On the Life of Moses

Philo’s On the Life of Moses, written in the mid-1st century CE, is the only Jewish biography of Moses that has survived from Antiquity. The two volumes of Philo’s treatise cover the life span of Moses as a political leader, legislator, and ideal king, giving special attention to his youth and then following his career until his death. It is Philo’s declared purpose to present Moses as “the greatest and most perfect of men” (Moses 1.1). Moses is for him an exemplary figure with direct moral implications for his readers.

Maren R. Niehoff, “On the Life of Moses,” in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2013), 959.