Who was Moses, and how do we measure his greatness?
In a word: for many thousands of years, the sun never looked upon a greater man. From a tender age he was brought up in the palace of the king. For forty years, he was raised as the son of a king and his destined heir, educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. But then, denying that he was son of Pharao's daughter and preferring to be afflicted with the people of God to the temporary pleasure of a kingdom and of sin, he fled into Madian. There he tended sheep and spoke with God in the bush, and by contemplating God for another forty years he drank in every kind of wisdom. Finally, he became the leader of the people, and for a third span of forty years he was their high priest, supreme commander, lawgiver, teacher, prophet, and the most perfect antitype of Christ. The Lord said (Deuteronomy 18:18), "I will raise them up a prophet out of the midst of their brethren like to thee," and "The Lord thy God will raise up to thee a prophet of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me: him thou shalt hear," referring to Christ.
This office revealed the manner of man he was, who led three million stiff-necked men, i.e., thirty times a hundred thousand, through the desert wastes for forty years, fed them with heavenly food, taught them to fear and worship God, restrained them with peace and justice, was the judge of all their quarrels, and defended them against all enemies.
You will be amazed by the innumerable virtues of Moses. He was a musician and a composer of psalms; for as St. Jerome attests in volume 3, Letter to Cyprian, he composed eleven psalms, beginning from Psalm 89, entitled A prayer of Moses, the man of God, to Psalm 100 [sic, 99], which is subtitled, A song of praise.
Moses was worthy to receive the tablets of the law from God. The guide of his life was a column fire--or rather, an angel at the head of the column. He seemed, like an angel, to draw his life and nourishment from prayer alone. When he was about to receive the tablets, he fasted twice for forty days and nights on Mt. Sinai and remained there in conversation with God; horns of light were placed on his head. At the entrance to the tabernacle, he had daily and intimate conversations with God about all the affairs of the people. The Lord said (Numbers 12:7), "My servant Moses is most faithful in all my house: For I speak to him mouth to mouth: and plainly, and not by riddles and figures doth he see the Lord." For the Lord showed him all good, as it says in Exodus, chapter 33, verse 19 [sic, verse 17]. You would say that Moses was God's secretary--the amanuensis, indeed, of divine wisdom. Is this surprising, since Amalec was routed not by the arms of Josue, but by the prayers of Moses? Is it surprising, since "there arose no more a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face"? (Deuteronomy 34:10). Is it surprising, when by the power of God he became a great wonder-worker, who did not only part the Red Sea, but also brought manna down from heaven and cast Core, Dathan, and Abiron alive into hell? Thus he excelled every wonder-worker with his mighty deeds.
Who can fail to recognize the outstanding political and economic foresight of an excellent prince in the skill with which he ruled such a large number of people with such a hard, indeed adamantine, disposition? His remarkable charity and care for the people shone forth in the zeal with which he offered himself as a scapegoat, refuse, and expiation for his people, Israel; in the fervent exhortation that takes up the whole of Deuteronomy, in which he calls to witness heaven and earth and beings supernal and infernal and exhorts his people to observance of the law of God, so that he himself might justly say, "Why hast thou laid the weight of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this multitude, or begotten them, that thou shouldst say to me: Carry them in thy bosom as the nurse is wont to carry the little infant, and bear them into the land, for which thou hast sworn to their fathers?" (Numbers 11:11). St. Chrysostom spoke truly, in Homily 10 On 1 Timothy: "A bishop should be an angel, not subject to any passion or vice," and elsewhere, "One who undertakes the leadership of others ought to stand out with such glory that he outshines the rest as the sun outdoes the other stars with its brilliance." Therefore, if a bishop, a prelate, or a prince should be like a man among brutes, like an angel among men, like the sun among stars, imagine what sort of man Moses was, since he was found worthy in the [23] judgment of God--nay, made worthy by the vocation and grace of God--to preside over not Christians, but stiff-necked Jews, and not as a bishop , but as a high priest and a prince at the same time?
