Cambridge Forecast Group Blog: Backup

PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA

November 27, 2006 on 2:43 am | In Books, History, Israel, Judaica, Philosophy, Research | No Comments

PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA

(20 B.C.E.-50 C.E.)

Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenized Jew, is a figure that spans two cultures, the Greek and the Hebrew. When Hebrew mythical thought met Greek philosophical thought in the first century B.C.E. it was only natural that someone would try to develop speculative and philosophical justification for Judaism in terms of Greek philosophy. Thus Philo produced a synthesis of both traditions developing concepts for future Hellenistic interpretation of messianic Hebrew thought, especially by Clement of Alexandria, Christian Apologists like Athenagoras, Theophilus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and by Origen. He may have influenced Paul, his contemporary, and perhaps the authors of the Gospel of John (C. H. Dodd) and the Epistle to the Hebrews (R. Williamson and H. W. Attridge). In the process, he laid the foundations for the development of Christianity in the West and in the East, as we know it today. Philo’s primary importance is in the development of the philosophical and theological foundations of Christianity. The church preserved the Philonic writings because Eusebius of Caesarea labeled the monastic ascetic group of Therapeutae and Therapeutrides, described in Philo’s The Contemplative Life, as Christians, which is highly unlikely. Eusebius also promoted the legend that Philo met Peter in Rome. Jerome (345-420 C.E.) even lists him as a church Father. Jewish tradition was uninterested in philosophical speculation and did not preserve Philo’s thought. According to H. A. Wolfson, Philo was a founder of religious philosophy, a new habit of practicing philosophy. Philo was thoroughly educated in Greek philosophy and culture as can be seen from his superb knowledge of classical Greek literature. He had a deep reverence for Plato and referred to him as “the most holy Plato” (Prob. 13). Philo’s philosophy represented contemporary Platonism which was its revised version incorporating Stoic doctrine and terminology via Antiochus of Ascalon (ca 90 B.C.E.) and Eudorus of Alexandria, as well as elements of Aristotelian logic and ethics and Pythagorean ideas. Clement of Alexandria even called Philo “the Pythagorean.” But it seems that Philo also picked up his ancestral tradition, though as an adult, and once having discovered it, he put forward the teachings of the Jewish prophet, Moses, as “the summit of philosophy” (Op. 8), and considered Moses the teacher of Pythagoras (b. ca 570 B.C.E.) and of all Greek philosophers and lawgivers (Hesiod, Heraclitus, Lycurgus, to mention a few). For Philo, Greek philosophy was a natural development of the revelatory teachings of Moses. He was no innovator in this matter because already before him Jewish scholars attempted the same. Artapanus in the second century B.C.E identified Moses with Musaeus and with Orpheus. According to Aristobulus of Paneas (first half of the second century B.C.E.), Homer and Hesiod drew from the books of Moses which were translated into Greek long before the Septuagint.

——————————————————————————–

Table of Contents (Clicking on the links below will take you to those parts of this article)

1. Life

2. Philo’s Works and Their Classification

3. Technique of Exposition

4. Emphasis on Contemplative Life and Philosophy

5. Philosophy and Wisdom: a Path to Ethical Life

6. Philo’s Ethical Doctrine

7. Philo’s Mysticism and Transcendence of God

8. Source of Intuition of the Infinite Reality

9. Philo’s Doctrine of Creation

a. Philo’s Model of Creation

b. Eternal Creation

10. Doctrine of Miracles: Naturalism and Comprehension

11. Doctrine of the Logos in Philo’s Writings

a. The Utterance of God

b. The Divine Mind

c. God’s Transcendent Power

d. First-born Son of God

e. Universal Bond: in the Physical World and in the Human Soul

f. Immanent Reason

g. Immanent Mediator of the Physical Universe

h. The Angel of the Lord, Revealer of God

i. Multi-Named Archetype

j. Soul-Nourishing Manna and Wisdom

k. Intermediary Power

l. God”

m. Summary of Philo’s Concept of the Logos

12. List of abbreviations to Philo’s works

13. Editions of Philo’s works and their translations

14. Major Works on Philo

——————————————————————————–

1. Life

Very little is known about the life of Philo. He lived in Alexandria, which at that
time counted, according to some estimates, about one million people and included largest
Jewish community outside of Palestine. He came from a wealthy and the prominent family and
appears to be a leader in his community. Once he visited Jerusalem and the temple, as he
himself stated in Prov. 2.64. Philo’s brother, Alexander, was a wealthy, prominent Roman
government official, a custom agent responsible for collecting dues on all goods imported
into Egypt from the East. He donated money to plate the gates of the temple in Jerusalem
with gold and silver. He also made a loan to Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great.
Alexander’s two sons, Marcus and Tiberius Julius Alexander were involved in Roman affairs.
Marcus married Bernice, the daughter of Herod Agrippa I, who is mentioned in Acts (25:13,
23; 26:30). The other son, Tiberius Julius Alexander, described by Josephus as “not
remaining true to his ancestral practices” became procurator of the province of Judea
(46-48 C.E.) and prefect of Egypt (66-70 C.E.). Philo was involved in the affairs of his
community which interrupted his contemplative life (Spec. leg. 3.1-6), especially during
the crisis relating to the pogrom which was initiated in 38 C.E. by the prefect Flaccus,
during the reign of emperor Gaius Caligula. He was elected to head the Jewish delegation,
which apparently included his brother Alexander and nephew Tiberius Julius Alexander, and
was sent to Rome in 39-40 B.C.E. to see the emperor. He reported the events in his
writings Against Flaccus and The Embassy to Gaius.

Back to Table of Contents

2. Philo’s Works and Their Classification

The major part of Philo’s writings consists of philosophical essays dealing with the
main themes of biblical thought that present a systematic and precise exposition of his
views. One has the impression that he attempted to show that the philosophical Platonic or
Stoic ideas were nothing but the deductions made from the biblical verses of Moses. Philo
was not an original thinker, but he was well acquainted with the entire range of Greek
philosophical traditions through the original texts. If there are gaps in his knowledge,
they are rather in his Jewish tradition as evidenced by his relying on the Greek
translation of the Hebrew Bible. In his attempt to reconcile the Greek way of thinking
with his Hebrew tradition he had antecedents such as Pseudo-Aristeas and Aristobulus.

Philo’s works are divided into three categories:

1. The first group comprises writings that paraphrase the biblical texts of Moses: On
Abraham, On the Decalogue, On Joseph, The Life of Moses, On the Creation of the World, On
Rewards and Punishments, On the Special Laws, On the Virtues. A series of works include
allegorical explanations of Genesis 2-41: On Husbandry, On the Cherubim, On the Confusion
of Tongues, On the Preliminary Studies, The Worse Attacks the Better, On Drunkenness, On
Flight and Finding, On the Giants, Allegorical Interpretation (Allegory of the Law), On
the Migration of Abraham, On the Change of Names, On Noah’s Work as a Planter, On the
Posterity and Exile of Cain, Who is the Heir, On the Unchangeableness of God, On the
Sacrifices of Abel and Cain, On Sobriety, On Dreams. Here belong also: Questions and
Answers on Genesis and Questions and Answers on Exodus (aside from fragments preserved
only in Armenian).

2. A series of works classified as philosophical treatises: Every Good Man is Free (a
sequel of which had the theme that every bad man is a slave, which did not survive); On
the Eternity of the World; On Providence (except for lengthy fragments preserved in
Armenian); Alexander or On Whether Brute Animals Possess Reason (preserved only in
Armenian) and called in Latin De Animalibus (On the Animals); a brief fragment De
Deo (On God), preserved only in Armenian is an exegesis of Genesis 18, and belongs to the
Allegory of the Law.

3. The third group includes historical-apologetic writings: Hypothetica or Apologia Pro
Judaeos which survives only in two Greek extracts quoted by Eusebius. The first extract is
a rationalistic version of Exodus giving a eulogic account of Moses and a summary of
Mosaic constitution contrasting its severity with the laxity of the gentile laws; the
second extract describes the Essenes. The other apologetic essays include Against Flaccus,
The Embassy to Gaius, and On the Contemplative Life. But all these works are related to
Philo’s explanations of the texts of Moses.

