the Third Week of Advent
Click here to learn more!
Bible Encyclopedias
Moses
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
or
I. LIFE
1. Son of Levi
2. Foundling Prince
3. Friend of the People
4. Refuge in Midian
5. Leader of Israel
II.
1. The Author
2. The Lawgiver
3. The Prophet
The traditional view of the Jewish church and of the Christian church, that Moses was a person and that the narrative with which his life-story is interwoven is real history, is in the main sustained by commentators and critics of all classes.
It is needless to mention the old writers among whom these questions were hardly under discussion. Among the advocates of the current radical criticism may be mentioned Stade and Renan, who minimize the historicity of the Bible narrative at this point. Renan thinks the narrative "may be very probable." Ewald, Wellhausen, Robertson Smith, and Driver, while finding many flaws in the story, make much generally of the historicity of the narrative.
The critical analysis of the Pentateuch divides this life-story of Moses into three main parts, J, E, and P, with a fourth, D, made up mainly from the others. Also some small portions here and there are given to R, especially the account of Aaron's part in the plagues of Egypt, where his presence in a J-document is very troublesome for the analytical theory. It is unnecessary to encumber this biography with constant cross-references to the strange story of Moses pieced together out of the rearranged fragments into which the critical analysis of the Pentateuch breaks up the narrative. It is recognized that there are difficulties in the story of Moses. In what ancient life-story are there not difficulties? If we can conceive of the ancients being obliged to ponder over a modern life-story, we can easily believe that they would have still more difficulty with it. But it seems to very many that the critical analysis creates more difficulties in the narrative than it relieves. It is a little thing to explain by such analysis some apparent discrepancy between two laws or two events or two similar incidents which we do not clearly understand. It is a far greater thing so to confuse, by rearranging, a beautiful, well-articulated biography that it becomes disconnected - indeed, in parts, scarcely makes sense.
The biographical narrative of the Hebrew national hero, Moses, is a continuous thread of history in the Pentateuch. That story in all its simplicity and symmetry, but with acknowledgment of its difficulties as they arise, is here to be followed.
I. Life.
The recorded story of Moses' life falls naturally into five rather unequal parts:
1. Son of Levi
"And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi" Exodus 2:1 . The son of Levi born of that union became the greatest man among mere men in the whole history of the world. How far he was removed in genealogy from Levi it is impossible to know. The genealogical lists Genesis 46:11; Exodus 6:16-20; Numbers 3:14-28; Numbers 26:57-59; 1 Chronicles 6:1-3 show only 4 generations from Levi to Moses, while the account given of the numbers of Israel at the exodus Exodus 12:37; Exodus 38:26; Numbers 1:46; Numbers 11:21 imperatively demand at least 10 or 12 generations. The males alone of the sons of Kohath "from a month old and upward" numbered at Sinai 8,600 Numbers 3:27-28 . It is evident that the extract from the genealogy here, as in many other places (1 Chronicles 23:15; 1 Chronicles 26:24; Ezra 7:1-5; Ezra 8:1-2; compare 1 Chronicles 6:3-14; Mt 1:1-17; Lk 3:23-38) is not complete, but follows the common method of giving important heads of families. The statement concerning Jochebed: "And she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister" Numbers 26:59 really creates no difficulty, as it is likewise said of Zilpah, after the mention of her grandsons, "And these she bare unto Jacob" ( Genesis 46:17-18; compare Genesis 46:24-25 ).
The names of the immediate father and mother of Moses are not certainly known. The mother "saw him that he was a goodly child" Exodus 2:2 . So they defied the commandment of the king Exodus 1:22 , and for 3 months hid him instead of throwing him into the river.
