As many of us know, the SBL Annual Meeting is an excellent place and occasion to get your hands on new books. Here are the new books on Philo that I carried with me in my suitcase back home, presented from the one on the top of the pile on the picture:
Hans Svebakken,
Philo of Alexandria’s Exposition of the Tenth Commandment.
Studia Philonica Monographs 6
Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, 2012.
Mireille Hadas-Lebel,
Philo of Alexandria. A Thinker in the Jewish Diaspora
Studies in Philo of Alexandria 7
Brill; Leiden, 2012 (orig published in French in 2003)
Karl-Gustav Sandelin,
Attraction and Danger of Alien Religion. Studies in Early Judaism and Christianity
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 290
Mohr-Siebeck; Tubingen, 2012
Albert C. Geljon and David T. Runia,
Philo of alexandria On Cultivation. Inroduction, Translation and Commentary
Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series 4
Brill; Leiden, 2013
Svebakken’s book is the revised and updated version of his dissertation, carried out under the mentorship of Thomas Tobin. It deals with Philo’s exposition of the tenth Commandment, beginning with an overview of its content, context and place in previous research. Chapter Two deals with Philo on desire (pp 33-80); Chapt Three is about Philo on Self-control and practice (pp. 81-108), and then the Fourth chapter is a translation and commentary on Philo’s exposition of the tenth commandment (pp. 109-183), followed by a brief summary and lines of further research.
As mentioned above, the book on Philo by Hadas-Lebel was published in French in 2003; those of us not mastering French as well as we ought to, should be happy for this translation. The book will surely have to be listed among the several readable Introductions to Philo that is available now, and more is to come.
K.-G. Sandelin has published several articles on Philo, on Philo and the New Testament, and on topics from the New testament. His first collection of these articles, a collection of his articles written in Sweedish, was published in 2008 (Sophia och hennes värld. Exegetiska uppsatser från fyra årtionden. Studier i exegetik och judaistik utgivna av Teologiska fakulteten vid Åbo Akademi Nr. Teologiska Fakulteten, Åbo Akademi; Åbo, 2008). The present volume is a collection of ten his articles, originally published in English. Five of these deals directly with Philo, but Philo is drawn upon also in some of the others.It is good to have these articles of the Finnish scholar gathered in these two volumes.
This year saw the publication of another volume from the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series. Hopefully there will be another out next year(?). The one published this year deals with Philo’s work De Agricultura/On Cultivation, a text dealing with Genesis 9:20a!
I must admit, I have been so busy after I returned home from Chicago that there has not been much time for reading; I intend, however, to return to some of these books in later postings.
And then I bought some books related to the New Testament too, but the disclosure of these titles will have to wait for my next blogpost…. Stay tuned……..
Philonica et Neotestamentica 
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