Weekly Bible Study Resources Bible Characters for Your Weekly Bible Study Compiled by Lt Gen C. Norman Wood, USAF (Ret), Burke, VA 22015 For week of August 29 – September 4, 2011 SUBJECT: MAN Colvin, Charles A., “Man,” Sentinel, Vol. 22 (29 November 1919), p. 244. --MAN is the complete expression of God, or, as Mrs. Eddy so profoundly states on page 591 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in her definition of man, "the compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind." • Down through the ages mortals have been taught that the real man is a human product and that man is subject to all the ills of the flesh; subject to sickness and death. It is appalling to think of the centuries of such erroneous thinking about man,—thinking of him only as a physical product with its attending ills and limitations,—and to declare that such a product is the image and likeness of God. --When Jesus saw those who came to him for healing he looked beyond human physicality, beyond the material sense testimony to the real man. He beheld man as "idea" and instinctively knew that man, idea, the expression of God, is never absent, hence there is no place for anything expressing discord or any condition apart from God, good. • "In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick" (Science and Health, p. 477). SECTION III: The Pharaoh fears the growth of the Israelites, and decrees the death of all male babies (Ex 1: 7-9, 22) TIME LINE AND AUTHOR: Passed down by oral traditions but attributed to Moses, 1445-1405 BC. The event probably took place c. 1530 BC. “The Greek Septuagint (LXX) and the Latin Vulgate versions of the OT assigned the title Exodus to this second book of Moses because the departure of Israel from Egypt is the dominant historical fact in the book (19:1).” (MacArthur Commentary) “The dramatic Exodus story of liberation begins with a rather mundane census list of the Israelite clan of Jacob, which numbers 70 people (1:5). The family of Jacob rapidly multiplies in dramatic fashion (1:7).” (Theological Bible Commentary) “a…king…which knew not Joseph” Who was the Pharaoh of the Exodus? Or the Pharaoh who preceded him “which knew not Joseph” (Ex 1:8)? This is a complicated matter, and it is not made easy by the material provided in Exodus, since the book does not give the names of either of these kings nor any dates by which a solution might be reached. Nor do the Egyptian records at this time refer to the Hebrews explicitly. "It is probably best to take this new king, who knew not Joseph, as a Hyksos ruler. Furthermore, the term arose signifies ‘rose against,’ which accords well with a foreign seizure of the Egyptian throne." (MacArthur Bible Commentary) [Note: This is further complicated by the article, below, by Shayon] PrayerfulLiving.com Weekly Bible Study resources http://www.csdirectory.com/biblestudy/nw-index.html 1 Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — August 29 – September 4, 2011 Shayon, Robert Lewis, "A new king arose who 'knew not Joseph,'" CAREERS, Journal (August 2000), p. 32. --Recently when I was rereading the story of Joseph in the Bible, one sentence stopped me short: "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." (Ex 1:8] • I asked myself, "How could that be?" "Weren't there court historians who kept alive the memory and great deeds of the celebrated Hebrew who became the highest authority of the kingdom, second only to Pharaoh, who sustained the nation during the years of the great famine, who forgave his brothers for selling him into slavery, and who brought his father into Egypt—a towering figure? --In a Bible commentary I found an answer. • The Hyksos, foreign invaders from Asia, were the rulers of Egypt during the years of Joseph's adventures. ---They were tolerant, cordial to the Hebrews. • But they were overthrown by a native dynasty who then treated Joseph's people like serfs. Not only did the new Pharaoh not know Joseph personally; the Bible points out in no uncertain terms that the new Pharaoh was indifferent to him, acting with complete disregard for what Joseph had done. The Birth and Protection of Moses (Ex 2: 1-8, 10 [to :]) TIME LINE AND AUTHOR: Passed down by oral traditions but attributed to Moses, 1445-1405 BC. The event took place c. 1525 BC. “The narrative here is marked with great simplicity and beauty. The father and mother of Moses are not named in this place. It is simply said that both were of the house of Levi, and that at this time of terrible persecution a son was born to them, who, because of the severe edict of the