Where did Moses live? Brief biography of the Old Testament prophet Moses

One of the central events of the Old Testament is the story of Moses, the salvation of the Jewish people from the power of the Egyptian pharaoh. Many skeptics are looking for historical evidence of the events that took place, since in the biblical account there were many miracles performed on the way to the Promised Land. However, be that as it may, but this story is quite entertaining and tells of the incredible liberation and resettlement of an entire people.

The birth of the future prophet was initially shrouded in mystery. Almost the only source of information about Moses was the biblical writings, since direct historical evidence does not exist, there are only indirect ones. In the year of the birth of the prophet, the ruling pharaoh Ramses II ordered all newborn children to be drowned in the Nile, because, despite the hard work and oppression of the Jews, they continued to be fruitful and multiply. Pharaoh was afraid that someday they might take the side of his enemies.

That is why Moses' mother hid him from everyone for the first three months. When this was no longer possible, she tarred the basket and placed her child in it. Together with her eldest daughter, she took it to the river and left Mariam to see what happens next.

God was pleased that Moses and Ramses met. History, as mentioned above, is silent about the details. The pharaoh's daughter picked up the basket and brought it to the palace. According to another version (which some historians adhere to), Moses belonged to the royal family and was the son of that very daughter of the pharaoh.

Whatever it was, but the future prophet was in the palace. Miriam, who was watching the one who lifted the basket, offered Moses' own mother as a wet nurse. So the son returned to the bosom of the family for a while.

The life of a prophet in the palace

After Moses grew up a little and stopped needing a nurse, his mother took the future prophet to the palace. There he lived for quite a long time, and was also adopted by the daughter of the pharaoh. Moses knew what kind he was, knew that he was a Jew. And although he studied on a par with the rest of the children of the royal family, he did not absorb cruelty.

The story of Moses from the Bible testifies that he did not worship the numerous gods of Egypt, but remained faithful to the beliefs of his ancestors.

Moses loved his people and every time he suffered when he saw their torment, when he saw how mercilessly each Israelite was exploited. One day something happened that forced the future prophet to flee from Egypt. Moses witnessed a severe beating of one of his people. In a fit of rage, the future prophet snatched the whip from the hands of the overseer and killed him. Since no one saw what he did (as Moses thought), the body was simply buried.

After a while, Moses realized that many already knew what he had done. The pharaoh orders the arrest and death of his daughter's son. How Moses and Ramses treated each other, history is silent. Why did they decide to try him for the murder of the overseer? Can be taken into account different versions what was happening, however, most likely, the decisive thing was that Moses was not an Egyptian. As a result of all this, the future prophet decides to flee from Egypt.

Flight from the Pharaoh and the later life of Moses

According to biblical data, the future prophet went to the land of Midian. The further history of Moses tells of his family life. He married the daughter of the priest Jethro Zipporah. Living this life, he became a shepherd, learned to live in the wilderness. He also had two sons.

Some sources claim that before marrying, Moses lived for some time with the Saracens, had a prominent position there. However, it should still be taken into account that the only source of narration about his life is the Bible, which, like any ancient scripture, over time has acquired some kind of allegorical coating.

Divine Revelation and the Appearance of the Lord to the Prophet

Be that as it may, but the biblical story about Moses tells that it was in the Midian land, when he was tending the flocks, that the Lord's revelation came to him. The future prophet at that moment was eighty years old. It was at this age that on his way he met a bush of thorns, which blazed with flame, but did not burn out.

At this point, Moses was instructed that he must save the people of Israel from Egyptian rule. The Lord commanded to return to Egypt and lead his people to the promised land, freeing them from long-term slavery. However, the Almighty Father warned Moses about the difficulties on his way. In order for him to have the opportunity to overcome them, he was given the ability to work miracles. Due to the fact that Moses was tongue-tied, God commanded him to take his brother Aaron to help him.

Return of Moses to Egypt. Ten plagues

The story of the prophet Moses, as a herald of God's will, began on the day when he appeared before the pharaoh, who ruled at that time in Egypt. This was a different ruler, not the one from whom Moses had fled in his time. Of course, the pharaoh refused the demand to release the Israeli people, and even increased the labor service for his slaves.

Moses and Ramses, whose history is more obscure than researchers would like, clashed in opposition. The prophet did not reconcile himself to the first defeat, he came to the ruler several more times and eventually said that God's punishment would fall on the land of Egypt. And so it happened. By the will of God, there were ten plagues that fell on Egypt and its inhabitants. After each of them, the ruler called on his sorcerers, but they found the magic of Moses more skillful. After each misfortune, Pharaoh agreed to let the people of Israel go, but changed his mind each time. Only after the tenth Jewish slaves became free.

Of course, the story of Moses did not end there. The prophet still had years of travel, as well as a clash with the unbelief of his fellow tribesmen, until they all reached the Promised Land.

Establishment of Passover and Exodus from Egypt

Before the last plague that befell the people of Egypt, Moses warned the people of Israel about it. It was the killing of the firstborn in every family. However, the warned Israelites anointed their door with the blood of a lamb no older than one year, and their punishment passed.

On the same night, the celebration of the first Easter took place. The story of Moses from the Bible tells of the rituals that preceded it. The slaughtered lamb had to be baked whole. Then eat standing up, having gathered the whole family. After this event, the people of Israel left the land of Egypt. Pharaoh, in fear, even asked to do it sooner, seeing what happened at night.

From the first dawn came the fugitives. The sign of God's will was a pillar, which was fiery at night and cloudy during the day. It is believed that this Easter was eventually transformed into the one we know now. The emancipation of the Jewish people from slavery symbolized just that.

Another miracle that happened almost immediately after leaving Egypt was the crossing of the Red Sea. At the command of the Lord, the waters parted, and dry land was formed, along which the Israelites crossed to the other side. The pharaoh who was chasing them also decided to follow the bottom of the sea. However, Moses and his people were already on the other side, and the waters of the sea closed again. So the pharaoh died.

The Covenants Moses Received at Mount Sinai

The next stopping point for the Jewish people was Mount Moses. The story from the Bible tells that on this way the fugitives saw many miracles (manna from heaven, spring water springs appearing) and strengthened in their faith. Ultimately, after a three-month journey, the Israelites came to Mount Sinai.

