The Question of Coherence in Philo’s Cultic Imagery

An article that has gone under my radar for years is, alas, this:

Gupta, N. (2011). The Question of Coherence in Philo’s Cultic Imagery: A Socio-literary Approach. Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, 20(4), 277–297.

Abstract: “This article examines Philo’s cultic metaphors with a view towards finding coherence. Many scholars have turned to the works of Philo for insight into the world of the New Testament or early Judaism, but a standard assumption is that the search for coherence in his works is a fruitless endeavor. However, using Philo’s temple, priesthood, and sacrificial metaphors as a specific subject of interest, a socio-literary approach is taken in an attempt to reassess this assumption. In particular, this article draws from insights gained from cognitive linguistics, where metaphors are viewed as resources that have the capacity to influence cognitive frameworks. From this perspective, Philo’s cultic metaphors are consistently used to engage rhetorically in a set of common problems, including his apologetic and tropological concerns.”

Philo and Josephus on the Fidelity of Judeans

Eyl, J. (2021). “Philo and Josephus on the Fidelity of Judeans”. Journal of Ancient Judaism, 1, 1-28.

Abstract: “The first century sees a substantial rise in the frequency with which Greek speaking authors discuss pistis(here, understood as fidelity, trust, confidence, proof). The authors who use pistis the most include Philo, Paul, and Josephus. This suggests that while many people are thinking about fidelity, ethnic Judeans are thinking about it disproportionately. This essay focuses on two such authors, Philo and Josephus. I argue that both Judeans claim fidelity to be a foundational national-ethnic characteristic, from the patriarchs to their own day. Furthermore, the article argues that this image of enduring Judean fidelity can be better understood within the context of living under the colonizing power of Rome – a principate that is equally preoccupied with fidelity (fides).”

Philo of Alexandria on the Twelve Olympian Gods

A new article is published in a Journal of which I have not, alas, access to, but here is some info about it: Geert Roskam, ‘Philo of Alexandria on the Twelve Olympian Gods,’ Classical World, 112,3 (2019) pp. 169-192. Publishers Abstract: “The importance of pagan philosophy and literature for Philo’s thinking has long been acknowledged. What is less studied, however, is his attitude towards the individual gods of the Greek pantheon, and this is the topic of the present article. After a brief discussion of Philo’s critical stance towards Greek polytheism in general, a first survey of relevant material is provided that already allows for a few provisional conclusions. This is followed by a more detailed analysis of the argumentative strategies which Philo uses while dealing with the Olympian gods. This analysis shows that Philo adopted a quite sophisticated and strategic position towards the Olympians: while there can be little doubt about his negative view, he as a rule avoids straightforward criticism of particular gods and prefers to either ignore them or cleverly reorient them towards his own Scriptural perspective.”  

Studia Philonica 2018

The 2018 issue of The Studia Philonica Annual XXX 2018 arrived in my snail mailbox just as the SBL Annual Meeting was going on in Denver.

As usual – it contains a lot of relevant material for those interested in Philo of Alexandria and Hellenistic Judaism.

In this volume, you will find the following articles:

• Royse, James R.  “Fragments of Philo of Alexandria Preserved in Pseudo-Eustathius.” pp.   1–14.
• Cover, Michael B.  “A New Fragment of Philo’s Quaestiones in Exodum in Origen’s Newly Discovered Homilies on the Psalms? A Preliminary Note.” pp. 15–29.
• Sterling, Gregory E.  “Philo of Alexandria’s Life of Moses: An Introduction to the Exposition of the Law.” pp. 31–45.
• Adams, Sean A. “Movement and Travel in Pilo’s Migration of Abraham: The Adaptation of Genesis and the Introduction of Metaphor.” pp. 47–70.
• Hartog, P.B. “Space and Travel in Philo’s Legatio Ad Gaium.” pp. 71–92.
• Appelbaum, Alan.  “A Fresh Look at Philo’s Family.” pp. 93–113.

