The Gnosis of Philo – Part 2

Philo of Alexandria:
I. (1) There was once a time when, devoting my leisure to philosophy and to the contemplation of the world and the things in it, I reaped the fruit of excellent, and desirable, and blessed intellectual feelings, being always living among the divine oracles and doctrines, on which I fed incessantly and insatiably, [...]

The Gnosis of Philo

From Philo of Alexandria:
(34) I am not ashamed to relate what has happened to me myself, which I know from having experienced it ten thousand times. Sometimes, when I have desired to come to my usual employment of writing on the doctrines of philosophy, though I have known accurately what it was proper to set [...]

Philo – Higher Pleasures

Philo – Higher Pleasures
On the Giants 10.40

X. (40) And the sentence which follows, “I am the Lord,” is uttered with great beauty and with most excessive propriety, “for,” says the Lord, “oppose, my good man, the good of the flesh to that of the soul, and of the whole man;” therefore the pleasure of the [...]

Philo of Alexandria – Passover symbolism (Part 2)

Philo of Alexandria – Passover symbolism (Part 2)
Philo treats passover symbolism much more extensively in Questions on Exodus. This book is not found in the Yonge edition, but is available in the Loeb Classical Library (Philo, Supplement 2), Ralph Marcus, translator.
Apparently this work is out of copyright and can be found at archive.org:
http://www.archive.org/details/questionsanswers02philuoft
Here is [...]

Philo of Alexandria – Passover symbolism (Part 1)

Philo of Alexandria – Passover symbolism (Part 1)
In several of his works, Philo of Alexandria allegorically interprets the passover rituals of Exodus.
Following are excerpts from the well-known Charles Duke Yonge translation, available online at Early Jewish Writings and elsewhere:

The Special Laws II (Spec. 2.145-2.147)
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book28.html
XXVII. (145) And after the feast of the new moon comes the [...]

Philo – the Rivers of Eden in On the Posterity of Cain

ON THE POSTERITY OF CAIN AND HIS EXILE 32.127
XXXVII. (127) On which account it is said in Genesis, “And a fountain went up from the earth, and watered all the face of the Earth.”{55}{#ge 2:6.} For since nature has allotted the most excellent portion of the whole body, namely the face, to the outward senses, [...]

Philo on the temptation of Adam and Eve

ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION, II{*}
II. (4) …”For I will make him,” says God, “a help-meet for him.” And, in the second place, is younger than the object to be helped; for, first of all, God created the mind [i.e., Adam], and subsequently he prepares to make its helper [Eve, as we shall see]. But all this [...]

On Philo’s Allegorical Exigesis of Genesis

On Philo’s Allegorical Exigesis of Genesis
While this shorter explanation in a catechetical form [Questions and Answers on Genesis] was intended for more extensive circles, Philo’s special and chief scientific work is his large allegorical commentary on Genesis [Allegorical Interpretation I-III]…
These two works frequently approximate each other as to their contents. For in the Quaestiones et [...]

Philo – Waters of Life (1)

Philo – Waters of Life (1)
Philo of Alexandria (Philo Judaeus; c. 20 BC – c. 50 AD)
Allegorical Interpretation 1.11.28
XI. (28) But a fountain went up upon the earth, and watered all the face of the earth.  [Genesis 2:6; LXX]
He here calls the mind the fountain of the earth, and the sensations he calls the face [...]

Philo – Tree of Life (3)

Philo – Tree of Life (3)
Philo of Alexandria (Philo Judaeus; c. 20 BC – c. 50 AD)
Allegorical Interpretation 1.17.56-1.18.62
XVII. (56) And God caused to rise out of the earth every tree which is pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life he raised in the middle of the Paradise, and [...]