Brill - SBL paperbacks

The Society of Biblical Literature announces in a recent news letter that SBL and Brill expand their copublication agreement. According to this, the announcement says

"As is well known, Brill Academic Publishers has published a cloth edition of every SBL title since 2002, an arrangement that has both benefited SBL authors and expanded the SBL's publishing presence in the European market. In light of the great success of this partnership, Kent Harold Richards (SBL Executive Director) recently signed an agreement with Brill securing for the SBL the right to publish paperback editions of ten Brill cloth titles each year during the life of the contract. Bob Buller (Editorial Director) is overseeing this project. The first seven titles slated to appear include:
(1) The Book of Ben Sira in Hebrew: A Text Edition of All Extant Hebrew Manuscripts and a Synopsis of All Parallel Hebrew Ben Sira Texts, by Pancratius C. Beentjes;
(2) The Elusive Prophet: The Prophet as a Historical Person, Literary Character and Anonymous Artist, edited by Johannes C. de Moor;
(3) Philo of Alexandria: An Exegete for His Time, by Peder Borgen;
(4) Early Christianity and Classical Culture: Comparative Studies in Honor of Abraham J. Malherbe, edited by John T. Fitzgerald, Thomas H. Olbricht, and L. Michael White;
(5) Historiography and Self-Definition: Josephos, Luke-Acts, and Apologetic Historiography, by Gregory E. Sterling;
(6) Studies in Josephus' Rewritten Bible, by Louis H. Feldman; and
(7) The Flourishing of Jewish Sects in the Maccabean Era: An Interpretation, by Albert I. Baumgarten."
This is to be welcomed, and as the list demonstrates, several volumes of interest for students of Philo and Diaspora Judaism are included.

Publications staff (bob.buller@sbl-site.org) welcome suggestions for future SBL paperback editions of Brill titles. By agreement, the SBL will not publish a paperback edition until two years after a title's original release, and Brill reserves the right to decline or postpone SBL publication of certain Brill titles.

LSL

For all of those of us who use the personal computer for something more than mere word processsing, the existence of various software that provides easy access to ancient texts in their original languages , and various lexica is a treasure. I have mentioned below that the Greek texts of Philo's works will soon be available; see also some other postings by my co-blogger Kåre Fuglseth.

Today I just want to point your attention to a review of Libronix Digital Library System's H.G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, and Wilhelm Pape, Electronic Edition of Griechisch-Deutsch: Handwørterbuch der griechischen Sprache that has been posted on BrynMawr Review webpage. The reviewer (Gerald Verbrugghe, Rutgers University, Camden)also makes some useful comparative comments on the The 1940 Liddell and Scott as available online from Perseus (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057)

Did you know, by the way, that there are som blogs out there that deals explicitly and primarily with discussions of computer programs related to not only the Biblical texts, but also other ancients texts. Have a look, for instance, at the Bible Software Review Blog of Ruben Gomez, and The Macintosh Biblioblog (yes, Kåre, that's for you....).

Online articles on ancient associations

Philip Harland has a posting on his blog on Some online articles on associations in the ancient Mediterranean that might be interesting to someone.

New hub, - late news.

Well, it looks like my news about this 'hub'below was late news. Tyler Williams blogged about it already July 22; but I was away on a good summer vacation at that time, hence.....:-)

Well, I would like to add here a pointer to his page on the Septuagint, you can find it here: http://biblical-studies.ca/lxx/lxx.html.
Nice page! I also finds interesting his pages on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and on Software for Biblical Studies.

New Hub for Septuagint Studies

Via Jim Davilas blog, I have been made aware of that on September 17, Vancouver’s Trinity Western University launches the Septuagint Institute, a hub for Septuagint research, translation, and publication projects.“The launch of the Septuagint Institute is a truly historic event,” says Robert Hiebert, “not only for our campus, but also for Canadian and international biblical scholarship. This new research centre is the only one of its kind in North America, which makes it vital since the Septuagint is such an important part of Jewish and Christian history in the Graeco-Roman period.” Further info can be gathered here: NewsWise.

Logos announces...

