Recasting Moses: The Memory of Moses in Biographical and Autobiographical Narratives in Ancient Judaism and 4th-Century Christianity

278 Pages·2012·2.772 MB·English

by  Finn Damgaard

Early Christianity
in thE ContExt
of antiquity
Edited by David Brakke,
Anders-Christian Jacobsen,
Jörg Ulrich
Advisory board:
Hanns Christof Brennecke
Nicole Kelley
Ferdinand R. Prostmeier
Einar Thomassen
Volume 13
Finn Damgaard
Recasting Moses
The Memory of Moses
in Biographical and Autobiographical
Narratives in Ancient Judaism
and 4th-Century Christianity
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche
Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is
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ISSN 1862-197X
ISBN 978-3-631-63142-3
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Acknowledgements
This work is a slightly revised version of my PhD-thesis which was handed in
to the Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen in February 2010.
I want to express my sincere thank to my supervisors: Henrik Tronier
whose inspiring teaching made me interested in doing a PhD in the New
Testament Studies and who supervised the first year of my PhD studies with
much care. Samuel Rubenson for his constructive co-supervision on espe-
cially my chapters on Eusebius and the two Gregories, and, last but not least,
Troels Engberg-Pedersen for his readiness always to read a new draft and for
his valuable comments and suggestions on major as well as minor aspects of
the project.
I would also express my gratitude to Margaret M. Mitchell for sharing
her time and knowledge during my stay at the Divinity School, University of
Chicago in autumn 2006. I am also grateful to the members of the assessment
committee, William Horbury, Tomas Hägg and Mogens Müller, for their help-
ful criticism and to Anders-Christian Jacobsen, David Brakke and Jörg Ulrich
for accepting my work for the ECCA series. Also thanks to the anonymous
reviewer for constructive comments and to Beate Gienke for her qualified
assistance in making the manuscript ready for printing.
An earlier version of chapter 5 appeared in the Journal of Jewish
Studies 59/2 (2008), 218–235. I thank the editor and publisher for permission
to publish this chapter here. Portions of chapter 3, 6 and 7 will appear in
J. Zsengellér (ed.), "Rewritten Bible" after 50 years. Texts, Terms, or Technics?,
Journal for the Study of Judaism Supplement Series, Brill, forthcoming;
A.P. Johnson / J. Schott (eds.), Eusebius of Caesarea. Traditions and Innovations,
Center for Hellenic Studies Press, forthcoming and Studia Patristica. Papers
presented at the Sixteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies
held in Oxford 2011 (Peeters Publishers, forthcoming), respectively.
Thanks also to my colleagues at the Biblical Studies Section at the
University of Copenhagen for a stimulating and pleasant working environ-
ment, and to the Faculty of Theology in Copenhagen for financial support.
Finally, I want to thank Gertrud for being my most critical reader.

“Wie klein erscheint der Sinai, wenn der Moses darauf steht!”
Heinrich Heine, Geständnisse (1854),
Sämtliche Schriften 6.1, Munich 1975, 480.

Table of contents
1. Introduction 1
1.1. A culture of imitation 1
1.2. Biographical narratives 2
1.3. Moses as a figure of memory in 1st-century Judaism
and 4th-century Christianity 4
1.4. Collective memory 10
1.5. Social identity and master commemorative narrative 13
1.6. Cultural memory and intertextuality 15
1.7. Outline of chapters 17
Part I
2. The Greek Moses: The Biblical figure of Moses in the Septuagint 25
2.1. Introduction 25
2.2. General principles of translation 27
2.3. Moses in translation: Characteristics of the Septuagint Moses
narratives and their impact on the portrait of the figure of Moses 30
2.3.1. Moses in translation 30
2.3.1.1. Jewishness 30
2.3.1.2. A non-divine Moses 32
2.3.1.3. The character of Moses 33
2.3.1.4. Brotherhood 36
2.3.1.5. The characteristics of the Septuagint figure of Moses 38
2.3.2. God in translation 38
2.3.2.1. The notion of “seeing God” 38
2.3.2.2. Meeting God and the question of an
anti-anthropomorphic tendency 40
2.3.2.3. God’s name and the monotheistic concern 42
2.4. Conclusion: The figure of Moses in light
of the Septuagint portrait of God 44
Part II
3. An imagined Jewish community: Philo’s De Vita Mosis 49
3.1. Introduction 49
3.2. Previous research on the literary character
of De Vita Mosis as a βίος 51
3.3. The first digression (Mos. 1.18–33): A cultural Exodus 53
3.3.1. At the king’s court: Jewish vs. Egyptian culture 55
3.3.2. Moses’ education and the “theft of philosophy” argument 56
3.3.3. “Moses went out to his brothers” (Exod 2:11) 58
3.4. Moses the shepherd: On allegorical interpretation and
the division of the De Vita Mosis 63
3.5. A political Exodus: On citizenship in Philo’s Alexandria 68
3.6. The second digression (Mos. 1.148–162):
Translating Greek culture into Judaism 74
X Table of contents
3.6.1. Moses as a philosopher-king 75
3.6.2. Moses as cosmopolitan 80
3.7. A spiritual Exodus: The goal of Moses’ ἀποικία 82
3.8. Conclusion: The vision of Philo’s imagined community 84
4. The memory of Moses in Paul’s autobiographical references:
The figures of Moses in the letters of Paul 89
4.1. Introduction 89
4.2. Moses and the Corinthian correspondence 90
4.2.1. Previous research on Paul’s use of the figure
of Moses in the Corinthian correspondence 90
4.2.2. “Written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11) 93
4.2.2.1. Introduction to 1 Corinthians 93
4.2.2.2. The context: 1 Corinthians 8:1–11:1 93
4.2.2.3. Situational similarity 95
4.2.2.4. The Corinthian community and Israel: 1 Corinthians 10:1–11 97
4.2.2.5. Conclusion 102
4.2.3. “Not like Moses” (2 Corinthians 3:13) 103
4.2.3.1. Introduction to 2 Corinthians 2:14–7:4 103
4.2.3.2. The question of Paul’s sufficiency 104
4.2.3.3. The comparison with Moses 107
4.2.3.4. Conclusion 111
4.3. “For the sake of my own people” (Romans 9:3) 112
4.3.1. Previous research on Paul’s use of the
figure of Moses in the letter to the Romans 112
4.3.2. Introduction to Romans 9–11 113
4.3.3. Moses and Paul on the restoration of Israel 114
4.3.4. Moses and the righteousness from faith 117
4.3.5. Excursus: The figure of Moses in Galatians 119
4.3.6. The use of DeuteronomyLXX 32 in Romans 9–11 120
4.3.7. Conclusion 122
4.4. Conclusion: “Not like Moses” or “like Moses”?
Paul miscellaneous uses of the figure of Moses 122
5. Generalship in the midst of seditions: The relationship
between the figure of Moses in the Jewish Antiquities and
Josephus’ own self-portraits in his autobiographical writings 125
5.1. Introduction 125
5.2. Previous research on parallels between the Biblical figures
in the Jewish Antiquities and Josephus’ self-portraits 126
5.3. Introduction to the Jewish Antiquities 128
5.4. Becoming a Hebrew general 131
5.4.1. The Egyptian general 131
5.4.2. Moses and Hebrew factionalism 135
5.5. The self-portraits 139