Philosophical cosmology and religious polemic: The “worship of creation” in the writings of Philo of Alexandria and the Wisdom of Solomon

Updated by: 
Shlomo Brand
Research notes: 
SB/not checked/17/10/2021
Reference type: 
Journal Article
Author(s): 
Wasserman, Emma
year: 
2021
Full title: 

Philosophical cosmology and religious polemic: The “worship of creation” in the writings of Philo of Alexandria and the Wisdom of Solomon

Journal / Book Title || Series Title: 
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha
Volume: 
31
Issue / Series Volume: 
1
Abbreviated Series Name: 
JSP
Pages: 
6-28
Work type: 
Essay/Monograph
Abstract: 

This article treats Hellenistic Jewish literature that ridicules the alleged worship of the elements, the heavens, the heavenly bodies, or other “parts” of the cosmos, especially as developed in the writings of Philo of Alexandria and Ps-Solomon. It is argued that such claims constitute a distinctive sub-type of religious polemic that draws on and adapts from Platonic and Stoic traditions of cosmology. Such polemics are most clearly developed in Philo’s treatises and in chapter 13 of the Wisdom of Solomon, but they also appear in more abbreviated form in the fragments of Philo of Byblos and Aristobulus. I suggest that these traditions of invective may bear on the interpretation of Rom 1:19–23, but only in an indirect way.

Primary Texts: Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha: 
Composition / Author: 
Psalms of Solomon
URL: 
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09518207211041308
Label: 
25/10/2021
Record number: 
108 019