Wikipedia

Abrahamic prophet said to have led the Israelites out of Egypt

Moses [ note 1 ] ( ) [ 2 ] is considered the most important prophet in Judaism [ 3 ] [ 4 ] and one of the most important prophets in Christianity, Islam, Druze faith, [ 5 ] [ 6 ] the Baháʼí Faith and early Abrahamic religions. According to both the Bible and the Quran, [ 7 ] Moses was the leader of the Israelites and lawgiver to whom the writing, or “ skill from heaven ”, of the Torah ( the first five books of the Bible ) is attributed. [ 8 ] According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a meter when his people, the Israelites, an enslave minority, were increasing in population and, as a leave, the egyptian Pharaoh worried that they might ally themselves with Egypt ‘s enemies. [ 9 ] Moses ‘s Hebrew beget, Jochebed, secretly hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all neonate Hebrew boys to be killed in holy order to reduce the population of the Israelites. Through the Pharaoh ‘s daughter ( identified as Queen Bithia in the Midrash ), the child was adopted as a foundling from the Nile river and grew up with the egyptian imperial class. After killing an egyptian slave-master who was beating a Hebrew, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he encountered the Angel of the Lord, [ 10 ] speaking to him from within a burning pubic hair on Mount Horeb, which he regarded as the Mountain of God.

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God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the turn of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he could not speak articulately, [ 11 ] therefore God allowed Aaron, his elder brother, [ 12 ] to become his spokesperson. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering in the defect, Moses died on Mount Nebo at the age of 120, within sight of the predict Land. [ 13 ] by and large, Moses is seen as a legendary figure, whilst retaining the possibility that Moses or a Moses-like name existed in the thirteenth hundred BCE. [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ] [ 18 ] Rabbinical Judaism calculated a life of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE ; [ 19 ] Jerome suggested 1592 BCE, [ 20 ] and James Ussher suggested 1571 BCE as his birth class. [ 21 ] [ note 2 ]

etymology of name

An egyptian root msy ( ‘child of ‘ ) has been considered as a possible etymology, arguably an abbreviation of a theophoric list, as for model in egyptian names like Thutmoses ( ‘child of Thoth ‘ ) and Ramesses ( ‘child of Ra ‘ ), [ 24 ] with the god ‘s name omitted. Abraham Yahuda, based on the spelling given in the Tanakh, argues that it combines “ body of water ” or “ seed ” and “ pond, expanse of water, ” therefore yielding the feel of “ child of the Nile “ ( mw-š ). [ 25 ] The biblical account of Moses ‘s birth provides him with a folk music etymology to explain the ostensible meaning of his identify. [ 24 ] [ 26 ] He is said to have received it from the Pharaoh ‘s daughter : “ he became her son. She named him Moses ( מֹשֶׁה Mōše ), saying, ‘I drew him out ( מְשִׁיתִֽהוּ mǝšīṯīhū ) of the water ‘. ” [ 27 ] [ 28 ] This explanation links it to the Semitic root משׁה m-š-h, meaning “ to draw out ”. [ 28 ] The eleventh-century Tosafist Isaac b. Asher haLevi noted that the princess names him the active participle Drawer-out ( מֹשֶׁה mōše ), not the passive participle Drawn-out ( נִמְשֶׁה nīmše ), in effect preach that Moses would draw others out ( of Egypt ) ; this has been accepted by some scholars. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] The Hebrew etymology in the Biblical fib may reflect an undertake to cancel out traces of Moses ‘s egyptian origins. [ 31 ] The egyptian character of his name was recognized as such by ancient jewish writers like Philo and Josephus. [ 31 ] Philo linked Moses ‘s name ( ancient greek : Μωϋσῆς, romanized : Mōysēs, fall. ‘Mōusḗs ‘ ) to the Egyptian ( Coptic ) bible for ‘water ‘ ( möu, μῶυ ), in reference to his detect in the Nile and the biblical folk etymology. [ 32 ] Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, claims that the second element, -esês, mean ‘those who are saved ‘. The problem of how an egyptian princess, known to Josephus as Thermutis ( identified as Tharmuth ) [ 28 ] and to 1 Chronicles 4:18 as Bithiah, [ 33 ] could have known Hebrew puzzled medieval jewish commentators like Abraham ibn Ezra and Hezekiah ben Manoah. Hezekiah suggested she either converted or took a topple from Jochebed. [ 34 ] [ 35 ]

