Looking for Philo's Abraham
in all
the Wrong
Places?
A Step towards the Entry for
Abraham in the New James
by Robert A. Kraft (University of
Pennsylvania)
Abstract:
Introduction.--
For Philo, Abraham is an exemplar (to borrow a term from Hindy Najman).
Listen to the closing words
of Philo's
treatise On Abraham:
(270) But not only do the
oracles bear
witness to his faith -- the
queen of all the virtues -- in the Existent One, but also he is
the first whom they dub as "elder" [Gen 24.1], though those who
preceded him had lived three times as long or even more, none of whom
we recognize as worthy of the appellation. (271) And this is as it
should be. For the one who is an elder in truth is considered such not
with reference to length of lifetime, but to a praiseworthy and perfect
life. Those then, who have reached a great age in bodily
existence without beauty and goodness are to be called "aged children,"
having never been schooled in the learning which is worthy of grey
hairs. But the one who has been a lover of sound judgment and wisdom
and faith towards God, one may justly consider to be "elder," a similar
designation to "first." (272) For the wise man is the "first" of the
human race in existence, as a pilot in a ship, a governor in a city, a
general in a war, indeed soul in body, mind in soul; or again, heaven
in world, God in heaven.
(273) . . . God no longer talked with him only as a god might with a
man, but even as a friend with an aquaintance. . . .
(274) "Elder" then, and "first" let the worthy one be and be called.
. . .
(275) Let these things suffice on this subject. But to these great and
many items of praise of the wise man is added as a crowning point, it
says that "this man fulfilled the divine law, and all the commandments
of God" [Gen 26.5], not having been taught by writings, but by what is
unwritten in nature, hastening to obey all healthy and untainted
impulses. And with regard to the things that God promises, what should
people do but to believe them most firmly? (276) Such is the life of
the "first" and founder of the nation -- as some will say, law
abiding, but, as my discourse has shown, himself law and
unwritten code.
Most of what Philo reports about Abraham is paralleled in the Greek
text of Genesis 12-23, although not in the same order. The themes that
appear most often in the writings that have been preserved from Philo
are Abraham's "migration" from "Chaldea" and Har(r)an (Gen 12-15), the
names that he and Sarah and Isaac receive (Gen 17), and the
Hagar-Ishmael story (Gen 16-17). Apart from the treatise On Abraham, usually classified as
"exposition," in the individual "allegorical" treatises such as
Heir, Migration, and Names, Philo focuses mostly on aspects of the Genesis
12-17 materials.
Whether he wrote separate treatments as well on other themes of the
Abrahamic story we do not know -- e.g. Sodom and Lot (Gen 18-19), death
of Sarah (Gen 23), even the defeat of the kings (Gen 14). If Questions in Genesis had survived
more fully (book 3 starts abruptly at Genesis 15 and ends in Genesis
17), assuming that more of this work was actually published by Philo,
we would know more.
In the extant Philonic treatments of Abraham, however, there is
sometimes material that is not paralleled in surviving texts of
Genesis. Two of the most obvious such themes (to me at least) are
Abraham's relationship to Chaldean astronomy and the etymologies
associated with the Abraham traditions. Assuming that Philo did not
simply make such things up himself, can we say anything about the
sources (written or oral) with which he might have been familiar? Or to
broaden the question in the context of the "new
M.R.James" project, what other
sources
about Abraham do we have or know about from antiquity, and how do
they relate to Philo's picture?
Philo's Abraham
and astrological/astronomical traditions.-- Much of the
relevant material is discussed by Annette Reed in her detailed article on
"Abraham as Chaldean
Scientist and Father of the Jews: Josephus, Ant. 1.154-168, and the
Greco-Roman Discourse about Astronomy/astrology," JSJ 35 (2004)
119-158. She shows Josephus in his role as apologetic
historiographer functioning between Judaism and Greco-Roman traditions,
but mentions Philo only in passing in this context. Yet Philo seems to
reflect some of the same ambivalences found in Josephus on this topic.
Philo's Abraham is from Chaldea and aware of things "Chaldean," a term with
potentially
dangerous associations in first century Roman contexts, where it gets
associated with political tampering as well as with loosely conceived
"magic." Even after the embassy to Gaius around 40 ce, Philo can
write that "in Chaldean," his own race is called "Israel," the meaning
of which he then translates/interprets in Greek (Embassy 4). He uses a similar
linguistic contrast at least twice in On
Abraham as well as once in Life
of Moses and once more in Rewards.
