Moses

For other uses, see Moses (disambiguation).

Moses (/ˈmoʊzɪz, -zɪs/;[1] Hebrew: , ֹמׁשֶה Modern MosheTiberian Mōšéh ISO 259-3 Moše; Syriac: Moushe;Arabic: Mūsā; Greek: Mωϋσῆς Mōÿsēs in boththe Septuagint and the New Testament) is a prophet inAbrahamic religions. According to the Hebrew Bible, hewas a former Egyptian prince who later in life becamea religious leader and lawgiver, to whom the authorshipof the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called MosheRabbenu in Hebrew רַּבֵנוּ) ,ֹמׁשֶה lit. “Moses our Teacher”),he is the most important prophet in Judaism.[2][3] He isalso an important prophet in Christianity, Islam, Baha'ismas well as a number of other faiths.The existence of Moses, as well as the veracity ofthe Exodus story, is disputed among archaeologists andEgyptologists, with experts in the field of biblical crit-icism citing logical inconsistencies, new archaeologicalevidence, historical evidence, and related origin mythsin Canaanite culture.[4][5][6] Other historians maintainthat the biographical details and Egyptian background at-tributed to Moses imply the existence of a historical polit-ical and religious leader who was involved in the consol-idation of the Hebrew tribes in Canaan towards the endof the Bronze Age.According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born ina time when his people, the Israelites, an enslaved mi-nority, were increasing in numbers and the EgyptianPharaoh was worried that they might ally with Egypt’senemies.[7] Moses’ Hebrew mother, Jochebed, secretlyhid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrewboys to be killed in order to reduce the population ofthe Israelites. Through the Pharaoh’s daughter (identifiedas Queen Bithia in the Midrash), the child was adoptedas a foundling from the Nile river and grew up with theEgyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave-master (because the slavemaster was smiting a Hebrew),Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he en-countered the God of Israel speaking to him from withina "burning bush which was not consumed by the fire”on Mount Horeb (which he regarded as the Mountain ofGod).God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the releaseof the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he couldnot speak with assurance or eloquence,[8] so God allowedAaron, his brother, to become his spokesperson. Afterthe Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelitesout of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they

based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses receivedthe Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering inthe desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land.Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses cor-responding to 1391–1271 (120 years) BCE;[9] Jeromegives 1592 BCE,[10] and Ussher 1571 BCE as his birthyear.[11][lower-alpha 1]

Moses and the tablets of law, by Jusepe de Ribera.

1 Name

Moses’ name was given to him by Pharaoh’s daugh-ter: “He became her son, and she named him Moshe(Moses)".[14] This name may be either Egyptian or He-brew. If connected to an Egyptian root, via msy “to be

1

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2 2 BIBLICAL NARRATIVE

born” and ms, “a son”, it forms a wordplay: “he becameher son, and she named him Son.” There should, however,be a divine element to the name Moses (bearers of theEgyptian name are the “son of” a god, as in Thutmose,“son of Thoth”), and his full name may therefore haveincluded the name of one of the Egyptian gods. Mostscholars agree that the name is Egyptian, and that the He-brew etymology is a later interpretation, but if the nameis from a Hebrew root then it is connected to the verb “todraw out": “I drew him (masha) out of the water,” statesPharaoh’s daughter, possibly looking forward to Mosesat the well in Midian, or to his role in saving Israel at theRed Sea.[15]

2 Biblical narrative

Moses rescued from the Nile, 1638, by Nicolas Poussin

2.1 Prophet and deliverer of Israel

The Israelites had settled in the Land of Goshen in thetime of Joseph and Jacob, but a new pharaoh arose whooppressed the children of Israel. At this time Moses wasborn to his father Amram, son of Kohath the Levite,who entered Egypt with Jacob’s household; his motherwas Jochebed (also Yocheved), who was kin to Kohath.Moses had one older (by seven years) sister, Miriam, andone older (by three years) brother, Aaron.[lower-alpha 2]

Pharaoh had commanded that all male Hebrew childrenborn be drowned in the river Nile, but Moses’ motherplaced him in an ark and concealed the ark in the bul-rushes by the riverbank, where the baby was discoveredand adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. One day after Moseshad reached adulthood he killed an Egyptian who wasbeating a Hebrew. Moses, in order to escape Pharaoh’sdeath penalty, fled to Midian (a desert country south ofJudah).

Moses before the Pharaoh, a 6th-century miniature from theSyriac Bible of Paris

Moses strikes water from the stone, by Francesco Bacchiacca

There, on Mount Horeb, God revealed to Moses hisname YHWH (probably pronounced Yahweh) and com-manded him to return to Egypt and bring his Chosen Peo-ple (Israel) out of bondage and into the Promised Land(Canaan).[17] Moses returned to carry out God’s com-mand, but God caused Pharaoh to refuse, and only afterGod had subjected Egypt to ten plagues did Pharaoh re-

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2.2 Lawgiver of Israel 3

Moses holding up his arms during the battle, assisted by Aaronand Hur; painting by John Everett Millais

Moses surveys Canaan fromWest of the Jordan, 1909 illustration

lent. Moses led the Israelites to the border of Egypt, butthere God hardened Pharaoh’s heart once more, so thathe could destroy Pharaoh and his army at the Red SeaCrossing as a sign of his power to Israel and the nations.From Egypt, Moses led the Israelites to Mount Sinai,where he was given ten commandments from God, writ-ten on stone tablets. However, since Moses remained along time on the mountain, some of the people feared thathe might be dead, so they made a golden statue of a calfand worshipped it, thus disobeying and angering God andMoses. Moses, out of anger, broke the tablets, and laterordered the elimination of those who had worshipped thegolden statue, which was melted down and fed to the idol-aters. He also wrote the ten commandments on a new setof tablets. Later at Mount Sinai, Moses and the elders en-

tered into a covenant, by which Israel would become thepeople of YHWH, obeying his laws, and YHWH wouldbe their god. Moses delivered laws of God to Israel, in-stituted the priesthood under the sons of Moses’ brotherAaron, and destroyed those Israelites who fell away fromhis worship. In his final act at Sinai, God gave Moses in-structions for the Tabernacle, the mobile shrine by whichhe would travel with Israel to the Promised Land.From Sinai, Moses led the Israelites to the Desert ofParan on the border of Canaan. From there he sent twelvespies into the land. The spies returned with samples of theland’s fertility, but warned that its inhabitants were giants.The people were afraid and wanted to return to Egypt, andsome rebelled against Moses and against God. Moses toldthe Israelites that they were not worthy to inherit the land,and would wander the wilderness for forty years until thegeneration who had refused to enter Canaan had died, sothat it would be their children who would possess the land.When the forty years had passed, Moses led the Israeliteseast around the Dead Sea to the territories of Edom andMoab. There they escaped the temptation of idolatry, re-ceived God’s blessing through Balaam the prophet, andmassacred the Midianites, who by the end of the Exodusjourney had become the enemies of the Israelites. Moseswas twice given notice that he would die before entry tothe Promised Land: in Numbers 27:13, once he had seenthe Promised Land from a viewpoint on Mount Abarim,and again in Numbers 31:1 once battle with the Midian-ites had been won.On the banks of the Jordan, in sight of the land, Mosesassembled the tribes. After recalling their wanderings hedelivered God’s laws by which they must live in the land,sang a song of praise and pronounced a blessing on thepeople, and passed his authority to Joshua, under whomthey would possess the land. Moses then went up MountNebo to the top of Pisgah, looked over the promised landof Israel spread out before him, and died, at the age ofone hundred and twenty. More humble than any otherman (Num. 12:3), “there hath not arisen a prophet sincein Israel like unto Moses, whom YHWH knew face toface” (Deuteronomy 34:10). The New Testament statesthat after Moses’ death, Michael the Archangel and thedevil disputed over his body (Jude 1:9).