Back to Table of Contents

3. Technique of Exposition

Philo uses an allegorical technique for interpretation of the Hebrew myth and in this
he follows the Greek tradition of Theagenes of Rhegium (second half of the sixth century
B.C.E.). Theagenes used this approach in defense of Homer’s theology against the
detractors. He said that the myths of gods struggling with each other referred to the
opposition between the elements; the names of gods were made to refer to various
dispositions of the soul, e.g., Athena was reflection, Aphrodite, desire, Hermes,
elocution. Anaxagoras, too, explained the Homeric poems as discussions of virtue and
justice. The Sophist Prodicus of Ceos (b. 470 B.C.E.), contemporary of Socrates,
interpreted the gods of Homeric stories as personifications of those natural substances
that are useful to human life [e.g., bread and Demeter, wine and Dionysus, water and
Poseidon, fire and Hephaestus]. He also employed ethical allegory. His treatise, The
Seasons, contains a Parable of Heracles, paraphrased in Xenophon’s Memorabilia
(2.1.21-34), which tells the story of Heracles who, at crossroad, was attracted by Virtue
and Vice in the form of two women of great stature (Sacr. 20-44). The allegory was used by
the cynic Antisthenes (contemporary of Plato) and Diogenes the Cynic. Stoics expanded the
Cynics’ use of Homeric allegory in the interest of their philosophical system. Using this
allegorical method, Philo seeks out the hidden message beneath the surface of any
particular text and tries to read back a new doctrine into the work of the past. In a
similar way Plutarch allegorized the ancient Egyptian mythology giving it a new meaning.
But in some aspects of Jewish life Philo defends the literal interpretation of his
tradition as in the debate on circumcision or the Sabbath (Mig. 89-93; Spec. leg. 1.1-11).
Though he acknowledges the symbolic meaning of these rituals, he insists on their literal
interpretation.

Back to Table of Contents

4. Emphasis on Contemplative Life and Philosophy

The key emphasis in Philo’s philosophy is contrasting the spiritual life, understood as
intellectual contemplation, with the mundane preoccupation with earthly concerns, either
as an active life or as a search for pleasure. Philo disdained the material world and
physical body (Spec. leg. 3.1-6). The body was for Philo as for Plato, “an evil and a
dead thing” (LA 3.72-74; Gig. 15), wicked by nature and a plotter against the soul
(LA 3.69). But it was a necessary evil, hence Philo does not advocate a complete
abnegation from life. On the contrary he advocates fulfilling first the practical
obligations toward men and the use of mundane possessions for the accomplishment of
praiseworthy works (Fug. 23-28; Plant. 167-168). Similarly he considers pleasure
indispensable and wealth useful, but for a virtuous man they are not a perfect good (LA
3.69-72). He believed that men should steer themselves away from the physical aspect of
things gradually. Some people, like philosophers, may succeed in focusing their minds on
the eternal realities. Philo believed that man’s final goal and ultimate bliss is in the
“knowledge of the true and living God” (Decal. 81; Abr. 58; Praem. 14);
“such knowledge is the boundary of happiness and blessedness” (Det. 86). To him,
mystic vision allows our soul to see the Divine Logos (Ebr. 152) and achieve a union with
God (Deut. 30:19-20; Post. 12). In a desire to validate the scripture as an inspired
writing, he often compares it to prophetic ecstasy (Her. 69-70). His praise of the
contemplative life of the monastic Therapeutae in Alexandria attests to his preference of
bios theoreticos over bios practicos. He adheres to the Platonic picture of the souls
descending into the material realm and that only the souls of philosophers are able to
come to the surface and return to their realm in heaven (Gig. 12-15). Philo adopted the
Platonic concept of the soul with its tripartite division. The rational part of the soul,
however, is breathed into man as a part of God’s substance. Philo speaks figuratively
“Now, when we are alive, we are so though our soul is dead and buried in our body, as
if in a tomb. But if it were to die, then our soul would live according to its proper life
being released from the evil and dead body to which it is bound” (Op. 67-69; LA
1.108).

Back to Table of Contents

5. Philosophy and Wisdom: a Path to Ethical Life

Philo differentiated between philosophy and wisdom. To him philosophy is “the
greatest good thing to men” (Op. 53-54), which they acquired because of a gift of
reason from God (Op. 77). It is a devotion to wisdom, and a way to acquire the highest
knowledge, “an attentive study of wisdom.” Wisdom in turn is “the knowledge
of all divine and human things, and of the respective causes of them” that is,
according to Philo, contained in the Torah (Congr. 79). Hence it follows that Moses, as
the author of the Torah, “had reached the very summit of philosophy” and
“had learnt from the oracles of God the most numerous and important of the principles
of nature” (Op. 8). Moses was also the interpreter of nature (Her. 213). By saying
this Philo wanted to indicate that human wisdom has two origins: one is divine, the other
is natural (Her. 182). Moreover, that Mosaic Law is not inconsistent with nature. A single
law, the Logos of nature governs the entire world (Jos. 28-31) and its law is imprinted on
the human mind (Prob. 46-47). Because of this we have a conscience that affects even
wicked persons (QG 4.62). Wisdom is a consummated philosophy and as such has to be in
agreement with the principles of nature (Mos. 2.48; Abr. 16; Op. 143; Spec. leg. 2.13;
3.46-47, 112, 137; Virt. 18). The study of philosophy has as its end “life in
accordance with nature” and following the “path of right reason” (Mig.
128). Philosophy prepares us to a moral life, i.e., “to live in conformity with
nature” (Prob. 160). From this follows that life in accordance with nature hastens us
towards virtues (Mos. 2. 181; Abr. 60, Spec. leg. 1.155), and an unjust man is the one
“who transgresses the ordinances of nature” (Spec. leg. 4.204; Cf. Decal. 132;
Virt. 131-132; Plant. 49; Ebr. 142; Agr. 66). Thus Philo does not discount human reason,
but contrasts only the true doctrine which is trust in God with uncertain, plausible, and
unreliable reasoning (LA 3.228-229).

Back to Table of Contents

6. Philo’s Ethical Doctrine

Philo’s ethical doctrine is Stoic in its essence and includes the active effort to
achieve virtue, the model of a sage to be followed, and practical advice concerning the
achievement of the proper right reason and a proper emotional state of rational emotions
(eupatheia). To Philo man is basically passive and it is God who sows noble qualities in
the soul, thus we are instruments of God (LA 2.31-32; Cher. 127-128). Still man is the
only creature endowed with freedom to act though his freedom is limited by the
constitution of his mind. As such he is responsible for his action and “very properly
receives blame for the offences which he designedly commits.” This is so because he
received a faculty of voluntary motion and is free from the dominion of necessity (Deus
47-48). Philo advocates the practice of virtue in both the divine and the human spheres.
Lovers only of God and lovers only of men are both incomplete in virtue. Philo advocates a
middle harmonious way (Decal. 106-110; Spec. leg. 4. 102). He differentiates four virtues:
wisdom, self-control, courage, and justice (LA 1.63-64). Human dispositions Philo divides
into three groups – the best is given the vision of God, the next has a vision on the
right i.e., the Beneficent or Creative Power whose name is God, and the third has a vision
on the left, i.e., the Ruling Power called Lord (Abr. 119-130). Felicity is achieved in
the culmination of three values: the spiritual, the corporeal, and the external (QG 3.16).
Philo adopts the Stoic wise man as a model for human behavior. Such a wise man should
imitate God who was impassible (apathes) hence the sage should achieve a state of
apatheia, i.e., he should be free of irrational emotions (passions), pleasure, desire,
sorrow, and fear, and should replace them by rational or well-reasoned emotions
(eupatheia), joy, will, compunction, and caution. In such a state of eupatheia, the sage
achieves a serene, stable, and joyful disposition in which he is directed by reason in his
decisions (QG 2.57; Abr. 201-204; Fug. 166-167; Mig. 67). But at the same time Philo
claims that the needs of the body should not be neglected and rejects the other extreme,
i.e., the practice of austerities. Everything should be governed by reason, self-control,
and moderation. Joy and pleasure do not have intrinsic values, but are by-products of
virtue and characterize the sage (Fug. 25-34; Det. 124-125; LA 80).

