Philo Judaeus
and the Trinity

God the Word: the Logos

While Philo's allegorical method of scriptural interpretation had its hits and misses -- many more misses than hits, alas -- his most spectacular 'hit' was his decoding of the Old Testament references to "the Word of God".  He already knew many of the titles and attributes of the Word, without any awareness of the revelation of God in Christ:

To brush up on what the Old Testament says about the Word of God, which is where Philo got his information from in the first place, see:

The Word of God

In the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, the Word of God became the 'Logos,' meaning:

"logos, a.) the word or that by which the inward thought is expressed, Lat. oratio; and, b.) the inward thought itself, Lat. ratio...thought, reason." (Intermediate Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon). Incommensurable numbers, like the ratio of the side of a square to its diagonal, are called 'alogos,' as are brute animals.  (In modern Greek, 'alogon' is a horse!)

The Good Shepherd

"To be a shepherd is so good a thing as to be justly attributed not only to kings and wise men and perfectly purified souls, but even to God the ruler of all...For he speaks thus: 'The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall lack nothing' (Ps. xxii (xxiii). 1).  This psalm should be rehearsed by every lover of God, and in an especial sense by the universe.  For like a flock, earth and water and air and fire and all plants and animals in them...are led according to right and law by God the Shepherd and King, who has set over them His true Logos and first-begotten Son, who takes over the care of this sacred flock like the vicegerent of a great king.  For it is said somewhere, 'Behold I am; I send my angel to thy face, to keep thee in the way' (Exod. xxiii. 20).  So let the whole universe, the greatest and most perfect flock of the self-existent God, say, 'The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall lack nothing.'  And let each individual also say the same..." (Philo Judaeus, De Agr. 50-3, quoted in Dodd).

"...choosing to become a portion of the sacred flock, of which the divine Word is the leader, as his name shows, for it signifies the pastoral care of God.  But while he is taking care of his own flock, all kinds of good things are given all at once to those of the sheep who are obedient, and who do not resist his will; and in the Psalms we find a song in these words, 'The Lord is my shepherd, therefore shall I lack nothing' [Psalm 23:1]; therefore the mind which has had the royal shepherd, the divine Word, for its instructor, will very naturally ask of his seven daughters, 'Why is it that you have contended with such haste to come hither this day?...[Exodus 2:18]" (On the Change of Names, XIX, 114-116).

New Testament: "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine." (John 10:14).

Fountain

"He exhorts the swift runner to hasten breathlessly to the most high divine Logos, which is the fountain of wisdom, in order that drawing from the stream he may find as a prize everlasting life instead of death." (Philo Judaeus, De Fuga, 97).

"But when the fountain of wisdom, God, imparts each form of knowledge to the mortal race, He needs not time for the work." (The Sacrifices of Abel and Cain, XVII.).

"Therefore speech is compared to a river...'For a river goes out of Eden to water the Paradise, and from thence it is divided into four branches' [Genesis 2:10]: and by the name Eden he means the wisdom of the living God, and the interpretation of the name Eden is 'delight,' because I imagine wisdom is the delight of God, and God is the delight of wisdom, as it is said also in the Psalms, 'Delight thou in the Lord.' [Psalm 37:4].  And the divine Word, like a river, flows forth from wisdom as from a spring, in order to irrigate and fertilize the celestial and heavenly shoots and plants of such souls as love virtue, as if they were a paradise...'The river of God was filled with water' [Psalm 65:9]; and it is absurd to give such a title to any of the rivers which flow upon the earth.  But as it seems the psalmist is here speaking of the divine Word, which is full of streams and wisdom, and which has no part of itself empty or desolate, or rather, as some one has said, which is diffused everywhere over the universe, and is raised up on high, on account of the continued and incessant rapidity of that ever-flowing spring.  There is also another expression in the Psalms, such as this: 'The course of the river makes glad the city of God.' [Psalm 46:4].  What city?  For the holy city, which exists at present, in which also the holy temple is established, is at a great distance from any sea or river, so that it is clear, that the writer here means, figuratively, to speak of some other city than the visible city of God.   For, in good truth, the continual stream of the divine Word, being borne on incessantly with rapidity and regularity, is diffused universally over everything, giving joy to all...And who can pour over the happy soul which proffers its own reason as the most sacred cup, the holy goblets of true joy, except the cup-bearer of God, the master of the feast, the Word? not differing from the draught itself, but being itself in an unmixed state, the pure delight and sweetness, and pouring forth, and joy, and ambrosial medicine of pleasure and happiness; if we too may, for a moment, employ the language of the poets." (On Dreams, Book 2, XXXVI-XXXVII, 240-249).

"For the flinty rock [Deut. viii. 15] is the wisdom of God, which He marked off highest and chiefest from His powers, and from which He satisfies the thirsty souls that love God...But the primal existence is God, and next to Him ['deuteros'] is the Word of God, but all other things subsist in word only, but in their active effects they are in some cases as good as non-subsisting." (Allegorical Interpretation, Book II, XXI, 86).

"Therefore he exhorts him who is able to run swiftly to strain onwards, without stopping to take breath, to the highest Word of God, which is the fountain of wisdom, in order that by drinking of that stream he may find everlasting life instead of death." (On Flight and Finding, XVIII, 97).

"...for the intellect is the fountain of words, and speech is its mouth-piece, because all the conceptions which are entertained in the mind are poured forth by means of speech, like stream of water which flow out of the earth, and come into sight." (The Worse Attacks the Better, XII, 40).

"We must now speak also concerning that highest and most excellent of fountains which the Father of the universe spake of by the mouths of the prophets; for he has said somewhere, 'They have left me, the fountain of life, and they have digged for themselves cisterns already worn out, which will not be able to hold water' [Jeremiah 2:13]; therefore, God is the most ancient of all fountains.  And is not this very natural? For it is He who has irrigated the whole of this world; and I am amazed when I hear that this is the fountain of life, for God alone is the cause of animation and of that life which is in union with prudence; for the matter is dead.  But God is something more than life; He is, as He himself has said, the everlasting fountain of living." (On Flight and Finding, XXXV, 197-198).

New Testament: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:38).

Manna

"And Moses shows this in other passages also, when he says, 'And in the morning the dew lay round about the hosts; and when the dew that lay in the morning was gone up, behold! upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, small as coriander seed, and white like the hoar-frost upon the earth.  And when they saw it, they said one to another, what is this? for they knew not what it was, and Moses said to them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat, this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded you.' [Exodus 16:13].

"You see now what kind of thing the food of the Lord is, it is the continued word of the Lord, like dew, surrounding the whole soul in a circle, and allowing no portion of it to be without its share of itself." (Allegorical Interpretation, III, LIX. (169).

"And in the same manner also the soul very often, when it is delighted, is yet unable to explain what it is that has delighted it; but it is taught by the hierophant and prophet Moses, who tells it, 'This is the bread, the food which God has given for the soul' [Exodus 16:15], explaining that God has brought it, his own word and his own reason; for this bread which he has given us to eat is this word of his." (Allegorical Interpretation, III, LX. (173)).

