"[114]
Elsewhere he tells a story of the condign punishment which befell a
godless and impious man, perchance a Samaritan Jew, who made mock of
the race of allegorical interpreters, jeering at the idea that the
change of names from Abram to Abraham and from Sarai to Sarah
contained some deep meaning. He soon paid a fitting penalty for his
wicked wit, for on some very trivial pretext he went and hanged
himself. Which was just, says Philo; for such a rascal deserved a
rascal's death.[115] It is noteworthy that the Talmud also lays stress
upon the deep meaning of the patriarch's change of name.[116] "He who
calls Abraham Abram," said Bar Kappara, "transgresses a positive
command" [Hebrew: mtsva 'sha]. "Nay," said Rabbi Levi, "he transgresses
both a positive and a negative command (and commits a double sin)." Clearly
this was a test-question and an article of faith, possibly because the
letter [Hebrew: h], which was added to the name, was a letter of
mystical import in the opinion of the age. Both the rejection of the
literal and the rejection of the allegorical value of the Bible, Philo
regarded as impious, and he had to struggle against opposite factions
that were one-sided. The true son of the law believes in both [Greek:
to hreton] and [Greek: to en hyponoiais].[117] Seeing that the
Bible was the inspired revelation of God, who is the fountain of all
wisdom and knowledge--this is Philo's cardinal dogma--it is not to be
supposed, on the one hand, that it was silent about the profoundest
ideas of the human mind, or, on the other, that it contained ideas
opposed to right reason and truth.
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