Moses
Moses or Móshe (מֹשֶׁה, Hebrew), son of Amram and his wife, Jochebed, a Levite. Legendary Hebrew liberator, revelator, leader, lawgiver, prophet, and historian.
According to the scriptural account, Moses freed a group of nearly two million Hebrew slaves and organized them in the desert in preparation for their conquest of the land of Canaan. He brought mankind the Ten Commandments and provided the Mosaic Law to the Jews. In the Bible, Moses is portrayed as the first person to learn the true name of God and is seen in Jewish tradition as a person of unequaled spiritual character. He was one of greatest miracle-workers of all time, and his dramatic exploits are better known than any other pre-Christian biblical figure. Traditionally, he is credited with writing the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which are also known as the Pentateuch, the Torah or the Books of Moses.
Unknown to history outside of the Bible, the existence of the historical Moses has been questioned by modern scholars. He is revered as a great prophet in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Biography
Early Life
The birth of Moses occurred at a time when the current Egyptian monarch had commanded that all male Hebrew children should be killed by drowning in the Nile River (Ex. 3). The Torah leaves the identity of this king, or pharaoh, unstated. Many believe him to be Ramses II, although this has been increasingly disputed in recent years (see The Moses of History, below).
Jochebed, the wife of Amram, bore a son and kept him concealed for three months. When she could keep him hidden no longer, rather than deliver him to be killed, she set him adrift on the Nile in a small craft made of bulrushes coated in pitch. The daughter of the pharaoh discovered the baby and adopted him as her son, naming him "Moses." (The name is related to the term "to draw out" in Hebrew and "son" in Egyptian.) Moses' sister Miriam observed the progress of the boat and asked the princess if she would like a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. Jochebed was employed as the child's wet nurse. After being weaned he was brought again to Pharaoh's daughter and was raised as her son, a prince of Egypt.
When Moses grew to manhood, he left the palace and witnessed an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew slave. He grew enraged and killed the Egyptian, hiding his body in the sand. The next day, seeing two Hebrews quarreling, he endeavored to separate them, whereupon the aggressor complained: "Who put you in charge of us and made you our judge? Are you planning to kill me, just as you killed that Egyptian?" (Ex. 2:14) The king now sought Moses' life, and he fled to the Midian in the Sinai peninsula, where he settled with Hobab, or Jethro, a 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.
According to the Exodus 3, one day as Moses led his flock to Mount Horeb, (Mount Sinai in the Greek text), he saw a burning bush which was not consumed.
When he turned aside to look more closely at the marvel, God spoke to him from the bush, revealing his previously unknown name, Yahweh, to Moses. In one of literature's most memorable scenes, God then commissioned Moses as his prophet and the liberator of the people of Israel:
- The Lord said, "I have come down to rescue [my people] from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey... And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." (Ex. 3:7-10)
'Let My People Go'
Moses returned to Egypt, where he was met on his arrival by his elder brother, Aaron and gained a hearing with his oppressed brethren. It was a more difficult matter, however, to persuade the king to let the Hebrews depart, supposedly only for a short journey in order to offer sacrifices to their deity. God gave Moses the power to perform powerful signs to demonstrate his authority, such as turning a staff into a snake and turning the Nile into blood, yet the pharoah's heart was hardened (Ex. 7). God then sent ten plagues upon the Egyptians, as predicted by Moses. Still the Pharaoh refused the Lord's command through Moses: "Let my people go." Instead, he punished the Israelites by making their work even harder. The plagues finally culminated in the slaying of the Egyptians' first-born sons. The Hebrews were protected from this calamity by painting a lamb's blood on their door-posts, a sign for the Angel of Death to pass over their homes. This story is commemorated in the feast of Passover, celebrated by Jews throughout their history. Only after the king's own son died in this plague did he finally give permission for the Hebrews to leave.
The Bible reports that 600,000 men of fighting age were involved in the ensuing exodus, making the total number of people around 2 million souls or more. The long procession moved slowly, guided by a miraculous pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. Eventually, they found themselves facing the sea.
