The Early Moses (2-4)

B. The Early Moses (2-4)

Moses was born to Amram and Jochebed from the tribe of Levi (6:20). After they were no longer able to conceal Moses, they placed him in a reed basket waterproofed with tar and set him afloat in the Nile. This was a deliberate ploy to win the compassion of Pharaoh's daughter who frequented the river to bathe. When she discovered Moses she took him to court and raised him there as a virtual grandson of the Pharaoh.

    Though raised as an Egyptian, apparently it was through his birth-mother, hired as his wet-nurse, that he came to realize his Hebrew identity. Clearly Moses had a mixed Hebrew and Egyptian identity. This explains how he could on the one hand be knowledgeable of the royal court to negotiate the departure of the Israelites and on the other hand sympathize with the plight of the Israelites.

    One day as Moses was surveying the royal projects, he rescued a Hebrew slave by killing his abusive Egyptian master. In danger of being exposed, Moses fled to Midian where he found refuge with Jethro, the priest of Midian. Moses eventually married one of his daughters and served as shepherd of his father-in-law's flocks.

 Tale of Sinuhe.

Tale of Sinuhe. This Egyptian tale relates the adventures of an Egyptian court official who fled Egypt to live in Syria-Palestine (see Pritchard 1969). Sinuhe has some similarities to Moses, and the tale provides an interesting glimpse of Syria-Palestine, especially of its fruitfulness and desirability.

    Moses' encounter with Yahweh at the burning bush in Exodus 3:1-15 marks a turning point in Israel's history. Here Moses learned the identity of the God who would deliver the Israelites from bondage. Moses would be his mediator. The full account is a mixture of Yahwist (J) and Elohist (E) material, with the Elohist predominating.

Moses at the Mountain (E)

¹ Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of Elohim. (3:1)

    Jethro is the name of Moses' father-in-law in the Elohist source, Reuel in the Yahwist source. Horeb is the name the Elohist (and Deuteronomist) applies to the mountain of God, whereas the Yahwist and Priestly sources call it Mount Sinai. Some authorities have suggested that Horeb and Mount Sinai are not the same place. According to such a view, Mount Sinai would be located in the Sinai peninsula and Horeb somewhere in Midian. Midian is notoriously difficult to pin down, too.

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St. Catherine's Monastery is located at the base of Jebel Musa in the southern Sinai. According to post-biblical tradition this is where Moses saw the burning bush and received the Law from the hand of God. Photo by Barry Bandstra

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The Burning Bush (J)

² The angel of YHWH appeared to him in a flaming fire out of the middle of a bush. As Moses watched, the bush burned but it didn't burn up. 3 Moses said to himself, "I'm going to stop and observe this amazing thing! Why doesn't the bush burn up?" 4 When YHWH saw that Moses stopped to observe . . . (3:2-4a)

    Verse 2a summarizes the story. Probably added later, it gives the story an explanatory framework so we will understand that Yahweh did not appear directly to Moses (as the story implies), but indirectly in the form of an angel or messenger. The word here translated "angel" can also mean "messenger."
    The "flaming fire" that is such a prominent part of this story is typical of a biblical theophany, or appearance of God. In Genesis 15 God appeared to Abraham in a smoking fire pot. Here he appears to Moses in a flaming bush. On Mount Sinai he appears in lightning, smoke, and cloud. In the wilderness he appears in pillars of cloud and fire.

The God of the Fathers (E)

. . . Elohim called to him out of the middle of the bush and said, "Moses! Moses!" He replied, "Yes, I'm here." 5 He said, "Don't get any closer. Take your sandals off your feet. The place where you are standing is holy ground. 6 He said, "I am the Elohim of your father, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at Elohim. (3:4b-6)

   Whereas the deity is referred to as Yahweh in verse 4a, in 4b the reference changes to Elohim, indicating the return to the Elohist form. Note the similarity between this story and Genesis 22 (also an Elohist account) in the way God initiates the encounter, saying Abraham's name twice and him answering, "Here I am."
    Verse 6 explicitly associates the God of the exodus with the God of the ancestors, thus connecting Israel's deliverance with the history of and promises to the ancestors. The phrase "God of my/your/his father" is often found in Genesis and in Mesopotamian literature of a personal patron god and protector. It suggests a special relationship between the individual and his deity. Beginning with Moses the phrase becomes "God of our/your/their fathers," with the plural referring to the Israelites as a people.
    We are no longer dealing with the angel of Yahweh. Note also how the Elohist protects Moses from looking directly at God. Facing God directly is not allowed in Elohist theology; the fear of God is a prominent motif in the Elohist source.

Land of Milk and Honey (J)

⁷ YHWH said, "I have seen the hardship of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry for relief from their oppressors. I know of their suffering. ⁸ I have come down to deliver them from the grip of Egypt and bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites." (3:7-8)

    As always in this source, Yahweh is a caring and compassionate God. He hates to see his people suffer and acts out of compassion. Not only will he relieve their suffering, he will bring them to the land promised to the ancestors. The land is described as "flowing with milk and honey." Obviously milk did not flow through the streams and honey did not ooze down the wadis; these images depict the wealth of the land. It supports cattle and all the flowering plants that support life. The six nations listed here are often cited as inhabiting Palestine (for example, see Genesis 15:18-21, where these and more are listed).

