In no instance were the authors of these religious philosophies Greeks. The philosophy of Philo was a Hellenism, but the Hellenism of a Jew. Neo-Pythagoreanism seems to have had representatives from every country except the motherland of Greece. The author of neo-Platonism was born in Egypt. Of the two introductory movements, the Greek-Jewish philosophy accorded more with Oriental life, neo-Pythagoreanism with Greek life. Both go back to the principles that were fundamental in the Pythagorean mysteries. =The Introductory Period of Hellenic Religious Philosophy= (100 B. C.–250 A. D.). =The Turning to the Past for Spiritual Authority.= =1. The Greek-Jewish Philosophy of Philo.= The Jews lived in great numbers in Alexandria, and many of them were wealthy and influential. In Alexandria the Old Testament had been translated into Greek, and through it the Greeks had become acquainted with the religion of the Jews. While the Old Testament contained the philosophy of the Jews, these Alexandrian Jews had learned in Alexandria to admire greatly the philosophy of the Greeks. So great was their admiration that they soon conceived Plato to be in their Law and their Law in Plato. They argued that since the Old Testament was their revelation, all the best Greek philosophy must be in the Old Testament. The Alexandrian Jews used Greek conceptions wherever they found them; and this tendency toward eclecticism appeared as early as 160 B. C. in Aristobulus and Aristeas. At that time these Jews used Greek philosophy in interpreting the Old Testament and employed the “allegorical method of interpretation.” This eclectic tendency was brought to completion by Philo (25 B. C.–50 A. D.), who was the most notable philosopher of this time. Philo was guided in his eclecticism by some such rules as these: (1) Revelation is the highest possible authority and includes the best of Greek thought; (2) Greek philosophy is derived from the fundamental principles of the Old Testament; (3) Jewish revelation is expressed in symbols, while Greek philosophy is expressed in concepts. Philo’s teaching contains, in unsymmetrical form, both Stoicism and Platonism, and in it can be found the seeds of all that grew up in Christian soil. His philosophy was a bridge from the philosophy of Judaism to Christian theology. It has been called a “buffer” philosophy.