TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 



31 



but as it is the property of fire to burn, and of snow to cause cold, 

 so also it is the property of God to create (I, 44).^ 



This does not contradict the idea of perfect rest and peace, 

 because the element of fatigue is absent from all God's effort. 

 The motive of creation, then, was goodness, '^Everything is for 

 the good of the creature, who is in need of receiving God's bounty" 

 (I, 47). 



The difficulty in explaining why an imperfect world was created 

 is touched upon thus: 'Tor the manifestation of the better, there 

 was necessary the creation and existence of the worse; both alike 

 are due to the power of the same goodness, viz. to God" (I, 101). 

 Again, he says on this same general theme: ''God is not a salesman 

 lowering the price of his own possessions, but the bestower of all 

 things, pouring forth the everflowing fountain of favors, not desiring 

 a recompense; for neither is he in need himself, nor is any created 

 thing competent to bestow a gift in return" (I, 161). 



Philo is not so satisfactory in explaining the need of punishments. 

 Even if one says that punishment is corrective and hence good, yet 

 somewhat of evil is attached to it. Philo tries to avoid the difficulty 

 by saying that God has delegated punishment to subordinates. 

 Further, God's punishments are tempered by grace; he never puts 

 forth all of his power but only seeks to help the one punished. 

 So in his revelation of himself God recognizes man's limitations, 

 as for example when Moses saw but the back of Jehovah as he passed 



by. 



Philo is also troubled by the crass anthropomorphism of the 

 Scriptures. In places God is called a man, in others he is not a man. 

 The former, Philo says, is less true, but is used because man is not 

 capable of understanding about God in any other way. "We cannot", 

 he says, "get out of ourselves, and so we get our conceptions of the 

 uncreated God from our own attributes" (I, 419). Philo's stand is 

 in keeping with the best Greek thought, as when Xenophanes, for 

 instance, says: "If cattle or lions had hands, so as to paint with their 

 hands and produce works of art as men do, they would paint their 

 gods and give them bodies in form like their own — horses like horses, 

 cstttle like cattle" (Frag. 6, Fairbanks). 



Why should God take an oath is also explained by Philo. It is not 

 because God needs this for himself, but it is that we may believe 

 an oath better if God himself is supposed to employ it (I, 181, 182). 



^The tribe of Klamath Indians call God "the Old One on High" and 

 one of their thinkers, when asked who created the world, replied "the Old 

 One on High". When asked how he created it he said, "by thinking and 

 willing". 



