The Works of Philo Judaeus, Vol. 2

...and coming to that which is most important among them will say, “Your children have taken the sum of the men that are warriors among us, and there is not one of them who has disagreed,” Numbers xxxi. 49. but like musical instruments, skillfully tuned in all their tones, so we sound in harmony in all our explanations, neither uttering any word nor doing any action which shall be unmelodious or discordant. We do this that we may by contrast show that the other company of unlettered men is, in all respects, voiceless and dead, and an object of deserved ridicule; namely, that nourishment of the corporeal parts, Midian, and that his offspring too, that mass of skins, whose name is Belphegor A Moabite deity., is asleep. “For we are of the race of picked men of Israel, that sees God, of whom not one has disagreed,” Exodus xxiv. 11. that the instrument of the universe, the whole world, may be melodiously sounded in musical harmony.

On this account Moses says that the “reward of peace” Numbers xxv. 12. was given to the very warlike reason, which is called Phinehas; because, having received a zeal for virtue and having taken up war against vice, he cut up the whole of generation. And in the second place, it is given to all those who are willing, after a careful examination and investigation—using their eyes in preference to their ears as a trustworthy witness—to believe that the human race is full of infidelity, depending solely on opinion. Therefore the aforementioned agreement is admirable; and most admirable of all is that common one which exceeds all the harmonies of all the others, according to which the whole people is represented as saying with one accord, “All the things which God has spoken, we will obey and do.” Deuteronomy v. 27. For these men no longer obey reason as their ruler, but God, the governor of the universe, by whom they are assisted so as to display their energies in actions rather than in words. For when they hear of others doing such and such things, these men—which is a thing most contrary to what one would expect—say that, from some inspiration of God, they will act first and obey afterwards; in order that they may seem to have advanced to good actions, not in consequence of instruction and admonition, but by their own spontaneous and self-taught mind. And then, when they have accomplished these actions, they say...