5. JEWISH PHILOSOPHICAL WRIT ERS. The philosophic spirit in its proper sense appeared among the Jews at the time of their contact with Greek culture, which began with the conquest of the Semitic Orient by Alexander the Great. Its first definite traces are to be discerned in the skepticism which pervades Job and Ecclesiastes, books which in their present form belong, therefore, to a period subsequent to the last quarter of the 4th cen tury ac. In the former work, the skepticism is more or less veiled and proceeds no further than to express a doubt as to the wise workings of Providence. In the latter composition, the skep tical spirit is more pronounced and amounts to a practical denial of divine justice. Results of a more positive character, however, appear in the system of Philo Judnus (b. in Alexandria about 20 n.c.; d. after 40 A.D.). In his many works, of which the chief are in the form of com mentaries to the Pentateuch, he strives to reconcile the traditional tenets of Judaism with the eclectic school of Greek philosophy. While recognizing the Old Testamcnt as divine and authoritative, he makes full use of allegory, to adapt Jewish conceptions to current Greek wis dom. The cornerstone of his system is formed by his doctrine of the Logos or ((Wor& as the active agency associated with God in his crea tive powers. He identifies the Logos with the ((divine wisdom,p so strongly personified, notably in the book of Proverbs, as to become not merely an attribute, but an element of the divine. Philo is influenced throughout by Plato's doc trine of ideas, and while leaving little permanent impress on Jewish, he profoundly influenced Christian theology. The conception of the °Word') in the Gospel of John is the most striking trace of the Philonic doctrine, and so enthusiastic were the early Christians over Philo's teachings that some of them saw in him a Christian. Philo's philosophy plays also a prominent part in the writings of the Church Fathers, and it is chiefly due to them that his works were preserved.
Saadia.— One of the earliest and most dis tinguished Jewish philosophers dates from the 9th century when the intellectual centre was still in the East, although there were already indications of its transfer to northern Africa and Spain. The rise of Islam, followed by
conflicts am its adherents as to the inter pretation of ong the Koran, had given a fresh stimulus to philosophic thought which had its influence likewise open the Jews. The rise of the Karaite sect (see article THE KARAITES in this section) at the end of the 8th century is to' be directly ascribed to this influence. For a • time it seemed as though the disintegration of , Rabbinical Judaism was at hand when the tide was stemmed by a profound thinker and prolific writer—Saadia ben Joseph, born in Dilaz •in' upper Egypt in 892 and who died at .Sura 942. Equally versed in the Talmudic and Islamic • theology, Saadia attempted to reconcile the teachings of Jewish orthodoxy with the current philosophy as developed chiefly by the rationalists known as the Motazilites (or Sepa ratists). His main work, written in Arabic. 'Book of Faith and Doctrines,' was in 933 and may be said to mark the first system atic compend of Jewish philosophy. from Philo in making Biblical doctrines his starting-point, his entire efforts were devoted to demonstrating that where the current philosophy or rationalism was • in contradiction to the Old Testament, the philosophy must be wrong and the. Old Testament right. The of the book is clearly set forth in the intro duction as intended to put an end to the pre-; veiling confusion, and to rescue those in the sea of doubt and error. Recognizing as sources of knowledge the testimony of the senses, reason and logic, he declares that fourth source — revelation, as comprised in the Old Testament, is superior to them all, because through revealed knowledge the means is found to control the correctness of the teachings deduced from the other sources. In his chief philosophic work Saadia includes discussions of the creation of the world, of the attributes of the Creator, the theory of revelation, the liefs based upon divine justice, the doctrine of the soul, the resurrection of the dead and of the Messianic belief, concluding with -a sum wary of ethical precepts.