Abstract

ALESSO, Marta. The origin of time in Philo of Alexandria. Circe clás. mod. [online]. 2004, n.9, pp.17-32. ISSN 1851-1724.

The nature of the Philonic texts analysed in this article enables us to outline the differences between the Hebrew and the Greek way of thinking about time. The philosophical thought of Philo conflates the notion of time as unlimited and eternal (the conception of Greek philosophy) and the doctrine of revelation (Hebrew thinking). He is indubitably in debt to Plato's Timaeus when he affirms that time was created in order for the world to be the mobile image of eternity, but also to the broad tradition about the 'hebdomad' referring to the Biblical six days of the creation of world.

Keywords : Philo; Creation of time; Timaeus; Hebdomad.