Problems solved

My problems (see below)with accessing this blog via the Firefox browser has been solved, mainly by the help of Jim Davila. Thanks Jim.

If you ever run into the same problem, try this:
1 Clear your cache.
2 Delete your Blogger cookie.
3 Check your Cookie settings.
4 Check your JavaScript settings.
5 Quit your browser and restart it.
6 Use another browser.
Options 1 and 2 solved my problems; if you don't know how to clear your cache or cookies, have a look in the Firefox Help file.

Assimilated to the Blogosphere?

Jim Davila has an informative article on the latest issue of SBL Forum about "Assimilated to the Blogosphere: Blogging Ancient Judaism", this time with all his links retained. Even though he forgot to mention this Philoblog (what a pity....:-), the article is interesting and welcome. Tolle lege!

Google Print

Mark Goodacre commented yesterday on the features of Google Print, revealing to me aspects of this search engine that I was not fully aware of. It shows up to have been developed into a very interesting instrument for finding things on the internet. Or as Mark phraces it: "there has been a dramatic change. I really mean dramatic -- I was quite taken aback by the riches that Print.Google.com was turning up." Give it a try!
On its homepage the finction of Google print is described thus: "Google's mission is to organize the world's information, but much of that information isn't yet online. Google Print aims to get it there by putting book content where you can find it most easily – right in your Google search results."
"Just do an ordinary Google search. When we find a book whose content contains a match for your search terms, we'll link to it in your search results. Click a book title and you'll see the page of the book that has your search terms, along with other information about the book and "Buy this Book" links to online bookstores (you can view the entirety of public domain books or, for books under copyright, just a few pages or in some cases, only the title’s bibliographic data and brief snippets). You can also search for more information within that specific book and find nearby libraries that have it." You may search on word, phrases, sentences, personal names, and you will find it very helpful. What a nice feature to be able to find, for instance, where in a specific book a particular book or article is cited, and /or be able to see the list of contents of a book before you buy it!

Mark Gooacre also refers to David Meadows and his blog, who have some reservations. I also know that some of the same features are available on the American Amazon site (http://www.amazon.com/), but it might turn out that this will be a helpful instrument in finding relevant material on the Internet. It might be useful to keep an eye on how this develops.

A question to my readers

Problem:
I have a problem when using the browser Firefox on this website; when I try to access this site as http://philoblogger.blogspot.com, the Firefox browser now most often (if not always) changes this to http://www.blogger.com/start, that is the Blogger homepage. It never happens when I use Internett Explorer 6.0 or Netscape 7.2.

My question to you is;
has this happened to any of you when accessing my site via Firefox?
Please use the comments field below for any response. Thanks!

Boycotting scholars?

Jim Davila has had several interesting posting on his blog PaleoJudaica.com on the Britain’s Association of University Teachers efforts of boycotting Israeli scholars because of the politics of the Israeli government.

I usually do not indulge in contemporary politics on this blog, but whatever you may judge the politics of the present Israeli government, I don't think this is a appropriate way to react.
I will not repeat Jim Davila's postings, just voice my concern and agreements with Jim's postings by providing some links to them. See especially here, here and here.

Philo online

The old English translation of the works of Philo by C.D. Yonge, from the middle of the nineteenth century, is free domain ware and is now available from several sites on the Internet. I thought I had most, if not all of them, listed on my Resource page for the study of Philo; but yesterday I discovered another one, presenting not only the individual files, but also a downloadable zip file of all his books.
The page is called The Philo Library.
I don't know who is behind the site, as they do not present themselves on their webpages.
Readers not familiar with the Greek text, or any newer translations of the works of Philo, should still consider David T. Runias evaluation of this old translation of Yonge. It can still be found on the page of mine mentioned above.

Erotapokriseis

Today there is a new book review on BrynMawr, concerning a book that also contains an article dealing with the works of PhiloAnnelie Volgers, Claudio Zamagni (edd.), Erotapokriseis: Early Christian Question-and-Answer Literature in Context. Proceedings of the Utrecht Colloquium, 13-14 October 2003. Leuven: Peeters, 2004. Pp. 197.
ISBN 90-429-1480-7. EUR 30.00. I have not seen the book myself, but the topic should be relevant for the study of Philo's two books on Questions and Answers. It turns out that Pieter van der Horst is a contributor to this volume; his essay are calledPhilo and the Rabbis on Genesis: Similar Questions, Different Answers (pp. 55-70). The review is written by Arietta Papaconstantinou, CNRS Paris, and is as a whole not quite favorable, but tolle lege, and judge for your selv. The review can be read by clicking HERE.

Philo, a Leader with a Vision . . .

As mentioned in an earlier posting, I would like to present and briefly comment on a recent article of Ellen Birnbaum. As it is published in a volume not easily availably in a Norwegian setting, I am very grateful for her sending me a copy:
Ellen Birnbaum,
‘A leader with Vision in the ancient Jewish Diaspora. Philo of Alexandria,’
Jack Wertheimer, (ed.), Jewish Religious Leadership: Image and Reality (New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary, 2004) I:57-90.
There are not many studies coming to my mind, that explicitly deals with Philo as a leader; this may be one of the very few, if not the only one that has this topic as its main focus.