2. Foundling Prince
The time soon came when it was impossible longer to hide the child (Josephus, Ant. , II, ix, 3-6). The mother resolved upon a plan which was at once a pathetic imitation of obedience to the commandment of the king, an adroit appeal to womanly sympathy, and, if it succeeded, a subtle scheme to bring the cruelty of the king home to his own attention. Her faith succeeded. She took an ark of bulrushes ( Exodus 2:3-4; compare ARK OF BULRUSHES ), daubed it with bitumen mixed with the sticky slime of the river, placed in this floating vessel the child of her love and faith, and put it into the river at a place among the sedge in the shallow water where the royal ladies from the palace would be likely to come down to bathe. A sister, probably Miriam, stood afar off to watch Exodus 2:3-4 . The daughter of Pharaoh came down with her great ladies to the river Exodus 2:5-10 . The princess saw the ark among the sedge and sent a maid to fetch it. The expectation of the mother was not disappointed. The womanly sympathy of the princess was touched. She resolved to save this child by adopting him. Through the intervention of the watching sister, he was given to his own mother to be nursed Exodus 2:7-9 . "And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son" Exodus 2:10 . Thus, he would receive her family name.
Royal family names in Egypt then were usually compounded of some expression of reverence or faith or submission and the name of a god, e.g. "loved of," "chosen of," "born of," Thoth, Ptah, Ra or Amon. At this period of Egyptian history, "born of" (Egyptian
It was the time of the Ramesside dynasty, and the king on the throne was Rameses II. Thus the foundling adopted by Pharaoh's daughter would have the family name Mes or Moses. That it would be joined in the Egyptian to the name of the sungod Ra is practically certain. His name at court would be Ramoses. But to the oriental mind a name must mean something. The usual meaning of this royal name was that the child was "born of" a princess through the intervention of the god Ra. But this child was not "born of" the princess, so falling back upon the primary meaning of the word, "drawn out," she said, "because I drew him out of the water" Exodus 2:10 . Thus, Moses received his name. Pharaoh's daughter may have been the eldest daughter of Rameses II, but more probably was the daughter and eldest child of Seti Merenptah I, and sister of the king on the throne. She would be lineal heir to the crown but debarred by her sex. Instead, she bore the title "Pharaoh's Daughter," and, according to Egyptian custom, retained the right to the crown for her first-born son. A not improbable tradition (Josephus, Ant. , II, ix, 7) relates that she had no natural son, and Moses thus became heir to the throne, not with the right to supplant the reigning Pharaoh, but to supersede any of his sons.
Very little is known of Moses' youth and early manhood at the court of Pharaoh. He would certainly be educated as a prince, whose right it probably was to be initiated into the mysteries. Thus he was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" Acts 7:22 , included in which, according to many Egyptologists, was the doctrine of one Supreme God.
Many curious things, whose value is doubtful, are told of Moses by Josephus and other ancient writers (Josephus, Ant. , II, ix, 3; Apion , I, 31; compare Smith, Dictionary of the Bible ; for Mohammedan legends, see Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus , Appendix; for rabbinical legends, see Jewish Encyclopedia ). Some of these traditions are not incredible but lack authentication. Others are absurd. Egyptologists have searched with very indifferent success for some notice of the great Hebrew at the Egyptian court.
3. Friend of the People
But the faith of which the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks Hebrews 11:23-28 was at work. Moses "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter" Exodus 2:11-14; Acts 7:24 . Whether he did so in word, by definite renunciation, or by his espousal of the cause of the slave against the oppressive policy of Pharaoh is of little importance. In either case he became practically a traitor, and greatly imperiled his throne rights and probably his civil rights as well. During some intervention to ameliorate the condition of the state slaves, an altercation arose and he slew an Egyptian Exodus 2:11-12 . Thus, his constructive treason became an overt act. Discovering through the ungrateful reproaches of his own kinsmen Acts 7:25 that his act was known, he quickly made decision, "choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God," casting in his lot with slaves of the empire, rather than "to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season," amid the riotous living of the young princes at the Egyptian court; "accounting the reproach of Christ" his humiliation, being accounted a nobody ("Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?") As "greater riches than the treasures of Egypt" Hebrews 11:25-26; Acts 7:25-28 . He thought to be a nobody and do right better than to be a tyrant and rule Egypt.
