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Philo's Portrayal of Moses in the Context of Ancient Judaism

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Philo's Portrayal of Moses in the Context of Ancient Judaism LOUIS H. FELDMAN Philo’s Portrayal of Moses in the Context of Ancient Judaism University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana © 2007 University of Notre Dame Press Copyright © by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Designed by Wendy McMillen, type set in . ⁄. Garamond MT Printed on # Nature’s Natural recycled paper in the U.S.A. by Sheridan Books, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Feldman, Louis H. Philo’s portrayal of Moses in the context of ancient Judaism / Louis H. Feldman. p. cm. — (Christianity and Judaism in antiquity series ; v. ) Includes bibliographical references and index. -: ---- (cloth : alk. paper) -: --- (cloth : alk. paper) . Moses (Biblical leader) . Philo, of Alexandria. Pseudo-Philo. Josephus, Flavius. Rabbinical literature—History and criticism. Greek literature, Hellenistic—Jewish authors—History and criticism. Dead Sea scrolls. Christian literature, Early—History and criticism. I. Title. '.—dc This book is printed on recycled paper. © 2007 University of Notre Dame Press I. General Considerations 1. The Importance of Moses in Classical Antiquity The one figure in Jewish tradition who was well known to the pagan world was Moses (see Gager ). When Quintilian (..), at the end of the first century, refers to “the founder of the Jewish superstition,” he, like Pseudo- Longinus, does not deem it necessary to name him, because Moses was ap- parently well known.1 When Juvenal (.‒) wishes to satirize converts to Judaism he speaks of what they learn as “Moses’ arcane book.” Moses’ connection with Egypt, known for its antiquity, its learning, and its wealth, undoubtedly gave him a certain prominence, especially during the Hellenistic period, when Alexandria was the chief center of scholarship. Philo asserts that while the fame of Moses’ laws had spread throughout the world, not many knew him as he really was, since Greek authors had not wanted to ac- cord him honor, in part out of envy2 and in part because the ordinances of local lawgivers were often opposed to his (Mos. .‒). In an age and place where grammarians and Homeric scholars were lead- ers of the intellectual community, one of the important figures of the intel- lectual scene in Alexandria in the first half of the first century C.E., Apion, known for his glosses on Homer3 and as Philo’s counterpart as a leader of the Alexandrian anti-Jewish delegation to the Emperor Gaius Caligula, was a major advocate of such revisionist views of Moses, as we see in Josephus’ reply (Ap. .‒ ) to these charges. In view of Apion’s intellectual promi- nence, it was, therefore, all the more important for Philo to refute his charges. Galen (De Usu Partium .), who wrote a century after Philo, adds a fur- ther reason why Moses was not accorded honor, namely because he failed to recognize that G-d does not do what is physically impossible but merely chooses the best out of available possibilities. His criticism of Moses as a sci- entist and philosopher may well go back to an earlier period, and Philo may well have been motivated to challenge such views. Moreover, inasmuch as © 2007 University of Notre Dame Press Philo’s Portrayal of Moses in the Context of Ancient Judaism mystery religions turned out to be particularly attractive during the Hellenis- tic period, Philo feels that it is his duty to explain that Jews did not have to go outside of Judaism to find a mystery cult and did not have to seek mys- tagogues, since they had the greatest of all, Moses, the most ancient of great religious leaders and the founder of the Jewish mystery cult. According to Goodenough (, ) Moses thus bridged the gulf between mortal and immortal. According to Josephus (Ap. .), the first-century Apollonius Molon and Lysimachus maligned Moses as a charlatan and impostor, partly from ig- norance, though mainly from ill will. Rather, says Josephus (Ap. .), Moses is comparable to the Cretan lawgiver, Minos, and to later legislators, who at- tributed their laws to a god, whether Zeus or Apollo, either being convinced themselves of this as a fact or hoping thus to facilitate the acceptance of the laws. But as to who was the most successful legislator, this can be answered by comparing the laws themselves with those of others. The repetition of the charge of superstition4 against Moses in Quintilian’s younger contemporaries, Tacitus and Juvenal, is evidence that a new image of Moses, prompted by the conflicts between the Jews and the Roman emperors, starting with Tiberius, had established itself in this period. We must, however, reserve judgment, inasmuch as all three of these critics are rhetoricians or satirists and hence tend to exaggerate. That Philo was aware of such charges is evident in the introduction to his Mos.