Philo's Exposition of the Law and Social History

Some time back I scanned an interesting article by Adele Reinhartz, and asked for her permission to republish it on my website.
The article deals with important aspects to take into consideration when using the works of Philo as sources for issues of his time and social world. The article focuses primarily on Philo as a source for a study of the Jewish family in Alexandria, but it has also a more general interest:Adele Reinhartz, Philo's Exposition of the Law and Social History: Some Methodological Considerations. First printed in Eugene H. Lowering (ed.), SBL Annual Meeting 1993 Seminar Papers (Scholars Press, Atlanta, Georgia, 1993), pp.6-21. The file is acceccible on my Philo page as a .pdf file. Page numbering referring to the original version are inserted, making it possible to refer to the original version. Reference to the original version is recommended.

The author introduces the focus of the article thus: This paper is a preliminary attempt to address the question of whether it may be possible to draw social-historical data from Philo’s exegetical discussions in the Exposition. We will consider, first, the rather formidable methodological obstacles which block the way to such an approach and, second, the differing assumptions that would either prevent or facilitate this enterprise. Finally, we will look at some examples of scriptural exposition related to family issues. These will be drawn from Special Laws (Spec.), with occasional forays into On The Decalogue (Dec.) and On the Virtues (Virt.). You can access the article here: Philo's Exposition of the Law and Social History