Book: Allegorical Interpretation

Overview
Philo of Alexandria's Allegorical Interpretation presents a sustained, systematic reading of the Hebrew Bible that treats the literal narrative and legal codes as outward signs pointing to inner moral and philosophical truths. Written in the early first century BCE–CE milieu of Hellenistic Judaism, these commentaries aim to reconcile Jewish revelation with Greek philosophical categories, showing how the laws and stories of the Torah instruct the soul's ascent to virtue and knowledge. Philo moves freely between scripture and philosophy, treating biblical figures and prescriptions as archetypes and pedagogical devices for ethical and spiritual formation.

Allegorical Method
Philo reads the biblical text as multi-layered, holding that literal events conceal higher meanings accessible through allegory, etymology, numerical symbolism, and philosophical analogy. Ordinary historical detail is often treated as a cipher: names, numbers, and ritual acts are decoded as expressions of psychological states, rational faculties, and cosmological principles. The Logos plays a central role as the mediating principle that grounds language and revelation, enabling scripture to serve as philosophical teaching without compromising divine transcendence.

Major Interpretations
The commentaries reconfigure laws and narratives into moral and intellectual instruction. Ritual prescriptions such as sacrifices, purity rules, circumcision, and dietary laws are read not primarily as prescriptions for communal worship but as symbolic exercises that discipline desire, order the soul, and cultivate virtues like temperance and justice. Patriarchs, prophets, and leaders are portrayed as internal archetypes: Moses appears as the rational leader of the soul, Abraham as the exemplar of faith and philosophical openness, and the Israelite nation as an image of the thoughtfully governed soul.

Philosophical and Theological Context
Philo's thought synthesizes Jewish monotheism with Middle Platonist and Stoic elements. God remains utterly transcendent and ineffable, while the Logos bridges God and creation, functioning as reason, law, and exemplar. This framework allows Philo to treat Scripture as an expression of universal wisdom accessible to philosophic minds, without dissolving particular Jewish identity. Freedom, the cultivation of the soul, and likeness to God emerge as central theological goals, with ethical practice and contemplative insight presented as twin pathways to spiritual perfection.

Exegetical Technique and Style
The commentaries are highly rhetorical, often digressive, and display erudition in Greek language and Hellenistic thought. Philo employs etymologies, typological analogies, and ethical allegorization to extract meanings that serve his philosophical aims. His method is not systematic in the modern scholarly sense but is organized by close attention to textual detail and by an overarching concern to show that scripture instructs the inner life and the intellect as much as it organizes communal practice.

Legacy and Influence
Philo's Allegorical Interpretation shaped subsequent Alexandrian exegesis and left a lasting imprint on Christian exegetical traditions, particularly in the work of Origen and other church fathers who adopted allegorical readings to harmonize scripture with Greek philosophy. While later rabbinic Judaism largely favored legal and narrative interpretations different from Philo's allegory, his writings remain a crucial testimony to one stream of ancient Jewish thought that sought to integrate revealed tradition with universal philosophical insight. The commentaries continue to be studied for their distinctive blend of piety, philosophy, and imaginative scriptural engagement.