(.), where he states that he is writing his biography of Moses to refute those men of letters who have refused to treat him as worthy of memory. In his attempt to raise the stature of Moses in the eyes of his audience Philo was confronted with a dual problem. On the one hand, the Bible seems to offer detractors considerable indications that Moses was really not so great a figure. As Silver , ‒, summarizes them: “Moses never devised a war plan or sat on a throne, or promulgated laws (he only reported what G-d told him); he had no mausoleum, founded no dynasty, left no important offspring; the Torah does not say Moses freed Israel, that he did miracles, or that he led the people in the desert (G-d is always the subject of those activities); Moses is not depicted as a self-reliant leader but as a man without freedom of judg- ment and action, a faithful courier who did only what he was told; he was only an agent, not a leader, ambassador, or principal; in Exod. :‒ we read that Moses struck down an unsuspecting victim, hid his act, and fled in fright into the night; and Exodus reports no plan of Moses to return and help his people until G-d appeared to him in the bush.” © 2007 University of Notre Dame Press General Considerations To these observations, which seem to diminish his stature, we may add that the one virtue of Moses that is singled out by the Bible (Num. :), where he excelled all other people, namely humility, is not one that many or most in his non-Jewish audience would have viewed as a virtue. We need but recall what Aristotle (EN ..a‒ ) says: “The unduly humble man, being worthy of good things, robs himself of what he deserves, and seems to have something bad about him from the fact that he does not think himself worthy of good things, and seems also not to know himself; else he would have desired the things he was worthy of, since these are good.” To answer the charges of those who had sought to disparage Moses, Philo, at the very beginning of his biography of Moses (Mos. .‒), boldly as- serts that he is seeking in his essay to bring the story of this man, greatest in all respects (ta; pavnta megivsto~) and most perfect (teleiovtato~)5 of men, to the attention of learned (lovgioi) Greeks.6 These superlatives—“greatest in all respects” and “most perfect”—definitely go beyond what we find in the Bible, which limits his superlative qualities to his being the humblest of men (Num. :) and the greatest prophet that has arisen among the Israelites (Deut. :). Philo even goes beyond the encomium that we find in Josephus (A.J. .), who limits Moses’ greatness to his having surpassed in under- standing (suvnesi~) all men who had ever lived and his having utilized his thoughts (nohqei`sin) in the best (a[rista) possible way. Since, as Philo (Mos. ) says, following Plato (R. .D), the ideal state comes into being only where a king is a philosopher or a philosopher is king, Moses is the ideal ruler, inasmuch as he combines both the kingly and the philosophical in his single person. As the ideal philosopher-king (Opif. ) he is the supreme philosopher in exploring his subject thoroughly, in refraining from stating abruptly what should be practiced or avoided, in preparing his subjects, who are to live under the laws of which he is the agent, and in refraining from devising myths in- vented by himself or in acquiescing in those composed by others. Philo (Mos. ), as we have noted, felt that he had to refute those Greek writers who had actually shown malice (baskaniva, “slander”) toward him. The fact that immediately after this statement Philo asserts that most of these au- thors have composed, whether in verse or prose, comedies and pieces of voluptuous license implies, though he does not say so directly or give specific examples, that they have attempted to ridicule Moses through these writings. We may see evidence of this malice in such remarks as that of Diodorus in the first century B.C.E. (Bibliotheca Historica ‒..), who sneers that Moses had ordained for the Jews their misanthropic and lawless customs. Josephus (Ap. © 2007 University of Notre Dame Press Philo’s Portrayal of Moses in the Context of Ancient Judaism .) declares that Lysimachus and others, partly from ignorance and partly from ill will, had cast aspersions upon Moses and his code, maligning him as a charlatan (govh~, “juggler,” “cheat,” “sorcerer”) and an impostor (ajpatewvn, “cheat,” “rogue”). In particular, Apollonius Molon, the renowned and ex- tremely influential rhetorician, who included Cicero and Caesar among his pupils,7 is reported by Josephus (Ap. .) to have maligned Moses as a char- latan.
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