The New International Encyclopædia/Aristobulus

ARISTOBU'LUS (Gk. Άριστόβονλος, Aristoboulos) . An Alexandrian Jew who lived under Ptolemy VI., Philometor, and was considered by the early fathers as founder of the Jewish philosophy in Alexandria. He was the author of certain works (B.C. 170–150) on the Pentateuch, of which only fragments are preserved in Clement of Alexandria and in Eusebius. It was intended to show that Greek philosophers and poets borrowed their views from the Pentateuch; and to support this theory, numerous questions were professedly taken from Linus, Hesiod, Homer, and Orpheus, of which the Christian apologists made abundant use. There is no reason to question the genuineness of the work of Aristobulus, which exhibits all the characteristics of the literature of Hellenistic Judaism. As for the supposed quotations from the Greek poets, it is probable that Aristobulus adopted them from some older work by a Jewish writer, who forged the verses in question. See Schürer, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ, Vol. II., 237-243.