Traditionally the site is the northern arm of the Red Sea, known today as the Gulf of Suez. However the Hebrew term Yam Suph actually means "Reed Sea" and some scholars now believe these events took place farther to the north, where several shallower bodies of water present plausible crossing points. Meanwhile, Pharaoh had a change of heart and was in pursuit of Israelites with a large army. Shut in between this army and the water, the Israelites despaired. Instructed by God, Moses held out his rod, and the waters of the sea miraculously divided so that they passed safely across on dry ground. When the Egyptians attempted to follow, the waters closed back upon them they drowned. (Ex. 14) The Song of Miriam, considered to be one of the most ancient passages in the Bible, commemorates the event:
- Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing. Miriam sang to them:
"Sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea." (Ex. 15:20-21)
Receiving the Commandments
After escaping the Egyptians, the Israelites camped at Rephidim, where they were fed miraculously with quail, manna, and water which Moses produced from a rock. (Ex 16) Under the military leadership of Moses' disciple Joshua, they prevailed in war against the Amalekites. Finally, they camped at Sinai/Horeb, where God delivered the Ten Commandments and various other laws verbally at first. (Ex. 20-24) Sacrifices were offered, and God confirmed his covenant with the people of Israel. Moses then climbed the mountain, where he fasted for 40 days and received the Ten Commandments inscribed on two stone tablets together with God's instructions for the construction and operation of a portable religious sanctuary, the Tabernacle. (Ex. 28-31)
When Moses descended, however, he found that Aaron had contrived to make a golden calf statue to which the Israelites had offered sacrifice in Moses' absence, believing that the idol represented "Elohim," who had brought them out of Egypt. Elohim is translated as either "God"—as "in the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1)—or "gods." Infuriated, Moses smashed the tablets. Rallying his fellow Levites to him, he instructed them: "Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor." The result was a slaughter of 3,000 people, for which the Levites were rewarded by being set apart as a tribe of priests. (Ex. 32:26-29)
Moses then interceded with God on behalf of the remaining Israelites, and after God nevertheless punished them with a plague, God instructed Moses to return to the mountain for another 40 days. God dictated the Ten Commandments to him, and Moses chiseled them into two new tablets of stone. (Ex. 34)
On the foundation of Moses' second 40 days on the Mountain, God renewed his Covenant with the people of Israel. As a result of this, according to the last chapters of Exodus, the Tabernacle was constructed, the priestly law ordained, the plan of encampment arranged both for the Levites and the Tabernacle was consecrated. The Ark of the Covenant and other sacred items were also carefully crafted. The account describes at some length the intimacy of Moses' growing relationship with God during this period:
Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting"... As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses... The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. (Ex. 33:7-11)
40 Years in the Wilderness
A long interlude in the biblical account describes various regulations and sacred rituals revealed by Moses to the Israelites. Later, (Num. 11) the people tire of their diet of quail and manna, and God strikes them with a plague. In Numbers 12, Aaron and Miriam complain about Moses' marrying a foreign wife and claim equal status to him as prophets. God strikes Miriam with leprosy (strangely, Aaron is not punished).
The main story resumes in Numbers 13 with the sending out of spies for 40 days to survey the land of Canaan. When they return, 10 of the spies give a discouraging report; the people lose heart and rebel.
A movement arises clamoring to return to Egypt and there is even talk of stoning Moses and Aaron. (Num 14) God determines to kill all the Israelites with a plague and begin anew with Moses as a second Noah, but Moses dissuades God from this rash course. Instead God declares that the Israelites must now wander as nomadic shepherds for 40 years in the wilderness, one year for each day of the futile spying mission. The entire generation over 20 years of age will perish in the wilderness, and only the new generation — plus the two faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb — will be allowed to enter. The people repent and even make an attempt to fight their way into the Promised Land according to the earlier plan, but God is now longer supporting them and they are defeated in battle.
Moses then reveals several more regulations, including harsh laws such as "cutting off" anyone who sins by violating any part of the Law intentionally. Moses proves that this rule will be enforced strictly by ordering a man to be stoned to death for carrying wood on the sabbath. At this point a Levite leader named Korah confronts Moses, saying "you have gone too far." Korah is supported by 250 other leaders who argue for a more democratic rule, saying, "The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly?" Moses and Aaron face the rebellious group in a showdown at the Tent of Meeting the next morning. God shows which side is truly holy by causing the earth to open and swallow Korah and his followers with their children. (Numb 16) When the people blame Moses and Aaron for this slaughter, God sends another plague upon them, killing 14,700. With the rebels out of the picture, God appoints Aaron hereditary chief priest with those Levites who remained loyal as his assistants. Additional sacred rules are also revealed.
