THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO

TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION

BY

M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.

CHAPTER XIV.

XIV. At that time God said unto him: Begin to number my people from 20 years and upwards unto 40 years, that I may show your tribes all that I declared unto their fathers in a strange land. For by the 50th part of them did I raise them up out of the land of Egypt, but 40 and 9 parts of them died in the land of Egypt. Num. 1:2

2. When thou hast ordered them and numbered them (or, While ye abode there. And when thou hast numbered them, etc.), write the tale of them, till I fulfil all that I spake unto their fathers, and set them firmly in their own land: for I will not diminish any word of those I have spoken unto their fathers, even of those which I said to them: Your seed shall be as the stars of heaven for multitude. By number shall they enter into the land, and in a short time shall they become without number.

3. Then Moses went down and numbered them, and the number of the people was 604,550. But the tribe of Levi numbered he not among them, for so was it commanded him; only he numbered them that were upwards of 50 years, of whom the number was 47,300. Also he numbered them that were below 20 years, and the number of them was 850,850. And he looked over the tribe of Levi and the whole number of them was CXX. CCXD. DCXX. CC. DCCC. 1 Num. 1:46

4. And Moses declared the number of them to God; and God said to him: These are the words which I spake to their fathers in the land of Egypt, and appointed a number, even 210 years, unto all that saw my wonders. Now the number of them all was 9000 times 10,000, 200 times 95,000 men, besides women, and I put to death the whole multitude of them 1 2 because they believed me not, and the 50th part of them I was left and I sanctified them unto me. Therefore do I command the generation of my people to give me tithes of their fruits, to be before me for a memorial of how great oppression I have removed from them.

5. And when Moses came down and declared these things to the people, they mourned and lamented and abode in the desert two years.

Footnotes

117:1 XIV. 3. The number at the end of this verse is hopelessly corrupt.
118:1 i.e. 2,180,000.
118:2 4. The number 2,180,000 seems as if it ought to bear a relation to the 210 years spent in Egypt: qu. 2,100,000?

THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO

TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION

BY

M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.

CHAPTER XIII.

XIII. And Moses hasted and did all that God commanded him, and came down and made the tables <<and the tabernacle>>, and the vessels thereof, and the ark and the lamps and the table and the altar of burnt offerings and the altar 3 of incense and the shoulderpiece and the breastplate and the precious stones and the laver and the bases and all things that were shewn him. And he ordered all the vestures of the priests, the girdles and the rest, the mitre, the golden plate and the holy crown: he made also the anointing oil for the priests, and the priests themselves he sanctified. And when all things were finished the cloud covered all of them. Ex. 34

2. 1 Then Moses cried unto the Lord, and God spake to him from the tabernacle saying: This is the law of the altar, whereby ye shall sacrifice unto me and pray for your souls. But as concerning that which ye shall offer me, offer ye of cattle the calf, the sheep and the she goat: but of fowls the turtle and the dove.

Lev. 14

3, And if there be leprosy in your land, and it so be that the leper is cleansed, let them take for the Lord two live young birds, and wood of cedar and hyssop and scarlet; and he shall come to the priest, and he shall kill one, and keep the other. And he shall order the leper according to all that I have commanded in my law.

4. 2 And it shall be when the times come round to you, ye shall sanctify me with a feast-day and rejoice before me at the feast of the unleavened bread, and set bread before me, keeping a feast of remembrance because on that day ye came forth of the land of Egypt. Lev. 23

5. And in the feast of weeks ye shall set bread before me and make me an offering for your fruits.

6. But the feast of trumpets shall be for an offering for your watchers, because therein I oversaw my creation, that ye may be mindful of the whole world. In the beginning of the year, when ye show them me, I will acknowledge the number of the dead and of them that are born, and the fast of mercy. For ye shall fast unto me for your souls, that the promises of your fathers may be fulfilled.

