Two more reviews to read..

The SBL Review of Biblical Literature posted most recently two reviews very relevant for Philo research. Have a look at these:Calvert-Koyzis, Nancy
Paul, Monotheism and the People of God: The Significance of Abraham Traditions for Early Judaism and Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=4574
Reviewed by Chris Smith.
The thirs chapter of this book discusses Philo. Mark Nanos had another review of this book earlier this year, see Nanos' Review.

The other volume reviewed is this
Runia, David T. and Gregory E. Sterling, eds.
The Studia Philonica Annual: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism: Volume XVI 2004
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=4598
Reviewed by Michele Murray.

Digitalized Philo texts arrived

A couple of days ago I received my version of the Logos version of the Philo texts. They installed nice, and I enjoy using them. I'll be back with some more comments in a week or so.

In the meantime, I am leaving my office in Stavanger for a week, going back home to Volda. I am not yet as happy as Marc Goodacre to be able to move with the whole family, hence I am for the time being trying to survive away from my wife and home, living in a flat by myself in Stavanger.
It's a strange experience, not to be recommended.....

Pictures of Philo?

I have been searching the Internet for good and free pictures of "Philo" for the use in a forthcoming publication on Philo (8000 pages) with Gorgias Press. As far as I can see the Middle Age Philo (Crusader?) is free http://www.earlychurch.org.uk/philo.php. The same picture is used e.g. on http://www.philos-website.de/index_g.htm?autoren/philo_g.htm~main2

However, I am not sure about this one: http://thriceholy.net/library.html.

Goodenough "The Politics of Philo Judaeus" (Olm 1938/1967) has several nice illustrations. I guess a reproduction of the first printed text of Philo (Hain 1657) in Goodenough p. 187 is free since there are no images on this page. Tell me, if you know other free sources.

Who was this Philo?

Some times you might discover descriptions that are just marvelous in their comprehensiveness; in my opinion some German scholars are experts in heaping up such pregnant descriptions. Consider just this one about Philo:Neben Josephus der literarisch produktivste Jude der Antike, Glied einer der vornehmste und reichsten Familien der alexandrinischen Judenschaft, erzogen im griechischen Bildungsgang gemäss griechischen Paideia-Ideal, vertraut mit Sprache und Gedanken der Philosophenschulen und Mysterien, eingetaucht in den späthellenistischen philosophisch-religiösen Synkretismus, Ausleger der heiligen Schriften Israels, Verteidiger des Judentums in Wort und Tat, ohne aufweisbare Vorläufer, ohne eigene Schule, ohne deutliche Nachwirkung innerhalb seines Volkes: so steht Philo, "beredt in der Sprache und reich an Gedanken, hoch und erhaben in der Auslegung der göttlichen Bücher", vor uns - auf der einen Seite betrachtet als "bedeutenster Vortreter des Diaspora-Judentums", als "der hervoragendste unter all den Männern, welche judischen Glauben mit hellenistischer Bildung zu vermählen . . . sich bestrebten", als "ein Philosoph grossen Stils. . . , der Begrunder jeglicher grundlegenden Vorstellung, die fortan im Verlauf der ganzen Philosophiegeschichte diskutiert wurde", auf der anderen Seite eingestuft als "ein kleiner Geist", der "nicht zu den schaffenden Persönlichkeiten" gehort, ohne Originalität, unwittert von der "Tragik des Kompromisslers, der ohne eigene Schöpferkraft äusserlich zwischen zwei verschiedenen Weltanschauungen zu vermitteln sucht", und jedefalls erkannt als "die komplizierteste und den verschiedensten Einflussen ausgesetzte Personlichkeit des Altertums." Together with 20 extensive footnotes, this description comprises two book-pages! Only a German could do anything like that, greatly helped by the syntax possibilities of the German language,- just note how few final periods there are in this passage!

It's just marvelous,- but: Who wrote this passage? I know, of course, but just for fun: is there anybody out there who recognize this long quotation? Use the comments field below for suggestions. :-)

Update Oct 5:
The passage above is taken from
Andreas Nissen,
Gott und der Nächste im Antike Judentum. Untersuchungen zum Dobbeelgebot der Liebe
(Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 15)
Tubingen, J.C.B.Mohr, 1974, pp. 417-419.
This is one of the most densively packed and comprehensive description I have ever seen. I don't think I should even try to translate it into English.

