" Hence we may learn that it was
really the one God who appeared to the Patriarch, and that the three
angels were but a vision of his mind. This is the dominant note of
Philo's interpretation, but he as usual elaborates the old Midrash
philosophically.
"The words," he says, "are symbols of things apprehended by
intelligence alone--the soul receives a triple expression of
one being, of which one is the representative of the actual
existent, and the other two are shadows, as it were, cast
from this. So it happens also in the physical world, for
there often occur two shadows of bodies at rest or in
motion. Let no one suppose, however, that shadow is properly
used in relation to God. It is only a popular use of words
for the clearer understanding of our subject. The reality is
not so, but, as one standing nearest to the truth might say,
the middle one is the Father of the universe, who is called
in Scripture the 'Self-existent'; and those on either side
of Him are the two oldest and chief powers, the Creative and
the Regal. The middle one, then, being attended by the
others as by a bodyguard, presents to the contemplative mind
a mental image or representation now of one and now of
three; of one whenever the soul, being properly purified and
perfectly initiated, rises to the idea which is unmingled
and free from limitation, and requires nothing to complete
it; but of three whenever it has not yet been initiated into
the great mysteries, and still celebrates the lesser rites,
unable to apprehend the Being in itself without
modification, but apprehending it through its modes as
either creating or ruling.
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