n 7/ >^' -■^'E^^s 4* OUN -S CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARV 3 1924 059 933 758 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924059933758 SO^IA SAAOMON THE BOOK OF WISDOM W. J. DEANE Hontoon HENEY FKOWDE OXFORD UKTIVEBSITY PBESS WABEHOUSE 7 PATERNOSTER ROW ^Oa)IA SAAOMON THE BOOK OF WISDOM THE GEEEK TEXT, THE LATIN VULGATE AND THE AUTHORISED ENGLISH VERSION WITH AN INTRODUCTION, CRITICAL APPARATUS AND A COMMENTARY WILLIAM J. DEANE, M.A. ORIEL COLIEOE, OXFORD j EEOTOB OP ASHEW, ESSEX AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1881 [_ All rights reserved ] PREFACE. When I turned my attention many years ago to the Book of Wisdom, there was no Commentary in the English language that treated fully of this work, save that of Arnald. This was copious indeed, but cumbersome and often speculative and uncritical. I felt also the want of some better revision of the text than was offered by the editions of the Septuagint usually met with in England. Even Tischendorf, who had sung the praises of his Sinaitic Codex far and wide, had made scarcely any use of this MS. in his own editions of the Septuagint, contenting himself with noting the variations of the Alexandrian and the Codex Ephraemi rescriptus. Taking the Vatican text as a basis therefore, I collated it with the Sinaitic and the other uncial MSS., and with the cursives given in Holmes and Parsons' work, with occasional reference to the Complutensian and Aldine editions. It was not till my own collation was just completed that I became acquainted with Fritzsche's Libri Apocryphi Veteris Testament!, a work of the utmost value, though not quite free from mistakes in recording the readings both of the Vatican and Sinaitic MSS. These errors have been noted by E. Nestle in an appendix to the last (eighth) edition of Tischendorf. In confirming the text by reference to the Fathers, I have derived great assistance from Observationes Criticae in Libr. Sap. by F. H. Reusch, who has carefully noted the passages of the Book quoted by early writers. Walton's Polyglot has provided me with the Armenian, Syriac, and Arabic versions. For the sake of comparison I have printed the Latin Vulgate, and the so-called authorised English Version, in parallel columns with the Greek. The former is particularly interesting as containing many unusual words or forms, which are duly noted in the Commentary. In elucidating the text I have endeavoured to give the plain grammatical and historical meaning of each passage, illustrating it by reference to the writings of Philo, Josephus, the Alexandrian writers, and early Fathers ; but I have been sparing of quotations from Christian authors, not from want of materials, but because I did not wish my work to assume an homiletical form, or to be burdened by reflections which an educated reader is able to make for himself. Vi PEEFACE. The importance of the Septuagint in the study of the New Testament cannot be overrated ; and I trust it will be found that I have not often omitted to note passages and words in the Book of Wisdom which illustrate the writings of the later Covenant. Many statements and allusions in the Book are confirmed by traditions found in the Targums : these have been gathered from the works of Dr. Ginsburg and Etheridge. In preparing the Commentary great use has been made of the works of C. L. W. Grimm and Gutbexdet ; the former is too well known and appreciated to need commendation; the latter is useful, and the writer's judgment can be trusted where it is uninfluenced by the desire to condone the mistakes and interpolations of the Latin Vulgate. The great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide has of course been constantly consulted. The Kev. Canon Churton kindly permitted me to inspect his MS. when my own notes were almost com- pleted; and I have availed myself of his paraphrase in some few passages. Dr. Bissell's work reached me only as my own pages were passing through the press ; but it does not aiford any new light on obscure passages, and seems to be chiefly a compilation from German sources. Viewing the Book of Wisdom as an important product of Jewish- Alexandrine thought, it seemed desirable to ofier a brief sketch of the course taken by Greek philosophy in discussing the momentous questions with which it attempted to cope. An efibrt is made to define the position occupied by our Book in the Jewish- Alexandiian school, and some notion is given of the influence exercised by that phase of thought on the language, though not on the doctrine, of Christianity. The later development of this school, which led to many fatal errors, is barely noticed, as being beyond the scope of this work, which aims only at aflbrding a help to the student of the period immediately antecedent to Christianity. CONTENTS. PROLEGOJt[ENA. I. I. The Eook op Wisdom : its claims on attention. 2. Sketch of the peogeess OE Geeek Philosophy. 3. The Jewish-Alexandeian Philosophy. 4. Its INFLUENCE ON THE ThEOLOGY OF THE NeW TESTAMENT IT. Title. Plan. Contents ....... III. Language and Chaeactee IV. Place and date op Composition. Authok . . , . Y. History. Authoeity. RELATtON to the Canon of Sceiptuee VI. Text VII. Veesions, Editions, and Commentaeies .... 1 23 27 30 35 39 41 THE GREEK TEXT AND CRITICAL APPARATUS WITH THE ANGLICAN VERSION AND LATiy VULGATE 45 COMMENTARY Ill INDEXES 221 PEOLEGOMENA. 1. The Book of Wisdom: its claims on attention.— 2. Sketch of the progress of Greek Philosophy.— 3. The Jewish- Alexandrian Philosophy. — i. Its influence on the Theology of the New Testament. 1. The Book of "Wisdom has many claims on our attention and respect. "Whatever views we may adopt as to its date and author (matters which will be dis- cussed lat«r), we may confidently assert, that, occupying that period between the writing of the Old and New Testaments, when the more formal utterances of the Holy Spirit for a season had ceased to be heard, and, as far as remaining records attest, God had for the time ceased to speak by the prophets, it possesses an absorb- ing interest for every student of the history of Christi- anity. In conjunction with other writings of the same period, tins Book exhibits the mind and doctrine of the Jews, the progress of religious belief among them, and the preparation for Christianity which was gradually being effected by the development of the Mosaic creed and ritual. The gap between the two covenants is here bridged over. Herein is presented a view of the Hebrew religion, definite and consistent, which may well be re- garded as a necessary link in the chain of connection between the earlier and later revelations. Nowhere else can be seen so eloquent and profound an enunciation of the faith of a Hebrew educated away from the iso- lating and confining influence of Palestine, one who had studied the philosophies of East and West, had learned much from those sources, yet acknowledged and exulted in the superiority of his own creed, and who, having tried other systems by that high standard, had found them to fail miserably. Nowhere else can be read so grand a statement of the doctrine of the im- mortality of the soul as the vindication of God's justice. The identification of the serpent who tempted Eve with Satan, the reference of the introduction of death into the world to the devil, the typical significance assigned to the history and ritual of the Pentateuch, the doc- trine of man's freedom of will exerted in bringing upon himself the punishment of his sins, and the sure re- tribution that accompanies transgression, — in treating of all these subjects, the Book is unique among pre- christian writings, and its neglect or omission cannot be compensated by any other existing work. It is remarkable how greatly this Book has been disregarded in England. While the Fathers have quoted it largely and continually, while commentators in old time delighted in plumbing its depths and in finding Christian verities underlying every page, while in later days Germany has poured forth a copious stream of versions and comments, England has been till lately "■ content with the single work of K. Arnald, and has ' Lately the Kev. J. H. Blunt has published The Annotated Bible, London, 1879, vol. ii of which contains the Apocrypha, and the Rev.W. R. Churton has prepared an edition of the Book of Wisdom for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. \>: THE BOOK OF WISDOM. left the Book unstudied and uncriticized. Familiar as some of its chapters are to all English churchmen from their forming some of the daily and festival lec- tions in the Calendar, no student of Holy Scripture has seemed to think the Book of "Wisdom worth serious labour, and it has been left for other nations to bestow upon this remarkable work that diligence which it deserves and will well repay. , 2. Before entering upon an examination of the text of the Book of Wisdom, some preliminary inquiries are necessary for determining its place in the history of religious development and its connection with preceding and subsequent systems. If, as we shall show reason hereafter for asserting, the work was produced at Alex- andria, and is a genuine offspring of the Jewish-Alex- andrian school which took its rise in that celebrated centre of commerce and philosophy, a short space must be devoted to an investigation into the origin, tenets, and influence of that school. To trace at length its effects in producing gnosticism and other heresies in Christian times is beyond the scope of this outline, which aims only at recording its rise, and making a brief examination of the question, whether the Gospel owes any of its doctrines to