{"id":579,"date":"2018-01-13T14:34:18","date_gmt":"2018-01-13T22:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readingthechurchfathers.wordpress.com\/?p=579"},"modified":"2022-12-14T02:28:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T02:28:51","slug":"philo-on-the-life-of-moses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/philo-on-the-life-of-moses\/","title":{"rendered":"Philo: On the Life of Moses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Friend of God<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For, since God judged him worthy to appear as a partner of His own possessions, He gave into his hands the whole world as a portion well fitted for His heir. Therefore, each element obeyed him as its master, changed its natural properties and submitted to his command, and this perhaps is no wonder. For if, as the proverb says, what belongs to friends is common, and the prophet is called the friend of God, it would follow that he shares also God&#8217;s possessions, so far as it is serviceable.<\/p>\n<p>The joy of his partnership with the Father and Maker of all was magnified also by the honour of being deemed worthy to bear the same title. For he was named god and king of the whole nation, and entered, we are told, into the darkness where God was, that is into the unseen, invisible, incorporeal and archetypal essence of existing things. Thus he beheld what is hidden from the sight of mortal nature, and, in himself and his life displayed for all to see, he has set before us, like some well-wrought picture, a piece of work beautiful and godlike, a model for those who are willing to copy it. Happy are they who imprint, or strive to imprint, that image in their souls.<\/p>\n<p>Since he was destined to be a legislator, the providence of God &#8230; caused him &#8230; to be the reasonable and living impersonation of law.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prophesying<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Moses, when he heard these words, pardoned them, but remembered the divine messages, and, using his mind and speech simultaneously for different purposes, with the former silently interceded with God to save them from their desperate afflictions, with the latter encouraged and comforted the loud-voiced malcontents.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do not lose heart,&#8221; he said, &#8220;God&#8217;s way of defence is not as that of men. Why are you quick to trust in the specious and plausible and that only ? When God gives help He needs no armament. It is His special property to find a way where no way is. What is impossible to all created being is possible to Him only, ready to His hand.&#8221; Thus he discoursed, still calm and composed; but, after a little, he became possessed, and, filled with the spirit which was wont to visit him, uttered these oracular words of prophecy: &#8220;The host which you see armed to the teeth you shall see no more arrayed against you. It shall all fall in utter ruin and disappear in the depths, so that no remnant may be seen above the earth. And this shall be at no distant time, but in the coming night.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Posts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/2018\/01\/07\/origen-what-is-worship\/\">Origen: What is Worship<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friend of God For, since God judged him worthy to appear as a partner of His own possessions, He gave into his hands the whole world as a portion well fitted for His heir. Therefore, each element obeyed him as its master, changed its natural properties and submitted to his command, and this perhaps is no wonder. For if, as the proverb says, what belongs to friends is common, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[78,104,119],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philo-of-alexandria","tag-friend-of-god","tag-moses","tag-prophesying"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":589,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/philo-life-of-moses-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":0},"title":"Philo: Life of Moses II","author":"Nemo","date":"February 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ideal Lawgiver Moses, through God's providence, became king and lawgiver and high priest and prophet. But to command what should be done and forbid what should not be done is the peculiar function of law; so that it follows at once that the king is a living law and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Philo of Alexandria&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Philo of Alexandria","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/philo-of-alexandria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":604,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/philo-on-abraham\/","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":1},"title":"Philo: On Abraham","author":"Nemo","date":"March 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Man and the World For it cannot be that while in yourself there is a mind appointed as your ruler which all the community of the body obeys and each of the senses follows, the world, the fairest, and greatest and most perfect work of all, of which everything else\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Philo of Alexandria&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Philo of Alexandria","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/philo-of-alexandria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":389,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/clement-of-alexandria-christ-the-true-king\/","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":2},"title":"Clement Of Alexandria: Christ The True King","author":"Nemo","date":"March 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Now among the Greeks, Minos the king of nine years\u2019 reign, and familiar friend of Zeus, is celebrated in song; they having heard how once God conversed with Moses, \u201cas one speaking with his friend.\u201d Moses, then, was a sage, king, legislator. But our Saviour surpasses all human nature. He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Clement of Alexandria&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Clement of Alexandria","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/clement-of-alexandria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1355,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/constitutions-of-the-holy-apostles\/","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":3},"title":"Constitutions of the Holy Apostles","author":"Nemo","date":"January 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Honour of the Bishop XXIX. For if Aaron, because he declared to Pharaoh the words of God from Moses, is called a prophet; and Moses himself is called a god to Pharaoh, on account of his being at once a king and a high priest, as God says to him,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Church Fathers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Church Fathers","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/church-fathers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":555,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/clement-of-alexandria-the-perfect-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":4},"title":"Clement of Alexandria: The Perfect Man","author":"Nemo","date":"January 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The perfect man, who is incapable of exercising courage: for neither does he meet what inspires fear, as he regards none of the things that occur in life as to be dreaded; nor can aught dislodge him from this\u2014the love he has towards God. Nor does he need cheerfulness of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Clement of Alexandria&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Clement of Alexandria","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/clement-of-alexandria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21992,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/theodoret-dialogues-or-eranistes\/","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":5},"title":"Theodoret: Dialogues or Eranistes","author":"Nemo","date":"February 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Mediator between God and Man \u201cThere is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.\u201d ... in this passage that very name \u2018mediator\u2019 stands indicative both of Godhead and of manhood. He is called a mediator because He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Theodoret&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Theodoret","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/theodoret\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peqR9l-9l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1432,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions\/1432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}