Moses is the central figure of Judaism, and it’s the books and laws traditionally ascribed to him that form the basis of the Jewish faith. His life is covered in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. Moses is almost certainly a fictional character. There’s no mention of him in the earliest, pre-exilic parts of the Old Testament, and the 5th century BCE Jews at Elephantine in Egypt appear to have had no knowledge of him or the Torah.
There are several elements in the biblical account of Moses’ life that we can trace back to earlier sources. Firstly there’s the famous story of Moses being discovered in a bulrush cradle as a baby. The Book of Exodus tells us that the Egyptian pharaoh of the time ordered his midwives to kill all newborn male Hebrews,
‘“When you are attending the Hebrew women in childbirth” he told them, “watch as the child is delivered and if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live”’ (Exodus 1.16)
Moses’ mother disobeyed the pharaoh’s orders and hid the baby in a rush basket by the bank of the Nile, from where the infant Moses was rescued by the pharaoh’s own daughter. This story of Moses escaping a death warrant as an infant mirrors that of Jesus, and the ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ in the New Testament. In Greek mythology, Hercules, Perseus and Paris all had to escape death as infants.
In a similar tale to Moses, the god Attis was also abandoned by the side of a river as a neonate. The story of Moses’ childhood scrape with death probably ultimately derives from the infancy of the Mesopotamian monarch Sargon of Akkad, who ruled c.2300 BCE. Sargon was exposed as a baby in an ark of bulrushes upon the river Euphrates, from where he was rescued and grew up to be ruler of all Mesopotamia. A Babylonian inscription states of Sargon,
‘My mother, the high priestess, conceived me, in secret she bore me.
She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid.
She cast me into the river which rose not (over) me.’
Moses’ central act in the Bible is the receiving of the laws on the holy mountain of Sinai. In giving the Israelites religious laws to obey, Moses and his god Yahweh made themselves Thesmophoros (the Greek term for lawgiver). This was a title applied to many ancient deities, and it was a particular epithet of the Greek goddess Demeter, whose three-day festival at Athens was called the Thesmophoria. The first century Jew Philo compared Moses to the lawgivers of other cultures,
‘He himself is the most admirable of all the lawgivers who have lived in any country, either among the Greeks or among the barbarians.’ (On the Life of Moses II.III)
Similar law codes to those found in the Old Testament are known from the ancient Near East. The most famous of these was the Code of Hammurabi of Babylon (who lived c.1810 – 1750 BCE). Others include the Code of Ur-Nammu, the Laws of Eshnunna, the Hittite Laws, the Middle Assyrian Laws and the Neo-Babylonian Laws. The format of the laws in the Old Testament are laid out in the same casuistic style as these others – if someone commits a certain crime, they receive a certain set punishment. Hammurabi set up pillars listing the laws, which also depicted him receiving the laws from the god Shamash.
The laws refer to Shamash as ‘the great judge of heaven and earth’. Some of the pillars listing Hammurabi’s laws date from much later than his lifetime. They were still being created in the neo-Assyrian and neo-Babylonian periods of the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. Both of these empires exerted an influence over the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
The Ten Commandments and laws of Moses were fairly late additions to the biblical text, being authored by the Deuteronomic and Priestly sources. The Torah itself only came into being in its current form sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, and around this time it was first called ‘the law of Moses’. None of the writings of the Old Testament prophets refer to the Mosaic law, because it wasn’t in existence in their time.
Moses’ most famous laws are the Ten Commandments, but when we looks at these edicts one thing is strikingly clear. The first two, and presumably most important laws are pure religious zealotry and intolerance. The Israelites are told, ‘You shall have no other gods before than me’ (Exodus 20.3) and, ‘You shall not make a carved image, or any likeness of anything in the sky above, or the earth below or the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I Yahweh your god am a jealous god’ (Exodus 20.4-5).
The Israelites of the time ascribed to Moses were polytheistic. This strict demand to only worship Yahweh represents the reality of later Persian or even Hellenistic times being projected back into a past that never existed.
It’s telling that the edict not to commit murder is only the sixth commandment, behind worshipping other gods, idolatry, blasphemy (uttering Yahweh’s name), not keeping the sabbath, and not respecting your parents. Although this really isn’t that surprising given the Bible demands the death penalty for not keeping to the aforementioned five commandments. In the second century BCE, the Jewish book of Jubilees was still repeating the command of the death penalty for anyone working on the sabbath (Jubilees 2.25-27).
The laws listed in the Old Testament are harsh and of their time, hardly the workings of enlightened people or a deity worthy of respect. Lots of quite minor offences carry the death penalty, and the mentality is summed up in an infamous line from Deuteronomy, ‘You shall show no mercy. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot’ (Deuteronomy 19.21). As with the majority of the Old Testament, it was written by fanatics who detested the worship of any deities other than Yahweh. One law reads, ‘whoever sacrifices to any god but Yahweh must be put to death’ (Exodus 22.20).
