על שהרע נוהג לארוב לטוב כ״גThat the Worse is wont to Attack the Better 23
א׳
1[83] To the faculty which we have in common with the irrational creatures blood has been given as its essence; but to the faculty which streams forth from the fountain of reason breath has been assigned; not moving air, but, as it were, an impression stamped by the divine power, to which Moses gives the appropriate title of “image,” thus indicating that God is the Archetype of rational existence, while man is a copy and likeness. By “man” I mean not the living creature with two natures, but the highest form in which the life shows itself; and this has received the title of “mind” and “reason.”
ב׳
2[84] This is why he says that the blood is the life of the flesh, being aware that the fleshly nature has received no share of mind, but partakes of vitality just as the whole of our body does; but man’s life he names “breath,” giving the title of “man” not to the composite mass, as I have said, but to that God-like creation with which we reason, whose roots He caused to reach even to heaven and come forth from the outmost circles of the so-called fixed stars.
ג׳
3[85] For God made man, alone of things on the earth, a heavenly growth, fixing on the ground the heads of all others; for they all have the head bending downwards; but raising man’s upward, that his nourishment may be celestial and imperishable, not perishable and earthly. In accordance with this He attached our feet to the earth, thus removing as far as possible from the reasoning faculty that part of our body which is least capable of feeling, but our senses, which are satellites of the mind, and our mind itself he set at the greatest distance from the ground, linking them with the circuits of air and heaven, which are imperishable.