Philo Judæus
Holman Bible Dictionary [1]
Philo's writings—particularly his commentaries on the Scriptures—influenced the early church. A literal interpretation was all right for the average scholar, but for the enlightened ones such as himself, he advocated an allegorical interpretation. See Bible, Hermeneutics .
James Taulman
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
E . Philo the Jew), philosopher of the 1st century, born in Alexandria; studied the Greek philosophy, and found in it, particularly the teaching of Plato, the rationalist explanation of the religion of Moses, which he regarded as the revelation to which philosophy was but the key; he was a man of great learning and great influence among his people, and was in his old age one of an embassy sent by the Jews of Alexandria in A.D. 40 to Rome to protest against the imperial edict requiring the payment of divine honours to the emperor; he identified the Logos of the Platonists with the Word in the New Testament.
