Who Is the Heir of Divine Things?

Abraham questions God, is told to count the stars, and falls into a trance at sunset; from this Philo builds an account of the Logos that divides all things.

by Philo of Alexandria112 passages held

English, a translation held here, and your language

Original title: Quis rerum divinarum heres sit
Original language: Ancient Greek

Report a rights issue

Overview

Heraclitus, the philosopher of about 500 BCE whom Philo calls great and celebrated among the Greeks, made the unity of opposites the centre of his thought and, Philo says, boasted of it as a new discovery. Philo claims in this treatise that the idea was old long before Heraclitus: Moses had it first. The claim comes at the end of a long meditation on a single verse. In Genesis 15, God tells Abraham to cut a heifer, a goat and a ram in two and lay the halves opposite each other, and Philo reads the unnamed hand that divides them as the Logos, God's reason, which he calls the Divider. It cuts the formless mass of the world into its parts, and each part into equal and opposed halves, heavy and light, hot and cold, day and night, down to the smallest particle, and holds them together in balance. Modern scholars treat the passage as his fullest account of how the Logos works. The treatise begins elsewhere, with Abraham speaking frankly to God to ask what reward can matter to a man who has no heir, and Philo spends its opening on when a servant may speak freely to a master. God answers by promising an heir from Abraham's own body and telling him to count the stars. Abraham believed God, the verse says, and Philo calls that faith the most perfect of the virtues. Near the treatise's close comes the trance that falls on Abraham at sunset, which Philo reads as prophecy: when the light of the human mind sets, the divine spirit comes in.

Key concepts

What is the Logos as Divider in Who Is the Heir of Divine Things?

It is God's reason pictured as the hand that cuts. Just as the animals in Genesis 15 are divided into halves laid opposite each other, the Logos divides the formless mass of the world into its parts and each part into equal and opposed halves, down to the smallest particle. It also holds them together, so division and balance are one act.

What does Philo mean by the unity of opposites?

He means that out of one and the same thing opposites are produced, standing to each other as parts to a whole. Heavy and light, hot and cold, day and night come from a single division and belong together. Heraclitus made this the centre of his philosophy, but Philo claims it as an ancient discovery of Moses, shown in the division of the sacrificed animals.

When may a servant speak freely to God, according to Philo?

When he is free from sin, aware in his conscience that he loves his master, and happier to serve God than to rule the world. Freedom of speech, for Philo, is close to friendship, which is why Moses, who spoke boldly, is called dear to God. Abraham's question about his heir is frank in exactly this sense.

What kind of trance falls on Abraham at sunset?

Prophetic possession, the highest of the kinds of trance Philo distinguishes. Others include the delirium caused by old age or melancholy and the amazement that seizes someone at the unexpected. In the prophetic kind the human mind withdraws, as the sun sets, and the divine spirit takes its place, so what the prophet utters is not his own.

Themes of the book

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

The Logos That Divides the World into Opposites

How can a world made of opposites hold together? Philo's answer is a divine reason that cuts everything in two and keeps the halves in balance.

In Genesis 15 God tells Abraham to cut a heifer, a goat and a ram in two and lay the halves opposite each other. Philo reads the unnamed hand that divides them as the Logos, God's reason, which he calls the Divider. It cuts the formless mass of the world into its parts, and each part into equal and opposed halves, heavy and light, hot and cold, day and night, down to the smallest particle, and holds them together in balance. Heraclitus boasted of the unity of opposites as his own discovery; Philo claims Moses had it first.

cosmology
equality
division
proportion
elements
divine word
creation
symbolism
peace

Enter a dialogue

Speaking Frankly to God, and Believing Him

When may a servant speak freely to his master, and what does it mean to take him at his word? Abraham does both, and Philo calls the second the most perfect of the virtues.

The treatise begins with Abraham daring to question God: what reward can matter to a man with no heir? Philo spends its opening on when a servant of God may use such freedom of speech, and answers that it belongs to one free of sin who loves his master; frankness of that kind is close to friendship. God answers by promising an heir from Abraham's own body and telling him to count the stars. Abraham believed God, the verse says, and Philo calls that faith the most perfect of the virtues.

humility
truth
gratitude
virtue
wisdom
soul
scriptural interpretation
law

Enter a dialogue

Prophecy When the Mind's Light Sets

Where does a prophet's knowledge come from, if not from his own mind? Philo's answer is that the mind has to step aside for it.

Near its close the treatise reaches the trance that falls on Abraham at sunset. Philo distinguishes several kinds of trance, from the delirium of old age or melancholy to plain amazement, and reads this one as the highest: prophecy. The sun is the human mind. While its light shines, a person thinks their own thoughts; when it sets, the divine spirit comes in, and the prophet speaks what he has not devised. The light of the human mind has to go out before the other light can arrive.

prophecy
mind
intellect
sense perception
human faculties
knowledge
passions
moral psychology

Enter a dialogue

Within this work

passages held: 112
distinct concepts: 217
by passages held, corpus-wide: #481

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: “virtue” and “wisdom”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 17 pairings. 83 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
virtue	wisdom	6
allegory	virtue	5
soul	virtue	5
sense perception	virtue	4
allegory	wisdom	3
cosmology	soul	3
sense perception	soul	3
sense perception	wisdom	3
soul	wisdom	3
allegory	cosmology	2
allegory	sense perception	2
cosmology	creation	2
allegory	soul	1
cosmology	equality	1
cosmology	virtue	1
cosmology	wisdom	1
creation	equality	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)
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) you are here EN

— or open another of their works

Who Is the Heir of Divine Things?

Overview

Key concepts

What is the Logos as Divider in Who Is the Heir of Divine Things?

What does Philo mean by the unity of opposites?

When may a servant speak freely to God, according to Philo?

What kind of trance falls on Abraham at sunset?

Themes of the book

1The Logos That Divides the World into Opposites

2Speaking Frankly to God, and Believing Him

3Prophecy When the Mind's Light Sets

Within this work

What this book thinks together

Works held

The Logos That Divides the World into Opposites

Speaking Frankly to God, and Believing Him

Prophecy When the Mind's Light Sets