MOSES
687
MOSES BEN-CHANOCH
er, iMunicb, 1859) thinks he has discovered traces of the liistory and nanrie of Moses in two of the Leyden paiiyri written in the hieratic character (com p. Heath, TIks K.viidiis Papyri, Lond. 1855).
Concerning the hfe and work of Moses, compare also Warburtiin, On Ihe Dirine Legation of Moses ; Hess, Ge- sc/iirl/fe J/o.v/.s (Zurich, 1778): Niemeyer, Charakteristik der Bibtl, iii, '!'.> sq. ; Hufnagol, Moseh wie er sick selbst Zi'ichna (Frckf. l.Si'-J); Nork, Li-b. Mos. (Lips. 1838); Ewakl, I.ir. Utsc/i. ii, 'o2 s(j. ; Schreiber, Allf/em. Reli- (jionskhre, i, ItitJ; Kitto, Daily Bible Illustrations, vol. ii; Hunter, Sacred Biography ; T. Smith, Hist, of Mo- ses (Edinb. 1859) ; Breay, Hist, of Moses (Lond. 1846) ; Townsend, Character of Moses (Lond. 1813, 2 vols. 4to) ; Koss, Hi.<t. of Moses (Edinb. 1837) ; Anderson, Life of Moses (Lond. 1834) ; Plumtre, Hist, of Moses (Lond. 1848) ; Drasde, Comparatio Mosis et Homeri (Viteb. 1788); Hagel, Apolorjie des Moses (Sulzbach, 1828); Moller, Be Mose Philosopho (Alt. 1701); Schumann, Vita Mosis (Li|)S. 1826) ; Keckendorf, Has Leben Mosis, (Leips. 1867) ; Clarke, Ten Great Religions (Bost. 1871), p. 4l>9 sc]. ; also the dissertations referred to by Furst, Bib. Jin/, ii. :!',);! s(|.
;\[( )Si;s, AS( 'KNSION or ASSUMPTION OF. See
KEVKt.ATlo.NS, Sl-UIIIOUS.
MOSES, BOOKS OF. See Pentateuch.
MOSES, LAW OF. See Law of Moses.
Mose.s is the name of several patriarchs of the Ar- menian Church. — 1, was born about 400 at Manazgerd. After entering the service of the Church he rose rapid- ly to distinction, and in 457 became patriarch. He was very mm-li disliked for his extreme abnegation of all patriotic feelings, and complete submission to Feroze, king of Persia, who then ruled Armenia. Moses was severe upon those who took exception to his rule, and imprisoned many ecclesiastics and episcopal dignitaries. He (lied In 4(15. — 2, surnamcd Eghicartetsi, after his native place, was Ijuru in 510. He also made his way rapidly to eceksiastical distinctions after entering the service of the Church, and finally, in 551, mounted the throne of St. (iregor}'. He is the founder of a new calendar, which was used by the Armenians for several centuries. Nothing else of importance is to be noted during his rule of the Armenian Church. He died in 594 at Tovin. — 3, surnamed Dathevatse, was born at Khodaran about 1580. In his youth he chose a seclud- ed life, and entered the monastery of Dathev, whence his surname. He was chosen to the patriarchate in lt;j9. He died in 1633 at Echmiajin. See St. Mar- tin, MeiiKiires historiques sur I'Armenie ; Neale, Hist, of Last. C/i. (Arnienia).
Mo.ses Albelda (called also Ben-Jacob), a Jewish theologian of some note, flourished in the beginning of the 16th century as rabbi of the Jews of Salonica in Thessalonica. He wrote a number of works in the department of dogmatic and Biblical theology, among which special mention is due to his iTITO d~n, a hom- ih'tical Commenfai-y on the Pentateuch, accompanied by several occasional hdmilies (Yen. 1603, folio) : — riSI" T^in, or Di.-ii/iiisiiiiins oil the Books of the Law, partly exegetical andparthi philosophical (Yen. 1526, 1601, foL).