2.2 Lawgiver of Israel

Further information: Law of Moses, Mosaic authorship,Deuteronomist, Book of Deuteronomy § Deuteronomiccode and 613 MitzvotMoses is honoured among Jews today as the “lawgiver ofIsrael”, and he delivers several sets of laws in the courseof the four books. The first is the Covenant code, Ex-odus 19–24, the terms of the covenant which God of-fers to Israel at the foot of Sinai. Embedded in thecovenant are the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments,Exodus 20:1–17) and the Book of the Covenant (Exo-

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4 2 BIBLICAL NARRATIVE

ARussian Orthodox icon of the prophet Moses, gesturing towardsthe burning bush; 18th-century (Iconostasis of TransfigurationChurch, Kizhi Monastery, Karelia, Russia)

Moses lifts up the brass serpent, curing the Israelites from poi-sonous snake bites in a painting by Benjamin West

dus 20:22–23:19).[18] The entire Book of Leviticus con-stitutes a second body of law, the Book of Numbers be-gins with yet another set, and the Book of Deuteronomyanother.

William Blake's “Moses Receiving the Law”

Death of Moses by Alexandre Cabanel

Moses has traditionally been regarded as the author ofthose four books and the Book of Genesis, which together

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4.1 In Hecataeus 5

comprise the Torah, the first and most revered section ofthe Jewish Bible.

3 Sources

Apart from a few scattered references elsewhere in theJewish scriptures, all that is known about Moses comesfrom the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers andDeuteronomy.[19] The majority of scholars date thesefour books to the Persian period, 538–332 BCE.[20]

No Egyptian sources mention Moses or the events ofExodus-Deuteronomy, nor has any archeological evi-dence been discovered in Egypt or the Sinai wildernessto support the story in which he is the central figure.[21]

4 Moses in Hellenistic literature

Further information: Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic litera-tureNon-biblical writings about Jews, with references to

The Moses Window at the Washington National Cathedral de-picts the three stages in Moses’ life.

the role of Moses, first appear at the beginning of theHellenistic period, from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE.Shmuel notes that “a characteristic of this literature isthe high honour in which it holds the peoples of theEast in general and some specific groups among thesepeoples.”[22]

In addition to the Judeo-Roman or Judeo-Hellenic his-torians Artapanus, Eupolemus, Josephus, and Philo, afew non-Jewish historians including Hecataeus of Ab-dera (quoted by Diodorus Siculus), Alexander Polyhis-tor, Manetho, Apion, Chaeremon of Alexandria, Tacitusand Porphyry also make reference to him. The extentto which any of these accounts rely on earlier sources isunknown.[23] Moses also appears in other religious textssuch as the Mishnah (c. 200 CE), Midrash (200–1200CE),[24] and the Qur'an (c. 610–53).

The figure of Osarseph in Hellenistic historiography isa renegade Egyptian priest who leads an army of lepersagainst the pharaoh and is finally expelled from Egypt,changing his name to Moses.

4.1 In Hecataeus

The earliest existing reference to Moses in Greek litera-ture occurs in the Egyptian history of Hecataeus of Ab-dera (4th century BCE). All that remains of his descrip-tion of Moses are two references made by Diodorus Sicu-lus, wherein, writes historian Arthur Droge, “he describesMoses as a wise and courageous leader who left Egyptand colonized Judaea.”[25] Among the many accomplish-ments described by Hecataeus, Moses had founded cities,established a temple and religious cult, and issued laws:

After the establishment of settled life inEgypt in early times, which took place, accord-ing to the mythical account, in the period ofthe gods and heroes, the first... to persuadethe multitudes to use written laws was Mneves[Moses], a man not only great of soul but alsoin his life the most public-spirited of all law-givers whose names are recorded.[26]

Droge also points out that this statement by Hecataeuswas similar to statements made subsequently byEupolemus.[26]

4.2 In Artapanus

The Jewish historian Artapanus of Alexandria (2nd cen-tury BCE), portrayed Moses as a cultural hero, alien to thePharaonic court. According to theologian John Barclay,the Moses of Artapanus “clearly bears the destiny of theJews, and in his personal, cultural and military splendor,brings credit to the whole Jewish people.”[27]

Jealousy of Moses’ excellent qualities in-duced Chenephres to send him with unskilledtroops on a military expedition to Ethiopia,where he won great victories. After havingbuilt the city of Hermopolis, he taught thepeople the value of the ibis as a protectionagainst the serpents, making the bird the sa-cred guardian spirit of the city; then he in-troduced circumcision. After his return toMemphis, Moses taught the people the valueof oxen for agriculture, and the consecration ofthe same by Moses gave rise to the cult of Apis.Finally, after having escaped another plot bykilling the assailant sent by the king, Moses fledto Arabia, where he married the daughter ofRaguel [Jethro], the ruler of the district.[28]

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6 4 MOSES IN HELLENISTIC LITERATURE

Artapanus goes on to relate how Moses returns to Egyptwith Aaron, and is imprisoned, but miraculously escapesthrough the name of YHWH in order to lead the Exodus.This account further testifies that all Egyptian temples ofIsis thereafter contained a rod, in remembrance of thatused for Moses’ miracles. He describes Moses as 80 yearsold, “tall and ruddy, with long white hair, and dignified.”Some historians, however, point out the “apologetic na-ture of much of Artapanus’ work,”[29] with his additionextra-biblical details, as with references to Jethro: thenon-Jewish Jethro expresses admiration for Moses’ gal-lantry in helping his daughters, and chooses to adoptMoses as his son.[30]

4.3 In Strabo

Strabo, a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher, inhis Geography (c. 24 CE), wrote in detail about Moses,whom he considered to be an Egyptian who deplored thesituation in his homeland, and thereby attracted many fol-lowers who respected the deity. He writes, for example,that Moses opposed the picturing of the deity in the formof man or animal, and was convinced that the deity was anentity which encompassed everything – land and sea:[31]

35. An Egyptian priest named Moses, whopossessed a portion of the country called theLower Egypt, being dissatisfied with the es-tablished institutions there, left it and came toJudaea with a large body of people who wor-shipped the Divinity. He declared and taughtthat the Egyptians and Africans entertained er-roneous sentiments, in representing the Divin-ity under the likeness of wild beasts and cattleof the field; that the Greeks also were in errorin making images of their gods after the humanform. For God [said he] may be this one thingwhich encompasses us all, land and sea, whichwe call heaven, or the universe, or the natureof things....

36. By such doctrine Moses persuaded alarge body of right-minded persons to accom-pany him to the place where Jerusalem nowstands....[32]

In Strabo’s writings of the history of Judaism as he under-stood it, he describes various stages in its development:from the first stage, including Moses and his direct heirs;to the final stage where “the Temple of Jerusalem con-tinued to be surrounded by an aura of sanctity.” Strabo’s“positive and unequivocal appreciation of Moses’ per-sonality is among the most sympathetic in all ancientliterature.”[33] His portrayal of Moses is said to be sim-ilar to the writing of Hecataeus who “described Moses asa man who excelled in wisdom and courage.”[33]

Egyptologist Jan Assmann concludes that Strabo was thehistorian “who came closest to a construction of Moses’

religion as monotheism and as a pronounced counter-religion.” It recognized “only one divine being whom noimage can represent... [and] the only way to approach thisgod is to live in virtue and in justice.”[34]

4.4 In Tacitus

The Roman historian Tacitus (c. 56–120 CE) refers toMoses by noting that the Jewish religion was monothe-istic and without a clear image. His primary work,wherein he describes Jewish philosophy, is his Histories(c. 100), where, according to Murphy, as a result of theJewish worship of one God, "pagan mythology fell intocontempt.”[35] Tacitus states that, despite various opin-ions current in his day regarding the Jews’ ethnicity, mostof his sources are in agreement that there was an Exodusfrom Egypt. By his account, the Pharaoh Bocchoris, suf-fering from a plague, banished the Jews in response to anoracle of the god Zeus-Amun.

