Texts in Conversation
Philo separates two deaths, the ordinary one that parts soul from body and the death of the soul, which is virtue decaying as wickedness moves in. Paul describes a similar sense of a second dying in Romans 7, triggered by the Torah and the evil impulse.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Philo Allegorical Interpretation 1:105
Classical
And further he says, “ In the day that you eat of it, you shall die the death ”’ (Gen. ii. 17). And yet after they have eaten, not merely do they not die, but they beget children and become authors of life to others. What, then, is to be said to this ? That death is of two kinds, one that of the man in general, the other that of the soul in particular. The death of the man is the separation of the soul from the body,” but the death of the soul is the decay of virtue and the bringing in of wickedness. It is for this reason that God says not only “die” but “‘ die the death,”’ indicating not the death common to us all, but that special death properly so called, which is that of the soul becoming entombed in passions and wickedness of all kinds. And _ this death is practically the antithesis of the death which awaits us all. The latter is a separation of combatants that had been pitted against one another,? body and soul, that is. The former, on the other hand, is a meeting of the two in conflict. And in this conflict the worse, the body, overcomes, and the better, the soul, is overcome. But observe that wherever Moses speaks of “ dying the death,” he means the penalty-death, not that which takes place in the course of nature. That one is in the course
Date: 20-50 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Romans 7:10
New Testament
8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment, sin became alive 10 and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
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Notes and References
“... In particular, the plight described in the monologue strongly resembles the moral-psychological state that Philo of Alexandria sometimes describes as “the death of the soul.” So Philo interprets God’s warning that Adam will die if he eats from the tree of life as referring to the death of the soul: [...] This text sharply distinguishes bodily death from a type of moral-psychological death. Philo, consistent with his Platonism, insists that the death of the soul does not convey the actual death or destruction of any one part of the soul, but the total domination and enslavement of the good part. [...] The above text from Philo exemplifies a Platonic discourse about the soul that bears on the language and argument of Rom 7. [...] I contend that Rom 7:7–25 depicts the plight of reason or mind imprisoned by the passions and appetites. ...”
Wasserman, Emma
The Death of the Soul in Romans 7: Sin, Death, and the Law in Light of Hellenistic Moral Psychology
(pp. 7-8) Mohr Siebeck, 2008
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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