But how does one go about in order to write about Philo as a Leader? The first aspect that strikes one is that there is not much material to work with. Well, his book production is voluminous, but there are not much therein that explicitly deals with his role and function as a leader. And there are very few other literary works telling about him. Birnbaum is, of course, aware of these problems. She quite correctly points out that, with the exception of Josephus, we have in fact no other non-philonic sources dealing with Philo. Furthermore, his subsequent influence seems to have been limited both in the religious and political sphere (if I may use this rather anachronistic distinction).

There is, however, something to be found in his writings, and some inferences may be drawn from other aspects of his teachings as known from his writings, a careful reading between the lines. Birnbaum’s article is an interesting effort to make the best out of such a procedure.

Her article has several main headlines: The first one deals with The Political Situation in First Century Alexandria. Here she outlines the development the anti-Jewish activities in the city that resulted in the riots of 38CE. Philo does not tell us much about how this influenced his own life, except for his participation in a delegation to the Emperor. This role probably indicates that he enjoyed a certain position in the Jewish communities of Alexandria, but a closer description is difficult. Furthermore, one can surmise about what impact his family background had on this position (pp. 63-64) and Philo’s character (pp. 64-66). Here Spec. 3,1-6 is important, perhaps the most important passage in his works as it has a strong self-biographical nature.

Birnbaum also draws heavily on the various natures of Philo’s works, i.e., the Allegorical Commentary, the Exposition of the Law, and Questions and Answers as well as the other books less directly concerned with biblical texts: “central to Philo’s thought is the metaphor of vision, because he believed that the highest human goal was to “see God.” Philo’s ideas about God, virtue, and the Jews also constituted for him a vision, not only of the way things were, but also of the way things should have been”(69). This is important for Birnbaum when she further tries to spell out Philo’s message to different groups (71-79).

Her section, Portrayals of Leadership: The Virtues of the Ideal Leader, (80-82), then, presents how Philo evaluates Moses, Joseph, and Pharaoh as leaders, trying to draw lessons for the main topic from how he describes these. Moses is the consummate leader, the one who assumed the comprehensive roles of king, philosopher, legislator, priest and prophet. Hence he is the ideal leader. Joseph, however, is the politicos, the statesman, and Pharaoh the very opposite of a leader. Joseph, as a politicos, is a man of many sides and many forms (Jos34). One might here perhaps wonder if she underexposes the somewhat varied descriptions of Joseph in Philo’s works. De Josepho is probably the one most favorable to this character.

Then, in the last 9 pages of the article (Evaluating Philo’s leadership, 82-90), she comes to grip with a more direct description of Philo’s as a leader. Here she presents three criteria for her evaluation: “the apparent suitability and effectiveness of Philo’s messages for his contemporary situation; the ‘afterlife’ of Philo’s messages – that is what happened to his teachings after his time; and finally, the qualities Philo exhibited that may have enhanced his effectiveness as a leader” (83).
a) Central in Philo’s political message was his pride in the Jewish resistance to Caligula’s plans of erecting a statue in the Jerusalem Temple, his conviction that the Jews were especially protected by God, and that Philo favored peacable relations with the Romans. Furthermore, he presented the Jewish values as of universal importance; the Jewish Law, for instance, was to be considered a copy of the Law of nature. Birnbaum writes: “Philo’s attempt to make Jewish ways relevant, meaningful, and accessible to a broad audience was certainly fitting for his time and had the potential to enrich the commitment of loyal Jews to their religion, to bring alienated Jews back into the fold, and to impress his non-Jewish readers” (85).
b) An observation that may contradict the impact of Philo’s vision for his contemporaries is the fact that Philo’s politics was probably rejected by many of his contemporaries. We know nothing about if he had any followers during his life time, not to speak about after his time. His writings were not kept and cherished by later Jews, but by the Christians. Birnbaum does not, however, want to say that Jews rejected Philo because of his ideas. “It may rather be more correct to say that he was simply neglected” (86). Perhaps so, but I would have liked Birnbaum to have developed this a little more in her article.
c) The last section here, dealing with the qualities Philo exhibited that may have enhanced his effectiveness as a leader, is an effort to evaluate Philo’s (possible) success as a leader by identifying 3 characteristics that may have contributed to his effectiveness: namely “while participating in the surrounding culture, Philo clearly defined his values”; “Philo presented his messages to appeal to a variety of readers”; and “Philo maintained a vision of and commitment to the entire Jewish nation, especially in times of crisis.”

I think it is to correct to say that Birnbaum has a certain admiration for Philo. The last pages of her article certainly demonstrate that: Philo was “a man of great integrity” (88). One might, however, in some sections perhaps have expected a stronger focus on the possible conflict between “image and reality” as seems to be the focus of the volumes the article belongs to.

However, my overall assessment is that the article is informative, stimulating and interesting reading. It will certainly go into my files of articles dealing with the personal life of Philo. Birnbaum has given an informed presentation of aspects of Philo’s life from a perspective that has been neglected, and we are to be grateful for her contribution.