---
title: "On the Posterity of Cain"
author: "Philo of Alexandria"
translator: "C. D. Yonge"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Second Temple"
section: 5 of 15
url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg006-yonge-ogl/5/
cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, On the Posterity of Cain, section 5. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg006-yonge-ogl/5/"
---

# On the Posterity of Cain

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

## 5. Section 52

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg006-yonge-ogl/5/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg006-yonge-ogl/5/#p-N

[¶0] Since, therefore, every city consists of houses and inhabitants, and laws, the houses, in Cain’s case, are the reasons which he alleges to prove his point; by which, as from a wall, he fights against the persuasive attacks of his enemies; inventing fabulous devices against the truth. The inhabitants are the companions of impiety, ungodliness, self-love, haughtiness, falsehood, vain opinions; the men wise in their own conceit, the men who know not wisdom as relating to truth, the men who are full of ignorance, and stupidity, and folly; and all the other similar and kindred evils. The laws are, lawlessness, injustice, inequality, intemperance, boldness, folly, Leviticus xxiii. 27. GRC: I can’t see how this reference fits here — presumably this should be another reference. Leviticus xxiii. 27. GRC: I can’t see how this reference fits here — presumably this should be another reference. insolence, immoderate indulgence in pleasure, and innumerable appetites in despite of nature.

### Section 53

[¶2] Now of such a city as this, every impious man is found to be a builder in his own miserable soul, until God deliberately causes complete and great confusion to their sophistical arts. Genesis xi. 4. And this will be, when not only "they build a city and tower, the head of which will reach to heaven," that is to say, ....There is a hiatus in the text here: Mangey translates it as if the deficiency were to be supplied by rov νοῦν, " the mind." the mind or the reason of each individual as conversant about making great works, which they represent as having for its head a conception peculiar to itself, which is called in symbolical language heaven. For it is plain that the head and object of every reasoning must be the aforesaid mind; for the sake of which, long digressions and sentences are in the habit of being used by men who write histories.

### Section 54

[¶4] And to such a pitch of accursed impiety have they gone, that not only do they attempt to raise up such cities by themselves, but they even compel the virtue-loving multitude of Israel to join them, appointing superintendents and teachers of evil actions to govern them. For it is said that, when they were ill-treated by the superintendents, they built three cities for the prince of the country, Peithom, Rameses, Exodus i. 11. and On, which is Heliopolis.

### Section 55

[¶6] And these cities, if taken symbolically, mean mind, the outward sense, and the faculty of speech, which are the three principal things in us; for Peithom means speech, because persuasion (τό πείθειν) arises from speech; and the interpretation of Peithom is, a mouth-uttering, since the reasoning of the wicked man comes from without, and occupies itself with endeavouring to overturn all that is good: and Rameses is the inward sense;

### Section 56

[¶8] for the mind is eaten out and destroyed by each separate one of the outward senses as by a moth, being shaken to pieces and lacerated; for the imaginations which enter it, not according to pleasure, make life itself mutilated and laborious.

### Section 57

[¶10] But On is said to be a hill, and it means, symbolically, the mind; for all reasonings are stored up in the mind: and the lawgiver himself is a witness of this, calling On, Heliopolis, the city of the sun. For as the sun, when he rises, shows visibly the things Genesis xi. 4. There is a hiatus in the text here: Mangey translates it as if the deficiency were to be supplied by rov νοῦν, " the mind." Exodus i. 11. which have been hidden by night, so also the mind, sending forth its own proper light, causes all bodies and all things to be seen visibly at a distance.

### Section 58

[¶12] On which account, a man would not be wrong who called our minds the sun of our composition; as the mind, if it does not rise and shed its own light in man, who may be looked upon as a small world, leaves a great darkness diffused over all existing things, and suffers nothing to be brought to light.

### Section 59

[¶14] This hill Jacob, the wrestler with God, in his agreements with Laban, calls a witness, showing in a most express manner, and in the form of a precept, that the mind is a witness to each individual of the determinations which he comes to in secret; and conscience, which is the most incorruptible and truth-telling witness of all, was built before these cities;

### Section 60

[¶16] for Moses says that the spies came to Chebron, and these three are Acheman, and Jesein, and Thalamein, of the sons of Enoch: and this he adds, "and Chebron was built seven years before Janis, in Egypt," Numbers xiii. 23. and these synonymous appellations are distinguished according to their species in a most natural manner. Chebron, being interpreted, means compunction, and this is of two kinds; one with reference to the soul being joined to the body, the other with reference to its being adapted to virtue.

### Section 61

[¶18] Now the soul that subjects itself to bodily compunctions has the beforementioned inhabitants. Acheman, being interpreted, means, my brother, and Jesein means "outside of me," and Thalmein means, some one in suspense; for it follows of necessity, that the body must be thought akin to the souls that love the body, and that external good things must be exceedingly admired by them, and all the souls which have this kind of disposition depend on dead things, and, like persons who are crucified, are attached to corruptible matter till the day of their death.

### Section 62

[¶20] But the soul that is united to virtue has for its inhabitants those persons who are preeminent for virtue, persons whom the double cavern has received in pairs, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebeckah, Leah and Jacob, virtues and those who possess them; Chebron itself keeping the treasure-house of the memorials of knowledge and wisdom, which is more ancient than Janis and the whole land of Egypt, for nature Numbers xiii. 23. has made the soul more ancient than the body, that is than Egypt, and virtue more ancient than vice, that is than Janis (and the name Janis, being interpreted, means the command of answer), estimating seniority rather by dignity than by length of time.

### Section 63

[¶22] On which principle also it is that he also calls Israel, who was the younger brother in point of time, "the first born son," Exodus iv. 22. judging of him by his merit, signifying thereby that, since to see God is the most clear proof of primogeniture, he is in consequence pardoned as the eldest offspring of the uncreate incomprehensible God, conceived by that virtue which is hated among men, and to whom the law enjoins that "the honours due to seniority shall be paid, as being the eldest." Deuteronomy xxi. IT.

### Section 64

[¶24] On this account also the number seven is produced in its order, subsequently to the number six, but in power it is superior to every other number, and differs not from the unit, and Moses also shows us this in the conclusion of his account of the creation, where he says, "And God ceased on the seventh day from all the works that he had made; and God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it," because on it he ceased from all his works which God had begun to make, Genesis ii. 2.