Avowed Enemies of Epicurus: Philo Of Alexandria

    This probably fits under a category of "Jewish Opposition to Epicurus" such as is discussed in "Epicurus and the Judeans" but we can set that up later if needed. I don't know much about Philo of Alexandria and haven't been able to read yet more than the first few pages of this article. It came to my attention because it was sent to me by Academia.com as part of their daily email blasting. If you're ever lonely and don't get enough email, just subscribe to Academia and your problems will be over.


    https://www.academia.edu/11824…ia_5_75-102?auto=download


    Based on my readings, the philosophy of Philo of Alexandria was a literary inspiration for John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. He synthesized neo-Platonism with Messianic Judaism. Even if John the Baptist and Jesus weren't reading his literature, their own conclusions are suspiciously similar to those of Philo.

    Let me edit the previous statement for more nuance: the character called "Jesus" as presented in the "Gospel of John" espouses a theology that is suspiciously similar to the writing of Philo of Alexandria.

    Thanks for this info Nate. i really think it would be helpful to have a subforum devoted to this topic so we could list each of the "Christian fathers" and Stoics others who specifically attacked Epicurus, and we'll be able to list and clarify their arguments and thereby better understand them and see how they flow to today, so I will set that up.



    Done.