Moses Attikidzon: philosophy and religious politics in ancient Alexandria

The "biblical origin" of the basic ideas of Hellenic philosophy. This idea, perhaps strange to the modern reader, was almost universally accepted in the first centuries of CE and goes back at least to Aristobulus and Philo of Alexandria. Lately this concept, very useful indeed in justifying philosophy and the legitimacy of its inclusion in the Judeo-Christian worldview, became quite widespread. Clement (the first Christian author to refer openly to Philo) does not doubt the simple fact that the Greek sages either borrowed their teachings directly from Moses and the Jewish ministers themselves, or received them from above as a revelation of the true God, which must therefore be no different from the law given to Moses. The purpose of this publication is to illustrate this aspect of ancient intellectual history by a selection of relevant sources.