Philo and Gnosis Part 1

Hey friends, in this week's video, I take a deep-dive in how Philo's thought overlaps with and prepares the way for Christian gnostic thought as we see it in Valentinian and Sethian tradition. I talk about God as Standing One, Wisdom as God's wife, the divine image as nous (our higher consciousness), and the image of abortion.
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[SobekLOTFC]

Keep up the exceptional work, Dr Litwa 👏

[theyoshine]

Thanks Litwa
I feel like this avenue is very undernoticed

[glenncbjones]

“Philo and Gnosis went out in a boat… Philo fell in, and who was left?”

“Gnosis.”

“I don’t know how I knew, but somehow I knew you’d know!”

Seriously, Dr. Litwa, another great and well delineated post! I enjoy not only your enthusiastic expertise, but I also enjoy my suspicion that, in addition to that “gnosis, ” you’ve also got one or two personal dogs in this great wetland, and they hunt!

Already ready for more already…

[MathewClark-prcu]

Much needed update on Philo and Sethian themes for me. Was Simon called the " Standing One" as well? Thank you Dr. Litwa

[kengemmer]

Thank you Dr. Litwa. Do you further elucidate the connection between Philo and Gnostic thought in thought in any of your texts? If so, which ones? I’m also interested in possible connections between Philo’s theology and Q1 and/or Pauline theology. Have you found such connections, and, if so, do you discuss them anywhere?

[kemhug]

Here from Esoterica. I hope you can do this for a living.

[codex]

David Runia said that Philo was the first known person to syncretize Plato's Demiurge with "Iao" (YHWH) from Genesis, which he calls a major milestone in the history of ideas. Philo thought this single deity was benevolent, of course, so if the Gnostics or proto-Gnostics were familiar with Philo's writings, we're left with the mystery of why/how they inverted this milestone.

[brandonmass]

It's not the topic of this video, but for me the big question is this: If Philo is part of a tradition, and he is so chronologically near to the first known publishing of the Hebrew bible, and his interpretation of the bible is so confidently and stridently allegorical, and archaeology defeats so much of bible story historicity, shouldn't we conclude that it was written intentionally to be read as allegorical? Shouldn't we conclude that Philo knew his bible and knew what he was talking about?

[stan]

Philo operated within the Greek philosophical tradition and deployed an elaborate Greek literary language. At the same time, he was at home with the Greek Bible on which his commentaries were based. The sole authority of the Mosaic law was fundamental to him. The spuriousness of his Hebrew etymologies suggests, but does not prove, that he did not know Hebrew.. Chokmah - In Hebrew, the word for "wisdom" is "chokmah", which is a feminine noun. This is why wisdom is often referred to as "she, " but it does not necessarily imply a female gender. in new Testament Jesus is called Wisdom "God reveals His wisdom and truth to the childlike and humble and hides it from the proud – Matthew 11:25; Luke 10:21"