Back to Table of Contents

7. Philo’s Mysticism and Transcendence of God

Mysticism is a doctrine that maintains that one can gain knowledge of reality that is
not accessible to sense perception or to reason. It is usually associated with some mental
and physical training and in the theistic version it involves a sensation of closeness to
or unity with God experienced as temporal and spatial transcendence. According to Philo,
man’s highest union with God is limited to God’s manifestation as the Logos. It is similar
to a later doctrine of intellectual contact of our human intellect with the transcendent
intellect developed by Alexander of Aphrodisias and Ibn Rushd and different from the
Plotinian doctrine of the absorption into the ineffable one. The notion of the utter
transcendence of the First Principle probably goes back as far as Anaximander who
postulated the Indefinite (apeiron) as this Principle (arche) and could be found in
Plato’s concept of the Good, but the formulation is accredited to Speusippus, the
successor of Plato in the Academy. Philo’s biblical tradition in which one could not name
or describe God was the major factor in accepting the Greek Platonic concepts and emphasis
on God’s transcendence. But this position is rather alien to biblical and rabbinical
understanding. In the Bible, God is represented in a “material” and
“physical” way. Philosophically, however, Philo differentiated between the
existence of God, which could be demonstrated, and the nature of God which humans are not
able to cognize. God’s essence is beyond any human experience or cognition, therefore it
can be described only by stating what God is not (via negativa) or by depriving him of any
attribute of sensible objects and putting God beyond any attribute applicable to a
sensible world (via eminentiae) because God alone is a being whose existence is his
essence (Det. 160). Philo states in many places that God’s essence is one and single, that
he does not belong to any class or that there is in God any distinction of genus and
species. Therefore, we cannot say anything about his qualities “For God is not only
devoid of peculiar qualities, but he is likewise not of the form of man” (LA 1.36);
he “is free from distinctive qualities” (LA 1.51; 3.36; Deus 55). Strictly
speaking, we cannot make any positive or negative statements about God: “Who can
venture to affirm that … he is a body, or that he is incorporeal, or that he has such
and such distinctive qualities, or that he has no such qualities? … But he alone can
utter a positive assertion respecting himself, since he alone has an accurate knowledge of
his own nature” (LA 3.206). Moreover, since the essence of God is single, therefore
its property must be one which Philo denotes as acting “Now it is an especial
attribute of God to create, and this faculty it is impious to ascribe to any created
being” (Cher. 77). The expression of this act of God, which is at the same time his
thinking, is his Logos (Prov. 1.7; Sacr. 65; Mos. 1.283). Though God is hidden, his
reality is made manifest by the Logos that is God’s image (Somn. 1.239; Conf. 147-148) and
by the sensible universe, which in turn is the image of the Logos, that is “the
archetypal model, the idea of ideas” (Op. 25). Because of this we can perceive God’s
existence, though we cannot fathom his essence. But there are degrees and levels to our
cognizance of God. Those at the summit and the highest level may grasp the unity of the
powers of God, at the lower level people recognize the Logos as the Regent Power, and
those still at the lowest level, immersed in the sensible world are unable to perceive the
intelligible reality (Fug. 94; Abr. 124-125). Steps in mystic experience involve a
realization of human nothingness, a realization that the one who acts is God alone, and
abandonment of our sense of perception (Her. 69-71; Plant. 64; Conf. 95; Ebr. 152). A
mystic state will produce a sensation of tranquility, and stability; it appears suddenly
and is described as a sober intoxication (Gig. 49; Sacr. 78; Somn. 1.71; Op. 70-71).

Back to Table of Contents

8. Source of Intuition of the Infinite Reality

According to Philo the highest knowledge man may have is the knowledge of infinite
reality which is not accessible by the normal senses, but by unmediated intuition of
divinity. Humans were endowed with the mind, i.e., ability to reason and the outward
senses. We received the first in order that we might consider the things that are
discernable only by the intellect, the end of which is truth, and the second for the
perception of visible things the end of which is opinion. Opinions are unstable, based on
probability, and untrustworthy. Thus by this divine gift men are able to come to a
conclusion about the existence of the divinity. They can do it in two ways: one is the
apprehension of God through contemplation of his creation and forming a “conjectural
conception of the Creator by a probable train of reasoning”(Praem. 43). And in the
process the soul may climb the ladder to perfection by using natural means i.e., natural
dispositions, instruction, i.e., being educated to virtue, or by meditation. The other is
a direct apprehension by being instructed by God himself when the mind elevates itself
above the physical world and perceives the uncreated One through a clear vision (Praem.
28-30, 40-66; LA 97-103). This vision is accessible to the “purified mind” to
which God appears as One. To the mind uninitiated in the mysteries, unable to apprehend
God alone by himself, but only through his actions, God appears as a triad constituted by
him and his two powers, Creative and Royal (Abr. 97-103). Such a direct vision of God is
not dependent on revelation but is possible because we have an impression of God in our
mind, which is nothing but a tiny fragment of the Logos pervading the whole universe, not
separated from its source, but only extended (Det. 90; Gig. 27; LA 1.37; Mut. 223; Spec.
leg. 4.123). And we receive this portion of the Divine Mind at birth being endowed with a
mind which makes us resemble God (Op. 65-69). At birth two powers enter every soul, the
salutary (Beneficent) and the destructive (Unbounded). The world is created through these
same powers. The creation is accomplished when ” the salutary and beneficent (power)
brings to an end the unbounded and destructive nature.” Similarly, one or the other
power may prevail in humans, but when the salutary power “brings to an end the
unbounded and destructive nature” humans achieve immortality. Thus both the world and
humans are a mixture of these powers and the prevailing one has the moral determination:
“For the souls of foolish men have the unbounded and destructive rather than the
powerful and salutary [power], and it is full of misery when it dwells with earthly
creatures. But the prudent and noble [soul] receives the powerful and salutary [power]
and, on the contrary, possesses in itself good fortune and happiness” (QE 1.23).
Philo evidently analyzes these two powers on two levels. One is the divine level in which
the Unlimited or the Unbounded is a representation of God’s infinite and immeasurable
goodness and creativity. The Logos keeps it in balance through the Limit. The other level
is the human one where the Unlimited or the Unbounded represents destruction and
everything morally abhorrent. Human reason is able, however, to maintain in it some kind
of balance. This mind, divine and immortal, is an additional and differentiating part of
the human soul which animates man just like the souls of animals which are devoid of mind.
The notion of God’s existence is thus imprinted in our mind that needs only some
illumination to have a direct vision of God (Abr. 79-80; Det. 86-87; LA 1.38). Thus we can
arrive at it through the dialectical reasoning as apprehension of the First Principle.
Philo differentiates two modes for perceiving God, an inferential mode and a direct mode
without mediation: “As long, therefore, as our mind still shines around and hovers
around, pouring as it were a noontide light into the whole soul, we, being masters of
ourselves, are not possessed by any extraneous influence” (Her. 264). Thus this
direct mode is not in any way a type of inspiration or inspired prophecy; it is unlike
“inspiration” when a “trance” or a “heaven-inflicted
madness” seizes us and divine light sets as it happens “to the race of
prophets” (Her. 265).

Back to Table of Contents

9. Philo’s Doctrine of Creation

Philo attempts to bridge the Greek “scientific” or rational philosophy with
the strictly mythical ideology of the Hebrew scriptures. As a basis for the
“scientific” approach he uses the worldview presented by Plato in Timaeus which
remained influential in Hellenistic times. The characteristic feature of the Greek
scientific approach is the biological interpretation of the physical world in
anthropocentric terms, in terms of purpose and function that may apply to biological and
psychological realities but may not be applied to the physical world. Moreover, Philo
operates often on two levels: the level of mythical Hebraic religious tradition and the
level of philosophical speculation in the Greek tradition. Nevertheless, Philo attempts to
harmonize the Mosaic and Platonic accounts of the generation of the world by interpreting
the biblical story using Greek scientific categories and concepts. He elaborates a
religious-philosophical worldview that became the foundation for the future Christian
doctrine. Philo’s doctrine of creation is intertwined with his doctrine of God and it
answers two crucial questions: 1. Was the world created ex nihilo or from primordial
matter? 2. Was creation a temporal act or is it an eternal process?