Afater the death of Miriam, the congregation finds itself encamped in a desolate place called the Wilderness of Zin, where the loss of their foremost female leader is worsened by the fact that there is no drinking water for the huge crowd and their livestock. Thirsting in both body and spirit, the Israelites again complain, and Moses is once more called on to bring forth water from a rock. Tiring of the Israelites' grumbling, his emotions overcome him, and he strikes the rock in anger, two times. Although water is indeed produced, his action prompts God to express rare disapproval of his champion:
Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them. (Num. 20:12)
The story of Moses here takes a notable downturn. The Israelites are blocked from passing through Edom's territory, resulting in Israel's "turning away" from them — a metaphor for the ensuing long-term enmity between the Israelites and the Edomites, traditionally considered to be the descendants of Israel's brother Esau. Aaron soon dies, leaving Moses without siblings; and we hear nothing more about his wife and son. Forced to fight their way in a backtracking movement toward the Red Sea, the Israelites again fall into their complaining mode. In retribution, God sends poisonous snakes against them and many are bitten. When they repent, Moses fashions a bronze serpent as an object faith, (Num. 21:9:9) and those who gaze upon it are healed. The bronze serpent reportedly found its way to Jerusalem and remained a sacred object to the Israelites until it was destroyed by King Hezekiah (1 Kings 22), who considered its veneration idolatrous.
Following several more trials and battles, the Israelites finally make themselves ready to enter and conquer Canaan. Moses commissions Joshua as his successor, instructing him to "be strong and bold" in leadership. Approaching Canaan from the East though today's territory of Jordan, God promises that "your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the western sea." (Deut. 11:24) In towns belonging to Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, all inhabitants are to be slain, including women and children. Other towns are to be offered peace if they agree to become slaves to the Israelites. If not, the men are to be slaughtered, while the women and children become "plunder." (Deut. 20: 10-17)
The Book of Deuteronomy ends the saga with an account of Moses' death on Mount Nebo, where God allows him to view the Promised Land even though he cannot enter. It mentions that his grave site in unknown, and concludes with this eulogy:
Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt —- to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. (Deut. 34: 10-12)
A wealth of stories and additional information about Moses can be found in the Jewish genre of rabbinical exegesis known as Midrash, as well as in the primary works of the Jewish oral law: the Mishnah and the Talmud.
Moses in Christianity
For Christians, Moses – mentioned more often in the New Testament than any other Old Testament figure. The Letter to the Hebrews declares him to be a great champion of faith:
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time... By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. (Heb. 9:24-28)
New Testament writers often compare Jesus' words and deeds with Moses' in order to explain Jesus' mission. Many scholars consider the Gospel of Matthew to consciously present Jesus as a new Moses.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus explains his own teachings as a fulfillment of the commandments of Moses, taken to a new and higher dimension. (Mt. 5-6) He affirms the Law of Moses as still binding, saying:
"I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 5:18-19)
In the book of Acts, on the other hand, the rejection of Moses by the Jews when they worshiped the golden calf is likened to the rejection of Jesus (Acts 7), and various passages in the gospels show Jesus to be, if not outrightly abrogated the Law of Moses, at least teaching that a person's internal attitude toward God is more important than external obedience to the letter of the Law. St. Paul writings take this attitude to greater lengths, affirming that not obedience to the Law but faith in the risen Jesus brings one into a right relationship with God.
When Jesus meets the Pharisee Nicodemus in the third chapter of John, he compares Moses' lifting up of the bronze serpent in the wilderness to his own being lifted up (by his death and resurrection) as a healing act. In the sixth chapter John's Gospel, Jesus responds to the people's claim that Moses provided them manna in the wilderness by calling himself the "bread of life."
Moses is presented in all three Synoptic Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9)as appearing in glory to Jesus along with the prophet Elijah to discuss God's plans.
Moses in Islam
In the Qur'an, the life of Moses is narrated and recounted more than any other Jewish prophet recognized in Islam. Although the Qur'an reiterates much of what is present in Jewish scripture, slight differences can be found. He is one of the 25 major prophets specifically names in the Qur'an and is known as Musa, (the Arabic name). See the article Musa (prophet).
The Moses of History
Historians must face the fact that the existence of Moses and the Exodus are basically uncorroborated. However, they must also admit that absence of evidence is not proof on non-existence. In addition, the historical record does provide tantalizing hints suggesting that even if the biblical saga is embellished by myth and legend, some historical kernels can be identified. Like King Arthur, Moses may have been a real person to whom legends adhered as his story was told and retold around countless campfires until it was finally written down centuries later. Here is one example: The story of Moses as a baby bears a striking resemblance to that of King Sargon I, founder of the Semitic dynasty of Akkad c. 2360 B.C.E., who likewise was placed in a basket of reeds and pitch by his mother and floated down a river (the Euphrates) where he was drawn out and eventually rose to become a prince.
Exodus
Did the exodus really happen, and if so when? Why is there no record of it among the usually meticulous Egyptian annals? Can we take seriously the idea that a 40-year migration of over 2 million people — a number greater than the population of the world's largest cities in that era — would leave no archaeological record? Biblical minimalists therefore insist that the exodus remains an event outside of history. Other scholars have provided a variety of explanations for the story's origins.
