e that we have

"Too much of knowledge for the Skeptic side,
Too much of weakness for the Stoic's pride,"

and he attacks the Skeptics of the day who devoted their minds to
destructive dialectical quibbling and sophistry[112] instead of
seeking for God and the human good. They are the Ishmaels of
philosophy.

Philo's polemic is directed less against the Greek schools in
themselves than against the Jewish followers of the Greek schools. He
saw the danger to Judaism in the teachings of these anti-religious
philosophers, and deeply as he loved Greek culture, he loved more
deeply his religion. He wanted to reveal a philosophy in the Bible
which should win back to Judaism the men who had been captivated by
foreign thought. In one aspect, therefore, his master-work is a plea
for unity. The community at Alexandria was a very heterogeneous body;
not only were the sects which had appeared in Palestine, the Sadducees,
Samaritans, Pharisees, and Essenes, represented there too, but in
addition there were parties who attached themselves to one or other of
the Greek schools, the Pythagoreans, Skeptics, and the like, and
lastly Gnostic groups, who cultivated an esoteric doctrine of the
Godhead, and were lax in their observance of the law, which they held
to be purely symbolical and of no account in its literal meaning. The
mental activity which this growth of sects exemplified was in some
respects a healthy sign, but it contained seeds of religious chaos,
which bore their fruit in the next century. Men started by thinking
out a philosophical Judaism for themselves; they ended by ceasing to
be Jews and philosophers. Philo foresaw this danger, and he tried to
combat it by presenting his people with a commentary of the Bible
which should satisfy their intellectual and speculative bent, but at
the same time preserve their loyalty to the Bible and the law. To the
Greek world he offered a philosophical religion, to his own people a
religious philosophy. Thus the allegorical commentary is the crowning
point of his work, the offering of his deepest thought to the most
cultured of the community; and though much of its detail had only
relevancy for its own time, and its method may repel our modern taste,
yet the spirit which animates it is of value to all ages, and should
be an inspiration to every generation of emancipated Jews. That spirit
is one of fearless acceptance of the finest culture of the age
combined with unswerving love of