Back to Table of Contents

a. Philo’s Model of Creation

Though Philo’s model of creation comes from Plato’s Timaeus, the direct agent of
creation is not God himself (described in Plato as Demiurge, Maker, Artificer), but the
Logos. Philo believes that the Logos is “the man of God” (Conf. 41) or the
shadow of God that was used as an instrument and a pattern of all creation (LA 3.96). The
Logos converted unqualified, unshaped preexistent matter, which Philo describes as
“destitute of arrangement, of quality, of animation, of distinctive character and
full of disorder and confusion,” (Op. 22) into four primordial elements:

For it is out of that essence that God created everything, without indeed touching it
himself, for it was not lawful for the all-wise and all-blessed God to touch materials
which were all misshapen and confused, but he created them by the agency of his
incorporeal powers, of which the proper name is Ideas, which he so exerted that every
genus received its proper form (LA 1.329).

According to Philo, Moses anticipated Plato by teaching that water, darkness, and chaos
existed before the world came into being (Op. 22). Moses, having reached the philosophy
summit, recognized that there are two fundamental principles of being, one, “an
active cause, the intellect of the universe.” The other is passive, “inanimate
and incapable of motion by any intrinsic power of its own” (Op. 8-9), matter,
lifeless and motionless. But Philo is ambiguous in such statements as these: “God,
who created all things, not only brought them all to light, but he has even created what
before had no existence, not only being their maker, but also their founder” (Somn.
1.76; Op. 81); “God who created the whole universe out of things that had no previous
existence…” (LA 3.10). It seems that Philo does not refer here to God’s creation of
the visible world ex nihilo but to his creation of the intelligible Forms prior to the
formation of the sensible world (Spec. leg. 1.328). Philo reasons that by analogy to the
biblical version of the creation of man in the image of God, so the visible world as such
must have been created in the image of its archetype present in the mind of God. “It
is manifest also, that that archetypal seal, which we call that world which is perceptible
only to the intellect, must itself be the archetypal model, the Idea of Ideas, the Logos
of God” (Op. 25). In his doctrine of God Philo interprets the Logos, which is the
Divine Mind as the Form of Forms (Platonic), the Idea of Ideas or the sum total of Forms
or Ideas (Det. 75-76). The Logos is an indestructible Form of wisdom. Interpreting the
garment of the high priest (Exod. 28:34; 36) Philo states: “But the seal is an Idea
of Ideas, according to which God fashioned the world, being an incorporeal Idea,
comprehensible only by the intellect” (Mig. 103). The invisible intelligible world
which was used by the Logos as a model for creation or rather formation of the visible
world from the (preexisting) unformed matter was created in the mind of God: “The
incorporeal world then was already completed, having its seat in the Divine Logos and the
world, perceptible by the external senses, was made on the model of it” (Op. 36).
Describing Moses’ account of the creation of man, Philo states also that Moses calls the
invisible Divine Logos the Image of God (Op. 24; 31; LA 1.9). Forms, though
inapprehensible in essence, leave an impress and a copy and procure qualities and shapes
to shapeless things and unorganized matter. Mind can grasp the Forms by longing for
wisdom. “The desire for wisdom alone is continual and incessant, and it fills all its
pupils and disciples with famous and most beautiful doctrines” (Spec. leg. 1-45-50).
Creation thus took place from preexistent shapeless matter (Plato’s Receptacle) which is
“the nurse of all becoming and change” and for this creation God used the Forms
which are his powers (Spec. leg. 1.327-329). This may seem a controversial point whether
the primordial matter was preexistent or was created ex nihilo. Philo’s view is not
clearly stated and there are seemingly contradictory statements. In some places Philo
states, “for as nothing is generated out of nothing, so neither can anything which
exists be destroyed as to become non-existence” (Aet. 5-6). The same is repeated in
his De Specialibus legibus: “Being made of us [i.e. elements] when you were born, you
will again be dissolved into us when you come to die; for it is not the nature of any
thing to be destroyed so as to become nonexistent, but the end brings it back to those
elements from which its beginnings come” (Spec. 1.266). The resolution of this
seeming controversy is to be found in Philo’s theory of eternal creation, which is
described next in connection with the Logos as the agent of creation. Philo, being a
strict monist, could not accept the existence of independent and eternal preexistent
matter (however disorganized and chaotic) as Plato did.

Back to Table of Contents

b. Eternal Creation

Philo denies the Aristotelian conclusion coming, according to him, from the superficial
observation that the world existed from eternity, independent of any creative act.
“For some men, admiring the world itself rather than the Creator of the world, have
represented it as existing without any maker, and eternal, and as impiously and falsely
have represented God as existing in a state of complete inactivity” (Op. 7). He
elaborates instead his theory of the eternal creation (Prov. 1.6-9), as did Proclus
(410-485 C.E.) much later in interpreting Plato. Proclus brilliantly demonstrated that
even in the theistic system the world though generated must be eternal, because the
“world is always fabricated … is always becoming to be.” Proclus believed, as
did Philo, that the corporeal world is always coming into existence but never possesses
real being. Thus God, according to Philo, did not begin to create the world at a certain
moment, but he is “eternally applying himself to its creation” (Prov. 1.7; Op.
7; Aet. 83-84).

But God is the creator of time also, for he is the father of his father, and the father
of time is the world, which made its own mother the creation of time, so that time stands
towards God in the relation of a grandson; for this world is a younger son of God,
inasmuch as it is perceptible by the outward sense, for the only son he speaks of as older
than the world, is Idea, and this is not perceptible by the intellect, but having thought
the other worthy of the rights of primogeniture, he has decided that it should remain with
him; therefore, this younger son, perceptible by the external senses being set in motion,
has caused the nature of time to shine forth, and to become conspicuous, so that there is
nothing future to God, who has the very boundaries of time subject to him; for their life
is not time, but the beautiful model of eternity; and in eternity nothing is past and
nothing is future, but everything is present only (Deus. 31-32).

Philo contends that God thinks simultaneously with his acting or creating. “For
God while he spake the word, did at the same moment create; nor did he allow anything to
come between the Logos and the deed; and if one may advance a doctrine which is pretty
nearly true, His Logos is his deed” (Sacr. 65; Mos.1.283). Thus any description of
creation in temporal terms, e.g., by Moses, is not to be taken literally, but rather is an
accommodation to the biblical language (Op. 19; Mut. 27; LA 2.9-13):

God is continuously ordering matter by his thought. His thinking was not anterior to
his creating and there never was a time when he did not create, the Ideas themselves
having been with him from the beginning. For God’s will is not posterior to him, but is
always with him, for natural motions never give out. Thus ever thinking he creates, and
furnishes to sensible things the principle of their existence, so that both should exist
together: the ever-creating Divine Mind and the sense-perceptible things to which
beginning of being is given (Prov. 1.7).

Thus Philo postulates a crucial modification to the Platonic doctrine of the Forms,
namely that God himself eternally creates the intelligible world of Ideas as his thoughts.
The intelligible Forms are thus the principle of existence to the sensible things which
are given through them their existence. This simply means in mystical terms that nothing
exists or acts except God. On this ideal model God then orders and shapes the formless
matter through the agency of his Logos (Her. 134, 140) into the objects of the sensible
world:

Now we must form a somewhat similar opinion of God [Philo makes an analogy to a plan of
the city in the mind of its builder], who, having determined to found a mighty state,
first of all conceived its form in his mind, according to which form he made a world
perceptible only by the intellect, and then completed one visible to the external senses,
using the first one as a model (Op. 19).

