Philo Judoeus

Philo was born to a prominent family in the large and prosperous Jewish community of Alexandria, Egypt, and received an education in classical Greek philosophy. He interpreted Jewish tradition from the point of view of contemporary Hellenistic culture, by employing an original, allegorical method to synthesize biblical theology with Greek philosophy. His etymologies of biblical terms are philologically dubious but highly imaginative. Philo represents the first Jewish thinker known to us who articulated a systematic theology, and his philosophic writings had an enormous influence on the early Christian church and on medieval philosophy in general.