Philo Judaeus,
ON THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE
[NOTE: This translation is from C.D.Yonge, The Works of Philo
(1854) (updated reprint, Hendrickson 1993)]
I. Having mentioned the Essenes, who in all respects
selected for their admiration and for their especial adoption the
practical course of life, and who excel in all, or what perhaps
may be a less unpopular and invidious thing to say, in most of
its parts, I will now proceed, in the regular order of my
subject, to speak of those who have embraced the speculative
life, and I will say what appears to me to be desirable to be
said on the subject, not drawing any fictitious statements from
my own head for the sake of improving the appearance of that side
of the question which nearly all poets and essayists are much
accustomed to do in the scarcity of good actions to extol, but
with the greatest simplicity adhering strictly to the truth
itself, to which I know well that even the most eloquent men do
not keep close in their speeches.
Nevertheless we must make the endeavor and labor to attain to
this virtue; for it is not right that the greatness of the virtue
of the men should be a cause of silence to those who do not think
it right that anything which is creditable should be suppressed
in silence; {2} but the deliberate intention of the philosopher
is at once displayed from the appellation given to them: for with
strict regard to etymology, they are called therapeutae
and therapeutrides, either because they profess an art of
medicine more excellent than that in general use in cities (for
that only heals bodies, but the other heals souls which are under
the mastery of terrible and almost incurable diseases, which
pleasures and appetites, fears and griefs, and covetousness, and
follies, and injustice, and all the rest of the innumerable
multitude of other passions and vices, have inflicted upon them),
or else because they have been instructed by nature and the
sacred laws to serve the living God, who is superior to the good,
and more simple than the one, and more ancient than the unity
{3} with whom, however, who is there of those who profess piety
that we can possibly compare? Can we compare those who honor the
elements, earth, water, air, and fire? to whom different nations
have given names, calling fire Hephaestus, I imagine
because of its kindling, and the air Hera, I imagine
because of its being raised up, and raised aloft to a great
height, and water Poseidon, probably because of its being
drinkable, and the earth Demeter because it appears to be
the mother of all plants and of all animals.
{##4-9 omitted}
II. {10} But since these men infect not only their
fellow countrymen, but all that come near them with folly, let
them remain uncovered, being mutilated in the most indispensable
of all the outward senses, namely, sight. I am speaking here, not
of the sight of the body, but of that of the soul, by which alone
truth and falsehood are distinguished from one another. {11} But
the therapeutic sect of mankind, being continually taught to see
without interruption, may well aim at obtaining a sight of the
living God, and may pass by the sun, which is visible to the
outward sense, and never leave this order which conducts to
perfect happiness. {12} But they who apply themselves to this
kind of worship, not because they are influenced to do so by
custom, nor by the advice or recommendation of any particular
persons, but because they are carried away by a certain heavenly
love, give way to enthusiasm, behaving like so many revelers in
bacchanalian or corybantian mysteries, until they see the object
which they have been earnestly desiring.
{13} Then, because of their anxious desire for an immortal and
blessed existence, thinking that their mortal life has already
come to an end, they leave their possessions to their sons or
daughters, or perhaps to other relations, giving them up their
inheritance with willing cheerfulness: and those who know no
relations give their property to their companions or friends, for
it followed of necessity that those who have acquired the wealth
which sees, as if ready prepared for them, should be willing to
surrender that wealth which is blind to those who themselves also
are still blind in their minds.
{##14-17 omitted}
{18} When, therefore, men abandon their property without being
influenced by any predominant attraction, they flee without even
turning their heads back again, deserting their brethren, their
children, their wives, their parents, their numerous families,
their affectionate bands of companions, their native lands in
which they have been born and brought up, though long familiarity
is a most attractive bond, and one very well able to allure any
one. {19} And they depart, not to another city as those do who
entreat to be purchased from those who at present possess them,
being either unfortunate or else worthless servants, and as such
seeking a change of masters rather than endeavoring to procure
freedom (for every city, even that which is under the happiest
laws, is full of indescribable tumults, and disorders, and
calamities, which no one would submit to who had been even for a
moment under the influence of wisdom), {20} but they take up
their abode outside of walls, or gardens, or solitary lands,
seeking for a desert place, not because of any ill-natured
misanthropy to which they have learned to devote themselves, but
because of the associations with people of wholly dissimilar
dispositions to which they would otherwise be compelled, and
which they know to be unprofitable and mischievous.