To pass over the rest, I am particularly amazed that a man who was raised to such divine heights showed such humility and gentleness. Although he was often the target of murmuring, slanders, reproaches, apostasy, and stones, he endured it all with an unflinching and kindly countenance, and he vindicated himself not with threats but with an outpouring of prayers to God. And so God rightly praises him in Numbers, 12:3: "For Moses was a man exceeding meek above all men that dwelt upon earth." Why "exceeding meek"? Because the great-souled man, living in heaven, regarded all the reproaches and outrages of men as earthly and insignificant things. As Seneca says in The Consolation of the Wise Man: "The wise man is separated from the contact of his inferiors by so wide a distance that no evil impulse can retain its power of harm until it reaches him, just as when a dart was cast at heaven and the sun by that foolish king, it fell back short of its mark. Or do you suppose that when he flung his chains into the deep, that he was able to reach Neptune? Just as sacred things escape from the hands of men, and no injury is done to the godhead by those who destroy temples and melt down images, so whoever attempts to treat the wise man with impertinence, insolence, or scorn, does so in vain. " [tr. Stewart, adapted]
Because of this gentleness of his, many believe, Moses was given the vision of the divine essence in this life. Concerning this matter and others that pertain to Moses, there will be more to say on Exodus, chapter 2, chapter 32ff.
It is well known that when Moses died, he was buried on Mt. Abarim by angels; hence "no man hath known of his sepulchre until this present day" (Deuteronomy 34:6). This was the reason why Michael the archangel disputed with the devil about the body of Moses, as St. Jude says in his letter.
Finally, do you wish to know Moses? Hear what Sirach says in Ecclesiasticus, chapter 45: "Moses was beloved of God, and men: whose memory is in benediction. He made him like the saints (i.e., the holy patriarchs) in glory, and magnified him in the fear of his enemies, and with his words he made prodigies to cease (i.e., he caused the ominous plagues of Egypt to cease). He glorified him in the sight of kings," i.e., king Pharao, about whom the Lord said to him in Exodus, chapter 7, verse 1: "Behold I have appointed thee the God of Pharao," "and gave him commandments in the sight of his people, and shewed him his glory. He sanctified him in his faith, and meekness, and chose him out of all flesh. For he heard him, and his voice, and brought him into a cloud. And he gave him commandments before his face, and a law of life and instruction, that he might teach Jacob his covenant, and Israel his judgments."
Hear what the Apostle says in Hebrews 11:24: "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, denied himself to be the son of Pharao's daughter; Rather choosing to be afflicted with the people of God, than to have the pleasure of sin for a time, Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of the Egyptians. For he looked unto the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the fierceness of the king: for he endured as seeing him that is invisible. By faith he celebrated the pasch, and the shedding of the blood; that he, who destroyed the firstborn, might not touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land: which the Egyptians attempting, were swallowed up."
Hear what St. Stephen says in Acts chapter 7, verses 22 and 30: "And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and in his deeds. There appeared to him in the desert of mount Sinai, an angel in a flame of fire in a bush. Him God sent to be prince and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him. He brought them out, doing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on mount Sinai, who received the words of life to give unto us."
Hear what St. Ambrose says in book 1 On Cain and Abel, chapter 2: In Moses, also, there is a figure of one who was to teach the Law, preach the Gospel, fulfill the Old Testament, found the New, give heavenly nourishment to the people. He so far exceeded the dignity of his human state that he was given the title of a God' as we read in the Scriptures, where the Lord speaks: 'I have appointed thee the God of Pharao.' He was, in fact, victorious over all his passions and was not allured by the enticements of the world. He enveloped this our habitation here in the body with a purity that savored of a 'citizenship that is in heaven. By directing his mind and by subduing and castigating his flesh with an authority that was almost regal, he was given the name of 'God,' in whom he had modeled his life by numerous acts of perfect virtue. Accordingly, we do not read of him, as we do of others, that he fell sick and died. We read that 'he died by the word of God,' for a God does not grow weak or undergo diminution or addition. Hence Scripture added: 'No man hath known of his sepulture until this present day,' by which we are to understand that he was taken up into heaven rather than buried" (tr. Savage). Here Ambrose appears to suggest that Moses did not die, but was translated like Elias and Enoch. I will have something to say about this in my commentary on the final chapter of Deuteronomy.
Hear what Constantine, the great emperor, said in the speech reported by Eusebius, chapter 17: "But who can worthily describe the praises of Moses himself; who, after reducing to order an unruly nation, and disciplining their minds to habits of obedience and respect, out of captivity restored them to a state of freedom, turned their mourning into gladness and so far elevated their minds, that, through the excess of contrast with their former circumstances, and the abundance of their prosperity, the spirit of the people was elated with haughtiness and pride? So far did he surpass in wisdom those who had lived before him, that even the wise men and philosophers who are extolled by heathen nations aspired to imitate his wisdom. For Pythagoras, following his wisdom, attained to such a pitch of self-control, that he became to Plato, himself a model of discretion, the standard of his own self-mastery" (tr. Richardson).
