The First Book of the Treatise on The Allegories of the Sacred Laws, after the Work of the Six Days of Creation.

 I. (1) And the heaven and the earth and all their world was Completed.[Ge 2:1.] Having previously related the creation of the mind and of sense, Mos

 II. (2) And on the sixth day God finished his work which he had made. It would be a sign of great simplicity to think that the world was created in

 III. For God never ceases from making something or other but, as it is the property of fire to burn, and of snow to chill, so also it is the property

 IV. (8) But nature delights in the number seven. For there are seven planets, going in continual opposition to the daily course of the heaven which al

 V. (14) And the power of this number has extended also to the most useful of the arts--namely, to grammar. At all events, in grammar, the most excelle

 VI. (16) Accordingly, on the seventh day, God caused to rest from all his works which he had Made.[Ge 2:2.] Now, the meaning of this sentence is som

 VII. (17) And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it. God blesses the manners which are formed in accordance with the seventh and divine light

 VIII. (19) This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when they were Created.[Ge 2:4.] This is perfect reason, which is put in motion i

 IX. (21) On which day God created the heaven and the earth, and every green herb of the field, before it appeared upon the earth, and all the grass o

 X. (24) And all the grass of the field, he proceeds, before it sprang up. That is to say, before the particular things perceptible by the external

 XI. (28) But a fountain went up upon the earth, and watered all the face of the earth. He here calls the mind the fountain of the earth, and the sen

 XII. (31) And God created man, taking a lump of clay from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life: and man became a living soul. Th

 XIII. (33) But some one may ask, why God thought an earth-born mind, which was wholly devoted to the body, worthy of divine inspiration, and yet did n

 XIV. (43) And God planted a paradise in Eden, in the east: and there he placed the man whom he had Formed:[Ge 2:8.] for he called that divine and he

 XV. (48) And some one may ask here, why, since it is a pious action to imitate the works of God, it is forbidden to me to plant a grove near the altar

 XVI. (53) And the man whom he had formed, Moses says, God placed in the Paradise,[Ge 2:8.] for the present only. Who, then, is he in reference to

 XVII. (56) And God caused to rise out of the earth every tree which is pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life he raised in the

 XVIII. (59) But the tree of life is that most general virtue which some people call goodness from which the particular virtues are derived, and of wh

 XIX. (63) And a river goes forth out of Eden to water the Paradise. From thence it is separated into four heads: the name of the one is Pheison. That

 XX. (66) The name of one river is Pheison. This is that river which encircles all the land of Evilat there is the country where there is gold. And t

 XXI. (68) And the name of the second river is Gihon. This is that which encircles all the land of Ethiopia. Under the symbol of this river courage i

 XXII. (70) It is worth while therefore to raise the question why courage has been spoken of as the second virtue, and temperance as the third, and pru

 XXIII. (72) And the fourth river, continues Moses, is the river Euphrates. And this name Euphrates means fertility and symbolically taken, it is

 XXIV. (74) Again, let us look at the subject in this way also. Pheison, being interpreted, is the change of the mouth and Evilat means bringing forth

 XXV. (77) That, says Moses, is the country, where there is gold. He does not say that that is the only place where there is gold, but simply that

 XXVI. (79) There also is the carbuncle and the emerald. The two beings endowed with distinctive qualities, the prudent man and the man who acts prud

 XXVII. (85) And it is worth while to raise the question why the two rivers the Pheison and the Gihon encircle certain countries, the one surrounding E

 XXVIII. (88) And the Lord God took the man whom he had made and placed him in the Paradise, to cultivate and to guard it. The man whom God made diff

 XXIX. (90) And the Lord God commanded Adam, saying, Of every tree that is in the Paradise thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of

 XXX. (92) It is therefore very natural that Adam, that is to say the mind, when he was giving names to and displaying his comprehension of the other a

 XXXI. (97) And the recommendations that he addresses to him are as follows: Of every tree that is in the Paradise thou mayest freely Eat.[Ge 2:16.]

 XXXII. (100) But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he shall not eat. Therefore this tree is not in the Paradise. For God encourages them

 XXXIII. (105) Accordingly God says, In the day in which ye eat of it ye shall die the death. And yet, though they have eaten of it, they not only do

XXIV. (74) Again, let us look at the subject in this way also. Pheison, being interpreted, is the change of the mouth; and Evilat means bringing forth, and by these two names prudence is signified. For people in general think a man prudent who is an inventor of sophistical expressions, and clever at explaining that which he has conceived in the mind. But Moses considered such an one a man fond of words, but by no means a prudent man. For in the changing of the mouth, that is to say of the power of speaking and explaining one's ideas, prudence is seen. And prudence is not a certain degree of acuteness in speech, but ability which is beheld in deeds and in serious actions. (75) And prudence surrounds Evilat, which is in travail, as it were with a wall, in order to besiege it and destroy it. And "bringing forth," is an especially appropriate name for folly, because the foolish mind, being always desirous of what is unattainable, is at all times in travail. When it is desirous of money it is in labour, also when it thirsts for glory, or when it is covetous of pleasure, or of any thing else. (76) But, though always in labour, it never brings forth. For the soul of the worthless man is not calculated by nature to bring any thing to perfection which is likely to live. But every thing which it appears to bring forth is found to be abortive and immature. "Eating up the half of its flesh, and being like a death of the Soul."[Nu 12:12.] On which account that holy word Aaron entreats the pious Moses, who was beloved by God, to heal the leprosy of Miriam, in order that her soul might not be occupied in the labour of bringing forth evil things. And in consequence he says: "Let her not become like unto death, as an abortion proceeding out of the womb of her mother, and let her not devour the half of her own Flesh."[Nu 12:13.]