Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MOSES

(Heb. mōšeh)

Israelite liberator and lawgiver.

Biblical Accounts

Moses is born to Levite parents after Pharaoh decrees the death of all newborn Hebrew boys. Rather than drown Moses, his mother sets him in the Nile shallows, where he is discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter and extracted by her maidservant. The princess raises Moses as her own son, employing his natural mother as wet nurse (Exod. 1:22–2:10). Pharaoh’s daughter names him mōšeh, “because I rescued (mšh) him from the water.” As a whole, the incident anticipates future events: as Pharaoh designs to drown Israel’s helpless boys in the reedy Nile, from which Moses is rescued, so Yahweh and Moses will save Israel from Egypt at the Reed Sea, where Egypt’s mighty men perish. Pharaoh’s daughter, though a minor character, thus symbolizes God; her maidservant corresponds to Moses. Even Moses’ name, if understood as Hebrew, ought to mean, not “rescued from the water,” but “rescuer from the water,” foreshadowing Moses’ role in Israel’s deliverance (cf. Isa. 63:11).

In his early manhood, Moses, hitherto an unwitting traitor to his class and kin, begins to explore life outside the palace. Coming upon a fight between an Egyptian and a Hebrew, he kills the Egyptian and hides the body. When he later interrupts a fight between two Hebrews, his previous homicide is thrown at him, and he knows he must flee (Exod. 2:11-15). These pivotal incidents, too, foreshadow Moses’ destiny, to rescue Israel from Egypt, to establish justice, and yet to be rejected by his own people. These encounters demonstrate Moses’ instinct for equity and capacity for swift action. They also illustrate the futility of attempting to help Israel without divine assistance.

Arriving in Midian, Moses rescues embattled shepherdesses at a well. These prove to be daughters of the local priest, called Reuel or Jethro, who welcomes Moses and gives him his daughter Zipporah in marriage. Moses and Zipporah produce two sons, Gershom and Eliezer (Exod. 2:15-22; 18:1-6). At this point one might think Moses’ wanderings and story are over. But, as he is about to discover, Moses is still “a sojourner in a foreign land.” The words sum up his entire career, since he will never reach the Promised Land.

Sometime later, while tending sheep, Moses encounters Israel’s ancestral deity in a burning, talking bush. God reveals to him his true name, Yahweh, and reaffirms his ancient promise to bring Israel to Canaan (Exod. 3:14-17). Overruling his repeated objections, God sends Moses back to Egypt to deliver Israel, assisted by his brother Aaron and armed with the “rod of God.” On the way, Moses undergoes a bizarre, hostile encounter with the deity. He nearly dies, but is saved by the blood of circumcision (Exod. 4:24-26). It seems Moses has undergone a rite of passage. He has put off his youth and the company of women for his adult role as Israel’s liberator. Moses will forsake Jethro’s sheep for God’s “flock.”

After delivering God’s word to the joyous people, Moses confronts Pharaoh. But the king only makes Israel’s suffering harsher, sowing dissent among people, elders, and Moses (Exod. 4:29–6:1). Moses is dismayed, but God reiterates his promise to deliver Israel (Exod. 6:2-8). At this point Moses is 80 years old (Exod. 7:7).

God sends 10 plagues against Egypt (Exod. 7:8–11:10). While he occasionally wavers, Pharaoh still refuses to release Israel; Yahweh has “hardened his heart.” Finally, God kills every firstborn male, human and animal, throughout Egypt, sparing only Israel, who smear the protecting blood of a lamb or kid, the Passover, on their doorframes (Exod. 12:1-28). Now the Egyptians urge Israel to leave and even shower them with gifts (Exod. 12:29–13:16).

Yahweh leads Israel, not by the expected coastal route, but straight through the desert toward the Reed Sea. Once more the Egyptians decide to pursue, and pin Israel against the sea, but Yahweh parts the waters so that Israel may pass. When Egypt follows and Israel is safely across, Yahweh restores the waters, and Egypt drowns. Moses and Miriam lead the people in jubilation (Exod. 13:17–15:21).