Leaving the people at its foot, Moses himself climbed to the top for the instructions of the Lord. There, a dialogue took place between the Universal Father and his prophet. As a result of all this, ten commandments were obtained, which became the main ones for the people of Israel, which became the basis of legislation. Commandments were also received that covered civil and religious life. All this was written in the Book of the Covenant.

Forty Years' Journey Through the Wilderness of the Israelite People

Near Mount Sinai, the Jewish people stood for about a year. Then a sign was given by the Lord to move on. The story of Moses as a prophet continued. He continued to bear the burden of mediating between his people and the Lord. For forty years they wandered in the desert, sometimes living for a long time in places where conditions were more favorable. The Israelites gradually became zealous executors of the covenants that the Lord had given them.

Of course, there were outrages. Not everyone was satisfied with such long wanderings. However, as the story of Moses from the Bible testifies, the people of Israel nevertheless reached the Promised Land. However, the prophet himself never reached her. Moses had a revelation that another leader would lead them on. He died at the age of 120, but no one ever found out where it happened, since his death was a mystery.

Historical facts confirming biblical events

Moses, whose life story we know only from biblical stories, is a significant figure. However, is there any official data that confirms his existence as a historical figure? Some consider all this to be just a beautiful legend that was invented.

However, some historians are still inclined to believe that Moses is a historical figure. This is evidenced by some of the information contained in the biblical story (slaves in Egypt, the birth of Moses). Thus, we can say that this is far from a fictional story, and all these miracles actually happened in those distant times.

It should be noted that today this event is displayed more than once in the cinema, and cartoons have also been created. They tell about such heroes as Moses and Ramses, whose history is little described in the Bible. Special attention the cinematography focuses on the miracles that happened during their journey. Be that as it may, but all these films and cartoons educate morality in the younger generation and instill morality. They are also useful for adults, especially those who have lost faith in miracles.

Moses is the greatest Old Testament prophet, the founder of Judaism, who brought the Jews out of Egypt, where they were in slavery, received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai and rallied the Israelite tribes into one 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.

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

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

Birth of Moses

According to the biblical account, Moses was born in Egypt into a Jewish family during the time when the Jews were in bondage to the Egyptians, around 1570 BC (according to other estimates, about 1250 BC). Moses' parents belonged to the tribe of Levi 1 (Ex. 2:1). His older sister was Miriam and his older brother was Aaron (the first of the Jewish high priests, the founder 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. Because of all the tribes of Israel, the Levites were the only tribe not endowed with land, they were dependent on their brethren.

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

2 Jacob,orJacob (Israel)- the third of the biblical patriarchs, the youngest of the twin sons of the patriarch Isaac and Rebekah. From his sons came 12 tribes of the people of Israel. In rabbinical 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. In the end, there were so many Jews that it began to inspire fear in the new pharaoh. He said to his people: "Here the tribe of Israel is multiplying and can become stronger than us. If we have a war with another state, then the Israelis can unite with our enemies." So that the tribe of Israel would not grow stronger, it was decided to turn it into slavery. The pharaohs and their officials began to oppress the Israelites like strangers, and then they began to treat them like a subjugated tribe, like masters with slaves. The Egyptians began to force the Israelites to the most difficult work in favor of the state: they were forced to dig the earth, build cities, palaces and monuments for the kings, prepare clay and brick for these buildings. Special overseers were appointed who strictly monitored the execution of all these forced labors.

But no matter how oppressed the Israelites, they still continued to multiply. Then the pharaoh ordered that all newborn Israelite boys be drowned in the river, and only girls were left alive. This order was carried out with merciless severity. The people of Israel were threatened with total extermination.

In this troubled time, 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 infant 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 a thicket on the banks of the Nile.

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

At this time, the Pharaoh's daughter went to the river to bathe, accompanied by her attendants. Seeing a basket in the reeds, she ordered to open it. There was a tiny boy in the basket, crying. Pharaoh's daughter said, "It must be from the Hebrew children." She took pity on the crying baby and, on the advice of the sister of Moses Miriam, who approached her, who was watching what was happening from afar, agreed to call the Israelite 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 brought him up as her own son (Ex. 2:10). The daughter of the pharaoh gave him the name Moses, which means "taken out of the water."

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

Childhood and youth of Moses. Escape to 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 tells that he served as commander of the Egyptian army and helped the pharaoh defeat the Ethiopians who attacked him.

Although Moses grew up freely, he still never forgot his Jewish roots. Once he wished to see how his fellow tribesmen live. Seeing how the Egyptian overseer beats 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. Escape was the only way to escape. And Moses fled from Egypt to Sinai desert 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 Moses

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

The thorn bush or the "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 was 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, that the people be released from the "house of bondage." But Moses is aware of his weakness: he is not ready for a feat, he is deprived of the gift of words, he is sure that neither Pharaoh nor the people will believe him. Only after persistently repeating the call and signs does he agree. God said that Moses had a brother in Egypt, Aaron, who, if necessary, would speak for him, and God himself would teach both of them 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) on the ground - and suddenly this rod turned into a snake. Moses caught the snake by the tail - and again a stick was 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 again put his hand in his bosom and took it out, she became healthy. “If they don’t believe this miracle, the Lord said, then you shall take water from the river and pour it out on dry land, and the water shall become blood on the dry land.”

Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh

In obedience to God, Moses set out on the road. Along the way, he met his brother Aaron, whom God ordered to go out into the wilderness to meet Moses, and together they went 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 country flowing with milk and honey. However, they did not immediately believe him. They were afraid of the revenge of the pharaoh, they were afraid of the way through the waterless desert. Moses performed several miracles, and the people of Israel believed in him and in the fact that the hour of liberation from slavery had come. Nevertheless, the murmuring against the prophet, which began even before the exodus, broke out then repeatedly. Like Adam, who was free to submit to or reject a higher Will, the newly created people of God experienced temptations and falls.

After that, Moses and Aron appeared to Pharaoh and announced to him the will of the God of Israel, so that he would let the Jews go into the wilderness to serve this God: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast for me in the wilderness." But the 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 let the Israelites go, then God would send various "executions" (misfortunes, disasters) to Egypt. The king did not obey - and the threats of the messenger of God came true.

The Ten Plagues and the Establishment of the Feast of Passover

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

However, executions only further harden the pharaoh.