this system. If we make a distinction between Theology and Philosophy, we must say Theology has to do with faith. Philosophy with research. Philosophy claims to systematise the conceptions furnished by Theology and Science, and to provide a doctrine which shall explain the world and the destiny of man '- The basis of Theo- logy is revelation; this principle Philosophy ignores, and casting away the help thus offered endeavours and claims to elucidate the phenomena of the universe by analysis and generalisation. Let us see first what progress the purely heathen Greek Philosophy made towards solving the great problems of being, and next how it fared when com- bined with a belief in revelation. The history of Greek Philosophy may be divided into three periods, the Pre-Socratic, the Socratic, and the Post-Socratic ^. Involved in a polytheistic religion, the earliest Greek philosophers attempted in vain to explain the mysteries around them by the agencies of the deities in whom the poets had taught them to believe. Failing to construct any satisfactory theory out of these elements, Thales' and the Ionic school tried other expedients. At one time water, at another time fire, at another air, became in their view the cause of life and power, the substance, as it were, of which all phenomena were only the modes. The utmost development at which these Physicists arrived was to endow this primary element, be it air or other substance, with intelligence, making it in fact equivalent to a soul possessed of reason and consciousness. Anaximander (b. c. 6io) held that 'The Infinite' (to cmnpov) was the origin of all things. What he meant exactly by this term it is perhaps impossible to discover ; but being a mathema- tician, and ' prone to regard abstractions as entities,' he was led to formulate a ' distinction between all Finite Things and the Infinite All *.' But this 'Infinite Air was not developed into the idea of Infinite mind till the school of the Eleatics arose. Meantime the interest of the history centres itself upon the mysterious and justly celebrated Pythagoras, the great founder of the Mathematicians. He was a lover of Wisdom for its own sake, not for the practical purposes to which it may be applied ; hence it was perhaps that he adopted the study of numbers as l)est able to draw the mind away from the finite to the ' Lewes, Hist, of PhiloBophy, I. xviii. ed. 1867. In the follow- ing brief sketch of Greek Philoaophy I have chiefly foUov/ed Mr. Lewes. ^ Zeller, Die Philoaophie der Griecheu, i. iii ff. ^ 'O TTji TOtavTrjs apxiy^i ^iXocrotpias. Aristot. Met. A. c. 3, Thales is considered to have been bom about B. c. 636. Eitter, Hist, of Ancient Phil. i. bk. III. chap. 3. pp. 195, if. Eng. trans. Mosheim's trans, of Cudworth's Intell. Syet. i. pp. 35, 147. ■■ Lewes, Hist, of Philos. i. 15. PKOLEGOMENA. infinite, from the sensible to the incorporeal. In them he saw the principles of things, the cause of the material existence of things ^. All numbers resolve into one : all parts can be reduced to unity. All that we see around us are only copies of numbers, and numerical existence is the only invariable existence. And as this is the farthest point to which we can conduct our speculations, One is the infinite, the absohite, the apxij which is the object of the philosophers' search. We must remember that with Pythagoras numbers were not, as with us, mere symbols, but real entities " ; we can thus readily conceive the meaning of his little- known theory. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls attributed to him is based on the same prin- ciple. The soul is One and perfect. Connecting itself with man it passes into imperfection ; and according as one or other of its three elements, voCs, (f>pfjv, dvfws, rule, so is the man's scale in creation, rational, intelli- gent, sensual, so are the bodies which it may succes- sively inhabit ; but these changes are merely phenomena of the monad, the one invariable essence. Unsatisfied with the answer to the problem of exist- ence given by others, Xenophanes (b. c. 6 i 6) fixing his gaze on the vast heavens determined that the One is God ^. The position which he maintained is found in a couplet of his which has been preserved * : Ett 6eos ev Tf deoia-i Ka\ dvBpamoKn fiiyujTos, oi/TE Se/xas BvrjTuio'iv opo'Cios oilre vor^fia. He may be considered the apostle of Monotheism, the teacher, amid the corruptions of the prevalent belief in multitudinous gods, of a faith in one perfect Being, though he could not tell who or what this being was, and looked upon all things as manifestations of this one self-existent, eternal God. His Monotheism was in fact Pantheism. But his speculations opened the way to scepticism, led men to think that nothing could be known as certain. Parmenides" (b.c. 536) followed in his train, affirm- ing