Sessions on Philo at the SBL Annual Meeting

The preliminary Program Book of teh SBL Annual Meeting is now available on the sbl-site.org, and I am trying to get an overview of what sessions I would like to attend. The following is a presentation of the primary Philo sessions in the Philo group:

S18-128

Philo of Alexandria
11/18/2007. 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Emma C - GH

Theme: Philo in Context

Hindy Najman, University of Toronto, Presiding
Julia Annas, University of Arizona
Philo and Plato's Laws (35 min)

Abstract: Philo is familiar with Plato's Laws, and some of his language in his works on the Decalogue and the Special Laws reflects this. More importantly, his project in these works can reasonably be seen as similar to Plato's attempt, in the Laws, to show how a system of laws can be presented in a persuasive framework which brings out the ethical aims of the laws and the virtues encouraged in those who live according to them. Law is thus presented in a eudaimonistic framework.

Robert A. Kraft, University of Pennsylvania
Looking for Philo's Abraham in all the Wrong Places (35 min)

Abstract: Philo's information about Abraham is mostly built on the Genesis traditions, but occasionally also takes the reader outside that body of material. What other Abrahamic literature or traditions might have been extant in the mid first century, apart from what is also found in Josephus? This presentation is intended as part of the "new M.R.James" (Lost Apocrypha of the OT) project, and surveys the various possibilities that have been suggested over the years (with Philo as a focal point).

Allen Kerkeslager, Saint Joseph's University
Rome as an Alternative to Alexandria in the Early Transmission of Philo's Works and Philonism (35 min)

Abstract: The most popular reconstruction of the early history of Philo's works and ideas is that they were directly transmitted from Philo through Jewish communities in Alexandria to the earliest Christian communities in Alexandria. In this view these Christian communities survived the devastating revolt of 116-117 and transmitted various forms of Philonism during the second century, including forms associated with "Gnosticism." This reconstruction is assumed in extrapolations from second-century Christianity in Alexandria back to first-century Judaism and Christianity in Alexandria. Despite its tantalizing simplicity, this reconstruction has become increasingly untenable. First, recent research on the revolt in 116-117 has shown that its suppression was much more devastating than once supposed. Jewish and Christian communities in Egypt could not have survived to pass on Philo's works or ideas. Second, much of the purported evidence for Philonism in second-century Christian documents from Egypt can be better explained as a recent development in Egyptian Christianity. Extrapolation of first-century Jewish or Christian communities from these documents is anachronistic. Third, the use of Philo in Egypt in the late second century appears with a flood of Christian and Jewish literature imported into Egypt. Philo's works had circulated widely enough before the revolt in 116-117 that their appearance in Egypt after this point might also be due to transmission from another region. This paper will suggest that the survival of Philo's works and ideas up to the middle of the second century is due largely to their transmission in Rome, not Alexandria. Philo sent copies of his works to Herodians and other elites in Rome. Philo's works and ideas were transmitted from Rome in the second century by Gentile Christian travelers and missionaries, some of whom reintroduced them to Alexandria.

C. T. Robert Hayward, University of Durham
Philo, Jerome, and Jewish Exegesis of Genesis 49:14-15 (35 min)
Discussion (10 min)

Abstract: The paper will seek to identify ancient materials in the exegesis of the these verses as represnted by LXX, the Aramaic Targumim, and the Midrashim, comparing and contrasting them with the particular observations offered by Philo on the one hand, and with the remarks made by Jerome in his Hebrew Questions on Genesis and the translation he offered in his Vulgate.

S19-120

Philo of Alexandria
11/19/2007. 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Oxford - GH

Theme: Interpreting Philo’s De Abrahamo

Annewies van den Hoek, Harvard University, Presiding
John Dillon, Trinity College, Dublin
A Sample Commentary on Philo De Abrahamo 119–132 (25 min)

Abstract: A sample commentary of De Abrahamo 119-132 will be presented. In this section Philo enters upon an allegorization of the incident described in Genesis 18, where Abraham is approached by, and entertains, a trio of strangers, who are in fact the Lord, under an alternately monadic and triadic guise. This leads Philo to an exposition of the relation between God himself and his two chief Powers, the Creative and the Administrative (represented by theos and kyrios respectively) which is of great interest, both as to its possible sources and to its philosophical significance. The issue of three levels of approach to God, linked to the triad of manifestations of the divinity, is also of much interest, and requires discussion.

Erich Gruen, University of California-Berkeley, Respondent (15 min)
Ellen Birnbaum, Cambridge, MA, Respondent (15 min)

David T. Runia, University of Melbourne

The Place of De Abrahamo in Philo’s Oeuvre (25 min)

Abstract: Philo’s treatise De Abrahamo is called a bios and it describes the life of the first Patriarch. But at the same time it is part of a much larger work, known as the Exposition of the Law. The paper first explores the link between De opificio mundi (the opening treatise) and De Abrahamo (the next treatise). It then examines how the themes in the treatise reflect the larger agenda that Philo had before him when composing his lengthy Commentary on the Law.

James R. Royse, San Francisco State University
The Text of Philo’s De Abrahamo (25 min)

Abstract: The treatise De Abrahamo is well-attested within the manuscript tradition of Philo, and is also included within the ancient Armenian translation of Philo’s works, which often confirms the readings of the better Greek manuscripts. In this paper I examine the place of De Abrahamo within the Philonic corpus, looking at both the Greek manuscripts and the Armenian version. Special attention will be given to the several places where Cohn judges that the Armenian alone has preserved the authentic text.

Discussion (15 min)
Other (30 min)