---
title: "On the Migration of Abraham"
author: "Philo of Alexandria"
translator: "C. D. Yonge"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Second Temple"
section: 3 of 18
url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg014-yonge-ogl/3/
cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, On the Migration of Abraham, section 3. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg014-yonge-ogl/3/"
---

# On the Migration of Abraham

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

## 3. Section 26

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg014-yonge-ogl/3/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg014-yonge-ogl/3/#p-N

[¶0] And why do we wonder if he exhorts the man who is led away by the force of unreasonable passions, neither to yield, nor to allow himself to be carried away by the impetuosity of its onward course, but to exert all his strength, to resist, and if he is unable to resist effectually, then to flee. For the second advance towards safety on the part of those who are unable to make a good resistance is flight. When the occasion does not permit the man who is a combatant by nature, and who has never been a slave of the passions, but who is always undergoing the toil of resistance to every separate one of them, to put forth all his powers of antagonism at all times, lest from the continuance of his struggles against them he may gradually contract a painful infection from them; for there Genesis xlv. 5. Exodus xii. 12. have before now been many instances of men having become imitators of the wickedness to which they were previously antagonists, as, on the other hand, some opposers of virtue have become copiers of that.

### Section 27

[¶2] And for this reason the following scripture has been given to men, "Return to the land of thy father and to thy family, and I will be with thee;" Genesis xxxi. 3. which is equivalent to saying, you have been a perfect wrestler for me, and you have been thought worthy of the prize and crown of victory, virtue having been the establisher of the contest and proposing to give prizes of victory; and now get rid of your fondness for contention, that you may not be always labouring but that you may be able to enjoy the fruit of your labours,

### Section 28

[¶4] which will never happen to you if you remain here dwelling among the objects of the external senses, and wasting your time among the distinctive qualities of the body, of which Laban is the leader (and this name means "distinctive quality;") but you must be an emigrant and must return to your native land, the land of the sacred word, and in some sense of the father of all those who practise virtue, which is wisdom, the best possible abiding place for those souls which love virtue.

### Section 29

[¶6] In this country you have a race which learns everything of itself, and is self-taught, which has no share in the infantine food of milk, but which by the divine oracle "has been forbidden to go down to Egypt," Genesis xxvi. 2. and to put itself in the way of the attractive pleasures of the flesh, surnamed Isaac;

### Section 30

[¶8] and if you receive his inheritance, you will of necessity discard labour, for excessive abundance of things ready prepared, and of good things offered to your hand, will be the causes of cessation from toil. And the fountain from which good things are poured forth is the presence of the bounteous and beneficent God; on which account setting the seal to his loving kindnesses he says, "I will be with thee."

### Section 31

[¶10] How then should any good thing be wanting when the all-accomplishing God is at all times present with his graces, which are his virgin daughters, which he, the Father, who begot them, always cherishes as virgins, free from all impure contact and pollution? Then all cares, and labours, and exercises of practise, have a respite; and everything that is useful is at the same time given to everybody without Genesis xxxi. 3. Genesis xxvi. 2. the employment of art, by the prescient care of nature;

### Section 32

[¶12] and the rapid influx of all these spontaneous blessings is called relaxation, since the mind is then relaxed and released from its energies as to its own peculiar objects, and is as it were emancipated from its yearly burdens, Here again Mangey supposes the text to be hopelessly corrupt. The word there is ἑκουσίων, for which he proposes and translates φόρτων τῶν ἐτησίων. by reason of the multitude of the things which are incessantly showered and rained upon it;

### Section 33

[¶14] and these things are in their own nature most admirable and most beautiful; for of the things of which the soul is in travail by herself, the greater part are premature and abortive progeny; but those on which God pours his showers and which he waters, are produced in a perfect, and entire, and most excellent state.

### Section 34

[¶16] I am not ashamed to relate what has happened to me myself, which I know from having experienced it ten thousand times. Sometimes, when I have desired to come to my usual employment of writing on the doctrines of philosophy, though I have known accurately what it was proper to set down, I have found my mind barren and unproductive, and have been completely unsuccessful in my object, being indignant at my mind for the uncertainty and vanity of its then existing opinions, and filled with amazement at the power of the living God, by whom the womb of the soul is at times opened and at times closed up;

### Section 35

[¶18] and sometimes when I have come to my work empty I have suddenly become full, ideas being, in an invisible manner, showered upon me, and implanted in me from on high; so that, through the influence of divine inspiration, I have become greatly excited, and have known neither the place in which I was nor those who were present, nor myself, nor what I was saying, nor what I was writing; for then I have been conscious of a richness of interpretation, an enjoyment of light, a most penetrating sight, a most manifest energy in all that was to be done, having such an effect on my mind as the clearest ocular demonstration would have on the eyes.

### Section 36

[¶20] That then which is shown is that thing so worthy of being beheld, so worthy of being contemplated, so worthy of being beloved, the perfect good, the nature of which is to change and sweeten the bitternesses of the soul, the most Here again Mangey supposes the text to be hopelessly corrupt. The word there is ἑκουσίων, for which he proposes and translates φόρτων τῶν ἐτησίων. beautiful additional seasoning, full of all kinds of sweetnesses, by the addition of which, even those things which are not nutritious become salutary food; for it is said, that "the Lord showed him (Moses) a tree, and he cast it into the water," Exodus xv. 25. that is to say, into the mind, dissolved, and relaxed, and full of bitterness, that it might become sweetened and serviceable.

### Section 37

[¶22] But this tree promises not only food but likewise immortality; for Moses tells us, that the tree of life was planted in the midst of the paradise, being, in fact, goodness surrounded as by a body-guard by all the particular virtues, and by the actions in accordance with them; for it is virtue which has received the inheritance of the most central and excellent place in the soul.

### Section 38

[¶24] And he who sees is the wise man; for the foolish are blind, or at best dim sighted. On this account I have before mentioned, that the then prophets were called seers; 1 Samuel ix. 9. and Jacob, the practiser of virtue, was desirous to give his ears in exchange for his eyes, if he could only see what he had previously heard described, and accordingly he receives an inheritance according to sight, having passed over that which was derived from hearing;