Josephus says he invented the very word ‘law’, then unknown in Greek, and was the first legislator in world history.77 Philo accused both philosophers and lawgivers of plundering or copying his ideas, Heraclitus and Plato being the chief culprits.78 Still more striking is the assertion of the pagan writer Numenius of Apamea (second century AD) that Plato was just a Moses who spoke Greek.79 The ancient writers were not merely convinced of Moses’ existence: they saw him as one of the formative figures of world history.
