... is one where he gives one of his most personal asides. It is at the beginning of his third treatise exploring all the "specific laws" that expand on the commandments not to commit adultery and not to murder (Spec. Leg. 3). Here is the quote from Yonge's translation:
"There was once a time when, devoting my leisure to philosophy and to the contemplation of the world and the things in it, I reaped the fruit of excellent and desirable and blessed intellectual feelings... I appeared to be raised and borne aloft by a certain inspiration of the soul, and to dwell in the regions of the sun and moon, and to associate with the whole heaven, and the whole universal world...
"Nevertheless, the most grievous of all evils was lying in wait for me... till envy had taken me and thrown me into the vast sea of the cares of public politics, in which I was and am still tossed about..."
This, I submit to you, is the experience of almost all philosophy majors after graduation, when they start looking for a job.
:-)
P.S. I like to think--can't prove it you know--that Philo was writing about the events around the year 38 when the Jews of Egypt got into quite a pickle, eventually leading Philo to head a delegation to the emperor Caligula.
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How should a Christian use the works of Philo or the Talmud which are historical documents but not part of our Scripture?
Philo was about the same time as Jesus and died about the time Paul was in Corinth. His writings are exegetical with a philosophical twist. I don't think there's a lot of overlap but I think he is very significant background to the logos and "word" of God material in the NT (John 1; Col. 1:15; Heb. 4:12). Some would say it is particularly relevant background to Hebrews.
And I would add that he is an important witness of the social conditions of living as a monoteist in the Diaspora, and thus also can throw some light on the social world of the early Christians outside land of Israel......
Thanks Torrey!
This is cool!
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