על הגירת אברהם ט׳On the Migration of Abraham 9
א׳
1[43] There is a deliberate intention when his words take the form of a promise and define the time of fulfilment not as present but future. He says not “which I am shewing” but “which I will shew thee” (Gen. 12:1). Thus he testifies to the trust which the soul reposed in God, exhibiting its thankfulness not as called out by accomplished facts, but by expectation of what was to be.
ב׳
2[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).
ג׳
3[45] You must not think that this was said, as some unconsidering people suppose, to humiliate the all-wise leader; for indeed it is folly to imagine that the servants of God take precedence of His friends in receiving their portion in the land of virtue.
ד׳
4[46] No, what he wishes to bring home to you first of all is that children have one place and full-grown men another, the one named training, the other called wisdom: secondly, that the fairest things in nature are objects of sight rather than of possession. For how is it possible to become possessed of things whose allotted place is nearer to the Divine? Yet to see them is within the bounds of possibility: though not for all. It is exclusively for the purest and most keen-eyed class, on whom the Father of all things, by shewing to them His own works, bestows an all-surpassing gift.
ה׳
5[47] For what life is better than a contemplative life, or more appropriate to a rational being? For this reason, whereas the voice of mortal beings is judged by hearing, the sacred oracles intimate that the words of God are seen as light is seen; for we are told that “all the people saw the Voice” (Ex. 20:18), not that they heard it; for what was happening was not an impact on air made by the organs of mouth and tongue, but virtue shining with intense brilliance, wholly resembling a fountain of reason, and this is also indicated elsewhere on this wise: “Ye have seen that I have spoken to you out of Heaven” (Ex. 20:22), not “ye heard,” for the same cause as before.
ו׳
6[48] In one place the writer distinguishes things heard from things seen and hearing from sight, saying, “Ye heard a voice of words, and saw no similitude but only a voice” (Deut. 4:12), making a very subtle distinction, for the voice dividing itself into noun and verb and the parts of speech in general he naturally spoke of as “audible,” for it comes to the test of hearing: but the voice or sound that was not that of verbs and nouns but of God, seen by the eye of the soul, he rightly represents as “visible.”
ז׳
7[49] And after first saying “Ye saw no similitude” he adds “but only a Voice,” evidently meaning the reader to supply in thought “which you did see.” This shews that words spoken by God are interpreted by the power of sight residing in the soul, whereas those which are divided up among the various parts of speech appeal to hearing.
ח׳
8[50] Fresh and original as is the insight which he shews in all cases, there is a special and unusual originality in this instance in his saying that the voice is visible, practically the only thing in us, if understanding be left out of consideration, which is not visible: for the objects of the senses other than the eyes are all of them, colours, savours, perfumes, things warm, things cold, things smooth, things rough, things soft and hard, visible as bodies.
ט׳
9[51] What this means I will state more clearly. The savour is visible, not as a savour, but only as a body, for as savour, it is the taste that will know it; and the odour, as odour, will be assayed by the nostrils, but as body, by the eyes also; and the rest will be subject to the same double test. But it is not the nature of voice to be visible whether we regard it as something audible or as body, if body indeed it is; but of our properties these two are invisible, mind and speech.
י׳
10[52] The truth is that our sound-producer is not similar to the Divine organ of voice; for ours mingles with air and betakes itself to the place akin to it, the ears; but the Divine is an organ of pure and unalloyed speech, too subtle for the hearing to catch it, but visible to the soul which is single in virtue of its keenness of sight.