PHILO of Alexandria
LECTIO DIVINA and
ALLEGORICAL EXEGESIS
 

 Philo Judaeus, miniature, 9th cent. Greek codex 
of works of St. John Damascene. MS Gr. 923 fol. 310v

The Name of God: the meaning of the three Patriarchs

[1] THE LIFE of MOSES [1]
 

De vita Mosis (lib. i-ii), Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt, vol. 4, ed. L. Cohn (Reimer Berlin 1902, De Gruyter, Berlin 1962) pp 119-268

Names of the Patriarchs: Levels of

Existence

[1.]76 […] AND if, because of their natural weakness, they seek some title, tell them not only that I am God, but also the God of those three men who are named for virtue:

[1] that I am the God of Abraham,

[2] and the God of Isaac,

[3] and the God of Jacob;

 θεὸς Ἀβραὰμ

   καὶ θεὸς Ἰσαὰκ

     καὶ θεὸς Ἰακώβ,

[1] one of whom is the rule of that wisdom which is derived from teaching

[2] another of natural wisdom;

[3] the third of wisdom from ascetical [practice]

 ὧν ὁ μὲν τῆς διδακτῆς,

 ὁ δὲ τῆς φυσικῆς,

 ὁ δὲ τῆς ἀσκητικῆς σοφίας κανών ἐστιν.

[2] THAT EVERY GOOD MAN is FREE

 Engl.Tr.: Philo of Alexandria, The Contemplative Life, The Giants, and Selections, tr. David Winston, ser. CWS, (Paulist, New York, 1981, pp. 249 - 252, Prob 72 - 91.  Greek text:  ed. Cohn, L.,  Reiter, S Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt, vol. 6, Reimer ( Berlin , 1915)  rpr.De Gruyter (Berlin, 1962) pp 1-45.

The Essenes:

The Ascetical Life

[2.]80   In the realm of philosophy they abandon the logical part to word-hunters as inessential for the acquisition of virtue, and the physical to star-gazing visionaries as beyond the scope of human nature, but make an exception of the part that treats philosophically of the existence of God and the birth of the universe. But the ethical part they carefully elaborate, utilizing as trainers their ancestral laws, which the human mind could not possibly have conceived without divine inspiration.

In these laws they are instructed at all times, but especially on every seventh day. For the Seventh Day is held holy, and on it they refrain from all other work and proceed to sacred spots they call synagogues. There they sit arranged according to their ages, the young below the elders, with the proper decorum and with attentive ears.

The greater part of their philosophical study is conveyed via symbols following an antique mode. They are trained to piety, holiness, justice, domestic and civic conduct, knowledge of what is truly good, evil, or indifferent, how to choose what they ought, and avoid the opposite, employing as their three definitive criteria love of God, love of virtue, love of men. 

τὰ γὰρ πλεῖστα διὰ συμβόλων ἀρχαιοτρόπῳ ζηλώσει 83 παρ' αὐτοῖς φιλοσοφεῖται. παιδεύονται δὲ εὐσέβειαν, ὁσιότητα, δικαιοσύνην, οἰκονομίαν, πολιτείαν, ἐπιστήμην τῶν πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν καὶ ἀδιαφόρων, αἱρέσεις ὧν χρὴ καὶ φυγὰς τῶν ἐναντίων, ὅροις καὶ κανόσι τριττοῖς χρώμενοι, τῷ τε φιλοθέῳ καὶ φιλαρέτῳ καὶ φιλανθρωπῳ.́

 THE THERAPEUTAE: THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE (VITA CONTEMPLATIVA)ON THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE

[3] ON THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE

 Greek text:  ed. Cohn, L.,  Reiter, S Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt, vol. 6, Reimer ( Berlin , 1915) rpr. .De Gruyter (Berlin, 1962) pp 46-71. English translation: Philo of Alexandria, The Contemplative Life, The Giants, and Selections, tr. David Winston, ser. CWS, Paulist, New York, 1981, pp. 41-57

Alexandria,
2nd cent. Roman mosaic

The Therapeutæ: The 

Contemplative Life

[3.]13.THROUGH ^(13-20) their yearning for the deathless and blessed life, believing their mortal existence is already over, they leave their property to their sons or daughters or even to other kinsfolk ... they flee without turning to look back ... They do not emigrate to another city, ... (rather) They spend their time outside the walls in gardens or solitary places, (monagriais eremian) not from having cultivated a cruel hatred of men, but because they know that intercourse with persons of dissimilar character is unprofitable and injurious.

