In De Abrahamo, Philo exegetes selected episodes from the biblical Abraham cycle. These include the account of Sarah's death recorded in Gen 23. Interpreting this narrative literally, Philo expands it by introducing an encomium to the matriarch (Abr. 245–254). This exemplifies her virtuous character by illustrating how she sought an offspring for Abraham through her servant Hagar (see Gen 16).
Philo's reworking of this incident has been examined on various occasions. Noting the way in which he alters the biblical source, Dorothy Sly concludes that in Philo's text Sarah becomes “more self-effacing than she appears in the Bible.”Footnote 1 In her recent study of this text, on the other hand, Maren Niehoff convincingly demonstrates that Philo magnifies Sarah's role. His portrayal of Sarah as mastering her emotions corresponds to the Greco-Roman ideal of “self-restraint” (ἐγκράτεια).Footnote 2 She also explores the philosophical background of the words Philo ascribes to Sarah—“the purpose for which. . . nature formed the partnership of man and wife, the birth of children, has not been fulfilled” (Abr. 249).Footnote 3
Herein I wish to adduce further traces of the influence of Greco-Roman values on Philo's portrayal of the matriarch and her married life.Footnote 4 One of the key texts in which Greco-Roman conventions can be seen in this passage is the encomium. Inserted following Sarah's death, its placement suggests that its praise of Sarah should be read against the background of Roman funerary eulogies.Footnote 5
The practice of delivering orations in honor of distinguished deceased women was common among the Roman elite of Philo's day (ca. 15 BCE–45 CE). Augustus (r. 27 BCE–14 CE), for example, delivered a eulogy in honor of his grandmother (Suetonius, Aug. 8.1) and later his sister (Dio, Hist. 54.35.4).Footnote 6 Latin epitaphs in honor of women from the late republican and early imperial periods also exemplify this custom.Footnote 7 Intended to cast the deceased in a favorable light, they frequently adduce traditional virtues.Footnote 8 In conjunction with the portrayal of exemplary wives in Latin literature, this testimony attests to the influence of Greco-Roman concepts and conventions on Philo's praise of Sarah.Footnote 9
Sarah's Love for Her Husband
Abr. 245–254 presents Sarah as a model on the basis of her conduct.Footnote 10 Herein, Philo stresses her “love for [her] husband” (φιλανδρία). While the biblical texts do not customarily depict this theme, it is common in Greek and Latin epitaphs.Footnote 11 Thus, for example, a Greek tomb inscription from Patara praises a wife for her “incomparable love for husband” (φιλανδρία ἀσύγκριτος).Footnote 12 A Latin epitaph from Rome similarly lauds a certain Claudia for loving “her husband in her heart.”Footnote 13 Various literary sources likewise reflect the ideal of the loving wife—such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus's Antiquitates Romanae (late first century BCE), which depicts Lucretia as a “woman, who. . . loved her husband as becomes a good wife” (4.82.1).Footnote 14
Philo's portrayal of Sarah clearly reflects this Greco-Roman convention. The encomium opens with the statement that “she gave numberless proofs for her wifely love” (Abr. 245), concluding with another reference to the same trait: “Abraham with increased admiration for the wifely love, which never grew old and was showing itself anew. . . took the mate whom she had approved” (Abr. 253). These two indications allude to Sarah's wifely love as demonstrated by her accompanying him on all his journeys (Abr. 245–246; see also Gen 11:31–13:1, 20:1–18) and her suggestion that Abraham “consort” with her maid (Abr. 247–254; see also Gen 16).Footnote 15
“In Good Times and in Bad” (Abr. 245–246)
As noted above, the first section of the encomium to Sarah adduces her accompaniment of Abraham on his journeys as evidence of her love for her husband: “Everywhere and always she was at his side, leaving him at no place or time, truly a partner in life and life's events” (Abr. 246).Footnote 16 Philo cites three examples to illustrate this fact. When the couple left Ur for Canaan (Abr. 245; cf. Gen 11:31–12:5), he notes that Sarah made a great sacrifice in forsaking her homeland and kinsfolk on behalf of her husband.Footnote 17 He then speaks of their “continual wanderings on a foreign soil, one after another, and privation in famine” (Abr. 245)—an obvious allusion to their travels through Egypt and Gerar (see Gen 12:10–20, 20:1–18). Finally, he observes that Sarah also accompanied Abraham on his military campaigns (Abr. 245).
