From Solon to Moses

 

In his 

Origins of Judaism

 (2022) Yonathan Adler argues that the Pentateuch was not adopted before the Maccabean period (2nd and 1st centuries BCE) as law of the land and the nation, he leaves open the question of when the Pentateuch was composed.

John Ahn (

We Were Wrong: The Torah is a Hellenistic Work Not An Earlier Text!

) holds that at least parts of the Pentateuch were composed in the Hellenistic period.

Biblical minimalists

, from the Copenhagen School like Russell Gmirkin in 

Plato And The Creation Of The Hebrew Bible

 (2017) argue that the Pentateuch was composed in the 3rd century BCE in Alexandria. That would imply that the Septuagint is anterior to the Pentateuch. The mainstream view is that the Septuagint is older than the Hebrew Massoretic text we know but it was always supposed that the latter was based on an older Hebrew original.

Philippe Wajdenbaum in 

Argonauts of the Desert: Structural Analysis of the Hebrew Bible

 (2019) holds the same view a Gmirkin on the time of the composition of the Pentateuch. So do Niels Peter Lemche in 

The Old Testament – A Hellenistic Book?

 (2001), Thomas L. Thompson 

The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology And The Myth Of Israel

 (1999), Philip R. Davies in 

Scribes and Schools: The Canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures

 (1998) who highlights the Hellenistic influence but holds that the text was written in Judea and in Hebrew. Giovanni Garbini in 

History and ideology in ancient Israel

 (1988) also insists on the massive Hellenistic influence.

Despite that this Hellenistic dating is not the mainstream consensus and that most scholars today place the core composition in the Persian period (5th–4th centuries BCE), with some earlier traditions and later editing and that the fully Hellenistic composition model (3rd–1st centuries BCE) is considered a minority position, though it has gained more attention in recent decades due to comparative literary studies, we will assume that it is valid so we can develop the hypothesis that the historical and mythical figure of Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, served as blueprint for the invention of Moses, the Pentateuch's main character.

Solon

 (Ancient Greek: Σόλων; c. 630 – c. 560 BC) was an Athenian statesman, poet, and lawgiver active during the late Archaic period. Upon his appointment to the archonship in 594/3 BCE (the term “archon” literally translates to “ruler,” the role evolved from a lifelong monarchical position into an annually elected magistracy), Solon intervened in a period of acute socio-economic volatility characterized by systemic debt-bondage and mounting civil strife. His primary legislative response, the Seisachtheia (lit. “shaking off of burdens”), effectively stabilized the Athenian state by implementing a retroactive cancellation of debts and establishing a permanent prohibition on using the physical person as collateral for loans. This measure not only emancipated those enslaved by debt but also dismantled the mechanism of aristocratic exploitation that had threatened to precipitate an all-out civil war.

Solon, celebrated as one of the Seven Sages of Greece (next to Thales, Pittacus, Bias, Chilon, Cleobulus and Periander), articulated his political philosophy through elegiac poetry. His extant fragments emphasize eunomie (good order) and justice, advocating for a middle path of moderation and the rule of law as a structural defense against tyranny.

To ensure the integrity of his legislative framework and prevent immediate partisan tampering, Solon self-imposed a ten-year period of travel following his reforms. Upon his return to Athens, he witnessed the ascent of the tyrant Peisistratus. Although Solon remained a vocal critic of this autocratic shift, he was ultimately unable to obstruct the transition from his constitutional system to a populist tyranny.

The tradition attributed to Solon an ethical decalogue that probably existed before him:

1. Trust good character more than promises. (Character is a better guarantee than an oath.)
   Do not speak falsely. (Avoid lies and deceit.)
   Do good things. (Focus on virtuous actions.)
   Do not be hasty in making friends. (But once made, do not abandon them.)
   Do not seek to occupy yourself with the wicked. (Avoid the company of those who do ill.)
   Learn to obey before you command. (True leadership stems from understanding discipline.)
   In giving advice, seek to help, not to please. (Offer the best counsel, even if it is unpopular.)
   Do not be arrogant. (Maintain humility.)
   Make reason your guide. (Let logic and intellect lead your decisions.)
   Do not associate with the bad. (Keep away from those who lack integrity.)

