Philo of Alexandria Blog

Sometimes you discover things late, sometimes too late, sometimes never,--- this time I was - at least - 'late'; having a look at the webpages of Divinity and Religious studies at the University of Aberdeen, I stumbled over a page to a 2004 conference on Divine and Human Agency in Paul and his Cultural Environment, linked to on the page of Simon Gathercole,a senior lecturer located in Aberdeen.

It looks like the papers presented are available at this site, and her I would, of course, especially point you to the paper on Philo, presented by JMG Barclay; '"By the Grace of God I am what I am": Grace and Agency in Philo and Paul'. Ther might also be others of interest to you, so - have a look.

BTW, Simon has also links to several of his articles, seminar works etc. on his page; I might mention here especially his:

'Torah, Life and Salvation: Leviticus 18.5 in Early Judaism and the New Testament', in C.A. Evans, J.A. Sanders, eds. From Prophecy to Testament: The Function of the Old Testament in the New (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson, 2004), 131-150.

But there is more; so again- have a look and enjoy.

Bibleworks version 7 is now out. As mentioned earlier by Kåre, this version will also contain the Greek texts of Philo and an English translation (probably the old one by Yonge). You can read the description of this new version here. Bibleworks 7.

This is good news for studetns of Philo's works; Now the greek text with morphology is published in three different Bible Study programs; Logos, Accordance (MacIntosh) and now Bibleworks. Used together with the many other works, as texts, lexica and other books these programs provide, the study of Philo's works are becoming so much easier. And even more fun!

Today it should also be mentioned that this inclusion of the texts of Philo is most due to the efforts of Peder Borgen and his coworkers Roald Skarsten and Kåre Fuglseth in digitalizing and tagging these texts.

May I also mention that today is Peder Borgen's 78. birthday. Happy birthday to a great scholar!

Yess, the articles of the Journal of Biblical Literature are now available online. I just visited the site, and checked the files for articles on Philo. While there are not that many, there are some, and several that deal with New Testament issues, drawing also on the works of Philo.
Just in time to celebrate JBL's 125th birthday, the SBL is pleased to offer all members free access to the full text of the Journal of Biblical Literature (1881-) within the JSTOR archive (recent issues will continue to be made available on the SBL website). Thus, for the first time ever, SBL members can search for any word or phrase within JBL, browse the contents of any issue, and read or print any article — no matter how long ago it may have been published.

To access the JSTOR JBL archive, simply come to the SBL website, log-in with your member ID number, navigate to the (JBL page), and click on the "Enter JSTOR" link. You will immediately be redirected to the JSTOR JBL archive, where you can search, browse, read, and print to your heart's content.

The most recent articles I have on paper (i.e. from the last 10 years), but the older ones have not always been available to me. Now I could make an outprint of, inter alia, these - some of these I did not even know about:

Mary E. Andrews,
'Paul, Philo and the Intellectuals,'
JBL 53(1934):150-166

Montgomery J. Shroyer,
'Alexandrian Jewish Literalists,'
JBL 55 (1936): 261-284.

Harry A. Wolfson,
'Philo on Jewish Citizenship in Alexandria,'
JBL 63 (1944): 165-168.

And there are others....

But the articles are only available to those being members of the Society of Biblical Literature. This launching of the complete set of articles from the JBL is just another great stimulus to be and/or to remain a member.

So now; what journal will be the next online....?

Checking some blogs on my list, I discover that Jim Davila over at Paleojudaica, the ever observing Jim D, has picked up some news about an upcoming conference at the University of Exeter, UK, on Pagan Monotheism.

You can see the website for the conference here.

The conference is presented thus:
"Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire (1st-4th cent. AD)
Conference at Exeter, 17-20 July 2006
The publication of the volume Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity (eds. P. Athanassiadi – M. Frede, Oxford, 1999), in which pagan monotheism was presented as a major religious force in Late Antiquity, has led to an extensive debate on the definition and role of pagan monotheism in Late Antique society.

As part of an AHRB-funded research project concerned with the cultural and intellectual context of pagan monotheism in the Roman empire, directed by Professor Stephen Mitchell, the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter is staging a conference in July 2006.

The aim is to examine pagan monotheism as a religious phenomenon and to place it in its social, political and cultural context. The focus will both be on philosophical and literary texts, and on the evidence derived from epigraphy, archaeology and material culture. The conference will also examine the various strands of monotheistic ideas and practices, and the way that these interact with other diverse religious developments in the Roman empire up to the fourth century."

As a philonist, it is interesting to see that among the many themes to be dealt with and lectures to be held, there will also be a lecture on Philo:
C. Hywel (Ripon College): Pagan Monotheism in Philo Judaeus.

For both professional and private reasons, January and February seem to be extremely busy, and blogging will have to be occassionally; think I am experiencing similar busy-ness as Mark Goodacre when he moved to the US, though I am only moving within my own country.

Kåre might do some blogging, or- if you have something that should be posted, please send me a mail about it; (torreys at gmail.com), and I'll post it.

In the meantime, 'stay tuned.....'

SBL's Review of Biblical Literature Newsletter announces that two reviews of two volumes of Philo studies are now available:
Aune, David E., Torrey Seland, and Jarl Henning Ulrichsen, eds.
Neotestamentica et Philonica: Studies in Honor of Peder Borgen
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=4650
Reviewed by Gregory Sterling.

Runia, David T.
On the Creation of the Cosmos according to Moses: Introduction, Translation and Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=4788
Reviewed by Claudio Zamagni.

Tolle lege!

If anyone have observed that there has been no posting on this blog so far this year, they are right! Being away from my office and computer still another week,- my blogging will probably not be resumed before after Jan 16.

Happy New Year to all! :-)