Who was Moses? The biblical story of Moses. The story of the prophet Moses

Moses in Judaism

Pharaoh's stubbornness exposed the country to the horrors of ten so-called Egyptian plagues: turning the waters of the Nile into blood; invasion of toads, midges, dog flies; livestock pestilence; disease in humans and livestock, expressed in inflammation with abscesses; hail and fire between hail; locust invasion; darkness; the death of the firstborn of Egyptian families and of all the firstborn of livestock.

Prophet Moses is commemorated Christian Church September 17 (new century).

Moses in Islam

In the Muslim tradition, the name Moses sounds like Musa (Arabic: موسى ‎‎). He is a prophet in Islam to whom the Taurat was revealed.

Musa's call to prophecy

Musa is one of the descendants of the prophet Yaqub. He was born and lived for some time in Egypt. At that time, there was a Pharaoh who ruled there, who was an unbeliever. Musa fled from the pharaoh to the prophet Shuaib, who at that time owned Madyan.

One day Musa was moving along the road, heading to Egypt, past Mount Al-Tur. At night, when it got colder, he and his wife were sitting in a tent and suddenly saw a fire in the distance. Musa said to his wife: “Wait here, I’ll go and see what kind of fire it is and bring some fire to melt the hearth and keep warm.”

Approaching the place where he saw the fire, Musa did not find anything, but suddenly heard a voice addressed to him: “O Musa! Verily, I am I, your Lord. Therefore, take off your shoes, for you are in the sacred valley of Tuva.

I have chosen you; So, listen to the revelation. Verily, I am I - Allah; there is no god but Me. Therefore worship Me and observe Prayer in remembrance of Me.

Go to Pharaoh and politely tell him that maybe he will remember Allah and stop being cruel and unjust. And so that he believes you, show him this miracle.”

Musa was afraid to return to Egypt because the Pharaoh would capture and execute him for the man that Musa had once killed.

Musa was tongue-tied and it was difficult for him to speak. He was afraid that he would not be able to tell Pharaoh anything. In Egypt, Musa had a brother, Harun, who was a righteous man. Musa called to his Lord:

“My lord, I am afraid that they will accuse me of lying. My breath will be taken away, and I will not be able to utter words. Send Haruna with me, since I am guilty before them and am afraid that they will kill me.”

Allah said to him: “O Musa, do not be afraid and remember that I saved you when you were a baby. Go with Our signs. I am with you and will not leave you. Go you and your brother Harun. So, go both of you to Pharaoh and tell him: “We are the Messengers of our Lord, the Lord of the Worlds.” Ask him to save the children of Israel from torment and humiliation.”

So Allah Almighty granted revelation to Musa and his brother Harun, peace be upon them, and they became Messengers of Allah. Allah sent them to Pharaoh to urge him to accept Islam.

Death of Musa

Prophet Musa moved with his people to the Holy Land (Palestine), where evil giants lived. The people told Prophet Musa: “We will not go there until they leave it.” Others said: “As long as the giants live there, we will never go there. You yourself go and fight with them, and we will stay here.” Prophet Musa became angry and called them sinners.

Allah Almighty punished the people of Musa, peace be upon him. They wandered the earth day and night for forty years.

Prophet Musa continued to call people to adhere to Islam - to believe in One God. And so he taught people until his death. First, his brother Harun died, and after some time the Angel of Death Azrael took the spirit of the prophet Musa, peace be upon them.

Biography of a saint

Based on the biblical accounts, Moses was born in Egypt, at a time when the Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians. His family belonged to the descendants of Levi's brother Joseph, who became famous for his deeds for the benefit of Egypt and his people. At that time, a large number of Jews lived in this country. Fearing that the Jews would rebel or become allies of the enemy in a possible war, the pharaoh ordered the number of this people to be reduced through hard labor.

In addition, there was a prophecy that said that God would send the Jews a deliverer who would lead them out of slavery. The times when conquerors actively patronized the Jews are over. Their descendants no longer remembered the merits of the Jews and had their own opinion about their residence in Egypt. As a result of the hostile attitude of the Egyptians towards the people of Israel, the order to kill Jewish male infants did not cause much indignation.

At this time I was born future prophet. His parents managed to hide his birth. But this lasted only three months. It was no longer possible to hide the child, and the mother left him in a basket on the river bank. The childless daughter of Pharaoh noticed the baby and took pity on him. As the Bible says, the boy for the time being grew up with his real mother, who was his wet nurse.

How many years he lived with her is unknown, but the scriptures state that it helped him remember what kind of family he belonged to. At a certain age, Moses was returned to Pharaoh's daughter, to whom he replaced his son. Thanks to this, the boy received, at that time, a very good education and a wonderful future awaited him. As an adult, he maintained contact with his parents and fellow tribesmen. The result of a loyal attitude towards the Jews, their protection and patronage was the indignation of Pharaoh. As a result, Moses fled Egypt.

As for the personal life of the prophet, as he claims Old Testament, he had one wife named Zipporah and two sons. Although the Bible mentions a woman of Ethiopian origin, she may have been the second wife of Moses. Zipporah was the daughter of the owner for whom Moses took a job as a shepherd after escaping.

One day, while herding cattle, the prophet received instructions from God to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. The result was a forty-year wandering of the Jews in the desert. He died without ever reaching the Promised Land.

How does the Bible characterize Moses?

In the Pentateuch, the prophet is represented as a leader who is obsessed with the calling assigned to him. Despite his own will, he is devoted to his mission and strictly follows it until the end of his life. The Holy Book claims that God entrusted Moses with the task of leading the Jews out of slavery, re-educating and uniting the scattered people, and bringing the descendants of the Jews to the country of their ancestors.

The biblical image of Moses is characterized by doubts and hesitations. He does not have any power, but his spiritual power makes him a leader, followed by thousands of people. In the process of constant alternations of success and failure, the prophet himself changes. His attitude towards his people is somewhat transformed. From a charismatic personality, he turns into an institutional leader, which often manifests itself in a refusal to accept his authority.

The Prophet understands that it is impossible to correct the psychology of people who have lived in slavery for so long. And it takes time to raise a new generation. His instructions serve the future. The descendants of slaves who left Egypt are brought up on the canons of a new faith, which is fundamentally different from existing religions.

The personality of Moses in religions

In Judaism, he is considered the main prophet who gave the Jews the “Torah” - the law of God. The Jews consider him the teacher of the Israeli people and call him Moshe Rabbeinu.
Orthodox and Catholics regard Moses as the great prophet of Israel, through whom the Old Testament was given to the world.

In Islam, Moses is identified with the greatest prophet Musa, whose biography is similar to the Jewish interpretation.

Was Moses in real life?

There has always been controversy about the real existence of this prophet. Ancient Egyptian sources and archaeological finds do not confirm the presence of this person in early history Israel.

Regarding the fact that he is credited with the authorship of the Old Testament, there is also no exact information about this. Moreover, historians argue that the five parts of the Bible could not have been compiled earlier than the 5th century BC. But still, scientists suggest that before the personality of Moses appeared in the Biblical commandments, there were oral traditions about a certain personality, which over the course of many centuries were modified, distorted, and supplemented with some facts. It has also not yet been possible to establish the time of his activity. Since all attempts to find out under which pharaoh Moses led the Jews out of Egypt did not lead to anything concrete.

Most historians and religious scholars agree that this happened in the region of the 16th-12th centuries BC. It is also not entirely clear why the name of the pharaoh under whom the prophet lived is not mentioned in the Old Testament. Although the book pays a lot of attention to names.