The 3rd–1st century BC Judean community was often a fractured entity, plagued by internal social fragmentation and ideological discord. To address this, Judean authors looked to the Athenian model of the diallaktēs, or “reconciler,” a role epitomized by Solon of Athens. Solon was chosen by warring factions to resolve civil strife (stasis) through a balanced legal framework; similarly, the figure of Moses was elaborated as a “Jewish Solon.” His leadership in the wilderness was re-envisioned as a grand political intervention intended to produce homonoia (unanimity) and sumphōnia (concord) through a unified code. The preference for this Solonian mediator over a monarchical archetype was a calculated strategic choice: it presented the Mosaic law as a instrument of shared virtue and social justice, capable of unifying a divided people through reason rather than royal decree.

In Hellenistic thought, the politeia (constitution) was the essential tool for cultural definition and national survival. Judean authors of this era presented the Torah as a comprehensive civil constitution, placing immense strategic value on its written nature. Mirroring the Solonian reforms that replaced arbitrary power with the clarity of the axones (the rotating wooden pillars used to display the laws of Athens), the Mosaic code was lauded for its “written precision.” This focus on the fixed, legal letter provided a rationalized structure that made Judean identity both portable and permanent. Furthermore, these authors adopted the “double form” of lawmaking found in Platonic theory: they argued that the Mosaic politeia utilized persuasive preambles—rational justifications preceding the actual legal commands—to ensure that the law was internalized through reason rather than merely obeyed through fear.

The Judean authors of the late Hellenistic period (3–1 BC) successfully executed a double game of cultural engineering. By utilizing the Solonian model—the most prestigious intellectual tool of their era—they constructed a figure in Moses and a document in the Pentateuch that functioned with profound Hellenistic sophistication. The ultimate achievement of these unconscious architects was the creation of a national identity that seemed to predate the Greeks, yet operated with a written, rational, and constitutional logic that was unmistakably Hellenistic. Through this strategic projection, they secured the survival of the Judean ethnos by transforming a tribal history into a universal and permanent politeia.

Parallelisms between Solon and Moses:

In the ancient Mediterranean, there was a specific “template” for a foundational hero known as the Nomothete (Lawgiver). Both Moses and Solon fit this mold perfectly:

• The Burden of Justice: Both are portrayed as mediators who intervene during a social crisis to save their people from oppression (slavery in Egypt for Moses; debt-slavery in Athens for Solon).
• The Travel Motif: Both are associated with Egypt. Solon famously traveled there to seek wisdom from priests; Moses, of course, was “drawn from the Nile” and educated in Pharaoh’s court.
• The “Shaking Off” of Burdens: Solon’s primary reform was the Seisachtheia (“shaking off from burdens”), which cancelled debts. This mirrors the Exodus narrative of “shaking off” the yoke of Egyptian bondage.
• The Voluntary Exit: Both men give their people a code of laws and then remove themselves. Solon went into a 10-year exile so he wouldn't be tempted to become a tyrant; Moses died on Mount Nebo, never entering the Promised Land, ensuring the Law remained the authority rather than his own person.

In the polemical environment of the Hellenistic world, where the hostility between Greeks and Jews was great, "Cultural Priority" was the ultimate form of intellectual capital. Jewish authors such as Philo and Josephus engaged in what can be described as “intellectual theft-in-reverse” by asserting that Moses was “far more ancient” than any Greek lawgiver. By claiming that Moses invented the alphabet and the first written laws, they argued that the Judean politeia was the original source of all Mediterranean wisdom. In this view, Solon, Lycurgus, and even the Greek philosophers were not innovators but mere students of a Mosaic original. This historical projection masked their deep intellectual debt to Greek structures, positioning the Judean Lawgiver as the foundational architect of civilization itself—essentially claiming that Greek logic was merely “Moses speaking Attic Greek.”

Fun fact or food for thought?

The first rabbis were cautious with the figure of Moses. In the Passover Haggadah his name appears only once within a quoted verse from the Book of Exodus (14:31):

"And Israel saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord; and they believed in the Lord, and in Moses His servant."