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1 results

  • Chapter 7 - Immortality in Philo of Alexandria

  • Edited by A. G. Long, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book:
    Immortality in Ancient Philosophy
    Published online:
    20 May 2021
    Print publication:
    03 June 2021, pp 161-177

  • Summary

    The Jewish exegete Philo of Alexandria speaks of death and immortality in several different ways. He may refer to the higher or lower part of the soul or the body, and mean either moral or ontological death. Not all combinations are possible; e.g., Philo never says the soul’s leading part could cease to exist, and the body can neither undergo moral death nor avoid the physical one. Three types of Philonic discourse are discussed: human mortality caused by the body, the soul’s moral corruption that Philo calls its death, and the ontological immortality of the mind. Despite the last one, Philo speaks of attaining immortality. This is not an inconsistency but refers to the mind’s liberation from its mortal companions (the body and the mortal portion of the soul) so that only its congenital immortality remains. Attaining immortality also means the end of the repeated deaths in the cycle of reincarnation, and the mind’s restoration to its original state of blessedness.