IN CODE 31No, one must trust in God.^40 There is always Miriam to be thought of,
the symbol of hope. For, he points out elaborately, the fact is that how
ever prosperous and safe some people may appear for a time, they often
perish at the least expected moment.^41 So we must pray God to be ever
merciful to the race in protecting it from the lure of false appeals.^42 And
this in turn God can do only as we keep reason steadily dominant over
the passions.^43 With this Philo concludes the allegory of Joseph.
Vague as is the closing section, when it is recalled that "empty opin
ion" has throughout represented Roman domination, and "arrogance"
the spirit of Rome and Roman rulers, while "truth" has represented
Judaism and "right opinion" (opQoc Aoyoc) the true Law,^44 the mean
ing seems clear. Philo is urging the Jews not to give up their Jewish
faith and hope and surrender to the blandishments and prosperity open
to them by renouncing their Judaistic isolation and making one with
the Roman cause; not to give up allegiance to their true Law to accept
the "empty opinion" of the Roman system. The Jew has a true pride
and sense of superiority before which the Roman "arrogance" is dross.
And Philo is adjuring them to hope for the destruction of the foes of
Judaism, who are bound to fall through their own sins. Jews must pray
for the peace of Israel, that is its ultimate freedom, for which Jews can
hope only as they themselves keep free from the temptations of the
flesh about them. Like the martyrs of IV Maccabees, the Jews could
keep the Law only as they kept reason as the king and pilot in com
plete mastery over the passions. Truly Philo was not talking about
dreams, but about what seemed great things to the tempted Jew.
Philo's own nephew, Tiberius Alexander, it will be recalled, succumbed
to the temptation, and found a brilliant career by going over to the Ro
mans, had probably already apostatized when Philo wrote this para
graph, since by 46 A.D. he had gone so far in Roman circles that he was
made procurator of Palestine. Such an exhortation could only have been
given thus in allegory. Philo might openly criticize a fallen prefect, but
not the Roman rule as such and its constant attraction to influential
Jews. Veiled as it is, the Alexandrian Jew would have recognized the
symbols, and understood this really passionate appeal. This allegory of
the dreams of Joseph is the call, necessarily almost in code, for Jews to
- Som., ii, 141. 41. Ibid., 142-148.
42. Ibid., 149. 43. Ibid., 150-154.
44. On doftog \6yo<; as true law, and hence here as the Jewish Law, see By Light, Light,
54-58.