Biblical narrative

Prophet and deliveryman of Israel

The Israelites had settled in the Land of Goshen in the time of Joseph and Jacob, but a new Pharaoh arise who oppressed the children of Israel. At this time Moses was born to his father Amram, son ( or descendant ) of Kehath the Levite, who entered Egypt with Jacob ‘s family ; his mother was Jochebed ( besides Yocheved ), who was kin to Kehath. Moses had one old ( by seven years ) sister, Miriam, and one erstwhile ( by three years ) brother, Aaron. [ note 3 ] The Pharaoh had commanded that all male Hebrew children born would be drowned in the river Nile, but Moses ‘s mother placed him in an ark and concealed the ark in the bulrushes by the riverbank, where the child was discovered and adopted by Pharaoh ‘s daughter, and raised as an egyptian. One day, after Moses had reached adulthood, he killed an egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Moses, in decree to escape the Pharaoh ‘s death penalty, fled to Midian ( a defect country south of Judah ), where he married Zipporah. [ 37 ] There, on Mount Horeb, God appeared to Moses as a burn scrub, revealed to Moses his appoint YHWH ( credibly pronounced Yahweh ) [ 38 ] and commanded him to return to Egypt and bring his chosen people ( Israel ) out of bondage and into the promise Land ( Canaan ). [ 39 ] During the travel, God tried to kill Moses, but Zipporah saved his life. Moses returned to carry out God ‘s command, but God caused the Pharaoh to refuse, and only after God had subjected Egypt to ten plagues did the Pharaoh yield. Moses led the Israelites to the boundary line of Egypt, but there God hardened the Pharaoh ‘s center once more, then that he could destroy the Pharaoh and his united states army at the Red Sea Crossing as a sign of his power to Israel and the nations. [ 40 ]
After defeating the Amalekites in Rephidim, [ 41 ] Moses led the Israelites to biblical Mount Sinai, where he was given the Ten Commandments from God, written on stone tablets. however, since Moses remained a farseeing clock on the batch, some of the people feared that he might be dead, so they made a statue of a golden calf and worshipped it, frankincense disobeying and angering God and Moses. Moses, out of anger, broke the tablets, and late ordered the elimination of those who had worshiped the golden statue, which was melted down and fed to the idolaters. [ 42 ] He besides wrote the ten-spot commandments on a new set of tablets. later at Mount Sinai, Moses and the elders entered into a covenant, by which Israel would become the people of YHWH, obeying his laws, and YHWH would be their idol. Moses delivered the laws of God to Israel, instituted the priesthood under the sons of Moses ‘s brother Aaron, and destroyed those Israelites who fell away from his worship. In his final act at Sinai, God gave Moses instructions for the Tabernacle, the mobile shrine by which he would travel with Israel to the Promised Land. [ 43 ] From Sinai, Moses led the Israelites to the Desert of Paran on the boundary line of Canaan. From there he sent twelve spies into the land. The spies returned with samples of the bring ‘s fertility, but warned that its inhabitants were giants. The people were afraid and wanted to return to Egypt, and some rebelled against Moses and against God. Moses told the Israelites that they were not worthy to inherit the land, and would wander the wilderness for forty years until the genesis who had refused to enter Canaan had died, so that it would be their children who would possess the estate. [ 44 ] Later on, Korah was punished for leading a rebellion against Moses. When the forty years had passed, Moses led the Israelites east around the Dead Sea to the territories of Edom and Moab. There they escaped the temptation of idolatry, conquered the lands of Og and Sihon in Transjordan, received God ‘s bless through Balaam the prophet, and massacred the Midianites, who by the end of the Exodus travel had become the enemies of the Israelites due to their ill-famed role in enticing the Israelites to sin against God. Moses was twice given notification that he would die before entry to the Promised domain : in Numbers 27:13, once he had seen the promise Land from a vantage point on Mount Abarim, and again in Numbers 31:1 once battle with the Midianites had been won. On the banks of the Jordan River, in batch of the kingdom, Moses assembled the tribes. After recalling their wanderings he delivered God ‘s laws by which they must live in the farming, sang a sung of praise and pronounced a bless on the people, and passed his authority to Joshua, under whom they would possess the land. Moses then went up Mount Nebo, looked over the promise Land spread out before him, and died, at the age of one hundred and twenty .

lawgiver of Israel

Moses is honoured among Jews nowadays as the “ lawgiver of Israel ”, and he delivers respective sets of laws in the run of the four books. The first is the Covenant Code, [ 45 ] the terms of the covenant which God offers to the Israelites at biblical Mount Sinai. Embedded in the covenant are the Decalogue [ 46 ] and the Book of the Covenant. [ 47 ] The stallion Book of Leviticus constitutes a moment consistency of law, the Book of Numbers begins with so far another hardened, and the Book of Deuteronomy another. [ citation needed ] Moses has traditionally been regarded as the writer of those four books and the Book of Genesis, which together comprise the Torah, the first section of the Hebrew Bible. [ 49 ]

Historicity

Scholars hold different opinions on the status of Moses in scholarship. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] For exemplify, according to William G. Dever, the mod scholarly consensus is that the biblical person of Moses is largely fabulous while besides holding that “ a Moses-like calculate may have existed somewhere in the southerly Transjordan in the mid-late thirteenth hundred B.C. ” and that “ archeology can do nothing ” to prove or confirm either means. [ 52 ] [ 51 ] however, according to Solomon Nigosian, there are actually three prevail views among biblical scholars : one is that Moses is not a historical figure, another see strives to anchor the decisive function he played in Israelite religion, and a third base that argues there are elements of both history and caption from which “ these issues are heatedly debated unsolved matters among scholars. ” [ 50 ] According to Brian Britt, there is separate amongst scholars when discussing matters on Moses that threatens gridlock. [ 53 ] Jan Assmann argues that we cannot know if Moses always lived because there are no traces of him outside tradition. [ 54 ] Though the names of Moses and others in the biblical narratives are egyptian and control genuine egyptian elements, no extrabiblical sources point intelligibly to Moses. [ 55 ] [ 56 ] [ 57 ] No references to Moses appear in any egyptian sources prior to the fourth hundred BCE, farseeing after he is believed to have lived. No contemporary egyptian sources citation Moses, or the events of Exodus–Deuteronomy, nor has any archaeological tell been discovered in Egypt or the Sinai wilderness to support the floor in which he is the cardinal figure. David Adams Leeming states that Moses is a fabulous champion and the cardinal figure in Hebrew mythology. [ 59 ] however, according to John avant-garde Seters, any fabulous elements in sources on Moses do not indicate that there was no Moses, nor that the tales do not include diachronic information, but that in the Torah, memory revises history and makes myths out of it. [ 60 ] The Oxford Companion to the Bible states that the historicity of Moses is the most reasonable assumption to be made about him as his absence would leave a vacuum that can not be explained away. [ 61 ] Oxford Biblical Studies states that although few modern scholars are willing to support the traditional position that Moses himself wrote the five books of the Torah, there are surely those who regard the leadership of Moses as excessively hard based in Israel ‘s corporate memory to be dismissed as pious fabrication. [ 62 ] The narrative of Moses ‘s discovery picks up a familiar motif in ancient Near Eastern fabulous accounts of the rule who rises from base origins. [ 63 ] Thus Sargon of Akkad ‘s akkadian account of his own origins runs :

