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The Second Book of the Treatise on The Allegories of the Sacred Laws, after the Work of the Six Days of Creation.
I. (1) And the Lord God said, It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help meet for him. Why, O prophet, is it not good for man to be
II. (4) But it is not good for any man to be alone. For there are two kinds of men, the one made according to the image of God, the other fashioned ou
III. (6) As, according to the most skilful physicians and natural philosophers, the heart appears to be formed before the rest of the body, after the
IV. (9) Now of assistants there are two kinds, the one consisting in the passions and the other in the sensations. [...][A word or two are lost here.
V. (14) This therefore he denominated the species of assistants, but the other part of the creation, the description, that is, of the formation of the
VI. (16) But the moral meaning of this passage is as follows:--We often use the expression ti instead of dia ti (why?) as when we say, why (ti) have
VII. (19) And God cast a deep trance upon Adam, and sent him to sleep and he took one of his ribs, and so on. The literal statement conveyed in the
VIII. For immediately after the creation of the mind it was necessary that the external sense should be created, as an assistant and ally of the mind
IX. (31) After this preface we must now proceed to explain the words: The Lord God, says Moses, cast a deep trance upon Adam, and sent him to sleep
X. (35) He took one of his ribs. He took one of the many powers of the mind, namely, that power which dwells in the outward senses. And when he uses
XI. (38) And he filled the space with flesh instead of it. That is to say, he filled up that external sense which exists according to habit, leading
XII. (40) And he brought her to Adam. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. God leads the external sense, existing acco
XIII. (44) And she shall be called woman. This is equivalent to saying, On this account the outward sensation shall be called woman, because it is d
XIV. (49) On this account a man will leave his father and his mother and will cleave to his wife and they two shall become one flesh. On account of
XV. (53) And they were both naked, both Adam and his wife, and they were not ashamed but the serpent was the most subtle of all the beasts that were
XVI. (60) This is the most excellent nakedness, but the other nakedness is of a contrary nature, being a change which involves a deprivation of virtue
XVII. (65) And the expression, they were not ashamed, we will examine hereafter: for there are three ideas brought forward in this passage. Shameles
XVIII. (71) Now the serpent was the most subtle of all the beasts which are upon the earth, which the Lord God Made.[Ge 3:1.] Two things having been
XIX. (76) Why need we enlarge on the pleasures of the belly? For we may almost say that there are as may varieties of pleasure as there are of gentle
XX. (79) How, then, can there be any remedy for this evil? When another serpent is created, the enemy of the serpent which came to Eve, namely, the wo
XXI. (82) Do you not see that wisdom when dominant, which is Sarah, says, For whosoever shall hear it shall rejoice with Me.[Ge 21:6.] But suppose t
XXII. (87) See now the difference between him who turns to sin in the desert and him who sins in Egypt. For the one is bitten by serpents which cause
XXIII. (90) Well, therefore, does the Godloving Moses answer. For truly the actions of the virtuous man are supported by education as by a rod, tranqu
XXIV. (94) Such a serpent Jacob boasts that Dan is, and he speaks thus: Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel:[Ge 49:16.] and ag
XXV. (99) Biting the heel of the horse,--Very consistently the disposition which shakes the stability of the created and perishable being is called
XXVI. (103) And we must also inquire, what is the reason why Jacob says, that the rider will fall Backward,[Ge 49:17.] and Moses says, that the hor
