Focus on Creation: Plato and the Platonists

Philo of Alexandria. Les oeuvres. Paris, N. Chesneau, 1575

In his De opificio mundi (the creation of the world) Philo (fl. 39 CE) combined his own Judaism with contemporary Platonic thought. His exegesis of Genesis illustrates the importance of Plato's description of the Demiurge as 'father and creator'. Philo's perception of the universe was positive, it was created through God's Logos. For Philo there existed a direct and harmonic relation between the Law of Moses and the cosmic principles.

'In relating the history of early times, and going for its beginning right to the creation of the universe, he [Moses] wished to shew two most essential things: first that the Father and Maker of the cosmos was in the truest sense also Lawgiver, secondly that he who would observe the laws will accept gladly the duty of following nature and live in accordance with the ordering of the universe, so that his deeds are attuned to harmony with his words and his words with his deeds.'

De vita Moysis 2: 45B52, P. Borgen