Philo of Alexandria. Jean Danielou

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Philo of Alexandria - Jean Danielou


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De Fuga et Inventione De Fuga On Flight and Finding De Mutatione Nominum De Mutatione On the Change of Names De Somniis De Somniis On Dreams

      Volume VI

De Abrahamo De Abrahamo On Abraham
De Josepho De Josepho On Joseph
De Vita Mosis De Vita Mosis Moses

      Volume VII

De Decalogo De Decalogo On the Decalogue
De Specialibus Legibus I–III De Specialibus Legibus On Special Laws

      Volume VIII

De Specialibus Legibus IV De Specialibus Legibus On Special Laws
De Virtutibus De Virtutibus On Virtues
De Praemiis et Poenis De Praemiis On Rewards and Punishments

      Volume IX

Quod Omnis Probus Liber Sit Quod Probus Every Good Man is Free
De Vita Contemplativa De Vita Contemplativa On Contemplative Life
De Aeternitate Mundi De Aeternitate Mundi On the Eternity of the World
In Flaccum In Flaccum Against Flaccus
Apologia pro Iudaeis Pro Iudaeis Apology for the Jews
De Providentia De Providentia On Providence

      Volume X

De Legatione ad Gaium Ad Gaium On the Embassy to Gaius
Supplement I
Quaestiones et Solutiones in Genesim In Genesim Questions and Answers on Genesis
Supplement II
Quaestiones et Solutiones in Exodum In Exodum Questions and Answers on Exodus

      Daniélou refers to De Explicatione Legum, which seems to be a collective name for Legum Allegoriae and some of the treatises on the patriarchs. He also mentions De Mundo, which Yonge regards as identical to De Aeternitate Mundi.

      Alexandria was the homeland of the Septuagint. (Daniélou has some intriguing comments on Greek translations of the Bible.) Philo, who wrote in Greek used it. One of the differences between the Septuagint, which the Vulgate and translations from the Vulgate follow, is in the numbering of the Psalms. Daniélou himself follows the Hebrew enumeration, even when referring to the Septuagint. It will be noted that both counts total 150. As an exercise upon completion of the present work, the reader might try to imagine Philo giving a homily on the excellence of 150.

      To avoid confusion, below is a helpful table that I have adapted from A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture (Bernard Orchard and others ed., Thomas Nelson and Sons, London, etc., 1953, section 335d):

Hebrew and Contemporary Septuagint and Vulgate
1 through 8 same
9 and 10 9
11 through 113 10 through 112
114 and 115 113
116 114 and 115
117 through 146 116 through 145
147 146 and 147
148 through 150 same

      I have made two terminological decisions. The adjective derived from “Philo” is “Philonic,” on the model of “Platonic.”

      More importantly: the Logos is it. In French, Joan of Arc and the kitchen table are feminine. Louis XIV and books are masculine. In English people, animals, some odd plants, and ships have gender. Everything else is “it.” The delightful suggestion was made to me that, since in some ways later discussions of the Shekinah derive from Philo’s reflections upon the Logos, I might call the Logos “she”. The trouble, for one thing, is that Shekinah is Hebrew for Sophia. Philo also uses Sophia, and the relations between Sophia and Logos are not quite clear. Besides, I did not want to make him into an early cabbalist. Nor did I think I should make him a Christian by referring to the Logos as “he.” Maddeningly, sometimes it sounds very much as if the Logos is a personal being and other times is being described as an aspect of one. Sometimes it is a creature, but sometimes not. I have not dared to try to discern. So the Logos is “it.” Although the Loeb’s English may sometimes deliberately cultivate an archaic (or perhaps King James version) English, use of it has also forestalled any impulses of mine to render language about God with an eye to medieval metaphysics, and I have thus avoided the final temptation of making Philo into a Thomist or a Scotist.

      Author’s Foreword

      Philo of Alexandria’s life and work have been the object of a number of studies in recent years, especially in the United States and Germany. This interest is due first to the fascination this strange and complex personality continues to cause, with his combination of faith in the Old Testament and Hellenistic culture. It is also due to Philo’s testimony about the state of Judaism in the period when Christianity appears–and to the rebirth of lively interest in that environment because of the discovery of the Qumran manuscripts.


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