Juden und Nichtjuden in Alexandrien

This volume is now available form the bookstores. It can also be ordered directly from the publisher:Gottfried Schimanowski
Juden und Nichtjuden in Alexandrien.
Koexistenz und Konflikte bis zum Pogrom unter Trajan (117 n. Chr.)
Reihe: Münsteraner Judaistische Studien
Bd. 18, LiT Verlag, 2006, 288 S., 34.90 EUR, br., ISBN 3-8258-8507-0. The announcement of the publisher runs thus:
"Dies ist die erste deutschsprachige Monographie über das alexandrinische Judentum, jenen Sitz "multikultureller" Aktivität und Gelehrsamkeit, dem die westliche Kultur bis heute so entscheidende Anstöße verdankt. Vom ersten Auftreten kurz nach der Gründung der Stadt (323 v.Chr.) an wird seine Geschichte verfolgt bis hin zum Untergang in einem förmlichen Bürgerkrieg 115 - 117 n.Chr.

Wieso ist es dieser weltoffenen, von ihrer Verfassung her griechischen Stadt nicht gelungen, ihre jüdischen Mitbewohner besser zu integrieren? - Die Konkurrenz um die Privilegien der "Griechen" der Stadt hat den Juden Feindschaft eingetragen, sowohl bei diesen selbst (als den einzigen vollberechtigten Bürgern) als auch bei den Ägyptern. Dagegen half auch keine Anlehnung an die - keineswegs beliebte - auswärtige Macht Rom, im Gegenteil.

Zur Illustration der singulären, durchaus verworrenen Rechtslage dient ein griechisch-deutscher Quellenanhang; er bietet die einschlägigen Inschriften und Papyri."

A German translation of Questiones

The Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum is involved in a very interesting project of translating for the first time into German the Armenian texts of Philos works Questiones in Genesim and Questiones in Exodum:Mit Unterstützung der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft ist am Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum in Münster eine befristete Arbeitsstelle eingerichtet worden zur erstmaligen deutschen Übersetzung der nur armenisch überlieferten Schriften Philons von Alexandrien Quaestiones in Genesim und Quaestiones in Exodum. Diese Übersetzung erfolgt direkt am armenischen Text, unter Berücksichtigung der dort noch spürbaren griechischen Idiomatik. Some preliminary translations have already been published, and more texts will be added here. The director of the project is Professor Folker Siegert.

More reviews

A couple of reviews relevant to students of Philo and the Judaism of his time have been published on the SBL Book Reviews website:Weinfeld, Moshe,
Normative and Sectarian Judaism in the Second Temple Period. Library of Second Temple Studies, 54; London: T&T Clark, 2005, pp. xii + 329
Review by Pieter W. van Der Horst.

George W. E. Nickelsburg,
Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah
Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005. pp. xxiii + 445 + CD-ROM. 2nd Edition. Paperback.
Reviewed by Kenneth Pomykala
Reviewed by Sabrina Inowlocki.

In memory of David M. Hay

From David Runia and Gregory Sterling to the other members of the SBL Philo of Alexandria Group I have received these words in honor of David M. Hay:

It is with the deepest regret that we announce the sudden passing of David Hay, the chairperson of the Studia Philonica Annual editorial board and the general editor of the Studia Philonica Monograph Series. David died unexpectedly in his home on Friday morning, August 25th. A blood clot appears to have entered his lungs. There will be a burial service for him on Tuesday, August 29th, in McDonough, Georgia, and a memorial service that afternoon in Atlanta. A later memorial service will be held at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where David taught for thirty years.

We will miss David for both professional and personal reasons. David was a fine scholar who made significant contributions to the study of Philo. He was a founding member of the Philo Institute, a contributor to the Studia Philonica, the chairperson of the SNTS seminar on Philo, and a key figure in the launching and success of the Studia Philionica Annual and the monograph series. He was, however, more than a productive scholar; he was a friend. Those of us who were privileged to work with him knew him as a generous and sensitive human being. The last time that the SBL met in Atlanta, many of the members of the Philo of Alexandria Group went to David and Mary's home for dinner. It was a memorable evening.

The last scholarly contribution that David made was to proofread the 2006 Studia Philonica Annual, a task that he had executed faithfully for many years. He was not able to complete his commentary on The Contemplative Life. The treatise was near to his heart. We should remember the final words: "This will suffice for the Therapeutae who welcomed the contemplation of nature and what it contains and who lived their lives in the soul alone, citizens of both heaven and earth. They were sincerely commended to the Father and Maker of the cosmos by virtue who introduced them to God's friendship and added the most appropriate gift of true goodness, a gift better than all good fortune, a gift that reaches to the very summit of full happiness." We are confident that virtue has commended David as well.

We will miss him immensely.

We extend our deepest sympathy to Mary, the children, and the grandchildren.

David T. Runia
Gregory E. Sterling

David M. Hay 1935-2006

The message from David T Runia, quoted below in my former posting, made me very sad. Though I knew David Hay personally only in the last 4-5 years, he was a very pleasant acquaintance. When the SBL Annual Meeting was held in Atlanta a few years ago, I had the pleasure of being invited - together with several other Philo scholars - into his new home. And last November, at the end of the SBL Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, due to a suggestion by David, Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer and I had a very enjoyable lunsj with David. That was how he was, always friendly and such a kind person. I will really miss him.

In 2001 David M Hay was honored by the dedication of Studia Philonica Annual Vol XIII 2001. It's title was In the Spirit of Faith: Studies in Philo and Early Christianity in Honor of David Hay (Brown Judaic Studies 332.

