The Cambridge Companion to Philo (review)

The Cambridge Companion to Philo, edited by Adam Kamesar, now takes its place on a rather short list of introductions to Philo, including such distinguished works as those by E. R. Goodenough (1940) and Samuel Sandmel (1979). This Cambridge volume is an incredible asset for anyone wishing to engage Philo's writings, especially someone who already has some basic sense of ancient philosophy or who wishes to understand Philo on a more advanced level. Its authors are an international and diverse collection of Philo experts whose names would feature in any substantial bibliography of Philonic research, and several are recognized leaders in the field.

The advantage of this type of introduction is that it gives the reader the thinking of Philonic experts as it is in process. The goal is not so much to give the spectrum of opinion on issues of debate as to present a reasonable overview of each topic from the standpoint of a particular scholar. At the same time, if one does not have some basic knowledge of the relevant ancient fields of knowledge, this sort of book will require a good deal of work even as an introduction. If one does not have at least a cursory acquaintance with ancient philosophical schools like Stoicism and Platonism, a basic sense of the New Testament and ancient Jewish literature, as well as other basic categories of the ancient world, a good deal of the book's potential may be lost.

The first three chapters of the book introduce the reader to "Philo's Life and Writings," the first section of the book as a whole. "Philo, His Family, and His Times" is appropriately the first chapter, written by Daniel Schwartz of Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Schwartz gives an excellent overview of what we know of Philo's life and family, set against what we know from the occasional personal comment here and there in Philo's writings, from the occasional mentions of Philo in contemporary literature, and from our general knowledge of the Egyptian city of Alexandria at the time. In keeping with the nature of the book, Schwartz occasionally presents his own hypotheses. One very plausible one is that many of the social conflicts in Alexandria arose from the Romans adding a stratum on top of the existing social structure of Alexandria, with the existing Greek, Jewish, and Egyptian residents then forced to vie with one another for differential status (20). Interestingly, Schwartz also suggests that Philo's attachment to the physical temple was a matter of inconsistency and sentimentality, since Schwartz believes Philo's thought system undermines any attachment to the literal temple whatsoever (29).

The second chapter introduces the reader to "The Works of Philo." Its primary author is James Royse of San Francisco State University, with additional contributions from Adam Kamesar, the volume's editor. This chapter is an incredibly valuable map to the complicated issues involved with an ancient collection of writings whose boundaries are uncertain and some of whose contents are lost to history. Philo's works included three large commentary series, each unique in form and apparent purpose, whose order and precise contents in themselves are a matter of debate. Royse then groups the remaining writings appropriately into apologetic/historical works and philosophical works. This chapter helpfully identifies which portions of each writing are extant, gives some sense of its content, and suggests treatises that might be missing in each group.

The first section of the book ends with "Biblical Interpretation in Philo," written by Adam Kamesar himself, who teaches at Hebrew Union College in Ohio. With this chapter, the book, as the subject matter, becomes slightly more demanding for the novice. The sense that Philo was first and foremost an interpreter of Scripture—rather than a philosopher—has become the dominant lens through which to view him. Individual scholars vary in their sense of how consistently or profoundly Philo participated in the philosophical currents of his day, but generally agree that he used philosophy in service to...