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

In Code 33

ing the politician from this unfavorable point of view. He is "executor
of the concerns of the body." His name is again translated as "addition/'
and the word is explained as the elaboration of the things of nature
with superfluous additions. Most people think that a man of fortune is
at the same time a man of prudence, to represent which mistake Joseph

took the name Psouthonphanech (as the Septuagint reproduced it),
which Philo explains as meaning "a mouth pronouncing judgement."
His younger brother was by his father given the name Benjamin, mean­
ing "Son of days";

and as day is illuminated by the sunlight visible to our senses, so we compare

"empty opinion" to it. For "empty opinion"^47 has a certain brilliance to the

outward sense in the acclamations of the mass and herd, in the decrees which

are enacted, in the dedications of statues and images, in the purple robes and

golden crowns, in chariots and four-horse cars, and in processions of the mul­

titude. He who is ambitious of such things is naturally called "Son of days,"

that is of visible light and the brilliance of "empty opinion."^48

Joseph's mother was aware of the other side of the picture. The hap­
piness of such men she knew to be only apparent, for they are actually
made wretched by being constantly exposed to malice, envy, strifes, en­
mities irreconcilable until death, and the like. The birth of such a man­
ner of living is death to the soul. Again the reference to the Roman

rulers is hardly veiled at all, and again Philo shows his implacable ha­
tred. The peculiar image of the unworthy ruler as being illumined by a
"sensible" light, brilliance, or beam (4>&< aioO/jTov, \a\mpoTYic aio9yjTiQ,
4>SYYOC aloOiQTov), will be considered later.^49 It is notable that the in­
evitable flail of such men, as in the passage just quoted, is Envy.^50
The word "arrogance" (TU^OC) has frequently appeared as a standing
epithet to represent the Roman civilization and government. Philo uses

47. Philo is using the terminus technicus xevT| 86§a now with the other meaning of ho%a,
    "glory." I have kept the other meaning in translation since for the English reader the con­
    tinued use of the term is the most essential feature.


48. Mut., 92 f. 49. See below, p. 57.


49. See below, p. 47. Philo frequently refers to Joseph. Apparently Joseph is a passing refer­
    ence to the Romans in Mut., 171-174, cf. 89 ff.; it may be a veiled reference to them at Det.,
    5 ff., 28; Sobr., 12-15. IQ Mig., 158 ff. Joseph would appear to be the Jewish politician like
    Philo who tries to keep both true wisdom and a hand in public affairs, by being a mean be­
    tween the man who lives exclusively for Jewish piety on the one hand, and the Roman, here
    Pharaoh, whose life is entirely in political affairs as he rules Egypt, on the other. See also Deus,
    191-121; Mig., 203 f.; LA, iii, 179; Mut., 89 f., 215. Joseph is referred to with general dis­
    approval in LA, iii, 26; Cher., 128; Det., 17. He appears to meet approval in Post., 80 ff.;
    Mig., 17; and to be even a symbol of continence in LA, iii, 237 ff.