III.{21} Now this class of persons may be met with in
many places, for it was fitting that both Greece and the country
of the barbarians should partake of whatever is perfectly good;
and there is the greatest number of such men in Egypt, in every
one of the districts, or nomes, as they are called, and
especially around Alexandria; {22} and from all quarters those
who are the best of these therapeutae proceed on their
pilgrimage to some most suitable place as if it were their
country, which is beyond the Maereotic lake, lying in a somewhat
level plain a little raised above the rest, being suitable for
their purpose by reason of its safety and also of the fine
temperature of the air.
{23} For the houses built in the fields and the villages which
surround it on all sides give it safety; and the admirable
temperature of the air proceeds from the continual breezes which
come from the lake which falls into the sea, and also from the
sea itself in the neighborhood, the breezes from the sea being
light, and those which proceed from the lake which falls into the
sea being heavy, the mixture of which produces a most healthy
atmosphere.
{24} But the houses of these men thus congregated together are
very plain, just giving shelter in respect of the two things most
important to be provided against, the heat of the sun, and the
cold from the open air; and they did not live near to one another
as men do in cities, for immediate neighborhood to others would
be a troublesome and unpleasant thing to men who have conceived
an admiration for, and have determined to devote themselves to,
solitude; and, on the other hand, they did not live very far from
one another on account of the fellowship which they desire to
cultivate, and because of the desirableness of being able to
assist one another if they should be attacked by robbers.
{25} And in every house there is a sacred shrine which is
called the holy place, and the house in which they retire by
themselves and perform all the mysteries of a holy life, bringing
in nothing, neither meat, nor drink, nor anything else which is
indispensable towards supplying the necessities of the body, but
studying in that place the laws and the sacred oracles of God
enunciated by the holy prophets, and hymns, and psalms, and all
kinds of other things by reason of which knowledge and piety are
increased and brought to perfection.
{26} Therefore they always retain an imperishable recollection
of God, so that not even in their dreams is any other subject
ever presented to their eyes except the beauty of the divine
virtues and of the divine powers. Therefore many persons speak in
their sleep, divulging and publishing the celebrated doctrines of
the sacred philosophy. {27} And they are accustomed to pray twice
a day, at morning and at evening; when the sun is rising
entreating God that the happiness of the coming day may be real
happiness, so that their minds may be filled with heavenly light,
and when the sun is setting they pray that their soul, being
entirely lightened and relieved of the burden of the outward
senses, and of the appropriate object of these outward senses,
may be able to trace out trust existing in its own consistory and
council chamber. {28} And the interval between morning and
evening is by them devoted wholly to meditation on and to
practice virtue, for they take up the sacred scriptures and
philosophy concerning them, investigating the allegories as
symbols of some secret meaning of nature, intended to be conveyed
in those figurative expressions.
{29} They have also writings of ancient men, who having been
the founders of one sect or another, have left behind them many
memorials of the allegorical system of writing and explanation,
whom they take as a kind of model, and imitate the general
fashion of their sect; so that they do not occupy themselves
solely in contemplation, but they likewise compose psalms and
hymns to God in every kind of meter and melody imaginable, which
they of necessity arrange in more dignified rhythm.
{30} Therefore, during six days, each of these individuals,
retiring into solitude by himself, philosophizes by himself in
one of the places called monasteries, never going outside the
threshold of the outer court, and indeed never even looking out.
But on the seventh day they all come together as if to meet in
a sacred assembly, and they sit down in order according to their
ages with all becoming gravity, keeping their hands inside their
garments, having their right hand between their chest and their
dress, and the left hand down by their side, close to their
flank; {31} and then the eldest of them who has the most profound
learning in their doctrines comes forward and speaks with
steadfast look and with steadfast voice, with great powers of
reasoning, and great prudence, not making an exhibition of his
oratorical powers like the rhetoricians of old, or the sophists
of the present day, but investigating with great pains, and
explaining with minute accuracy the precise meaning of the laws,
which sits, not indeed at the tips of their ears, but penetrates
through their hearing into the soul, and remains there lastingly;
and all the rest listen in silence to the praises which he
bestows upon the law, showing their assent only by nods of the
head, or the eager look of the eyes.
