Moses Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Hellenistic literature== {{Further|Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature}} [[File:Memorial of Moses, Mt. Nebo.jpg|thumb|Memorial of Moses, [[Mount Nebo]], Jordan]] Non-biblical writings about Jews, with references to the role of Moses, first appear at the beginning of the [[Hellenistic period]], from 323 BC to about 146 BC. Shmuel notes that "a characteristic of this literature is the high honour in which it holds the peoples of the East in general and some specific groups among these peoples."{{Sfn | Shmuel | 1976 | p = 1102}} In addition to the Judeo-Roman or Judeo-Hellenic historians [[Artapanus of Alexandria|Artapanus]], [[Eupolemus]], [[Josephus]], and [[Philo]], a few non-Jewish historians including [[Hecataeus of Abdera]] (quoted by [[Diodorus Siculus]]), [[Alexander Polyhistor]], [[Manetho]], [[Apion]], [[Chaeremon of Alexandria]], [[Tacitus]] and [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]] also make reference to him. The extent to which any of these accounts rely on earlier sources is unknown.{{Sfn | Shmuel | 1976 | p = 1103}} Moses also appears in other religious texts such as the [[Mishnah]] (c. 200 AD) and the [[Midrash]] (200–1200 AD).<ref>{{Citation | last = Hammer | first = Reuven | title = The Classic Midrash: Tannaitic Commentaries on the Bible | publisher = Paulist Press | year = 1995 | page = 15}}.</ref> The figure of [[Osarseph]] in [[Greek historiography|Hellenistic historiography]] is a renegade Egyptian priest who leads an army of [[lepers]] against the pharaoh and is finally expelled from Egypt, changing his name to Moses.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DPzZTN74jAcC&q=Osarseph|title=The Jewish People in the First Century: Historical Geography, Political History, Social, Cultural and Religious Life and Institutions|first1=Shemuel|last1=Safrai|first2=M.|last2=Stern|first3=David|last3=Flusser|first4=Willem Cornelis|last4=Unnik|date=November 19, 1974|publisher=Uitgeverij Van Gorcum|isbn=9789023214366|via=Google Books}}</ref> ===Hecataeus=== The earliest existing reference to Moses in Greek literature occurs in the Egyptian history of Hecataeus of Abdera (4th century BC). All that remains of his description of Moses are two references made by Diodorus Siculus, wherein, writes historian Arthur Droge, he "describes Moses as a wise and courageous leader who left Egypt and colonized [[Judea|Judaea]]".{{Sfn|Droge |1989 |p=18}} Among the many accomplishments described by Hecataeus, Moses had founded cities, established a temple and religious cult, and issued laws: {{Blockquote |After the establishment of settled life in Egypt in early times, which took place, according to the mythical account, in the period of the gods and heroes, the first ... to persuade the multitudes to use written laws was Mneves, a man not only great of soul but also in his life the most public-spirited of all lawgivers whose names are recorded.{{Sfn | Droge | 1989 | p = 18}}}} Droge also points out that this statement by Hecataeus was similar to statements made subsequently by Eupolemus.{{Sfn| Droge |1989 |p=18}} ===Artapanus=== [[File:The Knesset Menorah P5200010 Moses.JPG|thumb|right|Depiction of Moses on the [[Knesset Menorah]] raising his arms during the battle against the Amalekites]] The Jewish historian [[Artapanus of Alexandria]] (2nd century BC) portrayed Moses as a cultural hero, alien to the Pharaonic court. According to theologian John Barclay, the Moses of Artapanus "clearly bears the destiny of the Jews, and in his personal, cultural and military splendor, brings credit to the whole Jewish people".<ref>{{cite book |last=Barclay |first=John M. G. |title=Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora: From Alexander to Trajan (323 BC – 117 AD) |publisher=University of California Press |year=1996 |page=130 |isbn=0-520-21843-4 }}</ref> {{Blockquote | Jealousy of Moses' excellent qualities induced Chenephres to send him with unskilled troops on a military expedition to [[Ethiopia]], where he won great victories. After having built the city of [[Hermopolis]], he taught the people the value of the [[ibis]] as a protection against the serpents, making the bird the sacred guardian spirit of the city; then he introduced [[circumcision]]. After his return to [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]], Moses taught the people the value of oxen for agriculture, and the consecration of the same by Moses gave rise to the cult of [[Apis (deity)|Apis]]. Finally, after having escaped another plot by killing the assailant sent by the king, Moses fled to [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabia]], where he married the daughter of [[Jethro (Bible)|Raguel]] [Jethro], the ruler of the district.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=830&letter=M&search=moses#3 |title=Moses |website=Jewish Encyclopedia |access-date= 2010-03-02}}</ref>}} Artapanus goes on to relate how Moses returns to Egypt with Aaron, and is imprisoned, but miraculously escapes through the name of [[YHWH]] in order to lead the Exodus. This account further testifies that all Egyptian [[Egyptian temple|temples]] of [[Isis]] thereafter contained a rod, in remembrance of that used for Moses' miracles. He describes Moses as 80 years old, "tall and ruddy, with long white hair, and dignified".