Then the angry Moses came to Pharaoh for the last time and warned: “Thus says the Lord: At midnight I will pass through the midst of Egypt. And every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh ... to the firstborn of the slave ... and all the firstborn of cattle. It was the last most severe 10th plague (Ex. 11:1-10 - Ex. 12:1-36).

Then Moses warned the Jews to slaughter a one-year-old lamb in each family and anoint the doorposts and the door frame with its blood: according to this blood, God will distinguish the dwellings of the Jews and will not touch them. Lamb meat had to be baked on fire and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The Jews must be ready to set off immediately.

During the night, Egypt suffered a terrible disaster. “And Pharaoh arose in the night, himself 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 to him and ordered them, along with all their people, to go into the wilderness and perform worship so that God would have mercy on the Egyptians.

Since then, the Jews every year on the 14th day of the month of Nisan (the day that falls on the full moon of the vernal equinox) make Easter holiday. The word "Passover" means "to pass by," because the Angel that struck down the firstborn passed by the Jewish houses.

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

Exodus. Crossing the Red Sea.

That same night, all the people of Israel left Egypt forever. The Bible indicates the number of departed "600 thousand Jews" (not counting women, children and livestock). The Jews did not leave empty-handed: before fleeing, Moses ordered them to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold and silver items, as well as rich clothes. They also brought with them the mummy of Joseph, which Moses searched for three days while his tribesmen collected property from the Egyptians. God himself led them, being by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire, so that the fugitives walked day and night until they came to the seashore.

Meanwhile, the pharaoh realized that the Jews had deceived him, and rushed after them in pursuit. 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 stretched out his hand to the sea, hit the water with his rod, and the sea parted, clearing the way. The Israelites went along the seabed, 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. The 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 got to the opposite bank. The Egyptian soldiers 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 the Pharaoh's army...

The passage through the Red (now Red) Sea, which took place in the face of imminent mortal danger, becomes the culmination of a saving miracle. The waters separated the saved from the "house of bondage." Therefore, the transition became a type of the sacrament of baptism. A new passage through the water is also the way 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 will 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 is the basis of the first of the nine sacred songs that make up the song canon, sung daily Orthodox Church at worship.

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

Miracles of Moses

The road to the Promised Land ran through the harsh and vast Arabian Desert. At first, for 3 days they walked through the Shur desert and did not find water except bitter (Merah) (Ex. 15:22-26), but God sweetened this water by commanding Moses to throw a piece of some special tree into the water.

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

One morning, when they woke up, they saw that the whole desert was covered with something white, like frost. They began to look: the white coating turned out to be small grains, similar to hail or grass seeds. In response to the astonished exclamations, Moses said: "This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat." Adults and children rushed to rake manna and bake bread. Since then, every morning for 40 years, they found manna from heaven and ate from it.

Manna from heaven

The collection of manna took place in the morning, as by noon it melted under the rays of the sun. “The manna was like coriander seed, looking like bdolakh”(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 butter.

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

Here the Jews were attacked by a wild tribe of Amalekites, but they were defeated at 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 encamped against the mountain. Moses went up the mountain first, and God warned him that he would appear before the people on the third day.

And then this day came. Terrible phenomena accompanied the phenomenon in Sinai: clouds, smoke, lightning, thunder, flames, earthquakes, trumpets. This fellowship 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, from the house of bondage; Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

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

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

4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; work for six days and do (in them) all your works, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: do not do any work on it, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maidservant, nor (ox yours, not your donkey, not any) your livestock, nor the stranger that is in your dwellings; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

5. Honor your father and your mother (that you may be well and) that your days may be long in the land which 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. Do not covet your neighbor's house; Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, (neither his field), nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, (nor any of his cattle) anything that is with your neighbor.

The law that was given to ancient Israel by God had several purposes. 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 love for God. Finally, the law of the Old Testament prepared mankind 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 spoke about how the people of Israel should live. So the Children of Israel became a people - Jews.

Moses' wrath. The establishment of the tabernacle of the covenant.

Moses climbed Mount Sinai twice, staying 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 brought them out of Egypt. Frightened by their wildness, he collected golden earrings and made a golden calf, in front of which the Jews began to serve and have fun.

Descending 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 apostasy, killing about 3 thousand people, but asked God not to punish them. God had mercy and revealed His glory to him, showing him a cleft in which he could see God from behind, because it is impossible for a 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 on the construction of the Tabernacle, the laws of worship and the establishment of the priesthood. It is believed that in the book of Exodus the commandments are listed, on the first broken tablets, and in Deuteronomy - what was inscribed a second time. From there he returned with God's face shone with the light and was forced to hide his face under a veil so that the people would not be blinded.

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, gold-studded chest with images of cherubs on top. In the ark lay the tablets of the covenant brought by Moses, the golden stave with manna, and the prosperous rod of Aaron.

Tabernacle

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

Moses' brother, Aaron, was ordained as a high priest, and other members of the tribe of Levi were ordained as priests and "Levites" (we call them deacons). Since that time, the Jews began to perform regular worship 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 wandering, the people again became cowardly and grumbled. In punishment, God sent poisonous snakes, and when they repented, he ordered Moses to erect a copper image of a snake on a pole so that everyone who looked at him with faith would remain unharmed. The serpent ascended in the desert, according to 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 instructed his people. He arranged their future, but he 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 hit the rock twice with his rod, and water flowed from the stone, although once was enough - and God, angry, announced that neither he nor his brother Aaron would enter the Promised Land.

By nature, Moses was impatient and prone to anger, but through divine training 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 wilderness 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 from a distance the promised land - Palestine. God told him: “This is the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob... I made you see it with your eyes, but you will not enter it.”

He was 120 years old, but neither his eyesight was dulled, nor his strength was exhausted. He spent 40 years in the palace of the Egyptian pharaoh, the other 40 with flocks of sheep in the land of Midian, and the last 40 in wandering at the head of the Israelite people in the Sinai desert. The Israelites honored the death of Moses with 30 days of lamentation. His grave was hidden by God, so that the people of Israel, inclined at that time to paganism, would not make a cult out of it.