{32} And this common holy place to which they all come
together on the seventh day is a twofold circuit, being separated
partly into the apartment of the men, and partly into a chamber
for the women, for women also, in accordance with the usual
fashion there, form a part of the audience, having the same
feelings of admiration as the men, and having adopted the same
sect with equal deliberation and decision; {33} and the wall
which is between the houses rises from the ground three or four
cubits upwards, like a battlement, and the upper portion rises
upwards to the roof without any opening, on two accounts; first
of all, in order that the modesty which is so becoming to the
female sex may be preserved, and secondly, that the women may be
easily able to comprehend what is said, being seated within
earshot, since there is then nothing which can possibly intercept
the voice of him who is speaking.
IV.{34} And these expounders of the law, having first
of all laid down temperance as a sort of foundation for the soul
to rest upon, proceed to build up other virtues on this
foundation, and no one of them may take any meat or drink before
the setting of the sun, since they judge that the work of
philosophizing is one which is worthy of the light, but that the
care of the necessities of the body is suitable only to darkness,
on which account they appropriate the day to the one occupation,
and a brief portion of the night to the other; {35} and some men,
in whom there is implanted a more fervent desire of knowledge,
can endure to cherish a recollection of their food for three days
without even tasting it, and some men are so delighted, and enjoy
themselves so exceedingly when regaled by wisdom which supplies
them with her doctrines in all possible wealth and abundance,
that they can even hold out twice as great a length of time, and
will scarcely at the end of six days taste even necessary food,
being accustomed, as they say that grasshoppers are, to feed on
air, their song as I imagine, making their scarcity tolerable to
them.
{36} And they, looking upon the seventh day as one of perfect
holiness and a most complete festival, have thought it worthy of
a most especial honor, and on it, after taking due care of their
soul, they tend their bodies also, giving them, just as they do
to their cattle, a complete rest from their continual labors;
{37} and they eat nothing of a costly character, but plain bread
and a seasoning of salt, which the more luxurious of them do
further season with hyssop; and their drink is water from the
spring; for they oppose those feelings which nature has made
mistresses of the human race, namely, hunger and thirst, giving
them nothing to flatter or humor them, but only such useful
things as it is not possible to exist without. On this account
they eat only so far as not to be hungry, and they drink just
enough to escape from thirst, avoiding all satiety, as an enemy
of and a plotter against both soul and body.
{38} And there are two kinds of covering, one raiment and the
other a house: we have already spoken of their houses, that they
are not decorated with any ornaments, but run up in a hurry,
being only made to answer such purposes as are absolutely
necessary; and in like manner their raiment is of the most
ordinary description, just stout enough to ward off cold and
heat, being a cloak of some shaggy hide for winter, and a thin
mantle or linen shawl in the summer; {39} for in short they
practice entire simplicity, looking upon falsehood as the
foundation of pride, but truth is the origin of simplicity, and
upon truth and falsehood as standing in the light of fountains,
for from falsehood proceeds every variety of evil and wickedness,
and from truth there flows every imaginable abundance of good
things both human and divine.
V. {40} I wish also to speak of their common assemblies, and their
very cheerftd meetings at convivial parties, setting them in
opposition and contrast to the banquets of others, for others,
when they drink strong wine, as if they had been drinking not wine
but some agitating and maddening kind of liquor, or even the most
formidable thing which can be imagined for driving a man out of
his natural reason, rage about and tear things to pieces like so
many ferocious dogs, and rise up and attack one another, biting
and gnawing each other's noses, and ears, and fingers, and other
parts of their body, so as to give an accurate representation of
the story related about the Cyclops and the companions of
Ulysses, who ate, as the poet says, fragments of human flesh
[Homer, Od 9.355] , and that more savagely than even he himself;
{41} for he was only avenging himself on those whom he conceived
to be his enemies, but they were ill-treating their companions
and friends, and sometimes even their actual relations, while
having the salt and dinner-table before them, at a time of peace
perpetrating actions inconsistent with peace, like those which
are done by men in gymnastic contests, debasing the proper
exercises of the body as coiners debase good money, and instead
of athletes (aqlhtai) becoming miserable men
(aqlioi), for that is the name which properly belongs to
them.
