Why Study Philo Today ? A Hundred Years of Philonic Scholarship in Retrospect and Prospect (original) (raw)
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Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish statesman, philosopher, and religious thinker. A significant amount of his literary corpus was preserved by Christian hands and thereby came to resource numerous theologians in the Christian tradition. After passing into obscurity in Jewish circles in antiquity, Philo was rediscovered in the Italian Renaissance and came to feature in Jewish tradition once again. Philo's works straddle an interest in exegesis and philosophy, and the multi-faceted contents of his thought ensured a long history of reception among readers with their own agendas. This authoritative and systematic collection of essays by an international team of experts surveys Philo's reception from the time of his immediate contemporaries to the present day. The book unfolds over six sections: the first centuries, late antiquity, the middle ages, the renaissance and early modern period, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, and contemporary perspectives.
Philo of Alexandria, the first century Jewish exegete, is one of the most important non-Christians in the history of Christianity. It is common to find brief reference to his works in theological manuals or introductory books on the New Testament. However, it is very common to find reductionist commentaries on the man and his works. In order to appreciate the real importance of Philo’s treatises (and his relevance for our third world postcolonial context) it is necessary to realize the complexity of his cultural context and of his agenda. This is the main aim of this article.
'Finding Philo' Exploring the influence of Philo of Alexandria in the works of St Gregory of Nyssa
When looking into the development of Christian Philosophy, especially that of the mystical Tradition, in the Imperial world it is vitally important to understand the context of the writing and cultural impact of the Hellenic thinkers who lived and taught before the advent of Christianity. A key aspect is looking at how the thought of the Pagan Philosophers of the Greek world such as Plato and the Stoics entered into the Christian understanding of and patristic exegetical thought on Scripture. Things brings forward the intellectual contribution made by the Jewish Philosopher; Philo of Alexandria.
The Cambridge Companion to Philo Cambridge University Press
The works of Philo of Alexandria, a slightly older contemporary of Jesus and Paul, constitute an essential source for the study of Judaism at the turn of the eras and of the rise of Christianity. They are also of extreme importance for understanding the Greek philosophy of the time, and they help to explain the onset of new forms of spirituality that would dominate the following centuries. This handbook presents, in an unassuming format, an account of Philo's achievements. It contains a profi le of his life and times, a systematic overview of his many writings, and survey chapters of the key features of his thought, as seen from the perspectives of Judaism and Greek philosophy. The volume concludes with chapters devoted to Philo's infl uence and signifi cance. Composed by an international team of experts, The Cambridge Companion to Philo gives readers a sense of the current state of scholarship and provides depth of vision in key areas of Philonic studies.
Philo of Alexandria and the Beginning of Jewish Philosophical Scepticism
2015
There is a paradox within Philonian scholarship. On the one hand, Philo’s thought has never drawn as much scholarly attention as it does nowadays, while “scepticology” has become one of the most flourishing fields of research. On the other hand, works on Philo’s scepticism are still quite scarce, and most of the studies on thetheme at hand limit their scope to a small number of Philonian texts.The workshop aims to offer something different. By adopting a more holistic approach to Philo’s corpus, it willre-evaluate the presence of sceptical concepts in it. Forms of scepticalmodes of thought can be found in manytreatises, even if they are not explicit. It will be therefore argued that scepticism constitutes an essentialcomponent of Philo’s Jewish philosophy.This session will pursue the following questions: (1) How should the relationship between doubt andrevelation be described in Philo’s thought in view of his scepticism? (2) How does Philo subordinate otherforms of the absolute, especially those of Platonism and Stoicism, to his biblical conception of God as the onlytrue Being? (3) Finally, the workshop will tackle one of the most perplexing and influential aspects of Philo’sWeltanschauung: the integration of sceptical modes of thought into his system of negative theology.
Barring Fear: Philo and the Hermeneutic Project
Epoche, 2016
Abstract: The aim of the paper is to investigate the role of allegory in Philo and spe-cifically in his text On the Migration of Abraham. This involves the twofold move of arguing that even though Philo remains a Platonist and that his language is Platonic in orientation what occurs is a transformation of seeing, which is an immediate activity, into reading, which is always mediate. The second elements stems from this insistence on mediation. It results in freeing allegory from the hold of the allegorical/literal op-position. Allegory is transformed as a result in the name of an ineliminable allegoresis.
Philo of Alexandria: A model for early Christian ‘spiritual readings’ of the Scriptures
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies
Philo of Alexandria represents a Hellenistic tradition of reading the Scriptures in which reading is seen as a spiritual exercise together with other spiritual exercises, like attention, thorough investigation of the issues, self-mastery, detachment, etcetera (see Her. 253; Leg. 3:18), which has as aim the transformation and growth of the person towards the good and happy life. Interaction with the spiritual wealth of the Greek philosophical traditions was seen as a fruitful asset and challenge. This article highlights some of the key themes of Philo’s philosophical or spiritual reading of the Scriptures: the priority of God and of the health of the soul, the importance of human progress, the recognition of one’s nothingness in order to know God, the necessity to choose, human effort and divine achievement, as well as harmony with God, nature and the self as the aims of the good life. Christian spiritual writers, like Origen, found in Philo’s approach to the Scriptures and in his re...
pp. 305-6), is arguable. In the opinion of the present reviewer, the quotation in CD is not necessarily taken from Jubilees, but may refer to another work containing period chronologies. The fact is that with the exception of this problematic instance none of the non-biblical texts at Qumran cites Jubilees or the Temple Scroll, in contrast to the many quotations from proper biblical books. In chapter 16 (pp. 251-63), Ulrich gives his own assessment of the remains of seven biblical scrolls found at Masada. He points out that the general opinion that they all reflect a proto-Masoretic text should be qualified. In his view, there is no clear evidence to this effect, for the manuscripts of Genesis, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy from this site show slight disparate variants when compared with the MT. In his concluding remarks, Ulrich stresses that the Qumran biblical manuscripts demonstrate that the Hebrew MT, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint reflect older Hebrew texts circulating at the time, often stemming from variant versions and different editions than those of the MT (pp. 310-11). Ulrich closes his volume with a short survey of the current scholarly discussions on the meaning and significance of the Qumran data (pp. 314-16).