* So esp, Schiller in his brilliant essay, ‘Die Sendung Mose’s’ (first published in Heft 10 of Thalia). We leave quite out of account the fables cited by Josephus (c. Apion. i. 26, 28) from Manetho’s Egyptiaca about the identity of Moses with the priest Osarsiph of Heliopolis,
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
It is true that elsewhere we frequently meet in history with similar instances where a far- reaching influence is very palpable, and yet we do not feel compelled on that account to postulate a special Divine revelation. But in the case of Moses it is the peculiar character of the new ideas promulgated by him that forbids us to derive these from his own reflexions or to ascribe them to shrewd calculations for selfish ends. Upon the foundation laid by him there has arisen in the course of three thousand years the building which includes also the Christian nations. But the laying of a foundation like this is beyond a man’s power; the capacity must have been given him by God. And on this very account the im- portance of the personality of Moses can hardly be exaggerated. Such is the conviction of the Deuteronomistic author of Dt 341° when he re- marks: ‘There hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lorp knew face to face.’
2. It is true, indeed, that it has been felt to be very surprising that in the Old Testament, and especially in the Prophets, the references to Moses are so few in number and so late in date. Apart from the interpolation added in Hos 12 () (‘By a prophet the Lorp brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved’), we find allusions to Moses and Aaron as the deliverers of the people in Mic 6* (along with Miriam; although, it is true, the attributing of this passage to Micah is strongly contested), 1S 12% (in a Deuterono- mistic address), Ps 1057° 106°. Moses alone as leader of the people is referred to in Is 63”, Ps 106°2; the power of his intercession with God is mentioned in Ps 106. and Jer 151. The last-cited passage shows clearly in what light the import- ance of Moses appeared even to a Jeremiah, and that it is thus evidently a mere accident that he is not more frequently mentioned elsewhere.
It might appear even more strange that Moses as the founder of a religion appears to be practi- cally unknown to the Prophets and the Psalms (apart from Ps 99°, where Moses and Aaron are called ‘priests,’ and 103’). But over against this must be set the fact that throughout the OT all the various legislations (except, of course, that con- tained in the vision of Ezekiel, chs. 40-48) are said to have been introduced, and in part even written down, by him. This would be quite un- intelligible unless there had been an indelible re- collection which demanded his recognition as the real author of religious traditions and institutions, so that later codifications could obtain authority only if they were carried back to his weighty name. If any one feels compelled to call this last course of procedure by the name of forgery (and therefore to repudiate it with indignation), he is radically mistaken as to the notions that prevailed in ancient Israel with respect to literary property. So far from being looked upon as forgery, ib was regarded as a sacred duty to give as Moses’ own words anything that had to be promulgated for the good of the people in continuation of his work and in the sense and spiritof his laws (for instance, and very specially, the legislation of Deuteronomy). The idea of forgery, however natural it may be to us, is quite out of the question here.
ii, JAHWEH PROCLAIMED BY MOSES AS THE GOD OF ISRAEL.*—1. All the sources of the Pentateuch are at one in pointing out as the fundamental act of Moses his proclamation of Jahweh as the God of Israel, z.c. as the God who means certainly to deliver Israel from the slavery
* Of. Hunnius, Natur und Charakter Jahwehs nach den vor- deuteronomischen Quellen der Biicher Genesis-Kinige, Strass- burg, 1902.
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of Egypt, and who on that account has sole claim | to the worship and obedience of this people. But this proclamation did not imply that Jahweh is to | be regarded as the only God that has any real existence ; such ‘absolute monotheism’ was un- doubtedly as yet far below the horizon even of Moses as well as of all his contemporaries. Jahweh is one God among many, although mightier and more terrible than the rest. Upon the whole, however, there is not much consideration of what is His relation to other gods. The main thing from the very first is to know no other god besides Him, to worship none but this One whose name is Jahweh. The demand of Moses is thus not for real or absolute monotheism, but for ‘henotheism,’ 2.2. the recognition of only one God, or ‘monolatry,’ the worship of one alone. But the more distinctly ‘ Jahweh’ makes its appearance as a personal name (quite like ‘Zeus,’ ‘ Poseidon,’ etc. ), the more natur- ally does the question arise, Whence did Moses derive this name and proclaim it as that of Israel’s God ?*