Category: Conference

Philo as a ‘hermeneut.’

Georgi Shavulev, “The Place of Philo of Alexandria in the History of Philosophy,” in Center for Open Access in Science ▪ Belgrade – SERBIA
7th International e-Conference on Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences
http://centerprode.com/conferences/7IeCSHSS.html
ISBN (Online) 978-86-81294-08-6 ▪ 2021: pp. 205-214. Published online 28 June 2021. https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.e-conf.07.21205s

Abstract: “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.”

Georgi Shavulev is a Ph.D. student at South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Faculty of Philosophy, Blagoevgrad, BULGARIA Department of Philosophical and Political Sciences.

Philo at SNTS General Meeting 2022

Seminar: ‘Philo and Early Christianity’ (Per Jarle Bekken and Greg Sterling) – terminates in 2023

Session 1: Gottfried Schimanowski (Germany): ‘Philo als Bibelausleger: Spurensuche seiner Hermeneutik im grundlegenden Traktat De vita Mosis’

Session 2: Jean-Claude Loba Mkole (Kenya): ‘Philo of Alexandria: An Intercultural Mediator’  

Session 3: Per Jarle Bekken (Norway): ‘Paul’s Discussion of the Gentile Problem in Romans 3–4 in Jewish Context’

Philo at SBL International Meeting

18-20Judaica
7/18/2022
10:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Room: HS213 – LawMayer Gruber, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Presiding

Adi Amsterdam, David Yellin Academic College of Education
A Unique Vowel Sign in Targum Onqelos of Ms. Vat.Ebr.448 (20 min)
Tag(s): Targumic Texts (Early Jewish Literature – Rabbinic Literature), Aramaic (Philology / Linguistics (incl. Semiotics))

Jonathan Jacobs, Bar-Ilan University
Virtue Ethics in the Thought of Naḥmanides (20 min)
Tag(s): Commentary (Text and Translation), Other Texts (Early Jewish Literature – Other)

Robert Williams, B. H. Carroll Theological Institute
Journeying in Philo’s On the Life of Moses, Book 1 (20 min)
Tag(s): Philo (Early Jewish Literature – Other), Torah/Pentateuch – Numbers (Biblical Literature – Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Hellenistic Period (History & Culture)

Discussion (10 min)
18-28a Hellenistic Judaism
7/18/2022
1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
Room: HS104 – TheologyTheme: Hellenistic Jewish Writings 1Georg Fischer SJ, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Presiding

Paola Druille, Universidad Nacional de La Pampa
The Existence of the Jewish Gerousia in Alexandria (37–40 AD): Lexicon and Context (25 min)
Tag(s): Philo (Early Jewish Literature – Other)

Jin Young Kim, Oklahoma State University
The Concept of Conversion in Philo (25 min)
Tag(s): Philo (Early Jewish Literature – Other), Hellenistic Period (History & Culture), Greco-Roman Literature (Greco-Roman Literature)

Michael Avioz, Bar-Ilan University
Murder in Josephus’ Writings (25 min)
Tag(s): Josephus (Early Jewish Literature – Other), Biblical Interpretations (Early Jewish Literature – Dead Sea Scrolls), Greco-Roman Period (History & Culture)
20-42Hellenistic Judaism
7/20/2022
3:30 PM to 5:00 PM
Room: HS106 –
Theology Theme: Hellenistic Jewish Writings 2
Georg Fischer SJ, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Presiding

Robert Williams, B. H. Carroll Theological Institute
Journeying in Philo’s On Abraham (25 min)
Tag(s): Philo (Early Jewish Literature – Other), Torah/Pentateuch – Numbers (Biblical Literature – Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Hellenistic Period (History & Culture)

Justin Hagerman, Université Catholique de Lyon
“From the Creation of the Cosmos”: The Reception of Genesis’ Lexicon of Creation Motifs in Philo and Paul (25 min)
Tag(s): Hellenistic Period (History & Culture), Lexicography (Text and Translation), Comparative Approaches (Interpretive Approaches)

