Aristobulus is known as the first Jewish author who clearly defined himself as a philosopher. Writing in Alexandria between 155 and 145 bce, he must be interpreted in the context of the Letter of Aristeas and Demetrius. In comparison with these two, it is conspicuous that Aristobulus produced a unique, yet distinctly Alexandrian blend of critical scholarship and philosophy. While his Bible exegesis has been prematurely identified as a Stoic type of allegory, a systematic study of his work in its original, cultural environment is still warranted. When Aristobulus is interpreted in the context of contemporary Alexandria, he emerges as an Aristotelian scholar, who offers metaphorical solutions to textual problems. In the field of hermeneutics he throws important new light on the development of the Aristotelian tradition in the city.

The interpretation of Aristobulus as a Stoic allegorist has already been challenged by Peter Fraser and Nicolaus Walter. The former questioned whether an Alexandrian writer is likely to have adopted the methods of the rivaling school of Pergamum, while the latter stressed that Aristobulus used neither the terminology nor the motifs of Stoic allegorists. Moreover, it is significant that Aristobulus mentions in the few extant fragments a number of philosophers, especially ‘the Peripatetic school’, but not even one Stoic thinker. To the early Christian transmitters of his work, however, it was self-evident that Aristobulus' non-literal readings are a form of (Stoic) allegory. Clement and Eusebius introduced the term ‘allegory’ into their own comments on the fragments.