Philo claims a scriptural support for these metaphysics saying that the creation of the
world was after the pattern of an intelligible world (Gen. 1:17) which served as its
model. During the first day God created Ideas or Forms of heaven, earth, air (= darkness),
empty space (= abyss), water, pneuma (= mind), light, the intelligible pattern of the sun
and the stars (Op. 29). There are, however, differences between Philo and Plato: according
to Plato, there is no Form of space (chora). In Plato space is not apprehended by reason;
rather it had its own special status in the world. Also pneuma as a Form of soul does not
exist in the system of Plato. Plato designates this primordial unorganized state of matter
a self-existing Receptacle; it is most stable and a permanent constituent: “It must
be called always the same, for it never departs at all from its own character”
(Plato, Timaeus 50b-c). Philo, being a strict monist could not allow even for a
self-existing void so he makes its pattern an eternal idea in the divine mind. Before
Philo there was no explicit theory of creation ex nihilo ever postulated in Jewish or
Greek traditions. Both Philo and Plato do not explain how the reflections (eidola) of
Forms are made in the world of senses. They do not attribute them to God or the Demiurge
because it would be contrary to their conception of God as “good” and
“desiring that all things should come as near as possible to being like
himself.” God could not create the copies of the Forms which should be
“disordered.” It seems then that the primordial unorganized matter was
spontaneously produced on the pattern of the Ideas. The Logos would shape the elements
from this preexistent matter, first into heavy (or dense) and light (or rare) elements
which were differentiated properly into water and earth, and air and fire (Her. 134-140;
143). As in Plato certain geometrical descriptions characterize Philo’s elements. Fire was
characterized by a pyramid, air by an octahedron, water by an icosahedron, and earth by a
cube (QG 3.49). In Plato’s theory too, one can envision a sort of automatic reflection of
the Forms in the Receptacle due to the properties of Forms. God could not, according to
Philo’s philosophy, create the preexistent matter. “And what God praised was not the
materials which he had worked up in creation, destitute of life and melody, and easily
dissolved, and moreover in their own intrinsic nature perishable, and out of proportion
and full of iniquity, but rather his own skillful work, completed according to one equal
and well-proportioned power and knowledge always alike and identical.” (Her. 160).
Logically, God is for Philo indirectly the source of preexistent matter but Philo does not
ascribe to God even the shaping of matter directly. In fact this unorganized matter never
existed because it was simultaneously ordered into organized matter – the four
elements from which the world is made.

Back to Table of Contents

10. Doctrine of Miracles: Naturalism and Comprehension

Closely connected with Philo’s doctrine of creation is his doctrine of miracles. His
favorite statement is that “everything is possible with God.” This, however,
does not mean that God can act outside the natural order of things or his own nature. Thus
Philo emphasizes that God’s miraculous works are within the realm of the natural order.
Doing this he extends the natural order to encompass the biblical miracles and tries to
explain them by their coincidence with natural events. For example, the miracle at the Red
Sea which he characterizes as a “mighty work of nature” (Mos. 1.165), or the
plague of darkness as a total eclipse (Mos. 1.123), or the story of Balaam as an
allegorical one (Cher. 32-35). This was the tendency inherited from some Stoics who
attempted to explain miracles of divination as events preordered in nature by the divine
power pervading it. Similarly Philo considers the biblical miracles as a part of the
eternal pattern of the Logos acting in nature. Augustine considers miracles as implanted
in the destiny of the cosmos since the time of its creation. Philo and rabbinic literature
emphasize the miraculous and marvelous character of nature itself. All natural things are
wonderful, but are “despised by us by reason of our familiarity with them” and
all things with which we are unaccustomed, make an impression on us “for the love of
novelty”(Mos. 1.2-213). Even in modern Jewish teaching there is a tendency to explain
the miraculous by the natural. Thus the one can find a certain discrepancy in Philo’s
writing: on one hand Philo is rationalist and naturalist in the spirit of Greek
philosophical tradition, on the other, he follows popular religion to preserve the
biblical tradition. Philo emphasizes, however, that we are limited in our human
capabilities to “comprehend everything” about the physical world, and it is
better to “suspend our judgment” than to err:

But since we are found to be influenced in different manners by the same things at
different times, we should have nothing positive to assert about anything, inasmuch as
what appears has no settled or stationary existence, but is subject to various, and
multiform, and ever-recurring changes. For it follows of necessity, since the imagination
is unstable, that judgment formed by it must be unstable; and there are many reasons for
this (Ebr. 170).

But we are able to comprehend things by comparing them with their opposites and thus
arriving at their true nature. The same applies to what is virtue and to what is vice, and
to what is just and good and to what is unjust and bad.

And, indeed, if any one considers everything that is in the world, he will be able to
arrive at a proper estimate of its character, by taking it in the same manner; for each
separate thing is by itself incomprehensible, but by a comparison with another thing, is
easy to understand (Ebr. 187).

The same reasoning he extends to differences between national customs and ancient laws
which vary according to countries, nations, cities, different villages, even private
houses and instruction received by people from childhood.

And since this is the case, who is foolish enough and ridiculous as to affirm
positively that such and such a thing is just, or wise, or honorable, or expedient? For
whatever this man defines as such, some one else, who from his childhood has learnt a
contrary lesson, will be sure to deny (Ebr. 197).

Back to Table of Contents

11. Doctrine of the Logos in Philo’s Writings

The pivotal and the most developed doctrine in Philo’s writings on which hinges his
entire philosophical system, is his doctrine of the Logos. By developing this doctrine he
fused Greek philosophical concepts with Hebrew religious thought and provided the
foundation for Christianity, first in the development of the Christian Pauline myth and
speculations of John, later in the Hellenistic Christian Logos and Gnostic doctrines of
the second century. All other doctrines of Philo hinge on his interpretation of divine
existence and action. The term Logos was widely used in the Greco-Roman culture and in
Judaism. Through most schools of Greek philosophy, this term was used to designate a
rational, intelligent and thus vivifying principle of the universe. This principle was
deduced from an understanding of the universe as a living reality and by comparing it to a
living creature. Ancient people did not have the dynamic concept of “function,”
therefore, every phenomenon had to have an underlying factor, agent, or principle
responsible for its occurrence. In the Septuagint version of the Old Testament the term
logos (Hebrew davar) was used frequently to describe God’s utterances (Gen. 1:3, 6,9;
3:9,11; Ps. 32:9), God’s action (Zech. 5:1-4; Ps. 106:20; Ps. 147:15), and messages of
prophets by means of which God communicated his will to his people (Jer. 1:4-19, 2:1-7;
Ezek. 1:3; Amos 3:1). Logos is used here only as a figure of speech designating God’s
activity or action. In the so-called Jewish wisdom literature we find the concept of
Wisdom (hokhmah and sophia) which could be to some degree interpreted as a separate
personification or individualization (hypostatization), but it is contrasted often with
human stupidity. In the Hebrew culture it was a part of the metaphorical and poetic
language describing divine wisdom as God’s attribute and it clearly refers to a human
characteristic in the context of human earthly existence. The Greek, metaphysical concept
of the Logos is in sharp contrast to the concept of a personal God described in
anthropomorphic terms typical of Hebrew thought. Philo made a synthesis of the two systems
and attempted to explain Hebrew thought in terms of Greek philosophy by introducing the
Stoic concept of the Logos into Judaism. In the process the Logos became transformed from
a metaphysical entity into an extension of a divine and transcendental anthropomorphic
being and mediator between God and men. Philo offered various descriptions of the Logos.

Back to Table of Contents

a. The Utterance of God

Following the Jewish mythical tradition, Philo represents the Logos as the utterance of
God found in the Jewish scripture of the Old Testament since God’s words do not differ
from his actions (Sacr. 8; Somn. 1.182; Op. 13).