Mateusz Wyrzykowski, Akademia Katolicka w Warszawie
The Universal Dimension of the Interpretation of Philo (25 min)
Tag(s): Philo (Early Jewish Literature – Other), Egyptian (Ancient Near Eastern Literature – Region), Old Testament (Ideology & Theology)
20-44Johannine Literature
7/20/2022
3:30 PM to 5:00 PM
Room: HS107 – TheologyTheme: Johannine Theology
Stan Harstine, Friends University, Presiding

Milan Kostresevic, Universität Rostock
Symbolism of Light as a Key Christological Motif of the Gospel of John (20 min)
Tag(s): Gospels – John (Biblical Literature – New Testament), Philo (Early Jewish Literature – Other), Greco-Roman Literature (Greco-Roman Literature)

Discussion (10 min)

Berti Józsa, University of Edinburgh
Jesus: “Enabler” in the Gospel of John (20 min)
Tag(s): Narrative Criticism (Interpretive Approaches), Theological Interpretation (Interpretive Approaches), Literary Criticism (incl. poetics, new criticism, formalism, close reading, narratology) (Interpretive Approaches)

Discussion (10 min)

Marius J. Nel, Universiteit van Stellenbosch – University of Stellenbosch
The Breath of Forgiveness (20 min)
Tag(s): Gospels – John (Biblical Literature – New Testament), Theological Interpretation (Interpretive Approaches)

Discussion (10 min)
21-6Hellenistic Judaism
7/21/2022
8:30 AM to 10:00 AM
Room: HS106 – Theology
Theme: Hellenistic Jewish Writings 3
Ljubica Jovanovic, American Military University, Presiding

Carmen Palmer, Stetson University
Philo’s Hellenistic-Jewish Approach in the Decalogue and on the Contemplative Life: Blending Wisdom of Solomon’s Critique against Idols with a Notion of Moderation (25 min)
Tag(s): Philo (Early Jewish Literature – Other), Wisdom of Solomon (Biblical Literature – Deuterocanonical Works), Greco-Roman Period (History & Culture)

R. Gillian Glass, University of British Columbia
Aseneth among the Prophetesses: Second Temple Greek Literary Depictions of Women’s Visionary Experiences (25 min)
Tag(s): Gender and Sexuality Criticism (incl. Feminist, Womanist, Masculinity Studies, Queer Theory) (Interpretive Approaches), Other Jewish Compositions (e.g., 1 Enoch) (Early Jewish Literature – Dead Sea Scrolls), Greco-Roman Period (History & Culture)

Torah, Temple, Land

The general topic of this book as such should be interesting to students of ancient Judaism and Philo. In addition the volume also contains one article dealing specifically with Philo:

Marcus Witte, Jens Schröter and Verena Lepper, eds, Torah, Temple, Land. Constructions of Judaism in Antiquity. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism184. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. 2021. Pp. 316. ca. 135 €.

Contents:

