5 in-print translations and 1 audiobooks, compared by who made them, when, and what each one is actually trying to do — Philo of Alexandria.
The short answer. There is no single best translation of The Complete Works, because the editions are optimised for different things: for a first read, the editions described as the most readable are C. D. Yonge; on audio the choice is mostly which translation is being read and whether it is one narrator or a full cast.
Every claim below is the publisher’s or translator’s own description, shown next to it, so you can judge rather than take our word. And you can read the whole thing free on this site first.
Scriptorium Press publishes a complete new plain-English translation of The Complete Works, free, with a complete free audiobook. No account, no paywall — 37 works in this volume.
Start reading free → Free audiobook → Whole book on one page →Older translations, out of copyright, hosted free by Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL), Internet Archive. Not our work and not affiliate links — they are here because they are genuinely useful.
| Translator | Year | What it is | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Duke Yonge | 1854-1890 | prose; the standard complete public-domain English Philo, HTML with navigable table of contents | Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) → |
| Charles Duke Yonge | 1854-1890 | scanned volume set, downloadable in multiple formats (PDF, EPUB, plain text) | Internet Archive → |
| F. H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker | 1929 | facing Greek/English scholarly edition; this 1929 volume is in the US public domain | Internet Archive → |
| Charles Duke Yonge | 1855-1890 | alternate scan of the same Bohn/Yonge set, useful if the other Archive.org copy is unavailable | Internet Archive → |
Sorted as the research file records them. The note on each row is that edition’s own published description.
| Translator | Year | Publisher | What it is | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F. H. Colson, G. H. Whitaker, and Ralph Marcus | 1929 | Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library) | scholarly, facing Greek/Armenian text, the standard academic edition | Find it |
| C. D. Yonge | 1854 | Hendrickson Publishers (reprint of Bohn's Ecclesiastical Library ed.) | prose, most affordable one-volume complete edition, readable but dated Victorian English | Find it |
| David Winston | 1981 | Paulist Press (Classics of Western Spirituality) | scholarly introduction with preface by John Dillon, best entry-point selection for students | Find it |
| F.H. Colson, G.H. Whitaker, Ralph Marcus | 1929-1962 | Loeb Classical Library | the scholarly facing-Greek standard | Find it |
| Walter T. Wilson, Ellen Birnbaum & John M. Dillon | 2001-present | Brill | the definitive modern scholarly commentary series, one treatise per volume | Find it |
Those are affiliate links. They cost you nothing extra and pay a small commission to the people who publish these editions, and to us.
The thing that most changes an audiobook of The Complete Works is which translation is being read — a scholarly text and a colloquial one are different listening experiences before the narrator says a word.
| Narrator | Translation read | Publisher | Year | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Voice (AI narration) | Appian Way Press (new modern translation) | Audible Studios / Appian Way Press | 2024–2025 | only known commercial audiobook edition of Philo; AI-generated (Virtual Voice) narration, 4-volume set, not a human celebrity narrator | Listen |
Affiliate links, including the Audible ones. They cost you nothing extra. Our own audiobook of The Complete Works stays free either way.
The editions described as the most readable are C. D. Yonge (1854). Their published descriptions emphasise pace and plain modern idiom rather than strict line-by-line fidelity, which is what makes them easier on a first pass.
The most frequently recommended are F. H. Colson, G. H. Whitaker, and Ralph Marcus (1929), F.H. Colson, G.H. Whitaker, Ralph Marcus (1929-1962). "Most recommended" is not the same as "best for you": a scholarly standard and an easy first read are different books, and the table on this page shows which is which.
There are 1 commercial recordings. They differ mainly in which translation is being read and whether it is a single narrator or a full cast: Virtual Voice (AI narration) reads Appian Way Press (new modern translation). A complete free audiobook of our own translation is also on this site.
Yes. Scriptorium Press publishes a complete new plain-English translation of The Complete Works free to read, with a complete free audiobook, no account and no paywall - 37 works in this volume.