The Egyptian character of his name was recognized as such by ancient Jewish writers like Philo and Josephus. The Hebrew etymology in the Biblical story may reflect an attempt to cancel out traces of Moses' Egyptian origins. Asher haLevi noted that the princess names him the active participle 'drawer-out' ( מֹשֶׁה, mōše), not the passive participle 'drawn-out' ( נִמְשֶׁה, nīmše), in effect prophesying that Moses would draw others out (of Egypt) this has been accepted by some scholars. She named him Moses, saying, 'I drew him out of the water'." This explanation links it to the Semitic root משׁה, m-š-h, meaning "to draw out". He is said to have received it from the Pharaoh's daughter: "he became her son. The biblical account of Moses' birth provides him with a folk etymology to explain the ostensible meaning of his name. Linguist Abraham Yahuda, based on the spelling given in the Tanakh, argues that it combines "water" or "seed" and "pond, expanse of water," thus yielding the sense of "child of the Nile" ( mw- š). ![]() However, biblical scholar Kenneth Kitchen argued that this – or any Egyptian origin for the name – was unlikely, as the sounds in the Hebrew m-š-h do not correspond to the pronunciation of Egyptian msy in the relevant time period. Etymology of name The Finding of Moses, painting by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1904Īn Egyptian root msy ('child of') has been considered as a possible etymology, arguably an abbreviation of a theophoric name, as for example in Egyptian names like Thutmose ('child of Thoth') and Ramesses ('child of Ra'), with the god's name omitted. ![]() ![]() Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE Jerome suggested 1592 BCE, and James Ussher suggested 1571 BCE as his birth year. Generally, the majority of scholars see the biblical Moses as a legendary figure, whilst retaining the possibility that Moses or a Moses-like figure existed in the 13th century BCE. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died on Mount Nebo at the age of 120, within sight of the Promised Land. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. Moses said that he could not speak eloquently, so God allowed Aaron, his elder brother, to become his spokesperson. God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. After killing an Egyptian slave-master who was beating a Hebrew, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he encountered the Angel of the Lord, speaking to him from within a burning bush on Mount Horeb, which he regarded as the Mountain of God. Through Pharaoh's daughter (identified as Queen Bithia in the Midrash), the child was adopted as a foundling from the Nile and grew up with the Egyptian royal family. Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed, secretly hid him when Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed in order to reduce the population of the Israelites. Īccording to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people, the Israelites, an enslaved minority, were increasing in population and, as a result, the Egyptian Pharaoh worried that they might ally themselves with Egypt's enemies. ![]() According to both the Bible and the Quran, Moses was the leader of the Israelites and lawgiver to whom the authorship, or "acquisition from heaven", of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) is attributed. Moses ( / ˈ m oʊ z ɪ z, - z ɪ s/) is considered the most important prophet in Judaism and one of the most important prophets in Christianity, Islam, the Druze faith, the Baháʼí Faith, and other Abrahamic religions.
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