Accomodating the Political: Philo’s King Metaphor

This paper takes metaphor to be a figure, which creates new hermeneutic connections between items from overtly different contexts. Searching for the accommodation of the foreign, I investigate how Philo uses the political king metaphor in the ethical discussions of his Allegorical Commentary from the beginning of his career as well as in the historical writings of his later years as an ambassador in Rome. I argue that we can discern a significant development in his use of the metaphor, which is of interest also for students of the New Testament.