ABSTRACT
The subject of the present essay, which I am glad to dedicate to one of the great contemporary authorities on Philo, as well as on the rest of Hellenistic and later Judaism, is an analysis of how Philo goes about tackling a given Mosaic text, how his mind works as he confronts it. This will have considerable bearing as to how we see him overall, whether as a man with a distinctive philosophical position who is seeking to apply this to what is for him a sacred, divinely-inspired text, or alternatively, as a pious exegete of scripture, who is endeavouring to bring in various philosophical doctrines, as the occasion seems to demand it, to aid him in his task of exegesis.
