THE WORKS OF

PHILO

Complete and Unabridged

NEW UPDATED EDITION

Translated by

C. D. Yonge

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher’s Preface

Foreword: An Introduction to Philo

Preface to the Original Edition

On the Creation

Allegorical Interpretation, I

Allegorical Interpretation, II

Allegorical Interpretation, III

On the Cherubim

On the Birth of Abel and the Sacrifices Offered by Him and by His Brother Cain

That the Worse Is Wont to Attack the Better

On the Posterity of Cain and His Exile

On the Giants

On the Unchangableness of God

On Husbandry

Concerning Noah’s Work as a Planter

On Drunkenness

On the Prayers and Curses Uttered by Noah When He Became Sober

On the Confusion of Tongues

On the Migration of Abraham

Who Is the Heir of Divine Things

On Mating with the Preliminary Studies

On Flight and Finding

On the Change of Names

On Dreams, That They are God-Sent

On Abraham

On Joseph

On the Life of Moses, I

On the Life of Moses, II

The Decalogue

The Special Laws, I

The Special Laws, II

The Special Laws, III

The Special Laws, IV

On the Virtues

On Rewards and Punishments

Every Good Man is Free

On the Contemplative Life or Suppliants

On the Eternity of the World

Flaccus

Hypothetica: Apology for the Jews

On Providence: Fragment I

On Providence: Fragment II

On the Embassy to Gaius: The First Part of the Treatise on Virtues

Questions and Answers on Genesis, I

Questions and Answers on Genesis, II

Questions and Answers on Genesis, III

Appendix 1: Concerning the World

Appendix 2: Fragments

Subject Index

Scripture Index

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 ...