Moses

1) At the Burning Bush (Exodus ch.3-4). 2) At Mount Sinai (Exodus ch.19-20), along with the Israelites.

3) On every occasion that the Torah states "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying...".

See also:

Torah-scroll facts

How was the Torah written?

More about Moses

A:

This should be an easy question to answer. All we have to do is establish who was the pharaoh of the Exodus, then we would know who his predecessors were over the previous eighty years, as the Bible says that Moses was eighty years old at the time of the Exodus from Egypt.

The Bible very clearly places the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt around 1440 BCE (1 Kings 6:1), but we now know from archaeology that Egypt was at that time very much in control of Canaan and remained so until the thirteenth century, which brings us to the time of Ramesses II, or Ramses II, pharaoh from around 1290 to 1224 BCE. No earlier pharaoh could have been the biblical pharaoh who drowned in pursuit of the fleeing Israelites as they crossed the Red Sea. Moreover, it was he who built the city of Ramses (Pi-Ramesses), mentioned in the story of the Exodus, thus ruling out his predecessors. For these reasons, a more modern Jewish tradition redates the early history of Israel and places the Exodus much later.

Unlike the biblical pharaoh, who was drowned in the Red Sea, Ramses II died peacefully as an old man and was buried in a tomb in the Valley of Kings. His body was later moved to a royal cache. For Ramses II to have been the Pharaoh who let the people go, we would have to move the date of the Exodus forward by around two centuries and therefore move Solomon's reign to a historically impossible period. We would also have to have Ramses escape the Red Sea, in spite of Exodus 14:28. Assuming there really was an Exodus from Egypt, which few scholars now accept, Ramses II could not have been that pharaoh, regardless of popular tradition.

Ramses' son, Merneptah, ruled from 1213 to 1203 BCE and died peacefully as an old man, buried in the Valley of Kings. Merneptah's successor was also buried in the Valley of Kings, thus ruling out all possible pharaohs until long after the traditional date of the Exodus and even after Israelite settlers began to appear in the Canaanite hinterland.

It is not possible to identify any historical pharaoh with the biblical Exodus. The history of the Hebrews must have been in some way different to that told in the Book of Exodus.

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The first books of the Bible give us very detailed information about exactly how long each of the ancestral figures lived from Joshua all the way back to Adam. We can list the people back from Moses to Adam, count the years assigned to each biblical ancestor, and also check to ensure that the biblical lifespans were the result of natural chance, or were arrived at by other means.

After the Patriarchs, the great Hebrew leaders were Joseph, Levi, Moses and Joshua. The priestly tribe of Levites was said to be descended from Levi, great grandfather of Moses who, along with Joshua, fulfilled the covenant that God gave to the Patriarchs. We find a fascination with elegant series and the number 17 in their lives.

Name

Lifespan

Pattern

Joshua

110

5x5 + 5x17

Moses

120

7x5 + 5x17

Levi

137

7x5 + 6x17

Joseph

110

5x5 + 5x17

In each case, the age assigned to these leaders can be broken down to the sum of two numbers, the first a multiple of 5 (either 7x5 or 5x5), and the second a multiple of 17 (either 6x17 or 5x17). Patterns do exist in random sets of numbers, but not such consistent and elegant patterns. If these great Israelite leaders could have died at any random age between 100 and 150 years, there would be less than 1 chance in 6 million that these four persons would have died at exactly these ages, even accepting that humans could live to such improbably great ages. We could greatly reduce the odds by allowing, for example, Levi to die at either 137, 120 or 110 years, and so on, but the odds would remain so high as to rule out chance. So, these ages were assigned by numerology, not nature, and must not be regarded as historical information. The lifespans of Joseph and Joshua are shown in order to show how elegant the biblical numerology was, but they are not in the ancestry of Moses.

We saw that 17 was an important number in early Hebrew numerology, and this continues with the Patriarchs, the most important Old Testament characters, and they share a very special pattern befitting their roles. If each of the Patriarchs could, by chance, have died in any year over a range of, say, one hundred years, there would be just one chance in one million that all three of them would have died on exactly the right year for the following configuration to work in the way it does:

Name

Lifespan

Pattern

Jacob

147

(7x7) x 3

Isaac

180

(6x6) x 5

Abraham

175

(5x5) x 7

Examining these supposed lifespans, we find that:

• Each lifespan involves a perfect square (7, 6 and 5) in a numeric series,
• The third factor also forms a series (3, 5, 7)
• In each case the sum of the factors is 17.

