Philo of Alexandria - Books and Journals

critical studies 2006 393
20654. C. Lévy, ‘Philon et les passions,’ in L. Ciccolini (ed.), Receptions
antiques: Etudes de littérature ancienne (Paris 2006) 27–41.
Having shown that many contradictory points of view have been stated on the
subject of the passions in Philo, the author focuses on four points: the different
Philonic conceptions of the soul; the typologies and representations of passion;
the problem of therapy; and finally what appears to be the Philonic paradox par
excellence, passion transcended by folly. It appears that Philo expresses himself
sometimes in Platonic terms, sometimes in Stoic terms, depending on the text on
which he is commenting, but also depending on convictions that never coincide,
so to speak, with specific philosophical doctrines. (JR)
20655. A. Lieber, ‘Jewish and Christian Heavenly Meal Traditions,’
in A. D. DeConick (ed.), Paradise Now: Essays on Early Jewish and
Christian Mysticism, Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series 11
(Atlanta 2006) 313–339.
Cultic sacrificial meals and eschatological or heavenly banquets reflect both
community boundaries and divine–human boundaries. The author considers
various representations of these meals in Philo, Epistle to the Hebrews,
Luke, John, and rabbinic literature. According to Philo’s interpretations of Exod
24:11—especially in QE—Moses, Aaron, and the 70 elders ascend to an immortal,
divine place; the food is spiritual rather than physical; and the vision of
the divine unifies Israel, a nation that also partakes of the spiritual food of
manna. Philo similarly assigns spiritual meaning to sacrificial practices, in
which seeing God becomes ‘the culminating moment of the rite’ (p. 321). Even
while the Temple is standing Philo turns sacrifice into an internal, spiritual
rite and thereby legitimates a pious life away from this Temple. In NT sources,
accounts of Jesus and meal symbolism point to ‘a collapsing of the boundaries
that had formerly structured humanity’s relationship to the divine; and
[by contrast] in rabbinic sources, the eschatological meal provides a model
for the divine-human encounter that necessitates the maintenance of the very
boundaries that are challenged in the emergent Christian tradition’ (p. 339).
(EB)
20656. J.N.Lightstone,The Commerce of the Sacred: Mediation of
the Divine among Jews in the Greco-Roman World,2ndedition(NewYork
2006).
This republished edition of the author’s earlier book (published in 1984; see
RRS a8465) includes a new foreword by Willi Braun and an updated bibliography
by H. W. Basser. Generally speaking, Lightstone takes issue with scholarly
categories used to describe Judaism in the Greco-Roman period and scholarly
use of the past ‘to validate or invalidate present preferences’. As in the first edition,
the Appendix is devoted to questioning Goodenough’s interpretation of
Philo as the proponent of an actual mystery religion and to arguing that Philo