Back to Table of Contents

b. The Divine Mind

Philo accepts the Platonic intelligible Forms. Forms exist forever though the
impressions they make may perish with the substance on which they were made (Det. 75-77;
Mut. 80, 122. 146; Cher. 51). They are not, however, beings existing separately, only
exist in the mind of God as his thoughts and powers. Philo explicitly identifies Forms
with God’s powers. Those powers are his glory, though invisible and sensed only by the
purest intellect. “And though they are by nature inapprehensible in their essence,
still they show a kind of impression or copy of their energy and operation”(Spec.
leg. 1.45-50). In his doctrine of God Philo interprets the Logos, which is the Divine
Mind, as the Form of Forms (Platonic), the Idea of Ideas or the sum total of Forms or
Ideas. Logos is the indestructible Form of wisdom comprehensible only by the intellect
(Det. 75-76; Mig. 103).

Back to Table of Contents

c. God’s Transcendent Power

The Logos which God begat eternally because it is a manifestation of God’s
thinking-acting (Prov. 1.7; Sacr. 65; Mos. 1.283), is an agent that unites two powers of
the transcendent God. Philo relates that in an inspiration his own soul told him:

…that in the one living and true God there were two supreme and primary powers,
Goodness [or Creative Power] and Authority [or Regent Power]; and that by his Goodness he
had created every thing; and that by his Authority he governed all that he had created;
and that the third thing which was between the two, and had the effect of bringing them
together was the Logos, for it was owing to the Logos that God was both a ruler and good
(Cher. 1.27-28).

And further, Philo finds in the Bible indications of the operation of the Logos, e.g.,
the biblical cherubim are the symbols of the two powers of God but the flaming sword (Gen.
3.24) is the symbol of the Logos conceived before all things and before all manifest
(Cher. 1.27-28; Sacr. 59; Abr. 124-125; Her. 166; QE 2.68). Philo’s description of the
Logos (the Mind of God) corresponds to the Greek concept of mind as hot and fiery. Philo
obviously refers in these powers to the Unlimited (apeiron) and the Limited (peras) of
Plato’s Philebus and earlier Pythagorean tradition, and they will later reappear in
Plotinus as Nous. In Plato these two principles or powers operate at the metaphysical,
cosmic (cosmic soul) and human (human soul) levels. Philo considers these powers to be
inherent in transcendental God, and that God himself may be thought of as multiplicity in
unity. The Beneficent (Creative) and Regent (Authoritative) Powers are called God and
Lord, respectively. Goodness is Boundless Power, Creative, and God. The Regent Power is
also Punitive Power and Lord (Her. 166). Creative Power, moreover, permeates the world,
the power by which God made and ordered all things. Philo follows the ideas of the Stoics
that nous pervades every part of the universe as it does the soul in us. Therefore, Philo
asserts that the aspect of God which transcends his powers (which we have to understand to
be the Logos) cannot be conceived of in terms of place but as pure being, “but that
power of his by which he made and ordered all things called God, in accordance with the
etymology of that name, enfolds the whole and passes through the parts of the
universe” (Conf. 136-137). According to Philo, the two powers of God are separated by
God himself who is standing above in the midst of them (Her. 166). Referring to Genesis
18: 2 Philo claims that God and his two Powers are in reality one. To the human mind they
appear as a Triad, with God above the powers that belong to him: “For this cannot be
so keen of spirit that, it can see Him who is above the powers that belong to Him,
(namely) God, distinct from everything else. For so soon as one sets eyes on God, there
also appear together with His being, the ministering powers, so that in place of one he
makes the appearance of a triad (QG 4.2).” In addition to these two main powers,
there are other powers of the Father and his Logos, including merciful and legislative
(Fug. 94-95).

Back to Table of Contents

d. First-born Son of God

The Logos has an origin, but as God’s thought it also has eternal generation. It exists
as such before everything else all of which are secondary products of God’s thought and
therefore it is called the “first-born.” The Logos is thus more than a quality,
power, or characteristic of God; it is an entity eternally generated as an extension, to
which Philo ascribes many names and functions. The Logos is the first-begotten Son of the
Uncreated Father: “For the Father of the universe has caused him to spring up as the
eldest son, whom, in another passage, he [Moses] calls the first-born; and he who is thus
born, imitating the ways of his father, has formed such and such species, looking to his
archetypal patterns” (Conf. 63). This picture is somewhat confusing because we learn
that in the final analysis the Creative Power is also identified with the Logos. The
Creative Power is logically prior to the Regent Power since it is conceptually older.
Though the powers are of equal age, the creative is prior because one is king not of the
nonexistent but of what has already come into being (QE 2.62). These two powers thus
delimit the bounds of heaven and the world. The Creative Power is concerned that things
that come into being through it should not be dissolved, and the Regent Power that nothing
either exceeds or is robbed of its due, all being arbitrated by the laws of equality
through which things continue eternally (QE 2.64). The positive properties of God may be
subdivided into these two polar forces; therefore, the expression of the One is the Logos
that constitutes the manifestation of God’s thinking, acting (Prov. 1.7; Sacr. 65; Mos.
1.283). According to Philo these powers of the Logos can be grasped at various levels.
Those who are at the summit level grasp them as constituting an indivisible unity. At the
two lower levels, respectively, are those who know the Logos as the Creative Power and
beneath them those who know it as the Regent Power (Fug. 94-95; Abr. 124-125). The next
level down represents those limited to the sensible world, unable to perceive the
intelligible realities (Gig. 20). At each successively lower level of divine knowledge the
image of God’s essence is increasingly more obscured. These two powers will appear again
in Plotinus. Here Undefined or Unlimited Intelligible Matter proceeds from the One and
then turns back to its source (Enneads 2.4.5; 5.4.2; 6.7.17)

Back to Table of Contents

e. Universal Bond: in the Physical World and in the Human Soul

The Logos is the bond holding together all the parts of the world. And as a part of the
human soul it holds the body together and permits its operation. In the mind of a wise man
thoroughly purified, it allows preservation of virtues in an unimpaired condition (Fug.
112). “And the Logos, which connects together and fastens every thing, is peculiarly
full itself of itself, having no need whatever of any thing beyond” (Her. 188).

Back to Table of Contents

f. Immanent Reason

The reasoning capacity of a human mind is but a portion of the all-pervading Divine
Logos. Mind is a special gift to humans from God and it has divine essence, therefore, as
such, it is imperishable. By receiving this humans received freedom and the power of
spontaneous will free from necessity (Deus. 47). Philo emphasizes that man “has
received this one extraordinary gift, intellect, which is accustomed to comprehend the
nature of all bodies and of all things at the same time.” Thus humanity resembles God
in the sense of having free volition for unlike plants and other animals, the soul of man
received from God the power of voluntary motion and in this respect resembles God (Deus.
48). This concept, that it is chiefly in the intellect and free volition that makes humans
differ from other life forms, has a long history which can be traced to Anaxagoras and
Aristotle. Philo calls “men of God” those people who made God-inspired
intellectual life their dominant issue. Such men “have entirely transcended the
sensible sphere, and migrated to the intelligible world, and dwell there enrolled as
citizens of the Commonwealth of Ideas, which are imperishable, and incorporeal … those
who are born of God are priests and prophets who have not thought fit to mix themselves up
in the constitutions of this world….”(Gig. 61). Philo writes in reference to the
Old Testament expression that God “breathed into” (equivalent of
“inspired” or “gave life to”) inanimate things that through this act
God extended his spirit into humans (LA 1.37). Though his spirit is distributed among men
it is not diminished (Gig. 27). The nature of the reasoning power in men is indivisible
from the Divine Logos, but “though they are indivisible themselves, they divide an
innumerable multitude of other things.” Just as the Divine Logos divided and
distributed everything in nature (i.e., it gave qualities to undifferentiated, primordial
matter), so the human mind by exertion of its intellect is able to divide everything and
everybody into an infinite number of parts. And this is possible because it resembles the
Logos of the Creator and Father of the universe: “So that, very naturally, the two
things which thus resemble each other, both the mind which is in us and that which is
above us, being without parts and invisible, will still be able in a powerful manner to
divide and distribute [comprehend] all existing things” (Her. 234-236; Det. 90).
Uninitiated minds are unable to apprehend the Existent by itself; they only perceive it
through its actions. To them God appears as a Triad — himself and his two Powers:
Creative and Ruling. To the “purified soul,” however, God appears as One.

