[162] But within the feast there is another feast following directly after the first day. This is called the “Sheaf,” a name given to it from the ceremony which consists in bringing to the altar a sheaf as a first-fruit, both of the land which has been given to the nation to dwell in and of the whole earth, so that it serves that purpose both to the nation in particular and for the whole human race in general.
[163] The reason of this is that the Jewish nation is to the whole inhabited world what the priest is to the State. For the holy office in very truth belongs to the nation because it carries out all the rites of purification and both in body and soul obeys the injunctions of the divine laws, which restrict the pleasures of the belly and the parts below it and the horde … setting reason to guide the irrational senses, and also check and rein in the wild and extravagant impulses of the soul, sometimes through gentler remonstrances and philosophical admonitions, sometimes through severer and more forcible condemnations and the fear of punishment which they hold over it as a deterrent.
[164] But not only is the legislation in a sense a lesson on the sacred office, not only does a life led in conformity with the laws necessarily confer priesthood or rather high priesthood in the judgement of truth, but there is another point of special importance. There is no bound or limit to the number of deities, male and female, honoured in different cities, the vain inventions of the tribe of poets and of the great multitude of men to whom the quest for truth is a task of difficulty and beyond their powers of research. Yet instead of all peoples having the same gods, we find different nations venerating and honouring different gods. The gods of the foreigner they do not regard as gods at all. They treat their acceptance by the others as a jest and a laughing-stock and denounce the extreme folly of those who honour them and the failure to think soundly shewn thereby.
[165] But if He exists Whom all Greeks and barbarians unanimously acknowledge, the supreme Father of gods and men and the Maker of the whole universe, whose nature is invisible and inscrutable not only by the eye, but by the mind, yet is a matter into which every student of astronomical science and other philosophy desires to make research and leaves nothing untried which would help him to discern it and do it service—then it was the duty of all men to cleave to Him and not introduce new gods staged as by machinery to receive the same honours.
[166] When they went wrong in what was the most vital matter of all, it is the literal truth that the error which the rest committed was corrected by the Jewish nation which passed over all created objects because they were created and naturally liable to destruction and chose the service only of the Uncreated and Eternal, first because of its excellence, secondly because it is profitable to dedicate and attach ourselves to the elder rather than to the younger, to the ruler rather than to the subject, to the maker rather than to the thing created.
[167] And therefore it astonishes me to see that some people venture to accuse of inhumanity the nation which has shewn so profound a sense of fellowship and goodwill to all men everywhere, by using its prayers and festivals and first-fruit offerings as a means of supplication for the human race in general and of making its homage to the truly existent God in the name of those who have evaded the service which it was their duty to give, as well as of itself.
[168] So much for this feast as a thanksgiving for the whole human race. But the nation in particular also gives thanks for many reasons. First, because they do not continue for ever wandering broadcast over islands and continents and occupying the homelands of others as strangers and vagrants, open to the reproach of waiting to seize the goods of others. Nor have they just borrowed a section of this great country for lack of means to purchase, but have acquired the land and cities for their own property, a heritage in which they live as long established citizens and therefore offer first-fruits from it as a sacred duty.
[169] Secondly, the land which has fallen to their lot is not derelict nor indifferent soil, but good land, well fitted for breeding domestic animals and bearing fruits in vast abundance. For in it there is no poverty of soil and even such parts as seem to be stony or stubborn are intersected by soft veins of very great depth, the richness of which adapts them for producing life.
[170] But besides this it was no uninhabited land which they received, but one which contained a populous nation and great cities filled with stalwart citizens. Yet these cities have been stripped of their inhabitants and the whole nation, except for a small fraction, has disappeared, partly through wars, partly through heaven-sent visitations, a consequence of their strange and monstrous practices of iniquity and all their heinous acts of impiety aimed at the subversion of the statutes of nature. Thus should those who took their place as inhabitants gain instruction from the evil fate of others and learn from their history the lesson that if they emulate deeds of vice they will suffer the same doom, but if they pay honour to a life of virtue they will possess the heritage appointed to them and be ranked not as settlers but as native-born.
[171] We have shewn, then, that the Sheaf was an offering both of the nation’s own land and of the whole earth, given in thanks for the fertility and abundance which the nation and the whole human race desired to enjoy. But we must not fail to note that there are many things of great advantage represented by the offering. First, that we remember God, and what thing more perfectly good can we find than this? Secondly, that we make a requital, as is most fully due, to Him Who is the true cause of the good harvest.
[172] For the results due to the husbandman’s art are few or as good as nothing, furrows drawn, a plant dug or ringed around, a trench deepened, excessive overgrowth lopped, or other similar operations. But what we owe to nature is all indispensable and useful, a soil of great fruitfulness, fields irrigated by fountains or rivers, spring-fed or winter torrents, and watered by seasonable rains, happily tempered states of the air which sends us the breath of its truly life-giving breezes, numberless varieties of crops and plants. For which of these has man for its inventor or parent?
[173] No, it is nature, their parent, who has not grudged to man a share in the goods which are her very own, but judging him to be the chiefest of mortal animals because he has obtained a portion of reason and good sense, chose him as the worthiest and invited him to share what was hers to give. For all this it is meet and right that the hospitality of God should be praised and revered, God Who provides for His guests the whole earth as a truly hospitable home ever filled not merely with necessaries, but with the means of luxurious living.
[174] Further, we learn not to neglect benefactors, for he who is grateful to God, Who needs nothing and is His own fullness, will thus become accustomed to be grateful to men whose needs are numberless.
[175] The sheaf thus offered is of barley, shewing that the use of the inferior grains is not open to censure. It would be irreverent to give first-fruits of them all, as most of them are made to give pleasure rather than to be used as necessaries, and equally unlawful to enjoy and partake of any form of food for which thanks had not been offered in the proper and rightful manner. And therefore the law ordained that the first-fruit offerings should be made of barley, a species of grain regarded as holding the second place in value as food. For wheat holds the first place and as the first-fruit of this has greater distinction, the law postponed it to a more suitable season in the future. It does not anticipate matters, but puts it in storage for the time being, so that the various thank-offerings may be adjusted to their appointed dates as they recur.