that the only truth is obtained through reason with- out the aid of the senses, and that nothing really exists but the One Being. These two distinct doctrines, the latter of which was but little in advance of his pre- decessors, compose his system. This was supported by his pupil and friend Zeno of Elea (b. c. 500), the inventor of Dialectics, who, indeed, added nothing new, but contributed a mass of arguments, sophisms, and illustrations, many of which are more ingenious than solid, but which are valuable and interesting as being the earliest instances of that formal logic which plays so important a part in all subsequent discussions. The immediate precursors of Socrates and his school were the Sophists, but the intermediate tenets of some other philosophers, especially of Democritus and Hera- clitus, the so-called laughing and weeping philosophers, demand a passing notice. The men themselves may be mythical, but there is a germ of truth in all myths, and the story of these two represents doubtless a real step in the progress of inquiry. Heraclitus (b.c. 503) rejected the idea of reason being the sole criterion of truth, and held that the senses rightly educated are never deceived. Error springs from the imperfection of human reason, not from the falsity of the information or ideas derived from sensation. Perfect knowledge dwells with the universal Intelligence, and the more a man admits this into his soul, the more secure is he from error. The principle of all things is Eire, ever changing, moving, living, and out of the strife of contraries pro- ducing harmony. Democritus too (b. c. 460) upheld the truth of sensation, but sensation controlled by reflection {biavoia) ^ ; and he was the first to answer the question of the modus operandi of the senses by the sup- ' lovs dpi$iiovs ihai t^s oialas. Aristot. Metaph. i. 6. ap. Lewes, i. p. 28 ; Grote, Plato, i. pp. 10, ff. (ed. .1865) ; Mosheim's Cudworth, i. pp. 567, 570, notes. 2 See the point argued against Ritter by Lewes, Hist, of Phil, i. pp. 30, ff. ' To iv flvai tpr/ai tov @(6v. Aristot. Metaph. i. 5 ; Mosheim's Cudworth, i. pp. 580, ff. • Xenoph. Colophon. Fragm. illustr. S. Karsten. •' Mosheim's Cudworth, i. pp. 592, ff. ' Lewes, i. p. 98. B 2 THE BOOK OE WISDOM. position, that all things threw off images of themselves which entered the soul through the organs of the body. The primary elements were atoms which were self- existent and possessed of inherent power of motion, from which the universe received its form and laws. The notion of a supreme Being to control these elements is foreign to his system, which is the merest ma- terialism ; destiny, to which he attributed the forma- tion of things, being a term used to cloke ignorance. Differing somewhat from former philosophers, Anaxa- goras, while holding that all knowledge of phenomena came from the senses, regarded this information as delusive because it did not penetrate to the substance of things, and needed reason to correct it ; and as regards cosmology, he taught that creation and de- struction were merely other names for aggregating or decomposing pre-existent atoms, the Arranger being Intelligence, voCr, the Force of the universe, not a moral or divine power, but an all-knowing unmixed and subtle principle '- This principle Empedocles con- ceived to be Love, which was opposed by Hate, who however operated only in the lower world, for the one supreme power, which he termed Love, was a sphere above the world, ever calm, rejoicing, and restful. These forces are in some sort identical with good and evil ; and it is the struggle between these powers that causes individual things and beings to come into exist- ence. Hate separating the elements which are combined by Love into one all-including sphere. To this period of Greek Philosophy belong the Sophists. The Sophists did not form a school or sect^. They taught the art of disputation, how best to use language go as to convince and persuade; but they were the natural successors of preceding speculators. Thought is sensation, said one', 'man is the measure of all things,' human knowledge is relative, truth is sub- jective ; therefore a wise man will regard all truth as opinion, and study only how to make what he considers true or expedient acceptable to others. It is easy to see how such sentiments might be perverted to the overthrow of morality, and hence we can understand the reason why Plato and others regarded the Sophists with such repugnance; but there is little evidence to show that the teachers who had the name ever pushed their opinions to such dangerous consequences. To contend against these unsatisfactory sceptics an opponent arose who in most respects was a perfect contrast to them. In his abnegation of self, in his contempt for riches and honours, in his denunciation of abuses, in