PHILO AND THE ALEXANDRIAN JEWS.

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standpoints in their contemplation of the Old Testament records. The ideal mode was reckoned the highest, where it was the prime object to find again in the Old Testament the general religious ideas of speculation; but they acknowledged a special divine wisdom in this, that these higher ideas of which not all men were capable, wore the garb of the Letter, which at least might call forth a certain moral culture. The Hellenic Mythology was injurious to morality; the Old Testament, on the contrary, was advantageous for all even for those who remained on the lower standpoint. This contrast of an allegorical and a literal view held by the Alexandrians was connected with one more general in the contemplation of Religion. On the higher stage of Ideas, men were raised to the pure Intuition of Truth; on the lower, they must be satisfied with what was merely outward. In the former position, man knows God as he is; he moves according to Philo, in the highest philosophical abstraction-beholds God by a mystic absorption which leaves behind everything anthropopathic, so that nothing is left for contemplation but the purely simple which has no definable qualities, an abstract idea of perfection with which the exuberance of the feelings seeks to unite itself. On the other standpoint God is recognised in his revelation, in his condescension, which is necessary for common men in order to lead them by degrees to the end of their religious development. This lower stage bears the same relation to the ideal as the body to the spirit. In the one there is an sioav@gwrile, a humanized religious knowledge, in the other a dis-humanized; here, we have the positive symbolic, there the negative. Thus the contrast of an exoteric and esoteric religious knowledge, originally foreign to Judaism, was introduced. The latter (the esoteric) according to Philo characterizes the peculiar children of God-the viol To ovros it corresponds to the destiny of the theocratic, nation, of men altogether devoted to the contemplation of divine things who are exalted above all Revelation to immediate contact with the simple essence of God, the "v. On the exoteric standpoint were to be found the viol roũ λóyou, who knew God only outwardly in his acts. In general, the Alexandrians were not disposed to nullify the historical sense of Holy Writ, but only to place it on a subordinate standpoint; yet, in passages which they could not harmonize with their

philosophic ideas, they did not scruple to drop the historical sense altogether. In this respect Philo agrees with the mythical theory of modern times, for now such a procedure is called the mythical method; yet Philo reached it from principles diametrically opposite, namely from a Supranaturalism carried in the doctrine of Inspiration to an extravagant length. The Holy Spirit, he supposed, had designedly impelled by his inspiration the Sacred Writers to say what was historically false, and had only an ideal truth, in order to instigate, the susceptible not to content themselves with the letter, but to seek for the ideal truth. Hence Philo calls such passages of Holy Writ προσκόμματα οι σκάνδαλα. Yet all the Jews did not keep within the same limits of reverence for the religion of their Fathers-which was possible in this co-existence of various stages of development, but from the same premises many inferred that the Letter was nothing to those who had attained to a knowledge of the Idea. If the Sabbath was only a symbol of the consecrated rest of the Spirit, and Circumcision a symbol of purification from all uncleanness, those who recognised these truths need not trouble themselves about the external observances. This ultra-idealism which came into collision with external Judaism is controverted by Philo in his remarkable tract, De migratione Abrahami. Addressing its abettors he says, "You might have reason on your side if we were souls without bodies; but as it is, we need the Letter as well as the Idea. We must also seek to retain the good reputation of piety among the people." This Alexandrian religious Philosophy was of great importance in the subsequent History of Dogmas. It made the rigid Jewish Spirit more susceptible of Christianity, though on the other hand, its one-sided contemplative intellectualism was likely to suppress the deeper wants of the Soul. Christianity was adulterated by amalgamation with it, especially as it re-introduced the aristocratic distinction of the higher knowledge in contrast to the symbolic popular faith which Christianity had abolished. A kind of Gnosis in opposition to the limited sensuous standpoint was formed, which even in the Apostolic Age made its way into the Church. After Christianity, at the earliest period had combated the contracted Jewish view which would not recognise in Christianity a new creation, there was formed out of the elements of Judaism which were partly allied to

