176 A History of Judaism
explicitly in each case between the literal meaning and the deeper
meaning:
Why does (Scripture) say, ‘Every reptile that lives shall be to you for food’?
The nature of reptiles is twofold. One is poisonous, and the other is tame.
Poisonous are those serpents which in place of feet use the belly and breast
to crawl along; and tame are those which have legs above their feet. This
is the literal meaning. But as for the deeper meaning, the passions resemble
unclean reptiles, while joy (resembles) clean (reptiles). For alongside sens-
ual pleasures there is the passion of joy.
This exegetical method, combining close examination of the literal
meaning of the text and the etymology of words with assertion of a
deeper significance, was borrowed from contemporary Stoic scholar-
ship, not least in the study of Homer, when the technique was often used
to save Homer from a charge of impiety. In Philo’s very different case,
the allegorical meaning of the biblical text generally added something to
a straightforward understanding and was used only rarely to dismiss
the literal meaning:
‘And God brought a trance upon Adam, and he fell asleep; and He took
one of his sides’ and what follows. These words in their literal sense are of
the nature of a myth. For how could anyone admit that a woman, or a
human being at all, came into existence out of a man’s side? And what was
there to hinder the First Cause from creating woman, as He created man,
out of the earth? For not only was the Maker the same Being, but the
material too, out of which every particular kind was fashioned, was prac-
tically unlimited. And why, when there were so many parts to choose from,
did He form the woman not from some other part but from the side? And
which side did he take? For we may assume that only two are indicated, as
there is in fact nothing to suggest a large number of them. Did he take the
left or the right side? If He filled up with flesh (the place of) the one which
He took, are we to suppose that the one which He left was not made of
flesh? Truly our sides are twin in all their parts and are made of flesh. What
then are we to say? ‘Sides’ is a term of ordinary life for ‘strength’ ... Hav-
ing said this, we must go on to remark that the mind when as yet unclothed
and unconfined by the body (and it is of the mind when not so confined
that he is speaking) has many powers.One option favoured by the scholars of Homer was to amend any text
which they found unsatisfactory, but Philo could not allow himself to
do this with the Septuagint text, since he believed it had been produced