Biblical Antiquities of Philo: The Biblical Antiquities of Philo: Chapter XXVIII

CHAPTER XXVIII.

XXVIII. And when the days of Cenez drew

1 and said to them: Behold now, the Lord hath showed me all his marvellous works which he hath prepared to do for his people in the last days.

2. And now will I make my covenant with you this day, that ye forsake not the Lord your God after my departing. For ye have seen all the marvels which came upon them that sinned, and all that they declared, confessing their sins of their own accord, and how the Lord our God made an end of them for that they transgressed his covenant. Wherefore now spare ye them of your house and your sons, and abide in the ways of the Lord your God, that the Lord destroy not his inheritance.

3. And Phinees, the son of Eleazar the priest, said: If Cenez the ruler bid me, and the prophets and the people and the elders, I will speak a word which I heard of my father when he was a-dying, and will not keep silence concerning the commandment which he commanded me when his soul was being received. And Cenez the ruler and the prophets said: Let Phinees say on. Shall any other speak before the priest which keepeth the commandments of the Lord our God, and that, seeing that truth proceedeth out of his mouth, and out of his heart a shining light?

4. Then said Phinees: My father, when he was a-dying, commanded me saying: Thus shalt thou

1 Now while they were set, the holy spirit that

1 and

Footnotes 164:1 XXVIII. 1. The "two prophets Jabis and Phinees, and Phinees the son of Eleazar" are suspicious. I should not wonder if originally there had been but one prophet, Jabis, and Phinees the son of Eleazar. The plural prophetae, which occurs again in 3, might be a consequential change. 165:1 6 seq. There are several resemblances in this section to the diction of Ezekiel. The Spirit comes upon Kenaz as he sits among the elders: so in Ezek. 8:1 (20:1, 20:2). fundamentum may be compared with στερέωμα (Ezek. 122); subdiuum with 166:1 9. they are those that shall dwell therein, and the name of these are they which shall have the name of that man: qui habebunt nomen eius hominis. J says "and the light which is between them and illumines the path of man is Jerusalem, and there the men will dwell." I do not think that any mystical name filled the blank, or that there was any mention of a definite place, such as Jerusalem: the lines on which the vision is drawn are too broad to admit of this. "Adam" is the most likely supplement, if we consider the words which come next: "and it shall be when he hath sinned against me, and the time is fulfilled."