This last detail—which, in contrast to the earlier two examples, is not drawn from the biblical text—clearly reflects contemporary Roman familial values and realities.Footnote 18 Augustus, who introduced legislation to promote fertility and family stability, also fostered these values by “establishing a pattern of keeping members of the family together.”Footnote 19 His own granddaughter, Agrippina the Elder (14 BCE–37 CE), who is praised as “the peerless pattern of ancient virtues” (Tacitus, Ann. 3.4.1), was her husband Germanicus's constant companion on his campaigns.Footnote 20 This practice—initially limited to the imperial family—was subsequently extended to the senatorial ranks during Tiberius's reign (14–37 CE).Footnote 21
The influence of Roman thought on Philo's portrayal of Sarah is further reflected in his statement that “everywhere and always she was at his side. . . resolved to share alike the good and ill. She did not, like some other women, run away from misadventures and lie ready to pounce on pieces of good luck, but she accepted her portion of both with all alacrity as belonging and suitable for a wedded wife” (Abr. 246).Footnote 22 This is a variation on a formula depicting ideal married life. Augustus, for example, asks rhetorically: “For is there anything better than a chaste [σώφρων] wife. . . one to gladden you in health, to tend you in sickness; to be your partner in good fortune, to console you in misfortune. . .?” (Dio, Hist. 56. 3.3).Footnote 23
Like Augustus, Philo accentuates the wife's contribution to her successful marriage by stressing her fidelity to her husband. This theme is popular in contemporary and later epigraphic and literary Roman sources. The so-called Laudatio Turiae—a Roman tomb inscription dated to the late first century BCE dedicated to a wife whom scholars refer to as Turia—details the numerous ways in which she supported her persecuted husband.Footnote 24 In a passage devoted to wifely fidelity, Valerius Maximus, active during Tiberius's reign, says that, “despite the very close watch her mother Julia was keeping on her so that she would not follow her husband to Sicily (he was Lentulus Cruscellio, proscribed by the triumvirs), [Sulpicia] nevertheless put on slave's clothing and. . . fled secretly and went to him” (6.7.3).Footnote 25 Pliny the Younger (61/62–113 CE) similarly extols women who shared their husbands’ (political) misfortune, such as Arria the Elder, who begged the soldiers to allow her to join her spouse when he was taken to Rome for trial. Her request being refused, “she then hired a small fishing smack, and the great ship sailed with her following in her tiny boat” (Ep. 3.16).Footnote 26 Like the praiseworthy Roman matrons of Philo's day, Sarah thus proved her fidelity to Abraham by following him “always and everywhere” and by standing by his side “in good and in bad.”
Sarah's Search for a Child through Hagar (Abr. 247–254)
Sarah's offering of Hagar to Abraham constituting the “clearest proof” of her virtue (Abr. 247) in Philo's view, he devotes a significant section of the encomium to a retelling of this episode (Abr. 247–254). His retelling of Gen 16 presents Sarah in a much more favorable light than the biblical source, describing her as a selfless spouse motivated by deep concern for her husband and the continuation of his line.Footnote 27 Not jealous of Hagar, she never treats her harshly.Footnote 28 Philo's need to transform the biblical source so significantly indicates that he did not regard the Genesis account as providing sufficient evidence of Sarah's virtue. Why, then, did he decide that this episode constituted the “clearest proof” of her wifely attributes? The answer appears to lie in his combination of Jewish traditions on the one hand with Roman conventions on the other.
