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Conference Organization by Michael Cover
(Alexander von) Humboldt Tagung at WWU Münster, Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum. Consideration... more (Alexander von) Humboldt Tagung at WWU Münster, Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum. Considerations of Philo's philosophical library (Gregory Sterling), the interrelation of theology and philosophy (Rainer Hirsch-Luipold), the Omnis probus (Maren Niehoff, Troels Engberg-Pedersen), Philo and Scepticism (Carlos Lévy, Mauro Bonazzi), and Philo's Philosophy of Language (Michael Cover). Responses by David Runia and Lutz Doering.
Books by Michael Cover
The Studia Philonica Annual, 2020
Co-Edited with David T. Runia, frontmatter and TOC
BZNW 210 (De Gruyter), 2015
Papers by Michael Cover
Circe, de clásicos y modernos 24/2, 2020
Translation of SPhiloA 2018
The Studia Philonica Annual, 2020
Philo critiques exclusive Socratic self-knowledge as an unfitting end of religious philosophy.
Biblical Research, 2020
The purpose of this celebratory essay (BR at 65) is to trace ways Biblical Research has helped fo... more The purpose of this celebratory essay (BR at 65) is to trace ways Biblical Research has helped foster early Jewish studies (especially on texts of Second Temple Judaism outside of the Hebrew Bible), both as an independent field and as an integral part of "biblical research," with a special focus on Philo of Alexandria.
SPhiloA, 2018
Text: Origen, Hom. Ps. 36.4.1 (Perrone, Die neuen Psalmenhomilien,): 1 ἔλαβον δὴ ἀφορμὴν εἰς τὸ κ... more Text: Origen, Hom. Ps. 36.4.1 (Perrone, Die neuen Psalmenhomilien,): 1 ἔλαβον δὴ ἀφορμὴν εἰς τὸ κατὰ τὸ δυνατόν μοι νοῆσαι τὸν τόπον, ἀναγνοὺς διήγησιν τοῦ εἰπόντος "τί βούλεται τὸ διαβὰς οὖν ὄψομαι τί τὸ ὅραμα τὸ μέγα τοῦτο." 2 (Exod 3:3). ἔλεγε διηγούμενος τὸ κατὰ τὸν τόπον, ὅτι "τὸ μέγα ὅραμα οὐχ οἷόν τε ὀφθῆναι τῷ ἑστῶτι ἐν τοῖς βιωτικοῖς, ἀλλὰ δεῖ διαβῆναι καὶ ὑπερβῆναι τὰ κοσμικὰ τὸν νοῦν καὶ γενέσθαι ἐν τῇ κρείττονι καταστάσει καὶ τῇ θεωρίᾳ τῶν νοητῶν, ἵνα δυνηθῇ τὸ μέγα ὅραμα κατανοῆσαι." ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐκεῖνος ἔλεγε δὴ τὸ κατὰ τὸν τόπον· ἡμεῖς δὲ εὐχόμενοι ἐπαινέσαι ἄνθρωπον σοφὸν καὶ προσθεῖναι αὐτῷ, τοιαῦτα βλέπομεν κατὰ τὸν τόπον. ἕκαστος τῶν ὁδευόντων ἐπ' ἀρετὴν προκόπτει πρῶτον, εἶθ' οὕτως ἔρχεται ἐπ' αὐτήν· ἐν τῷ προκόπτειν, τοίνυν διαβαίνει ἀεὶ "τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεκτεινόμενος καὶ τῶν ὀπίσω ἐπιλανθανόμενος" (Phil 3:13) καὶ διαβαίνων οἱονεὶ ὑπερβαίνει τὴν προτέραν χύσιν τῆς κακίας καὶ ὑπερβαίνων τινὰ ἁμαρτήματα καὶ μηκέτι γινόμενος ἐν αὐτοῖς….
