Accordingly, all those whom Moses describes as just persons he has also represented as inspired and prophesying. Noah was a just man; was he not also by that fact a prophet? or did he, without being possessed by any divine inspiration, utter those prayers and curses which he applied to the generations which should come hereafter, and all of which were eventually confirmed by the reality of the facts?
Section 261
Why should I speak of Isaac? Why of Jacob? For these also are manifestly found to have been prophets by many other circumstances, and especially by their addresses to their children. For the annunciation, "Assemble yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in the last days" Genesis xlix. 2. was the expression of a man possessed by inspiration; for the knowledge of the future is not appropriate to, or natural to, man.
Section 262
What shall we say of Moses? is he not celebrated everywhere as a prophet? For the scripture says, "If there shall be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will make myself known unto him in a vision," Numbers xii. 6, but to Moses God appeared in his actual appearance and not by a riddle. And again we read, "There arose not any more any prophet like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." Deuteronomy xxxiv. 10.
Section 263
Very admirably, therefore, does the historian here point out, that Abraham was under the influence of inspiration when he says that, "About the setting of the sun a trance fell upon him." Genesis xx. 7. Numbers xii. 6, Genesis xlix. 2. Deuteronomy xxxiv. 10. And under the symbol of the sun he intimates our mind: for what reasoning is in us, that the sun is in the world. Since each of them gives light, the one casting a light which is perceptible by the outward senses, to shine upon the universe; and the other shedding their beams, discernible only by the intellect by means of our apprehensions, upon ourselves.
Section 264
As long therefore as our mind still shines around and hovers around, pouring as it were a noontide light into the whole soul, we, being masters of ourselves, are not possessed by any extraneous influence; but when it approaches its setting, then, as is natural, a trance, which proceeds from inspiration, takes violent hold of us, and madness seizes upon us, for when the divine light shines the human light sets, and when the divine light sets this other rises and shines,
Section 265
and this very frequently happens to the race of prophets; for the mind that is in us is removed from its place at the arrival of the divine Spirit, but is again restored to its previous habitation when that Spirit departs, for it is contrary to holy law for what is mortal to dwell with what is immortal. On this account the setting of our reason, and the darkness which surrounds it, causes a trance and a heaven-inflicted madness.
Section 266
After that the historian connects with his preceding account what follows in consistency with it, saying, "And it was said to Abraham"—for in real truth the prophet, even when he appears to be speaking, is silent, and another being is employing his vocal organs, his mouth and tongue, for the explanation of what things he chooses; and operating on these organs by some invisible and very skilful act, he makes them utter a sweet and harmonious sound, full of every kind of melody.
Section 267
And it is well to hear what the things are which are thus said to have been predicted to Abraham. In the first place, that God does not grant to the man who loves virtue to dwell in the body as in his own native land, but only to sojourn in it as in a foreign country. "For knowing," says the scripture, "thou shalt know that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land which is not theirs." Genesis xv. 13 But the district of the body is akin to every bad man, and in it he is desirous to abide as a dweller, not as a sojourner.
Section 268
Accordingly, these words contain this as one lesson; another is, that the things which bring Genesis xv. 13 slavery and disaster and bitter humiliation, as the prophet himself tells us, upon the soul are the dwellings upon earth. For the affections of the body are truly spurious and foreign, being produced by the flesh, in which they are rooted.
Section 269
And this slavery lasts four hundred years in accordance with the powers of the four passions. For when pleasure rules, the mind is elated and puffed up, being carried away by empty vanity. Again, when appetite gets the upper hand, a desire for absent things is engendered, which suspends the mind upon unaccomplished hopes, as if in a halter; for then the mind is always thirsting and yet is unable to drink, enduring the punishment of Tantalus.
Section 270
Again, when under the influence of grief, the mind is tortured and contracted, like trees the leaves of which are falling off and withering; for all its flourishing and nutritious particles are dried up. Also, when fire obtains the supremacy, no one any longer chooses to remain, but betakes to flight and running away, thinking that this is the only way in which he can be saved. For appetite, having an attractive power even if the object which is desired retreats, compels one to pursue it; and fear, on the other hand, causing alienation, separates one from it, and makes one remove to a distance from what is presented to one’s view.
Section 271
But the supremacy of these different passions before mentioned inflicts terrible slavery on those who are ruled over by them, until God, the umpire and judge of all things, separates that which is ill treated from that which is inflicting ill treatment, and delivers the former and blesses it with perfect freedom, and inflicts upon the other a retribution for the wickedness which it has committed.
Section 272
For we read in the next verse, "And the nation to which they shall be slaves I will judge, and after that they shall go forth with great substance." Genesis xv. 14. For it is inevitable that a mortal man must obey the nature of the passions, and that a man who has been born must endure the fate which is allotted to him as appropriate; but it is the will of God to lighten the evils which are planted contemporaneously with our birth.