Philo of Alexandria

Classics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory E. Sterling
Keyword(s):  
School Setting ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Jewish Family ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Roman World ◽  
C 50 ◽  
Hellenistic Philosophy ◽  
The Temple

Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 bce–c. 50 ce) was the most prolific commentator on the Pentateuch in the Second Temple Jewish period (539 bce–70/135 ce). Philo was a member of a prominent Jewish family in one of the largest Jewish communities in the early Roman world. An observant Jew who made at least one pilgrimage to the temple, Philo led the Jewish embassy before Caligula following the pogrom in Alexandria in 38 ce. His real contribution lay in his writings; he wrote more than seventy treatises, although a third of these have been lost. The bulk of the treatises belongs to three series of commentaries on the Pentateuch. It is possible, although not provable, that Philo produced these in a school setting similar to the schools of ancient philosophers. His writings constitute a rich deposit of exegetical traditions. He inherited a large number of these exegetical traditions that began as early as the 2nd century bce with the works of Aristobulus and Pseudo-Aristeas. He also developed his own interpretations that primarily focus on the ascent of the soul to God. This point of orientation reflects his familiarity with Hellenistic philosophy, especially Middle Platonism. He had read and digested a number of Plato’s treatises, although he also knew other traditions as well. His creative blend of philosophy and exegesis made him attractive to early Christians who preserved the writings that have come down to us.

Jewish Identity and the Intercommunal Links between Diaspora Jewish Communities in the Second Temple Period

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Trotter
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple

Abstract Many diaspora communities identify not only with a distant homeland but also with others distant from the homeland. How exactly do these intercommunal connections take place and contribute toward a shared identity? What specific aspects of diasporan identity are created or strengthened? What practices are involved? This study will begin to answer these questions through investigating two practices which were widespread among diaspora Jewish communities during the last two centuries of the Second Temple period (1st cent. B.C.E.–1st cent. C.E.). First, we will show how sending offerings and making pilgrimages to the Jerusalem temple from these communities enabled regular intercommunal contact. Then, we will suggest some ways in which these voluntary practices reinforced a cohesive Jewish identity and the importance of the homeland, especially the city of Jerusalem and the temple, for many diaspora Jews, whether they lived in Alexandria, Rome, Asia Minor, or Babylonia.

scholarly journals Loss and Longing in the Zoharic Reading of Eichah

2021 ◽  
pp. 98-108
Author(s):  
Gabriela Ripper Naigeborin
Keyword(s):  
Jewish People ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Jewish Diaspora ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Combination Of Material

This essay proposes a close analysis of the introduction to the Kabbalist text known as Midrash ha-Ne’lam al Eichah, an interpretation of the biblical book of Lamentations which integrates the medieval text of the Sefer ha-Zohar. While the biblical version centers the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E., the medieval narrative of the Midrash ha-Ne’lam opens with an anachronistic argument between the two Jewish communities historically formed with the fall of the First Temple: the one in Babylon, the symbol of the Jewish Diaspora, and the other in Jerusalem, the heart of the Holy Land of the Jewish people. Collapsing the destruction of the First Temple with the subsequent destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., the Midrash ha-Ne’lam intersperses literal and figurative meaning to craft a cosmic narrative of loss and longing, which runs parallel to the original biblical account. By focusing on the argument between the Babylonian and Jewish communities, the present article probes into a tension that structures the Jewish condition in the diaspora: the combination of material distance from, and spiritual attachment to, one’s sacred homeland, induces a state of spiritual homelessness. The Midrash ha-Ne’lam paints the “competition” for the right to mourn the loss of the Temple as a family argument between those who stayed in the destroyed homeland and those who have strayed from it many generations before, a tension that reverberates to this day on the inner division between diaspora and Israeli Jews.

scholarly journals Loss and Longing in the Zoharic Reading of Eichah

2021 ◽  
pp. 98-108
Author(s):  
Gabriela Ripper Naigeborin
Keyword(s):  
Jewish People ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Jewish Diaspora ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Combination Of Material