My mother, the high priestess, conceived ; in confidential she bore me
She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid
She cast me into the river which rose over me. [ 64 ]

Moses ‘s story, like those of the early patriarch, most likely had a significant oral prehistory, ( he is mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah [ 66 ] and the Book of Isaiah [ 67 ] ) and his name is apparently identical ancient, as the custom found in Exodus no longer understands its original entail. [ 24 ] Nevertheless, the completion of the Torah and its elevation to the centre of post-Exilic Judaism was deoxyadenosine monophosphate much or more about combining older text as writing new ones – the final Pentateuch was based on existing traditions. Isaiah, [ 70 ] written during the Exile ( i.e., in the first base half of the sixth century BCE ), testifies of tension between the people of Judah and the returning post-Exilic Jews ( the “ gôlâ “ ), stating that God is the father of Israel and that Israel ‘s history begins with the Exodus and not with Abraham. The termination to be inferred from this and alike evidence ( e.g., the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah ), is that the figure of Moses and the report of the Exodus must have been leading among the people of Judah at the fourth dimension of the Exile and after, serving to support their claims to the land in enemy to those of the returning exiles. A theory developed by Cornelis Tiele in 1872, which has proved influential, argued that Yahweh was a Midianite idol, introduced to the Israelites by Moses, whose father-in-law Jethro was a Midianite priest. [ 72 ] It was to such a Moses that Yahweh reveals his real name, hidden from the Patriarchs who knew him lone as El Shaddai. [ 73 ] Against this view is the mod consensus that most of the Israelites were native to Palestine. [ 74 ] Martin Noth argued that the torah uses the figure of Moses, in the first place linked to legends of a Transjordan conquest, as a narrative bracket or late redactional device to weld in concert 4 of the 5, in the first place independent, themes of that study. [ 75 ] [ 76 ] Manfred Görg [ de ] [ 77 ] and Rolf Krauss [ de ], [ 78 ] the latter in a slightly sensationalist manner, [ 79 ] have suggested that the Moses story is a distorted shape or transmogrification of the historic pharaoh Amenmose ( c. 1200 BCE ), who was dismissed from function and whose name was by and by simplified to msy ( Mose ). Aidan Dodson regards this hypothesis as “ challenging, but beyond proof. ” [ 80 ] Rudolf Smend argues that the two details about Moses that were most probable to be historic are his name, of egyptian origin, and his marriage to a Midianite woman, details which seem unlikely to have been invented by the Israelites ; in Smend ‘s opinion, all early details given in the biblical narrative are excessively mythically charged to be seen as accurate data. [ 81 ] The name King Mesha of Moab has been linked to that of Moses. Mesha besides is associated with narratives of an exodus and a conquest, and several motifs in stories about him are shared with the Exodus fib and that regarding Israel ‘s war with Moab ( 2 Kings 3 ). Moab rebels against oppression, like Moses, leads his people out of Israel, as Moses does from Egypt, and his first-born son is slaughtered at the wall of Kir-hareseth as the firstborn of Israel are condemned to slaughter in the Exodus report, in what Calvinist theologian Peter Leithart described as “ an infernal passover that delivers Mesha while wrath burns against his enemies ”. [ 82 ] An egyptian version of the narrative that crosses over with the Moses floor is found in Manetho who, according to the summary in Josephus, wrote that a sealed Osarseph, a Heliopolitan priest, became overseer of a band of lepers, when Amenophis, following indications by Amenhotep, son of Hapu, had all the lepers in Egypt quarantined in club to cleanse the state so that he might see the gods. The lepers are bundled into Avaris, the early capital of the Hyksos, where Osarseph order for them everything forbidden in Egypt, while proscribing everything permitted in Egypt. They invite the Hyksos to reinvade Egypt, rule with them for 13 years – Osarseph then assumes the list Moses – and are then driven out. [ 83 ] early egyptian figures which have been postulated as candidates for a historical Moses-like figure include the princes Ahmose-ankh and Ramose, who were sons of pharaoh Ahmose I, or a figure associated with the family of pharaoh Thutmose III. [ 84 ] [ 85 ] Israel Knohl has proposed to identify Moses with Irsu, a Shasu who, according to Papyrus Harris I and the Elephantine Stele, took power in Egypt with the support of “ Asiatics ” ( people from the Levant ) after the death of Queen Twosret ; after coming to power, Irsu and his supporters disrupted egyptian rituals, “ treating the gods like the people ” and halting offerings to the egyptian deities. They were finally defeated and expelled by the new Pharaoh Setnakhte and, while fleeing, they abandoned big quantities of gold and eloquent they had stolen from the temples. [ 86 ]

hellenic literature

Non-biblical writings about Jews, with references to the function of Moses, first appear at the begin of the Hellenistic period, from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE. Shmuel notes that “ a characteristic of this literature is the eminent honor in which it holds the peoples of the East in general and some specific groups among these peoples. ” In addition to the Judeo-Roman or Judeo-Hellenic historians Artapanus, Eupolemus, Josephus, and Philo, a few non-Jewish historians including Hecataeus of Abdera ( quoted by Diodorus Siculus ), Alexander Polyhistor, Manetho, Apion, Chaeremon of Alexandria, Tacitus and Porphyry besides make reference to him. The extent to which any of these accounts rely on earlier sources is unknown. Moses besides appears in other religious texts such as the Mishnah ( c. 200 CE ), Midrash ( 200–1200 CE ), [ 89 ] and the Quran ( deoxycytidine monophosphate. 610–653 ). [ citation needed ] The calculate of Osarseph in Hellenistic historiography is a deserter egyptian priest who leads an army of lepers against the pharaoh and is ultimately expelled from Egypt, changing his name to Moses. [ 90 ]

Hecataeus

The earliest existing address to Moses in Greek literature occurs in the egyptian history of Hecataeus of Abdera ( fourth century BCE ). All that remains of his description of Moses are two references made by Diodorus Siculus, wherein, writes historian Arthur Droge, he “ report Moses as a wise and brave leader who left Egypt and colonized Judaea. ” Among the many accomplishments described by Hecataeus, Moses had founded cities, established a temple and religious cult, and issued laws :

After the establishment of fall life sentence in Egypt in early times, which took seat, according to the fabulous report, in the period of the gods and heroes, the first … to persuade the multitudes to use written laws was Mneves [ Moses ], a man not alone great of person but besides in his animation the most public-spirited of all lawgivers whose names are recorded .