"Those also who have inquired what it is that nourishes the soul, for as Moses says, 'They knew not what it was' [Exodus 16:15], learnt at least and found that it was the word of God and the divine reason, from which flows all kinds of instinctive and everlasting wisdom.  This is the heavenly nourishment which the holy scripture indicates, saying, in the character of the cause of all things, 'Behold I rain upon you bread from heaven' [Exodus 16:4]; for in real truth it is God who showers down heavenly wisdom from above upon all the intellects which are properly disposed for the reception of it, and which are fond of contemplation.  But those who have seen and tasted it, are exceedingly delighted with it, and understand indeed what they feel, but do not know what the cause is which has affected them; and on this account they inquire, 'What is this which is sweeter than honey and whiter than snow?' And they will be taught by the interpreter of the divine will, that 'This is the bread which the Lord has given them to eat.' [Exodus 16:15].  What then is this bread?  Tell us.  'This,' says he, 'is the word which the Lord has appointed.' [Exodus 16:16].  This divine appointment at the same time both illuminates and sweetens the soul, which is endowed with sight, shining upon it with the beams of truth, and sweetening with the sweet virtue of persuasion those who thirst and hunger after excellence." (On Flight and Finding, XXV, 137-139).

"...for the one raises his eyes to the sky, beholding the manna, the divine Word, the heavenly, incorruptible food of the soul, which is food of contemplation: but the others fix the eye on garlic and onions..." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XV, 79).

"Now these energies are especially the food of the soul, which is competent to give suck, as the lawgiver says, 'Honey out of the rock, and oil out of the solid rock' [Deuteronomy 32:13], meaning by the solid rock which cannot be cut through, the wisdom of God...but the fountain of divine wisdom is borne along, at one time a more gentle and moderate stream, and at another with greater rapidity and a more exceeding violence and impetuosity...This rock, Moses, in another place, using a synonymous expression, calls manna the most ancient word of God..." (The Worse Attacks the Better, XXXI, 115-118). (Philo counts numerous 'words' of God; our 'Logos' is "the most ancient word.")

New Testament: "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.'  Then they said to Him, 'Lord, give us this bread always.'  And Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.'" (John 6:33-35).

Discerner

"Such also is the word of God, being profitable both in its entirety and also in every part, even if it be ever so small.  May it not be also likened to the pupil of the eye? For as that, being the smallest portion of the eye, does nevertheless behold the entire orbs of existing things and the boundless sea, and the vastness of the air, and the whole immeasurable space of heaven, which the sun, whether rising in the east or setting in the west, can bound; so also is the word of God, very sharp-sighted, so as to be capable of beholding every thing, and by which all things that are worth seeing can be beheld, in reference of which fact it is white [i.e., manna].  For what can be more brilliant or visible at a greater distance than the divine word, by participation in which all other things can repel mists and darkness, being eager to share in the light of the soul?" (Allegorical Interpretation, III, LIX. (170-171).

"God spake and it was done -- no interval between the two -- or it might suggest a truer view to say that His word was deed.  Now even amongst us mortals there is nothing swifter than word, for the outrush of the parts of speech leaves behind the hearer's understanding of them.  As the perennial streams which pour through the outlets of their springs never cease their motion, and cannot rest, for the oncoming flow ever impels them, so the current of words, when it begins to move, keeps pace with that swiftest of things in us - swifter than the flight of birds - the understanding.  Thus as the Uncreated anticipates all created being, so the word of the Uncreated outruns the word of the created, though that ride with all speed upon the clouds.  Therefore it is that He does not hesitate to say, 'now thou shalt see if my word shall overtake thee or not' (Numb. xi. 23), implying that the divine word has outrun and overtaken all things." (The Sacrifices of Abel and Cain, XVIII, 66).

"And I marvel also at that sacred word which runs on with zeal, in one continued course, without taking breath, 'In order to stand in the midst between the dead and the living; and immediately,' says Moses, 'the plague was stayed.' [Numbers 16:48]" (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XLII, 201).

"For it is the divine Word which divided and distributed every thing in nature; and it is our own mind which divides every thing and every body which it comprehends, by the extertion of its intellect in an infinite manner, into an infinite number of parts, and which, in fact, never ceased from dividing.  And this happens by reason of its resemblance to the Creator and Father of the universe; for the divine nature, being unmingled, uncombined with any thing else, and most completely destitute of parts, has been to the whole world the cause of mixture, and combination, and of an infinite variety of parts: so that, very naturally, the two things which thus resemble each other, both the mind which is in us and that which is above us, being without parts and indivisible, will still be able in a powerful manner to divide and distribute all existing things." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XLVIII, 2325-236).

"And these things were also subjected to other necessary divisions, which made distinctions between them; winged animals being distinguished from terrestrial, terrestrial from aquatic creatures...Thus God, having sharpened His own Word, the divider of all things, divides the essence of the universe which is destitute of form, and destitute of all distinctive qualities, and the four elements of the world which were separated from this essence, and the plants and animals which were consolidated by means of these elements." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XXVII, 139-140).

"After this the scripture proceeds to say, 'And he divided them in the middle,' not explaining who did so, in order that you may understand that it was the untaught God who divided them, and that He divided all the natures of bodies and of things one after another, which appeared to be closely fitted together and united by His word, which cuts through everything; which being sharpened to the finest possible edge, never ceases dividing all the objects of the outward senses, and when it has gone through them all, and arrived at the things which are called atoms and indivisible, then again this divider begins from them to divide those things which may be contemplated by the speculations of reason into unspeakable and indescribable portions, and to 'beat the gold into thin plates' [Exodus 39:3], like hairs, and Moses says, making them into one length without breadth, like unsubstantial lines." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XXVI, 130-131).

New Testament: "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." (Hebrews 4:12-13).

Theophanic Angel

"On this first occasions hers [Hagar's] was a voluntary flight, not a banishment, and when she met the angel or divine reason [Logos], she returned to her master's house. (Gen. xvi. 6 ff.)." (On the Cherubim, I.).

"But Hagar flees out of shame.  And a proof of this is, that the angel, that is the word of God, met her, with the intent to recommend her what she ought to do, and to guide her in her return to her mistress's house." (On Flight and Finding, I, 5).

"Behold the armed angel, the reason [Logos] of God, standing in the way against you (Number xxii. 31), the source through whom both good and ill come to fulfillment. See where he stands...If you had learnt from the first that it is not your life-pursuits which bring your share in good or ill, but the divine reason [Logos], the ruler and steersman of all, you would bear with more patience what befalls you, and cease from slandering and ascribing to us what we have no power to bring about." (On the Cherubim, XI, 35-36).

"But the dream [Jacob's ladder] also represented the archangel, namely the Lord Himself, firmly planted on the ladder; for we must imagine that the living God stands above all things, like the charioteer of a chariot, or the pilot of a ship; that is, above bodies, and above souls, and above all creatures, and above the earth, and above the air, and above the heaven, and above all the powers of the outward senses, and above the invisible natures, in short, above all things whether visible or invisible; for having made the whole to depend upon himself, he governs it and all the vastness of nature." (On Dreams, Book I, XXV, 157).

"...for until a man is made perfect he uses divine Reason as the guide of his path, for that is the sacred oracle of scripture: 'Behold, I send my angel before thy face that he may keep thee in the road...' [Exodus 23:20]" (On the Migration of Abraham, XXXI, 174).

Jesus as 'Angel of the covenant': "See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.  The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight - indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.'" (Malachi 3:1).

Priest and Prophet

"...since no created being is capable of discerning the secret intention of an invisible mind, but God alone; in reference to this Moses says that 'all secret things are known to the Lord God, but only such as are manifest are known to the creature.' [Deuteronomy 29:29].  And therefore it is enjoined to the priest and prophet, that is to say to Reason [Logos], 'to place the soul in front of God, with the head uncovered,' [Numbers 5:18], that is to say the soul must be laid bare as to its principal design, and the sentiments which it nourished must be revealed, in order that being brought before the judgment seat of the most accurate vision of the incorruptible God, it may be thoroughly examined as to all its concealed disguises..." (On the Cherubim, Part 1, V, 16).

