Philo of Alexandria (/ˈfaɪloʊ/; Ancient Greek: Φίλων, romanized: Phílōn; Hebrew: .mw-parser-output .script-hebrew,.mw-parser-output .script-Hebr{font-family:”SBL Hebrew”,”SBL BibLit”,”Taamey Ashkenaz”,”Taamey Frank CLM”,”Frank Ruehl CLM”,”Ezra SIL”,”Ezra SIL SR”,”Keter Aram Tsova”,”Taamey David CLM”,”Keter YG”,”Shofar”,”David CLM”,”Hadasim CLM”,”Simple CLM”,”Nachlieli”,Cardo,Alef,”Noto Serif Hebrew”,”Noto Sans Hebrew”,”David Libre”,David,”Times New Roman”,Gisha,Arial,FreeSerif,FreeSans}יְדִידְיָה הַכֹּהֵן‎‎, romanized: Yedidia (Jedediah) HaCohen; c.  20 BCE – c.  50 CE), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt.

Philo’s deployment of allegory to harmonize Jewish scripture, mainly the Torah, with Greek philosophy was the first documented of its kind, and thereby often misunderstood. Many critics of Philo assumed his allegorical perspective would lend credibility to the notion of legend over historicity.[1] Philo often advocated a literal understanding of the Torah and the historicity of such described events, while at other times favoring allegorical readings.[2]