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Explanations of the Law of Moses (fragments), with the Jewish 'Testament of Orpheus'

Known · Attestedin Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placementLegend · Told storya told story on its tag

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I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Philosophy

Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

Aristobulus of Alexandria

fl. c. 170 BCE. Addressed an explanation of the Law of Moses to Ptolemy VI, reading its anthropomorphisms allegorically and claiming that Plato and Pythagoras had drawn on Moses. The first Jewish philosopher whose words survive, in fragments quoted by Clement and Eusebius.

Explanations of the Law of Moses (fragments), with the Jewish 'Testament of Orpheus'

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives in fragments

Five fragments in Eusebius and Clement.

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Attested

Written in Alexandria.

On the table: written in Alexandria; no evidence it was in the Library.

Read it today

III · In the show

+ 1 more
  • Translation History: Hebrew to Greek to Latin, episode 17, at 27 minutes 18 secondsTranscript“henistic Judaism gave us two really important things for the western esoteric tradition.”Known: attested
    Correction
    What was said
    The Septuagint means seventy books.
    What the sources say
    It is named for the seventy (or seventy-two) translators of the legend. Merkavah mysticism is not shown to be Alexandrian.
    Reference
    • Letter of Aristeas 46–50

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (3)
  • Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 8.10; 13.12
  • Clement, Stromata 1.150; 5.97
  • 2 Maccabees 1:10
Modern scholarship (3)
  • C. R. Holladay, Fragments from Hellenistic Jewish Authors, 4 vols (Chico/Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1983-1996).
  • J. J. Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000)
  • E. S. Gruen, Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

EXPLANATIONS OF THE LAW OF MOSES (FRAGMENTS), WITH THE JEWISH 'TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS'

Read what is told

The back of the tag: a story told of this work, in its teller's voice.

Legend: told story

A translation older than the Septuagint

Aristobulus tells King Ptolemy that Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato drew on a Greek translation of the Law older than the one made under Ptolemy II, and quotes a poem in which Orpheus renounces the many gods for the one.

Told by Aristobulus, c. 175–150 BCE, of philosophers dead two to four centuries

What the evidence supports

No earlier translation is known. The Orphic poem is a Jewish composition in Orpheus's name, and the quoted Aratus has 'Zeus' changed to 'God'.

Sources (2)
  • Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 13.12
  • Clement, Stromata 1.150; 5.97
The Hall of Told Stories

Beside it on the table