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WorkPhilo of Alexandria

On the Life of Moses

A life of Moses for readers who had never heard of him, presenting him as philosopher-king, lawgiver, high priest and prophet in one man.

by Philo of Alexandria216 passages held

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Original title
De vita Mosis I–II
Original language
Ancient Greek

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Overview

The laws Moses left had reached the ends of the earth, Philo complains at the opening of this book, and yet the Greek historians had not thought him worth a mention. He wrote it to fill that silence, for readers who ought not to remain ignorant of the greatest and most perfect of men, and it reads throughout as a book for outsiders. The first book tells the story in order: the infant hidden in the reeds and raised in Pharaoh's household, taught by Egyptian and foreign teachers, the killing of the overseer and the flight to Midian, the burning bush, the plagues, the sea, the desert and the hired seer Balaam, who came to curse Israel and blessed it. The second book changes method. Plato had said that cities would prosper only when kings became philosophers or philosophers kings; Moses, Philo argues, was both, and three things more — lawgiver, high priest and prophet — and the book takes each office in turn. The passage on lawgiving holds the most famous story in the book. When Ptolemy Philadelphus, Egypt's Greek king, wanted the Law in Greek, the translators withdrew to the island of Pharos outside Alexandria and, working apart, produced the same words, as though dictated. Philo, who read the Bible in that Greek translation, the Septuagint, reports that in his day Jews and many non-Jews still sailed out to Pharos every year for a festival marking the event. The book ends with Moses, on the point of death, foretelling his own burial. C. D. Yonge divided the work into three books; modern editions return to the two books Philo himself refers to, as restored in the standard Greek text of Leopold Cohn.

Key concepts

What are the four offices of Moses in On the Life of Moses?

King, lawgiver, high priest and prophet. Philo builds on Plato's claim that cities prosper only when kings are philosophers, and argues that the perfect governor needs three offices more. As lawgiver he commands the right and forbids the wrong; as priest he orders divine as well as human things; as prophet he foretells what reason cannot grasp. Moses held all four, which is why Philo calls him the most perfect of men.

Why does Philo call the Greek translators prophets?

Because their translation, in his account, reproduced the original exactly. Working apart on Pharos, they produced the same words, as though dictated. Someone who knew both Hebrew and Greek, Philo says, would revere the two texts as sisters, or as one and the same. So the translators were not mere interpreters but hierophants and prophets, whose minds went along with the pure spirit of Moses.

What does the burning bush signify for Philo?

The oppressed people and their survival. The bush, thorny and weak, stands for Israel in Egypt; the fire that burns it stands for the oppressors; and the fact that it is not consumed means that the oppressed will not be destroyed and the attack on them will come to nothing. The angel seen in the flame is the emblem of the providence that protects them.

What is a prophet, as the story of Balaam shows it?

A speaker through whom God's words pass without being his own. Balaam, hired to curse Israel, can utter only what the Deity prompts, and so he blesses it. When his moment of inspiration has passed, he says that what follows are the suggestions of his own mind. For Philo, prophecy is exactly that difference: words given, not composed, which the prophet cannot bend to his interest.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

King, Lawgiver, Priest and Prophet in One Man

What would a ruler have to be, for a people to be safe in his hands? Philo answers with Plato's philosopher-king, and then asks for three offices more.

Plato had said that cities would prosper only when kings became philosophers or philosophers kings. Moses, Philo argues in the second book, was both, and three things besides: a lawgiver, a high priest and a prophet. Each office covers what the others cannot. The lawgiver commands what is right and forbids what is not; the priest orders divine things as well as human; the prophet foretells what reason cannot grasp. The perfect governor needs all four, and the book takes them in turn, presenting Moses to readers who had never heard of him as the greatest and most perfect of men.

  • leadership
  • lawgiving
  • priesthood
  • prophecy
  • political power
  • law
  • virtue

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The Law in Greek, and the Translators Who Agreed

Can a sacred law survive being put into another language? Philo's account of the Greek translation claims that it did, word for word.