"For we say that the high priest is not a man, but is the word of God, who has not only no participation in intentional errors, but none even in those which are involuntary.  For Moses says that he cannot be defiled neither in respect of his father, that is, the mind, nor his mother, that is, the eternal sense; because, I imagine, he has received imperishable and wholly pure parents, God being his father, who is also the father of all things, and wisdom being his mother, by means of whom the universe arrived at creation; and also because he is anointed with oil, by which I mean that the principal part of him is illuminated with a light like the beams of the sun, so as to be thought worthy to be clothed with garments." (On Flight and Findings, XX, 108-109).

"But if you examine the great high priest, that is to say Reason, you will find him entertaining ideas in harmony with these, and having his sacred garments richly embroidered by all the powers which are comprehensible either by the outward senses or by the intellect..." (On the Migration of Abraham, XVIII, 102).

New Testament: "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." (Hebrews 4:14).

While unillumined by the knowledge that the Word had come in the flesh, what Philo knew about the Logos -- His titles, His attributes -- is already ten times more than the modern-day new religious movements know.  Can you believe it -- there are folks out there who imagine 'the Logos' means a 'thought', 'plan', or 'concept' in the mind of God that someday He would create a Savior!  When John identified Jesus as the 'Logos,' he was using a technical term of wide currency in contemporary Jewish theology.  If he really had meant something completely different from what his contemporaries would have understood, it would have been helpful if he had called Jesus a 'thought' or a 'plan' in the mind of God rather than the 'Logos.'

Creator

Philo knew that God the Father had created the world by His Word.  As even the pagans had noticed, things in this world are ordered rationally.  A beautiful order and regularity is visible in the created world: "Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing. (Isaiah 40:26). Philo connected this rational underpinning of creation to the fact that God had created by His word: "By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth...For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." (Psalm 33:6-9). (The same Greek word, 'Logos', means both 'word' and 'reason'):

"But through the 'Word' of the Supreme Cause he is translated, even through that Word by which also the whole universe was formed." (The Sacrifices of Abel and Cain, 8).

"Let us leave these merely particular buildings, and contemplate that greatest of houses or cities, this universe.  We shall see that its cause is God, by whom it has come into being, its material the four elements, from which it was compounded, its instrument the word of God, through which it was framed, and the final cause of the building is the goodness of the architect." (On the Cherubim, 127).

"As, then, the city which was fashioned beforehand within the mind of the architect held no place in the outer world, but had been engraved in the soul of the artificier as by a seal; even so the universe that consisted of ideas would have no other location than the Divine Reason ['Logos'], which was the Author of this ordered frame." (On the Creation, V. 20).

"But now the mind begins to be improved, so as to be able to contemplate the governor of all the powers; on which account he says himself, 'I am the Lord God' [Genesis 31:13], I whose image you formerly beheld instead of me, and whose pillar you set up, engraving on it a most sacred inscription; and the inscription indicated that I stood alone, and that I established the nature of things, bringing disorder and irregularity into order and regularity, and supporting the universe firmly, so that it might rest on a firm and solid foundation, my own ministering Word." (On Dreams, Book I, XLI, 240-241).

"...for God gives to the soul a seal, a very beautiful gift, to show that he has invested with shape the essence of all things which was previously devoid of shape, and has stamped with a particular character that which previously had no character, and has endowed with form that which had previously no distinctive form, and having perfected the entire world, He has impressed upon it an image and appearance, namely, His own Word." (On Dreams, Book 2, VI, 45).

The New Testament also ascribes creation to the Word: "He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him." (John 1:10).  Where did Philo get the doctrine of the creative Word?  From pagan philosophers?  That's not what he says -- he says he got it direct from Moses!:

"And if any one were to desire to use more undisguised terms, he would not call the world, which is perceptible only to the intellect, any thing else but the reason ['Logos'] of God, already occupied in the creation of the world; for neither is a city, while only perceptible to the intellect, any thing else but the reason of the architect, who is already designing to build one perceptible to the external senses, on the model of that which is so only to the intellect - this is the doctrine of Moses, not mine. Accordingly he, when recording the creation of man, in words which follow, asserts expressly, that he was made in the image of God - and if the image be a part of the image, then manifestly so is the entire form, namely, the whole of this world perceptible by the external senses, which is a greater imitation of the divine image than the human form is.  It is manifest also, that the archetypal seal, which we call that world which is perceptible only to the intellect, must itself be the archetypal model, the idea of ideas, the Reason ['Logos'] of God." (On the Creation, VI. (24-25).

This "seal" impressed its form onto the hot wax of the created world: "For the world has been created, and has by all means derived its existence from some extraneous cause.  But the word itself of the Creator is the seal by which each of existing things is invested with form.  In accordance with which fact perfect species also does from the very beginning follow things when created, as being an impression and image of the perfect word...For the same quality remains in it, as having been stamped upon it by the divine Word which abides permanently and never changes." (On Flight and Finding, II, 12-13).

Image

English readers of the Bible take Genesis 1:27 to mean that man, the creature, is himself the direct image of God: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27).  The Greek Old Testament used by Philo reads a little bit differently: "And God made man, according [kata, after] to the image of God he made him, male and female he made them." (Brenton Septuagint).  Taken literally, this does not say, 'man was made the image of God,' but that he was made after the image, suggesting that man is the image of an image, a 'second generation' image, the Xerox copy of a Xerox copy.  So Philo takes Moses to mean, by the 'first generation' Image, the Logos:

"...for the Creator, we know, employed for its making no pattern taken from among created things, but solely, as I have said, his own Word (or Reason) ['Logos'].  It is on this account that he [Moses] says that man was made a likeness and imitation of the Word, when the Divine Breath was breathed into his face...Now the copy of a perfectly beautiful pattern must needs be of perfect beauty.  But the Word of God ['Logos'] surpasses beauty itself, beauty, that is, as it exists in Nature.  He is not only adorned with beauty, but is Himself in very truth beauty's fairest adornment." (On the Creation, XLVIII. 139).

So Philo says our being made 'in the image' of God refers to the Word, which is the Image of God:

"The images of the creative power and of the kingly power are the winged cherubim which are placed upon it [the ark].  But the divine Word which is above these does not come into any visible appearance, inasmuch as it is not like to any of the things that come under the external senses, but is itself an image of God, the most ancient of all the objects of intellect in the whole world, and that which is placed in the closest proximity to the only truly existing God, without any partition or distance being interposed between them: for it is said, 'I will speak unto thee from above the mercy-seat, in the midst, between the two cherubim.' [Exodus 25:22].  So that the Word is, as it were, the charioteer of the powers, and he who utters it is the rider, who directs the charioteer how to proceed with a view to the proper guidance of the universe." (On Flight and Finding, XIX. (101).)

"We must say, then, that here too we have a form which God has stamped on the soul as on the tested coin.  What, then, the image impressed on it is we shall know if we first ascertain accurately the meaning of the name.  Bezalel means, then, 'in the shadow of God'; but God's shadow is His Word, which he made use of like an instrument, and so made the world.  But this shadow, and what we may describe as the representation, is the archetype for further creations.  For just as God is the Pattern of the Image, to which the title of Shadow has just been given, even so the Image becomes the pattern of other things, as the prophet made clear at the very outset of the Law-giving by saying, 'And God made the man after the Image of God' [Gen. i. 27], implying that the Image had been made such as representing God, but that the man was made after the Image when it had acquired the force of a pattern." (Allegorical Interpretation, Book III, XXXI, 95-96).

