{"id":1251,"date":"2024-11-01T18:05:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T18:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/?p=1251"},"modified":"2024-11-01T18:05:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T18:05:39","slug":"28-philo-of-alexandria-20-bc-c-50-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/01\/28-philo-of-alexandria-20-bc-c-50-ad\/","title":{"rendered":"28. Philo of Alexandria (20 BC – c.50 AD)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Original language: Greek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philo was Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read the green-covered Loeb Classical Library edition of Philo Volume 1 (1929), translated by F.H. Colson and G.H. Whitaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It has the Greek and English on facing pages, which I mention not because I can read Greek (I can’t), but because I like the way it looks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Creation, and Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis II and III\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philo’s work is not what I expected it to be. He was very influenced by the Pythagoreans, and there is lots and lots of numerology and discussion of numbers. Philo was very fond of the numbers 6 and 7. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s hard to believe that Philo’s book is one of the world’s most influential books. I don’t know of anyone it influenced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philo’s book is an act of literary criticism. Even though he does not see the Bible as literature (he sees it as religion), it is textual criticism and close reading.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philo takes a censorious, grim, and life-denying view of pleasure. He’s always against it. “Pleasure … is always and everywhere guilty and foul” he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philo is crazy. A shovel mentioned in Deuteronomy, to him, is not a shovel. The shovel is Reason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last thoughts on Philo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ugh, what a waste. Pleasure is bad, virtue is good. Pleasure corrupts. Over and over and over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original language: Greek. Philo was Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. I read the green-covered Loeb Classical Library edition of Philo Volume 1 (1929), translated by F.H. Colson and G.H. Whitaker. It has the Greek and English on facing pages, which I mention not because I can read Greek (I can’t), but because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1254,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions\/1254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}