Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

128 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMIn the mind of Philo, philosophy, as such, was thehandmaid of theology. In the mixed religious andphilosophical system which he was attempting to construct,he was exalting her to the rank of a wife, butshe was still to be subordinate to the husband. Theform of Greek thought i was to be fused with the sub-stance of Jewish belief. This was his intent andpurpose, which he supposed himself to have carriedout, and to which he was never consciously untrue.In this attempted union of Jewish revelation withGreek science, the position of Philo is, that the HolyScriptures of his own people contained the sum of allknowledge; that they were given by a divine inspirationwhich excluded all error and imperfection. Herecognises no other source of wisdom. The expositionof the sacred books is to him the proper philosophy ofhis people: Moses the greatest of all prophets andof all men. On the other hand a practical limit is setto his belief in authority, by his recognition of a truewisdom outside of his own nation and religion. Thuslie speaks of the holy community of Pythagoras, andof the godlike men, Pannenides, Empedocles, i-^"- Zeno,and Cleanthes, and admits that Greece is distinguishedas the cradle of science and a truly human civilisationabove all other lands in the world. Further,his veneration for Greek philosophy is shown morestrongly than any particular expressions can exhibit,by the wide use which he has made of Pythagorean,Platonic, Peripatetic, and Stoic doctrines, and by theinfluence which he has allowed these to have upon hisown view of things. The central point of all wisdomto him is theology, in which, as is natural, he followshis Jewish doctrinal system. But philosophy and1 Dollinger, Hcidcnthum, p. 837 ; Zeller, v. 295.