Philo and Paul

by Doug Mason 4 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Doug Mason

  In my research into the Second Temple Period, I have collected material on Philo from two books. I am making these scans temporarily available at:

  https://jwstudies.com/This_world__chap_10__Philo.pdf

  https://jwstudies.com/Reading_Romans_in_Context__Philo_.pdf
  

  These pages illuminate Paul's environment and they provide the contemporary context for some of his reasoning.

  I was particularly taken with Pages 125-126 of the book, "Reading Romans in Context" (PDF file pages 20-21), which show how Paul misused Scripture in order to arrive at his predetermined conclusion.

  I have not marked up these files. The material is not difficult to follow.

  Doug
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  Crazyguy

  I think the writtings of Paul come from other sources like Philo and others . Many people say Paul was an imaginary character modeled after people like Saul of Tarsis and again his writtings were from other people. Experts have already deduced that half of the biblical writings attributed to Paul are forgeries.

  Its amazing when you study heavily like your doing how most of the stuff in the Bible is not original to the Bible and it’s characters. Even some of the saying attributed to Jesus have been found to have been written many years earlier.
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  Doug Mason

  Hi Crazyguy,

  It is common knowledge that several NT documents attributed to Paul were indeed written by others. It is therefore possible to identify trends and alternate doctrinal positions held within Judaism.

  Whether Paul existed or is a composite figure does not concern me. Regardless of that question, the genuine writings do represent a particular position, and that is what does interest me.

  I doubt that Philo wrote or contributed to any NT writings. However, I would say that Philo's influence on the NT came in the form of rebuttals of Philo in some of Paul's statements.

  Doug
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  Crazyguy

  I have read that many of Philos opinions mirrored what Paul supposedly taught. But back to your question about Paul miss using scripture. If there was any scriptures it looks ti me they were Gnostics writtings. I don’t think any other scriptures were much around at the time since many scholars believe the gospels came after many of the writings attributed to Paul.

  I believe the whole Christians concept was a mix of teachings from the older Osiris cult and other Gnostics ideas thrown in. It’s been written that many of the ideas in the New Testament were only allegory’s that later became taught as real stories and characters to convince the crowds to except Christianity.
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  Phizzy

  Many thanks Doug ! very much appreciated.