Logos now announces, thatWe are pleased to announce that The Works of Philo: Greek Text with Morphology is on the way to the replicator. We expect to process all orders in about two weeks.
If you have not yet placed your order, this is your last chance to get in on the Pre-Pub.
For further information, have a look at http://www.logos.com/products/prepub/details/2219

New LXX Commentary Series

The SBL now announces their approval to publish a new series of commentaries on the Septuagint based on the Greek text as articulated in the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS):The Society of Biblical Literature Commentary on the Septuagint (SBLCS), which will be sponsored and developed by the IOSCS, will differ from other Septuagint commentary series by focusing on the translation at its point of origin. That is, the SBLCS will take the Septuagint seriously as a translation in order to attempt to determine what the translator was doing when he was translating. Responsibility for developing the series contents, making commentary assignments, and editing volumes will lie with the IOSCS through its editorial board (see: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/ioscs/commentary/boards.html), while the SBL publications staff will manage the actual publication tasks. The SBL and IOSCS expect the first volume of SBLCS to appear in 2007, with publication of two volumes per year until the series is complete.

For further information about the SBLCS, please contact:
Albert Pietersma (Joint Editor-in Chief): albert.pietersma@sympatico.ca
Benjamin G. Wright III (Joint Editor-in Chief): bgw1@Lehigh.edu
or Bob Buller (SBL Editorial Director): bob.buller@sbl-site.org

Scot McKnight in Alexandria

Scot Mcknight has a fascinating story about a imagined visit of his to the ancient Library of Alexandria. Read it on his blog here. The whole story is quite amusing, but spells well out what some might have expected to find in the old library of Alexandria if it had prevailed longer than it did.

Update on the digitial Philo

The members of the Norwegian Philo Concordance Project (Peder Borgen, Roald Skarsten and myself) are pleased to announce that we have now signed two contracts with different US publishers (Logos and Oak Tree/Accordance) - AND are negotiating with a third company (those well informed in popular Bible software, may perhaps guess which one).

We have also signed the contract with Gorgias Press for a complete printed version of the Philo concordance (about 7500 pages)!

Strangers in the light

Today I received the just published book of mine, mentioned perhaps a couple of times already on this blog; Strangers in the Light. To me it is, of course, The book of the year...
Let me, in all humility (hmm..), quote from the presentation on the back of the book: "The author of the present work wants to throw new light on the intended readers of 1 Peter by investigating what it could possibly mean that they were to live as strangers in the light. It is argued that the author of 1 Peter considers his readers as living a life influenced by social circumstances very much comparable to those of the Diaspora proselytes to Judaism. Hence similar discussions in Jewish Diaspora works can illuminate his descriptions and exhortations. Among these Diaspora works, the works of Philo of Alexandria should be drawn into the discussions in a much more comprehensive way than has been done so far. In addition to a study of the role of Silvanus in the making of the letter, this volume contains four studies that carry out what the author calls philonic readings of central issues of 1 Peter 2,5-11."

Torrey Seland,
Strangers in the Light.
Philonic Perspectives on Christian Identity in 1 Peter.
Biblical Interpretation Series 76; Brill, Leiden, 2005.

10 ways to determine if you're a NT buff

I found this on a blog some days ago; I don't remember where, but it might work as a test for Philo-scholars also as most of us are dealing with the New Testament too?
Have a nice weekend..

10 ways to determine if you're a NT buff

1. Whenever you listen to a sermon on the NT you always wonder what commentaries the preacher used.

2. The back of your toilet door has Greek verb paradigms engraved on it from your seminary days.

3. Your outdated copy of BAGD is now on the coffee table for visitors to browse over.

4. Amazon.com rates you as one of their top 1000 book buyers.

5. You keep mistaking v's for n's.

6. When lay people ask you what your research interests are and you tell them, they always ask "What's the point of studying that?"

7. When your husband/wife asks you what you want for your birthday/Christmas/mother's/Father's day - you always ask for a book.

