336 passages in Hellenistic Jewish Writers
Individual passages from The Midrash of Philo, shown in source order. Page 5 of 7.
It's like we're trying to soften the blow, to create a little distance between the person and the negative action. Well, it turns out this isn't just a quirk of human interaction; ...
Jewish tradition has been confronting this very idea for millennia. The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations and elaborations on the Torah attributed to the philosophe...
That feeling, that nagging sense of injustice, it's not new. Not by a long shot. In fact, it’s a question that echoes all the way back to the very beginning, to the story of Noah a...
Pull back for a second. A worldwide flood. The fate of humanity hanging by a thread – or rather, a wooden beam. And then… silence. The waters recede. But when they recede, and why ...
God makes a covenant, a sacred agreement, with humanity after the great flood. And what's the sign of this unbreakable promise? A bow in the clouds. But. why a bow? That’s the ques...
The Torah, in its unflinching honesty, doesn't shy away from these tough questions. to one particularly weighty example. In (Genesis 15:13), God tells Abraham – Avraham, the patria...
In the Midrash of Philo, we find a fascinating take on fate, divine justice, and the reasons behind catastrophic events like, say, the Flood. Philo addresses those who argue agains...
Philo, in his Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), dives headfirst into this question when talking about Noah and the flood. It's a fascinating exploration of time, virtue, ...
The Torah tells us that after the flood, God set a bow in the clouds as a sign of the covenant with Noah, a promise never again to destroy all life with a flood (Genesis 9:13). But...
The ancient sages certainly did. And they found profound meaning in that feeling. to a fascinating interpretation of a well-known biblical passage, explored in the Midrash of Philo...
In Jewish tradition, nothing is ever just simple. There's always a deeper layer, a hidden meaning waiting to be uncovered. So, why this order? The Midrash of Philo, a collection of...
As the Midrash of Philo poignantly puts it, "In truth there is not misery greater than to be deserted and despised by God." What could be worse than feeling utterly cut off from th...
The Midrash of Philo turns to The Precise Day the Earth Dried After the Flood. Well, The Midrash of Philo, that wonderfully imaginative exploration of the Torah, doesn't let a deta...
Why an Uncircumcised Soul Is Cut Off From Its Generation is the question behind this passage from The Midrash of Philo. Take this one, for example. It’s a verse that’s given interp...
Sometimes, it's not just about what happened, but when it happened. And that order can be brimming with meaning. Take the story of the Garden of Eden. The familiar version gives us...
The Midrash of Philo gives us some fascinating possibilities to consider. Being Cain. He’s just committed fratricide. His brother Abel lies lifeless, and the weight of his actions ...
Did you catch that detail in the biblical text about the months? The Midrash of Philo points out something curious. Scripture sometimes refers to a month as both the "seventh" and ...
It's a practice deeply rooted in Jewish law, but when you really stop and think about it, some tough questions arise. Philo, the 1st-century Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, gra...
He suggests we look beyond the literal. Philo sees the serpent not just as a snake, but as an allegory – an emblem of desire itself. The serpent "creeps upon his breast and upon hi...
The Torah tells us in (Genesis 2:15) that God placed man in Paradise "to till it and keep it." But...why? The Garden, Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden, paradise), was, well, perfect. I...
The story of Cain, the first murderer, wrestles with these very questions. And there's one particular verse, a single, chilling promise, that really gets to the heart of it all: (G...
The floodwaters had receded. The earth was dry. The ark door stood ajar. So, why didn’t he just… leave? That’s the question the Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations an...
The Midrash of Philo turns to Going to Your Fathers in Peace and What It Really Means. The question arises from the Book of Genesis, specifically (Genesis 15:15). It’s a verse prom...
They gave us a whole treasure trove of interpretations, embellishments, and downright fascinating tales to flesh things out. The verse in question? (Genesis 16:15): "Hagar brought ...
Sometimes, it’s in those tiny nuances that we find the biggest revelations. Take the story of Sarah. The familiar version gives us Sarah. Wife of Abraham, matriarch of our people. ...
In Midrash of Philo, there's a deeper lesson woven into the very act of tending the Garden. Cultivating the land involves two crucial elements: working the earth and safeguarding i...
Ancient Jewish wisdom grapples with this very struggle, this internal conflict that defines the human experience. And sometimes, it gets Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher w...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in the first century CE, delved deep into the Torah, seeking wisdom and hidden meanings. And in one particular midrash – a kind of ...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in the first century CE, offers a unique take on a familiar phrase: "Thou shalt go to thy fathers." What does this really mean? A r...
Stick with me. We find a fascinating idea tucked away in the Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations attributed to the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria. It's all ab...
The familiar story is this: Cain's offering wasn't accepted, Abel's was, jealousy flared, and tragedy struck. But what about the consequences? Why a mark of protection, instead of ...
"Thou shalt eat," He says, in the singular. A direct, one-on-one instruction. Simple enough. Then comes the prohibition, the big "Don't." And suddenly, the language changes. God wa...
The Midrash of Philo turns to Philo Reframes Eve's Curse as Moral Philosophy. The verse reads, “Unto the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy travail; in pain t...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in the first century CE, wasn't afraid to think outside the box. He saw layers of meaning in the Torah, and one of his most intrigu...
Like when Noah is safely tucked away in the ark, the Torah tells us, "And the Lord shut him in, closing the doors of the ark" (Genesis 7:16). Okay, so God closed the door. Makes se...
Take, for instance, that cryptic line in (Genesis 15:16): "For the sins of the Amorites were not as yet completed." What does that even mean? It's a verse that The first reading bu...
Philo of Alexandria, a fascinating Jewish philosopher who lived way back in the first century, grappled with this very idea. And in a text known as The Midrash of Philo 16, he unpa...
That internal struggle... it's been a topic of contemplation for millennia. And interestingly, sometimes it's been explored through the lens of gender. I know what you might be thi...
Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher who lived in Egypt during the Roman era, did just that. He delved deep into the Torah, seeking hidden wisdom and allegorical interpretatio...
It might sound a bit out there, but ancient wisdom suggests there's more truth to that feeling than it first appears. Philo, the 1st-century Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, saw...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in the first century CE, offers a unique allegorical interpretation of the Torah. And in this particular midrash (rabbinic interpre...
But…they eat the fruit, and they don't drop dead right then and there. So, what gives? What does "Ye shall surely die" really mean? That's a question that has kept Jewish thinkers ...
The Midrash of Philo turns to Why God Cursed the Earth Instead of Adam Directly. What's going on there? Why the indirect approach? In Midrash of Philo, instead of cursing Adam dire...
The sheer scale of devastation... it's almost too much to comprehend. That brings us to a fascinating little puzzle tucked away within the text of Genesis, a question that the anci...
Take the writings attributed to Philo of Alexandria, for example. Now, there’s some debate about whether these are actually from Philo himself, but the collection known as “The Mid...
The question is: Why? (Genesis 17:17) tells us that after God tells Abraham (who was then still called Abram) that his wife Sarah (then Sarai) will bear him a son, he "fell on his ...
Philo of Alexandria, that brilliant Jewish philosopher who lived in the first century CE, had some pretty compelling ideas about this. And they're not just philosophical musings; t...
The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations and expansions on the Hebrew Bible attributed to the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, offers a fascinating perspective....
