I don't have much time today to respond (also have to go to post office for stamps and mail a check), but I did want to comment on the idea that there was a cross empire network of burned-out politicians & former social climbers who hung out in similar "hippie commune" type groups, of which the one on Lake Mareotes in Alexandria was an example. Philo or the final editors of this book talks of reading and serious discussing of commentaries on books of their founders, but I am not sure he was talking about "Moses" or the pentateuch.Who or what Deity was 'The Good' (concept) which Philo is tacitly belittling at DVC 2?
What were Followers of 'The Good' theosophy called, as Jewish heretics, in the First Century Diaspora?
By (my reading of) the context of De Vita Contemplativa, they must have been competitors: a rival cult to his Lake Mareotis "Therapeutae." I'm not presuming they were also itinerant healers, but they must also have been known to proselytize their philosophy in the Jewish milieu c.15 AD.
A while ago I attempted to look at this account and identified several strata:
A) There is a bare bones description of their meetings and practices probably based on private notebook entries. These were likely Philo's own notes from his youth when he was still a well educated Roman youth free to explore. This was probably before he returned to examining his Judean roots.
B) Then an expansion of the significance of these observations, probably by Philo himself. A few moralizations. He may have already returned to his Judean roots by this point. He may have developed his unique adaptation of Platonism by this point, but I see little of that unique POV in this comments about the Therapeutae.
C) Finally, an editor/publisher, someone much more worldly than Philo (maybe his thoroughly Romanized uncle Tiberius Alexander?), adds a bit by greatly expanding Philo's comments in B, but a level removed from him (a Roman, not a practicing Judean, POV).
Per one of Philo's own comments upon his notebook descriptions, in On the Contemplative Life or Suppliants (Περι Βιου Θεωρητικου Η Ικετων, De Vita Contemplativa)
This shouldn't have to be rocket science!1.21 Now this class of persons may be met with in many places, for it was fitting that both Greece and the country of the barbarians should partake of whatever is perfectly good; and there is the greatest number of such men in Egypt, in every one of the districts, or nomi as they are called, and especially around Alexandria;
More like organic chemistry ...
DCH
This document uses color and indentation to show these levels of redaction.
*Red indicates Philo's original notes (A).
*Blue indicated his added moralizations (B).
*Unaccented (black) text identifies the extensive additions and comments of the final editor (C).
Qualifications for such an analysis: Absolutely none. They are just relatively informed, although not infallible, observations similar to my musings about the Pauline letters.
For a link to this book, in both Unicode Greek and F H Colson's English translation, see:
https://ryanfb.github.io/loebolus-data/L363.pdf
Statistics: Posted by DCHindley — Sat Feb 03, 2024 5:18 am