Collegia in Roman Egypt

Reading up on some blogs I have overlooked or forgotten I stumbled over this again by Philip Harland: “Alive and kicking”: Associations and Roman law again. Here he, inter alia, refers to an article about the collegia in Roman Egypt I was not at all aware of, namely

Ilias N. Arnaoutoglou, “Collegia in the Province of Egypt in the First Century CE,” Ancient Society 35 (2005): 197-216.

Arnaoutoglou here obviously also deals with some of Philo's statements abaout these clubs and associations.
Harland offers some further comments, and also refers to my online article on 'Philo and the Graeco-Roman Clubs and asociations'.

The article by Arnaoutoglou is not available online, but if you click on the link above to Ancient Society, you can order it.
The author's own summary of the article runs like this:

"ln this article I explore the apparent discrepancy between the restrictive statutory Roman legislation on collegia and the documentation on associations in 1st-century Egypt. After exploration of the legal background, I examine the testimony of Philo, ln Flaccum 4, which reveals that the dissolution of hetaireiai and synodoi is not part of an empire-wide ban, but is firmly embedded in the history of Alexandria and in the urge of its prefect A. Flaccus to re-establish law and order. The second testimony providing the imposition of a fine on people taking part in associations, Gnomon of the ldios Logos §108, is so fragmentary as to allow only speculation about its context. It could preserve a clause either from A. Flaccus’ restrictions or from a tax regulation. The investigation suggests that the discrepancy between the literary tradition of a general ban and the documentary evidence on collegia is probably superficial, and it can be reconciled, if we reconsider the nature and the extent of the prohibition imposed by A. Flaccus, as a local and temporary police measure aiming to dissolve the nuclei of opposition and anti-Roman feeling in early 1st-century Alexandria."

Books bought at SNTS

Conferences like the SNTS Meeting and the SBL Annual Meetings are events were booksellers and book buyers are having good times. The book exhibition at SBL is outstanding; the Book marked of SNTS is much smaller as the conference is smaller too. Neverthless, there where several publishers present with their booths and offerings, and like most others, I succumbed to the temptation, and spent some money on books.

One in particular I think should be considered relevant to Philo scholars too, namely

F. Watson,
Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith
London: T & T Clark International, 2004).
There is a lot on Philo here too, and I hope to be able to return to this book on this blog.

Among the other books I bought, these might be mentioned:

M. Hengel,
Der Unterschätzte Petrus. Zwei Studien (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006).
A. Perriman,
The Coming of the Son of Man. New Testament Eschatology for an Emerging Church (Milton Keynes, UK: Peternoster Press, 2005).
J. Starr and Troels Engberg-Pedersen eds.,
Early Christian Paraenesis in Context. (Beiheft zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 125; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005).
T. H. Tobin,
Paul’s Rhetoric in Its Contexts. The Argument of Romans (Peabody, Ma: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004).

Philo articles online

Visiting Hindy Najman's website, I discovered that she is planning to have several articles available on-line; among these are three directly relevant for Philo studies already available. The articles are available both in web-format and in pdf format; Here are the links to the .pdf versions of the Philo articles. THanks to Hindy for making them available on-line:

1.
“The Law of Nature and the Authority of Mosaic Law.”
In Studia Philonica Annual 11 (1999): 55-73

Download as a pdf (LawOfNature.pdf)

2.
“A Written Copy of the Law of Nature: An Unthinkable Paradox?”
In Studia Philonica Annual 15 (2003) 51-6

Download as a pdf (CopyLawOfNature.pdf)

3.
“Cain and Abel as Character Traits: A Study in the Allegorical Typology of Philo of Alexandria.”
In Themes in Biblical Narrative; Jewish and Christian Traditions, edited by Gerard Luttikhuizen, Brill, 2003:107-118

Download as a pdf (CainAndAbel.pdf)

Festschrift to David E. Aune

I'm back from vacation, and back from the SNTS Meeting in Aberdeen. It was warm and busy days from early morning to late night. Good to have my wife attend the meeting this year; she enjoyed the excursions while we were listening to lectures and participating in seminar discussions. The SNTS Meetings are known to have good excursions for the spouses attending, and for the dinners for all participants in the evenings.






One of the events at the meeting I was looking forward to was the presentation of a Festschrift to David E. Aune. John Fotopoulos was the editor, and here is a picture of David and his wife Mary Lou:
I do think the festschrift was a very deserved honor to an excellent scholar.

