."[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. Philo and Josephus tell us
how Judaism was spreading over the world.[147] "There is not any city
of the Greeks," says the historian, "nor of the barbarians, nor of any
nation whatsoever, to which our custom of resting on the seventh day
has not been introduced, and where our fasts and our dietary laws are
not observed.... As God Himself pervadeth all the universe, so hath
our law passed through the world." And their testimony is supported by
the frequent gibes against Judaizing Romans in the Roman poets,[148]
and by the explicit statements of Strabo,[149] the famous geographer,
and, more remarkable still, of Seneca, the Stoic
philosopher-statesman. The bitter foe of the Jews, he confessed that
this superstitious pest was infecting the whole world, and that the
conquered people (Judaea had lately been made a Roman province) were
taking their conquerors captive.[150] Philo, with his ardent hope,
looked for the near coming of the time when the worship of the Jewish
God would prevail over the world, and sought to show that the Jewish
law, which is the expression of Jewish belief, and which differs from
all others, not only in the extent of its sway, but in its
unchangeableness, could be universalized to fit its new service. To
this e