7. Also the feast of tabernacles bring ye to me: ye shall take for me the pleasant fruit of the tree, and boughs of palm-tree and willows and cedars, and branches of myrrh: and I will remember the whole earth in rain, and the measure of the seasons shall be established, and I will order the stars and command the clouds, and the winds shall sound and the lightnings run abroad, and there shall be a storm of thunder, and this shall be for a perpetual sign. Also the nights shall yield dew, 1 as I spake after the flood of the earth.

8. when I (or Then he) gave him precept as concerning the year of the life of Noe, and said to him: These are the years which I ordained after the weeks wherein I visited the city of men, at what time I shewed them (or him) the place of birth and the colour (or and the serpent), and I (or he) said: This is. the place of which I taught the first man saying: If thou transgress not that I bade thee, all things shall be subject unto thee. But he transgressed my ways and was persuaded of his wife, and she was deceived by the serpent. And then was death ordained unto the generations of men.

9. And furthermore the Lord shewed (or, And the Lord said further: I shewed) him the ways of paradise 2 and said unto him: These are the ways which men have lost by not walking in them, because they have sinned against me.

10. And the Lord commanded him concerning the salvation of the souls of the people and said: If they shall walk in my ways I will not forsake them, but will always be merciful unto them, and will bless their seed, and the earth shall haste to yield her fruit, and there shall be rain for them to increase their gains, and the earth shall not be barren. Yet verily I know that they will corrupt their ways, and I shall forsake them, and they will forget the covenants which I made with their fathers. Yet will I not forget them for ever: for in the last days they shall know that because of their sins their seed was forsaken; for I am faithful in my ways.

Footnotes

113:3 XIII. 1, 2. altar: thuribulum (lit. censer).
114:1 2-7. This short section contains practically all that is said of the ceremonial law. It is remarkably "scrappy" and unsystematic.
114:2 4-7. This passage is well illustrated by one in the Talmud. Tract. Rosh ha-Shana (tr. Schwab, p. 63): A 4 époques différentes de l'année, le monde est jugé par Dieu: à Pâques pour la récolte; à Pentecôte pour les produits des arbres; à la féte du nouvel-an tous les êtres de la terre passent devant l'Éternel comme les troupeaux devant le berger, puisqu'il est dit (Ps. xxxiii. 15): Celui qui a créé tous les curs, qui connaît toutes leurs actions (il sait et scrute tout). Enfin, aux Tabernacles, la question des eaux sera résolue.

This corresponds fairly well with our text. The same four feasts are spoken of in connexion with the Passover. The harvest is not mentioned; it is only said constituetis in conspectu meo panem. At Pentecost (the Feast of Weeks) we have facietis mihi oblationem pro fructibus vestris. At the Feast of Trumpets (the New Year feast) the words are no doubt obscure, but they contain mention of a review of the whole creation. "But the Feast of Trumpets shall be for an offering to (or for) your watchers (prospeculatoribus vestris: or pro spec. I suppose angelic guardians to be meant), inasmuch as I reviewed (praespexi, perspexi) the whole creation, that ye may be mindful of the whole world" (the connexion of this clause is obscure): "and at the beginning of the year I will acknowledge, when ye show them, the number of your dead, and of them that are born, and the fast of mercy. For ye shall fast unto me for your souls," etc. This represents the sense of the text as I understand it. Lastly, of the Feast of Tabernacles it is said: "I will remember the whole earth in rain." The comment on this passage of the Talmud makes it clear that this is the meaning of the "question des eaux": prayer for rain was offered at the Feast of Tabernacles (cf. Taanith I.).
116:1 7. fin., 8. "As I spake after the flood of the earth, at what time I gave commandment concerning the year of the life of Noah, and said unto him.. These are the years which I ordained after that I visited the city of men (i.e. at the flood) at the time when I showed them (? him) the place of generation and the colour, and said: This is the place whereof I taught the first-formed man," etc. This is the text of VR, and on the whole it seems the best, but it is not at all clear. As is remarked in the Introduction, there may be a reference to a passage in Jubilees. It seems to be implied that God showed Paradise to Noah. The words, "and the colour: et colorem" are particularly puzzling. Ought we to read et colubrum "and the serpent"? Two lines below we have de colubro. Or is there a reference to what we find in the Revelation of Moses in Jerahmeel 92:10? God showed him the heavenly temple, and the four different hues in which the tabernacle was made, by means of angels clothed in blue, white, scarlet, and purple.
116:2 9. Here God seems certainly to show Paradise to Moses.

THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO

TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION

BY

M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.

CHAPTER XII.

XII. 1 And Moses came down: and whereas he was covered with invisible light--for he had gone down into the place where is the light of the sun and moon,--the light of his face overcame the brightness of the sun and moon, and he knew it not. And it was so, when he came down to the children of Israel, they saw him and knew him not. But when he spake, then they knew him.

Ex. 34:29 And this was like that which was done in Egypt when Joseph knew his brethren but they knew not him. And it came to pass after that, when Moses knew that his face was become glorious, he made him a veil to cover his face.Gen. 42:8

2. But while he was in the mount, the heart of the people was corrupted, and they came together to Aaron saying: Make us gods that we may serve them, as the other nations also have. Ex. 32 For this Moses by whom the wonders were done before us, is taken from us. And Aaron said unto them: Have patience, for Moses will come and bring judgement near to us, and light up a law for us, and set forth from his mouth the great excellency of God, and appoint judgements unto our people.

3. And when he said this, they hearkened not unto him, that the word might be fulfilled which was spoken in the day when the people sinned in building the tower, when God said: And now if I forbid them not, they will adventure all that they take in mind to do, and worse. Gen. 11:6 But Aaron feared, because the people was greatly strengthened, and said to them: Bring us the earrings of your wives. And the men sought every one his wife, and they gave them straightway, and they put them in the fire and they were made into a figure, and there came out a molten calf. Ex. 32:2

4. 1 And the Lord said to Moses: Make haste hence, for the people is corrupted and hath dealt deceitfully with my ways which I commanded them. Ex. 32:7 What and if the promises are at an end which I made to their fathers when I said: To your seed will I give this land wherein ye dwell? For behold the people is not yet entered into the land, even though they bear my judgements, yet have they forsaken me. And therefore I know that if they enter the land they will do yet greater iniquities. Now therefore I also will forsake them: and I will turn again and make peace with them, that a house may be built for me among them; and that house also shall be done away, because they will sin against me, and the race of men shall be unto me as a drop of a pitcher, and shall be counted as spittle. Isa. 40:1

5. And Moses hasted and came down and saw the calf, and he looked upon the tables and saw that they were not written: 1 and he hasted and brake them; and his hands were opened and he became like a woman travailing of her firstborn, which when she is taken in her pangs her hands are upon her bosom, and she shall have no strength to help her to bring forth.

6. And it came to pass after an hour he said within himself: Bitterness prevaileth not for ever, neither hath evil the dominion alway. Now therefore will I arise, and strengthen my loins: for albeit they have sinned, yet shall not these things be in vain that were declared unto me above. Ex. 32:20

7. 2 And he arose and brake the calf and cast it into the water, and made the people drink. And it was so, if any man's will in his mind were that the calf should be made, his tongue was cut off, but if any had been constrained thereto by fear, his face shone.

8. And then Moses went up into the mount and prayed the Lord, saying: Behold now, thou art God which hast planted this vineyard and set the roots thereof in the deep, and stretched out the shoots of it unto thy most high seat. Look upon it at this time, for the vineyard hath put forth her fruit and hath not known him that tilled her. And now if thou be wroth with thy vineyard and root it up out of the deep, and wither up the shoots from thy most high eternal seat, the deep will come no more to nourish it, neither thy throne to refresh that thy vineyard which thou hast burned.

