Startseite The Refusal of God’s ἀπραξία: An Apologetic Appeal to Stoic Arms (Philo, De opificio mundi 7–12)
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

The Refusal of God’s ἀπραξία: An Apologetic Appeal to Stoic Arms (Philo, De opificio mundi 7–12)

  • Lucia Lombardi

    Independent researcher

    EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 21. Oktober 2025
Veröffentlichen auch Sie bei De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

This paper showcases the importance of networking between exegeses for the theme of ἀπραξία in Philo of Alexandria. De providentia 1.6–7 and De aeternitate mundi 13–19, on the proemial chapter of Genesis, are examined to better understand the case of De opificio mundi 7–12. In Opif. 7–12, Philo adopts Stoic apologetic strategies, positing a pre-cosmos without disorder. He preserves God’s otherness from the cosmos while incorporating active divine agency within creation. In De opificio mundi 7–12, Philo’s reworking of Stoic concepts does not indicate a critical attitude towards the Stoa. This paper also considers the problem of Philo’s opponents in light of the development of the theme of ἀπραξία between the end of the Hellenistic era and the early Imperial age. It seeks to identify his opponents, arguing that it is unlikely that Philo meant Aristotle, whom he perhaps perceived more favourably than commonly assumed. The hypothesis is put forward that his opponents instead may be suspected to be a group of Pseudo-Pythagoreans or pythagorising Platonists.

About the author

Lucia Lombardi

Independent researcher

Bibliography

Abdavi Azar, K. (2023), “Zwei Prinzipienlehren aber nur ein Prinzip. Eudoros von Alexandrien und (neu-)pythagoreische Henologie”, in: Elenchos 44, 2, 273–293.10.1515/elen-2023-0014Suche in Google Scholar

Adams, S. A./Domoney-Lyttle, Z. (2023), The Philo of Alexandria Scripture Index, Atlanta.10.2307/jj.8816165Suche in Google Scholar

Ademollo, F. (2012), “The Platonic Origins of Stoic Theology”, in: Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 43, 217–243.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199666164.003.0008Suche in Google Scholar

Alesse, F. (2008), “Alcuni aspetti del concetto stoico di sostanza e identità dell’individuo”, in: χώρα 6, 127–142.10.5840/chora200867Suche in Google Scholar

Algra, K. (2001), “Comments or Commentary? Zeno of Citium and Hesiod’s Theogonia”, in: Mnemosyne 54, 562–581.10.1163/15685250152909020Suche in Google Scholar

Aucher, J. B. (ed.) (1822), Philonis Judaei sermones tres hactenus inediti. I. et II. De Providentia et III. De animalibus, Venetiis.Suche in Google Scholar

Baltes, M. (1976), Die Weltentstehung des platonischen Timaios nach den antiken Interpreten, I, Leiden.10.1163/9789004320512Suche in Google Scholar

Bernays, J. (ed.) (1883), Über die unter Philon’s Werken stehende Schrift Über die Unzerstörbarkeit des Weltalls, Berlin, 1–82.Suche in Google Scholar

Bett, R. (ed.) (2021), Sextus Empiricus, Against the Physicists, I, New York.Suche in Google Scholar

Bonazzi, M. (2013), “Pythagoreanising Aristotle: Eudorus and the systematisation of Platonism”, in: M. Schofield (ed.), Aristotle, Plato and Pythagoreanism in the First Century BC. New Directions for Philosophy, Cambridge-New York, 160–186.10.1017/CBO9781139096713.010Suche in Google Scholar

Bonazzi, M. (2017), “Middle Platonists on the Eternity of the Universe”, in: G. Roskam/J. Verheyden (eds.), Light on Creation. Ancient Commentators in Dialogue and Debate on the Origin of the World, Tübingen, 3–15.Suche in Google Scholar

Bos, A. P. (1993), “La Metafisica di Aristotele alla luce del trattato De mundo”, in: Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica 85, 2/4, 425–454.Suche in Google Scholar

Bos, A. P. (1998), “Philo of Alexandria: a Platonist in the Image and Likeness of Aristotle”, in: Studia Philonica Annual 10, 66–86.Suche in Google Scholar

Cassin, B. (1980), Si Parménide. Le traité anonyme De Melisso Xenophane Gorgia. Édition critique et commentaire, Lille.Suche in Google Scholar

