Charioteering as metripatheia: Aaron as an example of the progressing soul

Finally, in the parallel passage from Legum Allegoriarum, Philo offered an extended discussion of the chariot metaphor in relation to the soul’s spiritual and moral journey. In this case, however, he introduced a third soul type, namely, the Aaron soul:

God assigned to the wise man a share of surpassing excellence, even the power to cut out the passions. You observe how the perfect man always makes perfect freedom from passion (τελεία ἀπάθεια) his study. But Aaron, the man who is making gradual progress (ὅ προκόπτων), holding a lower position (δεύτερος ὢν) [than Moses], practices moderation (ἀσκέω μετριοπάθεια), as I have said; for his power does not go so far (ἀδυνατέω) as to enable him to cut out (ἐκτεμεῖν) the breast and the high-spirited element, but it brings to it, as charioteer and guide, reason with the virtues attached to it... ^[1]

In this passage Philo typified Aaron as the one who is making moral progress (ὅ προκόπτων). This soul type differs from both sage and fool. On the one hand, the Aaron soul is inferior to the Moses soul. While the Moses soul is perfect (τέλειος), the Aaron soul remains imperfect (ἀτελής).^[2] The Moses soul experiences apatheia, that is, the complete freedom from all passion, whereas the Aaron soul merely pratices the moderation of the passions, not their removal altogether. The Moses soul possesses the power to cut out the breast, while the Aaron soul does not. It can only curb and guide the high spirit and desire. So, while the Aaron soul still experiences anger, though in Peripatetic moderation, the Moses soul experiences no anger at all, only inner tranquility.^[3] In a corresponding manner, later in the passage Philo observed that the sage ‘washes the entire belly’, namely, all of bodily pleasures. The sage even foregoes and rejects necessary food and drink as for instance when Moses ate no bread and drank no water for forty days.^[4]The man of gradual advance, in contrast, merely ‘washes the inwards and the feet, but not the whole belly’, that is to say, he avoids excessive and elaborate delicacies, but still welcomes the simple and unavoidable pleasures connected to necessary food and drink.^[5] As a consequence, Philo noted that the Moses soul experiences virtue apart from any toil (ἄπονος) at all, while the Aaron soul exerts much toil (πόνος) in its efforts to charioteer the stiff-necked and restive horses of anger and desire.^[6]

On the other hand, the Aaron soul is superior to the other prototypical fool soul types discussed above such as Pharoah, Cain or Balaam. Whereas these fools are fixed upon their vicious existences, the Aaron soul instead aims to make genuine moral improvement—hence Philo’s favorite term for this type of soul as ‘one making progress’ (ὅ προκόπτων).  Whereas Philo described prototypical fools as passion-loving souls whose entire course depends on fierce spirit and desire, the progressing Aaron soul rather curbs (θεραπεύω), controls (ἐπιστομίζω), and trains (παιδεύω) both of these parts of the soul to be gentle. Unlike the fool, whose entire course is irrational, since it has given its mind over to the inferior impulses of anger and desire (ἐκδοθῆναι τῷ χείρονι), the progressing soul does not permit its anger to be ‘carried away by random impulses’ (ἀκρίτοις ὁρμαῖς ἐκφέρεσθαι), but curbs its ‘excessive impetuosity’ (ἡ ἐπὶ πλέον φορά).^[7] The distinction is curious since anger, as a Stoic passion, is by definition a random and excessive impulse. The key difference between the prototypical fool above and the Aaron soul, then, lies in the degree of randomness and excessiveness that characterizes the passion. While the foolish soul gives itself over to unmitigated anger, the Aaron soul, though still angry, moderates the soul’s motion and reduces its randomness when gripped by the passion. Additionally, the fool prefers the ease (ῥᾳστώνη) of incontinence and bodily pleasure to the toil that necessarily follows those things that are profitable (τὰ συμφέροντα) for the soul.^[8] Hence, the fool, as a lover of pleasure, ‘moves on the belly’, that is to say, it ever seeks after pleasures connected to bodily sense perception, especially those associated with eating, drinking, and sexual indulgence.^[9] The Aaron soul in contrast prefers the hardship (κακοπάθεια) of discipline and ‘toil for the sake of virtue’ (ὁ ὑπὲρ ἀρετῆς πόνος) to the fool’s quest for pleasure.^[10] Thus, while the fool serves created things, the Aaron soul has instead made a fundamental shift in its philosophical and religious orientation toward knowing and honoring God, which in turn purifies reason and begins the healing of the soul. As such, Philo argued that the Aaron soul is a recipient of God’s favor since perverted mind of the fool cannot be the source of its own purification. Instead, the soul’s turning from vice to virtue, which accounts for its transition from fool to progressing soul, comes from beyond the soul from God.^[11]