Those stories that describe the atmosphere of the life of Moses give reason to place events in the era of the New Kingdom. Some scholars argue that Exodus reveals religious trends that existed in the area in the 14th century BC.

Conclusion

The Bible presents the prophet Moses as a great servant of God who led the Jews out of slavery, taught them and instructed them. None of the heroes of this book is given as much attention as Saint Moses. In the narratives of the Pentateuch, this is the only mediator between God and people. His personality is controversial, overgrown with myths and legends over hundreds of years, but to this day, different religions use the “Ten Commandments of God” that the prophet presented to his people.

The exact meaning of the name Aaron is not known; there are only assumptions that it is of Egyptian origin, and may be translated as “Great Name.” According to legend, the Saint was the son of Amram, and also...

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Name: Moses

Date of birth: 1393 BC

Date of death: 1273 BC

Age: 120 years

Place of birth: Egypt

Place of death: Nebo, Moab, Jordan

Activity: Jewish prophet, founder of Judaism

Marital status: was married

Moses - biography

Moses, Moshe, Musa... Three great religions consider him their prophet, and he founded one of them - Judaism. However, scientists are still arguing whether this man actually existed, when he lived and what exactly he did.

Four of the five books of the biblical Pentateuch (Torah) are devoted to the acts of Moses. The first of them - Shemot, or “Names” - in the Christian tradition is called “Exodus” as a reminder of the main event associated with the name of the prophet. The departure of the Jews from Egypt, their long journey through the desert and the acquisition of the “promised” land promised by God in Palestine would have been impossible without Moses. However, he himself never set foot on this land - he died on its border, fulfilling his own prophecy: not a single person born into slavery will see a new homeland.

The Jews were slaves in Egypt, where they once came in search of better life. The sage Joseph, who became an adviser to Pharaoh, brought his father Jacob (aka Israel) and all his relatives to the banks of the Nile, who quickly settled down there, multiplied and became rich. This did not please the next pharaoh, who gathered all the Jews in the border region of Goshen, forcing them to build fortresses and food warehouses for future wars. The life of the Jews “became bitter from hard work on clay and bricks,” but they survived, gave birth to children...

Then the villain Pharaoh ordered to kill all the sons of the tribe of Israel. One of these doomed people was the newborn son of Amram and Jochebed, whom his loving parents decided to save. According to legend, they put him in a wicker basket and let him into the Nile, but the crocodile-infested river was not suitable for saving the child. As well as for bathing the pharaoh’s daughter, who supposedly found the baby by accident, took pity on him and took him in to raise her. It seems that the baby’s relatives deliberately planted him with the princess, having previously found out that she was childless and dreamed of a son.

As if by chance, Joha-Veda, who happened to be nearby, immediately asked to be the boy’s nurse so as not to part with him. The princess (in the Haggadah, a collection of legends on biblical themes, her name is Batya) gave the foundling the name Moshe, in Hebrew “saved from the water.” But the daughter of the pharaoh could not possibly know the language of the Asian barbarians. Rather, she called him Mose, “son.” This word was included in the names of the most noble Egyptians; for example, Thutmose means son of Thoth, Ramesses means Ra.

Perhaps Moses also bore this name, which means that he could be the legitimate son of a nobleman or even the Pharaoh himself. For example, Akhenaten, who established the cult of the single god Aten - this could be reflected in the monotheism of the Jews. Sigmund Freud, in his book This Man Moses, suggested that the Hebrew prophet was an associate of Akhenaten, a priest named Osarsiph. After the death of the king, he and his supporters briefly seized power in Egypt, but then were expelled into the desert and founded a new religion there.

It seems that Moses really possessed the wisdom of the Egyptian priests, which his naive fellow tribesmen considered witchcraft, and could well have been a noble courtier who fled the country after another change of power. But not in the time of Akhenaten: then, in the middle of the 14th century BC, the Egyptians owned Palestine and would not have allowed Jewish fugitives there.

Jewish tradition places the Exodus in the mid-16th century BC. e., when the Hyksos Asians who had previously owned it were expelled from Egypt, some of whom could have taken possession of the Promised Land. But then, according to archaeologists, nothing noticeable happened in Palestine, which also bore the name Canaan. It was a different matter in the middle of the 13th century BC, when local city-states, one after another, fell under the attacks of newcomers from the south.

Burnt ruins and bones speak of the cruelty of the invaders, who could only be the descendants of Israel. At that time, Egypt was sharply weakened after the death of the great Ramesses II, who oppressed the conquered tribes (and forced them to build fortresses near the borders). Now some of these tribes rebelled, while others, like the Jews, hurried to leave the country, which Moses took advantage of.

Since childhood, he was a troublemaker who did not want to follow the rules. According to legend, once sitting on the lap of the pharaoh, he tore off his crown and put it on himself. For such sacrilege, the priests demanded his execution, but Batya’s adoptive mother declared that madness had come over him. As proof, she ordered to give him a choice of a toy and a hot coal, and the boy grabbed the coal, and then put it in his mouth. Having been burned, he remained tongue-tied: his indistinct, truly prophetic words were understood only by brother Aaron and sister Mariam, who explained them to others.

Moses grew up among noble Egyptians and only occasionally visited his relatives - outcast slaves. One day, at a construction site, he saw a big overseer beating an exhausted Jew, and in anger he killed the offender and buried his body in the sand. Someone saw this and reported it to the authorities; the killer had to flee to Sinai, to the Midianite tribe. There he met girls who were not allowed to approach the well by a crowd of shepherds. Moses again stood up for the weak, and one of the girls, Zipporah, or Tzipporah (“bird”), fell in love with him. Soon she became his wife and gave birth to sons Gershom and Eleazar, who subsequently did not show themselves in any way. Zipporah also disappeared somewhere, and later Moses married an Ethiopian, again breaking the accepted rules.

The Bible says that he lived with the Midianites for 40 years - “and his total life was 120 years.” Like everyone else, the former nobleman tended cattle and one day wandered with sheep to Mount Horeb (Sinai), where he saw an unusual vision. From a burning but not burning bush - the “burning bush” - God himself spoke to him, for the first time telling man his true name. “I am Jehovah,” he said, which in Hebrew sounds like Yahweh (later this name was forbidden to be pronounced, replaced by epithets - Hosts, Adonai, Elohim, and so on). After this, he demanded that Moses go to Pharaoh and get him to release the Jews from the “house of slavery.”

The Prophet refused three times, saying that he was deprived of the gift of speech (“I am not a man of speech”), that neither the people nor the Pharaoh would listen to him, but the Almighty insisted. To be convincing, he gave Moses the power to perform miracles, and appointed his brother Aaron as his assistant and translator. Together they left the Midianites (it seems that the prophet’s relationship with his new relatives did not work out) and went to Egypt. Having somehow reached the king, Moses voiced a demand known to most as interpreted by Louis Armstrong: “Let my people go!” - “Let my people go!”

When Pharaoh refused, the prophet threatened to send ten “plagues of Egypt” upon his subjects. Alternately plagued by invasions of toads, midges, “dog flies,” a cattle pestilence, a fiery hail, and an invasion of locusts, the king at first persisted, then promised to release the Jews, but each time, out of spite, he took back the promise. In the end, darkness covered the country, so thick that you could touch it with your hands - “and all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.”

The frightened Pharaoh agreed to release the Jews, but ordered them to leave all their property and livestock in Egypt. Then Moses announced the last, most terrible execution: “Every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of a slave.” He ordered the Jews to anoint their doorposts with the blood of a sacrificial lamb, and the angel of death passed by their houses. Since then, the holiday of Easter, or Passover, has been celebrated, which means “passing,” liberation from fear and oppression.

