divinely revealed truths; and when treated allegorically, they were
shown to contain the philosophical tenets of the Platonic, the
Aristotelian, or the Stoic school. Thus, in the first century B.C.E.,
the Greek mind, which had earlier been devoted to the free search for
knowledge and truth, was approaching the Hebraic standpoint, which
considered that the highest truth had once for all been revealed to
mankind in inspired writings, and that the duty of later generations
was to interpret this revealed doctrine rather than search
independently for knowledge. On the other hand, the Jewish
interpreters were trying to reach the Greek standpoint when they set
themselves to show that the writers of the Bible had anticipated the
philosophers of Hellas with systems of theology, psychology, ethics,
and cosmology. Allegorism, it may be said, is the instrument by which
Greek and Hebrew thought were brought together. Its development was in
its essence a sign of intellectual vigor and religious activity; but
in the time of Philo it threatened to have one evil consequence, which
did in the end undermine the religion of the Alexandrian community.
Some who allegorized the Torah were not content with discovering a
deeper meaning beneath the law, but went on to disregard the literal
sense, _i.e._, they allegorized away the law, and held in contempt the
symbolic observance to which they had attached a spiritual meaning. On
the other hand, there was a party which adhered strictly to the
literal sense ([Greek: to hrêton]) and rejected allegorism.[34] Philo
protested against these extremes and was the leader of those who were
liberal in thought and conservative in practice, and who venerated the
law both for its literal and for its allegorical sense. To effect the
true harmony between the literal and the allegorical sense of the
Torah, between the spiritual and the legal sides of Judaism, between
Greek philosophy and revealed religion--that was the great work of
Philo-Judæus.