As was the case with the sage and the fool above, Philo treated numerous biblical figures as types of the progressing soul in addition to Aaron, including Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Abram, and Jacob. Listed below are the soul types that represented various types of the progressing soul in order of their appearance in the biblical narrative, which we will see, was significant for Philo:

·      Seth: Seth represents those minds that make a beginning toward good disposition and virtue.^[12] He stands as the head of the race of souls that acknowledge that God is the author of everything and love virtue.^[13]

·      Enos: Enos typifies hope in God. He represents those soul types who are taking their first step on the journey toward virtue because of the expectation of good things from God, namely, happiness, the ability to see God, and to live in accordance with nature.^[14]

·      Enoch: Enoch generally symbolized the gift of repentance when the soul begins to make a ‘change for the better’ (πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον ἡ μεταβολή). Such souls abandon the base and instead choose the excellent.^[15] Enoch could also symbolize those who acknowledge that everything comes from God and thus seek to please God alone. As a result, God translates such souls from mortality to immortality and from progress to perfection. In this case, Philo associate Enoch not with progressing souls, but with the sage.^[16]

·      Noah: Noah, representing those who are perfect in virtue relative to their generation, though not absolutely so.^[17] As such, such souls have made significant progress, though they fall short of the perfection of the sage.

·      Abram: Philo interpreted Abram to mean ‘uplifted father’. As such, he represented the ‘virtue-loving soul’ who begins his search for the true God by first contemplating the harmonious order and beauty of nature.^[18] He then rises higher to pursue the philosophy of the heavens and the beings that dwell there. Finally, this soul type mounts up yet higher through its love of knowledge to explore the divine nature itself.^[19] As a result, the Abram-soul finally attains perfection through teaching and study.

·      Jacob: Jacob symbolized the man of earnest effort.^[20] He embodies the notion of progress (προκοπή)^[21] by means of ‘toil’ (πόνος). When connected with his later identity as perfect Isreal, he represents the soul that is perfected in virtue through training or discipline (ἐξ ἀσκήσεως).^[22] His training includes such practices as investigation, examination, reading, hearing, attention, self-mastery, indifference to those things that ought to be categorized as indifferent, living only on what is necessary, low and mean, and eschewing luxury, pleasure, and popularity.

·      The nation of Israel: Philo approached the nation of Isreal from the perspective of their biblical lineage and from the story of the exodus. With regard to their ancestry, the people of Israel represented the ‘new race’ and ‘holy nation’ of souls that springs forth from Enos, Enoch and especially Noah. Their family tree terminates in sages such as Abraham, Isaac, and Moses.^[23] With regard to the exodus, the journey of the Isrealites from Egypt to the Promised Land served as an example of the long and arduous journey from vice toward virtue. In contrast to the journey of Abram, which terminates in wisdom through learning (ie. Abraham), the Isrealites themselves never reach sagehood. Instead, Philo treated the nation of Isreal as a symbol of the journey itself, that is, the progression of the soul.

·      Aaron: He symbolized an inferior (δεύτερος ὢν) stage in the progress of the soul to that of Moses. The Aaron-soul corresponds to the soul in which the rational part trains and curbs the lower parts of the soul with the result that their passions are moderated (μετριοπάθειαν). Philo elsewhere described Aaron as counted neither among those dead to the life of virtue, nor among those who live in supreme happiness. Rather, he ‘touches’ (ἐφάπτεται) both. Nevertheless, since he aspires to moral excellence and aims for the truth by the ‘deliberate choice of the good’ (ἡ ἑκούσιος αἵρεσις τἀγαθοῦ), he is making genuine improvement.^[24]

As we can see, Aaron comes at the end of a series of biblical figures that follow the biblical narrative as it unfolds. Each figure highlighted different aspects of this middling stage. Seth served as a symbol of the inauguration in the life of virtue, Enos of hope, Enoch of repentance, Noah of relative justice, Abram of progressing through learning, Jacob of progress through discipline, and the nation of Isreal of the journey itself. In the same way, Aaron represented the moderation of the passions exercised by progressing souls.

These elements also broadly corresponded with specific moments in the soul’s progession toward virtue. In De agricultura, Philo sketched a scheme for the moral progress of the soul that leads from vice and ignorance toward perfection in virtue and the vision of God.^[25] He outlined the soul’s progression into a series of stages:^[26]

·      The fool: As discussed above, Philo’s portrayed the fool as morally vicious, godless, ignorant, unskilled in living, wretched, and sick.

·      The beginner (ὁ ἀρχόμενος): Philo likened the beginner to a suitor (μνηστήρ), who hopes to one day marry disipline (παιδεία).^[27] Though such souls still lack knowledge, God has given them a readiness to learn (εὐμάθεια) so that they begin the journey toward virtue.^[28] Philo characterized this sort of soul especially with hope for a better life.

