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The Divine vision. The Sons of God on earth. The city of God. God’s shadow
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THE DIVINE VISION
Such Divine Vision is the object of the contemplative life, for:
“It is the special gift of those who dedicate themselves to the service (θ ε ρ α π ε υ ό ν τ ω ν ) of That-which-is. . . to ascend by means of their rational faculties to the height of the æ ther, setting before themselves ‘Moses’—the Race that is the friend of God, 1 as the leader of the way.
“For then they will behold ‘the place that is clear, ’ 2 on which the immovable and unchangeable God hath set His feet, and the [regions] beneath His feet, as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as it might be the form of the firmament of heaven, the sensible cosmos, which he [‘Moses’] symbolises by these things.
“For it is seemly that those who have founded a brotherhood for the sake of wisdom, should long to see Him; and if they cannot do this, to behold at least His Image, Most Holy Reason (Logos), 3 and after him also the most perfect work in [all] things sensible, [namely] this cosmos.
“For the work of philosophy is naught else than the striving clearly to see these things. ” 4
THE SONS OF GOD ON EARTH
And later on, in the same treatise (§ 28), Philo writes still more interestingly and instructively as follows:
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“But they who have attained unto wisdom, are, as they should be, called Sons of the One God, as Moses admits when he says: ‘Ye are the Sons of the Lord God, ’ 1 and ‘God who begat thee, ’ 2 and ‘Is not He Himself thy father? ’ 3. . .
“And if a man should not as yet have the good fortune to be worthy to be called a Son of God, let him strive manfully to set himself in order according to His First-born Reason (Logos), the Oldest Angel, who is as though it were the Angel-chief, of many names; for he is called Dominion, 4 and Name of God, and Reason, and the Man-after-the-likeness, and Seeing Israel.
“And for this reason I was induced a little before to praise the principles of them who say: ‘We are all Sons of One Man. ’ 5 For even if we have not yet become fit to be judged Sons of God, we may at anyrate be Sons of His Eternal Likeness, His Most Holy Reason; for Reason, the Eldest [of all Angels], is God’s Likeness [or Image]. ” 6
And so also we read elsewhere:
“But the Reason (Logos) is God’s Likeness, by whom [sc. Reason] the whole Cosmos was fashioned. ” 7
This Divine Reason of things, then, was the means by which the Cosmos came into existence. And so we find Philo writing:
“But if anyone should wish to make use of naked
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terms, he might say that the intelligible order of things 1 is nothing else than the Reason (Logos) of God perpetually creating the [sensible] world-order.
THE CITY OF GOD
“For the Intelligible City is nothing else but the reasoning of the Architect determining in His Mind to found a city perceivable by the senses after [the model of] the City which the mind alone can perceive.
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“This is the doctrine of Moses and not [only] mine. At any rate in describing the genesis of man he expressly agrees that he [man] was fashioned in the image of God. And if this is the case with the part—the image of the Image—it is plainly also the case with the whole Form, that is the whole of this sensible cosmos, which is a [far] greater imitation of the Divine Image than the human image is.
“It is plain, moreover, that the Archetypal Seal, which we call Cosmos which is perceptible only to the intellect, must itself be the Archetypal Pattern, 2 the Idea of ideas, the Reason (Logos) of God. ” 3
And elsewhere also he writes:
“Passing, then, from details, behold the grandest House or City, namely, this cosmos. Thou shalt find that the cause of it is God, by whom it came into existence. The matter of it is the four elements, out of which it has been composed. The instrument by means of which it has been built, is the Reason (Logos) of God. And the object of its building is the Goodness of the Creator. ” 4
And again:
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GOD’S SHADOW
“Now the Reason (Logos) is the Likeness of God, by which the whole cosmos was made. ” 1
And still more clearly:
“But God’s Shadow is His Reason (Logos), which using, as it were an instrument, He made the cosmos. And this Shadow is as it were the Archetypal Model of all else. For that as God is the Original of His Image, which he [‘Moses’] now calls [His] Shadow, so, [in its turn] that Image is the model of all else, as he [‘Moses’] showed when, at the beginning of the law-giving, he said: ‘And God made man according to the Image of God, ’ 2—this Likeness being imaged according to God, and man being imaged according to this Likeness, which received the power of its Original. ” 3
Moreover, the Divine Reason, as an instrument, is regarded as the means of separation and division:
“So God, having sharpened His Reason (Logos), the Divider of all things, cut off both the formless and undifferentiated essence of all things, and the four elements of cosmos which had been separated out of it, 4 and the animals and plants which had been compacted by means of these. ” 5
With this we may compare the following passage from The Acts of John, where we read of the Logos:
“But what it is in truth, as conceived of in itself, and as spoken of to thee, 6—it is the marking-off [or delimitation] of all things, the firm necessity of those
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things that are fixed and were unsettled, the Harmony of Wisdom. ” 1
But to return to the concept of the Logos as symbolised by the idea of a City; speaking of the six “cities of refuge, ” Philo allegorises them as follows:
“Is not, then, the most ancient and most secure and best Mother-city, and not merely City, the Divine Reason (Logos), to which it is of the greatest service to flee first?
“The other five, as though they were colonies [from it], are the Powers of the Speaker [of this Word (Logos)], of which the chief is the Creative [Potency], according to which He who creates by Reason [or Word], fashioned the cosmos. The second is the Sovereign [Potency], according to which He who created, ruleth that which is brought into existence. The third is the Merciful [Potency], by means of which the Artist hath compassion and hath mercy on His own work. The fourth is the Legislative Providence, by means of which He doth forbid the things that may not be. . . . ” 2
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Philo then regards these “cities” as symbolising the refuges to which the various kinds of erring souls should flee to find comfort. If the Divine Reason, and the Creative and Sovereign (Kingly) Powers are too far off for the comprehension of the sinner’s ignorance, then he should flee to other goals at a shorter distance, the “cities” of the Necessary Powers, namely, the Powers of Mercy and of the Law, which latter are twofold, Enjoining and Forbidding, the latter again of which is referred to vaguely, at the end of the chapter, as the “averting of evils” without further definition.
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Moreover, Philo continues, there are symbols of these five Potencies mentioned in the Scriptures:
“[The symbols] of Command and Prohibition are the [two tables of the] laws in the ark; of the Merciful Potency, the top of the ark, which he [‘Moses’] calls the Mercy-seat; of the Creative and Sovereign [Potencies], the winged Cherubim, who are set over it.
“But the Divine Reason (Logos) above them did not take any visible shape, inasmuch as no sensible object answers to it, for it is the very Likeness of God, the Eldest of all beings, one and all, which are cognisable by mind alone, the nearest to the [One and] Only One-that-is, without a space of any kind between, copied inerrantly.
“For it is said: ‘I will speak to thee from above the Mercy-seat, from between the two Cherubim. ’ 1
“So that he who drives the Chariot 2 of the Powers is the Word (Logos), and He who is borne in the Chariot is He who speaks [the Word], giving commandment to the Driver for the right driving of the universe. ” 3
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