The life and work of St. Paul

704 APPENDIX.
Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, and may therefore be explained as having been due
rather to the prevalent currents of moral and religioua sentiment, than to any imitation
or conscious interchange of thought. And side by side with these resemblances, the
differences between Paul and Philo are immense. The cardinal conception of Philo is
that of the Logos, and it is one which, in this sense, is never used by St. Paul. St. Paul
makes but one or two distant and slighting allusions to the ancient Greek philosophy,
which Philo regarded as of transcendent importance. St. Paul makes but the most
subordinate use of the allegoric method, which with Philo is all in all. To Philo the
Patriarchs become mere idealised virtues ; to St. Paul they are living men. Philo
addresses his esoteric eclecticism to the illuminated few ; St. Paul regards all alike as
the equal children of a God who is no respecter of persons. Philo clings to the Jewish
ritualisms, though he gives them a mystic significance ; St. Paul regards them as abrogated
for Gentiles, and non-essential even for Jews. Philo still holds to the absolute
superiority of the Jew over the Gentile ; St. Paul teaches that in Christ Jesus there ia
neither Jew nor Gentile. In Philo we see the impotence of Hellenising rationalism ; in
St. Paul the power of spiritual truth. Philo explains and philosophises in every direc-
tion ; St. Paul never recoils before a paradox, and leaves antinomies unsolved side by
side. Philo, like St. Paul, speaks much of faith ; but the "faith" of Philo is something
far short of a transforming principle, 1 while that of St. Paul is a regeneration of the
whole nature through mystic union with Christ. The writings of Philo are a collection
of cold abstractions, those of St. Paul a living spring of spiritual wisdom. "Philo,"
says Professor Jowett, "was a Jew, St. Paul a Christian. Philo an eclectic, St. Paul
spoke as the Spirit gave him utterance. Philo was an Eastern mystic, St. Paul preached
the resurrection of the body. Philo was an idealiser, St. Paul a spiritualiser of the
Old Testament. Philo was a philosopher, St. Paul a preacher ; the one taught a system
for the Jews, the other a universal religion. The one may have guided a few more
solitaries to the rocks of the Nile, the other has changed the world. The one is a dead,
unmeaning literature, lingering amid the progress of mankind ; the other has been a
principle of life to the intellect as well as to the heart. While the one has ceased to
exist, the other has survived, without decay, the changes in government and the revolutions
in thought of 2
1,800 years."
Of the Apocryphal books there was one at least with which St. Paul was almost
certainly acquainted namely, the Book of Wisdom. No one, I think, will question this
who compares his views of idolatry, and the manner in which he expresses them, with the
chapters in which that eloquent book pursues the worship of heathenism with a concen-
trated scorn hardly inferior to that of Isaiah ; or who will compare together the passages
to which I have referred in a former note. If the books for which St. Paul wrote from
his last imprisonment were any but sacred books, we may feel a tolerable confidence that
the Book of Wisdom was among their number.8
EXCURSUS V. (p. 64).
GAMALIEL AND THE SCHOOL OF TUBINQEN.
I SHALL not often turn aside to meet what seem to me to be baseless objections ; but as
the name of Gamaliel will always be associated with that of St. Paul, it may be worth
while to do so for a moment in this instance. It seems, then, to me that this accusation
1 Philo's highest definition of faith is " a bettering in all things of the soul, which has cast
"
Itself for support on the Author of all *
things (Z> Abraham, ii. 89).
Rmw.ns, i. 416.
Comp. Bom. v. 12 ; xi. 82 ; 1 Coi. vi. 2 ; 2 Cor. v. 4, &c., respectivelv. with Wisd. ii. 84;
L 8326 ; iii. 8 ; U. 16, &c. But see supra, p. 007.