Moses is called a prophet. Indeed, he, like other religious authorities, is the founder of a new religion - Judaism, and in the more distant future, even of two world religions - Christianity and Islam. However, Moses was also the author of the holy book of the Torah or the Pentateuch of Moses, the leader-liberator of slaves and the commander of the army of the invaders.
Despite such a rich and varied "track record," not much is known about the real man named Moses. Starting from his name, date of birth and even nationality. According to one of the widespread versions, the future prophet was born on 7 Adar (February-March) 2368 from the Creation of the world (1393 BC) in the family of Amram and Yocheved from the tribe of Levi, who lived in the land of Goshen. The parents named the boy Ered-Avigdor. He was born without a foreskin, which was seen as a sign. Meanwhile, clouds were gathering over the Jews living in Egypt.
Pharaoh, according to the Midrash, ordered all newborn boys to be thrown into the waters of the Nile, regardless of whether they were born into an Egyptian or Jewish family. So that no one could avoid such a fate, a census of all pregnant women in the country was carried out and the period of their pregnancy was determined. Yocheved was also on the list, but gave birth in the seventh month of pregnancy. For almost three months the family hid the newborn baby until they learned how to save him.
Pharaoh's daughter bathed daily in the Nile, hoping to be cured of leprosy in the waters of the river sacred to all Egyptians. The mother put the child in a basket of reeds, smeared it with red clay and, having built a small canopy over it, lowered it into the thickets of reeds growing on the bank not far from the princess's bathing place. The ancient historian from the tribe of Jewish priests-Cohen Josephus in the "Antiquities of the Jews" calls her Fermufis. Jewish sources - Batya, which means "daughter of God." It was she who pulled the baby crying from hunger from the basket and named him Mose, or Moshe.
Researchers who adhere to the version according to which the future legislator of the Jewish people was a Jew, not an Egyptian, believe that his name comes from the Hebrew verb "lyamshokh" - "pull, pull out." There is a double logic: Moshe himself was pulled out of the water, and he pulled the Jewish people out of slavery. But Josephus Flavius derives the name of the leader of the Jewish people from the Egyptian name, which means "saved from water": "mo" - in Egyptian "water", uses - "saved". Biblical scholars, in turn, explain the etymology of the word with the simple Egyptian word "mos" - "son", which is part of many names of the pharaohs and their entourage: YakhMOS, ThutMOS, Ramses, PtahMOS, etc. The Pentateuch itself emphasizes that the name Moses was given by a daughter Pharaoh and it is of Egyptian origin.
The story of saving a child from the water is one of the most common myths in the history of mankind. The most ancient of those that have come down to us is the legend about the birth of the Akkadian king Sargon, who ruled around 2600, and maybe 2350 BC. e. Scientists have deciphered the inscription carved on his statue, from which it follows that Sargon's mother gave birth to him from an unknown man. Putting it in a tarred reed basket, she put it into the river. The basket was found by Akki Sprinkler, who raised the boy and made him a gardener. Then the goddess Ishtar fell in love with the young man and helped him become a ruler. Plutarch tells a similar story about the miraculous rescue of the founder of Rome Romulus and his twin brother Remus. The Persian king Cyrus the Great, according to the father of history, Herodotus, experienced a similar adventure at the dawn of his life. There is a similar legend in the Indian epic "Mahabharata". Princess Kunti gave birth to a son by the sun god and, ashamed of her wrongdoing, dropped the basket into the waters of the Aswa River, which carried the basket to the Ganges. He was rescued and raised by a Suta couple.
Whoever Moses was considered - the Heliopolis priest Osarsif, expelled along with the rest of the lepers, and the reason for the expulsion of the Jews was the vision of Isis, shown to Pharaoh Amenophis. That Moses could not be a leper himself, or a leader of lepers, was denied by the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius on the grounds that Moses issued harsh laws against lepers.