This is especially interesting since he much more frequently speaks of
"the tongue/language of the Hebrews" or more neutrally "the
tongue/language of the patria"
(πατρίῳ γλώττῃ) or both (Ἑβραῖοι πατρίῳ
γλώττῃ) in similar onomastic-etymological contexts
(including On Abraham).
There is no hint in surviving texts of Genesis
that "Ur of the Chaldeans" is connected with any special ideas or
traits. "Abram" first comes onto the scene without fanfare as Terah's
son (Gen 11.26), he marries (11.29), and moves with wife and father and
nephew Lot to Haran, where Terah dies (11.31-32). The LORD tells him to
leave Haran and go to Canaan, where the LORD appears to him and
promises him the land (Gen 12.1-7). Chaldea is entirely incidental and
Haran is merely a stepping stone.
Many other sources, including Josephus, highlight the situation in
Chaldea, where Abram learns the local wisdom and ultimately works
through the study of the heavenly bodies to the recognition of the
existence of the one God. Philo is familiar with this tradition, and in
Abr 69ff he
relates it,
somewhat dimly, as the context of Abraham's enlightenment (Gen
12.7 "God appeared to Abraham" -- apparently in Haran, not Canaan!). A
bit later, Philo returns to the theme (Abr 77).
Although it is not
entirely clear whether Philo's Abram received the enlightenment
while in Chaldea, or later in Haran (so Jubilees
12.16), or even in Canaan (78), Haran seems most likely. Possibly
for Philo, Haran was also considered part of "the region of
Chaldea." Kugel
fails to notice
this (intentional?) ambiguity in Philo, who seems to want to have it
both ways -- Chaldea for the astronomical learning and Haran (probably
not Canaan, despite Gen 12.7) for the enlightenment. This fits his
allegorization of the place names as well, where Chaldea gets
philosophic reasoning to a certain level, and Haran adds the contact
with the real world that produces the necessary enlightenment. The
summary of Israel's history in Stephen's speech in Acts
7.2-4 also hints that this geographical situation was a point of
discussion. In any event, for Philo, it was against this
background of Chaldean astronomy that Abram came to recognize the truth
about God. As Annette Reed's article shows, this sort of
information was readily available from various sources, even if not
from "scripture" itself. Philo even seems aware of this, as he focuses
the attention of his learned readers on the move from Chaldea to Haran
in Migr 176-177 -- "Abraham
... went out
from Haran [Gen 12.4]. ... Noone acquainted with the laws would be
unaware that Abraham when he left the Chaldaic land dwelt in Haran. ...
When he moves from there, he has already left two places."
Philo's Abraham
and onomastic-etymological traditions.-- Something similar was
probably true of Philo's penchant for etymologizing, which shows itself
strongly in the Abraham materials as well as elsewhere. Lester Grabbe's
monograph, neatly
collects the
evidence. Grabbe suggests Cornutus and ps-Heraclitus as possible
sources (Grabbe 79-83), and Nicholas de
Lange thinks Philo may have received such materials along with his
Greek text. In his list of Philonic writings, Eusebius attributes such
a work to Philo himelf
(HE 2.18.7
"interpretation of Hebrew names in the law and the prophets").
The practice of making word lists is well known from ancient Egypt and
Mesopotamia, but these are not usually bilingual translation
lists. We do have some later examples of translation lists from named
authors, but also from the Egyptian papyri such as PHeid
1359 and POxy 2745,
and I suspect
that this sort of scholarly "tool" was available to Philo, who does not
seem to have known Hebrew well enough (if at all) to construct it
himelf.
Summary.-- In
short, for the identification of other traditions about Abraham than
those widely attested in other literature from early Judaism and the
Greco-Roman world, the surviving materials from Philo have little new
to offer. Perhaps a closer exploration of his uses of "Chaldea" and
"Haran" within his own thought world would shed more light on how he
interpreted the early movements of Abram (including how Philo read the
texts that uses as springboards), and Abram's insight into the true
nature of God. Attention to Philo's use of the "Chaldea" word group in
his first century Greco-Roman context is also worth pursuing, perhaps
even helping to unlock some of the secrets of the dates of some of his
writings (or their partial revision). In the aforementioned article, C.K.Wong
takes a step in
that direction. Finally, further attention to the etymological
onomastic traditions that came through Philo especially to his later
Christian admirers might bear further fruit for understanding what
scholarly tools were available to him in first century Alexandria.
//end//