Yearly our understanding of the Alexandrian culture becomes fuller.
Philo, too, has in part been translated into Hebrew. Indirect in the
past, his influence on Jewish thought in the future bids fair to be
direct and increasing.
* * * * *
VIII
THE INFLUENCE OF PHILO
The hope which Philo had cherished and worked for was the spreading of
the knowledge of God and the diffusion of the true religion over the
whole world.[346] The end of Jewish national life was approaching, but
rabbis in Palestine and philosophers at Alexandria, unconscious of the
imminent doom, thought that the promise of the prophet was soon to be
fulfilled, and all peoples would go up to worship the one God at the
temple upon Mount Zion, which should be the religious centre of the
world. In Philo's day a universal Judaism seemed possible, a Judaism
true to the Torah as well as to the Unity of God,[347] spread over the
Megalopolis of all peoples; and in the light of this hope Philo
welcomed proselytism. The Jews had a clear mission; they were to be
the light of the world, because they alone of all peoples had
perceived God. Israel ([Hebrew: 'shr'l]), to repeat Philo's etymology, is
the man who beholds God, and through him the other nations were to be
led to the light. The mission of Israel was not a passive service, but
an active preaching of God's word, and an active propagation of God's
law to the Gentile.
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