txt/Second Temple/Philo/The Midrash of Philo/English/Sefaria Community Translation.txt

The Midrash of Philo
מדרשי פילון
Sefaria Community Translation
https://www.sefaria.org

The Midrash of Philo



Chapter 1



Chapter 2



Chapter 3



Chapter 4



Chapter 5



Chapter 6



Verse 1



Verse 2



Verse 3



Verse 4



Verse 5



Verse 6



Verse 7



Verse 8



Verse 9



Verse 10



Verse 11



Verse 12





According to Philo, it is not explicitly stated "the way of God," but rather "his way," since this refers to the degradation of humanity, the name of God is not mentioned in the text. This is his method in several places, where the Lord does not mention His name regarding evil, and He does not share His name on punishments and curses, as stated in "On the Confusion of Tongues" and "On Migration and Encounter". Even though Philo has a few instances where God punishes directly and not through an agent, as seen in "On the Life of Moses" I, 97 and Exodus 12:23, and in the response to Exodus I, 23, and as mentioned earlier in Genesis 3:22, and the commentary on Genesis I, 55, this method is really like the method of Rabbi Yochanan: "Rabbi Eliezer ben Pedat said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, the name of God is not mentioned regarding evil, only regarding good. Know that this is so, when God created light and darkness and called them names, He mentioned His name regarding light and did not mention His name regarding darkness, as it is said (Genesis 1:5), "And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night." Similarly, when He created Adam and Eve, He mentioned His name on them." As it is said (Genesis 48:16), "And may God bless them," and when he cursed them, he did not mention His name upon them, etc. The Holy One, blessed be He, did not wish to perform the evil Himself, but rather through an angel (Talmud Bavli, Tazria 12). See also Genesis 19:12-13; Exodus 12:23 and in the commentary of Rabbi Hayyim ben Attar. "From this we learn that the Torah's ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring punishment without mentioning His name. Similarly, when it says 'and He destroyed all living things,' it does not say 'and God destroyed all living things'" (Rabbi Hayyim ben Attar, Genesis 7:11). Further examples can be found in his commentary.