Droge besides points out that this statement by Hecataeus was alike to statements made subsequently by Eupolemus .

Artapanus

word picture of Moses on the Knesset Menorah raising his arms during the struggle against the Amalekites The jewish historian Artapanus of Alexandria ( second hundred BCE ), impersonate Moses as a cultural hero, stranger to the Pharaonic court. According to theologian John Barclay, the Moses of Artapanus “ intelligibly bears the fortune of the Jews, and in his personal, cultural and military magnificence, brings credit to the whole jewish people. ” [ 92 ]

Jealousy of Moses ‘ excellent qualities induced Chenephres to send him with amateurish troops on a military dispatch to Ethiopia, where he won great victories. After having built the city of Hermopolis, he taught the people the value of the ibis as a protection against the serpents, making the bird the consecrated defender spirit of the city ; then he introduced circumcision. After his return to Memphis, Moses taught the people the value of ox for department of agriculture, and the consecration of the same by Moses gave rise to the cult of Apis. Finally, after having escaped another plot by killing the attacker transport by the king, Moses fled to Arabia, where he married the daughter of Raguel [ Jethro ], the ruler of the zone. [ 93 ]

Artapanus goes on to relate how Moses returns to Egypt with Aaron, and is imprisoned, but miraculously escapes through the name of YHWH in order to lead the Exodus. This account further testifies that all egyptian temples of Isis thereafter contained a perch, in memorial of that used for Moses ‘s miracles. He describes Moses as 80 years old, “ tall and rubicund, with retentive white hair, and dignified. ” [ 94 ] Some historians, however, compass point out the “ apologetic nature of much of Artapanus ‘ work, ” with his summation of extra-biblical details, such as his references to Jethro : the non-Jewish Jethro expresses wonder for Moses ‘s chivalry in helping his daughters, and chooses to adopt Moses as his son .

Strabo

Strabo, a greek historian, geographer and philosopher, in his Geographica ( c. 24 CE ), wrote in detail about Moses, whom he considered to be an egyptian who deplored the situation in his fatherland, and thereby attracted many followers who respected the deity. He writes, for case, that Moses opposed the pictorial representation of the deity in the form of man or animal, and was convinced that the deity was an entity which encompassed everything – down and sea :

35. An egyptian priest named Moses, who possessed a part of the area called the Lower Egypt, being dissatisfied with the established institutions there, left it and came to Judaea with a large body of people who worshipped the Divinity. He declared and taught that the Egyptians and Africans entertained erroneous sentiments, in representing the Divinity under the likeness of crazy beasts and cattle of the field ; that the Greeks besides were in error in making images of their gods after the human form. For God [ said he ] may be this one matter which encompasses us all, bring and ocean, which we call eden, or the population, or the nature of things …. 36. By such doctrine Moses persuaded a bombastic body of right-minded persons to accompany him to the place where Jerusalem now stands …. [ 98 ]

In Strabo ‘s writings of the history of Judaism as he understood it, he describes respective stages in its growth : from the first stage, including Moses and his direct heirs ; to the concluding degree where “ the Temple of Jerusalem continued to be surrounded by an aura of holiness. ” Strabo ‘s “ positive and unequivocal taste of Moses ‘ personality is among the most sympathetic in all ancient literature. ” His depiction of Moses is said to be similar to the writing of Hecataeus who “ describe Moses as a homo who excelled in wisdom and courage. ” Egyptologist Jan Assmann concludes that Strabo was the historian “ who came closest to a construction of Moses ‘ religion as monotheistic and as a pronounce counter-religion. ” It recognized “ only one cleric being whom no double can represent … [ and ] the lone manner to approach this idol is to live in virtue and in department of justice. ”

tacitus

The Roman historian Tacitus ( c. 56–120 CE ) refers to Moses by noting that the jewish religion was monotheistic and without a clear trope. His chief work, wherein he describes jewish philosophy, is his Histories ( c. 100 ), where, according to 18th-century interpreter and irish dramatist Arthur Murphy, as a result of the jewish worship of one God, “ heathen mythology fell into contempt. ” [ 101 ] Tacitus states that, despite respective opinions current in his day regarding the Jews ‘ ethnicity, most of his sources are in agreement that there was an exodus from Egypt. By his score, the Pharaoh Bocchoris, suffering from a plague, banished the Jews in reaction to an oracle of the deity Zeus – amen .

