Philo (1)

I had read this work before in Yonge's Works Of Philo. The nice thing about this edition is that I was able to refer to the Greek when important theological/philosophical terms are used. It does aid the reader enormously in understanding the overall Hellenistic literary context.
Philo was one of the first writers to bridge the Judeo-Hellenistic ideological divide. His adopting of Platonist and Stoical disciplines and marrying them with Judaic religion was pretty novel and paradigmatic at the time; although, some evidence of this is found in the New Testament as well; especially in the Epistle to The Hebrews, which is the New Testament book that indicates the most significant traces of Hellenistic and/or Alexandrian influence. Occasionally, the writer of Hebrews uses the same biblical passages and interprets them in a very similar way, e.g. regarding God's oaths and the figure of Melchizedek. Some parallels with Paul's Epistles is also evident. Whether Philo was aware of Christianity or whether the New Testament writers were familiar with him, is speculative but it remains an interesting possibility. Be that as it may, Philo left his definite mark on later church fathers such as Origen and many many others. His doctrine of multiplicity in the Godhead was set to be adopted by Christian writers where it was unlikely to be adopted by Jews of a more orthodox bent. The main parallel with the New Testament is Philo's theology surrounding the Logos as God's archetypal pattern and His mediator in creation.
To sum up, Philo is not only an important example of Middle Platonism in the history of philosophy, he is also important in the history of theology. Taking that into account, he is really essential reading.… (mer)