The Politics of Philo Judaeus: Practice and Theory, with a General Bibliography of Philo

FOREWORD

NEARLY ten years ago I began an investigation of Philo's politi­

cal and legal thought which has led me in a great number of un­

expected directions. The book I was trying to write was repeat­

edly begun, and yet each time I found that a fragment had

grown into an independent study which I published sepa­

rately. What was planned for my original book is now all

scattered: the background is largely in "Hellenistic Kingship/'^1

though interesting points in the Jewish tradition are discussed in

"Kingship in Ancient Israel";^2 the practical adaptation of Jew­

ish law is in Jurisprudence;* the natural law, God as king, the

Jewish law, law in the subjective realm, and the use of legal and

political imagery in Philo's "Mystery" are in By Light, Light.^4

So there is left to be discussed here only that part which deals

with Philo's relations with the Roman government, his personal

attitude toward society, and his political theory. To present these

in isolation from the rest is difficult, since the new material and

ideas are intelligible only in terms of those already described,

1. "The Political Philosophy of Hellenistic Kingship," Yale Classical Studies, I (1928), 53-102.
   Hereafter cited as "Hellenistic Kingship."


2. Journal of Biblical Literature, XLVIII (1929), 169-205.


3. The Jurisprudence of the Jewish Courts in Egypt: Legal Administration by the Jews under
   the Early Roman Empire as Described by Philo Judaeus, New Haven (Yale University Press),


4. Hereafter cited as Jurisprudence. The thesis of this work is that the treatises De Specialibus
   Legibus, i-iv, are based upon the adaptations made in Jewish courts in Alexandria to the laws of
   Greeks and Romans. That thesis has been strongly opposed by some scholars, notably by Heine-
   mann: see his Philons griechische und judische Bildung, Breslau, 1932, 180 ff. But it has been so
   widely accepted, that I may hope, to quote de Zulueta from his review of the reviews in the Jour­
   nal of Egyptian Archeology, XVIII (1932), 94, that I have "proved my point."


5. By Light, Light: the Mystic Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism, New Haven (Yale University
   Press), 1935. Hereafter cited as By Light, Light.