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Moses
Born
Died
Spouse(s)
Children
Parents
Relatives
Goshen, Lower Egypt
Mount Nebo, Moab
Zipporah
Gershom
Eliezer
Amram (father)
Jochebed (mother)
Aaron (brother)
Miriam (sister)
Moses (Hebrew: ‫מֹ שֶׁ ה‬, Modern Moshe Tiberian Mōšéh ISO 259-3 Moše ; Syriac: ‫ ܡܘܫ ܐ‬Moushe; Arabic:
‫ ىسوم‬Mūsā ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a former Egyptian prince later turned prophet,
religious leader and lawgiver, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also
called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew (‫ּונ ֵּב ַר ה ֶׁש ֹמ‬, Lit. "Moses our Teacher/Rabbi"), he is the most important
prophet in Judaism.[1][2] He is also an important prophet in Christianity and Islam, as well as a number
of other faiths.
The existence of Moses as well as the veracity of the Exodus story are disputed among archaeologists
and Egyptologists, with experts in the field of biblical criticism citing logical inconsistencies, new
archaeological evidence, historical evidence, and related origin myths in Canaanite culture.[3][4][5] Other
historians maintain that the biographical details and Egyptian background attributed to Moses imply
the existence of a historical political and religious leader who was involved in the consolidation of the
Hebrew tribes in Canaan towards the end of the Bronze Age.
According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people, the Children of Israel,
were increasing in numbers and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might ally with Egypt's
enemies.[6] Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed, secretly hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn
Hebrew boys to be killed upon the circulating prophecy among Egyptian priests of a messianic
deliverer among the Hebrew slaves. Through the Pharaoh's sister Queen Bithia, the child was adopted
as a foundling from the Nile river and grew up with the Egyptian royal family. After killing an
Egyptian slave master, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he encountered the God of
Israel speaking to him from within a "burning bush".
God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he
could not speak with assurance or eloquence,[7] so God allowed Aaron, his brother, 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 desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised
Land.
Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE;[8] Jerome gives
1592 BCE, and Ussher 1619 BCE as his birth year.[9]
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Name
Moses' name is given to him by Pharaoh's daughter: "He became her son, and she named him Moshe
(Moses)." This name may be either Egyptian or Hebrew. If connected to an Egyptian root, via msy "to
be born" and ms, "a son", it forms a wordplay: "he became her son, and she named him Son." There
should, however, be a divine element to the name Moses (bearers of the Egyptian name are the "son
of" a god, as in Thutmose, "son of Thut"), and his full name may therefore have included the name of
one of the Egyptian gods. If the name is from a Hebrew root, then it is connected to the verb "to draw
out": "I drew him (masha) out of the water," states Pharaoh's daughter, possibly looking forward to
Moses at the well in Midian, or to his role in saving Israel at the Red Sea. Most scholars agree that the
name is Egyptian, and that the Hebrew etymology is a later interpretation.[10]
Biblical narrative
Prophet and deliverer of Israel
The Israelites had settled in the Land of Goshen in the time of Joseph and Jacob, but a new pharaoh
arose who oppressed the children of Israel. At this time Moses was born to his father Amram, son of
Kohath the Levite, who entered Egypt with Jacob's household; his mother was Jochebed (also
Yocheved), who was kin to Kohath. Moses had one older (by seven years) sister, Miriam, and one
older (by three years) brother, Aaron.
Pharaoh had commanded that all male Hebrew children born be drowned in the river Nile, but Moses'
mother placed him in an ark and concealed the ark in the bulrushes by the riverbank, where the baby
was discovered and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. One day after Moses had reached adulthood he
killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Moses, afraid that Pharaoh would be angry with him for
killing a slave, fled to Midian (a desert country south of Judah). There, on Mount Horeb (variant name
for Mount Sinai), God revealed to Moses his name YHWH (probably pronounced Yahweh) and
commanded him to return to Egypt and bring his Chosen People (Israel) out of bondage and into the
Promised Land (Canaan). Moses returned to carry out God's command, but God caused Pharaoh to
refuse, and only after God had subjected Egypt to ten plagues did Pharaoh relent. Moses led the
Israelites to the border of Egypt, but there God hardened Pharaoh's heart once more, so that he could
destroy Pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea Crossing as a sign of his power to Israel and the nations.
From Egypt Moses led Israel to Mount Sinai, where God and the elders entered into a covenant, by
which Israel would become the people of YHWH, obeying his laws, and YHWH would be their god.
Through Moses delivered laws to Israel, instituted the priesthood under the sons of Moses' 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.
From Sinai Moses led the Israelites to Paran on the border of Canaan. There he sent twelve spies into
the land. The spies returned with samples of the land'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 generation who had refused to enter Canaan had died, so that it
would be their children who would possess the land.
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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, received God's blessing through
Balaam the prophet, and massacred the Midianites, who were God's enemies. On the banks of the
Jordan, in sight of the land, Moses assembled the tribes. After recalling their wanderings he delivered
God's laws by which they must live in the land, sang a song of praise and pronounced a blessing on the
people, and passed his authority to Joshua, under whom they would possess the land. Moses then went
up Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, looked over the promised land of Israel spread out before him,
and died, at the age of one hundred and twenty. More humble than any other man (Num. 12:3), "there
hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom YHWH knew face to face"
(Deuteronomy.
Lawgiver of Israel
Further information: Law of Moses, Mosaic authorship, Deuteronomist, Book of Deuteronomy §
Deuteronomic code and 613 Mitzvot
Moses is honoured among Jews today as the "lawgiver of Israel", and he delivers several sets of laws
in the course of the four books. The first is the Covenant code, Exodus 19-24, the terms of the
covenant which God offers to Israel at the foot of Sinai. Embedded in the covenant are the Decalogue
(the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:1-17) and the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:22-23:19).[11]
The entire book of Leviticus constitutes a second body of law, the book of Numbers begins with yet
another set, and Deuteronomy another.
Moses has traditionally been regarded as the author of the four books plus Genesis, which together
make up the Torah the first and most revered section of the Jewish bible.
Sources
Apart from a few scattered references elsewhere in the Jewish scriptures, all that is known about
Moses comes from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.[12] The majority of
scholars date these four books to the Persian period, 538-332 BCE.[13]
No Egyptian sources mention Moses or the events of Exodus-Deuteronomy, nor has any archeological
evidence been discovered in Egypt or the Sinai wilderness to support the story in which he is the
central figure.[14]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses
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