Markus Witte, Jens Schröter, Verena Lepper
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Peter Schäfer
Judaism or Judaisms: The Construction of Ancient Judaism . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Benedikt Hensel
Debating Temple and Torah in the Second Temple Period:
Theological and Political Aspects of the Final Redaction(s)
of the Pentateuch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Sebastian Grätz
The Golah, the Temple, and the Torah in the Book of Ezra: Biblical
and Religious-Historical Perspectives on Judah and Jerusalem
in Postexilic Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Stefan Schorch
“Mount Gerizim is the house of God and the dwelling place for
his glory”: The Origins and Early History of Samaritan Theology . . . . . . 61
Karel van der Toorn
The Religion of the Elephantine Jews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Charlotte Hempel
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Challenging the Particularist Paradigm . . . . . . . . . 91
John J. Collins
Jewish Communities in the Dead Sea Scrolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Robert Kugler
Finding “Judaism” in Documentary Papyri: The Case of the
Petitions from the Herakleopolis Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Lutz Doering
Torah and Temple in Judean Pseudepigrapha: From Jubilees to
Fourth Ezra and Second Baruch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Gabriele Boccaccini
What Does the Forgiving Jesus Have to Do with the Unforgiving
Enoch? Forgiveness of Sins in the Enochic Traditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Maren R. Niehoff
Constructing Temple and Torah in Philo of Alexandria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Martin Goodman
Paul as Persecutor and the History of Judaism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Adela Yarbro Collins
What Sort of Jew Is the Jesus of Mark? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
René Bloch
Jew or Judean: The Latin Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Werner Eck
Die – fast – unsichtbare jüdische Diaspora im Westen des
Imperium Romanum vor der Spätantike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Shaye J. D. Cohen
Jews and Judaism in Antioch as Portrayed by John Chrysostom
and the Rabbinic Sages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Catherine Hezser
The Contested Image of King David in Rabbinic and Patristic
Literature and Art of Late Antiquity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

For further info, see this link.

Greg E. Sterling 65!

I presume that every person who wants to get a little more acquainted with Philo of Alexandria and his works, and who starts by looking up some recent books, articles, bibliographies (not to mention The Studia Philonica), will soon discover that there are some names that pop up more often than others. And among these, the name of Greg E. Sterling will be prominent, not only because of the amount of references and articles discovered as authored by Greg Sterling, but also by the range of various topics and the quality of the articles found.

In the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature there use to be a Philo Seminar with two or three sessions dedicated to the study of Philo of Alexandria. Those visiting the seminar for the first time, will – probably very soon – discover a robust guy (who looks like a former wrestler) with glasses, grey hair and a short-cut grey beard, who steps forward either as a lecturer, providing a response, or asking questions from the audience: Yes, it will most probably be Greg E. Sterling. In November 2019, a few days before the Annual Meeting of that year started, Greg Sterling could celebrate his 65th birthday (on Nov 21st).

There were, however, no Festschrift presented that year. And when the time for the next SBL Annual Meeting arrived, and the Festschrift was about to be presented, that Meeting was to be arranged online, due to the Corona Virus! Now, in 2021, we are almost getting used to these awkward (and for some terrible circumstances of the) pandemic), and we can only hope for an Annual Meeting in person upcoming November. Time will tell.

But the Festschrift was there, and is here. In a special on-line arrangement via Zoom, the volume was presented to Greg Sterling; the 2020 volume of The Studia Philonica Annual. Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, edited by David T. Runia and Michael B. Cover, and published by SBL Press.

Happily, for all those who were not able to attend that session on Zoom, there was made a video of the session, a video that now is made available for all to see; by clicking on this link:

https://youtu.be/gj2LhNMTQdU

Better late than never; Happy Birthday Greg.

Conference in Münster on Philo

Michael Cover informs us that on May 12-13 this year, there will be a conference in Münster on Philo: “a Tagung that Lutz Doering and I have put together in connection with my Humboldt Fellowship at the Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum.”
There will be 7 papers, and all sessions will receive a response by David T. Runia.
Michael Cover states that “If you are in Europe or would otherwise like to attend, please register with Maria Arnhold (arnhold@uni-muenster.de) by 3 May 2019. Also, we would appreciate it if you might pass on the information to other colleagues and students who might be interested.
Here is more info on the various papers to be presented:
Philo of Alexandria and Philosophical Discourse
12–13 May 2019
SUNDAY CONFERENCE VENUE
Evangelisch – Theologische Fakultät
Universitätsstraße 13-17, Raum ETH 102
SESSION ONE – PHILO JUDAEUS IN DIALOGUE WITH
PHILOSOPHICAL SCHOOLS AND TRADITIONS
13.00–13.15 Welcome and Opening Remarks
13.15–14.15 “Philo’s Library and the Libraries of
Philosophical Schools”
Gregory Sterling, Yale Divinity School
14.45–15.45 “The Difficulty of Being Theologically and
Philosophically Orthodox: Reincarnation and Afterlife as
a Test Case”
Rainer Hirsch-Luipold, Universität Bern
SESSION TWO – PHILO’S PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISES:
THE CASE OF QUOD OMNIS PROBUS LIBER SIT
15.45–16.45 “Exemplary Ethics in Philo’s Every Good
Man is Free”
Maren Niehoff, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
17.15–18.15 “Stoicism, Platonism and Judaism in the
Omnis Probus: Philo’s Authorial Stance”
Troels Engberg-Pedersen, University of Copenhagen
RESPONSE
18.15–18.45 Response to Sessions One & Two
David Runia, The Institute for Research & Critical Inquiry,

