58 PHILO'S POLITICS
the great power at his disposal it would have been very easy for Joseph
to have taken revenge.^58 Rather than do this, or rashly trust himself
again to their treachery, Joseph simply held himself in restraint until he
could know what sort of men they now were. Philo does not general
ize, but the notion of restraint (eyKpcrrda) was too familiar a part of the
ideal royal nature not to have been worked into the narrative some
where.^59
The brothers were at first frightened, but saw in their difficulties the
work of "Right, the ephor of human affairs." When Joseph required
that they leave one of their number as hostage of their good faith before
departing, they recognized that the judgment was one made not by "a
human being, but by divinity, or logos, or divine law" (av6pwnoc, a\'
Y\ Geoc h Aoyoc Y\ VOMOC Gdoc:).^60 That is, Joseph was recognized by the
brothers as being only the vehicle through whom logos or divine law
operated. In his official capacity he was divinity, not humanity. This
statement seems of great importance to me as marking Philo's ultimate
concession to the current theory of kingship. Bitterly as he opposes any
assumption of divinity on the part of the ruler himself, or any cult of
the ruler, Philo is quite ready to admit that the good ruler is the media
tor of divine rulership to men, and although the ruler must be regarded
as a human being in nature, his royal, official, voice is the voice not only
of logos and divine law, but of God.
Shortly afterwards, as Philo goes on to tell the details of the tests of
the brothers, a statement of Genesis is again misrepresented to bring out
the importance of a ruler's respecting Jewish dietary customs. The oc
casion is the banquet served by Joseph when the brothers came to Egypt
for the second time. The Hebrew (Gen. xliii, 32) says that Joseph set
separate tables for the Hebrews and Egyptians since it was an abomina
tion for an Egyptian if he must eat with a Hebrew. The Septuagint
softened this by saying that it was an abomination for an Egyptian to
eat with a shepherd. Philo turns the whole to the advantage of the Jew
by saying that Joseph feasted each party
- Philo says that Joseph did not act like a young man suddenly unbalanced by receiving, as
xoaamtiq r\ye\ioviaq 8ia8oxog, an aQ%r\v [itxa, fiaoikia JIQCOTTIV, a man etc; ov dvaxoWi
xal ovaeic; djtef&ejiov: §166. - §166: iyytQax&q xb Jiafroc; eveyxayv. By translating this "konnte er nur mit Muhe sein
briiderliches Gefuhl beherrschen," L. Cohn (Philos Wer\e [see the Bibliography no. 492], I,
- has altered the sense by inserting the quite unwarranted "briiderliches."
- Jos., 174.