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MOSES
Michelangelo's Moses Moses is one of the founding fathers of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. A Jew brought up as an Egyptian prince, he opened the way for monotheism by banning magic and abolishing idol worship; rescued the Israelites from slavery and brought them to the promised land; authored the Torah, the Jewish equivalent of the Bible; and delivered the Ten Commandments "the basis of modern man's moral and ethical code." [Source: Harvey Arden, National Geographic, January 1976 [☼].
Moses is called Moshe Rabbenu ('Moses our teacher') in Hebrew. An intermediary between God and the Jews, through whom the Jews received a basic code of conduct for living as God's people, Moses led two million out of slavery in Egypt and led them to the Holy Land that God had promised them. The first five books of the Bible are traditionally ascribed to him. Moses is important in other religions —not only to Christians but also to Muslims, who regard Islam him as the prophet him Musa. [Source: BBC July 6, 2009 |::|]
Moses holds a high position not only in three of the world’s great religions but also is a monumental figure in Western civilization and culture. One of the most famous Michelangelo statues in Rome is of Moses. Moses also presides over the main entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. and is found on the Capitol and the White House. The parting of the Red Sea by Moses, played by Charleston Heston, in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 version of “Ten Commandments” , is one of cinema’s classic moments. DeMille made another classic version of the “Ten Commandments” — this one silent — in 1923. Many Christians in Africa see Moses as a black man.
Book: “Moses: A Life” by Jonathan Kirsh. Film: Cecil B. DeMille's “Ten Commandments” with Charleston Heston; “Prince of Egypt” , a Dreamworks animation with the voice of Moses supplied by Val Kilmer and his friend Ramses by Ralph Fiennes.
Websites and Resources: Bible and Biblical History: Bible Gateway and the New International Version (NIV) of The Bible biblegateway.com ; King James Version of the Bible gutenberg.org/ebooks ; Bible History Online bible-history.com ; Biblical Archaeology Society biblicalarchaeology.org ; Judaism Virtual Jewish Library jewishvirtuallibrary.org/index ; Judaism101 jewfaq.org ; torah.org torah.org ; Chabad,org chabad.org/library/bible ; Internet Jewish History Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu Christianity: BBC on Christianity bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity ; Christian Classics Ethereal Library www.ccel.org ; Sacred Texts website sacred-texts.com ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Christian Origins sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Biblical Images: Bible in Pictures creationism.org/books ; Bible Blue Letter Images blueletterbible.org/images ; Biblical Images preceptaustin.org
Brief Story of Moses
13th century Moses icon from the Sinai
After Joseph's death, which brought an end to the Age of Abraham and the Early Biblical Patriarchs, the Children of Israel were enslaved by the Egyptians. Among these Hebrew slaves was Moses. He was raised by the pharaoh's daughter, who found him as an infant among reeds in the Nile, where his mother had hid him from the Egyptian soldiers ordered to kill every Israelite male infant. Even though Moses was brought up as an Egyptian prince, he sympathized with the plight of his people. On one occasion he witnessed an Egyptian slavemaster about to kill a Hebrew slave, and intervened and killed the Egyptian. After that Moses was forced to flee Egypt. He found refuge in the desert where God appeared to him in a burning bush.[Source: Paul Mendes-Flohr Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]
God ordered Moses to return to Egypt and demand the pharaoh to set the Children of Israel free.
After the Pharoah refused God unleashed 10 plagues upon the Egyptians. The pharaoh then freed the Children of Israel but they were forced to flee Egypt, which they did under Moses' leadership, marking the beginning of the Exodus. As the Hebrews were crossing the desert, the pharaoh went against his word, and sent an army to recapture them. At the Red Sea, the waters miraculously parted to allow the Israelites to cross but the pursuing army drowned as the waters closed over them.
When the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai, God gave them the Ten Commandments. Moses then ascended the mountain, where he stayed for 40 days and received further laws and instructions, which became the heart of the Torah. For a total of 40 years Moses led his people through the wilderness, until they finally came to the Promised Land. Before being able to enter Moses died at the age of 120.
