Talmud and the Midrash we have, in the work of Josephus,
another indication that there was in Philo's own day communication
between Alexandria and Palestine. The Jewish historian marks the
influence of Hellenic ideas in Palestine in fullest measure, and like
Philo he seeks by embellishment to recommend the histories and
Scriptures of his people to the non-Jew and to bring home their
thought to the cultured Roman-Greek world. Thus, in the preface to his
"Antiquities," he notes, as Philo noted in his commentary, that Moses
begins his laws with a philosophical cosmology; he says also that
Moses spoke some things under a fitting allegory, hiding beneath it a
very remarkable philosophical theory. The allegorical commentary which
Josephus declared that he intended to write has not--if it was
written--come down to us, but we have in his writings certain
allegorical valuations of names that agree directly with Philo. Abel
he explains as signifying mourning, Cain, [Hebrew: kin], as selfish
possession. In the priestly garments of Aaron he sees with Philo a
symbol of the universe, which the high priest supported when he
entered the Holy of Holies. And the ritual vessels of the tabernacle
have also their universal significance.

"If," says the Palestinian Hellenist, "any man do but
consider the fabric of the tabernacle and regard the
vestments of the high priest, he will find that our
legislator was a Divine man, and that we are unjustly
reproached by those who attack us for tribal narrowness. For
if he look upon these things without prejudice, he will find
that each one was made by way of imitation and
representation of the universe. When Moses ordered twelve
loaves to be set on the table, he denoted the years as
distinguished into so many months. By branching out the
candlestick into seven parts, he intimated the seven
divisions of the planets.... The vestments of the high
priest, being made of linen, signified the earth, the blue
color thereof denoted the sky, the pomegranates symbolized
lightning, and the noise of the bells resembled thunder. And
the fashion of the ephod showed that God had made the world
of four elements."[324]

Let us now listen now to Philo: "The raiment of the priest is
altogether a representation and imitation of the universe, and its
parts are the parts of the other. His tunic is all of blue linen, the
symbol of the