Note 545 — Chapter VI · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: SIMON MAGUS

Schürer, op. cit. II. pp. 369-380, following, as he tells us, Zeller, gives an excellent and coherent account of Philo’s system, which see. As Schürer points out (op. cit. II. p. 368), Philo “hellenized” so thoroughly that practically the only Judaic elements in his system are the assertion of monotheism, a contempt for image-worship, and the claim that the Jews possessed through the Mosaic revelation the highest religious knowledge.