GakuseiDon

This claim was raised on Ebonmuse's webpage: http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/camel1.html
Ebonmuse gave Remsburg as his reference. A reference I found says that it is from "The Christ", by John E. Remsburg, reprinted by Prometheus Books, New York, 1994, pages 171-3.

I've always understood that there were no historians living at that time in Jerusalem. To be able to place Philo Judaeus there would be significant, and it is something I'm very interested in determining the truth about. Yet, there appears to be no record of Philo travelling outside Alexandria, other than leading a delegation to Rome to meet with the Emperor of the day. (Legend has it that he met St Paul there!)

Can anyone point me to anything that places Philo in Jerusalem at any time in his life?

Peter Kirby

Philo wasn't a historian in any case...

The ancient legend (in Eusebius) is that Philo met with Peter, not Paul. It is related to the assumption that the "other place" to which Peter withdraws in Acts 12:17 is Rome. This would be around 41 CE, while Paul doesn't go to Rome (according to Acts and Romans) until a couple decades later.

F. H. Colson in Philo vol. 9
"This is particularly true of the first part of the second fragment. It is very remarkable therefore that it is more devoid of traces of Judaism than even the Quod Omn. Prob. and the De Aet. There are no allusions to the O.T., and no mention of Moses; the one and only fact which suggests that the writer is a Jew is the personal allusion to his visit to Jerusalem via Ascalon (§ 64)."

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Philo of Alexandria
"Once he visited Jerusalem and the temple, as he himself stated in Prov. 2.64."

Short Biography on Philo of Alexandria
He further tells that he himself had been to Jerusalem "to sacrifice and pray" (Prov. 2,64), and he scorns those who abolish the literal understanding of the Law in preference for a symbolical or allegorical (Migr. 92);

The full text of Philo's On Providence is preserved only in Armenian and is not (to my knowledge) online.

Toto

Remsberg's The Christ is online.

Fron this page:

Philo lived in Alexandria, Egypt, which could be considered "near" Jerusalem, (although it is 300 miles) and is probably close enough to have heard of Jesus if the miraculous deeds of the Bible were literally true.

lpetrich

Philo had described Pontius Pilate and his career, so if Jesus Christ had been as well-known as the Gospels describe him as being, then Philo would have described JC also. Especially if JC's career had been accompanied by such miracles as that mysterious sky darkening when he was crucified.

It's interesting that neither Pliny the Elder nor Philo nor Josephus describe this alleged darkening.

Pliny had collected a huge quantity of anecdotes in his Natural History, including lots of tabloid-worthy stuff, but nothing about some mysterious sky darkening around 30-33 CE.

Philo and Josephus were much closer to Jerusalem than Pliny had ever been, and they even described Pontius Pilate's career in some detail. Yet those two gentlemen mention no mysterious sky darkening, no corpses on the move from their tombs, etc.

Heurismus

Just a quick one, when I did Classics Philo, although contemporary with Jesus was not trusted as a source. Josephus, although slightly after a Christ, who as a historian was quoted as the better source with regard to Roman occupation etc.

I'm not trying to displace any seniors here(not that I ever could), but I quickly found a link to Flavius Josephus which may prove useful. As Classics are not my specialism I prefer to leave that to the experts. Hope it helps however.

http://members.aol.com/FLJOSEPHUS/home.htm

On Rome I was taught by one of the contributors to Robin Lane Fox's Pagans and Christians. Jesus Christ was not even mentioned on the course. But Mithraism and Roman attempts to subsume some of Mithraic elements were. The potential shift to a monotheistic Sun god was one possible outcome, although it would have upset many Romans, perhaps even brought an end to empire sooner.

leonarde

My understanding is that Josephus was born in 37 AD so if he had 'described' a darkening of the sky that probably happened in 30 to 33 AD no one would mistake it for a first-hand account........

MortalWombat

The flip side of that is that any mentions of Jesus in Josephus would also not be mistaken for first-hand accounts either.

Dargo

I wouldn't count on it. Many Christians seem to consider all non-Christians who possibly mention Jesus within a few hundred years of his life as absolute proof of New Testament inerrancy.

leonarde

I think apples are being mixed with oranges here:

1) eclipses (lunar and solar) happen from time to time. In just about everybody's lifetime (including presumably Josephus') I've lived through a number myself. If I were to write about them (this is my first even glancing effort) I suppose that would count as "first hand". The thing is though: eclipses are NOT THAT RARE (why among the many many VERY important events in Jewish history that Josephus wrote about would an eclipse, whether a true one, or just some local pseudo-eclipse phenomenon (here I mean the alleged Crucifixion-related one), warrant his attention when he, as far as I know, wrote about NONE that happened during his lifetime?).

2) In the case of Jesus again: Jesus would have died years before 37 AD. No one has ever cited Josephus as a living witness to Jesus.

3) But when a historian says that a given sect was founded by person X just a few decades ago, that's pretty reliable since sects/ religions frequently have historical flesh-and-blood founders. The historian might not be able to say anything definitive about the founder but that's another matter......

Dargo

Solar eclipses only occur during a new moon. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the passover occur during a full moon? An eclipse at the wrong time of the lunar cycle would certainly be noteworthy as would any solar eclipse that maintained totality for six hours.