David was a pauline scholar, but also a Philo scholar. For some years now he had been working on a commentary on De Vita Contemplativa. I don't know how far that work had proceeded; but I do hope that at least some of it can be published so we can be made sharers in more of his great knowledge of this work of Philo.

But above all, he will be missed as a husband and father. Let us include his family in our thoughts and prayers.

Very sad news

I just received an e-mail from David Runia that I would like to post here too:I am sorry to have to convey very sad news. On Friday August 25th our
dear friend David Hay was very suddenly wrenched away from his loved
ones and from us. A lung embolism proved fatal. It is only a very
small comfort that he died at home and most likely did not suffer at
all.
The funeral will be held at the Central Presbyterian Church in
Atlanta at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 29.
We had only just had extensive contact in preparing volume 18 of the
Studia Philonica Annual. David had written us a letter on Thursday,
telling us how much he was looking forward to a family reunion this
weekend. It is a devastating loss, above all for his family, but also
for all his friends and colleagues.

Philo at SBL Annual Meeting (I)

Some people are already trying to get information about the SBL Annual Meeting that this year is to be held in Washington; such information is now available at the SBL homepages, but here is some info about one of the sessions that includes papers on Philo, namely the session on

S19-13Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Nov 19. 2006 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM Room: 150B - CC

Theme: Philosophy at the Roots of Christianity

L. Michael White, University of Texas - Austin, Presiding
Part 1: Allegory in Philo and the New Testament
Henrik Tronier, Copenhagen University
Philonic Allegory in Mark (20 min)
On a superficial view the earliest and supposedly most primitive of the four Gospels seems to constitute a strong argument against finding philosophy at the roots of Christianity. However, when Mark is read in the context of contemporary Jewish allegorical hermeneutics another impression surfaces. In this paper it is argued that Mark’s biography of Jesus was written the way Philo interpreted the biblical narratives about the lives and journeys of Abraham and Moses, the founders of the Jewish people. They are stamped images of God’s logos and sophia in history; their journeys are the outward appearance of the interpretive activity of logos-transformed, perfected knowledge, which the allegorical reader will recognise as the defining mark and nature of God’s elected people; the various locations, people and persons along the journey constitute deficient or lower levels of knowledge and ethics in the unified epistemological, cosmological and anthropological framework that is plotted in the geo-, ethno- and topographical space of the narrative. The various literary strategies by which Mark construes the allegorical level of meaning and guides the readers to an allegorical interpretation of the surface story are analysed in the light of Philo’s interpretive strategies. Finally, the paper discusses the different ethnic strategies involved in the allegorical hermeneutics of Philo and Mark. Here it is argued that Mark’s aim is in line with Paul’s allegorical interpretation of Jewish identity markers. At crucial points Mark’s biography of Jesus is an allegorical inscription of Pauline concepts, including his cosmologically framed idea of Christ as God’s wisdom, into the scattered historical traditions about Jesus.


Stefan Nordgaard Svendsen, University of Copenhagen
Philonic Allegory in Hebrews (20 min)
For decades, biblical scholarship has been divided over the question whether or not the author of Hebrews was intellectually influenced by Philo of Alexandria. According to some interpreters, the author was entirely unfamiliar with Philo's work whereas others claim that he must have belonged to the circle around the Alexandrian at some point of his life. In spite of this disagreement, however, practically all scholars agree that he was not influenced by Philo's hermeneutics. Philo, it is argued, read The Old Testament allegorically whereas Hebrews applied typology. The paper challenges this consensus by arguing that the hermeneutics of Hebrews are in fact allegorical and deeply influenced by the Alexandrian philosopher. In the first part of the paper it is argued that the author adopted a number of Philo's allegorical readings (those of the Promised Land, the tabernacle and the Jewish high priest) and developed his argument around them. However, since he operated within an apocalyptically inspired outlook on the world, which differs significantly from Philo's Platonic metaphysics, the allegorical method is transformed in important ways by the author. These changes are identified and explained. In the latter part, it is discussed how the insights into the author's hermeneutics may help us understand the letter's rhetorical aim. It is argued that the author used the allegorical method principally as a means to expose the worthlessness of the Jewish religious institutions in order to dissuade the the recipients from supplementing their Christian faith with observance of the Torah.

Margaret M. Mitchell, University of Chicago, will be the respondent to these papers(15 min).Then there will be an 18 min discussion.

These two Danish scholars, both from the University of Copenhagen, are involved in a Philo related research project called "Philosophy at the Roots of Christianity."
On this project, see my posting below.

Philosophy at the Roots of Christianity

The two Danish scholars, mentioned above as presenting papers on Philo at the SBL Annual Meeting this year, both from the University of Copenhagen, are involved in a Philo related research project called "Philosophy at the Roots of Christianity."
TThe main purpose of this project is to test in what degree it is possible to say that there in fact was a philosophical consciousness mirrored in the oldest writings of Early Christianity, that is the New Testament.

The project is divided into several subsections:
# Philosophy behind the Gospel of Mark
# Philosophy behind allegorical interpretations in the NT
# Philosophy behind the cosmological conceptions of Paul
# Philosophy behind the theo-logical and Christ-ological conceptions of the New Testament
# Philosophy and the Gospel of John

A couple of working papers from scholars involved in this project are available on the internet on one of the pages associated with this page (click on 'Bidrag'):
Troels Engberg-Pedersen: Philosophy of the Self in the Apostle Paul
Henrik Tronier: Rum og krop som tankeform i antik hermeneutik og urkristendommens Kristusfigur.

Their webpages also reveals that Henrik Tronier has a major study forthcoming; its title is given as
Henrik Tronier, Paul in Space. Towards a Spatial Demythologising of Philo, Apocalypses, and Paul (ca. 500 pp., forthcoming).