Questions and Answers on Genesis
Philo of Alexandria
Book 2 · Section 53
About this work
Questions and answers interpreting passages in Genesis, combining literal explanation with allegory. The surviving text is fragmentary and does not represent the complete original work.
- Author
- Philo of Alexandria
- Date
- First century AD; dates vary by treatise
- Genre
- Commentary
- Textual language
- Greek
- Translator
- C. D. Yonge
- Translation / Edition
- C. D. Yonge translation, first published 1854.
(53) Why does he offer his sacrifice to the beneficent virtue of God, but the acceptance of it takes place by means of both the qualities of the Lord and God, for Moses says, "And the Lord God smelled a savour of sweetness?" (#Ge 8:20). He says this since, when unexpectedly, after all hope is gone, we are preserved from dangers which are coming over us, we then, looking solely at the beneficence of him who has preserved us, do, on account of our joy, display ingratitude, and prefer the benefits which we have received rather to the beneficent power than to the Lord. But the beneficent preserver himself, by means of both his attributes, looks down upon and honourably accepts grateful minds, that he may not appear to halt in rewarding them; but he declares that such a display of gratitude is pleasing to both attributes of the one God.