n and the history of
the soul which is becoming divine, in this way flow into one. Philo is
convinced that Moses' account of the creation may be used for writing
the history of the soul which is seeking God. Everything in the Bible
thereby acquires a profoundly symbolical meaning, of which Philo
becomes the interpreter. He reads the Bible as a history of the soul.

We may say that Philo's manner of reading the Bible corresponds to a
feature of his age which originated in the wisdom of the Mysteries. He
indeed relates that the Therapeutae interpreted ancient writings in the
same way. "They also possess works by ancient authors who once
directed their school and left behind many explanations about the
customary method pursued in allegorical writings.... The
interpretation of such writings is directed to the deeper meaning of
the allegorical narratives" (_cf._ p. 200). Thus Philo's aim was to
discover the deeper meaning of the "allegorical" narratives in the Old
Testament.

Let us try to realise whither such an interpretation could lead. We
read the account of creation and find in it not only a narrative of
outward events, but an indication of the way which the soul has to
take in order to attain to the divine. Thus the soul must reproduce in
itself, as a microcosm, the ways of God, and in this alone can its
efforts after wisdom consist. The drama of the universe must be
enacted in each individual soul. The inner life of the mystical sage
is the realisation of the image given in the account of creation.
Moses wrote not only to relate historical facts, but to represent
pictorially the paths which the soul must travel if it would find God.

All this, in Philo's conception of the universe, is enacted within the
human soul. Man experiences within himself what God has experienced in
the universe. The word of God, the Logos, becomes an event in the
soul. God brought the Jews from Egypt into Palestine; he let them go
through distress and privation before giving them that Land of
Promise. That is the outward event. Man must experience it inwardly.
He goes from the land of Egypt, the perishable world, through the
privations which lead to the suppression of the sense-nature, into the
Promised Land of the soul, he attains the eternal. With Philo it is
all an inward process. The God who poured Himself forth into the world
consummates His resurrection in the soul when that soul understands
His creative word and echoes it. Then man h