One theory suggests that the exodus describes the historical expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt. The Hyksos were a Semitic people who rose to power and ruled Lower and Middle Egypt for over one hundred years, forming the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Dynasties of Egypt (ca. 1674-1548 B.C.E.). They were driven out by the Egyptian ruler Ahmose, who had ruled in Thebes, and the fleeing Hyksos were apparently pursued by the Egyptian army across northern Sinai and into southern Canaan. Some of the stories of the flight of the Hyksos may have worked their way into Israel's exodus saga.
Another intriguing possibility is that the exploits of the Israelites' battles against the Canaanites may be rooted in historical reality of the Habiru. Also called "Apiru," these warlike, nomadic clans are known from the historical record (the Armana letters) to have harried Canaanite towns and cities loyal to Egypt during the late bronze age. Several scholars suggest the stories of the various conquests of Moses' successor Joshua may have historical roots in Habiru legends, and Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein goes so far to propose that King David was one of the last and most successful of the Habiru leaders. (Moses and Solomon, 2006)
In an earlier theory, Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism, published in 1937, postulated that Moses was an Egyptian nobleman who brought with him the monotheism of the great Egyptian religious reformer Akhenaten. A recent alternative suggestion by Egyptologist Ahmed Osman proposes that Moses and Akhenaten are the same person (Moses and Akhenaten, 2002). Opponents of these views point to the fact that the religion of the Torah is very different from Atenism in every respect except the central feature of devotion to a single god. While Freud's and Osman's primary theses may thus be easily dismissed, the idea that Israelite monotheism has something in common with Akhenaten cannot be completely disregarded.
There is also the plausibility that several small migrations of escaped slaves in Egypt and other immigrants to Canaan mingled the various legends of their heroes and journeys into what eventually became the story of Moses and the Israelites.
Other facts hinting at a historical basis to the idea of Israel's sojourn in Egypt followed by some sort of exodus include:
- the existence of semitic graffiti in ancient Egyptian mining colonies between the Nile and the Red Sea.
- ancient scarabs bearing the words "sons of Yakub" found in western Egypt.
- in the late bronze age, large numbers of villages in the future territory of Judah and Israel suddenly stopped raising pigs, indicating a dietary change consistent with Israelite influence. (Dever, 2003)
A thesis popular among contemporary archaeologists is that the people later known as Israelites were, for the most part, Canaanites who never migrated from Egypt at all. Whether by partial conquest, gradual infiltration, royal decrees, or various other scenarios, these proto-Israelite clans eventually federated and adopted, to one degree or another, the national ideology of Israel. The story of Moses and the Exodus became part of Israel's collective memory, even if few citizens had ancestors who participated in whatever historical events it may have been based upon. An analogy might be seen in the manner in which American schoolchildren in the 20th century — regardless of racial or religious background — identified with the story of Thanksgiving and the Pilgrim Fathers, even though only a tiny percentage of Americans have Puritan ancestors.
Miracles
There is also the challenge of interpreting the many miracles in the Moses story. Some of these wonders — such as changing sticks into snakes or turning the Nile into literal blood — are simply dismissed by scholars as legends, but some can be explained as natural events. For example, several of the plagues strongly resemble exaggerated versions of actual pestilences common in the ancient world; the famous Red Sea crossing may have been taken place at a marsh (the "Reed Sea") through which the Egyptian chariots could not penetrate; the manna which God bestowed on the hungry Israelites may have been the secretion of the hammada shrub; and the earth's swallowing of Korah (Numbers 16) could have been an earthquake. Even the appearance of water from a rock in the desert could have been nothing more than Moses using his rod to dislodge the covering of fresh water springs.
Several of the miracle stories may have resulted from a single natural event: the massive volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini in 1600s B.C.E. In recent times, volcanic clouds are known to have caused phenomena similar to several of the plagues, such as prolonged darkness, hail, discoloration of rivers, cattle diseases, migration of frogs, human skin diseases, etc. Also, if the "parting the Yam Suph," took place in the north rather than at the Red Sea, a tidal wave that struck the northern coastline of Egypt might have accounted for the story of the drowning of the Egyptians. [1]
Thus many of the miracles described in the story of Moses could have been natural occurrences. However, to accept the biblical account of their initiation by God directly at the hand of Moses is not a matter of nature, but of faith.
Textual origins
It has been traditionally assumed that Moses received from God 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 textual criticism have convinced many Bible scholars and historians 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.