<ref>{{cite web |author=Eusebius of Caesarea |title=Praeparatio Evangelica |trans-title=Preparation for the Gospel |translator-first=E. H. |translator-last=Gifford |year=1903 |at=Book 9 |url=http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_pe_09_book9.htm |via=tertullian.org |access-date=30 April 2021}}</ref> Some historians, however, point out the "[[Apologetics|apologetic]] nature of much of Artapanus' work",{{Sfn | Feldman | 1998 | p = 40}} with his addition of extra-biblical details, such as his references to Jethro: the non-Jewish Jethro expresses admiration for Moses' gallantry in helping his daughters, and chooses to adopt Moses as his son.{{Sfn | Feldman | 1998 | p = 133}} ===Strabo=== [[File:Rosso Fiorentino - Moses defending the Daughters of Jethro - Web Gallery of Art.jpg|thumb|''[[Moses Defends Jethro's Daughters]]'' by [[Rosso Fiorentino]], c. 1523-1524]] [[Strabo]], a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher, in his ''[[Geographica]]'' (c. 24 AD), wrote in detail about Moses, whom he considered to be an Egyptian who deplored the situation in his homeland, and thereby attracted many followers who respected the deity. He writes, for example, that Moses opposed the picturing of the deity in the form of man or animal, and was convinced that the deity was an entity which encompassed everything – land and sea:{{Sfn | Shmuel | 1976 | p = 1132}} {{blockquote| 35. An Egyptian priest named Moses, who possessed a portion of the country called the [[Lower Egypt]], being dissatisfied with the established institutions there, left it and came to Judaea with a large body of people who worshipped the Divinity. He declared and taught that the Egyptians and Africans entertained erroneous sentiments, in representing the Divinity under the likeness of wild beasts and cattle of the field; that the [[Greeks]] also were in error in making images of their gods after the human form. For God [said he] may be this one thing which encompasses us all, land and sea, which we call heaven, or the universe, or the nature of things.... 36. By such doctrine Moses persuaded a large body of right-minded persons to accompany him to the place where [[Jerusalem]] now stands.<ref name=Strabo>Strabo. ''The Geography'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D16%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D35 16.2.35–36], Translated by H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer in 1854, pp. 177–78.</ref>}} In Strabo's writings of the history of [[Judaism]] as he understood it, he describes various stages in its development: from the first stage, including Moses and his direct heirs; to the final stage where "the [[Temple of Jerusalem]] continued to be surrounded by an aura of sanctity". Strabo's "positive and unequivocal appreciation of Moses' personality is among the most sympathetic in all ancient literature."{{Sfn | Shmuel | 1976 | p = 1133}} His portrayal of Moses is said to be similar to the writing of [[Hecataeus of Abdera|Hecataeus]] who "described Moses as a man who excelled in wisdom and courage".{{Sfn | Shmuel | 1976 | p = 1133}} Egyptologist [[Jan Assmann]] concludes that Strabo was the historian "who came closest to a construction of Moses' religion as [[monotheism|monotheistic]] and as a pronounced counter-religion." It recognized "only one divine being whom no image can represent ... [and] the only way to approach this god is to live in virtue and in justice."{{Sfn | Assmann | 1997 | p = 38}} ===Tacitus=== The Roman historian [[Tacitus]] (c. 56–120 AD) refers to Moses by noting that the Jewish religion was monotheistic and without a clear image. His primary work, wherein he describes [[Jewish philosophy]], is his ''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Histories]]'' ({{circa|100}}), where, according to 18th-century translator and Irish dramatist [[Arthur Murphy (writer)|Arthur Murphy]], as a result of the Jewish worship of one God, "[[paganism|pagan]] mythology fell into contempt".<ref>Tacitus, Cornelius. ''The works of Cornelius Tacitus: With an essay on his life and genius'' by Arthur Murphy, Thomas Wardle Publ. (1842) p. 499</ref> Tacitus states that, despite various opinions current in his day regarding the Jews' ethnicity, most of his sources are in agreement that there was an Exodus from Egypt. By his account, the Pharaoh [[Bakenranef|Bocchoris]], suffering from a [[Plague (disease)|plague]], banished the Jews in response to an oracle of the god [[Zeus]]-[[Amun]]. {{Blockquote | A motley crowd was thus collected and abandoned in the desert. While all the other outcasts lay idly lamenting, one of them, named Moses, advised them not to look for help to gods or men, since both had deserted them, but to trust rather in themselves, and accept as divine the guidance of the first being, by whose aid they should get out of their present plight.<ref name=Tacitus />}} In this version, Moses and the Jews wander through the desert for only six days, capturing the [[Holy Land]] on the seventh.<ref name=Tacitus>Tacitus, Cornelius. ''Tacitus, The Histories, Volume 2'', Book V. Chapters 5, 6 p. 208.