world.”  And their testimony is supported by the frequent gibes against Judaizing Romans in the Roman poets,[148] and by the explicit statements of Strabo,[149] the famous geographer, and, more remarkable still, of Seneca, the Stoic philosopher-statesman.  The bitter foe of the Jews, he confessed that this superstitious pest was infecting the whole world, and that the conquered people (Judaea had lately been made a Roman province) were taking their conquerors captive.[150] Philo, with his ardent hope, looked for the near coming of the time when the worship of the Jewish God would prevail over the world, and sought to show that the Jewish law, which is the expression of Jewish belief, and which differs from all others, not only in the extent of its sway, but in its unchangeableness, could be universalized to fit its new service.  To this end he interpreted the Mosaic code, which “no war, tyrant, persecution, or visitation, human or Divine, can destroy:  for it is eternal."[151] In the arrangement of the Torah, Philo finds a proof of its universality.  It begins with the account of the creation, to teach us that the same Being that is the Creator and Father of the universe is also its Legislator, and, again, that he who follows the law will choose to live in harmony with nature, and will exhibit consistency of action with words and of words with action.  Other philosophers, notably the Stoics, claimed to lay down a plan of life that followed the law of nature; but their practice notoriously fell below their unrealizable professions.  In Judaism alone spirit and practice were at one, so that each inspired the other and secured human excellence.  “Not theory but practice is the root of the matter” ([Hebrew:  l’ hmdrsh ’kr ‘l’ hm’sha]), according to the rabbis:[152] and Philo, who, contemplative philosopher as he was, yet recognized the all-importance of conduct, writes in the same spirit:[153] “We must first study and then act, for we learn, not for learning’s sake, but in order to action.”

Philo seeks to arrange the law under general moral heads, and he finds in the Decalogue the holy text upon which the rest of the code is but a commentary.  He may be following a tradition common among all the Jews, for in the Midrash to Numbers (xiii) it is said that the six hundred and thirteen precepts are all contained in the Ten Commandments:  [Hebrew:  shtrig mtsvt klilit bhn].  We do not know, however, in what way the early rabbis carried out this idea, whereas we possess Philo’s arrangement; and some of its features are very suggestive.[154] To the first two commandments he attaches the ritual laws relating to priests and sacrifices, to the fourth the laws of all the festivals, to the seventh the criminal and civil law, to the tenth the dietary laws.  The Decalogue he conceives as falling into two divisions, between which the fifth commandment is a link.  For the first four commandments are ordinances that determine man’s relation to God, and the last