"And Moses calls the one which is above us the image of God, and the one which abides among us as the impression of the image, 'For,' says he, 'God made man,' not an image, but ' after that image.' [Genesis 1:27].  So that the mind which is in each of us, which is in reality and truth the man, is a third image proceeding from the Creator.  But the intermediate one is a model of the one and a copy of the other." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XLVIII, 231).

"For if it was necessary to examine the mortal body of the priest that it ought not be imperfect through any misfortune, much more was it necessary to look into his immortal soul, which they say is fashioned in the form of the living God.  Now the image of God is the Word, by which all the world was made." (The Special Laws, I, XVI, 81).

"...and if they feel shame throughout their whole soul, and change their ways, reproaching themselves for their errors, and openly avowing and confessing all the sins that they have committed...they will then meet with a favorable acceptance from their merciful Savior, God, who bestows on the race of mankind His especial and exceedingly great gift, namely, relationship to His own Word; after which, as its archetypal model, the human mind was formed." (On Rewards and Punishments, XXVIII, 163).

"...but the great Moses has not named the species of the rational soul by a title resembling that of any created being, but has pronounced it an image of the divine and invisible being, making it a coin as it were of sterling metal, stamped and impressed with the seal of God, the impression of which is the eternal Word....On which account it is said too, that 'Man was made after the image of God' [Genesis 1:27], and not after the image of any created being." (Noah's Work as a Planter, V, 18-19).

"What, then, is the surest freedom? The service of the only wise God, as the scriptures testify, in which it is said, 'Send forth the people, that they may serve me.' [Exodus 8:1]...For it is very suitable for those who have made an association for the purpose of learning to desire to see him; and, if they are unable to do that, at least to see His Image, the most sacred Word..." (On the Confusion of Tongues, XX, 97).

This is consistent with the New Testament doctrine:

"But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." (2 Corinthians 4:3-4);

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." (Colossians 1:15).

As much as Philo understood, from his study of scripture, about the Word of God, he never realized, as did John, that God's Word had been made flesh in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  He died in the mid-first century, quite possibly without ever having heard the Christian gospel preached by a sympathetic witness.

Philo realized also that, in us, the image had become tarnished and encrusted with dirt, and needed a good cleaning to be seen: "...perhaps God would not disdain to give to souls completely purified and cleansed, so as to appear in His image, a knowledge of heavenly things either by means of dreams, or of oracles, or of signs, or of wonders.  But since we have on us the marks of folly, and injustice, and of all the other vices strongly stamped upon us and difficult to be effaced, we must be content even if we are only able by them to discover some faint copy and imitation of the truth." (On the Eternity of the World, I, 2).

Light

"And it is easy otherwise by means of argument to perceive this, since God is the first light, 'For the Lord is my light and my Savior' [Psalm 27:1], is the language of the Psalms; and not only the light, but He is also the archetypal pattern of every other light, or rather He is more ancient and more sublime than even the archetypal model, though He is spoken of as the model; for the real model was his own most perfect Word, the light, and he himself is like to no created thing." (On Dreams, Book I, XIII, 75).

"But according to the third signification, when he speaks of the sun, he means the divine Word, the model of that sun which moves about through the heaven, as has been said before, and with respect to which it is said, 'the sun went forth upon the earth, and Lot entered into Segor, and the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire.' [Genesis 19:23-24]." (On Dreams, Book I, XV, 85).

New Testament: "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (John 9:5).

"When therefore you hear that God has been seen by man, you must consider that this is said without any reference to that light which is perceptible by the external senses, for it is natural that that which is appreciable only by the intellect should be presented to the intellect alone; and the fountain of the purest light is God; so that when God appears to the soul He pours forth His beams without any shade, and beaming with the most radiant brilliancy." (On the Change of Names, I, 6).

"Do you think that you would be unable to look at the unmodified light of the sun? If you were to try to do so, your sight would be extinguished by the brilliancy of his rays, and be wholly blinded by a close approach to that luminary, before it could perceive anything, and yet the sun is only one of the works of God, a portion of the heaven, a fragment of compressed aether, but you are nevertheless able to gaze upon those uncreated powers which exist around Him, and emit the most dazzling light, without any veil or modification?" (On the Unchangeableness of God, XVII, 78).

"...but to God, as dwelling in pure light, all things are visible; for He penetrating into the very recesses of the soul, is able to see, with the most perfect certainty, what is invisible to others..." (On the Unchangeableness of God, VI, 29).

Philo understood "light" or "sun" to be a symbol of God the Father as well as of the Logos, His shining Image: "For he not only desires that the wicked deeds which are hidden shall be made manifest, and therefore turns upon them the beams of the sun, but he also by this symbolical language calls the Father of the universe the sun, that Being by whom all things are seen beforehand, and even all those things which are invisibly concealed in the recesses of the mind; and when they are made manifest, then he promises that He who is the only merciful being, will become merciful to the people." (On Dreams, Book I, XV, 90).

"For as when the sun arises, the darkness disappears and all places are filled with light, so in the same manner when God, that sun appreciable only by the intellect, arises and illuminates the soul, the whole darkness of vices and passions is dissipated, and the pure and lovely appearance of bright and radiant virtue is displayed to the world." (On the Virtues, XXX, 164).

"Take this sun, which is perceptible by our outward senses, do we see it by any other means than by the aid of the sun? And do we see the stars by any other light than that of the stars? And, in short, is not all light seen in consequence of light? And in the same manner God, being His own light, is perceived by Himself alone, nothing and no other being co-operating with or assisting Him, or being at all able to contribute to the pure comprehension of His existence; therefore those persons are mere guessers who are anxious to contemplate the uncreated God through the medium of the things which He created, acting like those persons who seek to ascertain the nature of the unit through the number two, when they ought, on the other hand, to employ the investigation of the unit itself to ascertain the nature of the number two; for the unit is the first principle.  But these men have arrived at the real truth, who form their ideas of God from God, of light from light." (On Rewards and Punishments, VII, 45-46).

Lord and God

One of things which perplexes readers of the New Testament is the way "Lord" and "God", two titles of God used apparently synonymously in the Old Testament, get split up in the New, apportioned respectively to Jesus and to His Father: "...yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist." (1 Corinthians 8:6).  Yet it was already a truism of first century Jewish theology that "Lord" and "God" were the names of two distinct powers of God:

"Therefore He who stands upon the ladder of heaven says to him who is beholding the dream, 'I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; be not afraid.' [Genesis 28:13]. This oracle and this vision were also the firmest support of the soul devoted to the practice of virtue, inasmuch as it taught that the Lord and God of the universe is both these things also to his own race, being entitled both the Lord and God of all men, and of his grandfathers and ancestors, and being called by both names in order that the whole world and the man devoted to virtue might have the same inheritance; since it is also said, 'The Lord Himself is his inheritance.' [Deuteronomy 10:9]...therefore God is the name of the beneficent power, and Lord is the title of the royal power." (On Dreams, Book I, XXV-XXVI, 159-163). (The Septuagint Old Testament used by Philo substitutes the Greek 'kyrios', "Lord", for the Divine Name.)

"...the one in the middle [at Mamre, Genesis 18] is the Father of the universe, who in the sacred scripture is called by his proper name, I am that I am; and the beings on each side are those most ancient powers which are always close to the living God, one of which is called his creative power, and the other his royal power.  And the creative power is God, for it is by this that he made and arranged the universe; and the royal power is the Lord, for it is fitting that the Creator should lord it over and govern the creature.  Therefore, the middle person of the three, being attended by each of his powers as by body-guards, presents to the mind, which is endowed with the faculty of sight, a vision at one time of one being, and at another time of three..." (On Abraham, XXIV, 121-122).

