A New German translation of Philo’s Quod omnis probus liber sit,

Vandenhoeck & Ruprech are publishing a new series of ancient Jewish and Christian works, in which also some volumes of Philo will be included.

The series is presented thus:

Jürgen Wehnert (Hg.)

Kleine Bibliothek der antiken jüdischen und christlichen Literatur

“Die „Kleine Bibliothek der antiken jüdischen und christlichen Literatur“ möchte jüdische und christliche Texte vorstellen, die außerhalb der Hebräischen Bibel und des Neuen Testaments stehen, aber aufgrund ihrer religiösen Bedeutung sowie ihrer sprachlichen Schönheit eine Neuentdeckung lohnen. Die Bände sollen im halbjährigen Turnus erscheinen. In den Bänden werden jüdische und christliche Texte gleichgewichtig vertreten sein.”  You can get more details here.

The first volume of Philo is published this spring:

Reinhard von Bendemann (Hg.),
Philo von Alexandria – Über die Freiheit des Rechtschaffenen.
Kleine Bibliothek der antiken jüdischen und christlichen Literatur –
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 1. Auflage 2016. 89 Seiten kartoniert
ISBN 978-3-525-53465-6. 10,00 €

Five other volumes (not Philo’s) have also been published so far (see here), and these are to follow in the near future ( the V & R webpage contains no info about if or when there will be translations of more of Philo’s works):

Frühjahr 2016
Frank Schleritt / Jürgen Wehnert, Hegesipp und Papias. Die Reste der Werke zweier Kirchenväter, ca. 60 S., ca. 9,99 €

Herbst 2016
Stefanie Holder, Josef und Aseneth, ca. 80 S., ca. 9,99 €
Felix Albrecht, 1. Klemensbrief, ca. 80 S., ca. 9,99 €

Frühjahr 2017
Annette Steudel, Die Loblieder aus Qumran, ca. 65 S., ca. 9,99 €
Johanna Brankaer / Enno Edzard Popkes, Das Mariaevangelium/Das Judasevangelium/Das Thomasevangelium, ca. 80 S. , ca. 9,99 €

Herbst 2017
Berndt Schaller, Das Testament Hiobs, ca. 80 S. , ca. 9,99 €
Felix Albrecht, Die Ignatiusbriefe/Der Brief des Polykarp, 80 S., ca. 9,99 €

 

Articles by way of Academia.edu

I don’t know if you know Academia.edu, but if you are scholar, I encourage you to be a member. It is a wonderful arena in which we can share our academic work for mutual benefit. If you ‘follow’ colleagues on this site, you will be notified when they post something on the site.

Got to http://www.academia.edu and have a look.

Philo on Academia.edu

As just an example of the procedure mentioned above, I was noticed that Sofia Torallas (Associate Professor at the Dpt. of Classics and NELC at the University of Chicago) had just uploaded her study on Philo:

«El orfebre del insulto. Filón y el griego de Alejandría», in Samir Khalil Samir – Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala (eds.), Graeco-Latina et Orientalia. Studia in honorem Angeli Urbani heptagenarii, Córdoba-Beirut, 2013: 384-399.

According to some site info, “35,179,170 academics have signed up to Academia.edu, adding 11,182,942 papers and 1,843,083 research interests. Academia.edu attracts over 36 million unique visitors a month.”

There might be something for you too!

 

The Studia Philonica Annual 2015

The latest issue of The Studia Philonica Annual finally reached my desk last week:

The Studia Philonica Annual XXVII . 2015/
Studies in Hellenistic Judaism
Edited by David T. Runia and Gregory E. Sterling
(Atlanta, SBL Press, 2015).271pp.

