jgreen44

Philo was a contempory of Jesus of Nazareth but his writings indicate that he knew nothing about Jesus of Nazareth. It has been said that this is the case because Philo was writing in Alexandria around the time when Christianity was an insignificant Jewish sect in Palestine.

But according to the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth garnered a great deal of fame and praise during his ministry. The bible tells us that Jesus was so famous that he drew great crowds.

Some examples of the fame of Jesus follow:

Matt 4:23-25 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

Matt 9:26,31

And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.

Matt 14:1

At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,

(yet Philo, who had intimate connections with the royal house of Judaea never heard of Jesus).

Mark 1:28

And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.

Luke 4:14-15,37

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.

Luke 5:15

But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities

John 21:25

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

And yet Philo knew nothing about Jesus of Nazareth. Interesting.

andrewcriddle

This has been discussed in other threads. Apart from Pontius Pilate, Philo mentions by name few of the important figures in Palestine in the time of Jesus.

Andrew Criddle

mountainman

Philo was one of many 1st century sources who are silent about the hypothetical Jesus. The other 1st century sources which have been tendered in support of the hypothetical Jesus have all, long ago now, been demonstrated to be pious forgeries of a subsequent century. The docetic Gnostics insisted that the hypothetical Jesus did not "appear in the flesh". This docetic statement, translated to 21st century idiom, is equivalent to the assertion that Jesus "did not appear in history on planet Earth."

aa5874

Well, apart from Pilate who else were important figures in Palestine that Philo should have mentioned?

The Gospels mentioned King Herod, Tiberius, and Pilate.

Philo also mentioned King Herod, Tiberius and Pilate.

judge

When did these gnostics live and write?

mountainman

The set of gnostic gospels and acts, etc (including Nag Hammadi) easily exceeds one hundred texts. The draft listing below contains a small number of duplicates but totals 144 texts. The dominant mainstream view is that the gnostics lived and wrote from the second century onwards -- some are also suggesting the 1st century onwards. Gnostic books - according to mainstream opinion - were authored almost continuously thereafter through to the 4th and in some cases the 5th century.

Here is a listing for Apocryphal Corpus by (Mainstream) Chronology. And here is a diagramatic presentation ....



I do not agree with the mainstream opinion and think that the gnostics lived and wrote from the year 324/325 CE onwards for perhaps no more than a few decades. The physical production of the Nag Hammadi codices has been C14 dated to 348 CE and that of gJudas 290 CE (both dates plus or minus 60 years).

arnoldo

In addition a large amount of Philo's work were lost. The writings which were preserved were most likely due to the preservation of his writings by christians. Due to Philo's allegorical interpretation of scripture his writings were somewhat analagous to Paul's allegorical understanding of the scripture and therefore was of interest to early christian scholars. What is surprising is that these christians did not edit his writings and add references to the leader of their cult. It must also be noted that towards the end of Philo's life he was working as an ambassador for Caligula and wouldn't want necessarily to write anything which which antagonize him.

andrewcriddle

Philo does not mention by name:
John the Baptist
The High Priests Annas and Caiaphas
Herod Antipas

Andrew Criddle

mountainman

It is not surprising at all since it is fairly obvious to most people that they selected the writings of Josephus for this specific task. Furthermore, we do not yet know whether the references in Philo (and Pliny) to the "Essenes" were inserted by these same pious christian forgers in an effort to establish a "Missing Link" with the emergent "Nation of Christians". Pausanius contradicts these two sources to the existence of a Jewish group called the "Essenes" and asserts that the "Essenes" were part of the Greek priesthood in Ephesus.

arnoldo

Rachel Elior also proposes the hypothesis that the Essenes never existed.

Since christians primarily preserved the writings of Josephus and Philo it was remarkable that these texts weren't more heavily altered to support the gospel accounts.