Philo

Philo was probably born with the name Julius Philo. His ancestors and family were contemporaries to the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty and the rule of the Seleucid Empire. Although the names of his parents are unknown, it is known that Philo came from a family which was noble, honourable and wealthy. It was either his father or paternal grandfather who was granted Roman citizenship from Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar. Jerome wrote that Philo came "de genere sacerdotum" (from a priestly family).[8][9] His ancestors and family had social ties and connections to the priesthood in Judea, the Hasmonean dynasty, the Herodian dynasty and the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome.

Philo had two brothers, Alexander the Alabarch and Lysimachus. Through Alexander, Philo had two nephews Tiberius Julius Alexander and Marcus Julius Alexander. The latter was the first husband of the Herodian princess Berenice. Marcus died in 43 or 44.

Philo visited the Second Temple in Jerusalem at least once in his lifetime.[10] Philo would have been a contemporary of Jesus and his Apostles. Philo along with his brothers received a thorough education. They were educated in the Hellenistic culture of Alexandria and Roman culture, to a degree in Ancient Egyptian culture and particularly in the traditions of Judaism, in the study of Jewish traditional literature and in Greek philosophy.

Philo's dates of birth and death are unknown but can be judged by Philo's description of himself as "old" when he was part of the delegation to Gaius Caligula in 38 CE. Jewish history professor Daniel R. Schwartz estimates his birth year as sometime between 20 and 10 BCE. Philo's reference to an event under the reign of Emperor Claudius indicates that he died sometime after 41 CE.[9]

Embassy to Gaius

See also: Alexandrian riots (38)

Woodcut from Die Schedelsche Weltchronik (Nuremberg Chronicle)

In Legatio ad Gaium (Embassy to Gaius), Philo describes his diplomatic mission to Gaius Caligula, one of the few events in his life which is known specifically. He relates that he was carrying a petition describing the sufferings of the Alexandrian Jews and asking the emperor to secure their rights. Philo gives a description of their sufferings, more detailed than Josephus's, to characterize the Alexandrian Greeks as the aggressors in the civil strife that had left many Jews and Greeks dead.

Philo lived in an era of increasing ethnic tension in Alexandria, exacerbated by the new strictures of imperial rule. Some expatriate Hellenes in Alexandria condemned the Jews for a supposed alliance with Rome, even as Rome was seeking to suppress Jewish nationalism in Judea.[9] In Against Flaccus, Philo describes the situation of the Jews in Egypt, writing that they numbered not less than a million and inhabited two of the five districts in Alexandria. He recounts the abuses of the prefect Aulus Avilius Flaccus, who he says retaliated against the Jews when they refused to worship Caligula as a god.[11] Daniel Schwartz surmises that given this tense background it may have been politically convenient for Philo to favor abstract monotheism instead of overt pro-Judeanism.[9]

Philo considers Caligula's plan to erect a statue of himself in the Second Temple to be a provocation, asking, "Are you making war upon us, because you anticipate that we will not endure such indignity, but that we will fight on behalf of our laws, and die in defence of our national customs? For you cannot possibly have been ignorant of what was likely to result from your attempt to introduce these innovations respecting our temple." In his entire presentation, he implicitly supports the Jewish commitment to rebel against the emperor rather than allow such sacrilege to take place.[12]

Philo says he was regarded by his people as having unusual prudence, due to his age, education, and knowledge. This indicates that he was already an older man at this time (40 CE).[12]

In Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus tells of Philo's selection by the Alexandrian Jewish community as their principal representative before the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula. He says that Philo agreed to represent the Alexandrian Jews in regard to civil disorder that had developed between the Jews and the Greeks. Josephus also tells us that Philo was skilled in philosophy, and that he was brother to the alabarch Alexander .[13] According to Josephus, Philo and the larger Jewish community refused to treat the emperor as a god, to erect statues in honor of the emperor, and to build altars and temples to the emperor. Josephus says Philo believed that God actively supported this refusal.

Josephus' complete comments about Philo:

There was now a tumult arisen at Alexandria, between the Jewish inhabitants and the Greeks; and three ambassadors were chosen out of each party that were at variance, who came to Gaius. Now one of these ambassadors from the people of Alexandria was Apion, (29) who uttered many blasphemies against the Jews; and, among other things that he said, he charged them with neglecting the honors that belonged to Caesar; for that while all who were subject to the Roman empire built altars and temples to Gaius, and in other regards universally received him as they received the gods, these Jews alone thought it a dishonorable thing for them to erect statues in honor of him, as well as to swear by his name. Many of these severe things were said by Apion, by which he hoped to provoke Gaius to anger at the Jews, as he was likely to be. But Philo, the principal of the Jewish embassage, a man eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander the Alabarch, (30) and one not unskillful in philosophy, was ready to betake himself to make his defense against those accusations; but Gaius prohibited him, and bid him begone; he was also in such a rage, that it openly appeared he was about to do them some very great mischief. So Philo being thus affronted, went out, and said to those Jews who were about him, that they should be of good courage, since Gaius's words indeed showed anger at them, but in reality had already set God against himself.[14]