When, therefore, the soul is shone upon by God as if at noonday, and when it is wholly
and entirely filled with that light which is appreciable only by the intellect, and by
being wholly surrounded with its brilliancy is free from all shackle or darkness, it then
perceives a threefold image of one subject, one image of the living God, and others of the
other two, as if they were shadows irradiated by it …. but he claims that the term
shadow is just a more vivid representation of the matter intended to be intimated. Since
this is not the actual truth, but in order that one may when speaking keep as close to the
truth as possible, the one in the middle is the Father of the universe, who in the sacred
scripture is called by his proper name, I am that I am; and the beings on each side are
those most ancient powers which are always close to the living God, one of which is called
his Creative Power, and the other his Royal Power. And the Creative Power is God, for it
is by this that he made and arranged the universe; and the Royal Power is the Lord, for it
is fitting that the Creator should lord it over and govern the creature. Therefore, the
middle person of the three, being attended by each of his powers as by body-guard,
presents to the mind, which is endowed with the faculty of sight, a vision at one time of
one being, and at another time of three; of one when the soul being completely purified,
and having surmounted not only the multitude of numbers, but also the number two, which is
the neighbour of the unit, hastens onward to that idea which is devoid of mixture, free
from all combination, and by itself in need of nothing else whatever; and of three, when,
not being as yet made perfect as to the important virtues, it is still seeking for
initiation in those of less consequence, and is not able to attain to a comprehension of
the living God by its own unassisted faculties without the aid of something else, but can
only do so by judging of his deeds, whether as creator or as governor. This then, as they
say, is the second best thing; and it no less partakes in the opinion which is dear to and
devoted to God. But the first-mentioned disposition has no such share, but is itself the
very God-loving and God-beloved opinion itself, or rather it is truth which is older than
opinion, and more valuable than any seeming (Abr. 119-123).

The one category of enlightened people is able to comprehend God through a vision
beyond the physical universe. It is as though they advanced on a heavenly ladder and
conjectured the existence of God through an inference (Praem. 40). The other category
apprehends him through himself, as light is seen by light. For God gave man such a
perception “as should prove to him that God exists, and not to show him what God
is.” Philo believes that even the existence of God “cannot possibly be
contemplated by any other being; because, in fact, it is not possible for God to be
comprehended by any being but himself ” (Praem. 39-40). Philo adds, “Only men
who have raised themselves upward from below, so as, through the contemplation of his
works, to form a conjectural conception of the Creator by a probable train of
reasoning” (Praem. 43) are holy, and are his servants. Next Philo explains how such
men have an impression of God’s existence as revealed by God himself, by the similitude of
the sun (Mut. 4-6) a concept which he borrowed from Plato. As light is seen in consequence
of its own presence so, “In the same manner God, being his own light, is perceived by
himself alone, nothing and no other being co-operating with or assisting him, a being at
all able to contribute to pure comprehension of his existence; But these men have arrived
at the real truth, who form their ideas of God from God, of light from light” (Praem.
45-46). As Plato and Philo had done, Plotinus later used this image of the sun. Thus the
Logos, eternally created (begotten), is an expression of the immanent powers of God, and
at the same time, it emanates into everything in the world.

Back to Table of Contents

g. Immanent Mediator of the Physical Universe

In certain places in his writings Philo accepts the Stoic theory of the immanent Logos
as the power or Law binding the opposites in the universe and mediating between them, and
directing the world. For example, Philo envisions that the world is suspended in a vacuum
and asks, how is it that the world does not fall down since it is not held by any solid
thing. Philo then gives the answer that the Logos extending himself from the center to its
bounds and from its extremities to the center again, runs nature’s course joining and
binding fast all its parts. Likewise the Logos prevents the earth from being dissolved by
all the water contained within. The Logos produces a harmony (a favorite expression of the
Stoics) between various parts of the universe (Plant. 8-10). Thus Philo sees God as only
indirectly the Creator of the world: God is the author of the invisible, intelligible
world which served as a model for the Logos. Philo says Moses called this archetypal
heavenly power by various names: “the beginning, the image, and the sight of
God”(LA 1.43). Following the views of Plato and the Stoics, Philo believed that in
all existing things there must be an active cause, and a passive subject; and that the
active cause Philo designates as the Logos. He gives the impression that he believed that
the Logos functions like the Platonic “Soul of the World” (Aet. 84).

Back to Table of Contents

h. The Angel of the Lord, Revealer of God

Philo describes the Logos as the revealer of God symbolized in the Scripture (Gen.
31:13; 16:8; etc) by an angel of the Lord (Somn. 1.228-239; Cher. 1-3). The Logos is the
first-born and the eldest and chief of the angels.

Back to Table of Contents

i. Multi-Named Archetype

Philo’s Logos has many names (Conf. 146). Philo identifies his Logos with Wisdom of
Proverbs 8:22 (Ebr. 31). Moreover, Moses, according to Philo called this Wisdom
“Beginning,” “Image,” “Sight of God.” And his personal
wisdom is an imitation of the archetypal Divine Wisdom. All terrestrial wisdom and virtue
are but copies and representations of the heavenly Logos (LA 1.43, 45-46).

Back to Table of Contents

j. Soul-Nourishing Manna and Wisdom

God sends “the stream” from his Wisdom which irrigates God-loving souls;
consequently they become filled with “manna.” Manna is described by Philo as a
“generic thing” coming from God. It does not come from God directly, however:
“the most generic is God, and next is the Logos of God, the other things subsist in
word (Logos) only” (LA 2.86). According to Philo, Moses called manna “the most
ancient Logos of God (Det. 118).” Next Philo explains that men are “nourished by
the whole word (Logos) of God, and by every portion of it … Accordingly, the soul of the
more perfect man is nourished by the whole word (Logos); but we must be contented if we
are nourished by a portion of it” (LA 3.175-176). And “the Wisdom of God, which
is the nurse and foster-mother and educator of those who desire incorruptible food …
immediately supplies food to those which are brought forth by her … but the fountain of
divine wisdom is borne along, at one time in a more gentle and moderate stream, and at
another with greater rapidity and a more exceeding violence and impetuosity….(Det.
115-117). This Wisdom as the Daughter of God “has obtained a nature intact and
undefiled both because of her own propriety and the dignity of him who begot her.”
Having identified the Logos with Wisdom, Philo runs into a grammatical problem: in the
Greek language “wisdom” (sophia) is feminine and “word” (logos) is
masculine; moreover, Philo saw Wisdom’s function as masculine. So he explains that
Wisdom’s name is feminine, but her nature is masculine:

Indeed all the virtues have women’s designations, but powers and activities of truly
perfect men. For that which comes after God, even if it were the most venerable of all
other things, holds second place, and was called feminine in contrast to the Creator of
the universe, who is masculine, and in accordance with its resemblance to everything else.
For the feminine always falls short and is inferior to the masculine, which has priority.
Let us then pay no attention to the discrepancy in the terms, and say that the daughter of
God, Wisdom, is both masculine and the father, inseminating and engendering in souls a
desire to learn discipline, knowledge, practical insight, notable and laudable actions
(Fug. 50-52).

Back to Table of Contents

k. Intermediary Power

The fundamental doctrine propounded by Philo is that of Logos as an intermediary power,
a messenger and mediator between God and the world.

And the father who created the universe has given to his archangel and most ancient
Logos a pre-eminent gift, to stand on the confines of both, and separate that which had
been created from the Creator. And this same Logos is continually a suppliant to the
immortal God on behalf of the mortal race, which is exposed to affliction and misery; and
is also the ambassador, sent by the Ruler of all, to the subject race. And the Logos
rejoices…. saying “And I stood in the midst, between the Lord and you” (Num.
16:48); neither being uncreated as God, nor yet created as you, but being in the midst
between these two extremities, like a hostage, as it were, to both parties (Her. 205-206).

