We went, then, towards the race-course, and lo ! there was a Jew, Philo by name, renowned for his skill in the law according to the Letter. When accordingly he saw John, he began to draw him out through the books of Moses and the prophets. John then interpreted (them) to him according to the spirit . . . . . they therefore separated from one another in disagreement. (At this point in the narrative John heals someone stricken with a raging fever.) Philo, now, having seen what John did, ran up to grasp his hand and said: Teacher ! John answered: What is it, lawyer ? Philo replied: What is love? And John said: God is love, and whoever has love possesses God. So Philo (said) to him: If God is love and whoever has love possesses God, manifest then the love of God and come into the house and let us eat bread and drink water together so that God may be with us. (John enters and cures Philo’s wife [sic] of leprosy and receives her into the Church. Philo then asks pardon for his anti-Christian diatribes.) And (John) instructed him and baptized him in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. And he remained with him that whole day.9
9 Th. Zahn, Acta Joannis [Erlangen, 1880], 110-12. A curiously neglected legend about Philo which not even Harnacx alludes to.
