De Gigantibus

Philo Judaeus

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

for, almost immediately, it quits its former place and departs, rejecting those inhabitants who come over to it, and who live in defiance of law and justice, to whom it never would have come if it had not been for the sake of convicting those who choose what is disgraceful instead of what is good.

But the spirit of God is spoken of in one manner as being air flowing upon the earth, bringing a third element in addition [*](Psalm lxxvii. 49. ) [*](Genesis vi. 3. )

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to water. In reference to which, Moses says, in his account of the creation of the world, "The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." [*](Genesis i. 2. ) Since the air, as it is very light, is raised and borne aloft, having water, as it were, for its foundation; and, in another manner, unalloyed knowledge is said to be so, which every wise man naturally partakes of.

And Moses shows us this, when speaking of the creator and maker of the holy work of the creation, in these words: "And God summoned Bezaleel, and filled him with his Holy Spirit, and with wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, to be able to devise every work." [*](Exodus xxxi 1. ) So that, what the spirit of God is, is very definitively described in these words.

Such also is the spirit of Moses, which came upon the seventy elders, for the sake of making them differ from, and be superior to the rest of the Israelites, who could not possibly be elders in real truth, unless they had partaken of that allwise spirit. For it is said, "I will take of my spirit which is upon thee, and I will pour it upon the seventy elders." [*](Numbers xi. 17. )