48 PHILO'S POLITICS
narrative to give interpretation. "Joseph" is again translated as meaning
"the addition of the Lord," but the invidious connotation of "addition"
has gone altogether. Instead of the name's signifying that the ruler is
personally a man devoted to the lower material excrescences, rather
than to the eternal verities, it is the inadequacy of the political state it
self that Philo here finds expressed in the term. There is only one true
sovereign authority, he says, and to this the "state as seen among
peoples" (h Kara &y)Mouc noAiTeia) is always an addition.^18 Only in pass
ing at the end does he conclude that the politicus is an addition to the
man who lives "according to nature."^19 But there is no hint of bitterness.
Similarly the multi-colored coat symbolizes primarily adaptability.^20
States take many different forms, vary widely in their laws, and the
politicus must take on the character of warrior or peaceful man, or what
else, and use force or persuasion, as circumstances demand.^21 As to the
selling into slavery,^22 the old interpretation still holds: the politicus is
the slave of the populace. But the fact is pointed out in sorrow, not in
scorn. That is, Philo is here gently holding out the idea, familiar enough
from the Stoics alone,^23 that earthly government is essentially inferior
to the great government of nature in the universe, or as he put it, con
trary to the Stoics, the great government of God. The politicus, dealing
with earthly politics, is concerned with excrescences, "additions," to
what is real. He is therefore of course inferior to the man concerned
with God more directly. Yet he is a great blessing to man, and his vir
tue is quite beyond, if he is a proper ruler, the virtue of ordinary men
(M£i£ov h K<rr' iSiWTyjv).
The narrative is then resumed. Once Joseph was in Egypt, his master,
like Jacob, quickly recognized his true character, namely that in what
ever he did or said he acted "not without divine wisdom" (OUK aveu
Geiac £m()>poouvy]<;).^24 That is, in all his actions and pronouncements he
- The passage is more fully discussed below, p. 80.
19- Jos., 31.
- Ibid., 32 ff. The association of the variegated coat with tyranny was probably a proverbial
part of the current king philosophy. See Dio Chrys., Orat., I, 70 where ftacrdeia is clothed in
white; §81 where xvoawCc; has clothing JtavTo8ajt/j.
- Breliier compares this section with Plato, Politicus, 294a, b.
- Jos., 35 f.
- Colson has gathered some of the familiar passages in his translation, VI, 600, note to §28.
- Jos., 37. The §jaq)QOOuVTi tela or fteov appears frequendy in Philo (Leisegang lists
twenty instances in his Index) as the provident activity of God toward men or in human af
fairs. It seems quite interchangeable with one of Philo's most important usages for the %6yo<;
fteov or ftetoc;.
