Philo of Alexandria and Greek Myth. Narratives, Allegories, and Arguments

(Studies in Philo of Alexandria, Volume: 10)

Editors: Francesca Alesse and Ludovica De Luca

In Philo of Alexandria and Greek Myth: Narratives, Allegories, and Arguments, a fresh and more complete image of Philo of Alexandria as a careful reader, interpreter, and critic of Greek literature is offered. Greek mythology plays a significant role in Philo of Alexandria’s exegetical oeuvre. Philo explicitly adopts or subtly evokes narratives, episodes and figures from Greek mythology as symbols whose didactic function we need to unravel, exactly as the hidden teaching of Moses’ narration has to be revealed by interpreters of Bible. By analyzing specific mythologems and narrative cycles, the contributions to this volume pave the way to a better understanding of Philo’s different attitudes towards literary and philosophical mythology.

Francesca Alesse: Preface

Erich S. Gruen: Philo’s Refashioning of Greek Myth

Geert Roskam: Philo’s Reception of Greek Mythology

Francesca Calabi: Histoires Grecques, Récits Bibliques. La Lecture des Mythes chez Philon d’Alexandrie

Giulia Sfameni Gasparro: Polytheos doxa and mythologein. Philo of Alexandria as a “Historian of Religions”

René Bloch: Philo’s Struggle with Jewish Myth

Erkki Koskenniemi: The Gods of the Poets, the God of the Philosophers, and God of Israel

Pura Nieto Hernández: Philo of Alexandria on Greek Heroes

Courtney J.P. Friesen: Heracles and Philo of Alexandria. The Son of Zeus between Torah and Philosophy, Empire and Stage

Benjamin Garstad: The Greek Character of Philo’s Biblical Giants. A Reading of QG 2.82

Marta Alesso: Homer in Philo. Scylla’s Myth in Philonic Philosophical Context

Lucia Saudelli: Les «Plaies» d’Empédocle et la Mythologie Infernalenchez Philon d’Alexandrie

For further information: https://brill.com/view/title/55938?lang=en

The Jewish Calendar Controversy of 921/2 CE

Series: Time, Astronomy, and Calendars, Volume: 7

Publisher: Brill

Author: Sacha Stern

In the year 921/2, the Jewish leaders of Palestine and Babylonia disagreed on how to calculate the calendar. This led the Jews of the entire Near East to celebrate Passover and the other festivals, through two years, on different dates. The controversy was major, but it became forgotten until its late 19th-century rediscovery in the Cairo Genizah. Faulty editions of the texts, in the following decades, led to much misunderstanding about the nature, leadership, and aftermath of the controversy. In this book, Sacha Stern re-edits the texts completely, discovers many new Genizah sources, and challenges the historical consensus. This book sheds light on early medieval Rabbanite leadership and controversies, and on the processes that eventually led to the standardization of the medieval Jewish calendar.

Publication Date: 2 September 2019

ISBN: 978-90-04-38867-3

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004388673

Nearly the New World: The British West Indies and the Flight from Nazism, 1933-1945

By Joanna Newman

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Berghahn Books is pleased to announce the recent release of Nearly the New World: The British West Indies and the Flight from Nazism, 1933–1945 by Joanna Newman (September 2019, Paperback, ISBN: 978-1-78920-649-4; 320 pages).

Sunny Caribbean islands such as Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad have long been a magnet for holiday-makers from around the world. But almost none of today’s tourists are aware that these islands provided the only chance of escape for thousands fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s, as most other countries closed their doors. In Nearly the New World, Joanna Newman tells for the first time the story of the refugees who fled to Caribbean islands within the British Empire. Her book challenges us to consider the lessons of history as we confront unprecedented numbers of people fleeing violence and persecution. The introduction is available to read on Berghahn Books’ website.

Joanna Newman is the Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (www.acu.ac.uk) and a Senior Research Fellow in the history department at King’s College London. She was awarded an MBE for services to British higher education in 2014. She is a regular speaker on issues relating to higher education and internationalization.