eek prose writer since the golden age of the fourth century. Like
his thought, indeed, it is eclectic and not always clear, but full of
reminiscences of the epic and tragic poets on the one hand, and of
Plato on the other,[47] it gives a happy blending of prose and poetry,
which admirably fits the devotional philosophy that forms its subject.
And what was said of Plato by a Greek critic applies equally well to
Philo: "He rises at times above the spirit of prose in such a way that
he appears to be instinct, not with human understanding, but with a
Divine oracle." From the study of literature and kindred subjects
Philo passed on to philosophy, and he made himself master of the
teachings of all the chief schools. There was a mingling of all the
world's wisdom at Alexandria in his day; and Philo, like the other
philosophers of the time, shows acquaintance with the ideas of
Egyptian, Chaldean, Persian,[48] and even Indian thought. The chief
Greek schools in his age were the Stoic, the Platonic, the Skeptic and
the Pythagorean, which had each its professors in the Museum and its
popular preachers in the public lecture-halls. Later we will notice
more closely Philo's relations to the Greek philosophers: suffice it
here to say that he was the most distinguished Platonist of his age.

Philo's education therefore was largely Greek, and his method of
thought, and the forms in which his ideas were associated and
impressed, were Greek. It must not be thought, however, that this
involved any weakening of his Judaism, or detracted from the purity of
his belief. Far from it. The Torah remained for him the supreme
standard to which all outside knowledge had to be subordinated, and
for which it was a preparation.[49] But Philo brought to bear upon the
elucidation of the Torah and Jewish law and ceremony not only the
religious conceptions of the Jewish mind, but also the intellectual
ideas of Greek philosophy, and he interpreted the Bible in the light
of the broadest culture of his day. Beautiful as are the thoughts and
fancies of the Talmudic rabbis, their Midrash was a purely national
monument, closed by its form as by its language to the general world;
Philo applied to the exposition of Judaism the most highly-trained
philosophic mind of Alexandria, and brought out clearly for the
Hellenistic people the latent philosophy of the Torah.

Greek was his native language, but at the same time he was not, as has
been suggested, entirely igno