ordinances among this people."[1] Is there then not a command of God that they should not eat [these things]? There is, but Moses spoke with a spiritual reference.[2] For this reason he named the swine, as much as to say, "Thou shalt not join thyself to men who resemble swine." For when they live in pleasure, they forget their Lord; but when they come to want, they acknowledge the Lord. And [in like manner] the swine, when it has eaten, does not recognise its master; but when hungry it cries out, and on receiving food is quiet again. "Neither shalt thou eat," says he, "the eagle, nor the hawk, nor the kite, nor the raven." "Thou shalt not join thyself," he means, "to such men as know not how to procure food for themselves by labour and sweat, but seize on that of others in their iniquity, and although wearing an aspect of simplicity, are on the watch to plunder others."[3] So these birds, while they sit idle, inquire how they may devour the flesh of others, proving themselves pests [to all] by their wickedness. "And thou shalt not eat," he says, "the lamprey, or the polypus, or the cuttle-fish." He means, "Thou shalt not join thyself or be like to such men as are ungodly to the end, and are condemned[4] to death." In like manner as those fishes, above accursed, float in the deep, not swimming [on the surface] like the rest, but make their abode in the mud which lies at the bottom. Moreover, "Thou shalt not," he says, "eat the hare." Wherefore? "Thou shalt not be a corrupter of boys, nor like unto such."[5] Because the hare multiplies, year by year, the places of
- ↑ Deut. iv. 1.
- ↑ Literally, "in spirit."
- ↑ Cod. Sin. inserts, "and gaze about for some way of escape on account of their greediness, even as these birds alone do not procure food for themselves (by labour), but sitting idle, seek to devour the flesh of others." The text as above seems preferable: Hilgenfeld, however, follows the Greek.
- ↑ Cod. Sin. has, "condemned already."
- ↑ Dressel has a note upon this passage, in which he refers the words we have rendered "corrupters of boys," to those who by their dissolute lives waste their fortunes, and so entail destruction on their children; but this does not appear satisfactory. Comp. Clem. Alex. Pædag. ii. 10.
