THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
405
upon Judaism. Gfrijrer lias cleverly desciilied Philo'salleirorical hent in saying," It is madness, but there's a nietli(i<l in it " ((ifrorer. "Pliiln," i. ll;J), Palestinian lieiineneutics and Alexandrian allegorisni are tlie two t'oinidations upon wliieli Pliilo Iledehiilds liis system of lJiV)le interpretation. teets allegorical secrets in parallel i)assages or duplicate e.pres.sions of Scripture, in apparently sufffect
perlluous words, in particles, adverbs, and the like. In view of the numerous iieculiarities of Hebrew in they ar<' so prevalent this direction lliiil they may soniclimes be di'lecled Philo. (veil in the Seiituagint translation it was a very easy matter for Philo to discover many such secret hints where none e.isted. In ad dition to "rules" based upon the Palestinian Mid rash, the Greek allegorisis had set up an extensive system of t lie symbolism of things and numbers; and of this also Philo inii<ie considerable use. Thus the number one is God's number; two is division; live means the live senses; ami similarly all sinijilc
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numbers up
to ten.
and some compound ones such
as 1',', 50. 7l», 10(1, l'>0, have their allegorical signitiAnimals and winged birds, creejiing things cance. and swimming things, all have their symbolical imLikewise, plants, stones, the heavenly bodies, port. certain sjieeiesof animals in short, everything that is finite was an allegory of some truth; this is one of the chief rules of Pliilo's allegorism. But it must be nolieed that Philo none the less protect I'd he right soft he literal word, without, however. biingi|Uiteclearasto the proiier relation of the By written word to its Allegorical Interpretation. means of such hermeneutic principles Philo e.I>ounded almost the whole Pentateuch in ils historThe follow ing is an ical as well as ils legal portions. illustration from Genesis: "God lilanleda garileii in .")( I snj.} that means (!od implants terEden (Jen. ii. The tree of life restrial virtue in the human race. is that specitic virtue which some people call goodThe river that went out of Eden is also ncs-s. Its four heads are the canjinal generic goodness. Pheison is deriveil from the Greek piMo/m; virtues: prudence'; and. being an (I abstain) and means lo compass Wn- wlioh' illustrious virtue, it is sjiid land of Havilah where there is gold.' " The nami' "Gilion" means "chest" (see (Jen. K. on the jiassagi) and stands for couragi'. and it coni|)assis ElhiTigris is "temperance"; the ojiia, or humiliation. name is eonnecled with a tiger because it resolutely opposes desire. Euphrates means "fertility" (Hebrew jtiinih; se(^ (Jen. H.) and stands for "justice." In this way the i>atriarclis. however, are alligori/ed away into inenrabslraetions(" I)e Allegoriis Legum,"
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^langey.
l!)i/wY/.; I'd. i. As to Palestinian allegorism. il was too deeply rooted in historical Judaism lo permit it.self to go to
i.
ritiiY «(/.).
such exiremes with
I
he history as the
Palestinian Alexandrians, no nialter how much il Allemay have chosen to allegorize the gorism. Law. Nothing exhibits the genuinelv Jewish <haracter of the Palesiinian al legoiy more clearly llian ils application lo the Ilalakah a mere Greek fashion and one speeilieally aniagonislic lo the lellir of Seriplure— could never have taken pari in he llalakah. which is profi'ssidly founded upon Ihe .'scripture text. Devoted as the Palestinians wire to the Pentateuch, it is nevertheless a fact that Ihe Halakali, both before and afliT Akiba. madi' use of allegorism. Il isexpri'ssly staled that liabbi Ishnmil (died about IH'.M explained thn-e
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Penlaleu<hal passjiges ^L"0 PD3 by a species of par(Mek. Mishpa(im. vi.l. His younger contempo.li>se of Galilee inlerpnls Deill. xxiv. I! also |{
able rary
Allegorical Interpretation
allegorieally, or rather euphemistically after Job, xxxi. 10 (Gen. R. XX. 7). Akiba. although he more than any one else perceived the danger of this allegorization of the Law, which just then was fashionable in Ihe Christian and the Gnostic worlds, could not refrain from adopting something of this method of interpretation. Thus, referring to the verse, " And she ('.lie heathen captive] sliall bewail her father and her mother" (Dent. xxi. 13), Akiba understands by "father and mother," "idols," according to Jer, ii. 27 (Sifre. Deut. ^13); and in Lev. xix. 2f) he perceives a warning to judges to partake of no food upon a day on which they are toconsidera capitiil sentence (Sifra Kedoshim. vi. i)0</). Similarly tlieverse. Deut. xxv. 4 (forbidding the ox to be muzzled w hen treading out corn), w hen taken in conjunction with the following law (iiy D'31DDor interpretation by sequence), is allegorieally used toexplain that Ihe widow may not be
compelled lo enter into a levirate marriage with a leper. Just as the ox in the passsige is not to be l)revente<l from helping himself to a share of the iiarvest he is threshing, so the woman may not be deprived of her right to happiness in her marriage (Yeb.
4</).
The
essential chaiaetcristic of Palestinian allegorism which distinguishes it from Alexandrian is its acceptance of the Scripture as the inalienable heritage of Israel. The Bible was a Jewish revelation, so that any hidden import discovered by means of allegorism was an inherent part of the history or of An excelthe religious life, the Torali of Ihe Jews. lent exemplar of Palestinian allegorism Book of is alTorded liy the 15ook ok Jiiiii.KES. Jubilees. The periods iirescribed in Lev. xii.
for the purification of
women
are de-
duced by it from the legend that Adam was forty days old when he entered Paradise, and I^ve eighty 9); in vi. 1."). the Feast of Weeks is associated with God's covenant with Xoali after the Hood. These interpretations are strictly Haggadot rather than allegorisms, but nevertheless they show the ty(iii.
pological character of Palestinian allegorism in the
endeavor to expound the pre-JIosaic period by the light of the later period of the
The
Law.
form of Palestinian deritxh (exposition), already archaic in the year 70 of the common era, is oldest
niDICTCm
Symbolists, literally "interthat of the preters of signs" called also nniOn T. "interpreters of parables" (Ber. 'iAn: see liacher, "Die Aelteste Their nielhod is allegorical Terminologie," a.r.). or symbolically allegorical; thus: "they found no water" (Kx. xv. 22) means "no Torah," as in Isa. Iv. "and (bid showed JIoscs a tree." that means God 1 taught him a play upon the word imVV which means " to teach." as well as " lo show " Ihe Law, as " (Mek.. Bcit is said. Prov. iii. IS." It isa tree of life shallah,Vayassa', i. 1). Anolher instruclivi'i'xample
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isthe following: The Symbolists say that all. even the wiek<ilest. kings of Israel shall enbr tlic> future world, as it is said. Ps. lx.9; "Gilead is mine" means Ahab who fell at Hamoth Gilead "and >hinas.seh is mine," that is. lilendly. King Manasseh; " Ephraim " means .leioboam who is the strength of mini' head
wasan Ephraimile; "Judah is my law giver" means Ahilhopiiel, who was of Ihi' tribe of Jiiduli; " Moab is my waslipol " means Gehazi; "Over Edom will I I'asI out mv sh(M'" means DcH'g, Ihe
The
Eilomile (Siinh. lO-lA). Closely alliid wiili this ancient form of Palesiinian allegorism must have The author of a book l«en that of the Kssknks. somelimes ascribed lo Philo reports that among Iho Es.seni'S. after the public reading from the Seriplure. "anolliir. who belongs to Ihe most learned, steps
Essenes.