his proud humility, Socrates (b.c. 469) con- tradicted their most cherished principles and assaulted their most esteemed practices. No flow of words could persuade him to act contrary to his sober convictions ; no arguments, however speciously propounded, could confuse his sense of right and wrong; no spurious wisdom could withstand his subtle questioning. To make him the model of a sophist leader, as Aristo- phanes has done in his Clouds, is to confound his method with his principles. If his method was, in some sort, sophistical, his object was quite distinct from that of the Sophists; for while they gave up the pursuit of abstract truth as hopeless, he never ceased his quest for it, showing men how ignorant they were of real knowledge and aiding them in its acquisition. But he founded no school, never set himself up as a teacher, left no system of philosophy behind him. Physics he early surrendered as incapable of satis- factory solution ; and he turned his attention to Ethics, and the right method of inquiry. In the latter subject he is properly judged to be the inventor of two im- portant processes. Inductive reasoning and Abstract ' Lewes, i. pp. 78, 79, 83 ; Maurice, Ment. and Mor. Phil. pt. I. chap. vi. § 3. ^ For the fairest view of the Sophists see Grote, Hist of Greece, viii. 463 ; Lewes, pp. 105, if,; Maurice, Philosophy, pt. I. chap. vi. div. ii. § I. ' Protagoras, Eitter, pp. 573, ff.; Mosheim'sCudworth, lib. II. cap. iii. PEOLEGOMENA. definition 1; by the first of which 'he endeavoured to discover the permanent element which underlies the changing forms of appearances and the varieties of opinion; by the second he fixed the truth which he had thus gained.' It was a great step to force men to free the mind of half-realised conceptions and hazy notions, and to see clearly what a thing is and what it is not. And this is what the method of Socrates aimed at effecting. That it led to the common error of mistaking explanation of words for explanation of things is as true of the ages since Socrates as it was then ^. In his ethical deliveries he seems to have been somewhat inconsistent, maintaining at one time that virtue is knowledge, vice ignorance, and at another that virtue cannot be taught, and yet again that it is a matter of practice and natural disposition^- But he always afiirmed that man 'had within him a faculty that discerned right from wrong; he upheld the su- premacy of conscience; he considered that happiness consisted in knowing the truth and acting in accord- ance with it. The immortality of the soul, a doctrine 80 beautifully propounded in his last discourses, rested, in his view, on the beneficence of Divine Providence *. In his own profoundly religious mind that a voice divine {patfiovtov n) should seem to utter warnings and advice, is what we might have antecedently expected ^. The method of Socrates was followed in a greater or less degree by other philosophers who have been dis- tinguished as founders of three Schools, the Cyrenaic terminating in Epicurism, the Cynic combining to form Stoicism, and the Megariau, which contributed an important element to the speculations which in later times found their home at Alexandria ^. But the real successor of Socrates is Plato, his pupil. friend, and biographer. To give an accurate description of Plato's many-sided philosophy would be a difficult matter in any case; in this present necessarily brief sketch it is impossible. Only a few salient points can here be indicated — opinions rather than a system being enunciated. And even this is only partly feasible, as he so often changes his opinions, refutes at one time that which at another he had maintained, implies doubts where he had previously stated certainties, repudiates the process which he himself often has adopted, that we are seldom sure, when we produce the views set forth in one Dialogue, whether they have not been modified or denied in another. One thing however is well assured, and that is, that in his search for truth he was severely logical. Universal proposi- tions, abstract terms, were the materials with which he worked, and to discover these was the aim of all his teaching. To attribute to these general notions, or ideas, a substantive existence, to consider them not merely conceptions of the mind, but entities, noumena of which all individual things were the phenomena ', is simply an explanation of a difficulty for which he was indebted to his imaginative faculty. The soul, in his grand view, was always immortal, and before it became clogged with the body had seen Existence as it is, and had had glimpses, more or less perfect, of those ideas, those great realities, of which material things were the defective copy. Man's knowledge is a reminiscence of the verities seen .in the disembodied state : sensation awakens the