Moses leads Israel through the desert, miraculously providing water, quails, and manna, defeating the Amalekites and, with Jethro’s guidance, establishing the Israelite judiciary. Throughout, the people complain against Moses, but he is continually vindicated by God (Exod. 15:22–18:27). Finally they reach Sinai, where Israel will camp for 11 months (cf. Num. 10:11). Israel formally enters into a covenant with God (Exod. 19; 24). Yahweh’s covenant obligation is to give Israel prosperity in its own land. Israel’s obligation is to worship Yahweh alone and to obey all God’s moral and ritual laws received by Moses atop Mt. Sinai. These are detailed in Exod. 20–Num. 10.

In Moses’ absence, Aaron builds a golden calf for the people to worship. God proposes to wipe out Israel and create a new nation out of Moses, but Moses declines the honor and placates the deity. Returning from the mountain, Moses smashes the tablets of the covenant and orders all idolaters killed. A new covenant is enacted, and Moses bears new tablets down from the mountain. During this second revelation he has an almost direct experience of God and is somehow transformed: his face is either radiant or burnt (Exod. 32–34).

Finally, after a census is taken, Israel sets forth from Sinai, bearing the ritual tabernacle they have built to house Yahweh’s presence (Num. 1–10). But their rebellions continue. Frustrated, Moses demands more assistance from God, who invests 70 prophets to help him. This leads his own brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, to question Moses’ unique leadership (they are also bothered by his second marriage to an Ethiopian). Moses declines to defend himself, but Yahweh afflicts Miriam with temporary leprosy (Num. 11–12).

Moses dispatches 12 spies to reconnoiter Canaan. When all but Caleb and Joshua report that the land is impregnable, the people again wish they were back in Egypt. Moses once more dissuades Yahweh from destroying Israel. But now God decrees that all the people, except Caleb and Joshua, must die in the wilderness; Israel will wander for 40 years. Chastened, the people attempt to enter the land without divine sanction, but it is too late (Num. 13–14). During this period God reveals more religious laws (Num. 15; 18–19; 28–30; 35).

At some point during the 40 years, the Levite Korah and the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram rebel against Moses and Aaron, contesting their unique claim to religious office and blaming their apparent inability to bring Israel to Canaan. Yahweh kills Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. At God’s behest, Aaron and the other tribal leaders deposit their rods in the tabernacle. Aaron’s sprouts blossoms and almonds, showing that he is Yahweh’s elect. His rod is to be kept as a sign against future challenges to authority (Num. 16–17).

When Israel again rebels, demanding water, Yahweh commands Moses to take Aaron’s rod and to address a rock face, which will yield water. Instead, Moses strikes the rock. Water gushes forth, but the miracle is less impressive. For his imperfect obedience both Moses and Aaron are condemned to die in the desert (Num. 20:2-13).

At the end of 40 years, Israel is back (or still) at Kadesh, preparing to enter the land. Various peoples contest Israel’s passage south and east of Canaan. Some are circumvented and others defeated. During this time Moses averts a plague of fiery serpents by affixing a bronze snake to a pole (Num. 21:6-9; cf. 2 Kgs. 18:4).

Final preparations for the conquest of Canaan include a new census and delineation of the Promised Land (Num. 26:1–27:11; 32; 34–36). Moses appoints Joshua as his successor (27:12-23; Deut. 31:14-23). Moses then ascends Mt. Nebo to deliver his farewell address, basically the book of Deuteronomy. He recapitulates Israel’s recent history and the laws of the covenant (Deut. 1:5–31:23), predicting that God will send other prophets like himself (18:15-18). Moses sings a prophetic song, blesses the tribes, beholds Canaan from afar, and dies at the age of 120 (Deut. 32–34). He is buried by Yahweh himself (Deut. 32:6).

