From the Sceptics Philo borrows the criticism of sense perception ; their doubts at the same time are helpful for refuting Stoic fatalism, which is incompatible with the Jewish faith in God.
In ethics Philo accepts the doctrine of the four main virtues as proposed by Plato, and the Stoic principle of life according to nature ; he discovers both in the Mosaic Law, which represents to him the true reasonable morality. But his religion inclines him towards asceticism : the ideal man is created sexless ; sin arises when unity is split into male and female.
Complicated as this system may seem owing to its eclectic character, it appears to its author as a unity. And it is this unity which Philo finds represented in his Bible, i.e. in the Pentateuch,
* p. Wendland, Sine doxograpliisch* QusUe Fhiio't, Berlin, 1897, pp. 1074-78. t R. UeMzenstein, ZweireligionsgttehichUicht Frai!en,Strasa.
biir^. l»il.
230
PHILO
FHILO
compared with which the books of the prophets PsXs, and other books are of but secondary importance. j„._The most important
point to note in I'hilo is his method of reading the above system into the Law of Moses or the Pentate ich by .neans of allegorical interpretation. He di-l not invent this allegorical method : he borrowed it fro.n the earlier Stoics ; but he niakes the most ingenious use of it. Tlie 1 abbis of 1 ales- t ne wxre "no less skilful in linding their o.^ t lou.'hts in the biblical text by means of their interpretations. But I'hilo's allegory is of a interpreuauuii-^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ovt.r.nnt from every dillerent type
They try to extract "from every word all that is possible ; he has a complete
word all t lai is possiuio , "^- ■•"- . -- ■ , ^hUosopliical system ready for combination w whatever words he is explaining. With llie Kaoois one never knows what fresh and surpnsmg com- Wnation will spring from their unlimited imagina- tion Witli ri.ilo one can tell beforehand what re^"it he will reach, if only one is fan^il'5^[,«;"°"8l^ with his writings. It is in fact, °"^,f "'' ^'^f/'^^f, system all through; it is his philosophy lus doctdne of the Logos, that he finds everywhere ; but the metS of^combination varies, and thus there s scope for ingenuity. PhUo pays attention to every point in the text, even the smallest eature, ^Kl b/riaiful combination he always discovers fieVlight. Long before Astruc he remarked the nterc hinge of the two Divine names m the Law- s' 8^6"= Elohim) and 'Lord ' («'V'05=Jal'^veh);
he explains tliem as indicating the two main Dowers in God-goodness and might, the former ^reatin- and saving, the latter judging and minishin.' He sees tliat there are two accounts ^ 'c eat"on in Gn 1. 2 : he understands he hrst o the ideal man. The use of the plural in Gn proves that there is a 1-ogos beside Go ; he is the U°enes3 of God ; and it is after this likeness that man^s formed. It is the Logos along with the "no main powers of God which together appear to Abrahan/as three angels. The Logos is repre- Tented by Melehizedek ; the manna and the water from the rock both represent the Logos The two powers of God are represented by tiie two cherubTm Paradise, ark. tabernacle are repre- sentations of tlie world. Man himself is micro- cosmus It is by his identifications in connexion wTt tile manifold signihcance of the Logos that Pliilo's interpretation gains further variety by aJpUcItion t'o physicaf cosmology to anthro^- logical psychology, and to human ethics iUis vanety is not, however, thereby reduced to a syster^. By this method the Law is spiritualized on t"e presupposition that nothing could be
:ontained^n il\vhich -°-W "" |^ ^1 b^ with the supreme thought of God. It wouia ue nfair accordim' to PhiTo, to understand the laws reiardin' food Hterally, whereas, in the case o other laws he tries to prove tliat even the iteral neaning witnesses to practical wisdom while he allegorical interpretation brings out the true p Uosophy. Philo does not approve of the poly- Hniy oYthe patriarchs-he wou^d P^eff^^^^l'b;,'^^] -so he declares the wives to represent something sniritual ■ Hagar general culture {iyKiKUo^-^ajdela), larah true pldlostphy: the wise man must have intercourse with bodu Etymology of names is of course indispensable for this method of mterpreta- Hon the bec^nnings of the Onomashca sacra may be found wf^h Philo, who almost always gives ' seein" God- as the meaning of the name when he sreafeof Israel, or ' confession ' when he mentions
lUs owing to this method of interpretation that Philo had Inch an astonishing vogue '-» lat« centuries: almost all Christian writers of the p' rly Tnd medieval Church followed in his foot-
steps in particular the interpreters of the Alex- :'iXan\':.hool, from the auth.^ of .!;« -"-'^J Fnidle or Barnabas liownUy Cyul. 1 Here is ouu one dttercmce: Christianity, while maintaining Z. underlying allegory, nevertheless insists upo I lie liistoricity of the facts ; for it rests upon istorca evelation. So Origen systematizes the v^Hous ways of applied interpretation, by means of the anthropological trichotomy : historical Irai and mylticaf jnterpretat on are combined in the Scripture as body, soul, and spirit are com b"n'l in mln. Historical f«f '>^;,%I--t-eX i the Semitic race as compared with the Gieu.s, is ' stiUiX predominant with the Antiochene Schoo of in erpretation: here typological 'nt«'pretaUon °s favoured. The result is another combination . the theory of the four-fold meaning of Holy Scripture'^ It was through Augustine that this theory entered the Western Church.