We can then look at each of the remaining ancestors, back to Adam:

Name

Lifespan

Pattern

Terah

205

7x5 + 10x17

Nahor

148

7x9 + 5x17

Serug

230

12x5 + 10x17

Reu

239

7x5 + 12x17

Peleg

239

7x5 + 12x17

Eber

464

7x8 + 24x17

Shelah

433

7x6 + 23x17

Arphaxad

438

5x6 + 24x17

Shem

600Note 1

Noah

950

13x9 + 49x17 [7x7x17]

Lamech

777

7x9 + 42x17 [7x6x17]

Methuselah

969

Note 2

Enoch

962

Note 2

Jared

895

Note 2

Mahalalel

895

5x9 + 50x17

Cainan

910

6x10 + 50x17

Enos

905

8x9 + 49x17

Seth

912

5x9 + 51x17

Adam

930

7x9 + 51x17 [3x17x17]

Note 1: Shem is a special case, because he became a father at 100 and died at exactly 600 years. This simple combination is just as unlikely to result from numerology as from nature. It may be that in the course of transcription, the original values became lost, and the values of 100 and 600 were substituted after the original meanings of the patterns were lost.

Note 2: Methuselah is special because he was the Bible's oldest living human and because there is a different pattern in his life: he became a father at 187 (11x17) and died at 969 (57x17). There is only 1 chance in 289 that the oldest living man would become a father at a multiple of 17 and then die at a multiple of 17 years. The patterns for Jared and Enoch have not been decoded at this stage, but it is likely that another, quite special pattern was shared by Methuselah, his father and grandfather.

To say how long Moses lived after Adam, we add, not their lifespans, but the ages at which each person in the Old Testament genealogy became a father. While there is adequate detail in the Bible to list the ages of the biblical ancestors, there are important gaps and ambiguities in the ages at which fatherhood occurred. Moreover, the Bible often indicates that its characters became fathers long after people of the time would have already died, a physical impossibility if we reject the biblical ages. If these were real, historical people, they no doubt lived to an average of around fifty years, and probably became fathers by the time they were twenty years old.

From the creation of Adam to the death of Moses is listed in the Bible as around 2600 years. If we accept that the biblical ages were assigned by numerology, not nature and assign 20 years from each generation to the next, then only around 550 years had actually passed, unless we add additional generations.

Even though bot Moses and Elijah did appear with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, only Elijah did not die as he was taken up in a cloud. While Moses died but his grave is not yet found.

Luke 20:37, 38 - "But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him." [NKJV]

Elisha Eli'sha (God his salvation), son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah; the attendant and disciple of Elijan, and subsequently his successor as prophet of the kingdom of Israel. The earliest mention of his name is in the command to Elijah in the cave at Horeb. 1 Kin 19:16, 17 (b.c. about 900.) Elijah sets forth to obey the command, and comes upon his successor engaged in ploughing. He crosses to him and throws over his shoulders the rough mantle-a token at once of investiture with the prophet's office and of adoption as a son. Elisha delayed merely to give the farewell kiss to his father and mother and preside at a parting feast with his people, and then followed the great prophet on his northward road. We hear nothing more of Elisha for eight years, until the translation of his master, when he reappears, to become the most prominent figure in the history of his country during the rest of his long life.

In almost every respect Elisha presents the most complete contrast to Elijah. Elijah was a true Bedouin child of the desert. If he enters a city it is only to deliver his message of fire and be gone. Elisha, on the other hand, is a civilized man, an inhabitant of cities. His dress was the ordinary garment of an Israelite, the beged, probably similar in form to the long abbeyeh of the modern Syrians. 2 Kin 2:12 His hair was worn trimmed behind, in contrast to the disordered locks of Elijah, and he used a walking-staff, 2 Kin 4:29 of the kind ordinarily carried by grave or aged citizens. Zech 8:4 After the departure of his master, Elisha returned to dwell at Jericho, 2 Kin 2:18 where he miraculously purified the springs. We next meet with Elisha at Bethel, in the heart of the country, on his way from Jericho to Mount Carmel. 2 Kin 2:23 The mocking children, Elisha's curse and the catastrophe which followed are familiar to all. Later he extricates Jehoram king of Israel, and the kings of Judah and Edom, from their difficulty in the campaign against Moab arising from want of water. 2 Kin 3:4-27 Then he multiplies the widow's oil. 2 Kin 4:5 The next occurrence is at Shunem, where he is hospitably entertained by a woman of substance, whose son dies, and is brought to life again by Elisha. 2 Kin 4:8-37 Then at Gilgal he purifies the deadly pottage, 2 Kin 4:38-41 and multiplies the loaves. 2 Kin 4:42-44 The simple records of these domestic incidents amongst the sons of the prophets are now interrupted by an occurrence of a more important character. 2 Kin 5:1-27 The chief captain of the army of Syria, Naaman, is attacked with leprosy, and is sent by an Israelite maid to the prophet Elisha, who directs him to dip seven times in the Jordan, which he does and is healed, 2 Kin 5:1-14 while Naaman's servant, Gehazi, he strikes with leprosy for his unfaithfulness. 2 Kin 5:20-27 Again the scene changes. It is probably at Jericho that Elisha causes the iron axe to swim. 2 Kin 6:1-7 A band of Syrian marauders are sent to seize him, but are struck blind, and he misleads them to Samaria, where they find themselves int he presence of the Israelite king and his troops. 2 Kin 6:8-23 During the famine in Samaria, 2 Kin 6:24-33 he prophesied incredible plenty, 2 Kin 7:1-2 which was soon fulfilled. 2 Kin 7:3-20 We next find the prophet at Damascus. Benhadad the king is sick, and sends to Elisha by Hazael to know the result. Elisha prophesies the king's death, and announces to Hazael that he is to succeed to the throne. 2 Kin 8:7, 15 Finally this prophet of God, after having filled the position for sixty years, is found on his death-bed in his own house. 2 Kin 13:14-19 The power of the prophet, however, does not terminate with his death. Even in the tomb he restores the dead to life. 2 Kin 13:21