       The houses of those thus banded together are quite simple ... neither near together as in towns, since close proximity is troublesome and displeasing to those assiduously striving for solitude, (eremian) nor yet far apart, because of the fellowship (koinonian) to which they cleave...

[3.] 25.IN each house there is a sacred chamber, which is called a sanctuary or chamber, (semneion kai monasterion) in which in isolation they are initiated into the mysteries of the holy life.  They take nothing into it, neither drink, nor food, nor anything else necessary for bodily needs, but laws and oracles delivered by the prophets, and psalms and the other books by which knowledge and piety are increased and perfected.

[3.] 26.THEY keep the memory of God alive and never forget him, so that even in their dreams no images are formed other than the loveliness of divine excellences and power thus many of them, dreaming in their sleep, divulge the glorious teachings of their divine philosophy.

        Twice daily they pray, at dawn and at eventide; at sunrise they pray for a joyful day, joyful in the true sense, that their minds may be filled with celestial light.  At sunset they pray that the soul may be fully relieved from the disturbance of the senses and the objects of sense, and that retired to its own consistory and council chamber it may search out the truth.

[3.] 28.THE entire interval between early morning and evening is devoted to [spiritual] exercise.  They read the Holy Scriptures and apply themselves to their ancestral philosophy by means of allegory, since they believe that the words of the literal text are symbols of a hidden nature, revealed through its underlying meanings.

[3.] 29.They have also writings of men of old who were the founders of their sect, and had left behind many memorials of the type of treatment employed in allegory, and taking these as a sort of archetype they imitate the method of this principle of interpretation.

[3.] 30.FOR six days (of each week) they live apart in seclusion in the aforementioned chambers and pursue philosophy, without stepping beyond the outer door or even seeing it from afar.  But on the seventh day they come together as for a general assembly ... Then the eldest who is also best versed in their doctrines comes forward, and...after close examination he carefully expounds the precise meaning of his thoughts, which does not settle on the edge of the audience's ears, but passes through the hearing into the soul, and there remains securely ensconced, [while] the others listen quietly ...

[3.] 75.When the banqueters have taken their places...the president, after all are hushed in deep silence...makes inquiry into some problem arising in the Holy Scriptures...he employs a leisurely mode of instruction, lingering and drawing things out through constant recapitulation, thus imprinting the thoughts in the souls of his hearers.

[3.] 78.THE interpretations of the Holy Scripture are made in accordance with the deeper meanings conveyed in allegory. For the whole of the Law seems to these people to resemble a living being with the literal commandments for its body and for its soul the invisible meaning (nous) stored away in its words. 

It is in the latter that the rational soul begins especially to contemplate the things akin to itself and, beholding the extraordinary beauty of the concepts through the polished glass of the words, unfolds and reveals the symbols, and brings forth the thoughts bared into the light for those who are able by a slight jog to their memory to view the invisible through the visible.

[4] ON SPECIAL LAWS 4
 

De specialibus legibus (lib. i-iv), Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt, vol. 5, ed. L. Cohn (Reimer Berlin 1906 De Gruyter Berlin 1962) pp 1-265

Symbol of Medititation and 

Discernment

[4.]105 […] MOSES says, […concerning]  the races of animals that are clean, [... there are]¹⁰⁶ two tests and criteria -  […] (Lev. 11:4, ) two signs:

¹⁰⁵ […]  ὥς φησι Μωυσῆς͵  […]   ᾧ τὰ γένη τῶν καθαρῶν ζῴων […]¹⁰⁶ βάσανον δὲ καὶ δοκιμασίαν […] κοινῇ κατὰ διττὰ σημεῖα͵

first, they must have a divided hoof,

second, they must ruminate;

τό τε διχηλεῖν

καὶ τὸ μηρυκᾶσθαι·

for those which do neither, or only one of these things, are unclean. And these signs are both of them symbols of instruction and of the most scientific learning, by which the better is separated from the worse, so that all confusion between them is prevented;

