Philo

His [Flaccus’] insanity, which was due to instruction from others rather than to his own nature, was further aggravated by the following incident. The emperor Gaius [Caligula] gave Agrippa, the…

For it was more than clear that the rumor of the destruction of the synagogues that started in Alexandria would spread immediately to the districts of Egypt and speed…

And not only are the mainlands full of Jewish colonies but also the most highly esteemed of the islands Euboea, Cyprus, Crete. I say nothing of the countries beyond the Euphrates, for except for a…

The practice of these philosophers is shown at once by their designation, for they are appropriately called “ministers” (Therapeutae), male and female, either insofar as they…

Palestinian Syria, too, has not failed to produce high moral excellence. In this country live a considerable part of the very populous nation of the Jews, including as it is said, certain persons…

What then did the governor of the country do? He knew that the city, as the rest of Egypt, has two kinds of inhabitants, us and them, and that there are no less than one million Jews living in…

It is for this reason that Moses, the all-wise, ascribes to the righteous man soul-husbandry as a science in keeping with him and rightly pertaining to him, saying “Noah began to be a husbandman,”…

Let those from the far ends of the land that the Hebrews will come to possess assemble together three times each year in the city where the Temple will be, to give thanks to God for His bounty and…

As the Festival of Unleavened Bread was at hand in the first month, which the Macedonians call Xanthicus and we call Nisan, all the people flowed together out of the villages to the city and…

The last of the annual feasts, called Tabernacles, recurs at the autumn equinox. From this we may draw two morals. The first is, that we should honour equality and hate inequality, for the former is…

Now on the fifteenth day of the same month, when the season changes to winter, he [Moses] enjoins each household to pitch tents, in apprehension of the cold and for protection at that time of year…

The next feast held after the “Trumpets” is the Fast. Perhaps some of the perversely minded who are not ashamed to censure things excellent will say, What sort of a feast is this in which there are no…

After this continuous unbroken feast which has neither beginning nor end, the second to be observed is the sacred seventh day, recurring with six days between. Some have given to it the name of virgin…

For these people the law lays down as follows: In the case of persons who take maidens in lawful matrimony and have celebrated the bridal sacrifices and feasts, but retain no conjugal affection for…

He who desires to be divorced from his wife who lives with him, due to any possible cause—and many such causes occur among men—let him confirm in writing that he will never live together with her, for…

When they heard the blast of the trumpets, the Samaritans, who happened to be enemies of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, came running together, wanting to learn the cause of the uproar. Perceiving…