Was the Jewish leader tongue-tied? It is known that Aaron was his mediator and translator in communicating with the people. The Midrash tells that when Moses was playing with the pharaoh at two or three years old and he put the royal diadem on his head, the baby threw it on the floor. Those close to him interpreted this as an unkind sign. The boy's fate was decided by a test. Two clay pots were placed in front of the child - one with sweets (or jewels), and the other with hot coals. Moses reached for sweets, but the Archangel Gabriel sent by God took his hand away and made him take a coal. The burn left scars on the tongue and palate of the prophet, and therefore it was difficult for him to pronounce words.
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Finally, there is also controversy about Moshe's nationality, and not only between historians. A Semite himself, the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, considered Moses an Egyptian. The Viennese doctor claimed that Moses was killed during one of the Jewish riots and that the guilt for this murder took refuge in the subconscious of the Jewish people. Medicine professor Lennart Möller has discovered over 30 parallels between the life of the adopted son of Amenhotep I's daughter Nefrura, Senenmut and Moses. As a result, Moshe "receives" not only a different name, but also a biography.
According to some reports, Moses was tall and distinguished by remarkable physical strength. From the age of 17, he was already an important nobleman at the court of the pharaoh. He leads the army, which repels the invasion of Egypt by African tribes and shows military talent at the same time. After the murder of the king's overseer, the pharaoh issued a decree on the arrest of Moses, but he fled in a chariot to the country of Kush, which many modern historians identify with Ethiopia.
The fugitive helped restore the throne to the king of this country, Kukinos, once again demonstrating his military leadership. In gratitude, the king gave him his Negro daughter Farbis, for whom the future prophet had no feelings. Moses left his inconsolable bride to sleep alone immediately after the wedding. After the death of Kukinos, 27-year-old Moses became the king of Kush for a long 40 years, showing himself as a wise and just king. However, his wife's patience ran out, and in front of representatives of all classes she announced that her husband did not sleep with her and did not consider it necessary to fulfill the sacred duty of the king - to give birth to an heir. The National Assembly sentenced him to exile. At the age of 67, Moses became a wanderer again.
Moses went to Midian. Here he grazed the flocks at Jethro, whom the Midrash calls one of the greatest sages and mystics of his time, initiated into the mysteries of the most diverse pagan cults. The Egyptian priest Jethro was Pharaoh's closest adviser, but he was also forced to hide and became high priest in the main temple of Midian. Having lost faith in idols, he came to the idea of the existence of one God - the Creator, who has no visible image. Jethro gave his daughter Zipporah to an aged exile, who gave birth to two sons to Moshe.
“Apparently, in his sexual life, Moses was extremely moderate. According to Jewish tradition, during the years of his reign in Kush, he refused to be close to his wife; then, over the years of his life with Zipporah, he settled down with her two sons, and after the manifestation of God in the Burning Bush, that is, when he was 79 years old, he stopped intimate relations with his wife and abstained from them until the end of his life, - concludes the author of the biography of Moses, an Israeli writer and journalist Petr Efimovich Lyukimson. "This behavior, especially given the Jewish sexual temperament, was at least strange to others." It seems that our former compatriot, who has co-authored the book "Jews and Sex", is quite familiar with the topic.
The death of Moses, which occurred at the age of 121, is also shrouded in mystery, like his entire legendary life. It came in the last winter month of 7 Adar in 2488 (February 23, 1273 BC). After blessing the tribes of Israel, appointing Joshua as his successor, Moses said that the term of his earthly life had expired and ascended Mount Nebo. The location of this mountain is known, but the tomb or burial place of the legislator and the prophet does not exist.
Under mysterious circumstances, the Greek heroes Hercules and Theseus disappeared, it is not known where the grave of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, the Prophet Muhammad, etc., somewhat agreeing with Freud's point of view, some researchers expressed the idea that during the revolt of the Israeli idolaters in the parking lot in Moab, Moses was killed and buried in a common grave. If there is no material evidence of the existence of Moses, then as a gift to descendants he left the covenants given to him by the Lord.
IGOR BOKKER