(2 of 8)
And that is as it should be. Any modern assessment of Moses' story needs to expose him to historical detective work, scientific speculation and literary intuition. But it must also acknowledge him as an irresistible personality, a man both weak and strong, a savior rejected, a brother reproved, a prophet both happily and unhappily caught up in the whirlwind of God. The modern search for Moses is like a climb up Mount Sinai. It is a bracing ascent over starkly arid terrain, the ancient volcanic rock giving way to deep chasms, full of darkness and danger. But the view can be spectacular: the light splaying in many hues at sunrise as the visitor reaches the spot where the Bible says Moses received the word of the Lord. The venerated images rush to mind: the burning bush, the parted sea, the dry rock bursting with water, manna.
But then the visitor stops and remembers that there is more than one Mount Sinai; indeed, there are at least eight spots that could have inspired the tale that grips us all. In spite of the solidity of the rock and the exultation of the climb, the questions arise: Did the Exodus happen? Can the words of the Bible be matched with evidence of deeds? Did Moses even exist?
When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and calked it with bitumen and pitch. (From the translation by the Jewish Publication Society)
A Pharaoh, traditionally assigned the identity of Rameses II (reign: 1279-1213 B.C.), was threatened by a growing Israelite population. And so the Egyptians "made life bitter for them with harsh labor at mortar and bricks." When they continued to multiply, he ordered all newborn males thrown into the Nile. Moses' mother kept him hidden for three months and then set him adrift.
The story of the baby in the little ark woven of reeds is a favorite among some scholars who believe Moses was a creation of the ancient Hebrews' binding together their own national epic out of the tales of neighbors. They point out that a birth narrative of Sargon of Akkad, a Mesopotamian King who ruled in the millennium before Moses, reads, "My priestly mother conceived me, in secret she bore me. She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid." There is also the Egyptian legend of the god Horus, who is hidden in the Nile delta by his mother Isis to protect him from the wrath of his uncle Seth.
The gigantic monuments of Rameses II provide no evidence of the enslavement of the children of Israel in Egypt. Indeed, Israel does not appear in Egyptian records until the reign of Rameses' son and successor Merneptah. By then it is clearly a nation, not a wandering mass of refugees. But some scholars argue that a group of people called the 'Apiru in Egyptian chronicles may actually have included the Hebrews. And they point out a papyrus fragment that may show that Semitic peoples were used for forced labor. Between 1630 and 1521 B.C., Egypt was ruled by the Hyksos, a Semitic people from western Asia, until they were expelled by a native dynasty. Perhaps the Israelites shared a history with the Hyksos. Of Moses and the Israelites, says James Hoffmeier, an archaeologist and the author of Israel in Egypt: "There is one important thing to remember. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."