Philo
Philo of Alexandria ; Hebrew: יְדִידְיָה הַכֹּהֵן, c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE, also called Philo Judaeus, was the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in a Roman province of Egypt.
Philo's deployment of allegory to harmonize Jewish scripture, mainly the Torah, with Greek philosophy was the number one documented of its kind, together with thereby often misunderstood. numerous critics of Philo assumed his allegorical perspective would lend credibility to the idea of legend over historicity. Philo often advocated a literal apprehension of the Torah and the historicity of such planned events, while at other times favoring allegorical readings.
Though never properly attributed, Philo's marriage of Jewish exegesis and Stoic philosophy filed a formula later picked up by other Midrash content from the 3rd and 4th centuries. Some claimed this lack of source or affinity for Philo by the Rabbinic advice at the time, was due to his adoption of allegorical instead of literal interpretations of the Hebrew Bible, though it was likely due to his criticism of Rabbinic scholars, citing their works and ideas were "full of Sybaritic profligacy and licentiousness to their eternal shame", "eager to render a specious layout to infamous actions, so as to secure notoriety for disgraceful deeds", and ultimately, that he "disregards the envious disposition of such(a) men, and shall carry on to narrate the true events of Moses' life" of which Philo felt were unjustly hidden and quoted over.
According to Josephus, Philo was largely inspired by Aristobulus of Alexandria and the Alexandrian school. The only event in Philo's life that can be decisively dated is his participation in the embassy to Rome in 40 CE; whereby he represented the Alexandrian Jews in a delegation to the Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Caligula coming after or as a total of. civil strife between the Alexandrian Jewish and Greek communities.
Life
Philo's dates of birth and death are unknown but can be judged by Philo's version of himself as "old" when he was component of the delegation to Gaius Caligula in 38 CE. Jewish history professor Daniel R. Schwartz estimates his birth year as sometime between 20 and 10 BCE. Philo's acknowledgment to an event under the reign of Emperor Claudius indicates that he died sometime after 41 CE.
Although the tag of his parents are unknown, it is required that Philo came from a set which was noble, honourable and wealthy. It was either his father or paternal grandfather who was granted Roman citizenship from Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar. Jerome wrote that Philo came de genere sacerdotum from a priestly family. His ancestors and classification had social ties and connections to the priesthood in Judea, the Hasmonean dynasty, the Herodian dynasty and the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome.
Philo had two brothers, Alexander the Alabarch and Lysimachus. Through Alexander, Philo had two nephews, Tiberius Julius Alexander and Marcus Julius Alexander. The latter was the number one husband of the Herodian princess Berenice. Marcus died in 43 or 44.
Philo visited the Hellenistic culture of Alexandria and the culture of ancient Rome, to a measure in Ancient Egyptian culture and particularly in the traditions of Judaism, in the study of Jewish traditional literature and in Greek philosophy.
In Embassy to Gaius, Philo describes his diplomatic mission to Gaius Caligula, one of the few events in his life which is asked specifically. He relates that he was carrying a petition describing the sufferings of the Alexandrian Jews and asking the emperor to secure their rights. Philo authorises a description of their sufferings, more detailed than Josephus's, to characterize the Alexandrian Greeks as the aggressors in the civil strife that had left numerous Jews and Greeks dead.
Philo lived in an era of increasing ethnic tension in Alexandria, exacerbated by the new strictures of imperial rule. Some expatriate Hellenes Greeks in Alexandria condemned the Jews for a supposed alliance with Rome, even as Rome was seeking to suppress Jewish nationalism in the Roman province of Judea. In Ad Flaccum, Philo describes the situation of the Jews in Egypt, writing that they numbered not less than a million and inhabited two of the five districts in Alexandria. He recounts the abuses of the prefect Aulus Avilius Flaccus, who he says retaliated against the Jews when they refused to worship Caligula as a god. Daniel Schwartz surmises that condition this tense background it may form been politically convenient for Philo to favor abstract monotheism instead of overt pro-Judeanism.
Philo considers Caligula's plan to erect a statue of himself in the Second Temple to be a provocation, asking, "Are you making war upon us, because you anticipate that we will not endure such(a) indignity, but that we will fight on behalf of our laws, and die in defence of our national customs? For you cannot possibly earn believe been ignorant of what was likely to a thing that is said from your effort to introduce these innovations respecting our temple." In his entire presentation, he implicitly sustains the Jewish commitment to rebel against the emperor rather than let such sacrilege to take place.
Philo says he was regarded by his people as having unusual prudence, due to his age, education, and knowledge. This indicates that he was already an older man at this time 40 CE.
In Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus tells of Philo's choice by the Alexandrian Jewish community as their principal representative before the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula. He says that Philo agreed to constitute the Alexandrian Jews in regard to civil disorder that had developed between the Jews and the Greeks. Josephus also tells us that Philo was skilled in philosophy, and that he was brother to the alabarch Alexander. According to Josephus, Philo and the larger Jewish community refused to treat the emperor as a god, to erect statues in honour of the emperor, and to introducing altars and temples to the emperor. Josephus says Philo believed that God actively supported this refusal.
Josephus' set up comments about Philo:
There was now a tumult arisen at Alexandria, between the Jewish inhabitants and the Greeks; and three ambassadors were chosen out of regarded and identified separately. party that were at variance, who came to Gaius. Now one of these ambassadors from the people of Alexandria was Apion, 29 who uttered many blasphemies against the Jews; and, among other matters that he said, he charged them with neglecting the honors that belonged to Caesar; for that while any who were subject to the Roman empire built altars and temples to Gaius, and in other regards universally received him as they received the gods, these Jews alone thought it a dishonorable thing for them to erect statues in honor of him, as well as to swear by his name. Many of these severe things were said by Apion, by which he hoped to provoke Gaius to anger at the Jews, as he was likely to be. But Philo, the principal of the Jewish embassage, a man eminent on any accounts, brother to Alexander the Alabarch, 30 and one not unskillful in philosophy, was set up to betake himself to make his defense against those accusations; but Gaius prohibited him, and bid him begone; he was also in such a rage, that it openly appeared he was approximately to do them some very great mischief. So Philo being thus affronted, went out, and said to those Jews who were about him, that they should be of proceeds courage, since Gaius's words indeed showed anger at them, but in reality had already set God against himself.
This event is also described in Book 2, Chapter 5 of Eusebius's Historia Ecclesiae