writing. A certain Jew by the name of Demetrius about 215 B.C. wrote a
commendatory history of the Jewish kings. Aristobulus, the teacher of
Ptolemy Philometor, wrote an "Explanation of the Mosaic Laws," in which he
anticipated, in many ways, the modern interpretation of the early
traditions found in the opening books of the Old Testament. Like all
Alexandrian scholars, however, he overshot the mark under the influence of
the allegorical or symbolic type of interpretation. Other Jewish
writers appealed to the older Greek historians and poets. Adopting the
unprincipled methods of their persecutors, they expanded the original
writings of such historians as Hecataeus, who had spoken in a commendatory
way of the Jews. They even went so far as to insert long passages into the
writings of the famous Greek poets, such as Orpheus, Hesiod, Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Menander, so as to transform them into ardent champions of
the persecuted race. The culmination of this illegitimate form of defence
was to insert in the famous Sibylline Books (III) a long passage
describing the glories of the Jewish race and voicing the hopes with which
they regarded the future. It was in this atmosphere and under the
influence of these methods that the anti-Semitic spirit was born in
ancient Alexandria. Thence it was transmitted, as a malign heritage, to
the Christian church.

VI. The Wisdom of Solomon. The noblest literary product of the Jews of
the dispersion was the apocryphal book known as the Wisdom of Solomon. It
was so called because the author assumed the point of view of Solomon. In
so doing he did not intend to deceive his contemporaries, but rather
followed the common tendency of his day. Although the book has many
characteristic Hebrew idioms, which are due to its Jewish authorship, it
was without doubt originally written in Greek. Its author was evidently
acquainted with the writings of many of the Greek poets and philosophers.
He accepted Plato's doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul (8:19, 20),