a record of early Christian monastic
communities, and on account of this book especially regarded Philo
almost with the reverence of an apostle. To the Christian theologians
of Alexandria we owe it that the interpretation of Judaism to the
Hellenic world in the light of Hellenic philosophy has been preserved.
Of the two Jewish philosophers who have made a great contribution to
the world's intellectual development, Spinoza was excommunicated in
his lifetime, and Philo suffered moral excommunication after his
death. The writings of both exercised their chief influence outside
the community; but the emancipated Jewry of our own day can in either
case recognize the worth of the thinker, and point with pride to the
saintliness of the man.

* * * * *

III

PHILO'S WORKS AND METHOD

The first thing that strikes a reader of Philo is the great volume of
his work: he is the first Jewish writer to produce a large and
systematic body of writings, the first to develop anything in the
nature of a complete Jewish philosophy. He had essentially the
literary gift, the capacity of giving lasting expression to his own
thought and the thought of his generation. Treating him merely as a
man of letters, he is one of the chief figures in Greek literature of
the first century. We have extant over forty books of his composition,
and nearly as many again have disappeared. His works are one and all
expositions of Judaism, but they fall into six distinct classes of
exegesis:

I. The allegorical commentary, or "Allegories of the Laws," which is a
series of philosophical treatises based upon continuous texts in
Genesis, from the first to the eighteenth chapter. Together with this,
the best authorities place the two remaining books on the "Dreams of
the Bible," which are a portion of a larger work, and deal
allegorically with the dreams of Jacob and Joseph.

II. The Midrashic commentary on the Five Books of Moses, for which we
have no single name, but which was clearly intended to be an ethical
and philosophical treatise upon the whole law.

III. A commentary in the form of "Questions and Answers to Genesis and
Exodus," which is incomplete now, and save for detached fragments
exists only in a Latin translation. In its original form it provided a
short running exegesis, verse by verse, to the whole of the first
three books of the Pentateuch, and was contained in twelve parts.

IV. A popular and mission