Judaica: Festschrift zu Hermann Cohens siebzigstem Geburtstage [1912], p.315:
With the assumption of a far-reaching Jewish speculation before Philo, E. SCHWARTZ (1908) enters into a precarious contrast with certain results of more recent Philonic research. With it he again picks up the idea of earlier researchers, which we already thought eliminated, that the "Alexandrian philosophy of religion" was established and current long before Philo. And had Philo only been one representative among many others? SCHWARTZ comes back to that "phantom of a general Jewish theosophy."3 There is a difference, however, in that he does not, like GFRÖRER and DÄHNE, cite other products of Jewish-Hellenistic literature as evidence, but concludes from the example of the Therapeutae (among whom the Bible was interpreted allegorically, according to Philo) that Philonic spiritualism originated from such circles as that of the Therapeuts. However they have also been declared by GFRÖRER and DÄHNE to be representatives of the Alexandrian theosophy which already existed before Philo. But nothing useful can be inferred from Philo's description the content of the Bible exegesis of the Therapeuts and about their religious or philosophical views. As WENDLAND has shown, Philo has subordinated his philosophical views to the Therapeuts as motives for their contemplative life and asceticism. It is therefore a complete reversal of the facts when SCHWARTZ derives the spiritualism of Philo from the Therapeuts. He is trying in every way to depress Philo's meaning as much as possible and to present the entirety of the Alexandrian's teaching not as his very own, but as the product of pre-Philonic Jewish speculation.
3 WENDLAND, Die Therapeuten (Jahrb. f. klass. Philol. Suppl. 22, 736). The somewhat unclear sentence "that not only Hellenistic philosophies, but also Oriental theosophies, which up to now cannot be grasped with certainty, helped in this spiritualization, should become ... readily admitted." One would almost like to believe that SCHWARTZ wants to fall back on the unfortunate idea of older researchers who assumed the source of the "Alexandrian Theosophy" in ancient Eastern mystery-wisdom. Or is SCHWARTZ thinking about REITZENSTEIN's baseless hypothesis of Philo's influence by Hermetic writings?
3 WENDLAND, Die Therapeuten (Jahrb. f. klass. Philol. Suppl. 22, 736). The somewhat unclear sentence "that not only Hellenistic philosophies, but also Oriental theosophies, which up to now cannot be grasped with certainty, helped in this spiritualization, should become ... readily admitted." One would almost like to believe that SCHWARTZ wants to fall back on the unfortunate idea of older researchers who assumed the source of the "Alexandrian Theosophy" in ancient Eastern mystery-wisdom. Or is SCHWARTZ thinking about REITZENSTEIN's baseless hypothesis of Philo's influence by Hermetic writings?
