Editing Moses (section)

=== Longinus ===
[[File:The Brazen Serpent.jpg|thumb|Moses lifts up the [[Nehushtan|brass serpent]], curing the Israelites from poisonous snake bites in a painting by [[Benjamin West]].]]
The [[Septuagint]], the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, impressed the pagan author of the famous classical book of literary criticism, ''[[On the Sublime]]'', traditionally attributed to [[Longinus (literature)|Longinus]]. The date of composition is unknown, but it is commonly assigned to the late first century CE.<ref>Henry J. M. Day, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qIkgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 ''Lucan and the Sublime: Power, Representation and Aesthetic Experience,''] Cambridge University Press, 2013 p. 12.</ref>

The writer quotes [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] in a "style which presents the nature of the deity in a manner suitable to his pure and great being", but he does not mention Moses by name, calling him 'no chance person' ({{lang|grc|οὐχ ὁ τυχὼν ἀνήρ}}) but "the Lawgiver" ({{lang|grc|θεσμοθέτης}}, [[thesmothete]]) of the Jews, a term that puts him on a par with [[Lycurgus]] and [[Minos]].<ref>Louis H. Felkdman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Kbgf52KNsLQC&pg=PA239 ''Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian''], Princeton University Press 1996 p. 239.</ref> Aside from a reference to [[Cicero]], Moses is the only non-Greek writer quoted in the work; contextually he is put on a par with [[Homer]],{{Sfn|Feldman|1998|p=133}} and he is described "with far more admiration than even Greek writers who treated Moses with respect, such as [[Hecataeus of Abdera|Hecataeus]] and [[Strabo]]".{{Sfn|Shmuel|1976|p=1140}}