As usual, the Annual has a section of Articles, a Special section, and a Bibliography section, and a Book review section.
In the Articles section we find the following studies:
Sarah Pearce, Intermarriage and the Ancestors of the Jews: Philonic Perspectives (pp. 1-26);
Michael Francis, Wasted Seed and Sins of intent: Sexual Ethics in De Specialibus Legibus 3.34-36 in the Case of Infertile Marriage (pp. 27-52);
Arco den Heijer, Cosmic Mothers in Philo of Alexandria and in Neopythagoreanism (pp. 53-70);
Gregory E. Sterling, The Theft of Philosophy: Philo of Alexandria and Numenius of Apamea (pp. 71-86);
Orrey McFarland, Philo’s Prepositional Metaphysics within Early Christian Debates about the Relation of Dicine Nature and Agency (pp. 87-110);
Benjamin Pollock, Philosophy’s Inquisitor: Franz Rosenzweig’s Philo between Judaism, Paganism and Christianity (pp. 111-127).

The Special Section provides some papers presented at the Philo sessions at the SBL Annual Meeting in San Diego in 2014:
Sarah Pearce, Introduction (pp. 129-132);
James R. Royse, The Text of Philo’s De Decalogo in Vaticanus GR. 316 (pp. 133-142);
Abraham Terian, The Armenian Textual Tradition of Philo’s De Decalogo (pp. 143-154);
Manuel Alexandre Jr., Rhetorical Texture and Pattern in Philo’s De Decalogo (pp. 155-180)

Then follows the Bibliography Section, which focuses on studies published in 2012, followed by a Review Section, containing seven book reviews. Finally then, some News and Notes, Notes on Contributors, and Instructors to Contributors.

It is a great asset to have such an Annual, completely devoted to Philo, his works and his world, and it is a pleasure to have and read, and to contribute. It is an Annual you will return to over and over again if you like studying Philo of Alexandria.

Hurtado and Lincoln-festschriften

I just want to point your attention to two more recent Festschriften, here described by Nijay Gupta: https://cruxsolablog.com/2016/04/01/hurtado-and-lincoln-festschriften-gupta/

Two prominent scholars, well deserving this honor of having great Festschriften published!

The Studia Philonica web page?

The Studia Philonica Annual (etc) webpage (http://divinity.yale.edu/philo-alexandria) has been down for some time now, and I still do not know the reason why; hopefully it is just due to some temporary problems.

In the meanwhile, some Philo material is still available on my page: http://torreys.org/bible/ (check out the right column)

Christians in Pompeii?

For all of those who are interested in early Christianity, and especially those who have walked in the streets of Pompeii, this book should be interesting reading:

Bruce Longenecker,
The Crosses of Pompeii: Jesus-Devotion in a Vesuvian Town.
Fortress Press, 2016 (Release date: May 1, 2016)

“Archaeologists have disputed the scarce evidence claimed for the presence of Christians in Pompeii before the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Now, Bruce W. Longenecker reviews that evidence in comparison with other possible data of first-century Christian presence elsewhere in the Mediterranean and reaches the conclusion that there were indeed Christians living in the doomed city. The Crosses of Pompeii presents an elegant case for their presence, with photographic illustration of the available archaeological evidence.” (Publishers text).

Exciting new book

One of the books I am looking forward to dig into this fall, is this:

Larry W. Hurtado,
Destroyer of the gods.
Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World,
Baylor University Press, sept 2016. Hardback, 279 pages, $29.95

From the publishers announcement:

“Silly,” “stupid,” “irrational,” “simple.” “Wicked,” “hateful,” “obstinate,” “anti-social.” “Extravagant,” ”perverse.” The Roman world rendered harsh judgments upon early Christianity—including branding Christianity “new.” Novelty was no Roman religious virtue.
Nevertheless, as Larry W. Hurtado shows in Destroyer of the gods, Christianity thrived despite its new and distinctive features and opposition to them. Unlike nearly all other religious groups, Christianity utterly rejected the traditional gods of the Roman world. Christianity also offered a new and different kind of religious identity, one not based on ethnicity. Christianity was distinctively a “bookish” religion, with the production, copying, distribution, and reading of texts as central to its faith, even preferring a distinctive book-form, the codex. Christianity insisted that its adherents behave differently: unlike the simple ritual observances characteristic of the pagan religious environment, embracing Christian faith meant a behavioral transformation, with particular and novel ethical demands for men. Unquestionably, to the Roman world, Christianity was both new and different, and, to a good many, it threatened social and religious conventions of the day.”

You can read more and order the book here.