Moses: His Life and Times

Excerpt from Moses: His Life and Times

The materials for a life of Moses are found chiefly in the four later Books of the Pentateuch. The New Testament also contributes some valuable notices, especially Acts vii. and Hebrews xi. Next to them in value, but next at an interval that is scarcely measurable, come the accounts given by Josephus and Philo. Moses is the hero of Josephus's Second, Third, and Fourth Books, which present to us the circumstances of his life with a considerable amount of detail, but do not add very much to the scriptural narrative, except at the two extremes of Moses career, his early years and his decease. Different estimates may be formed of the degree of credit to be attached to these portions of Josephus's history, and it requires, beyond a doubt, much critical acumen to deal with them properly, neither accepting nor rejecting them en bloc. The same may be said of the notices to be found in the writings of Philo. Philo has left us a work entitled, "The Life of Moses" (ITepi Bloy Mwoewç), which contains interesting accounts of his education and personal appearance; and in several of his other treatises he gives estimates of Moses' character and abilities. A passage of Artapanus, preserved by Eusebius, is entitled to consideration. Many legends have clustered round the name of Moses, some Jewish, others Mahometan; but these are almost wholly worthless, and throughout the following pages, excepting in a single instance, no notice has been taken of them. The writer's strong conviction has been that it is from Scripture, almost entirely, if not entirely, that we must learn the facts of Moses' life, and deduce our estimate of his character. He believes that in the four later Books of the Pentateuch we have an actual, though not an intentional, autobiography.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.