The Writings of Philo

Philo was rich in language and broad in thought, lofty and sublime in his study of the divine Scriptures, and he produced a varied and many-sided exposition of the sacred books. On the one hand, he went through the contents of Genesis in order, in the books he entitled Allegories of the Sacred Laws. On the other, he took the questions raised in the Scriptures one by one, setting out the problems and their solutions, in the books he fittingly entitled Questions and Answers on Genesis and on Exodus. [a] Besides these, he has treatises worked out separately on particular problems, such as the two books On Agriculture and the same number On Drunkenness, and some others that bear different titles suited to their subjects. Among them are On What the Sober Mind Prays For and Curses, On the Confusion of Tongues, On Flight and Finding, On Coming Together for the Sake of Instruction, On the Question “Who Is the Heir of Divine Things?” or On the Division into Equals and Opposites, and further On the Three Virtues that Moses Described Along with Others. [b] In addition to these there is On Those Whose Names Are Changed, and Why They Are Changed, in which he says that he had also written two books On Covenants. There is also his work On Migration, and On the Life of the Wise Man Made Perfect in Righteousness, or On Unwritten Laws; and further On Giants, or On the Unchangeableness of God; and the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth books On the View That, According to Moses, Dreams Are Sent by God. These are the books on Genesis that have come down to us. On Exodus we know his first, second, third, fourth, and fifth books of Questions and Answers; the work On the Tabernacle; On the Ten Commandments; the four books On the Laws That Fall Under the Chief Headings of the Ten Commandments; On the Animals Used in Sacred Rites, and What Kinds of Sacrifice There Are; and On the Rewards Set in the Law for the Good, and the Punishments and Curses for the Wicked. Besides all these, some single-volume works of his are in circulation, such as On Providence, the treatise he composed On the Jews, The Statesman, and further Alexander, or On Whether Irrational Animals Have Reason. Besides these there is On the View That Every Wicked Man Is a Slave, which is followed by On the View That Every Good Man Is Free.

After these he composed On the Contemplative Life, or the Suppliants, from which we have drawn our account of the life of the apostolic men. The Interpretations of the Hebrew Names in the Law and the Prophets are also said to be his work. He came to Rome under Gaius. His writings about Gaius’s hatred of God, to which, with irony and in keeping with their character, he gave the title On the Virtues, he is said to have read through before the whole Roman Senate in the reign of Claudius, and his discourses were so admired that they were thought worthy of a place in the libraries. [c]

At this time, while Paul was completing his journey “from Jerusalem and all around as far as Illyricum,” Claudius drove the Jews out of Rome. Aquila and Priscilla left Rome with the other Jews, landed in Asia, and stayed there with the apostle Paul, who was strengthening the foundations of the churches there that he had lately laid. The sacred book of Acts teaches us this too. [d]