In the first the commentator tries to get
at the exact meaning of the text before him, to make its lesson clear
and discuss the circumstances of the composition, the exact relations
of its parts. He is satisfied to take the writer of the Biblical book
for what he says in his own form of utterance. In the second the
commentator is more anxious to inculcate ideas and lessons which do
not arise obviously from the text, and to widen the significance of
what he finds in the Bible. The interpretation ceases to be a mere
exposition; it becomes creative or conciliating thought, and the
interpreter becomes a religious reformer, a philosopher, a prophet. To
this school Philo belongs, and the framework of his teaching or the
ingenuity by which he develops it from his text is of small account.
It is what he teaches and what he considers to be the vital things in
religion and life to which we must pay attention. Judged on this
ground Philo is a supreme master of Derash, and must take a place
among the most creative of the interpreters of the Bible.
* * * * *
IV
PHILO AND THE TORAH
Over and over again Philo declares that his function is to expound the
law of Moses. Moses was the interpreter of God's word to Israel; and
Philo aspired to be the interpreter of the revelation of Moses to the
Hellenistic world, "the living voice of the holy law.
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