Philo of Alexandria - Books and Journals

critical studies 1998 87
9875.H.Najman,Authoritative Writing and Interpretation: a Study in
the History of Scripture (diss. Harvard University 1998).
The author of this dissertation, prepared under the supervision of J. Kugel,
argues that the very concept of Scripture—in this case the Hebrew Bible—as
an authoritative text emerged through a protracted process of development,
together with related concepts of authorship, readership and interpretation.
Philo is one of the three authors (together with Ezra and the author of Jubilees)
who are studied in detail in order to illustrate this thesis. It is concluded that
he recasts the written Mosaic Law as the perfect embodiment of universal
Natural Law. Other themes dealt with are Philo’s views on textuality, authorship,
reading and interpretation of Scripture. A revised edition of the dissertation was
published in 2003; see below 20387. (DTR; based on author’s abstract, DA-A
59–10, p. 3853).
9876. M. R. Niehoff, ‘Alexandrian Judaism in 19th Century ‘Wissenschaft’:
between Modernity and Christianity,’ in A. Oppenheimer
(ed.), From Schürer to the Revised Schürer: the Study of Jewish History
in the First and Second Centuries C.E. (Munich 1998) 9–28.
In the 19th century many Jewish scholars—stimulated by Christian scholarship—studied
Hellenistic Judaism, esp. Philo, with a view to his supposed alienation
from authentic Judaism and his congeniality to later Christian theology.
Two famous names are Immanuel Wolf in his foundational manifesto from 1822,
and later on Zacharias Frankel, who emphasized the contrast to Palestinian exegesis.
The liberal pioneer Isaac Marcus Jost, however, praised the synthesis of
Judaism and Hellenism in Alexandria as a paradigm for modernization in Germany.
Similarly, Maurice Wolff discovered Philo as a model for modern Jewish
spirituality, while the position of Heinrich Graetz remains ambivalent. The
scholarship on Alexandrian Judaism from 1865 onwards is characterized by
institutionalization and proliferation. Jacob Freudenthal and Moritz Friedländer,
to mention two of the more important scholars, show an appreciation for
the Jewishness of Philo and other authors. Reviews: D. R. Schwartz, SPhA 12
(2000) 211–215. (DZ)
9877.M.R.Niehoff,‘Philo’sViewsonPaganism,’inG.N.Stanton
and G. Stroumsa (edd.), Limits of Tolerance in Early Judaism and Christianity
(Cambridge 1998) 135–158.
In this article Philo’s attitude towards paganism is discussed. Basing himself
on the second commandment of the Decalogue, Philo develops a philosophical
position on paganism. He distinguishes between paganism of the Egyptians, who
worship cats and dogs, and Greek paganism, in which natural elements, such
as the stars, are deified. Philo’s view on mythology is complex. Following Plato
he criticizes pagan myth, but he does appreciate philosophical mythology. He
qualifies myth as by nature false and untrue, and contrasts it with truth. Niehoff