---
title: "Allegorical Interpretation — Books I–III"
author: "Philo of Alexandria"
translator: "C. D. Yonge"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Second Temple"
section: 34 of 37
url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg002-yonge-ogl/34/
cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, Allegorical Interpretation — Books I–III, section 34. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg002-yonge-ogl/34/"
---

# Allegorical Interpretation — Books I–III

*Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge*

## 34. Section 3.209

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg002-yonge-ogl/34/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg002-yonge-ogl/34/#p-N

[¶0] But the expression, Because thou hast done this thing,Genesis xxii. 16. is a symbol of piety. For to do everything for the sake of God alone is pious. In consequence of which we do not spare even that beloved child of virtue, prosperity, surrendering it to the Creator, and thinking it right that our offspring should become the possession of God, but not of any created being. And that expression, also, is a good one, In blessing I will bless thee.

### Section 3.210

[¶2] For some persons do many acts worthy of a blessing, but yet not in such a way as to obtain a blessing. Since even a wicked man does some actions that are proper, but he does not do them from being of a proper disposition. And sometimes a drunken man or a mad man speaks and acts in a sober manner, but still he is not speaking or acting from a sober mind. And children, who are actually infants, both do and say many things which reasonable men do also do and say; but they, of course, do it not in consequence of any rational disposition, for nature has not yet endowed them with a capacity of reasoning. But the law giver wishes the wise man to appear deserving of blessing not occasionally, accidentally, and, as it were, by chance, but in consequence of habits and a disposition deserving of blessing.

### Section 3.211

[¶4] Therefore it is not sufficient for the unfortunate external sense to be abundantly occupied with pains, but it must also be full of groaning. Now groaning is a violent and intense pain. For we are very often in pain without groaning. But, when we groan, we are under the influence of most grievous and thickly pressing pain. Now, groaning is of a twofold nature. One kind is that which arises in those who desire and are very eager for august objects and who do not succeed in them, which is wicked; the other kind is that which proceeds from persons who repent and are distressed for previous sins, and who say, Miserable are we, how long a time have we passed infected with the disease of foolishness, and in the practises of all kinds of folly and iniquity.

### Section 3.212

[¶6] But this kind of groaning does not exist unless the king of Egypt, that is to say, the impious disposition wholly devoted to pleasure, has perished and departed from our soul, For, after many days, the king of Egypt died.Exodus ii. 23. Then immediately, as soon as vice is dead, the man who has become alive to the perception of God and of his own sin, groans, For the children of Israel groaned at the corporeal and Egyptian works; since the reigning disposition devoted to pleasure, while it is alive within us, persuades the soul to rejoice at the sins which it commits; but, when that disposition is dead, it groans over them;

### Section 3.213

[¶8] on which account it cries out to its master, beseeching him that it may not again be perverted, and that it may not arrive at only an imperfect sort of perfection. For many souls who have wished to turn to repentance have not been allowed to do so by God, but, been dragged back, as it were by the ebbing tide, having returned to their original courses; in the manner in which Lot’s wife did, who was turned into stone because she loved Sodom, and who reverted to the disposition and habits which had been condemned by God.

### Section 3.214

[¶10] But now Moses says that Their cry has gone up to God, bearing witness to the grace of the living God.Exodus mix. 26. For if he had not powerfully summoned up to himself the supplicatory language of that people it would not have gone up; that is to say, it would never have gained power and increase, would never have begun to soar so high, flying from the lowness of earthly things. On which account, in the next passage, God is represented as saying, Behold the cry of the children of Israel has come up to me.Exodus iii. 9.

### Section 3.215

[¶12] Very beautifully here does Moses represent that their supplications have reached God, but they would not have reached him if he who was working him had not been a good man. But there are some souls which God even goes forward to meet: I will come to you and bless you. You see here how great is the kindness of the Creator of all things, when he even anticipates our delay and our intentions, and comes forward to meet us to the perfect benefiting of our souls. And the expression used here is an oracle full of instruction. For, if a thought of God enters the mind, it immediately blesses it and heals all its diseases.

### Section 3.216

[¶14] But the outward sense is always grieved and groans, and brings forth the perception of its objects with pain and intolerable anguish. As also God himself says, In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. Now, the sense of sight brings forth the operation of seeing, the sense of hearing is the parent of the operation of hearing, so is the sense of taste of tasting; and, in short, each outward sense is respectively the parent of its corresponding operation; but still it does not produce all these effects in the foolish man without severe pain. For such a man is affected by pain when he sees, and when he hears, and when he tastes, and when he smells, and, in fact, when he exerts any one of these outward senses.

### Section 3.217

[¶16] On the other hand, you will find virtue not only conceiving with extraordinary joy, but also bringing forth her good offspring with laughter and cheerfulness; and you will also find the offspring of the two parents to be actually cheerfulness itself. Now that the wise man becomes a parent with joy, and not with sorrow, the word of God itself will testify to us when it speaks thus: And God said unto Abraham, Sarai, thy wife, shall no longer be called Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah; I will bless her, and give thee a son from her.Genesis xvii. 15. Sarah is interpreted Princess in the margin of the bible. And, afterwards, Moses proceeds to say, And Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said, Shall a son be born to him who is a hundred years old; and shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, have a son?

### Section 3.218

[¶18] Abraham, therefore, appears here to be in a state of joy, and to be laughing because he is about to become the father of happiness, that is to say, of Isaac; and virtue, that is to say, Sarah, laughs also. And the same prophet will further bear witness, speaking thus, And it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women, and she laughed in her mind and said, such happiness has never yet happened to me to this time, and my lord, that is to say, the divine Lord, is older than I; in whose power, however, this thing must inevitably be, and in whose power it is becoming to place confidence. For the offspring is laughter and joy. For this is the meaning and interpretation of the name of Isaac. Therefore, let the outward sense be grieved, but let virtue be always rejoicing.

### Section 3.219

[¶20] For, also, when happiness, that is Isaac, was born, she says, in the pious exaltation, The Lord has caused me laughter, and whoever shall hear of it shall rejoice with me.Genesis xxi. 7. Open your ears, therefore, O ye initiated, and receive the most sacred mysteries. Laughter is joy; and the expression, has caused, is equivalent to has begotten. So that what is here said has some such meaning as this, The Lord has begotten Isaac. For he is the father of perfect nature, sowing and begetting happiness in the soul.

### Section 3.220

[¶22] And thy desire, says God, shall be to thy husband.Genesis iii. 16. There are two husbands of the outward senses. The one a legal one, the other a destroyer. For the object of sight, acting upon it like a husband, puts the sense of sight in motion; and so does sound affect the sense of hearing, flavour the sense of taste, and so on with each of the outward senses respectively. And these things attract the attention of and call the irrational outward sense to itself, and become the masters of it and govern it. For beauty enslaves the sight, and sweet flowers enslave the sense of taste, and each of the other objects of outward sense enslaves that sense which corresponds to them.

### Section 3.221

[¶24] See the glutton, what a slave he is to all the preparations which cooks and confectioners devise. Behold the man who is devoted to the study of music, how he is governed by the harp, or the flute, or by any one who is able to sing. But the sense which turns itself to its legitimate husband, that is to say, to the mind, derives the greatest possible advantage from that object.