Hear, or rather, read what St. Justin writes in his Admonition (Paraenetica) to the Gentiles, all of which teaches that the Greeks drew their wisdom from the Egyptians, and the latter from Moses. Among other things, he says, "For when one inquired at your oracle — it is your own story — what religious men had at any time happened to live, [24] you say that the oracle answered thus: Only the Chaldæans have obtained wisdom, and the Hebrews, who worship God Himself, the self-begotten King." He adds: "Moses wrote his history in the Hebrew character by the divine inspiration. For the Greek character was not yet in use, as the teachers of language themselves prove, telling us that Cadmus first brought the letters from Phœnicia and communicated them to the Greeks. And your first of philosophers, Plato, testifies that they were a recent discovery. For in the Timæus he wrote that Solon, the wisest of the wise men, on his return from Egypt, said to Critias that he had heard this from a very aged Egyptian priest, who said to him, O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are ever children, and aged Greek there is none" [tr. Dods]. A little later, following Diodorus, he teaches that Orpheus, Homer, Solon, Pythagoras, Plato, the Sybil, and others, when they were in Egypt, changed their opinion about a plurality of gods because they had learned from Moses through the Egyptians that there is one god, who created heaven and earth in the beginning. Hence Orpheus sings:
"There is one Zeus alone, one sun, one hell,
One Bacchus; and in all things but one God;
Nor of all these as diverse let me speak."
And again he says:
"Now I adjure you by the highest heaven,
The work of the great God, the only wise;
And I adjure you by the father's voice.
Which first he uttered when he established
The whole world by His counsel." (tr. Dods)
Finally, he adds that it was from Moses that Plato learned about God, which explains why he calls him τὸ ὄν, that which is, just as Moses calls him ὁ ὤν, he who is, or I am who am. Likewise he learned from Moses about the creation of the world, the divine Word, the resurrection of bodies, the last judgment, the punishment of the wicked, the reward of the just, and the Holy Spirit, whom Plato believed to be the world soul--for he did not sufficiently understand Moses and twisted him to his own imaginings, and this caused him to fall into error.
In the same way, St. Cyril, in the first book Against Julian, shows that Moses was older than the original pagan heroes, whom they considered most ancient. Listen to his learned chronology of Moses and the gentiles: "And so, going from the time of Abraham to that of Moses, let us start by establishing the beginnings of times relative to the birth of Moses. They say that in Moses' seventh year were born Prometheus and Epimetheus, as well as Atlas, the brother of Prometheus, and Argus who sees all. In Moses' thirty-fifth year Cecrops, who was also called Diphyes, became the first king of Athens. He is said to be the first to have sacrificed cattle and to have named Jupiter as the high god of the Greeks. In the sixty-seventh year of Moses, they say, occurred the flood of Deucalion in Thessaly, and likewise that Phaethon, the son of the Sun, was burned up in Ethiopia. In the seventy-fourth year of Moses a certain Hellen, the son of Pyrrha and Deucalion, lent his name to the Greeks, who were previously called graeci. In the 120th year of Moses Dardanus built the city of Dardania, while Amyntas reigned over the Assyrians, Sthenelus over the Artives, and Ramesses over the Egyptians; he was also called Aegyptus, the son of Danaus. In the 160th year after Moses' birth Cadmus reigned in Thebes; his daughter was Semele, with whom, they say, Bacchus was sired by Jove. To that year also belong Linus of Thebes and Amphion, both musicians. At that time also Phinees, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, assumed the priesthood among the Hebrews, since Aaron had died. In the 195th year after Moses' birth, they say that the virgin Proserpine was seized by Aedoneus, i.e., by Orcus, the king of the Molossians. He is said to have reared a huge dog, named Cerberus, who apprehended Pirithous and Theseus, who were coming to take the king's wife. Although Pirithous died, Hercules came to rescue Theseus, who was in mortal peril, from the underworld, as the story goes. In the 290th year Perseus killed Dionysius, that is, Liber; they say his tomb is in Delphi, next to the golden Apollo. In the 410th year after Moses, Troy was taken; Esebon was judge among the Hebrews, and Agamemnon ruled the Argives, Vaphre, the Egyptians, and Teutamus, the Assyrians. Therefore the total number of years from the birth of Moses to the destruction of Troy is 410."
