On Planting

God as the first planter, the cosmos as his tree, and a debate on whether a wise man will get drunk, broken off as soon as it starts.

by Philo of Alexandria60 passages held

English, a translation held here, and your language

Original title: De plantatione
Original language: Ancient Greek

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Overview

Eusebius, the fourth-century bishop who catalogued Philo's writings, listed two books On Agriculture, and the Greek heading of this one numbers it second. Its opening looks back to a first part on farming in general before turning to the verse in which Noah plants a vineyard. Before any human planter, Philo says, comes the greatest one: God, who brought order out of formless matter and rooted the whole cosmos like a single plant that bears everything else. Plants grow with their heads buried in the ground and animals look down at it, but human beings alone stand upright, with eyes lifted to the sky, because the human mind is a plant of heaven. From there the book moves to the planting done by people who imitate God: Abraham's field at the well of the oath, and the law in Leviticus that forbids eating the fruit of a newly planted tree for three years and makes the fourth year's crop holy, which prompts a long passage on the virtues of the number four. The final section opens a question the Greek schools had long argued over: will a wise man ever get drunk? Philo remarks that philosophers left countless treatises on drunkenness that discuss nothing but wine, promises to set out both sides fairly, states the first argument and the first objection to it, and stops there. On Drunkenness, which follows it in the Allegorical Commentary, returns to Noah's wine.

Key concepts

What does Philo mean by calling the cosmos God's plant?

He means that God is the first and greatest planter, who brought order out of formless matter and rooted the whole world like one plant bearing everything else. Every lesser planting, including the work of human farmers, comes after this and imitates it. The image makes the cosmos something grown from a single source and cared for, not simply assembled.

Why is the human mind called a plant of heaven in On Planting?

Because human beings alone stand upright with their eyes lifted to the sky. Plants grow with their heads buried in the ground and animals look down at it, but the human body points upward, and Philo reads that posture as a sign of where the mind is rooted. Its origin and its proper object are above, in heaven, not in the earth.

Why does the fourth year matter in the law of newly planted trees?

The law in Leviticus forbids eating a new tree's fruit for three years and makes the fourth year's crop holy, given in praise to God. Philo reads it as a lesson that the first ripe yield belongs to the giver of growth, and it prompts a long passage on the virtues of the number four and the properties that set it apart.

What are the two sides of the debate on the wise man and wine?

One side argues that since sobriety suits both good and bad people, drunkenness must too, so a wise man may drink deeply without losing his virtue; wine only makes the controlled more amiable. The other side answers that nobody trusts a secret to a drunk man, so a wise man will not get drunk. Philo sets out the first argument and the first objection, and there the treatise ends.

Themes of the book

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

God the First Planter, and the Upright Human Plant

What does it mean to be planted by God rather than simply grown? Philo's answer lifts the human head from the soil to the sky.

Before any human planter, Philo says, comes the greatest one: God, who brought order out of formless matter and rooted the whole cosmos like a single plant that bears everything else. Plants grow with their heads in the ground and animals look down at it; human beings alone stand upright, eyes lifted to the sky, because the human mind is a plant of heaven. People who plant well imitate God, as Abraham did at the well of the oath, and the law that makes a young tree's fourth-year fruit holy teaches that the first yield belongs to the giver.

creation
cosmology
divine nature
order
soul
human nature
body
worship
gratitude
number symbolism

Enter a dialogue

Will a Wise Man Ever Get Drunk?

Is wisdom a state wine can reach, or one it cannot touch? The last section stages the old argument fairly, and breaks off almost as soon as it starts.

The Greek schools had long argued whether a wise man would ever get drunk, and Philo promises to set out both sides. Sobriety and drunkenness are opposites, runs the first argument; both good and bad men are sober, so both may be drunk, and wine makes a slave of the passions more servile but makes a master of them more amiable. Besides, the philosophers' countless treatises on drunkenness discuss nothing but wine. Then comes the reply: nobody tells a secret to a drunk man, so the wise will not drink. After the first answer to that, the text stops.

intoxication
drunkenness
temperance
wisdom
semantics
virtue
truth
interpretation
happiness

Enter a dialogue

Within this work

passages held: 60
distinct concepts: 124
by passages held, corpus-wide: #624

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: “soul” and “virtue”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 18 pairings. 45 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
soul	virtue	5
allegory	virtue	4
allegory	soul	3
virtue	wisdom	3
allegory	divine nature	2
allegory	scriptural interpretation	2
cosmology	creation	2
scriptural interpretation	soul	2
scriptural interpretation	virtue	2
allegory	wisdom	1
cosmology	scriptural interpretation	1
cosmology	soul	1
creation	scriptural interpretation	1
divine nature	scriptural interpretation	1
divine nature	soul	1
divine nature	virtue	1
divine nature	wisdom	1
scriptural interpretation	wisdom	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)
Noah the farmer is a subject Philo splits across two treatises; this first one is built on the difference between near-synonyms, and On Planting continues it.
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.
EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
On Planting (De plantatione) you are here EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
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.
EN
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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