IN CODE 27- Som., ii, 95 ff. 29. Ibid., 99.
"king" meant to any son of the East in Philo's day a claim to divine
rank. This is the point at which the brethren protested. While they
would bow to the mere assertion of force, they could not call Joseph
"king," in the full sense. For, says Philo, the strong man in whom is
"right opinion" (cpGoc Aoyoc) will, for all his cautious behavior, hate
the "love of arrogance,"^28 and will always hold that the only true king
in the full sense is God. To God should be given the real prostrating
(TTpooKuvv)aic) and honor (TIM^)), and if any ruler takes to himself the
"honor" of God and calls upon his subjects to a cult of himself per
sonally (npoc T/]V ISlav 0 £pandav), a proper man will be violently en
raged.^29 In such a case the only thing to do is to speak out boldly, and
refuse to recognize any man as Lord. The obligation is clear, for as
slaves or servants of God the Jews (such Philo has in mind here
throughout) are not free to acknowledge another Lord. In their servi
tude to God are rewards greater than in any liberty.
In this passage Joseph has served consistently to represent the Roman,
or Roman rule, and Philo has expressed a very succinct view of his atti
tude. Roman extravagance and arrogance are described with loathing,
and the necessity of caution in dealing with them clearly indicated. But
the attitude of flattery and compliance is not to be carried to the point
of admitting the deity of any Roman ruler: rather than that, martyr
dom is freely to be welcomed, for the reward of martyrdom is transla
tion into supernal light. The Roman regime, however, will continue
only until the Messiah lays it low.
Having said what he wishes to say about the Romans as governors,
Philo is led by the word politicus to raise another question. Apparently
the reader was quite aware that Philo was himself a politicus, and if so,
and if his denunciation of the politicus was valid, where then did he
himself stand? It is for this reason, it seems to me, that Philo suddenly
shifts to the first person, and begins confessing that he himself has not
lived in proper detachment from the political affairs of Alexandria.
I would pray that I myself might be able to remain steadfastly in those
things which have been recognized [as the real values] by those men [i.e.
Joseph's brothers]. For they are the scouts, the watches, the overseers of mat
ters immaterial, strict in censorship, and sober through all their lives, so that
they are deceived by none of the usual cheats. But hitherto I have been drunk