There are not many first century writers that we would expect would mention Jesus but Philo is one of them. The fact that Philo does not mention Jesus is part of R.G. Price’s Case Against Historical Jesus.
Philo never wrote one thing about Jesus
Philo of Alexandria lived during the whole life of Jesus plus some. He was Jewish writer, whose works are still largely with us. And yet he mysteriously does not write about Jesus.
Price writes:
If Jesus existed as described in the Gospels then surely Philo would have known about him. Philo had a personal knowledge of all of the main historical figures in the Gospel stories and a personal interest in the ideas that were later expressed in the Gospels. If Philo had known about Jesus he surely would have written something about him.
So what do we do with this? When we look closer, there is no reason to expect that Philo would write about Jesus. Price is correct that we have a lot of writings but Philo but almost all of it is philosophical in nature. None of those writing are such that we would expect a reference to Jesus.
Price spends much of his time on a text called On the Embassy to Gaius. Gaius is the real name of Caligula. Yes Philo mentions some of the figures mentioned in the Gospels but not Jesus.
This text was written for a very specific reason and it was not to give a summary of events in Judea. Remember that Philo was a Jew who lived in Egypt and we don’t know how much time he spent in Judea. The reason that Philo wrote that text was to describe his mission to plead with Caligula. I don’t see how Jesus fits with that.
While it would be nice if Philo talked about Jesus, when we look at it in its proper context, it is not surprising that Jesus was left out.
Check out my post The Apologetic Value of Philo Not Mentioning Jesus.
