Philo's allegorical treatise on Genesis 4 (Cain and Abel) and the Joseph narrative, reading them as a psychology of how the inferior part of the soul assaults the better part.
That the Worse Attacks the Better is one of Philo of Alexandria's allegorical commentaries on Genesis, taking as its starting text the murder of Abel by Cain (Genesis 4:8) and then ranging into the story of Joseph being sent to find his brothers (Genesis 37). Philo treats both narratives not as history but as figures for a conflict inside every soul: Cain represents the mind's love of self and sophistic cleverness, Abel the God-loving part of the soul, and the 'plain' to which Cain lures Abel symbolizes the open field of specious argument where the worse part tries to overpower the better by rhetorical trickery rather than truth.
The bulk of the treatise turns to Jacob sending Joseph to see how his brothers and the flocks are faring, which Philo reads allegorically as the rational, fatherly element of the soul dispatching the mind to inspect and correct its own irrational impulses ('the flocks') before they go astray. Along the way Philo digresses into extended attacks on false versions of virtue: people who confuse a mixed notion of happiness (external, bodily, and spiritual goods lumped together) with true good; ascetics who abstain from food or comfort merely for show; and worshippers who lavish wealth on temples and sacrifices while leaving their own minds corrupt. He insists that every virtue must be practiced 'skillfully' and 'kindred' to itself - prudence must not become cunning, temperance must not become stinginess, piety must not become superstition.
The treatise matters as a window into Philo's method: he fuses Greek ethical categories (the four cardinal virtues, the debate over the constituents of happiness) with close, word-by-word exegesis of the Hebrew narrative, often etymologizing place-names (Hebron, Dothan) to extract moral meaning. It shows the distinctively Alexandrian Jewish habit of reading scripture as coded philosophy, a practice that would later influence Christian allegorical exegesis, including Origen's.
“having drawn Abel into a dispute by provocation, he means to overpower him by plausible and specious sophistries”
— That the Worse Attacks the Better · read this chapter →
“For just as it is fitting to practice music not unmusically, nor grammar without grammar, nor, in general, any skill without skill or with bad skill, but each skillfully”
— That the Worse Attacks the Better · read this chapter →
“genuine service is the soul's offering of truth alone and unadorned as its sacrifice”
— That the Worse Attacks the Better · read this chapter →
“the law lays down that we are to "pursue justice justly" (Deuteronomy 16:20), so that we may pursue justice and every virtue by its own kindred works, and not by their opposites”
— That the Worse Attacks the Better · read this chapter →
It is an allegorical commentary on Genesis 4:8 (Cain's murder of Abel) and Genesis 37 (Joseph sent to find his brothers), read by Philo as a psychological drama about the worse, self-loving part of the soul trying to overpower the better, God-loving part through sophistry.
Cain represents the mind turned toward self-love and specious argument, while Abel represents the soul's disposition toward God. Their meeting 'in the plain' symbolizes an open contest of rhetoric rather than a literal field.
Philo criticizes people who abstain from food, baths, or comfort merely to appear self-controlled, saying such display should be pitied rather than admired since it lacks genuine inner mastery.
He reads Jacob sending Joseph to check on his brothers' shepherding as an allegory for the rational part of the soul dispatching the mind to inspect and discipline its own irrational impulses before they stray.
He argues true worship is the soul's offering of unadorned truth, not lavish sacrifices or temple-building, and condemns those who purify their bodies while leaving their minds corrupt.
Allegorical Interpretation I · Allegorical Interpretation II · Allegorical Interpretation III · Every Good Man is Free · Flaccus · On Abraham · On Dreams · On Drunkenness · On Flight and Finding · On Husbandry · On Joseph · On Mating / Preliminary Studies