Moses Page: 1 A visual Journey into the Bible Moses René Jean-Paul Dewil Copyright ©: René Dewil Date: 1 May 2001 Moses Page: 2 Copyright Clause Copyright © René Jean-Paul Dewil 2001 René Jean-Paul Dewil is identified as the sole author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be altered without the written permission of the author. The ebook may be copied in electronic or other forms for personal use only. It may not be printed, introduced in any retrieval system, electronic or otherwise, photocopied or otherwise recorded without the prior written permission of the author. The only system where the ebook may be retrieved from is the Internet website www.theartofpainting.be, which holds the only and original text acknowledged by the author. This publication remains under copyright. Copyright ©: René Dewil Date: 1 May 2001 Moses Page: 3 Table of Contents Moses ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 4 Moses saved from the Waters ............................................................................................................... 7 The Ordeal of the Fire ........................................................................................................................ 10 Moses and the Daughters of Jethro ..................................................................................................... 12 Moses in the Burning Bush ................................................................................................................ 15 The Passage of the Red Sea ................................................................................................................ 19 The Gathering of the Manna ............................................................................................................... 22 Moses strikes Water from the Rock .................................................................................................... 24 The Tablets with the Law ................................................................................................................... 26 The Adoration of the Golden Calf ...................................................................................................... 28 Nicolas Poussin....................................................................................................................... 29 Rembrandt .............................................................................................................................. 31 The Land of Canaan ........................................................................................................................... 34 The Chastisement of Korah, Dathan and Abiram ............................................................................... 36 The Brazen Serpent ............................................................................................................................ 40 The Prophet Balaam ........................................................................................................................... 42 The Death of Moses ............................................................................................................................ 44 The Jordan .......................................................................................................................................... 50 Epilogue .............................................................................................................................................. 52 Copyright ©: René Dewil Date: 1 May 2001 Moses Page: 4 Introduction The Book of Genesis and the four following books of the Bible form the Pentateuch, the fivefold scroll. These books are the Torah, the religious law of Israel. Genesis is the story of the creation of the universe. The book tells the lives of the first patriarchs, the ancestors Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Genesis ends with the settlement of the Hebrews in Egypt after a famine in Canaan. The four books called Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are all dedicated to the life of Moses. After the first generations of peaceful co-existence with the Hebrews, the Egyptian Pharaohs came to fear Israel as a menace to their state. The Pharaohs oppressed the Hebrews then. Moses led Israel out of the oppression in Egypt. Whereas only one book bundles the lives of the first ancestors, four books recall the life of Moses. The main reason is that Moses gave the religious law to the people of Israel and most of the texts of the four books enumerate, explain and repeat in other sentences the rules by which the Hebrew community was to live for the next centuries. Moses has been shown in films and novels as the powerful leader of the people that left Egypt for Canaan. After their successful escape from Egypt the Hebrews passed many hardships and won many battles against the most powerful states of the region. Moses is depicted as a towering character, a war hero and general, leading his people and his warriors. But the Bible does not describe him as a genius leader. Moses is merely an intermediate, the mediator of Yahweh, the God of Israel. Yahweh was the God of one people. The Bible cites the existence of other gods for other peoples. But Yahweh told that he was to be the God of the Hebrews and the Hebrews could have only one God, Yahweh. All other gods would be idols for Israel. There is no demand in the Bible for the conversion of other religions to the religion of Yahweh, but whenever the Hebrews encountered other Gods on a territory they could control, they would have to smash the idols. Yahweh was all-powerful, but he remained the God of one people, of Israel, of the people with the name given by God to the descendants of Jacob. The Book of Exodus tells of the flight of the Israelites from Egypt under the direction of Moses. It tells about the re-affirmation of the covenant between Israel and Yahweh and about the gift of the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue. The tablets of stone on which the law was inscribed by the finger of God were given on Mount Sinai. Exodus ends with the instructions on the building of the sanctuary and of its ministers. The ministers will be Moses’ brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons. Leviticus is a book of the law and the rules. It talks primarily of the investiture of the priests of Israel. Exodus says explicitly that Moses was born a Levi, from a father and mother both of the tribe of Levi. The Levites are appointed to function as the tribe of priests in Leviticus. The first priests will be Aaron and his sons, then the whole tribe of Levi. The Levites will be the guardians of the law of holiness. These were the orders that Yahweh gave to Moses. Leviticus is thus the book of the installation of the Levites as the priests of Israel. The book adds rules to the law, but not to the story of the life of Moses. The Book of Numbers starts with the census of the whole community of Israelites, their clans and families. We feel the beginning of an organisation, the firm establishment of the formal tissue of a society. The census officials are called and named in the Book of Numbers. Then the census itself is enumerated. After the census the book contains various other rules of the law, the installation of the feast of Passover as a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt and the final departure to Canaan away from Yahweh's mountain. The Book of Numbers furthermore tells how Moses gave the laws concerning sacrifices and again about the powers of the Levite priests. The last part of Numbers recalls the passage of the desert and the travels of Israel from Kadesh to Moab. Finally, the Israelites fight a war against the Midianites and the people arrive at the borders of Canaan. The book of Deuteronomy is an addition to the three other books of Moses, that is to Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. Deuteronomy is a copy of the basic but now complete law of Israel, probably written in a later period than the other books of the Pentateuch. It contains two discourses of Moses as introduction, in which Moses recounts the travels of Israel. Then follows the Deuteronomic code, the rules of law and customs to be kept in the country that Yahweh gave to the Israelites. Deuteronomy ends with a third discourse of Moses and a tale of his last actions and death. Copyright ©: René Dewil Date: 1 May 2001 Moses Page: 5 The four books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy form a unity by the figure of Moses, the mediator. Exodus talks of Moses leading Israel out of Egypt. Leviticus tells of Moses providing the investiture of the priests and the Levites. Numbers recalls the census organised by Moses, while Deuteronomy are discourses of Moses providing for a clear text of the law of Israel and finally the book gives an account of Moses’ last actions and of his death. Four books of the Bible are on Moses alone. Moses’ importance was in his function as a mediator of Yahweh at a moment when the numbers of the Hebrews had grown to the point where a religious and secular organisation was needed. The Hebrews had been fertile in Egypt. They had profited from an easy life without major famines or deprivations. Until the persecutions began they had grown rapidly in numbers. Too rapidly. One understands from the Bible that the attitude of the Egyptians towards the Hebrews