Philo used Aristotle to correct a contemporanean tendency to read Plato's « Timaeus » metaphorically. Philo's fairly positive evaluation of Aristotle in « De aeternitate mundi » seems to be in conflict with a very negative evaluation of Aristotle in Philo's tract « De opificio mundi ». But this does not mean that Philo was not the author of « De aeternitate mundi ». The difference is due to the nature of the tracts. While « De aeternitate mundi » belongs to the genre of disputative, philosophical literature and addresses also non-Jews, « De opificio mundi » is an exegetical treatise meant for Jewish readers. Philo transmits in both treatises basically the same message : the Mosaic and the Platonic accounts of creation must be read literally ; they convey the same metaphysics
