Logos as Mediator

Díaz Lisboa, Matias Alejandro. “El Logos Mediador en Filón de Alejandría.” Palabra y Razón. Revista de Teologia. Filosofia y Ciencias de la Religión 20 (2021): 33–53.

Abstract: “The objective of this work is to analyze and systematize one of the most important topics around the thought of Philo of Alexandria, his theory of the Logos. Primarily, the introduction will show how the theory of the Logos in Philo has been treated, a theory that has only paid attention to just some aspects of the Logos, for later (in the following chapters) to reconstruct a doctrine that is in all the forms in which Philo works on the concept of Logos, the notion of the Logos as a mediator, a notion assumed by all scholars, but not explained. Based on this concept of mediator Logos, the classical role that the conception of the Logos as an instrument has had will be examined in the structure of the investigation, to show the difficulties of this understanding, and, with it, to be able to access the radicality of the Philonian logos. The proposal that will be approached by examining some central features that reveal the specific characteristics of the Philonian theory of Logos, such as (1) the problem of mediation in the scheme of creation, (2) the Logos itself, (3) its independence and (4) its necessity in Philo’s thought.”

Philo on Joseph, the Patriarch

Díaz-Lisboa, Mat́ias. “Filón de Alejandría: Consideraciones Filosófo-Políticas en Torno a José (Patriarca) y la Ley de la Naturaleza.” Palabra y Razón. Revista de Teologia. Filosofia y Ciencias de la Religión 17 (2020): 26–43.

Abstract: Inherent in the Corpus Philonicum is its apparent contempt for political life, presented as a veil that skews our total perception of truth; a portrait of the above is the life of Joseph, who in the words of Philo is a simple addition of theLord, subjected to the mutability of the sensible, Egypt. This notion has been the standard interpretation about Joseph. However, in this work it will be shown, that this negative path has been only a slight error. That is why a thesis will be developed that does not frame Joseph under canonical categories, as a villain for the Jews, or an ideal legislator for the Romans, but, based on the concept of natural law and its intersections with his statesman, be considered good for both Jews and Romans.

New article by Paula Fredriksen

Fredriksen, P. (2022). “Philo, Herod, Paul, and the Many Gods of Ancient Jewish “Monotheism””. Harvard Theological Review, 115(1), 23-45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816022000049

Abstract

“Many gods lived in the Roman Empire. All ancient peoples, including Jews and, eventually, Christians, knew this to be the case. Exploring the ways that members of these groups thought about and dealt with other gods while remaining loyal to their own god, this essay focuses particularly on the writings and activities of three late Second Temple Jews who highly identified as Jews: Philo of Alexandria, Herod the Great, and the apostle Paul. Their loyalty to Israel’s god notwithstanding, they also acknowledged the presence, the agency, and the power of foreign deities. Reliance on “monotheism” as a term of historical description inhibits our appreciation of the many different social relationships, human and divine, that all ancient Jews had to navigate. Worse, “monotheism” fundamentally misdescribes the religious sensibility of antiquity.”

Two Handbook Articles

Rogers, Justin (2022). “Origen’s Use of Philo Judeaus”. In: Ronald E. Heine, Karen Jo Torjesen (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Origen. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bucur, Bogdan G. (2022). “Philo and Clement of Alexandria”. In: Mark Edwards, Dimitrios Pallis, y Georgios Steires (eds.), The Oxford handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 77-93.

Plutarch, Philo and the New Testament

Hirsch-Luipold, Rainer (ed.), “Part 2. Plutarch, Philo and the New Testament”. In: Plutarch and the New Testament in Their Religio-Philosophical Contexts. Bridging Discourses in the World of the Early Roman Empire. Series Brill’s Plutarch Studies, Volume 9, Leiden, Brill

Pleše, Zlatko (2022). ““God Is the Measure of All Things”: Plutarch and Philo on the Benefits of Religious Worship”. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold (ed.), Plutarch and the New Testament in Their Religio-Philosophical Contexts. Bridging Discourses in the World of the Early Roman Empire. Series Brill’s Plutarch Studies, Volume 9. Leiden: Brill, 87–108. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004505070_006

Sterling, Gregory E. (2022). “When East and West Meet: Eastern Religions and Western Philosophy in Philo of Alexandria and Plutarch of Chaeronea”. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold (ed.), Plutarch and the New Testament in Their Religio-Philosophical Contexts. Bridging Discourses in the World of the Early Roman Empire. Series Brill’s Plutarch Studies, Volume 9. Leiden: Brill, 109–124. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004505070_007

Reydams-Schils, Gretchen (2022). “Philautia, Self-Knowledge, and Oikeiôsis in Philo of Alexandria and Plutarch”. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold (ed.), Plutarch and the New Testament in Their Religio-Philosophical Contexts. Bridging Discourses in the World of the Early Roman Empire. Series Brill’s Plutarch Studies, Volume 9. Leiden: Brill, 125–140. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004505070_008

