You will be preserved by those who wish to destroy you, and you shall
not perish. In evil days you shall not suffer, and when a tyrant
thinks to uproot you, you shall shine forth the more in brighter
glory."[146] The passage is typical also of the rhetorical artifice
with which Philo, following the taste of the time, recommended the
Bible to the Greeks.
We turn now to Philo's treatment of the Mosaic legislation, the Torah
in its narrower sense, which is to modern Jewry perhaps the most
striking part of his commentary. His problem was the same as ours--to
bring the ancient law into harmony with the ideas of a non-Jewish
environment, and to show its essential value when tried by an external
cultural standard. Briefly his solution is that he sees everything in
the Torah _sub specie aeternitatis_, in the light of eternity; and by
his faithfulness to the law, combined with his spiritual
interpretation of it, he stands forth as the greatest Jewish
missionary of his age. Unfortunately for Judaism, depth of thought and
philosophical judgment are not the qualities which mark the successful
religious missionary. Philo's philosophical treatment of the Torah was
understood only of the few; the fanatical Pauline rejection of the law
appealed to the masses. The spirit of the age demanded, indeed, the
ethical interpretation of the Bible, and it was carried out in many
ways, some true, some untrue to Judaism.
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