Works of Philo Judaeus Vol. 2

Excerpt:

I. Of other lawgivers, some have set forth what they considered to be just and reasonable, in a naked and unadorned manner, while others, investing their ideas with an abundance of amplification, have sought to bewilder the people, by burying the truth under a heap of fabulous inventions. But Moses, rejecting both of these methods, the one as inconsiderate, careless, and unphilosophical, and the other as mendacious and full of trickery, made the beginning of his laws entirely beautiful, and in all respects admirable, neither at once declaring what ought to be done or the contrary, nor (since it was necessary to mold beforehand the dispositions of those who were to use his laws) inventing fables himself or adopting those which had been invented by others.

And his exordium, as I have already said, is most admirable; embracing the creation of the world, under the idea that the law corresponds to the world and the world to the law, and that a man who is obedient to the law, being, by so doing, a citizen of the world, arranges his actions with reference to the intention of nature, in harmony with which the whole universal world is regulated. Accordingly no one, whether poet or historian, could ever give expression in an adequate manner to the beauty of his ideas respecting the creation of the world; for they surpass all the power of language, and amaze our hearing, being too great and venerable to be adapted to the senses of any created being. That, however, is not a reason for our yielding to indolence on the subject, but rather from our affection for the Deity we ought to endeavor to exert ourselves even beyond our powers in describing them: not as having much, or indeed anything to say of our own, but instead of much, just a little, such as it may be probable that human intellect may attain to, when wholly occupied with a love of and desire for wisdom.

For as the smallest seal receives imitations of things of colossal magnitude when engraved upon it, so perchance in some instances the exceeding beauty of the description of the creation of the world as recorded in the Law, overshadowing with its brilliancy the souls of those who happen to meet with it, will be delivered to a more concise record after these facts have been first premised which it would be improper to pass over in silence.

Contents:

Questions, And Solutions To Those Questions, Which Arise In Genesis.
Book 1.
Book 2.
Book 3.
Meeting For The Sake Of Seeking Instruction
A Treatise The Migration Of Abraham.
Why Certain Names In The Holy Scriptures Are Changed.
Cain - The Man Wise In His Own Conceit
The Sacrifices Of Abel And Cain.
Tilling Of The Earth By Noah.
Treatise About The Planting Of Noah.
The Worse Is Accustomed To Be Always Plotting Against The Better.
The Creation of the World
Incorruptibility Of The World.
On Drunkenness
Words That Noah Uttered When He Awoke From His Wine
Every Man Who Is Virtuous Is Also Free.