INTRODUCTION TO DE VITA MOSIS I AND II
The first of these two treatises covers, as is stated at the beginning of the second, the early life and education of Moses and the main facts of his work as King; that is, as the leader of the Israelites in their escape from Egypt and adventures in the wilderness. It runs on very straight-forwardly and does not call for any detailed analysis. There is only one attempt at allegory, viz. the reflections on the meaning of the vision of the Burning Bush.
The second treatise is far more complicated. It treats the character of Moses under three heads, the legislative, the high-priestly and the prophetic, a method which necessarily precludes any chronological arrangement. The first division as it stands begins with some general remarks on the need of these three qualifications as adjuncts to the ideal king (1–11), and proceeds to base the glory of Moses as a legislator first on the permanence of his laws (12–16), secondly on the respect paid to them by other nations (17–24) in support of which he adds an account of the making of the Septuagint (25–44). To these is to be added the greatness of the law-book itself, but this passes away into a justification of the scheme by which the legislative element is preceded by the historical, and this is followed by a dissertation on how the historical part records the punishment of the wicked and the salvation of the good, this last including a detailed account of Noah and the Ark (45–65).
In the second division the discussion of Moses as priest leads to a detailed description of the tabernacle and its appurtenances (66–108 and 136–140), the priest’s vesture with its symbolism (109–135), the appointment of the priests and Levites (141–158) and this last to an account of the part played by the Levites in punishing the idolatry of the Golden Calf (159–173), and finally of the vindication of the superiority of the priests by the blossoming of Aaron’s rod (174–186).
The third division treating of Moses as prophet is subdivided according as his pronouncements are made from an oracle given in answer to his question or from his own prophetic inspiration (181–191). Four examples are given of each: of the former, (a) the sentence on the blasphemer (192–208), (b) on the Sabbath-breaker (209–220), (c) special regulations as to the Passover (221–232), (d) the law of inheritance (233–245). As examples of the latter he gives Moses’ prophecies (a) of the destruction of the Egyptians (246–257), (b) of the manna (258–269), (c) of the slaughter of the idolaters (270–274) and (d) the destruction of Korah and his companions (275–287). The treatise ends with a few sections about the end of Moses. Altogether the two books, between them, cover most of the story of Moses as given in the Pentateuch, the only really serious omission being that of the theophany on Sinai.