Hebrews and Hellenes, the Philosopher Peoples
That which is most beautiful in the descendents of Japheth is Greek; may it reside in the tents of Shem. - Rav Hiya bar Abba Unfortunately, Chanukah celebrations sometimes include denunciations of Hellenism. Must Hebraism and Hellenism be rivals? I am sympathetic with Philo, Alexandrian Jewish philosopher and intellectual ancestor of Western Jews. Lev Shestov describes Philo's position as follows: Philo, who first tried to make Western man participate in the revelation of the East, felt quite rightly that there was only one means of drawing the Greco-Roman world to the truth of the Bible: to prove that this truth was in perfect agreement with the doctrines of Greek wisdom. . . . The logos of Greek philosophy, its eternal reason, is already completely contained in the revelation given to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai. Numenius of Apamea asks, "What is Plato but Moses speaking Attic Greek?" Believing "those who speculate about a solitary divinity must be philosopher...