Main focus will be on Moses. He was the greatest prophet, leader, and teacher of Judaism. By focusing on Moses, I’ll incorporate the importance of certain passages that prove the Old Testament; and show how Moses’ role was significant and essential to the Hebrews. Moses 1400 B. C. E In a nutshell…
Moses was born in a very difficult time: Pharaoh had ordered that all male children born to Hebrew slaves should be drowned in the river (Exodus. 1: 22).
Moses’ mother hid him for three months, and when she could no longer hide him, she put him in an ark and placed it on the river where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed (Ex. 2: 2-3).
Pharaoh’s daughter found the child and had compassion for him (Exodus. 2: 6).
Although Egyptians raised Moses, the compassion he felt toward his people (the Hebrews) was so great that he could not bear to see them beaten by Pharaoh’s taskmasters. One day, when Moses was about 40 years old, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, and he was so outraged that he struck and killed the Egyptian (Exodus. 2: 11-12).
Both the Hebrews and Pharaoh condemned him for this actions, and Moses was forced to flee from Egypt (Ex.
2: 14-15).
G-d appeared to Moses and chose him to lead the Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery and to the Promised Land, Israel (Ex. Chs. 3-4).
With the help of his brother Aaron, Moses spoke to Pharaoh and triggered the plagues against Egypt (Ex. Chs. 4-12).
The Essay on Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs
In Ancient Egypt there were over 29 Kings and Pharaohs and over 5 Queens. Some of the most famous kings and queens were: Ramses II, Ramses III, King Tut, Cleopatra, and Nefertiti. Ramses II (reigned 1279-1212 BC), ancient Egyptian king, third ruler of the 19th dynasty, the son of Seti I. During the early part of his reign Ramses fought to reign the territory in Africa and Western Asia that Egypt ...
He then led the people out of Egypt and across the sea to freedom, and brought them to Mount Sinai, where G-d gave the people the Torah; and the people accepted it (Ex. Chs.
12-24).
G-d revealed the entire Torah to Moses. The Torah includes the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) that Moses wrote as G-d instructed him. It also includes all of the remaining prophecies that would later be written down in the remaining books of scripture. Furthermore, it contains the entire Oral Torah the oral tradition for interpreting the Torah, which would later be written down in the Talmud. Moses spent the rest of his life writing the first five books, essentially taking dictation of G-d.
After Moses received instruction from G-d about the Law and how to interpret it, he came back down to the people. There he found the Hebrews idolizing a golden calf. This is a very significant story in the Bible. It shows how the important one god was to the Hebrews, and a commitment to one god was what made the ancient Jews unique. People of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India accepted various gods. However descendents of Abraham who traveled through the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers [from Abrahams Native Ur to Egypt] came in contact with many different religious beliefs.
In the Hebrew bible, the golden calf was an idol made by Aaron for the Israelites during Moses’ unexpectedly long absence. It is first mentioned in Exodus 32: 4. When Moses went up onto Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19: 20), he left the Israelites for forty days and forty nights (Exodus 24: 18).
The Israelites feared that he would not return, and asked Aaron to make a god for them (Exodus 32: 1).
The Bible does not note Aaron’s opinion of this request; merely that he complied, and gathered up the Israelites’ golden earrings.
He melted them to construct the golden calf. He also built an altar before the calf, and the next day, the Israelites made offerings and celebrated. G-d told Moses that his people had corrupted themselves, and that he planned to eliminate them, but Moses argued and pleaded that they should be spared (Exodus 32: 11); G-d relented. Moses came down from the mountain, but upon seeing the calf, he became very angry; and as a result threw down the tablets upon which G-d’s law had been written causing them to break.
The Essay on Moses Israelite People
... relationships among people. When Moses first came down from Mount Sinai, he saw that many Israelites had made an image of a calf out ... it is likely that some parts of the story of Moses were written long after his lifetime. Modern scholarship recognizes that while ... the Bible in the Book of Exodus. As the Bible next describes, Moses then led the Israelites to Mount Sinai, where God gave ...
He ground up the golden calf, mixed its powder with water, and forced the Israelites to drink it. Then he gathered the tribe of Levi, (Moses was Levi’s great-grandchildren. Their tribe was of the priesthood carrying out the difficult task of carrying the Tabernacle, also called the Ark, and its vessels throughout their wanderings in the desert. ) and set them to slay a large fraction of adult males.
Nevertheless the Lord stated that he would one day visit the Israelites’ and conclude their punishment. Since Moses had broken the tablets, the Lord instructed him to return to Mount Sinai yet again (Exodus 34: 2) to receive a replacement. This story shows us how sinful it is for religious Jews to worship any god or idol besides the “El Shade”, G-d Almighty. Moses was not perfect. Like any man, he had his flaws and his moments of weakness, and the Bible faithfully records these shortcomings. In fact, Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land because of a transgression (Deut.
32: 48-52).
Moses was told to speak to a rock to get water from it, but instead he struck the rock repeatedly with a rod, showing improper anger and a lack of faith (Num. 20: 7-13).
Moses died just before the people crossed over into the Promised Land (Deut. 32: 51).
He completed writing the first five books before he died.
There is some dispute as to who physically wrote the last few verses of Deuteronomy. According to some, Moses wrote the last few verses from a vision of the future, but according to others, the last few verses were added by Joshua after Moses’ death. Moses’ position as leader of Israel was not hereditary. His son, Gershon, did not inherit the leadership of Israel. Moses’ chosen successor was Joshua, son of Nun (Deut. 34: 9).
Moses was 120 years old at the time that he died (Deut. 34: 7).
That lifespan is considered to be ideal, and has become proverbial: one way to wish a person well in Jewish tradition is to say, ‘May you live to be 120!’ As important as Moses was to the Children of Israel, it is always important to remember that Moses himself was not the deliverer or redeemer of Israel. It was G-d who redeemed Israel, not Moses. Moses was merely G-d’s prophet, His spokesman. The traditional text of Passover does not even mention Moses’ name.
The Term Paper on Asherah The Goddess Of Israel
Asherah was a West Semitic goddess first attested to in the cuneiform Ebla texts uncovered in northern Syria (modern day Tell Mardikh) dated to around 2350 BCE, where she appears as only a minor goddess in the pantheon (Smith 385). Her status was much higher in later times however, for she was a goddess well-known at Ugarit, the ancient Canaanite city-state now modern Ras Shamra in Syria, in the ...
In order to prevent people from falsely worshipping Moses, his grave was left unmarked (Deut. 34: 6).
Bibliography and Resources: o Fields, Lanny B. , Barber, Russell J. , Riggs, Cheryl A. The Global Past.
Bedford Books, 1998. o Reilly, Kevin. Worlds of History. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004 o The Internet.