8. When you read a passage out of Matthew you wonder if the passage derived from Mark, Q or 'M'.

9. You lay awake at night wondering how best to explain the "parting of the ways" between Judaism and Christianity.

10. The most heinous insult you have ever experienced is when someone mistook you for an Old Testament scholar.
....

How many scores did you get? (-:

The Significance of Abraham..

www.bookreviews.org has posted a review, written by Mark Nanos, on a book dealing with the significance of Abraham traditions for Early Judaism and Christianity, including, of course the works of Philo. The reviewer laments the price of the boook, and the review is not too favourable to the author's thesis either. But have a look for yourself:

Nancy Calvert-Koyzis,
Paul, Monotheism and the People of God: The Significance of Abraham Traditions for Early Judaism and Christianity
Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series, 273
London: T & T Clark, 2005, pp. xiv + 173. Hardcover $115.00

The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha

I have most recently been made aware of a website, providing The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha. This project will surely be welcomed byy many scholars in various fields of studies, including those most often visiting this blog. The project is presented thus on its website:For some time it has been evident that scholars of early Judaism and early Christianity need better access to the texts of the Pseudepigrapha in their original (or extant) languages and with a critical apparatus. In many cases critical editions are prohibitively expensive or out of print, and scholars without access to a large library have been hard pressed to find them.

The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha is intended to address this problem by publishing on-line, free-access critical texts of the Pseudepigrapha which are up-to-date and academically rigorous. This aim is to be realized by

1) co-ordinating the efforts of scholars who take on the editing of individual texts;
2) providing a forum for peer review of texts as they are developed;
3) developing the technology necessary for the publication of these texts in electronic form; and
4) providing a permanent web-site for the long-term publication of these texts and as a forum for ongoing text-critical work on the pseudepigrapha. We ought to be greatful to the scholars providing this material online.

Talking about the pseudepigrapha, there is also a related project at www.logos.com. They are announcing that a digitalized version of the pseudepigrapha will be released later this year in their Libronix Logos program. Further information can be gained here: Old Testament Greek Pseudepigrapha with morphology

Pleasant surprise

I was taken by surprise when P. Borgen called my last night, telling me that I had been voted in as a member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas at their last meeting this August. I was not even aware of that I was on the list of prospective new members this year, though I had some hopes for the future!
I have attended some meetings in the past as a guest; now I am looking forward to participate as a member, hopefully already next year in Aberdeen. As for the meeting of this year , Philip Harland did attend as a guest, and have some blogging on it here and here.

More Philo at the SBL Annual Meeting

I don't know how it could happen, but my previous search in the SBL Annual Meeting program did not reveal that there is going to be another quite interesting session in which the works of Philo will play a major role. Just look at this:

S 20-62 Hellenistic Judaism
11/20/2005 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Independence I - Marriott
Theme: Boundaries and Limits in Diaspora Judaism

Tessa Rajak, University of Reading, Presiding
Lester L. Grabbe, University of Hull
Edgy under Greek Rule? The Question of Jews on the Margins in the Ptolemaic Period (20 min)
Erich S. Gruen, University of California, Berkeley
The Jews of Rome: Alienation, Toleration, or Integration? Or None of the Above? (20 min)
Discussion (20 min)
Break (5 min)
Jed Wyrick, California State University, Chico
Animal Allegories and Animal Worship in the Literature of Alexandrian Judaism (20 min)
Sarah Pearce, University of Southampton
Philo on Atheism, Judaism, and Egyptian Identity (20 min)
Abraham Terian, St. Nersess Armenian Seminary
Philo's Definitions of Israel in Relation to Historical Realities in the Greco-Roman World (20 min)
Discussion (25 min)

Everyone is invited to remain after the session for a brief discussion of possible topics for future annual meetings and other business related to the Hellenistic Judaism Section.