These laws are carried on in the books of Leviticus and Numbers. These books are traditionally ascribed to Moses, but were actually compiled into their current form during the Persian period (538 – 332 BCE). They contain some laws that date back to the Babylonian exile and probably also the monarchies of Israel and Judah, but the majority of the edicts in the books are believed to be late P source compositions.
Both ascribe these later laws to Moses, and create a fictional account of him and Yahweh instructing the Israelites during their 40 year journey from Egypt to Canaan. The Book of Numbers goes so far as to spend numerous pages listing the fictional Israelites of the twelve tribes who made the journey by name.
The authors of these books still saw their god Yahweh in terms similar to a Greek god or other deities of the ancient world, rather than the more abstract concept of ‘God’ most Christians or Jews would have today. The Book of Numbers repeatedly tells us what sacrifice offerings are of a ‘soothing odour to Yahweh’ (Numbers 15).
There are clues in the Book of Leviticus that may point to its authorship as being much later than the supposed time of Moses. Leviticus 26 states that Yahweh will punish the Israelites if they do not follow his edicts. The punishment given mirrors the Babylonian exile of 587 – 538 BCE,
‘If in spite of this you still do not obey me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my rage I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you seven times over for your sins. You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols. I will abhor you. I will turn your cities into ruins and desolate your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the soothing aromas of your offerings. I myself will desolate the land, and your enemies who live there will be appalled. I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins’ (Leviticus 26.27-33).
The Exodus story of the Israelites living in a foreign land and eventual return to Canaan also mirrors the reality of the Babylonian exile, and return to Israel and Judah under Persian rule.
The authors of the book of Leviticus give strict orders of what sacrifices are acceptable and unacceptable to Yahweh. The sacrifice of animals to their god(s) at the temple was a central element of Israelite religion, just as it was for the Greeks, Babylonians, Egyptians and many other ancient societies.
The priestly authors also seem obsessed with ritual purity, with long lists of what is deemed ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’. The Jews of the time were also obsessed with the idea of ‘sin’, Moses and Aaron have to make ‘sin-offerings’ to Yahweh (Leviticus 8-9). The concept of sin was an important part of ancient Near Eastern thought. In Babylonia and Mesopotamia, some form of sin was often seen as the cause of disease and ill fortune.
Leviticus also contains an unpleasant edict punishing homosexuality with the death penalty (Leviticus 20.13). This archaic homophobic law continues to influence the opinions of many small minded people to this day. Leviticus also contains ridiculously harsh laws for the ‘crime’ of blasphemy,
‘Take the blasphemer out of the camp. Everyone who heard him shall put their hands on his head, then the whole community shall stone him to death…whoever blasphemes the name of Yahweh shall be put to death’ (Leviticus 24.14-16).
The ‘crime’ of blasphemy involved just uttering the name Yahweh. The same harsh punishment was prescribed for anyone breaking the Sabbath. When an Israelite is caught collecting sticks on the Sabbath, Yahweh tells Moses, ‘This man must be put to death, he must be stoned by the whole community outside the camp’ (Numbers 15.35). Being a disobedient son is another ‘crime’ that must be punished by stoning to death (Leviticus 20.9). There’s also very bizarre laws against the wearing of clothes made from two different materials, and planting a field with two different types of crop (Leviticus 19.19).
Yahweh also displays his unpleasantly petty and violent side in the laws of Leviticus. He tells the Israelites that if they disobey his laws and worship other gods,
‘I will punish you seven times over for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons and daughters. I will destroy your hill-shrines and demolish your incense altars. I will pile your rotting carcasses on the rotting logs that were your idols’ (Leviticus 26.28-30).
Yahweh reinforces this command with murderous violence in the Book of Numbers. He commands Moses to kill all the Israelites who have joined in the worship of the rival god Baal (Numbers 25.4-5). The same vitriolic intolerance towards the worship of other gods is repeated in Deuteronomy. Moses tells the Israelites,
‘If your own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love or your best friend should entice you to go and worship other gods…then you shall not consent or listen. You shall show him no pity, you shall not spare him or shield him, you shall kill him. Your own hand shall be the first upon him to put him to death and then all the people shall follow. You shall stone him to death’ (Deuteronomy 13.6-10).
Deuteronomy adds yet more laws that the Jews must follow, and again these later laws are projected back into a mythical past with the claim they came from Yahweh and Moses. A long list of which animals are considered clean and edible and which unclean and not to be eaten appears in Deuteronomy. Interestingly, listed among the birds that can’t be eaten is the bat! (Deuteronomy 14.18). This shows the lack of basic knowledge of the Bible’s authors.
The Bible and Mythology 