A prevailing view among modern scholars is that Moses did not write the books attributed to him. Literacy among the Hebrews was not prevalent until at least four centuries after Moses' time, and the style of the books "of Moses," especially Deuteronomy, is even later than that. Such events as Moses constructing a bronze image of a serpent with God's approval beg the question as to whether the commandment against such objects could have been known at the time. Scholars likewise speculate that the story of the golden calf statue was written into the account by the priests of the Jerusalem Temple to denigrate the tradition of golden calf imagery in the completing Yahwist shrine at Bethel, a few miles to the north of Jerusalem. (1 Kings 12:26-30) Such theorists speculate that, rather than being revealed to the entire congregation of Israelites during a massive exodus marked by powerful miracles witnessed by the whole nation, the Yahwist religion actually came to the fore in Israel and Judah much later than the Bible suggests.
Recently several professors of archeology claim that many stories in the Old Testament, including important chronicles about Moses, Joshua, Solomon, and others, were actually either created or substantially reworks by scribes in the court of King Josiah (7th century B.C.E.). It is suspected that the "finding" of the lost Book of the Law in the Temple (2 Kings 22) may represent a story presented to the young king to give added credence to what was actually the recently-written Book of Deuteronmy. This and other writings were promulgated during this time in order to popularize Josiah's intolerant monotheistic religious reforms and justify his ultimately fatal military policy against Egypt. Finkelstein and his colleague Neil A. Silberman make this case in The Bible Unearthed. Such claims are also detailed in Who Were the Early Israelites? by William G. Dever. (see Further Reading, below.)
Ethical dilemmas
If the Bible gives an accurate description, then by modern standards both Moses and God call for acts amounting to murder and war crimes. For instance, according to Numbers 31:11-18, God commanded that every Midianite man should be killed, and Moses even ordered the massacre of women and boys, together with the enslavement of virgin girls. Other examples include God's killing Korah and his followers for challenging Moses, Moses ordering the death of a man carrying wood on the sabbath, God's slaying of the first-born sons of the Egyptians, and God's policy of genocide against the Canaanite tribes as expressed in Deut. 20.
Jews and Christians have developed a number of responses to understanding such texts. These can be generally boiled down to two basic positions:
1) The traditional approach assumes that since God is good and the Bible is God's Word, whatever the Bible reports God as doing must be good. Biblical characters, the situations described, and the words said took place as the Bible says. This view does not exempt humans from a carefully reasoned examination of the scriptures, however, and in fact requires it. Moses, in the traditional Christian view, was considered a good man not because of his ethics, but because of his trust in God. Since God's ways are not our ways, Moses did well to obey God, even when God's commands seemed harsh and ruthless.
2) Liberal Christians and many Reformed Jews reject this approach. They hold that the texts of the Bible are the work of human authors. In this view, the situations described in the Bible do not necessarily represent divinely inspired truth but instead represent the views of the biblical writers and editors, who may or may not have had theological or political agendas inspired by God. Thus, it is the conscience, and not the literal words of the Bible, that is God's ultimate ethical guide for humankind.
The Horned Moses
Near the end of the book of Exodus (at 34:29-35), Moses is forced to veil himself because the people are frightened by his appearance after meeting so intimately with God. There is one longstanding tradition that either rays of light or horns emanated from Moses' head grew. This is probably derived from a mistranslation of the Hebrew phrase "karnu panav" קרנו פניו. The root קרן may be read as either "horn" or "ray." "Panav" פניו translates as "his face". If interpreted correctly those two words form an expression which means that he was enlightened, and many rabbinical commentaries explained that the knowledge that was revealed to him made his face shine with enlightenment, and not that it suddenly sported a pair of horns. The Greek translation of the Bible, the Septuagint, properly translates the Hebrew word קרן as δεδοξασται, 'was glorified', but in the Latin version, Jerome translated it as cornuta, horned. This tradition survived from the first centuries CE well into the Renaissance. Many artists, including Michelangelo in a famed sculpture, depicted Moses with horns.
Further reading
- Dever, William, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did they Come From? Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003, ISBN: 0802809758
- Finkelstein, Israel, "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts". NY: Free Press, 2002. ISBN 068486913-6
- David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. NY: Free Press, 2006). ISBN: 0743243625
- Kirsch, Jonathan, Moses: A Life. NY (Random House) Ballantine Books, 1999. ISBN: 0345412702
- Osman, Ahmed, Moses and Akhenaten: The Secret History of Egypt at the Time of the Exodus. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, Limited, 2002. ISBN 1591430046
| Preceded by: — |
Leader of the Children of Israel |
Succeeded by: Joshua |
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