{{go to #64, omitting intervening tirade against Greek banquets}
{42} For that which those men who gain victories in the Olympic
games, when perfectly sober in the arena, and having all the
Greeks for spectators do by day, exerting all their skill for the
purpose of gaining victory and the crown, these men with base
designs do at convivial entertainments, getting drunk by night,
in the hour of darkness, when soaked in wine, acting without
either knowledge, or art, or skill, to the insult, and injury,
and great disgrace of those who are subjected to their violence.
{43} And if no one were to come like an umpire into the middle of
them, and part the combatants, and reconcile them, they would
continue the contest with unlimited licence, striving to kill and
murder one another, and being killed and murdered on the spot;
for they do not suffer less than they inflict, though out of the
delirious state into which they have worked themselves they do
not feel what is done to them, since they have filled themselves
with wine, not, as the comic poet says, to the injury of their
neighbour, but to their own. {44} Therefore those persons who a
little while before came safe and sound to the banquet, and in
friendship for one another, do presently afterwards depart in
hostility and mutilated in their bodies. And some of these men
stand in need of advocates and judges, and others require
surgeons and physicians, and the help which may be received from
them. {45} Others again who seem to be a more moderate kind of
feasters when they have drunk unmixed wine as if it were
mandragora, bog over as it were, and lean on their left elbow,
and turn their heads on one side with their breath redolent of
their wine, till at last they sink into profound slumber, neither
seeing nor hearing anything, as if they had but one single sense,
and that the most slavish of all, namely, taste. {46} And I know
some persons who, when they are completely filled with wine,
before they are wholly overpowered by it, begin to prepare a
drinking party for the next day by a kind of subscription and
picnic contribution, conceiving a great part of their present
delight to consist in the hope of future drunkenness; {47} and in
this manner they exist to the very end of their lives, without a
house and without a home, the enemies of their parents, and of
their wives, and of their children, and the enemies of their
country, and the worst enemies of all to themselves. For a
debauched and profligate life is apt to lay snares for every one.
VI. {48} And perhaps some people may be inclined to approve of the
arrangement of such entertainments which at present prevails
everywhere, from an admiration of, and a desire of imitating, the
luxury and extravagance of the Italians which both Greeks and
barbarians emulate, making all their preparations with a view to
show rather than to real enjoyment, {49} for they use couches
called triclinia, and sofas all round the table made of
tortoiseshell, and ivory, and other costly materials, most of
which are inlaid with precious stones; and coverlets of purple
embroidered with gold and silver thread; and others brocaded in
flowers of every kind of hue and colour imaginable to allure the
sight, and a vast array of drinking cups arrayed according to
each separate description; for there are bowls, and vases, and
beakers, and goblets, and all kinds of other vessels wrought with
the most exquisite skill, their clean cups and others finished
with the most elaborate refinement of skilful and ingenious men;
{50} and well-shaped slaves of the most exquisite beauty,
ministering, as if they had come not more for the purpose of
serving the guests than of delighting the eyes of the spectators
by their mere appearance.
Of these slaves, some, being still boys, pour out the wine; and
others more fully grown pour water, being carefully washed and
rubbed down, with their faces anointed and pencilled, and the
hair of their heads admirably plaited and curled and wreathed in
delicate knots; {51} for they have very long hair, being either
completely unshorn, or else having only the hair on their
foreheads cut at the end so as to make them of an equal length an
round, being accurately sloped away so as to represent a circular
line, and being clothed in tunics of the most delicate texture,
and of the purest white, reaching in front down to the lower part
of the knee, and behind to a little below the calf of the leg,
and drawing up each side with a gentle doubling of the fringe at
the joinings of the tunics, raising undulations of the garment as
it were at the sides, and widening them at the hollow part of the
side.
