On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain

Pleasure and virtue court the soul like rival wives, and virtue answers pleasure's promises with a list of some hundred and fifty vices.

by Philo of Alexandria66 passages held

English, a translation held here, and your language

Original title: De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini
Original language: Ancient Greek

Report a rights issue

Overview

Midway through the treatise virtue speaks, and her speech turns into a list: bold, cunning, lawless, faithless, greedy, and on through some hundred and fifty words for what a person becomes by choosing pleasure. Philo reaches it from a single verse of Genesis, in which Eve bore again, Abel after Cain. To add Abel, he argues, is to take something away, since a soul that gains the love of God has to lose its self-love. Two women live in every one of us, he says, like the two wives of the law in Deuteronomy, one loved and one hated: pleasure arrives dressed like a courtesan with her train of flatterers and promises every good thing on earth, while virtue comes plainly and tells the truth about the price. The second half turns to the offerings themselves. Cain brought produce after some days, which Philo reads as thanks delayed and given grudgingly; Abel brought the firstborn of his flock, the best and the first. God needs nothing from anyone, so a sacrifice honours him only as an act of the giver's mind. The treatise sits early in the Allegorical Commentary, and its pairing of the two brothers had a long Christian afterlife: Ambrose, bishop of Milan in the fourth century, wrote his own De Cain et Abel, and his Old Testament commentaries rest largely on Philo and Origen.

Key concepts

Who are the two wives in On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain?

They are pleasure and virtue, the two women Philo says live in every one of us. He models them on the law in Deuteronomy about a man with two wives, one loved and one hated. Pleasure is the one courted first, dressed up and surrounded by flatterers; virtue is the one who comes plainly. The choice between them is the drama the whole first half turns on.

Why does Philo say that adding Abel means taking something away?

Because the soul cannot gain one thing without losing its opposite. The verse says Eve bore again, Abel after Cain, and Philo reads the addition of Abel, the soul that refers everything to God, as the removal of Cain, the self-love that refers everything to itself. Growth in the love of God is therefore also a subtraction, and the treatise treats it as such.

What was wrong with Cain's offering, according to Philo?

Two things: its timing and its choice. Cain brought his offering after some days, so his thanks came late, and he brought fruits rather than first fruits, so it came from what was left rather than from the best. Abel, by contrast, brought the firstborn of his flock and their fat. For Philo, delay and second-best both show a giver whose gratitude is grudging.

How can a sacrifice honour a God who needs nothing?

Only through the mind of the one who offers it. Since God lacks nothing, nothing placed on an altar adds to him. What honours him is the act of the giver: prompt thanks, the first and best offered freely, a soul that acknowledges where its goods come from. The value of a sacrifice lies wholly in that disposition, which is why Cain's could fail however much he brought.

Themes of the book

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

Pleasure and Virtue, Two Wives in One House

When pleasure promises everything and virtue promises work, which one is telling the truth? Philo stages the choice as a courtship, and lets virtue answer with a list of what pleasure makes of a person.

Two women live in every one of us, Philo says, like the loved and the hated wife of the law in Deuteronomy. Pleasure comes dressed like a courtesan, with a train of flatterers, and promises every good thing on earth. Virtue comes plainly and tells the truth about the price. When she speaks, her speech becomes a list of some hundred and fifty words for what a person turns into by choosing pleasure. The verse behind it all says only that Eve bore again, Abel after Cain: to add Abel, Philo argues, the soul has to lose its self-love.

virtue
pleasure
passions
deception
good and evil
labor
moral progress
education

Enter a dialogue

Thanks Given Late, to a God Who Needs Nothing

If God lacks nothing, what can a gift to him be? Philo's answer moves the whole value of an offering into the mind of the one who gives it.

Genesis says that Cain brought produce after some days, and that Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. Philo reads two charges against Cain in the first phrase: his thanks came late, and they came from the fruits rather than the first fruits, the best and the first. Abel's offering was living, early and whole. Behind the contrast stands a claim about God himself: he needs nothing from anyone, so a sacrifice honours him only as an act of the giver's mind, and a grudging gift honours nobody.

sacrifice
gratitude
humility
divine providence
theology
divine attributes
scriptural interpretation
time

Enter a dialogue

Within this work

passages held: 66
distinct concepts: 140
by passages held, corpus-wide: #598

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: “reason” and “virtue”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 18 pairings. 51 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
reason	virtue	7
allegory	virtue	6
labor	virtue	5
knowledge	virtue	4
reason	soul	4
allegory	pleasure	3
education	knowledge	3
pleasure	virtue	3
soul	virtue	3
allegory	soul	2
education	labor	2
education	virtue	2
allegory	labor	1
allegory	reason	1
education	reason	1
knowledge	pleasure	1
labor	reason	1
pleasure	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)
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) you are here 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

— or open another of their works