up to the ill-omened conversion of Judæa into a Roman province under
the rule of a procurator. It is noteworthy also that Philo was partly
contemporary with Hillel, who came from Babylon to Jerusalem in 30
B.C.E., and according to the accepted tradition was president of the
Sanhedrin till his death in 10 C.E. In this epoch Judaism, by contact
with external forces, was thoroughly self-conscious, and the world was
most receptive of its teaching; hence it spread itself far and wide,
and at the same time reached its greatest spiritual intensity. Hillel
and Philo show the splendid expansion of the Hebrew mind. In the
history of most races national greatness and national genius appear
together. The two grandest expressions of Jewish genius immediately
preceded the national downfall. For the genius of Judaism is
religious, and temporal power is not one of the conditions of its
development.

Philo belonged to the most distinguished Jewish family of
Alexandria,[41] and according to Jerome and Photius, the ancient
authorities for his life, was of the priestly rank; his brother
Alexander Lysimachus was not only the governor of the Jewish
community, but also the alabarch, _i.e._, ruler of the whole Delta
region, and enjoyed the confidence of Mark Antony, who appointed him
guardian of his second daughter Antonia, the mother of Germanicus and
the Roman emperor Claudius. Born in an atmosphere of power and
affluence, Philo, who might have consorted with princes, devoted
himself from the first with all his soul to a life of contemplation;
like a Palestinian rabbi he regarded as man's highest duty the study
of the law and the knowledge of God.[42] This is the way in which he
understood the philosopher's life[43]: man's true function is to know
God, and to make God known: he can know God only through His
revelation, and he can comprehend that revelation only by continued