Philo conference in Belgium in June

In June 26-28, there will be a great Philo conference in Brussels, Belgium. Its main focus is "Philon d'Alexandrie : un penseur à l'intersection des cultures gréco-romaine, orientale, et chrétienne."

The conference is organized and held at Intitut de Sociologie at the Université Libre de Bruxelles by its Centre interdisciplinaire d'étude des religions et de la laïcité - CIERL. In its presentation of the conference, it says -inter alia- Ni seulement grec, ni seulement juif, Philon appartenait à un monde éminemment multiculturel et, à ce titre, il est, plus que beaucoup d'autres, infiniment proche de la réalité que nous vivons. C'est pourquoi notre colloque international s'assigne pour tâche l'étude de l'œuvre de Philon dans la totalité de ses aspects, ce qu'exprime le thème que nous avons choisi: " Philon d'Alexandrie : un penseur à l'intersection des cultures gréco-romaine, orientale, juive, et chrétienne ". Il apparaît, en effet, aujourd'hui, après un siècle de recherche, que seule une approche plurielle de son œuvre permet de cerner de façon adéquate une pensée qui puisa aux sources des différentes traditions de l'Antiquité pour parfois les nourrir à son tour.

The conference consists of 24 papers, all focusing on Philo. It would have been nice to be there, but as 18 of the papers will be held in French - only 6 in English - my low ability of understanding spoken French woul be an impediment as a listener.

The conference also features many prominent Philo scholars. Here is a review of the various sessions:

Mardi 26 Juin
Entre Jérusalem et Rome

10h00 : Ouverture : Le Recteur et Jean-Philippe Schreiber

Introduction : Sabrina Inowlocki et Baudouin Decharneux

10h45 : Conférence inaugurale par David Runia sur le thème " Why Philo Is an Important Thinker ? "

Pause

11h30 : Michèle Broze, " L'Egypte de Philon d'Alexandrie: approche d'un discours ambigu ".

12h00: Martin Goodman, " Philo in Rome "

Pause déjeuner

14h30 : Mireille Hadas-Lebel, " Philon et l'apologétique juive ".

15h00 : Joanna Weinberg, " Philon et le judaïsme de la Renaissance "

Pause

15h45 : Thomas Gergely, " Philon et la Halakha".

16h15 : Katell Berthelot, " Grecs, Barbares et Juifs dans l'œuvre de Philon ".

16h45 : Ellen Birnbaum, " Who celebrated on Pharos with the Jews? Conflicting Philonic currents and their implications".

17h15 : Discussion.

Mercredi 27 Juin
Entre Athènes et Alexandrie

9h30 : Lambros Couloubaritsis, " Le statut de l'allégorie chez Philon d'Alexandrie ".

10h00 : Olivier Munnich, " La fugacité de la vie humaine: étude d'un motif traditionnel (De Josepho, § 127-130)".

10h30 : Francesca Alesse, " Prohairesis in Philo of Alexandria ".

Pause

11h15 : Francesca Calabi, " God's Rest in Philo ".

11h45 : Maren Niehoff, " Recherche Homérique et l'Exégèse d'Ecriture en Alexandrie ".

12h15 : discussion.

Pause déjeuner.

14h00 : Carlos Lévy : " La notion de signe chez Philon d'Alexandrie ".

14h30 : José Zamora, " L'âme du sage chez Philon d'Alexandrie, De Cherubim, 98-112 ".

15h15 : Folker Siegert, "Philon et la philologie alexandrine. Aux origines du fondamentalisme chrétien." .

Pause.

15h45 : Lucia Saudelli, " Les fragments d'Héraclite et ses implications dans le corpus philonicum ".

16h15 : Sharon Weisser, " La figure du prokôpton chez Philon ou la proximité de la sagesse ".

16h45 : dicussion.

Jeudi 28 Juin
Le Temps des relectures

9h00 : Gilbert Van Belle, " Philon et le Nouveau Testament ".