"But the ark is the depository of the laws, for in that are placed the holy oracles of God, which were given to Moses; and the covering of the ark, which is called the mercy-seat, is a foundation for two winged creatures to rest upon, which are called, in the native language of the Hebrews, cherubim...But I myself should say, that what is here represented under a figure are the two most ancient and supreme powers of the divine God, namely, his creative and his kingly power; and his creative power is called God, and his kingly power is called Lord, by which he rules over the beings whom he has created, and governs them with justice and firmness; for He, being, the only true living God, is also really the Creator of the world; since He brought things which had no existence into being; and He is also a king by nature, because no one can rule over beings that have been created more justly than He who created them." (On the Life of Moses, II, XX, 97-100).

"Do you not see that the most important and greatest of all the powers of the living God are His beneficent and His punishing power? And His beneficent power is called God, since it is by means of this that he made and arranged the universe.  And the other, or punishing power, is called Lord, on which His sovereignty over the universe depends." (The Special Laws, I, LVI, 307).

Modern readers are likely startled to see 'God' and 'Lord' advanced as the names of distinct 'powers' or attributes of the one living God, but Philo, like our modern textual critics, had noticed that the Bibical names of God are not sorted out randomly, but rather there's a pattern to their use.  Indeed, modern scholars allege a different author comes on line whenever the pattern changes: purportedly, the 'Elohist' calls God 'Elohim,' the 'Yahwist' calls Him 'Yahweh,' etc.  Philo, who believed so strongly in the sole Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch that he actually claimed the description of Moses' death with which Deuteronomy concludes was a 'prophecy' delivered by Moses himself, found the solution to this mystery in the idea that God, transcendent and unknown in His essence, deals with mankind through the exercise of His 'powers,' like goodness and wisdom.  Thus these various titles ascribed to God are the proper names of individual attributes or 'powers.'

Example: "Therefore, at the creation, he changed the appellations and use of names; but as the name God is an indication of His beneficent power, the sacred writer has more frequently employed that in his account of the creation of the universe, but after everything was perfected then he called Him Lord, in reference to the creation itself, for this name betokens royal power and the ability to destroy; since, where the act of generation is, God is used first in order, but when punishment is spoken of the name Lord is placed before the name God." (Questions and Answers on Genesis, II, 16).

This way of thinking was common in New Testament times; Simon the magician, emulating Jesus Christ, claimed to be an incarnation, not of the 'Logos,' but of that 'power' called 'Great': "But there was a certain man called Simon...to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, 'This man is the great power of God.'" (Acts 8:9-10).  ('Powers' is also used in the New Testament of orders of created beings, as in Ephesians 3:10.  One should be careful to realize that 'God's goodness' is a 'power' in the first sense, not in the second; 'God's goodness' is not a creature.)

The attentive reader will note that, in the sentence, 'God is the name of one of the powers of God,' 'God' has been used in two different significations, once as the name of a 'power' or attribute of God, once as the name of Him whose attribute is thus described.  In this double signification of the same one term lies the potential for fallacious reasoning, namely, equivocation.  Thus we see the new religious movements misusing the Bible fact that 'theos' in the New Testament is more commonly ascribed to God the Father, whereas 'kyrios' is more commonly ascribed to God the Son, to deny the Deity of the Son.  They might as well, by the same logic, deny the lordship of the Father!

Beginning

"...but this is the word of God, the first beginning of all things, the original species or the archetypal idea, the first measure of the universe." (Questions and Answers on Genesis, I, 4).

"...These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God..." (Revelation 3:14).

He is our physician: "God is willing to do good, not only to the man who is endued with virtue, but He wishes that the divine Word should regulate not only his soul but his body also, as if it had become its physician." (Questions and Answers on Genesis, III, 51).

"Jesus answered and said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." (Luke 5:31).

In Him is life: "For he says also in another passage: 'Whosoever shall flee thither shall live.' [Exodus 21:13, Deuteronomy 19:4].  But is not everlasting life a fleeing for refuge to the living God? and is not a fleeing from His presence death? (On Flight and Finding, XV, 77-78) [...] "These then are the reasons on account of which they who have committed unintentional homicide fly only to those cities which belong to the ministers of the temple...Perhaps we may say that the most ancient, and the strongest, and the most excellent metropolis, for I may not call it merely a city, is the divine Word, to flee to which first is the most advantageous course of all." (On Flight and Finding, XVIII, 94).

He is the way: "But Moses does not think it right to incline either to the right or to the left, or in short to any part of the earthly Edom; but rather to proceed along the middle way, which he with great propriety calls the royal road [Numbers 20:17], for since God is the first and only God of the universe, so also the road to Him, as being the king's road, is very properly denominated royal...this royal road, which we have stated to be true and genuine philosophy, the law calls the word and reason of God; for it is written, 'Thou shalt not turn aside from the word which I command thee this day, to the right hand nor to the left,' so that it is shown most manifestly that the word of God is identical with the royal road, since Moses' words are not to depart either from the royal road, or from this word, as if the two were synonymous, but to proceed with an upright mind along the middle and level road, which leads one aright." (The Posterity and Exile of Cain, XXX, 101-102).

Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6).

Circumincession is the New Testament doctrine that the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father.  Philo anticipates this: "...for as the hearth is the abode of a man, so is speech of the mind: at all events, it displays itself, and all the notions which it conceives, arranging them and setting them in order in speech, as if in a house.  And you must not wonder that Moses has called speech in man the abode of the mind, for he also says, that the mind of the universe, that is to say, God, has for His abode His own Word.  And the practiser of virtue, Jacob, seizing on this apprehension, confesses in express words that, 'This is no other than the house of God' [Genesis 28:17]...What, then, can it be except the Word, which is more ancient than all the things which were the objects of creation, and by means of which it is the Ruler of the universe, taking hold of it as a rudder, governs all things." (On the Migration of Abraham, I, 4-6).

Firstborn Son

"For there are, as it seems, two temples belonging to God; one being this world, in which the high priest is the divine Word, His own first-born son." (On Dreams, Book I, XXXVII, 215).

"The high priest, then, being equipped in this way, is properly prepared for the performance of all sacred ceremonies..the twelve stones arranged on the breast in four rows of three stones each, namely the logeum, being also an emblem of that Reason which holds together and regulates the universe.  For it was indispensable that the man who was consecrated to the Father of the world, should have as a paraclete, his Son, the being most perfect in all virtue, to procure forgiveness of sins, and a supply of unlimited blessings..." (On the Life of Moses, II, XXVI, 133-134).

"And in another passage we read 'The Lord spake unto Moses saying, Sanctify to me all the first-born: all that is first brought forth, all that openeth the womb among the children of Israel, whether of man or beast is mine' [Exodus 13:2], so that it is openly asserted in these words, that all the first things, whether in point of time or of power, are the property of God, and most especially all the first-born...and if there is anything, in short, which openeth the womb, whether of man which here means speech and reason, or of beast which signifies the outward sense and the body; for that which openeth the womb of all these things, whether of the mind, so as to enable it to comprehend the things appreciable only by the intellect, or of the speech so as to enable it to exercise the energies of voice, or of the external senses....is the invisible, spermatic, technical, and divine Word, which shall most properly be dedicated to the Father." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XXIV, 117-119).

"...'Behold, a man whose name is the East!' [Zechariah 6:12 LXX].  A very novel appellation indeed, if you consider it as spoken of a man who is compounded of body and soul; but if you look upon it as applied to that incorporeal being who in no respect differs from the divine Image, you will then agree that the name of the East has been given to him with great felicity.  For the Father of the universe has caused him to spring up as the eldest son, whom, in another passage, he calls the firstborn; and he who is thus born, imitating the ways of his Father, has formed such and such species, looking to his archetypal patterns." (On the Confusion of Tongues, XIV, 62-63).