4. Refuge in Midian
Moses fled, "not fearing the wrath of the king" Hebrews 11:27 , not cringing before it or submitting to it, but defying it and braving all that it could bring upon him, degradation from his high position, deprivation of the privileges and comforts of the Egyptian court. He went out a poor wanderer Exodus 2:15 . We are told nothing of the escape and the journey, how he eluded the vigilance of the court guards and of the frontier-line of sentinels. The friend of slaves is strangely safe while within their territory. At last he reached the Sinaitic province of the empire and hid himself away among its mountain fastnesses Exodus 2:15 . The romance of the well and the shepherdesses and the grateful father and the future wife is all quite in accord with the simplicity of desert life Exodus 2:16-22 . The "Egyptian" saw the rude, selfish herdsmen of the desert imposing upon the helpless shepherd girls, and, partly by the authority of a manly man, partly, doubtless, by the authority of his Egyptian appearance in an age when "Egypt" was a word with which to frighten men in all that part of the world, he compelled them to give way. The "Egyptian" was called, thanked, given a home and eventually a wife. There in Midian, while the anguish of Israel continued under the taskmaster's lash, and the weakening of Israel's strength by the destruction of the male children went on, with what more or less rigor we know not, Moses was left by Providence to mellow and mature, that the haughty, impetuous prince, "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," might be transformed into the wise, well-poised, masterful leader, statesman, lawgiver, poet and prophet. God usually prepares His great ones in the countryside or about some of the quiet places of earth, farthest away from the busy haunts of men and nearest to the "secret place of the Most High." David keeping his father's flocks, Elijah on the mountain slopes of Gilead, the Baptist in the wilderness of Judaea, Jesus in the shop of a Galilean carpenter; so Moses a shepherd in the Bedouin country, in the "waste, howling wilderness."
5. Leader of Israel
(1) The Commission
One day Moses led the flocks to "the back of the wilderness" (Exodus 3:1-12; see
One of the curious necessities into which the critical analysis drives its advocates is the opinion concerning Aaron that "he scarcely seems to have been a brother and almost equal partner of Moses, perhaps not even a priest" (Bennett, Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (five volumes), III, 441). Interesting and curious speculations have been instituted concerning the way in which Israel and especially Pharaoh were to understand the message, "I
With the signs for identification Exodus 4:1-10 , Moses was ready for his mission. He went down from the "holy ground" to obey the high summons and fulfil the great commission Exodus 4:18-23 . After the perplexing controversy with his wife, a controversy of stormy ending Exodus 4:24-26 , he seems to have left his family to his father-in-law's care while he went to respond to the call of God Exodus 18:6 . He met Aaron, his brother, at the Mount of God Exodus 4:27-28 , and together they returned to Egypt to collect the elders of Israel Exodus 4:29-31 , who were easily won over to the scheme of emancipation. Was ever a slave people not ready to listen to plans for freedom?
(2) The Conflict with Pharaoh
The next move was the bold request to the king to allow the people to go into the wilderness to hold a feast unto Yahweh Exodus 5:1 . How did Moses gain admittance past the jealous guards of an Egyptian court to the presence of the Pharaoh himself? And why was not the former traitorous refugee at once arrested? Egyptology affords a not too distinct answer. Rameses
(3) Institution of the Passover
It was now time for the next step in revelation Exodus 12; 13:1-16 . At the burning bush God had declared His purpose to be a saviour, not a destroyer. In this contest in Egypt, His absolute sovereignty was being established; and now the method of deliverance by Him, that He might not be a destroyer, was to be revealed. Moses called together the elders Exodus 12:21-28 and instituted the Passover feast. As God always in revelation chooses the known and the familiar - the tree, the bow, circumcision, baptism, and the Supper - by which to convey the unknown, so the Passover was a combination of the household feast with the widespread idea of safety through blood-sacrifice, which, however it may have come into the world, was not new at that time. Some think there is evidence of an old Semitic festival at that season which was utilized for the institution of the Passover.
