Philo Judaeus

Philo Judaeus, (c. 20 bc-ad 50), also known as Philo of Alexandria, Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher. Although considered the greatest Jewish philosopher of his age, Philo appropriated the doctrines of Greek philosophy so completely that he must also be considered a Greek philosopher who combined elements borrowed from various sources into an original unity.

Philo was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to a wealthy, aristocratic Jewish family and received a thorough education in the Old Testament and in Greek literature and philosophy. He had an intimate knowledge of the works of Homer and of the Greek tragedians, but his chief studies were in Greek philosophy, especially the teachings of the Pythagoreans, Plato, and the Stoics.

To Philo the divinity of the Jewish law was the basis and test of all true philosophy. He maintained that the greater part of the Pentateuch, in both its historical and legal portions, could be explained allegorically, and that its deepest and truest significance is to be found through such interpretation. He conceived of God as a being without attributes, better than virtue and knowledge, better than the beautiful and the good, a being so exalted above the world that an intermediate class of beings is required to establish a point of contact between him and the world. These beings he found in the spiritual world of ideas—not merely ideas in the Platonic sense, but real, active powers, surrounding God as a number of attendant beings. All these intermediate powers are known as the logos, the divine image in which people are created and through which they participate in the deity. An individual's duties consist of veneration of God and love and righteousness towards others. Humans are immortal by reason of their heavenly nature, but just as degrees in this divine nature exist, degrees of immortality also exist. Mere living after death, common to all humanity, differs from the future existence of the perfect souls, for whom paradise is oneness with God.

Many of the numerous surviving works of Philo are concerned with the exposition and allegorical interpretation of Genesis and with the exposition of the Law of Moses for Gentiles. His other writings include biographies of biblical characters and a series of works on the Ten Commandments.