Despotis, Athanasios (2022). “The Relation between Anthropology and Love Ethics in John against the Backdrop of Plutarchan and Philonic Ideas”. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold (ed.), Plutarch and the New Testament in Their Religio-Philosophical Contexts. Bridging Discourses in the World of the Early Roman Empire. Series Brill’s Plutarch Studies, Volume 9. Leiden: Brill, 141–161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004505070_009

Elschenbroich, Julian (2022). “The Mechanics of Death: Philo’s and Plutarch’s Views on Human Death as a Backdrop for Paul’s Eschatology”. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold (ed.), Plutarch and the New Testament in Their Religio-Philosophical Contexts. Bridging Discourses in the World of the Early Roman Empire. Series Brill’s Plutarch Studies, Volume 9. Leiden: Brill, 162–174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004505070_010

‘Ex-Pagan Pagans’?

Denys N. McDonald, “Ex-Pagan Pagans? Paul, Philo, and Gentile Ethnic Reconfiguration.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament March 2022, 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221082363

Abstract: “In Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle (2017), Paula Fredriksen reminds us that gods and their cults were intertwined with ancient ethnic groups so much so that, when Gentiles committed themselves exclusively to Israel’s God, some Jews considered this ‘tantamount to changing ethnicity’. Fredriksen claims, however, that Paul’s Gentile addressees – whom she terms ‘ex-pagan pagans’ – remain separate ethnically from Jews despite forsaking their ancestral gods for Israel’s. Given that gods and ethnicity were intertwined, this article examines if it is reasonable to conclude that Paul thinks Gentile Christ-followers remain strictly Gentiles after they have abandoned their ethnic gods and entered into a relationship with Israel and its God. I argue that, similar to Philo’s proselyte inclusion strategy, Paul incorporates Gentiles-in-Christ into ethnic Israel. As Abraham’s ‘offspring’, Paul suggests that his addressees not only gain membership in Israel’s covenant on account of Israel’s messiah, but that they also acquire a new ethnic identity despite that their prior identities as ‘the Gentiles’ are not erased. This study, then, seeks to destabilize the binary that Fredriksen posits between ethnic Israel and Paul’s Gentiles-in-Christ as ethnic ‘other’. In the end, I demonstrate that Paul’s ethnic reconfiguration of Gentile identities resembles Philo’s proselyte discourse and is more disruptive ethnically than Fredriksen’s phrase ‘ex-pagan pagans’ would suggest.”

From Exclusion to Inclusion?

Clifford, H. “From Exclusion to Inclusion? Deuteronomy 23:1–8 in Philo and Beyond”. In: Hywel Clifford & Megan Daffern (eds.), The Exegetical and the Ethical. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2022, pp. 175–199.

Abstract: “This essay considers Philo of Alexandria’s interpretations of Deuteronomy 23:1–8, biblical laws about exclusion (of the “eunuch”, etc.), which he allegorised in terms of religious/philosophical doctrines (e.g. atheism). For Philo, “the assembly of the Lord” is predominantly the soul; hence Deut. 23:1–8 is about what must not enter there. What must enter is orthodox belief and practice: to be a disciple of Mosaic law, to enable the soul’s ascent towards God (in biblical Jewish Middle Platonist terms, suited to Philo’s cultural setting). Philo’s interpretations are compared with texts from Second Temple Judaism (e.g. DSS, NT), highlighting their shared landscape yet distinctive perspectives. The essay then outlines approaches from the history of interpretation: Deut. 23:1–8 are (1) marriage laws, (2) laws about the sanctuary, or (3) laws about holding public office. Philo is compared to each in turn. Modern historical-critical scholars seek to assign Deut. 23:1–8 their original setting (early Israelite governance), whereas deconstructive postmodern approaches go beyond “the tradition” seeing in these laws all non-normative identities. Finally, suggestions are made as to what a Christian sermon on Deut. 23:1–8 might contain in view of its reception history in relation to exclusion and inclusion.”

De Vita Contemplativa

Diego Andrés Cardoso Bueno,

«El tratado De vita contemplativa de Filón de Alejandría en el marco de la Pentalogía que le atribuye Eusebio de Cesarea.» Gerión. Revista de Historia Antigua  40(1) 2022: 153-178.

Abstract. “The text of De Vita Contemplativa was written by Philo of Alexandria as an encomium of the Jewish people, and it was part of a set of essays aiming to the same purpose. We know about the existence of this group of five writings thanks to Eusebius of Caesarea, who called it Pentalogy. Only three of these five works have survived, and they were probably written (at least most part of them) during Philo’s stay in Rome, at the occasion of the embassy sent by the Hebrew Politeuma to the princeps Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known as Caligula. In this article, we try to establish the essays that were included in the Pentalogy and the order of the original composition or publication.”