The works of Philo (Judaeus of Alexandria / Φίλων ο Ιουδαίος ή ο Αλεξανδρεύς)

Complete and Unabridged
Translated by C. D. Yonge

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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE
Publishing this new edition of C. D. Yonge’s translation of the works of Philo has been rewarding indeed, but throughout the process of retypesetting, reorganizing, verifying, and redesigning, we’ve been asked why we undertook such a daunting project. A major reason stems from the relative lack of availability of Philo’s works. The only other English text of Philo exists in ten volumes plus two supplementary volumes in the prestigious (and expensive) Loeb Classical Library published by Harvard University Press. The Loeb edition includes the Greek text of Philo and is particularly prized by the scholarly community. Unfortunately, however, this series has been largely out of the reach of most students of Jewish and Christian antiquity.
Further motivation for producing this edition concerns Philo’s significance for studying the worlds of first-century Hellenistic Judaism and the New Testament. As C. H. Dodd put it in his classic, Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, Philo is “the best known and most representative figure of Hellenistic Judaism”—the ’world’ of Paul and many of the earliest believers. Although Philo does not speak explicitly about his contemporaries Jesus and Paul, it is from Philo that we learn of the religious and philosophical thought world of first-century Alexandrian Judaism. It simply cannot be overemphasized that Philo affords unique perspectives that not even Josephus permits and that his writings contain a treasury of insights into aspects of the New Testament world—such as the nature of Roman political structures and civic attitudes, or the character of Jewish sects and philosophy. Philo also wrote extensively on the Old Testament Scripture,
including allegorical interpretations of Genesis and studies on the lives of Moses, Abraham, and Joseph.
Nonetheless, this undertaking was not without its challenges. Yonge’s 1854 translation relied upon the best text of Philo available at that time—Mangey’s text. Approximately forty years after its publication, however, the superior Cohn-Wendland critical text began making its appearance (1896–1914). Compared to the Cohn-Wendland text, Yonge’s translation differs in sequence at several points, lacks some passages, and uses or includes titles of works different from the standard ones of present scholarship. Yonge also relies on a Latin translation of the Armenian versions of Questions and Answers on Genesis and apparently lacked access to Questions and Answers on Genesis, IV and Questions and Answers on Exodus in either Latin or Armenian, but instead included only Greek fragments of Questions and Answers on Genesis and Exodus found in ancient authors like Eusebius and John of Damascus along with other fragments of Philo which are not included in the Cohn-Wendland text.
To address these differences, we have rearranged parts of Yonge’s translation to conform to the sequence of the Cohn-Wendland text, have included newly translated passages where necessary, and have used the currently standard titles for the works. We chose to retain what Yonge used without trying to complete the missing passages from the Armenian versions of Questions and Answers on Genesis, IV and Questions and Answers on Exodus and have placed the material not found in the Cohn-Wendland text in an appendix.
We are indebted to Dr. David M. Scholer for graciously agreeing to make time in his busy schedule to supervise the work of keying Yonge’s translation to the numbering system used in the Loeb Classical Library edition, to sort out the differences between Yonge’s text and the Cohn-Wendland text, and to prepare a foreword for this edition. It is especially fitting that he would have consented to help since the ideas for producing both this edition of Philo’s works and our previously published edition of The Works of Josephus really grow out of his classroom—having been inspired by his often expressed regret about the lack of an affordable and accessible edition of these important works.
Understandably, sorting out the various versions, fragments, and divisions in Philo, and then conforming them to an acceptable scholarly format was a formidable task. While we have attempted to correct errors in Yonge’s original edition along the way, it is inevitable that some have eluded our attention. It is hoped that this present edition, despite any minor shortcomings, will nonetheless prove indispensable and will provide a new window into the world of the first century.

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