Cultural Persistence in Jewish Antiquity

A new book, hitherto unknown to me, are being reviewed in the BrynMawr Classical Review these days:Steven Weitzman, Surviving Sacrilege.
Cultural Persistence in Jewish Antiquity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. Pp. viii, 204. ISBN 0-674-01708-0. $39.95. Reviewed by Marcus Sigismund, Bergische Universitat Wuppertal.
The study explores the struggle for cultural survival of ancient Judaism, their efforts to preserve religious traditions and the tactics that early Jewish culture employed to sustain itself in the face of intractable, sometimes hostile realities. The study is limited to the period between the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. and that of the Second by the Romans in 70 C.E.

The book has 8 chapters, and the review writes this about chapter 3:In chapter 3 the author demonstrates that one of the factors which
allowed the Jews to sustain their traditions under Caligula's rule was
having friends in the right places. This chapter draws heavily on The
Embassy to Gaius by Philo, who thought that the most effective way of
keeping Jewish tradition alive was to cooperate with the Roman rule and
count on the emperor's justice. Weitzman shows how Philo argues that
supporting the Jewish tradition is part of the Roman mos maiorum. Philo
uses exempla from the emperor's own family to argue that a violation of
Jewish tradition would also be a violation of Roman tradition.
The review can be read online here

Be kind .. (cont.)

It's Monday morning here in Norway; getting back from my weekend, I found this letter from Stephen Gøranson, in my google mailbox:"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
"This quotation (or a variant) is often attributed either to Philo or Plato,though I've never seen a specific citation.

For what it's worth, here's the closest thing I found by searching JSTOR. In The Biblical World (retitled the next year as The Journal of Religion) v. 54 n. 6 (1920) page 606 Ozora S. Davis, in an article on preaching quoted II Peter 1:57 and then commented on each phrase, including:
"_brotherly kindness_--Everyone is fighting a hard battle"."
Thanks for this info, Stephen! This 'Philo Apocryphon' (as Jim Davila called it), is to be found on several webpages, always attributed to Philo, but with no further references given.

The whole story reminds me of something that happened several years ago, when I had just started on a three year scholarship period. A local pastor asked me what I was going to study, and I said 'Philo of Alexandria'.
"Oh, one of the church fathers, the pastor exclaimed.

...I didn't explain to her that she was wrong. After all, who is Philo! :-)

Be Kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

I was just trying out the Google Blog Search,mentioned today by Mark Goodacre, and up came this slogan that I have seen from time to time, always attributed to PhiloBe Kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. The problem is, however, that I have never read this in any of Philo's works. I may have overlooked it, that's possible,- of course. But searches in both the Greek text and in Whiston's old translation have given no 'hits'.

Does any one out there know the background of this saying? How come it is attributed to Philo?

The Septuagint, Sexuality, and the New Testament

Review of Biblical Literature releases a new bookreview related to the studies of Philo and his world, written by Mark Mcentire;
William Loader,
The Septuagint, Sexuality, and the New Testament: Case Studies on the Impact of the LXX in Philo and the New TestamentGrand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004, pp. x + 163.Paperback. Another review of the same book was launched last July, written by Robert Hiebert.

Accordance and Philo

August 15 Kåre Fuglseth, my co-blogger, announced the publication of a digital version of Philo's works on several platforms.
Here is the announcement made by Accordance, on the integration and publication of Philo's works in the Accordance, the well- known program for Biblical studies on Macintosh computers. Suggested publication date is november 2005; perhaps in time for the SBL Annual Meeting?
They further say: "All the extant Greek texts of Philo have been prepared, lemmatized, and initially tagged grammatically by The Norwegian Philo Concordance Project, under the leadership of Norwegian scholar Peder Borgen (University of Trondheim), along with Roald Skarsten (University of Bergen), and Kare Fuglseth (University of Trondheim). The grammatical tagging has been extensively revised and updated for Accordance by Rex A. Koivisto of Multnomah Bible College, Portland, Oregon."

TLG - Philo - software

As most of you will know, the Greek texts of Philo are available in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae project. These texts are, however, as will also be known,...., in beta form, and need software programs to be used. I have used one particular program for some time, but a recent review in BrynMawr revealed to me the fact that there are now several recently updated programs available for using the TLG CD-disks and their texts.

The TLG webpage has a spesial page presenting the various programs available; their presentation is rather short and neutral; but then you can go to the webpages of the respective companies to read some more enthusiastic presentations. I might even try some of them, at least as far they are downloadble in demo format.

Using the Works of Philo with BDAG

If you are using electronic access to BDAG, you will get some helpful suggestions by reading the recent blog on The Logos Bible Blog. You may also find this one useful: More on Looking Up Citations: Pseudepigrapha