The appearance of Philo of Alexandria puzzled and amazed the entire ancient world. The Greeks themselves considered him a wonder and expressed their admiration for him by saying that they did not know whether Plato Philonized or Philo Platonized. How Philo's writings have influenced the course of spiritual development in Europe and how they contributed shape and form to the philosophy of Christianity is known to everyone who is acquainted with the history of the European mind. Christian authors have often asserted that part of the success of St. Paul is to be ascribed to his literary genius, his striking style and to the concise form of his literary expression. And how can we think of Christianity without Philo and St. Paul, though the former did not consciously contribute anything to the makeup of Christianity? When, during the chaos following the disintegration of the Roman Empire, the Jews disappeared from the arena of European literature, the best Jewish minds were busy creating books and literary styles, which remain unique to the present day. We refer to the Talmud and Midrash or, to be more precise, to Halakhah and Hagadah. The day will come when European scholarship will pay more attention to these two marvelous books. A famous German scholar, Professor Strack, declared a few years ago that "for the last four hundred years the European peoples have studied the Bible and have worked very hard to understand it. Now, since we are better acquainted with the Bible, we will have to take up the study of the Talmud and the Midrash. Only then will we understand Judaism." Whatever place the Talmud may hold in the history of law and no matter how it is valued by great jurists, it is certainly unique in its literary style. The Talmudic style may or may not be a beautiful one, but it is certainly peculiar, striking and original to the core. Literature is first of all style; what is true of the originality of the Talmudic style is also true of the strikingly original style of the Midrash.