Josephus' Portrait of Moses
Because Moses was the one figure in the Jewish tradition who was well known to the pagan world and because he had been reviled by several anti-Jewish writers, Josephus can be assumed to have felt a special need to paint a favorable picture of him. Several events in Moses' life presented a parti...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Penn Press
1992
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| In: |
The Jewish quarterly review
Year: 1992, Volume: 82, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 285-328 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Because Moses was the one figure in the Jewish tradition who was well known to the pagan world and because he had been reviled by several anti-Jewish writers, Josephus can be assumed to have felt a special need to paint a favorable picture of him. Several events in Moses' life presented a particular problem to Josephus. Despite his promise in his proem to add nothing to, and to subtract nothing from, the biblical text, in almost all of these cases Josephus simply omits the embarrassing episodes. On the other hand, he is careful to avoid the undue aggrandizement and near deification of Moses found in the Samaritan tradition and, to a lesser degree, in the rabbinic tradition, with which there is good reason to believe he was well acquainted. Likewise, because his sophisticated audience would undoubtedly have found the biblical miracles hardly credible, he tends to downgrade or rationalize them, or, as in the case of the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, he makes a point of noting as a parallel the crossing of the Pamphylian Sea by Alexander the Great. Because the Antiquities is an apologetic work directed primarily to non-Jews, Josephus portrays Moses as embodying the qualities of the great heroes of the Greeks and Romans, notably the external qualities of good birth and handsome stature, precociousness in youth, and the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice, as supplemented by what was, in effect, a fifth cardinal virtue, piety. Moses' appeal to this audience is particularly effective because he is depicted as the ideal leader, especially in meeting the test of sedition and in coping with the unruly mob. Josephus' tone here is highly reminiscent of Thucydides' portrait of Pericles, of Plato's description of the philosopher-king, of Virgil's portrayal of Aeneas, and of the traditional Stoic sage; and concurrently, the role of Aaron as his spokesman is considerably down-graded. It is particularly as an educator, a legislator, a poet, and above all as a general and a prophet that Moses excels. In stressing these achievements Josephus shifts the focus from God to Moses. Josephus' modifications of the biblical narrative of Moses are occasioned by his apologetic concern to defend the Jews against the charges of their critics, particularly cowardice, provincialism, and intolerance, and by his positive desire to portray a personality fully comparable to such great leaders, whether historical or legendary, as Heracles, Lycurgus, Aeneas, and Pericles. Finally, Josephus has included several motifs--notably irony and suspense--from the Greek tragedians in order to render his narrative more dramatic. |
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| ISSN: | 1553-0604 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Jewish quarterly review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1454861 |