Cohn, L./Leisegang, I./Reiter, S./Wendland, P. (eds.) (1896–1915), Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt, I–VII, Berolini.10.1515/9783112659588Suche in Google Scholar

Cumont, F. (ed.) (1891), Philonis De aeternitate mundi, Berolini.Suche in Google Scholar

Effe, B. (1970), Studien zur Kosmologie und Theologie der Aristotelischen Schrift Über die Philosophie, München.Suche in Google Scholar

Falcon, A. (2016), “The Reception of Aristotle’s Physics in Antiquity: Ps-Ocellus and the Doctrine of the Eternity of the World in the Late Hellenistic and Early Post-Hellenistic World (2nd and 1st Century BC)”, in: Philosophia 46, 154–169.Suche in Google Scholar

Furley, D. (1989), “Aristotelian material in Cicero’s De natura deorum”, in: W. W. Fortenbaugh/P. Steinmetz (eds.), Cicero’s Knowledge of the Peripatos, New Brunswick, 201–219.10.4324/9780429336461-11Suche in Google Scholar

Horky, P. S. (forth.), Pythagorean Philosophy 250 BCE – 200 CE. An Introduction and Collection of Sources in Translation, Cambridge.Suche in Google Scholar

Lapidge, M. (1973), “ἀρχαί and στοιχεῖα: A Problem in Stoic Cosmology”, in: Phronesis 18.3, 240–278.10.1163/156852873X00177Suche in Google Scholar

Lévy, C. (2007), “La question de la dyade chez Philon d’Alexandrie”, in: M. Bonazzi/C. Lévy/C. Steel (eds.), A Platonic Pythagoras. Platonism and Pythagoreanism in the Imperial Age, Turnhout, 11–28.10.1484/M.MON-EB.4.00036Suche in Google Scholar

Lévy, C. (2017), “From Cicero to Philo of Alexandria. Ascending and Descending Axes in the Interpretation of Platonism and Stoicism”, in: T. Engberg-Pedersen (ed.), From Stoicism to Platonism: the Development of Philosophy, 100 BCE–100 CE, Cambridge, 179–197.10.1017/9781316694459.010Suche in Google Scholar

Long, A. A. (2008), “Philo on Stoic Physics”, in: F. Alesse (ed.), Philo of Alexandria and Post-Aristotelian Philosophy, Leiden, 121–140.10.1163/ej.9789004167483.I-296.22Suche in Google Scholar

Mansfeld, J. (1979), “Providence and the Destruction of the Universe in Early Stoic Thought. With Some Remarks on the Mysteries of Philosophy”, in: M. J.Vermaseren (ed.), Studies in Hellenistic Religions, Leiden, 129–188.10.1163/9789004295575_009Suche in Google Scholar

Mansfeld, J. (1988), “De Melisso Xenophane Gorgia Pyrrhonizing Aristotelianism”, in: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 131.3, 239–276.Suche in Google Scholar

Mansfeld, J./Runia, D. T. (eds.) (2020), Aëtiana V. An Edition of the Reconstructed Text of the Placita with a Commentary and a Collection of Related Texts, Leiden.Suche in Google Scholar

Minniti Colonna, M. (1979), “Sul De aeternitate mundi di Filone Alessandrino”, in: Nicolaus 7, 61–89.Suche in Google Scholar

Moraux, P. (ed.) (1965), Aristote, Du ciel, Paris.Suche in Google Scholar

Moraux, P. (1984), Der Aristotelismus bei den Griechen von Andronikos bis Alexander von Aphrodisias, II, Berlin-New York.Suche in Google Scholar

Niehoff, M. R. (2006), “Philo’s Contribution to Contemporary Alexandrian Metaphysics”, in: D. Brakke/A. C. Jacobsen/J. Ulrich (eds.), Beyond Reception. Mutual Influences between Antique Religion, Judaism, and Early Christianity, Frankfurt am Main, 35–55.Suche in Google Scholar

Niehoff, M. R. (2013), “The Emergence of Monotheistic Creation Theology in Hellenistic Judaism”, in: L. J. Jenott/S. K. Gribetz (eds.), Jewish and Christian Cosmogony in Late Antiquity, Tübingen, 85–106.Suche in Google Scholar

Niehoff, M. R. (2018), Philo of Alexandria. An Intellectual Biography, New Haven-London.10.12987/yale/9780300175233.003.0001Suche in Google Scholar

