Paul’s Freedom and Moses’ Veil: Moral Freedom and the Mosaic Law in 2 Corinthians 3.1–4.6 in Light of Philo 1

Abstract

Whereas 2 Cor. 3.1–4.6 is traditionally understood as a polemic against Judaeans and the Mosaic law, a close examination of its rhetoric of moral freedom in light of nearly contemporaneous philosophers, and Philo of Alexandria in particular, necessitates a different conclusion. As part of his self-depiction as a sophos, Paul critiques Moses’ mediation of the law by invoking Stoic philosophical traditions which relativize slavery and freedom and assert that written codes of law are insufficient for freedom in order to claim that Moses limited divine revelation. In this way, Paul casts Moses’ mediation as a foil for his mediation of the gospel, which allegedly does not limit revelation but affords freedom apart from the written law. Paul never castigates the law or Judaeans; instead, he critiques Mosaic mediation in order to bolster his own authority as a mediator of divine revelation.