Questions and Answers on Genesis
Philo of Alexandria
Book 2 · Section 21
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.
(21) Why did the water overflow fifteen cubits above all the highest mountains? (#Ge 7:19). With respect to the literal statement we must remark that the excess was not merely one of fifteen cubits above all high mountains but above those which were a great deal more lofty and high than some others; therefore it was a great deal more than that height above the lower ones. But we must interpret this statement allegorically; for the loftier mountains shadow forth the senses in our body, because it has been permitted to them to occupy the abode of stability in the lofty region of our head. And there are five numbers of these, each to be considered separately, so that they amount in all to fifteen.
As, there is the faculty of sight, the thing which is visible, the act of seeing.
The faculty of hearing, the thing which is audible, and the act of hearing.
The faculty of smelling, the thing which can be smelled, and the act of smelling.
The faculty of taste, the thing which can be tasted, and the act of tasting.
The faculty of touch, the thing which can be touched, and the act of touching.
These are the fifteen cubits in excess; for they also are overwhelmed by the overflow, being destroyed by the unseasonable influx of infinite vices and evils.