er philosophical
doctrine, the account of Adam and Eve is deliberately chosen by Philo
as the text of a psychological treatise, in which he analyzes[134] the
relations of the mind, the senses, and the pleasures, represented
respectively by Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. The necessity of
explaining the story symbolically is professedly based on the fact
that otherwise we are driven to the idea that the Bible spoke
inaccurately about God. "It is silly," he says, "to suppose that Adam
and Eve can have hidden themselves in the Garden of Eden, for God
filled the whole." We are driven then to suggest another meaning; and
Philo passes into a homily about the false opinion of the man who
follows the bidding of the senses (Eve) at the instigation of pleasure
(the Serpent).[135]

The story of Cain and Abel is another piece of moral philosophy
embodied in a concrete form. Abel symbolizes pious humility, Cain the
deadly sin of atheism and intellectual pride, which denies the
absolute and ever-present power of the Deity. Philo asks himself the
question that other commentators have frequently raised, some in
reverence, some in ridicule, "Who was Cain's wife?"[136] And he
answers that the Bible expression about the children of Cain cannot be
taken literally, but suggests the union of the ill-ruled mind with
impious opinions, which have as their issue false pride and sin.

Philo here treats the stories in the opening of Genesis as pure
allegories, in which the men and women represent symbolically
characters and qualities. It should be remembered, however, that these
interpretations occur in the commentary where our author is not so
much expounding the Torah as deducing secret doctrines from it. His
proper exposition of the law proceeds from the book on the Creation to
the lives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then to the
lives of Joseph and Moses. And in this commentary the Bible narrative
is taken as historical truth: only in addition to the historical fact
there is a moral and universal value in every figure and every
episode. The patriarchs' lives represent the unwritten law which the
Greek world held in high honor, for it was considered to contain the
broad principles of individual and social conduct, and to be prior
logically and chronologically to the written codes. Moses, therefore,
the perfect legislator, according to Philo, has presented in the three
founders of the Hebrew race embodiments of the unwritten law