150 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



thus becomes virtue; Abraham's country and kindred, from 

 which he was commanded to depart, the human body and its 

 members ; the five cities of Sodom, the five senses ; the Euphrates, 

 correction of manners. By Philo and his compeers even the most 

 insignificant words and phrases, and those especially, were held to 

 conceal the most precious meanings. 



A perfectly natural and logical result of this view was reached 

 when Philo, saturated as he was with Greek culture and nour- 

 ished on pious traditions of the utterances at Delphi and Dodona, 

 spoke reverently of the Jewish Scriptures as "oracles." Oracles 

 they became, as oracles they appeared in the early history of 

 the Christian Church, and oracles they remained for centuries : 

 eternal life or death, infinite happiness or agony, as well as ordi- 

 nary justice in this world, being made to depend on certain in- 

 terpretations of a long series of recondite or doubtful utterances 

 interpretations frequently given by men who might have been 

 prophets and apostles, but who had become simply oracle- 

 mongers. 



Pressing the oracle into the service of science, Philo became 

 the forerunner of that long series of theologians who, from Au- 

 gustine and Cosmas to Mr. Gladstone, have attempted to extract 

 from scriptural myth and legend profound contributions to natu- 

 ral science. Thus he taught that the golden candlesticks in the 

 tabernacle symbolized the planets, the high priest's robe the uni- 

 verse, and the bells upon it the harmony of earth and water 

 whatever that may mean. So Cosmas taught, a thousand years 

 later, that the table of showbread in the tabernacle showed forth 

 the form and construction of the world ; and Mr. Gladstone hinted, 

 more than a thousand years later still, that Neptune's trident 

 had a mysterious connection with the Christian doctrine of the 

 Trinity.* 



These methods, in spite of the resistance of Tertullian and 

 Irenseus, were transmitted to the early Church ; as applied to the 



* For Philo Judaeus, see Yonge's translation, Bonn's edition ; see also Sanday on Inspi- 

 ration, pp. 78-85. For admirable general remarks on this period in the history of exege- 

 sis, see Bartlett, Bampton Lectures, 1888, p. 29. For efforts in general to save the credit 

 of myths by allegorical interpretation, and for those of Philo in particular, see Drummond, 

 Philo-Judseus, London, 1888, vol. i, pp. 18, 19 and notes. For interesting samples of Alex- 

 andrian exegesis and for Philo's application of the term " oracle " to the Jewish Scriptures, 

 see Farrar, History of Interpretation, p. 147 and note. For his discovery of symbols of 

 the universe in the furniture of the tabernacle, see Drummond, as above, vol. i, pp. 269 et 

 seq. For the general subject, admirably discussed from a historical point of view, see the 

 Rev. Edwin Batch, D. D., The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian 

 Church, Hibbert Lectures for 1888, chap. iii. For Cosmas, see my chapters on Geography 

 and Astronomy. For Mr. Gladstone's view of the connection between Neptune's trident and 

 the doctrine of the Trinity, see his Juventus Mundi. 