The lamb was chosen and its use was kept up Exodus 12:3-6 . On the appointed night it was killed and "roasted with fire" and eaten with bitter herbs Exodus 12:8 , while they all stood ready girded, with their shoes on their feet and their staff in hand Exodus 12:11 . They ate in safety and in hope, because the blood of the lamb was on the door Exodus 12:23 . That night the firstborn of Egypt were slain. Among the Egyptians "there was not a house where there was not one dead" Exodus 12:30 , from the house of the maid-servant, who sat with her handmill before her, to the palace of the king that "sat on the throne," and even among the cattle in the pasture. If the plague was employed as the agency of the angel of Yahweh, as some think, its peculiarity is that it takes the strongest and the best and culminates in one great stunning blow and then immediately subsides (see
As they went out, they "asked," after the fashion of departing servants in the East, and God gave them favor in the sight of the over-awed Egyptians that they lavished gifts upon them in extravagance. Thus "they despoiled the Egyptians" Exodus 12:36 . "Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people" Exodus 11:3; Exodus 12:35-36 .
(4) The Exodus
"At the end of 430 years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of Yahweh went out from the land of Egypt" Exodus 12:41 . The great oppressor was Rameses II, and the culmination and the revolution came, most probably, in connection with the building of Pithom and Raamses, as these are the works of Israel mentioned in the Bible narrative Exodus 1:11 . Rameses said that he built Pithom at the "mouth of the east" (Budge, History of Exodus , V, 123). All efforts to overthrow that statement have failed and for the present, at least, it must stand. Israel built Pithom, Rameses built Pithom; there is a synchronism that cannot in the present knowledge of Egyptian history even be doubted, much less separated. The troublous times which came to Egypt with the beginning of the reign of Merenptah
A little later when Israel turned back from the border of Khar (Palestine) into the wilderness and disappeared, and Merenptah's affairs were somewhat settled in the empire, he set up the usual boastful tablet claiming as his own many of the victories of his royal ancestors, added a few which he himself could truly boast, and inserted, near the end, an exultation over Israel's discomfiture, accounting himself as having finally won the victory:
"Tehennu is devastation, Kheta peace, the Canaan the prisoner of all ills;
"Asgalon led out, taken with Gezer, Yenoamam made naught;
"The People of Israel is ruined, his posterity is not; Khar is become as the widows of Egypt."
The synchronisms of this period are well established and must stand until, if it should ever be, other facts of Egyptian history shall be obtained to change them. Yet it is impossible to determine with certainty the precise event from which the descent into Egypt should be reckoned, or to fix the date
They went out from Succoth (Egyptian "Thuku," Budge, History of Egypt , V, 122,129), carrying the bones of Joseph with them as he had commanded Exodus 13:19; Genesis 50:25 . The northeast route was the direct way to the promised land, but it was guarded. Pithom itself was built at "the mouth of the East," as a part of the great frontier defenses (Budge, op. cit., V, 123). The "wall" on this frontier was well guarded Exo 14, and attempts might be made to stop them. So they went not "by the way of the land of the Philistines ... lest peradventure the people repent when they see war" Exodus 13:17 . The Lord Himself took the leadership and went ahead of the host of Israel in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night Exodus 13:21 . He led them by "the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea" Exodus 13:18 . They pitched before Pi-hahiroth, over against Baal-zephon between Migdol and the sea Exodus 14:2 . Not one of these places has been positively identified. But the Journeys before and after the crossing, the time, and the configuration of the land and the coast-line of the sea, together with all the necessities imposed by the narrative, are best met by a crossing near the modern town of Suez (Naville, Route of the Exodus; Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus ), where
Word was carried from the frontier to Pharaoh, probably at Tanis, that the Israelites had "fled" Exodus 14:5 , had taken the impassioned thrusting out by the frenzied people of Egypt in good faith and had gone never to return. Pharaoh took immediate steps to arrest and bring back the fugitives. The troops at hand Exodus 14:6 and the chariot corps, including 600 "chosen chariots," were sent at once in pursuit, Pharaoh going out in person at least to start the expedition Exodus 14:6-7 . The Israelites seemed to be "entangled in the land," and, since "the wilderness (had) shut them in" Exodus 4:3 , must easily fall a prey to the Egyptian army. The Israelites, terror-stricken, cried to Moses. God answered and commanded the pillar of cloud to turn back from its place before the host of Israel and stand between them and the approaching Egyptians, so that while the Egyptians were in the darkness Israel had the light Exodus 14:19-20 .
