De Specialibus Legibus (lib. i‑iv)

[*](in Yonge, this is "A TREATISE ON THOSE SPECIAL LAWS WHICH ARE REFERRIBLE TO TWO COMMANDMENTS IN THE DECALOQGUE, THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH, AGAINST ADULTERERS AND ALL LEWD PERSONS, AND AGAINST MURDERERS AND ALL VIOLENCE.")There was once a time when, devoting my leisure to philosophy and to the contemplation of the world and the things in it, I reaped the fruit of excellent, and desirable, and blessed intellectual feelings, being always living among the divine oracles and doctrines, on which i fed incessantly and insatiably, to my great delight, never entertaining any low or grovelling thoughts, nor ever wallowing in the pursuit of glory or wealth, or the delights of the body, but I appeared to be raised on high and borne aloft by a certain inspiration of the [*]( Exodus xx. 12.)

At that time, therefore, looking down from above, from the air, and straining the eye of my mind as from a watch-tower, I surveyed the unspeakable contemplation of all the things on the earth, and looked upon myself as happy as having forcibly escaped from all the evil fates that can attack human life.

Nevertheless, the most grievous of all evils was lying in wait for me, namely, envy, that hates every thing that is good, and which, suddenly attacking me, did not cease from dragging me after it by force till it had taken me and thrown me into the vast sea of the cares of public politics, in which I was and still am tossed about without being able to keep myself swimming at the top.

But though I groan at my fate, I still hold out , and resist, retaining in my soul that desire of instruction which has been implanted in it from my earliest youth, and this desire taking pity and compassion on me continually raises me up and alleviates my sorrow. And it is through this fondness for learning that I at times lift up my head, and with the eyes of my soul, which are indeed dim (for the mist of affairs, wholly inconsistent with their proper objects, has overshadowed their acute clear-sightedness), still, as well as I may, I survey all the things around me, being eager to imbibe something of a life which shall be pure and unalloyed by evils.

And if at any time unexpectedly there shall arise a brief period of tranquillity, and a short calm and respite from the troubles which arise from state affairs, I then rise aloft and float above the troubled waves, soaring as it were in the air, and being, I may almost say, blown forward by the breezes of knowledge, which often persuades me to flee away, and to pass all my days with her, escaping as it were from my pitiless masters, not men only, but also affairs which pour upon me from all quarters and at all times like a torrent.

But even in these circumstances I ought to give thanks to God, that though I am so overwhelmed by this flood, I am not wholly sunk and swallowed up in the depths. But I open the eyes of my soul, which from an utter despair of any good hope had been believed to have been before now wholly darkened, and I am irradiated with the light of wisdom, since I am not given up for the whole of my life to darkness.

And since of the ten commandments which God himself gave to his people without employing the agency of any prophet or interpreter, five which are engraved in the first tablet have been already discussed and explained, as have also all the particular injunctions which were comprehended under them; and since it is now proper to examine and expound to the best of our power and ability the rest of the commandments which are found in the second table, I will attempt as before to adapt the particular ordinances which are implied in them to each of the general laws.

Now on the second table this is the first commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," because, I imagine, in every part of the world pleasure is of great power, and no portion of the world has escaped its dominion, neither of the things on earth, nor of the things in the sea, nor even of those in the air, for all animals, whether walking on the earth, or flying in the air, or swimming in the water, do at all times rejoice in pleasure, and cultivate it, and obey its behests, and look to its eye and to its nod, obeying it with cheerfulness, however arrogant and proud they may be, and all but anticipating its commands, by the promptness and unhesitating rapidity of their service.

Therefore, even that pleasure which is in accordance with nature is often open to blame, when any one indulges in it immoderately and insatiably, as men who are unappeasably voracious in respect of eating, even if they take no kind of forbidden or unwholesome food; and as men who are madly devoted to association with women, and who commit themselves to an immoderate degree not with other men’s wives, but with their own.

Still this sort of reproach, as affecting most men, is one rather of the body than of the soul, since the body has a vehement flame within, which consumes the food which is offered to it, and seeks other food at no great distance, by reason of the abundant moisture, the stream of which is conveyed into the most secret parts of the body, creating an itching, and stinging, and incessant tickling. But those men

But those men who are frantic in their desires for the wives of others, and at times even for those of their nearest relations or dearest friends, and who live to the injury of their neighbours, attempting to vitiate whole families, however numerous, and violating all kinds of marriage vows, and making vain the hopes which men conceive of having legitimate children, being afflicted with an incurable disease of the soul, must be punished with death as common enemies to the whole race of mankind, in order that they may no longer live in perfect fearlessness, so as to be at leisure to corrupt other houses, nor become teachers of others, who may learn by their example to practise evil habits.