Essenism, partly to the Alexandrian religious Philosophy, an ascetic Theosophy which aimed at something higher than the common standpoint of Christianity. It has indeed been asserted that the germ of this tendency cannot be detected before the appearance of the Gnosis so called in a narrower sense in the second century. Hence in modern times Dr. Baur has raised doubts on the genuineness of several of the shorter Pauline Epistles in which reference to it are found, as for instance in the Epistle to the Colossians. But on the other hand the sudden appearance of the Gnostic sects in tho second century cannot be accounted for, if they had not been preceded by such analogous tendencies. An appeal has been made to Hegesippus* who asserts the purity of the Church so long as it was under the guidance of the Apostles. Yet too much importance is attached to Hegesippus, for he is too uncritical, and had an interest in ascribing to these sects a post-apostolic origin. It was in the latter part of Paul's life that these contrarieties became visible. Then followed the reconciling labours of John, which were of great importance for the maintenance of Christian unity. Yet when these obnoxious tendencies had once germinated, they could not be wholly repressed. That spiritualistic tendency in the Jewish Theology which was opposed to the sensuous Judaism necessarily found fresh aliment as soon as Christianity spread among the Heathen. After John's death no powerful spirit like his stood at the head, no man of apostolic authority who might have controlled opposing views, and they now burst forth without restraint. Thus in the post-apostolic age we may discern the influence of Jewish elements: 1st. In Ebionitism strictly so called; the Judaizing tendency which would not allow Christianity to be free from Judaism and regarded it only as a complement of Judaism, which without any high view of the Messiahship of Christ had also very contracted notions of his Person.† 2nd. This influence was also perceptible where Christi

* Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 22.

Justin. Mart. dial. c. Tryph. § 46 (p. 264), sq. 88 (p. 315). Iren. adv. hær. i. 26. Origen, c. Cels. II. 1, cf. in Matt. t. 16. 12. c. Cels. 5, 61, 65. In Matt. xi. 12. hom. in Jerem. xviii. 12. in Joann. t. 2. 6. Euseb. H. E. iii. 27. Epiphan. hæres. 29, 30. Hieronym. (especially in his Commentary on Isaiah). See Neander's Church History ii. 482 (Bohn's edition). The so-called Clementine Homilies with the Epistles

anity, on the whole, was received in its purity: there was still a mixture of a strong sensuous anthropopathic element. This appeared especially in the representations that were given of the kingdom of God-the idea of which was not framed in accordance with the spiritual character of Christianity but in sensuous images; as in the extravagant expectations of the happiness of the Millennium, which were propagated by Papias of Hieropolis. 3rd. In opposition to such corruption of the Christian consciousness, a one-sided idealistic tendency made itself felt. A preponderance of speculation counteracted the excess of feeling and the sensuous element. Christianity attracted men from opposite poles-according as the intellect, the feelings, the love of speculation, or sensuous conceptions predominated. While from these various standpoints Christianity was subjected to impure mixtures of opposite kinds; it had at least this salutary result, that no single one obtained an exclusive preponderance.

GNOSIS. The terms yvwois, yvworinós, point out the peculiarity of this tendency: that its abetters boasted of possessing a higher knowledge in distinction from the common popular faith of the Church-an esoteric religious knowledge as distinguished from the exoteric.† There were men of a speculative and poetic turn, full of forebodings, excited by the

prefixed in Cotelerius, Patres Apost. 1, with the lately found additions, Clementis Romani quæ feruntur Homilia XX. nunc primum integræ: ed. A. R. M. Dressel: Gott. 1853. The Recognitiones Clem. Rom. The 'ETITOμn-Gieseler, v. d. Nazaräern u. Ebionten, Winer's Zeitschr. für wissenschaft. Theol. 1827, 2. By the same, d. Evangel. der Judenchristen. Beiträg. 3 Einl. in d. bibl. Schriften: Halle, 1832, I. 268. Schneckenburger, üb. e. übersehenen Punkt in d Lehre der Ebionit: Tüb. Zeitschrift, 1830, 1. F. Ch. Baur, der Christuspartie in Corinth u. der Apost. Petrus in Rom.: Tüb. Zeitschr. 1831. 4. vgl. 1836, 3, 1838, 3. d. christ Gnosis. s. 300. A. Schliemanu d. Clementinen u. der Schwegler, das nachapostolische Zeitalter. I.: Tüb. 1846. A. Hilgenfeld, der clementinischen Homilien u. Recognitionen nach ihr. Urspr. u. Inhalt dargestellt: Jen. 1848. G. Uhlhorn, die Homilien u. Recognitionem der Clemens Romanus nach ihrem Urspr. u. Inhalt dargestellt: Göttg. 1854.

