De Opificio Mundi

Philo's philosophical commentary on the Genesis creation account, blending Jewish exegesis with Platonic philosophy.

Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)

• Verse 5: And He called the light Day — Cited as teaching all things were created simultaneously

  "Philo teaches the same."

• Verse 14: Let There Be Lights in the Firmament — Cited as teaching the stars are intelligent animals (Platonizing error)

  "Therefore Philo errs, Platonizing as is his custom, in his book On the Creation of Six Days, teaching that the stars are intelligent animals."

• Verse 26: Let Us Make Man in Our Image and Likeness — Cited on God commanding angels to fashion man's body

  "Philo in his book On the Creation of the Six Days"

• Verse 26: Let Us Make Man in Our Image and Likeness — Cited on "man" as the abstract universal idea of man (following Plato)

  ""Man" here is not the idea of abstract and universal man, which would be the cause and exemplar of all individual men, as Philo wished following Plato."

• Verse 20: Let the Waters Bring Forth — Cited on birds being relatives of fish

  "Hence Philo calls birds the relatives of fish."

Related

• Creation