Philo of Alexandria - Books and Journals

172 part two
Gebot: Weisheits- und Dekalogtraditionen im frühen Judentum,Biblisch-
Theologische Studien 43 (Neukirchen-Vluyn 2001) 147–226, esp. 161–
170.
The author gives an overall view of the history of reception (Wirkungsgeschichte)
of the Decalogue in Early Judaism. Among other Jewish Greek
Literature—Septuagint, Letter of Aristeas, Wisdom of Solomon and the Greek
Jewish Tradition around Alexandria—it is especially Philo who underlines the
centrality of the Decalogue. In the end of the treatise Decal. 154–173 he summarizes
his understanding: the Decalogue is an abbreviation of the whole Torah.
The Decalogue is related to all people, not restricted exclusively to Israel. This
text (and the parallel in Her. 168–173) is discussed and its importance for Philo
underlined. According to Philo the Decalogue seems to be an universal call of
Jewish law: law for the whole world (cf. in the same collection D. Sänger, ‘Tora
für die Völker—Weisungen der Liebe: Zur Rezeption des Dekalogs im frühen
Judentum und Neuen Testament’ 97–146, esp. 104–106). Kellermann then goes
on to explore the Palestinian (Josephus; Ps.Philo) and Samaritan tradition, as
well as Qumran texts and early Jewish Prayers. (GS)
20137. J. Kirwan, ‘The Postmodernist’s Journey into Nature: from
Philo of Alexandria to Pocahontas and Back Again, by Way of Jean-
François Lyotard,’ in B. Herzogenrath (ed.), From Virgin Land to
Disney World: Nature and Its Discontents in the USA of Yesterday and
Today, Critical Studies 15 (Amsterdam 2001) 33–52.
This article is devoted to an aspect of Jean-François Lyotard’s thought that
pertains to nature. In spite of what the title might suggest, Philo is mentioned
only once toward the end, in a reference to ‘the narrative of Neoplatonism, that
moment which links the via negativa of Philo of Alexandria to the Christianity
of Augustine’ (p. 49). (EB)
20138. M. Kister, ‘‘Leave the Dead to Bury their own Dead’,’ in J. L.
Kugel (ed.), Studies in Ancient Midrash (Cambridge Mass. 2001) 43–56.
Abraham’s leaving his father’s house in response to God’s command in Gen
12:1 raises for several interpreters the question of whether he ignored his filial
responsibility to stay with his father, Terah, and bury him at his death. Philo
(Migr. 177) and Stephen (Acts 7:4) maintain that Abraham left Haran after his
father died, a claim with no basis in the LXX. The solution of R. Isaac in Genesis
Rabbah that Terah was spiritually dead may indicate a Jewish background
to Jesus’ saying in Matt. 8:21–22 (Luke 9:59–60): ‘Leave the dead to bury
their own dead.’ Figurative understandings of ‘dead’ as spiritually dead can be
found in Philo and rabbinic sources, which have in common some prooftexts
and exegetical methods. A related notion is that ‘the righteous dead are really
alive.’ In rabbinic and Hellenistic writers, including Philo, death might refer
to wickedness generally, to participation in worldly life, or to life as a pagan.