What about the hypothesis, “Romans / Alexandrians invented Christianity”?
Lots of commonality between Philo and Christianity; Philo writes in the same time period; Philo’s writings were treasured by the early church (do we have more of his writings than anyone else’s?); Philo’s prolific output hints to a group of students; Philo’s brother was said to be the richest person in the Roman Empire; Philo’s entire corpus is about uniting the Jewish religion with Greek intellectual tradition; the Hellenized Jews had an interest in separating themselves from Israel while promoting their own tradition in the Roman world; and lastly, the Alexandrian catechical school was the most influential in early Christianity.
Re: Greek appropriation by Rome, it is interesting that Rome took over Greek traditions after defeating Greece. I don’t think it was lost on intellectual Romans that the Jews put up a good fight against them and that their fervency was informed by their monotheistic, historical, unique religion.
Lots of commonality between Philo and Christianity; Philo writes in the same time period; Philo’s writings were treasured by the early church (do we have more of his writings than anyone else’s?); Philo’s prolific output hints to a group of students; Philo’s brother was said to be the richest person in the Roman Empire; Philo’s entire corpus is about uniting the Jewish religion with Greek intellectual tradition; the Hellenized Jews had an interest in separating themselves from Israel while promoting their own tradition in the Roman world; and lastly, the Alexandrian catechical school was the most influential in early Christianity.
Re: Greek appropriation by Rome, it is interesting that Rome took over Greek traditions after defeating Greece. I don’t think it was lost on intellectual Romans that the Jews put up a good fight against them and that their fervency was informed by their monotheistic, historical, unique religion.
Statistics: Posted by allegoria — Sat May 11, 2024 3:11 am