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

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white heat. In comparison with the divine course of nature in social
matters, as represented by the Jewish life, the Romans are suckers,
drawing the very life from the true tree. Let them spread themselves
before their captives, and call themselves, as they sport their crowns,
rulers of men; far from being rulers they are really only slaves as com­
pared with the virtuous Jew. The great Husbandman has not yet ap­
peared to prune the vine of society by hacking them off at the very
roots, but, it is clear, Philo was looking for him to come. His language
is strikingly suggestive not only of the pruning of the vine in the Fourth
Gospel, but also of Q's account of John the Baptist's Messianic an­
nouncement that now that the Messiah was about to come, the axe
would at last be laid at the very roots of the unfruitful trees.^21 If it is
now recalled that much as he felt obliged for the present to propitiate
the Romans, he was ready to attack and destroy their power when the
opportunity came, it would appear that Philo was not only awaiting the
Husbandman, but would swing an axe with him when he came.
Philo is usually represented as the complete antitype of the Apocalyp­
tic writers, a man who found his life in metaphysics and mysticism, and
who was a total stranger to the hysterical hatred of Rome that looked
for a militant Messiah. If the interpretation of these passages is correct
that description of Philo is totally unjustified. He would seem to have
had too much political sagacity to sign his name to books in which the

Romans were specifically denounced. He was too large minded not to
see the value of much in Greek and Roman thought. He was no fanatic,
and knew that so long as the Messiah had not yet come, one must get
on with the Romans in the most conciliating spirit possible. So Philo
kept his Messianism to himself. But one could secretly think, hope, and
hate. And Philo seems to me to be assuring his Jewish friends that he
was passionately doing all three.

People, Philo goes on, who did not fully understand, mourned for

Joseph because he had been devoured by a wild beast. But it is Joseph,
as the type of "arrogance," who is himself the wild beast and devours
everyone who comes near him.^22 Nay those who have suffered from
such a "hurt," though we mourn them as dead, are truly alive, for they

21. Mat. iii, 10; Luke iii, 9. On Philo's remarks about the Messianic king see further,
    pp. 115 ff. It is generally supposed that there was litde interest in the Messianic hope in Hellen­
    istic Judaism, but probably the hope was less discussed only because of the danger of doing so:
    see Sibyll., iii, 46-50, and G. F. Moore, Judaism, ii, 329 f.


22. Som., ii, 66.