On the Migration of Abraham

God's command to Abraham to leave his country becomes a journey out of the self, and a warning to Jews who allegorised the Law away.

by Philo of Alexandria92 passages held

English, a translation held here, and your language

Original title: De migratione Abrahami
Original language: Ancient Greek

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Overview

In this treatise Philo admits that he often sat down to write knowing exactly what he meant to say and found his mind barren, and that at other times he came to the work empty and was suddenly filled, so carried away that he no longer knew where he was, who was present or what he was writing. The confession belongs in this book, which is about a soul being led somewhere it could not reach alone. God's command to Abraham, leave your land, your kindred and your father's house, becomes an instruction to leave the body, the senses and speech in turn, and Abraham's departure from Chaldea becomes a departure from astrology, the Chaldean science that looked for the causes of things in the stars rather than in their maker. Stop telling stories about the sun and moon, Philo tells such stargazers, until you have learned what you yourselves are. In the middle of this reading he stops to rebuke readers of his own kind. Some Jews of his day treated the laws as symbols only, and reasoned that if the Sabbath teaches a truth about God's rest, and circumcision stands for cutting away the passions, the practices themselves could be dropped. Philo answers that the literal law is to its meaning what the body is to the soul: care for one keeps the other. The passage is among the clearest evidence that the Jews of Philo's time argued among themselves over how far allegory could go.

Key concepts

What does Abraham's migration mean in On the Migration of Abraham?

It means the soul's departure from everything that ties it to itself. God's command to leave land, kindred and father's house becomes an instruction to leave the body, the senses and speech in turn. Abraham's physical journey from Chaldea stands for a mind led, stage by stage, towards God, a place it could not reach by its own powers.

Why does Philo link Chaldea with astrology?

Because the Chaldeans were famous for the science of the stars, which looked for the causes of events in the heavens. For Philo that is a mistake about where causes lie: the stars are made things, and the cause is their maker. Leaving Chaldea therefore means abandoning a view of the world that stops at creation and never reaches the creator.

Who were the extreme allegorists Philo criticises?

They were Jews of his own day who read the laws as symbols only and concluded that the practices could be dropped once their meaning was grasped. If the Sabbath teaches about God's rest and circumcision about cutting away the passions, they reasoned, observance was unnecessary. Philo shares their method of reading but rejects their conclusion.

How does Philo relate the literal law to its hidden meaning?

As the body relates to the soul. The literal practice is the body of the law and the meaning its soul, and just as caring for the body keeps the soul housed, keeping the practice preserves the meaning. Abandon the observance and the meaning loses the home in which it lives among people.

Themes of the book

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

Leaving Body, Senses and Speech Behind

What would it take for a soul to go somewhere it cannot reach alone? God's command to Abraham becomes a journey out of the self and past the stars.

Leave your land, your kindred and your father's house: Philo reads the command as an instruction to leave the body, the senses and speech in turn. Abraham's departure from Chaldea is a departure from astrology, the science that sought the causes of things in the stars rather than in their maker; stop telling stories about the sun and moon, Philo tells such stargazers, until you have learned what you yourselves are. His own confession belongs here: he often sat down to write and found his mind barren, and at other times came empty and was suddenly filled.

sense perception
soul
intellect
contemplation
self-knowledge
embodiment
language
divine inspiration
cosmology
wisdom

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Why Allegory Does Not Cancel the Law

If a law's meaning can be grasped, may its practice be dropped? Philo, the great allegorist, says no, and says it to his own side.

In the middle of this soaring reading Philo stops to rebuke readers of his own kind. Some Jews treated the laws as symbols only: if the Sabbath teaches a truth about God's rest, and circumcision stands for cutting away the passions, the practices themselves could be dropped. They lived, he says, as if they were souls without bodies, alone in a desert with no city or neighbours. Philo answers that the literal law is to its meaning what the body is to the soul, and care for the one keeps the other. It is among the clearest evidence that Jews of his day argued over how far allegory could go.

allegory
scripture
justice
moral character
reputation
education
intention
passions

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Within this work

passages held: 92
distinct concepts: 177
by passages held, corpus-wide: #520

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: “allegory” and “virtue”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 24 pairings. 78 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
allegory	virtue	12
soul	virtue	10
allegory	sense perception	6
intellect	sense perception	6
allegory	soul	5
contemplation	virtue	4
reason	sense perception	4
sense perception	virtue	4
contemplation	wisdom	3
intellect	virtue	3
reason	virtue	3
virtue	wisdom	3
allegory	contemplation	2
allegory	intellect	2
allegory	reason	2
allegory	wisdom	2
contemplation	intellect	2
contemplation	reason	2
sense perception	soul	2
sense perception	wisdom	2
contemplation	sense perception	1
contemplation	soul	1
intellect	reason	1
intellect	soul	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)
The second of Philo's two treatises on Noah as farmer, turning from farming in general to the planting of the vineyard.
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) you are here 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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