Two Millennia Later: General Resources and Particular Perspectives on Philo the Jew

Abstract

Twenty centuries after he lived, Philo is regarded by scholars in many disciplines as an important and intriguing subject of study. Extensive print and electronic resources are available to facilitate and inform Philonic research. Fifty years ago, writers debated whether Philo—long neglected by mainstream Jewish tradition—was more fundamentally a Jew or a Greek. To illuminate this issue, these writers often focused on possible Jewish and/or Greek sources of Philo’s ideas and examined his ideas in relation to Jewish and/or Greek parallels. In recent works, however, scholars have probed the complexity of Philo’s Jewish identity from a wider range of perspectives. These include describing what constitutes Philo’s Judaism (‘the descriptive approach’); examining how he deals with Jewish and universal aspects of certain themes (‘the thematic approach’); comparing his ideas to Jewish and other traditions to see how he uses these traditions (‘the comparative approach’); studying how he presents Jews and Judaism to create a positive impression among his readers (‘the presentational approach’); and taking into account the socio-political context of first-century Alexandria to explore his attitudes about Jews and others, to find reflections of contemporary circumstances in his works or to explore the relationship between his exegetical and historical writings (‘the socio-political approach’). Generally considered by scholars today to have been a loyal and observant Jew, Philo is occasionally being integrated into broader studies of the Second Temple period and of Diaspora Jews during that time, and he has also been included in surveys of Jewish topics from the Bible to the present.