After Moses, the Jewish people, spiritually renewed in the wilderness, were 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 left Egypt with Moses, and who doubted God and bowed to the golden calf at Horeb. Thus, a truly new people was created, living according to the law given by God at 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

Moses
[Jewish Moshe, “bringing out”, “extracting”], the greatest of the prophets, whom the Lord commanded to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and through whom the Sinai covenant was concluded and the commandments of the Torah were granted.

I. Name "M." was named his mother Jochebed (in the Synodal translation - Jochebed, Ex 2:7-10; Ex 6:20), which, according to Jude. According to legend, she was a prophetess and gave her son a name that indicated his future calling. Name "M." explained in St. Scripture based on the meaning of the Hebrew root of the word Masha- “pull out”, “pull out” (Ex 2:10). Apparently, mother M. explained the meaning of this name to the daughter of the pharaoh by the fact that the baby was found in the water. At the same time, in the ancient Egyptian language, the consonant word mose means "son", "child" (this word is included integral part in the names of the pharaohs Thutmose, Ahmose, Ramesses, etc.), so such a name would have liked the daughter of the pharaoh.

II. M. is the son of Amram and Jochebed, a descendant of Kohath, the son of Levi. His older sister was Miriam (in the Synodal translation - Miriam), and his older brother was Aaron (Ex 6:16,18,20). M. was born in Egypt, according to Jude. traditions in 1393-1392 BC; a number of modern researchers attribute this date to approx. by 1350 or, according to a different chronological. technique, approx. by 1525 B.C. (→ Chronology). At the time of M.'s birth, the pharaoh's order was in effect to throw all newborn Jewish boys into the Nile (Ex 1:22). The mother hid the baby M. for three months, but then, trying to save him, she put the child in a basket and left it in the reeds on the banks of the Nile. The pharaoh's daughter found M., and Mariam's own mother became his nurse. When M. grew up, his mother brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, with whom he "was instead of a son" (Ex 2:1-10).

III. M. stood at the origins of the birth of Israel as independent. people. Information about his life is contained primarily in the last four books of the Pentateuch of Moses. The fact that M. is a real historical. personality, in our time already practical. no one doubts. The consonance of his name is Egyptian. mose, as well as the correspondence of the data of his biography to the ancient Egyptian realities underlie the Jewish tradition, which can only be explained historically. facts. There is no reason to consider M. as mythological. personality: without his participation, the beginning of the Jewish national history impossible to explain. His individuality, the strength of his character, his role as an intermediary in declaring God's will to the people left an indelible imprint on the history and religion not only of Israel, but of all mankind. If, despite this, some researchers do not dare to present a coherent picture of the life and work of M., then this is due to the fact that they neglect the high value of the Pentateuch of Moses as a historical. source. The study of primary sources by such scholars is accompanied by an idea of the oral transmission of the historical. facts and legends for many centuries after the death of M., in the absence of fixed letters. text. However, today it is known that in the Middle East, long before Moses, there were deep traditions of writing and historiography, which makes it possible to oppose such theories convincingly. arguments testifying in favor of the writing of the Pentateuch precisely in the era of Moses, and even by himself.

Years before exodus

83 Birth of Aaron (Ex 7:7).
80 Birth of Moses (Ex 7:7)
40 Moses' flight to Midian (Acts 7:23,29)

1 Calling Moses by God (Ex 3)

The beginning → of the executions of the Egyptians was probably in the fifth month - the time of the flood of the Nile.

Days, months and years after the exodus

10: I. 1 Department of Easter. lambs from the flock to celebrate the Passover (Ex 12:3)
14:I. Passover 1 (Ex 12:6)
15:I. 1 Defeat of the firstborn (Ex 12:29)
Exodus from Rameses (Numbers 33:3)
21: I. 1 Crossing the sea (Ex 14)
15: II. 1 Israel in the wilderness of Sin (Ex 16:1)
1: III. 1 Israel at Mount Sinai (Ex 19:1,2)
6: III. 1 Epiphany at Sinai. Making the Covenant and Giving the Ten Commandments (Ex 20)
1:I. 2 Setting up the tabernacle of the covenant (Ex 40:2,17)
1:-7: I. 2 Consecration of the priests and the altar (Lev 8:33,35; Ex 29:37)
8:I. 2 Aaron's sacrifice. Glory of the Lord over the tabernacle. The death of Nadab and Abihu (Lev 9:1,23; Lev 10:1,2)
8:-19: I. 2 Sacrifices of rulers (Num 7:1,2,10)
14:I. Passover 2 (Num 9:1-5)
1: II. 2 The first number of the people (Num 1:1)
14:II. 2 "Second Passover" (Num 9:11)
20: II. 2 The children of Israel set out from the wilderness of Sinai (Numbers 10:11,12). The visit of the spies to Canaan "at the time of the ripening of the grapes" (Numbers 13:21), i.e. in the fourth month (→ Calendar)
10: VII. 2 Day of Atonement (Lev 16:29-34) Sojourn in Kadesh, suppose. up to the 3rd year (Deut 1:46; Deut 2:14) 38 years → wandering in the wilderness (II,2)
I. 40 Israel again in Kadesh. The end of Maryami (Numbers 20:1)
1:V.40 Aaron's demise (Num 33:38)
40 Crossing the stream in the valley of Zared (Deut 2:14)
1:XI. 40 farewell speech Moses (Deut 1:3-5) Death of Moses in the eleventh month (Deut 34:8; cf. Joshua 4:19)

Chronological data of the Pentateuch and the Jewish tradition about the life of Moses.