In addition, of course, there also is the usual Bibliographic Section, pp. 115-181, and the Book Review Section, pp. 183-217. And finally some News and Notes, and Notes on contributors.

This issue represents the 18th time I have contributed to the Bibliographic Section, and I have asked the editors to find some successor. I am always looking forward to the publication of this annual, and I will continue to do so. No scholar interested in Philo should go without this.

Bulletin of Biblical Research 1991-2011.

I do think the journal Bulletin for Biblical Research, issued by Instirute for Biblical Research, is containing many interesting studies.
Hence I think it is very profitable to scholars that the issues of the years 1991-2011 are available for free on the net.

Those interested can search these volumes here.

The Studia Philonica Annual 2016 as Festschrift

The Studia Philonica Annual  XXVIII 2016 was published just in time for the SBL Annual Meeting this November, in San Antonio, Texas. As mentioned below this issue was made and presented as a Festschrift to Professor David T. Runia. It was presented and handed over to him at a dinner in San Antonio on Monday the 24th.

Greg E. Sterling was the main editor of this volume and had gathered 15 other scholars in order to present studies in honor of prof. Runia. In addition, the volume contains an annotated bibliography of the Philo studies published in 2013.

The list of contents can be given thus:

INTRODUCTION
Gregory E. Sterling, A Soaring Mind: The Career of
David T. Runia……..…………………………………………………… 3
Gregory E. Sterling, David T. Runia: A Bibliography of His
Publications, 1979–2016…………………………………………………. 15
THE TEXT OF PHILO’S WORKS
James R. Royse, The Biblical Quotations in the Coptos Papyrus
of Philo………….…………………………………………………… 49
Abraham Terian, Philonis De visione trium angelorum ad Abraham:
A New Translation of the Mistitled De Deo.………………………………… 77

PHILO AND HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY
John Dillon, Philo and the Telos: Some Reflections ……………………….. 111
Carlos Lévy, Continuity and Dissimilarities in Middle Platonism: Philo
and Plutarch about the Epicurean ataraxia ……………………………….. 121
Gregory E. Sterling, When East and West Meet: Eastern Religions
and Western Philosophy in Philo of Alexandria and Plutarch of
Chaeronea ……………………………………………………………. 137
Jaap Mansfeld, Theodoret of Cyrrhus’s Therapy of Greek Diseases
as a Source for the Aëtian Placita ……………………………………… 151

PHILO AND THE WORLD OF ROME
Annewies van den Hoek and John J. Herrmann Jr., Chasing the
Emperor: Philo in the Horti of Rome…………….……………………….. 171
Sarah Pearce, Notes on Philo’s Use of the Terms ἔθνος and λαός..…….. 205

PHILO AND THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PENTATEUCH
Adam Kamesar, Philo and Ps.-Longinus: A Case of Sublimity in Genesis 4.. 229
Francesca Calabi, “It Would Not Be Good That the Man Should be
Alone”: Philo’s Interpretation of Genesis 2:18 in Legum Allegoriae………….. 239
Peder Borgen, Alternative Aims and Choices in Education:
Analysis of Selected Texts..……………………………………………. 257
Ellen Birnbaum, What in the Name of God Led Philo to Interpret
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as Learning, Nature, and Practice? 273
Albert C. Geljon, Abraham in Egypt: Philo’s Interpretation of
Gen 12:10–20 …..……………………………………………………………….. 297
Torrey Seland, The Expository Use of the Balaam Figure in
Philo’s De vita Mosis.……………………………………………….. 321

PHILO AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY
Thomas H. Tobin, S.J., Reconfiguring Eschatological Imagery:
The Examples of Philo of Alexandria and Paul of Tarsus …………………… 351
Maren R. Niehoff, Justin’s Timaeus in Light of Philo’s……………………. 375

BIBLIOGRAPHY SECTION
D. T. Runia, M. Alesso, K. Berthelot, E. Birnbaum, A. C. Geljon,
H. M. Keizer, J. Leonhardt-Balzer, M. R. Niehoff, S. J. K. Pearce,
T. Seland, Philo of Alexandria: An Annotated Bibliography 2013.………… 393
Supplement: A Provisional Bibliography 2014–2016.……………………….. 435

For various reasons, not all of the authors were able to be present at the dinner; here is D.T Runia, and the attending authors. From left: James Royse, Torrey Seland, Ellen Birnbaum, Greg. E. Sterling, David T. Runia, Maren Niehoff, and Sarah Pearce. In addition, several others were gathered at the event.

