Thursday, January 25, 2007

The Reception of Gen 6.1-4

SBL Bookreview.org has another title among its most recently published reviews that also has a chapter dealing with the works of Philo:Wright, Archie T., The Origin of the Evil Spirits: The Reception of Gen 6.1-4 in Early Jewish Literature. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe, 198 (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005, pp. xvi + 260. €49.00. Paperback. According to the reviewer (Grant Macaskill), "Chapter 7 turns to the writings of Philo of Alexandria as a counterpoint to the interpretative strategy of the Book of the Watchers. Wright discusses at some length Philo’s concepts of the human soul, including the extent to which the idea is influenced by the Platonic World of Forms." You can read the rest of the review here: Read the Review.

It turns out that Archie T. Wright also has a quite new article out dealing with Philo that might be very much comparable to Chapter 7 in the volume mentioned above. Consider this: Archie T. Wright, 'Some observations of Philo’s De Gigantibus and evil spirits in Second Temple Judaism,' Journal for the Study of Judaism Volume 36, Number 4 / December, 2005, pp. 471-488.

According to the summary provided, "The following discussion delineates Philo’s interpretation of Genesis 6:1–4 in his various treatises. The presentation provides a brief description of his understanding of the journey of the soul, which includes the origin of the soul, its place in the heavens, its time on earth, and its eventual return to the divine realm. Throughout the discussion, I will introduce various points of the interpretation of the Genesis passage found in the Watcher tradition of 1 Enoch and its adaptation in various documents in Second Temple Jewish literature. In doing so, I will highlight the similarities and differences between the interpretations which suggest Philo had knowledge of some form of the Watcher tradition and was perhaps attempting to write a corrective of its understanding of the problem of evil and the cause of human suffering in the first century C.E."

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