IV. As the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter (Heb 11:24), M. was "taught in all the wisdom of Egypt" (Acts 7:22); he was undoubtedly well acquainted with religion. traditions and legal norms of the ancient East. Perhaps in Egypt, he showed his abilities and diplomatic. field (so Jude. Traditions say). But all his brilliant future is Egypt. nobles (and possibly even the heir to the throne) collapsed instantly when the 40-year-old M., standing up for a fellow slave, killed the Egyptians. overseer. Fleeing from the wrath of the pharaoh, he fled from Egypt to Midian. While living there, M. married → Zipporah, daughter of the Midian priest Raguel, or → Jethro (Ex 2:11-22; Numbers 10:29). Here he lived for 40 years among a people whose genealogy, like that of the Israelites, went back to Abraham (Gen. traditions of the descendants of Abraham, having the idea of a single God (see Ex 18:10-12). M. gave his first-born the name Gershom [Jewish "a stranger (was I) there"; in the Synodal translation - Girsam], thus expressing longing for the country of the forefathers - Canaan; he named his second son Eliezer (Hebrew “God is my helper”; in the Synodal translation - Eliezer), thereby capturing the unshakable faith in the God of Abraham (Ex 18:3,4). The years spent in Midian in communion with Jethro helped M. to reach ext. maturity. And the hour came when God called him to a great mission - the liberation of His people (Ex 2:23 - Ex 4:17). The Lord revealed himself to M. in a flaming thorn bush (“burning bush”) with a name meaning “Eternal One”, or: “I Am” (“I am here”, according to the commentary of M. Buber; this name combines three tense forms of the Hebrew verb gaya - "to be" or gava - "to produce being", and, consequently, means "He who was, is and will be" or "He who produced, produces and will produce being", Ex 3:13-15; in the Synodal translation here - "Jesus". According to the Jewish tradition, when pronounced aloud, this name is replaced by the word Adonai - "My Lord", therefore practically everywhere in the Septuagint it is translated as Curios - "Lord", "Lord", in the Synodal translation - "Lord"). However, God had to overcome in M. unpreparedness for such a high mission, because. he considered himself unworthy to carry out the orders of the Almighty. God gave M. Aaron as a collaborator - as a speaker, because. M. himself did not differ in eloquence.

v. M. and Aaron appeared together before the congregation of Israel. elders (Ex 4:28-31), and then before the pharaoh, in order to achieve the return of the people to the promised land (Ex 5). Through a series of miracles and punishments (→ Plagues of Egypt), the Lord overcame the resistance of Pharaoh, who, constantly hardening his heart, broke his promises to let the Israelites go (→ Exodus). The passage of the Jews across the parted → Red Sea and the death of the pharaoh’s army in its waters ended the victory of God, captured in the charters of Easter and glorified in the song of Moses and Maryami (Ex 12:1 - Ex 14:1; Ex 15:1-21). This happened, according to Jude. tradition, in 1313-1312. BC, according to the same modern. scientists, ca. 1270 or ca. 1445 BC (→ Chronology, IV,2).

VI. The path of Israel to Canaan lay through the desert (→ Wanderings in the wilderness). Here, M.'s longsuffering, his devotion to God, his unshakable faith in Him and his love for his people were constantly manifested. The people again and again showed discontent, murmured and rebelled - in Merra (Ex 15:23,24), in the wilderness of Sin, in Massa and Meribah (Ex 16:1-15; Ex 17:1-7). In response to the murmuring, God showed miracles: he served food in the form of quails and manna, water from the rock. After the victory over Amalek (see Ex. 17:8-16), Jethro brought the M. family to the camp of the Israelites, whom M. sent to his father-in-law during the turbulent events of the exodus from Egypt. Jethro gave M. wise advice on the administration of justice (see Ex 18).

VII. The Lord descended on Mount Sinai, and M. was present, as an intermediary of the covenant, when God announced → the Ten Commandments, M. handed over to the people part of the future Torah (Pentateuch) - → the Book of the Covenant and, together with the elders of Israel, solemnly concluded a covenant with God on behalf of the people ( see Ex 19:1; Ex 20:1; Ex 24:1). Then he again ascended the mountain and remained there for forty days and nights. At this time, he received many orders regarding dispensation for the priesthood. the principles of religious and moral, social, political, economic, family and private life of the Israelis (according to Judaic tradition, 613 commandments, developing in detail the content of the ten original ones), incl. instructions for erection → tabernacle of congregation and ordinances for worship (see Ex 21-31). Descending from the mountain, M. carried to the people two → tablets of the Law with the Decalogue (Decalogue, → Ten Commandments) inscribed on them. However, while M. was on the mountain, the people, embarrassed by his long absence, forced Aaron to make a golden calf. The idol was cast, and the people began to offer sacrifices to it. M. in anger broke the tablets of the covenant, because. the people violated the condition of the covenant - not to worship other gods; after this, M. made a severe trial of the apostates. Soon, however, he appeared before God with selflessness. intercession for the people, begging to forgive the Israelites or, otherwise, to “blot out” Moses himself from the book of the Lord (i.e., obviously, M. was ready to give up eternal life for the sake of his people! Ex 32:31-33; cf. Mal 3:16,17). And God promised not to leave Israel (Ex 32-33). The Lord wrote the Decalogue on new tablets. When, having again spent forty days and nights in Sinai, M. returned to the people, his face “shone with rays,” because God spoke to him. Each time he finished delivering God's commands to the Israelites, he covered his face with a veil until he stood before God again (Ex 34:1; 2 Cor 3:7-18). The tabernacle of the covenant was erected (Ex. 35-40), M. received the prescriptions for sacrifices and ordained Aaron and his sons as priests (Lev. 8).

VIII. In the second year of wandering in the wilderness, Miriam and Aaron, jealous of M., began to reproach him for taking a wife from the Kushite tribe (Cush; in the Synodal translation - “The Ethiopian woman”, Numbers 12:1). They tried to challenge the exclusivity of the mission and rank of M. However, God testified: “I speak mouth to mouth with him, and clearly, and not in fortune-telling, and he sees the image of the Lord” (Numbers 12:8). As a punishment for sin, Miriam was stricken with leprosy and was healed only thanks to the prayer of M. Under Moses, “the wife of the Ethiopian”, obviously, Zipporah is meant, and not k.-l. another woman (see the names in Genesis 10:6-8, some of which indicate belonging to the Arabian tribes). Later, when the scouts sent to survey Canaan returned to Kadesh and incited the people to revolt with their story, M. again prevented its destruction by intercession with God for the people (Numbers 13-14). He again, as in Sinai, rejected the offer of God to make his descendants numerous. and a mighty people who would take the place of the Israelites who sinned (Numbers 14:12; cf. Ex 32:10). During the uprising → Korea (3), → Dathan and → Aviron M. and Aaron managed to avert the most severe punishment from the people (Number 16). But after that, they themselves sinned, turning to the people in Kadesh with reproaches from their own, and not from God's name (Numbers 20:10). In addition, instead of using a word to draw water out of the rock, as the Lord commanded him, M. struck it twice with a rod (Numbers 20:8, 11-13). For this disobedience, M. and Aaron were deprived of the right to enter the promised land. But M. and further, until his death, remained the leader of the people and the mediator between God and Israel. Having brought the Jews to Transjordan, he transferred the rights of the high priesthood of Aaron to his son Eleazar (Numbers 20:23-29), and then erected a bronze serpent as a type of salvation by faith (Numbers 21:6-9; cf. John 3:14-16). Punishment against the Midianites, who united with the Moabites for joint action against Israel, was also carried out under the leadership of M. (Numbers 31).

