Philo of Alexandria - Books and Journals

372 part two
Weitzman studies the tactics that Jews used to preserve their culture, particularly
in times when the Temple and/or Jewish ritual were endangered. He thus
considers the Babylonian destruction of the First Temple, the threat against Jewish
religious practices by Antiochus IV in the time of the Maccabees, Caligula’s
attempt to install a statue of himself in the Temple, and the Roman destruction
of the Second Temple. Philo is discussed most prominently in the chapter
on the crisis with Caligula, based on Philo’s account of the Embassy (pp. 55–
78). Weitzman focuses on Agrippa’s approach to the Emperor and analyzes it in
terms of notions that were nearly contemporary with Philo about friendship and
flattery. Recognizing that Philo’s account of Agrippa and his letter to Caligula is
a rhetorical device, Weitzman then considers Philo’s own tactics and concludes
that he presents Jewish culture and imperial rule as having an important affinity,
but one that is not quite complete because of the Jews’ commitment to preserving
their ancestral beliefs and practices. After Caligula’s assassination, Claudius
acted favorably to the Jews because of the friendship that he had with Agrippa
and Herod and the friendship that the Jews had shown to the Romans. In relation
to the Caligula episode and its immediate aftermath, therefore, the Jews
managed to preserve their culture by having ‘Friends in High Places’ (which is
the title of this chapter). Reviews: J. J. Collins, SPhA 17 (2005) 243–246. (EB)
20580. W. T. Wilson, ‘Pious Soldiers, Gender Deviants, and the Ideology
of Actium: Courage and Warfare in Philo’s De Fortitudine,’ The Studia
Philonica Annual 17 (2005) 1–32.
Plato’s understanding of courage (νδρεία)intheRepublic provides a gateway
to a thoroughgoing comparison of Cicero and Philo with respect to their philosophical
understandings of courage, as understood in relation to other virtues
deemed essential for personal, civic, and military life. Both Cicero and Philo
work out their treatments in the context of participating in public life. A systematic
commentary on Philo’s treatment of courage, found in De fortitudine (=
Virt. 1–50), presupposes realities specific to Philo’s situation in Roman Egypt
and his political desire to construct an image of Judaism congenial to the ideology
of the Roman ruling classes, as reflected in the propaganda of the Augustan
principate. (KAF)
20581.K.S.Winslow,Early Jewish and Christian Memories of Moses’
Wives: Exogamist Marriage and Ethnic Identity, Studies in the Bible and
Early Christianity 66 (Lewiston N.Y. 2005), esp. chapters 5 and 6.
The accounts of Moses’ Midianite wife, Zipporah, in Exod 2:4, and 18 and
his unnamed Cushite wife in Num 12 give rise to several exegetical motifs
that include Moses’ exogamous marriage(s), Zipporah’s act of circumcision, and
Moses’ later celibacy. Winslow examines how these accounts and motifs are
treated in the Hebrew Bible, later Jewish sources—including the LXX, Artapanus,
Demetrius, Ezekiel the Tragedian, Jubilees, Philo,Josephus,Targums,
and Rabbinic literature—and Christian sources—including Origen, Tertullian,