"Because, like archers shooting at random at many objects, and not aiming skillfully or successfully at any one mark, so these men, putting forward ten thousand principles and causes for the creation of the universe, every one of which is false, display a perfect ignorance of the one Creator and Father of all things; but they who have real knowledge, are properly addressed as the sons of the one God, as Moses also entitles, them, where he says, 'Ye are the sons of the Lord God.' [Deuteronomy 14:1].  And again, 'God who begot thee' [Deuteronomy 32:18]; and in another place, 'Is not He thy father?' [Deuteronomy 32:6]...And even if there be not as yet any one who is worthy to be called a son of God, nevertheless let him labor earnestly to be adorned according to His first-born Word, the eldest of His angels, as the great archangel of many names; for He is called, the authority, and the name of God, and the Word, and man according to God's image, and He who sees Israel...For even if we are not yet suitable to be called the sons of God, still we may deserve to be called the children of His eternal Image, of His most sacred Word; for the Image of God is His most ancient Word." (On the Confusion of Tongues, XXVIII, 144-147).

New Testament: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." (Colossians 1:15).

How is a word begotten? Speaking of the creature, he says, "But if we are to keep to exact propriety, then it is plain that the mind is the familiar and natural father of the uttered word, because it is the especial property of the father to beget, and the word is born from the mind; and it will be a certain proof of this if we recollect that when it is set in motion by counsels it sounds, and when they are absent it ceases to sound...for whenever the mind publishes abroad different heads of designs...then also the word, flowing forth like a fountain, is borne to the ears of the bystander..." (Questions and Answers on Genesis, III, 43).

Trinity

How did Philo understand the visitation to Abraham at Mamre?: "Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.  So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, 'My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant." (Genesis 18:1-3).  The trinitarian Abraham realizes his three visitors equate to one 'LORD' and so addresses them; how did Philo Judaeus see it in the first century?:

"For Abraham went with all zeal and speed and eagerness and bade Sarah...hasten and knead three measures of meal and make 'buried' cakes, when God came attended by His two highest potencies, sovereignty and goodness, and He, the one between the two, called up before the eye of the soul, which has power to see, three separate visions or aspects. Each of these aspects, though not subject iself to measurement - for God and His potencies are alike uncircumscribed - is the measure of all things.  His goodness is the measure of things good, His sovereignty of its subjects, and the Ruler Himself is the measure of all things corporeal and incorporeal, and it is to serve Him that these two potencies assume the functions of rules and standards, and measure what lies within their province.

"It is well that these three measures should be as it were kneaded and blended in the soul, that she, convinced that God who is above all exists - God who overtops His potencies in that He is visible apart from them and yet is revealed in them -- may receive the impression of His sovereignty and beneficence." (Philo, The Sacrifices of Abel and Cain, XV.).

God and His two highest uncircumscribed potencies came to call!  Philo's vision of the "powers" of God yields the raw material for a doctrine of the Trinity, even if he himself does not arrive there; his "uncreated powers" are not enumerated as three, nor as ten sefirot for that matter, but left uncounted.  More:

"The voice told me that while God is indeed one, His highest and chiefest powers are two, even goodness and sovereignty. Through His goodness He begat all that is, through His sovereignty He rules what He has begotten. And in the midst between the two there is a third which unites them, Reason [Logos], for it is through reason [Logos] that God is both ruler and good.  Of these two potencies sovereignty and goodness the Cherubim are symbols, as the fiery sword is the symbol of reason [Logos].  For exceeding swift and of burning heat is reason [Logos] and chiefly so the reason of the (Great) Cause, for it alone preceded and outran all things, conceived before them all, manifest above them all." (Philo, On the Cherubim, IX, 27-28).

By "powers", Philo does not mean anything subsidiary; "Lord" and "God" are "powers" of the living God, according to Philo:

"But here we must observe that Moses says, that 'Noah pleased' the powers of the living God, 'the Lord and God,' but that he tells us that Moses himself pleased the Being who is attended by those powers as his body guard, and who without them, is conceived only according to his essence." (On the Unchangeableness of God, XXIV. (109)).

Nor does he necessarily mean anything created:

"Do you think that you would be unable to look at the unmodified light of the sun?  If you were to try to do so, your sight would be extinguished by the brilliancy of his rays, and be wholly blinded by a close approach to that luminary, before it could perceive anything, and yet the sun is only one of the works of God, a portion of the heaven, a fragment of compressed aether, but you are nevertheless able to gaze upon those uncreated powers which exist around Him, and emit the most dazzling light, without any veil or modification." (On the Unchangeableness of God, XVII. (78)).

There is not a vast distance to be traversed between how Jewish theologians like Philo were talking about 'God the Father', 'the Word' and 'the Holy Spirit', and how Paul and John came to describe the living God.  Philo's authentic first century Judaism is the seed-bed out of which Christianity arose.  Two modern religions arose from Second Temple Judaism: Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.  Which of the two is more ancient and authentic? The new religious movements assume it is the religion of the Rabbis. But the religion of the Rabbis was formed in reaction against Philo's way of thinking, which the Rabbis perceived as tainted by the 'heresy' of Christianity.  So they turned their backs on the Septuagint, the Jewish apocrypha and Philo Judaeus, once their own proud heritage. In the Talmud, the Septuagint is even likened to the golden calf: "It came to pass once upon a time that five Elders wrote the law in Greek for King Ptolemy. That was an evil day for Israel, such as the day when Israel built the Calf, because the Law could not be translated in conformity with all its requirements." (Massekhet Soferim 1.6-10, quoted p. 113, 'Josephus, the Bible, and History,' ed. Louis H. Feldman). Had the church not preserved these writings, they would have been lost:

"Yet the use made of his work by the Christians compelled his people to regard him as a betrayer of the law and to avoid his goal as a treacherous snare. For centuries Greek philosophy was banned from Jewish thought, and Philo's works are not mentioned by any Jewish writer. Strangers possessed his inheritance, and his name alone, 'Philo Judaeus,' bore witness to his nationality." (Norman Bentwich, Philo-Judaeus of Alexandria, pp. 196-197).

Judaism grew inward-looking, xenophobic and racialist.  Turning away from Philo's high theology, Rabbinic theology devolved downwards towards crass anthropomorphism and fairy-tale cosmology.  Consequently, when the new religious movements project the modern-day religion of the Rabbis, purged of everything 'tainted' with Christianity, back into the first century, they falsify history.

The new religious movements hope to eliminate distinctive Christian doctrines like the Trinity by arguing that, since you can't put new wine in old bottles, therefore Jesus must have been serving up the old wine of Rabbinic Judaism: so when God appeared incarnate among men, He could not have revealed the nature of God as in any way differing from conventional wisdom, or it would have startled people.  The double fallacy of this is that not only was the Lord perfectly capable of serving up new wine, but this is not an instance of it: the Rabbinic Judaism they seek to project back into the first century is an even newer religion than the Christianity they hope thus to eliminate.

Once the Christian revelation of God had come in its fulness, Philo was left behind and his imperfect understanding became a source for heresy.  Still, it is remarkable how much he did know...and according to him, he learned it all from Moses!: "I myself was initiated under Moses the God-beloved into his greater mysteries..." (On the Cherubim, XIV, 48).