After this, Pharaoh still released the Jews with all their property - and at the same time with the gold and silver they had borrowed from the Egyptians on the advice of Moses. In their haste, the fugitives did not have time to leaven the bread and baked unleavened flatbread, or matzah, which has since been an indispensable part of the Jewish Passover. It is alleged that 600 thousand adult men alone set out on the journey, but in reality there were a hundred times fewer fugitives. As they moved east, the pharaoh regretted the loss of so many slaves and followed them with his entire army, including 600 chariots.

Seeing the dust they raised from afar, the Jews began to murmur: “It is better for us to be slaves to the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” But Moses remained calm: after his prayer, the waves of the sea parted and let the Jews through to the other shore, and the Egyptians who rushed in pursuit drowned every one of them along with Pharaoh. Previously, it was believed that the ill-fated king was the son of Ramesses II Merneptah, whose burial could not be found for a long time. Then And it was found, but, perhaps, the pharaoh did not perish in the waves at all. By the way, the Bible does not claim that the miracle happened on the Red Sea: perhaps it happened in one of the swamps of the Isthmus of Suez, which the Jews crossed along a secret path, and the heavy Egyptian cavalry got stuck.

Be that as it may, Moses and his people found themselves free - in the merciless desert, which threatened them with death from hunger and thirst. The water in the few springs was bitter, but the prophet ordered to throw the bark of some tree into it - again, priestly wisdom? - and it became drinkable. But there was no food, and the Jews again began to grumble about the times of slavery, “when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate bread to our fill.” Moses prayed again, and the next morning the desert was covered with white balls of “manna from heaven”, from which bread could be baked.

One German scientist suggested that we're talking about about sweet drops of juice congealing on the branches of the desert tamarisk, but it is unlikely that such a little would be enough for food - and yet the Jews ate manna for the entire forty years of their journey. But what is even more surprising is that they spent these forty years on a journey that took at most several months. True, they did not go to Palestine directly, since they settled on the coast warlike people the Philistines, and through all of Sinai, then beyond the Jordan and from there, from the east, to the Promised Land, but this does not explain the duration of the journey.

Or biblical numbers greatly exaggerated, or Moses deliberately sought to unite his people in their wanderings and remove from the scene a generation for whom a bowl of meat was more valuable than freedom. It soon turned out that the desert was not so deserted - the Jews were attacked by Amalekite robbers. During the battle, Moses prayed to God for victory; when he lost his strength, the enemies began to win, and his relatives had to hold the old man. In the end, the Israelites won, and Moses ordered to “blot out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven.”

And so it happened: in every settlement they encountered, the Jews put to the sword all men over ten years of age, and took women as concubines (then, when the Lord forbade this, they killed them too). In the third month after leaving Egypt, they came to Mount Sinai, where Moses saw God again - this time in a cloud of smoke. The Lord ordered the Jews to camp near the mountain, but not to go up there on pain of death. The Prophet alone ascended to the top and remained there for forty days, receiving during this time detailed instructions on how to make Israel “a kingdom of priests and a nation of saints.” The essence of what was said, the ten biblical commandments, the Almighty wrote down with his own hand on two stone tablets, at the same time inventing the alphabet.

Taking the tablets with him, Moses went downstairs. It turned out that in his absence the “people of saints” immediately fell into heresy. Deciding that the prophet had disappeared without a trace, the Jews forced Aaron to cast a golden calf for them and began to worship him as a god - but the second commandment read: “You shall not make for yourself an idol or any image.” In anger, Moses smashed both the calf and the tablets that had been brought, and then ordered those who remained faithful to him to indiscriminately kill their friends and relatives.

Having exterminated three thousand people, he calmed down and again went to the mountain to ask for forgiveness from the Lord. After another forty days, he returned, and rays of grace emanated from his face - in order not to blind those he met, he had to cover his head with a veil. Medieval Bible interpreters translated the word "karnaim" (rays) as "horns", which is why Michelangelo's famous statue depicts the prophet with horns.

Moses brought with him new tablets to replace the broken ones and placed them for safekeeping in the Ark of the Covenant - a wooden box decorated with golden statues of cherubim. The Ark, in turn, was placed in the tabernacle, a large tent, which was guarded day and night by members of a new class of priests (cohens). They had to interpret God's commandments so that the dull Israelis would not distort them. Moses took their staffs from the elders of all 12 tribes, or clans, put them together and announced that the head of the priests would be the one whose staff was covered with flowers in the morning.

It is not surprising that the rod of his brother Aaron from the tribe of Levi blossomed, but only Aaron himself and his descendants became cohens. Their dissatisfied relatives, led by Korah, rebelled, accusing Moses of deception: “You did not bring us to a land flowing with milk and honey, and you still want to rule over us!” The offended prophet prayed for punishment for the blasphemers, and they sank underground along with their families and all their property. As a result, the Levites came to terms with the role of assistants to the priests in serving God.

This incident did not strengthen the popularity of Moses - he was revered and feared, but not loved. He was too adamant, too harsh (unlike the good Aaron), and demanded too much from his people. And he was tired of the stubbornness and ingratitude of the Jews, calling them in his hearts “a stiff-necked people.” True, when God - who, it seems, had also lost patience - threatened to destroy the “chosen people,” the prophet repeatedly begged forgiveness for him. IN once again this happened already on the way to Canaan, when the Jews again began to grumble and ask to return to Egypt.

The Almighty unleashed on them poisonous snakes, but ordered Moses to erect a copper serpent on a pillar, so that everyone who looked at it with faith would be healed of poison. The prophet himself was punished for the sins of the people: this happened when he once again extracted water from a rock and not only ordered it to flow, as God commanded, but hit the rock with a rod. For this small offense he was punished by being prohibited from setting foot on the Promised Land: “I will let you see it with your eyes, but you will not enter it.”

Approaching the Jordan, the Jews sent scouts to Canaan, who reported disappointing news: the country was rich, but well fortified, and its warlike inhabitants were not at all going to submit to foreigners.

Then Moses, who was already 120 years old, wrote the last book of the Torah, Deuteronomy, or Devarim, where he gave the people new laws for the future settled life. After this, he climbed Mount Nebo in the country of Moab, present-day Jordan, from where the flowering Jordan Valley was clearly visible. Having looked around the expanses of the country that his pupil Joshua was to conquer, the prophet sank to the ground and died. The Jews mourned him for thirty days, but for some reason they did not preserve the grave: “No one knows the place of his burial even to this day.”

It seems that after his death, Moses-Moshe turned out to be just as inconvenient for someone as he was during his life.

Moses is the greatest Old Testament prophet, the founder of Judaism, who led the Jews out of Egypt, where they were in slavery, accepted the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai and united the Israeli tribes into a single people.

In Christianity, Moses is considered one of the most important prototypes of Christ: just as through Moses the Old Testament was revealed to the world, so through Christ the New Testament was revealed.

The name "Moses" (in Hebrew - Moshe), presumably Egyptian origin and means "child". According to other instructions - “recovered or rescued from the water” (this name was given to him by the Egyptian princess who found him on the river bank).

The four books of the Pentateuch (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), which make up the epic of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, are dedicated to his life and work.

Birth of Moses

According to the biblical account, Moses was born in Egypt to a Jewish family during the time when the Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians, around 1570 BC (other estimates around 1250 BC). Moses' parents belonged to the tribe of Levi 1 (Ex. 2:1). His older sister was Miriam, and the older brother was Aaron (the first of the Jewish high priests, the ancestor of the priestly caste).

