Eusebus Pamphilia Parts 1,2 and 3

126 BOOK II CHAPTER XVIII The Works of Philo that have come down to us. ing beauties of the thoughts.”

21. Why is it necessary to add to these things their meetings and the respective occupations of the men and of the women during those meetings, and the practices which are even to the present day habitually observed by us, especially such as we are accustomed to observe at the feast of the Saviour’s passion, with fasting and night watching and study of the divine Word.

22. These things the above-mentioned author has related in his own work, indicating a mode of life which has been preserved to the present time by us alone, recording especially the vigils kept in connection with the great festival, and the exercises performed during those vigils, and the hymns customarily recited by us, and describing how, while one sings regularly in time, the others listen in silence, and join in chanting only the close of the hymns; and how, on the days referred to they sleep on the ground on beds of straw, and to use his own words,400 “taste no wine at all, nor any flesh, but water is their only drink, and the reish with their bread is salt and hyssop.”

23. In addition to this Philo describes the order of dignities which exists among those who carry on the services of the church, mentioning the diaconate, and the office of bishop, which takes the precedence over all the others.401 But whosoever desires a more accurate knowledge of these matters may get it from the history already cited.

24. But that Philo, when he wrote these things, had in view the first heralds of the Gospel and the customs handed down from the beginning by the apostles, is clear to every one.

CHAPTER XVIII. The Works of Philo 402that have come down to us.

1. Copious in language, comprehensive in thought, sublime and elevated in his views of divine Scripture, Philo has produced manifold and various expositions of the sacred books. On the one hand, he expounds in order the events recorded in Genesis in the books to which he gives the title Allegories of the Sacred Laws;403 on the other hand, he makes successive divisions of the chapters in the Scriptures which are the subject of investigation, and gives objections and solutions, in the books which he quite suitably calls Questions and Answers on Genesis and Exodus.404 400 Ibid.§9.

401 Ibid.§§8–10. The author of the D. V. C. mentions young men that serve at table (διακονοῦντες) and a president (πρόεδρος) who leads in the exposition of the Scriptures. Eusebius is quite right in finding in these persons deacons and bishops. The similarity is too close to be merely accidental, and the comment of Stroth upon this passage is quite unwarranted: “Was einer doch alles in einer Stelle finden kann, wenn er es darin finden will! Philo sagt, dass bei ihren gemeinschaftlichen Gastmählern einige bei Tische dienten (διακονοῦντες), hieraus macht Eusebius Diakonate; und dass bei ihren Untersuchungen über die Bibel einer (πρόεδρος) den Vorsitz habe; hieraus macht Eusebius die bischöfliche würde (ἐπισκοπῆς προεδρίαν).”

402 On Philo’s works, see Schürer, Gesch. des jüd. Volkes, II. p. 831 sqq. The best (though it leaves much to be desired) complete edition of Philo’s works is that of Mangey: 2 vols., folio, London, 1742; English translation of Philo’s works by Yonge, 4 vols., London, 1854–55. Upon Philo’s life, see chaps. 4–6, above. Eusebius, in his Præp. Evang., quotes extensively from Philo’s works and preserves some fragments of which we should otherwise be ignorant.

403 νόμων ἱερῶν ἀλληγορίαι. This work is still extant, and, according to Schürer, includes all the works contained in the first volume of Mangey’s edition (except the De Opificio Mundi, upon which see Schürer, p. 846 sqq. and note 11, below), comprising 16 different titles. The work forms the second great group of writings upon the Pentateuch, and is a very full and allegorical commentary upon Genesis, beginning with the second chapter and following it verse by verse through the fourth chapter; but from that point on certain passages are selected and treated at length under special titles, and under those titles, in Schürer’s opinion, were published by Philo as separate works, though really forming a part of one complete whole. From this much confusion has resulted. Eusebius embraces all of the works as far as the end of chap. 4 (including five titles in Mangey) under the one general title, but from that point on he too quotes separate works under special titles, but at the end (§5, below) he unites them all as the “extant works on Genesis.” Many portions of the commentary are now missing. Compare Schürer, ibid. pp. 838–846.

404 ζητήματα καὶ λύσεις: Quaestiones et solutiones. According to Schürer (ibid. p. 836 sq.), a comparatively brief catechetical interpretation of the Pentateuch in the form of questions and answers, embracing probably six books on Genesis and five on Exodus, and forming the first great group of writings upon the Pentateuch. So far as Eusebius seems to have known, they covered only Genesis and