When Ptolemy Philadelphus, Egypt's Greek king, wanted the Law in Greek, the translators withdrew to the island of Pharos outside Alexandria and, working apart, produced the same words, as though dictated. Philo, who read the Bible in that translation, the Septuagint, draws the consequence: someone who knew both languages would revere the two texts as sisters, or rather as one, and should call the translators not interpreters but hierophants and prophets, whose minds kept pace with the spirit of Moses. In his day Jews and many non-Jews still sailed out to Pharos every year to give thanks.

  • law
  • truth
  • ritual
  • gratitude

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Providence Told as History

Does God act in the events of a people's history, or only in their hopes? The first book tells the Exodus as a record of care for the oppressed and judgement on their oppressors.

The first book tells the story in order: the infant hidden in the reeds and raised in Pharaoh's household, the flight to Midian, the burning bush, the plagues, the sea and the desert. Philo reads the events as signs. The bush that burns without being consumed is the oppressed people, whom their oppressors will not destroy, and the angel in the flame is the providence that guards them. The hired seer Balaam, who came to curse Israel, blessed it instead, since he could say only what God prompted; his own advice, given afterwards and in private, was another matter.

  • divine providence
  • miracles
  • divine punishment
  • divine justice
  • suffering
  • war

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Within this work

passages held
216
distinct concepts
404
by passages held, corpus-wide
#334

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “divine providence” and “prophecy”.
Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 19 pairings. 91 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
ConceptPaired conceptShared passages
divine providenceprophecy7
priesthoodvirtue4
cosmologyvirtue3
divine punishmentjustice3
justiceleadership3
divine providencejustice2
divine providenceleadership2
divine punishmentprophecy2
divine punishmentvirtue2
leadershipvirtue2
cosmologydivine punishment1
cosmologypriesthood1
cosmologyprophecy1
divine providencedivine punishment1
divine providencevirtue1
justiceprophecy1
justicevirtue1
leadershippriesthood1
leadershipprophecy1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

  1. Against Flaccus (In Flaccum)

    Written as a demonstration of divine justice, this account of the Alexandrian riots of 38 CE and of the prefect Philo blamed for them stands with his historical and apologetic works.

     EN
  2. Allegorical Interpretation (Legum allegoriae I–III)

    The first surviving treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, Philo's long verse-by-verse reading of Genesis, covering its second and third chapters in three books.

     EN
  3. Every Good Man Is Free (Quod omnis probus liber sit)

    Written in the manner of the Greek schools rather than as commentary on Moses, it is, with On the Eternity of the World, one of Philo's philosophical treatises.

     EN
  4. On Abraham (De Abrahamo)

    The first of Philo's lives of the patriarchs in the Exposition of the Law, following On the Creation of the World; its companions on Isaac and Jacob are lost, and On Joseph continues the set.

     EN
  5. On Cultivation (De agricultura)

    Noah the farmer is a subject Philo splits across two treatises; this first one is built on the difference between near-synonyms, and On Planting continues it.

     EN
  6. On Dreams (De somniis I–II)

    A treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, in two surviving books on the dreams of Jacob, Joseph and Pharaoh's court.

     EN
  7. On Drunkenness (De ebrietate)

    Of the two books on drunkenness known in antiquity, this is the one that survives; it sits between On Planting and On Sobriety in the Allegorical Commentary's run on Noah and the vine.

     EN
  8. On Flight and Finding (De fuga et inventione)

    Hagar's flight and the angel who finds her, Genesis 16:6–14, read within the Allegorical Commentary.

     EN
  9. On Joseph (De Josepho)

    The life of the statesman in Philo's series of patriarch lives within the Exposition of the Law. It follows On Abraham; lives of Isaac and Jacob, now lost, once stood between them.

     EN
  10. On Mating with the Preliminary Studies (De congressu eruditionis gratia)

    Philo's reading of Genesis 16 as a theory of education, set within the Allegorical Commentary; On Flight and Finding continues Hagar's story.

