Posted: Jan 31, 2012 1:25 pm
GakuseiDon wrote:
Yes, and have a look at the titles. Which of his books should have mentioned Jesus? "On Mating"? "On Dreams"? "On the life of Moses"? "On Drunkenness"?
If he had written a book called "On Messiah claimants", then we might expect Philo to have mentioned Jesus. But he didn't. So tell me which of those 30 manuscripts should we expect Philo to have mentioned Jesus? Perhaps give a list of the top three candidates.
Yes, that's an excellent point. We would only have reason to expect Philo to have mentioned Yeshua ben Yosef the Nazarene if he had actually written a book specific to the topic of current prophets and sages. If such a book existed, and talked about all sorts of recent prophets from Galilee or Judah, but didn't mention Jesus -- only then would the silence of Philo be a strong argument.