recollection : it is our business to en- courage this memory, to strengthen it, to guide it by reason. So that the teacher's object is not so much to impart new information, as to recall previous impres- sions, dim and weak, but still not wholly effaced. This ' ToiJs t' eiraKTiKoiis \6yovs leal rh opi^ei/T](T€V ovde fls' Kai &6rj(Tav iv ra tottco tov GeoO, Kai 'e(payov Kal emov. Here there seems to have been a studied attempt to obviate the plain meaning of the text lest it should give occasion to anthropomorphic ideas of God °. In the Books of Maccabees it is studiously shown that the Lord interferes in the affairs of the world only through • The Jews of Palestine observed annually a three days" fast in humiliation for the profanation offered to God's word by this version, the length of the fast being regulated by the duration of the plague of darkness in Egypt. ^ See Bollinger, The Gentile and Jew, ii. p. 396 (English transl.). ^ Alexander the Great built temples to Egyptian divinities as well as to his own Grecian gods. Arr. Exped. Alex. iii. i. The worship of Serapis, whose temple was one of the wonders of Alexandria, was introduced from Pontus. See Gibbon, Decl. and Fall, chap, xxviii. and references there. S. Aug. De Civ. xviii. 5. * Vacherot, i. p. 127, and 106, ff. ^ Among these writings, besides those in the Greek Bible, may be mentioned the works of Aristobulus, who expounded the Pentateuch allegorically. Fragments of this production are to be found in Euseb. Praep. Ev. vii. 13, ff. ; viii. 9, ff. ; xiii. 13. See Dahne, Jiidisoh-Alexandr. Eelig. Philos. ii. pp. 73, ff. Another document of this period is the collection called the Sibylline Books or Oracles. Dahne, pp. 228, ff.; Gfrorer, Philo, ii. pp. 71, ff. and 121, ff. These are spoken of further on. ° Gfrorer, Philo, ii. pp. 9, ff. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan paraphrase the passage in much the' same way as the Septuagint. See Etheridge, pp. 400, 526. Other instances are given by Gfrorer. See too Ginsburg, The Kabbalah, p. 6, note. C 10 THE BOOK OF WISDOM. His ministers and agents. "Wlien (2 Mace, iii.) Helio- dorus came to the temple at Jerusalem to pillage its treasures, the Lord eTri(j)dveLav fieydXi]V _ enolrio-ev ; and though a little after it is said (ver. 30) that 'the Almighty Lord appeared/ the expression is used in reference to an angelic manifestation ^. Of philosophic connection is the expression applied to Almighty God, tSw oXcui', or anavrav, dtrpocrSerjS in 2 MaCC. xiv. 35 and 3 Macc. ii. 9 ; and not in accordance with the usage of the Old Testament, which speaks (i Kings yiii. 27) of the heaven of heavens not contaiDing God, but never employs this term derived from Greek philo- sophy ". From the same source are derived the phrases about reason, the mind, etc., in the Fourth Book, e.g. d lephs fjyfficbv vovs (ii. 23) ; XoyiCTfios avToSea-noTos ([. l) ; iradaiv Tvpawot (xvi. l) ; ^ Tov Bf'iov XoyHT/JoO jradoKpcireia (xiii. 16) j and the four cardinal virtues (i. 18), which are also named in Wisd. viii. 7'- Of the Greek learning displayed in the Book of Wisdom we have spoken further on, when noting its character and language ; we may here give an in- stance or two of the writer's acquaintance with Western Philosophy. The term uoepov applied to the spirit of Wisdom (vii. 22) reflects the Stoic's definition of God as itvivfia voepov*, the enumeration of the four cardinal virtues (viii. 7), Justice, Temperance, Prudence, Courage, is qiiite Platonic ^. That the world was created e| ap.6p- (j)ov tJXTjr (xi. 17) is an orthodox opinion couched in Platonic language ; it is a philosophical expression for that 'earth without form and void' from which this our globe was evolved '. The pre-existence of souls was a theory common to many systems of philosophy as well as to Platonism ; and the author, in saying (viii. 19, 20) : 'I was a witty child and had a good soul ; yea, rather, being good, I came into a body undefiled,' showed that he was well acquainted with this opinion of the schools, while his statement was grounded on the language of Scripture ' If we cast our eyes upon writings outside the sacred volume we shall find the same blending of Greek and Hebrew notions. In spite of Valckenaer's Diatribe* there seems no good reason to doubt that Aristobulus, of whose works Eusebius and Clemens Alex, have preserved considerable fragments, is that Jewish priest, 'king Ptolemaeus' master' (2 Macc. i. 10), who is addressed by Judas Maccabaeus as the repre- sentative of the Jews in Alexandria. The Ptolemy, whose teacher or counsellor (SiSdo-KoXos) he was, was Ptolemy Philometor (a. d. 150), and the work, remains of which have reached us, was an allegorical exposition of the Pentateuch, after the form with which we. are familiar in the writings of Philo and the Alexandrian