PHILO JUDAEUS 20 B.C.E. - C.E. 50

 

Questions and Answers on Genesis

 

Altogether excellently has it apportioned the two into one in order to change the bad nature of the Dyad and adapt it to that of the good Monad. And it has taken that Dyad and left it undivided, for ten is divisible into two fives. And the Decad is better than the Pentad, for the former is most perfect, complete and superior number and is appropriate to the divine mysteries, while the number five is the measure of the senses,... Now, however, this much must be said, that both in the world and in man the Decad is all. In the world, together with the number seven (of the planets) and the eighth sphere of the fixed stars and those sublunary things of one species which are changeable among themselves, the divine Logos is the governor and administrator of all things, since it has methodically harmonised the chorus of the nine musical intervals.[1]

 

And in our body and soul there are also seven irrational parts and the mind, which is a single part. Now, the divine Logos is concerned with these nine parts, being the leader and ruler of harmony, and by it the nine parts are harmonised, and melodies and songs sound as one. Therefore Moses admits that the Decad is holy, naturally leaving the Ennead to creation, and the Decad to the divine Logos.[2]

 

Our soul is made and constituted of eight parts; of the rational part, which permits of no division, and of the irrational part, which is naturally divided into seven parts - the five senses, the organ of speech and the organ of reproduction. And these seven parts are the causes of wickedness and are brought to judgement.[3]

 

What is the ‘Tree of Life’ and why is it in the midst of paradise?.. For some say that the Tree of Life is the earth, for it causes all things to grow for the life both of man and all other things. Wherefore He apportioned a central place to this plant; and the centre of all is the earth. And some say that the Tree of Life is a name for the seven circles which are in heaven. And some say that it is the Sun because it is, in a sense, in the midst of the planets and is the cause of the seasons, by which all things are produced. [4]

 

 

On Seven

 

From the Analytical Introduction on Philo’s explanation of the number Seven. To save space, here is the breakdown on seven:

Turning to the Seventh Day, Philo notes its dignity, and enlarges on the properties of the number seven; (a) in things incorporeal (89 - 100); (b) in the material creation: () the heavenly bodies (101f.); () the stages of man’s growth [See the Seven Ages of Man for Philo] (103, - 105); () as 3+4 (106); () in the progressions (107 - 110); () in all visible existence (111 - 116); () in man, and all he sees (117 - 121) and experiences (121 - 125); () in grammar and music (126f.).

 

Let what has been said suffice as a bare outline of the dignity pertaining to the figure or scheme or whatever we ought to call it: all these qualities and more still does 7 discover in the incorporeal and intellectual sphere. But its nature reaches further, extending to all visible existence, to heaven and earth, to the utmost bounds of the universe. For what part of the world’s contents is not a lover of seven, overcome by passion and desire for it? Let us give some instances. They tell us that heaven is girdled by seven zones, whose names are these; arctic, antarctic, that of the summer solstice, that of the winter solstice, equinox, zodiac, and beside these the milky way. The horizon is not one of these, for it is a thing of subjective observation, our eyesight, as it is keen or the reverse...

 

Moreover the planets, the heavenly host that moves counter to the fixed stars, are marshalled in seven ranks, and manifest large sympathy with air and earth. The one (the air) they turn and shift for the so-called annual seasons, producing in each of these seasons a thousand changes by times of calm, or fair weather, of cloudy skies, of unusually violent storms; they flood rivers and shrink them; they turn plains into marshes, and dry them up again; they produce tides in the sea, as it ebbs and flows; for at times broad gulfs, through the sea’s being withdrawn by ebbing, and a little later, as it is poured back,...

 

Yes, and the planets cause all things on earth, living creatures and fruit yielding plants, to grow and come to perfection, enabling, as they do, the natural power in each of them to run its full round,...[5]