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

IN CODE 35

men" in keeping free of the general confusion; they have refused to

mingle with the parties concerned, and go on living in their traditional

way. This ability to live undisturbed has caused favorable comment on

all sides, and has particularly been recognized by the Roman rulers

themselves.

The claim that Romans had recognized the value of the Jewish stand

is not at all surprising. For while many Romans express themselves

most scornfully when describing the Jews,^58 and Roman policy was by

no means consistent in dealing with them, the Romans did on the

whole allow the Jews remarkable special privileges not only of religion

but of law, and could never have done so, in the face of popular dislike

of the Jews, if they had not recognized the value of the Jewish bloc.

Jethro and the "superfluous arrogance" seem even more clearly to re­

fer to the Romans in the following passage: Jethro symbolizes "arro­

gance," Philo says, for the name Jethro

when translated means "superfluous" (nepioooc), and "arrogance" is a super­
fluous addition to the true (a\j;eu§y)c;) life, an addition which ridicules the
principles of equality and the essentials of life (xa foa Kal avayKala TQ |3ta),
and does honor to the inequalities of greed.^59 And it honors human things
above divine things, custom above laws, profane things above the sacred,
mortal above immortal, and, in general, appearance above reality. It even
dares to intrude itself into the rank of the legate (oujj|3ouAoc), and to in­
struct the "wise man" not to teach those things which are alone worthy of
being learned, namely the "commandments of God and the law" (Exod.
xviii, 20), but to teach instead the contractual arrangements (ov\i&6\a\a) of
men with each other, those very things, that is, which as a rule produce asso­
ciations of men without any real common ground between them (T^C GKOIV-
GJV/)TOU ox^Sov anna Koivwviac).^60

Here the meaning of "arrogance," and the relation of "the arrogant
man" with the "wise man," are the same as in the preceding passage,
but that the "arrogant man" is here the Roman is made even more
probable by the reference to the office of the O\J\$O\J\O<Z. For oujjpouAoc

58. See Schiirer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, II, ii, 291 ff.,
    and Hausrath, Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte, III, 71-81.


59. JtXeove?Ca is a terminus technicus in political philosophy for the King's claim to the
    "lion's share": see "Hellenistic Kingship," 76. For a figurative use see Mos., i, 153: By LigJit,
    Light, 185 n.


60. Mut., 103 f. Like Colson (note ad loc.) I can see no reason for reversing the meaning as
    Wendland does following Mangey, by omitting the |ARJ of line 29 in his edition, and adding \ir\
    in line 30. See Colson's excellent note.