The Apocalyptic Moses of Second Temple Judaism

This article surveys a wide variety of Second Temple period texts dating from the third century bce to the first century ce and ranging from the sectarian Qumran texts to Hellenistic literature from the Egyptian Diaspora. Despite the differences in provenance, these works exhibit a striking similarity in regard to Moses – they imbue Moses with apocalyptic characteristics. In a comparison with the Second Temple apocalypses of Daniel and 1 Enoch, which indeed might have served as inspiration for some of these Second Temple authors, this article demonstrates that the surveyed texts exhibit a number of the markers of the apocalyptic genre as defined by John J. Collins. The Second Temple Moses is a supernatural Moses, either interacting with angels or becoming one himself; his biblical prophecies have been replaced with visions of the eschatological future; and his sojourn on Mount Sinai has turned into an actual ascent into heaven. This widespread apocalypticizing of Moses attests not only to the profound shift towards apocalyptic thinking in the Second Temple period, but also to the enduring significance of Moses as a conduit to God even in the post-biblical world.