The mountain came down on their right, the sea on the left to meet the foot of the mountain in front of them; the Egyptians were hastening on after them and the pillar of cloud and fire was their rearward. Moses with the rod of God stood at the head of the fleeing host. Then God wrought. Moses stretched out the rod of God over the sea and "Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night" Exodus 14:16-21 . A pathway was before them and the sea on the right hand, and on the left was a "wall unto them," and they passed through Exodus 14:21-22 . Such heaping up of the waters by the wind is well known and sometimes amounts to 7 or 8 ft. in Lake Erie (Wright, Scientific Confirmations of the Old Testament , 106). No clearer statement could possibly be made of the means used and of the miraculous timing of God's providence with the obedience of the people to His command to Moses.
The host of Israel passed over on the hard, sandy bottom of the sea. The Egyptians coming up in the dark and finding it impossible to tell exactly where the coastline had been on this beach, and where the point of safety would lie when the wind should abate and the tide come in again, impetuously rushed on after the fleeing slaves. In the morning, Yahweh looked forth and troubled the Egyptians "and took off their chariot wheels, and they drove them heavily" Exodus 14:24-25 . The wind had abated, the tide was returning and the infiltration that goes before the tide made the beach like a quicksand. The Egyptians found that they had gone too far and tried to escape Exodus 14:27 , but it was too late. The rushing tide caught them Exodus 14:28 . When the day had come, "horse and rider" were but the subject of a minstrel's song of triumph Exo 15:1-19; Psalm 106:9-12 which Miriam led with her timbrel Exodus 15:20 . The Bible does not say, and there is no reason to believe, that Pharaoh led the Egyptian hosts in person further than at the setting off and for the giving of general direction to the campaign Exodus 15:4 . Pharaoh and his host were overthrown in the Red Sea Psalm 136:15 . So Napoleon and his host were overthrown at Waterloo, but Napoleon lived to die at St. Helena. And Merenptah lived to erect his boastful inscription concerning the failure of Israel, when turned back from Kadesh-barnea, and their disappearance in the wilderness of Paran. His mummy, identified by the lamented Professor Groff, lies among the royal mummies in the Cairo Museum. Thus at the Red Sea was wrought the final victory of Yahweh over Pharaoh; and the people believed Exodus 14:31 .
(5) Special Providences
Now proceeded that long course of special providences, miraculous timing of events, and multiplying of natural agencies which began with the crossing of the Red Sea and ended only when they "did eat of the fruit of the land" Joshua 5:12 . God promised freedom from the diseases of the Egyptians Exodus 15:26 at the bitter waters of Marah, on the condition of obedience. Moses was directed to a tree, the wood of which should counteract the alkaline character of the water Exodus 15:23-25 . A little later they were at Elim (
At Rephidim was the first of the instances when Moses was called upon to help the people to some water. He smote the rock with the rod of God, and there came forth an abundant supply of water Exodus 17:1-6 . There is plenty of water in the wady near this point now. The Amalekites, considering the events immediately following, had probably shut the Israelites off from the springs, so God opened some hidden source in the mountain side. "Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel" Exodus 17:8 . Whether the hand which Moses lifted up during the battle was his own hand or a symbolical hand Exodus 17:9-12 , thought to have been carried in battle then, as sometimes even yet by the Bedouin, is of no importance. It was in either case a hand stretched up to God in prayer and allegiance, and the battle with Amalek, then as now, fluctuates according as the hand is lifted up or lowered Exodus 17:8-16 .
Here Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, met him and brought his wife and children to him (Exodus 18:5-6; compare Numbers 10:29 ). A sacrificial feast was held with the distinguished guest Exodus 18:7-12 . In the wise counsel of this great desert-priest we see one of the many natural sources of supply for Moses' legal lore and statesmanship. A suggestion of Jethro gave rise to one of the wisest and most far-reaching elements in the civil institutions of Israel, the elaborate system of civil courts Exodus 18:13-26 .
