The Tongue and the Voice of God

Monadicity and Dyadicity in the Exegesis of Philo of Alexandria

Authors

Keywords:

monad, divine voice, noetic language, original language, corporeity

Abstract

This article deals with the relationship between simple, monadic, divine words and the words of men linked to corporeity, devoid of clarity and univocity. For the divine word to be grasped by men a kind of transformation is necessary. One can hypothesize the existence of an archetypal, primordial language, in imitation of the essence of things. It is the language of Adam: given the perfection of a still pure soul, not affected by infirmity, illness or passion, the progenitor seized immediate impressions, grasped the meaning of things whose natures could be enunciated and thought at the same time. It is the original perfect language and is perhaps common to humans and animals if in the Garden of Eden the words of the serpent were understood by Eve. A distinction is drawn between the language of Adam, mimetic of the language of God and the mosaic language in which we have the translation of the divine word in human language. This, despite that, for Moses too it is said that the names correspond to the description of things. A further passage takes place with the passing from one language into another. God addresses different kinds of communication to different people according to their capacities. It is a “translation” of a noetic language that can speak monadically ”“ and it is the case of communication to Moses ”“ or assume the form of names and verbs proper to human language ”“and it is what happens with the Septuagint, translators like Aron.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

ALBANO, E. (2014). I silenzi delle Sacre Scritture. Limiti e possibilità di rivelazione del Logos negli scritti di Filone, Clemente e Origene. Roma, Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum.
AMIR, Y. (1990). The Decalogue according to Philo. In: SEGAL B.-Z. (ed.). The Ten Commandments in History and Tradition. English Version edited by G. Levi. Jerusalem, Magnes Press, p. 121-160.
ARNALDEZ, R. (1964). Philon d’Alexandrie. De mutatione nominum. Introduction, traduction et notes. Paris, Éditions du Cerf.
CALABI, F. (1997). Lingua di Dio, lingua degli uomini. Filone alessandrino e la traduzione della Bibbia. I Castelli di Yale 2, p. 95-113.
CALABI, F. (2003). Il sole e la sua luce. In: VEGETTI, M. (ed.). Platone. La Repubblica. Traduzione e commento. Vol. 5. Napoli, Bibliopolis, p. 327-354.
CALABI, F. (ed.) (2005). Filone d’Alessandria. De decalogo. Pisa, ETS.
CHILDESTER, D. (1992). Word and Light. Seeing, Hearing, and Religious Discourse. Urbana/Chicago, University of Illinois Press.
DAWSON, D. (1992). Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria. Berkeley/Los Angeles, University of California Press.
DILLON, J. (1990). The magical Power of Names in Origen and Later Platonism. In: DILLON, J. The Golden Chain. Studies in the Development of Platonism and Christianity. Variorum Collected Studies 23. Aldershot, Routledge, p. 203-216.
EDWARDS, M. J. (2013). Image, Word and God in the Early Christian Centuries. Studies in Philosophy and Theology in Late Antiquity. Farnham, Ashgate, p. 61-68.
GRAFFIGNA, P. (ed.) (1992). Filone d’Alessandria. La vita contemplativa. Genova, Melangolo.
GRAFFIGNA, P. (1999). Filone d’Alessandria. La vita di Mosè. Introduzione, traduzione e apparati. Milano, Rusconi.
HERTZ, G. (2013). Dire Dieu, le dire de Dieu che Philon, Plutarque et « Basilide ». Thèse doctorale présentée le 12 décembre, 2013, Université Paris est Créteil, École Doctorale Cultures et Sociétés.
HERTZ, G. (2015). L’ouïe, « ce sens aveugle » : le statut de l’ouïe dans la vie pratique et religieuse chez Philon d’Alexandrie. Pallas 98, p. 155-181.
NAJMAN, H. (2003). Seconding Sinai: The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism. Leiden, Brill.
NAJMAN, H. (2003). A Written Copy of the Law of Nature: An Unthinkable Paradox. In: RUNIA, D. T.; STERLING, G. E.; NAJMAN, H. (eds.). The Studia Philonica Annual: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism. Vol. 15. Atlanta, Society of Biblical Literature, p. 54-63.
NIEHOFF, M. (1995). What is in a name? Philo’s Mystical Philosophy of Language. Jewish Studies Quarterly 2, p. 220-252.
NIEHOFF, M. (2001). Philo on Jewish Identity and Culture. Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck.
NIKIPROWETZKY, V. (ed.) (1965). Philon d’Alexandrie. De decalogo. Paris, Cerf.
PÉPIN, J. (1967). Remarques sur la théorie de l’exégèse allégorique chez Philon. In: ARNALDEZ, R.; MONDÉSERT, C.; POUILLOUX, J. (eds.). Philon d’Alexandrie. Lyon 11-15 septembre 1966. Colloques nationaux du CNRS. Paris, CNRS, p. 131-167.
RADICE, R. (ed.) (1994). Filone d’Alessandria. Tutti I Trattati del Commentario allegorico alla Bibbia. Con la collaborazione di G. Reale, C. Kraus Reggiani e C. Mazzarelli. Milano, Rusconi.
ROBERTSON, D. G. (2006). Mind and Language in Philo. Journal of the History of Ideas 67, n. 3, p. 423-441.
ROGERS, T. A. (2012). Philo’s Universalization of Sinai in De Decalogo 32-49. In: RUNIA, D. T.; STERLING, G. E. (eds.). The Studia Philonica Annual: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism. Vol. 24. Atlanta, Society of Biblical Literature, p. 85-105.
RUNIA, D. T. (1988). Naming and Knowing: Themes in Philonic Theology with Special reference to the De mutatione nominum. In: VAN DEN BROEK, R.; BAARDA, T; MANSFELD, J. (eds). Knowledge of God in the Graeco-Roman World. Leiden, Brill, p. 69-91.
SPUNTARELLI, C. (2012). Oratore divino. Linguaggio e rappresentazione retorica nella controversia tra Cappadoci e Anomei. Roma, Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum.
TOBIN, T. H. (1983). The Creation of Man: Philo and the History of Interpretation. Washington, Catholic Biblical Association of America.
VON FRITZ, K. (1943). Nous and noein in the Homeric Poems. Classical Philology 38, p. 79-93.
VON FRITZ, K. (1945). Nous, Noein, and their Derivatives in the Pre-Socratic Philosophy (excluding Anaxagoras). Part I. From the Beginnings to Parmenides. Classical Philology 40, p.223-242.
VON FRITZ, K. (1946). Nous, Noein, and their Derivatives in the Pre-Socratic Philosophy (excluding Anaxagoras). Part II. The Post-Parmenidean Period. Classical Philology 41, p. 12-34.
WEISSER, S. (2017). Knowing God by Analogy: Philo of Alexandria against the Stoic God. In: RUNIA, D. T.; STERLING, G. E. (eds.). The Studia Philonica Annual: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism. Vol. 29. Atlanta, Society of Biblical Literature, p. 33-59.
WINSTON, D. (1991). Aspects of Philo’s Linguistic Theory. In: RUNIA, D. T.; HAY, D. M.; WINSTON, D. (eds.). The Studia Philonica Annual: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism. Vol. 3. Atlanta, Society of Biblical Literature, p. 109-125.
WOLFSON, H. A. (1962). Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 2ed. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. (1ed 1947)

Published

2019-08-07

How to Cite

Calabi, F. (2019). The Tongue and the Voice of God: Monadicity and Dyadicity in the Exegesis of Philo of Alexandria. Revista Archai, (27), e02708. Retrieved from https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/archai/article/view/26565