On Providence — Fragments
Philo of Alexandria
Book 1 · Section Fragment
About this work
Fragments of a philosophical discussion of divine providence and the ordering of the world. These are surviving portions rather than a reconstruction of the complete work.
- Author
- Philo of Alexandria
- Date
- First century AD; dates vary by treatise
- Genre
- Theological Treatise
- Textual language
- Greek
- Translator
- C. D. Yonge
- Translation / Edition
- C. D. Yonge translation, first published 1854.
From Eusebius P. E. 7.21.336bÐ337a
But that you may not think that I am here arguing in a sophistical manner, I will produce a man who is a Hebrew as the interpreter for you of the meaning of the scripture; a man who inherited from his father a most accurate knowledge of his national customs and laws, and who had learnt the doctrines contained in them from learned teachers; for such a man was Philo. Listen then, to him, and hear how he interprets the words of God.
Why, then, does he use the expression, "In the image of God I made Man," as if he were speaking of that of some other God, and not of having made him in the likeness of himself? This expression is used with great beauty and wisdom. For it was impossible that anything mortal should be made in the likeness of the most high God the Father of the universe; but it could only be made in the likeness of the second God, who is the Word of the other; for it was fitting that the rational type in the soul of man should receive the impression of the Word of God, since the God below the Word is superior to all and every rational nature; and it is not lawful for any created thing to be made like the God who is above reason, and who is endowed with a most excellent and special form appropriated to himself alone.
This is what I wish to quote from the first book of the questions and answers of Philo.
And the Hebrew Philo, in his treatise on Providence, speaks in this way concerning matter.