When speaking of the high priest, Philo describes the Logos as God’s son, a perfect
being procuring forgiveness of sins and blessings: “For it was indispensable that the
man who was consecrated to the Father of the world [the high priest] should have as a
paraclete, his son, the being most perfect in all virtue, to procure forgiveness of sins,
and a supply of unlimited blessings” (Mos. 2.134). Philo transforms the Stoic
impersonal and immanent Logos into a being who was neither eternal like God nor created
like creatures, but begotten from eternity. This being is a mediator giving hope to men
and who “was sent down to earth.” God, according to Philo, sends “the
stream of his own wisdom” to men “and causes the changed soul to drink of
unchangeable health; for the abrupt rock is the wisdom of God, which being both sublime
and the first of things he quarried out of his own powers.” After the souls are
watered they are filled with the manna which “is called something which is the
primary genus of everything. But the most universal of all things is God; and in the
second place is the Logos of God”(LA 2.86). Through the Logos of God men learn all
kinds of instruction and everlasting wisdom (Fug. 127-120). The Logos is the
“cupbearer of God … being itself in an unmixed state, the pure delight and
sweetness, and pouring forth and joy, and ambrosial medicine of pleasure and
happiness” (Somn. 2.249). This wisdom was represented by the tabernacle of the Old
Testament which was “a thing made after the model and in imitation of Wisdom”
and sent down to earth “in the midst of our impurity in order that we may have
something whereby we may be purified, washing off and cleansing all those things which
dirty and defile our miserable life, full of all evil reputation as it is” (Her.
112-113). “God therefore sows and implants terrestrial virtue in the human race,
being an imitation and representation of the heavenly virtue” (LA 1.45).

Back to Table of Contents

l. “God”

In three passages Philo describes the Logos even as God:

a.) Commenting on Genesis 22:16 Philo explains that God could only swear by himself (LA
3.207).

b.) When the scripture uses the Greek term for God ho theos, it refers to the true God,
but when it uses the term theos, without the article ho, it refers not to the God, but to
his most ancient Logos (Somn. 1.229-230).

c.) Commenting on Genesis 9:6 Philo states the reference to creation of man after the
image of God is to the second deity, the Divine Logos of the Supreme being and to the
father himself, because it is only fitting that the rational soul of man cannot be in
relation to the preeminent and transcendent Divinity (QG 2.62).

Philo himself, however, explains that to call the Logos “God” is not a
correct appellation (Somn.1.230). Also, through this Logos, which men share with God, men
know God and are able to perceive Him (LA 1.37-38).

Back to Table of Contents

m. Summary of Philo’s Concept of the Logos

Philo’s doctrine of the Logos is blurred by his mystical and religious vision, but his
Logos is clearly the second individual in one God as a hypostatization of God’s Creative
Power – Wisdom. The supreme being is God and the next is Wisdom or the Logos of God (Op.
24). Logos has many names as did Zeus (LA 1.43,45,46), and multiple functions. Earthly
wisdom is but a copy of this celestial Wisdom. It was represented in historical times by
the tabernacle through which God sent an image of divine excellence as a representation
and copy of Wisdom (Lev. 16:16; Her. 112-113). The Divine Logos never mixes with the
things which are created and thus destined to perish, but attends the One alone. This
Logos is apportioned into an infinite number of parts in humans, thus we impart the Divine
Logos. As a result we acquire some likeness to the Father and the Creator of all (Her.
234-236). The Logos is the Bond of the universe and mediator extended in nature. The
Father eternally begat the Logos and constituted it as an unbreakable bond of the universe
that produces harmony (Plant. 9-10). The Logos, mediating between God and the world, is
neither uncreated as God nor created as men. So in Philo’s view the Father is the Supreme
Being and the Logos, as his chief messenger, stands between Creator and creature. The
Logos is an ambassador and suppliant, neither unbegotten nor begotten as are sensible
things (Her. 205). Wisdom, the Daughter of God, is in reality masculine because powers
have truly masculine descriptions, whereas virtues are feminine. That which is in the
second place after the masculine Creator was called feminine, according to Philo, but her
priority is masculine; so the Wisdom of God is both masculine and feminine (Fug. 50-52).
Wisdom flows from the Divine Logos (Fug. 137-138). The Logos is the Cupbearer of God. He
pours himself into happy souls (Somn. 2.249). The immortal part of the soul comes from the
divine breath of the Father/Ruler as a part of his Logos.

Back to Table of Contents

12. List of abbreviations to Philo’s works

Abr. De Abrahamo;

Aet. De Aeternitate Mundi;

Agr. De Agricultura;

Anim. De Animalibus;

Cher. De Cherubim;

Conf. De Confusione Linguarum;

Congr. De Congressu Eruditionis Gratia;

Cont. De Vita Contemplativa;

Decal. De Decalogo;

Det. Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiari Soleat;

Deus. Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis;

Ebr. De Ebrietate;

Flac. In Flaccum;

Fug. De Fuga et Inventione;

Gig. De Gigantibus;

Her. Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit;

Hypoth. Hypothetica;

Jos. De Josepho;

LA Legum Allegoriarum;

Legat. Legatio ad Gaium;

Mig. De Migratione Abrahami;

Mut. De Mutatione Nominum;

Op. De Opificio Mundi;

Plant. De Plantatione;

Post. De Posteritate Caini;

Praem. De Praemiis et Poenis;

Prob. Quod Omnis Probus Liber Sit;

Prov. De Providentia;

QE Quaestiones et Solutiones in Exodum;

QG Quaestiones et Solutiones in Genesim;

Sacr. De Sacrificiis Abelis et Caini;

Sobr. De Sobrietate;

Somn. De Somniis;

Spec. leg. De Specialibus Legibus;

Virt. De Virtutibus.

Back to Table of Contents

13. Editions of Philo’s works and their translations

The Greek texts of Philo’s works:

Philonis Judaei Opera Omnia. Textus editus ad fidem optimarum editionum. (Lipsiae:

Sumptibus E.B. Schwickerti, 1828-1829), Vol. 1-6.

Philonis Alexandrini Opera Quae Supersunt. Ediderunt Leopoldus Cohn et Paulus

Wendland (Berolini: Typis et impensis Georgii Reimeri/ Walther de Gruyter & Co.,

MDCCCLXXXXVI – MCMXXX, reprinted in 1962). Vols. 1-7.

The Armenian text and its English translation:

A. Terian, Philonis Alexandrini De Animalibus: The Armenian Text with an

Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Studies in Hellenistic Judaism,

Supplements to Studia Philonica 1. (Chico: Scholars Press, 1981).

Translations of complete works:

The Works of Philo. Complete and Unabridged. Translated by Charles Duke Yonge,

New Updated Edition. (Hedrickson Publishers, 1995).

F. H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker, eds., The Works of Philo (Cambridge, Mass: Loeb

Classical Library, Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann,

1929-1953), Vols. 1-10. Ralph Marcus, ed, Vols 10-12, containing works of

Philo available only in Armenian.

Selections of works of Philo in translation:

Philo, Selections ed., Hans Lewy in Three Jewish Philosophers (Cleveland, New

York, Philadelphia, 1961).

Philo of Alexandria, The Contemplative Life, The Giants, and Selections. Translation

and Introduction by David Winston. Preface by John Dillon. (New York/ Ramsey/Toronto:
Paulist Press, 1981).

Ronald Williamson, Jews in the Hellenistic World: Philo (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1989).

Back to Table of Contents

14. Major Works on Philo

T. H. Billings, The Platonism of Philo Judaeus (Chicago, 1919).

H. A. Wolfson, Philo (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1947), Vols 1-2.

C. H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1963).

Ronald Williamson, Philo and the Epistle to the Hebrews (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970).

R. C. Baer, Philo’s Use of the Categories Male and Female (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970).

S. Sandmel, Philo of Alexandria: An Introduction (New York/Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1979).

Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1989).

Dorothy Sly, Philo’s Perception of Women (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990).

Ross Shepard Kraemer, Her Share of the Blessings: Women’s religions among Pagans, Jews,
and Christians in the Greco-Roman World (NewYork /Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).

John M. Dillon, The Middle Platonists (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977,
1996).