Das "Gesetz" bei Philon von Alexandrien und Flavius Josephus, Studien zum Verständnis und zur Funktion der Thora bei den beiden Hauptzeugen des hellenistischen Judentums (review)

The Jewish Quarterly Review, XCIII, Nos. 3-4 (January-April, 2003) 666-667 Reinhard Weber. Das "Gesetz" bei Philon von Alexandrien und Flavius Josephus. Studien zum Verständnis und zur Funktion der Thora bei den beiden Hauptzeugen des hellenistischen Judentums. Arbeiten zur Religion und Geschichte des Urchristentums 1 1. Frankfurt et al.: Peter Lang, 2001. Pp. 437. The study on hand is the final part of the author's habilitation thesis submitted to the faculty of protestant theology of the Goettingen University in 1990. The first part was published under the title "Das 'Gesetz' im hellenistischen Judentum. Studien zum Verständnis und zur Funktion der Thora von Demetrios bis Pseudo-Phokylides" (Frankfurt, 2000). Both volumes are meant to be not only a comprehensive interpretation of nomos in Hellenistic Judaism, but also a contribution to a more precise definition of this era ("zu einer bestimmteren, inhaltlich qualifizierten Kennzeichnung des Begriffs des hellenistischen Judentums," p. 327). This volume does not contain any prolegomena, which are part of the first volume (see vol. 1, pp. 13-36, for instance, regarding the relationship of nomos and "Thora"). The work is very simply structured: the first section discusses Philo (pp. 15-164), the second Josephus (165-324), and the third (325-344) summarizes the preceding interpretations and develops "eine übergreifende Gesamtperspektive" (332), strictly speaking: "den Versuch . . . , das geschichtliche Phänomen des jüdischen Hellenismus ... in seiner geistigen Physiognomie zu würdigen" (326). In the first section concerning Philo the author briefly sketches some introductory questions (vita, matters of dispute), and his own thesis: he wants to outline basic ideas of the Philonian understanding of nomos with examples from all of Philo's works (23). Therefore, Weber describes aspects of nomos in diverse Philonian writings arranged according to themes, and without further reasons for his selection: for example, the authority of Moses as legislator (42-68), and the function of Torah as constitutional law of the world (78-114). Weber thus collects many known facets of Philonian thinking , but his discussion tends merely to affirm what he already supposes, for example that allegorism is Philo's crucial method for an ethical and cosmologica ! interpretation of the nomos, that Moses is the mediator between agraphos nomos and written Torah, and so on. In the second part concerning Josephus, the manner of presentation differs : The author discusses some more introductory problems preferring a depiction following selected sections of Josephus' writings instead of a thematic order. He limits his interpretations to Antiquitates (especially Books 3 and 4) and Contra Apionem (especially 2.146, 190-219, 276-296). About 150 pages of exegesis richly equipped with footnotes lead to the conclusion that Torah WEBER, "GESETZ" BEI PHILON UND JOSEPHUS—SCHRÖDER667 for Josephus is "Geschichtsurkunde" of the Jewish people as well as "jüdischeis ) Kult- und Staatsgesetz" (322; cf. 331). In section three the last twelve pages are especially noteworthy. Here the author characterizes the so-called Hellenistic Judaism, hitherto provisionally defined as "muttersprachlich griechisches Judentum" (1:20), by five traits. First, Torah serves "als fundamentales Medium der Selbstverständigung und der Selbstbehauptung" (334) of the Jewish community over against a pagan majority. Second, Hellenistic Judaism universalizes the particularity of Jewish religion by interpreting the Torah as the source of even pagan culture (336), and, third, it tends to an ethical interpretation of Torah (337). Because the written Torah concurs with the agraphos nomos, one can say: "der Weg zum richtigen Leben ist . . . keine . . . rein innerjüdische Angelegenheit , sondern liegt ... in der Schöpfung selbst zutage" (339). Fourth, to enforce Torah, Hellenistic Judaism argues that the written Torah explains explicitly only what the agraphos nomos already implies: "Die Schöpfungsthora ist das Ursprungsbild der Sinaithora, und diese wiederum ist von jener abgeleitet und in sie integrierbar." (340) Finally, Hellenistic Judaism is to be understood as a "Kultursynthese" (342), which emphasizes that Jewish law is the basis of even pagan Hellenistic literacy. All in all, Weber's study is helpful in gathering interpretations of nomos from all (known) Jewish Hellenistic writers, and in summarizing their common arguments. But in my opinion, neither in detail nor in his general conclusions does Weber add original insights or new perspectives on the use of...