Complete Works of Philo Judaeus, Vol. 2

§. 14. It would be appropriate to consider for what reason he is introduced as building and constructing a city; for a city requires a multitude of people for habitation, whereas for three who were alive at that time Cain, his wife, and son., a foothill or a small cave would be a most sufficient dwelling. And I said three, but in probability, it was for himself alone. For not even the parents, after the murder, endured to live in the same city as the killer, for one who had committed fratricide, a greater stain than homicide. For it is not only paradoxical but also irrational to all that one man should build a city. In what way? Would he even build the most hidden part of a house without using other servants? Or would the same man be able to quarry stone, cut wood, work iron and bronze, surround himself with walls, a great circuit of cities, propylaea, defensive walls, temples, sacred precincts, porticos, shipyards, houses, and whatever other public and private things are customary to be built? And in addition to these, 235 to dam water M. and earth, to widen narrow passages, to build fountains and aqueducts, and whatever else a city needs to be constructed? Perhaps, then, since these things depart from the truth, it is better to interpret allegorically that Cain has determined to construct his own opinion as a city.

§. 15. Since, therefore, every city consists of buildings, inhabitants, and laws, the buildings for him are the demonstrative arguments, by which, as if from a wall, he fights against the attacks of opponents, inventions of myth-makers against the truth. The inhabitants are the companions of impiety, godlessness, self-love, boasting, and false opinion—the dokesisophoi those who seem wise—who do not know the wisdom that is according to truth, having gathered together ignorance, lack of education, stupidity, and the other sisters and relatives of calamity. The laws are lawlessness, injustice, inequality, licentiousness, audacity, madness, self-will, and the unmeasured desire of pleasures.