A motley crowd was thus collected and abandoned in the desert. While all the other outcasts lay idly lamenting, one of them, named Moses, advised them not to look for help to gods or men, since both had deserted them, but to trust quite in themselves, and accept as godhead the steering of the first being, by whose aid they should get out of their present plight. [ 102 ]

In this adaptation, Moses and the Jews wander through the abandon for entirely six days, capturing the Holy Land on the one-seventh. [ 102 ]

Longinus

Moses lifts up the brass section snake, curing the Israelites from poisonous snake bites in a paint by Benjamin West The Septuagint, the greek adaptation of the Hebrew Bible, impressed the hedonist generator of the celebrated classical book of literary criticism, On the Sublime, traditionally attributed to Longinus. The date of constitution is obscure, but it is normally assigned to the late first hundred C.E. [ 103 ] The writer quotes Genesis in a “ style which presents the nature of the deity in a manner desirable to his pure and great being, ” however he does not mention Moses by name, calling him ‘no luck person ‘ ( οὐχ ὁ τυχὼν ἀνήρ ) but “ the Lawgiver ” ( θεσμοθέτης, thesmothete ) of the Jews, ” a terminus that puts him on a equality with Lycurgus and Minos. [ 104 ] away from a address to Cicero, Moses is the lone non-Greek writer quoted in the work, contextually he is put on a par with Homer ,. and he is described “ with far more admiration than even greek writers who treated Moses with respect, such as Hecataeus and Strabo .

josephus

In Josephus ‘ ( 37 – c. 100 CE ) Antiquities of the Jews, Moses is mentioned throughout. For case Book VIII Ch. IV, describes Solomon ‘s Temple, besides known as the First Temple, at the time the Ark of the Covenant was first gear moved into the newly built synagogue :

When King Solomon had finished these works, these large and beautiful buildings, and had laid up his donations in the synagogue, and all this in the interval of seven years, and had given a presentation of his riches and alacrity therein ; … he besides wrote to the rulers and elders of the Hebrews, and ordered all the people to gather themselves together to Jerusalem, both to see the temple which he had built, and to remove the ark of God into it ; and when this invitation of the whole body of the people to come to Jerusalem was everywhere carried afield, … The Feast of Tabernacles happened to fall at the same prison term, which was kept by the Hebrews as a most holy place and most eminent fete. So they carried the ark and the tabernacle which Moses had pitched, and all the vessels that were for relief to the sacrifices of God, and removed them to the temple. … now the ark contained nothing else but those two tables of stone that preserved the ten commandments, which God spake to Moses in Mount Sinai, and which were engraved upon them … [ 106 ]

According to Feldman, Josephus besides attaches especial significance to Moses ‘s possession of the “ cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. ” He besides includes piety as an add fifth virtue. In addition, he “ stresses Moses ‘ willingness to undergo labor and his careful avoidance of bribery. Like Plato ‘s philosopher-king, Moses excels as an educator. ”

numenius

Numenius, a greek philosopher who was a native of Apamea, in Syria, wrote during the latter one-half of the second hundred CE. historian Kennieth Guthrie writes that “ Numenius is possibly the only recognized greek philosopher who explicitly studied Moses, the prophets, and the life of Jesus … ” He describes his setting :

Numenius was a man of the earth ; he was not limited to Greek and egyptian mysteries, but talked familiarly of the myths of Brahmins and Magi. It is however his cognition and manipulation of the Hebrew scriptures which distinguished him from other greek philosophers. He refers to Moses plainly as “ the prophet ”, precisely as for him Homer is the poet. Plato is described as a greek Moses .

Justin Martyr

The christian canonize and religious philosopher Justin Martyr ( 103–165 CE ) drew the same conclusion as Numenius, according to early experts. theologian Paul Blackham notes that Justin considered Moses to be “ more trustworthy, profound and truthful because he is older than the greek philosophers. ” He quotes him :

I will begin, then, with our first prophet and lawgiver, Moses … that you may know that, of all your teachers, whether sages, poets, historians, philosophers, or lawgivers, by far the oldest, as the greek histories show us, was Moses, who was our first religious teacher .

Abrahamic religions

judaism

Most of what is known about Moses from the Bible comes from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The majority of scholars consider the compilation of these books to go back to the irani menstruation, 538–332 BCE, but based on earlier written and oral traditions. [ 112 ] [ 113 ] There is a wealth of stories and extra information about Moses in the jewish apocrypha and in the genre of rabbinical exegesis known as Midrash, equally well as in the primary works of the jewish oral law, the Mishnah and the Talmud. Moses is besides given a numeral of bynames in jewish tradition. The Midrash identifies Moses as one of seven biblical personalities who were called by diverse names. [ 114 ] Moses ‘s early names were Jekuthiel ( by his mother ), Heber ( by his church father ), Jered ( by Miriam ), Avi Zanoah ( by Aaron ), Avi Gedor ( by Kohath ), Avi Soco ( by his breastfeed ), Shemaiah ben Nethanel ( by people of Israel ). [ 115 ] Moses is besides attributed the names Toviah ( as a first name ), and Levi ( as a family appoint ) ( Vayikra Rabbah 1:3 ), Heman, [ 116 ] Mechoqeiq ( lawgiver ) [ 117 ] and Ehl Gav Ish ( Numbers 12:3 ). [ 118 ] In another exegesis, Moses had ascended to the inaugural eden until the one-seventh, even visited Paradise and Hell alive, after he saw the Divine vision in Mount Horeb. [ 119 ] jewish historians who lived at Alexandria, such as Eupolemus, attributed to Moses the feat of having taught the Phoenicians their alphabet, [ 120 ] exchangeable to legends of Thoth. Artapanus of Alexandria explicitly identified Moses not only with Thoth/ Hermes, but besides with the greek figure Musaeus ( whom he called “ the teacher of Orpheus “ ), and ascribed to him the division of Egypt into 36 districts, each with its own holy eucharist. He named the princess who adopted Moses as Merris, wife of Pharaoh Chenephres. [ 121 ] jewish custom considers Moses to be the greatest prophet who always lived. [ 122 ] [ 123 ] Despite his importance, Judaism stresses that Moses was a human being, and is therefore not to be worshipped. [ citation needed ] Only God is worthy of worship in Judaism. [ citation needed ] To Orthodox Jews, Moses is called Moshe Rabbenu, `Eved HaShem, Avi haNeviim zya”a : “ Our Leader Moshe, Servant of God, Father of all the Prophets ( may his merit shield us, amen ) ”. In the orthodox horizon, Moses received not only the Torah, but besides the revealed ( written and oral ) and the shroud ( the `hokhmat nistar teachings, which gave Judaism the Zohar of the Rashbi, the Torah of the Ari haQadosh and all that is discussed in the Heavenly Yeshiva between the Ramhal and his masters ). [ citation needed ] Arising in region from his long time of death ( 120 years, according to Deut. 34:7 ) and that “ his center had not dimmed, and his energy had not diminished, ” the phrase “ may you live to 120 “ has become a common blessing among Jews ( 120 is stated as the maximal historic period for all of Noah ‘s descendants in Genesis 6:3 ).