Moses in the Old Testament and Torah
Moses and his adventures are described in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy in the Bible and the Torah. He is called Moses by Christians and Moshe by Jews, and Musa to the Moslems. The names are believed to be derived from the Egyptian word “mose” , or “mosu” , which means "is born" or "child of somebody." Ancient priests called him the Prince of Egypt and said he learned to speak 70 languages.
Most of the text of the Old Testament (and the Torah) are believed to have been delivered by God through Moses. While people of religion view him as the messenger of the news of Creation, scholars regarded him as the Creator himself because he is source of the texts, which form the cornerstones of Jewish, Christianity and Islam. The Bible reported Moses "wrote all the words of the Lord" but modern Biblical scholar attributes about a fifth of the text to him.
Moses and History
Many scholars believe that Moses was a real person, perhaps a priest or a judge, even though there is no historical evidence of his existence or the events described in Exodus. Neither Moses or the Exodus is described in ancient Egyptian records, which are fairly extensive.
Rameses II There are references to “Asiatic slaves in Egypt that may have been a reference to the Israelites. An Egyptian stele found in 1990 and dated to 1207 B.C., recounting the military victory of Pharaoh Merneptah, says, "Israel is laid waste." But other than that there is little evidence of even the Israelites existing in Moses’s time. No evidence comes from the Israelites themselves because they were a nomadic people with no material culture for archaeologists to dig up
Many scholars believe that the Exodus story was created for theological reasons: to give the Jews a point of origin and provide them with divine blessing to distinguish them from other people. They say that Exodus was intended to be taken metaphorically. They also point that many episodes found in Exodus are found in stories in other ancient Middle Eastern cultures. Stories about babies in baskets, locusts and great plagues were fairly common.
In any case the exodus from Egypt was a central event of the Bible. It is referred to not only in the Pentateuch but also in Prophets and the Psalms. Many historians feel that it marked the consolidation of the Hebrew tribes into a single nation and people.
Egypt, Israel, Moses and History
The Exodus — if it happened — is believed to have occurred around 1290 B.C., which roughly corresponds with the era of the Trojan War and the rule of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II. The Exodus was written along with many other parts of the Old Testament in the 7th century B.C. during the reign of King Josiah of Judah.
Some scholars believe the concept of monotheism dates to Moses time rather than Abraham’s time. Monotheism appeared in Egypt under the pharaoh Akhenaten (1388 B.C. to 1336 B.C.), who lived rough 50 years before the time that Moses is thought to have been alive. Akhenaten attempted to introduce a form of monotheism to ancient Egypt. After his death there was a period of chaos and instability and for a while Egypt was ruled by high priests.
According to the Bible, Joseph and the Israelites were welcomed into Egypt by a pharaoh around the 16th century B.C. after their homeland in Canaan was stricken by drought and famine. Between 1630 and 1521 B.C., Egypt was ruled by the Hyksos, a Semitic people from western Asia. Some scholars have suggested the Hyksos may have included Israelites. Egyptian chronicles later refer to a people called the “Apiru,” which some scholars believe may have included the Hebrews and Israelites.
Menephthah,
the Pharaoh of the Exodus In Egypt, the Israelites were enslaved, a fate which they endured more than 300 years. The Egyptians "made life bitter for them with harsh labor at mortar and bricks." When the pharaoh viewed the Israelites as a threat he ordered that all male children be killed at birth by throwing them in the Nile. Cuneiform tablets refer ancient nomads for the Near Eat that were put to work building places and temples. Archaeologists believe that the Israelites were include in these nomadic groups.
The 19th Egyptian dynasty was founded in 1335 B.C. at a time when the Egyptian empire was breaking up as result of pressure from the Hittite Empire to the north. Some scholars have suggested that the Israelites may have been enslaved during this period by the Egyptians because they may have presented a threat.
