Smith's Bible Dictionary
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Moses
(Heb. Mosheh, "drawn," i.e. from the water; in the Coptic it means "saved from the water"), the legislator of the Jewish people, and in a certain sense the founder of the Jewish religion. The immediate pedigree of Moses is as follows: Levi was the father of:
1. "The song which Moses and the children of Israel sung" (after the passage of the Red Sea). Ex 15:1-19
2. A fragment of the war-song against Amalek. Ex 17:16
3. A fragment of lyrical burst of indignation. Ex 32:18
4. The fragments of war-songs, probably from either him or his immediate prophetic followers, in Nu 21:14,15,27-30 preserved in the "book of the wars of Jehovah," Nu 21:14 and the address to the well. ch. Nu 21:14 and the address to the well. ch. Nu 21:16,17,18
5. The song of Moses, De 32:1-43 setting forth the greatness and the failings of Israel.
6. The blessing of Moses on the tribes, De 33:1-29
7. The 90th Psalm, "A prayer of Moses, the man of God." The title, like all the titles of the psalms, is of doubtful authority, and the psalm has often been referred to a later author. Character. --The prophetic office of Moses can only be fully considered in connection with his whole character and appearance. Ho 12:13 He was in a sense peculiar to himself the founder and representative of his people; and in accordance with this complete identification of himself with his nation is the only strong personal trait which we are able to gather from his history. Nu 12:3 The word "meek" is hardly an adequate reading of the Hebrew term, which should be rather "much enduring." It represents what we should now designate by the word "disinterested." All that is told of him indicates a withdrawal of himself, a preference of the cause of his nation to his own interests, which makes him the most complete example of Jewish patriotism. (He was especially a man of prayer and of faith, of wisdom, courage and patience.) In exact conformity with his life is the account of his end. The book of Deuteronomy describes, and is, the long last farewell of the prophet to his people. This takes place on the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year of the wanderings, in the plains of Moab. De 1:3,5 Moses is described as 120 years of age, but with his sight and his freshness of strength unabated. De 34:7 Joshua is appointed his successor. The law is written out and ordered to be deposited in the ark. ch. 31. The song and the blessing of the tribes conclude the farewell. chs. 32,33. And then comes the mysterious close. He is told that he is to see the good land beyond the Jordan, but not to possess it himself. He ascends the mount of Pisgah and stands on Nebo, one of its summits, and surveys the four great masses of Israel west of the Jordan, so far as it can be discerned from that height. The view has passes into a proverb for all nations. "So Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Jehovah. And he buried him in a 'ravine' in the land of Moab, 'before' Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day... And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days." De 34:5,6,8 This is all that is said in the sacred record. (This burial was thus hidden probably -- (1) To preserve his grave from idolatrous worship or superstitious reverence; and (2) Because it may be that God did not intend to leave his body to corruption, but to prepare it, as he did the body of Elijah, so that Moses could in his spiritual body meet Christ, together with Elijah, on the mount of transfiguration.) Moses is spoken of as a likeness of Christ; and as this is a point of view which has been almost lost in the Church, compared with the more familiar comparisons of Christ to Adam, David, Joshua, and yet has as firm a basis in fact as any of them, it may be well to draw it out in detail. (1) Moses is, as it would seem, the only character of the Old Testament to whom Christ expressly likens himself: "Moses wrote of me." Joh 5:46 It suggests three main points of likeness: (a) Christ was, like Moses, the great prophet of the people --the last, as Moses was the first. (b) Christ, like Moses, is a lawgiver: "Him shall ye hear." (c) Christ, like Moses, was a prophet out of the midst of the nation, "from their brethren." As Moses was the entire representative of his people, feeling for them more than for himself, absorbed in their interests, hopes and fears, so, with reverence be it said, was Christ. (2) In Heb 3:1-19; 12:24-29; Ac 7:37 Christ is described, though more obscurely, as the Moses of the new dispensation --as the apostle or messenger or mediator of God to the people --as the controller and leader of the flock or household of God. (3) The details of their lives are sometimes, though not often, compared. Ac 7:24-28, 35 In Jude 1:9 is an allusion to an altercation between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses. It probably refers to a lost apocryphal book, mentioned by Origen, called the "Ascension" or "Assumption of Moses." Respecting the books of Moses, see PENTATEUCH.
Bibliography Information
Smith, William, Dr "Meaning and Definition for 'moses' in Smiths Bible Dictionary".
bible-history.com - Smith's; 1901.
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