Who Is Philo and Why Should Christians Know Him?

Philo was born sometime around 30BC, and he lived until 50AD. This means that he would have been a contemporary of Jesus. He was a Hellenistic Jew, which meant he had combined his Jewish religious tradition with his Greek culture. Philo lived in Alexandria, Egypt.

Jewish culture was flourishing in Alexandria, with some estimates that 40 percent of the population was Jewish. But the culture there was often a blend between the Judaism one might find around Jerusalem and the Greco-Roman culture in which they lived daily. Philo is important because he was one of the first Jewish philosophers to attempt to combine Judaism with Greek philosophy.

Philo was also an extensive author. He wrote in depth commentary on the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament). Two of his significant works were Allegories of the Laws and On the Special Laws. Philo often provided an allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures that showed how he blended his philosophy with the Scriptures.

But Philo was more than a commentary write. He also engaged in the lively discussions about religion and philosophy of his own day. Some of his more important works were On the Contemplative Life, Hypothetica, Against Flaccus, On the Embassy to Gaius, and Against Apion. Many of these were of a more apologetic flavor—defending his Jewish faith against the anti-Semitic beliefs of his contemporaries. Philo also wrote some deeper philosophical and religious essays such as That Every Good Man Is Free, On the Eternity of the World, On Providence, and On Alexander. 

Philo was influential in Jewish thought and also likely had some bearing on the New Testament thought of early Christians. They would have certainly been familiar with his work. This is what the Jewish historian, Josephus, had to say about Philo’s impact:

Philo, the principal of the Jewish embassage, a man eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander the alabarch, and one not unskillful in philosophy, was ready to betake himself to make his defense against those accusations; but Gaius prohibited him, and bid him begone; he was also in such a rage, that it openly appeared he was about to do them some very great mischief. So Philo, being thus affronted, went out and said to those Jews who were about him, that they should be of good courage, since Gaius’s words indeed showed anger at them, but in reality had already set God against himself.

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What Did Philo Teach?

Philo was a big fan of Plato. Not the clay that kids play with to mold things into inedible burgers, but the legendary philosopher. Some would argue that Philo was more influenced by Plato than by the Old Testament. It shaped the way in which Philo read and understood the Scriptures. But he did believe the Scriptures were the source and standard of truth. It is the Hebrew Bible that provides the grounds for Greek philosophy, Philo believed.

Philo’s conception of God is that God exists outside of time and space. He differed from his philosophical contemporaries in that he believed God was not subject to the unchanging laws of nature. He continued to believe in pre-existent matter but taught that this, too, was created from God. It was from Philo that some of our understanding of creation ex nihilo comes.

Much like Plato, Philo argued that God was both knowable and yet unknowable in his essence. Somewhat similar to Gnosticism, Philo taught that God created and governed the world through mediators. Chief among them was the Logos (Word). Readers of the Gospel of John will be familiar with this term. How does this Logos relate to God? This explanation form Wikipedia proves helpful:

Philo's conception of the Logos is directly related to the Middle Platonic view of God as unmoved and utterly transcendent. As such, the Logos becomes the aspect of the divine that operates in the world—through whom the world is created and sustained. Philo, in connecting his doctrine of the Logos with Scripture, first of all bases on Gen. i. 27 the relation of the Logos to God. He translates this passage as follows: "He made man after the image of God," concluding therefrom that an image of God existed. This image of God is the type for all other things (the "Archetypal Idea" of Plato), a seal impressed upon things. The Logos is a kind of shadow cast by God, having the outlines but not the blinding light of the Divine Being.

As you can see, Philo was fond of blending terms of philosophy with terms from Scripture. Because of this syncretism, Philo was not very popular among his Jewish contemporaries. It was actually early Christians who made Philo more popular.

Why Is Philo Important for Christians?

Some contemporary scholars, in my opinion, will overplay the influence of Philo upon the biblical writers. But there are others which I believe underplay his role upon early Christian thinkers and how it has shaped our contemporary understanding and application of the Scriptures.

Philo’s allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament was certainly influential in helping early believers attempt to merge the world of the Old Testament with all that Christ fulfilled. How do we find Jesus in the Old Testament? Someone like Origen, heavily influenced by Philo, would have used a similar principle of allegory to link Christ to the story of the Old Testament.

Likewise, it’s difficult to read some of the thought of Hebrews and the Gospel of John without at least having some level of interaction with Philo’s doctrine of Logos. The Christian faith is certainly different. It is not a straight borrowing from Philo. But there is certainly some level of influence in the way in which the biblical writers spoke.

Though certainly not necessary or even vital to the Christian faith, a read through Philo (though a bit difficult) would certainly provide a bit of potential background information for some of the texts of the New Testament. It will certainly help to place us within the thought-world of the New Testament. And it may also help us to see where some of our contemporary thought may have more to do with the thought of Philo than the Bible itself. He’s worth reading.

There is also a contemporary argument put forth concerning the relationship of Philo and Jesus.

Does Philo disprove Jesus? 

Philo, an extensive writer during the time of Jesus, writing about all things religion and philosophy, never mentions Jesus of Nazareth in his writings. What do you do with this oversight? Does it mean that Jesus never actually existed?

It’s strange to me that we have no mention of Philo in the New Testament, and yet this question doesn’t seem to work in reverse fashion. Does the lack of mentioning Philo in the New Testament mean that such a philosopher never existed? Of course not. We simply believe that the writers of the New Testament had a different purpose than one which would have mentioned Philo. Why is it not also plausible to believe the same thing about Philo and his lack of writing about Jesus?

Exactly how widely would Jesus have been known at the time of Philo’s last writings? The reality is that by the time when Philo stopped writing, the gospel had spread widely, but was it really that influential yet? It was not a significant force until later. We know in 64 AD that, Nero blamed the fire on the Christians. But even then, they were a little-known Jewish sect.

An argument from silence shouldn’t carry a ton of weight. And when you can explain the silence, it should weigh even less. One might think that Philo must have heard of Jesus and must have been concerned about its influence. But the reality is that Philo was not shy about engaging contemporary debates. Are we attempting to make the argument that there was not even a Christian movement in the first century? Would it not be more plausible to say that Philo did not yet understand the depth of influence of Christianity upon his world, and thus he did not find it worthy of something to pick up his pen and write about?

Sources:
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18.8.1

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