Philo of Alexandria - Books and Journals

critical studies 1997 33
9716.J.M.Dillon,The Great Tradition: Further Studies in the Development
of Platonism and Early Christianity, Variorum Reprints (Aldershot
1997).
A second volume of collected essays in the Variorum Reprint Series by the
Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity College, Dublin and renowned specialist on
the history of the Platonist tradition. Three articles relate directly to Philo: IV
‘Reclaiming the Heritage of Moses: Philo’s Confrontation with Greek Philosophy’
(= RRS 9524); V ‘The Formal Structure of Philo’s Allegorical Exegesis’ (=
R-R 8326); VII ‘Logos and Trinity: Patterns of Influence on Early Christianity’
(= RRS 8918). (DTR)
9717. J.M.Dillon,‘ThePleasuresandPerilsofSoul-Gardening,’
in D. T. Runia and G. E. Sterling (edd.), Wisdom and Logos: Studies
in Jewish Thought in Honor of David Winston [= The Studia Philonica
Annual 9 (1997)], Brown Judaic Studies 312 (Atlanta 1997) 190–197.
The general question posed in this essay concerns Philo himself: is he a
man with a distinctive philosophical position who is seeking to apply this to
whatheregardsasasacredinspiredtext,orisheapiousexegeteofscripture,
who tries to bring in various philosophical doctrines as the text appears
to demand? Dillon examines his handling of various themes in Agr. Theimage
of philosophy as a garden allows him to take a stand on a number of important
issues in contemporary philosophy, such as the role of the passions and
the status of logic. There is no question of witless vacillation. Philo knows
exactly what he is about. Of the two alternatives sketched above, the author
has no compunction in settling for the former as presenting the truer picture.
(DTR)
9718. D.S.DuToit,Theios Anthropos. Zur Verwendung von ες
νρωπς und sinnverwandten Ausdrücken in der Literatur der Kaiserzeit,
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuem Testament 2.91
(Tübingen 1997), esp. 361–382.
The dissertation examines the semantics of ες, δαιμνις, εσπέσις
applied to historical persons in the authors of the Roman empire. Against the
affirmations of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule these terms never ascribe men
to the class of divinities, but either they denote a religious-ethical quality or they
are used technically in an epistemological context for founders of a discipline
or a type of knowledge. This result is confirmed by an inquiry in Hellenistic
Judaism. After a survey on the history of research the author dedicates pp. 361–
382 to the terminology in the writings of Philo: in titular function εσπέσιι
νδρες in Praem. 43anddivini viri/homines in Prov. 2.39and48meanpagan
initiators of philosophical knowledge. The expression can, however, be used also
for the Jewish authors of the Law (Migr. 90) or the Psalms (Plant. 29). ‘The
divine prophet’ of Mos. 2.188 could be understood in this sense, if the expression