Biblexika

On the Life of Moses II (Philo)

jewishGreekc. 20-50 CE

On the Life of Moses II is the second book of Philo of Alexandria's two-volume treatment of Moses, composed as part of his Exposition of the Law — the group of works Philo intended for a wider audience including educated Gentile readers curious about Judaism. Where the first volume presents Moses as a philosopher-king and recounts his early life, education, and leadership of the Exodus, the second

Overview

On the Life of Moses II is the second book of Philo of Alexandria's two-volume treatment of Moses, composed as part of his Exposition of the Law — the group of works Philo intended for a wider audience including educated Gentile readers curious about Judaism. Where the first volume presents Moses as a philosopher-king and recounts his early life, education, and leadership of the Exodus, the second volume examines Moses in his three remaining offices: as legislator (nomothetes), as high priest (archiereus), and as prophet (prophetes). Together the two books constitute the most ambitious philosophical biography of Moses from the ancient world.

Philo's Moses in Book II is a figure of cosmic significance. His legislation is not merely a body of practical rules for a particular nation but the embodiment of the rational law of nature — a code that perfectly corresponds to the order of the cosmos itself. His priestly role mediates between God and humanity at the cosmic level, not merely the ritual level. His prophetic role encompasses not only inspired utterance but rational insight and mystical vision. By the end of Philo's account, Moses is virtually a divine figure: the one human being who achieved the most direct encounter with God possible for an embodied soul, and whose very countenance radiated divine light after his encounters with the Logos on Sinai.

This treatise is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how the greatest Jewish philosopher of antiquity read the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and how that reading shaped the intellectual tradition that influenced the Gospel of John, the letter to the Hebrews, and the entire subsequent tradition of Christian and Jewish Platonism.

Bible connections
  • John 1:1-18 (Logos as divine mediator; Moses compared to Christ)
  • Hebrews 3:1-6 (Moses and Christ compared as servants in God's household)
  • Hebrews 8:5 (earthly tabernacle as copy of heavenly reality)
  • 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 (Moses's glowing face and the veil)
  • Colossians 1:15-17 (Christ as image of God and cosmic mediator)
Key terms
Logos– the divine Word or Reason that mediates between God and creation; for Philo, Moses's direct encounter with the Logos on Sinai is what makes him uniquely authoritative
Theios aner (divine man)– a philosophical category for a human being who has so thoroughly aligned with divine reason that he participates in the divine nature — the framework within which Philo presents Moses
Allegory (allegoresis)– Philo's interpretive method of reading the literal biblical text as simultaneously conveying deeper philosophical truths about God, the soul, and the cosmos
Nomothetes (lawgiver)– one of Moses's four offices in Philo's analysis; his legislation is uniquely authoritative because it corresponds to the rational law of nature rather than mere custom
Did you know?

Philo wrote more surviving text than any other ancient Jewish author, yet he was virtually unknown to the rabbinic tradition and survived almost entirely because early Christian thinkers — particularly Clement of Alexandria and Origen — recognized his philosophical synthesis as essential background for Christian theology. The church preserved his corpus; the synagogue largely forgot him.