{52} Others, again, are young men just beginning to show a beard
on their youthftd chins, having been, for a short time, the sport
of the profligate debauchees, and being prepared with exceeding
care and diligence for more painful services; being a kind of
exhibition of the excessive opulence of the giver of the feast,
or rather, to say the truth, of their thorough ignorance of all
propriety, as those who are acquainted with them well know.
{53} Besides all these things, there is an infinite variety of
sweetmeats, and delicacies, and confections, about which bakers
and cooks and confectioners labour, considering not the taste,
which is the point of real importance, so as to make the food
palatable to that, but also the sight, so as to allure that by
the delicacy of the look of their viands, [[The remainder of
this section originally appeared in section 55. The material has
been reordered to reflect the Loeb sequence.]] they turn their
heads round in every direction, scanning everything with their
eyes and with their nostrils, examining the richness and the
number of the dishes with the first, and the steam which is sent
up by them with the second.
Then, when they are thoroughly sated both with the sight and with
the scent, these senses again prompt their owners to eat,
praising in no moderate terms both the entertainment itself and
the giver of it, for its costliness and magnificence.
{54} Accordingly, seven tables, and often more, are brought in,
full of every kind of delicacy which earth, and sea, and rivers,
and air produce, all procured with great pains, and in high
condition, composed of terrestrial, and acquatic, and flying
creatures, every one of which is different both in its mode of
dressing and in its seasoning.
And that no description of things existing in nature may be
omitted, at the last dishes are brought in full of fruits,
besides those which are kept back for the more luxurious portion
of the entertainment, and for what is called the dessert;
{55} and afterwards some of the dishes are carried away empty
from the insatiable greediness of those at table, who, gorging
themselves like cormorants, devour all the delicacies so
completely that they gnaw even the bones, which some left half
devoured after all that they contained has been torn to pieces
and spoiled. And when they are completely tired with eating,
having their bellies filled up to their very throats, but their
desires still unsatisfied, being fatigued with eating.
{56} However, why need I dwell with prolixity on these matters,
which are already condemned by the generality of more moderate
men as inflaming the passions, the diminution of which is
desirable? For any one in his senses would pray for the most
unfortunate of all states, hunger and thirst, rather than for a
most unlimited abundance of meat and drink at such banquets as
these.
VII. {57} Now of the banquets among the Greeks the two most
celebrated and most remarkable are those at which Socrates also
was present, the one in the house of Callias, when, after
Autolycus had gained the crown of victory, he gave a feast in
honour of the event, and the other in the house of Agathon, which
was thought worthy of being commemorated by men who were imbued
with the true spirit of philosophy both in their dispositions and
in their discourses, Plato and Xenophon, for they recorded them
as events worthy to be had in perpetual recollection, looking
upon it that future generations would take them as models for a
well managed arrangement of future banquets; {58} but
nevertheless even these, if compared with the banquets of the men
of our time who have embraced the contemplative system of life,
will appear ridiculous. Each description, indeed, has its own
pleasures, but that recorded by Xenophon is the one the delights
of which are most in accordance with human nature, for female
harp-players, and dancers, and conjurors, and jugglers, and men
who do ridiculous things, who pride themselves much on their
powers of jesting and of amusing others, and many other species
of more cheerful relaxation, are brought forward at it. {59} But
the entertaitunent recorded by Plato is almost entirely connected
with love; not that of men madly desirous or fond of women, or of
women furiously in love with men, for these desires are
accomphshed in accordance with a law of nature, but with that
love which is felt by men for one another, differing only in
respect of age; for if there is anything in the account of that
banquet elegantly said in praise of genuine love and heavenly
Venus, it is introduced merely for the sake of making a neat
speech; {60} for the greater part of the book is occupied by
common, vulgar, promiscuous love, which takes away from the soul
courage, that which is the most serviceable of all virtues both
in war and in peace, and which engenders in it instead the female
disease, and renders men men-women, though they ought rather to
be carefully trained in all the practices likely to give men
valour.
{61} And having corrupted the age of boys, and having
metamorphosed them and removed them into the classification and
character of women, it has injured their lovers also in the most
imporrtant particulars, their bodies, their souls, and their
properties; for it follows of necessity that the mind of a lover
of boys must be kept on the stretch towards the objects of his
affection, and must have no acuteness of vision for any other
object, but must be blinded by its desire as to all other objects
private or common, and must so be wasted away, more especially if
it fails in its objects. Moreover, the man's property must be
diminished on two accounts, both from the owner's neglect and
from his expenses for the beloved object.
