Philo of Alexandria - Books and Journals

400 part two
In the treatment of the fragment treating the date of Passover, the Philonic
texts on the subject are faithfully summarized. Like Aristobulus, Philo uses
the term τ διαατήρια in order to designate the crossing of the borders of
Egypt by Israel. In commenting on the fragment on the Sabbath the author
mentions various Philonic texts which are close to the thought of Aristobulus.
(JR)
20675.D.G.Robertson,‘MindandLanguageinPhilo,’Journal of the
History of Ideas 67 (2006) 423–442.
Wide-ranging article which analyses and problematizes Philo’s pronouncements
on mind and language against the background of contemporary Platonist
and Stoic doctrine. Particular emphasis is placed on the interplay of immateriality
and materiality in Philo’s concept of the human logos. The two kinds of logos
in human beings are paralleled by a distinction in the cosmic realm, in which
there is a higher, divine logos and also logos as cosmic principle. Robertson is
struck by a new emphasis on divine speech in Philo which has biblical roots.
Turning to the theme of essence and nature of mind, he notes the stubborn tendency
shown by Philo to view the connection of thought and language in terms
of a contrast between the physical and the immaterial, the logos being seen as an
intermediary between the two. The difficulty then arises of the interface between
the two, for example in how corporeal speech carries incorporeal meaning. In
this view spoken language comes to be regarded as inferior, but Philo likes the
idea that the inferior part of something can be joined together with the superior
part, i.e. audible word and intelligible thought. The background of these ideas
might be thought to be Stoic (esp. the doctrine of ‘sayables’), but there are several
points at which Philo introduces Platonist ideas, and he appears to anticipate
the later Neoplatonic distinction between discursive and non-discursive
thought. (DTR)
20676. J.R.Royse,‘TheTextofPhilo’sDe virtutibus,’ The Studia
Philonica Annual 18 (2006) 73–101.
As part of a seminar on the treatise Virt., Royse examines the textual basis of
the work as presented in the critical edition of C-W, building on earlier work
done by Hilgert (RRS 1406) and Runia (RRS 9171). The treatise is clearly a
kind of appendix to the four books of Spec., but it seems that Philo himself
did not make the organization of the various sub-treatises very clear and this
is reflected in their transmission. A discussion follows on the original title of the
work and the arrangement of its various parts. Fortunately the order as found in
the Seldenianus manuscript (S) is confirmed by the early evidence of Clement
of Alexandria. Another problem raised by our evidence is whether there may
have been a lost section of the work entitled Περ εσεείας (De pietate). Royse
offers arguments that we should take the evidence of the Sacra parallela seriously
on this point. In addition there is some intriguing evidence about this postulated
lost work in the Oxyrhynchus papyrus, which is discussed at some length. Royse
then turns to some of the fascinating deviant readings furnished by ms. S which