Moses is among the Bible’s most complex and vivid characters. This is partly because varying accounts of his life and teachings have been fused. To some extent Moses is idealized: he is the epitome of pious humility (Num. 12:3) and functions as prophet, priest, judge, and king. Later figures may be depicted as Moses-like — Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, Josiah, Jesus — yet Moses remains a unique phenomenon, not so much by his internal greatness as by his unparalleled intimacy with God (Exod. 33–34; Num. 12:6-8; Deut. 34:10). He is father of his people — and arguably mother, too (cf. Num. 11:12), assuaging the wrath of Israel’s Father in heaven. Moses twice forgoes the supreme honor of begetting a new nation (Exod. 32:10; Num. 14:12) and instead is condemned to die in the wilderness for his people’s sins (Deut. 1:37; 3:27; 4:21), buried in an unknown, unvisited grave (34:6). Moses is even described as a god to Aaron and Pharaoh (Exod. 4:16; 7:1), and, by one interpretation, his face shines with divine splendor (34:29-35). Still, in all sources Moses is a flawed character. Throughout his career his faith wavers; he is given to mood swings, is inconsistently obedient to Yahweh, and is a somewhat reluctant leader.

Moses rarely appears in biblical poetry, which in general is more mythic and less historical than the prose sources and accordingly emphasizes Yahweh’s role in saving Israel over Moses’. But in later Judaism Moses’ importance grew. The entire Torah was attributed to his authorship, along with innumerable other principles supposedly passed down orally (m. ʾAbot. 1:1). Tales of his exploits developed along folkloric lines (Exodus Rabbah). For Hellenistic Jews and sympathetic pagans, Moses was a kind of philosopher king (e.g., Philo of Alexandria). For the Jews’ opponents, he was a pestilential crank (cf. Josephus Contra Apion).

The NT depicts Jesus as essentially affirming Moses’ law (e.g., Matt. 5:17-20; Luke 16:16-17), citing an apparition of Moses and Elijah as a validation of Jesus (Matt. 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36). Moses in many ways serves as a literary prototype for Jesus (cf. Acts 7:37). Each is endangered from birth but protected by his parents (Matt. 2). Each returns with his family from exile after the oppressor’s death (Matt. 2:19-20). Each comes out of Egypt (Matt. 2:13-21). Each preaches from a mountain (Matt. 5) or after descending from a mountain (Luke 6:12-49). Each fasts for 40 days and nights (Matt. 4:2; Luke 4:2). Each feeds humanity with divine drink (John 7:37-38) and food (Matt. 14:13-21; 15:32-39; Mark 6:31-44; 8:1-10; Luke 9:10-17; John 6). Even Moses’ saving standard, a snake on a pole, supposedly anticipates Jesus’ resurrection (John 3:14). Each is rejected by the very people to whom he has brought salvation (Acts 7:27-53). Luke 9:31 calls Jesus’ death his éxodos (lit., “departure”). Yet Moses is not just Jesus’ prototype, but also his antitype. Moses’ Law is superseded by Christianity, whose New Covenant offers a more immediate and universal relationship with God (John 9:28-29; 2 Cor. 3; Galatians; Heb. 3:2-6). In the NT’s ambivalent attitude toward Moses we recognize the early Church’s ambivalence toward its Jewish roots.

History

We can say little for certain about the historical Moses — not even when he lived. Biblical chronology places his birth ca. 1520 b.c.e. (Exod. 7:7; 1 Kgs. 6:1), but few critical scholars would endorse so early a date. Moreover, Moses’ life story consists largely of stereotypical narratives widely paralleled in world literature: the abandoned and rescued baby; the prince who discovers suffering; the exile who returns from the desert with a family and a mission; the reluctant prophet. Tales of his interactions with Aaron and the Levites are retrojections of later priestly squabbles. As for Moses’ literary activity, scholars believe that virtually all “Mosaic” legislation is centuries younger, codified ca. 400. The entire Torah, in fact, is composed of several strands, written perhaps between the 10th and 5th centuries. By its spelling, language, and content, the Pentateuch in its present form cannot be Moses’ work.

What remains? First, mōšeh is a genuine Egyptian name meaning “is born,” short for such names as Thutmose (“Thoth is born”). In fact, several Levites bear Egyptian names: Merari, Hophni, Phinehas, Pashhur, and perhaps others. This corroborates the tradition that some Israelites came out from Egypt.