New Testament Studies, 2018
Harvard Theological Review, 2018
Scholarship on Phil 2:6–11, the carmen Christi, has long wrestled with the question of “interpret... more Scholarship on Phil 2:6–11, the carmen Christi, has long wrestled with the question of “interpretive staging.” Against which religious, cultural, or political matrix was the song’s dramatic Christology composed and heard? Recent studies of Phil 2:6–11 continue to trace its genealogy primarily along two lines: the Hellenistic/Roman apotheosis narratives of heroic and imperial cult or the philosophical and angelological speculation of Jewish wisdom literature and apocalypses. While not disputing these two primary matrices, the following study suggests a third backdrop against which the carmen Christi would have been heard in Philippi: Euripidean tragedy. In particular, echoes of Dionysus’s opening monologue from Euripides’s Bacchae in the carmen Christi—recognized previously by Ulrich Müller—suggest that Roman hearers of Paul’s letter might well have understood Christ’s kenotic metamorphosis as a kind of Dionysian revelation—albeit, one which departs significantly from Euripides’ tragic grammar. The plausibility of this position is supported not only by intertextual analysis of Philippians and the Bacchae (itself composed in Macedonia), but also by a study of Dionysus in the Roman religion and politics, including the Bacchic inscriptions catalogued by Pilhofer at Roman Philippi, the popularization of the Bacchae early on in the Latin paraphrases of Euripides by Pacuvius and Accius, and the phenomenon of cultured emulation of Dionysus, from Alexander the Great to Mark Antony and beyond. In light of these studies, the echoes of the Bacchae in Paul’s carmen Christi—at least at the level of the letter’s reception—emerge as more than literary enculturation. Rather, they accomplish a new integration of the letter’s Jewish and imperial-cultic transcripts. In particular, I will suggest that for the Philippian church, Jesus’ Bacchic portraiture supports (in its own mythic register) a theology of the Son’s pre-existence, while simultaneously establishing him, in his veiled economic parousia, as a Dionysian antithesis to the imperial Apollonian kyrios Caesar—an image cultivated by Octavian and his successors. The Bacchic Christology of the Philippians hymn does not leave the Dionysian typos intact, however, but simultaneously upends it as well.
Book Reviews by Michael Cover
(Alexander von) Humboldt Tagung at WWU Münster, Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum. Consideration... more (Alexander von) Humboldt Tagung at WWU Münster, Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum. Considerations of Philo's philosophical library (Gregory Sterling), the interrelation of theology and philosophy (Rainer Hirsch-Luipold), the Omnis probus (Maren Niehoff, Troels Engberg-Pedersen), Philo and Scepticism (Carlos Lévy, Mauro Bonazzi), and Philo's Philosophy of Language (Michael Cover). Responses by David Runia and Lutz Doering.
The Studia Philonica Annual, 2020
Co-Edited with David T. Runia, frontmatter and TOC
BZNW 210 (De Gruyter), 2015
Circe, de clásicos y modernos 24/2, 2020
Translation of SPhiloA 2018
The Studia Philonica Annual, 2020
Philo critiques exclusive Socratic self-knowledge as an unfitting end of religious philosophy.
Biblical Research, 2020
The purpose of this celebratory essay (BR at 65) is to trace ways Biblical Research has helped fo... more The purpose of this celebratory essay (BR at 65) is to trace ways Biblical Research has helped foster early Jewish studies (especially on texts of Second Temple Judaism outside of the Hebrew Bible), both as an independent field and as an integral part of "biblical research," with a special focus on Philo of Alexandria.