Though I've never seen a Christian commentary on the mercy seat atop the ark, from which God spoke, overshadowed by the wings of two cherubim, as an image of the triunity of God, Philo so perceives it.  Here is his very eccentric view of Exodus 25:22:

"And He apportioned cold and heat, and summer and spring, the different seasons of the year, divided by the same dividing Word.  And the three days which passed before the creation of the sun, are equal in number to the three days of the first week which came after the creation of the sun, the number six being dissected equally in order to display the character of eternity and of time.  For thus God allotted three days to eternity before the appearance of the sun, and those which came after the sun he allotted to time; the sun being an imitation of eternity, and time and eternity being the two primary powers of the living God; the one His beneficent power, in accordance with which He made the world, and in respect of which He is called God; the other His chastening power, according to which He rules and governs what He has created, in respect of which He is further denominated Lord, and these two he here states to be divided in the middle by Him standing above them both. 'For', says he, 'I will speak to you from above the mercy-seat, in the midst, between the two cherubim;' that he might show that the most ancient powers of the living God are equal; that is to say, His beneficent and His chastening power, being both divided by the same dividing Word." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XXXIV, 165-166).

The New Testament compresses and collapses Philo's rather diffuse scheme; in the New Testament, the title 'Lord' is taken on by the Word portrayed here in the midst, 'God' is commonly reserved for the Father.

Philo the Heretic?

It's said of the dog who walks upright on his two hind feet, 'the wonder is not that he walks well, but that he walks at all.' Withholding one's applause until the dog walks easily or balletically stints the dog's achievement, won only by long and dilligent effort.  It's the same with Philo Judaeus, a near-trinitarian.  If one demands he be an orthodox trinitarian before admiring his achievement in Old Testament exegesis, one demands the impossible, because Philo was not in receipt of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

Was Philo an Arian?: "And the Father who created the universe has given to his archangelic and most ancient Word a pre-eminent gift, to stand on the confines of both, and separate that which had been created from the Creator.  And this same Word is continually a suppliant to the immortal God on behalf of the mortal race, which is exposed to affliction and misery; and is also the ambassador, sent by the Ruler of all, to the subject race.  And the Word rejoices in the gift, and, exulting in it, announces it and boasts of it, saying, 'And I stood in the midst, between the Lord and you' [Numbers 16:48]; neither being uncreate as God, nor yet created as you, but being the midst between these two extremities, like a hostage, as it were, to both parties: a hostage to the Creator, as a pledge and security that the whole race would never fly off and revolt entirely, choosing disorder rather than order; and to the creature, to lead it to entertain a confident hope that the merciful God would not overlook His own work.  For I will proclaim peaceful intelligence to the creation from Him who has determined to destroy wars, namely God, who is ever the guardian of peace." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XLII, 205-206).  What does 'neither uncreate nor yet created' mean? 'Begotten, not made'? Or 'created, yet not as one of the creatures'?

He spoke of the Logos as also himself "immortal": "In reference to which I admire those who say, 'We are all one man's sons, we are men of peace' [Genesis 42:11]...since how, I should say, could you, O excellent men, avoid being grieved at war, and delighted in peace, being the sons of one and the same father, and he not mortal but immortal, the man of God, who being the Reason of the everlasting God, is of necessity himself also immortal?" (On the Confusion of Tongues, XI, 41).

Here is a heretical passage from Philo to warm the hearts of Jehovah's Witnesses everywhere: "But it is not right for the man who anchors on the hope of the alliance of God to crouch and tremble, to whom God says, 'I am the God who was seen by thee in the place of God.' [Genesis 31:13 LXX]...And do not pass by what is here said, but examine it accurately, and see whether there are really two Gods.  For it is said: 'I am the God who was seen by thee;' not in my place, but in the place of God, as if he meant of some other God.  What then ought we to say?  There is one true God only: but they who are called Gods, by an abuse of language, are numerous; on which account the holy scripture on the present occasion indicates that it is the true God that is meant by the use of the article, the expression being, 'I am the God (ho Theos);' but when the word is used incorrectly, it is put without the article, the expression being, 'He who was seen by thee in the place,' not of the God (tou Theou), but simply 'of God' (Theou); and what he here calls God is his most ancient Word, not having any superstitious regard to the position of the names, but only proposing one end to himself, namely, to give a true account of the matter..." (On Dreams, Book I, XXXIX, 227-230).  This unfortunately could have been penned by the Watchtower Society.  It implies that the Word is God, but not true God, versus the New Testament: "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.  He is the true God and eternal life." (1 John 5:20).  So a fair appraisal of Philo's theology would be that it is markedly subordinationist.

Impatient listeners often slam the door on Old Testament explications of the Trinity with the contention that since no religion which relies on the Old Testament alone teaches the triunity of God, the Trinity cannot be an Old Testament doctrine.  Even if this objection were accurate it would fail of its object, because the Old Testament is the New veiled, and the New Testament is the Old unveiled; thus, using the New as metal detector to reveal the hidden treasures within the Old is long-standing and legitimate Christian practice.  But the objection is not even accurate.  Philo knew no Bible but the Old Testament, and he was a 'trinitarian' of sorts.  For all practical purposes, Philo's God is the Father, His Logos, and His Holy Spirit.  Nor did he learn of the triunity of God from the pagan philosophers, who themselves knew of no such thing.

Some Philo readers over-estimate the degree to which he is heretical by Christian lights through failing to distinguish the different senses in which he uses words like 'logos,' reason or Word, and 'sophia,' wisdom.  These words are inevitable ones to any writer in Greek on philosophical or theological topics, so Philo can hardly be blamed for not always using them in the same signification.  There is a human wisdom as well as God's own wisdom: "In order to show that the sacred genus of wisdom is of a twofold nature, the one kind being divine, and the other human; and the divine kind is unmingled and unadulterated, on which account it sacrifices to the pure, and unalloyed, and only God existing in unity; but the human kind is of a mixed and alloyed nature..." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XXXVIII, 182-183).  So when Philo says that wisdom is created: "Moreover, after the creation of the world human wisdom was created, as also after the creation of world the Paradise was planted..." (Questions and Answers on Genesis, I, 6) -- the careless reader may assume it's divine wisdom which is created, thus accusing him of outright Arianism, when he has said plainly it's human wisdom which is created.

Philo had not yet solved the dilemma posed to monotheism by a God who is revealed in scripture as interacting with His own word: "He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions." (Psalm 107:20).  At times he stumbles into expressions like this, falling into the arms of waiting Jehovah's Witnesses: "Why, then, does he use the expression, 'In the image of God I made man' [Genesis 9:6 LXX], as if he were speaking of that of some other God, and not of having made him in the likeness of Himself? This expression is used with great beauty and wisdom.  For it was impossible that anything mortal should be made in the likeness of the most high God the Father of the universe; but it could only be made in the likeness of the second God, who is the Word of the other; for it was fitting that the rational type in the soul of man should receive the impression of the Word of God..." (On Providence, Fragment I).  Some of the early Christian writers, like Origen, unsuspectingly followed Philo into realms where Christian theology should not venture.  Once Christian theology had learned to stand on its own two feet - the two testaments, in the second of which it is revealed that "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30) - no more was heard of any "second God."

Other heresies from the Christian perspective include 'Origenist'-style ideas, ultimately derived from Plato, like the pre-existence of the human soul: "For while the soul of the wise man, descending from above from the sky, comes down upon and enters a mortal and is sown in the field of the body, it is truly sojourning in a land which is not his own...when it transfers itself out of the abode of the mortal body and returns as it were to the metropolis of its native country, from which it originally emigrated into the body.  Since to say to a dead man, 'Thou shalt go to thy fathers' [Genesis 15:15], what else is this but to propose to him and set before him a second existence apart from the body..." (Questions and Answers on Genesis, III, 10).  Since the Christian theologian Origen propounded many of these same ideas, they have been discussed exhaustively from the Biblical perspective, and ultimately found incompatible with God's revelation.  In fact the 'Origenist heresy' ought to be called the 'Philonic heresy,' because almost all the ideas for which Origen was condemned came from Philo Judaeus.

