e._, the mystic emanation of the Deity, which revealed itself
after the spirit of prophecy had ceased to be vouchsafed, is credited
with wondrous and varied powers, now revealing the Decalogue, now
performing some miracle, now appearing in a vision to the blessed, now
prophesying the future fate of the race to a pious rabbi. The
fertilizing stream of Greek philosophical idealism nourished the
growth of the Jewish pious imagination, and in the Logos of Philo the
fruit matured. It is idle to try to formulate a single definite notion
of Philo's Logos. For it is the expression of God in all His multiple
and manifold activity, the instrument of creation, the seat of ideas,
the world of thought which God first established as the model of the
visible universe, the guiding providence, the sower of virtue, the
fount of wisdom, described sometimes in religious ecstasy, sometimes
in philosophical metaphysics, sometimes in the spirit of the mystical
poet. Of his last manner let us take a specimen singled out by a
Christian and a Jewish theologian as of surprising beauty. Commenting
on the verse of the Psalmist, "The river of God is filled with water,"
Philo declares that it is absurd to call any earthly stream the river
of God.
"The poet clearly refers to the Divine Logos that is full of
the fountain of wisdom, and is in no part itself empty.
Pages:
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155