This essay proposes a close analysis of the introduction to the Kabbalist text known as Midrash ha-Ne’lam al Eichah, an interpretation of the biblical book of Lamentations which integrates the medieval text of the Sefer ha-Zohar. While the biblical version centers the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E., the medieval narrative of the Midrash ha-Ne’lam opens with an anachronistic argument between the two Jewish communities historically formed with the fall of the First Temple: the one in Babylon, the symbol of the Jewish Diaspora, and the other in Jerusalem, the heart of the Holy Land of the Jewish people. Collapsing the destruction of the First Temple with the subsequent destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., the Midrash ha-Ne’lam intersperses literal and figurative meaning to craft a cosmic narrative of loss and longing, which runs parallel to the original biblical account. By focusing on the argument between the Babylonian and Jewish communities, the present article probes into a tension that structures the Jewish condition in the diaspora: the combination of material distance from, and spiritual attachment to, one’s sacred homeland, induces a state of spiritual homelessness. The Midrash ha-Ne’lam paints the “competition” for the right to mourn the loss of the Temple as a family argument between those who stayed in the destroyed homeland and those who have strayed from it many generations before, a tension that reverberates to this day on the inner division between diaspora and Israeli Jews.

scholarly journals The place of Philo of Alexandria in the history of philosophy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgi Shavulev
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Jewish Scholar ◽  
History Of ◽  
Research Contribution ◽  
Hellenistic Philosophy ◽  
Prevailing View

Philo of Alexandria (ca. 20 B.C.E. -50 C.E.), or Philo Judaeus as he is also called, was a Jewish scholar, philosopher, politician, and author who lived in Alexandria and who has had a tremendous influence through his works (mostly on the Christian exegesis and theology). Today hardly any scholar of Second Temple Judaism, early Christianity, or Hellenistic philosophy sees any great imperative in arguing for his relevance. After the research (contribution) of V. Nikiprowetzky in the field of philonic studies, it seems that the prevailing view is that Philo should be regarded above all as an “exegete “. Such an opinion in one way or another seems to neglect to some extent Philo's place in the History of philosophy. This article defends the position that Philo should be considered primarily as a “hermeneut”. Emphasizing that the concept of hermeneutics has a broader meaning (especially in the context of antiquity) than the narrower and more specialized concept of exegesis.

What's Divine about Divine Law?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Western Idea ◽  
Jewish Writers ◽  
Divine Law

In the thousand years before the rise of Islam, two radically diverse conceptions of what it means to say that a law is divine confronted one another with a force that reverberates to the present. This book untangles the classical and biblical roots of the Western idea of divine law and shows how early adherents to biblical tradition—Hellenistic Jewish writers such as Philo, the community at Qumran, Paul, and the talmudic rabbis—struggled to make sense of this conflicting legacy. This book shows that for the ancient Greeks, divine law was divine by virtue of its inherent qualities of intrinsic rationality, truth, universality, and immutability, while for the biblical authors, divine law was divine because it was grounded in revelation with no presumption of rationality, conformity to truth, universality, or immutability. The book describes the collision of these opposing conceptions in the Hellenistic period, and details competing attempts to resolve the resulting cognitive dissonance. It shows how Second Temple and Hellenistic Jewish writers, from the author of 1 Enoch to Philo of Alexandria, were engaged in a common project of bridging the gulf between classical and biblical notions of divine law, while Paul, in his letters to the early Christian church, sought to widen it. The book then delves into the literature of classical rabbinic Judaism to reveal how the talmudic rabbis took a third and scandalous path, insisting on a construction of divine law intentionally at odds with the Greco-Roman and Pauline conceptions that would come to dominate the Christianized West. This book sheds critical light on an ancient debate that would shape foundational Western thought, and that continues to inform contemporary views about the nature and purpose of law and the nature and authority of Scripture.

Going Through Hell; ΤΑΡΤΑΡΟΣ in Greco-Roman Culture, Second Temple Judaism, and Philo of Alexandria

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-378
Author(s):  
Clint Burnett
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Greek Myths

This article questions the longstanding supposition that the eschatology of the Second Temple period was solely influenced by Persian or Iranian eschatology, arguing instead that the literature of this period reflects awareness of several key Greco-Roman mythological concepts. In particular, the concepts of Tartarus and the Greek myths of Titans and Giants underlie much of the treatment of eschatology in the Jewish literature of the period. A thorough treatment of Tartarus and related concepts in literary and non-literary sources from ancient Greek and Greco-Roman culture provides a backdrop for a discussion of these themes in the Second Temple period and especially in the writings of Philo of Alexandria.

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