Philo at the SBL Annual Meeeting

Skimming the program for the SBL Annual Meeting, I find that Philo is mentioned in the following lectures/topics listed:

S19-23: Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
11/19/2005
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Room 409 - Marriott
Theme: Towards a Definition and Description of “Experience” of the Divine: Texts, Methods and Religious Experience

Frances Flannery-Dailey, Hendrix College, Nicolae Roddy, Creighton University and Rodney Werline, A _Not Found
Religious Experience (10 min)
Alan Segal, Barnard College, Columbia University
Religiously Altered States of Consciousness, the Afterlife, and the Construal of the Self in Ancient Judaism and Christianity: (25 min)
Celia Deutsch, Barnard College
Text Work and Religious Experience: Philo and Clement (25 min)
Break (5 min)
Robin Griffith-Jones, Temple Church
Transformation by a Text: The Gospel of John (25 min)
Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis, St Mary's Bryanston Sq., London
Religious Experience and the Modern Study of Apocalyptic Literature (25 min)


S 19-72: Religion in Roman Egypt
11/19/2005
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Room 106-A - Pennsylvania Convention Center
Denise Buell, Williams College, Presiding
Flattery, Quotation, and Slander: Rhetoric and the Negotiation of Religious Difference
Steven Weitzman, Indiana University at Bloomington
Philo on How to Befriend an Emperor (25 min)
Judith L. Kovacs, University of Virginia
Clement of Alexandria on Faith and Knowledge: Quotations of and Responses to Valentinian Ideas (25 min)
Ellen Muehlberger, Indiana University at Bloomington
How to Avoid Gossip: Angelic Appearances and Heresy in the Ascetic Literature of Egypt (25 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Texts of Power: Writing and Religious Ritual
Lynn LiDonnici, Vassar College
Black Magic: Ink and Ink Recipes in the Greek Magical Papyri (25 min)
AnneMarie Luijendijk, Harvard University
“When You Find Yourself in Times of Trouble…”: Answers through Mother Mary in the Sortes Sanctorum (25 min)
Discussion (10 min)



S19-73: Rethinking Plato's Parmenides and Its Platonic, Gnostic and Patristic Reception
11/19/2005 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Room 409 - Marriott
Theme: Patristic Use or Lack of Use of Plato’s Parmenides

Kevin Corrigan, Emory University, Presiding
Mark Edwards, Christ Church, Oxford
Christians and the Parmenides (30 min)
Jean Reynard, Institut des Sources Chrétiennes
The Influence of Plato’s Parmenides upon the Cappadocian Fathers (30 min)
Daivd Runia, Queens College
Early Alexandrian Theology and the Parmenides of Plato (30 min)(According to the Abstract, Philo is supposed to be included here.)
Serge Cazelais, Universite Laval
Platonic Receptions of the Gospel of John: Marius Victorinus and his Predecessors. (30 min)
Discussion (30 min)

S 21-29: Philo of Alexandria
11/21/2005 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Room TBD - Hotel TBD
Theme: Linguistic Border Crossing: Philo of Alexandria and the Dead Sea Scrolls

John Collins, Yale University, Presiding
Florentino Garcia Martinez, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Divine Sonship at Qumran and in Philo (30 min)
Hindy Najman, University of Toronto
Revelation in the Desert: The Case of the Therapeutae and the Essenes (30 min)
Loren T. Stuckenbruck, University of Durham
To What Extent Did Philo's Treatment of Enoch and the Giants Presuppose a Knowledge of the Enoch-related Sources Preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls (30 min)
Business Meeting (20 min)


S21-68Hellenistic Judaism
11/21/2005 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Room TBD - Hotel TBD
Theme: The Cultural Context of Judaism in Alexandria

Allen Kerkeslager, Saint Joseph's University, Presiding
Marjorie Susan Venit, University of Maryland
Imaging the Afterlife: Decoration as Eschatology in the Monumental Tombs of Ancient Alexandria (20 min)
Christopher Haas, Villanova University
Late Antique Alexandrian Intellectual Life: An Archaeological Perspective (20 min)
Discussion (20 min)
Break (5 min)
René S. Bloch, University of Lausanne
"My Mother Told me Everything:" Ezekiel Exagoge 34 – 35 and Myth (20 min)
Ann Ellis Hanson, Yale University
Claudius' Letter to the Alexandrians: Those Interested in its Contents (20 min)
Sandra Gambetti, The College of Staten Island - CUNY
Borders inside Alexandria: The Situation on the Ground During the Jewish Persecution in 38 CE (20 min)
Discussion (25 min)

