Two Ancient rewritings of Numbers 11

Numbers 11 tells of various happenings that transpire once the Israelites leave Mount Sinai (see Num 10,11-12), these including a story of God's sending quail to the refractory people that ends up badly for them. This essay provides a detailed comparative reading of two ancient retellings of the biblical quail story, i.e. those of Josephus (Ant. 3.295-299) and Philo (Spec. 4.126-131). From this comparative investigation, it emerges that both authors, e.g., accentuate the reprehensibility of the people's behavior and eliminate the speaking role attributed to God himself in the biblical account. At the same time, Josephus' rendering is distinctive in its highlighting of the interaction between Moses and the people, an interaction into which the historian introduces mention of two nameless individuals who respectively, support and challenge Moses in his exchange with the people. Philo, on the other hand, focusses all attention on the covetous people, the punishment that comes upon them, and the moral lessons to be drawn from the happening, even while he confines mention of Moses to the opening and closing reflections with which he "frames" his reproduction of the data of Num 11,31-34.