(6) Receiving the Law
At Sinai Moses reached the pinnacle of his career, though perhaps not the pinnacle of his faith. (For a discussion of the location of Sinai, see SINAI;
Here the people assembled. "And Mount Sinai, the whole of it, smoked," and above appeared the glory of God. Bounds were set about the mountain to keep the people back Exodus 19:12-13 . God was upon the mountain: "Under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the very heaven for clearness" Exodus 19:16-19; Exodus 24:10 . 16-17, "and God spake all these words" Exo 20:1-17. Back over the summit of the plain between these two mountain ridges in front, the people fled in terror to the place "afar off" Exodus 20:18 , and somewhere about the foot of this mountain a little later the tabernacle of grace was set up Exodus 40:17 . At this place the affairs of Moses mounted up to such a pinnacle of greatness in the religious history of the world as none other among men has attained unto. He gave formal announcement of the perfect law of God as a rule of life, and the redeeming mercy of God as the hope through repentance for a world of sinners that "fall short." Other men have sought God and taught men to seek God, some by the works of the Law and some by the way of propitiation, but where else in the history of the world has any one man caught sight of both great truths and given them out?
Moses gathered the people together to make the covenant Exodus 24:1-8 , and the nobles of Israel ate a covenant meal there before God Exodus 24:11 . God called Moses again to the mountain with the elders of Israel Exodus 24:12 . There Moses was with God, fasting 40 days Exodus 34:28 . Joshua probably accompanied Moses into the mount Exodus 24:13 . There God gave directions concerning the plan of the tabernacle: "See ... that thou make all things according to the pattern that was showed thee in the mount" (Hebrews 8:5-12 , summing up Exodus 25:40; Exodus 26:30; Exodus 27:8 ). This was the statement of the architect to the builder. We can only learn what the pattern was by studying the tabernacle (see TABERNACLE ). It was an Egyptian plan (compare Bible Student , January, 1902). While Moses was engaged in his study of the things of the tabernacle on the mount, the people grew restless and appealed to Aaron Exodus 32:1 . In weakness Aaron yielded to them and made them a golden calf and they said, "These are thy gods,
Rationalistic attempts to account for the phenomena at Sinai have been frequent, but usually along certain lines. The favorite hypothesis is that of volcanic action. God has often used natural agencies in His revelation and in His miracles, and there is no necessary obstacle to His doing so here. But there are two seemingly insuperable difficulties in the way of this naturalistic explanation: one, that since geologic time this has not been a volcanic region; the other, that volcanic eruptions are not conducive to literary inspiration. It is almost impossible to get a sane account from the beholders of an eruption, much less has it a tendency to result in the greatest literature, the most perfect code of laws and the profoundest statesmanship in the world. The human mind can easily believe that God could so speak from Sinai and direct the preparation of such works of wisdom as the Book of the Covenant. Not many will be able to think that Moses could do so during a volcanic eruption at Sinai. For it must be kept in mind that the historical character of the narrative at this point, and the Mosaic authorship of the Book of the Covenant, are generally admitted by those who put forward this naturalistic explanation.
(7) Uncertainties of History
From this time on to the end of Moses' life, the materials are scant, there are long stretches of silence, and a biographer may well hesitate. The tabernacle was set up at the foot of the "mountain of the law" Exodus 40:17-19 , and the world from that day to this has been able to find a mercy-seat at the foot of the mountain of the law. Nadab and Abihu presumptuously offered strange fire and were smitten Leviticus 10:1-7 . The people were numbered (Numbers 1:1 ff). The Passover was kept Numbers 9:1-5 .
