Page images
PDF
EPUB

Philo of Alexandria.

PHILONIS JUDÆI Opera. FL. JOSEPHI Opera, (see § 73).

JO. ALB. FARICII Diss. de Platonismo Philonis, Leips. 1693, 4to. Idem. Sylloge Dissertat. Hamb. 1738, 4to.

C. F. STAHL, Attempt at a Systematic Statement of the Doctrines of Philo of Alexandria: in the Allgem. Bibl. der Bibl. Literatur of EICHHORN, tom. IV, fasc. V.

+ J. CHPH. SCHREITER, Ideas of Philo respecting the Immortality of the Soul, the Resurrection, and Future Retribution: in the Analecten of KEIL and TZCHIRNER, vol. I, sect. 2; see also vol. III, sect. 2. SCHEFFER, Quæstiones, P. I, II, 1829-31.

GROSSMANN, Quæstiones Philonianæ, Pars I: De theologiæ Philonis fontibus et auctoritate, 1829.

GFRÖRER, Philo und die Alexandrische Theosophie, 2 Bde, (1831) 1835.

DEHNE, Geschichtliche Darstellung der judisch-alexandrinischen Religions-philosophie, 1 Abth. 1831.

Ibid. in the Theol. Studien und Kritiken Jahrb. 1833, p. 984.
BUCHER, Philonische Studien, 1848.

CREUZER, Kritik der Schriften des Juden Philon. (Theol. Studien und Kritiken Jahrb.) 1832, 1 Heft.

DR. RITTER'S Hist. of Ancient Philosophy, vol. IV. c. 6: (Philo the Jew.)

197. The Jew Philo, a man of erudition and of a cultivated mind, settled at Alexandria, was not free from prejudices, but supported them in a more honourable spirit. He applied his knowledge of all the Greek systems, and especially that of Plato (who has so many points of correspondence with the Orientals), to represent his national religion as a perfect and divine doctrine. Josephus subsequently followed the same course. On the other hand, Philo transferred into his system of Platonic philosophy many of the opinions of the East, in return for those which he borrowed from Plato. He may be considered (as Bouterweck has ranked him) as the first Neoplatonist of Alexandria. He assumes that the Divinity and Matter are the two first principles, existing from eternity. Agreeably to the principles of Plato, he characterizes them thus: the Divinity as a Being, Real, Infinite, and Immutable, Incomprehensible to any human 1 Born at Alexandria, some years B.C.

2 Flavius Josephus, born at Jerusalem, 37 A.C.

understanding ("Ov); Matter, as non-existing (un öv), but having received from the Divinity a form and life. He represents the Deity, by certain Oriental figures, as the Primitive Light, as an Infinite Intelligence, from whom are derived, by irradiation, all finite Intelligences. In the soul of the Divinity are concentrated the ideas of all things possible. This Moyos of the Divine Being, the focus of all Ideas (oyos évdiáleтos), is in fact the Ideal World; and called also the Son of God, or the Archangel. He is the image of God, the type after which God by his creative power (Moyos #popepikos) formed the world, such as it is presented to our senses. Hence three hypostases in the Divine Being. We cannot become acquainted with the nature of God but by His immediate influence on our minds: hence the doctrine of Internal Intuition. We may clearly observe how the views of the Jews were modified by the representations of Platonism, and how this admixture gave birth to new opinions. Numenius of Apamea in Syria, in part admitted this mode of representation, and maintained that reason is the faculty of acquiring a knowledge of the Absolute and Supersensuous. He perfected the notion of the Trinity, by distinguishing, in the Divine Incorporeal Being, first, the Primitive and Supreme God, the immutable, eternal, and perfect intelligence; secondly, the Creator of the World, or Demiurgos, the vous, having a twofold relation to the Divinity as his Son, and to the World as its author. The same philosopher maintained the Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul, and styled Plato the Attic Moses (ἀττικίζων).

Authority: The Talmud.

The Cabbalists.

LIBER JEZIRAH, translatus et Notis illustr. a RITTANGELO, Amstel. 1642, 4to.

