One God, One Law—Philo of Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law

This book studies the influence of Hellenism and Greco-Roman philosophy on Philo of Alexandria's view of the Mosaic law. In particular, the book examines how Philo integrated Greco-Roman conceptions of law, such as Unwritten Law, the Law of Nature, and the "Living Law," into his understanding of the Mosaic law of the Jews and the lives of the Patriarchs. Philo transformed Greco-Roman law and shaped it into something peculiar to a Jewish understanding of the cosmos and its creation by one God. Martens examines Philo's creativity in adapting Greco-Roman law to create something new in the annals of philosophy and the apologetic purposes his new philosophy served for Judaism.

John W. Martens, Ph.D. (1991) in Religious Studies, McMaster University, is Assistant professor of Theology at University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. His most recent publication is The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television (Winnipeg, 2003).