SPhiloA, 2018
Text: Origen, Hom. Ps. 36.4.1 (Perrone, Die neuen Psalmenhomilien,): 1 ἔλαβον δὴ ἀφορμὴν εἰς τὸ κ... more Text: Origen, Hom. Ps. 36.4.1 (Perrone, Die neuen Psalmenhomilien,): 1 ἔλαβον δὴ ἀφορμὴν εἰς τὸ κατὰ τὸ δυνατόν μοι νοῆσαι τὸν τόπον, ἀναγνοὺς διήγησιν τοῦ εἰπόντος "τί βούλεται τὸ διαβὰς οὖν ὄψομαι τί τὸ ὅραμα τὸ μέγα τοῦτο." 2 (Exod 3:3). ἔλεγε διηγούμενος τὸ κατὰ τὸν τόπον, ὅτι "τὸ μέγα ὅραμα οὐχ οἷόν τε ὀφθῆναι τῷ ἑστῶτι ἐν τοῖς βιωτικοῖς, ἀλλὰ δεῖ διαβῆναι καὶ ὑπερβῆναι τὰ κοσμικὰ τὸν νοῦν καὶ γενέσθαι ἐν τῇ κρείττονι καταστάσει καὶ τῇ θεωρίᾳ τῶν νοητῶν, ἵνα δυνηθῇ τὸ μέγα ὅραμα κατανοῆσαι." ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐκεῖνος ἔλεγε δὴ τὸ κατὰ τὸν τόπον· ἡμεῖς δὲ εὐχόμενοι ἐπαινέσαι ἄνθρωπον σοφὸν καὶ προσθεῖναι αὐτῷ, τοιαῦτα βλέπομεν κατὰ τὸν τόπον. ἕκαστος τῶν ὁδευόντων ἐπ' ἀρετὴν προκόπτει πρῶτον, εἶθ' οὕτως ἔρχεται ἐπ' αὐτήν· ἐν τῷ προκόπτειν, τοίνυν διαβαίνει ἀεὶ "τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεκτεινόμενος καὶ τῶν ὀπίσω ἐπιλανθανόμενος" (Phil 3:13) καὶ διαβαίνων οἱονεὶ ὑπερβαίνει τὴν προτέραν χύσιν τῆς κακίας καὶ ὑπερβαίνων τινὰ ἁμαρτήματα καὶ μηκέτι γινόμενος ἐν αὐτοῖς….
New Testament Studies, 2018
Harvard Theological Review, 2018
Scholarship on Phil 2:6–11, the carmen Christi, has long wrestled with the question of “interpret... more Scholarship on Phil 2:6–11, the carmen Christi, has long wrestled with the question of “interpretive staging.” Against which religious, cultural, or political matrix was the song’s dramatic Christology composed and heard? Recent studies of Phil 2:6–11 continue to trace its genealogy primarily along two lines: the Hellenistic/Roman apotheosis narratives of heroic and imperial cult or the philosophical and angelological speculation of Jewish wisdom literature and apocalypses. While not disputing these two primary matrices, the following study suggests a third backdrop against which the carmen Christi would have been heard in Philippi: Euripidean tragedy. In particular, echoes of Dionysus’s opening monologue from Euripides’s Bacchae in the carmen Christi—recognized previously by Ulrich Müller—suggest that Roman hearers of Paul’s letter might well have understood Christ’s kenotic metamorphosis as a kind of Dionysian revelation—albeit, one which departs significantly from Euripides’ tragic grammar. The plausibility of this position is supported not only by intertextual analysis of Philippians and the Bacchae (itself composed in Macedonia), but also by a study of Dionysus in the Roman religion and politics, including the Bacchic inscriptions catalogued by Pilhofer at Roman Philippi, the popularization of the Bacchae early on in the Latin paraphrases of Euripides by Pacuvius and Accius, and the phenomenon of cultured emulation of Dionysus, from Alexander the Great to Mark Antony and beyond. In light of these studies, the echoes of the Bacchae in Paul’s carmen Christi—at least at the level of the letter’s reception—emerge as more than literary enculturation. Rather, they accomplish a new integration of the letter’s Jewish and imperial-cultic transcripts. In particular, I will suggest that for the Philippian church, Jesus’ Bacchic portraiture supports (in its own mythic register) a theology of the Son’s pre-existence, while simultaneously establishing him, in his veiled economic parousia, as a Dionysian antithesis to the imperial Apollonian kyrios Caesar—an image cultivated by Octavian and his successors. The Bacchic Christology of the Philippians hymn does not leave the Dionysian typos intact, however, but simultaneously upends it as well.