-Smith's Bible Dictionary

; Exodus 31 : 18 : And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. ; Exodus 34 : 4 : And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. In Mt. Horeb;

Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb. Malachi 4:4

[Supervisor's note: Moses was a Jew. The accepted meaning of the word "Jew" is any adherent of the religion of Judaism, regardless of tribe. No reliable answer would claim that Kohanim and Levites (for example) aren't Jewish because they aren't specifically from Judah. Any answers which would go technical by using a definition of Judaism based upon a particular Israelite tribe, would be misleading. Etymologically, "Jewish" stems from "Judah" only because the people of that tribe became the majority of the Jews; but Jewry has always contained members from every one of the Israelite tribes.]

Answer:

For those who believe that Abraham was the first Jew, it would follow that Moses was Jewish as well.
For those who equate the terms Hebrew, Israelite, and Jew, then again, Moses was a Jew.
Answer:
Moses in the Bible was not Jewish but Levite, as he was of the tribe of Levi. The Historical Jews were the people of the tribe of Judah. (twelve tribes of Israel etc)
Answer:
Calling Moses "not Jewish but Levite" is disingenuous. While seeming to be technically correct, it is subjectively misleading. Here are two interrelated reasons:
1) Dictionaries define Judaism as the religion of Moses. Moses, who brought down the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18) and wrote the scroll of the Torah (Deuteronomy 31:24), was the staunchest upholder of the religion which we today call Judaism.
2) We call someone Jewish not just because of genealogical descent, but also because of their beliefs and practices. "Anyone who opposes idolatry is called Jewish" (Talmud, Megillah 13a). It is in that sense of belonging to the Jewish religion that Kohens and Levites are called Jewish.
Answer

I would say yes, he was born after Abram became the 1stHebrew. It was through Abram that his people came to dwell in Egypt. They were there in captivity for 430 yrs until God spoke to Moses to bring His people out to the promise land.
I would add that Moses was from the tribe of Levi, not Judah. He was a Hebrew and an Israelite, but not a Jew.
Answer

The word Jew has actually evolved so much because of the intermarriages which took place between the Jewish nation and the other nations of the world. Terms like matrilineally and patrilineally are being used these days to refer to the Jews.
Going back to the time when Moses actually lived; no one was actually called a Jew - rather they were called Israelites. The Jewish nation came from the Biblical tribes of Judah and Benjamin. And even then, it was not used or at least the Bible doesn't refer to any of the people from these tribes as Jews until the time of the reign of Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel (2 Kings 16:5-6 (King James Version).
The author of these books makes a point of differentiating the other Israelites from the Jews.
The tribe of Levi was also added to the Jewish nation since they became priests. Moses was from the tribe of Levi. But when Moses was still alive, there was no such as a thing as a Jew. Not all Israelites were Jews. It is right therefore to say that a Jew is an Israelite since they are part of the 12 tribes of Israel. An Israelite which was mainly known as a Hebrew in Egypt, can not rightly be called a Jew unless they were coming from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.
Moses was not a Jew. He was a Hebrew - an Israelite. Saying that Moses was a Jew is as far-fetched as saying that Joseph, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham were Jews. These we can nicely and deliciously say they were Hebrews. But even Abraham himself was not even an Israelite. So this pattern may simply work out like this:
A ) HEBREWS ---> B) ISRAELITES ---- > C) 12 Tribes of Israel* (Jewish people being one of the tribes).

1. Meaning that all the tribes of Israel were obviously Israelites or Hebrews.
2. Also implying that anyone who lived before these groupings (before Abraham) can not be called a Hebrew.
3. A person from "C" is called by his tribe and yes an Israelite or a Hebrew too
4. A person from "B" is an Israelite or a Hebrew...
5. But a person from "A" is not any of the two ( A Jew/other tribes or a an Israelite)
6. From "C", we can give example of the man himself, Judah. He was a Jew; the father of all Jews. And also an Israelite or a Hebrew.
7. From "B", we can take Jacob himself - whose name actually is the subject here: Israel. He was not a Jew or did he fall under any of the tribes. He was a Hebrew through his grandfather Abraham.
8. From "A", we have Abraham who was just a Hebrew. He was neither a Jew nor an Israelite.