The Works of Philo Judaeus, Vol. I (Yonge)
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- C. D. Yonge
- Status:
- Selection or partial work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~330,000 words · 1,564 passages
Cite this work
- APAPhilo of Alexandria. (n.d.). The Works of Philo Judaeus, Vol. I (Yonge) (C. D. Yonge, Trans.). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/philo-of-alexandria/the-works-of-philo-judaeus-vol-i-yonge
- MLAPhilo of Alexandria. The Works of Philo Judaeus, Vol. I (Yonge). Translated by C. D. Yonge. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/philo-of-alexandria/the-works-of-philo-judaeus-vol-i-yonge.
- ChicagoPhilo of Alexandria. The Works of Philo Judaeus, Vol. I (Yonge). Translated by C. D. Yonge. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/philo-of-alexandria/the-works-of-philo-judaeus-vol-i-yonge.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Philo's treatises on the Pentateuch: the Torah read allegorically, with Abraham, Joseph or Moses taken at once as persons and as figures of virtues.
Context and history
Philo lived in Alexandria in the first century and wrote in Greek: his work is to make the Bible and Greek philosophy say the same thing, and out of it comes the Logos as intermediary between God and the world. One fact changes how he is read: it was Christians who preserved Philo, not the rabbinic tradition, which barely cites him. He mattered greatly to early Christian thought and very little to later Judaism.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
ButMoses, who had early reached the very summits of philosophy,* and who had learnt from the oracles of God the most numerous and important of the principles of nature, was well aware that it is indispensable that in all existing things there must be an active cause, and a passive subject ; and that the active cause is the intellect of the universe, thoroughly unadulterated and thoroughly unmixed, superior to virtue and superior to science, superior even to abstract good or abstract beauty; while the passive subject is something inanimate and incapable of motion by any intrinsic power of its own, but having been set in motion, and fashioned, and endowed with life by the intellect, became transformed into that most perfect work, this world. And those who describe it as being uncreated, do, without being aware of it, cut off the most useful and necessary of all the qualities which tend to produce piety, namely, providence : for reason proves that the father and creator has a care for that which has been created ; for a father is anxious for the life of his children, and a workman aims at the duration of his works, and employs every device imaginable to • This is in accordanoe with the description of him in the Bihlc where he is represented as being learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. i ON THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. 3 ward off everything that is pernicious or injurious, and is desirous by every means in his power to provide everything which is useful or profitable for them. But with regard to that which has not been created, there is no feeling of interest as if it were his own in the breast of him who has not created it.…