ABSTRACT
Every culture has some notion of virtue or moral excellence. The culture of the early Christians, like that of the contemporary Jewish communities, was deeply affected by the pervasive Graeco-Roman world, within which virtue was articulated as the leading moral concept. The Hellenistic context in which the early Christian communities lived and moved and had their being had a long pedigree which can be traced at least to Homer, the first and the greatest creator and shaper of Greek life and the Greek character', and to the noble' concept of virtue which exerted its influence on many subsequent centuries. This forms the first section of this chapter. It also explains about Philo, who is a complex figure, like all expatriates, he is exercised about the question of identity. He is an urbane citizen, yet is true to Hebrew morality. His cultural identity effectively fused together Hellenistic culture and Jewish tradition.