This event is also described in Book 2, Chapter 5 of Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History.[15]

Some of Philo's works have been preserved in Greek, while others have survived through Armenian translations, and a smaller amount survives in a Latin translation. Exact date of writing and original plan of organization is not known for much of the text attributed to Philo.[16]

Most of Philo's surviving work deals with the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). Within this corpus are three categories:[16]

• Quaestiones ("Inquiries") – short verse-by-verse exposition: four books on the Book of Genesis and two on the Book of Exodus. All six books are preserved through an Armenian translation, which was published by Jean-Baptiste Aucher in 1826. Comparison with surviving Greek and Latin fragments recommends the translation as literal and accurate so far as it goes, but suggests that some of the original content is missing. There are thought to be twelve original books, six on Genesis and six on Exodus.
• Allegoral Commentary – longer exegesis explaining esoteric meanings; the surviving text deals only with the Book of Genesis, with the notable omission of Genesis 1.
• "Exposition of the Law" – more straightforward synthesis of topics in the Pentateuch, probably written for gentiles as well as Jews.

Philo is also credited with writing:[16]

• Apologies for Judaism including On the Life of Moses, On the Jews, and On the Contemplative Life.
• Historical works (describing current events in Alexandria and the Roman Empire), including Against Flaccus and Embassy to Gaius.
• Philosophical works including Every Good Man Is Free, On the Eternity of the World, On Animals, and On Providence, the latter two surviving only through Armenian translation.
• Works now lost, but mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea.[17]

Philo represents the apex of Jewish-Hellenistic syncretism. His work attempts to combine Plato and Moses into one philosophical system.[18] His ethics were strongly influenced by Aristotelianism and Stoicism, preferring a morality of virtues without passions, such as lust/desire and anger, but with a "common human sympathy".[19]

Commentators can infer from his mission to Caligula that Philo was involved in politics. However, the nature of his political beliefs, and especially his viewpoint on the Roman Empire, is a matter of debate.[41][42]

Philo did suggest in his writings that a prudent man should withhold his true opinion about tyrants:

caution is the proper protection against one's suffering sudden calamity, since it seems to me that caution is for an individual what its wall is for a city. So then are those people not out of their wits, completely mad, who are rash enough to display inopportune frankness, and dare at times to speak and act in defiance of kings and tyrants? They do not seem to perceive that they are not only like animals putting their necks under the yoke, but that they are betraying their whole bodies and souls, as well as their wives and children and that especially kindred crowd and community of companions and relations. [...] Now when occasion offers it is a good thing to oppose our enemies and to destroy their power of attack, but lacking such opportunity it is safe to keep quiet, while if one wishes to get any benefit from them it is advantageous to propitiate them.[43]

Philo was more fluent in Greek than in Hebrew and read the Jewish Scriptures chiefly from the Septuagint, a Koine Greek translation of Hebraic texts later compiled as the Hebrew Bible and the Deuterocanonical books.[44]

The Septuagint translates the phrase מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה (Malakh YHWH, lit. '"Messenger of Yahweh"') as ἄγγελος Κυρίου (ángelos Kyríou, lit. '"angel of the Lord"').[45] Philo identified the angel of the Lord (in the singular) with the Logos.[46][47] Peter Schäfer argues that Philo's Logos was derived from his understanding of the "postbiblical Wisdom literature, in particular the Wisdom of Solomon".[48] The Wisdom of Solomon is a Jewish work composed in Alexandria, Egypt, around the 1st century CE, with the aim of bolstering the faith of the Jewish community in a hostile Greek world. It is one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books included within the Septuagint.

The extent of Philo's knowledge of Hebrew is debated. His numerous etymologies of Hebrew names—which are along the lines of the etymologic midrash to Genesis and of the earlier rabbinism, though not modern Hebrew philology—suggest some familiarity.[49] Philo offers for some names three or four etymologies, sometimes including the correct Hebrew root (e.g., יָרַד‎, yarád, lit. '"(to) descend"' as the origin of the name Jordan). However, his works do not display much understanding of Hebrew grammar, and they tend to follow the translation of the Septuagint more closely than the Hebrew version.[44][50]

In the text attributed to Philo, he "consistently uses κύριος as a designation for God".[51] According to David B. Capes "the problem for this case, however, is that Christian scholars are responsible for copying and transmitting Philo's words to later generations" and add that "George Howard surveys evidence and concludes: 'Although it is improbable that Philo varied from the custom of writing the Tetragram when quoting from Scripture, it is likely that he used the word Κύριος when making a secondary reference to the divine name in his exposition'."[52] James Royse concludes: "(1) the exegete [Philo] knows and reads biblical manuscripts in which the tetragram is written in palaeo-Hebrew or Aramaic script and not translated by kyrios and that (2) he quotes scriptures in the same way he would have pronounced it, that is, by translating it as kurios."[52]

Imaginative illustration of Philo made in 1584 by the French portrait artist André Thevet

For a long time, Philo was read and explained mostly by Christian authors.