9. For thou art he that art all light, and hast adorned thy house 1 with precious stones and gold and perfumes and spices (or and jasper), and wood of balsam and cinnamon, and with roots of myrrh and costum 2 hast thou strewed thine house, and with divers meats and sweetness of many drinks hast thou satisfied it. If therefore thou have not pity upon thy vineyard, all these things are done in vain, Lord, and thou wilt have none to glorify thee. For even if thou plant another vineyard, neither will that one trust in thee, because thou didst destroy the former. For if verily thou forsake the world, who will do for thee that that thou hast spoken as God? And now let thy wrath be restrained from thy vineyard the more <<because of>> that thou hast said and that which remaineth to be spoken, and let not thy labour be in vain, neither let thine heritage be torn asunder in humiliation.

10. And God said to him: Behold I am become merciful according to thy words. Hew thee out therefore two tables of stone from the place whence thou hewedst the former, and write upon them again my judgements which were on the first.

Footnotes

110:1 XII. 1. descended into the place where is the light of the suit and moon. Compare with this the Revelation vouchsafed to Moses which is related in Jerahmeel, c. 52, as reported by R. Joshua ben Levi.
111:1 4. even though they bear my judgements: etiam portans iudicium; i.e. even though they carry with them the law I have given.
112:1 5. the writing vanishes from the tables. Cf. XIX. 7. The Pirke R. Eliezer, c. 45 (tr. Friedlander), says, "the writing fled from off the tables," and Cohn quotes the same story from other Midrashim.
112:2 7. The common story is that the beards of those who had sinned appeared gilt (Historia Scholastica). This detail was occasionally embodied in mediæval pictures of the scene.
113:1 9. The house, which is described in terms somewhat resembling Enoch (see Introd., p. 44 ), is Paradise.
113:2 9. costum, for which there is no English equivalent, occurs in Jub. 16:24, and fairly often in Latin literature.

THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO

TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION

BY

M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.

CHAPTER XI.

XI. And in the 3rd month of the journeying of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. And God remembered his word and said: I will give light unto the world, and lighten the habitable places, and make my covenant with the children of men, and glorify my people above all nations, for unto them will I put forth an eternal exaltation 1 which shall be unto them a light, but unto the ungodly a chastisement. Ex. 19:1

2. And he said unto Moses: Behold, I will call thee to-morrow: be thou ready and tell my people: "For three days let not a man come near his wife," and on the 3rd day I will speak unto thee and unto them, and after that thou shalt come up unto me. And I will put my words in thy mouth and thou shalt enlighten my people. For I have given into thy hands an everlasting law whereby I will judge all the world. For this shall be for a testimony. For if men say: "We have not known thee, 2 and therefore we have not served thee," therefore will I take vengeance upon them, because they have not known my law.

3. And Moses did as God commanded him, and sanctified the people and said unto them: Be ye ready on the 3rd day, for after 3 days will God make his covenant with you. Ex. 19:14 And the people were sanctified.

4. And it came to pass on the 3rd day that, lo, there were voices of thunderings (lit. them that sounded) and brightness of lightnings and the voice of instruments sounding aloud. And there was fear upon all the people that were in the camp. And Moses put forth the people to meet God. Ex. 19:16

5. 1 And behold the mountains burned with fire and the earth shook and the hills were removed and the mountains overthrown: the depths boiled, and all the habitable places were shaken: and the heavens were folded up and the clouds drew up water. And flames of fire shone forth and thunderings and lightnings were multiplied and winds and tempests made a roaring: the stars were gathered together and the angels ran before, until God established the law of an everlasting covenant with the children of Israel, and gave unto them an eternal commandment which should not pass away.

6. And at that time the Lord spake unto his people all these words, saying: I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Ex. 20:1 Thou shalt not make to thyself graven gods, neither shalt thou make any abominable image of the sun or the moon or any of the ornaments of the heaven, nor the likeness of all things that are upon the earth nor of such as creep in the waters or upon the earth. I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God, requiting the sins of them that sleep upon the living children of the ungodly, if they walk in the ways of their fathers; unto the third and fourth generation, doing (or shewing) mercy unto 1000 generations to them that love me and keep my commandments. Ex. 20:4

7. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, that my ways be not made vain. For God abominateth him that taketh his name in vain. Ex. 20:7

8. 1 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it. Six days do thy work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord. Ex. 20:8 In it thou shall do no work, thou and all thy labourers, saving that therein ye praise the Lord in the congregation of the elders and glorify the Mighty One in the seat of the aged.

