Philo's second book on Moses, presenting him as king, lawgiver, high priest, and prophet, with allegorical readings of the Law, the tabernacle furnishings, and the priestly vestments.
On the Life of Moses II is the second half of Philo of Alexandria's biography of Moses, written in Greek for an educated Greco-Roman audience. Where Book I narrated Moses's life story, Book II is organized around four offices Philo says Moses uniquely combined: king, lawgiver, high priest, and prophet. Philo argues these roles are not incidental but fit together necessarily in one man, since a true king must also govern by law, a true lawgiver must secure divine favor through priesthood, and a leader who confronts what reason cannot grasp needs prophecy as well.
The bulk of the work walks through the content of each office. As lawgiver, Philo praises the Mosaic law as superior to the legal codes of any other nation and describes specific institutions such as the Sabbath and its extension of rest even to animals and plants, and the practices of Jewish communities gathering on the shore for festival prayers. As high priest, Philo gives an extended allegorical tour of the tabernacle, the ephod, and priestly vestments, reading the emerald shoulder-stones as symbols of the sun and moon or the two hemispheres, and treating the sanctuary's inner and outer zones as symbols of mind versus the senses. As prophet, he retells episodes from Exodus and Numbers -- the crossing of the sea, Korah's rebellion swallowed by the earth and burned by fire from heaven -- as fulfillments of Moses's own predictions.
The book closes with Moses's death, which Philo treats as no ordinary death: Moses is described as prophesying his own end while still alive, being buried by no mortal hands, and being taken up toward heaven. The work matters as a primary example of how a first-century Hellenistic Jewish intellectual translated Israel's founding figure into terms a Greek-educated reader would recognize -- philosopher-king, ideal legislator, cosmic symbolist -- without abandoning the biblical narrative underneath.
“For by the providence of God he became king, lawgiver, high priest, and prophet, and in each office he carried off the highest honors.”
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“For where the mind falls short, there prophecy arrives.”
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“That he himself, as lawgiver, is the best of all who ever arose anywhere, among Greeks or barbarians, and that his laws are the finest and truly divine, omitting nothing that is needed”
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“Moses records the beginning of the vernal equinox as the first month in the cycles of the year, giving precedence not, as some do, according to mere chronological order, but according to the graces of nature”
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“Such was his life, and such also was the end of Moses, king and lawgiver and high priest and prophet, as it is recorded in the sacred writings.”
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It is the second book of Philo of Alexandria's biography of Moses, organized around four offices Philo says Moses held together: king, lawgiver, high priest, and prophet. Philo argues each office necessarily requires the others and then explains the content of the law, the tabernacle and priestly vestments, and Moses's prophecies in turn.
Philo reasons that a true king must govern by law, that overseeing both human and divine affairs requires priesthood, and that grasping what reason alone cannot requires prophecy, so the four roles fit together necessarily in one person by God's providence.
Philo treats them allegorically: the ephod's emerald shoulder-stones symbolize the sun and moon or the two hemispheres, and the tabernacle's inner sanctuary versus outer courtyard represent the mind versus the senses.
He describes it as a truce extending rest to all creation, including animals used for labor and even trees and plants, framing the day as one on which nothing is cut, plucked, or worked.
Philo says Moses prophesied his own death while still alive, with unerring accuracy, and was buried with no mortal person present, as though by immortal hands rather than human ones.
Philo was a first-century Hellenistic Jewish philosopher writing in Greek in Alexandria, who interpreted Jewish scripture and figures like Moses through the lens of Greek philosophy for an educated audience.
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