Doubtless, however, the ideas which the Jews in the NT period had of Moses were somewhat influenced by such traditions—witness their cur- rency in Philo and Josephus: these traditions, however, would not—and the NT shows that they did not—seriously modify the account given in the OT of the life and work of Moses. They supply details of names and numbers; narrate incidents that fill gaps in the story ; and provide facts which explain obscurities. Further, by adding to the marvellous in the history of Moses, they attempt the superfluous task οὗ increasing his unique spiritual ar cheated We can cite only a few examples. Thus Josephus* (Ant. Il. ix. x.) gives many details of the childhood and youth of Moses. Pharaoh’s daughter's name was Thermuthis; the infant refused to be suckled by Egyptian nurses ; he was of divine form (μορῴῃ θεῖον); the princess induced her father to put his crown on Moser head, but Moses threw it down and trod on it, etc. etc. An account of a successful campaign against the Ethiopians, in which Moses commandec the Egyptian army, and married Tharbis, the daughter of the Ethiopian king, probably grew out of the reference to his ‘Cushite wife’ in Nu 121. The account of Moses’ death (Iv. viii. 49) concludes: ‘As he was embracing Eleazar and Joshua, and was still talking with them, a cloud suddenly stood over him, and he disappeared down a certain valley. But he wrote in the Sacred Books that he died (αὐτὸν τεθνεῶτα), fearing lest men should venture to say that he had been deified (πρὸς τὸ θεῖον αὐτὸν ἀναχωρῆσαι) on account of his extraordinary virtue.’ Elsewhere (c. Apion. i. 26) he quotes Manetho to the effect that Moses was born in Heliopolis, and bore the Egyptian name of Osarsiph. Philo (Vita Moysis, i. 5) gives the details of his education in the learning of Egypt, Greece, Assyria, and Chaldea. In i. 39 he has a version of the fight at Rephidim (Ex 17®®), in which Aaron and Hur are dispensed with, and Moses’ hands are miraculously upheld. In iii. 39 he speaks of Moses’ prophesying his own death, by divine inspiration, while yet alive, and being buried ‘not by mortal hands, but by im- mortal powers,’ and concludes, ‘Such was the life and such the death of Moses, king, lawgiver, high
riest, and prophet, as it is recorded in the Sacred
criptures,’
Although the Manetho traditions belong rather to the general history of the Exodus than to the personal career of Moses, something more may be said about them here. Josephus (δ. Apwn.) gives
the traditions as to the Exodus preserved by * The many tedious expansions of the Bible story in Josephus and Philo, especially the speeches, which, after the manner of
Thucydides, they put into the mouths of Moses and others have of course no historical value.
448 MOSES, ASSUMPTION OF
MOSES, ASSUMPTION OF
Manetho, an Egyptian priest and historian of Heliopolis, during the reign of Ptolemy Philadel- phus, B.C. 285-246. In i, 26, 27, Manetho is quoted as stating that a priest of Heliopolis, named Osar- siph, afterwards Moses, raised a revolt of persons afilicted by leprosy and other foul diseases, who had been settled on the borders to deliver Egypt from the pollution of their presence. They were defeated and driven out of pt into Syria by Amenophis king of Egypt. ig ch. 32 a similar story is quoted from Cieerenann the leaders of the Jews being Moiises Tisithen and Joseph Peteseph. In ch. 34, οἵ, ii. 2, a third version of the story is quoted from Lysimachus.+ According to i. 14, 15, 26, ii. 2, Manetho stated that sealants was built by the followers of shepherd kings, Hyksos, when they were expelled from Egypt 7 Tethmosis; and, apparently, regards these
yksos as the ancestors of the Israelites. It has sometimes been maintained that the story of the expulsion of the lepers is a truer version of the Exodus than that given in the OT; and some who reject Manetho’s main story quote his names of persons and places. It is safer to regard his and other narratives as mere perversions of the biblical account (Stade, Gesch. i. 128; Seinecke, Gesch. i. 80).
The Mussulman legends are partly imaginative but tedious expansious of the Bible narrative, prob- ably known only indirectly ; partly pure myths. Thus, when Moses struck the rock, twelve streams gushed forth, one for each tribe (Koran, ii.). Sura Xvill. gives a story of the journey of Moses with el-Khidr, the Unknown, which reads like a section of the Arabian Nights. The numerous legends about Moses illustrate the fact that the Moslems recognize Moses, in common with Jesus and Mo- hammed, as a prophet and apostle (Koran, xix.).
Cf. CHRONOLOGY OF OT, ExopUS TO CANAAN, ISRAEL (HISTORY OF), HEXATEUCH, ExopUs, Leviticus, NUMBERS, DEUTERONOMY, ARK, TABERNACLE, AARON, and articles on the various persons, places, and things mentioned in Ex-Dt; also MOSES (ASSUMPTION OF).
LITERATURE.—Commentaries on the Pentateuch, and sections referring to Pent. in the O7' Introductions. Sections on Mosaic period in the Histories and OT Theologies cited in Literature under ISRAEL (HIsToRY OF) ; also in the O7' T’heologies of Kayser- Marti, Oehler [Eng. tr.], Piepenbring (Eng. tr.]; W. R. Smith, OTIC? Bp. 254-430. See also G. Rawlinson, Moses; Baker- Greene, Migration of the Hebrews.
A list of pseudepigraphal books ascribed to Moses is given in Charles’ Assumption aS Moses, pp. xiv-xvii. For the Jewish and Mohammedan legends see Stanley, Jewish Church, i. 86-173, and art. ‘Moses’ in Smith’s DB; also Koran, Suras ii., vii., x., xviil., xix., XX., XXvi., xxviii, xl.; Gustav Weil, Biblical Legends of the Mussulmans, tr4 as The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud, and notes to Rodwell’s tr® of tly, Koran ; d'Herbe- lot, Bibliotheque Orientale, Moussa ben-Anv am; P. 1. Hershon, Genesis, with a Talmudical Commentary, * 2e under ‘ Moses’ in Index iii. For the Egyptian traditions of Manetho, Charemon, and Lysimachus, and for Artapanus (ap. @us. Prep. Ev. ix. 27), etc., see Ewald, Hist. of Isr. ii. 76-94. for the Archeology see Driver in Authority and Archeology (Hogarth), pp. 54-79.