{62} There is also another greater evil which affects the whole
people, and which grows up alongside of the other, for men who
give into such passions produce solitude in cities, and a
scarcity of the best kind of men, and barrenness, and
unproductiveness, inasmuch as they are imitating those farmers
who are unskilful in agriculture, and who, instead of the deep-
soiled champaign country, saw briny marshes, or stony and rugged
districts, which are not calculated to produce crops of any kind,
and which only destroy the seed which is put into them. {63} I
pass over in silence the different fabulous fictions, and the
stories of persons with two bodies, who having originally been
stuck to one another by amatory influences, are subsequently
separated like portions which have been brought together and are
disjoined again, the harmony having been dissolved by which they
were held together; for all these things are very attractive,
being able to bye novelty of their imagination to allure the
ears, but they are despised by the disciples of Moses, who in the
abundance of their wisdom have learnt from their earliest infancy
to love truth, and also continue to the end of their lives
impossible to be deceived.
VIII. {64} But since the entertainments of the greatest celebrity
are full of such trifling and folly, bearing conviction in
themselves, if any one should think fit not to regard vague
opinion and the character which has been commonly handed down
concerning them as feasts which have gone off with the most
eminent success, I will oppose to them the entertainments of
those persons who have devoted their whole life and themselves to
the knowledge and contemplation of the affairs of nature in
accordance with the most sacred admonitions and precepts of the
prophet Moses.
{65} In the first place, these men assemble at the end of seven
weeks, venerating not only the simple week of seven days, but
also its multiplied power, for they know it to be pure and always
virgin; and it is a prelude and a kind of forefeast of the
greatest feast, which is assigned to the number fifty, the most
holy and natural of numbers, being compounded of the power of the
right-angled triangle, which is the principle of the origination
and condition of the whole.
{66} Therefore when they come together clothed in white garments,
and joyful with the most exceeding gravity, when some one of the
ephemereutae (for that is the appellation which they are
accustomed to give to those who are employed in such
ministrations), before they sit down to meat standing in order in
a row, and raising their eyes and their hands to heaven, the one
because they have learnt to fix their attention on what is worthy
looking at, and the other because they are free from the reproach
of all impure gain, being never polluted under any pretence
whatever by any description of criminality which can arise from
any means taken to procure advantage, they pray to God that the
entertaynment may be acceptable, and welcome, and pleasing; {67}
and after having offered up these prayers the elders sit down to
meat, still observing the order in which they were previously
arranged, for they do not look on those as elders who are
advanced in years and very ancient, but in some cases they esteem
those as very young men, if they have attached themselves to this
sect only lately, but those whom they call elders are those who
from their earliest infancy have grown up and arrived at maturity
in the speculative portion of phosophy, which is the most
beautiful and most divine part of it.
{68} And the women also share in this feast, the greater part of
whom, though old, are virgins in respect of their purity (not
indeed through necessity, as some of the priestesses among the
Greeks are, who have been compelled to preserve their chastity
more than they would have done of their own accord), but out of
an affection for and love of wisdom, with which they are desirous
to pass their lives, on account of which they are indifferent to
the pleasures of the body, desiring not a mortal but an immortal
offspring, which the soul that is attached to God is alone able
to produce by itself and from itself, the Father having sown in
it rays of light appreciable only by the intellect, by means of
which it will be able to perceive the doctrines of wisdom.
IX. {69} And the order in which they sit down to meat is a divided
one, the men sitting on the right hand and the women apart from
them on the left; and in case any one by chance suspects that
cushions, if not very costly ones, still at all events of a
tolerably soft substance, are prepared for men who are well born
and well bred, and contemplators of phgosophy, he must know that
they have nothing but rugs of the coarsest materials, cheap mats
of the most ordinary kind of the papyrus of the land, piled up on
the ground and projecting a little near the elbow, so that the
feasters may lean upon them, for they relax in a slight degree
the Lacedaemonian rigour of life, and at all times and in all
places they practise a liberal, gentlemanlike kind of frugality,
hating the allurements of pleasure with all their might.
