sky. [The rabbis had a similar fancy of the Tsitsith
(fringes).] And the flowers embroidered thereon mark the earth, from
which all things flower. And the pomegranates are a symbol of the
water, being skilfully called thus ([Greek: rhoischoi], _i.e._,
flowing fruit) because of their juice, and the bells are the symbols
of the harmony of all the elements."[325]

It is true that the symbolism of two allegorists is varied, but a
common spirit and aim underlie their interpretations. This is true
alike of their account of the ritualistic and civil law of Moses.
Either, then, there was a common source of Jewish apologetic
literature, or Josephus must have borrowed from Philo. It is
significant that he is the only contemporary of Philo that mentions
him. He speaks of him as a distinguished philosopher, the brother of
the alabarch, and the leader of the embassy to Gaius.[326] He knows
also of the anti-Semitic diatribes of Philo's great enemy Apion, and
two of his extant books are masterly reply to their outpourings. Hence
it is not rash to assume that he knew at least that part of Philo's
work which had a missionary and apologetic purpose--the "Life of
Moses" and the "Hypothetica." He makes no acknowledgment to them, it
is true, but expressions of obligation were not in the fashion of the
time. Plagiarism was held to be no crime, and citation of authorities
in notes or elsewhere was almost unknown in literature--save in the
Talmud,[327] where to tell something in the name of somebody else is a
virtue. But one can hardly doubt that the man who devoted himself to
refuting the lying calumnies of Apion first made himself master of the
classical work of Apion's opponent, which claimed to give to the Greek
world the authoritative account of the Jewish lawgiver and his
legislation.

What Josephus knew must have been known to other cultured Jews of
Palestine. Yet Philo, save in one doubtful case which will be noticed,
is not mentioned by any Jewish writer between Josephus in the first
and Azariah dei Rossi in the sixteenth century. The compilers of the
Midrashim and the Yalkut, the philosophers of the Dark and Middle
Ages, finally the Cabbalists, are continually reminiscent of his
doctrines, but they do not mention his works or his existence. The
Midrash Tadshe,[328] a tenth century compilation of allegorical
exegesis, contains definite parallels to Philonic passages, especially
in its quotations from an Essene Tannaite, Pin[h.]as be