On Cultivation

From one verse about Noah, Philo draws a hierarchy of callings: the farmer over the field hand, the shepherd over the cattle-keeper, the horseman over the rider.

by Philo of Alexandria64 passages held

English, a translation held here, and your language

Original title: De agricultura
Original language: Ancient Greek

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Overview

Most people, Philo complains, use the words for working the land as if they all meant the same thing, and Moses never does: when Genesis says that Noah began to be a husbandman, it does not call him a mere tiller of the soil. A tiller works someone else's land for wages and cares only about the day's pay, while a husbandman knows his craft, prunes, grafts and plants for the future. The whole treatise runs on distinctions of that kind, each a picture of how a mind can govern the life it is given. The shepherd, who guides and restrains his flock, is set against the cattle-keeper, who merely feeds his beasts and lets them do as they like; the poets, Philo notes, called kings shepherds of the people, but Moses gives the title to the wise, who rule their own passions as a flock. The horseman who holds the reins is set against the rider who is carried wherever the horse wants to go, and the horses become appetite and anger pulling the soul's chariot, an image that recalls Plato's Phaedrus. A long passage on contests tells the reader to refuse the prizes in every competition of wrongdoing and to count the city festivals, with their theatres and crowds, as no truly sacred games. The treatise ends by noting that Noah only began to be a husbandman, since a beginning is not an end. It drew little scholarly attention until 2012, when Albert Geljon and David Runia gave it a full commentary in the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series.

Key concepts

What is the difference between a husbandman and a tiller of the soil in On Cultivation?

A tiller works someone else's land for wages and cares only about the day's pay; a husbandman knows the craft of farming and prunes, grafts and plants for the future. Philo notes that Genesis calls Noah the second, not the first, and makes the pair a picture of two ways a mind can work the soul: as a hired hand, or as someone who cultivates it with skill and foresight.

Why does Philo call the wise, not kings, shepherds?

Because a shepherd guides and restrains his flock, while a cattle-keeper merely feeds his beasts and lets them do as they like. The poets called kings shepherds of the people, but Moses gives the title to those who rule their own passions as a flock. Governing oneself, on this reading, is the original form of rule, and the more demanding one.

What do the horseman and the rider stand for in On Cultivation?

They stand for a mind that governs its impulses and one that is governed by them. The horseman holds the reins and directs the horse; the rider is carried wherever the horse wants to go. The horses are appetite and anger pulling the soul's chariot, an image that recalls Plato's Phaedrus, and the question is always who is steering.

Why does On Cultivation stress that Noah only began to be a husbandman?

Because a beginning is not an end. Philo closes the treatise on the word began to show that even a person who has taken up the cultivation of the soul has not yet completed it. Progress in virtue is a craft still being learned, and the text refuses to credit the start of it with the achievement.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

Husbandman or Hired Hand: Governing the Life One Is Given

Is a person working their own soul like a craftsman, or merely feeding what lives in it? Philo finds the whole difference hidden in near-synonyms Moses kept apart.

Genesis says Noah began to be a husbandman, not a mere tiller of the soil, and Philo builds the treatise on that choice of word. The tiller works someone else's land for the day's wage; the husbandman knows his craft and prunes, grafts and plants for the future. The shepherd guides and restrains his flock, the cattle-keeper only feeds it; Moses gives the title shepherd, which the poets gave to kings, to the wise who rule their own passions. The horseman holds the reins, the rider is carried wherever appetite and anger, the soul's horses, want to go.

self-mastery
self-governance
self-control
moral psychology
passions
appetite
reason
moral cultivation
political philosophy
temperance

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Contests a Wise Person Is Glad to Lose

What if the victory most people chase is the one worth refusing? The treatise measures every public contest by what it does to the soul.

A long passage on contests tells the reader to refuse the prizes in every competition of wrongdoing: in a contest of abuse, whoever wins is more dishonoured than whoever loses, so the loser is the real conqueror and should crown his rival himself. The city festivals, with their theatres and crowds, are no truly sacred games. The one victory worth having is over the passions and vices, the proud and restive army inside. And the book ends where Genesis leaves Noah: he only began to be a husbandman, since a beginning is not an end.

virtue
vice
moral development
sophistry
war
civic duty
humility
piety
virtue ethics

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Within this work

passages held: 64
distinct concepts: 130
by passages held, corpus-wide: #606

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “moral development” and “virtue”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 21 pairings. 75 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
moral development	virtue	6
passions	virtue	6
allegory	moral development	5
allegory	virtue	4
divine providence	virtue	4
passions	self-mastery	4
education	virtue	3
moral psychology	passions	3
moral psychology	self-mastery	3
allegory	education	2
allegory	moral psychology	2
divine providence	moral development	2
education	moral development	2
education	passions	2
moral psychology	virtue	2
allegory	divine providence	1
allegory	self-mastery	1
divine providence	passions	1
education	moral psychology	1
education	self-mastery	1
self-mastery	virtue	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