S21-78: Pauline Epistles
11/21/2005 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Room 113-C - Pennsylvania Convention Center
Alexandra Brown, Washington and Lee University, Presiding

Peter Oakes, University of Manchester
Paul and Popular Post-Mortem Divinization (30 min)
Brett D. Burrowes, Siena College
Paul's Letter-Spirit Contrast and Hellenistic Kingship Ideology (30 min)(deals with Philo)
Emma Wasserman, Yale University
Akolasia, Akrasia, and Self-Contradiction in Romans 7 (30 min)
John Martens, University of Saint Thomas
Fathers and Daughters in 1 Corinthians 7:36-38: The Social Implications for Children of Parents' Belief in Christ (30 min)
Jens Herzer, University of Leipzig
The “House of God,” Its Social Setting, and a New Perspective on the Interpretation of the Pastoral Epistles (30 min)

S 22-16: Philo of Alexandria
11/22/2005 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Room 109-B - Pennsylvania Convention Center
Theme: Interpreting Philo’s De Virtutibus

David T. Runia, Queen's College, University of Melbourne, Presiding
Walter Wilson, Emory University
Issues of interpretation in Philo’s De Virtutibus (25 min)
Gregory E. Sterling, University of Notre Dame, Respondent (25 min)
James R. Royse, San Francisco State University
The Text of Philo’s De Virtutibus (25 min)
David Konstan, Brown University
Philo’s De Virtutibus in the Perspective of Greco-Roman Philosophical Literature (25 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Break (5 min)
Editorial Board Meeting for the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series (30min)

Papers can be ordered from runia@queens.unimelb.edu.au

SBL Annual Meeting 2005

I have finally registered, and thus intend to attend the 125th Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature in Philadelphia Nov 19-23 this year. I am even listed as a participant on a seminar Nov. 20:

S20-12
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Assisted Research
11/20/2005
9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Room: Room 411 & 412 - Marriott
Theme: The Pleasures, Pains and Prospects for Biblioblogging
The phenomenon of "blogging", the maintenance of a regular online journal or weblog, has proliferated massively in recent times. As in all areas of life, political, religious, cultural, art, entertainment and media, so too in the area of academic Biblical Studies, the blog is an informative, innovative, up-to-the-minute way of discovering more about the subject, discussing the latest developments, interacting on controversial topics and enjoying the lighter side of the discipline. These "biblioblogs" are now widely consulted by those in the guild, and are contributing something of interest and intelligence. But what is the future of the biblioblogs? What is their scope for development? This session gathers together a panel of pioneers in this area.

Mark Goodacre, University of Birmingham, Presiding
James Davila, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
Enter the BiblioBloggers (20 min)
R.W. Brannan, Logos Bible Software
PastoralEpistles.com: Biblioblog? Annotated bibliography? Or Something in Between? (20 min)
Panel Discussion
Discussion (80 min)
A.K.M. Adam, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Panelist
Tim Bulkeley, University of Aukland, Panelist
Stephen Carlson, Fairfax, VA, Panelist
Edward Cook, Cincinnati, OH, Panelist
Torrey Seland, Volda University College, Panelist
James West, Quartz Hill School of Theology, Panelist

Some recent book reviews

The following is some book reviews that were published during my summer vacation leave. Some of them have been noticed on other blogs, but these are some of those most relevant for studies of Philo and the Egyptian diaspora world of his times:

W.V. Harris, G. Ruffini, Ancient Alexandria between Egypt and Greece.Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition, vol. XXVI. Leiden:
Brill, 2004. Pp. 296. ISBN 90-04-14105-7. EUR 75.00.

