I’m teaching the *Life* this summer. I hope to post here a series of thoughts, questions, and so on as I read the book. One question I have early is about the way Gregory articulates the book. The first part of the book is like standard biography—like standard biography, but it isn’t standard biography. (Not by the standard, say, of the *Life of Johnson*.) Gregory narrates Moses’ life, but he does so from a particular angle. He closes the first part by underscoring that he has narrated literally but also that he has amplified the narration so as “to bring out its intention” (emphasis mine). I judge this to mean that he has first followed the Scriptural narrative with one eye, as it were, but second always with the other eye fixed on the point of the narrative. Does that seem right? If it does, then how does the second part of the book relate to the first? Does Gregory shift eyes, so to speak, so that in the second part of the book the point of the narrative moves into the superordinate position and the literal narration into the subordinate? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Filed under: education, philosophy or religion
