Between Rewritten Bible and Allegorical Commentary: Philo’s Interpretation of the Burning Bush

Abstract

This chapter looks at a transgressive example, which drawn from the writings of Philo of Alexandria, in which the forms of and commentary, in this case allegorical, are combined in interesting ways. The scriptural base of the example considered in the chapter is the story of the bush in Exod 3:1-6, the first four verses of which first occupy ones attention. Before turning to Philo's interpretation of the passage in his Life of Moses , the chapter looks at the scriptural text itself, in Hebrew, English, and Greek, to ask what therein might call out for interpretive attention. Thus, as important and useful as the distinction between and (allegorical) commentary is, one should not allow that distinction to conceal the ways in which they are intersecting partners in the multifaceted dynamics of ancient scriptural interpretation. Keywords: allegorical commentary; ancient scriptural interpretation; burning bush; Life of Moses ; Philo of Alexandria; rewritten Bible