From Christ to Jesus
A Study on the Origin of Christianity
3.Appendix: The Jewish Logos
The Jewish Logos
The cousin of Jesus in Alexandria possesses all the attributes assigned to Jesus in the Epistles, except the crucifixion & eucharist.

Mysticism
a doctrine that maintains that one can gain knowledge of reality that is not accessible to sense perception or to reason.

Philo of Alexandria 20 BCE - 50 CE was an Hellenized Jew who spans two cultures: the Greek and the Hebrew.
When Hebrew mythical thought met Greek philosophical thought in the first century BCE. it was only natural that someone would try to develop speculative and philosophical justification for Judaism in terms of Greek philosophy.
This mix of Platonic Philosophy & Judaism hellenic was the basis for the majority of Christian writings apart from the Gospels:
  • All the Epistles
  • Epistle to Diognetus (130)
  • Justin Martyr (100-165)
  • Minucius Felix (?)
  • Athenagoras of Athens (133-190)
  • Theophilus of Antioch (117-181)
  • Clement of Alexandria (150-215) who called Philo "the Pythagorean".
  • Origen of Alexandria (185-254)
  • Eusebius of Caesarea (260/265-339) who claimed that Philo met Peter at Rome and was admiring Christianity and was 'almost' Christian. All this is BS of course.
The pivotal and the most developed doctrine in Philo's writings on which hinges his entire philosophical system, is his doctrine of the Logos. He made a synthesis of the two worlds he knew and attempted to explain Hebrew thought in terms of Greek philosophy by introducing the Stoic concept of the Logos into Judaism. In the process the Logos became transformed from a metaphysical entity into an extension of a divine and transcendental anthropomorphic being and mediator between God and men. Philo offered various descriptions of the Logos.

Like Paul, Philo...
  • is a Greekspeaking Jew from the diaspora.
  • has a universal theology that doesn't exclude Gentiles from Judaism.
  • fuses Greek philosophical concepts with Hebrew religious thought and provides the foundation for Christianity.
  • uses what he calls "the method of the mysteries" (Inge op cit 355) to reveal Jewish scriptures as allegories encoding secret spiritual teachings.
  • speaks figuratively about body & soul:
    "Now, when we are alive, we are so though our soul is dead and buried in our body, as if in a tomb. But if it were to die, then our soul would live according to its proper life being released from the evil and dead body to which it is bound"
    De Opificio Mundi 67-69, Legum Allegoriarum 1.108
  • contrasts the spirit with the body and regards the physical nature of man as something defective and an obstacle to his development that can never be fully surmounted. But higher and more important is the spiritual nature of man.
  • believes in the heavenly body:
    "We recognize, it is true, the traces of the cosmic origin of the Divine intermediaries; the angels are material intermediaries as well as spiritual, and Philo accepts the belief in the power of the heavenly bodies as an inferior degree of wisdom."
    Catholic Encyclopedia Online
    "There are two kinds of men. The one is Heavenly Man, the other earthly. The Heavenly Man being in the image of God has no part in corruptible substance, or in any earthly substance whatever; but the earthly man was made of germinal matter which the writer [of Genesis] calls 'dust'."
    leg. 1.31. See also Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:44-49 where he uses the term 'man' for Jesus.
  • believes that man's final goal and ultimate bliss is in the "knowledge of the true and living God" (De Decalogo 81; De Abrahamo 58; Praem. 14); "such knowledge is the boundary of happiness and blessedness" (Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiari Soleat 86).
    Philo divides human dispositions into three groups:
    • the best is given the vision of God,
    • the next has a vision on the right i.e., the Beneficent or Creative Power whose name is God,
    • the third has a vision on the left, i.e., the Ruling Power called Lord (De Abrahamo 119-130).

Like the Christ of Paul, the Logos of Philo...
Most of the material is extracted from Philo on the 'The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'.
"It is a matter of debate whether Philo considered the Logos as a reality, as a distinct identity having real existence, or as no more than an summaryion."
Martin McNamara Intertestamental Literature, pp. 232-233
"A strong monotheist and Jewish mind like Philo stopped short of making his Son and Logos a personal divine being. But other Jews didn't feel the same rigid restrictions toward God, and could envision their Son as a personal divinity beside God in heaven. From the Logos of Greek and Philonic philosophy to Paul's Christ Jesus is scarcely a stone's throw."
Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle