man
to foiimihitc sicli luiniioiiizaliun coiisistintly, to f()un<l a system, was undouljtedly I'hilo.
and thus
It remains now to cxamini' how these ideas may have conie to I'liilo. He never refers, as C'ohn sliows, to a written source: he refers to liis predecessors oidy in ixcnenil terms, never hy name. Both C'ohn and Freudeuthal ("Alexander I'olyhistor."
pp. 57
Breslau, H~T}
compare
also Hitter, 1879), starting quite distinct standpoints, liave arrived at the et aeq.,
"Philo und die Halaeha," Leipsic,
from same conclusion;
namely, that there must have existed a Hellenic Midrasli, containinj;; the most disSince Greek similar elements in irross confusion. hail displaced Ilelirew in the readinj.' from the Law in the Hellenic synajroirucs. the liomiPossible Ictic addresses founded on it must also Hellenic have been in Greek, Wittingly as Midrasb. will as unwittingly. Greek conceptions must have been infused into these sermons. In one i)Uice, for instance, it might lie desired to liarmonize two conceptions whose inherent mutual contradiction was hardly suspected, because so much that was new had ah<'ady been added to the ancestral inheritance, being drawn in daily with the surroumling air. Here woidd arise at once that mental division, that opposition of parlies, which has already been mentioni'd as l)eing so often tcstitied to liy I'hilo. Traveling teachers and students would I'lTect a lively interchange of I'alestinian and Hc-llcnic views on exegesis; and ideas, no doubt, thus found their way to tiie Palestinians through the Helleidc .Midrasli. ( )ne can indeed consider Philo's works in part as the
many Greek
jirccipilated de|iosit, or crystallization, of these public addris.ses (just as the Talmud is the great "holdall " for the (liscu.ssi<insof the rabbinical colleges last-
Some of ing over many centuries; Cohn. p. h'i^t). his writings are actually nothing but such homilies (Freudeuthal, "Das Vierte Maccubilerbuch," pp. (5 et eel/..
Alexandrian Philosophy Alexandrians in Jerusalem
THE JEWISH EN'CYCLOI'EDIA
371
Ki7 il kh/.).
of his day, though still rooted in Judaism, and remaining the Jew in liis own consciousness and in his manner of dovetailing his ideas into Scrii)tural passages. However essential to the understanding of his mode of thought the consideration of this Jewish liomiletic inethoil may be, it is only his thorough iiermeation by Greek philosophy which makes him tile master in it that he is not master alone indeed, but actually its only literary representative of any account. It is probably not mere accident that no similar litenilure, either before or after him, is known of, f'hrislian philosojihy, germinating in earlier days, and liaslening in Alexandria toward its blossoming, owed much to Philo: its nourishment
—
was dniwn from
his
melhod and
his ideas.
It
is
not likely that Christian thinkers, had there been any other considerabli' representative of this philos-
ophy, would have allowed his thoughts and suggestions to escape them, Philo seems io have been the only one to transmit to the outer world, in .skilled literary form, the ideas nurtured by the Synagogue aud matured by him. Hence -Vlexandrian Philosophy, in the strict .sense of the words, seems entirely centered in Philo's name and eonlined to him. Xor did he found any school. Greek ideas, it is true, penetrated, after him, into Talmndie writings, but probably through other cliaunels than Philo. The prophet had no honor in his own country; his name would have disaiipeared. because his philoso])liy led away from the |iuie monotheism of the Jew, had not his mental bent persisted in the development of Christian doctrine. A. Cfn'irpr. Kritiwhr Genchiehte (Ick UrI. I'hWruud dif Alrrntulriiiischr Thritsti(*ii, stiiinrari, ls;)l ; A. K. Duline, llcsihkhlUchr IMmtclhuHi ill r Jliiluich-AkxaiulriiiiKchi'ti lit'tiui'intfjthibutiiijhU, m1., Halle. mU: v.. Zi'lliT. Dir /'/liliwi.j./oc id r Grieihiu.