1 Levi- the third son of Jacob (Israel) from his wife Leah (Gen. 29:34). The descendants of the tribe of Levi are the Levites, who were responsible for the priesthood. Since the Levites were the only tribe of all the tribes of Israel not endowed with land, they were dependent on their fellows.

As you know, the Israelis moved to Egypt during the lifetime of Jacob-Israel 2 (XVII century BC), fleeing famine. They lived in the eastern Egyptian region of Goshen, bordering the Sinai Peninsula and watered by a tributary of the Nile River. Here they had extensive pastures for their herds and could roam freely around the country.

2 JacoborYakov (Israel)- the third of the biblical patriarchs, the youngest of the twin sons of the patriarch Isaac and Rebekah. From his sons came the 12 tribes of the people of Israel. In rabbinic literature, Jacob is seen as a symbol of the Jewish people.

Over time, the Israelites multiplied more and more, and the more they multiplied, the more hostile the Egyptians were towards them. Eventually there were so many Jews that it began to inspire fear in the new pharaoh. He told his people: “The Israeli tribe is multiplying and can become stronger than us. If we have a war with another state, then the Israelis can unite with our enemies.” To prevent the Israelite tribe from strengthening, it was decided to turn it into slavery. The pharaohs and their officials began to oppress the Israelites as strangers, and then began to treat them as a conquered tribe, like masters and slaves. The Egyptians began to force the Israelites to do the most difficult work for the benefit of the state: they were forced to dig the ground, build cities, palaces and monuments for kings, and prepare clay and bricks for these buildings. Special guards were appointed who strictly monitored the execution of all these forced labors.

But no matter how the Israelites were oppressed, they still continued to multiply. Then Pharaoh gave the order that all newborn Israeli boys should be drowned in the river, and only girls should be left alive. This order was carried out with merciless severity. The people of Israel were in danger of complete extermination.

During this time of trouble, a son was born to Amram and Jochebed, from the tribe of Levi. He was so beautiful that light emanated from him. The father of the holy prophet Amram had a vision that spoke of the great mission of this baby and of God’s favor towards him. Moses' mother Jochebed managed to hide the baby in her home for three months. However, no longer able to hide him, she left the baby in a tarred reed basket in the thickets on the banks of the Nile.

Moses being lowered by his mother onto the waters of the Nile. A.V. Tyranov. 1839-42

At this time, Pharaoh's daughter went to the river to swim, accompanied by her servants. Seeing a basket among the reeds, she ordered it to be opened. A tiny boy lay in the basket and cried. Pharaoh's daughter said, "This must be one of the Hebrew children." She took pity on the crying baby and, on the advice of Moses’ sister Miriam, who approached her and was watching what was happening from afar, agreed to call the Israeli nurse. Miriam brought her mother Jochebed. Thus, Moses was given to his mother, who nursed him. When the boy grew up, he was brought to Pharaoh's daughter, and she raised him as her son (Ex. 2:10). Pharaoh's daughter gave him the name Moses, which means "taken out of the water."

There are suggestions that this good princess was Hatshepsut, daughter of Thothmes I, later the famous and only female pharaoh in the history of Egypt.

The childhood and youth of Moses. Flight into the desert.

Moses spent the first 40 years of his life in Egypt, raised in the palace as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Here he received an excellent education and was initiated into “all the wisdom of Egypt,” that is, into all the secrets of the religious and political worldview of Egypt. Tradition says that he served as commander of the Egyptian army and helped the pharaoh defeat the Ethiopians who attacked him.

Although Moses grew up free, he never forgot his Jewish roots. One day he wanted to see how his fellow tribesmen lived. Seeing an Egyptian overseer beating one of the Israelite slaves, Moses stood up for the defenseless and, in a fit of rage, accidentally killed the overseer. Pharaoh found out about this and wanted to punish Moses. The only way to escape was to escape. And Moses fled from Egypt to the Sinai desert, which is near the Red Sea, between Egypt and Canaan. He settled in the land of Midian (Ex. 2:15), located on the Sinai Peninsula, with the priest Jethro (another name is Raguel), where he became a shepherd. Moses soon married Jethro's daughter, Zipporah, and became a member of this peaceful shepherd family. So another 40 years passed.

Calling of Moses

One day Moses was tending a flock and went far into the desert. He approached Mount Horeb (Sinai), and here a wondrous vision appeared to him. He saw a thick thorn bush, which was engulfed in a bright flame and was burning, but still did not burn out.

The thorn bush or “Burning Bush” is a prototype of God-manhood and the Mother of God and symbolizes the contact of God with a created being

God said that He chose Moses to save the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Moses had to go to Pharaoh and demand that he release the Jews. As a sign that the time has come for a new, more complete Revelation, He proclaims His Name to Moses: "I Am Who I Am"(Ex.3:14) . He sends Moses to demand, on behalf of the God of Israel, to release the people from the “house of slavery.” But Moses is aware of his weakness: he is not ready for a feat, he is deprived of the gift of speech, he is sure that neither Pharaoh nor the people will believe him. Only after persistent repetition of the call and signs does he agree. God said that Moses in Egypt had a brother Aaron, who, if necessary, would speak in his place, and God himself would teach both what to do. To convince unbelievers, God gives Moses the ability to perform miracles. Immediately, by His order, Moses threw his rod (shepherd's stick) to the ground - and suddenly this rod turned into a snake. Moses caught the snake by the tail - and again there was a stick in his hand. Another miracle: when Moses put his hand in his bosom and took it out, it became white from leprosy like snow, when he put his hand in his bosom again and took it out, it became healthy. “If they don’t believe this miracle,- said the Lord, - then take water from the river and pour it on the dry land, and the water will become blood on the dry land.”

Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh

Obeying God, Moses set out on the road. On the way, he met his brother Aaron, whom God ordered to go out into the desert to meet Moses, and they came together to Egypt. Moses was already 80 years old, no one remembered him. The daughter of the former pharaoh, the adoptive mother of Moses, also died long ago.

First of all, Moses and Aaron came to the people of Israel. Aaron told his fellow tribesmen that God would lead the Jews out of slavery and give them a land flowing with milk and honey. However, they did not immediately believe him. They were afraid of Pharaoh's revenge, they were afraid of the path through the waterless desert. Moses performed several miracles, and the people of Israel believed in him and that the hour of liberation from slavery had come. Nevertheless, the murmur against the prophet, which began even before the exodus, then flared up repeatedly. Like Adam, who was free to submit to or reject the higher Will, the newly created people of God experienced temptations and failures.

After this, Moses and Aron appeared to Pharaoh and declared to him the will of the God of Israel, so that he would release the Jews into the desert to serve this God: “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Let My people go, that they may celebrate a feast for Me in the wilderness.” But Pharaoh answered angrily: “Who is the Lord that I should listen to him? I don’t know the Lord and I won’t let the Israelites go.”(Ex.5:1-2)

Then Moses announced to Pharaoh that if he did not release the Israelites, then God would send various “plagues” (misfortunes, disasters) to Egypt. The king did not listen - and the threats of the messenger of God came true.

Ten Plagues and the Establishment of Easter

Pharaoh's refusal to fulfill God's command entails 10 "plagues of Egypt", a series of terrible natural disasters:

However, the executions only embitter the pharaoh even more.

Then the angry Moses came to Pharaoh for the last time and warned: “This is what the Lord says: At midnight I will pass through the middle of Egypt. And every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh...to the firstborn of the slave girl...and all the firstborn of livestock.” This was the last and most severe 10th plague (Exodus 11:1-10 – Exodus 12:1-36).

