BY INNUENDO 59
according to its ancestral practice (Kara ra ncrrpia), for he strongly disap
proved of neglecting ancient laws (naAaiouc vopiouc), especially at a banquet
where pleasures should exceed unpleasantness.^61
That is, from what Philo says a gentile reader would suppose that Jo
seph's concern was for the Jewish feeling and law, not for Egyptian
prejudice. The notion that Egyptians, despised by all non-Egyptian in
habitants of Alexandria, should have been too good to eat with the Jew
ish patriarchs was something which Philo had no intention of circu
lating.
The tables at this great feast, Philo reminds the luxury-loving gentile
reader, were set with due modesty, quite without vulgar display (anei-
poKaAia)/^2 a thing which after all only reflects small-mindedness.
The gentile reader is again illumined when Philo paraphrases Jo
seph's judgment by condemning Benjamin to slavery for stealing the
royal cup. In Genesis Judah, as spokesman, declares that all the brothers
are the slaves of Joseph, to which Joseph replies that only Benjamin
shall be a slave. The rest may go. Philo cannot let it stand as simply as
this. He must first bring out clearly the fact that, unlike the frequent
harshness of Romans in the colonies, Joseph refused to punish the inno
cent with the guilty.^63 Second, the reader, though he obviously does not
know the narrative which Philo is telling for his benefit, seems to have
been thought of as able to recognize that this penalty of slavery for theft
is not at all in accordance with Jewish procedure, which assigned the
death penalty for robbery, and a fine for petty theft.^64 That is, the reader
is a person who knows Jewish legal customs, but not Jewish religious
teaching or history, which would probably have described very well the
Roman rulers of Egypt who had had practical experience with Jewish
legal processes, while they were indifferent to other aspects of Jewish
life. Particularly would any Roman official have known that the Jews
wanted the death penalty for robbery, since such a Jewish penalty must
have secured in each case his open or tacit consent, and indeed was
worked into Jewish law at just those points where Roman law would
itself have required capital punishment. The next time the Jews desired
to enforce such a death penalty for robbery Philo did not want the pre-- Jos., 202. 62. Ibid., 205.
- On the importance of this issue in Roman Egypt in general, and especially Philo's eyes see
my Jurisprudence, 134 f. - See my Jurisprudence, 145 ff., 230 ff.