The remains of Philo’sQuaestiones et solutiones in Genesim et Exodumexist in overlapping texts preserved in three languages.¹ The most extensive is the ancient Armenian translation (from the late sixth century), although even it is missing substantial portions of Philo’s original work.² The ancient Latin translation (from the fourth century) preserves what seems to have been the original book 6 ofQG, and contains twelve sections not found in the Armenian.³ The original Greek of theQuaestioneshas survived fragmentarily in many scattered places, but chiefly in two types of collections, the exegetical catenae and the florilegia.⁴ Several hundred...

Who was Philo of Alexandria? A short, but honest answer to this question would be: We don’t really know.¹ In spite of the impressively large oeuvre of Philo of Alexandria, there is very little one can say for sure about his life and his activities. While Philo’s extensive philosophical work allows for a fairly good assessment of his philosophical and theological ways of understanding Judaism, his biography—in a simple chronological, but also in an intellectual sense—is very difficult to grasp. Philo only rarely speaks of himself.

We do not even know the exact dates of Philo’s life. He...

Jewish self-understanding and religious observance were centered on the foundational event of God’s revelation of his Law at Sinai. Many Jews understood this covenantal Law to be directed at a particular people, and the practice of this legal code made them distinct from their non-Jewish neighbors—not the least in the observance of dietary restrictions, monolatry, and circumcision. Philo of Alexandria, however, seeks to explain how the uniqueness of the Law rests not in its exclusivity but in its universal applicability to all humans who accord their lives with the law of nature and reason.¹ Philo, writing in an Alexandrian...

The story of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9) elicited significant commentary in Jewish and Christian antiquity.¹ While the reception history of this short pericope demonstrates considerable diversity, there were also striking similarities among its early interpreters. In this article I examine Origen’s extended allegory of Babel and explore whether it was indebted to Philo’s earlier treatment of the story in hisOn the Confusion of Tongues. Portions of the Alexandrian Christian community of the second and third centuries received Philo’s writings favorably and, as is well known, Origen was himself an admiring reader of Philo.² He referred to...

The rule of the emperor Gaius (37–41 c.e.) witnessed two fundamental crises for the Jews of the Roman Empire: in 38, a massive outbreak of violence against the Jews of Alexandria, accompanied by measures attacking Jewish institutions and political status in the city, presided over by the prefect of Egypt, Aulus Avilius Flaccus; and, within the year, as Philo discovered through his embassy to Gaius on behalf of the Alexandrian Jews, the emperor’s plan to erect a statue in the Jerusalem Temple. Philo’s interpretation of these events is set out in the treatisesIn Flaccum (Flaccus)andDe Legatione...

Jewish experience in the early Roman Empire was not always a smooth and untroubled one. But one event stands out with high drama and great notoriety. It represented a terrifying, memorable, and, in many ways, inexplicable act on the part of the imperial power: the emperor Gaius Caligula’s order to install a statue in the Temple in Jerusalem. The episode left a deep impression upon Philo, a contemporary of this shattering decision, who recounted it at length in hisLegatio ad Gaium.The account, fascinating and frustrating, presents numerous problems, only a few of which can be addressed here—and...

In 38 c.e. there was an eruption of violence between Jews and non-Jews in Alexandria. It is described at length in Philo’sIn Flaccum,which takes the story to its specific end: the arrest, humiliation, and execution of Avillius Flaccus, the Roman governor of Egypt whom Philo blamed for colluding, or worse, in the violence. But it also served as the background for a longer story, for in the wake of the violence both sides sent delegations to Gaius Caligula in Rome. Philo was a member of the Jewish delegation, apparently its head,¹ and recounted its story in hisLegatio...

Philo’s treatise on Aulus Avillius Flaccus, prefect of Egypt 32–38 c.e. describes Flaccus’s mistreatment of the Jewish community of Alexandria during the anti-Judean¹ riots of 38, and his subsequent arrest, exile and execution. The point of the story is clear enough: Flaccus’s fate at the hands of the emperor Gaius demonstrates God’s providence, which manifests itself both in the just punishment meted out to Flaccus and in the resulting vindication of the Jews of Alexandria who suffered from his depredations. In order to play his role in the narrative, Flaccus must fit the part of a villain justly punished,...