A motley crowd was thus collected andabandoned in the desert. While all the otheroutcasts lay idly lamenting, one of them,named Moses, advised them not to look forhelp to gods or men, since both had desertedthem, but to trust rather in themselves, and ac-cept as divine the guidance of the first being, bywhose aid they should get out of their presentplight.[36]

In this version, Moses and the Jews wander through thedesert for only six days, capturing the Holy Land on theseventh.[36]

4.5 In Longinus

The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible,influenced Longinus, who may have been the author ofthe great book of literary criticism, On the Sublime, al-though the true author is still unknown for certain. How-ever, most scholars agree that the author lived in the timeof Augustus or Tiberius, the first and second Roman Em-perors.The writer quotes Genesis in a “style which presentsthe nature of the deity in a manner suitable to his pureand great being,” however he does not mention Mosesby name, but instead calls him “the Lawgiver of theJews.” Besides its mention of Cicero, Moses is the onlynon-Greek writer quoted in the work, and he is de-scribed “with far more admiration than even Greek writ-ers who treated Moses with respect, such as Hecataeusand Strabo.[37]

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4.8 In Justin Martyr 7

4.6 In Josephus

In Josephus' (37 – c. 100 CE) Antiquities of the Jews,Moses is mentioned throughout. For example Book VIIICh. IV, describes Solomon’s Temple, also known as theFirst Temple, at the time the Ark of the Covenant wasfirst moved into the newly built temple:

When King Solomon had finished theseworks, these large and beautiful buildings, andhad laid up his donations in the temple, andall this in the interval of seven years, and hadgiven a demonstration of his riches and alacritytherein; ...he also wrote to the rulers and eldersof the Hebrews, and ordered all the people togather themselves together to Jerusalem, bothto see the temple which he had built, and to re-move the ark of God into it; and when this invi-tation of the whole body of the people to cometo Jerusalem was everywhere carried abroad,...The Feast of Tabernacles happened to fall atthe same time, which was kept by the Hebrewsas a most holy and most eminent feast. So theycarried the ark and the tabernacle which Moseshad pitched, and all the vessels that were forministration to the sacrifices of God, and re-moved them to the temple. ...Now the ark con-tained nothing else but those two tables of stonethat preserved the ten commandments, whichGod spake to Moses in Mount Sinai, and whichwere engraved upon them...[38]

According to Feldman, Josephus also attaches particularsignificance to Moses’ possession of the “cardinal virtuesof wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice.” He alsoincludes piety as an added fifth virtue. In addition, he“stresses Moses’ willingness to undergo toil and his care-ful avoidance of bribery. Like Plato's philosopher-king,Moses excels as an educator.”[39]

4.7 In Numenius

Numenius, a Greek philosopher who was a native ofApamea, in Syria, wrote during the latter half of the 2ndcentury CE. Historian Kennieth Guthrie writes that “Nu-menius is perhaps the only recognized Greek philosopherwho explicitly studied Moses, the prophets, and the lifeof Jesus...”[40] He describes his background:

Numenius was a man of the world; he wasnot limited to Greek and Egyptian mysteries,but talked familiarly of the myths of Brahminsand Magi. It is however his knowledge and useof the Hebrew scriptures which distinguishedhim from other Greek philosophers. He refersto Moses simply as “the prophet”, exactly as forhim Homer is the poet. Plato is described as aGreek Moses.[41]

4.8 In Justin Martyr

The Christian saint and religious philosopher JustinMartyr (103–165 CE) drew the same conclusion asNumenius, according to other experts. Theologian PaulBlackham notes that Justin considered Moses to be “moretrustworthy, profound and truthful because he is olderthan the Greek philosophers.”[42] He quotes him:

I will begin, then, with our first prophet andlawgiver, Moses... that you may know that, ofall your teachers, whether sages, poets, histori-ans, philosophers, or lawgivers, by far the old-est, as the Greek histories show us, was Moses,who was our first religious teacher.[42]

5 Historicity

Memorial of Moses, Mount Nebo, Jordan

The tradition of Moses as a lawgiver and culture hero ofthe Israelites can be traced to the Deuteronomist source,corresponding to the 7th-century BCE Kingdom of Ju-dah. Moses is a central figure in the Deuteronomist ac-count of the origins of the Israelites, cast in a literary styleof elegant flashbacks told by Moses. The mainstreamview is that the Deuteronomist relies on earlier materialthat may date to the United Monarchy, so that the bib-lical narrative would be based on traditions that can betraced roughly to the 10th century BCE, or about fourcenturies after the supposed lifetime of Moses. By con-trast, Biblical minimalists such as Philip Davies and NielsPeter Lemche regard the Exodus as a fiction composedin the Persian period or even later to give hope of returnto Canaan for a Diaspora community, without even thememory of a historical Moses.[43][44] Given this possiblelate composition it would seem that the figure of Moses

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8 5 HISTORICITY

may be a composite drawn from a number of differentsources.The question of the historicity of the Exodus (specifi-cally, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, identification of whomwould connect the biblical narrative to Egyptologicalchronology) has long been debated, without conclusiveresult. There were at least two periods in Egyptian his-tory in which Asiatic Semites were expelled from Egypt.One was associated with the expulsion of the SemiticHyksos at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. Thesecond was following the commencement of the reignof Setnakhte at the end of the 19th Dynasty. Manethoseems to confuse the two, for instance, in a distortedaccount reported in Josephus, he supposedly states thatMoses was originally Osarseph, a renegade priest, wholed a band of lepers out of Avaris (referred to as Raamsesin the Bible).(Exodus 1:11) Osarseph, may be a mem-ory of a shadowy vizier, originally from Syria (Hurru),known as Yursu (self-made), who came to prominenceas Chancellor Bay just prior to the second event. PiRamesses may be the “store city” Ramses mentioned inExodus, which was the capital of the Egyptian Empire inthe 19th to end of the 20th Dynasty of Egypt, giving quitea specific date to the Egyptian part of Exodus.Some scholars, like Kenneth Kitchen and Frank Yurkosuggest that there may be a historical core beneath theExodus and Sinai traditions, even if the biblical narrativedramatizes by portraying as a single event what was morelikely a gradual process of migration and conquest. Thus,the motif of “slavery in Egypt” may reflect the historicalsituation of imperialist control of the Egyptian Empireover Canaan over the period of the Thutmosides down tothe revolt against Merenptah and Rameses III, after whichit declined gradually during the 12th century under thepressure from the Sea Peoples and the general Bronze Agecollapse: Israel Finkelstein points to the appearance ofsettlements in the central hill country around 1200 as theearliest of the known settlements of the Israelites.[45]

A cyclical pattern to these highland settlements, corre-sponding to the state of the surrounding cultures, sug-gests that the local Canaanites combined an agriculturaland nomadic lifestyles, particularly under Aramaean andNeo-Hittite influence. When Egyptian rule collapsed af-ter the invasion of the Sea Peoples, the central hill coun-try could no longer sustain a large nomadic population,so they went from nomadism to sedentism.[46] Canaan-ite refugees from the lowlands seem to have fused withShasu, nomadic Aramaean elements, using pithoi cisternsfor the capture of water, hillside terracing and other ele-ments from the Aegean and Western Anatolian “Peoplesof the Sea”, living in scattered hamlets and avoiding thehusbandry of pigs, suggesting a new type of culture in theregion.However, Finkelstein states in the same book that at theearlier time proposed by most scientists for the Exodus,based upon the Biblical chronology 400 years prior to the

reign of King David, Egypt was at the peak of its glory,with a series of fortresses guarding the borders and check-points watching the roads to Canaan. That means an exo-dus of the scale of over 600,000 soldiers described in theTorah would have been impossible.[46] This implies a to-tal civilian population, with women and children, of overa million, which would have numbered between a thirdand a half of the total Egyptian population at the time.While the general narrative of the Exodus and theconquest of the Promised Land may be remotelyrooted in historical events, the figure of Moses asa leader of the Israelites in these events cannot besubstantiated.[47][48][49][50] William Dever agrees with theCanaanite origin of the Israelites but allows for the pos-sibility of some immigrants from Egypt among the earlyhilltop settlers, leaving open the possibility of a Moses-like figure in Transjordan c. 1250–1200.[51]

Martin Noth holds that two different groups experiencedthe Exodus and Sinai events, and each group transmittedits own stories independently of the other one, writing that“The biblical story tracing the Hebrews from Egypt toCanaan resulted from an editor’s weaving separate themesand traditions around a main character Moses, actually anobscure person from Moab.”[52] Given the existence of aMoabite king Mesha, etymologically identical to the He-brew Moshe, it is possible that there was a memory of aculture hero who was associated with the end of Egyptianinfluence at Timna during the late Bronze Age.[53]

The “Kenite hypothesis”, originally suggested byCornelius Tiele in 1872, supposes that the figure ofMoses is a reflection of a historical Midianite priestof Yahweh, whose cult was introduced to Israel fromsouthern Canaan (Edom, Moab, Midian) by the Kenites.This idea is based on an old tradition (recorded in Judges1:16, 4:11) that Moses’ father-in-law was a Midianitepriest of Yahweh, as it were preserving a memory ofthe Midianite origin of the deity. While the role of theKenites in the transmission of the cult is widely accepted,Tiele’s view on the historical role of Moses finds lesssupport in modern scholarship.[54]

William Albright held a more favorable view towardsthe traditional views regarding Moses, and accepted theessence of the biblical story, as narrated between Ex-odus 1:8 and Deuteronomy 34:12, but recognized theimpact that centuries of oral and written transmissionhave had on the account, causing it to acquire layers ofaccretions.[52]

Recently Aidan Dodson,[55] M. Georg[56] and R.Krauss[57] all suggest that the story of Moses as a Princeof Egypt may contain a distorted memory of PharaohAmenmesses. In texts written after his disappearanceAmenmesses “was explicitly denied any royal status – be-ing simply 'Mose' and perhaps also 'enemy'.… Indeed, ithas been suggested that Amenmesses’ memory has sur-vived in a far more universal way, in that his career wastransmogrified into the Old Testament story of Jewish

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6.2 Christianity 9

law-giver, Moses.” Dodson concludes "…this connectionis beyond proof and such a survival of Amenmesses intoworld consciousness remains but an intriguing possibil-ity”.

6 Moses in Abrahamic religions

6.1 Judaism

Main articles: Moses in Hellenistic literature and Mosesin Rabbinic Literature

There is a wealth of stories and additional informationabout Moses in the Jewish apocrypha and in the genre ofrabbinical exegesis known as Midrash, as well as in theprimary works of the Jewish oral law, the Mishnah andthe Talmud. Moses is also given a number of bynames inJewish tradition. The Midrash identifies Moses as one ofseven biblical personalities who were called by variousnames.[58] Moses’ other names were: Jekuthiel (by hismother), Heber (by his father), Jered (by Miriam), AviZanoah (by Aaron), Avi Gedor (by Kohath), Avi Soco(by his wet-nurse), Shemaiah ben Nethanel (by people ofIsrael).[59] Moses is also attributed the names Toviah (asa first name), and Levi (as a family name) (Vayikra Rab-bah 1:3), Heman,[60] Mechoqeiq (lawgiver)[61] and EhlGav Ish (Numbers 12:3).[62]

Jewish historians who lived at Alexandria, such asEupolemus, attributed to Moses the feat of having taughtthe Phoenicians their alphabet,[63] similar to legends ofThoth. Artapanus of Alexandria explicitly identifiedMoses not only with Thoth/Hermes, but also with theGreek figure Musaeus (whom he called “the teacher ofOrpheus"), and ascribed to him the division of Egyptinto 36 districts, each with its own liturgy. He named theprincess who adopted Moses as Merris, wife of PharaohChenephres.[64]

Ancient sources mention an Assumption of Moses and aTestimony of Moses. A Latin text was found in Milanin the 19th century by Antonio Ceriani who called it theAssumption of Moses, even though it does not refer toan assumption of Moses or contain portions of the As-sumption which are cited by ancient authors, and it is ap-parently actually the Testimony. The incident which theancient authors cite is also mentioned in the Epistle ofJude.To Orthodox Jews, Moses is calledMoshe Rabbenu, `EvedHaShem, Avi haNeviim zya"a: “Our Leader Moshe, Ser-vant of God, Father of all the Prophets (may his meritshield us, amen)".[65] In the orthodox view, Moses re-ceived not only the Torah, but also the revealed (writtenand oral) and the hidden (the `hokhmat nistar teachings,which gave Judaism the Zohar of the Rashbi, the Torahof the Ari haQadosh and all that is discussed in the Heav-enly Yeshiva between the Ramhal and his masters). He

is also considered the greatest prophet.[66]

Arising in part from his age, but also because 120 is else-where stated as the maximum age for Noah’s descendants(one interpretation of Genesis 6:3), "may you live to 120"has become a common blessing among Jews.

6.2 Christianity

Moses appearing at the Transfiguration of Jesus

For Christians, Moses—mentioned more often in theNew Testament than any other Old Testament figure—isoften a symbol of God’s law, as reinforced and expoundedon in the teachings of Jesus. New Testament writers oftencompared Jesus’ words and deeds with Moses’ to explainJesus’ mission. In Acts 7:39–43, 51–53, for example, therejection of Moses by the Jews who worshiped the goldencalf is likened to the rejection of Jesus by the Jews thatcontinued in traditional Judaism.Moses also figures in several of Jesus’ messages. Whenhe met the Pharisee Nicodemus at night in the third chap-ter of the Gospel of John, he compared Moses’ liftingup of the bronze serpent in the wilderness, which any Is-raelite could look at and be healed, to his own lifting up(by his death and resurrection) for the people to look atand be healed. In the sixth chapter, Jesus responded tothe people’s claim that Moses provided them manna inthe wilderness by saying that it was not Moses, but God,who provided. Calling himself the “bread of life”, Jesusstated that He was provided to feed God’s people.Moses, along with Elijah, is presented as meeting withJesus in all three Gospel accounts of the Transfigurationof Jesus in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9, respectively.

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10 6 MOSES IN ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS

Later Christians found numerous other parallels betweenthe life of Moses and Jesus to the extent that Jesus waslikened to a “second Moses.” For instance, Jesus’ escapefrom the slaughter by Herod in Bethlehem is comparedto Moses’ escape from Pharaoh’s designs to kill Hebrewinfants. Such parallels, unlike those mentioned above, arenot pointed out in Scripture. See the article on typology.His relevance to modern Christianity has not diminished.Moses is considered to be a saint by several churches; andis commemorated as a prophet in the respective Calen-dars of Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church, RomanCatholic Church, and Lutheran churches on September4.[67] He is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefa-thers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian ApostolicChurch on July 30.

6.2.1 Mormonism

Main article: Book of Moses

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (colloquially called Mormons) generally viewMoses in the same way that other Christians do. How-ever, in addition to accepting the biblical account ofMoses, Mormons include Selections from the Book ofMoses as part of their scriptural canon.[68] This book isbelieved to be the translated writings of Moses, and isincluded in the Pearl of Great Price.[69]

Latter-day Saints are also unique in believing thatMoses was taken to heaven without having tasted death(translated). In addition, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cow-dery stated that on April 3, 1836, Moses appeared to themin the Kirtland Temple in a glorified, immortal, physicalform and bestowed upon them the “keys of the gatheringof Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leadingof the ten tribes from the land of the north.”[70]

6.3 Islam

Main article: Moses in IslamSee also: Biblical narratives and the Qur'an § Moses(Mūsā (موسىMoses is mentioned more in the Quran than any other

individual and his life is narrated and recounted morethan that of any other prophet.[71] In general, Mosesis described in ways which parallel the Islamic prophetMuhammad,[72] and “his character exhibits some of themain themes of Islamic theology,” including the “moralinjunction that we are to submit ourselves to God.”Moses is defined in the Qur'an as both prophet (nabi) andmessenger (rasul), the latter term indicating that he wasone of those prophets who brought a scripture and law tohis people.Smith 1991 describes an account in the Qur'an of meet-ings in heaven between Moses and Muhammad, which

Maqam El-Nabi Musa, Jericho.

Huston states were “one of the crucial events in Muham-mad’s life,” and resulted in Muslims observing 5 dailyprayers.[73]

Moses is mentioned 502 times in the Qur'an; passagesmentioning Moses include 2.49–61, 7.103–160, 10.75–93, 17.101–104, 20.9–97, 26.10–66, 27.7–14, 28.3–46, 40.23–30, 43.46–55, 44.17–31, and 79.15–25. andmany others. Most of the key events in Moses’ life whichare narrated in the Bible are to be found dispersed throughthe different Surahs of Qur'an, with a story about meetingKhidr which is not found in the Bible.[71]

The Finding of Moses, painting by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema,1904

In the Moses story related by the Qur'an, Jochebed iscommanded by God to place Moses in an ark and casthim on the waters of the Nile, thus abandoning him com-pletely to God’s protection.[71][74] Pharaoh’s wife Asiya,not his daughter, found Moses floating in the waters ofthe Nile. She convinced Pharaoh to keep him as theirson because they were not blessed with any children.The Qur'an’s account has emphasized Moses’ mission toinvite the Pharaoh to accept God’s divine message[75] aswell as give salvation to the Israelites.[71][76] Accordingto the Qur'an, Moses encourages the Israelites to enterCanaan, but they are unwilling to fight the Canaanites,fearing certain defeat. Moses responds by pleading to Al-lah that he and his brother Aaron be separated from the

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7.1 Politics and law 11

rebellious Israelites. After which the Israelites are madeto wander for 40 years.[77]

According to Islamic tradition, Moses is buried at MaqamEl-Nabi Musa, Jericho.

6.4 Baha'i Faith

Moses is one of the most important prophets in the Baha'iFaith. He is considered to be a messenger from Godwho is equally authentic as those sent in other eras.[78]An epithet of Moses in Baha'i scriptures is Interlocutorof God,[79] or alternatively the One Who Conversed withGod.[80]

Important figures in the Baha’i religion, such as Abdul’l-Baha, have highlighted the fact that Moses, like Abraham,had none of the makings of a great man of history, butthrough God’s assistance he was able achieve many greatthings. He is described as having been 'for a long timea shepherd in the wilderness’, of having had a stammer,and of being ‘much hated and detested’ by the Pharaohand the ancient Egyptians of his time. He is said to havebeen raised in an oppressive household, and to have beenknown, in Egypt, as a man who had committed murder– though he had done so in order to prevent an act ofcruelty.[81]

Nevertheless, like Abraham, through the assistance ofGod, he achieved great things and gained renown evenbeyond the Levant. Chief among these achievements wasthe freeing of his people, the Hebrews, from bondage inEgypt and leading 'them to the Holy Land.’ He is viewedas the one who bestowed on Israel ‘the religious and thecivil law’ which gave them ‘honour among all nations,’ andwhich spread their fame to different parts of the world.[81]

Furthermore, through the law, Moses is believed to haveled the Hebrews 'to the highest possible degree of civiliza-tion at that period.’ Abdul’l-Baha asserts that the ancientGreek philosophers regarded ‘the illustrious men of Is-rael as models of perfection.’ Chief among these philoso-phers, he says, was Socrates who ‘visited Syria, and tookfrom the children of Israel the teachings of the Unity ofGod and of the immortality of the soul.’[81]

Moses is further described as paving the way forBaha'ullah and his ultimate revelation, and as a teacherof truth, whose teachings were in line with the customsof his time.[82]

7 Modern reception

7.1 Politics and law

In a metaphorical sense in the Christian tradition, a“Moses” has been referred to as the leader who deliversthe people from a terrible situation. Among the presi-dents known to have used the symbolism of Moses were

Statue of Moses at the Library of Congress

Harry S. Truman, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, BillClinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who re-ferred to his supporters as “the Moses generation.”[83]

Winston Churchill, in his essay called “Moses—theLeader of a People”, published in 1931, used the storyof Moses to convince the British population of its needfor strong leadership, and that “human success dependson the favor of God.”[84] He saw Moses as more thana metaphor, however, rejecting as “myth” the assertionsthat Moses was only a legendary figure.[84]

He described him as “the supreme law-giver, who re-ceived from God that remarkable code upon which thereligious, moral, and social life of the nation was so se-curely founded… [and] one of the greatest human beingswith the most decisive leap forward ever discernable inthe human story.”[85] Churchill also noted the relevanceof the story of Moses to modern Britain: “We may be-lieve that they happened to a people not so very differentfrom ourselves...”[85]

In his essay, Churchill implied that the Ten Command-ments were a primary set of laws, “Here [Mount Sinai]Moses received from [God] the tables of those fundamen-tal laws which were henceforth to be followed, with occa-sional lapses, by the highest forms of human society.”[85]

In subsequent years, theologians linked the Ten Com-

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12 7 MODERN RECEPTION

mandments with the formation of early democracy. Scot-tish theologian William Barclay described them as “theuniversal foundation of all things… the law without whichnationhood is impossible. …Our society is founded uponit.[86] Pope Francis addressed the U.S. Congress in 2015stating that all people need to “keep alive their sense ofunity by means of just legislation... [and] the figure ofMoses leads us directly to God and thus to the transcen-dent dignity of the human being.[87]

7.1.1 American history

Pilgrims John Carver, William Bradford, and Miles Standish, atprayer during their voyage to America. Painting by RobertWalterWeir.

Pilgrims References to Moses were used by thePuritans, who relied on the story of Moses to give mean-ing and hope to the lives of Pilgrims seeking religiousand personal freedom in America. John Carver was thefirst governor of Plymouth colony and first signer of theMayflower Compact, which he wrote in 1620 during theship’s three-month voyage. He inspired the Pilgrims witha “sense of earthly grandeur and divine purpose,” noteshistorian Jon Meacham,[88] and was called the “Moses ofthe Pilgrims.”[89] Early American writer James RussellLowell noted the similarity of the founding of Americaby the Pilgrims to that of ancient Israel by Moses:

Next to the fugitives whom Moses led outof Egypt, the little shipload of outcasts wholanded at Plymouth are destined to influencethe future of the world.[90]

Following Carver’s death the following year, WilliamBradford was made governor. He feared that the re-maining Pilgrims would not survive the hardships of thenew land, with half their people having already diedwithin months of arriving. Bradford evoked the sym-bol of Moses to the weakened and desperate Pilgrims tohelp calm them and give them hope: “Violence will breakall. Where is the meek and humble spirit of Moses?"[91]William G. Dever explains the attitude of the Pilgrims:

“We considered ourselves the 'New Israel,' particularlywe in America. And for that reason we knew who wewere, what we believed in and valued, and what our'manifest destiny' was.”[92][93]

First proposed seal of the United States, 1776

Founding fathers On July 4, 1776, immediately afterthe Declaration of Independence was officially passed,the Continental Congress asked John Adams, ThomasJefferson, and Benjamin Franklin to design a seal thatwould clearly represent a symbol for the new UnitedStates. They chose the symbol of Moses leading the Is-raelites to freedom.[94] The founding fathers inscribed thewords of Moses on the Liberty Bell: “Proclaim Libertythro' all the Land to all the Inhabitants thereof.” (Levit.25)Upon the death of George Washington in 1799, two thirdsof his eulogies referred to him as “America’s Moses,”with one orator saying that “Washington has been thesame to us as Moses was to the Children of Israel.”[95]

Benjamin Franklin, in 1788, saw the difficulties thatsome of the newly independent American states werehaving in forming a government, and proposed that un-til a new code of laws could be agreed to, they shouldbe governed by “the laws of Moses,” as contained in theOld Testament.[96] He justified his proposal by explainingthat the laws had worked in biblical times: “The SupremeBeing… having rescued them from bondage by manymiracles, performed by his servant Moses, he personallydelivered to that chosen servant, in the presence of thewhole nation, a constitution and code of laws for theirobservance.[97]

John Adams, America’s 2nd president, stated why he re-lied on the laws of Moses over Greek philosophy for es-tablishing the Constitution: “As much as I love, esteem,and admire the Greeks, I believe the Hebrews have done

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7.4 Criticism of Moses 13

more to enlighten and civilize the world. Moses did morethan all their legislators and philosophers.[88] Swedish his-torian Hugo Valentin credited Moses as the “first to pro-claim the rights of man.”[98]

7.1.2 Slavery and civil rights

Historian Gladys L. Knight describes how leaders whoemerged during slavery time and after often personifiedthe Moses symbol. “The symbol of Moses was empow-ering in that it served to amplify a need for freedom.”[99]Therefore, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in1865 after freeing the slaves, black Americans said theyhad lost “their Moses”.[100] Lincoln biographer CharlesCarleton Coffin writes, “The millions whom AbrahamLincoln delivered from slavery will ever liken him toMoses, the deliverer of Israel.”[101] Similarly, HarrietTubman, who rescued approximately seventy enslavedfamily and friends, was also described as the “Moses” ofher people.[102]

In the 1960s, a leading figure in the civil rights movementwas Martin Luther King, Jr., who was called “a mod-ern Moses,” and often referred to Moses in his speeches:“The struggle of Moses, the struggle of his devoted fol-lowers as they sought to get out of Egypt. This issomething of the story of every people struggling forfreedom.”[103]

7.2 Literature

Thomas Mann's novella The Tables of the Law is aretelling of the story of the exodus from Egypt, withMoses as its main character.

7.3 In Freud

Sigmund Freud, in his last book, Moses and Monothe-ism in 1939, postulated that Moses was an Egyptian no-bleman who adhered to the monotheism of Akhenaten.Following a theory proposed by a contemporary bibli-cal critic, Freud believed that Moses was murdered in thewilderness, producing a collective sense of patricidal guiltthat has been at the heart of Judaism ever since. “Judaismhad been a religion of the father, Christianity became areligion of the son”, he wrote. The possible Egyptian ori-gin of Moses and of his message has received significantscholarly attention.[104][105]

Opponents of this view observe that the religion of theTorah seems different from Atenism in everything ex-cept the central feature of devotion to a single god,[106] al-though this has been countered by a variety of arguments,e.g. pointing out the similarities between the Hymn toAten and Psalm 104.[104][107] Freud’s interpretation of thehistorical Moses is not well accepted among historians,and is considered pseudohistory by many.[108]

7.4 Criticism of Moses

Moses’ prominence in religious literature has made him apopular target for biblical critics, most of whom questionhis reputation as a just and compassionate leader, drawingattention to certain passages in which he appears to dis-play a more brutal and unforgiving side. Given his holystatus in the minds of Jews, Christians and Muslims, crit-icism of Moses’ life and teachings has been for the mostpart by deists, agnostics and atheists.

7.4.1 Thomas Paine and Numbers 31:13-18

In the late eighteenth century, the deist Thomas Painecommented at length on Moses’ Laws in The Age of Rea-son. Paine considered Moses to be a “detestable villain”,and cited Numbers 31:13–18 as an example of his “un-exampled atrocities”.[109] In the passage, the Jewish armyhad returned from conquering the Midianites, and Moseshas gone down to meet it:

And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and allthe princes of the congregation, went forth tomeet them without the camp; and Moses waswroth with the officers of the host, with thecaptains over thousands, and captains over hun-dreds, which came from the battle; and Mosessaid unto them, Have ye saved all the womenalive? behold, these caused the children of Is-rael, through the counsel of Balaam, to com-mit trespass against the Lord in the matter ofPeor, and there was a plague among the con-gregation of the Lord. Now, therefore, kill ev-ery male among the little ones, and kill everywoman that hath known a man by lying withhim; but all the women-children, that have notknown a man by lying with him, keep alive foryourselves.[110]

The prominent atheist Richard Dawkins also made refer-ence to these verses in his 2006 book, The God Delusion,concluding that Moses was “not a great role model formodern moralists”.[111]

However, some Jewish sources defend Moses’ role. TheChasam Sofer emphasizes that this war was not fought atMoses’ behest, but was commanded by God as an act ofrevenge against the Midianite women,[112] who, accord-ing to the Biblical account, had seduced the Israelites andled them to sin. Rabbi Joel Grossman argued that thestory is a “powerful fable of lust and betrayal”, and thatMoses’ execution of the women was a symbolic condem-nation of those who seek to turn sex and desire to evilpurposes.[113] Alan Levin, an educational specialist withthe Reform movement, has similarly suggested that thestory should be taken as a cautionary tale, to “warn suc-cessive generations of Jews to watch their own idolatrousbehavior”.[114]

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14 7 MODERN RECEPTION

7.4.2 Some Mistakes of Moses

In the nineteenth century, the agnostic Robert G. Inger-soll wrote a book entitled Some Mistakes of Moses, whichwas wholly devoted to discussion of the Torah.[115] In thebook, Ingersoll commented on the story of the goldencalf, an idol crafted by the Israelites while Moses is re-ceiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. WhenMoses returned from the mountain-top, he became an-gry that his people were engaging in idol worship andordered the Levites to slaughter the sinners, who num-bered 3,000. Ingersoll protested that in Exodus narrativethe commandment forbidding idolatry had not yet beenpassed on by Moses to his people, and that “to inflict pun-ishment for breaking unknown and unpublished laws is,in the last degree, cruel and unjust”.[116]

7.5 Figurative art

Sculpture in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Moses is depicted in several U.S. government buildingsbecause of his legacy as a lawgiver. In the Libraryof Congress stands a large statue of Moses alongsidea statue of the Apostle Paul. Moses is one of the 23lawgivers depicted in marble bas-reliefs in the chamberof the U.S. House of Representatives in the UnitedStates Capitol. The plaque’s overview states: “Moses (c.1350–1250 B.C.) Hebrew prophet and lawgiver; trans-formed a wandering people into a nation; received theTen Commandments.”[117]

The other twenty-two figures have their profiles turnedto Moses, which is the only forward-facing bas-relief.[118][119]

Statue by Michelangelo Buonarotti — in Basilica San Pietro inVincoli, Rome

Moses appears eight times in carvings that ring theSupreme Court Great Hall ceiling. His face is presentedalong with other ancient figures such as Solomon, theGreek god Zeus and the Roman goddess of wisdom, Min-erva. The Supreme Court building’s east pediment de-picts Moses holding two tablets. Tablets representingthe Ten Commandments can be found carved in the oakcourtroom doors, on the support frame of the courtroom’sbronze gates and in the library woodwork. A controver-sial image is one that sits directly above the chief justice’shead. In the center of the 40-foot-long Spanish marblecarving is a tablet displaying Roman numerals I throughX, with some numbers partially hidden.[120]

7.6 Michelangelo’s statue

Michelangelo's statue of Moses in the Church of SanPietro in Vincoli, Rome, is one of the most familiar mas-terpieces in the world. The horns the sculptor includedon Moses’ head are the result of a mistranslation of theHebrew Bible into the Latin Vulgate Bible with whichhe was familiar. The Hebrew word taken from Exodusmeans either a “horn” or an “irradiation.” Experts at theArchaeological Institute of America show that the termwas used when Moses “returned to his people after see-ing as much of the Glory of the Lord as human eye could

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15

stand,” and his face “reflected radiance.”[121] In early Jew-ish art, moreover, Moses is often “shown with rays com-ing out of his head.”[122]

Another author explains, “When Saint Jerome translatedthe Old Testament into Latin, he thought no one butChrist should glow with rays of light — so he advancedthe secondary translation.[123][124] However, writer J.Stephen Lang points out that Jerome’s version actuallydescribed Moses as “giving off hornlike rays,” and he“rather clumsily translated it to mean 'having horns.'"[125]It has also been noted that he had Moses seated on athrone, yet Moses was neither a King nor ever sat on suchthrones.[126]

7.7 Film and television

Moses was portrayed by Theodore Roberts in CecilB. DeMille's 1923 silent film The Ten Commandments.Moses appeared as the central character in the 1956DeMille movie, also called The Ten Commandments, inwhich he was portrayed by Charlton Heston. A televisionremake was produced in 2006.Burt Lancaster played Moses in the 1975 televisionminiseries Moses the Lawgiver.In the 1981 comedy film History of the World, Part I,Moses was portrayed by Mel Brooks.[127]

Sir Ben Kingsley was the narrator of the 2007 animatedfilm, The Ten Commandments.Moses appeared as the central character in the 1998DreamWorks Pictures’ animated movie, The Prince ofEgypt. He was voiced by Val Kilmer.[128]

Christian Bale portrayed Moses in Ridley Scott's 2014film Exodus: Gods and Kings[129] which portrayed Mosesand Rameses II as being raised by Seti I as cousins.

8 See also

• Moses in Islam

• Mosaic authorship

• Osarseph

• Passage of the Red Sea

• Table of prophets of Abrahamic religions

9 Notes[1] Saint Augustine records the names of the kings when

Moses was born in the City of God:

• “When Saphrus reigned as the four-teenth king of Assyria, and Orthopolis

as the twelfth of Sicyon, and Criasus asthe fifth of Argos, Moses was born inEygpt,...”[12]

Orthopolis reigned as the 12th King of Sicyon for 63 years,from 1596–1533; and Criasus reigned as the 5th King ofArgos for 54 years, from 1637–1583.[13]

[2] According to Manetho the place of his birth was at theancient city of Heliopolis.[16]

[3] This title is held specifically in Islam.

[4] This is a specifically Jewish title.

[5] Moses is commemorated as a forefather, along with thepatriarchs, in the Armenian Apostolic Church.

10 Citations

[1] “Moses”. Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictio-nary.

[2] Deuteronomy 34:10

[3] Maimonides, 13 principles of faith, 7th principle.

[4] “Press Reviews”. Princeton University Press. 2011-11-06. Retrieved 2012-04-03.

[5] The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archeologyand the History of Early Israel, 2007, Society of BiblicalLiterature, Atlanta, ISBN 978-1-58983-277-0.

[6] Van Seters 1994.

[7] Exodus 1:10

[8] Exod. 4:10

[9] Seder Olam Rabbah

[10] Jerome's Chronicon (4th century) gives 1592 for the birthof Moses

[11] The 17th-century Ussher chronology calculates 1571 BC(Annals of the World, 1658 paragraph 164)

[12] St Augustine. The City of God. Book XVIII. Chapter 8 -Who Were Kings When Moses Was Born, And What GodsBegan To Be Worshipped Then.

[13] Hoeh, Herman L (1967), Compendium of World History(dissertation) 1, The Faculty of the Ambassador College,Graduate School of Theology, 1962.

[14] Exodus 2:10

[15] Dozeman 2009, pp. 81–82.

[16] McClintock, John; James, Strong (1882), “Mo’ses”,Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Lit-erature, VI.— ME-NEV, New York: Harper & Brothers,pp. 677–87.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Jeromehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Robertshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_B._DeMillehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_B._DeMillehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_filmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(1923_film)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(1956_film)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlton_Hestonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(TV_series)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(TV_series)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Lancasterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniserieshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_the_Lawgiverhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_filmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World,_Part_Ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Brookshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Kingsleyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(2007_film)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DreamWorkshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animated_cartoonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince_of_Egypthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince_of_Egypthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val_Kilmerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Balehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridley_Scotthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus:_Gods_and_Kingshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rameses_IIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seti_Ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_in_Islamhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_authorshiphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osarsephhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passage_of_the_Red_Seahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_prophets_of_Abrahamic_religionshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_God_(book)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyriahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicyonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criasushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argoshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manethohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliopolis_(Ancient_Egypt)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Apostolic_Churchhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/moseshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_House_Webster%2527s_Unabridged_Dictionaryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_House_Webster%2527s_Unabridged_Dictionaryhttp://tools.wmflabs.org/bibleversefinder/?book=Deuteronomy&verse=34:10&src=KJVhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonideshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonedes#The_13_principles_of_faithhttp://press.princeton.edu/titles/5036.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781589832770https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFVan_Seters1994https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seder_Olam_Rabbahhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeromehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicon_(Jerome)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ussher_chronologyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_God_(book)http://cgca.net/coglinks/wcglit/hh_cmpndm1.txthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFDozeman2009https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McClintock_(theologian)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Strong_(theologian)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopaedia_of_Biblical,_Theological_and_Ecclesiastical_Literaturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopaedia_of_Biblical,_Theological_and_Ecclesiastical_Literature

16 10 CITATIONS

[17] Schmidt, Nathaniel (Feb 1896), “Moses: His Age and HisWork. II”, The Biblical World 7 (2): 105–19, esp. 108,It was the prophet’s call. It was a real ecstatic experience,like that of David under the baka-tree, Elijah on the moun-tain, Isaiah in the temple, Ezekiel on the Khebar, Jesus inthe Jordan, Paul on the Damascus road. It was the perpet-ual mystery of the divine touching the human..

[18] Hamilton 2011, p. xxv.

[19] Van Seters 2004, p. 194.

[20] Ska 2009, p. 260.

[21] Meyers 2005, pp. 5–6.

[22] Shmuel 1976, p. 1102.

[23] Shmuel 1976, p. 1103.

[24] Hammer, Reuven (1995), The Classic Midrash: TannaiticCommentaries on the Bible, Paulist Press, p. 15.

[25] 1989, p. 18.

[26] Droge 1989, p. 18.

[27] Barclay, John M. G. Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora:FromAlexander to Trajan (323 BCE – 117 CE), Universityof California Press (1996) p. 130

[28] “Moses”. Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-03-02.

[29] Feldman 1998, p. 40.

[30] Feldman 1998, p. 133.

[31] Shmuel 1976, p. 1132.

[32] Strabo. The Geography, XVI 35, 36, Translated by H.C.Hamilton and W. Falconer, pp. 177–78,

[33] Shmuel 1976, p. 1133.

[34] Assmann 1997, p. 38.

[35] Tacitus, Cornelius. The works of Cornelius Tacitus: Withan essay on his life and genius by Arthur Murphy, ThomasWardle Publ. (1842) p. 499

[36] Tacitus, Cornelius. Tacitus, The Histories, Volume 2,Book V. Chapters 5, 6 p. 208.

[37] Shmuel 1976, p. 1140.

[38] Josephus, Flavius (1854), “IV”, The works: Comprisingthe Antiquities of the Jews VIII, trans. by William Whis-ton, pp. 254–55.

[39] Feldman 1998, p. 130.

[40] Guthrie 1917, p. 194.

[41] Guthrie 1917, p. 101.

[42] Blackham 2005, p. 39.

[43] Stead, Michael R.; Raine, John W (2009). The Intertextu-ality of Zechariah 1–8: Ideals and Realities. T&T Clark.p. 42. ISBN 978-0-567-29172-1.

[44] Meyers, Carol (2005). Exodus. Cambridge UniversityPress. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-521-00291-2.

[45] Finkelstein, I; Na'aman, N, eds. (1994), From Nomadismto Monarchy, Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

[46] Finkelstein & Silberman 2001.

[47] Dever 2006.

[48] Filkenstein & Silberman 2001.

[49] Lazare, Daniel (May 2002). “False Testament”. Harper’sMagazine. New York. Retrieved 2010-10-11.

[50] “Archaeology and the Hebrew Scriptures”. Religious tol-erance.

[51] Dever, William G. (2002). What Did the Biblical WritersKnow and When Did They Know It?. William B. Eerd-mans. ISBN 0-8028-2126-X.

[52] “Moses”, Encyclopædia Britannica (online), 2007.

[53] Magnussen, Magnus (1975), BC, the Archaeology of theBible Lands, BBC Books.

[54] DDD (1999:911).

[55] Dodson, Aidan (2010), Poisoned Legacy: The Fall ofthe 19th Egyptian Dynasty (American University in CairoPress).

[56] Georg, M (2000), “Mose – Name und Namensträger.Versuch einer historischen Annäherung” inMose. Ägyptenund das Alte Testament, edited by E. Otto, VerlagKatholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart.

[57] Krauss, R (2000), Moise le pharaon [Moses the Pharaon](in French), Éditions du Roche.

[58] Midrash Rabbah, Ki Thissa, XL. 3-3, Lehrman, p. 463

[59] Yalkut Shimoni, Shemot 166 to Chronicles I 4:18, 24:6;also see Vayikra Rabbah 1:3; Chasidah p.345

[60] Rashi to Bava Batra 15s, Chasidah p. 345

[61] Bava Batra 15a on Deuteronomy 33:21, Chasidah p. 345

[62] Rashi to Berachot 54a, Chasidah p. 345

[63] Eusebius, Præparatio Evangelica ix. 26

[64] Eusebius, l.c. ix. 27

[65] Honorifics for the dead in Judaism.

[66] “Judaism 101: Moses, Aaron and Miriam”. Jew FAQ.Retrieved 2010-03-02.

[67] Great Synaxaristes: (Greek) Ὁ Προφήτης Μωϋσῆς. 4Σεπτεμβρίου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ.

[68] Skinner, Andrew C. (1992), “Moses”, in Ludlow, DanielH, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, New York: MacmillanPublishing, pp. 958–959, ISBN 0-02-879602-0, OCLC24502140

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Schmidthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_callinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_ecstasyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijahhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiahhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekielhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khabur_Riverhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Riverhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_of_Paul_the_Apostlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFHamilton2011https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFVan_Seters2004https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFSka2009https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFMeyers2005https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFShmuel1976https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFShmuel1976https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREF1989https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFDroge1989http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=830&letter=M&search=moses#3https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFFeldman1998https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFFeldman1998https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFShmuel1976https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFShmuel1976https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFAssmann1997https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFShmuel1976https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFFeldman1998https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFGuthrie1917https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFGuthrie1917https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFBlackham2005https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-567-29172-1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-00291-2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFFinkelsteinSilberman2001https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFDever2006https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#CITEREFFilkensteinSilberman2001http://harpers.org/archive/2002/03/0079105http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_arhs.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8028-2126-Xhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A6paratio_Evangelicahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorifics_for_the_dead_in_Judaismhttp://www.jewfaq.org/moshe.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaxariumhttp://www.synaxarion.gr/gr/sid/552/sxsaintinfo.aspxhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_C._Skinnerhttp://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/EoM/id/3959https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_H._Ludlowhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_H._Ludlowhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Mormonismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macmillan_Publishinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macmillan_Publishinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-02-879602-0https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCLChttps://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24502140

17

[69] Taylor, Bruce T. (1992), “Book of Moses”, in Ludlow,Daniel H, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, New York:Macmillan Publishing, pp. 216–217, ISBN 0-02-879602-0, OCLC 24502140

[70] The Doctrine and Covenants 110:11

[71] Keeler 2005, pp. 55–66.

[72] Keeler 2005, pp. 55–56, describes Moses from the Mus-lim perspective:

“Among prophets, Moses has been describedas the one 'whose career as a messenger ofGod, lawgiver and leader of his communitymost closely parallels and foreshadows thatof Muhammad', and as 'the figure that in theKoran was presented to Muhammad aboveall others as the supreme model of saviourand ruler of a community, the man chosen topresent both knowledge of the one God, anda divinely revealed system of law'. We findhim clearly in this role of Muhammad’s fore-bear in a well-known tradition of the mirac-ulous ascension of the Prophet, where Mosesadvises Muhammad from his own experienceas messenger and lawgiver.”

[73] Smith, Huston (1991), The World’s Religions, HarperCollins, p. 245.

[74] Quran 28:7

[75] Quran 79:17–19

[76] Quran 20:47–48

[77] Quran 5:20

[78] Historical Context of the Bábi and Bahá'í Faiths, Bahá'i.

[79] Buck, Christopher (1999), Paradise and Paradigm: KeySymbols in Persian Christianity and the Baháí̕ Faith.

[80] Effendi, Shoghi (1988). Epistle to the Son of the Wolf.Wilmette, Illinois: Baháí Publishing Trust. p. 104. ISBN9780877430483.

[81] Clifford, Laura (1937). Some Answered Questions. NewYork: Baha'i Publishing Trust. pp. 14–