The general principle
upon which he depends is, that besides and in addition to the literal
meaning which the Bible bears for the common man, it has a hidden and
deeper meaning for the philosopher. It is, as it were, a sort of
palimpsest; the writing on the top all may read, the writing below the
student alone can decipher. With the rabbis Philo holds that the Torah
was written "in the language of the sons of man,"[113] but he believes
with them again that it contains all wisdom. And if the ideas of
reason do not appear in its literal meaning, then they must be
searched out in some inner interpretation. Commenting on the verse in
Genesis (xi. 7), "Let us confound their language, that they may not
understand one another's speech," he says: "Those who follow the
literal and obvious interpretation think that the origin of the Greek
and barbarian languages is here described; [the contrast between
Greek, on the one hand, and barbarian--in which Hebrew, it seems, is
included--on the other, is remarkable]. I would not find fault with
them, because they also, perhaps, employ right reason, but I would
call on them not to remain content with this, but to follow me to the
metaphorical renderings, considering that the actual words of the holy
oracle are, as it were, shadows of the real bodies, and the powers
which they reflect are the true underlying ideas.
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