mention briefly the information which he gave in answer to our inquiries: for some things included in the legislation usually seem to most persons to be over-scrupulous, I mean about meats and drinks, and the animals supposed to be unclean.

‘For when we asked why, though there isbut one and the same creation, some animals are considered unclean for eating and some even for touching, the legislation, which is superstitious in most things, is especially superstitious in these distinctions; in answer to this he began as follows.

‘You observe, he said, what an effect is wrought in us by our modes of life and our associations, because, by associating with the bad, men catch their depravities, and are miserable through their whole life. But if they live with wise and prudent persons, instead of ignorance they secure an improvement in their mode of life.

‘Our Lawgiver therefore determined first the things pertaining to godliness and righteousness, and gave particular instructions concerning them, not by prohibitions only, but also by examples, showing manifestly both the injurious effects, and the visitations wrought by God upon the guilty.

‘For he explained first of all that God is One alone, and that His power is made manifest through all things, every place being filled with His dominion; and nothing that is secretly done by men on earth escapes His knowledge, but all a man’s deeds stand open and manifest before Him, as also the things that shall be.

‘Working out these truths therefore accurately, and having made them clear, he showed that if a man should even think of working wickedness, not to say, perpetrate it, he would not escape detection; for he showed that the power of God pervades the whole legislation.

‘Having therefore made this commencement, he also showed that all mankind except ourselves believe that there are many gods, though they are themselves far more powerful than those whom they vainly worship. For when they have made statues of stone or wood, they say that they are images of those who invented something useful to them in life, and they fall down and worship them, though they have proof at hand of their insensibility.

‘For to ascribe it to this cause, I mean to their invention, would be utterly foolish; since they only took some of the things already created, and by combining them showed more clearly that their constitution is most useful, but did not themselves make them: wherefore it was a vain and foolish thing to make gods of men like themselves.

‘For even now there are many men more inventive and more learned than those of former times, and they should at once fall down and worship them!

‘The makers of these images and authors of these legends think that they are the wisest of the Greeks. For of the other utterly foolish people why need we even speak, Egyptians and the like, who have placed their reliance upon wild beasts and most kinds of creeping things and cattle, and worship them, and offer sacrifice to them both while living and when dead?

‘So then our Lawgiver in his wisdom having taken a comprehensive view of everything, and having been prepared by God for knowledge of the whole, hedged us round with unbroken ramparts and with walls of iron, so that we might not be mixed up at all with any of the other nations, but remain pure in body and soul, freed from vain imaginations, and worshipping the One God more than the whole creation.

‘Hence the leading priests of the Egyptians, having looked closely into many matters, and gained a knowledge of our affairs, surname us men of God: a title which belongs to no others, except any who worship the true God; but the rest are men (not of God, but) of meats and drinks and clothing; for they are wholly disposed to betake themselves to these things.

‘By our people such things are held in no esteem, but throughout their whole life their contemplation is concerned with the government of God. Lest therefore by sharing in any defilement, or associating with evil, we should ourselves become depraved, they hedged us round on all sides with rules of abstinence, by lawful meats and drinks, and touch, and hearing, and sight.

‘For, speaking generally, all things are alike in reference to the natural order, as being governed by one power, and yet taken singly there is a deep reason in each case as to the things which we abstain from using, and those which we use in common.

‘To give an example, I will run over one or two things and explain them to you. For I would not have you fall into the degraded notion that Moses enacted these laws from superstitious scruples on account of flies, and weasels, or such things as these; but all things have been reverently ordered with a view to holy circumspection, and perfecting of moral dispositions, for righteousness’ sake.

‘For all the birds that we use are tame and distinguished by cleanliness, feeding on various kinds of grain and pulse, as pigeons, doves, moor-fowls, partridges, geese also, and all other birds of this kind. But the birds which are forbidden you will find to be fierce and carnivorous, a tyrannizing over the others by the strength with which they are endowed, and feeding with cruelty upon the wasteful slaughter of the tame birds before-mentioned. And not only so, but they also seize lambs and kids, and hurt human beings too, whether alive or dead.

‘So by calling them unclean he by them gave a sign, that those for whom the legislation is ordained must practise justice in their soul, and not tyrannize over any one in reliance upon their own strength, nor rob them of any single thing, but steer their course of life according to justice, as the tame animals among the birds before-mentioned consume the kinds of pulse that grow upon the earth, and do not tyrannize to the destruction either of those beneath them or of their own kind.

‘The Lawgiver therefore taught that by such means as these indications are given to the wise, to be just, and accomplish nothing by violence, and not tyrannize over others in reliance upon their own strength.

‘For whereas it was not proper even to touch the animals before-mentioned on account of their several dispositions, ought we not to guard by all means against our moral habits being broken down to this degree?

‘So then all the permissions given in case of these birds and of the cattle he has set forth in a figurative sense. For the division of the hoof and separation of the claws is a sign that we should make a distinction in every particular of our actions towards the side of right. ‘For the strength of our whole bodies when in action depends for support upon the shoulders and the legs: therefore by the signification herein given he obliges us to perform all our actions with discrimination towards justice; and especially because we have been distinctly set apart from all men.