Many scholars believe Ramses the Great (Ramses II, ruled 1279 to 1213 B.C.) was one of the pharaohs described in the story of Moses — either the Pharaoh of the Oppression, who enslaved the Israelites, or the Pharaoh of the Exodus, who pursued them into the sea after the Ten Plagues. Many scholars believe the pharaoh mentioned in Exodus was Ramses II (ruled 1279 to 1213). In the historical record there is no mention of Israel until the reign of Ramses son and successor Mernetah. By then Israel was a nation, not a group of displaced people.
Significance of Moses
“Dr R. W. L. Moberly of the University of Durham wrote for the BBC: “Moses' appearance marks a kind of new beginning in the biblical story. Israel's ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are in the past. In time of famine their descendants went down to Egypt, the largest and wealthiest neighbouring country, and settled there. These Hebrews became numerous, but Egypt's ruler, the Pharaoh, decided that they would be a good source of cheap labour, and began to exploit them in building projects; he also decided to make them less dangerous by keeping their numbers down through killing their male children at birth (Exodus 1). When Moses was born, his mother sought to protect him by putting him in a basket to float on the river Nile. Here he was providentially found by the Pharaoh's daughter who took pity on him and brought him up as her own child (Exodus 2).|::|
“One day Moses saw an Egyptian and a Hebrew fighting. He intervened and killed the Egyptian. But when this became known he fled for his life. In the land of Midian, probably somewhere in the Sinai peninsula, he married the daughter of a priest, had two children, and settled down to life as a shepherd. That might have been the end of his story - except that his compatriots were still enslaved in Egypt, and God resolved to do something about it.” |::|
Gerald A. Larue wrote in “Old Testament Life and Literature”: The human writers of the Bible “expanded the role of Moses, exalting him as the founder of law, religious faith and the nation Israel. There can be little doubt that Moses played an important role in bringing at least some of the tribes into a unity centered in the worship of Yahweh and in leading his followers away from Egypt to the outskirts of Palestine. The idealization of his savior role by later generations points back to some kind of charismatic greatness. Historically, almost nothing can be known of him for certain; there remains only the impact of his personality, amplified generation by generation as men looked backward with reverent awe to their founder. To argue that Moses was a monotheist and to attempt to trace specific laws to him pushes the evidence too far. [Source: Gerald A. Larue, “Old Testament Life and Literature,”1968, infidels.org]
“Moses' significance lay not only in what he represented to those who knew him, but in what he symbolized to generations who never saw him and for whom the interpretation was more important than the historical fact. The legal materials attributed to Moses and often included in J appear to represent settled culture rather than rules for persons living at the edge of agricultural communities; for example, the parts of the ritual decalogue (Exod. 34:10-26) referring to the wheat harvest, ingathering festivals and firstfruit rites.
Time Period in Which Moses Lived
Jewish history begins during the Bronze age in the Middle East. The birth of the Jewish people and the start of Judaism is told in the first five books of the Bible. God chose Abraham to be the father of a people who would be special to God, and who would be an example of good behaviour and holiness to the rest of the world. God guided the Jewish people through many troubles, and at the time of Moses he gave them a set of rules by which they should live, including the Ten Commandments. [Source: BBC |::|]
God promised Abraham that he would look after the Jews. But over a thousand years after Abraham, the Jews were living as slaves in Egypt. According to the Bible, the descendants of Jacob had lived in Egypt for more than 450 years, during which time they grew into a nation: the nation of Israel. The Egyptians began to see them as a threat and tightened their control on them, forcing them to work as slaves. At the time of Moses — the 14th century B.C. — the Jews were helped in their escape from slavery Egypt by God and led by Moses. Some regard this period of time as the beginning of a religion|::|
1429 B.C.: Egyptian enslavement of the Hebrews begins
ca. 1400-900 B.C.: Middle Assyrian period
ca. 1400-1300 B.C.: Amarna period (Egypt)
1393 B.C.: Moses born.
1355 B.C.: Joshua born.
1314 B.C.: Moses sees the burning bush.
ca. 1300-1200 B.C.: Mosaic period (Israel)
1280 B.C.: Exodus from Egypt, Sinai Torah, Canaan Entry
1240 B.C.: After setting up the Ark at Shiloh near Shechem (Nablus), Joshua launches foray into Jerusalem (Joshua 10:23, 15:63)
ca. 1200 B.C.: Sea Peoples invade Egypt and Syro-Palestine
ca. 1200-1050/1000 B.C.: Period of the Judges (Israel)
God, Moses and the Hebrews
God parted the Red Sea to help the Jews escape from the Egyptians and helped them in many other ways. When the Jews reached a Mount Sinai, God spoke to Moses on the mountain slopes and made a covenant (a kind of deal) with the Jews that reaffirmed the one he had made with Abraham. At the same time, God gave the Jews a set of rules, including the Ten Commandments, that they should live by. On behalf of Israel, Moses received the Torah, traditionally translated as 'Law'. This is not law in the modern sense but rather authoritative teaching, instruction, or guidance. The most famous of these commandments are the Ten Commandments. [Source: BBC |::|]
According to the BBC: “The Bible contains astonishing accounts of God and Moses speaking face to face begin when Moses is quietly minding his own business as a shepherd. God appears to Moses in a burning bush. Moses sees a bush which burns without being consumed - a symbol of the presence of God which defies usual human experience of things. And he hears a voice which calls him by his own name (Exodus 3:4)|::|
“The point is that God has chosen to effect his plan through a human agent, Moses. It is for this reason that Moses is called the greatest prophet in Israel, for a prophet is someone who speaks and acts on God's behalf. God is calling Moses to embody the pattern of human response to God that becomes basic within the Bible.|::|
“The other great face to face encounter with God is when Moses has brought the Israelites out of Egypt and has returned with them to Sinai where he first met God. The encounter is awesome. When God appears to the people of Israel, a whole mountain burns; for when God comes, Sinai becomes like a volcano (not an actual volcano, but God's coming is so awesome that the only way to depict it is in the language of the most overwhelming of known phenomena):| God then gives the Ten Commandments to Moses as a kind of basic constitution or charter for Israel, together with some more detailed laws that apply the Commandments within everyday situations. Israel responds by promising obedience (Exodus 24:3-7).
“Rabbi Sybil Sheridan, Rabbi of Wimbledon Reform Synagogue, told the BBC: “Moses has an understanding of God that perhaps his ancestors didn't have. On Mount Sinai he asks to see God, and God says "You can only see me from behind". So he hides in a cleft in a rock, and God passes by. As He passes, he defines himself (in 13 ways). Moses understanding of God is that we can only see what God does after the event, we can look back and understand. Moses has a much closer relationship to God than anyone ever had, but it's still an elusive one. We understand through Moses that although we can get very, very close, God remains always beyond us. We can never define God.|::|
Moses' Character
“Reverend John Bell, a leader in the Iona Community and minister of the Church of Scotland, told the BBC: “Some of the things we find out about Moses make him an interesting character. We discover that he owes a lot to women. He would not be alive had five women not defied male authority to allow him to exist. The women are two midwives, his mother, his sister and Pharaoh's daughter. [Source: BBC |::|]
“He is also a displaced person. He is the son of a Hebrew slave who grows up in an Egyptian palace so he never really fits in anywhere. Probably because of his accent and his bearing, he's not seen immediately as a natural Hebrew. He doesn't really fit well within the Egyptian camp, and he's also treated as a kind of royal prince. He also has a stammer and is a murderer and he has gone on the run. We can see that God chooses people not for their problematic nature, but because of the potential which He sees in them.|::|
Image Sources: Wikimedia, Commons, Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bible in Bildern, 1860
Text Sources: Internet Jewish History Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “ Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); “Old Testament Life and Literature” by Gerald A. Larue, New International Version (NIV) of The Bible, biblegateway.com; Wikipedia, National Geographic, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Times of London, The New Yorker, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, and various books and other publications.
Last updated March 2024