Questions and Answers on Genesis
Philo of Alexandria
Book 3 · Section 59
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.
(59) Why does he say, But behold I will also listen to thee concerning Ishmael, and I will bless him, and he shall become the father of twelve nations? (#Ge 17:20). God says, I will grant to thee both the first and the second blessing, that is to say, both the blessings of nature and the blessings of instruction; by nature that which is according to the legitimate course of nature, that is Isaac, and by instruction that which is according to Ishmael, who is not legitimate: for hearing, when compared with sight, is like the illegitimate compared with the legitimate, and what is brought about by instruction is not of the same class with that which owes its existence to nature; and the man who is desirous of encyclical wisdom becomes the father of nations, for the encyclical number is a period of twelve days and years.