Jayhawker Soule

I have been offered the following in another thread:Unfortunately, I am currently home sick and without access to the work cited. Can anyone confirm the quote (including the parenthetical) and supply its context? Thanks.

Peter Kirby

Charles Duke Yonge prints this as part of the "Fragments Extracted from the Parallels of John of Damascus" in his Philo Judaeus translation.

Yonge
About the church of God.

From the same author.

God wishing to send down from heaven to the earth an image of his divine virtue, out of his compassion for our race, that it might not be destitute of a more excellent portion, and that he might thus wash off the pollutions which defile our miserable existence, so full of all dishonour, established his church among us.

But it is possible to identify the origin of this quote on the net. It is from a scanned document here:

The Genuineness of the Three Heavenly Witnesses 1 John v. 7 (original 1825)
Philo adopted the same notion, and thus represents the Logos of God as descending from heaven: "God the author of Divine virtue was willing to send his Image (meaning of course in the person of Christ) from heaven to the earth, from compassion on our race, that he might wash away the impurities which fill this life with guilt and misery, and that he might thus secure to us a better inheritance." Philo, vol. 2, p. 669. A very interesting history of the rise, progress, and purifying influence of the Gospel may be gathered from the works of this celebrated man. Luke published his Gospel in Egypt; and there will appear reason to believe that Theophilus, to whom he dedicates it, is not other than Philo.

The writer is obviously of pre-critical bent, but apparently his breed has not died out, as I spotted the quote recycled here.

"God the author of Divine virtue was willing to send his Image (meaning of course in the person of Christ) from heaven to the earth, from compassion on our race, that he might wash away the impurities which fill this life with guilt and misery, and that he might thus secure to us a better inheritance." (Philo, vol. 2, p. 669, italics mine)

It is simple idiocy to think that the comment in parenthesis was meant, even by the 1825 writer, to be part of the words of Philo.

The quote, if it is from Philo of Alexandria at all, was in the form given by Yonge in the first quote above. However, I doubt that the sentence referenced in a medieval Christian work is genuine Philo, even in that form. I could not find the sentence in the Greek of Philo's fragments on the TLG CD-ROM with a variety of searches.

best,
Peter Kirby

Jayhawker Soule

Thanks, Peter.