The Influence of Jewish Exegetical Traditions on Philo's Retelling of Genesis 16
One of the well-known Jewish exegetical principles used to interpret Scripture from antiquity onwards is the notion of “juxtaposition” (
), or adducing the meaning of the biblical text from the fact that two subjects are addressed side by side. In the case of the Abraham cycle a close thematic relation was thus assumed to exist between the story of Sarah's wanting Abraham to have a child through Hagar and the preceding pericope. Ishmael's birth being perceived as the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham of an heir (Gen 15:1–6), Sarah's presentation of Hagar to Abraham is understood as the way in which the divine plan would be fulfilled.Footnote
29
This tradition is attested in two other early sources. Immediately after his retelling of Gen 15, the author of Jubilees (second century BCE) notes that “Abram. . . believed that he would have descendants, but she [Sarai] continued not to have a child. Sarai advised her husband Abram and said to him: ‘Go in to my Egyptian slave-girl Hagar; perhaps I will build up descendants [lit.: seed] for you from her’” (Jub. 14:21–22).Footnote
30
This text juxtaposes Gen 15:6 (“And he believed the Lord” [NRSV])—the conclusion of Abraham's plea for a child—with Gen 16:1–2, thereby creating a link between the request and Sarah's offer of Hagar to Abraham.Footnote
31
Josephus (37–ca. 100 CE), who also links these two episodes, places his retelling of Gen 15:1–6 immediately prior to Sarah's suggestion that Abraham have a son through her maid (Gen 16:2).Footnote
32
Philo expresses the connection between Gen 15 and 16 in a similar fashion. In Abr. 247–254 he knits (paraphrases of) verses from Gen 15:1–6 into the reworking of Gen 16. Here, Sarah's statement, “And if the prayers for the birth of children are answered. . .” (Abr. 250), is inspired by Gen 15:2–3, which reports Abraham's request for a child.Footnote 33 Philo also alludes to Gen 15:1–6 in Abr. 252: “We have much substance and abundance of wealth, not on the usual scale of immigrants, for in this we now exceed those of the native inhabitants, who are noted for their prosperity. But no heir or successor has appeared.” This statement reflects another Jewish tradition. Herein, God's promise to Abraham that “your reward shall be very great” (Gen 15:1 [NRSV]) is understood to refer to Abraham's enormous wealth. This pledge can mean nothing to Abraham, however, if he has no son to inherit it (see Gen 15:2–3).Footnote 34 The Genesis Apocryphon (ca. first century BCE) also reflects this exegetical motif in its reworking of Gen 15:1–3:
After these things God appeared to Abram in a vision, and said to him: “. . . Your wealth and your property will increase enormously." Abram said, “My Lord God, I have wealth and property in great abundance, yet what are all [th]ese things to me while I, when I die, will go stripped bare without children. One of my household servants will receive my inheritance.” (1QapGen XX, 27–33)Footnote 35
The Influence of Roman Conventions on Philo's Retelling of Genesis 16
While the Jewish exegetical tradition linking Gen 15 and 16 explains why Philo chooses to appeal to Gen 16 in order to demonstrate Sarah's virtue, this choice also appears to have been influenced by a contemporary Roman convention.Footnote 36 In the Laudatio Turiae (hereafter LT), Turia's husband praises his barren wife for the steps she took to ensure offspring for her husband. Turia “proposed a divorce outright and offered [her husband] to yield their house free to another's woman fertility” (LT, right-hand col. 31–32).Footnote 37 In contrast to Abraham, Turia's husband did not take his wife up on her offer. The legal specifications of her plan also differ from Philo's (and the antecedent biblical) account of Sarah's scheme.Footnote 38 Several striking similarities nonetheless exist between the Philonic retelling of Gen 16 and the Latin tomb inscription. Both exemplify the wife's virtue by referring in a eulogy to the fact that while the couple had a long and harmonious marriage the wife was barren for a lengthy period. According to Philo,
Being childless and barren and fearing lest the house beloved of God should be left entirely desolate, she [Sarah] came to her husband and said: “Long have we lived together well pleasing to each other. But the purpose for which we ourselves came together. . .—the birth of children—has not been fulfilled, nor is there any future hope of it, through me at least who am now past the age.” (Abr. 247–248)
