Literatura Drugiej Świątyni do Powtórzonego Prawa 34:4

[44] For the soul, clinging in utter dependence on a good hope, and deeming that things not present are beyond question already present by reason of the sure stedfastness of Him that promised them, has won as its meed faith, a perfect good; for we read a little later “Abraham believed God” (Gen. 15:6). To Moses, too, He says in like manner, when He had shewn to him all the Land, “I shewed it to thine eyes, but thou shalt not enter in” (Deut. 34:4).

“Land” means spiritually body, “kinsfolk,” senses (2–4), while “father’s house” is speech, and this last is illustrated by the way in which the Logos itself is spoken of as God’s house (4–6). Thus the command is to alienate ourselves from these and so to “depart” to higher realities (7–12). Biblical examples of this departing follow: Abraham from Lot, the Exodus of Israel from Egypt (13–15), and in connexion with this Philo propounds the idea that when we read of Joseph’s body being placed in a coffin in Egypt, and later of his bones being taken to Canaan at the Exodus, we have an allegory of the spiritual burial of the lower qualities, and the survival of the higher qualities of the mixed or Joseph mind (16–17). An enumeration of these higher qualities as shewn in the story of Joseph follows (18–23), and from this we pass back to the theme of “departure,” as shewn in the order of Moses to make the Passover “with speed” (24–25), and (with a difference) in the injunction in Gen. 31:3 to Jacob to turn back to his father’s land, which must be understood in the sense of wisdom (26–30). The last words of that passage, “I will be with thee,” lead to a meditation on how independent of our efforts is the Divine presence and inspiration, which Philo illustrates from his own experience in literary composition (31–35), whence we pass almost insensibly to the consideration of the words of the First Gift, “The land which I will shew thee.” After some thoughts about the “thing shewn,” i.e. the perfect good, “the person who sees,” i.e. the wise man, and the “Shewer,” i.e. God (36–42), Philo points out that the shewing is in the future, thus calling for Abraham’s faith. He illustrates it further from the words of Deut. 34:4, “I shewed it to thine eyes but thou shalt not possess it,” and this points to the thought that possession of the perfect good is more than seeing it (43–46). And yet seeing is higher than hearing, and thus God’s words are said in certain places to be seen rather than heard, a noteworthy usage when we remember that hearing in the ordinary sense is even less than the other senses capable of being associated with sight (47–52).