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Pseudo Philo

Biblical Antiquities

About this book

Saul Is Presented as King

Chapter 57

1 Samuel sent and gathered all the people, and said to them, “You and your king are here, and I am between you, as the Lord commanded me. 2 “And therefore I say to you, before the face of your king, as my lord Moses the servant of God said to your fathers in the wilderness, when the assembly of Korah rose against him, ‘You know that I have not taken anything from you, nor have I wronged any of you’;⁠ and because certain ones lied at that time and said, ‘You did take,’ the earth swallowed them up. 3 “Now therefore, you whom the Lord has not punished, answer before the Lord and before his anointed, if it is for this reason that you have demanded a king, because I have treated you badly; and the Lord will be your witness. But if now the word of the Lord is fulfilled, I am free, and my father’s house.” 4 The people answered, “We are your servants, and our king with us; because we are unworthy to be judged by a prophet, therefore we said, ‘Appoint a king over us to judge us.’” And all the people and the king wept with a great lamentation and said, “Let Samuel the prophet live.” And when the king was appointed, they offered sacrifices to the Lord. 5 After that Saul fought with the Philistines one year, and the battle prospered greatly.

Texts in conversation

Compare Numbers 16:15 and Pseudo Philo, Biblical Antiquities 57:2

Hebrew Bible · Classical

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Summary

Numbers 16 describes Moses denying that he has taken anything from the rebels or harmed them. Pseudo-Philo has Samuel quote this denial when defending his own conduct before Israel and its new king.

Passages

Numbers 16:15

Hebrew Bible
12 Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, “We will not come up. 13 Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of the land that flows with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness? Now do you want to make yourself a prince over us? 14 Moreover, you have not brought us into a land that flows with milk and honey, nor given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you think you can blind these men? We will not come up.” 15 Moses was very angry, and he said to the Lord, “Have no respect for their offering! I have not taken so much as one donkey from them, nor have I harmed any one of them!” 16 Then Moses said to Korah, “You and all your company present yourselves before the Lord—you and they, and Aaron—tomorrow.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

Pseudo Philo, Biblical Antiquities 57:2

Classical
1 Samuel sent and gathered all the people, and said to them, “You and your king are here, and I am between you, as the Lord commanded me. 2 “And therefore I say to you, before the face of your king, as my lord Moses the servant of God said to your fathers in the wilderness, when the assembly of Korah rose against him, ‘You know that I have not taken anything from you, nor have I wronged any of you’; and because certain ones lied at that time and said, ‘You did take,’ the earth swallowed them up. 3 “Now therefore, you whom the Lord has not punished, answer before the Lord and before his anointed, if it is for this reason that you have demanded a king, because I have treated you badly; and the Lord will be your witness. But if now the word of the Lord is fulfilled, I am free, and my father’s house.”
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pseudo Philo, Biblical Antiquities

References

“... Pseudo-Philo often draws upon parallel accounts in order to enrich the retelling of the biblical narrative. When the daughter of Jephthah faces death because of her father’s vow, she alludes to Isaac’s willingness to be sacrificed (LAB 40.2). Similarly, Samuel’s avowal of innocence alludes to Moses’ response to the accusations of Korah (LAB 57.2; 1 Sam. 12.3; Num. 16.5). Pseudo-Philo’s story of Abram’s experience in the fiery furnace is in part inspired by the experience of the three friends in Daniel 3. Pseudo-Philo’s retelling of the crossing of the Red Sea is enriched with allusions to Pss. 18.15 and 106.9, while his description of dissension and division among the tribes (LAB 10.3) has been influenced in part by Judg. 5.15-16. The description of the events at Sinai is also influenced by allusions to other parts of Scripture. The account of the life of Kenaz in LAB 25–28, Pseudo-Philo’s lengthiest departure from the biblical narrative, is heavily influenced by Scripture. Bauckham cites some two dozen biblical passages that are instrumental in shaping the story. ...”
Craig A. Evans, “Luke and the Rewritten Bible: Aspects of Lukan Hagiography,” in The Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation, ed. James H. Charlesworth and Craig A. Evans, JSPSup 14 (Sheffield: JSOT, 1993), 188.

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Numbers 16:15 and Pseudo Philo, Biblical Antiquities 57:2

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