Philo of Alexandria - Books and Journals

66 part two
Berchman seeks to place Philo’s treatment of dreams in De Somniis within
the wider context of what he calls an ‘oneirocritical tradition in antiquity’. The
first part of the essay surveys discussion of dreams in such writers as Homer,
Plato, Aristotle, Stoic thinkers, Artemidorus, and Asclepius, showing varying
assessments of the ‘prophetic and divinatory significance’ of dreams. Oneirocritical
writings contain classification of and theories about different types of
dreams, elements of which can be found in Philo’s Somn.Theseelementsinclude
technical terms, topics, symbols, and theory. Claiming that Philo used the
oneirocritical tradition to underscore the divine source, the character, and the
prophetic and philosophical significance of dreams recorded in the Pentateuch,
Berchman encourages further study of this tradition for a better understanding
of Philo’s approach. This essay was earlier published in 1987; see RRS 8710.
(EB)
9815. D. Bertrand, ‘Philon et les Sources Chrétiennes,’ in Hommages
àJeanPouilloux, Collection de la Maison de l’Orient Hors série 5 (Lyons
1998) 121–128.
Brief account of the collaboration between Father Claude Mondésert (1906–
1992), editor of the famous Patristic series of texts Sources Chrétiennes, and Jean
Pouilloux (1917–1996) on the French translation of Philo’s works, published by
the same publisher as a kind of supplement to that series and completed in 1992.
(DTR)
9816.P.Bilde,‘TheEssenesinPhiloandJosephus,’inF.H.Cryerand
T. L. Thompson (edd.), Qumran between the Old and the New Testaments,
Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplements 290 (Sheffield
1998) 32–68.
During recent decades the revival of the discussion of the identity of the
Qumran community has led to a renewed interest in the descriptions of the
Essenes in Philo and Josephus. Bilde emphasizes that the old scholarly opinion
of the Dead Sea Scrolls as being rather untouched by the Hellenistic culture,
in contrast to Philo and Josephus, is no longer tenable. Hence his aim in this
article is to provide a renewed discussion of the accounts of Philo and Josephus
in light of recent discussions of the Qumran community’s identity and early
history. After a lengthy presentation of similarities and differences between
Philo’s and Josephus’ presentations of the Essenes (pp. 34–61), including the
Therapeutae, Bilde offers some interesting conclusions. He finds that Philo
and Josephus present the same general picture of the Essenes, namely that of
an admirable voluntary association of pious and virtuous men. Furthermore,
their descriptions are based on traditional material, that is on one or more,
possibly written sources. The Therapeutae are to be understood as a Diaspora
group closely related to the Essenes. Finally, we should not consider Philo’s and
Josephus’ accounts as ‘Hellenized distortions’ of the historical reality found in
the Dead Sea Scrolls, but the two groups of writings represent two different types