Philo's Portrayal of Moses in the Context of Ancient Judaism

Philo's Portrayal of Moses in the Context of Ancient Judaism

Author: Louis H. Feldman

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess

Published: 2016-12-15

Total Pages: 555

ISBN-13: 0268159521

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Philo's Portrayal of Moses in the Context of Ancient Judaism presents the most comprehensive study of Philo's De Vita Mosis that exists in any language. Feldman, well known for his work on Josephus and ancient Judaism, here paves new ground using rabbinic material with philological precision to illuminate important parallels and differences between Philo's writing on Moses and rabbinic literature. One way in which Hellenistic culture marginalized Judaism was by exposing the apparent defects in Moses' life and character. Philo's De Vita Mosis is a counterattack to these charges and is a vital piece of his attempt to reconcile Judaism and Hellenism. Feldman rigorously examines the text and shows how Philo presents a narrative of Moses's life similar to that of a mythical divine and heroic figure, glorifying his birth, education, and virtues. Feldman demonstrates that Philo is careful to explain in a scientific way those portions of the Bible, particularly miracles, that appear incredible to his skeptical Hellenistic readers. Through Feldman's careful analysis, Moses emerges as unique among ancient lawgivers. Philo's Portrayal of Moses in the Context of Ancient Judaism mirrors the organization of Philo's biography of Moses, which is in two books, the first, in the style of Plutarch, proceeding chronologically, and the second, in the style of Suetonius, arranged topically. Following an introductory chapter, Feldman's study discusses the life of Moses chronologically in the second chapter and examines his virtues topically in the third. Feldman compares the particular features of Philo's portrait of Moses with the way in which Moses is viewed both by Jewish sources in antiquity (including Pseudo-Philo; Josephus; Graeco-Jewish historians, poets, and philosophers; and in the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Samaritan tradition, Dead Sea Scrolls, and rabbinic tradition) and by non-Jewish sources, notably the Greek and Roman writers who mention him.


The Works of Philo

The Works of Philo

Author: Charles Duke Philo

Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers

Published: 1991-10

Total Pages: 945

ISBN-13: 1565638093

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Foreword by David M. Scholer is dated May 2008.


Philo of Alexandria: On the Life of Abraham

Philo of Alexandria: On the Life of Abraham

Author: Ellen Birnbaum

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-09-07

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 9004423648

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In this new English translation and commentary of Philo’s On the Life of Abraham Ellen Birnbaum and John Dillon show how and why this unique biography displays Philo’s philosophical, exegetical, and literary genius at its best.


Philo of Alexandria: On the Contemplative Life

Philo of Alexandria: On the Contemplative Life

Author: Joan E. Taylor

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-11-09

Total Pages: 457

ISBN-13: 9004439234

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De Vita Contemplativa is known for its depiction of a philosophical group of Jewish men and women known as the ‘Therapeutae’. This commentary sets the treatise in its historical context and explores Philo’s aims in depicting them as he did.


Gregory of Nyssa (CWS)

Gregory of Nyssa (CWS)

Author: Saint Gregory (of Nyssa)

Publisher: Paulist Press

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780809121120

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Here is an award-winning, new translation that brings to light Gregory's complex identity as an early mystic. Gregory (c. 332-395) was one of the Greek Cappadocian Fathers, along with St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen. +


Moses in Biblical and Extra-Biblical Traditions (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft)

Moses in Biblical and Extra-Biblical Traditions (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft)

Author: Axel Graupner

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9783110194609

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The papers in this volume revolve around the history of the influence exerted by the person of Moses and the traditions associated with him. They deal not only with the function of the figure of Moses in the Pentateuch, the salvation in the Red Sea and the final day of Moses' life, but also with the way Moses was received in the Deuteronomic history, the Psalms, the Book of Jeremiah, the Septuagint, in Qumran, early Jewish extra-biblical literature, the New Testament and the Early Church.


On the Embassy to Gaius

On the Embassy to Gaius

Author: Philo

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2023-11-19

Total Pages: 93

ISBN-13:

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An ancient Roman history text, translated by Charles Yonge, and written by the Greek philosopher Philo of Alexandria. The Embassy to Gaius was a meeting between Gaius Caligula, the then Roman Emperor, and a large contingent of Jews. They wished to overturn Gaius' plans to have a huge statue of Zeus installed in the temple. Gaius' hatred of the Jews is legendary. This book is important because it helps to understand the relations between Jews and Romans in the first century A.D.


Josephus's Interpretation of the Bible

Josephus's Interpretation of the Bible

Author: Louis H. Feldman

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1999-01-18

Total Pages: 934

ISBN-13: 9780520918955

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Josephus (A.D. 37-?100), a pro-Roman Jew closely associated with the emperor Titus, is the earliest systematic commentator on the Bible, as well as one of the foremost historians of the beginning of the Christian era. Politically, Josephus was pro-Roman, and although he had no sympathy for extreme Jewish nationalism, he was a zealous defender of Jewish religion and culture. Louis H. Feldman examines the principles that guided Josephus in his understanding of the Bible, investigating his creative contribution in the rewriting of biblical accounts. This comprehensive study evaluates Josephus as a historian and demonstrates the originality and consistency of his work as an author. The first part of Feldman's work attempts to understand Josephus's purposes and techniques in retelling the Bible. The second part reviews Josephus's treatment of twelve key biblical figures. In addition to its reevaluation of an important early historian, this unique compendium provides a mine of information on the reassessment of the most important biblical figures.


Mos Christianorum

Mos Christianorum

Author: James Petitfils

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2016-11-14

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9783161539046

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The preferred moral curriculum of a Roman education abounded with exemplary stories of Rome's native heroes. To inculcate conceptions of virtuous leadership, politicians and populace alike deployed exempla as rhetorical vehicles of the mos maiorum (way of the ancestors). James Petitfils explores Jewish and Christian participation in this widespread pedagogical practice. After surveying Roman discourse on exemplary leadership, the author consults several texts, written in significantly Romanized environments, celebrating Jewish or Christian ancestral leaders (Josephus' Antiquities 2-4, Philo's Mosis 1-2, 1 Clement, and The Letter of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons ). He highlights their respective appropriation, adaptation, and redeployment of the Roman moral idiom on exemplary leadership in the promotion of self-consciously non-Roman ancestral exempla and languages of leadership.