Artis Cabbalisticæ, hoc est reconditæ Theologiæ et Philosophiæ Scriptores; (Editor, J. PISTORIUS), tom. I, Basil. 1587, fol.

Kabbala Denudata, seu doctrina Hebræorum transcendentalis et Me

1 PHILO de Mundi Opificio, de Confusione Linguarum, de Somnis, quod Deus sit immutabilis, de Præmiis et Pœnis. EUSEB. Præp.

Evang. VII, 13; XI, 15; Hist. Eccles. II, 4, sqq.; 7, sqq.

2 Second century after Christ.

3 EUSEB. Præp. Evang. XI, 10. 18; IX,6; XIII,5; XIV,5; XV, 17.

taphysica atque Theologica, opus antiquissimæ Philosophiæ barbaricæ variis speciminibus refertissimum, in quo ante ipsam libri translationem difficilimi atque in literatura Hebraica summi, commentarii nempe in Pentateuchum et quasi totum scriptuarum V. T. Kabbalistici, cui nomen Sohar, tam veteris quam recentis, ejusque Tikkunim seu supplementorum tam veterum quam recentiorum præmittitur apparatus. Tom. I, Solisb. 1677, 4to. tom. II. Liber Sohar restitutus (editore CHRIST. KNORR DE ROSENROTH), Francof. 1684, 4to.

+ RABBI COHEN IRIRA, Porta Coelorum. (A Commentary on the two Cabbalistic books above). WOLFF, Biblioth. Hebr. Hamb. 1721, 4 vols. 4to. (in the first vol.).

EISENMENGER, Judaism displayed, Königsb. 2 vols. 1711, 4to.

+ DE LA NAUZE, Remarks on the Antiquity and Origin of the Cabbala, in the Mem. of the Acad. of Inscr. tom. IX.

+ J. FR. KLEUKER, On the Doctrine of Emanation among the Cabbalists, etc. Riga, 1786, 8vo.

+ Life of Solomon Maimon, published by PH. MORITZ, Berlin, 1792, in 2 parts, 8vo.

On the Doctrine of Emanation and Pantheism in the first ages of Antiquity, with especial reference to the writers of the Old and New Testaments. An Historical, Critical, and Explanatory Essay, Erf. 1805, 8vo.

HARTMANN, Leipz. Liter. Zeitung, 1834, No. 63, 64.

JOST, Geschichte der Israeliten. 3 Bd. p. 195. sqq.

ZUNZ, die Gottesdienstlichen Vortrage der Juden; p. 162, sqq., et 402, sqq.

THOLUCK, (Commentatio de vi quam Græca philosophia in theologiam tum Muhammedanorum quam Judæorum exercuerit); Part II, De Ortu Cabbalæ, 1837.

MOLITOR, Philosophie der Geschichte, oder über die Tradition im Alten Bunde und ihre Beziehungen zum Neuen Bunde, mit vorzüglicher Rücksicht auf die Kabbala. 1827-1837, 3 Bände.

FREYSTADT, Philosophia cabbalistica et Pantheismus, 1832. ADLER, Die Kabbala, oder die Religions-philosophie der Hebräer. In den Jahrbüchern für speculative Philosophie, 1846-1847.

198. Cabbala (that is oral tradition) is a system of assumed Divine Wisdom, diversified by a variety of fables, which the Jews affect to have received from a Divine source through secret tradition. To treat of it only as far as it belongs to the history of philosophy-it had its origin as early as the first centuries of the Christian era, and was invented or systematised by the Rabbi Akibha, and his disciple Simeon Ben Jochai, surnamed the spark of Moses. It consists in a string of philosophical legends, which represent all things as descending, in a continued scale, from the

1 Died A. D. 138.

Ensoph (the First Light); the Deity and Creator. They are arranged in ten Sephiroths, or luminous circles; and four worlds, Aziluth, Briah, Jezirah, and Aziah. Adam Cadmon, the first man, was the firstborn of the Divinity, the Messiah, by whose means the rest of the universe emanated from the Almighty, yet in such a way that it subsists in God: God being the inherent cause of all things. By the person of the Son is probably here implied the idea of the world conceived by God. All things that exist are of a spiritual nature, and matter itself is nothing but a condensation or attenuation of the rays of light; in a word, every substance is divine.

