Sunday, April 25, 2010

Is Philo Referencing the contemporary Jewish Temple of Alexandria? [Part Four]

In order to understand this next reference you have to remember what we have just been discussing about the physical topography of the Jewish quarter of Alexandria in the first century (the Boukolia) - the Jews were literally living on top of thousands of dead bodies which means I think that the only logical place for the Jewish house of worship was on that massive semi-circular rock between the Church of St. Mark and the ocean.

Keeping this topography in mind I can't help think that Philo is referencing the physicality of the Jewish quarter of Alexandria when he writes in one of his treatises:

For we, studying to conduct ourselves with gratitude to him, and to show him all honours, should purify ourselves from sin, washing off all things that can stain our life in words, or appearance, or actions. For it is foolishness to imagine, that it is unlawful to enter into temples, unless a man has first washed his body and made that look bright, but that one may attempt to sacrifice and to pray with a mind still polluted and disordered. And yet temples are made of stones and timber, mere lifeless materials, and it is not possible for the body, if it is devoid of life by its own nature, to touch things devoid of life, without using ablutions and purifying ceremonies of holiness; and shall any one endure to approach God without being purified as to his soul, shall any one while impure come near to the purest of all beings, and this too without having any intention of repenting?[On the Unchangableness of God 7,8]

Yes, it is not an explicit description of the temple of Alexandria lying in close proximity to the graves of the Boucolia but I defy anyone to deny that it is not an INDIRECT allusion.


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