Then Moses warned the Jews to slaughter a one-year-old lamb in each family and anoint the doorposts and lintel with its blood: by this blood God will distinguish the homes of the Jews and will not touch them. The lamb was to be roasted over a fire and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Jews must be ready to hit the road immediately.

At night, Egypt suffered a terrible disaster. “And Pharaoh arose by night, he and all his servants, and all Egypt; and there was a great cry in the land of Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not a dead man.”

The shocked Pharaoh immediately summoned Moses and Aaron and ordered them, along with all their people, to go into the desert and perform worship so that God would take pity on the Egyptians.

Since then, Jews every year on the 14th day of the month of Nissan (the day falling on the full moon spring equinox) commit Easter holiday. The word "passover" means "to pass by," because the angel who struck the firstborn passed by Jewish houses.

From now on, Easter will mark the liberation of the People of God and their unity in a sacred meal - a prototype of the Eucharistic Meal.

Exodus. Crossing the Red Sea.

That same night, the entire Israeli people left Egypt forever. The Bible indicates the number of those who left was “600 thousand Jews” (not counting women, children and livestock). The Jews did not leave empty-handed: before fleeing, Moses told them to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold and silver items, as well as rich clothes. They also took with them the mummy of Joseph, which Moses searched for for three days while his fellow tribesmen collected property from the Egyptians. God himself led them, being in a pillar of cloud during the day and in a pillar of fire at night, so the fugitives walked day and night until they reached the seashore.

Meanwhile, Pharaoh realized that the Jews had deceived him and rushed after them. Six hundred war chariots and selected Egyptian cavalry quickly overtook the fugitives. There seemed to be no escape. Jews - men, women, children, old people - crowded on the seashore, preparing for inevitable death. Only Moses was calm. At the command of God, he extended his hand to the sea, struck the water with his staff, and the sea parted, clearing the way. The Israelites walked along the bottom of the sea, and the waters of the sea stood like a wall to their right and left.

Seeing this, the Egyptians chased the Jews along the bottom of the sea. Pharaoh's chariots were already in the middle of the sea when the bottom suddenly became so viscous that they could hardly move. Meanwhile, the Israelis made it to the opposite bank. The Egyptian warriors realized that things were bad and decided to turn back, but it was too late: Moses again extended his hand to the sea, and it closed over Pharaoh’s army...

The passage through the Red (now Red) Sea, which took place in the face of the inevitable mortal danger, becomes the culmination of a saving miracle. The waters separated the rescued from the “house of slavery.” Therefore, the transition became a prototype of the sacrament of baptism. A new passage through water is also a path to freedom, but to freedom in Christ. On the seashore, Moses and all the people, including his sister Miriam, solemnly sang a song of thanksgiving to God. “I sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; he threw his horse and rider into the sea..." This solemn song of the Israelites to the Lord underlies the first of the nine sacred songs that make up the canon of songs sung daily Orthodox Church at the service.

According to biblical tradition, the Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years. And the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt took place, according to Egyptologists, around 1250 BC. However, according to the traditional point of view, the Exodus occurred in the 15th century. BC e., 480 years (~5 centuries) before the construction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem began (1 Kings 6:1). There are a significant number of alternative theories about the chronology of the Exodus, including varying degrees consistent with both religious and modern archaeological point of view.

Miracles of Moses

The road to the Promised Land ran through the harsh and vast Arabian Desert. At first they walked for 3 days through the desert of Sur and found no water except bitter (Merrah) (Ex. 15:22-26), but God sweetened this water by commanding Moses to throw a piece of some special tree into the water.

Soon, having reached the Sin desert, the people began to grumble from hunger, remembering Egypt, when they “sat by the cauldrons of meat and ate bread to their fill!” And God heard them and sent them from heaven manna from heaven(Ex. 16).

One morning, when they woke up, they saw that the entire desert was covered with something white, like frost. We started looking: white coating turned out to be small grains, similar to hail or grass seeds. In response to the surprised exclamations, Moses said: “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.” Adults and children rushed to gather manna and bake bread. From then on, every morning for 40 years they found manna from heaven and ate it.

Manna from heaven

The collection of manna took place in the morning, since by noon it melted under the rays of the sun. “The manna was like coriander seed, the appearance of bdellium.”(Num. 11:7). According to Talmudic literature, when eating manna, young men felt the taste of bread, old people - the taste of honey, children - the taste of oil.

In Rephidim, Moses, at the command of God, brought water out of the rock of Mount Horeb, striking it with his rod.

Jews were attacked here wild tribe Amalekites, but were defeated by the prayer of Moses, who during the battle prayed on the mountain, raising his hands to God (Ex. 17).

Sinai Covenant and 10 Commandments

In the 3rd month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites approached Mount Sinai and camped opposite the mountain. Moses first ascended the mountain, and God warned him that he would appear before the people on the third day.

And then this day came. Terrible phenomena accompanied by a phenomenon in Sinai: a cloud, smoke, lightning, thunder, flame, earthquake, trumpet blast. This communication lasted 40 days, and God gave Moses two tablets - stone tables on which the Law was written.

1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; Let you have no other gods before Me.

2. Do not make for yourself an idol or any image of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water below the earth; You shall not worship them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God. God is jealous, punishing the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing mercy to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who takes His name in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy; six days thou shalt work, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor yours, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor the stranger who is in your gates; For in six days the Lord created heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them, and rested on the seventh day; Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.

5. Honor your father and your mother, (so that it may go well with you and) that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

6. Don't kill.

7. Do not commit adultery.

8. Don't steal.

9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his field, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor (any of his livestock), nor anything that is thy neighbor's.

The law that was given ancient Israel God, had several goals. First, he asserted public order and justice. Secondly, he singled out the Jewish people as a special religious community professing monotheism. Thirdly, he had to make an internal change in a person, morally improve a person, bring a person closer to God through instilling in a person the love of God. Finally, the law of the Old Testament prepared humanity for the adoption of the Christian faith in the future.

The Decalogue (ten commandments) formed the basis of the moral code of all cultural humanity.

In addition to the Ten Commandments, God dictated laws to Moses that outlined how the people of Israel should live. Thus the Children of Israel became a people - Jews.

The Wrath of Moses. Establishment of the tabernacle of the covenant.

Moses ascended Mount Sinai twice, remaining there for 40 days. During his first absence the people sinned terribly. The wait seemed too long to them and they demanded that Aaron make them a god who led them out of Egypt. Frightened by their unbridledness, he collected gold earrings and made a golden calf, in front of which the Jews began to serve and have fun.

Coming down from the mountain, Moses in anger broke the Tablets and destroyed the calf.

Moses breaks the tablets of the Law

Moses severely punished the people for their apostasy, killing about 3 thousand people, but asked God not to punish them. God had mercy and showed him His glory, showing him a chasm in which he could see God from behind, because it is impossible for man to see His face.

After that, again for 40 days, he returned to the mountain and prayed to God for the forgiveness of the people. Here, on the mountain, he received instructions about the construction of the Tabernacle, the laws of worship and the establishment of the priesthood. It is believed that the book of Exodus lists the commandments on the first broken tablets, and Deuteronomy lists what was written the second time. From there he returned with God's face illuminated by the light and was forced to hide his face under a veil so that the people would not go blind.

Six months later, the Tabernacle was built and consecrated - a large, richly decorated tent. Inside the tabernacle stood the Ark of the Covenant - a wooden chest lined with gold with images of cherubim on top. In the ark lay the tablets of the covenant brought by Moses, a golden container with manna and Aaron’s rod that flourished.

