Pere Danielou speaks about the relationship between the first Christian community and the Jewish society of this community. The studies of this subject were reanimated by the discovery of the Dead Sea-scrolIs and the gnostic scripts in Nag' Hammadi which throw light on a heterodox Christianity strongly influenced by Jewish institutions. Therefore the sub ject of this lecture is the specific type of Christianity fashioned by J ewish culture. The members of the Christian Community were obliged to observe Jewish customs with a strictness depending upon the intensity of the conflict between...

Philo of Alexandria was a few years older than Jesus of Nazareth and lived longer. He belonged to a wealthy and cultured family, prominent in the Jewish community in Alexandria. Philo had contacts with the highest level of Roman authorities. He was on a risky diplomatic mission to Caligula on behalf of the persecuted Jews of Alexandria during what turned out to be Caligula's last days. Herod Agrippa was a friend in Rome during Philo's hour of greatest need. Philo is a sympathetic source on what sounds very much like a contemporary Jewish monastic movement. He is also one of the creators of...

Jean Danielou's Philo of Alexandria' illuminates the life and work of a key figure in the history of religious thought. Philo of Alexandria was a first-century Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who was born into a wealthy and prominent family in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Educated in both Jewish culture and Greek philosophy, Philo believed that literal interpretations of the Hebrew Bible would distort the Jewish people's perceptions of a God too complex to be understood in literal, human terms. He became one of the first religious thinkers to initiate a strong allegorical...