Philo of Alexandria

Philo of Alexandria was born into a wealthy family in Alexandria and was well educated from a young age. He studied, for example, the writings of Plato. He was a respected man who was invited to banquets and theatres. In his old age, he was a member of a message from the Jews of Alexandria to the Emperor Caligula, asking for the abolition of the decree on the emperor's statues in the synagogues.

Philo tried to link Jewish faith and ethics with Greek philosophy. To do this, he used allegorical interpretation of the Bible. His views played an important role in Christian Christology. His work was cited by many authors, and especially his doctrine of the divine powers and the Logos gave rise to the doctrine of the Trinity.

Rabbinic Judaism (mainstream Judaism), on the other hand, rejected his ideas as too much of a departure from tradition. For example, Moses is considered not only the greatest prophet, but also the greatest philosopher.

Philo's basic idea was that Greek thinkers knew the Torah, and so Greek philosophy becomes a Jewish affair. He even considered Judaism a philosophical system. Philo's work was not sophisticated to the smallest detail because he combined too many philosophical streams, and from this stemmed ambiguity and inconsistency.

Interest in his work was renewed only in the 19th century, with the emergence of liberal Judaism, which aimed to combine Jewish faith with openness to the environment.