The Jewish Plato
Volume 1: The Life and Writings of Philo of Alexandria
By (author) Gregory E. Sterling
Hardback (Forthcoming)
(January 2027)
ISBN: 9783161635533
6.1 x 9.13 inches
Price: $285.00
Philo of Alexandria shaped the exegetical traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Hellenistic philosophy alike. In 36 essays spanning three decades of research, Gregory E. Sterling provides the most comprehensive account of Philo’s life, writings, and lasting influence to date.
In Volume 1 of this three-volume set on Philo of Alexandria and the impact of his thought, Gregory E. Sterling explores the life and writings of Philo, alongside Josephus one of the two most important witnesses to Greek-speaking Judaism in the Second Temple period. Philo’s writings fall into five groups: the Questions and Answers on Genesis and Exodus, the Allegorical Commentary, the Exposition of the Law, apologetic treatises, and philosophical treatises. The author argues that exegetical traditions are embedded within the commentary series that not only reflect earlier Jewish interpreters, but traditions that influenced Jewish authors like Josephus, early Christians, and even Platonic philosophers. Drawing on three and a half decades of research on Philo, the 36 essays in this volume address the full range of Philo’s significance. The author sets out a description of Alexandria based on Strabo, provides a comprehensive collection of the evidence for the Jewish community in the city, and contrasts it with the Jewish community of Jerusalem. He further offers an overview of the role of philosophy in the Alexandrian Jewish community and reconstructs Philo’s life against the background of his family. He then explores Philo’s relationship to Second Temple Judaism more broadly and argues that while his philosophical exegesis was the work of a privileged individual, his works show evidence that he knew other Jewish texts and that other Jews like Josephus knew his. Furthermore, the author argues that Philo operated a private school of exegesis in his home and analyzes the place of the Life of Moses in his corpus. Finally, he offers one of the most comprehensive analyses of Philo’s fragmentary Hypothetica.
Part One: Introduction
1. "Why Philo Matters."
2. "Introduction."
Part Two: Alexandria and the Alexandrian Jewish Community
3. "'The Largest and Most Important Part' of Egypt: Alexandria according to Strabo."
4. "'Thus are Israel': Jewish Self-Definition in Alexandria."
5. ""Judaism between Jerusalem and Alexandria."
6. "'The Jewish Philosophy': The Presence of Hellenistic Philosophy in Jewish Exegesis in the Second Temple Period."
Part Three: Philo and His Family
7. "'Pre-eminent in Family and Wealth': Gaius Julius Alexander and the Alexandrian Jewish Community."
8. "Tiberius Julius Alexander."
9. "Philo of Alexandria."
Part Four: Philo and Judaism
10. "Magister or Maverick?: Philo and Alexandrian Judaism."
11. "Recherché or Representative? What is the Relationship between Philo's Treatises and Greek-Speaking Judaism?"
12. "Philosophy as the Handmaid of Wisdom: Philosophy in the Exegetical Traditions of Alexandrian Jews."
13. "Different Traditions or Emphases: The Image of God in Philo's De opificio mundi."
14. "Was there a Common Ethic in Second Temple Judaism?"
15. "From the Thick Marshes of the Nile to the Throne of God: Moses in Ezekiel the Tragedian and Philo of Alexandria."
16. "'A Man of the Highest Repute': Did Josephus Know the Writings of Philo?"
Part Five: Philo's School of Sacred Laws
17. "'The School of Sacred Laws': The Social Setting of Philo's Treatises."
18. "Philo's School: The Social Setting of Ancient Commentaries."
19. "The School of Moses in Alexandria: An Attempt to Reconstruct the School of Philo."
20. "Philo's Library and the Libraries of Philosophical Schools."
Part Six: The Corpus Philonicum
21. The Corpus Philonicum
22. "Philo's Quaestiones: Prolegomena or Afterthought?"
23. "Quaestiones in the Allegorical Commentary of Philo of Alexandria."
24. "'Prolific in Expression and Broad in Thought: Internal References to Philo's Allegorical Commentary and Exposition of the Law."
25. "The Structure of Philo's Allegorical Commentary."
26. "The Complexities of Philo's Corpus: The Unity of De gigantibus and Quod Deus immutabilis sit."
27. "Psychagogy in Pedagogy: Abraham as a Model for Virtue in Philo of Alexandria's De Abrahamo."
28. "In utramque partem: The Literary Shape of a Philonic Dialogue."
Part Seven: The Life of Moses
29. "Philo of Alexandria's Life of Moses: An Introduction to the Exposition of the Law."
30. "A Human sui generis: Philo of Alexandria's De vita Mosis."
31. "Thunderous Silence: The Omission of the Sinai Pericope in Philo of Alexandria."
32. "It is Elemental: Miracle Stories in Philo's Life of Moses."
Part Eight: The Hypothetica
33. "In Fragments: The Authenticity of the Hypothetica."
34. "Philo and the Logic of Apologetics: An Analysis of the Hypothetica."
35. "Universalizing the Particular: Natural Law in Second Temple Jewish Ethics."
36. "The Most Admired Jewish Group in Antiquity: Philo on the Essenes."
Born 1954; 1990 PhD from The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA; the Rev. Henry L. Slack Dean and the Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament, Yale Divinity School and Distinguished Fellow, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
- By (author) Gregory E. Sterling
Other Titles in this Series
Paulus und Johannes
Exegetische Studien zur paulinischen und johanneischen Theologie und Literatur
Volume 198
Metapher – Narratio – Mimesis – Doxologie
Begründungsformen frühchristlicher und antiker Ethik. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics. Band VII
Volume 356
Mosebilder
Gedanken zur Rezeption einer literarischen Figur im Fruhjudentum, fruhen Christentum und der romisch-hellenistischen Literatur
Volume 390
Gleichnisse und Parabeln in der fruhchristlichen Literatur
Methodische Konzepte, religionshistorische Kontexte, theologische Deutungen
Volume 456
“Ready for Every Good Work” (Titus 3:1)
Implicit Ethics in the Letter to Titus. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik/Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics. Vol. XIII
Volume 484
Images of the Human Being
Eighth International East-West Symposium of New Testament Scholars, Caraiman Monastery, May 26 to 31, 2019
Jenseits von Indikativ und Imperativ
Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics. . Band I
Volume 238
Le Jour de Dieu – Der Tag Gottes
5. Symposium Strasbourg, Tubingen, Uppsala. 11.-13. September 2006 in Uppsala
Volume 245
Paul and the Imperial Authorities at Thessalonica and Rome
A Study in the Conflict of Ideology
Volume 273
Doing Gender – Doing Religion
Fallstudien zur Intersektionalitat im fruhen Judentum, Christentum und Islam
Volume 302
Reading the First Century
On Reading Josephus and Studying Jewish History of the First Century
Volume 300
Semitisms in Luke’s Greek
A Descriptive Analysis of Lexical and Syntactical Domains of Semitic Language Influence in Luke's Gospel
Volume 401
Epochs and Styles
Selected Writings on the New Testament, Greek Language and Greek Culture in the Post-Classical Era
Volume 179
Similar Books
Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy
The Multiple Identities of Coptic Prayers in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
From Joseph to Jesus
The Joseph Narrative as a Compositional Template from Old Greek Esther to the Gospel of Luke
Volume 125
Nicholas of Lyra’s Commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Franciscan Exegesis in a Time of Crisis
Paradise Lost in Transmission
The Return to Eden in the Apocalypse of Peter within Its Ethiopic and Early Christian Contexts
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Reformed Covenantal Eudaimonism
Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635–1711) on Highest Good, Virtue, and Law
Volume 87