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Moses and Those 'Horns'

moses and mitani

numbers 31

World Culture versus Blind Faith

The ‘world culture’ of the Greeks brought Egyptian mythology, Indian metaphysics and Greek philosophy into direct contact with each other, giving birth to a syncretic method of enquiry, an intellectual movement to gain knowledge or ‘gnosis’ from nature itself. If Gnosticism was a ‘religion’ then it was one that held to a fantastic if ultimately vain hope: that a place could be found for all of knowledge and human experience. Its very liberalism and inclusiveness placed Gnosticism directly at odds with all who argued for faith and a blind and unquestioning acceptance of dogma. Later Christianity was to stigmatise Gnosticism as a ‘heresy’ but in fact it pre-dates the established church by centuries.

Gnosticism embraced many schools of thought, and within it even some Jews could find a theological niche. Simon Magus (‘Simon the Magician’) was one – in later centuries, stigmatised by the Christians in the sin of 'simony' (the buying and selling of ecclesiastical favours). Simon Magus was apparently Nero’s court magician and a leading light among the Jews of Rome. Not only did Jewish cities adopt Hellenic styles of architecture but, after centuries without schools and academies, the Jews embraced the value of literacy.

Unlike the Greeks however, most ‘practicing’ Jews never questioned texts critically but elevated them as sacred objects in their own right, to be revered and ‘close-read’ for hidden meaning. This ferreting out of subtleties – or contorting old words for new purposes – was called ‘midrash’, a particular gift of the priesthood. But the process began of rewriting even the sacred texts into the language of the Greeks, the lingua franca of the Mediterranean world. But whilst they might ‘borrow’ from the conqueror, the Jewish priesthood, a ruling caste of several thousand and the personification of social exclusion and theocratic privilege, recoiled in horror at Greek attempts to integrate them into their world.

 

The Natives are Restless (and hoping for a Jewish 'Alexander')

The most significant event to occur in the province of Judaea in the first century of direct Roman rule did not involve any miraculous birth, death and ‘resurrection’ of a godman, but rather, was the vicious war waged by Roman legions against rebellious Jewish ‘nationalists.’ What drove the Jews into suicidal confrontation with the legions of Rome? With Herod’s death, Judaea had first come under direct Roman rule in 6 AD and from then on the pace of Romanisation quickened. The Jews themselves were fragmented by this process. Many Jews, particularly in the rich cities of the ‘diaspora’, enjoyed a higher prosperity than ever and were decidedly pro-Roman. Others doggedly resisted assimilation. The more extreme of these ‘traditionalists’ castigated not only their conquerors but also the temple priesthood.

The Jews, in fact, had long been a divided people. In Samaria, a rival temple and Yahweh cult existed at Mount Gerizim, established in the days of the Maccabees by Jews who rejected any ‘Law’ later than the five books of Moses. For them, Moses was the sole legitimate prophet of Israel, and imminently, he would return as the Messiah. These Jews were actually descendants of Assyrian settlers, who were outside the ‘racial purity’ sought by the Jews of Judaea. Hence, Samaritans were regarded by them as both religiously and racially inferior, as counterfeit Jews
 

Philo of Alexandria

Philo intellectualised these thoughts. He was a Hellenized Jew, much influenced both by Greek philosophy and Egyptian religious ideas (famously, his nephew apostatised, took the name Tiberias Julius Alexander, and became Roman governor of Egypt.) His own philosophy was a re-worked mix of the speculations of Heraclitus (535-475 BC) and an ancient Egyptian idea that the unknowable godhead existed in the realm of ‘plenitude’ or Pleroma .

The godhead, said Philo, gave existence to various ‘emanations’ or subordinate gods that could be known. These emanations (‘aeons’ or ‘archons’) created and governed the world. Philo identified several: the Logos (The Word or logic ); Sophia (Wisdom) – already present in Judaism, probably as a residual element of the time when Yahweh had a female consort; Nous (Mind); Phronesis (Judgement); and Dynamis (Power). Thus the supreme god’s will, justice, power, etc., made its presence felt through these ‘emanations’, which might take various forms.

The Logos was present in the Egyptian pantheon, identified with the god Horus/Serapis, and similarly, in Stoic philosophy which held that the Logos made itself manifest through various gods – Zeus, Hermes, etc. The Stoics, who originated in 4th century BC Athens and took their name from the stoa, or meeting hall – were the first thoroughgoing pantheists, holding that ‘God is the universe, the universe is God.’ For Stoics, a wise and virtuous person learns his place in the scheme of things. Stoicism, ironically, was to influence both the Roman intelligentsia and the emerging Christians it held in contempt. The stoic philosopher Seneca became tutor to the young Nero and a century later, the emperor Marcus Aurelius was himself a Stoic philosopher.