Philo's 'negative theology' denies that God can be known in His essence: "...on which account in the great song it is said (the speaker assuming the character of God), 'Behold! behold! it is I!' [Deuteronomy 32:39]...He does not say, 'Behold me, for it is wholly impossible that God according to His essence should be perceived or beheld by any creature, but He says, 'Behold! it is I,' that is to say, behold my existence; for it is sufficient for the reasoning powers of man to advance so far as to learn that there is and actually exists the great cause of all things, and to attempt to proceed further, so as to pursue investigations into the essence or distinctive qualities of God, is an absolute piece of folly; for God did not grant this even to the all-wise Moses; not though he addressed innumerable requests to Him, all having this object; but an oracle was delivered to him, telling him, 'Thou shalt see my back parts, but my face thou shalt not see' [Exodus 33:23];...but He himself alone is incomprehensible; and He is incomprehensible by any direct and immediate access...but He may be understood in His subsequent and consistent faculties; for they, by means of the works accomplished by them, declare not His essence, but His existence." (The Posterity and Exile of Cain, XLVIII, 168-169).  Like the ' 'Ein Sof' of the Kabbalists, God as He is in Himself cannot be known, only His 'powers' can be encountered.

A Philo Miscellany

Philo advances various other odd-ball theories which would later meet with a cold shoulder from an unsympathetic Christendom, including the claim that the stars are rational, animate beings, one of the tenets of the 'Origenist heresy.'  Philo even claimed to know someone who thought stars could go mad: "And I recollect having before now heard some man who had applied himself to learning in no careless or indolent spirit, say that men were not the only beings which went mad with vain opinions, but that the stars did so too." (On Dreams, Book 2, XVI, 114).  Philo was no lone voice in the wilderness; his works open the door to a lost Alexandria where Bible scholars dissected and classified the mental illnesses of stars.  How original was Philo?  No one can now know, because the other voices with whom he is ever arguing -- 'Some say this, some say that,' have fallen silent; only Philo's works remain.

Here he sticks a toe into the waters of heliocentrism, egged on by the seven-branched candlestick: "This much alone we must remind our readers of at this moment, that the sacred candlestick and the seven lights upon it are an imitation of the wandering of the seven planets through the heaven.  How so? some one will say.  Because, we will reply, in the same manner as the lights, so also does every one of the planets shed its rays.  They therefore, being more brilliant, do transmit more brilliant beams to the earth, and brilliant beyond them all is he who is the center one of the seven, the sun.  And I call him the center, not merely because he has the central position, as some have thought, but also because he has on many other accounts a right to be ministered unto and attended by the others accompanying him as bodyguards on each side, by reason of his dignity and his magnitude, and the great benefits which he pours upon all earthly things." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XLV, 221-223).

Philo is prone to 'arguing in the alternative,' as when one responds to a charge of denting a borrowed pot with the argument, 'a.) it was like that when I borrowed it, b.) the pot is not dented, and c.) I never borrowed any pot.' He's already made the Logos the central candlestick: "Concerning the candlestick above mentioned, the artist speaks again a second time and says, that from its different branches there are three arms projecting out on each side, equals in all respects to one another, and having on the top lamps like nuts, in the shape of flowers supporting the lights; the seventh flower being fashioned on the top of the candlestick of solid gold, and having seven golden places for lights above them; so that in many accounts it has been believed to be fashioned in such a manner because the number six is divided into two triads by the Word, making the seventh and being placed in the midst of them, as indeed is the case now." (Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XLIV, 218-219).  So does that stop him from making it the sun, too? Not when he's rolling.  (And besides, the Word is the "Sun of righteousness" (Malachi 4:2)!)  Philo's tendency to 'argue in the alternative' is one of the reasons you see such a wide range of theories as to what he really meant.  Likewise, this venture into heliocentrism doesn't prevent him from reverting the immovable earth of Ptolemaic orthodoxy elsewhere in his writings.

Another point of interest: It was a truism to Philo that 'today' in scripture means 'eternally': "Moreover, she confirmed this opinion of hers by the sacred scriptures, one of which ran in this form: 'You who cleave unto the Lord your God are all alive to this day' [Deuteronomy 4:4]: for she saw that those who sought refuge with God and became his suppliants, were the only living persons, and that all others were dead.  And Moses, it seems, testifies to the immortality of those persons, when he adds, 'You are all alive to this day;' and this day is interminable eternity, from which there is no departure; for the period of months, and years, and, in short, all the divisions of time, are only the inventions of men doing honor to number.  But the unerring proper name of eternity is 'today;' for the sun is always the same, without ever changing, going at one time beneath the earth, and at another time above the earth, and by him it is that day and night, the measures of time, are distinguished." (On Flight and Finding, XI, 56-57).

Philo's allegorical method of scriptural interpretation has few modern admirers; conservatives prefer literalism, liberals advance historical-critical concerns which try to hold down the sense of a passage to what the primitive peoples of the day may have been likely to understand.  Philo would have been moved by neither of these objections: "...and Moses says, that if they are truly pious they shall not be deprived of a proper knowledge of the future; but that some other prophet [Deuteronomy 18:18] will appear to them on a sudden, inspired like himself, who will preach and prophesy among them, saying nothing of his own (for he who is truly possessed and inspired, even when he speaks, is unable to comprehend what he is himself saying), but that all the words that he should utter would proceed from him as if another was prompting him; for the prophets are interpreters of God, who is only using their voices as instruments, in order to explain what He chooses." (The Special Laws, I, XI, 64-65).

Like practically everyone on earth who lived prior to Louis Pasteur's experiments disproving spontaneous generation, Philo Judaeus believed 'abiogenesis' was not only possible, but happened all the time: "The honey, perhaps, because the bee which collects it is not a clean animal, inasmuch as it derives its birth, as the story goes, from the putrefaction and corruption of dead oxen, just as wasps spring from the bodies of horses." (The Special Laws, I, LIII, 291).

The progressive Philo favored democracy: "But there are two species of cities, the one better, the other worse.  That is the better which enjoys a democratic government, a constitution which honors equality, the rulers of which are law and justice; and such a constitution as this is a hymn to God." (On the Confusion of Tongues, XXIII, 108).

Philo was an advocate of silent prayer: "And even if they bring nothing else, still when they bring themselves, the most perfect completeness of virtue and excellence, they are offering the most excellent of all sacrifices, honoring God, the Benefactor and Savior, with hymns and thanksgivings; the former uttered by the organs of the voice, and the latter without the agency of the tongue or mouth, the worshippers making their exclamations and invocations with the soul alone, and only appreciable by the intellect, and there is but one ear, namely, that of the Deity which hears them." (The Special Laws, I, L, 272).

Was Philo a Platonist...or a Stoic?  He says he's the follower of Moses: "But we who are the followers and disciples of the prophet Moses, will never abandon our investigation of the nature of the true God; looking upon the knowledge of Him as the true end of happiness; and thinking that the true everlasting life, as the law says, is to live in obedience to and worship of God; in which precept it gives us a most important and philosophical lesson; for in real truth those who are atheists are dead as to their souls, but those who are marshalled in the ranks of the true living God, as His servants, enjoy an everlasting life." (The Special Laws, I, LXIII, 345).

Philo joins the crowd of those who have expressed the 'negative' form of the Golden Rule: "Moreover, it is ordained in the laws themselves that no one shall do to his neighbor what he would be unwilling to have done to himself." (Hypotheca, 7.4).