Philo of Alexandria: An Intellectual Biography

The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library

by Maren R. Niehoff

Philo was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who left behind one of the richest bodies of work from antiquity, yet his personality and intellectual development have remained a riddle. Maren Niehoff presents the first biography of Philo, arguing that his trip to Rome in 38 CE was a turning point in his life. There he was exposed not only to new political circumstances but also to a new cultural and philosophical environment.

Following the pogrom in Alexandria, Philo became active as the head of the Jewish embassy to Emperor Gaius and as an intellectual in the capital of the empire, responding to the challenges of his time and creatively reconstructing his identity, though always maintaining pride in the Jewish tradition. Philo’s trajectory from Alexandria to Rome and his enthusiastic adoption of new modes of thought made him a key figure in the complex negotiation between East and West.

336 pages, Hardcover

Published January 9, 2018

About the author

Maren R. Niehoff, Max Cooper Professor of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, trained in Jerusalem, Berlin, and Oxford and at the Harvard Society of Fellows. She is the author of Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria, Philo on Jewish Identity and Culture, and The Figure of Joseph in Post-Biblical Jewish Literature. Niehoff received the Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines at the Hebrew University in 2011 and is widely regarded as one of the leading Philonists today.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book that has won several book prises in a short time and already been translated into several languages. Niehoff is essentially the world expert on Philo, a Jewish author writing in Greek at the beginning of the Common Era. Philo was born in Alexandria in Egypt and played an important role in the intellectual circles of that city before travelling to Rome during the reign of Caligula as part of an embassy of Jews, who sought the emperor’s aid against a pogrom that happened in Alexandria in 38 CE. Afterwards, he seems to have stayed in Rome, but we don’t know much outside of his writings from this time. That is the gist of his life, and the historical sources that we have do not allow us to say much more. Hence the subtitle “Intellectual Biography.”

This book offers an overview of Philo’s theological, philosophical, and rhetorical texts. There is a lot of material here and if you can manage to digest it all, you will have a fantastic picture of this important author and the intellectual contexts that he inhabited. Philo’s literary output had essentially two phases, first his early years in Alexandria, when he was writing for a Jewish audience and produced a textual commentary on the Pentateuch which applies many concepts from Platonic philosophy. When he travelled to Rome in the embassy to Gaius (AKA Caligula), he began to write treatises for a gentile audience and engaged much more deeply with the Stoic philosophy that was popular at the time in Rome. Philo’s Roman output attempts to fight many prejudices and preconceptions about Jews (this genre is called “apologetics” in specialist circles). In situating Philo in this context, Niehoff often draws upon Roman authors such as Cicero and Seneca, later Jewish commentators and even the church fathers, revealing a masterful command of an enormous amount of material. Thus, this book offers not only the story of Philo’s literary output, but also a deep look into the development of Hellenistic philosophy in this period. Oddly, the book begins at the end, with Philo in Rome, and then discusses the Allegorical Commentary afterward. It all works though.

If you have never heard of Philo before, you will be blown away by this book. His texts mark a major turning point in modern religious thought. He set many trends that played a significant role in later Judaism and Christianity Did you know that Philo was the first person to place emphasis on the Ten Commandments as a legal code? Before him, the commandments were rarely a major part of discussion. He also lays the ground for the moden concept of marriage as a bond of love between one man and one woman (not that the ancients were allowing gay marriage, but Philo’s text nevertheless emphasizes this topic, which has played such a significant role in current political and religious discourse). He even discusses the Stoic concept of “providence” in a religious framework, in a way which will come to play a major role in the church fathers. His fusion of Jewish theology with Greek philosophy thus anticipates later developments, such as Augustine’s Platonic interpretation of Christianity or Aquinas’ fusion of Christianity and Aristotelian philosophy. When reading this book, one gains insight into the way that religious leaders make use of contemporary intellectual tools.

I can’t recommend this book enough. I didn’t know much about Philo myself before reading it, and I am tempted to read it again to gain even more from its learned pages. The book is written in a fairly accessible fashion (although I am a scholar of antiquity, so your mileage may vary) and it has the dreaded endnotes, which means that you should really just read the text and not worry about flipping back and forth unless you are a die-hard completionist.

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of Philo's essays are highly abstract and philosophical, while others seem far more worldly. The purpose of this book is to suggest that these differences relate to different parts of Philo's life.

At least one or two of Philo's essays were written when he was middle-aged or older (his essays on Caligula and the Roman politician Flaccus). Niehoff analyzes these essays and shows how these works were related to Imperial life and politics. For example, Philo's discussion of Caligula's bad habits might have been a hint about his successor's virtues and vices, since he could not directly criticize a king. His essay on Flaccus suggests that Flaccus was happier (and repents his sins against the Jews) in exile, and is perhaps meant to be a story of sin and repentance. These and other late essays praise and criticize Roman emperors, explain Judaism to people who don't know much about it, and are also willing to discuss and praise eminent women. Some of his essays on the Torah are more biographical in nature and less abstract; these essays seem to have more in common with Philo's later essays than with his more abstract works, and thus may have been written after his trip to Rome. Niehoff also suggests that some of these essays share Roman and/or Stoic values rather than Greek values- for example, his emphasis on paternal authority and on monogamy.

By contrast, another set of essays is far more abstract and philosophical, avoids current politics, presupposes understanding of Judaism, and treats women in the Torah as allegories rather than as people. These essays seem to discuss Plato more than the later essays, and were less favorable to the Stoics (a philosophical school that seems to have been popular among Roman intellectuals). This group of essays is also more focused on line-by-line, often allegorical, interpretation of the Torah. Niehoff suggests that these essays were written when Plato was younger, was less exposed to Rome, and was more enmeshed in the Alexandria Jewish community.