{70} And they do not use the ministrations of slaves, looking upon
the possession of servants or slaves to be a thing absolutely and
wholly contrary to nature, for nature has created all men free,
but the injustice and covetousness of some men who prefer
inequality, that cause of all evil, having subdued some, has
given to the more powerful authority over those who are weaker.
{71} Accordingly in this sacred entertainment there is, as I have
said, no slave, but free men minister to the guests, performing
the offices of servants, not under compulsion, nor in obedience
to any imperious commands, but of their own voluntary free will
with all eagerness and promptitude anticipating all orders, {72}
for they are not any chance free men who are appointed to perform
these duties, but young men who are selected from their order
with all possible care on account of their excellence, acting as
virtuous and wellborn youths ought to act who are eager to attain
to the perfection of virtue, and who, like legitimate sons, with
affectionate rivalry minister to their fathers and mothers,
thinking their common parents more closely connected with them
than those who are related by blood, since in truth to men of
right principles there is nothing more nearly akin than virtue;
and they come in to perform their service ungirdled, and with
their tunics let down, in order that nothing which bears any
resemblance to a slavish appearance may be introduced into this
festival.
{73} I know well that some persons will laugh when they hear this,
but they who laugh will be those who do things worthy of weeping
and lamentation. And in those days wine is not introduced, but
only the clearest water; cold water for the generality, and hot
water for those old men who are accustomed to a luxurious life.
And the table, too, bears nothing which has blood, but there is
placed upon it bread for food and salt for seasoning, to which
also hyssop is sometimes added as an extra sauce for the sake of
those who are delicate in their eating, for just as right reason
commands the priest to offer up sober sacrifices, {74} so also
these men are commanded to live sober lives, for wine is the
medicine of folly, and costly seasonings and sauces excite
desire, which is the most insatiable of all beasts.
X. {75} These, then, are the first circumstances of the feast; but
after the guests have sat down to the table in the order which I
have been describing, and when those who minister to them are all
standing around in order, ready to wait upon them, and when there
is nothing to drink, some one will say ... [[the Greek is faulty
here; the Armenian version refers to the "president" speaking
after there is silence]] but even more so than before, so that no
one ventures to mutter, or even to breathe at all hard, and then
some one looks out some passage in the sacred scriptures, or
explains some difficulty which is proposed by some one else,
without any thoughts of display on his own part, for he is not
aiming at reputation for cleverness and eloquence, but is only
desirous to see some points more accurately, and is content when
he has thus seen them himself not to bear ill will to others,
who, even if they did not perceive the truth with equal
acuteness, have at all events an equal desire of leaming. {76}
And he, indeed, follows a slower method of instruction, dwelling
on and fingering over his explanations with repetitions, in order
to imprint his conceptions deep in the minds of his hearers, for
as the understanding of his hearers is not able to keep up with
the interpretation of one who goes on fluently, without stopping
to take breath, it gets behind-hand, and fails to comprehend what
is said; {77} but the hearers, fixing their eyes and attention
upon the speaker, remain in one and the same position listening
attentively, indicating their attention and comprehension by
their nods and looks, and the praise which they are inclined to
bestow on the speaker by the cheerfulness and gentle manner in
which they follow him with their eyes and with the fore-finger of
the right hand. And the young men who are standing around attend
to this explanation no less than the guests themselves who are
sitting at meat. {78} And these explanations of the sacred
scriptures are delivered by mystic expressions in allegories, for
the whole of the law appears to these men to resemble a living
animal, and its express commandments seem to be the body, and the
invisible meaning concealed under and lying beneath the plain
words resembles the soul, in which the rational soul begins most
excellently to contemplate what belongs to itself, as in a
mirror, beholding in these very words the exceeding beauty of the
sentiments, and unfolding and explaining the symbols, and
bringing the secret meaning naked to the light to all who are
able by the light of a slightt intimation to perceive what is
unseen by what is visible.
