Another mode of interpretation was according to the "^Ipn bx, i. e. read not so, but so — a very important rule, which exhibits the beginnings of the Masorah (q.v.). In the 3d and 4th centuries noihing new was added to the exegetical canons, and the rabbins of this period did not go beyond their predecessors. The main study was devoted to that branch of literature which found its climax in the Mishna and Gemara, now constituting what is termed the Talmud (q. v.). In the 7th century, however, "we find ourselves with Jewish scholars who had begun to be awake to the importance of serious inquiry into the true meaning of the written Word of God, and men who brought to the task of such investigations minds not only teeming with the traditions of their forefathers, but educated in the severer science of their own age. Of this class the representative is Saadias (q. v.) Gaon, who was beyond compare, both as a philologist and the- ologian, the most competent expositor of Holy Scripture that had hitherto appeared in the schools of Judaism ; and who was followed by men yet more powerful, in Aben-Ezra, Rashi, Kimchi, Abarbanel, and others, who have been, or will yet be, treated in this Cyclopa;dia. These commentators do not all adopt the same principle of interpretation. They teach the same doctrines sub- stantially, they write under the influence of similar prejudices more or less strong, and they aim at like ob- jects; but they go to work in different ways. One class address themselves to unfold what they consider to be the simple or literal meaning of the words of Scripture; and of this class, some not only attend to the idioms of the language and the lexicographic import of words, but descend to the niceties of the Masorah, and profess to show how different shades of meaning may be brought out of words by the diacritical use of the vowel-points and accents. Another class bring to their aid the mythical apparatus of the Midrashim, and crowd their pages with the legends and sagas of the Hagadoth. Others, again, advance from the literal into the allegor- ical mode of exposition, and consider the letter of the document as the signature or indication of a higher and more spiritual teaching ; while a fourth school, disdain- ing all these lower modes of exegesis, seek the transcen- dental regions of the Cabala."
II. Among the Hellenistic and Alexandrian Jeics. — While the Talmudic and Rabbinic Judaism, with all its dogmas and pharisaic decisions, stood upon the firm ground of the Old-Test, revelation, it was entirely dif- ferent with Hellenistic Judaism. Separated from their brethren of Palestine, the Jews of Egypt constituted an almost independent sect. Left to themselves, and set free from those elements which led to the development of Rabbinism in the mother country, the Alexandrian Jews pursued a different direction. They had to defend their faith from the attacks of a philosophical system apparently related to it, but claiming for those initiated into its mysteries a higher spirituality and a loftier ele- vation. To retain the truths of Platonism in Judaism, to vindicate them for, and to elicit them from, the Old Test., such was the first task of the Alexandrian Jewish apologist. The medium of allegorical exposition served for this purpose, as it necessarily comes into existence everywhere, when the religious faith has taken up an attitude of contradiction to the contents of those docu- ments which yet are received as divine, and are firmly retained (see Gfrbrer, Philo, i, 69).
The beginnings of this interpretation can be pointed out so early as B.C. 180, in the 'Elr]yi](JHQ rijg Miovasuig rpa(piic, by Aristobulus, an adherent of the Aristotelian philosoph}-. Homage was done to it by the Thera- peutm (q.v.).who, according to Philo (De Ilia Coniem- plativa [ed. Mang.j, ii, 483), regarded the entire vofio- Saala (that is, the Holy Scriptures) as a living being (^(ioj'), and held " the words to be the body, and the deeper sense, which is veiled under the words, to be the soul : into this the rational soul gazes, looking into very hidden thoughts by means of the words, as it were by a
SCRIPTURE, INTERP. OF 480 SCRIPTURE, INTERP. OF
mirror" (see Gfriirer, Pkilo, ii, 292 sq.). Josepluis, it seems, also fancied this mode, as can be seen from his words in the preface to liis A ntiquities, that Moses, in his works, liad only indicated some tilings, and others he had communicated in allegories worthy of the topics {to. jiiv aiviTTon'ivov Tov I'Ofio^irov, rd St dWijyo- povvTog utrd atiiv6Tr]T0Q), But it reached its zenith in the writings of Philo (q. v.) of Alexandria, the whole of which are occupied with exjilanations or allegorical interpretations of the books of jMoses.
Like most Jewish theologians, I'hilo places the au- thority of Moses above that of the other inspired writ- ers, who are considered rather as his interpreters and followers than as his equals. Ijut even in Moses we have to distinguish what he attained by philosophical acquirement from that which he received from God, either in ecstasy (a state more or less attainable by all initiated), in answer to his inquiries, or by direct com- munications. The results of all these are laid down in the Scriptures. But all deeper spiritual truths appear there veiled; the letter conveying comparatively low and carnal views in order to condescend to the gross and carnal notions of the vulgar, so as to bring at least some truth to them, and perhaps gradually to attract them to higher and more spiritual views. It were im- possible, it is ridiculous, to interpret literally many scriptural statements, which, so understood, are contrary to reason, and would degrade .Judaism below the level of heathen philosophy. In explaining the supposed allegories of Scripture, the Greek text of the Sept. is rigidly adhered to by Philo, though traces of an imper- iect acquaintance with the Hebrew occur. A good deal was, of course, to be left to the exegetical tact of each interpreter, but the following seem to have been some of the principles of Alexandrian exegesis: 1. The terms in the text may be expanded, and its statements applied to any or all topics to which the same expressions might figuratively be applied. Thus the word "place" might, besides its proper meaning, apply to the Logos, and even to God, who contains and fills all. 2. The idea con- veyed in the text may be educed from the words by showing a similar etymological derivation, and hence an affinity between the words and the idea. 3. Every- thing not absolutely requisite in the text was supposed to point to some special and hidden meaning. 4. At- tention was to be given to the exegetical traditions of the fathers, which especially showed itself in the expla- nation of proper nouns. 5. Above all, the commenta- tor may, by reaching the ecstatic state of the inspired writer, sympathize with and gain an immediate view of the same truth. 6. Several differing interpretations may all convey portions of truth. Such being the pro- cedure of Philo, the natural consequence was "that he completely altered the peculiar subject-matter and spirit of the religion of the old covenant, whose essential char- acter is constituted by the revelation of God in facts and history; and that he volatilized the truth of God into abstract ideas." See Pmi.o (Juu.eus).