Note 1599 — Chapter XIV · PHILO JUDAEUS

Since I finished this chapter, I have noted that the “folk-lore in the Old Testament” has led Sir James Frazer to write a passage on “the harlequins of history” somewhat similar to that of Philo on Joseph’s coat of many colors. After remarking that friends and foes behold these politicians of the present and historical figures of the future from opposite sides and see only that particular hue of the coat which happens to be turned toward them, Sir James concludes (1918), II, 502, “It is for the impartial historian to contemplate these harlequins from every side and to paint them in their coats of many colors, neither altogether so white as they appeared to their friends nor altogether so black as they seemed to their enemies.” But who can paint out the bloodstains?