From: Edward Hobbs (EHOBBS@WELLESLEY.EDU)
Date: Tue Feb 23 1999 - 15:04:27 EST
Colleagues:
Mark Johnson asked about the original Greek of a passage from
Philo's Quaestiones. Greg Stafford has correctly supplied the Greek
for the final words of the passage (probably the words Mark wanted).
But this was serendipity indeed. The original Greek of these two works
by Philo (Questions on Genesis and on Exodus) was long ago lost, with
only scraps remaining (at most 10% of the whole). The phrase Greg
supplied in Greek is one of those scraps. The only adequate text of these
books is a translation of them into ancient Armenian. A translation of
the Armenian translation, into Latin, was made a couple of centuries ago by
Aucher.
The Loeb Library translation was done by Ralph Marcus, of the Oriental
Institute of the University of Chicago; and I was fortunate enough to
have had a hand in assisting him (in a lowly way!). Marcus would offer
seminars which required Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Armenian as
pre-requisites. And of course, I would be his only student. Then we would
work on these texts together. I was clearly the student, but sometimes I
had good ideas, as students sometimes do. What Marcus did was reconstruct
the Greek text from the Armenian, and translate his reconstruction. BUT
HE DID NOT PUBLISH THAT GREEK RECONSTRUCTION; he only published (in
footnotes) the Greek of the fragments, or his (highly educated) guesses
as to key Greek terms underlying the Armenian translation.
When the final text came back from the publisher (in Scotland),
in galley proofs, he asked me to spend dozens of weekends with him, proof-
reading. (He said he needed someone who could spot misprints and typos in
six languages!) As a result, my name appears in two volumes of the Loeb
Library. (He calls me his student, which I had been, though by the time
the volumes appeared I was an Instructor on the University faculty.)
(I couldn't resist this personal reminiscence. In many ways, Ralph
Marcus was my Rebbe.)
Edward Hobbs
--------------------------------------------------------
Mark wrote --------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Philo of Alexandria - GENESIS, BOOK II
Can someone give me the Greek of the following statement in Philo where he
refers to the LOGOS as a DEUTERON QEON? I am researching the differences
between monotheism in the first century and the modern popular definition of
monotheism.
62. (Gen. ix. 6) Why does (Scripture) say, as if (speaking) of another god,
"in the image of God He made man" and not "in His own image" ?
Most excellently and veraciously this oracle was given by God. For nothing
mortal can be made in the likeness of the most high One and Father of the
universe but (only) in that of the second god, who is his Logos.
....
Mark Johnson
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