Eusebius Ecclesiastical History 2.18
1. Copious in language, comprehensive in thought, sublime and
elevated in his views of divine
Scripture, Philo
has produced manifold and various expositions of the sacred books. On the one
hand, he expounds in order the events recorded in
Genesis in the books to which he gives the title Allegories of the
Sacred Laws; on the other
hand, he makes successive divisions of the chapters in the Scriptures which are the
subject of investigation, and gives objections and solutions, in the
books which he quite suitably calls Questions and Answers on
Genesis and Exodus.
2. There are, besides these, treatises expressly worked out by him on
certain subjects, such as the two books On
Agriculture, and the same
number On Drunkenness;
and some others distinguished by different titles corresponding to the
contents of each; for instance, Concerning the Things Which the
Sober Mind Desires and Execrates,
On the Confusion of Tongues,
On Flight and Discovery,
On Assembly for the Sake of Instruction,
On the Question, 'Who is Heir to Things Divine?' or On the
Division of Things into Equal and Unequal,
and still further the work On the Three Virtues Which With Others
Have Been Described by Moses. 3. In addition to these is the work On
Those Whose Names Have Been
Changed and Why They Have Been Changed,
in which he says that he had written also two books On Covenants.
4. And there is also a work of his On Emigration,
and one On the Life of a Wise Man Made Perfect in Righteousness,
or On Unwritten Laws;
and still further the work On Giants or On the
Immutability of God, and a
first, second, third, fourth and fifth book On the Proposition,
That Dreams According to Moses are Sent by God.
These are the books on Genesis that have come down to us.
5. But on Exodus we are acquainted
with the first, second, third, fourth and fifth books of Questions
and Answers; also with that On
the Tabernacle, and that On
the Ten Commandments, and the
four books On the Laws Which
Refer Especially to the Principal Divisions of the Ten Commandments,and
another On Animals Intended for Sacrifice and On the
Kinds of Sacrifice,and
another On the Rewards Fixed in the Law for the Good, and on the
Punishments and Curses Fixed for the Wicked.
6. In addition to all these there are extant also some single-volumed
works of his; as for instance, the work On Providence,
and the book composed by him On the Jews,
and The Statesman; and
still further, Alexander, or On the Possession of Reason
by the Irrational Animals.
Besides these there is a work On the Proposition that Every Wicked
Man is a Slave, to which is subjoined the work On the
Proposition that Every Good Man is Free. 7. After
these was composed by him the work On the Contemplative
Life, or On Suppliants,
from which we have drawn the facts concerning the life of the apostolic
men; and still further, the Interpretation
of the Hebrew Names in the Law and in the Prophets
are said to be the result of his industry. 8. And he is said to have
read in the presence of the whole Roman
Senate during the reign of Claudius the work which he had written, when
he came to Rome
under Caius, concerning Caius' hatred of the
gods, and to which, with ironical reference to its character, he had
given the title On the Virtues.
And his discourses were so much admired as to be deemed worthy of a
place in the libraries.