IX. The book of Deuteronomy contains M.'s farewell appeal to the people, with whom he spoke in Shittim, beyond the Jordan. He said amaze. accurate prophecy about the future fate of Israel (see Deuteronomy 28-30), proclaimed Joshua as his successor, left the Israelites a memorial Song, and also blessed them (Deut. 31:7,8; 32-33). M. died at the age of 120, and before last day“His eyesight was not dimmed, and the strength in him was not exhausted” (Deuteronomy 34:7). Before his death, the Lord showed him the promised land from the top of Mount Nebo. God Himself took care of the burial of M., and the place of his burial remained unknown. For 30 days, the people mourned their leader, mediator of the covenant, prophet, legislator and author of St. history (Deut. 34). According to some traditions, the echoes of which are preserved in Jude 1:9, the body of M. did not undergo corruption and was soon resurrected and transfigured (see Mt 17:1-4, where M., along with Elijah taken alive to heaven, talks with Jesus).

x. A number of places in the Pentateuch testify to Lit. activities of M. himself in connection with his recording of the text of the Torah. He will follow. lists the camps of the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 33:1-49); writes down the circumstances of the battle with Amalek (Ex 17:14); having completed the Book of the Covenant, containing the words of the Law of God (Ex 24:4,7), he hands it over to the Levites at the end of his life (Deut. 31:24-26). If you mean directly. influence from above, which constantly accompanied the writing of the Pentateuch (see Ex 17:14; Deut 31:19), as well as the education received by M. in Egypt, it becomes clear how he managed to record such a grandiose set of information about the universe and about the Holy. stories, as are the books that bear his name. At the same time, the question remains to what extent M., when compiling the book of Genesis, used the most ancient historical. sources. The name of M. are also some poetic. works included in the Torah (Song when crossing the Red Sea, Ex 15:1; Song of Moses and the Blessing of Moses, uttered by him before his death, Deut 32:1 - Deut 33:1), as well as Ps 89:1. According to Jude. tradition, he is the author of Ps 90:1 - Ps 99:1 and the Book of Job. There are also attributed to the authorship of M. → apocrypha, for example. The Ascension of Moses, the Apocalypse of Moses, the Book of Jubilees (the Jewish original of which was found in Qumran), etc.

XI. As a legislator (→ Law), M. handed over to the people of Israel on behalf of God the commandments, laws, courts and statutes that prescribe the norms and rules of everyday life and the order of worship. As a prophet, he announced to the people the future consequences of both obeying God and resisting His will. As the people's leader and supreme judge, M. made sure that Israel lived in accordance with the Lord's decrees. At the same time, he constantly acted as an intercessor for his rebellious people, turning away the wrath of God from them. M. refused to become the progenitor of a new people, because. then the sinning Israelites would have perished, and chose to sacrifice himself for this people (Ex. 32:32). His work was concurrent. and priest and prophet. Hot-tempered, prone to anger in his youth, he worked with patience and love for the good of his people in his years of maturity, and in his old age he was rewarded with such a testimony: “Moses was the meekest man of all people on earth” (Numbers 12: 3). He was a man of prayer with whom the Lord spoke "face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" (Ex 33:11). He, being the messenger of the Lord, opposed both the power of the pharaoh and the rebellious people. After 80 years of life, during which God spiritually raised and taught M., his selfless and selfless. the ministry served to ensure that from the many descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a new united people of God was formed. In the NT, M., as the mediator of the OT, is compared with Jesus Christ; at the same time, both M. himself and his deeds are declared to be typical in relation to the events of the NT (John 3:14,15; Acts 3:22-24). The mission of the Son of God is seen as the completion and culmination of the mission of M., and the teachings of Jesus as a revelation of the spiritual meaning of the teachings of M. (Mt 5:17-20; Jn 1:17; Rom 3:21; 2 Cor 3:12-18). In the same "house of God" where M. was a faithful servant, Christ is the Son (Heb 3:2-6).

One of the central events of the Old Testament is the story of Moses, the salvation of the Jewish people from the power of the Egyptian pharaoh. Many skeptics are looking for historical evidence of the events that took place, since in the biblical account there were many miracles performed on the way to However, be that as it may, this story is quite entertaining and tells about the incredible liberation and resettlement of an entire people.

Background and birth of Moses

The life of a prophet in the palace

The story of Moses from the Bible testifies that he did not worship the numerous gods of Egypt, but remained faithful to the beliefs of his ancestors.

After a while, Moses realized that many already knew what he had done. The pharaoh orders the arrest and death of his daughter's son. How Moses and Ramses treated each other, history is silent. Why did they decide to try him for the murder of the overseer? You can take into account different versions of what is happening, however, most likely, the decisive factor was that Moses was not an Egyptian. As a result of all this, the future prophet decides to flee from Egypt.

Flight from the Pharaoh and the later life of Moses

According to biblical data, the future prophet went to the land of Midian. The further story of Moses tells of his He married the daughter of the priest Jethro Zipporah. Living this life, he became a shepherd, learned to live in the wilderness. He also had two sons.

Divine Revelation and the Appearance of the Lord to the Prophet

Return of Moses to Egypt. Ten plagues

The story as a herald of God's will began on the day when he appeared before the pharaoh, who ruled at that time in Egypt. This was a different ruler, not the one from whom Moses had fled in his time. Of course, the pharaoh refused the demand to release the Israeli people, and even increased the labor service for his slaves.

Of course, the story of Moses did not end there. The prophet still had years of travel, as well as a clash with the unbelief of his fellow tribesmen, until they all reached the Promised Land.

