Heraclitus, Empedocles, and Others in a Middle Platonist Cento in Philo of Alexandria

Abstract

the formal) relations between Philo's Quaestiones and his other treatises has as yet been undertaken. In the present paper, I shall be concerned with the manner in which one important theme is treated in both groups of writings. With the indispensable support of the Bible de Philon and of the Index Philoneus, I have attempted to let myself be guided by Philo's own selection of-in his view-interrelated scriptural passages, which he attempts to interpret in what turns out to be a surprisingly consistent way, and by his own use of doctrines and notions derived from Greek philosophy which are adduced for this purpose. This, it seems to me, is a reasonable procedure for the study of Philo, since one is able in this way to avoid the pitfalls both of superimposed systematization and parallelomegalomania. The theme at issue is concerned with the vicissitudes and condition of the human soul, which entails that in as far as Philo is concerned the exegesis is carried out on the allegorical level. It is important to keep this point in mind, for Philo's line of demarcation between the literal and the allegorical interpretation does not correspond to ours. Often enough, his literal interpretations look quite allegorical to us, as for instance that dealing with the Platonic cosmology and theory of Forms which he believes is to be found by in