Born in Alexandria
Born into the great Jewish community of Alexandria, schooled in both the Torah and Greek philosophy.
Philo lived in the great Jewish community of Alexandria and set himself a task that would echo for two thousand years: to show that the God of Moses and the reason of the Greeks were one. Reading scripture allegorically, he found Plato's Forms in Genesis and Stoic logic in the Law. Between the unknowable God and the created world he placed the Logos, the divine reason through which the world is made and known — a notion that would shape Christian theology and Neoplatonism alike. He once led an embassy to the emperor Caligula on behalf of his people, and lived to write about its failure.
Born into the great Jewish community of Alexandria, schooled in both the Torah and Greek philosophy.