hilosophy, forming in each age a special
Jewish culture. And as religion without philosophy is narrow, so, to
Philo, philosophy without religion is barren; remote from the true
life, and failing in the true purpose of the search for wisdom, which
is to raise man to his highest function. Philosophy, then, is not the
enemy of the Torah: it is its true complement, endowing it with a
deeper meaning and a profounder influence. Thus the saying runs in the
"Ethics of the Fathers,"

[Hebrew: 'm 'yn tora 'yn hkma; 'm 'yn hkma 'yn tora]

"If there is no Torah, there is no wisdom; if there is no wisdom,
there is no Torah." The thought that study of the law is essential to
Judaism Philo shares with the rabbis, and the Torah is in his eyes
Israel's great heritage, not only her literature but her life. As
Saadia said later,[365] "This nation is only a nation by reason of its
Torah." It is because Philo starts from this conviction that his
mission is so striking, and its results so tragical. The Judaism which
he preached to the pagan world was no food for the soul with the
strength taken out to render it more easily assimilated. He emphasizes
its spiritual import, he shows its harmony, as the age demanded, with
the philosophical and ethical conceptions of the time, but he
steadfastly holds aloft, as the standard of humanity, the law of
Moses. The reign of "one God and one law" seemed to him not a far-off
Divine event, but something near, which every good Jew could bring
nearer. He was oppressed by no craven fear of Jewish distinctiveness;
and the Biblical saying that Israel was a chosen people was real to
him and moved him to action. It meant that Israel was essentially a
religious nation, nearer God, and possessed of the Divine law of life,
and that it had received the Divine bidding to spread the truth about
God to all the world. It was a creed, and more, it was an inspiration
which constantly impelled to effort. It would be difficult to sum up
Philo's message to his people better than by the verses in Deuteronomy
which he, the interpreter of God's Word and the successor of Moses, as
he loved to consider himself, proclaims afresh to his own age, and
beyond it to the congregation of Jacob in all ages, "Keep therefore my
commandments and do them; for this is your wisdom and your
understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these
statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and
understanding people.

"Fo