{79} When, therefore, the president appears to have spoken at
sufficient length, and to have carried out his intentions
adequately, so that his explanation has gone on felicitously and
fluently through its own acuteness, and the hearing of the others
has been profitable, applause arises from them all as of men
rejoicing together at what they have seen and heard; {80} and
then some one rising up sings a hymn which has been made in
honour of God, either such as he has composed himself, or some
ancient one of some old poet, for they have left behind them
many poems and songs in trimetre iambics, and in psalms of
thanksgiving and in hymns, and songs at the time of libation, and
at the altar, and in regular order, and in choruses, admirably
measured out in various and well diversified strophes.
And after him then others also arise in their ranks, in becoming
order, while every one else listens in decent silence, except
when it is proper for them to take up the burden of the song, and
to join in at the end; for then they all, both men and women,
join in the hymn. {81} And when each individual has finished his
psalm, then the young men bring in the table which was mentioned
a little while ago, on which was placed that most holy food, the
leavened bread, with a seasoning of salt, with which hyssop is
mingled, out of reverence for the sacred table, which lies thus
in the holy outer temple; for on this table are placed loaves and
salt without seasoning, and the bread is unleavened, and the salt
unmixed with anything else, {82} for it was becoming that the
simplest and purest things should be allotted to the most
excellent portion of the priests, as a reward for their
ministrations, and that the others should admire similar things,
but should abstain from the loaves, in order that those who are
the more excellent persons may have the precedence.
XI. {83} And after the feast they celebrate the sacred festival
during the whole night; and this noctumal festival is celebrated
in the following manner: they all stand up together, and in the
middle of the entertainment two choruses are formed at first,
the one of men and the other of women, and for each chorus there
is a leader and chief selected, who is the most honourable and
most excellent of the band. {84} Then they sing hymns which have
been composed in honour of God in many metres and tunes, at one
time all singing together, and at another moving their hands and
dancing in corresponding harmony, and uttering in an inspired
manner songs of thanksgiving, and at another time regular odes,
and performing all necessary strophes and antistrophes.
{85} Then, when each chorus of the men and each chorus of the
women has feasted separately by itself, like persons in the
bacchanalian revels, drinking the pure wine of the love of God,
they join together, and the two become one chorus, an imitation
of that one which, in old time, was established by the Red Sea,
on account of the wondrous works which were displayed there;
{86} for, by the commandment of God, the sea became to one party
the cause of safety, and to the other that of utter destruction;
for it being burst asunder, and dragged back by a violent reflex,
and being built up on each side as if there were a solid wall,
the space in the midst was widened, and cut into a level and dry
road, along which the people passed over to the opposite land,
being conducted onwards to higher ground; then, when the sea
returned and ran back to its former channel, and was poured out
from both sides, on what had just before been dry ground, those
of the enemy who pursued were overwhelmed and perished.
{87} When the Israelites saw and experienced this great miracle,
which was an event beyond all description, beyond all
imagination, and beyond all hope, both men and women together,
under the influence of divine inspiration, becoming all one
chorus, sang hymns of thanksgiving to God the Saviour, Moses the
prophet leading the men, and Miriam the prophetess leading the
women.
{88} Now the chorus of male and female worshippers being formed,
as far as possible on this model, makes a most humorous concert,
and a truly musical symphony, the shrill voices of the women with
the deep-toned voices of the men. The ideas were beautiful, the
expressions beautiful, and the chorus-singers were beautiful; and
the end of ideas, and expressions, and chorus-singers, was piety;
{89} therefore, being intoxicated all night till the morning with
this beautiful intoxication, without feeling their heads heavy or
closing their eyes for sleep, but being even more awake than when
they came to the feast, as to their eyes and their whole bodies,
and standing there till morning, when they saw the sun rising
they raised their hands to heaven, imploring tranquility and
truth, and acuteness of understanding. And after their prayers
they each retired to their own separate abodes, with the
intention of again practising the usual philosophy to which they
had been wont to devote themselves.
{90} This then is what I have to say of those who are called
therapeutae, who have devoted themselves to the contemplation of
nature, and who have lived in it and in the soul alone, being
citizens of heaven and of the world, and very acceptable to the
Father and Creator of the universe because of their virtue, which
has procured them his love as their most appropriate reward,
which far surpasses all the gifts of fortune, and conducts them
to the very summit and perfection of happiness.
//end RAK scan 18 March 1999//