Moreover the law has laid down other admirable regulations with regard to carnal conversation; for it commands men not only to abstain from the wives of others, but also from certain relations, with whom it is not lawful to cohabit;

therefore Moses, detesting and loathing the customs of the Persians, repudiates them as the greatest possible impiety, for the magistrates of the Persians marry even their own mothers, and consider the offspring of such marriages the most noble of all men, and as it is said, they think them worthy of the highest sovereign authority.

And yet what can be a more flagitious act of impiety than to defile the bed of one’s father after he is dead, which it would be right rather to preserve untouched, as sacred; and to feel no respect either for old age or for one’s mother, and for the same man to be both the son and the husband of the same woman; and again for the same woman to be both the mother and wife of the same man, and for the children of the two to be the brothers of their father and the grandsons of their mother, and for that same woman to be both the mother and grandmother of those children whom she has brought forth, and for the man to be at the same time both the father and the uterine brother of those whom he has begotten?

These enormities formerly took place among the Greeks in the case of Oedipus, the son of Laius, [*]( This is the subject, in fact, of the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles, and is dilated upon by Oedipus, where he says— ὦ γάμοι γάμοιἐφύσαθ᾽ ἡμᾶς καὶ φυτεύσαντες πάλινἀνεῖτε ταὐτὸν σπέρμα, κ’ ἀπεδείξατε .πατέρας, ἀδελφοὺς παῖδας, αἷμ’ ἐμφύλιον,νύμφας, γυναῖκας μητέρας τε, χ᾽ ὥποσααἰσχιστ᾽ ἐν ἀνθρώποισιν ἔργα γίγνεται. Soph. OT 1403-1408. And again he says— τὴν τεκούσαν ἤροσενὅθεν περ αὐτὸς ἐσπάρη, κἀκ τῶν ἴσωνἐκτήσαθ᾽ ὑμᾶς ὧνπερ αὐτὸς ἐξέφυ. Soph. OT 1497-1499. Philo alludes afterwards to the wars which are the subject of the Ἕπτ’ ἐπὶ Θήβας of Aischylus.) and the actions were [*]( This is the subject, in fact, of the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles, and is dilated upon by Oedipus, where he says— ὦ γάμοι γάμοιἐφύσαθ᾽ ἡμᾶς καὶ φυτεύσαντες πάλινἀνεῖτε ταὐτὸν σπέρμα, κ’ ἀπεδείξατε .πατέρας, ἀδελφοὺς παῖδας, αἷμ’ ἐμφύλιον,νύμφας, γυναῖκας μητέρας τε, χ᾽ ὥποσααἰσχιστ᾽ ἐν ἀνθρώποισιν ἔργα γίγνεται. Soph. OT 1403-1408. And again he says— τὴν τεκούσαν ἤροσενὅθεν περ αὐτὸς ἐσπάρη, κἀκ τῶν ἴσωνἐκτήσαθ᾽ ὑμᾶς ὧνπερ αὐτὸς ἐξέφυ. Soph. OT 1497-1499. Philo alludes afterwards to the wars which are the subject of the Ἕπτ’ ἐπὶ Θήβας of Aischylus.)

for there ensued from it a continual succession of wars, both domestic and foreign, which were bequeathed like an inheritance from their fathers and ancestors to their children and descendants; and there were destructions of cities which were the greatest in Greece, and destructions of embattled armies, and slaughter of nations and of allies which had come to the assistance of either side, and mutual slaughter of the most gallant leaders in each army, and unreconcileable enmities about sovereignty and authority, and fratricides, by which not only the families and countries of the persons immediately concerned were utterly extinguished and destroyed, but the greater portion of the whole Greek nation also, for cities which were previously populous now became desolate and void of their inhabitants, and were left as a memorial of the calamities of Greece, and a miserable sight for all beholders.

Nor, indeed, do the Persians, among whom such practises are frequent, avoid similar evils, for they are continually involved in military expeditions and battles, killing and being killed, and at one time invading their neighbours and at others repelling those who rise up against them. And many enemies rise up against them from many quarters, since it is not the nature of the barbarians to rest in tranquillity; therefore, before the existing sedition is appeased, another springs up, so that no season of the year is ever indulged in peace and quietness, but they are compelled to live under arms night and day, bearing for the greater portion of their lives hardships in the open air while serving in the camps, or else living in cities from the complete absence of all peace.

I forbear to mention the great and intolerable violence and pride of success exhibited

And it seems to me that all these things arise from the unhallowed connections of sons with their own mothers, because justice, who surveys all human affairs, revenges herself thus on those who act improperly for their wickedness; for not only do those who act thus commit impiety, but those also who voluntarily signify their assent to the arbitrary conduct of those who do such actions.

But our law guards so carefully against such actions as these that it does not permit even a step-son, when his father is dead, to marry his step-mother, on account of the respect which he owes to his father, and because the titles mother and step-mother are kindred names, even though the affections of the souls may not be identical;