Turia's husband similarly refers to their “well-known conformity of sentiment [conc[or]dia nostra]” (LT, right-hand col. 34; cf. left-hand col. 27–28), also recording that “we did wish to have children, who had for a long time been denied to us by an envious fate” (LT, right-hand col. 26–27).Footnote 39 Realizing that they were likely never to have children, both Sarah and Turia began worrying that their infertility would prevent their husbands from becoming fathers. Sarah says to Abraham, “But do not share my childlessness, and do not keep yourself from becoming what you can be, a father, because of your kindness toward me” (Abr. 249). Turia's husband similarly notes, “When you despaired of your ability to have children and grieved over my childlessness, you became anxious lest by retaining you in marriage I might lose all hope of having children and be distressed for that reason” (LT, right-hand col. 31–32).Footnote 40 Turia's willingness to “yield our house free to another's woman's fertility” and choose another woman “worthy and suitable” for her husband goes hand in hand with an affirmation that she would regard any issue of such a union as “joint and as though her own” (LT, right-hand col. 33–37). Sarah likewise tells Abraham,
I shall not be backward to lead to you a bride who will supply what is lacking in myself. And if the prayers for the birth of children are answered, the offspring will be yours in full parenthood, but surely mine also by adoption. . . . Take, if you will, my handmaiden, a slave in the body, but free and nobly born in the spirit, proved and tested by me for many years from the day when she was first brought to my house—an Egyptian by race but Hebrew by her course of life. (Abr. 250–251)
Finally, both women also won their husbands’ esteem by their actions: Philo declares that “Abraham, with increased admiration for the wifely love that never grew old and was ever showing itself anew and for her. . . care for the future took the mate whom she had approved” (Abr. 253), while Turia's husband wonders rhetorically, “What could be more worthy of commemoration and praise than your devotion to my interests: when I could not have children from yourself, you wanted. . . to provide me with offspring by my marriage to another woman” (LT, right-hand col. 48).Footnote 41
While no reason exists to assume that Philo was aware of the tombstone erected in honor of Turia, the affinities between the two texts suggest that they employ a similar model or rest on a convention according to which a wife demonstrates her fidelity by ensuring that her husband is not left without offspring to carry on his line.Footnote 42 As the Laudatio Turiae indicates, this model/convention was employed in tomb inscriptions during Philo's own day. This epitaph therefore sheds light not only on Philo's choice of the story of Sarah and Hagar to demonstrate the matriarch's virtuous character but also on his setting of Gen 16 in the context of Sarah's death.
Philo's representation of the matriarch's conduct as resembling that of an exemplary Roman wife suggests that he regarded Jewish and Roman familial values as closely paralleling one another. His emphasis on Sarah's role within the divine plan, however, demonstrates that despite their affinities Jewish wives differed in at least one significant respect from their Roman counterparts.
Sarah and Abraham's Long and Harmonious Marriage
In addition to his emphasis on Sarah's fulfillment of her spousal role, Philo suggests that the couple's conjugal relations are similarly praiseworthy. Sarah thus declares: “Long have we lived together well pleasing to each other” (Abr. 248). While the chronological indication is in accord with the datum given in Gen 16:3, the expression as a whole is formulaic, echoing ideal depictions of married life in contemporary Latin sources.Footnote 43 Thus, for example, Turia's husband states: “We were fortunate to see our marriage last without disharmony for fully 40 years” (LT, left-hand col. 27–28). An inscription from Pisa is similarly dedicated to “Scribonia Hedone, with whom I lived 18 years without a quarrel.”Footnote 44 Pliny the Younger writes that his friend Macrinus “lost his wife. . . after they had lived together for thirty-nine years without a quarrel or misunderstanding” (Ep. 8.5).Footnote 45
This common formula reflects the Roman ideal of companionate marriage, a theme explicitly discussed in the discourses of the first-century Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus: “In marriage there must be complete companionship and concern for each other on the part of both husband and wife, in health and in sickness and at all times” (What is the Chief End of Marriage? 13a).Footnote
46
Philo's designation of Sarah as “truly [Abraham's] partner in life and life's events” (κοινωνὸς ὄντως βίου καὶ τ
ν κατὰ τὸν βίον πραγμάτων, Abr. 246) seems to express a similar notion.Footnote
47
