---
title: "On Fugitives"
author: "Philo of Alexandria"
translator: "C. D. Yonge"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Second Temple"
section: 16 of 17
url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg017-yonge-ogl/16/
cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, On Fugitives, section 16. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg017-yonge-ogl/16/"
---

# On Fugitives

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

## 16. Section 192

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg017-yonge-ogl/16/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg017-yonge-ogl/16/#p-N

[¶0] This is that great deluge in which "the cataracts of heaven were opened" Genesis vii. 11. by heaven I here mean of the mind—and the fountains of the bottomless pit were revealed; that is to say, of the outward sense; for in this way alone is the soul Leviticus xx. 18. Genesis vii. 11. overwhelmed, iniquities being broken up and poured over it from above, as from the heaven of the mind, and the passions irrigating it from below, as from the earth of the outward senses.

### Section 193

[¶2] For which reason Moses forbids a man to uncover the nakedness of his father or his mother, Leviticus xviii. 7. well knowing how great an evil it is not to check and to conceal the offences of the mind and of the external sense, but to bring them forward and display them as though they were good actions.

### Section 194

[¶4] These are the fountains of errors. We must now examine that of prudence. To this one it is that perseverance, that is to say, Rebecca, descends; Genesis xxiv. 15. and after she has filled up the whole vessel of her soul she goes up again, the lawgiver, most strictly in accordance with natural truth, calling her return an ascent; for whoever brings his mind to descend from over-arrogant haughtiness is raised to a great height of virtue.

### Section 195

[¶6] For Moses says, "And having gone down to the fountain, she filled her ewer, and went up again." This is that divine wisdom from which all the particular sciences are irrigated, and all the souls which love contemplation and are filled with a love of what is most excellent;

### Section 196

[¶8] and to this fountain the sacred scripture most appropriately assigns a name, calling it "judgment" and "holy." For says the historian, "Having turned back, they came to the fountain of judgment; this is the fountain of Caddes," Genesis xiv. 7. and the interpretation of the name Caddes is holy. It all but cries out and shouts that the wisdom of God is holy, bringing with it nothing of the earth, and that it is the judgment of the universe by which all contrarieties are separated from one another.

### Section 197

[¶10] We must now speak also concerning that highest and most excellent of fountains which the Father of the universe spake of by the mouths of the prophets; for he has said somewhere, "They have left me, the fountain of life, and they have digged for themselves cisterns already worn out, which will not be able to hold water;" Jeremiah ii. 13.

### Section 198

[¶12] therefore, God is the most ancient of all fountains. And is not this very natural? For he it is who has irrigated the whole of this world; and I am amazed when I hear that this is the fountain of life, for God alone is the cause of animation and life, and most especially of rational animation and of that life which is in Leviticus xviii. 7. Genesis xxiv. 15. Genesis xiv. 7. Jeremiah ii. 13. union with prudence; for the matter is dead. But God is something more than life; he is, as he himself has said, the everlasting fountain of living.

### Section 199

[¶14] But the wicked having fled away, and having passed their time without ever tasting the draught of immortality, have digged, insane persons that they are, for themselves, and not first for God, having preferred their own actions to the heavenly and celestial things, and the things which proceed from care to those which are spontaneous and ready.

### Section 200

[¶16] Then they dig, not as the wise men Abraham and Isaac did, making wells, but cisterns, which have no good nutritious stream belonging to and proceeding from themselves, but requiring an influx from without, which must proceed from instruction. While the teachers are always pouring into the ears of their disciples all kinds of doctrines and speculations of science altogether, admonishing them to retain them in their minds, and to preserve them when faithfully committed to memory.

### Section 201

[¶18] But now they are but worn-out cisterns, that is to say, all the channels of the ill-educated soul are broken and leaky, not being able to hold and to preserve the influx of those streams which are able to profit.

### Section 202

[¶20] We have now then said as much as the time will permit us to say on the subject of the fountains, and it is with great accuracy and propriety that the sacred scriptures represent Hagar as found at the fountain, and not as drawing water from it: for the soul has not as yet made such an advance as to be fit to use the unmixed draught of wisdom; but it is not forbidden from making its abode in its neighbourhood.

### Section 203

[¶22] And all the road which is made by instruction is easy to travel, and most safe, and most solid, and strong, on which account the scripture tells us that she was found in the road leading to Shur; and the name Shur being interpreted means a wall or a direction. Therefore its convicter, speaking to the soul, says, "Whence comest thou, and whither goest thou?" And it says, not because it doubts, and not so much by way of asking a question, as in a downcast and reproachful spirit, for an angel cannot be ignorant of anything that concerns us, and a proof of this is,

### Section 204

[¶24] that he is well acquainted even with the things which are in the womb, and which are invisible to the creature, inasmuch as he says, "Behold thou art with child, and thou shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;" for to know that that which is conceived is a male child does not belong to human power, any more than it does to foretell the description of life which the child who is not yet born will adopt, namely, that it will be rude life, and not that of a citizen or of a polished man.