christendom

Moses is mentioned more much in the New Testament than any other Old Testament design. For Christians, Moses is frequently a symbol of God ‘s law, as reinforced and expounded on in the teachings of Jesus. New Testament writers frequently compared Jesus ‘s words and deeds with Moses ‘s to explain Jesus ‘s deputation. In Acts 7:39–43, 51–53, for exemplar, the rejection of Moses by the Jews who worshipped the gold calf is likened to the rejection of Jesus by the Jews that continued in traditional Judaism. [ 124 ] [ 125 ] Moses besides figures in respective of Jesus ‘s messages. When he met the Pharisee Nicodemus at nox in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, he compared Moses ‘s lifting up of the bronze snake in the wilderness, which any Israelite could look at and be healed, to his own rise up ( by his death and resurrection ) for the people to look at and be healed. In the sixth chapter, Jesus responded 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 “ boodle of life “, Jesus stated that he was provided to feed God ‘s people. [ 126 ] Moses, along with Elijah, is presented as meet with Jesus in all three Synoptic Gospels of the Transfiguration of Jesus in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9, respectively. In Matthew 23, in what is the first attested practice of a idiom referring to this rabbinical custom ( the Graeco-Aramaic קתדרא דמשה ), Jesus refers to the scribes and the Pharisees, in a passage critical of them, as having seated themselves “ on the president of Moses ” ( greek : Ἐπὶ τῆς Μωϋσέως καθέδρας, epì tēs Mōüséōs kathédras ) [ 127 ] [ 128 ] His relevance to modern Christianity has not diminished. Moses is considered to be a saint by several churches ; and is commemorated as a prophet in the respective Calendars of Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Lutheran churches on September 4. In Eastern Orthodox liturgics for September 4, Moses is commemorated as the “ Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses, on Mount Nebo ”. [ 129 ] [ 130 ] [ note 4 ] The Orthodox Church besides commemorates him on the Sunday of the Forefathers, two Sundays before the Nativity. [ 132 ] Moses is besides commemorated on July 20 with Aaron, Elijah and Elisha [ 133 ] and on April 14 with all saint Sinai monks. [ 134 ] The armenian Apostolic Church commemorates him as one of the Holy Forefathers in their calendar of Saints on July 30. [ 135 ]

mormonism

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints ( colloquially called Mormons ) generally view Moses in the same way that other Christians do. however, in addition to accepting the biblical bill of Moses, Mormons include Selections from the Book of Moses as share of their scriptural canon. [ 136 ] This book is believed to be the translate writings of Moses, and is included in the Pearl of Great Price. [ 137 ] latter-day Saints are besides unique in believing that Moses was taken to heaven without having tasted death ( translated ). In accession, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery stated that on April 3, 1836, Moses appeared to them in the Kirtland Temple ( located in Kirtland, Ohio ) in a transfigure, immortal, physical form and bestowed upon them the “ keys of the gather of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten kin from the country of the north. ” [ 138 ]

islam

Moses is mentioned more in the Quran than any other person and his life is narrated and recounted more than that of any other Islamic prophet. Islamically, Moses is described in ways which parallel the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Like Muhammad, Moses is defined in the Quran as both prophet ( nabi ) and messenger ( rasul ), the latter term indicating that he was one of those prophets who brought a bible and law to his people. [ 141 ]
Moses is mentioned 502 times in the Quran. Most of the key events in Moses ‘s biography which are narrated in the Bible are to be found dispersed through the different chapters ( suwar ) of the Quran, with a report about touch Khidr which is not found in the Bible. In the Moses fib related by the Quran, Jochebed is commanded by God to place Moses in an ark and cast him on the waters of the Nile, thus abandoning him completely to God ‘s auspices. [ 143 ] The Pharaoh ‘s wife Asiya, not his daughter, found Moses floating in the waters of the Nile. She convinced the Pharaoh to keep him as their son because they were not blessed with any children. [ 144 ] [ 145 ] [ 146 ] The Quran ‘s report has emphasized Moses ‘s mission to invite the Pharaoh to accept God ‘s divine message [ 147 ] ampere well as give salvation to the Israelites. [ 148 ] According to the Quran, Moses encourages the Israelites to enter Canaan, but they are unwilling to fight the Canaanites, fearing certain defeat. Moses responds by pleading to Allah that he and his brother Aaron be separated from the rebellious Israelites. After which the Israelites are made to wander for 40 years. [ 149 ] One of the hadith, or traditional narratives about Muhammad ‘s life, describes a meet in eden between Moses and Muhammad, which resulted in Muslims observing 5 casual prayers. [ 150 ] Huston Smith says this was “ one of the crucial events in Muhammad ‘s life ”. [ 151 ] According to some Islamic custom, Moses is believed to be buried at Maqam El-Nabi Musa, near Jericho. [ 152 ]

