336 passages in Hellenistic Jewish Writers
Individual passages from The Midrash of Philo, shown in source order. Page 3 of 7.
One that theologians and philosophers have wrestled with for centuries. We find it even bubbling up in the ancient texts. Consider the passage that talks about God "repenting" for ...
The Midrash of Philo draws our attention to a fascinating detail: the repetition of numbers in describing both the coming of the flood and its eventual retreat. Specifically, it po...
The ancient sages certainly thought so. And they weren't afraid to use vivid language to make the point. Take this passage from the Midrash of Philo. It's a bit intense, but stick ...
The Midrash of Philo turns to The Wise Man Who Called Her His Wife's Handmaiden. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) points out the sheer brilliance of this phrasing. He...
Philo, the great Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, grappled with this very question. And his answer, preserved in "The Midrash of Philo," is surprisingly insightful. He suggests th...
Take (Genesis 9:6), for example. It says God made humankind in His image. But the verse specifies "...the image of God," not “…His own image.” Why the distinction? Philo, the great...
Affliction is often remembered as purely negative, something to be avoided at all costs. But what if I told you that, according to some ancient wisdom, affliction can actually be… ...
The familiar story is this: – God breathes life into Adam. But what kind of life? What kind of being was this first human? It’s the very question posed by the Midrash of Philo, a c...
The Midrash of Philo turns to Philo's Method of Unlocking Meaning from Genesis. That's where midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) comes in. Midrash, from the Hebrew root dara...
Cain, in the biblical story, might have known that feeling all too well. The familiar story is this: Cain and Abel, brothers, offering sacrifices to God. Abel's offering is accepte...
God’s not just upset with humanity. He says, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I...
"I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of the Chaldaeans to give thee this land for an inheritance" (Genesis 15:7). It's not just a generic "Hey, I'm God!" introdu...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher who lived in Egypt during the Roman period, was deeply influenced by both Greek philosophy and Jewish scripture. He tried to bridge these two worlds, an...
Philo, the 1st-century Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, grappled with this very question in his own way. In what we call "The Midrash of Philo," he argues that Adam must have be...
Philo, in his writings, believed that understanding “right division” – what we might call proper order – is key to understanding… well, everything. He argued that right division an...
Maybe there's a deeper reason. Maybe the Torah, in its infinite wisdom, is trying to teach us something profound about our relationship with the world around us. Philo, the 1st-cen...
A dove, sure, feels right. But a raven? What's that all about?Philo wasn't just interested in the surface-level story; he was all about digging deeper, finding the hidden meanings ...
The ancient sages certainly did. And sometimes, the most straightforward stories hide the deepest truths. Take the tale we find in The Midrash of Philo, for example. It looks simpl...
The Midrash of Philo turns to What Adam and Eve Lost When They Knew They Were Naked. It’s such a simple statement, isn't it? But it carries so much weight. Before eating from the T...
The Torah, in its infinite wisdom, speaks to that very human experience. Consider the loaded question in (Genesis 4:8), after Cain has just slain his brother Abel. God confronts hi...
The Midrash of Philo turns to God's Indignation at Having Made Humanity. Hold on. Does that sound. God, feeling indignant? Isn't God supposed to be beyond all that? That’s precisel...
"And unto thee shall be his desire?" (Genesis 4:7). Sounds almost like a reward, doesn't it? Like God is giving Cain something good, even though Cain's heart is clearly not in the ...
(Genesis 2:7). It’s such a simple phrase, yet it's pregnant with meaning. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), that interplay of Jewish storytelling and interpretation, ...
The Midrash of Philo turns to The Deeper Meaning of Covering Up After Eden. In The Midrash of Philo, we find a fascinating interpretation. Philo, a Jewish philosopher from Alexandr...
The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), that treasure trove of Jewish storytelling and interpretation, loves to dig into these little details. And guess what? Philo of Alex...
The familiar story is this: the serpent, the forbidden fruit, the expulsion. But what about that strange line in (Genesis 3:8), "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the...
The Midrash of Philo turns to What Really Drove Cain to Murder Abel in the Field. The verse itself, from (Genesis 4:9), "Why he slew his brother in the field?" feels almost like an...
Take Noah, for example. The world’s about to be… well, let’s just say thoroughly cleansed. And yet, (Genesis 6:8) tells us, almost as an aside, that Noah "found grace in the sight ...
We all remember the flood, the ark, and the animals marching two-by-two. But the raven? And why did Noah send out a dove later? What's the deal? The text itself, (Genesis 8:7-8), s...
You might recall Nimrod from (Genesis 10:8). It's a brief mention, almost a genealogical footnote: "Chus was the father of Nimrod, who began to be a giant and a hunter before the L...
Even Abraham, the patriarch of faith, had moments of doubt. Our question comes from the Midrash of Philo, an exploration of the Hebrew Bible through the lens of the writings of Phi...
The Midrash of Philo dives into this very question, exploring the human soul's capacity for growth and its resistance to it. It suggests that not every soul possesses the ability t...
Philo, the 1st-century Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, offers a fascinating perspective in his writings, specifically here in The Midrash of Philo. He suggests that paradise is...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria in the first century CE, grappled with how to reconcile Greek philosophy with Jewish tradition. His writings, known as The Midra...
Jewish tradition explores that feeling in a fascinating way when it discusses Noah. The world was, to put it mildly, a mess. According to the Torah, humanity's wickedness had reach...
Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish philosopher who lived way back in the first century. He tried to bridge the gap between Greek philosophy and Jewish tradition, and his writings off...
That struggle, that internal tug-of-war, is something ancient thinkers grappled with too. And one place we find it explored is in the writings attributed to Philo of Alexandria. In...
The Midrash of Philo turns to Divine Intervention. That tension is ancient. And it’s right there, simmering, in a fascinating passage from the Midrash of Philo. Here, we see a figu...
Take this passage from The Midrash of Philo. Now, Philo of Alexandria, he was a fascinating figure – a Jewish philosopher living in Egypt during the Roman era. He tried to bridge t...
The Midrash of Philo turns to Why Adam Is Mentioned Before Eve After the Sin. There's a curious detail tucked into the story in (Genesis 3:9). It says, "And Adam and his wife hid t...
Why Hagar Fled From the Face of Sarah Her Mistress is the question behind this passage from The Midrash of Philo. Simple enough The first reading. But as always with midrash, there...
Why Adam and Eve Hid Among the Trees is the question behind this passage from The Midrash of Philo. No. They hid "in the middle of the trees of the Paradise" (Genesis 3:9). In the ...
First, Philo suggests it's because the world's movement itself begins in the east, with the rising sun. the sun’s journey across the sky, from east to west, mirrors the very flow o...
(Genesis 2:15). But not the man created in God’s image? It’s a question that has puzzled thinkers for centuries. What’s the deal? Some folks, taking a rather literal view, suggest ...
The rabbis of old, they didn't miss a trick. They saw layers of meaning in every word, every phrase. And this one, from (Genesis 2:9), really got them thinking: Why does Moses – re...
Especially when to a tiny, but profound, little corner of Jewish thought to explore this. (Genesis 3:10) when, well, He’s God and knows absolutely everything? And a second part to ...
The Midrash of Philo grapples with this very point. It’s not about God needing information. It’s about something far deeper: confronting Cain with the enormity of his actions. See,...
Why does the Torah, in (Genesis 6:9), enumerate the generations of Noah with reference not to his ancestors, but to his virtues? It's a fair question. Shouldn't we be hearing about...