</ref> ===Longinus=== [[File:The Brazen Serpent.jpg|thumb|Moses lifts up the [[Nehushtan|brass serpent]], curing the Israelites from poisonous snake bites in a painting by [[Benjamin West]].]] The [[Septuagint]], the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, impressed the pagan author of the famous classical book of literary criticism, ''[[On the Sublime]]'', traditionally attributed to [[Longinus (literature)|Longinus]]. The date of composition is unknown, but it is commonly assigned to the late 1st century C.E.<ref>Henry J. M. Day, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qIkgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 ''Lucan and the Sublime: Power, Representation and Aesthetic Experience,''] Cambridge University Press, 2013 p. 12.</ref> The writer quotes [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] in a "style which presents the nature of the deity in a manner suitable to his pure and great being", but he does not mention Moses by name, calling him 'no chance person' ({{lang|grc|οὐχ ὁ τυχὼν ἀνήρ}}) but "the Lawgiver" ({{lang|grc|θεσμοθέτης}}, [[Archon#Ancient Greece|thesmothete]]) of the Jews, a term that puts him on a par with [[Lycurgus of Sparta|Lycurgus]] and [[Minos]].<ref>Louis H. Felkdman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Kbgf52KNsLQC&pg=PA239 ''Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian''], Princeton University Press 1996 p. 239.</ref> Aside from a reference to [[Cicero]], Moses is the only non-Greek writer quoted in the work; contextually he is put on a par with [[Homer]]{{sfn | Feldman | 1998 | p = 133}} and he is described "with far more admiration than even Greek writers who treated Moses with respect, such as [[Hecataeus of Abdera|Hecataeus]] and [[Strabo]]".{{Sfn | Shmuel | 1976 | p = 1140}} ===Josephus=== In [[Josephus]]' (37 – c. 100 CE) ''Antiquities of the Jews'', Moses is mentioned throughout. For example, Book VIII Ch. IV, describes [[Solomon's Temple]], also known as the First Temple, at the time the [[Ark of the Covenant]] was first moved into the newly built temple: {{blockquote |When [[Solomon|King Solomon]] had finished these works, these large and beautiful buildings, and had laid up his donations in the temple, and all this in the interval of seven years, and had given a demonstration of his riches and alacrity therein; ... he also wrote to the rulers and elders of the Hebrews, and ordered all the people to gather themselves together to Jerusalem, both to see the temple which he had built, and to remove the ark of God into it; and when this invitation of the whole body of the people to come to Jerusalem was everywhere carried abroad, ... The [[Sukkot|Feast of Tabernacles]] happened to fall at the same time, which was kept by the Hebrews as a most holy and most eminent feast. So they carried the ark and the tabernacle which Moses had pitched, and all the vessels that were for ministration to the sacrifices of God, and removed them to the temple. ... Now the ark contained nothing else but those two tables of stone that preserved the ten commandments, which God spake to Moses in Mount Sinai, and which were engraved upon them ...<ref>{{Citation | last = Josephus | first = Flavius | title = The works: Comprising the Antiquities of the Jews | others = trans. by William Whiston | year = 1854 | volume = VIII | chapter = IV | pages = 254–55}}.</ref>}} According to Feldman, Josephus also attaches particular significance to Moses' possession of the "cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice". He also includes piety as an added fifth virtue. In addition, he "stresses Moses' willingness to undergo toil and his careful avoidance of bribery. Like [[Plato]]'s [[Philosopher king|philosopher-king]], Moses excels as an educator."{{Sfn | Feldman | 1998 | p = 130}} ===Numenius=== [[Numenius of Apamea|Numenius]], a Greek philosopher who was a native of [[Apamea, Syria|Apamea]], in Syria, wrote during the latter half of the 2nd century AD. Historian Kennieth Guthrie writes that "Numenius is perhaps the only recognized Greek philosopher who explicitly studied Moses, the prophets, and the life of [[Jesus]]".{{Sfn | Guthrie | 1917 | p = 194}} He describes his background: {{blockquote |Numenius was a man of the world; he was not limited to [[Greco-Roman mysteries|Greek and Egyptian mysteries]], but talked familiarly of the myths of [[Brahmin]]s and [[Magi]]. It is however his knowledge and use of the Hebrew scriptures which distinguished him from other Greek philosophers. He refers to Moses simply as "the prophet", exactly as for him Homer is the poet. Plato is described as a Greek Moses.{{Sfn | Guthrie | 1917 | p = 101}}}} ===Justin Martyr=== The Christian saint and religious philosopher [[Justin Martyr]] (103–165 AD) drew the same conclusion as [[Numenius of Apamea|Numenius]], according to other experts. Theologian Paul Blackham notes that Justin considered Moses to be "more trustworthy, profound and truthful because he is ''older'' than the [[Ancient Greek philosophy|Greek philosophers]]."{{Sfn | Blackham | 2005 | p = 39}} He quotes him: {{blockquote |I will begin, then, with our first prophet and lawgiver, Moses ... that you may know that, of all your teachers, whether sages, poets, historians, philosophers, or lawgivers, by far the oldest, as the Greek histories show us, was Moses, who was our first religious teacher.{{Sfn | Blackham | 2005 | p = 39}}}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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