government, had to be hidden lest he should be destroyed by the order of Pharaoh.” (Peloubet’s Select Notes) "Since Moses was born soon after the general decree of 1:22 was given (c.1525 B.C.), the issuer of the decree was Thutmose I. [v.1]" (MacArthur Bible Commentary) He became her son, v. 10, was biblical terminology for legal adoption. “a man of the house of Levi”/Amram Levi Jochebed Kohath Amram = Jochebed (Kohath's sister) Miriam Aaron Moses Amram was "the son of Kohath, the son of Levi. He married Jochebed, "his father's sister," and was the father of Aaron, Miriam, and Moses (Ex 6:18,20; Num 3:19). He died in Egypt at the age of 137 years (Ex 6:20). His descendants were called Amramites (Num 3:27; I Chron 26:23)." (Easton Dictionary) “Although Amram himself did little of note, he has been remembered for millennia as the father of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” (All the people of the Bible) PrayerfulLiving.com weekly Bible Study resources http://www.csdirectory.com/biblestudy/nw-index.html 2 Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — August 29 – September 4, 2011 “wife a daughter of Levi”/Jochebad Jochebed is the "wife of Amram, and the mother of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses (Numbers 26:59). She is spoken of as the sister of Kohath, Amram's father (Exodus 6:20; Compare 16,18; 2:1- 10)." (Easton Dictionary) “Strange though it may seem, she married her nephew, and was thus both the wife and aunt of Amram, seeing his wife was his father’s sister.” (All the Women of the Bible) "The narrative in Exodus 2 about Moses' birth introduces her, without providing her name, as a member of the priestly tribe Levi; she marries a Levitical man, also unnamed here." (Women in Scripture) “a son”/Moses [Mō’zez] (Egyp. “extraction, a son”/Heb. “drawn from the water”) “MOSES. A corporeal mortal; moral courage; a type of moral law and the demonstration thereof; the proof that, without the gospel, — the union of justice and affection, — there is something spiritually lacking, since justice demands penalties under the law.” (S&H 592: 11) (Abbreviated) Moses was the first and preeminent Hebrew leader, who led the people in their exodus out of Egypt to the threshold of the Promised Land; and he was a lawgiver and the archetypical prophet. He "is the most majestic figure in the Old Testament. His role was so central that the Pentateuch was called the Five Books of Moses, and the code of religious laws, the Law of Moses." (Who's Who in the Old Testament) For all his greatness, Moses never loses his humanness, displaying anger, frustration, and lack of self-confidence in addition to his leadership abilities, humility, and perseverance. FAMILY AND EARLY LIFE “The story of Moses begins in Egypt.” (Bible Handbook) Moses was born there to Hebrew slave parents in exile during dangerous times, and we come to know him first as an infant when the king of Egypt decreed that all infant males should be killed. Moses was hidden among a river’s edge when Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe, saw the basket with the baby, and had pity on this baby boy. Miriam, Moses’ sister, was nearby and suggested a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child. When Pharaoh’s daughter agreed, Jochebed, Moses’ mother, was surreptitiously selected to be that nurse. The boy then grew up at the royal court but, through his mother, remained aware of his Hebrew origin…. “his sister”/Miriam Miriam is the sister of Moses and Aaron. “We first hear of her when the infant Moses was placed in a basket on the Nile and his sister (not named here) watched from a distance; when the baby was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter, the sister offered to find a Hebrew wetnurse and fetched Moses’ mother (Ex 2:4-8).” (HarperCollins Dictionary) "Many commentators identify her as Miriam. Two genealogies listing Moses, Aaron, and Miriam as the sole children of Amram support the identification (Num 26:59; 1 Chr 6:3)." (Women in Scripture) She is called "the prophetess.” She took the lead in the song of triumph after the passage of the Red Sea. “Miriam was involved in a rebellion against Moses when he married an Ethiopian woman (Num 12:1,2].” (Who Was Who in the Bible) PrayerfulLiving.com weekly Bible Study resources http://www.csdirectory.com/biblestudy/nw-index.html 3 Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — August 29 – September 4, 2011 She died at Kadesh during the second encampment at that place, toward the close of the wanderings in the wilderness, and was buried there.