Moses

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Moses is the name, in English, of the great prophet recognised by all three Abrahamic faiths. Jews know him as 'Moyshe'; Muslims as 'Musa'. He is regarded by Jews and Christians alike as the great Lawgiver, and as the leader of the Israelites out of their bondage in Egypt to the "promised land" of Palestine. It was on that journey that the Red Sea is said to have parted to allow the Israelites to cross; it then closed again on Pharaoh's pursuing army. Moses died within sight of the Promised Land, without entering it, and was succeeded by his brother (and fellow-prophet).

Moses' great gift to Judaism and to Christianity was the Ten Commandments, the fundamental first laws of the two faiths. (The number is not as clear as it might be.) They have a special status in both, and the text is often displayed in synagogues and in churches. He received these on Mount Sinai, it is written, in the form of stone tables inscribed by the deity: they are sometimes called the ten tables or the ten tables. The Greek equivalent, the Decalogue, is also sometimes used.

The first five books of the Jewish Bible, which forms the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, which Jews call the Torah and Christians the Pentateuch, are sometimes called The five books of Moses, under the belief that Moses himself wrote them, under, some say, divine inspiration. How else, ask some, could he have described his own death? See Deuteronomy ch. 34, vv. 7 & 8:

"7. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 8: And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended." (AV])

The adjective formed meaning 'to do with Moses' is mosaic.

For more about Moses' life see Moses: the Early Years, Moses: the Exodus from Egypt, Moses: the Ten Commandments, and Moses: the Years in the Wilderness