Establishment of Passover and Exodus from Egypt

The Covenants Moses Received at Mount Sinai

Forty Years' Journey Through the Wilderness of the Israelite People

Near the Jewish people stood for about a year. Then a sign was given by the Lord to move on. The story of Moses as a prophet continued. He continued to bear the burden of mediating between his people and the Lord. For forty years they wandered in the desert, sometimes living for a long time in places where conditions were more favorable. The Israelites gradually became zealous executors of the covenants that the Lord had given them.

Historical facts confirming biblical events

It should be noted that today this event is displayed more than once in the cinema, and cartoons have also been created. They tell about such heroes as Moses and Ramses, whose history is little described in the Bible. Particular attention in the cinema is paid to the miracles that happened during their journey. Be that as it may, but all these films and cartoons educate morality in the younger generation and instill morality. They are also useful for adults, especially those who have lost faith in miracles.

Moses(Hebrew מֹשֶׁה‏‎, Moshe, "taken (saved) from the water"; Arab. موسىٰ‎ Musa, other Greek Mωυσής, lat. Moyses) (XIII century BC), in the Pentateuch - a Jewish prophet and legislator, the founder of Judaism, organized the Exodus of the Jews from Ancient Egypt, rallied 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 growing in numbers 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 let it float on the waters of the Nile. The basket was soon discovered by the pharaoh's daughter, who decided to adopt the child.

When Moses grew up, he saw the oppression of his fellow tribesmen. He killed the Egyptian overseer, who severely punished the Israelite, and fled from Egypt to the land of Midian. Here, from a burning but unburned bush (Burning Bush), God spoke to him, who commanded Moses to return back to Egypt and ask for the release of the Israelites. After ten plagues, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt across the Red Sea, after which they stopped at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After forty years of wandering in the wilderness and the long-awaited arrival of the people of Israel in the land of Canaan, Moses died on the banks of the Jordan River.

The existence of Moses, as well as the reliability of his life story in the Bible, is the subject of controversy 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”). This name was given to Moses by Pharaoh's daughter (Ex. 2:10). Here the play on words may also be an allusion to the role of Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt. The ancient historian Josephus reiterates 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 "beget".

Biography

bible story

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

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

But hard labor did not reduce the number of Jews, and the 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 (Yocheved) 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, smeared on the outside with asphalt and pitch, and left it in the reed beds on the banks of the Nile, where Pharaoh's daughter found him, who came there to bathe (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 Jewish children” (Ex. 2:6), she, however, took pity on the crying baby and, on the advice of Moses’ sister Miriam (Ex. 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 ("drawn 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 own 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 baby grew up" in the parents, but it is not known how old he reached. And the child grew up, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she had him instead of her son.» (Ex. 2:10). The mother, hired by the daughter of Pharaoh, nursed her own son Moses. And when I took it from my chest, I gave it back. 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 as an adopted son in the Pharaoh's family. Once Moses left the royal chambers to the common people. He was deeply upset by the slavish position of his native people. Seeing an Egyptian who was beating a Jew, Moses killed the warrior and buried him in the sand, and the next offended one told all the Jews about this incident the next day. Then Moses tried to reconcile the two Jews quarreling among themselves. But the Jew, who offended another Jew, said to Moses: “Who has made you a ruler 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.

A family

Moses, having fled from Egypt to the land of Midian, stopped at the priest Jethro (Raguel). Lived at 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 many thousands and exterminated the Midianites (the people of his wife).

The book of Numbers mentions reproaches by his sister Miriam and brother Aaron for the fact that his wife is 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

Grazing cattle near Mount Horeb (Sinai), he received from the burning bush the call of God, who revealed his Name to him (Yahweh (Hebrew יהוה), “I am who am”) to liberate his people. Moses asked what he should do if the Israelites did not believe him. In response, God gave Moses the ability to perform signs: he turned the staff of Moses into a snake, and the snake into a staff again; then Moses put his hand into his bosom, and the hand turned as white as snow from leprosy; according to a 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-tied tongue), he interceded with the pharaoh for the release of the sons of Israel from Egypt. And at first, Moses and Aaron, on behalf of Yahweh, asked the pharaoh to let the Jews go into the desert for three days to make sacrifices.

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

Exodus

Jews crossing the Red Sea. I. K. Aivazovsky. 1891

God showed the fugitives the way: he walked before them in a pillar of cloud during the day, and at night in a pillar of fire, lighting the way (Ex. 13:21-22). The sons of Israel crossed the Red Sea, which parted before them, but sank Pharaoh's army, which pursued 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. At first, for three days they walked through the wilderness of Shur and did not find water except bitter, but God sweetened this water by commanding Moses to throw the tree he indicated into it (Ex. 15:24-25). In the wilderness of Sin, God sent them many quails, and then (and for the next forty years of wandering) daily sent them manna from heaven.

In Rephidim, Moses, at the command of God, brought water out of the rock of Mount Horeb by striking it with his staff. Here the Jews were attacked by the Amalekites, but were defeated at the prayer of Moses, who during the battle was praying 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 Moses' legislation (Torah). Thus was the covenant made between God and the chosen people. Here, on the mountain, he received instructions on the construction of the Tabernacle and on the laws of worship.

Moses climbed Mount Sinai twice, staying there for forty days. During his first absence, the people sinned by violating the newly concluded covenant: they made the Golden Calf, which the Jews began to worship as the God who brought them out of Egypt. Moses in anger broke the Tablets and destroyed the calf (Seventeenth Tamuz). After that, again for forty days, he returned to the mountain and prayed to God for the forgiveness of the people. From there he returned with a face illumined by the light of God, and was forced to hide his face under a veil so that the people would not be blinded. 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, to 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 near the waters of Meribah in Kadesh - God instructed to say words to the rock, but out of lack of faith they hit the rock twice.

At the end of the wandering, the people again became cowardly and grumbled. As a punishment, God sent poisonous snakes, and when the Jews repented, he ordered Moses to raise up a copper serpent for their healing.

Death

Moses died just before entering the Promised Land. The Lord before his death called him to the ridge of Avarim: “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 even to Dan”(Deut. 34:1). There he died. “He was buried in the valley in the land of Moab against Beth Pegor, and no one knows [the place] of his burial even to this day”(Deut. 34:6).

He appointed Joshua as his successor at the direction of God.

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

ancient tradition

Moses was mentioned by Greek and Latin authors.

