Happy New Year

From tomorrow and for a week or so, I'll be without access to the Internet , spending the last days of this year and the first ones of 2008 at my private cabin.

Hence, I'll wish all visitors during 2007 A happy new year 2008

Centre for Hellenistic Studies

Thanks to a recent posting on Jim Davila's blog Paleojudaica, based on information provided by Athens News, I have been made aware of the establishment of a Centre for Hellenistic Studies at the Libray of Alexandria in Egypt:"With a capacity of eight million volumes, the Library of Alexandria will host a Centre for Hellenistic Studies as of 2008. The Alexander S Onassis Foundation and the Vardinoyannis Foundation will share the centre's funding as part of their efforts to boost Greek culture abroad and promote the history of the Hellenistic era, during which the ancient library was created.
...

The Alexandria Centre for Hellenistic Studies will offer diplomas and degrees at the master's and PhD levels. The Library of Alexandria will provide the centre with classrooms, lecture rooms and meeting areas. All lessons will be conducted in English, and students will have access to the library premises for their research.

The director of the Library of Alexandria, Dr Ismail Serageldin announced that the centre will receive its first students in September 2008. Referring to the centre's Hellenistic focus, he pointed out: "This was a period when Greece and Egypt joined hands... We should once more reach hands across the Mediterranean to bring that period to life for a new generation of scholars.""

Even though this particular centre will focus on the Hellenistic times, it should be relevant also for students of Philo and his Roman times. It should be thus be interesting to see how the development of this centre will be.

Updated Philo Scholar list

I have tried to update my list on Resource Pages for Biblical Studies, Page Four: The Philo Page, of Scholars involved in writing on Philo, but I still miss several names, and even more web-adresses. If you find that I have missed some, please notify me in the comment field, just below this posting.

Scholars added Dec. 20:

Bosman, Philip R.
University of South Africa, Department of classics and modern european languages.

Cox, Ronald R.
Pepperdine University, Seaver College, Religious Division.

Fox, Kenneth A.
Ambrose University College

Konstan, David.
Brown University, Comparative Literature.

Martiín, Joseé Pablo.
Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, San Miguel, Argentina

Radice, Roberto.
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Facolta' Di Lettere e Filosofia

Riaud, Jean. Universiteé Catholique de l'Ouest, Angers

Pearce,Sarah.
University of Southampton, School of Humanities.

Taylor, Joan

Taught by God

In the last issue of the Tyndale Bulletin (58.2-2007, pp. 313-316) , Stephen E. Witmer is presenting his own Ph D thesis, from University of Cambridge, 2007:Taught by God: Divine Instruction in Early Christianity.His supervisor was Graham N. Stanton.
"The study investigates one aspect of early Christian self-understanding, the conviction of some early followers of Jesus that they had been, and were being, taught by God in fulfilment of OT prophetic promises (most importantly, Isa. 54:13 and Jer. 31:33-34)."
It seems that the study is concentrating on the idea of divine instruction in the Johannine corpus, but also with brief chapters focusing on the Pauline writings and Matthew.
Part One; 'Divine Instruction in the OT and early Jewish literature' is supposed to provide a context for understanding the NT: Chap Two concerns divine instruction in the OT; Chap 3 examines the concept of divine instruction in early Jewish literature, with special attention to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Philo.

According to Witmer then, "Investigation of Philo's writings demonstrates that while Philo has a robust concept of divine instruction, his understanding is very different: it is more indepted to Greek educational ideas and personal observation that to the OT. Philo never draws on the OT prophetic promises mentioned above, and never develops an understanding of eschatological divine instruction."Part Two then deals with the Johannine literature, and Part Three with Divine instruction in Paul and Matthew.

I have, alas, no further publication info on this dissertation.

