The Perception of Women in the Writing of Philo of Alexandria AUTHOR: Dorothy Isabel Sly, B.A.(Hons.} (University of Manitoba}
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PHILO'S PERCEPTION OF WOMEN THE PERCEPTION OF WOMEN IN THE WRITING OF PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA By DOROTHY ISABEL SLY A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University September, 1987 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (1987) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (Religious Studies) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: The Perception of Women in the Writing of Philo of Alexandria AUTHOR: Dorothy Isabel Sly, B.A.(Hons.} (University of Manitoba} B.Paed. (University of Manitoba) M.A. (University of Manitoba) SUPERVISORS: Professor Alan Mendelson Professor Ed Sanders NUMBER OF PAGES: v, 292 11 PHILO'S PERCEPTION OF WOMEN ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to determine the perception of women revealed in the writing of Philo of Alexandria. Although Richard Baer approached the subject in Philo's Use of the Categories Male and Female, no comprehensive examination has been made of the role Philo accorded women. I set Philo's writing on the subject of women within the context of two intellectual traditions, the Jewish and the Greek, in order to determine whether he accepts, rejects or alters inherited attitudes. I study it also in the context of the multifarious ways Philo uses "male" and "female" to express comparisons. There emerges a coherent pattern, which indicates that Philo's statements about women are not isolated from his overall understanding of the meaning of "female." After establishing these two larger contexts, I narrow the scope of the study, by demonstrating that Philo's perception of women cannot be determined from his statements about "man." I do this by studying the context in which he uses both Greek terms translated by the English term "man," anthropos and aner, as well as looking into the use of the two terms in the Septuagint and in some earlier Greek writing. In the body of the work I study Philo's material on Biblical women and contemporary women, subdividing the first group according to Philo's terms, "women" and "virgins." The conclusion of the work is that Philo intensifies the subordination of women which he draws from both traditions. He views woman as a danger to man unless she is under his strict control. Since his first concern is the survival of the community through the religious strength of its men, he believes that woman ought to play an auxiliary role, and to be prevented from any behaviour which would deter men from their religious quest. iii Acknowledgements I was first attracted to the Platonic tradition as the sole member of several translation classes in Greek at the University of Manitoba in the early 1950's. I was indeed fortunate to begin my higher education before the era of minimum class sizes, and with the guidance of a Classics faculty I remember with respect and affection. The spark smouldered for twenty years, but was rekindled when I began to study Plotinus with the help of Professor Klaus Klostermaier of the Department of Religious Studies at Manitoba. Like Augustine, I became convinced that The message of Plato, the purest and most luminous in all philosohy, has at last scattered the darkness of error, and now shines forth mainly in Plotinus, a Platonist so like his master that one would think they lived together, or rather--since so long a period of time separates them--that Plato is born again in Plotinus. The reader of the present work may sense, however, that with my approach to Philo the flame is sputtering. The observation may be justified. It has become a truism of scholarship that by interpreting Scripture in terms of the Platonic tradition of his day, Philo gave profound expression to the religious aspirations of humanity. It has been completely overlooked, however, or else it has not been considered noteworthy, that Philo's interpretation was based on an unquestioned assumption of female inferiority. This must be acknowledged, if we are fully to appreciate Philo's position in the history of thought. It is the burden of my thesis. I have been helped in complementary ways by my co supervisors: Professor Alan Mendelson by his meticulous care with the exegesis, and Professor Ed Sanders by his unparalleled comprehension of the field of Judaism and New Testament Studies. The third member of my committee, Dr. George Paul of Classics, has been unstintingly generous with valuable advice. I thank them all most heartily. Of my fellow graduate students at McMaster over the past five years, I must single out for thanks Sister Mary Thompson, who paced me throughout our doctoral work, and Joanne Martens, who read the entire draft. Most of all, I thank my husband, Doug, and our family, Gordon and Janine, Greg, Monty, Ken, and Marnie, for encouraging me to follow my dream. iv PHILO'S PERCEPTION OF WOMEN TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 1 2. Traditional Views of Women 13 3. The State of Scholarship 50 4. Philo's Language 70 5. Woman and Virgin 85 6. Biblical Women (I): Eve 109 7. Biblical Women (II): The others 133 8. Biblical Virgins (I) 158 9. Biblical Virgins (II): Sarah and Rebecca 175 10. Biblical Virgins (III): Leah (Rachel), Dinah, Tamar and Hannah 196 11. Women of Philo's World 220 12. summary and Conclusions 266 13. Appendix A: Do the Special Laws Reflect Actual Legal Practice? 