Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit

Philo Judaeus

The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus, volume 2. Yonge, C. D., translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

Having now, therefore, said as much as is proper on these subjects, let us proceed onwards to what comes next; for we have postponed the consideration of many things which [*](Genesis i. 1. ) [*](Num. iii. 12. )

v.2.p.118

ought to be examined into with exactness. "Take for me," says God, "a heifer which has never been yoked and has never been ill-treated, tender and young," [*](Genesis xv. 9. ) and exulting; that is to say, a soul adapted easily to receive government, and instruction, and superintendence. "Take for me also a ram," that is to say, speech contentious and perfect, capable of dissecting and overthrowing the sophistries of those who advance contrary opinions, and capable also of ensuring safety, and good order, and regularity to him who uses it.

"Take for me," also the external sense, which lives and directs all its energies to the world, which is perceptible by it, that is, "a goat," three complete years old, enjoying solid strength in a perfect number, having beginning, middle, and end. Besides all these things, "a turtle dove and a pigeon," that is to say, divine and human wisdom, both of them being winged, and being animals accustomed to soar on high, still different from one another, as much as genus differs from species or a copy from the model;

for divine wisdom is fond of lonely places, loving solitude, on account of the only God, whose possession she is; and this is called a turtle-dove, symbolically; but the other is quiet and tame, and gregarious, haunting the cities of men, and rejoicing in its abode among mortals, and so they liken her to a pigeon.

Moses appears to me to have intended figuratively to represent these virtues when he calls the midwives of the Egyptians, Shiphrah and Puah, [*](Exodus i. 15. ) for the name Shiphrah, being interpreted, means "a little bird," and Puah means "red." Now it is the especial property of divine wisdom, like a bird, to be always soaring on high; but it is the characteristic of human wisdom to study modesty and temperance, so as to blush at all objects which are worthy to cause a blush;