Indeed, elsewhere Philo claims that praiseworthy marriages are those characterized by true “partnership” (κοινωνία). He thus notes that, in order to be “blameless but worthy of the highest praise,” Moses instituted that they should “lead both husbands and wives to cherish self-control [σωφροσύνη] and domesticity and unanimity, agreeing with one another in word and deed to make the name ‘partnership’ a reality securely founded on truth” (Spec. 1.138).Footnote
48
Philo suggests that engaging in a companionate marriage is the practical meaning of the Mosaic law. His depiction of Sarah's partnership with Abraham (Abr. 246) thus represents the couple as acting in accordance with the divine will. It further implies that traditional Jewish values are in agreement with contemporary Roman principles of proper family life.Footnote 49
Philo's presentation of Abraham and Sarah's harmonious conjugal relationship is complemented by references to spousal attachment: just as the matriarch loved her husband, so was she “the darling of his [Abraham's] heart” (Abr. 245; cf. Abr. 253). This theme, too, has parallels in Greek and Roman texts.Footnote 50 A Greek inscription on Melite's tomb asserts: “You loved your husband Onesimus; he loved you in return.”Footnote 51 Latin inscriptions also praise married couples for their mutual affection. Aurelia is said to have “lived as a faithful wife to a faithful husband with affection equal to my own” while Furia Spec declares that she and her husband were bound together by equal love.Footnote 52
Conclusion
Abr. 245–254 constitutes a prime example of Philo's combination of scriptural exegesis and Jewish tradition with the adoption of Greco-Roman conventions and values. While he draws the setting of Sarah's death from the biblical text, he portrays her character via rhetorical conventions rooted in classical Greco-Roman culture devoted to lauding virtues and illustrating a person's virtues by examples of his or her deeds. The encomium focuses upon a woman/heroine, and, femininity being preeminently identified in the ancient world with the domestic sphere, Philo therefore first praises Sarah for the way in which she fulfilled her spousal role, presenting her as loving her husband. This virtue is commonly ascribed to deceased wives on Greek and Latin tombstones. Philo furnishes examples of conjugal affection in reference to various biblical accounts in which the texts under discussion give no evidence of it. He thus augments the record that she accompanied Abraham on his journeys with an extrabiblical addition illustrating her presence at his side during his military campaigns, for instance. Taken together, these depictions present Sarah as a loyal wife who followed her husband in good and in bad, a characterization that corresponds to the descriptions of praiseworthy wives in Roman literature and on tomb inscriptions from Philo's day.
The affinity between Philo's portrait of Sarah's selflessness and deep concern for Abraham's welfare and the description of the virtuous childless Turia also suggests that Philo was aware of the Roman convention/model regarding loyal infertile wives. His representation of Sarah as an exemplary Roman matron in her marriage to Abraham—characterized by mutual affection and goodwill—further reflects Greco-Roman ideals. His assertion in De specialibus legibus that a companionable marriage fulfills the Mosaic law suggests that he correlated the latter with the familial norms of the Roman elite of his day. This finds its epitome in his portrait of Sarah as an ancient Jewish matriarch whose wifely conduct is commensurate with Roman ideals.
Although Philo attributes traits of the ideal Roman wife to Sarah, his portrait of her in De Abrahamo suggests that he regards her as more than the typical Roman matron. Unlike the latter, however, Sarah recognizes Abraham's God and is thus motivated not only by her love and fidelity to her husband but also by her fear that “the house beloved of God should be left entirely desolate” (247 [italics added]). By incorporating a Jewish haggadic tradition, Philo stresses that Sarah played a significant role within the divine plan. The fact that he interweaves verses (or paraphrases of verses) from Gen 15:1–6 into the story of Sarah's search for a way to give Abraham a child indicates that, like the author of Jubilees before him, he assumes a close connection between the two pericopae, understanding Sarah's act as fulfilling the divine promise for a child.
Although the Roman matron evidently served Philo as a model, his characterization of Sarah as also possessing uniquely “Jewish” traits reflects his view of the ideal Jewish wife. This “dual nature” finds prime expression in Abr. 245–254. While this passage is dominated by conventions embodied in Roman female funeral eulogies in both stylistic and substantive terms, the examples demonstrating Sarah's virtues are drawn primarily from the biblical texts, Philo's retelling of these accounts also being influenced by traditions prevalent in Jewish circles.