* Aoyiwv kvρiakŵv ¿ëýynois, 5 Bb. frag. Routh Relig. sacr. I. Euseb. H. E. iii, 36, 39.

Irenæus adv. hæres. lib. v. Hippolytus, ἔλεγχος κατὰ πασῶν aipɛσέwv, libb. x. (wants ii. and iii.), under the title of, Origenis piλooopovμeva, ed. Miller: Oxon. 1851. L. Duncker et F. G. Schneidewin: Gotting. 1856. Tertullian. Clemens Alex. Origenes. Epipha

THE CHRISTIAN GNOSIS.

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We

aspirations of that eventful period, unsatisfied by the philosophical systems in vogue, and by the Asiatic religions, unsatisfied even by Judaism. The consciousness of the disunion in human nature was developed in them, and theoretically they perceived the need of Redemption. They felt that Christianity afforded them solutions of the great enigma of the World beyond any other Religion; and they recognised the great world-wide fact of Redemption in Christ. But they were hampered by their sensuous conceptions; they wanted to blend their former speculations with Christianity and could not unreservedly surrender themselves to it. Thus a mixture of various elements was formed, such as peculiarly belonged to that age, and could only take place again if Christianity should powerfully take hold of the life of those Orientals who already possess a peculiar mental culture, and if the culture of the West be added to their own, and both combined should seek in their own peculiar manner to embrace Christianity. find an analogy in the attempt of a modern Brahmin who has endeavoured to amalgamate the ancient doctrines of the Vedas with Christianity by recasting both. Dr. Baur, in his work on the Christian Gnosis has combated this view, because it treats Gnosis as something too indefinite; but it is evident from what has been already said, that Gnosis must be in its very nature indefinite-a mixture of heterogeneous elements; and nius adv. hæres. Theodoret. fabb. hæret. Plotinus. pòS TOUS YVWσTIKous, Ennead. ii. lib. 9 ed. G. H. Heigl.: Ratisb. 1832. Vgl. Recens. v. Creuzer Stud. Crit. 1834, 2. Neander üb. d. welthistor. Bedentung des Buches des Plotin. geg. d. Gnost. in s. Wissenschaftlichen Abhandl. s. 22. Massuet, dissertat. praeviae zu s. des Iren. J. Beausobre histoire critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme. Mosheim, de reb. Christian. ante Const. Magn. p. 333: Münter, üb. d. Kirch. Alterthümer der Gnostika.: Ausb. 1790. E. A. Lewald, de doctrina gnostica : Heidelb. 1818. Neander Genet. Entw. der vornehmsten gnost. Systeme: Berl. 1818 (Recens. v. Gieseler, Hallisch. Allg.: Littvzeit, 1823, p. 825). Neander's Church History, ii. 1-41. J. Matter, histoire critique der gnosticisme, 2 t. 1128, ed. 2. 1843, übs. v.: Dorner, 1833 J. J. Schmidt, üb. d. Verwandtsch. d. gnost. Lehren mit d. Religionssystemen des Orients, 1828. Möhler, Urspr. des Gnostizism: Tub. 1831. F. Ch Baur, die Chr. Gnosis oder Religionsphilosophie in ihrer geschichtl. Entw.: Tub. 1835. Stud. Krit. 1837, 3. H. Ritter, Geschichte der Philosoph. B. v. (I. christ Philos.) H. Rossell, theol. Schriften Berl. 1837, s. 179. Jacobi. in Herzog's Realencyclopæd. B. 5. Art. Gnosis-Die Kirchengesch. von Gieseler I. 179. Hase. s. 90. Niedner. s. 217.