Tabernacle

To prevent disputes about who should have the right of the priesthood, God commanded that a staff be taken from each of the twelve leaders of the tribes of Israel and placed in the tabernacle, promising that the staff of those chosen by Him would blossom. The next day Moses found that Aaron's rod had produced flowers and almonds. Then Moses laid Aaron's rod before the ark of the covenant for safekeeping, as a testimony to future generations of the Divine election of Aaron and his descendants to the priesthood.

Moses' brother, Aaron, was ordained high priest, and other members of the tribe of Levi were ordained priests and "Levites" (in our opinion, deacons). From this time on, the Jews began to perform regular religious services and animal sacrifices.

End of wandering. Death of Moses.

For another 40 years Moses led his people to the promised land - Canaan. At the end of the journey, the people again began to be faint-hearted and grumble. As punishment, God sent poisonous snakes, and when they repented, he commanded Moses to erect a copper image of a serpent on a pole so that everyone who looked at it with faith would remain unharmed. The serpent lifted up in the desert, as St. Gregory of Nyssa - is the sign of the sacrament of the cross.

Despite great difficulties, the prophet Moses remained a faithful servant of the Lord God until the end of his life. He led, taught and mentored his people. He arranged their future, but did not enter the Promised Land because of the lack of faith shown by him and his brother Aaron at the waters of Meribah in Kadesh. Moses struck the rock twice with his rod, and water flowed from the stone, although once was enough - and God became angry and declared that neither he nor his brother Aaron would enter the Promised Land.

By nature, Moses was impatient and prone to anger, but through Divine education he became so humble that he became “the meekest of all people on earth.” In all his deeds and thoughts, he was guided by faith in the Almighty. In a sense, the fate of Moses is similar to the fate of the Old Testament itself, which through the desert of paganism brought the people of Israel to the New Testament and froze on its threshold. Moses died at the end of forty years of wandering on the top of Mount Nebo, from which he could see the promised land from afar - Palestine. God told him: “This is the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob... I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not enter it.”

He was 120 years old, but neither his vision was dull nor his strength exhausted. He spent 40 years in the palace of the Egyptian pharaoh, another 40 with flocks of sheep in the land of Midian, and the last 40 wandering at the head of the Israeli people in the Sinai desert. The Israelites commemorated the death of Moses with 30 days of mourning. His grave was hidden by God so that the Israeli people, who were inclined at that time towards paganism, would not make a cult out of it.

After Moses Jewish people, spiritually renewed in the wilderness, was led by his disciple Joshua, who led the Jews to the Promised Land. For forty years of wandering, not a single person remained alive who came out of Egypt with Moses, and who doubted God and worshiped the golden calf at Horeb. Thus a truly new people was created, living according to the law, given by God in Sinai.

Moses was also the first inspired writer. According to legend, he is the author of the books of the Bible - the Pentateuch as part of the Old Testament. Psalm 89, “The Prayer of Moses, the Man of God,” is also attributed to Moses.

Moses(Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה‏‎, Moshe, “taken (saved) from the water”; Arab. موسىٰ‎ Musa, other Greek Mωυσής, lat. Moyses) (XIII century BC), in the Pentateuch - Jewish prophet and legislator, founder of Judaism, organized the Exodus of the Jews from Ancient Egypt, united the Israelite tribes into a single people. He is the most important prophet in Judaism.

According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born at a time when his people were increasing in number and the Egyptian Pharaoh was concerned that the Israelites might help Egypt's enemies. When Pharaoh ordered the killing of all newborn boys, Moses' mother, Jochebed, hid him in a basket and floated it along the waters of the Nile. The basket was soon discovered by the pharaoh's daughter, who decided to adopt the child.

As Moses grew up, he saw the oppression of his people. He killed an Egyptian overseer who was cruelly punishing an Israelite and fled Egypt to the land of Midian. Here, from a burning but unburnt bush (the Burning Bush), God spoke to him, who commanded Moses to return back to Egypt and ask for the liberation of the Israelites. After the ten plagues, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt through the Red Sea, after which they stopped at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After forty years of wandering in the desert and the long-awaited arrival of the Israeli people to the land of Canaan, Moses died near the banks of the Jordan River.

The existence of Moses, as well as the reliability of his life story in the Bible, is a matter of debate among biblical scholars and historians. Biblical scholars usually date his life to the 16th-12th centuries. BC e., mainly associated with the pharaohs of the New Kingdom.

Name

According to the Bible, the meaning of the name Moses is associated with salvation from the waters of the Nile (“stretched out”). Pharaoh's daughter gave this name to Moses (Ex. 2:10). The play on words here may also be an allusion to the role of Moses in leading the Israelites out of Egypt. The ancient historian Josephus repeats the biblical interpretation, arguing that the name Moses consists of two words: “saved” and the Egyptian word “My,” meaning water. Semitologists deduce the origin of the name from the Egyptian root msy, meaning "son" or "to give birth to".

Biography

Bible story

The main source of information about Moses is the biblical narrative in Hebrew. The four books of the Pentateuch (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), which make up the epic of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, are dedicated to his life and work.

The Book of Exodus tells us that Moses' parents belonged to the tribe of Levi (Exodus 2:1). Moses was born in Egypt (Ex. 2:2) during the reign of Pharaoh, who “ didn't know Joseph"(Ex. 1:8), former first a nobleman under one of his predecessors. The ruler doubted the loyalty of the descendants of Joseph and his brothers to Egypt and turned the Jews into slaves.

But hard labor did not reduce the number of Jews, and Pharaoh ordered all newborn Jewish male babies to be drowned in the Nile. At that time, a son was born into Amram’s family (Ex. 2:2). Moses' mother Jochebed (Yochebed) managed to hide the baby in her home for three months (Ex. 2:3). No longer able to hide him, she put the baby in a reed basket, coated on the outside with asphalt and resin, and left him in the reed thickets on the banks of the Nile, where he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter, who came there for a swim (Ex. 2:5).

Paolo Veronese. Finding Moses. 2nd third of the 16th century. Picture gallery. Dresden

Realizing that in front of her was one “of the Hebrew children” (Exodus 2:6), she, however, took pity on the crying baby and, on the advice of Moses’ sister Miriam (Exodus 15:20), who was watching what was happening from afar, agreed to call the nurse - Israeli. Miriam called Jochebed, and Moses was given to his mother, who nursed him (Ex. 2:7-9). Pharaoh's daughter named the child Moses (“taken out of the water”) “because, she said, I took him out of the water” (Ex. 2:10). The Bible does not mention how long Moses lived with his natural father and mother, presumably he stayed with them for two or three years (The wife conceived and gave birth to a son, and seeing that he was very handsome, hid him for three months Ex. 2:2 ). The book of Exodus says that “the child grew up” with his parents, but what age he reached is unknown. “ And the child grew up, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she had him instead of a son."(Ex. 2:10). A mother hired by Pharaoh's daughter nursed her own son Moses. And when she was weaned, she gave it away. And Moses was like the son of Pharaoh's daughter (Ex. 2:10).

According to the New Testament book “The Acts of the Apostles,” when Moses was given to Pharaoh’s daughter, he was taught “all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22).

Moses grew up like adopted son in the Pharaoh's family. One day Moses came out of the royal chambers to the common people. He was deeply upset by the slavish position of his native people. Seeing an Egyptian beating a Jew, Moses killed the warrior and buried him in the sand, and the offended one the next day told all the Jews about this incident. Then Moses tried to reconcile the two Jews quarreling. But the Jew who offended another Jew said to Moses: “Who made you a leader and a judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Soon the Jews brought the information to the Egyptians. Pharaoh found out about this and sought to kill his adopted son. Moses, fearing for his life, fled from Egypt to the land of Midian. So the author of the Torah left the comfort of the royal house, his homeland, and wandered for some time.