‘For the majority of the other nations defile themselves by promiscuous intercourse, working great iniquity; and whole districts and cities pride themselves hereupon. For they not only have intercourse with males, but also defile women after child-birth, and even daughters: but from these nations we have been distinctly separated.

‘But as man is the object to which the aforesaid symbol of separation refers, so has the Lawgiver also characterized the symbol of memory as referring to him. For all animals which divide the hoof and chew the cud manifestly set forth to the thoughtful the idea of memory. For rumination is nothing else than a reminiscence of life and sustenance.

‘For life is wont to be sustained by means of food. Wherefore he exhorts us by the Scripture in these words: “Thou shalt surely remember the Lord God, who wrought in thee those great and wonderful things.” [2]

‘For when closely observed they are manifestly glorious, first the construction of the body, and the distribution of the food, and the distinction of each separate limb, and far more the orderly disposition of the senses, the action of the mind and its invisible movement, its quickness in acting according to each occurrence, and its invention of arts, have a delightful character.

‘Wherefore he exhorts us to remember how the aforesaid parts are held together and preserved by a divine power. For he has marked out every place and time with a view to our continually remembering the God who rules them, while we observe the beginning, and the middle, and the end of each.

‘For in the case of meats and drinks he bids us first consecrate a part, and then straightway use the rest. Moreover from the borders of our garments he has given us a symbol of remembrance: and in like manner he has commanded us also to set the inspired words upon our gates and doors, to be a remembrance of God. Also upon our hands he expressly commands the symbol to be fastened, clearly showing that we ought to perform every action in righteousness, keeping a remembrance of our own creation, but in all things remembering the fear of God.

‘He bids men also when lying down to sleep, and rising up, and walking in the way, to meditate upon the works of God, not only in word, but also by observing distinctly their own movement and their self-consciousness, when they are going to sleep, and then their waking, how the alternation of these states is divine and incomprehensible.

‘There has been shown to you also the excellence of the analogy in regard to distinction and memory, according to our explanation of the division of the hoof and the chewing of the cud. For the laws have not been enacted without consideration and just according to what came into the mind; but with a view to truth and to the indication of right reason.

‘For after the several directions about meats and drinks and cases of touching, he bids us neither to do nor to listen to anything thoughtlessly, nor to resort to injustice by employing the mastery of language.

‘In the case of the wild animals also the same principle may be discovered. For the disposition of the weasel, and of mice, and such animals as these, which have been expressly mentioned, is destructive. For mice defile and damage all things, not only for their own food, but even so far as to render utterly useless to man everything whatsoever it falls in their way to damage.

‘The weasel-kind too is singular: for, besides what has been said above, it has a mischievous constitution; for it conceives through the ears, and brings forth by the mouth. For this reason therefore such a disposition is declared impure for mankind. For by embodying in speech all that they have received through hearsay, they involve others in evils, and being themselves utterly defiled by the pollution of their impiety, work no ordinary impurity.

‘And your king, as we are informed, does quite right in destroying such men.

‘Then, said I, you mean, I suppose, the informers; for he continually exposes them to tortures and to painful kinds of death.

‘Why yes, he said, I do mean these: for watching for men’s destruction is an unholy thing: and our law commands us to hurt nobody by word nor deed.

‘On these subjects therefore it is enough for a brief description to have shown you, that all things have been regulated with a view to righteousness, and nothing has been appointed by the Scripture at random nor in a fabulous way; but in order that throughout our whole life we may in our actual conduct practise righteousness towards all men, remembering the God who is our Governor.

‘So concerning lawful meats and things unclean, creeping things and wild beasts, the whole system aims at righteousness,and the just intercourse of mankind.

‘To me then he seemed to have made a good defence on the several points. For with reference also to the calves and rams and goats which were to be offered, he said that we should take these from the herds and flocks and make them tame, and offer no wild or fierce animal, that the offerers of the sacrifices, having perceived the symbolic meaning of the lawgiver, might feel no arrogant self-consciousness.

‘For he who brings the sacrifice makes the offering of the whole disposition, of his own soul. Therefore on these points also I think that the particulars of our conversation are worthy of consideration, because of the august character of the law, which I have been led on to explain clearly to you, Philocrates, for the love of learning which you entertain.’

These are the accurate distinctions concerning the idea set forth allegorically in the sacred laws, which the High Priest gave to those Greeks who had come to him, thinking them likely to meet with the translations of the Scriptures which were about to be published. But it is time to hear what Aristobulus, who had partaken of Aristotle’s philosophy in addition to that of his own country, declared concerning the passages in the Sacred Books which are currently understood to refer to limbs of God’s body. This is that very man who is mentioned in the beginning of the Second Book of Maccabees:[3] and in his writing addressed to King Ptolemy he too explains this principle.