Baháʼí Faith

Moses is one of the most important of God ‘s messengers in the Baháʼí Faith being designated a Manifestation of God. [ 153 ] An epithet of Moses in Baháʼí scriptures is the one Who Conversed with God. [ 154 ] According to the Baháʼí Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the faith, is the one who spoke to Moses from the Burning bush. [ 155 ] Abdul ’ l-Baha, has highlighted the fact that Moses, like Abraham, had none of the makings of a great man of history, but through God ‘s aid he was able to achieve many capital things. He is described as having been “ for a long time a shepherd in the wilderness, ” of having had a stammer, and of being “ much hated and detested ” by the Pharaoh and the ancient Egyptians of his time. He is said to have been raised in an oppressive family, and to have been known, in Egypt, as a man who had committed murder – though he had done then in order to prevent an act of cruelty. [ 156 ] however, like Abraham, through the aid of God, he achieved great things and gained fame even beyond the Levant. Chief among these achievements was the absolve of his people, the Hebrews, from bondage in Egypt and leading “ them to the Holy Land. ” He is viewed as the one who bestowed on Israel ‘the religious and the civil law ‘ which gave them “ honour among all nations, ” and which spread their fame to different parts of the worldly concern. [ 157 ] [ failed verification ] furthermore, through the law, Moses is believed to have led the Hebrews ‘to the highest possible degree of refinement at that period. ’ Abdul ’ l-Baha asserts that the ancient greek philosophers regarded “ the illustrious men of Israel as models of paragon. “ [ failed verification ] Chief among these philosophers, he says, was Socrates who “ visited Syria, and took from the children of Israel the teachings of the Unity of God and of the immortality of the soul. ” [ 157 ] Moses is far seen as paving the way for Bahá’u’lláh and his ultimate revelation, and as a teacher of truth, whose teachings were in agate line with the customs of his time. [ 158 ]

Druze faith

Moses is considered an important prophet of God in the Druze religion, being among the seven prophets who appeared in different periods of history. [ 5 ] [ 6 ]

bequest in politics and jurisprudence

In a metaphorical sense in the christian custom, a “ Moses ” has been referred to as the drawing card who delivers the people from a frightful position. Among the Presidents of the United States known to have used the symbolism of Moses were Harry S. Truman, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who referred to his supporters as “ the Moses generation. ” [ 159 ] In subsequent years, theologians linked the Ten Commandments with the formation of early democracy. scottish theologian William Barclay described them as “ the universal joint foundation of all things… the police without which nationhood is impossible. …Our society is founded upon it. [ 160 ] Pope Francis addressed the United States Congress in 2015 stating that all people need to “ keep alive their sense of integrity by means of barely legislation … [ and ] the figure of Moses leads us directly to God and thus to the transcendent dignity of the human being. [ 161 ]

In US history

Pilgrims

References to Moses were used by the Puritans, who relied on the narrative of Moses to give intend and hope to the lives of Pilgrims seeking religious and personal freedom in North America. John Carver was the first governor of Plymouth colony and first signer of the Mayflower Compact, which he wrote in 1620 during the embark Mayflower’ randomness three-month voyage. He inspired the Pilgrims with a “ smell of earthly magnificence and cleric aim, ” notes historian Jon Meacham, and was called the “ Moses of the Pilgrims. ” [ 163 ] early american writer James Russell Lowell noted the similarity of the initiation of America by the Pilgrims to that of ancient Israel by Moses :

future to the fugitives whom Moses led out of Egypt, the little boatload of outcasts who landed at Plymouth are destined to influence the future of the earth. [ 164 ]

Following Carver ‘s death the follow class, William Bradford was made governor. He feared that the remaining Pilgrims would not survive the hardships of the newly domain, with half their people having already died within months of arriving. Bradford evoked the symbol of Moses to the weakened and desperate Pilgrims to help calm them and give them hope : “ Violence will break all. Where is the meek and humiliate intent of Moses ? ” [ 165 ] William G. Dever explains the attitude of the Pilgrims : “ We considered ourselves the ‘New Israel, ‘ peculiarly we in America. And for that reason we knew who we were, what we believed in and valued, and what our ‘ manifest destiny ‘ was. ” [ 167 ]

Founding Fathers of the United States

first proposed varnish of the United States, 1776 On July 4, 1776, immediately after the Declaration of Independence was officially passed, the Continental Congress asked John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin to design a varnish that would clearly represent a symbol for the fresh United States. They chose the symbol of Moses leading the Israelites to freedom. The Founding Fathers of the United States inscribed the words of Moses on the Liberty Bell : “ Proclaim Liberty thro ‘ all the Land to all the Inhabitants thence. ” ( Leviticus 25 ) After the death of George Washington in 1799, two thirds of his eulogies referred to him as “ America ‘s Moses, ” with one orator saying that “ Washington has been the same to us as Moses was to the Children of Israel. ” Benjamin Franklin, in 1788, saw the difficulties that some of the newly autonomous american states were having in forming a government, and proposed that until a new code of laws could be agreed to, they should be governed by “ the laws of Moses, ” as contained in the Old Testament. He justified his proposal by explaining that the laws had worked in biblical times : “ The Supreme Being … having rescued them from bondage by many miracles, performed by his handmaid Moses, he personally delivered to that chosen handmaid, in the presence of the whole nation, a constitution and code of laws for their ceremony. John Adams, 2nd President of the United States, stated why he relied on the laws of Moses over Greek doctrine for establishing the United States Constitution : “ american samoa much as I love, esteem, and admire the Greeks, I believe the Hebrews have done more to enlighten and civilize the populace. Moses did more than all their legislators and philosophers. ” swedish historian Hugo Valentin credited Moses as the “ first to proclaim the rights of valet. ” [ 172 ]

