MOSES
683
MOSES
The passage of the Red Sea by Moses and his followers was regarded as a striking parallel to some of the de- tails of Bacchus's expedition to India (Nonnus, xx, 253). Bacchus also smites the Hydaspes with a rod, and passes over dry-shod (Nonnus, xxiii, 115, 124, 156-188; xxiv, 41). Even the smiting of the rock by Moses is compared to a myth recorded in Euripides {Bacch. v, 703) ; to Bacchus smiting a rock — not indeed in his own person, but by the instrumentality of his priestess, who wielded the thyrsus-rod — with a similar result of water flowing from it. These attempts to neutralize history are quoted simply as literary curiosities, and they show by what methods it was thought possible to establish the myth- ical origin of the Jewish commonwealth. But as the liistorical veracity of the Gospel history can alone ac- count for the existence and subsistence of Christianity, so the past and present influence of the Mosaic constitu- tion can only be explained by the strictly historical character of its beginnings.
1. There are two main characters in which Moses ap- pears, namel}', as a Leader and as a Prophet. The two are more frequently combined in the East than in the West. Several remarkable instances occur in the his- tory of ?iIohammedanism : Mohammed himself, Abd-el- Kader in Algeria, Shamyl in Circassia.
(a.) As a Leader his life divides itself into the three epochs of the march to Sinai, the march from Sinai to Kadesh, and the conquest of the transjordanic king- doms. Of his natural gifts in this capacity we have but few means of judging. The two main difficulties which lie encountered were the reluctance of the people to submit to his guidance and the impracticable nature of tlie country which they had to traverse. The pa- tience with which he bore their murmurs is often de- scribed— at the lied Sea, at the apostasy of the golden calf (the eccentric Beke contends that the idol was a co)te, and not a calf [T/ie Idol in Iloreb, Lond. 1871]), at the rebellion of Korah, at the complaints of Aaron and Miriam (see below). The incidents with which his name was specially connected both in the sacred narrative and in the Jewish, Arabian, and heathen tra- ditions were those of supplying water when most want- ed. This is the only point in his life noted by Tacitus, who describes him as guided to a spring of water by a herd of wild asses (Hist, v, 3). In the Pentateuch these supplies of water take place at Marah, at Horeb, at Ka- desh, and in the land of Moab. That at ]\Iarah is pro- duced by the sweetening of waters through a tree in the desert ; those at Horeb and at Kadesh by the open- ing of a rift in the "rock" and in the "cliif;" that in Moab by the united efforts, under his direction, of the chiefs and of the people (Numb, xxi, 18). (See Philo, T'. J/, i, 40.) An illustration of these passages is to be found in one of the representations of Kameses II (con- temporary with jMoses), in like manner calling out wa- ter from the desert rocks (see Brugsch, Hisf. de. VEg. i, 153). Of the tirst three of these incidents, traditional sites, bearing his name, are shown in the desert at the present day, though most of them are rejected by mod- ern travellers. One is Ayun JNIusa, " the wells of Mo- ses," immediately south of Suez, which the tradition (probably from a confusion with IMarah) ascribes to the rod of Moses. Of the water at Horeb, two memorials are shown : one is the Shuk JNIiisa, or " cleft of j\Ioses," in the side of iMount St. Catharine ; and the other is the remarkable stone, first mentioned expressly in the Ko- ran (ii, 57), which exhibits the twelve marks or mouths out of which the water is supposed to have issued for the twelve tribes (Stanlej-, <Syr. and Pal. p. 40, 47; also A\^.lflf; Travels, p. 125, 2d ed.). The fourth is the cele- brated " Sik," or ravine, by which Petra is approached from the east, and which, from the story of its being torn open by the rod of Moses, has given his name (the Wady Musa) to the whole valley.. The quails and the manna are less directly ascribed to the intercession of Moses. The brazen serpent that was lifted up as a sign of the divine protection against the snakes of the desert
(Numb, xxi, 8, 9) was directly connected with his name down to the latest times of the nation (2 Kings xviii, 4 ; John iii, 14). Of all the relics of his time, with the ex- ception of the ark, it was the one longest preserved. See Nehushtax.
The route through the wilderness is. described as having been made under his guidance. The particular spot of the encampment was fixed by the cloudj^ pillar; but the direction of the people, tirst to the Red Sea and then to jNIount Sinai (where he had been before), was communicated through Moses, or given by him. Ac- cording to the tradition of Memphis, the passage of the Red Sea was effected through Moses's knowledge of the movement of the tide (Euseb. Piwp. Ev. ix, 27). In all the wanderings from Mount Sinai he is said to have had the assistance of Jethro. In the Mussul- man legends, as if to avoid this appearance of human aid, the place of Jethro is taken by El Khudhr, the mys- terious benefactor of mankind (D'Herbelot, s. v. Moussa). On approaching Palestine the office of the leader be- comes blended with that of the general or the conquer- or. By Moses the spies were sent to explore the coun- trj'. Against his advice took place the first disastrous battle at Hormah. To his guidance is ascribed the cir- cuitous route by which the nation approached Palestine from the east, and to his generalship the two successive campaigns in which Sihon and Ogwere defeated. The narrative is told so shortly that we are in danger of for- getting that, at this last stage of his life, Moses must have been as much a conqueror and victorious soldier as Joshua.