Moses

Actually the verse says not to make any image of anything that is in heaven.

It is good to look at the context of the verse to clarify the meaning. In this part of Exodus God is speaking to the nation of Israel. The first commandment He gives is:

Exo 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.

Then He tells them:

Exo 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved (graven) image-any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

And the following verse says why - not only themanufacture of idols but also worship of themis forbidden.

Exo 20:5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

My bible at the beginning says - 1. Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.

Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing.

This is to the Catholics who have changed this commandment.

They have idols in there church of in heaven above, say a statue of Our Lady, She is in Heaven above which the commandment says you should not worship this statue.

I was a Catholic. I have a a Catechism off 1960 in front of me,and it is different all together. A priest would say this is to remind us of Our Lady,but we don`t need a statue (Idol) to remind us of Her. You are also right in what you say.

It isn't known if he did but it is entirely possible since other writers referred to the spherical shape of the earth.

ANSWER

What is known of Moses knowledge of the creation is that it is completely at odds with the culture of his days view of how the creation came to be and in fact can easily be shown that He lists the order and process of creation in the order that it had to occur, in contradiction to the knowledge of his day, but is in complete agreement with what scientist today know has to be the order in which things happened in order for life to occur, whether this came via creation or evolution is immaterial. The fact that's easily shown that he got this process of order correct completely flys in the face of what Moses should have known, and obviously had a knowledge well in advance of that which was commonly thought of in those ancient times. That he did have a knowledge advanced concerning creation would seem to indicate that he probably had knowledge about whether the world was round or not, but the subject matter never comes up, and neither is mentioned by Moses. However in Job 26:10, Prov 8:27, Isaiah 40:22, Amos 9:6. Shows the Bible teaches not a flat earth but round, though Moses didnt specifically say.

Midian

Additionally

She and her family lived in Midian but she is described as an Cushite or Ethiopian woman in Numbers 12:1.

Beginning with Mark, the authors of the New Testament gospels sought to draw parallels between Moses and Jesus. Matthew is the best example of this literary technique, especially in its nativity story:

• Matthew's genealogy says that Jacob was the father of Joseph, just as in the Old Testament - compare Luke, which says that Heli was the father of Joseph.
• Joseph took his family to Egypt, just as the Old Testament Joseph took his family to Egypt.
• Joseph is associated with dreams.
• The evil king slaughtered all the baby boys under two years old, just as the Old Testament pharaoh slaughtered all the baby boys under two years old. Moses and Jesus both escaped the slaughter.
• Jesus left Egypt to return to Israel and save his people, just as Moses had left Egypt to return to Israel and save his people.

Unsurprisingly, Matthew's nativity story has been called "Christian midrash ."

The Torah.

Our tradition is that the Torah was given by God (Exodus 24:12), to provide knowledge, guidance, inspiration, awe and reverence, advice, law, comfort, history and more. It is the basis of Judaism. The Torah is a source of national pride for us (see Deuteronomy 4:6-8). It increases our reverence towards God; crystallizes, strengthens and codifies our beliefs; ensures our awareness and knowledge of our history; and provides powerful impetus to be ethical.
It makes us stand in awe of God, while also providing optimism and comfort through the prophecies of redemption. It inspires us to strive for holiness and informs us how to pray and to approach God's presence. To the wider world, the Torah provided the traditions of Monotheism and the Ten Commandments.
The Torah is egalitarian and values all individuals, both men and women. The wealthy have no privileges; and the poor are valued, treated well and their opinions listened to. (Compare this to those societies in which only mature, land-owning males had any legal status.)
Judaism applied laws, and rules of moral behavior, to all its members equally. The laws of Moses form much of Western legal background.
Quote:
"I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation ... fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations" (John Adams, 2nd President of the United States).
"Certainly, the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place. Humanity might have eventually stumbled upon all the Jewish insights, but we cannot be sure. All the great conceptual discoveries of the human intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they had been revealed, but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jews had this gift. To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both Divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of human person; of the individual conscience and of collective conscience, and social responsibility" (Paul Johnson, Christian historian, author of A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity).

Moses was a great leader of the Israelites. The Torah tells how Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and gave them God's laws and teachings to live by.

The Exodus from Egypt By the time of Moses, in the 1300s B.C.E., a large group of Abraham's descendants were living in Egypt. There, the Torah says, the Israelites "increased in number and became very powerful." Fearful of their growing strength, the pharaoh forced them into slavery. According to the Torah, God told Moses, "I will send you to the pharaoh, and you shall free my people."

Moses went before the pharaoh, the Torah continues, and told him to let the Israelites go free. When the pharaoh refused, God punished Egypt with ten terrible plagues. Finally, the pharaoh gave in. Moses began to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

According to the Torah, the pharaoh soon changed his mind. The Egyptian army chased after the Israelites and nearly caught up with them at the edge of the Sea of Reeds. But Moses raised his staff (walking stick), says the Torah, and the waters of the sea parted.The Israelites crossed safely to the other side. When the Egyptians tried to follow, the waters flooded over the army, drowning the soldiers. The Israelites escaped.

The Torah calls the flight from Egypt to freedom the Exodus, which means "departure."The Exodus became a central event in the history of the Jewish people.This map shows Moses' possible route in the Exodus from Egypt. Find where the Torah says he received the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments As it is told in the Torah, after the Israelites left Egypt, they traveled through a wilderness for 40 years. During this time, God gave Moses the laws and teachings that became the foundation of Judaism. Some of these laws are called the Ten Commandments.

The Torah says that Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, the "Mountain of God." Alone, Moses had gone up the mountain to pray. He returned carrying two tablets of stone. Engraved on the tablets were the Ten Commandments.

Some of the commandments listed the Israelites' duties to God. For example, one commandment was, "You shall have no other gods besides me." This commandment reminded the Israelites of their promise to worship only one God. Another commandment told the Israelites to set aside one day a week, the Sabbath, for rest and worship.

Other commandments laid down basic moral teachings (ideas about the right way to live). For example, one said, "You shall honor your father and mother." Other commandments forbade stealing, lying, and murdering.

The Ten Commandments stated some of Judaism's basic teachings. The Torah says that by obeying God's commandments, the Jewish people would fulfill their part of the covenant with him. Their responsibility was to make God's moral teachings known to the world. In turn, God would protect them.

Moses made several key contributions to the development of Judaism. First, he led the Exodus out of Egypt. Jews have celebrated this event ever since to remember the journey from slavery to freedom and as proof that God watched over them. Second, Moses gave Judaism some of its most fundamental laws and teachings, which Jews and Christians call the Ten Commandments. Third, Moses forged the Israelites into a united Jewish people devoted to a single God.

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