[175] Siegfried has, with immense labor, collected a vast number of parallel expressions, chiefly from Plato and Plutarch (pp. 39-47).
[176] Comp. Grossmann, Quæ st. Phil. i. p. 5 &c.
[177] In this sketch of the system of Philo I have largely availed myself of the careful analysis of Siegfried.
[178] It should be noted that these are also Talmudical canons, not indeed for allegorical interpretation, but as pointing to some special meaning, since there was not a word or particle in Scripture without a definite meaning and object.
[179] Baba K 64 a.
[180] To illustrate what use might be made of such alterations, the Midrash (Ber. R. 65) would have us punctuate Gen. xxvii. 19, as follows: And Jacob said unto his father, I (viz. am he who will receive the ten commandments) - (but) Esau (is) thy firstborn.' In Yalkut there is the still more curious explanation that in heaven the soul of Jacob was the firstborn!
[181] Each of these positions is capable of ample proof from Philo's writings, as shown by Siegfried. But only a bare statement of these canons was here possible.
[182] Comp. our above outline with the XXV. theses de modis et formulis quibus pr. Hebr. doctores SS. interpretari etc. soliti fuerunt,' in Surenhusius, Bblos katallags, pp. 57-88.
[183] For a comparison between Philo and Rabbinic theology, see Appendix II.: Philo and Rabbinic Theology.' Freudenthal (Hellen. Studien, pp. 67 &c.) aptly designates this mixture of the two as Hellenistic Midrash,' it being difficult sometimes to distinguish whether it originated in Palestine or in Egypt, or else in both independently. Freudenthal gives a number of curious instances in which Hellenism and Rabbinism agree in their interpretations. For other interesting comparisons between Haggadic interpretations and those of Philo, see Joel, Blick in d. Religionsgesch. i. p. 38 &c.
[184] Ber. 31 b.
[185] Ber. R. 31.
[186] Ber. R. 70.
[187] Thus, to give only a few out of many examples, Ruth is derived from ravah, to satiate to give to drink, because David, her descendant, satiated God with his Psalms of praise (Ber. 7 b). Here the principle of the significance of Bible names is deduced from Ps. xlvi. 8 (9 in the Hebrew): Come, behold the works of the Lord, who hath made names on earth,' the word desolations,' shamoth, being altered to shemoth, names.' In general, that section, from Ber. 3 b, to the end of 8 a, is full of Haggadic Scripture interpretations. On fol. 4 a there is the curious symbolical derivation of Mephibosheth, who is supposed to have set David right on halakhic questions, as Mippi bosheth: from my mouth shaming,' because he put to shame the face of David in the Halakhah.' Similarly in Siphré (Par. Behaalothekha, ed. Friedmann, p. 20 a) we have very beautiful and ingenious interpretations of the names Reuel, Hobab and Jethro.
[188] It would be impossible here to give the references, which would occupy too much space.
[189] For want of handier material I must take leave to refer to my brief sketch of the Kabbalah in the History of the Jewish Nation,' pp. 434-446.
[190] Chag. ii. 1.
[191] Ab. v. 4.
[192] In short, the lgos spermatiks of the Stoics.
[193] Supposed to mean either numerationes, or splendour. But why not derive the word from sphara? The ten are: Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence, Mercy, Judgment, Beauty, Triumph, Praise, Foundation, Kingdom.
[194] For the teaching of Eastern Judaism in this respect, see Appendix II.: Philo and Rabbinic Theology.'
[195] A very interesting question arises: how far Philo was acquainted with, and influenced by, the Jewish traditional law or the Halakhah. This has been treated by Dr. B. Ritter in an able tractate (Philo u. die Halach.), although he attributes more to Philo than the evidence seems to admit.
[196] Jer. Ber. ix. 7.
[197] At the same time there is a remarkable difference here between Philo and Rabbinism. Philo holds that the creation of the world was brought about by the Potencies, but the Law was given directly through Moses, and not by the mediation of angels. But this latter was certainly the view generally entertained in Palestine as expressed in the LXX. rendering of Deut. xxxii. 2, in the Targumim on that passage, and more fully still in Jos. Ant. xv. 5. 3, in the Midrashim and in the Talmud, where we are told (Macc. 24 a) that only the opening words, I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods but Me,' were spoken by God Himself. Comp. also Acts vii. 38, 53; Gal. iii. 19; Heb. ii. 2.