Moses the Mediator (E)

⁹ "The cry of the people of Israel has now reached me. I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians mistreat them. ¹⁰ Go, I will send you to Pharaoh so that you can bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt." ¹¹ But Moses said to Elohim, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?" ¹² He said, "But I will be with you. This shall be the sign for you to know that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship Elohim on this mountain." (3:9-12)

    In contrast to the Yahwist above, here the focus is on the Egyptians' wrongdoing rather than on the Israelites' suffering. Characteristic of the Elohist, God acted through an intermediary, Moses in this case. He revealed his deep-seated feelings of inadequacy as mediator, humility being a sign of genuine godliness in God's prophets. The Yahwist source, which is not quite so adoring of Moses as the Elohist, later portrays him as putting up more resistance.

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The Burning Bush: God Commands Moses to Lead the Israelites out of Egypt, by Francisco Collantes (1599-1656) Musée du Louvre, Paris -- CGFA

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    The sign God gave him was not something that could give him assurance right then and there, but would be a later confirmation of his calling.

¹³ Then Moses said to Elohim, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The Elohim of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" ¹⁴ Elohim said to Moses, "Ehyeh-asher-ehyeh." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'Ehyeh has sent me to you.'" ¹⁵ Elohim also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'YHWH, the Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob, has sent me to you': this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations." (3:13-15)

    Moses impertinently asked God for identification: Who are you? How can I identify you to the Israelite elders? In response God identified himself as the God of the fathers, later specified as the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then God in a cryptic manner said, "Ehyeh-asher-ehyeh" is my name, enigmatically translatable as "I am who I am."

 Each of the three Pentateuchal sources has a specific point at which it begins to use the divine name Yahweh. See Table 3.B, the first use of the divine name Yahweh in the sources.

    Moses raised excuses about why he should not go back to Egypt. In response God gave him signs to authenticate his calling, including a staff that could transform itself into a snake. When Moses claimed he was not eloquent enough to speak before Pharaoh God appointed Aaron, Moses' brother, to be his spokesman.

²¹ YHWH said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, make sure you perform before Pharaoh all the miracles I have given you the ability to do. Yet, I will harden his heart so that he will not allow the people to leave. ²² You must say to Pharaoh: 'This is what YHWH says: Israel is my firstborn son, ²³ I command you, "Let my son leave so that he may worship me." If you refuse to let him leave, I will slay your firstborn son.'" (4:21-23)

    Having received the revelation of the divine name, as well as his mission, Moses went back to Egypt and presented Yahweh's demand to Pharaoh. "Let my people go!" Pharaoh refused to budge. Only after a devastating series of disasters did he allow them, indeed urge them, to leave Egypt.

Moses and Monotheism. Moses stands at the heart of a religious revolution. He championed a religion focused on one God over against the polytheistic notions of the surrounding peoples. Is it possible that he was influenced in this monotheistic direction by the Egyptian king Akhenaton (1360-1340 B.C.E.), who tried to simplify Egypt's religious system by declaring that the sun god, Aton, was the only deity? See Redford (1984) and Assmann (1997).

The Divine Name. This revelation of the divine name has given rise to reams of research and speculation. Most authorities acknowledge that ehyeh is a Hebrew verbal form meaning "I am." The whole phrase means "I am who I am," or "I will be who I will be." When the first-person verbal form ehyeh is transformed into the third-person form it becomes yahweh, which can be translated "he is." It has also been translated "he causes to be." However, what this name really signifies remains a mystery, and probably deliberately so. At the same time God revealed his name he also concealed its precise meaning. We can only speculate what "I am" means. Perhaps God was suggesting he was the only self-existing one. Others, relating the name to the verb "to be" in a causal sense, have said it is a statement about God's creative power: "I am the one who calls into being."     Whatever the deeper meaning of the divine name Yahweh, it is the name by which all the textual sources identify the God of Israel from now on. It is the name of Israel's patron deity, a name which is specifically associated with the covenant. From this point on, even the Elohist uses YHWH for the divine name, though not to the exclusion of the designation Elohim. The change of divine name is also noted in the Priestly source at Exodus 6:2-5 This account adds that the ancestors knew God as El Shaddai (probably meaning "God Almighty"), but through Moses and the exodus he made himself known as Yahweh.

Sargon Birth Legend. The Mesopotamian birth story of Sargon of Akkad contains similarities to the Moses birth story. Sargon was the illegitimate son of a high priestess. To keep her position she needed to conceal the birth, so she placed Sargon in a basket of reeds caulked with tar and set him afloat on the Euphrates River. He was discovered downstream by Akki the water drawer, who adopted and raised him. Sargon rose to become the architect of the empire of Akkad. (see Pritchard 1969: 119; Longman 1991).

The name Moses. Pharaoh's daughter gave him the name Moses, moshe in Hebrew. The Hebrew Bible attaches a folk etymology to the name (2:10); the Hebrew verb "draw out" puns with Moshe. In reality Moshe is a name derived from the Egyptian verb msy, meaning "be born," and the noun ms meaning "child or son."