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| The Works of Philo: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition | 
 enlarge | Author: Of Alexandria Philo
Creator: Charles Duke Yonge
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $17.97 (42.30 RON)
Buy New: $12.22 (28.77 RON)
You Save: $5.75 (13.54 RON) (32%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 36713
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Updated
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 944
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.6
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.3 x 1.8
ISBN: 0943575931
Dewey Decimal Number: 181.06
EAN: 9780943575933
ASIN: 0943575931
Publication Date: August 1, 1993
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
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 Wisdom June 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Philo: "wisdom a very rare thing among mankind" = *Many are called YET very very few are chosen* quote from Jesus Christ
St Paul says *we speak the mysteries only among the wise*
Paul
New Orleans
June 20, 2008
Go to the source April 5, 2008
Along with Josephus no source is cited more than Philo when it comes historical biblical study. Incredibly literate and actually entertaining.
 A very readable translation that is easily affordable March 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I just received this excellent volume, and I'm already devoting way too much time to reading the text, reading more on line about Philo, and sending emails to others about this particular translation.
My parish priest is currently focusing on some of the Wisdom literature in the Old Testament, and as an adjunct to these lessons, I decided to give Philo a try. Indeed, Philo is keenly interested in Wisdom. He describes the Tabernacle as an image of Wisdom. What is also of interest to me is Philo's adoption of a dualist view of the world. The body is evil to him. One can easily infer that Mani and the successor schools of Christian dualism were clearly sewing on fertile ground in the subsequent centuries.
Philo writes as if he were speaking to a student, and this is only right as he would indeed have been imparting a great body of knowledge, as a true generalist, to students who have attached themselves to this man of learning who is the teacher of his school of philosophy. The reader too now gets to walk with this teacher.
It is no wonder that Patristic writers would find much of Philo to be a great value, and much of what he concludes to be rejected too -- the dualistic view of man and creation being a prime example. Still, to see the imagery and language of the Hellenistic world in Philo's writing gives one insight into the thoughts, the idioms, the common language of the thinkers of the Grecco-Roman world. His use of the Hellenistic imagery, vocabulary, and methods of reasoning will be seen again, and taken to new (transformed)levels by the Church Fathers of Christendom over the next several hundred years. For Patristic scholars, Philo seems like something of a prototype.
Philo speaks the language of Plato, Cicero, Seneca, and Aristotle. His religion is certainly different, but the world in which he lives is the same world, and he interprets, and divines the meanings of his Sacred Texts in the context of this world.
While some translations of philosophical and theological works, especially from antiquity, are so wooden and stilted as to make the text too formidable for non-academicians, not so this translation. Philo is made approachable to this reader in large part due to the translation. Despite the amount of reading, the translation assures that the text is never off-putting. Would that all translations could be this readable.
Great window on First-Century life in Judea. June 8, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Reviewing Philo is almost like reviewing the Bible. If you want detailed descriptions of Jewish thought and custom in the First Century, this volume of the complete works of Philo will be a great compliment to Josephus. Though he often strays off into personal philosophy and opinion, Philo gives us considerable insight into the customs and attitudes of educated Jews of his time. The information he shares adds greatly to the historical backdrop of the story of early Christianity.
Dated but useful collection of Philo October 22, 2006
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
This collection of Philo's works, translated by the classicist C.D. Yonge, represents an affordable though dated collection of the Jewish mystic's works.
Philo is extremely important from the point of view of early Christianity, since he is a contemporary of Jesus and St Paul, and his allegorical method of interpreting the Bible had a strong impact on many important Christian Church Fathers, especially Origen, who introduced the allegorical method of reading the Bible into Christianity.
Philo interprets the Bible in an allegorical fashion (that is, he seeks for meanings past the literal sense of the letter of the text) to seek deeper spiritual truths about God and the cosmos. Philo justifies this using the assumption the Bible is the word of God, and because it is inspired it has infinite layers of meaning which delve into the deeper infinite mystery of God himself. In this sense, Philo is completely the opposite of scientific historians like Herodotus, Thucydides or Josephus, who read their sacred texts or cultural documents in terms of scientific history, and were averse to any myth-mongering or allegory. However, valuable historical information is especially to be found in Philo's 'Embassy to Gaius', and also his works on the Essene sect of Judaism, both very valuable sources of historical information for those interested in the time of Jesus and St Paul.
Philo's more mystical works interpret the Bible in terms of Neo-Platonic philosophy, which was flourishing in Alexandria where Philo studied and worked. He interprets key Old Testament texts in terms of the journey of the mind to God, leaving behind the body and the visible creation to the invisible realm of spirit where the incomprehensible God dwells, formless and in mystery. Philo is especially interesting in the way he treats many old testament characters and places in terms of stations on the mystical journey to the ineffable, a method which was taken over brilliantly by Origen and later applied extensively to the Old and New Testaments to read Christ into scripture. Also of interest is Philo's introduction of the Greek and Stoic concept of the logos, an intermediate agent between God and the world which comes from God, which God uses to form and create the world. It is possible the writer of the Gospel of John was influenced at least in part by this idea, when meditating on how Jesus could be both human and also the son of God, as Christian tradition was to believe, and the writer of the Gospel took this concept and adopted it to Christian belief in the appropriate way.
In any case studying Philo's works is essential for understanding the mindset of the world in the time of Christ, the Apostles and St Paul, and this collection represents a readily available and affordable copy of Philo's works.
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