Family

Moses, having fled from Egypt to the land of Midian, stopped with the priest Jethro (Raguel). He lived with Jethro, tended his cattle and married his daughter Zipporah. She bore him sons Girsama(Ex. 2:22; Ex. 18:3) and Eliezer. After the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, Moses gathered an army of thousands and destroyed the Midianites (his wife's people).

The book of Numbers mentions the reproaches of his sister Miriam and brother Aaron for the fact that his wife was an Ethiopian (Cushite) by nationality. According to biblical scholars, it could not be Zipporah, but another wife whom he took after the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

Revelation

While grazing cattle near Mount Horeb (Sinai), from the burning bush he received the call of God, who revealed to him his Name (Yahweh (Hebrew יהוה), “I am who is”) for the liberation of his people. Moses asked what he should do if the Israelites did not believe him. In response, God gave Moses the opportunity to perform signs: he turned Moses’ staff into a snake, and the snake into a staff again; then Moses put his hand into his bosom, and his hand became leprous as white as snow; according to the new command, he again put his hand in his bosom, took it out, and the hand was healthy.

Returning to the banks of the Nile, together with his brother Aaron (whom God chose as his assistant to serve as “his mouth” (Ex. 4:16), since Moses referred to his tongue-tiedness), he interceded with Pharaoh for the liberation of the children of Israel from Egypt. Moreover, at first Moses and Aaron, on behalf of Yahweh, asked Pharaoh to release the Jews into the desert for three days to make sacrifices.

The stubbornness of the pharaoh exposed the country to the horrors of the “Ten Plagues of Egypt”: the turning of the Nile waters into blood; toad invasion; midge invasion; invasion of dog flies; pestilence of livestock; disease in humans and livestock, expressed in inflammation with abscesses; hail and fire between hail; locust invasion; darkness; the death of the firstborn of Egyptian families and of all the firstborn of livestock. Finally, Pharaoh allowed them to leave for three days (Ex. 12:31), and the Jews, taking cattle and the remains of Jacob and Joseph the Beautiful, left Egypt for the desert of Sur.

Exodus

The passage of the Jews through the Red Sea. I.K. Aivazovsky. 1891

God showed the fugitives the way: he walked before them during the day in a pillar of cloud, and at night in a pillar of fire, illuminating the way (Ex. 13:21-22). The children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, which parted for them, but drowned Pharaoh's army, which was pursuing the Israelites. On the seashore, Moses and all the people, including his sister Miriam, solemnly sang a song of thanksgiving to God (Ex. 15:1-21).

Moses led his people to the Promised Land through the Sinai desert. First, they walked through the desert of Sur for three days and found no water except bitter water, but God sweetened this water by commanding Moses to throw the tree he indicated into it (Exodus 15:24-25). In the desert of Sin, God sent them many quails, and then (and throughout the next forty years of wandering) He sent them manna from heaven daily.

In Rephidim, Moses, at the command of God, brought water out of the rock of Mount Horeb by striking it with his rod. Here the Jews were attacked by the Amalekites, but were defeated by the prayer of Moses, who during the battle prayed on the mountain, raising his hands to God (Ex. 17:11-12).

In the third month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites approached Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses rules on how the Sons of Israel should live, and then Moses received from God the stone Tablets of the Covenant with the Ten Commandments, which became the basis of the Mosaic legislation (Torah). Thus a covenant was made between God and chosen people. Here, on the mountain, he received instructions about the construction of the Tabernacle and the laws of worship.

Moses ascended Mount Sinai twice, remaining there for forty days. During his first absence, the people sinned by breaking the covenant they had just made: they made the Golden Calf, which the Jews began to worship as the God who led them out of Egypt. Moses, in anger, broke the Tablets and destroyed the calf (Seventeenth Tammuz). After this, again for forty days he returned to the mountain and prayed to God for the forgiveness of the people. From there he returned with his face illuminated by the light of God, and was forced to hide his face under a veil so that the people would not go blind. Six months later, the Tabernacle was built and consecrated.

Despite great difficulties, Moses remained a servant of God, continued to lead the people chosen by God, teach and instruct them. He announced the future of the tribes of Israel, but did not enter the promised land, like Aaron, because of the sin they committed at the waters of Meribah in Kadesh - God gave instructions to speak the words to the rock, but out of lack of faith they struck the rock twice.

At the end of the journey, the people again began to be faint-hearted and grumble. As punishment, God sent poisonous snakes, and when the Jews repented, he commanded Moses to raise a copper serpent to heal them.

Death

Moses died just before entering the Promised Land. Before his death, the Lord called him to the Avarim ridge: “And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan.”(Deut. 34:1). There he died. “He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab opposite Bethpeor, and no one knows [the place of] his burial even to this day.”(Deut. 34:6).

At the direction of God, he appointed Joshua as his successor.

Moses lived 120 years. Of which he spent forty years wandering through the Sinai desert.

Antique tradition

Moses was mentioned by Greek and Latin authors.

According to the testimony of the Roman historian Josephus, the Egyptian historian Manetho (IV-III centuries BC) reported that the pharaoh ordered all lepers and patients with other diseases to be resettled in the quarries. The lepers elected as their leader the Heliopolitan priest Osarsiph (name in honor of the god Osiris), who after the expulsion changed his name to Moses. Osarsiph (Moses) established laws for the community of exiles and ordered them not to enter into communication with anyone except those bound to them by a single oath. He also led the war against the pharaoh. However, the settlers were defeated in the war, and the pharaoh's army pursued the defeated enemies to the borders of Syria. However, Josephus calls Manetho’s information “nonsensical and false.” According to Josephus, Moses was made commander of the Egyptian army against the Ethiopians who invaded Egypt as far as Memphis, and successfully defeated them.

According to Chaeremon, Moses' name was Tisithenes, and he was a contemporary of Joseph, whose name was Petesef. Tacitus calls him the lawgiver of the Jews. The source used by Pompey Trogus names Moses as the son of Joseph and the father of Arruaz, king of the Jews.

Egyptian sources

Ancient Egyptian written sources and archaeological finds do not contain any information about Moses.

Moses in Abrahamic religions

In Judaism

Moses (Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה‎, “Moshe”) is the main prophet in Judaism, who received the Torah from God on the top of Mount Sinai. He is considered the “father” of all subsequent prophets, since the level of his prophecy is the highest possible. So in the book of Deuteronomy it is said: “And Israel had no more a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deut. 34:10). It is also said about him: “If you have a prophet, then I, the Lord, reveal myself to him in a vision, and I speak to him in a dream. It is not so with My servant Moses, who is trusted throughout My house. I speak to him mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he sees the face of the Lord.” (Num. 12:6-8). However, in the Book of Exodus, Moses is forbidden to see the face of God: “And then He said, You cannot see My face, for man cannot see Me and live” (Exodus 33:20).

Based on the narrative of the Book of Exodus, Jews believe that the body of religious laws of Judaism (the Torah) was given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. However, when Moses, descending from the mountain, saw the Jews worshiping the golden calf, he broke the tablets in anger. After this, Moses returned to the top of the mountain and wrote the commandments with his own hand.

Kabbalah reveals the correspondence between Moses (Moshe) and the sephira netzach. And also that Moses is the circuit (gilgul) of Abel’s soul.

Jews usually refer to Moses as Moshe Rabbeinu, that is, “our teacher.”

