established probably under the Sadducaean predominance,
which was modified in the rabbinical schools of the first and the
second century. Paradoxically, in his exposition of the law, Philo
follows the letter more closely as the expression of justice, while
the later rabbis often allegorize it in order to support their humaner
interpretation. Thus, commenting on the passage in Exodus xxii. 3
about the law of theft, "If the sun be risen upon him, blood shall be
shed for blood," he, like R. Eliezer, interprets [Hebrew: dbrim kktbm][291]
_i.e._, literally. "If," he says, "the owner catches the thief before
sunrise, he may kill him, but after the sun has risen he must bring him
before the court."[292] This also was the Roman law, but the Halakah
interprets more artificially: "If it were as clear as sunlight that
the thief would not have killed the owner, then the owner may not kill
him." Philo would justify the old law; the rabbis explain it away. On
the other hand, in his treatment of the law relating to slaves, Philo
extends the liberality both of the Bible and the Halakah. He declares
that the slave is to be set free when by his master's violence he loses
an eye or even a tooth.[293] The Bible and the Talmud direct emancipation
only where the slave loses a limb; but Philo writes eloquently of the
humanity of which man is deprived by the loss of sight; and he would
apparently condemn the master who injured his slave more seriously to the
full penalties of the ordinary law.[294] Maimonides, in his exposition of
the law, approves the milder practice,[295] and this suggests that it
had an old tradition behind it. Beautiful is Philo's stray maxim,
"Behave to your servants as you pray that God may behave to you. For
as we hear them, so shall we be heard, and as we regard them, so shall
we be regarded."[296] In his whole treatment of slavery, Philo shows
remarkable enlightenment for his age. He objects, indeed, to the
institution altogether, and he tempers it continually with ideas of
equality. Thus, following the Halakah, he directs the redemption of a
slave seven years after his purchase, and he treats the laws of the
seventh-year rest to the land and of the jubilee as of universal
validity.

Coming to the more specifically religious laws we find that Philo,
missionary as he is, prohibits altogether marriage with Gentiles,[297]
and that though, in the opinion of certain rabbinic teachers, the
Biblical prohibition extended onl