I also had the privilege of contributing to the volume, and is responsible for the one and only contribution directly related to Philo studies. My study is called "Philo, Magic and Balaam: Neglected Aspects of Philo's Exposition of the Balaam story."

Further information of the volume can be gathered here:

The New Testament and Early Christian Literature in Greco-Roman Context
Studies in Honor of David E. Aune
Edited by John Fotopoulos
Novum Testamentum, Supplements, 122
Brill Publishing, 2006. 468 pp.

SNTS

I am off to the 61st Meeting of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas in Aberdeen.

Some Reviews

SBL Bookreviews has posted some recent reviews of works that should be of interest to Philo scholars, even though it is summer and vacation times...:

Böhm, Martina, Rezeption und Funktion der Vätererzählungen bei Philo von Alexandria: Zum Zusammenhang von Kontext, Hermeneutik und Exegese im frühen Judentum.
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche, 128. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2005. pp. xiii + 502. €128.00

van der Horst, Pieter W.,
Philo's Flaccus: The First Pogrom: Introduction, Translation and Commentary
Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series, 2
Átlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005
pp. xii + 277. $29.95

Review by René Bloch.
and
Review by Gerbern Oegema.

SBL International Meeting 2

After the Accordance presentation in Edinburgh, I happened to meet and have a lunch with Katell Berthelot, a young French scholar who has written on Second Temple Judaism. Katell received her Ph.D. in 2001 in History of Religions, Sorbonne University (Paris). She is researcher at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research, France) and has two major contributions published on Brill, in addition to several articles:

1. Philanthropia Judaica: Le debat autour de la «Misanthropie» Des Lois Juives Dans L'Antiquité (The debate concerning Misanthropie in the Jewish Laws in Antiquity).
   
2. L’«humanite de l'autre homme» dans la pensée juive ancienne (Humanity towards other human beings in the ancient Jewish thinking).
   

Brill says about the books:

Philanthropia Judaica: Le debat autour de la «Misanthropie» Des Lois Juives Dans L'Antiquité. Brill: Leiden, 2003. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, 76.

This volume deals with the accusations of misanthropy directed against the Jews during the Hellenistic and Roman period, and with the Jewish attempts to answer those charges. The first part of the book examines the different meanings of the words philanthropia, misanthropia, apanthropia, philoxenia and misoxenia, and analyses the relevant Greek, Egyptian and Roman sources, in order to clarify the significance of the accusation of misanthropy for each writer.

The second part deals with the Jewish answers to these accusations, especially with Philo's and Josephus' attempts to show the humane character of the Mosaic Law.

This book is the first attempt to write a comprehensive history of this type of anti-Jewish discourse in Antiquity and of the Jewish reactions it provoked.

L’«humanite de l'autre homme» dans la pensée juive anciennes. Supplements to the Journal for the study of Judaism; 87. Leiden: Brill, 2004.

This book analyzes how humanism was conceived of in different philosophical schools during the Hellenistic and early Roman period, and how these ideas were debated in ancient Jewish thought. The term humanism refers to the idea that every person has duties towards his/her fellow human beings, for the sole reason that they all share a common nature or are bound by a form of kinship.

The book also tries to determine to which extent Gen 1:26-27 (creation of human beings in God's image) and Lev 19:18 (the commandment to love one's neighbour, who is like oneself) could be interpreted in a humanistic way by ancient Jewish writers.

Katell also told me that Sabrina Inowlocki is organising a Philo conference in Belgium next summer, but she did not know any details. Perhaps others do?

SBL International Meeting

2006 took place in Edinburgh as you may have noticed and as Torrey wrote earlier. Actually, I am still in Scotland, taking some days off after the conference. This was my first time on a SBL-conference, which is perhaps a little strange, but there have always been a lot of other conferences to go to. The funny thing about this conference was that although 500 persons were registered partakers, I only saw about 40 or 50 at a time. The reason is perhaps that the meetings were scattered around a little bit and one did get the feeling of being at a large conference.

Besides, there was no Philo section or anything and couldn't find Philo in any of the Abstracts in the program either (perhaps I missed it). My own contribution was more in the methodological field, I am trying out theories based on Gadamer's hermeneutical circle in relation to a contextual theological model. I hope it can be an article at the end...

I did get to talk to Roy and Helen Brown of Accordance, who demonstrated their latest version (v. 7) of the program, Philo in Greek and English included. Several new features here, particularly in the presentational part (diagrams etc.). That program can really help Philo scholars. I also talk the representative of Gorgias Press, but unfortunately he had not received the Complete KWIC-concordance from the publisher (I guess it is just to big and heavy to be delt with properly).