9h30 : Monique Alexandre, " Philon et sa transmission chez les Pères ".

10h00 : Sabrina Inowlocki, " La réception chrétienne de Philon comme apologiste ".

Pause

11h15 : Fabien Nobilio, " L'Esprit et le temps. Comparaison entre Philon d'Alexandrie et l'évangile de Jean "

10h45 : Peter Tomson, " Le Temple céleste : pensée platonisante et orientation apocalyptique dans l'Épître aux Hébreux ".

11h45 : Albert Geljon, " Philo's Influence on Didymus the Blind "

12h45 : Discussion

13h00 : Conclusions

13h30 : Excursion

I have received a pamphlet presenting the conference and the various topics; there are some disagreements between the web page presentation and the brochure, hence I have here given the topics as stated in the latter.

For all of us who is not able to attend the conference, I hope the papers will be published as soon as possible.

My review of
Ware, James P.,The Mission of the Church in Paul’s Letter to the Philippians in the Context of Ancient Judaism (Supplements to Novum Testamentum 120
Leiden: Brill, 2005)
have now been published on SBL's Review of Biblical Literature.

The author of this well researched and engaging volume presents here an extensive study of the role of Paul’s churches in his mission commitment, asking, What role did Paul envision his churches as having in the advancement of the gospel? This topic has received little attention in recent New Testament research, and while some recent studies argue that Paul expected individuals to be engaged in mission, the remaining question still is: did he expect his congregations themselves as such to be obligated to spread the gospel? It has been argued that Paul nowhere explicitly commands his congregations to spread the gospel, or exhorts his churches to engage in mission activity. Ware, on his part, however, suggests that in his letter to the Philippians, Paul reveals an unusual level of interest in the preaching and promotion of the gospel by his communities.
Concerning Philo, the author deals with Philo on pp. 131-142, focused as ‘Conversion of Gentiles.' According to my reading, "I wonder if his strong focus on conversion of gentiles and mission has sometimes led to a somewhat narrow selection and reading of texts: Considering his use of material from Philo, I do think there are some issues here he should have considered more thoroughly. ‘Messianic’ texts as Vita Mosis 1:289-290; Praem 91-97 and 163-172 receive only a brief reference in a footnote, and the important issues of particularism and universalism are hardly dealt with at all."

The rest of the reviwew is available here.

In Cameroon

As mentioned below, I was in Cameroon in week 10 and 11. In addition to mentoring my PhD student there, I had 14 lectures at the local Theological seminary in Meiganga; Institut lutheriene de theologie de meiganga. Here is the students of class gathered. If someone are in doubt, it is me standing to the left!!

Cameroon

No blogging the two following weeks (week 10-11) due to my travel to Cameroon. Visiting Africa for the first time!

Philo and the Conquest of Canaan

In the first 2007 issue of Journal for the Study of Judaism, there is an article on Philo and the conquest of Canaan: Katell Berthelot, 'Philo of Alexandria and the Conquest of Canaan, 'Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume 38, Number 1, 2007, pp. 39-56.

The abstracts tells us "According to the Torah, the Hebrews were commanded either to expel or to exterminate the Canaanites who were living in Canaan at the time of the conquest. Philo seems to feel rather ill-at-ease about the literal meaning of these biblical passages. Besides allegory, he uses four hermeneutical strategies: 1) to pass over the problematic texts in silence; 2) to play with the meaning of certain Greek words; 3) to justify the destruction of the Canaanites from a moral point of view; 4) to rewrite the biblical account."
I found this through the Ingenta search engine; a very fine facility available to us who do not have immediate and locale access to that many journals.