According to the testimony of the Roman historian Joseph Flavius, the Egyptian historian Manetho (4th-3rd centuries BC) reported that the pharaoh ordered all lepers and those suffering from other diseases to be relocated to the quarries. The lepers chose as their leader the Heliopolis priest Osarsif (a name in honor of the god Osiris), who after the exile changed his name to Moses. Osarsif (Moses) established laws for the community of the exiled and commanded that they should not enter into communication with anyone except those who were bound by a single oath. He also led the war against the pharaoh. However, in the war, the settlers were defeated, and the army of the pharaoh pursued the defeated enemies to the borders of Syria. However, Josephus Flavius calls Manetho's information "absurd and deceitful." According to Flavius, Moses was made in command of the Egyptian army against the Ethiopians who invaded Egypt as far as Memphis, and successfully defeated them.

According to Chaeremon, Moses' name was Tisiphen, he was a contemporary of Joseph, whose name was Petesef. Tacitus calls him the legislator of the Jews. The source used by Pompey Trogus calls Moses the son of Joseph and the father of Arruas, the 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 says: "And there was no more among Israel such a prophet as 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, I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moshe, he is entrusted in all My house. Mouth to mouth I speak with him, and 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, because no man can see Me and live” (Ex. 33:20).

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

Kabbalah reveals the correspondence between Moses (Moshe) and the Sephirah Netzah. And also the fact that Moses is the circuit (gilgul) of the soul of Abel.

Usually Jews 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 in the Old Testament). On Mount Sinai, he received 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 the Sermon on the Mount - the 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 life of the prophet.

In Islam

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

Musa is a prophet in Islam, one of the descendants of the prophet Yakub. He was born and lived for some time in Egypt. At that time, Firaun (Pharaoh), who was an unbeliever, ruled there. 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 has been a subject of longstanding controversy. The first doubts about the historicity of Moses and the authenticity of his biography were expressed back in modern times. In the modern era, a number of historians and biblical scholars argue for Moses as 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 the lack of historical monuments and argue that the events of the Exodus associated with Moses have minimal chances of being reflected in the monuments of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. However, both of them admit that the recording of the stories about 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 (Yahwist, Elochist, Priestly Code and Deuteronomist) form the main body of the text. They note that the figure of Moses and his role in each source is different. So in Yahvist Moses is the undisputed leader of the exodus. The Priestly Code seeks to downplay the role of Moses and focuses on the role of Moses' brother Aaron, to whom the Jerusalem priests built their genealogy. The Elohist, in contrast to Aaron, emphasizes the role of Joshua, who was more faithful to the word of God than Moses. Finally, the Deuteronomist emphasizes the role of Moses as a prophet and legislator. From these observations, it is concluded that the legends about Moses developed gradually and their versions differed in different traditions. These findings have been disputed by critics of the documentary hypothesis.

Biblical scholars also note that Moses is not mentioned in texts about the exodus, which are considered earlier than the main body of the Pentateuch (early prophets, psalms, "song of the sea"). On this basis, it is suggested that in the early oral traditions, Moses was either not a hero of the exodus or had a minor role. And only later did the compilers of the written tradition build the whole story around the figure of Moses, from whom they traced their genealogy. Such conclusions are also disputed on the grounds that the alleged references to the exodus are brief and Moses may have been omitted from them at the request 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 the events of the exodus of the Jews, and which pharaoh it speaks of. There are several versions of when the exodus of the Jews supposedly took place, 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 on the period of the 16th-12th centuries BC. e.

The Bible does not name the pharaoh mentioned, although names are often emphasized in the Bible. So, in Exodus the names of two midwives whom the pharaoh called to himself are mentioned, but not the name of the pharaoh (Ex. 1:15). According to Exodus, after the flight of Moses from Egypt to Midian, the pharaoh died (“after for a long time the king of Egypt is dead”) (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 out by those who believed that the Israelites left Egypt after the expulsion of the Hyksos. Ahmose I successfully fought against the Hyksos and captured their capital - Avaris. Those who tried to establish the date of the exodus on the basis of the biblical reckoning came to the conclusion that the exodus falls on the reign of Thutmose III. In Ramses II, who led extensive construction works involving a large number people, saw the pharaoh-oppressor. Under Merneptah, the son of Ramesses II, Egypt began to weaken, so the reign of Merneptah was considered a more likely time for an exodus. The absence of this pharaoh's mummy was also a source of speculation until the time when the mummy was discovered.

Moses and Akhenaten

In 1939, in his work Moses and Monotheism, Sigmund Freud connected the teachings of Moses with the religion that Pharaoh Akhenaten (reigned approximately 1351-1334 BC) planted in Egypt during his reign. This religion assumed the worship of only one deity - the disk of the sun Aton. In the monotheism (or henotheism) of Akhenaten, Freud saw the origins of the monotheism of Judaism. Based on the information of Manetho, Freud conjectures that after the failure of this religion in Egypt, one of the disciples of Akhenaten (Osarsif) made an attempt to unite another people under its auspices, having escaped from Egypt with him. This places the date of the Exodus just after the date of Akhenaten's death, i.e. after 1358 BC. e.

To date, Freud's conjecture is of interest only to historians of psychoanalysis.

In art

art:

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

literature:

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

music:

opera by Gioacchino 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)
The film "The Prophet Moses: The Leader-Liberator" (1995)
Film "Exodus: Gods and Kings" (2014)

iconography

The icon-painting originals give the following description of the appearance of the prophet Moses:

Great old man 120 years old, Jewish type, well-behaved, meek. Bald, with a medium-sized beard in strands, he is very handsome, his body is courageous and strong. Wore the bottom tunic of blue color, with a slit in front and belted (cf.: Ex. 39:12 et seq.); on top - an ephod, that is, a long canvas with a slit in the middle for the head; on the head - a veil, on the legs - boots. In his hands is a rod and two tablets with 10 commandments.

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

“Who am I, that I may go to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and that I may bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.”(Ex. 3:11).
Sometimes other text is given: “Help and patron be to my salvation; This is my God, and I will glorify him, the God of my Father, and I will exalt him.”(Ex. 15:1).

There is also a tradition to portray the prophet as still quite young (“medieval”): these are icons depicting the prophet under the Burning Bush, digging his boots from his feet (Ex. 3:5), or receiving tablets from the Lord.