ordinary believer upon the philosophical meaning as well as upon
the law. And as events proved, this led to the neglect of the law and
the dogmatic establishment of speculative theories as the basis of a
new religion. Doubtless the consciousness that the philosophical
development led away from Judaism increased the distrust of the later
rabbis for such speculation, and made them regard esoteric as a milder
term for heretical; but the warning is already given in Ben Sira: "It
is not needful for thee to see the secret things."[317] The Talmud,
indeed, records certain ideas about the powers of God and His relation
to the universe in the names of the great masters; and in these ideas
there are striking resemblances to Philo's conceptions. The Word is
spoken of as an intermediate agency;[318] the finger of God is really
the Word; the angels are sprung from the Words of God: Ben Zoma
declared that the whole work of creation was carried out by the Word,
as it is written, "And God said."[319] But on the other hand there are
passages in which the rabbis oppose the Alexandrian attitude, and
point out in its excessive philosophizing a danger to Judaism, so that
in the end they exclude it. Rabbi Ishmael, we are told, warned his
pupils of the danger of Greek wisdom.[320] Akiba, living at a time
when the Jews were fighting for spiritual as well as for physical life
against the combined forces of the Greeks and Romans, proposed to ban
all the [Hebrew: sfrim hitsonim],[321] and the Gemara argues that among
these were included the Apocryphal works which showed Greek influence.
Again, Elisha ben Abuya, the arch-heretic, is held up to reproach because
he read [Hebrew: sfri minim],[322] under which title Greek Gnostic books
are probably implied.

At the time when this spirit shows itself, the appearance of heretical
offshoots from Judaism was already pronounced. Heresy was the
aftermath of the combination of Judaism and Hellenism, and if further
disintegration was to be avoided, the seductive Greek influence had to
be discouraged. There is always the danger in a mingling of two
cultures, that each will lose its particular excellence in a compound
which has certain qualities, but not the virtues, of either element.
Compromises may be desirable in political affairs; in affairs of
thought they are perilous. Down to the time of Philo, the fusion of
thought at Alexandria had been beneficial, and had broadened the
Jewish outlook without impairin