PAUL AND PHILO ON SOTERIOLOGY AND ESCHATOLOGY

This study will offer a comparison between two semi-contemporary Hellenistic Jewish theologians, Paul of Tarsus and Philo of Alexandria, both major inspirers of subsequent Christian philosophical theology. Philo appears more elusive than Paul, especially from the viewpoint of soteriology and eschatology, but both were familiar with the doctrine of apokatastasis or restoration, and this is why I shall devote a spacial treatment thereof in both Paul and Philo although they treated it in divergent ways, just as they had different views of soteriology. In both cases, it is important to ask how Greek Philo's and Paul's eschatology was; in the case of Paul, this is amply debated, between those who emphasise the Jewish side and others who emphasise the Greek side; in the case of Philo, eschatology is not an inexistent aspect of his thought, but certainly one that is difficult to pinpoint. It will be argued that the main divergence between Paul and Philo is not theology or even exegesis, but Christology.