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Copious in language, comprehensive in thought, sublime and elevated
in his views of divine Scripture, Philo has produced manifold and
various expositions of the sacred books. On the one hand, he expounds
in order the events recorded in Genesis in the books to which he gives
the title Allegories of the Sacred Laws; on the other hand, he
makes successive divisions-of the chapters in the Scriptures which are
the subject of investigation, and gives objections and solutions, in
the books which he quite suitably calls Questions and Answers an
Genesis and Exodus. There are, besides these, treatises expressly
worked out by him on certain subjects, such as the two books On
Agriculture, and the same number On Drunkenness' and some others
distinguished by different titles corresponding to the contents of
each; for instance, Concerning the things which the Sober Mind
desires and execrates, On the Confusion of Tongues, On Flight and
Discovery, On Assembly for the sake of Instruction, On the
question, Who is heir to things divine?' or On the division of
things into equal and unequal, and still further the work On the three
Virtues which with others have been described by Moses. In addition
to these is the work On those whose Names have been changed and why
they have been changed, in which he says that he had written also two
hooks On Covenants? And there is also a work of his On
Emigration, and one On the life of a Wise Man made perfect in
Righteousness, or On unwritten taws; and still further the work On
Giants or On the Immutability of God, and a first, second,
third, fourth and fifth book On the proposition, that Dreams
according to Moses are sent by God. These are the hooks on Genesis
that have come down to us. But on Exodus we are acquainted with the
first, second, third, fourth and fifth books of Questions and
Answers,' also with that On tire Tabernacle, and that On the ten
Commandments, and the four books On the laws which refer especially
to the principal divisions of the ten Commandments, and another On
animals intended for sacrifice and On the kinds of sacrifice, and
another On the rewards fixed in the law for the good, and on the
punishments and curses fixed for the wicked. In addition to all these
there are extant also some single-volumed works of his; as for
instance, the work On Providence, and the book composed by him On
the Jews, and The Statesman; and still further, Alexander, or
On the possession of reason by the irrational animals?: Besides
these there is a work On the proposition that every wicked man is a
slave, to which is subjoined the work On the proposition that every
goad man is free. After these was composed by him the work On the
contemplative life, or On suppliants, from which we have drawn the
facts concerning the life of the apostolic men; and still further, the
Interpretation of the Hebrew names in the law and in the prophets are
said to be the result of his industry. And he is said to have read in
the presence of the whole Roman Senate during the reign of Claudius
the work which he had written, when he came to Rome under Coins,
concerning Coins' hatred of the gods, and to which, with ironical
reference to its character, he had given the title On the Virtues.
And his discourses were so much admired as to be deemed worthy of a
place in the libraries. At this time, while Paul was completing his
journey "from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum," Claudius
drove the Jews out of Rome; and Aquila and Priscilla, leaving
Rome with the other Jews, came to Asia, and there abode with the
apostle Paul, who was confirming the churches of that region whose
foundations he had newly laid. The sacred book of the Acts informs us
also of these things.
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