The Letter Of Aristeas
1926 anthology, complete selected publisher reading text
Rutherford H. Platt
22 Therefore lest we should be corrupted by any abomination, or our lives be perverted by evil communications, he hedged us round on all sides by rules of purity, affecting alike what we eat, or drink, or touch, or hear, or see.
23 For though, speaking generally, all things are alike in their natural constitution, since they are all governed by one and the same power, yet there is a deep reason in each individual case why we abstain from the use of certain things and enjoy the common use of others.
24 For the sake of illustration I will run over one or two points and explain them to you.
25 For you must not fall into the degrading idea that it was out of regard to mice and weasels and other such things that Moses drew up his laws with such exceeding care. [7]
26 All these ordinances were made for the sake of righteousness to aid the quest for virtue and the perfecting of character.
27 For all the birds that we use are tame and distinguished by their cleanliness, feeding on various kinds of grain and pulse, such as for instance pigeons, turtle-doves, locusts, partridges, geese also, and all other birds of this class.
28 But the birds which are forbidden you will find to be wild and carnivorous, tyrannising over the others by the strength which they possess, and cruelly obtaining food by preying of the tame birds enumerated above.
29 And not only so, but they seize lambs and kids, and injure human beings too, whether dead or alive, and so by naming them unclean, he gave a sign by means of them that those, for whom the legislation was ordained, must practise righteousness in their hearts and not tyrannise over any one in reliance upon their own strength nor rob them of anything, but steer their course of life in accordance with justice, just as the tame birds, already mentioned, consume the different kinds of pulse that grow upon the earth and do not tyrannise to the destruction of their own kindred.
30 Our legislator taught us therefore that it is by such methods as these that indications are given to the wise, that they must be just and effect nothing by violence, and refrain from tyrannising over others in reliance upon their own strength.
31 For since it is considered unseemly even to touch such unclean animals, as have been mentioned, on account of their particular habits, ought we not to take every precaution lest our own characters should be destroyed to the same extent?
32 Wherefore all the rules which he has laid down with regard to what is permitted in the case of these birds and other animals, he has enacted with the object of teaching us a moral lesson.
33 For the division of the hoof and the separation of the claws are intended to teach us that we must discriminate between our individual actions with a view to the practice of virtue.
34 For the strength of our whole body and its activity depend upon our shoulders and limbs.
35 Therefore he compels us to recognise that we must perform all our actions with discrimination according to the standard of righteousness,--more especially because we have been distinctly separated from the rest of mankind.
36 For most other men defile themselves by promiscuous intercourse, thereby working great iniquity, and whole countries and cities pride themselves upon such vices.
37 For they not only have intercourse with men but they defile their own mothers and even their daughters.
38 But we have been kept separate from such sins.
39 And the people who have been separated in the aforementioned way are also characterised by the Lawgiver as possessing the gift of memory.
40 For all animals “which are cloven-footed and chew the cud” represent to the initiated the symbol of memory.
41 For the act of chewing the cud is nothing else than the reminiscence of life and existence.
42 For life is wont to be sustained by means of food, wherefor he exhorts us in the Scripture also in these words: “Thou shalt surely remember the Lord that wrought in thee those great and wonderful things.”
43 For when they are properly conceived, they are manifestly great and glorious; first the construction of the body and the disposition of the food and the separation of each individual limb and, for more, the organisation of the senses, the operation and invisible movement of the mind, the rapidity of its particular actions and its discovery of the arts, display an infinite resourcefulness.
44 Wherefore he exhorts us to remember that the aforesaid parts are kept together by the divine power with consummate skill.
45 For he has marked out every time and place that we may continually remember the God who rules and preserves us.
46 For in the matter of meats and drinks he bids us first of all offer part as a sacrifice and then forthwith enjoy our meal.
47 Moreover, upon our garments he has given us a symbol of remembrance, and in like manner he has ordered us to put the divine oracles upon our gates and doors as a remembrance of God.
48 And upon our hands, too, he expressly orders the symbol to be fastened, clearly showing that we ought to perform every act in righteousness, remembering our own creation, and above all the fear of God.
49 He bids men also, when lying down to sleep and rising tip again, to meditate upon the works of God, not only in word, but by observing distinctly the change and impression produced upon them, when they are going to sleep, and also their waking, how divine and incomprehensible the change from one of these states to the other is.
50 The excellency of the analogy in regard to discrimination and memory has now been pointed out to you, according to our interpretation of “the cloven hoof and the chewing of the cud.”
51 For our laws have not been drawn up at random or in accordance with the first casual thought that occurred to the mind, but with a view to truth and the indication of right reason.
52 For by means of the directions which he gives with regard to meats and drinks and particular cases of touching, he bids us neither to do nor listen to anything thoughtlessly nor to resort to injustice by the abuse of the power of reason.
53 In the case of the wild animals, too, the same principle may be discovered.
54 For the character of the weasel and of mice and such animals as these, which are expressly mentioned, is destructive.
55 Mice defile and damage everything, not only for their own food but even to the extent of rendering absolutely useless to man whatever it falls in their way to damage.
56 The weasel class, too, is peculiar: for besides what has been said, it has a characteristic which is defiling: It conceives through the ears and brings forth through the mouth.
57 And it is for this reason that a like practice is declared unclean in men.
58 For by embodying in speech all that they receive through the ears, they involve others in evils and work no ordinary impurity, being themselves altogether defiled by the pollution of impiety.
59 And your king, as we are informed, does quite right in destroying such men.’
60 Then I said ‘I suppose you mean the informers, for he constantly exposes them to tortures and to painful forms of death.’
61 ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘these are the men I mean; for to watch for men’s destruction is an unholy thing.