To this theory of Emanation were added a tissue of imaginations respecting the Demons, which involved a belief in magic; respecting the four elements of souls; their origin and formation; and, lastly, with regard to man considered as a microcosm, or little world in himself. This last notion gave occasion to a new fancy, that of pretending to acquire knowledge by ecstasy.* The whole is a mass of strange and exaggerated representations, conceived under the influence of the religion of the Persians, but employed by those who advanced them to recommend to general notice the sacred history and doctrines of the Jews; especially with respect to the creation and the origin of evil. It is probable that the Cabbalistic books Jezirah and Sohar (see the works at the head of this section), the first attributed to the Rabbi Akibha, the second to Simeon Ben Jochai, have been from time to time interpolated by their expositors. The Christians became acquainted with the Cabbala, by name only, in the fifteenth century; the Jews having carefully concealed from them these mysteries.

II. Gnostics.

WALCH, De Philosoph. Oriental. Gnosticorum Systematis fonte; and MICHAELIS, De Indiciis Gnosticæ Philosophiæ tempore LXX Interpretum et Philonis; second part of his last Syntagm. Commentt.

ERN. ANT. LEWALD, Comment. ad Hist. Religionum vett. illustrandum pertinens, de Doctrinâ Gnosticorum, Heidelb. 1818, 8vo.

* This fancy has been substantiated by the discoveries of Animal Magnetism.-ED.

The same author had previously published: De Fidei Gnoseosque ideâ, et eâ quâ ad se invicem et ad Philosophiam referuntur ratione secundum mentem Clem. Alexandrini, Heidelb. 1811, 8vo.

BAUR, Das manichäische Religions-system, 1831.

J. AUG. NEANDER, Origin and Development of the principal Gnostic Systems, Berlin, 1818, 8vo.

FRITZCHE'S Ketzer Lexicon.

Professor NORTON'S Hist. of the Gnostics, 1845.

199. The same spirit of extravagant speculation possessed the Gnostics also. They pretended to a superior and mysterious knowledge (vois) of the Divine Being, and the origin of the World; blending the religious dogmata of the Persians and Chaldees with those of the Greeks and Christians. The greater number of them professed Christianity, though they were looked upon as heretics. Some attached themselves to the Jewish persuasion, others became its adversaries, others again appear to have belonged to no particular religious creed whatsoever. The most distinguished among them (for the most part Orientals), were Simon Magus, Menander the Samaritan, Cerinthus the Jew, all belonging to the first century: then Saturninus the Syrian, Basilides, Carpocrates, and Valentinus of Alexandria, who approximated the Neoplatonists (second century); Marcion of Sinope, Cerdon and Bardisanes, both Syrians (about the middle of the second century); and Manes,3 a Persian (put to death by Sapor, A.D. 277). Their followers subsisted some ages after. One division of them recognised in the Divinity the One Great Principle whence they derived all things, according to different degrees or classes of spirits called Æons; another admitted the existence of Two first principles, a Good and an Evil one, continually opposed to, and conflicting with each other. Lastly, a third divi

1 AUG. HAHN, Progr. de Gnosi Marcionis Antinomi, P. I and II. Regiomont. 1820-21, 8vo. Et: Antitheses Marcionis Gnostici, liber deperditus, nunc quoad ejus fieri potuit restitutus, ibid. 1823, 4to.

2 AUG. HAHN, Bardesanes Gnosticus Syrorum primus Hymnologus. Commentat. Hist. Theol. Lips. 1819, 8vo.

3+ BEAUSOBRE, Critical History of Maniches and Manicheism, Amst. 1734-39, 2 vols. 4to. See also BAYLE, sub hac voce, and WALCH'S Hist. of Heres. part. I, sect. 770.

K. A. VON REICHLIN MELLDEGG, The Theological System of Manes, and its Origin, etc., Francf. on the M. 1825, 8vo.

« PreviousContinue »