Samuel Sandmel’s “Philo of Alexandria: An Introduction” (Oxford, 1979), he says God, for Philo, was “to on,” (“being” or “that which exists”). God is unknowable. “The multifaceted capabilities of God, which we can know through reason, are summarizable in the divine Logos.” However, “at no time does Philo…ever define Logos”.
Maren Niehoff, “Philo of Alexandria: An Intellectual Biography” (Yale, 2018)
Torrey Seland, ed., “Reading Philo” (Eerdmans, 2014)
The Classics of Western Spirituality series has a Philo of Alexandra reader (Paulist Press, 1980), with two complete treatises, “The Giants,” and “The Contemplative Life,” along with excerpts from his other treatises grouped by topic, translated and edited by David Winston. Even in modern English, this can still be difficult.
“Early Judaism: A Comprehensive Overview” (2012) from Eerdmans has an informative 30-page “Philo” chapter by 4 specialists: Sterling, Runia, Niehoff, and Van den Hoek.
The “Early Judaism” chapter notes that “Philo was not a systematic thinker, although there have been noble attempts to make him one. He was first and foremost an exegete or interpreter of Moses….This does not mean he did not have a comprehensive understanding of the cosmos, but that he did not work out a systematic presentation of it.”
Jerome, in “On Famous Men” 11, quipped, “Either Plato philonizes, or Philo platonizes.” Philo’s approach was Hellenistically eclectic: Antiochus of Ascalon, Eudorus, Arius Didymus, and others, in addition to Plato, contributed to his thought. Stoic and Pythagorean ideas were known to him. He wrote 2 treatises on Providence, for instance. He identified the “ho on” of Ex. 3:14 with the “to on” of Platonism. “Philosophy provided an intellectual framework, but it did not replace the legislation of Moses as the authoritative statement of the divine realities.” (“Early Judaism,” pp.282-284)
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