Moses the Prophet

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a religious leader, lawgiver, and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moses our Teacher, he is the most important prophet in Judaism and is also considered an important prophet by Christianity and Islam. Moses has also been an important symbol in American history, from the first settlers up until the present. In the Moses story related by the Quran, Jochebed is commanded by God to place Moses in an ark and cast him on the waters of the Nile, thus abandoning ####him completely to God's protection. Pharaoh's wife Asiya, not his daughter, found Moses floating in the waters of the Nile. She convinced Pharaoh to keep him as their son because they were not blessed with any children. God commanded Moses to go to Egypt and deliver his fellow Hebrews from bondage. God had Moses practice transforming his rod into a serpent and inflicting and healing leprosy, and told him that he could also pour river water on dry land to change the water to blood. The Quran's account has emphasized Moses' mission to invite the Pharaoh to accept God's divine message as well as give salvation to the Israelites. Moses then set off for Egypt, and was nearly killed by God because his son was not circumcised (the meaning of this latter obscure passage is debatable, because of the ambiguous nature of the Hebrew and its abrupt presence in the narrative). He was met on the way by his elder brother, Aaron, and gained a hearing with his oppressed kindred after they returned to Egypt, who believed Moses and Aaron after they saw the signs that were performed in the midst of the Israelite assembly.

Religion's views of Moses:
Judaism
There is a wealth of stories and additional information about Moses in the Jewish apocrypha and in the genre of rabbinical exegesis known as Midrash, as well as in the primary works of the Jewish oral law, the Mishnah and the Talmud.
Christianity
For Christians, Moses — mentioned more often in the New Testament than any other Old Testament figure — is often a symbol of God's law, as reinforced and expounded on in the teachings of Jesus. New Testament writers often compared Jesus' words and deeds with Moses' to explain Jesus' mission.
Islam
In the Islamic view of Moses, he signifies "great importance." His life is narrated and recounted more than any other prophet recognized in Islam. He is mentioned 502 times in the Qur'an, "far more than the references to Jesus, Noah and even Abraham." In general, Moses is described in ways which parallel the prophet Muhammad, and "his character exhibits some of the main themes of Islamic theology," including the "moral injunction that we are to submit ourselves to God. Most of the key events in Moses' life which are narrated in the Bible are to be found dispersed through the different chapters of Quran, with a story about meeting Khidr which is not found in the Bible.

Sources

Keywords