·      The progressing one (ὁ προκόπτων): Philo compared the one who is progressing to the husbandman (γεωργός). Just as he cares for the trees to ensure their growth, so the progressing soul seeks to bring about the utmost development in the principles of prudence.^[29]

·      The recently perfected (ὁ πρῶτον τέλειος): Philo likened these souls to a house whose plaster has just received the finishing touches, but has not quite become compact and firmly settled (πῆξις).^[30] Such souls have reached completeness, but remain unpracticed and unaware of their perfection.^[31]

·      The sage: As outlined above, Philo depicted the sage as morally virtuous, godly, knowledgeable, skilled in living, happy, and healthy

This fivefold division of the stages of progress into fools, beginners, progressing souls, recently perfected, and sages, still fit under Philo’s overarching Stoic division of all souls into fools and sages. The fool comprehended ‘pure’ fools such as the Pharoah soul above, the beginners, and those who are progressing, while the sage included those who are newly perfected as well as the experienced and settled sage. Philo variously referred to middle soul type variously as one who is making progress (προκοπή), as one that is on the way to betterment (βελτίωσις), ^[32] as a practicer (ὁ ἀσκητής), or simply as the soul type that is ‘in the middle’ (ἡ μέση [ψυχή]).^[33] On the one hand, though Philo distinguished the beginner and progressing soul from one another, both were instances of souls that are making progress. As such, he distinguished both from newly perfected soul and the sage as those who remain ‘imperfect’ (ἀτελής), while like the Aaron Soul above both alternatively differ from the fool proper in that they have turned toward God.^[34] The beginner and progressing soul differ from one another, on the other hand, with regard to the degree of progress they have made toward virtue and perfection. The beginner is more inexperienced (ἄπειρος) and ignorant than the progressing soul, who has practiced virtue and discipline for some time now. ^[35] Nevertheless, both the beginner and progressing soul are still counted as fools since both remain fundamentally ignorant, unskilled, and imperfect.

Philo’s distinction among varying degrees of progress among the fool soul type was of Stoic provenance as well. The Stoics had differentiated those foolish souls that are making genuine progress toward virtue and sagehood from those that are not, referring to the progressing sort of fool as one who is progressing (ὅ προκόπτων) toward virtue.^[36]  They compared these later types of fools to a drowning man that is swimnming toward the water’s surface. These souls are still fools inasmuch as they remain below the water’s surface. As a consequent, they are still in danger of drowning. Nevertheless, they have made genuine progress toward reaching water’s surface and attaining the life of virtue and wisdom.^[37]

Philo’s division between newly perfected souls and the mature sage above reflected a Stoic outlook as well. The Stoics had distinguised between those perfected souls that have only recently attained perfection from those who have firmly remained wise for some time, although they didn’t use different terms to distinguish the two. They had argued that the newly perfected often are quite unaware of the fact that they have arrived at perfection and hence may easily fall away again into foolishness whereas the sage has not only attained perfection, but also is both cognizant of the fact and remains firm and steady in his virtue through practice.^[38] Philo made the same fundamental distinctions between the recently perfected and the mature sage. Like the Stoics, Philo’s recently perfected are still unpracticed in virtue and unconscious of their wisdom (διαλεληθότες εἶναι σοφοί).^[39]

Philo thus overlaid this scheme of souls in various stages of progress toward virtue on the biblical narrative. Beginning with Seth, Philo treated various members of his family tree as types of different degrees of moral advancement. In the De Posteritate Caini, Philo schematized the biblical lineage into a series of three stages of improvement, each building on the previous. The first advance begins with Seth, the second with Noah, and the third with Abraham, culminating with Moses, the man who is wise in all things.^[40] Conversely, in De Abrahamo and in De Praemiis et Poenis, Philo simplified this scheme into two stages, each of which was comprised of three soul types. Enos, Enoch, and Noah made up the first triad and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the second. The first triad symbolized progressing souls in the first stages of the soul’s journey toward virtue and the second as those in the latter stages.^[41] Although one might be tempted to try to make these schematizations fit Philo’s fivefold division into fool, beginner, progressing soul, recently perfect, and sage, no exact correspondence exists. At first flush, Philo’s division of the progression into two stages in De Abrahamo for instance might appear to correspond to his beginning-progressing soul distinction, but only Enos as a symbol of hope and Enoch as a type for repentance could be construed as a beginner. Noah, who is also a member of the first set of soul types, has made such progress that Moses called him perfect in his generation, though he is not absolutely good like the sages who would come later.^[42] As such, each of these biblical figures rather fit into the spectrum of soul at different stages of the journey from foolishness to perfection. As such, the lineage that extends from Seth to the nation of Isreal and Moses represented the beginning of the race of soul types that are truly reasonable.^[43]

The Aaron soul, then, as the biblical figure that Philo especially connected with moderating the passions, fit especially well with Plato’s chariot metaphor.