(8) Journey to Canaan Resumed
The journey to Canaan began again Numbers 10:11-13 . From this time until near the close of the life of Moses the events associated with his name belong for the most part to the story of the wanderings in the wilderness and other subjects, rather than to a biography of Moses. (compare
The March Num (Numbers 2:10-18; Numbers 9:15-23 )
The Complaining (Numbers 11:1-3 )
The Lusting (Numbers 11:4-6 , 18-35)
The Prophets (Numbers 11:16 )
Leprosy of Miriam (Numbers 12:1-16
(9) The Border of the Land
Kadesh-barnea (Numbers 13:3-26 )
The Spies (Deuteronomy 1:22; Numbers 13:2 , Numbers 13:21; Numbers 23:27-28 -33; 14:1-38)
The Plagues (Numbers 14:36-37 , Numbers 14:40-45
(10) The Wanderings
Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16:1-35 )
The Plague (Numbers 16:41-50; Numbers 17:1-13 )
Death of Miriam (Numbers 20:1 )
Sin of Moses and Aaron (Numbers 20:2-13; Psalm 106:32 )
Unfriendliness of Edom (Numbers 20:14-21 )
Death of Aaron (Numbers 20:22-29 )
Arad (Numbers 21:1-3 )
Compassing of Edom (Numbers 21:4 )
Murmuring (Numbers 21:5-7 )
Brazen Serpent (Numbers 21:8-9; John 3:14
(11) Edom
The Jordan (Numbers 21:10-20 )
Sihon (Numbers 21:21-32 )
Og (Numbers 21:33-35 )
Balak and Balaam (Numbers 22:4; Numbers 24:25 )
Pollution of the People (Numbers 25:6-15 )
Numbering of the People (Numbers 26 )
Joshua Chosen (Numbers 27:15-23 )
Midianites Punished (Numbers 31 )
(12) Tribes East of Jordan
(Numbers 32 )
(13) Moses' Final Acts
Moses was now ready for the final instruction of the people. They were assembled and a great farewell address was given Deuteronomy 1-30:20 . Joshua was formally inducted into office Deuteronomy 31:1-8 , and to the priests was delivered a written copy of this last announcement of the Law now adapted to the progress made during 40 years (Deuteronomy 31:9-13; compare Deuteronomy 31:24-29 ). Moses then called Joshua into the tabernacle for a final charge Deuteronomy 31:14-23 , gave to the assembled elders of the people "the words of this song" Deuteronomy 31:30; 32:1-43 and blessed the people Deut 33. And then Moses, who "by faith" had triumphed in Egypt, had been the great revelator at Sinai, had turned back to walk with the people of little faith for 40 years, reached the greatest triumph of his faith, when, from the top of Nebo, the towering pinnacle of Pisgah, he lifted up his eyes to the goodly land of promise and gave way to Joshua to lead the people in Deuteronomy 34:1-12 . And there Moses died and was buried, "but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day" Deuteronomy 34:5-6 , "and Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died" Deuteronomy 34:7 .
This biography of Moses is the binding-thread of the Pentateuch from the beginning of Exodus to the end of Deuteronomy, without disastrous breaks or disturbing repetitions. There are, indeed, silences, but they occur where nothing great or important in the narrative is to be expected. And there are, in the eyes of some, repetitions, so-called doublets, but they do not seem to be any more real than may be expected in any biography that is only incidental to the main purpose of the writer. No man can break apart this narrative of the books without putting into confusion this life-story; the one cannot be treated as independent of the other; any more than the narrative of the English Commonwealth and the story of Cromwell, or the story of the American Revolution and the career of Washington.
Later references to Moses as leader, lawgiver and prophet run all through the Bible; only the most important will be mentioned: Joshua 8:30-35; Joshua 24:5; 1 Samuel 12:6-8; 1 Chronicles 23:14-17; Psalm 77:20; Psalm 99:6; 105; 106; Isaiah 63:11-12; Jeremiah 15:1; Daniel 9:11-13; Hosea 12:13; Micah 6:4; Malachi 4:4 .