Australian Catholic University

MONDAY CONFERENCE VENUE
Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum
Wilmergasse 1
SESSION 3 – PHILO AND SCEPTICAL PHILOSOPHY
9.00–10.00 “Is Philo’s Moses a Pyrrhonian Hero?”
Carlos Lévy, Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)
10.30–11.30 “Scepticism and Contemplation in Philo of
Alexandria”
Mauro Bonazzi, University of Utrecht
SESSION FOUR – PHILO’S PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
14.00–15.00 “What’s in a Name Change? Neo-
Pythagorean Arithmology and Middle-Platonic
Namewrights in Philo’s Orchard of Philosophy”
Michael Cover, Marquette University / Humboldt Fellow,
WWU Münster
RESPONSE
15.30–16.00 Response to Sessions Three & Four
David Runia, IRCI, Australian Catholic University
16.00–16.30 Summary Discussion
Lutz Doering, WWU Münster, moderator

 

Philo Seminars at SBL Annual Meeting 2019

The SBL Annual Meeting is about to start in San Diego. I’m not going there this year, alas, and is suffering terribly from a disease called ‘abstinentia SBL-ensis’!! But I’ll get over it in a couple of weeks. I hope.

If I were there, I would probably visit the Philo Seminars to see what these presentations would involve:

S24-231 Philo of Alexandria
11/24/2019 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Sapphire 400B (Fourth Level) – Hilton Bayfront
Theme: Philo’s “On the Embassy to Gaius”

Justin Rogers, Freed-Hardeman University, Presiding

Sandra Gambetti, College of Staten Island (CUNY)
It Is All in a γάρ; Philo’s Introduction to Legatio ad Gaium (25 min)

Discussion 25 minutes
Break (10 min)

Allen Kerkeslager, Saint Joseph’s University (Philadelphia, PA)
Stages in the Funerary Rituals for Caligula’s Sister Drusilla in Alexandria in 38CE (25 min)

René Bloch, Universität Bern – Université de Berne
Dionysus, “Inventor of New Blessings” (Legat. 88): Philo’s Use of Greek Religion in his Embassy to Gaius (25 min)

Discussion (25 min)
Business Meeting (15 min)

S26-127 Philo of Alexandria
11/26/2019 9:00 AM to 11:15 AM
Room: 32B (Upper Level East) – Convention Center
Theme: Editions of Philo in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Ron Cox, Pepperdine University, Presiding

Gregory Sterling, Yale Divinity School
Thomas Mangey and the Arrangement of the Philonic Corpus (25 min)

Michael Cover, Marquette University
Karl Ernst Richter’s Schwickert Edition: The Art (and Science) of Introducing Philo; Or, How Not to Analyze a Philonic Treatise (25 min)

Break (10 min)

Abraham Terian, St. Nersess Armenian Sem.
Aucher’s 1822 and 1826 Editions of Philonis Opera in Armenia: History of an Exceptional Text (25 min)

James Royse, Claremont, CA
The Edition of Cohn-Wendland (25 min)

Discussion (25 min)

Prof. Karl Olav Sandnes 65!

