על אברהם ו׳On Abraham 6
א׳
1[31] So highly does Moses extol the lover of virtue that when he gives his genealogy he does not, as he usually does in other cases, make a list of his grandfathers, great-grandfathers and ancestors in the male and female line, but of certain virtues, and this is little less than a direct assertion that a sage has no house or kinsfolk or country save virtues and virtuous actions; “for these,” he says, “are the generations of Noah. Noah, a man just and perfect in his generation, was well-pleasing to God.”
ב׳
2[32] But we must not fail to note that in this passage he gives the name of man not according to the common form of speech, to the mortal animal endowed with reason, but to the man who is man pre-eminently, who verifies the name by having expelled from the soul the untamed and frantic passions and the truly beast-like vices.
ג׳
3[33] Here is a proof. After “man” he adds “just,” implying by the combination that the unjust is no man, or more properly speaking a beast in human form, and that the follower after righteousness alone is man.
ד׳
4[34] He says, too, that Noah became “perfect,” thereby shewing that he acquired not one virtue but all, and having acquired them continued to exercise each as opportunities allowed.
ה׳
5[35] And as he crowns him as victor in the contest, he gives him further distinction by a proclamation couched in words of splendid praise, “he was well-pleasing to God.” What better thing than this has nature to give? What clearer proof can there be of nobility of life? For, if those who have been ill-pleasing to God are ill-fated, happy most surely are those whose lot it is to be well-pleasing to God.