Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

be the third treatise in the series. Philo ended theEmbassywith a reference

to thePalinodeorReversal(Embassy373). IfFlaccusand theEmbassybe-

long to the same series, the first two volumes have been lost, the third is

Flaccus,the fourth theEmbassy,and the fifth has been lost. The association

ofOn the Contemplative Lifewith this series correctly recognizes the social

setting of the treatise, but appears to have associated it withConcerning the

Virtuesincorrectly.

Against Flaccus (In Flaccum)and

Embassy to Gaius (Legatio ad Gaium)

The two treatises,Against Flaccusand theEmbassy to Gaius,share a com-

mon perspective: they demonstrate how God has protected the Jewish

people through crises and reversed the fortunes of those who have perse-

cuted them. The structures of the two works make the point unambigu-

ously:Flaccus1–96 relates the pogrom in Alexandria and 97–191 narrates

Flaccus’s exile and eventual execution; theEmbassyrelates Gaius’s insane

opposition to the Jews while the missingPalinoderelated his assassination.

Eusebius says that Philo read his account of Gaius to the Roman Senate

(Hist. Eccl.2.18.8). While this stretches credibility, the works were un-

doubtedly intended to demonstrate the folly of persecuting the Jews to any

outsiders and the protection of God to insiders.

Achievement

Philo was not a systematic thinker, although there have been noble at-

tempts to make him one. He was first and foremost an exegete or inter-

preter of Moses. He called himself “an interpreter” (Anim.7, 74; cf. also

Opif.5). This does not mean that he did not have a comprehensive under-

standing of the cosmos, but that he did not work out a systematic presen-

tation of it. He wrote commentaries and works that addressed specific

issues. His lifelong project was to interpret the Jewish Scriptures allegori-

cally through the lens of Hellenistic philosophy. In this regard his project

was similar to Chaeremon’s interpretation of Egyptian texts through Stoic

philosophy or Plutarch’s allegory of Egyptian myths through Middle Pla-

tonic thought(Isis and Osiris)or Numenius of Apamea’s explanations of

oriental traditions via Platonism(On the Good).

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sterling, runia, niehoff, and van den hoek

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:09 PM