οἷς γὰρ ἢ μηδέτερον ἢ θάτερον αὐτὸ μόνον πρόσεστιν͵ ἀκάθαρτα. ταυτὶ δὲ τὰ σημεῖα ἀμφότερα σύμβολα διδασκαλίας καὶ μαθήσεως ἐπιστημονικωτάτης ἐστίν͵ ᾗ πρὸς τὸ ἀσύγχυτον τὰ βελτίω

[4.]107  for as the animal which ruminates, while it is masticating its food draws it down its throat, and then by slow degrees kneads and softens it, and then after this process again sends it down into the belly,

¹⁰⁷ τῶν ἐναντίων διακρίνεται. καθάπερ γὰρ τὸ μηρυκώμενον ζῷον͵ ὅταν διατεμὸν τὴν τροφὴν ἐναπερείσηται τῇ φάρυγγι͵ πάλιν ἐκ τοῦ κατ΄ ὀλίγον ἀνιμᾶται καὶ ἐπιλεαίνει καὶ μετὰ ταῦτ΄ εἰς κοιλίαν διαπέμπεται͵

in the same manner the man who is being instructed, having received the doctrines and speculations of wisdom in at his ears from his instructor, derives a considerable amount of learning from him, but still is not able to hold it firmly and to embrace it all at once, until he has revolved within his mind everything which he has heard by the continued meditation in his memory (and this [meditation in memory] is the cement which connects ideas), and then he impresses the image of it all firmly on his soul.

τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ὁ παιδευόμενος͵ δεξάμενος δι΄ ὤτων τὰ σοφίας δόγματα καὶ θεωρήματα παρὰ τοῦ διδάσκοντος͵ ἐπὶ πλέον ἔχει τὴν μάθησιν οὐχ οἷός τε ὢν εὐθὺς συλλαβέσθαι καὶ περιδράξασθαι κραταιότερον͵ ἄχρις ἂν ἕκαστον ὧν ἤκουσεν ἀναπολῶν μνήμῃ συνεχέσι μελέταις αἱ δ΄ εἰσὶ κόλλα νοημάτων ἐνσφραγίσηται τῇ ψυχῇ βεβαίως τὸν τύπον.

[4.]108  But as it seems the firm conception of such ideas is of no advantage to him unless he is able to discriminate between and to distinguish which of contrary things it is right to choose and which to avoid, of which the parting of the hoof is the symbol;

¹⁰⁸ ἀλλ΄ οὐδὲν ὡς ἔοικεν ὄφελος ἡ τῶν νοημάτων βεβαία κατάληψις͵ εἰ μὴ προσγένοιτο διαστολὴ τούτων καὶ διαίρεσις εἴς τε αἵρεσιν ὧν χρὴ καὶ φυγὴν τῶν ἐναντίων͵ ἧς τὸ διχηλοῦν σύμβολον·

since the course of life is twofold, the one road leading to wickedness and the other to virtue, and since we ought to renounce the one and never to forsake the other.

ἐπεὶ τοῦ βίου διττὴ ὁδός͵ ἡ μὲν ἐπὶ κακίαν͵ ἡ δ΄ ἐπ΄ ἀρετὴν ἄγουσα͵ καὶ δεῖ τὴν μὲν 4.109 ἀποστρέφεσθαι͵ τῆς δὲ μηδέποτε ἀπολείπεσθαι.

[5] ON AGRICULTURE
 

De agricultura Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt, vol. 2, ed. P.Wendland (Reimer Berlin 1897 De Gruyter Berlin 1962) pp 95-132

Meditation and

Memory

[5.]130. DO you not see that the law pronounces the camel to be an unclean beast, because it ruminates and does not have a divided hoof? (Lev. 11:4, ) And yet, if we considered this sentence as it is expressed in its literal sense, I do not see what reason there is in it when it is interpreted; but if we look at it in its allegorical meaning, it is very clear and inevitable.