Pavone, P. (2004), “ΤΟ ΠΑΘΗΤΟΝ, materia preesistente o intero creato?”, in: A. M. Mazzanti/F. Calabi (eds.), La rivelazione in Filone di Alessandria: natura, legge, storia. Atti del VII convegno di studi del Gruppo Italiano di Ricerca su Origene e la tradizione alessandrina (Bologna 29–30 settembre 2003), Villa Verucchio, 123–137.Suche in Google Scholar

Petrucci, F. M. (ed.) (2022), Platone, Timeo, Torino.Suche in Google Scholar

Piazzalunga, A. (2021), “Un cosmo senza caos? Il modello dell’ordinamento demiurgico nello stoicismo”, in: Antiquorum philosophia 15, 85–104.Suche in Google Scholar

Radice R. (1989), Platonismo e Creazionismo in Filone di Alessandria, Milano.Suche in Google Scholar

Radice, R. (2000), Allegoria e paradigmi etici in Filone di Alessandria. Commentario al Legum allegoriae, Milano.Suche in Google Scholar

Radice, R. (ed.) (2011), Filone di Alessandria. Tutti i trattati del Commentario allegorico alla Bibbia, Milano.Suche in Google Scholar

Reale, G. (1987), Per una nuova interpretazione di Platone. Rilettura della metafisica dei grandi dialoghi alla luce delle “Dottrine non scritte”, Milano.Suche in Google Scholar

Reydams-Schils, G. (1999), Demiurge and Providence. Stoic and Platonist Readings of Plato’s Timaeus, Turnhout.10.1484/M.MON-EB.5.112278Suche in Google Scholar

Reydams-Schils, G. (2024), “Natural Philosophy and Stoicism in Philo of Alexandria”, in: M. B. Cover/L. Doering (eds.), Philo of Alexandria and Philosophical Discourse, Leiden, 219–234.10.13109/9783666500978.219Suche in Google Scholar

Runia, D. T. (1981), “Philo’s De aeternitate mundi: The Problem of Its Interpretation”, in: Vigiliae Christianae 35, 105–151.10.1163/157007281X00306Suche in Google Scholar

Runia, D. T. (1986), Philo of Alexandria and the Timaeus of Plato, Leiden.10.1163/9789004320666Suche in Google Scholar

Runia, D. T. (ed.) (2001), Philo of Alexandria, On the Creation of the Cosmos according to Moses. Introduction, Translation and Commentary, Leiden-Boston-Köln.Suche in Google Scholar

Sedley, D. (1998), “Stoicism”, in: E. Craig (ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, London-New York, IX, 141–161.Suche in Google Scholar

Sharples, R. W. (2008), “Philo and post-Aristotelian Peripatetics”, in: F. Alesse (ed.), Philo of Alexandria and Post-Aristotelian Philosophy, Leiden, 55–73.10.1163/ej.9789004167483.I-296.15Suche in Google Scholar

Sharples, R. W. (2010), Peripatetic Philosophy 200 BC to AD 200. An Introduction and Collection of Sources in Translation, Cambridge-New York.10.1017/CBO9780511781506Suche in Google Scholar

Sorabij, R. (1983), Time, Creation and the Continuum. Theories in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, London.Suche in Google Scholar

Thesleff, H. (1965), The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period, Åbo.Suche in Google Scholar

Trabattoni, F. (2009), “Philo, De opificio mundi 7–12”, in: M. Bonazzi/J. Opsomer (eds.), The Origins of the Platonic System: Platonisms of the Early Empire and their Philosophical Context, Leuven, 113–122.Suche in Google Scholar

Ulacco, A. (2016), “The Appropriation of Aristotle in the Ps-Pythagorean Treatises”, in: A. Falcon (ed.), Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristotle in Antiquity, Leiden, 202–217.10.1163/9789004315402_012Suche in Google Scholar

Ulacco, A. (2020), “Die kosmische Seele bei Ps.-Timaios Lokros und den anderen Pseudopythagorica: kosmologische und erkenntnistheoretische Aspekte”, in: C. Helmig (ed.), World Soul – Anima Mundi, Berlin-Boston, 189–210.10.1515/9783110628609-009Suche in Google Scholar

Wolfson, H. A. (1962), Philo. Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, I, Cambridge MA.Suche in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2025-10-21
Published in Print: 2025-10-20

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 14.11.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/tc-2025-0016/html?lang=de
Button zum nach oben scrollen