Reviewed by Marjorie Susan Venit, University of Maryland (venit@umd.edu)

Ellen Birnbaum has an essay on Philo in this volume (see also my comments on this here). The reviewer presents her article thus:
"In "Portrayals of the Wise and Virtuous in Alexandrian Jewish Works:
Jews' Perceptions of Themselves and Others" Ellen Birnbaum explores the
self-perception of Alexandria's Jewish population and their view of the
other inhabitants of the city. She restricts her study to the qualities
of wisdom and virtue and her textual sources to the Letter of Aristeas,
the Wisdom of Solomon, and the works of Philo and determines that each
document yields a different portrayal of Jews in relation to the
dominant culture. The Letter of Aristeas incorporates the Jewish
Diaspora fantasy (a trope), portraying Jews as superior to non-Jews and
recognized as such by other Alexandrians. By contrast, in the Wisdom of
Solomon the wise and the virtuous are loyal Jews, and Egyptians are
seen as a "'a nation of oppressors'" (144). Philo, like the others,
sees Jews as wise and virtuous but, insofar as non-Jews are concerned,
limits that quality to those who inhabited the past and dwelt in lands
far from Alexandria. Concluding, Birnbaum suggests that the difference
in views, specifically that between the Letter of Aristeas and the
other two sources, reflects the social and political circumstances that
Jews encountered at the time when each document was composed."

Erik Christiansen, Coinage in Roman Egypt: The Hoard Evidence. Aarhus:Aarhus University Press, 2004. Pp. 208. ISBN 87-7288-964-0. $29.95.

Reviewed by Allen Kerkeslager,
Department of Theology, Saint Joseph's University
(akerkesl@sju.edu)

Francoise Dunand, Christiane Zivie-Coche, Gods and Men in Egypt. 3000 BCE to 395 CE. Originally published by Armand Colin, 2002. Translated from the French by David Lorton. Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
2004. Pp. 367. ISBN 0-8014-8853-2. $25.95 (pb).

Reviewed by Mehmet-Ali Atac,, Department of Classical and Near Eastern
Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College (matac@brynmawr.edu)

14th World Congress of Jewish Studies

The 14th World Congress of Jewish Studies is just now taking place in Jerusalem (July 31-August 4). I am not lucky enough to be a participant, but I would have loved to.
There was a session on Philo this very Monday, called simply Philo of Alexandria:

355 Philo of Alexandria
Chairperson: Daniel Maoz
Monday (1 Aug 2005) 15:00 - 17:00 Room: 2717
Naomi G. Cohen (E)
Proverbs 8:22-23 in Philo and in Gen. Rabbah
Yochanan Cohen-Yashar (H)
The Meaning of the Word Ether in the Works of Philo Alexandrinus: The
Cosmological Background of Biblical Exegesis
Arkady Kovelman (E)
Jer. 9:22-23 in Philo and Paul
Mireille Hadas-Lebel (H)
Philo's Universalistic Interpretation of Biblical Laws
Katell Berthelot (E)
Philo of Alexandria and the Conquest of Canaan

If any of you who reads this attended this session, please give some comments on it the comments field below.

Have a nice day!

A Brief Guide to Philo

My review of
Schenck, Kenneth, A Brief Guide to Philo
Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005
pp. xi + 172. $24.95

was published on www.bookreviews.org early this summer.
It is still available here.

My final paragraph of the review looks like this:
"The author is to be congratulated for this fine introduction geared for students coming to the works of Philo for the first time. I find it to be well informed, fair in its presentations of various scholars and viewpoints, and well endnoted. The value of Philo for studying Judaism and early Christianity is well set forth. Schenck’s many brief definitions and explanatory text-boxes throughout the book will also, I presume, be valuable to students.
All in all, those wanting some preliminary initiation into the mysteries of Philo’s works will find in this book a trustworthy guide. Then they, one hopes, will want to proceed to some higher wisdom like Philo himself did."

Back again..

I'm back again, after three wonderful weeks of vacation in southern Norway; wonderful weather; could'nt have been better.

Since my former posting I have also moved to Stavanger, to The School of Mission and Theology, taking up my position as a professor in New Testament Studies. A quite new experience; it is 17 years since last time I changed place of living and of work.

I have skimmed the blogs I subscribe to; again it looks like som people have never some days off,- or- they are always close to a computer with an Internet connection.

I have to get updated, and will post what I find interesting from a philonic perpsective. If you have already read 'my news' on some other blogs or other announcements, pleaee forgive. I'll just try to add here what I as philo scholar find interesting.