Philo of Alexandria: Judaism as Greek Philosophy

Geddy Lee is amazing. He can play bass, keyboards, sing, and give a lecture on Philo of Alexandria at the same exact exact time

Audience interruptions add nothing and detract from the continuity and otherwise excellent coherence of the presentation.

Thank you for these videos. I just found you but I can't not stop binge watching you. It's really refreshing to see someone tackle this literature with neither an overly atheistic/theistic or pro/anti hellenistic lense (at least as far as I can tell). I hope that if there is a God then he prefers your attitude toward reasoning and teaching as opposed to a more dogmatic one.

This is great. Thanks . It fills in some of the important gaps I have in my knowledge of the history Western Religions. You are a very good speaker and you are very patient with your audience who at times seem a bit slow on the uptake ...at times.

As usual from these talks, I learned many things. Thanks for sharing these videos here.

An excellent lecture! I wish there had been time to say more about Philo's ethics, which are of greater practical value than his metaphysics. Philo sees the Old Testament as a roadmap from (as St. Paul called it) 'carnal mindedness' to 'spiritual mindedness.' He aims to help us find happiness through (1) the contemplative life advocated by Plato and Aristotle, and (2) ultimately, mystical union with God. Philo's allegorical interpretations gives new coherence to the ethical and spiritual meaning of Genesis and Exodus.

You're a great lecturer. Outstanding topic as usual

That was an excellent non-partisan presentation, very well put together. Thank you to Prof(?) Hamer and the Toronto Congregation. One point: at 14.30 f. we heard about the 'weird dividing line' which puts the rabbis and protestants together in repect of the OT books they accept. This is not surprising when you realise that protestantism was a form of judaising from the beginning. Consider Cromwell appealing to the Old Testament as his army attacked the Irish and sacked Drgheda and Wexford. His grandfathers would probably have seen the inhabitants of those towns as brothers in Christ rather than as Amalekites, Canaanites or Philistines. St Augustine wrote a lot, and somewhere he says that the OT is to be interpreted in the light of divine love. That is remarkable because the OT does not exactly invite such an interpretation! And if he told XTns not to observe the Sabbath, he certainly wanted them to observe Sunday. I very much doubt that he encouraged them to kill, steal, covet and commit adultery. The Mosaic law was abrogated by Christ and a higher spiritual ethic was given which comprehends that which preceded it.

Even before you got to the main presentation, u explained why jews/protestants have the same Bible, even if they categorized the books 📚differently. Thanks 😊much 😘for that.

V informative and well done

Interestingly, Philo lived between 20 BCE and 50 CE making him a contemporary of Jesus and Hillel who shared Philo's tendency toward deep reflection vs. Shammai's literalism. He was deeply influence by 2nd Temple Judaism, and spoke so highly of the essenes that he shared many of their values (and those of Jesus, and Hillel).

Where is John from originally?

The audience absolutely ruins this. No more open mics

Is this whole video

Doesn't Philo's Logos sound a little bit like Richard Carrier's Jesus from Outer Space? Is mythicism really that fringe? Could Jesus Christ not be the creation of students of Philo? If Philo combined Plato with Moses, perhaps his students combined his Logos with messianic movements of their own time? Non-rhetorical question: Do Philo, Paul, and Jesus all quote the LXX for OT references?

I have never in the hundreds of hours of listening to lectures heard an audience member contribute anything useful. It's always some poorly articulated stupid tangent where they're trying to foist their own worldview onto the lecturers point. God I wish they wouldn't take audience questions, or at least keep them at the end so I could ignore them.

I'd read somewhere there was a Buddhist Monastery in Alexandria during the Greek/Roman period...are there any references to this or archaeological remains of somewhere there that looks Buddhist or Hindu? Also, apparently Hadrian referred to the devotees of the God Serapis as Christians...where do these references come from and what did he mean?

Very informative! Thank you. SUGGESTION: IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY DONE A VIDEO ON THE TWO PHARISEE COMMUNITIES THAT COMPETED FOR LEADERSHIP IN JUDEA BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER THE LIFE OF JESUS: HILLEL, AND SHAMMAI. It's important, because Hillel (& Gamaliel et al) had similar views to those of Yeshua.

What's with the disrespectful audience, sabotaging the lecture at every opportunity. Save your questions and comments for the end!

fascinating, never knew about the cornutam Moses thing