The Creation of Heaven and Earth

On BrynMawr, there is a review of the following volume, hitherto unknown to me:George H. van Kooten (ed.),
The Creation of Heaven and Earth.
Re-interpretations of Genesis 1 in the Context of Judaism, Ancient
Philosophy, Christianity, and Modern Physics. Themes in Biblical
Narrative 8. Leiden: Brill, 2005. Pp. xiv, 284. ISBN 90-04-14235-5.
EUR 109.00.
Reviewed by Pieter W. van der Horst,Utrecht University (The Netherlands)
The 14 contributions to this volume are the revised versions of papers read at an international conference at Groningen University in 2003. They deal with the creation of the cosmos in the Hebrew Bible and with the interpretations of this story in antiquity, both Jewish and Christian and Greco-Roman. In my opinion, in a volume like this there should at least be one article on Philo, and that seems to be the case: the reviewer writes that "In a short but fascinating contribution, John Dillon discusses the context of Philo's interpretation of Plato's Timaeus and the book of Genesis and argues "both that there had been a good deal of discussion in the Hellenistic schools, in the wake of Plato's Timaeus and Aristotle's response in De Caelo, as to the logical and ontological status of the physical world, and that Philo was pretty well acquainted
with the ins and outs of this. Not only his exposition in De opificio mundi , but the (hostile) account of Plato's position, and of Academic defences of it, that he provides (in his persona as a defender of Aristotle) at the beginning of De aeternitate mundi (Sections 13-16), fully demonstrate this. He had to balance this, however, with his stance as a pillar of the Jewish faith and of Jewish culture generally, within an Alexandrian milieu, and this inevitably serves to obscure his
position" (106-7)."
I presume the article is much longer than page 106-107 (which is most probable the location of the quotation given), but the length of the article is not given by the reviewer, nor the title of the contribution. You can read the rest of the review at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2005/2005-04-31.html

Update by April 22.
In a letter David T. Runia has kindly commented on this posting. I post it here as it certainly adds value to the posting of mine given above:

"Having just read the latest report on your blog I can tell you that
the pages for John Dillon's interesting article on Philo's interpretation of Plato's Timaeus (a subject dear to my heart) are 97-107.
I would also recommend the article by the editor, George van Kooten, entitled The 'True Light which enlightens everyone' (John 1:9): John, Genesis, the Platonic Notion of the 'True, Noetic Light,' and the Allegory of the Cave in Plato's Republic
discussion of Philo on pp. 153-155. Van Kooten puts forward the strongest case mounted so far for the influence of Platonism on the Gospel of John."
Thanks David!

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