Philo, Volume VI: On Abraham. On Joseph. On Moses

633 Pages·1935·10.58 MB·English

by  Philo Judaeus

THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
FOUNDED BY JAMES LOEB, LL.D.
EDITED BY
G. P. GOOLD, PH.D.
FORMER EDITORS
t Τ. E. PAGE, C.H., LITT.D. t E. CAPPS, PH.D., LL.D.
t W. H. D. ROUSE, LITT.D. f L. A. POST, L.H.D.
Ε. H. WARMINGTON, M.A., F.R.HIST.SOC.
PHILO
VI
289

P H I LO
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY
F. H. COLSON, M.A.
LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAtfiiiUDGB
IN TEN VOLUMES
(AND TWO SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUMES)
VI
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD
MCMLXXXIV
American ISBN 0-674-99319-5
British ISBN 0 434 99289 5
First printed 1935
reprinted 1950, 1959, 1966, 1984
Printed in Great Britain
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI
PAOB
PREFACE vii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION ix
LIST OF PHILO'S WORKS xix
ON ABRAHAM (DE ABRAHAMO)—
Introduction 2
Text and Translation . . .. 4
ON JOSEPH (DE IOSEPHO)—
Introduction , . 138
Text and Translation 140
MOSES I. AND II. (DE VITA MOSIS)—
Introduction 274
Text and Translation 276
APPENDICES—
I. To De Abrahamo 597
II. To De Iosepho 600
III. To De Vita Mosis, i. . 603
IV. To De Vita Mosis, ii 605
V. Supplement to Textual Footnotes . 611
ν

PREFACE TO VOLUME VI
MR. WHITAKER left no work of any kind bearing on
the contents of this volume, and it therefore appears
in my name only.
The great difference of subject matter from the
five previous volumes has made the long detailed
analytical introductions less necessary and where the
narrative runs on continuously for a considerable
length almost useless. I have accordingly retained
them only in a very modified form. I have continued
to divide the annotation into footnotes which seemed
needed for the comprehension of the passages and
appendix notes mainly for illustration, but both foot­
notes and appendix are considerably diminished.
One point perhaps requires apology or at least
justification. What appears here as the Second Book
of the Life of Moses was before the publication of
Cohn's edition divided into two, a Second Book of
twelve Chapters, and a Third Book of thirty-nine.
Cohn who has demonstrated the erroneousness of
this division,0 takes the middle course of numbering
the Chapters as of two books, but the sections as of one.
Since Cohn originated the arrangement by sections
this was probably the wiser course. But now that
citation by sections is superseding the old citation by
See note on p. 274.
vii
PREFACE
chapters this difference of arrangement between sec­
tions and chapters seemed to me confusing and I have
accordingly numbered the chapters continuously from
1 to 50; and therefore in tracing a reference to a par­
ticular chapter of De Vita Mosis, iii. my readers will
have to subtract twelve. I hope any inconvenience
caused by this will be diminished by the fact that
most, if not all, references to Philo in earlier writers
cite not only the chapters of a treatise but the
Mangey pages, which of course remain unchanged.
I may add that Dr. Rouse's help, which has been
generously given throughout, has been particularly
useful in this volume.
F. H. C.
April 1935.
viii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
IN this volume we enter a upon the second main divi­
sion of Philo's works. The preceding five volumes
have been occupied with what is usually called the
commentary or allegorical commentary. We now
pass on to his Exposition of the Laws to which the
biographical treatises in this volume serve as an in­
troduction. Philo starts with the assumption that
the Pentateuch as a whole is a law-book written by
the lawgiver himself. But this law-book obviously
opens and continues with a large amount of material
which is not, strictly speaking, legislative butnarrative.
Hence the theory is developed that Moses began with
describing the foundation of the world-commonwealth
or cosmopolis which was to be governed by the laws,
and followed it by describing the lives of those who
had observed those laws while still unwritten and
were therefore themselves " living laws," as well as
α Or perhaps 1 shall rather say " re-enter," as De Abr.
assumes that the De Opificio is the opening book of the
" Exposition." And so the German translators begin with
the De Op. and proceed at once to De Abr. In this transla­
tion we have followed the traditional arrangement, which is
also that adopted by Cohn and Wendland, not perhaps with­
out justification. It must be noted that if De Op. begins the
Exposition, it serves the same purpose for the Commentary
which begins with Gen. ii. 1, and seems to assume that the
story of Creation has been adequately dealt with.
ix