Ps. 107:32 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that are in them, and all the world, the wilderness that is not inhabited, and all things that do labour, 2 and all the order of the heaven, and God rested the seventh day. Therefore God sanctified the seventh day, because he rested therein. Gen. 2:3

9. Thou shalt love thy father and my mother and fear them: and then shall thy light rise, and I will command the heaven and it shall pay thee the rain thereof, and the earth shall hasten her fruit and thy days shall be many, and thou shalt dwell in thy land, and shalt not be childless, for thy seed shall not fail, even that of them that dwell therein. Ex. 20:12

10. Thou shalt not commit adultery, for thine enemies did not commit adultery with thee, but thou camest out with a high hand. Ex. 20:1

11. Thou shall not kill: because thine enemies got not the mastery over thee to slay thee, but thou beheldest their death. Ex. 20:13

12. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, speaking falsely, lest thy watchmen 1 speak falsely against thee. Ex. 20:16

13. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house, nor that which he hath, lest others also covet thy land. Ex. 20:17

14. And when the Lord ceased speaking, the people feared with a great fear: and they saw the mountain burning with torches of fire, and they said to Moses: Speak thou unto us, and let not God speak unto us, lest peradventure we die. For, lo, to-day we know that God speaketh with man face to face, and man shall live.

Ex. 20:18And now have we perceived of a truth how that the earth bare the voice of God with trembling. And Moses said unto them: Fear not, for this cause came this voice unto you, that ye should not sin (or, for this cause, that he might prove. you, God came unto you, that ye might receive the fear of him unto you, that ye sin not).

15. And all the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near unto the cloud, knowing that God was there. And then God spake unto him his justice and judgements, and kept him by him 40 days and 40 nights. Ex. 20:21 And there did he command him many things, and showed him the tree of life, 2 whereof he cut and took and put it into Mara, and the water of Mara was made sweet and followed them in the desert 40 years, and went up into the hills with them and came down into the plain. Also he commanded him concerning the tabernacle and the ark of the Lord, and the sacrifice of burnt offerings and of incense, and the ordinance of the table and of the candlestick and concerning the laver and the base thereof, and the shoulder-piece and the breastplate, and the very precious stones, that the children of Israel should make them so: and he shewed him the likeness of them to make them according to the pattern which he saw. And said unto him: Make for me a sanctuary and the tabernacle of my glory shall be among you.

Footnotes

106:1 XI. 1. For upon them will I put forth an eternal exaltation: in quem eliciam excelsa sempiterna, or in whom I have ordained high things eternal. In quo disposui excelsa sempiterna. In either case the Law is meant.
106:2 2. If men say, "we have not known thee," etc. Compare p. 107 the injunction to the Apostles in a fragment of the Preaching of Peter: "After twelve years go forth into the world, lest any say, 'we did not hear.'"
107:1 5. Similar lists of the wonders which accompanied the giving of the Law are in XV. 6, XXIII. 10, XXXII. 7, 8.
108:1 8. The gloss on the 4th Commandment, as Dr. Cohn says, shows that the writer has little interest in the Temple services, and is appropriate to a time when those services had ceased. It is rather the Synagogue and its ritual that occur to him as the obvious form of worship. The words are adapted from Ps. cvii. 32.
108:2 all things that do labour: quaecunque oberantur.
109:1 12. thy watchmen: custodes. I interpret this of angels.
109:2 15. The statement that the tree of life sweetened the waters of Marah, and that these were the waters that followed Israel, are both peculiar to this book. For Marah the MSS. seen by me read myrrha, but the Fulda MS. has myrra; it is Μεῤῥα in the LXX.