The apologetics of Philo

From time to time I stumble over books that make me think; How come I didn't see this book before. One of those I stumbled over most recently is this one, published in 2004. It does not deal primarily with Philo, but it contains one article directly relevant for Philo students: Michael F. Mach,
‘Choices for Changing Frontiers: The Apologetics of Philo of Alexandria,’
in Yossef Schwartz and Volkhard Krech (eds.), Religious Apologetics – Philosophical Argumentation (Religion in Philosophy and Theology 19; Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2004. X, 574 pp.), pp. 319-334.
You can read the publisher's information on the book here.
If you try Google, you will find a Table of contents, and the now famous Google book-search engine by clicking here. That's what I did.
Did you know this article. Kåre? :-)

Kulttheology and Philo

Surfing and searching on the Internet for Philo related recently published works, I found this that also has a chapter on Philo: Gäbel, Georg,
Die Kulttheologie des Hebräerbriefes. Eine exegetisch-religionsgeschichtliche Studie (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2.Reihe / 212; Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck 2006. 598 pp), esp. pp. 112-127.
The publisher describes the book thus: "Der Hebräerbrief macht die unüberbietbare Heilsbedeutung von Erniedrigung, Tod und Erhöhung Christi neu und vertieft einsichtig, indem er sie kulttheologisch und damit soteriologisch deutet. Georg Gäbel zeichnet diese kulttheologische Neuinterpretation der Tradition unter breiter Berücksichtigung von für den Hebräerbrief teils noch nicht ausgewertetem religionsgeschichtlichen Material differenziert nach. Der Brief deutet den irdischen Weg Christi als die Erfüllung des Willens Gottes, die in der Selbsthingabe bis in den Tod kulminiert. Komplementär dazu begreift er die Erhöhung Christi als Eintritt ins himmlische Allerheiligste, als hohepriesterliche Investitur und so auch als Darbringung seines Selbstopfers, das die Annullierung der Sünden bewirkt und zugleich das himmlische Heiligtum reinigt und den himmlischen Kult inauguriert. Christologie und Deutung der Adressatensituation sind aufeinander hin entworfen: Die Adressaten sind die Gemeinde des Neuen Bundes, die dem himmlischen Heiligtum und seinem Kult zugehört. Die Taufe ist die Bundesinitiation, welche die Gewissen reinigt, Zutritt zum himmlischen Heiligtum und Befähigung zur Kultteilnahme gewährt. Dem entspricht der Verzicht auf Teilnahme an irdischem Kult. An deren Stelle tritt ein Leben auf Erden in eschatologischer Reinheit, Glaube und Gehorsam, das sich am irdischen Weg Christi orientiert und auf himmlische Herrlichkeit zielt."

A Table of Contents is not provided on the publisher's webpage, but can be accessed via Google, for instance here.

Interpreting Philo’s De Abrahamo

The last of the two sessions in the Philo of Alexandria Group at the SBL Annual Meeting last November was devoted to the theme Interpreting Philo’s De Abrahamo. The session was presided over by Annewies van den Hoek, Harvard University, and the first speaker was professor (now retired) John Dillon, Trinity College, Dublin. He is working on a commentary on De Abrahamo, and presented a section of that work.
It is always fascinating to listen to Professor Dillon. In his ways of presenting, he might remind you somewhat of Philo; easily going into some digressions; because of his great knowledge of this writing and its context, small issues might rise great questions. But he managed to keep himself on the track, to the reward of all who were present.
His presentation was followed by three responses, on which see below.

If you click on the pictures, you'll get them full-sized.

Update:
Ken Schenck, whom I have seen, but never been able to talk to, also has some comments on this session. Check out his blog here.

After Dillon's presentation, Professor Erich Gruen, University of California-Berkeley, was the next speaker. He commented on some aspects of Abraham more than on the particular commentary section presented by Dillon.

Ellen Birmbaum gave the next response to Dillons paper; polite, kindly as ever, but with several to the point observations she gave her response.

The Place of De Abrahamo in Philo's Oeuvre

Professor David T. Runia, now the Master of Queen's College, Queen's College, University of Melbourne, Australia, presented a paper in which he commented on the location and importance of De Abrahamo in Philo's works as a whole.

The Text of Philo's De Abrahamo

The last speaker this evening in the Philo Group was Professor James R. Royse, San Francisco State University, probably the greatest expert on questions related to the texts of Philo works. His paper then dealt with issues concerning textual problems of De Abrahamo.