An interesting short biography of one of the most important men in history. It crossed my mind to wonder why there was a need to revisit the life of Moses. Isn’t he one of the best known men ever? Doesn’t everyone know about him? Then I realised that I am getting old ...also that I was educated in a country, and at a time, where it was regarded as important to read the Bible every day in class. I am past my “sell-by”!
The author draws together all the 5 books of the Pentateuch, modern archaeological findings, and expansions of the Torah into those writings less well known to non-Jewish readers - heard of, probably, but not studied!
Although I have read the Torah all through a few times, I couldn’t have done that in the short time needed to read this volume, which gives a sense of the whole, and I usually get distracted by apparent non-sequiturs, perplexity at what I perceive as bad behaviour on the part of the Almighty and his chosen heroes! Don’t look to the Bible for exemplars of happy family life!
Moses, like Abraham, Jonah and Job isn’t afraid to argue with the Lord, good news for those of us who are inclined to ask Him if He’s sure He’s thought it all through sometimes!
I’m glad to know that many of the greatest commentators have struggled with some of the most brutal scenarios. This book deals only with Exodus on, leaving a fair amount of dubious behaviour unexamined. Dinah? The relationship between Abraham and his half-sister Sarah, who seems to have been left to her own devices, twice, with lascivious Pharaohs...
Moses is one of the most important people in the history of much of the planet, unquestionably. And that would be true even if he hadn’t really existed as we know him.
We haven’t many moral theologians from 3000+ years ago...