Philo on the enigmatic Balaam (Num 22-24)

In my search for Philo's views on magic, his descriptions of the enigmatic Balaam of Numbers 22-24 is relevant. A recent article I happened to find just a few days ago has some interesting viewpoints on Philo's exposition of the Balaam episode:C.T.R. Hayward, 'Balaam's Prophecies as Interpreted by Philo and the Aramaic Targums of the Pentateuch,' P.J. Harland & C.T.R. Hayward (eds.), New Heaven and New Earth. Prophecy and Millenium. Essays in Honour of Anthony Gelston (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 77: Leiden; E.J. Brill, 2000), pp. 19-36.
Balaam is surely one of the more enigmatic figures in the Hebrew Scriptures. Being a non-Israelite from Petor, he is called upon by Balak, king of Moab, when the Israelittes approached on their way to ‘the promised land’ of Canaan (Num 22-24). He is called upon by Balak to curse the Israelites, but as the story proceeds, Balaam is not able to curse, but to bless. This occurs four times, and at last Balaam returns home. These events are, in the Book of Numbers, followed by the narrative of Israels apostasy at Sittim.

The presentation of Balaam in the works of Philo is complex. C.T.R. Hayward has argued that Philo portrays Balaam’s oracles as prophecy of the highest order, and Balaam as a remarkable prophet indeed. Hayward argues his view, inter alia, by pointing to the fact that Philo reduces the oracles of Balaam to three, which to Philo is a figure of completeness. Furthermore, he finds that Philo emphasizes the issue of sight in his descriptions of Balaam. Balaam is described as “the one who saw in sleep a clear presentation of God with the the unsleeping eyes of the soul” (Mos 1,289): “Something extraordinary has happened. By so speaking of Balaam, Philo has invested him with the character of Israel, whose name at first was Jacob” (p. 22). Balaam is thus made into a mouthpiece of Jacob-Israel. In doing this, Philo draws upon Jewish traditions later to be codified in the Targums. Furthermore, that Balaam was to be considered a prophet is also emphasized by describing his divinations as prophecies: the first oracle is described as uttered by one possessed by the prophetic spirit

In my view, however, the complexity of Philo’s view of Balaam come into clearer light when considering closer the framework of Philo exposition of Balaam’s oracles in Vita Mosis, and when further works of Philo is drawn upon. Here Balaam is described much more as a magician, as a magical diviner.

In hte framwork of the exposition of the oracles of Balaam, he is described as a magical diviner. Hayward deals primarily with De Vita Mosis; other texts of Philo is not drawn upon. But the negative characterizations by Philo on the nature of Balaam’s profession are more present in several of the other texts where Philo mentions Balaam (cf. Cher. 32f; Immut 181; Confus. 159; Migr. 113-115; Mut. 202-203). In Immut. 181 he is described as one who followed “omens and false sootsayings” and he did evil things. As such he is an example of a creature of earth, not of heavenly growth. In Confus 159, Balaam is described as a “dealer in auguries and prodigies and in the vanity of unfounded conjectures”, and it is emphasized that there is a natural hostility between conjecture and truth, between vanity and knowledge, and between the divination which has no true inspiration, and sober wisdom. Philo here does not do away with divination as such as that would disparage the Israelite prophets, but he disapproves of the means of Balaam’s divination. In Migr. 113 Balaam is said to have been “adjudged impious and accursed even by the wise lawgiver” (i.e., Moses), because he became the ‘mantis’ of evil things. This evidently draws upon the fact that Balaam is identified as one who in fact did not want to bless but to curse Israel, and who at last gave Balak evil advises (Migr. 114; Mut 200). In Mut. 202-203 Balaam is called oionoskopus and because of his divination he “defaced the stamp of heaven-sent prophecy”. Hence according to my reading of Philo's expositions of Balaam, he is a higly derogatory figure, a magical diviner.
Other relevant literature on Balaam: Vermes, Geza. “The Story of Balaam - The Scriptural Origin of Haggadah.” In Scripture and Tradition in Judaism. Haggadic Studies, by Geza Vermes, 127–77. Leiden: Brill, 1973; Berchman, R.M. “Arcana Mundi Between Balaam and Hecate: Prophecy, Divination, and Magic in Later Platonism.” In Society of Biblical Literature 1989 Seminar Papers, edited by D.L. Lull, 107–85. Atlanta, 1989; John T. Greene, “Balaam: Prophet, Diviner and Priest in Selected Ancient Israelite and Hellenistic Jewish Sources,” in SBL Annual Meeting Seminar Papers 1989 (Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1989); John T. Greene, “Balaam as Figure and Type in Ancient Semitic Literature to the First Century BCE, with a Survey of Post-Philo Applications of the Balaam Fugure and Type,” in SBL Annual Meeting Seminar Papers 1990 (Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1990); John T. Greene, “The Balaam Figure and Type Before, During and After the Period of the Pseudepigrapha,” Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 8, no. 1991 (1991): 67–101; Hackett, Jo Ann. “Balaam (PERSON) [Heb Bil’am].” In The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Volume 1: A-C, editor-in-chief David Noel Freedman, 569–72. New York: Doubleday, 1992; Rösel, Martin. “Wie einer Vom Propheten Zum Verführer Wurde. Tradition und Rezeption der Bileamgestalt.” Biblica 80 (1999): 506–24.