In Christianity

Moses is the great prophet of Israel, according to legend, the author of the books of the Bible (the Pentateuch of Moses as part of the Old Testament). On Mount Sinai, he accepted the Ten Commandments from God.

In Christianity, Moses is considered one of the most important prototypes of Christ: just as through Moses the Old Testament was revealed to the world, so through Christ in Sermon on the Mount- New Testament.

According to the synoptic gospels, during the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, the prophets Moses and Elijah were with Jesus.

The icon of Moses is included in the prophetic rank of the Russian iconostasis.

Philo of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa compiled detailed allegorical interpretations of the biography of the prophet.

In Islam

In the Muslim tradition, the name Moses sounds like Musa (Arabic: موسى‎). He is one of greatest prophets, the interlocutor of Allah, to whom the Taurat (Torah) was revealed. In the Qur'an, Musa (Moses) is mentioned 136 times. Sura 28 of the Koran tells about the birth and salvation of Musa from the waters of the Nile (Koran, 28: 3 - 45, etc.)

Musa is a prophet in Islam, one of the descendants of the prophet Yaqub. He was born and lived for some time in Egypt. At that time, Firaun (Pharaoh) ruled there, who was an unbeliever. Musa fled from the pharaoh to the prophet Shuaib, who at that time owned Madyan.

Historicity of Moses

The existence of Moses and his role in the early history of Israel is a matter of long-standing debate. The first doubts about the historicity of Moses and the reliability of his life story were expressed in modern times. In the modern era, a number of historians and biblical scholars have argued for considering Moses a legendary figure. They note that ancient Eastern (including ancient Egyptian) written sources and archaeological sites do not contain any information about Moses or the events of the exodus. Their opponents point to deficits historical monuments and argue that the events of the exodus associated with Moses have minimal chance of being reflected in the monuments of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. However, both of them recognize that the recording of the tales of Moses was preceded by a long oral tradition, which could modify, alter, distort or supplement the original traditions. These points of view are opposed by supporters of the school of “biblical minimalism”, who believe that the Old Testament was written by Jewish priests around the 4th-2nd centuries BC. e. and the vast majority of the events and figures in this part of the Bible are fictitious.

Proponents of the documentary hypothesis view the Pentateuch as the result of a compilation of several sources, four of which (the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Priestly Code, and the Deuteronomist) constitute the bulk of the text. They note that the figure of Moses and his role are different in each source. So in the Yahwist, Moses is the undisputed leader of the exodus. The priestly code tends to downplay the role of Moses and focuses on the role of Moses' brother Aaron, to whom the Jerusalem priests traced their ancestry. The Elohist, in contrast to Aaron, emphasizes the role of Joshua, who turned out to be faithful to the word of God more than Moses. Finally, the Deuteronomist emphasizes the role of Moses as prophet and lawgiver. From these observations it is concluded that the legends about Moses developed gradually and their versions in different traditions were different. These findings are disputed by critics of the documentary hypothesis.

Biblical scholars also note that in the texts about the exodus, which are considered earlier than the main body of the Pentateuch (early prophets, psalms, “song of the sea”), Moses is not mentioned. On this basis, it is suggested that in early oral traditions Moses was either not the hero of the exodus or had a minor role. And only later did the compilers of written tradition build the entire story around the figure of Moses, from whom they traced their genealogy. Such conclusions are also disputed on the grounds that the purported references to the exodus are brief and Moses may have been omitted at the discretion of the authors.

Moses and Pharaoh: versions

Many attempts have been made to establish to what period of the history of Ancient Egypt the Bible refers to the events of the exodus of the Jews, and which pharaoh it refers to. There are several versions of when the exodus of the Jews supposedly occurred, and therefore when Moses lived. Most versions link the exodus to the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. This implies that the activity of Moses falls between the 16th and 12th centuries BC. e.

The Bible does not mention the pharaoh mentioned by name, although it often places a lot of emphasis on names. Thus, in Exodus the names of the two midwives whom Pharaoh called to him are mentioned, but not the name of Pharaoh (Ex. 1:15). According to Exodus, after Moses fled from Egypt to the land of Midian, Pharaoh died (“after for a long time, the king of Egypt died") (Ex. 2:23). Thus, at least two pharaohs appear in Exodus.

Various biblical scholars have attempted to identify the pharaoh of the Book of Exodus with the following pharaohs:

Ahmose I (1550-1525 BC)
Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC)
Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC)
Merneptah (1212-1202 BC)
Setnakht (1189-1186 BC)

Ahmose I was pointed to by those who believed that the Israelites left Egypt after the expulsion of the Hyksos. Ahmose I successfully fought with the Hyksos and captured their capital, Avaris. Those who tried to establish the date of the exodus on the basis of biblical chronology came to the conclusion that the exodus occurred during the reign of Thutmose III. In Ramesses II, who carried out extensive construction work involving large number people saw the oppressor pharaoh. Under Merneptah, the son of Ramesses II, Egypt began to weaken, so Merneptah's reign was considered a more likely time for an exodus. The absence of a mummy of this pharaoh also gave rise to speculation until the time the mummy was discovered.

Moses and Akhenaten

In 1939, in his work “Moses and Monotheism,” Sigmund Freud linked the teachings of Moses with the religion that Pharaoh Akhenaten (reigned approximately 1351–1334 BC) propagated in Egypt during his reign. This religion involved the worship of only one deity - the disk of the sun, Aten. In the monotheism (or henotheism) of Akhenaten, Freud saw the origins of the monotheism of Judaism. Based on Manetho's information, Freud conjectures that after the failure of this religion in Egypt, one of Akhenaten's students (Osarsif) attempted to unite another people under its auspices, escaping with them from Egypt. This places the date of the Exodus immediately after the date of Akhenaten's death, that is, after 1358 BC. e.

Today, Freud's guess is of interest only to historians of psychoanalysis.

In art

fine arts:

Moses (Michelangelo)
Moses (fountain in Bern)
Death and Testament of Moses

literature:

Poem by I. Y. Franko “Moses”
Sigmund Freud wrote the book “Moses and Monotheism” (S. Freud: This Man is Moses), dedicated to psychoanalytic research life path Moses and his relationship with the people.

music:

opera by Gioachino Rossini;
opera by Arnold Schoenberg;
opera by Miroslav Skorik;
American Negro spiritual "Go Down Moses".

cinema:

Character on imdb.com
Cartoon "Prince of Egypt" (1998)
The film "The Ten Commandments" (1923) and its remake of the same name (1956)
Film "Moses" (1974)
Film "Prophet Moses: The Liberator Leader" (1995)
Film "Exodus: Kings and Gods" (2014)

Iconography

Iconographic originals give the following description of the appearance of the prophet Moses:

A great old man, 120 years old, of the Jewish type, well-behaved, meek. bald, with average size with a beard in strands, very handsome, with a courageous and strong body. Wore a lower tunic blue, with a slit in the front and belted (cf. Ex. 39:12ff); on top is the ephod, that is, a long cloth with a slit in the middle for the head; there is a blanket on the head, boots on the feet. In his hands is a rod and two tablets with the 10 commandments.

In addition to the tablets, they also depicted a scroll with the inscription:

“Who am I, let me go to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and let me bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.”(Ex. 3:11).
Sometimes another text is given: “Helper and patron be my salvation; This is my God and I will glorify Him, God of my Father and I will exalt Him.”(Ex. 15:1).

There is also a tradition of depicting the prophet while still quite young (“medieval”): these are icons depicting the prophet at the Burning Bush, cutting off the boots of his feet (Ex. 3:5), or receiving tablets from the Lord.