Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T18:42:30.899Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Philo and the New Testament

from Part 3 - Philo’s Influence and Significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2009

Get access

Summary

To get a sense of the diffusion of Philo's ideas between his own time and the emergence of a literary corpus Philoneum, we must rely on Christian sources. In the first two centuries CE, these are the only sources that tell us anything about the possible influence of his teachings on the Greek world. The innumerable Greek-speaking synagogues of the Roman Empire, and especially those in the big cities, will have served as relay stations. They must have been places of learning in one way or another, and they did serve as the setting of one of Judaism's most important innovations, public sermons on Holy Scripture. If we assume that more than one teacher like Philo was active in the urban synagogues of antiquity, the diffusion of Philonic language and ideas can be explained by an appeal to oral forms of transmission. All clues to Philo's earliest influence on the Greek-speaking world are hidden in the literary corpus of what was to be called the New Testament. To state this is not a 'canonical' approach. For the present chapter, Christian writings contemporaneous with the New Testament, such as the Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch and the Shepherd of Hermas, are of little interest, because they are devoid of philosophy. And, as regards the documents of early Gnosticism cited by Irenaeus and Hippolytus or contained in the Nag Hammadi library, they have relevance for the question just raised but are chronologically later. The writings of the New Testament that reveal the clearest evidence of at least indirect Philonic influence are the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Gospel of John. It is possible to explain this influence by reference to known historical circumstances.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×