The Works of Philo: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition

Along with Josephus no source is cited more than Philo when it comes historical biblical study. Incredibly literate and actually entertaining.

This collection of Philo's works, translated by the classicist C.D. Yonge, represents an affordable though dated collection of the Jewish mystic's works. Philo is extremely important from the point of view of early Christianity, since he is a contemporary of Jesus and St Paul, and his allegorical method of interpreting the Bible had a strong impact on many important Christian Church Fathers, especially Origen, who introduced the allegorical method of reading the Bible into Christianity. Philo interprets the Bible in an allegorical fashion (that is, he seeks for meanings past the literal sense of the letter of the text) to seek deeper spiritual truths about God and the cosmos. Philo justifies this using the assumption the Bible is the word of God, and because it is inspired it has infinite layers of meaning which delve into the deeper infinite mystery of God himself. In this sense, Philo is completely the opposite of scientific historians like Herodotus, Thucydides or Josephus, who read their sacred texts or cultural documents in terms of scientific history, and were averse to any myth-mongering or allegory. However, valuable historical information is especially to be found in Philo's 'Embassy to Gaius', and also his works on the Essene sect of Judaism, both very valuable sources of historical information for those interested in the time of Jesus and St Paul. Philo's more mystical works interpret the Bible in terms of Neo-Platonic philosophy, which was flourishing in Alexandria where Philo studied and worked. He interprets key Old Testament texts in terms of the journey of the mind to God, leaving behind the body and the visible creation to the invisible realm of spirit where the incomprehensible God dwells, formless and in mystery. Philo is especially interesting in the way he treats many old testament characters and places in terms of stations on the mystical journey to the ineffable, a method which was taken over brilliantly by Origen and later applied extensively to the Old and New Testaments to read Christ into scripture. Also of interest is Philo's introduction of the Greek and Stoic concept of the logos, an intermediate agent between God and the world which comes from God, which God uses to form and create the world. It is possible the writer of the Gospel of John was influenced at least in part by this idea, when meditating on how Jesus could be both human and also the son of God, as Christian tradition was to believe, and the writer of the Gospel took this concept and adopted it to Christian belief in the appropriate way. In any case studying Philo's works is essential for understanding the mindset of the world in the time of Christ, the Apostles and St Paul, and this collection represents a readily available and affordable copy of Philo's works.

Philo's complete works, are very difficult to come by, yet this book makes his work accessible! This is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, as the Loeb edition is massive, and expensive. This is a must-have for all scholars, laymen, and those who enjoy extra-canonical literature, especially for insight to the Judaic background of the New Testament.

As tantalized and delighted as I was by the Classics of Western Spirituality anthology of Philo selections, I avoided buying this Hendrickson edition of the C.D. Yonge translation of the complete works of Philo of Alexandria until I could stand it no longer. Because Yonge worked in the 19th century, I thought his work would be as stilted as Hendrickson's Josephus by Whiston. I was wrong. Yonge's translation has been updated here by David Scholer to accord with a text discovered after Yonge wrote, keyed to Loeb Library numbers, with passages unavailable to Yonge newly translated. The text occasionally creaks, but it generally very readable, and actually enjoyable (not something that can be said of most ancient philosophical/theological texts!). The more modern Winston selections from the texts and their superior notes in the CWS edition are still excellent to have, but you really need to read more complete treatises to get into Philo's remarkable, even amusing, mind.

Philo Judaeus, the great Jewish exegete and philosopher, was a contemporary of Josephus and the Apostles Paul and Peter during the 1st century A.D. This volume of his complete works must be one of the most, if not the most, exhaustive commentaries on the five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch) in existence.In true rabbinic fashion, Philo discourses on the letter and spirit of the Pentateuch, from all the major characters of the five books of the Old Testament to the creation of the world. His prose style is a combination of stream-of-consciousness, meditation, and textual exposition. Philo's works are not merely a collection of essays on the Pentateuch, but a window into rich allegorical and contemplative mind of a great rabbi--the Pentateuch interpreted by a rabbi within the context of first century Hellenism buttressed by nearly 2000 years of a tradition personally handed down from God. Philo addresses the reader in 2nd person; it is almost as if the reader was a student sitting and listening at the feet of the rabbi.It is, however, easy to lose one's place in the text. Philo divides his essays topically: e.g., The Creation of the World, Abel, Cain, Noah's Drunkenness, Abraham's Exodus from Ur, The Tower of Babel, Moses, etc. Within each essay, however, Philo waxes upon the topic and upon anything tangentially related to it in a great stream-of-consciousness. Moreover, the text is invariably printed in two columns, justified, separated with a line in 10 point font on every page, front and back. If it were not for the consecutive paragraph numbering, the text would seem like a great jumbled mass of impenetrable rabbinic commentary. But Philo writes some true gems, and it is worth culling the dense text for them. His first essay alone, "On the Creation of the World", justifies purchasing the entire volume. Philo's exposition of Genesis chapter 1 is second to none. Not even St. Augustine's commentary of Genesis in "City of God" raises you to such heights. One of Philo's many insights into the purpose behind the order of creation is his answer to why God created vegetation before He created the sun. Philo's final essays, "Questions and Answers," offers his interpretation into every conceivable question concerning the Book of Genesis. In between "On the Creation of the World" and "Questions and Answers" are fascinating commentaries on all major characters in the first five books of the Old Testament and on the laws, the Ten Commandments and the 613 laws in the Pentateuch. Philo's works are still relatively obscure. But they rank with the works of Josephus. Josephus gives us history; Philo, interpretation. It is as if Philo was a Jewish Augustine who mixed "Confessions" and "City of God" into one volume.