Familial Dimensions of Group Identity

Another article that might make up some interesting reading for the weekend, is this one written by Philip Harland:'Familial Dimensions of Group Identity (II):
“Mothers” and “Fathers” in Associations and
Synagogues of the Greek World,'Originally published in Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period 38 (2007) 57-79. Reproduced here by permission His own Abstract runs like this:

"Fictive parental language (e.g. "mother of the synagogue" , "father of the association") has drawn limited attention within two scholarly circles, namely, those who study diaspora synagogues, on the one hand, and ancient historians, on the other. This article brings these two scholarly interests together and argues, based on inscriptional evidence, that parental metaphors were more widespread and significant in cities and associations of the Greek East than often acknowledged. Such terminology was an important way of expressing honour, hierarchy, and/or belonging within the association or community, and it could also pertain to functional leadership roles (rather than mere honorifics) in certain cases. The Jewish practice of calling figures "mother" or "father" of the synagogue can be better understood within this cultural framework and in relation to associations specifically."

The Word is Near You

(Photo by Hege Fagerheim)

Another study of Philo by a Norwegian is about to be published. The Norwegian scholar Per Jarle Bekken(1) - he too is a former student of Peder Borgen - has revised his 1998 dissertation from the University of Trondheim (NTNU), and it is now to be published by DeGruyter in Germany: Per Jarle Bekken, The Word is Near You. A Study of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in Paul's Letter to the Romans in Jewish Context(Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche 144; Berlin - New York, Walter de Gruyter, 2007). 23 x 15.5 cm. Approx. 300 pages. Cloth. Approx. Euro [D] 88.00 / approx. sFr 141.00 / for USA, Canada, Mexico approx. US$ 118.80. ISBN 978-3-11-019341-1. Congratulations to Per Jarle. The study is to be published in April this year. Per Jarle has published several studies earlier on Philo and Paul and/or John, and hopefully, now there is more to come.

The publisher characterizes the volume thus: The study deals with a difficult and much-debated text in Paul’s Letter to the Romans, 9:30-10:21. The study in particular analyses Paul’s use and interpretation of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in Romans 10:4-17. Scholars have characterized Paul’s exegesis here as idiosyncratic, fanciful, baffling, and arbitrary. By a comparison with Jewish writings near Paul in time, such as the writings of Philo of Alexandria and Baruch, the thesis is argued that Paul’s treatment of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 can be located within Jewish exegetical method, expository structure, terminology as well as content and context.
In comparison with Baruch and Philo, it has been shown that Paul’s handling of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 can be placed within a Jewish context as to the way the biblical quotations are rendered. The thesis is substantiated that Paul’s expository rendering of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 follows the method of exegetical paraphrase of a biblical quotation. So, in comparison with Baruch and Philo, Paul’s interpretative rendering of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 falls within a form of exposition, in which words, phrases and sentences from the Old Testament quotation are either repeated or replaced by interpretative terms and supplemented with other qualifying terms. Thus, Paul’s christological exposition of Deut 30:12-14 can be located within the method of exegetical paraphrase, with a parallel in Baruch’s application of this OT Scripture to the personified ‘Wisdom’.
(1) This link above also represent an intervju with Per Jarle Bekken (in Norwegian). For the present time he is working in an administrative position at Høyskolen i Oslo (Oslo University College), but hope to be able to spend more time with Philo in the future.

More on Meals

There is almost always something new and interesting to be found on Philip A. Harland's websites. This time, in adddition to a new picture of this guy, I found his website on Meals in the Greco-Roman World. A Seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature. It contains several interesting seminar papers, and at least four are directly dealing with the works of Philo. Alas several of them are only presently available as abstracts.
Consider these:Matthias Klinghardt, “The Therapeutae’s Dance.” (abstract)

Andrew McGowan, “The Food of the Therapeutae: A Thick Description.” (abstract)

Hal Taussig, “Ritual Perfection and/or Literary Idealization in Philo’s On the Contemplative Life and Other Greco-Roman Symposia.” (abstract)

Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, “Contrasting Banquets: A Literary Commonplace in Philo's On the Contemplative Life and Other Greco-Roman Symposia.”There should be a lot of information here relevant for both teaching and further research.