Abstract: In comparative research on Philo and Paul, there are currently three main models for explaining their commonalities: literary dependence; oral transmission of Philonic material to Paul via Apollos and the Corinthians; and a ‘common background’ in Greek-speaking Judaism shared by both authors. The present contribution tests these three models using the example of the motif of human self-aggrandizement over God. The paper concludes that none of these models sufficiently explains the analyzed motif. This also applies to the most recently favored model of ‘common background’ which can be substantiated neither by extra-Philonic Jewish literature nor by the traditions that Philo worked with. Therefore, in a variation on the second model, the paper explores possible historically describable ways for Philonic-Alexandrian tradition to have been transmitted to Paul. As a location for this, Jerusalem especially comes into question. Paul could have come directly into contact with Philonic material before his Damascus experience in the context of the Greek-speaking synagogues there, or later in Antioch through Barnabas and other Graeco-Palestinians.
© De Gruyter 2014