¹³¹ τὸν κάμηλον οὐχ ὁρᾷς ὅτι ἀκάθαρτον εἶναί φησι ζῷον ὁ νόμος͵ ἐπειδὴ μηρυκᾶται μέν͵ οὐ διχηλεῖ δέ ( Lev. 11, 4 ); καίτοι γε πρὸς τὴν ῥητὴν ἐπίσκεψιν οὐκ οἶδ΄ ὃν ἔχει λόγον ἡ προσαποδοθεῖσα αἰτία͵ ¹³² πρὸς δὲ τὴν δι΄ ὑπονοιῶν ἀναγκαιότατον·

[5.]132.  For as the animal which ruminates, again masticates the food which is put before it and devoured by it, when it again rises up to its teeth, so also the soul of the man who is fond of learning, when it has received any speculative opinions by hearing them, does not abandon them to forgetfulness, but quietly by itself revolves over every one of them again in its mind in all tranquillity, and so comes to the recollection of them all.

ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ μηρυκώμενον τὴν προκαταβληθεῖσαν ὑπαναπλέουσαν αὖθις ἐπιλεαίνει τροφήν͵ οὕτως ἡ ψυχὴ τοῦ φιλομαθοῦς͵ ἐπειδάν τινα δι΄ ἀκοῆς δέξηται θεωρήματα͵ λήθῃ μὲν αὐτὰ οὐ παραδίδωσιν͵ ἠρεμήσασα δὲ καθ΄ ἑαυτὴν ἕκαστα μεθ΄ ἡσυχίας τῆς πάσης ἀναπολεῖ καὶ εἰς ἀνάμνησιν τῶν πάντων  ἔρχεται.

[5.]133. But it is not every memory which is good, but only that which is exerted on good subjects, since it is a most pernicious thing that what is bad should not be forgotten; on which account, with a view to perfection, it is necessary that the hoof should be divided,

133 μνήμη δ΄ οὐ πᾶσα ἀγαθόν͵ ἀλλ΄ ἡ ἐπὶ μόνοις τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς͵ ἐπεὶ τό γε ἄληστα εἶναι τὰ κακὰ βλαβερώτατον· οὗ ἕνεκα πρὸς τελειότητα χρεία τοῦ διχηλεῖν͵

in order that so the faculty of memory, being divided into two sections, the word which flows through the mouth may divide the lips, as being things which nature has made of a two-fold character, and may also separate the advantageous species of memory from that which is mischievous.

ἵνα τοῦ μνημονικοῦ δίχα τμηθέντος ὁ λόγος διὰ στόματος͵ οὗ πέρατα ἡ φύσις διττὰ εἰργάσατο χείλη͵ ῥέων ¹³⁴ διαστείλῃ τό τε ὠφέλιμον καὶ τὸ ἐπιζήμιον μνήμης γένους εἶδος.

¹³⁴ Again, the divided hoof without cruminating does not by itself appear to bring any advantage with it. For what advantage is there in distinguishing the natures of things beginning at the top, and going down to the most unimportant points, and yet not to be able to do so in one’s self, not to have one’s own divisions clearly distinguished, which by some persons are with great felicity named atoms and indivisible portions?

ἀλλ΄ οὐδὲ τὸ διχηλεῖν ἄνευ τοῦ μηρυκᾶσθαι καθ΄ ἑαυτὸ φαίνεταί τινα ἔχειν ὄνησιν ἐξ αὑτοῦ. τί γὰρ ὄφελος τὰς φύσεις τῶν πραγμάτων τέμνειν ἄνωθεν ἀρξάμενον μέχρι τῶν λεπτοτάτων͵ εἰς τοὔσχατον δὲ αὐτὸ μηκέτι γίνεσθαι μηδὲ ἔχειν διαιρετὰ τὰ μέρη͵ ἅπερ ἄτομα καὶ ἀμερῆ ¹³⁵ πρὸς ἐνίων εὐθυβόλως ὀνομάζεται;

¹³⁵ for all these things are manifest displays of intelligence and excessive accuracy, sharpened to a degree of the most acute comprehension. But they have no influence in causing virtue, or in making men live a life free from reproach.

ταῦτα γὰρ συνέσεως μὲν καὶ περιττῆς ἀκριβείας ἠκονημένης εἰς ὀξυτάτην ἀγχίνοιαν ἐναργῆ δείγματ΄ ἐστίν͵ ὄνησιν δὲ οὐδεμίαν πρὸς καλοκἀγαθίαν καὶ  ἀνεπιλήπτου βίου 136 διέξοδον ἔχει.