Azariah dei Rossi's Me'or Enayim: Imre Binah (1575), one of the first Jewish commentaries on Philo, describes four "serious defects" of Philo: reading the Torah in Greek, not Hebrew; belief in primordial matter rather than creatio ex nihilo; unbelief in the Lord as evidenced by excessively allegorical interpretation of scripture; and neglect of the Jewish oral tradition. Dei Rossi later gives a possible defense of Philo and writes that he can neither absolve nor convict him.[53]

• The Works of Philo: Complete and Unabridged. Translated by Charles Duke Yonge. 1854–1855.CS1 maint: others (link)
• Cohn, Leopold & Paul Wendland, Philonis Alexandrini Opera quæ supersunt (The Surviving Works of Philo of Alexandria) [Greek and Latin]. Berlin: George Reimer.
  • Volumes 1–3 (1896, 1897, 1898)
  • Voumes 4–6 (1902, 1906, 1915)
  • Volume 7 (1926; indexed by Hans Leisegang)
• "Index of Philosophical Writings" (PDF). Documenta Catholica Omnia (in Greek). [Online Greek text of Volumes 1-7 above. Under "Graecum - Greco - Greek" section]
• Philo with an English Translation. 1–10. Translated by F.H. Colson. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1929–62.CS1 maint: others (link)
• Terian, Abraham, ed. (1981). Philonis Alexandrini de animalibus: The Armenian Text with an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Chico, CA: Scholars Press. ISBN 9780891304722.

• Allegorical interpretations of Plato
• Land of Onias
• Pseudo-Philo

• Borgen, Peder (1997). Philo of Alexandria: An Exegete for His Time. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004103887.
• Goodenough, Erwin R. (1938). The Politics of Philo Judaeus: Practice and Theory. With a General Bibliography of Philo by Howard L. Goodhart and Erwin R. Goodenough. Yale University Press.
• Hillar, Marian (2012). From Logos to Trinity: The Evolution of Religious Beliefs from Pythagoras to Tertullian. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107013308.
• Kamesar, Adam, ed. (2009). The Cambridge Companion to Philo. Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-521-86090-1
• Pearce, Sarah (2007) The Land of the Body: Studies in Philo's Representation of Egypt Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 978-3-16-149250-1
• Runia, David T. (1986). Philo of Alexandria and the Timaeus of Plato. Philosophia antiqua, 44. Brill, Leiden.
• Runia, D. T. (1990). Exegesis and Philosophy: Studies on Philo of Alexandria. Variorum. ISBN 9780860782872.
• Runia, D. T. (1993). Philo in Early Christian Literature: A Survey. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. ISBN 9789023227137.
• Runia, D. T. (2001). On the Creation of the Cosmos according to Moses. Number 1 in Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series. Brill, Leiden.
• Sandmel, Samuel. (1979). Philo of Alexandria: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-502514-8.
• Sly, Dorothy I. (1996). Philo's Alexandria. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415096799.

• Lévy, Carlos (February 6, 2018). "Philo of Alexandria". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Hillar, Marian (April 21, 2005). "Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 B.C.E.—40 C.E.)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

• Lecture on Philo Judaeus of Alexandria: Jews in the Greek World by Dr. Henry Abramson
• "Preface to the Original Edition of Yonge's Translation". earlyjewishwritings.com. 1854–1855.
• * Crawford Howell Toy; Carl Siegfried; Jacob Zallel Lauterbach (1901–1906). "Philo Judæus". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
• Bréhier, Emile (1911). "Philo Judæus". The Catholic Encyclopedia. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• "Philo Judaeus (Jewish philosopher)". Encyclopædia Britannica.
• "Studia Philonica Annual". Society of Biblical Literature.
• Bradshaw, Rob. "Philo of Alexandria". EarlyChurch.org.uk.
• Seland, Torrey. "Philo Resource Page 3.1". torreys.org.
• Seland, Torrey. "Philonica et Neotestamentica". bibicalresources.wordpress.com.
• "Philo of Alexandria". earlyjewishwritings.com.
• Open source XML versions of Philo's works have been made available by the Open Greek and Latin Project at the University of Leipzig. English translations of Philo's writings are also available here.
• Philo-Judaeus of Alexandria at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Philo at Internet Archive