     EN
  11. On Planting (De plantatione)

    The second of Philo's two treatises on Noah as farmer, turning from farming in general to the planting of the vineyard.

     EN
  12. On Rewards and Punishments (De praemiis et poenis et de exsecrationibus)

    The closing treatise of the Exposition of the Law, on the rewards, punishments, blessings and curses the Law sets before its hearers.

     EN
  13. On Sobriety (De sobrietate)

    A short sequel to On Drunkenness in the Allegorical Commentary, on Noah waking and pronouncing his blessings and curse. Its Greek title names exactly that: what Noah prayed for and cursed once sober.

     EN
  14. On the Change of Names (De mutatione nominum)

    Genesis 17 and its renamings, from Abram and Sarai to Jacob and Joshua, read in the Allegorical Commentary; it also carries Philo's clearest statement that God has no proper name.

     EN
  15. On the Cherubim (De Cherubim)

    Two short commentaries joined under one title: the cherubim at Eden's gate, then the birth of Cain. Within the Allegorical Commentary it picks up where the three books of Allegorical Interpretation stop.

     EN
  16. On the Confusion of Tongues (De confusione linguarum)

    The Tower of Babel in the Allegorical Commentary, opening with a defence of Genesis against critics who likened it to Greek myth.

     EN
  17. On the Contemplative Life (De vita contemplativa)

    A portrait of the Therapeutae, classed with Philo's historical and apologetic writings; it opens by referring back to his account of the Essenes, the active life to this contemplative one.

     EN
  18. On the Creation of the World (De opificio mundi)

    The overture to Philo's Exposition of the Law, the series that goes on to lives of the patriarchs and a code of laws. It stands apart as his reading of the creation story in its literal order.

     EN
  19. On the Decalogue (De decalogo)

    The hinge of the Exposition of the Law, turning from the lives of the patriarchs to the written law.

     EN
  20. On the Embassy to Gaius (Legatio ad Gaium)

    The companion of Against Flaccus: an eyewitness history of the embassy Philo led to Gaius, and the fullest account he left of his own public life.

     EN
  21. On the Eternity of the World (De aeternitate mundi)

    Among Philo's philosophical treatises, the one that names the Greek schools and their arguments most openly.

     EN
  22. On the Giants and On the Unchangeableness of God (De gigantibus; Quod Deus sit immutabilis)

    Two treatises that editions usually separate but that read as one commentary, in the Allegorical Commentary, on the verses of Genesis leading up to the flood.

     EN
  23. On the Life of Moses (De vita Mosis I–II) you are here EN
  24. On the Migration of Abraham (De migratione Abrahami)

    Abraham's call in Genesis 12, read as the soul's migration toward God; in the Allegorical Commentary it follows On the Confusion of Tongues in the order of Genesis.

     EN
  25. On the Posterity of Cain (De posteritate Caini)

    The last of the Cain treatises in the Allegorical Commentary, following Cain from his exile through his descendants.

     EN
  26. On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain (De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini)

    One of the run of treatises on Cain and Abel in the Allegorical Commentary, taking up the brothers' offerings in Genesis 4.

     EN
  27. On the Special Laws (De specialibus legibus I–IV)

    The largest work in the Exposition of the Law, in four books; it follows On the Decalogue and is followed by On the Virtues.

     EN
  28. On the Virtues (De virtutibus)

    A pendant to On the Special Laws in the Exposition of the Law, gathering laws under the virtues they train rather than under the Ten Commandments.

     EN
  29. The Worse Attacks the Better (Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat)

    It follows On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain in the Allegorical Commentary and carries the brothers' story on to the murder itself.

     EN
  30. Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? (Quis rerum divinarum heres sit)

    Best known for its long passage on the Logos dividing the world into opposites, this reading of God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 belongs to the Allegorical Commentary.

     EN
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