אליגוריות החוקים, ספר ג כ״דAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis, Book III 24
א׳
1[77] Exactly, then, as God has conceived a hatred for pleasure and the body without giving reasons, so too has he promoted goodly natures apart from any manifest reason, pronouncing no action of theirs acceptable before bestowing his praises upon them. For should anyone ask why the prophet says that Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord God (Gen. 6:8) when as yet he had, so far as our knowledge goes, done no fair deed, we shall give a suitable answer to the effect that he is shown to be of an excellent nature from his birth, for Noah means “rest” or “righteous.” But it cannot but be that he who rests from sinful and unrighteous acts and rests upon what is noble and lives in fellowship with righteousness, should find favour with God.
ב׳
2[78] Now finding favour is not as some suppose equivalent only to being well-pleasing, but something of this kind besides. The righteous man exploring the nature of existences makes a surprising find, in this one discovery, that all things are a grace of God, and that creation has no gift of grace to bestow, for neither has it any possession, since all things are God’s possession, and for this reason grace too belongs to Him alone as a thing that is His very own. Thus to those who ask what the origin of creation is the right answer would be, that it is the goodness and grace of God, which He bestowed on the race that stands next after Him. For all things in the world and the world itself is a free gift and act of kindness and grace on God’s part.