Slavery and civil rights

Underground Railroad conductor and American Civil War veteran Harriet Tubman was nicknamed “ Moses ” due to her diverse missions in freeing and ferrying escaped enslave persons to freedom in the free states of the United States. Clinton, Catherine ( 2004 ). Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom. New York : short, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-14492-4. historian Gladys L. Knight describes how leaders who emerged during and after the menstruation in which slavery in the United States was legal much personified the Moses symbol. “ The symbol of Moses was empowering in that it served to amplify a want for exemption. ” [ 173 ] Therefore, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 after the passage of the amendment to the Constitution outlawing bondage, Black Americans said they had lost “ their Moses ”. [ 174 ] Lincoln biographer Charles Carleton Coffin writes, “ The millions whom Abraham Lincoln delivered from slavery will ever liken him to Moses, the jesus of Israel. ” [ 175 ] Similarly, Harriet Tubman, who rescued approximately seventy enslaved class and friends, was besides described as the “ Moses ” of her people. [ 176 ] In the 1960s, a run digit in the civil rights movement was Martin Luther King Jr., who was called “ a modern Moses, ” and often referred to Moses in his speeches : “ The clamber of Moses, the fight of his devote followers as they sought to get out of Egypt. This is something of the floor of every people struggling for exemption. ” [ 177 ]

cultural portrayals and references

art

Moses, with horns, by , with horns, by Michelangelo, 1513-15, in Basilica San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome Moses often appears in Christian art, and the Pope ‘s secret chapel service, the Sistine Chapel, has a large sequence of six frescos of the life of Moses on the southerly wall, face-to-face a set with the life of Christ. They were painted in 1481-82 by a group of by and large Florentine artists including Sandro Botticelli and Pietro Perugino. Because of an ambiguity in Jerome ‘s Latin Vulgate transformation of the Bible, where Moses ‘s boldness is described as cornutam ( meaning either “ glow ” or “ horned ” ) when descending from Mount Sinai with the tablets, Moses is normally shown in westerly art until the Renaissance with humble horns, which at least served as a convenient identifying attribute. [ 178 ] With the prophet Elijah, he is a necessity digit in the transfiguration of Jesus in Christian art, a subject with a retentive history in Eastern Orthodox art, and popular in western art between about 1475 and 1535. [ 179 ]

Michelangelo’s statue

Michelangelo ‘s statue of Moses ( 1513–15 ), in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, is one of the most conversant statues in the populace. The horns the sculptor included on Moses ‘s head are the result of a mistranslation of the Hebrew Bible into the Latin Vulgate Bible with which Michelangelo was familiar. The Hebrew word taken from Exodus means either a “ french horn ” or an “ irradiation. ” Experts at the Archaeological Institute of America show that the term was used when Moses “ returned to his people after seeing ampere much of the Glory of the Lord as human eye could stand, ” and his face “ reflected radiance. ” [ 180 ] In early jewish art, furthermore, Moses is much “ shown with rays coming out of his head. ” [ 181 ]

Depiction on U.S. government buildings

Moses is depicted in several U.S. government buildings because of his bequest as a lawgiver. In the Library of Congress stands a large statue of Moses alongside a statue of the Paul the Apostle. Moses is one of the 23 lawgivers depicted in marble bas-reliefs in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives in the United States Capitol. The brass ‘s overview states : “ Moses ( c. 1350–1250 B.C. ) Hebrew prophet and lawgiver ; transformed a roll people into a state ; received the Ten Commandments. ” [ 182 ] The other twenty-two figures have their profiles turned to Moses, which is the only forward-facing bas-relief. [ 183 ] [ 184 ] Moses appears eight times in carvings that ring the Supreme Court Great Hall ceiling. His face is presented along with early ancient figures such as Solomon, the Greek god Zeus and the Roman goddess of wisdom of solomon, Minerva. The Supreme Court Building ‘s east pediment depicts Moses holding two tablets. Tablets representing the Ten Commandments can be found carved in the oak court doors, on the subscribe frame of the court ‘s bronze gates and in the library carpentry. A controversial image is one that sits directly above the Chief Justice of the United States ‘ head. In the center of the 40-foot-long spanish marble carve is a tablet displaying Roman numerals I through X, with some numbers partially hidden. [ 185 ]

literature

Film and television

criticism of Moses

In the late eighteenth century, the deist Thomas Paine commented at length on Moses ‘s Laws in The Age of Reason ( 1794, 1795, and 1807 ). Paine considered Moses to be a “ abominable villain “, and cited Numbers 31 as an exercise of his “ new atrocities ”. [ 203 ] In the passage, after the Israelite united states army returned from conquering Midian, Moses orders the kill of the Midianites with the exception of the pure girls who were to be kept for the Israelites .

Have ye saved all the women alive ? behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the advocate of Balaam, to commit sin against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every charwoman that hath known a man by lying with him ; but all the women-children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep active for yourselves .Numbers 31[204]

Rabbi Joel Grossman argued that the report is a “ knock-down fabrication of crave and treachery “, and that Moses ‘s execution of the women was a symbolic execration of those who seek to turn sexual activity and desire to evil purposes. [ 205 ] He says that the Middianite women “ used their intimate attraction to turn the Israelite men away from [ Yahweh ] God and toward the worship of Baal Peor [ another Canaanite God ] ”. [ 206 ] Rabbi Grossman argues that the genocide of all the Middianite non-virgin women, including those that did not seduce jewish men, was honest because some of them had arouse for “ improper reasons ”. [ 206 ] Alan Levin, an educational specialist with the Reform movement, has similarly suggested that the narrative should be taken as a admonitory fib, to “ warn consecutive generations of Jews to watch their own idolatrous behavior ”. [ 207 ] Chasam Sofer emphasizes that this war was not fought at Moses ‘s behest, but was commanded by God as an act of revenge against the Midianite women, [ 208 ] who, according to the Biblical bill, had seduced the Israelites and led them to sin. Moses has besides been the subject of much feminist criticism. Womanist Biblical scholar Nyasha Junior has argued that Moses can be the object of feminist inquiry. [ 209 ]