160 Karl Olav Sandnes Philo picks up this theory as well as the Greek notion of the human mind or soul as sharing in a portion of the Divine. With these convictions in mind, he addresses biblical theology. Men alone have knowledge of the invisible God because God breathed into them from above (a[nwqen) His own Deity (Det. 84-90). In Spec.Leg. 4.14 this idea is expressed in terms of men’s suggevneia to God. In Praem. 40- 46, Philo speaks of those who can apprehend (20) that God is. Philo consciously draws a distinction between God’s real nature and the knowledge of His existence. The univocal Biblical testimony on the impossibility of human beings seeing God paves the way for this important distinction. Philo’s emphasis that God’s existence cannot be apprehended by any human co-operation is probably due to his resistance to the notion of having “god inside”, as Empedocles puts it. Those who apprehend God’s existence have, according to Philo, advanced from down to up (kavtwqen a[nw) on a sort of heavenly ladder. The analogy with Jacob becomes obvious when Philo says that such a man is Israel, a person who sees God (oJrw'n qeovn), or more precisely, that He is. By an illustration Philo explains why this is possible: Do we behold the sun which sense perceives by any other thing than the sun, or the stars by any others than the stars, and in general is not light seen by light? In the same way God too is His own brightness and is discerned through Himself alone, without any co-operating or being able to co-operate in giving a perfect apprehension of His existence (§ 45). This brings to mind the well-known quotation from Empedocles, see above. Philo abbreviates this insight in § 46, saying that God is known through God (oJ qeo;" qew'/) and light by light (fwti; fw'"). In Spec.Leg. 1.41-50 these thoughts on apprehending God are repeated in a meditation on Exod 33,13-23. Philo starts from Moses’ request that God will reveal Himself to him. According to Philo, Moses asked to understand God’s oujsiva. Moses motivated his request by referring to the principle of likeness: “for as knowledge of the light does not come by any other source but what itself supplies, so too Thou alone canst tell me of Thyself” (§ 42). God did not accept Moses’ request since this knowledge is not for those who are brought into being by creation. Moses rephrased his request then, and asked to see (20) Twice in this text Philo has katalambavnein and its cognate noun.