Philo of Alexandria, On the Contemplative Life

Now in Paperback from SBL Press In this seventh volume of the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series, originally published by Brill in hardcover, Joan E. Taylor and David M. Hay provide the first English commentary of On the Contemplative Life in more than one hundred years. Taylor and Hay explore what social, cultural and political factors influenced Philo’s presentation of the Therapeutae, a Jewish philosophical group of men and women, as the pinnacle of excellence. Through stinging parody of those in Alexandria who vilified and attacked the Jewish community, Philo manages to avoid direct confrontation while artfully defending the Jewish community’s place in the broader Roman world. Joan E. Taylor is Professor Emerita of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King’s College London. Her other books include Jewish Women Philosophers of First-Century Alexandria: Philo’s ‘Therapeutae’ Reconsidered (2003), The Essenes, the Scrolls and the Dead Sea (2012), and Boy Jesus: Growing up Judean in Turbulent Times (2025). David M. Hay was Joseph McCabe Professor of Religion at Coe College. He authored Glory at the Right Hand: Psalm 110 in Early Christianity (1973) and Colossians (2000). He was a founding member and editor of The Studia Philonica Annual.