279 14. A Select Bibliography 281 v CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Philo; the Man and His Work Philo Judaeus was an Alexandrian philosopher of the first half of the first century C.E., best known for having consciously created a link between Jewish scripture and Greek philosophy.1 Cultural Background His personal background prepared him admirably for this task. On the Greek side, we can tell from the description of his own education in De congressu Erudlt!onis Causa 74-80 that he had experienced the traditional paideia. Further, his occasional references to the gymnasium and the theatre show that he was intimately acquainted with the Greek cultural institutions of the city.2 On the Jewish 1 Samuel Sandmel, Philo of Alexandria (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 3-16; David Winston, Philo of Alexandria: The Contemplative Life, The Giants, and Selections (New York: Paulist Press, 1981), 1-37; Emile Br~hier, Les id6es phllosophigues et religieuses de Philon d'Alexandrie, 3rd ed. (Paris,1950), i-iv. 2 In his article,"The Orthodoxy of the Jews in Hellenistic Egypt," Jewish Social Studies 22 (1960), 215 237, Louis H. Feldman addresses the question whether observant Jews like Philo participated in activities which were held under pagan auspices. He concludes (~Wolfson) that they did, indeed, do so, although such action 1 2 side, we know that he was prominent within the large Jewish community of Alexandria, for he was chosen to go on their behalf as head of a delegation to the Emperor Gaius in the year 40 C.E.3 His fascination with philosophy enhanced, but did not overshadow, his zeal to give honour and service to the god of his fathers: Now philosophy teaches us the control of the belly and the parts below it, and control also of the tongue. Such powers of control are said to be desirable in themselves, but they will assume a grander and loftier aspect if practised for the honour and service of God (CQng..80). His writing reveals that he felt torn between the increasing claims of civic responsibility to the Jewish community, and his own predilection for the contemplative life. As he says in De Specialibus Legibus 3. 1-6, constituted a deviation from orthodoxy. 3 Philo describes the mission in Legat. For dates and sequence of events consult E. Mary Smallwood, Philonis Alexandrini Legatio ad Gaium (Leiden: Brill, 1970). There is some question as to how large the Jewish population of Alexandria was. Philo claims that the Jews in all of Egypt numbered a million (~.43). This is probably an inflated figure. S.W.Baron (s.v."population", Encvclopedia Judaica, vol.xiii, p.171) says that estimates of the total population of Alexandria range from 500,000 to 1,000,000, of which 40% might have been Jewish. That would set the Jewish population of Alexandria somewhere from 200,000 to 400,000. Jean Juster, Les Juifs dans l'empire Romain, (New York: Burt Franklin, 1914), vol.1, p.209, sets the figure higher, calling Philo's estimate hardly exaggerated • But Naphtali Lewis, in Life in Egypt under Roman Rule (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983 ) 26-9, uses Diodorus Siculus' figure of 300,000 free inhabitants in the time of Augustus as the basis for limiting the total population of Alexandria to one-half million. His figure would, then, concur with the lower figure in Baron's estimate, i.e. 200,000 Jews. 3 There was a time when I had leisure for philosophy and for the contemplation of the universe and its contents . But . envy . plunged me in the ocean of civil cares, in which I am swept away, unable even to raise my head above the water .... And if UPexpectedly I obtain a spell of fine weather and a calm from civil turmoils, I get me wings and ride the waves and almost tread the lower air, wafted by the breezes of knowledge which often urges me to come to spend my days with her, a truant as it were from merciless masters in the shape not only of men but of affairs, which pour in upon me like a torrent from different sides.4 Philo's Writing When Philo was able to free himself from specific duties, he devoted his time wholeheartedly to developing the inner life and writing Scriptural exegesis.