 

 

New Journal on Religion

Mohr Siebeck is launching a new  journal these days: Religion in the Roman Empire (RRE). The publisher presents the Journal thus:

Religion in the Roman Empire(RRE) hat das Ziel, neue und integrative Perspektiven auf Religion in der antiken Welt  mit Hilfe einer fächerübergreifenden Methodologie zu fördern und abzubilden. Ausgehend von der Idee der “gelebten Religion” bietet RRE die Möglichkeit, neue, im Entstehen begriffene Forschungsarbeiten aufzugreifen und weiterzuführen. Dadurch können die Fächergrenzen zwischen Religionsgeschichte, Archäologie, Anthropologie, Altphilologie, Alter Geschichte, jüdischer Geschichte, rabbinischen Studien, der Wissenschaft vom Neuen Testament und frühen Christentum, der Patristik, koptischen Studien, gnostischen und manichäischen Studien und Arbeiten zur Spätantike und orientalischen Sprachen überwunden werden. Wir hoffen, die Entwicklung neuer Forschungsansätze anzuregen, die die lokale und globale Entwicklung der multidimensionalen pluralistischen Religionen der Antike erfassen.

The journal is edited by:  Reinhard Feldmeier (Göttingen), Karen L. King (Harvard, MA), Rubina Raja (Aarhus), Annette Yoshiko Reed (Philadelphia, PA), Christoph Riedweg (Zürich), Jörg Rüpke (Erfurt), Seth Schwartz (New York, NY), Christopher Smith (Rome), Markus Vinzent (London) .

Mohr Siebeck grants all readers free access to this very first issue as a sample copy. You can download a PDF of the first issue here: [link].

This first issue contains the following essays:

Rubina Raja, Jörg Rüpke: Appropriating Religion: Methodological Issues in Testing the ‘Lived Ancient Religion’ Approach (pp. 11–19)

Lucinda Dirven: The Mithraeum as tableau vivant. A Preliminary Study of Ritual Performance and Emotional Involvement in Ancient Mystery Cults (pp. 20–50)

Marlis Arnhold: Male Worshippers and the Cult of Bona Dea (pp. 51–70)

Lara Weiss: The Consumption of Religion in Roman Karanis (pp. 71–94).

Jörg Rüpke: The ‘Connected Reader’ as a Window into Lived Ancient Religion: A Case Study of Ovid’s Libri fastorum (pp. 95–113)

John A. North: Roman Funeral Rituals and the Significance of the Naenia (pp. 114–133)

Thanks to Torsten Jantsch, and his blog Verbum et Fides, for this info.

New Journal

Mohr Siebeck is launching a new journal this year that might be of interest to some of you:

Religion in the Roman Empire (RRE)

The publisher presents it thus:

“Religion in the Roman Empire (RRE) is bold in the sense that it intends to further and document new and integrative perspectives on religion in the Ancient World combining multidisciplinary methodologies. Starting from the notion of “lived religion” it will offer a space to take up recent, but still incipient, research to modify and cross the disciplinary boundaries of History of Religion, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classics, Ancient History, Jewish History, Rabbinics, New Testament, Early Christianity, Patristics, Coptic Studies, Gnostic and Manichean Studies, Late Antiquity and Oriental Languages. We hope to stimulate the development of new approaches that can encompass the local and global trajectories of the multidimensional pluralistic religions of antiquity.”

Each volume will consist of three issues a year, each of approximately 130 pages in length. It will include an editorial, five to seven main articles, and book reviews.

Free access to the full text online is included in a subscription.

Price for individuals:  € 49.00.