Seminar to be held in honor of Professor dr. theol. Karl Olav Sandnes on his 65th birthday at Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Oslo

Tuesday, Jan 22. 2019:

The topic for the day: The Gospel in the Graeco-Roman World

10.30–11.00 Professor Reidar Hvalvik (MF):
Karl Olav Sandnes – A Presentation

11.00–11.45 Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University John M. G. Barclay:
Early Christianity, Mission and the Survival of the Poor in the Graeco-Roman World

11.45–12.45 Lunch in the cantina to be bought

12.45–13.30 Rev. Christine Henriksen Aarflot, Ph.D. (Oslo):
Greek Myth as Gospel: Reading C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces

13.30–14.00 Coffee/tea served

14.00–14.45 Associate Professor Glenn Ø. Wehus (MF):
The Gospel according to Epictetus

14.45–15.00 Final thanks

Philo at SBL Annual Meeting, II

In addition to the Philo Seminar sessions mentioned below, there are some other sessions too that should be interesting for a Philo reader. I list them here as they are given in the SBL Program book (Philo lectures in blue):

S19-221 Hellenistic Judaism; Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World; Greco-Roman Religions. Joint Session With: Hellenistic Judaism, Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World, Greco-Roman Religions.
11/19/2018. 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Capitol Ballroom 6 (Fourth Level) – Hyatt Regency (HR)

Theme: Making Priests: Intersections of Discourse and Practice in the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman Eastern Mediterranean

Lutz Doering, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Presiding

Jared W. Saltz, Florida College
“Moses Made Arrangements for the Sacrifices That Were Utterly Different from Those of Other Races…” Hecataeus of Abdera’s Portrayal of the Jewish Priesthood in Ptolemaic Egypt (25 min)
Jonathan Trotter, Lewis University
Alexandrian Jews’ Vicarious Participation in the Jerusalem Temple: Philo of Alexandria’s Hieropompoi as Community Representatives and Priests (25 min)
Mary Julia Jett, Saint Francis College
Throw Water at It: Water Purification Entrance Rites during the Greco-Roman Period (25 min)
Wally V. Cirafesi, University of Oslo
The Place of Priests in the Ancient Synagogue (25 min)
Sung Soo Hong, University of Texas at Austin
A Religiopolitical Reconfiguration of the Urban Space: The Functions of the Salutaris Foundation as an Imperial Cult (25 min)

Discussion (25 min)

S19-311 Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
11/19/2018 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Capitol Ballroom 2 (Fourth Level) – Hyatt Regency

Theme: Atheism in Antiquity

Trevor Thompson, University of Chicago, Presiding

Tim Whitmarsh, University of Cambridge
The Invention of Atheism and the Invention of Religion (30 min)
Paula F. Fredriksen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“The Gods of My Unbelief are Magnificent”: Jews, Gods, and Israel’s God in the Early Roman Period (30 min)
J. Albert Harrill, Ohio State University
Atheist Lists as an Organizing Technique in Classical Literary Culture (30 min)
Richard A. Wright, Abilene Christian University
“Out with the Christians, . . . Out with the Epicureans!” Atheism and Constructing the Other in Antiquity (30 min)

Discussion (30 min)

S20-135 Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
11/20/2018. 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM

Room: 705 (Street Level) – Convention Center (CC)

Kathy Gaca, Vanderbilt University, Presiding (5 min)

David Bosworth, The Catholic University of America
Slavery and Infanticide: The Abandonment of Moses and Ishmael (25 min)
Kenneth Fox, University of Calgary
Philo of Alexandria and Sex with Pretty Little Slave Girls (25 min)
Joseph E. Brito, Concordia University – Université Concordia
Appropriating the Title of “Servant of God” in the Second Century CE: Slavery and Identity in the Acts of Paul and Thecla (25 min)
Chris de Wet, University of South Africa
Slavery in the Life of Euphemia and the Goth (25 min)

Discussion (15 min)