De Sacrificiis Abelis Et Caini

Philo Judaeus

The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus, volume 1. Yonge, C. D., translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

As many, therefore, as through instruction and learning have improved and at last arrived at perfection, are classed among the larger number. Nor is number insignificant of those who have learnt from oral instruction and demonstration, and whom Moses calls the people. But those men who have forsaken human instruction, and having become well-disposed disciples of God, and having arrived at a comprehension of knowledge acquired without labour, have passed over to the immortal and most perfect race of beings, and have so received an inheritance better than the former generations of created men; and of these men Isaac is reckoned as a companion.

There is also another proof that the mind is immortal, which is of this nature:—There are some persons whom God, advancing to higher degrees of improvement, has enabled to soar above all species and genera, having placed them near himself; as he says to Moses, "But stand thou here with [*](Genesis xxv. 8. ) [*](Genesis xlix. 33. ) [*](Genesis xxxv. 25. )

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me." [*](Deuteronomy v. 31. ) When, therefore, Moses is about to die, he is not added to one class, nor does he forsake another, as the men before him had done; nor is he connected with "addition" or "subtraction," but "by means of the word of the Cause of all things, by whom the whole world was made." [*]( Deuteronomy xxxiv. 5. ) He departs to another abode, that you may understand from this that God accounts a wise man as entitled to equal honour with the world itself, having both created the universe, and raised the perfect man from the things of earth up to himself by the same word.

Not but what, when he gave him the use of all earthly things and suffered him to dwell among them, he assigned to him not such a power as he might exercise in common with an earthly governor or monarch, by which he should forcibly rule over the passions of the soul, but he appointed him to be a sort of god, making the whole of the body, and the mind, which is the ruler of the body, subjects and slaves to him; "For I give thee," says he, "as a god to Pharaoh." [*](Exodus vii. 1. ) But God is not susceptible of any subtraction or addition, inasmuch as he is complete and entirely equal to himself.

In reference to which it is said of Moses, "That no one is said to know of his tomb;" [*]( Deuteronomy xxxiv. 6. ) for who could be competent to perceive the migration of a perfect soul to the living God? Nor do I even believe that the soul itself while awaiting this event was conscious of its own improvement, inasmuch as it was at that time becoming gradually divine; for God, in the case of those persons whom he is about to benefit, does not take him who is to receive the advantage into his counsels, but is accustomed rather to pour his benefits ungrudgingly upon him without his having any previous anticipation of them. This is something like the meaning of God’s adding the creation of what is good to the perfect mind. But the good is holiness, the name of which is Abel.

"And Abel became a shepherd of sheep; but Cain was a tiller of the ground." Why now has Moses, who represents Cain as older than Abel, now transposed them in the order in which he here mentions them, so as to name the younger first when relating their choice of a way of life? For it was natural that the elder should lead the way and adopt the cultivation [*](Deuteronomy v. 31. ) [*](Exodus vii. 1. ) [*]( Deuteronomy xxxiv. 5. ) [*]( Deuteronomy xxxiv. 6. )

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of the land, and that the younger should subsequently come to the care of sheep.

But Moses is not influenced by what is likely and probable, but pursues the plain unadulterated truth. And when he alone comes to God by himself, he tells him with all freedom that "he is not eloquent," which statement is equivalent to saying that he does not aim at specious and plausible reasonings, and that this has happened to him "not yesterday, or the day before yesterday, but ever since God began to converse with him as his servant." [*](Exodus iv. 10. )