Chapter 9. " Reville, J., Le logos, d'apres

* So he states in the opening Philon d'Alexandrie, Geneve, 1877. ientences of the other treatise; it
XIV PHILO JUDAEUS 351
transmitter of thought, a mediator after his own heart be- tween Jews and Greeks, and between them both and the Christian writers to come. Standing at the close of the Hellenistic age and at the opening of the Roman period, he occupies in the history of speculative and theological thought an analogous position to that of Pliny the Elder in the his- tory of natural science, gathering up the lore of the past, perhaps improving it with some additions of his own, and exercising a profound influence upon the age to come.
Philo's medieval influence, however, was probably more His influ- indirect than Pliny's and passed itself on through yet other the niiddle mediators to the more remote times. Comparatively speak- ages was ing, the Natural History of Pliny probably was more impor- tant in the middle ages than in the early Roman Empire when other authorities prevailed in the Greek-speaking world. Philo's influence on the other hand must soon be transmitted through Christian, and then again through Latin, mediums. This is indicated by the fact that to-day many of his works are wholly lost or extant only in fragments ^ or in Armenian versions,^ and that we have no sure infor- mation as to the order in which they were composed.^ But his initial force is none the less of the greatest moment, and seems amply sufficient to justify us in selecting his writings as one of our starting points. The extent to which one is apt to find in the writings of Philo passages which are fore- runners of the statements of subsequent writers, may be illustrated by the familiar story of King Canute and the tide. Philo in his work On Dreams ■* speaks of the custom of the Germans of charging the incoming tide with their drawn swords. But what especially concern us are Philo's
* Lincoln College, Oxford, has a perfect Latin version, is not re-
I2th century MS in Greek of the garded as a genuine work, — see
De vita Mosis and De virtutibus, W. O. E. Oesterley and G. H.
— MS 34. Box, The Biblical Antiquities of
'The Alexander sive de animali- Philo, now first translated from
bus and the complete text of the the old Latin version by M. R.
De providentia exist only in James (1917), p. 7.
Armenian translation, — see Cohn ' Cohn (1892), 11.
(1892), p. 16. The Biblical An- *ll, 17. tiquities, extant only in an im-
352 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
statements concerning magic, astrology, the stars, the per- fection and power of numbers, demons, and the interpreta- tion of dreams.
Philo draws a distinction between magic in the good and bad sense. The former and true magical art is the lore of learned Persians called Magi who investigate nature more minutely and deeply than is usual and explain divine virtues clearly.^ The latter magic is a spurious imitation of the other, practised by quacks and impostors, old-wives and slaves, who by means of incantations and the like procedure profess to change men from love to hatred or vice versa and who "deceive unsuspecting persons and waste whole families away by degrees and without making any noise." It is to this adulterated and evil magic that Philo again refers when he likens political life to Joseph's coat of many colors, stained with the blood of wars, and in which a very little truth is mixed up with a great deal of sophistry akin to that of the augurs, ventriloquists, sorcerers, jugglers and enchanters, "from whose treacherous arts it is very difficult to escape." ^ This distinction between a magic of the wise and of nature and that of vulgar impostors is one which we shall find in many subsequent writers, although it was not recognized by Pliny. Philo also antecedes numerous Christian commentators upon the Book of Numbers ^ in considering the vexed question whether Balaam was an evil enchanter and diviner, or a divine prophet, or whether he combined magic and prophecy, and thus indicated that the former art is not evil but has divine approval. Philo's con- clusion is the more usual one that Balaam was a celebrated diviner and magician, and that it is impossible that "holy inspiration should be combined with magic," but that in the particular case of his blessing Israel the spirit of divine
^ (Quod omnis probus liber sit, a number of other passages of the
cap. xi) ; also The Law Concern- Bible: Deut.. XXIII, 3-6; Joshua,
ing Murderers, cap. 4. XIII, 22; XXIV, 9-10; Nehemiah,
'On Dreams, I, 38. XIII, iflf; Micah, VI, 5; Second
* Numbers XXII-XXV. Ba- Peter, II, 15-16; Jude, 11 ; Revela-
laam is, of course, referred to in tion, II, 14.