Fathers, Origen and Clement. In this treatise, per- haps with the hope of winning the king over to the Jewish faith, he labours to prove that the Law and the Prophets were the source from which the Greek philo- sophers, and specially the Peripatetics, had derived their doctrines. To this end he cites Orpheus, who, in one of his sacred legends [Upoi Xdyoi), speaks of God as the Creator, Preserver, and Ruler of all things, accom- ' Gfrorer, ii. p. 55. But see Grimm, Comment, in 2 Macc. iii. 30. Dahne, ii. pp. 181, 3. (compare 3 Macc. ii. 9. ' Dahne, ii. p. 187, and i. p. 120; Grimm, in 2 Macc. xiv. 35. * See more, ap. Dahne, i. p. 194. The Fourth Book of Mac- cahees is not printed in Tischendorf's edition of the Septuagint : it will be found, in Field, Apel, and Fritzsche. * Plut. Plac. Philos. vi. (p. 535) ; ZeUer, Phil. d. Griech. iii. p. 72. ' Plato, de Eep. iv. pp. 444, ff. ; Eitter, Hist, of Philoa. ii. p. 407 (Eng. tranal.). ' See note on ch. xi. 1 7. ' Compare Isai. xlix. i, 5; Ivii. 16; Jer. i. 5, and notes on ch. viii. 19, 20. ' Diatribe de Aristobulo, 1S06. See Dahne, ii. pp. 73, ff . ; Gfrorer, Philo, ii. pp. 71, ff. ; Vacherot, i. pp. 140, ff . ; Art. Aristobulus, in Smith's Diet, of Bible, by Professor Westcott ; Matter, Hist, de I'ficole d'Atex. iii. pp. 153, flf. ; Eusebius entitles Aristobulus' work, Bi0\ovs k^rjyriTiKas tov Naiaias vSpov (Hist. Eccl. vii. 32), or, Tijv tSiv lepaiv v6paiv fpfirjveiav (Praep. Ev. vii. 13). The quotations in Clem. Alex. (Stroiu. i. p. 304; v. p. 595 ; i. p. 342 ; vi. p. 632) are all found in Euseb. Praep. Ev. See Dahne, p. 89. Eusebius' Fragments are found, vii. 13, 14; viii. 6, 8, 10; ix. 6 ; xiii. 12, pp. 663, ff. See also DoUinger, The Gentile and Jew, ii. p. 397 (Eng. transl.). PROLEGOMENA. II modating what is said of Zeus to the Lord of the Hebrews : in his view the letter of Holy Scripture is not to be pressed : Moses' imagery is only figurative : the transactions on Mount Sinai are only emblematic f tatements of great truths. He unhesitatingly sacrifices the literal meaning of the sacred story, and explains and allegorises till nothing historical remains. In the same way he treats the Greek myths, making them symbolise revealed truths, and striving to find for tliem a divine origin and a place in the Biblical records. The letter of Aristeas S giving the well-known ac- count of the production of the Septuagint translation, seems to have been the work of an Alexandrian Jew living at this period, though the writer, the better to maintain his assumed character, professes himself to be of another nation. In it he speaks of the Jews worship- ping the same God as the Greeks adored under the name of Zeus, but is careful to guard against Pantheism by maintaining that God's power and influence are through and in all things^; he explains away the peculiar laws concerning meats clean and unclean, as symbolising purity and separation ; he shows that all vice and evil springs from man's nature, all good from God, using the terms ipfrfi, aSixia, iyKpareia, SiKaiocrvur], in a truly philosophic manner. These sayings are supposed to be answers of the seventy- two elders to questions of the king; but as the whole story is fictitious, the doc- trines asserted may well be taken to represent the views prevalent among the Jews in Alexandria in the century before Christ. The Sibylline Books ', which have come down to us, seem, on the best evidence, to be the production of Alexandrian Jews, and contain signs of their place and time of birth. Thus in the Proemium we read * : Eis Beos, OS fioms opx^' infpiifyidrjs, dyem]Tos, TravTOKpaTcap, aoparos, 6pa>v povos avrbs airavra, avTos 6 ov /SXcVcrai Si/rjT^s vtio crapKos aTrdaTjs, Tis yap a-ap^ bivarai tov iirovpaviou (mi aKr)6^ 6(j)daKiJL0i(Tiv ISelv Qeov iip.^poTov, os ttoKov oIkci; . . . avTov TOV povov ovra a^e^ecrff TjyrjTopa Kocrpov, OS povos eis atoiva, Kai i^ alatifos irv^Brj^ avToyevrjs, dyevTjros, anavra Kparav dia jravTos nam ^poTo'iaiv iva>v to KpiTrjpiov iv (pad KOiva . . , ovpavov rjyfiTai, yairjs RpaTft, airos virap^ei. Here the expressions about God are wholly in accord with the Alexandrian philosophy, and seem also to embody a protest against the idolatry of Egypt. Thus we see the progress of the attempt to reconcile Hebrew doctrine with Greek philosophy, to accommo- date the one to the other, to read revealed truths in time-honoured myths, and to obtain, from a profound investigation into the inner sense of the sacred volume, ground for believing that the chief dogmas taught by the wisest of philosophers were contained therein. But all these attempts are not comparable to what was effected by Philo Judaeus, whose voluminous works afford the most complete examples of the doctrine of the Jewish- Alexandrian school ^. Himself a resident in Alexandria, and from his early youth