"Divine Embodiment in Philo of Alexandria," Journal for the Study of Judaism (2018): 223 - 262 (original) (raw)
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For Philo of Alexandria, seeing God represents the pinnacle of human experience. This essay examines three important aspects of that experience: the effectual means of the vision, the methods employed in evoking it, and the function and influence of Philo’s mysticism in the experience. While in some contexts Philo emphasizes the singular role of God in empowering the contemplative ascent and affording the vision, many others highlight the part played by human effort. Philo’s accounts of the practices that evoke the ascent and vision of God are also varied. Though Platonic philosophical contemplation and the practice of virtue are occasionally implicated, in most cases exegetical text work is instrumental. Finally, while some have attempted to divorce Philo’s mystical praxis from the vision of God, contending that “seeing” is simply a metaphor for “knowing” (i.e., “achieving a rational awareness of God’s existence”), a number of factors indicate the importance of Philo’s mysticism in the experience and suggest that an actual, mystical visual encounter underlies and informs these textual representations.
This essay surveys selected Philonic visio Dei passages and demonstrates the presence of four recurring elements in all three of the commentary series. (1) The identity of the object of sight varies, not only from passage to passage in a treatise, but even within the same passage. Nevertheless, in all three commentary series there are clear statements of the visibility of the “Existent One” (τὸ ὄν). (2) A hierarchy of visionary accomplishment, based on the spiritual advancement of the noetic philosopher, often determines who is seen, and quite often it is τὸ ὄν who is seen by the highest category of mystic philosopher. (3) The intermediaries operate as autonomous agents, conceptually distinct from τὸ ὄν, both in passages promoting a hierarchy of visionary accomplishment, as well as those depicting the Logos as the ἀναγωγός, the “means and guide” of the noetic ascent. (4) Philo occasionally allows his allegiance to divine transcendence to direct the discussion, and τὸ ὄν is then said to be absolutely “non-visible.” It is also apparent that “intermediary-free” visio Dei passages are not as commonly encountered as those populated by intermediaries, and are most prevalent in the Exposition.
Embodiment of Divine Knowledge in Early Judaism (New York: Routledge, 2021).
This book explores the early Jewish understanding of divine knowledge as divine presence, which is embodied in major biblical exemplars, such as Adam, Enoch, Jacob, and Moses. The study treats the concept of divine knowledge as the embodied divine presence in its full historical and interpretive complexity by tracing the theme through a broad variety of ancient Near Eastern and Jewish sources, including Mesopotamian traditions of cultic statues, creational narratives of the Hebrew Bible, and later Jewish mystical testimonies. Orlov demonstrates that some biblical and pseudepigraphical accounts postulate that the theophany expresses the unique, corporeal nature of the deity that cannot be fully grasped or conveyed in some other non-corporeal symbolism, medium, or language. The divine presence requires another presence in order to be transmitted. To be communicated properly and in its full measure, the divine iconic knowledge must be "written" on a new living "body" which can hold the ineffable presence of God through a newly acquired ontology. Embodiment of Divine Knowledge in Early Judaism will provide an invaluable research to students and scholars in a wide range of areas within Jewish, Near Eastern, and Biblical Studies, as well as those studying religious elements of anthropology, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and gender studies. Through the study of Jewish mediatorial figures, this book also elucidates the roots of early Christological developments, making it attractive to Christian audiences. https://www.routledge.com/Embodiment-of-Divine-Knowledge-in-Early-Judaism/Orlov/p/book/9781032105895 Table of Contents Preface Abbreviations Introduction Chapter One: The Divine Image as the Hypostasis of Divine Knowledge Chapter Two: The Divine Face as the Hypostasis of Divine Knowledge Chapter Three: The Divine Name as the Hypostasis of Divine Knowledge Chapter Four: The Epistemology of Divine Presence and Pseudepigraphical Attribution Conclusion Bibliography Index
This article describes how the subject of " seeing God " was developed in Alex-andrian exegesis of the Septuagint from Aristobulus to Philo. Section 1 (Aristobulus) shows that Aristobulus' main principles were an anti-anthropomorphic reading of the text and interpreting it in terms of the late Peripatetic tradition; section 2 (Philo) shows that Philo reproduces Aristobulus' position in some contexts, but drastically deviates from it towards a Platonic framework in others. In particular, his similarity to how Plotinus would later present the theme is shown in detail in section 2.1. Section 2.2. discusses which Jewish traditions could have been known to Philo that would support his adopting Platonic philosophy despite applying an exegetical approach inherited from Aristobulus. Particular attention is paid to which biblical texts are taken by Philo for his platonizing interpretation and how they were interpreted within a Jewish milieu before being adopted for philosophical discussion.
American Academy of Religion: Origen and Origen Reception Seminar, 2023
Scholars translating Maximus the Confessor have frequently conflated σάρξ and σῶμα into the same word, leaving the reader to believe Maximus means the same thing by these two different words. In this paper, I will highlight the distinction between flesh and body in Maximus within the tradition of Origen’s concept of God becoming “all in all.” I will argue that once properly disambiguated, Maximus the Confessor argues for a progression from God becoming flesh to all of creation becoming embodied. That the logos became flesh so that He could become embodied. To move creation from flesh to body God became flesh. Since Christ is the essence of all virtues the enfleshing of Christ gave all human flesh the ability to remain flesh but become embodied. The movement from flesh to the body—the energy of God in the virtues—is the process by which God becomes “all in all.”
Apophatic and Anthropomorphic Visions of God in Philo of Alexandria
Despite his core theological convictions that God is incorporeal, formless, invisible, and unchangeable, in some of his most carefully crafted visio Dei texts Philo portrays God "changing shape" and temporarily adopting a human form. However, these are only "seeming appearances" and actually involve God projecting a human-shaped "impression," or "appearance" (φαντασία) from his shapeless, immaterial being. By accommodating the overwhelming reality of God's being to the perceptual and conceptual limitations of the human percipient, these docetic theophanies allow humans to more confidently relate to the deity, while at the same time preserving God's absolute transcendence and apophatic otherness.
Despite his core theological convictions that God is incorporeal, formless, invisible, and unchangeable, in some of his most carefully crafted visio Dei texts Philo portrays God "changing shape" and temporarily adopting a human form. However, these are only "seeming appearances" and actually involve God projecting a human-shaped "impression," or "appearance" (φαντασία) from his shapeless, immaterial being. By accommodating the overwhelming reality of God's being to the perceptual and conceptual limitations of the human percipient, these docetic theophanies allow humans to more confidently relate to the deity, while at the same time preserving God's absolute transcendence and apophatic otherness.
Unlikely Compatriots: Talmudic-Era Rabbis as Proponents of Incarnation
2019
Although Judaism since the Middle Ages has often turned to allegory as a device to ensure the incorporeality of God, some rabbis of the Mishnaic and Talmudic eras accepted the idea that God could appear in a physical body, because his normal mode of existence is embodied. This paper will investigate these lesser-known Jewish voices and place them in proper historical and theological context.