That some Israelite ancestors were slaves who escaped or were expelled from Egypt is quite plausible. The Egyptians possessed many Semitic slaves, especially in the late 2nd millennium. Since Moses’ clan, Levi, would become Israel’s priestly caste and the only tribe without a territory, most scholars assume that the historical Exodus was experienced principally by the Levites, who infiltrated and in effect converted the already landed tribes. Other Israelite ancestors, perhaps the majority, may have been true Canaanites, dominated by the Egyptian Empire for centuries. Some of these were probably descended from the Hyksos, erstwhile Semitic rulers of Egypt since ca. 1800, expelled ca. 1500. If the traditional date of Moses’ birth is perchance correct, he must in fact have been an ousted Hyksos.

Most scholars, however, would place Moses and the “real” Exodus in the 13th century in the reign of Rameses II. Rameses’ self-portrayal as a vigorous warmonger fits the biblical portrait well. Moreover, his name appears twice in tradition, albeit not as a personal name (Gen. 47:11; Exod. 1:11). In fact, Israel first appears, as a tribal people settled in Canaan, in an inscription of Rameses’ successor Merneptah, ca. 1220. At just this time, archaeology informs us, the Canaanite highlands saw rapid population growth. In short, while the tradition of expulsion/liberation may combine different historical processes transpiring over three centuries, the events with which tradition associates Moses belong chiefly to the 13th century.

More than one scholar has observed that, were there no tradition of a Moses, we would have to posit his existence anyway. Israelite religion vis-à-vis the ancient Near East seems a deliberate innovation, not a natural outgrowth. As there was a Mohammed, a Paul, a Jesus, a Zoroaster, and a Buddha, so must there have been a Moses. But because our written traditions are so much later, it is impossible to distinguish his teachings from those of his followers.

Is nothing then Mosaic? The Song of the Sea features linguistic and stylistic archaisms and might conceivably be by Moses (Exod. 15:1b-18). Many suspect that the Ten Commandments derive from a Mosaic prototype (Exod. 20:2-17; Deut 5:6-21). Perhaps, too, we should credit Moses with the two most characteristic teachings of Israelite religion: the covenant with God and aniconic (idol-less) monotheism. The Israelite covenant, we now know, is modeled on ancient Near Eastern treaties between vassals and suzerains. One of the key provisions of such contracts is exclusive allegiance to a single ruler — for Israel, Yahweh.

If Moses invented Israelite monotheism, he surely relied also upon the doctrine of Pharaoh Akhenaten (reigned 1377-1361?), who broke with Egyptian tradition by worshipping the Sun alone, without images. Just as the Sun exclusively loves his son Akhenaten, so Yahweh loves his covenanted “son” Israel. The idea of a connection between Akhenaten and Moses is often dismissed as implausible, but that two aniconic monotheisms should have arisen independently out of Egypt is even less plausible. The acknowledged dependence of Ps. 104 upon Akhenaten’s “Hymn to the Sun” is sufficient to prove the endurance of the pharaoh’s peculiar theology.

As for how Moses would have encountered Akhenaten’s teaching, the biblical tradition that he was raised as an Egyptian is not as romantic as it sounds. Although closely following folkloric prototypes, Moses’ nativity story reverses a key motif: he is a commoner raised at court, not a prince raised in obscurity. This may indicate a historical kernel. We know that Semitic leaders’ sons were raised in the palaces of New Kingdom pharaohs, the better to ensure their fathers’ loyalty, as well as the eventual loyalty of the sons (cf. 1 Kgs. 11:18-20).

Apart from the influence of Akhenaten, there is also evidence that Yahweh was worshipped as a god — not necessarily the only God — near Midian in the 14th century. Also, Israelite concepts of deity owe a profound debt to Canaan. In sum, Moses was doubtless a religious revolutionary. But his achievement was, at most, a synthesis of pre-existing ideas.

Bibliography. F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cambridge, Mass., 1973); R. E. Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (New York, 1987); B. Halpern, “The Exodus and the Israelite Historians,” ErIsr 24 (1993): 89*-96*; W. A. Meeks, “Moses in the NT,” IDBSup 605-7 (Nashville, 1976); W. H. C. Propp, Exodus 1-18. AB 2 (New York, 1999); D. B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (Princeton, 1992).

William H. C. Propp

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MOSES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)