by jam 27 Replies latest social entertainment
I personally believe Moses was largely or entirely mythical. That
is because much of his biography, if not most of it, is tied to events
that never happened, meaning that a historical Moses could not
have confronted the Pharaoh and led the Israelites to freedom.
So if there was a historical Moses, was he some now obscure local
leader who got embellished by generations of mythmakers??
That would also explain why Moses's burial site has never been found.
http://peterxdunn.hubpages.com/hub/Moses-Man-or-Myth
In July this year (2010) archaeologists: digging at Tel Hazor in Northern Israel, from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, uncovered two fragments from an inscribed clay tablet that appears to reference the Codex Hammurabi. If this proves to be the case – and it does seem likely – then historical biblical scholars will finally have the evidence they need to prove that Mosaic Law was, indeed, based upon a body of laws that were first codified by King Hammurabi of Babylon who ruled from 1792 to 1750 BC.
The tablet is inscribed with the cuneiform letters of the ancient Akkadian language. It appears to be some kind of court record with references to body parts: 'eye' and 'tooth' are clearly discernible, which has led interpreters to believe that it is a judgment (or finding) along the lines of the famous, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' first found in Babylonian Law and then, much later, adopted by the Hebrews.
What is sensational about this discovery is the dates given for the document's creation - which is estimated to be between 1800 and 1700 BC. This would place it, in what is now Israel, during the Middle Bronze Age: IE before the Israelites of the Exodus allegedly arrived there from Egypt. I base this assertion on the archaeological evidence for the destruction of the Canaanite city of Jericho: c1550 BC, after a siege supposedly led by Joshua (c1450 to 1370 BC: bible chronology), and the dates given for the rule of Israel's first king Saul who reigned from 1047 to 1007 BC.
All of this strongly supports the view: held by historical biblical scholarship, that Moses – as he appears in the Bible – never existed as a real person and so could not have authored the Mosaic body of law and that the historical/archaeological evidence for the Exodus from Egypt simply doesn't exist.
Further to this the Jewish scribes who concocted the story of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments: written by, 'The finger of God', on Mount Sinai might well have seen this monument...
The Finger of God? Seven foot four inch finger stele engraved with the Codex Hammurabi found at the site of the ancient city of Susa in Iran.
...whilst in Babylonian captivity between 597 to 538 BC. It was during this period that the greater part of what came to be the Old Testament: including Genesis and Exodus, was first written down from what had, prior to this time, only existed as oral tradition.
For Christians to claim, now, that the subject matter of the texts attributed to Moses the Law Giver was not - in any way - influenced by this well documented (written in stone no less) material: which includes both the codex and the Egyptian Book of the Dead, that so obviously preceded it is a patent absurdity.
So Moses was a myth. What - then - are the implications?
Besides his starring role in the Old Testament Moses puts in a cameo appearance in the Gospels of: Mathew (17: 1 – 9), Mark (9: 2 – 8) and Luke (9: 28 – 36). The occasion for this walk on role - alongside another guest: Elias - was the Transfiguration of Christ on an unnamed (I wonder why) mountain top. There were witnesses present at this event: James, John the Apostle and Peter (who mentions it in one of his epistles), were all in attendance. They all bore witness to the proceedings. The problem with all of this is, of course, Moses is a mythical character and never actually existed as a real person in the real world. So the event could never have actually happened.
To finish; these are the words of Peter introducing his description of the Transfiguration in his second epistle (verse 16), 'For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty'. He would not have included these words in this epistle if there were not, at the time, people that doubted the veracity of his claim to have known the Son of the Almighty. These doubters are no longer around - so their testimony is no longer available to us - but we can safely surmise that they were not misled by blind faith and/or ignorance (which amount to the same thing).
Nor am I.
(A closing thought: maybe the mountain of the Transfiguration bore the same name as the two pharaohs mentioned in Exodus - but then we didn't get to find out their names either – I wonder why?).
Shana
I was reading that the city mentioned in the bible for were the Israelites came out of Egypt called Goshen may have not been named that until 600 bce or sooner. So if this city did not exist or have that name back in 1200-1300 BCE then this too puts some serious doubt on the tale of the Exodus.
OF COURSE HE WAS REAL!
He personally said he was in fact real in the same book where he wrote that he was personally "the meekest / most humble man that ever lived"
So, there you go.......
Whether he existed or not Ben Kingsley was good acting as Moses.
This is interesting because the characters we held as real for so long are now in question as to their existance. Even Jesus is a bone of contention.
No wonder I find it so hard to believe in all this religious stuff. Not only that but what about Robin Hood or King Arthur? Far better people in my opinion..........but I thought Kevin Costner was crap at being Robin Hood.
Oh no , please don't tell me my little babies all slept in a cradle named after a fictitious character!! Lol!
We should have bought mickey mouse baby baskets!
Moses was real if you consider Charlton Heston to be Moses. Charlton Heston was a historical person, and he played Moses, so logically it seems reasonable to conclude that Moses was a historical person.
Some thing else I learn recentl about this subject. In the story of Moses he was given up by his mother and put into a basket sealed with pitch and then floated down a river u til found by some one. This same exact story is told by the original Sargon of Akkad writing that this happen to him and this was written way earlier then when Moses supposedly wrote it.
The same evidence that support jesus or Arthur Pendragon as a real, historical figures. None, nothing, nada.
There is no direct evidence, outside of the Torah and the literary traditions which followed, that Moses ever existed.
Take care,
Ismael