XIV PHILO JUDAEUS 353
prophecy took possession of him and "drove all his artificial system of cunning divination out of his soul." ^
Philo has considerably more to say upon the subject of stars not astrology than upon that of magic. He was especially con- so^s nor cerned to deny that the stars were first causes or independent causes, gods. He chided the Chaldean adepts in genethlialogy for recognizing no other god than the universe and no other causes than those apparent to the senses, and for regarding fate and necessity as gods and the periodical revolutions of the heavenly bodies as the cause of all good and evil." Philo more than once exhorts the reader to follow Abraham's example in leaving Chaldea and the science of genethlialogy and coming to Charran to a comprehension of the true nature of God.^ He agreed with Moses that the stars should not be worshiped and that they had been created by God, and more than that, not created until the fourth day, in order that it might be perfectly clear to men that they were not the primary causes of things.*
Philo, nevertheless, despite his attack on the Chaldeans, But
believed in much which we should call astrological. The national
. . . and virtu-
stars, although not mdependent gods, are nevertheless divine ous ani-
images of surpassing beauty and possess divine natures, al- GocTs vice- though they are not incorporeal beings. Philo distinguishes foys over between the stars, men, and other animals as follows. The beasts are capable of neither virtue nor vice; human beings are capable of both; the stars are intelligent animals, but incapable of any evil and wholly virtuous.^ They were native-born citizens of the world long before its first human citizen had been naturalized.^ God, moreover, did not post-
* Vita Mosis, I, 48-50. Besides bus and Ilept rov deoTrkfiirTovs elvai discussion of Balaam in various rovs ovfipovs.
Biblical commentaries, diction- ^ Ibid., Cap. 50. Huet, the noted
aries, and encyclopedias, see Heng- French scholar of the 17th cen-
stenberg, Die Geschichte Bileams tury, states in his edition of
und seine Weissagungen, 1842. Origen that "Philo after his cus-
^De migrat. Abrahanii, cap. 2^. torn repeats an opinion of Plato's
^ Idem, and De somiiiis, cap. 10. and almost his very words for
* De monarchia, I, i. De muiidi ... he asserts that the stars are opiUcio, cap. 14. not only animals but also the
'^ De mundi opiUcio, caps. 18, 50 purest intellects." Migne PG, and 24. See also his De giganti- XVII, col. 978.
354
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
They do not cause evil : but it is possible to predict the future from their motions.
Jewish astrology.
pone their creation until the fourth day because superiors are subject to inferiors. On the contrary they are the vice- roys of the Father of all and in the vast city of this universe the ruling class is made up of the planets and fixed stars, and the subject class consists of all the natures beneath the moon.^ A relation of natural sympathy exists between the different parts of the universe, and all things upon the earth are dependent upon the stars. ^
Philo of course will not admit that evil is caused either by the virtuous stars or by God working through them. As has been said, he attributed evil to matter or to "the natural changes of the elements," ^ drawing a line between God and nature in much the fashion of the church fathers later. But he granted that "before now some men have conjectu- rally predicted disturbances and commotions of the earth from the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and innumerable other events which have turned out most exactly true." ^ Philo's interest in astronomy and astrology is further sug- gested by his interpretation of the eleven stars of Joseph's dream as referring to the signs of the zodiac,^ Joseph him- self making the twelfth; and by his interpreting the ladder in Jacob's dream which stretched between earth and heaven as referring to the air,^ into which earth's evaporations dis- solve, while the moon is not pure ether like the other stars but itself contains some air. This accounts, Philo thinks, for the spots upon the moon — an explanation which I do not remember having met in subsequent writers.
Josephus '^ and the Jews in general of Philo's time were equally devoted to astrology according to Miinter, who says : "Only their astrology was subordinated to theism. The one God always appeared as the master of the host of heaven. But they regarded the stars as living divine beings and
^ De monarchia, I, i ; De mundi opiRcio, cap. 14.
^ De monarchia, I, i; Dc migra- tione Abrahamij cap. 32; De mundi opiUcio, cap. 40.
* Eusebius, De praep. Evang.,
cap. 13.
* De mundi opiUcio, cap. 19.
^ De somniis, II, 16.
'Ibid., I, 22.
'De hello Jud., V, 5, 5; Antiq.,