Ancient · c. 20 BC – AD 50
Who influenced Philo of Alexandria?
Influences and legacy
Read the Hebrew Bible through Plato's Forms — the bridge from Athens to the Church.
Philo of Alexandria was influenced by Plato, and went on to influence Clement of Alexandria and Saadia Gaon. That is 3 lines of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: André Thévet, Public domain See the whole map
Who was Philo of Alexandria?
Philo of Alexandria was the leading writer of Alexandria's Hellenistic Jewish community. The one firm date in his life is 40 CE, when he represented the city's Jews before the emperor Caligula after violence between Jews and Greeks.
Writing in Greek, he used allegory to bring the Torah into harmony with Platonic philosophy, drawing on both Jewish exegesis and Stoic methods. His approach mattered to many Church Fathers but found little echo in rabbinic Judaism. Some scholars think his idea of the Logos as God's creative principle influenced early Christian theology.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced Philo of Alexandria?
1 direct influence on this map, earliest first.
- Plato c. 428–348 BC
Who did Philo of Alexandria influence?
2 thinkers on this map draw directly on Philo of Alexandria.
- Clement of Alexandria c. 150–215
- Saadia Gaon 882–942
The line of teachers behind Philo of Alexandria
The longest documented line of influence ending at Philo of Alexandria runs 5 generations back, to Thales of Miletus.
- Thales of Miletus
- Anaximander
- Pythagoras
- Empedocles
- Plato
- Philo of Alexandria
Two steps away from Philo of Alexandria
Indirect influences
- Through Plato: Pythagoras, Parmenides, Empedocles, Protagoras, Socrates, Philolaus
The second generation
- Through Clement of Alexandria: Origen
- Through Saadia Gaon: Solomon ibn Gabirol
Contemporaries of Philo of Alexandria
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Philo of Alexandria, with no direct line between them.
- Seneca c. 4 BC – AD 65
Philo of Alexandria by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 1
- Direct followers
- 2
- Thinkers upstream
- 14
- Thinkers downstream
- 146
- Wikipedia languages
- 56 — #35 of 54 among ancient philosophers
- Card rarity
- Epic
Questions about Philo of Alexandria
- Who influenced Philo of Alexandria?
- Plato.
- Who did Philo of Alexandria influence?
- Clement of Alexandria and Saadia Gaon.
- When did Philo of Alexandria live?
- c. 20 BC – AD 50. The map files Philo of Alexandria under the ancient world.
- How rare is the Philo of Alexandria card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Philo of Alexandria in 56 languages, which makes it an Epic card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More ancient philosophers
- Confucius 551–479 BC
- Aristotle 384–322 BC
- Plato c. 428–348 BC
- Socrates c. 470–399 BC
- Pythagoras c. 570–495 BC
- Laozi c. 6th c. BC
- Cicero 106–43 BC
- Thales of Miletus c. 624–546 BC