Against Flaccus (In Flaccum)
Written as a demonstration of divine justice, this account of the Alexandrian riots of 38 CE and of the prefect Philo blamed for them stands with his historical and apologetic works.
EN
Allegorical Interpretation (Legum allegoriae I–III)
The first surviving treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, Philo's long verse-by-verse reading of Genesis, covering its second and third chapters in three books.
EN
Every Good Man Is Free (Quod omnis probus liber sit)
Written in the manner of the Greek schools rather than as commentary on Moses, it is, with On the Eternity of the World, one of Philo's philosophical treatises.
EN
On Abraham (De Abrahamo)
The first of Philo's lives of the patriarchs in the Exposition of the Law, following On the Creation of the World; its companions on Isaac and Jacob are lost, and On Joseph continues the set.
EN
On Cultivation (De agricultura) you are here EN
On Dreams (De somniis I–II)
A treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, in two surviving books on the dreams of Jacob, Joseph and Pharaoh's court.
EN
On Drunkenness (De ebrietate)
Of the two books on drunkenness known in antiquity, this is the one that survives; it sits between On Planting and On Sobriety in the Allegorical Commentary's run on Noah and the vine.
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On Flight and Finding (De fuga et inventione)
Hagar's flight and the angel who finds her, Genesis 16:6–14, read within the Allegorical Commentary.
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On Joseph (De Josepho)
The life of the statesman in Philo's series of patriarch lives within the Exposition of the Law. It follows On Abraham; lives of Isaac and Jacob, now lost, once stood between them.
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On Mating with the Preliminary Studies (De congressu eruditionis gratia)
Philo's reading of Genesis 16 as a theory of education, set within the Allegorical Commentary; On Flight and Finding continues Hagar's story.
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On Planting (De plantatione)
The second of Philo's two treatises on Noah as farmer, turning from farming in general to the planting of the vineyard.
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On Rewards and Punishments (De praemiis et poenis et de exsecrationibus)
The closing treatise of the Exposition of the Law, on the rewards, punishments, blessings and curses the Law sets before its hearers.
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On Sobriety (De sobrietate)
A short sequel to On Drunkenness in the Allegorical Commentary, on Noah waking and pronouncing his blessings and curse. Its Greek title names exactly that: what Noah prayed for and cursed once sober.
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On the Change of Names (De mutatione nominum)
Genesis 17 and its renamings, from Abram and Sarai to Jacob and Joshua, read in the Allegorical Commentary; it also carries Philo's clearest statement that God has no proper name.
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On the Cherubim (De Cherubim)
Two short commentaries joined under one title: the cherubim at Eden's gate, then the birth of Cain. Within the Allegorical Commentary it picks up where the three books of Allegorical Interpretation stop.
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On the Confusion of Tongues (De confusione linguarum)
The Tower of Babel in the Allegorical Commentary, opening with a defence of Genesis against critics who likened it to Greek myth.
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On the Contemplative Life (De vita contemplativa)
A portrait of the Therapeutae, classed with Philo's historical and apologetic writings; it opens by referring back to his account of the Essenes, the active life to this contemplative one.
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On the Creation of the World (De opificio mundi)
The overture to Philo's Exposition of the Law, the series that goes on to lives of the patriarchs and a code of laws. It stands apart as his reading of the creation story in its literal order.
EN
On the Decalogue (De decalogo)
The hinge of the Exposition of the Law, turning from the lives of the patriarchs to the written law.
EN
On the Embassy to Gaius (Legatio ad Gaium)
The companion of Against Flaccus: an eyewitness history of the embassy Philo led to Gaius, and the fullest account he left of his own public life.
EN
On the Eternity of the World (De aeternitate mundi)
Among Philo's philosophical treatises, the one that names the Greek schools and their arguments most openly.
EN
On the Giants and On the Unchangeableness of God (De gigantibus; Quod Deus sit immutabilis)
Two treatises that editions usually separate but that read as one commentary, in the Allegorical Commentary, on the verses of Genesis leading up to the flood.
EN
On the Life of Moses (De vita Mosis I–II)
Philo's biography of Moses in two books, usually counted with the Exposition of the Law though it stands on its own.
EN
On the Migration of Abraham (De migratione Abrahami)
Abraham's call in Genesis 12, read as the soul's migration toward God; in the Allegorical Commentary it follows On the Confusion of Tongues in the order of Genesis.
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On the Posterity of Cain (De posteritate Caini)
The last of the Cain treatises in the Allegorical Commentary, following Cain from his exile through his descendants.
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On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain (De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini)
One of the run of treatises on Cain and Abel in the Allegorical Commentary, taking up the brothers' offerings in Genesis 4.
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On the Special Laws (De specialibus legibus I–IV)
The largest work in the Exposition of the Law, in four books; it follows On the Decalogue and is followed by On the Virtues.
EN
On the Virtues (De virtutibus)
A pendant to On the Special Laws in the Exposition of the Law, gathering laws under the virtues they train rather than under the Ten Commandments.
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The Worse Attacks the Better (Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat)
It follows On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain in the Allegorical Commentary and carries the brothers' story on to the murder itself.
EN
Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? (Quis rerum divinarum heres sit)
Best known for its long passage on the Logos dividing the world into opposites, this reading of God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 belongs to the Allegorical Commentary.
EN

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