a devoted student, he was admirably fitted to examine the tenets of the philosophers before him and to combine them, if such combination were loyally possible, with those which he had received from his fathers and which he had no intention of disparaging or repudiating*. Studious » Gallandi, Bibl. Patr. ii. 771 ; Gfrbrer, Philo, ii. pp. 61, ff. ; Dahne, ii. pp. 205, ff. ; Hody, De Bibl. Text. Orig. ^ ^6vQS b ©cos kffTi, Hal did iraVTUv fi bvvapis tov aiiTov kcTi, ipavfpd yiviTat [^.iravTa avT^~\, •jrejr\rjpa}p€vov iravrbs t6ttov ttjs SwaaTcias. This seema to favour the theory of the Neo-platonists concerning the Aiiima Mundi. ' See Dahne, ii. pp. 2 28, ff. * Ap. Theophil. Ad Autol. ii. 36; Gfrorer, Philo, ii. p. 123. ' For Philo's doctrine, see Gfrorer, Philo, i.; Dahne,.i.; Vache- rot, i. pp. 142-167 ; Bitter, Hist, Phil. iv. pp. 407, ff. (Eng. transl.). Of Philo's works the best edition is that by Mangey, 2 vols, fol., 1742 ; but this does not contain the treatises discovered by Ma,i and Aucher. That by Riohter (Lips. 1828-1830) comprises all that is attributed to Philo. There is a translation of his works in Bohn's Ecclesiastical Library. For Philo's influence on suc- ceeding theology see Mosheim's notes on Cudworth's Intellec- tual System, translated by Harrison, 1845 ; Kingsley, Alex, and Her Schools, p. 79, ff. ; J. Bryant, The Sentiments of Philo. Cambr. 1797. ^ Vit. Mos. iii. 23 (ii. p. 163 M.) : oix dyvoai «is irdvra (ial C % 12 THE BOOK OF WISDOM. rather than original, more fanciful than profound, he was incapable of forming a complete system of theology, and being led away by side issues and verbal niceties, he is often inconsistent with himself, fails to convey a distinct impression, because he has but vague notions or unrealised conceptions to offer. Of his piety and earnestness there can be no doubt ; equally certain it is that, owing to his want of logical method and division, his expressions are indefinite ; and to frame any regular doctrine from his works is a matter of extreme difficulty, if it be possible. The predominant idea of Philo was to present the Jewish religion in such a form as to make it acceptable to the Greek intellect. How to reconcile Sevelation and Philosophy — this was the task to which he applied all the powers of his mind and all the stores of his learning. His great resource was allegory. In his hands the facts of history lost their reality and became only the embodiment of abstract truths, and the simple monotheism of Scripture was adapted to the refiae- ments of Greek science ^. First, as to the knowledge of God : Philo maintains that this is unattainable by man. He may know what God is not ; he may know of His existence (vnap^is), he can know nothing of His proper existence (iSia vnap^is) or essence ''- What we do know of God is that He is superior to the Good, more simple than the One, more ancient than the Unit '; He is unchangeable *, eternal^, uncompounded °, wanting nothing ', the source of all life ", exclusively free ' and exclusively blessed " ; He fills all things ^\ He is ever working '^; His love, justice, and providence are over all His works''. Such being the nature of God, so ineffable and un- approachable, what communication can there be be- tween the Creator and the creature ? It is true that man ought to strive with all his powers to know God, but of himself he cannot attain to this knowledge. He cannot rise to God : God must reveal Himself to him '*. Now there are two kinds of revelation which God uses in His communications with men. The first and most perfect is bestowed only on some favoured seers, who, elevated above the condition of finite consciousness, be- come, as it were, one with Him whom they contemplate". For the majority of men there remains only that in- Xprjfffiol offa kv rais UpaTs ^i^kots dvay^ypaiTTat, XPV^^^^"^^^ ^'■' aiiTov K.T.K. His views on inspiration are collected by Gfriirer, i. pp. 64, ff. ^ ^ On Philo's reference of all that was best in Greek Philosophy to Moses see Quod omnis prob. 8. (ii. p. 454) ; De Jud. 2. (ii. p. 245) ; Quis rer. div. haer. 43. (i. p. 503) ; De conf. ling. 20. (i. p. 419) ; De Vit. Mos. ii. 4. (ii. p. 137). '' De Praem. et Poen. 7. (ii. p. 415). ^ De Vit. Cont. I. (ii. p. 472) : to ok, & Kal ayaSov upuTrdv iari, titd evos iikiKpivicmpoVj Kal pLovddos apx^yovoinpoVy where we may observe, that, while exaltingGod above the conceptions of philosophers, Philo says nothing of His— Personality, sub- stituting t6 hv for & iiv of Exod. iii. 14. * Quod Deus immut. § 5. (i. p. 276) : rl yelp &.v aaiPrjua piil^ov ykvono 70V vnokafiffdveiy to aTpimov rpiTnaOai ; ■■^ De Caritate, 2. (ii. p. 386) : yiv-rjTbs yhp ovSfh dkridtia ®ibs, oKXa So^y fj^ovov, rb dyayicaioTaTov dtpr/prj^evoSt oXSidTrfTa. ' Leg. Alleg. ii. i : 6 di ©eSj pidvos iarl, Kal Ik, ou avyKpi/xa,