Biuliih:k.vpiiv
chri.-'li iitlniins,
M
i4-'-tlK, U'lixsle, ISSl f. Sli'jffrleil, Phib, vim Alfxniin fl/.i Au.iUuiyd'-'* -'!• T- Ji-na. IsT.'i; .1. Druinnionil, i'hilo JuiUruji.nrthr Ji'Wish-Ah'xamlriiin /Vm7(»w»p/ii/. -vols.. I>enildii. l.v>l H. Hi'ls, t-^fvmi sxtr Iff* orii/iiu'w c/t- ta I'hili»tiii>hrc Judiii-Ahriiuilrim. I'lirls. ISSKI; E. Herrlol, I'hilim le Jul/, 111.
'J.
ilrii
borrowed his method from the synagogue sermons. The allegorical mode of interpretation was a means toward demonstrating specitically the presnppo.sed identity of Jewish and Greek wisdom; this method was the recognized one in vogue among (Jreeks, anil was the instrument most skilfully employed by the Stoics to reconcile the ))o]udar religion with iihllosophy. It was an excellent instrument whirewilh to build a common foundalinn of Hellenic culture fur all that agglonii lalion of contlicting philosojihies and religions, and to make jiropaganda for eosmii|)olilauism. It wasccrlainly a priori probable, and, moreover, demonstrable from a whole series of etymologies and allegorical explanations of the names of heathen deities, nientioiied by Philo, that he was aei|uaintid with this method of inlerprelation, as applied philoso|ihi<ally to Greek mylliology, and particularly to Hdnier; just as liis Greek successor Origen, according to the testimony of Porphyry, learned of It from the Stoic Cliieremon, Hut w iiat distinguishes Philo above all his Jewish predecessors (as far as oiu- can judge of these) is the fact that he collects the .scattered elements of this metlKMl. and tries to give them a systematic eoor dinalion, in his mind, at least not that be has merely picked up and adopted philosophical System ideas from all sides, but that he has consistently molilcd his whole exegeof sis upon detlnite philosophical lines. Philo. That his philosophy can be described in lis essentials without naming any specitically Jewish constituents as such is the best priKif (as has Well been observed) how thoroughly lie had become sat united with the inlliienceof the dominant thoiiglit I'hilo
Eumi
Kiir I'fjviilt Jiiiir (rAlixiiiiilrif. Parts, ISilS; S<'lian'r, (iench. III. ;), I-elpsle, I.S1IS (iimtalns a fall hlbllotfraphy ef Ihe subject) : L. Cohn, I'hiln von .l(f raiidrin. In Xriie Jnhrlilhher fUr dan Klaesiclie 1.514-51(1, Ltliislo, 1S!I8.
AUeHImm,
P.
ALEXANDRIAN
W.
SHIPS The sliips of Ihe Alexaudriaiisure meiilioned several times in IheMishJews (Kelim. xv. 1 Olialol. viii. 1, '.i). nah as used by They ate described as containing large receptacles for drinking watir for long voyages. These ves.sils carried grain from Egypt to Home; such a ship, "Isis," is described by Lucinn ("I)e Navigatione." 1-14). It was a three-masted ves.sel, 180 feet long, more than 45 feet beam, and 44 fei't depth of hold. Mention is often made in Greek and in Komaii literature of Ihe large .Mexandrian Ships engaged in the gmin-traile (See references in " Novum Teslainentum Gracuni." ed. Wetstein. 1752. il. (i;t.S on Acts, xxvii. fl; Maiiiuanlt, "Das Privatlebeu der HOmer," 18.83,
ii.
K. Sell.
- !SH-
- i!(!i).
ALEXANDRIANS IN JERUSALEM:
In
Ions uf the .Mexandrian Jews with I'alesline. many of them made their permanent home in Jerusideiii. Kill since they had lieeii accuslonied to hearing the synagogue services consei|Ui-iM'e
ip|'
the actie
icliil
Greek, and had brought with them many other peculiar customs, they formeii n separate iMimmiiiiity in Jeriisalein. und built a synagogue of their own. There exists double pnxif of tliis. Acconling to Acts. vi. U, there arose ngninst Ihe yoiinn Christian congregation "certain of the synagogue which is culled Ihe synagogue of Ihe Libertines, aiid in
