CHAPTER III
POLITICS BY INNUENDO
P
HILO'S political life is beginning to appear to have had many
layers and facets. In spite of the fact that we know of only a
single political appointment given to him, his remarks about
the political situation show an amazingly realistic combination
of insight, caution, and boldness. In the first chapter we saw him writ
ing treatises for gentiles, if not for the prefect and emperor in person,
masterfully insinuating what should be the attitude of a ruler toward
his subjects, and especially toward the Jews. In the second chapter we
were eavesdropping while to his intimate friends he whispered the bit
terest hatred of the Romans, and hope for a day when the Jews would
no longer have to endure their arrogance.
There is one more extended approach to politics and the ruler in a
treatise which Philo wrote under still different circumstances. Beside
Philo's Allegorical Interpretation of the Jewish Law, and the Questions
and Answers on Genesis and Exodus, stands a third great series of com
mentaries on the Pentateuch, usually referred to as the Exposition of the
Jewish Law. The distinctive points of this Exposition as contrasted with
the other two series, particularly the former, the Allegory, I have dis
cussed elsewhere,^1 and shown that the differences indicate that the Ex
position was intended for gentiles as clearly as the Allegory and Ques
tions were designed for Jews. It appeared that the Exposition did not
look to ordinary gentiles, but was especially adapted to be given to those
seriously interested in learning about the Jewish religion. The Exposi
tion therefore reads quite differently from the Allegory written for
Jews who knew the Old Testament in elaborate detail, and who were
ready for a commentary which would, largely by allusion, expound the
truths of the Mystery. For in the Exposition Philo had always first to
tell the scriptural narrative in a form which those who had never heard
it would comprehend. In this spirit he began the Exposition with the
creation, that is, with the demonstration of Jewish (Platonic-Pythago
rean) metaphysics. Next he told of the revelation of God to the Jews,
i. "Philo's Exposition of the Law and his De Vita Mosis," Harvard Theological Review,
XXVII (1933), 109-125.
