Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Kierkegaard using Philo?


I was contacted some time ago by the editors of the new Danish edition of the complete works (55 volumes!) of Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish existentialist, cf. The Kierkegaard Research Center. Kierkegaard claims in a note to cite Philo and the editors asked me if I could locate it.

The transcribed saying was "o atheos apator esti, o de polutheos esti ek pornes".

Interesting case of course. A little bit of a detective work and somewhat surprising that Kierkegaard knew or claimed that he knew Philo. It reflects what they were reading at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen where he had been studying, I guess.

There is no such exact sentence in the writings of Philo, so my best guess was Migr. 69. Philo’s original would be: "for the barren man (is) godless, and the son of a whore polytheist." He interprets Deut. 23:1f. Any other ideas?

No comments: