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Moses

Moses (משה "Drawn", Tiberian Hebrew Mōšeh, Standard Hebrew Móše), son of Amram and his wife, Jochebed, a Levite. Legendary Hebrew liberator, leader, lawgiver, prophet, and historian. If he is a historical figure, he may have lived between the 18th century BCE and the 13th century BCE.

According to the Hebrew Bible, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. He received and recorded the will of God on Mount Sinai. The Torah also contains the life story of Moses and his people till his death at the age of 120 years. It has been traditionally assumed that Moses wrote all, or almost all, of the Torah, and this is still the view of much of Christianity and most of Orthodox Judaism. However, advances in higher criticism have convinced several Bible scholars that this work, in the form we know it today, was edited together from several earlier sources. This idea is discussed in the entry on the documentary hypothesis. Moses's greatest legacy was probably expounding the doctrine of monotheism, which was not widely accepted at the time, codifying it in Jewish religion with the 1st (and most important) Commandment, and punishing polytheists. He is revered as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Table of contents

1 Moses in the Hebrew Bible 1.1 Mission from God 1.2 In the wilderness 1.3 The Death of Moses 2 Moses in Jewish thought 3 Moses in Christian thought 4 Moses in Islamic thought 5 Moses in history 6 Ethical dilemmas 7 References 8 External links

Moses in the Hebrew Bible

When Moses was grown to manhood, he went one day to see how it fared with his brethren, bondmen to the Egyptians. Seeing an Egyptian maltreating a Hebrew, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand, supposing that no one who would be disposed to reveal the matter knew of it. The next day, seeing two Hebrews quarreling, he endeavored to separate them, whereupon the Hebrew who was wronging his brother taunted Moses with slaying the Egyptian. Moses soon discovered from a higher source that the affair was known, and that Pharaoh was likely to put him to death for it; he therefore made his escape to the Sinaitic Peninsula and settled with Hobab, or Jethro, priest of Midian, whose daughter Zipporah he in due time married. There he sojourned forty years, following the occupation of a shepherd, during which time his son Gershom was born (Ex. ii., 11-22).

Mission from God

In the Middle Ages, Mount Horeb was identified with Mount Sinai near the monastery of St. Catherine, but most scholars, especially E. Anati think it was located much farther North. God also commissioned him to return to Egypt and deliver his brethren from their bondage. He then returned to Egypt (Ex. 4. 1-9, 20). Moses was met on his arrival in Egypt by his elder brother, Aaron, and gained a hearing with his oppressed brethren (Ex. 4. 27-31). It was a more difficult matter, however, to persuade Pharaoh to let the Hebrews depart. This was not accomplished until God sent ten plagues upon the Egyptians. These plagues culminated in the slaying of the Egyptian first-born (Ex. 12. 29), whereupon such terror seized the Egyptians that they urged the Hebrews to leave.

In the wilderness

Moses and the Israelites sojourned at Sinai about a year (cf. Num. 10. 11), and Moses had frequent communications from God. As a result of these the Tabernacle, according to the last chapters of Exodus, was constructed, the priestly law ordained, the plan of encampment arranged both for the Levites and the non-priestly tribes (cf. Num. 1. 50 - 2. 34), and the Tabernacle consecrated. While at Sinai Joshua had become general of the armies of Israel and the special minister, or assistant, of Moses (Ex. 17. 9). From Sinai Moses led the people to Kadesh, whence the spies were sent to Canaan. Upon the return of the spies the people were so discouraged by their report that they refused to go forward, and were condemned to remain in the wilderness until that generation had passed away.

After the lapse of thirty-eight years, Moses led the people eastward. Having gained friendly permission, they passed through the territory of the Edomites, descendants of Esau, and through the land of Moab. But Sihon, king of the Amorites, whose capital was at Heshbon, refused permission, and was conquered by Moses, who allotted his territory to the tribes of Reuben and Gad. Og, King of Bashan, was similarly overthrown, and his territory assigned to the half-tribe of Manasseh.

The Death of Moses

Moses in Jewish thought

Moses in Christian thought

Moses also figures into several of Jesus' messages. When he met the Pharisee Nicodemus at night in the third chapter of John, he compares Moses' lifting up of the bronze serpent in the wilderness, which any Israelite could look upon and be healed, to his own lifting up (by his death and resurrection) for the people to look upon and be healed. In the sixth chapter, Jesus responds to the people's claim that Moses provided them manna in the wilderness by saying that it was not Moses, but God, who provided. Calling himself the "bread of life", Jesus states that he is now provided to feed God's people.

Moses is also regarded as a symbol of the law, and so he is presented in all three Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9, respectively.

Moses in Islamic thought

Moses in history

On the other hand, historical records are so fragmentory that extrabiblical records of Moses may have been long lost. For example, if the Exodus occurred during the end of the Hyksos era in Egypt, as some scholars believe, then those Hyksos records of Moses would have been deliberately destroyed by victorious Egyptians as they drove the Hyksos out of Egypt. The only known historical record that survives mentioning Moses is the Bible.

If Moses is accepted as a historical figure, various aspects of the Biblical tale can be re-interpreted. It is quite likely, for example, that Moses was an Egyptian nobleman or prince influenced by the religion of Aten (see below), since Moses is an Egyptian name meaning "son" and was often used in pharaohs' names. The Hebrews might have fabricated the "bulrushes" story along the lines of the tales of Sargon of Agade (Mesopotamian) or Oedipus (Greek) to legitimize his position. On the other hand, infants were often abandoned by the lower classes in ancient times, and "Moshe" is a Hebrew word.

Dating the Exodus has also proved challenging. Three views include:

• it occurred around the end of the Hyksos era, as expressed above;
• it occurred about 1420 BCE, since records exist of "Habiru" invasions of Canaan forty years later;
• or it occurred during the 13th century BCE, as the pharoah during most of that time, Ramses, is commonly considered the pharoah Moses squabbled with.

There is also a psychoanalytical interpretation of Moses' life, put forward by Sigmund Freud in his last book, "Moses and Monotheism," in 1937. Freud postulated that Moses was an Egyptian nobleman who adhered to the monotheism of Akhenaton. Freud also believed that Moses was murdered in the wilderness, producing a collective sense of patricidal guilt which has been at the heart of Judaism ever since. "Judaism had been a religion of the father, Christianity became a religion of the son," he wrote.

Ethical dilemmas

For both Jews and Christians, the five books of Moses are holy books revealed by God, and the message within them is eternal. For Unitarian-Universalists is regarded as a sacred text, but not as a divinely revealed work. Adherents of all these faiths understand the serious ethical dilemmas that arise when reading certain parts of the Bible. As such, Jews and Christians have developed a number of responses to understanding such texts. There are two basic positions that one can assume when approaching such texts, both of which offer a variety of responses.

The traditional approach is what we now call fundamentalist; it assumes that Biblical character, the situations described, and the word said took place precisely as the Bible says it happened. A more modern religious liberal approach rejects this view, and holds that the text of the Bible, especially the five books of Moses, were edited together from a number of sources over a long period of time. In this view, the situations described in the Bible do not necessarilly represent the actual words or intentions of the Biblical characters, but instead represent the view of the editors of the Bible. (more to come)

Unitarian-Universalists adopt a non-fundamentist approach: "We do not, however, hold the Bible-or any other account of human experience-to be either an infallible guide or the exclusive source of truth. Much biblical material is mythical or legendary. Not that it should be discarded for that reason! Rather, it should be treasured for what it is. We believe that we should read the Bible as we read other books (or the newspaper) - with imagination and a critical eye. We also respect the sacred literature of other religions. Contemporary works of science, art, and social commentary are valued as well. We hold, in the words of an old liberal formulation, that "revelation is not sealed." Unitarian Universalists aspire to truth as wide as the world-we look to find truth anywhere, universally." (Our Unitarian Universalist Faith: Frequently Asked Questions)

See also: Aaron, Biblical figures, Passage of Red Sea

External links

• Teaching Troubling Texts: Study Session of Textual Reasoning at the annual meeting of the AAR 1999
• "Difficult Texts" by Bonna Devora Haberman. How do we study difficult Jewish texts without apologizing for, justifying, or historicizing them?
• Unitarian Universalist appraoch to reading the Bible
• Prof. E.Anati: Archaeological discoveries at Har Karkom

Preceded by: —

Leader of the Children of Israel

Succeeded by: Joshua

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