Moses Botarel (or Botarelo), a Jewi.sh writer of Spanish birth, who fiourishcd in the 15th century, is the author of a commentary on the famous Book Je- zirah Oi. V,). entitled t^'\^'^-} 1ED i:."^"!?, which he wrote for a Christian scholar, ^laestro Juan, in 1409, and ■wherein he praises philosophy, speaks of Aristotle as of a prophet, and maintains that philosophy and the Kab- balali propound exactly the same doctrines, and that they only differ in language and in technical terms. In this commentary Jloses Botarel shows how, by fasting, ablu- tions, prayer, and invocation of divine and angelic names a man may have such dreams as shall disclose to him the secrets of the future, and quotes in confirmation of his opinions such ancient authorities as Eab. Ashi, Saadia
Gaon,Hai Gaon, etc., whom the Kabbalah claims as its great pillars. Botarel's commentary was first published with the text of the Book Jezira and other commen- taries (Mantua, 1562; Zolkiew, 1745; and in Grodno, 1806, 1820). Moses also wrote a work entitled "pj kiS'i^^, on astrology, redemption, and prophecies. See Filrsf, Bibl. Jud. i, 128 ; Griitz, Gesch. d. Juden, viii, 106. 107; Ginsburg, The Kabbalah, p. 122; Jellinek, J?io- grapk. Skizzen. vol. ii ; Mose Botarel, in L. B. des Or. 1846, No. 12; Joh. Steudner, Mos. Botarel de mysterio Trinitatis (Lat. vers, et illustr. [reprinted in his Die jiidische A BC-Schule, p. 27]) ; Cassel, Leitfadenfurjiid. Gesch. u. Literatur. p. 75. ( B. P.)
Moses bar - Cepha, an Eastern prelate distin- guished as an author, flourished as bishop of Bethchino, near Mosul, towards the close of the 9th century. Ac- cording to Assemani (Bibl. Orient, ii, 218-19) jMoses bar- Cepha died Feb. 12, 903. He is noted for his compila- tion of the long Syro-Jacobite Liturgy, which Neale speaks of as "not without its beaut.v, especially in the • intercessory portions." See Cave, Hist. Lit. ii, 91 ; Eenau- dot. Hist. Lit. ii, 390 ; Neale, Introd.East. Church, i, 329. Moses beu-Chanocli, a Hebrew savant who flourished in Spain in the second half of the 10th cen- tury, although not knoAvn in Jewish literature by his writings, holds, nevertheless, a very prominent place in the history of Jewish learning, since he must be re- garded as its propagator on Spanish soil. While the famed Jewish academies of Persia and Pumbedita ex- isted, the Jews of Spain respected them as the head of the Hebrew nation, and referred every weighty point or legal difference to their decision. Notwithstanding the distance and the dangers of the voyage, they sent their sons to them for the study of the law and for education. But as soon as the Persian dynasty had gained the cal- iphate, it commenced persecuting the Jews, and, with- out regard to the flourishing state which literature had attained in those academies, it expelled the Jews from Babylon, closed the renowned Je^vish ccjlleges, and dis- persed their illustrious teachers. Four of these learned men, of whom K. Moses was one, fell into the hands of a Spanish corsair about the year A.D. 950, who was des- patched by Abderahman from Cordova to cruise in the sea of the Grecian Archipelago. The wife of Moses ac- companied him in his voyage. The high-minded Avom- an, dreading defilement, looked to her husband for ad- vice, asking in Hebrew whether those drowned at sea would be resuscitated at the resurrection. He answered her with the verse of the psalm, " The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring again from the depths of the sea." On hearing this, to save her honor, she plunged into the sea and perished. Moses was brought as a slave to Cordova, and redeemed, though his quality was unknown, by a Jew. One day he entered the college clad as a slave, in a scanty sack- cloth. The discussion was on a difficult passage of the treatise .Toma (day of atonement). After listening for some time, he explained it so satisfactorily to all the students present that R. Nathan, the president of the college, rose from his seat, and said, "I am no more judge; yon slave in sackcloth is my master, and I am ins scholar." The very same day Moses was installed by acclamation as head of the community, and with him the foundation of Jewish learning was laid in Spain. The fame of his acquirements spread through- out Spain and the West. Numbers flocked from all parts to receive instruction from him, and thus through this man "the light of learning, which, by the rapid progress of the iron age of Judaism in Babylonia, by the extinction of the authority of the Prince of the Cap- j tivity, the dispersion of the illustrious teachers, and Ihe j final closing of the great schools, seemed to have set for- ever, suddenly rose again in the West in renewed and undiminished splendor." Moses hen-Chanoch died in 1104. See Griitz, Geschichte d. Jnden,v, 310 sq. ; Jost, ! Geschichte d. Juden u. s. Sekten, ii, 400 ; Dessauer, Ge-