The place held by Moses in the New Testament is as unique as in the Old Testament, though far less prominent. Indeed, he holds the same place, though presented in a different light. In the Old Testament he is the type of the Prophet to be raised up "like unto" him. It is the time of types, and Moses, the type, is most conspicuous. In the New Testament the Prophet "like unto Moses" has come. He now stands out the greatest One in human history, while Moses, the type, fades away in the shadow. It is thus he appears in Christ's remarkable reference to him: "He wrote of me" John 5:46 . The principal thing which Moses wrote specifically of Christ is this passage: "Yahweh thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me" (Deuteronomy 18:15 , Deuteronomy 18:18 ). Again in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is the formal passing over from the types of the Old Testament to the fulfilment in the New Testament, Jesus is made to stand out as the Moses of the new dispensation Heb 3; 12. 24-29. Other most important New Testament references to Moses are Matthew 17:3; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:30; John 1:17 , John 1:45; John 3:14; Romans 5:14; Judges 1:9; Revelation 15:3 .
II. Work and Character
So little is known of the private life of Moses that his personal character can scarcely be separated from the part which he bore in public affairs. It is the work he wrought for Israel and for mankind which fixes his place among the great ones of earth. The life which we have just sketched as the life of the leader of Israel is also the life of the author, the lawgiver, and the prophet.
1. The Author
It is not within the province of this article to discuss in full the great critical controversies concerning the authorship of Moses which have been summed up against him thus: "It is doubtful whether we can regard Moses as an author in the literary sense" ( Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (five volumes), III, 446; see PENTATEUCH; DEUTERONOMY ). It will only be in place here to present a brief statement of the evidence in the case for Moses. There is no longer any question concerning the literary character of the age in which Moses lived. That Moses might have written is indisputable. But did he write, and how much? What evidence bears at these points?
(1) "Moses wrote"
The idea of writing or of writings is found 60 times in the Pentateuch It is definitely recorded in writing purporting to be by Moses. 7 times that Moses wrote or was commanded to write Exodus 17:14; Exodus 34:27; Exodus 39:30; Numbers 17:2-3; Deuteronomy 10:4; Deuteronomy 31:24 and frequently of others in his times Deuteronomy 6:9; Deuteronomy 27:3; Deuteronomy 31:19; Joshua 8:32 . Joshua at the great convocation at Shechem for the taking of the covenant wrote "these words in the book of the law of God" Joshua 24:26 . Thus is declared the existence of such a book but 25 years after the death of Moses (compare Bible Student , 1901, 269-74). It is thus clearly asserted by the Scriptures as a fact that Moses in the wilderness a little after the exodus was "writing" "books."
(2) Moses' Library
There are many library marks in the Pentateuch, even in those portions which by nearly all, even the most radical, critics are allowed to be probably the writings of Moses. The Pentateuch as a whole has such library marks all over it.
On the one hand this is entirely consistent with the known literary character of the age in which Moses lived. One who was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" might have had in his possession Egyptian records. And the author of this article is of that class to whom Professor Clay refers, who believe "that Hebraic (or Amoraic) literature, as well as Aramaic, has a great antiquity prior to the 1st millennium BC" (Clay, Amurru , 32).
On the other hand, the use of a library to the extent indicated by the abiding marks upon the Pentateuch does not in the least militate against the claim of Moses for authorship of the same. The real library marks, aside from the passages which are assigned by the critics to go with them, are far less numerous and narrower in scope than in Gibbon or in Kurtz. The use of a library no more necessarily endangers authorship in the one case than in the other.
(3) The Moses-Tradition
A tradition from the beginning universally held, and for a long time and without inherent absurdity, has very great weight. Such has been the Moses-tradition of authorship. Since Moses is believed to have been such a person living in such an age and under such circumstances as might suitably provide the situation and the occasion for such historical records, so that common sense does not question whether he could have written "a" Pentateuch, but only whether he did write "the" Pentateuch which we have, it is easier to believe the tradition concerning his authorship than to believe that such a tradition arose with nothing so known concerning his ability and circumstances. But such a tradition did arise concerning Moses. It existed in the days of Josiah. Without it, by no possibility could the people have been persuaded to receive with authority a book purporting to be by him. The question of the truthfulness of the claim of actually finding the Book of the Law altogether aside, there must ha
These files are public domain and were generously provided by the folks at WordSearch Software.
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Moses'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/isb/m/moses.html. 1915.
