Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

RESURRECTION OF CULTURED HEATHENISM I 27while he speaks of the government of Augustus and ofTiberius almost with veneration, and while he callsPlato not only great but holy, he believes that thesole rule of life was delivered by Moses to his people.He believes that Moses was the legislator and divinelytaught sage from whom truth not only shone infull lustre to the Jews, but streamed over to theGentiles.It was under such circumstances no wonder that aman of high intellectual gifts, who was profoundlypenetrated with the truth and goodness of the Hebrewrevelation, yet by education and learning was a Greek,should wish to join together in a sort of marriage thetwo parts of his own being. He would in fact espousethe fair Grecian captive, whose beauty had delightedhis senses, with the Hebrew husband whose dignityand authority were paramount over his soul. And tothis end, according to the precepts of his law, hewould prepare her for the ennoblement she was tomeet. The myths which disfigured her worship wereto be explained and purified by a moral interpretation,just as on the other side revelation itself in condescensionto human weakness had veiled high spiritualtruths under a homely literal expression. But herewe must note that while on the Hebrew side the alle-ory simply draws the truth out of its image, on theGreek side the interpretation employed removes fromyth the falsehood which had debased it. ThushPhilo, the human gifts whicl)rmed the dowry of the bride, that is to say, thecircle of sciences, which the philosophic subtlety ofthe Greek mind had produced, were to be carried tothe home of the husband, who had for his divine ption the knowledge of God and the goodness of virt