Hear St. Augustine in book 22 Against Faustus, chapter 69: "This Moses, who humbly put from him this high ministry, but obediently accepted it, and faithfully kept it, and diligently fulfilled it; who ruled the people with vigilance, reproved them with vehemence, loved them with fervor, and bore with them in patience, standing for his subjects before God to receive His counsel, and to appease His wrath — this great and good man is not to be judged of from Faustus' malicious representations, but from what is said by God, whose word is true" (tr. Stothert).
Hear St. Gregory in the second part of The Pastoral Rule, chapter 5: "Hence Moses goes frequently in and out of the tabernacle, and he who is wrapped into contemplation within is busied outside with the affairs of those who are subject to infirmity. Within he considers the secret things of God; without he carries the burdens of the carnal; affording without doubt an example to rulers, that, when in the outside world they are uncertain how to order things, they should consult the Lord through prayer" (tr. Barmby). He also says, in the sixth book of his commentary On I Kings, chapter 3, that Moses was so full of the Spirit that God drew from his spirit and shared it with the seventy rulers of the people. In Homily 16 On Ezechiel, he says that in the knowledge of God Moses was superior to Abraham. Nor is this surprising, for God said to Moses, "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and my name Adonai (Jehova) I did not shew them," which I now show and reveal to you, Moses.
Moreover, Moses was the express sign and type of Christ--so much so, that just as the sun illuminates the day and the moon, the night, so Christ illuminated Christians in the new law, and Moses, the Jews in the old. For this reason Ascanius [25] Martinengus nicely compares Christ to the sun and Moses to the moon in his glosses on Genesis volume 1, page 5, at the end and in what follows. First, Moses was the lawgiver of the Pentateuch, as Christ was of the Gospel. Second, Moses had two singular meetings with God, the first when he received the tablets from God on Sinai, and the second when he received new tablets and returned with his face gleaming, as if with horns. God gave him these as a testimony. He gave two similar testimonies to Christ: first in his baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove and a voice was heard from heaven, and again when he was transfigured on Mt. Tabor and Moses and Elias, representing the law and the prophets, gave witness to him. Third, Moses caused stupendous plagues and wonders in Egypt; Christ performed even greater ones. Fourth, Moses spoke to God, but in a cloud, and saw him from behind; Christ saw him face to face. Fifth, Moses heard God say, "Thou hast found grace before me, and thee I have known by name." Christ heard the Father say, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him."
Hear Eusebius in book 3 of Demonstrations of the Gospel, where he composes an amazing table of comparisons between the deeds of Christ and those of Moses. Since he writes at great length, I will reduce it to a brief summary:
Moses was the lawgiver of the Jewish people; Christ, of the entire universe.
Moses removed idols from the Hebrews; Christ expelled them from every region of the world.
Moses brought down the law with amazing portents; Christ established the Gospel with even greater ones.
Moses led his own people into freedom; Christ removed the yoke of slavery from the human race.
Moses opened a world flowing with milk and honey; Christ unlocked the most excellent land of the living.
[illegible] as a newborn infant, Moses was in danger of his life from the harshness of Pharao, who had condemned the males of the Jewish people to death; the infant Christ, though worshiped by the Magi, was forced to withdraw into Egypt by the ferocity of Herod, the murderer of young boys.
As a young man, Moses was conspicuous for his learning in every discipline; at twelve years of age, Christ amazed the most erudite scholars of the law.
While fasting for forty days, Moses fed on conversation with God; Christ neither ate nor drank for forty days, as he devoted himself to divine contemplation.
In the desert, Moses gave manna and quail to his hungry people; Christ fed five thousand in the desert with five loaves of bread.
Moses passed unharmed through the waters of the Red Sea; Christ walked on the waves of the sea.
Moses divided the waters by stretching out his staff; Christ rebuked the wind and sea, and there was a great calm.
Moses appeared luminous with a flashing countenance on the mountain; Christ was transfigured on a mountain, having a most brilliant aspect, as his face shone like the sun.
The sons of Israel could not look upon Moses; before Christ, his disciples fell upon their faces in terror.
Moses restored Mary, who was struck with leprosy, to her former health; Mary Magdalen, covered with the stain of her sins, was cleansed by Christ with heavenly grace.
The Egyptians called Moses the finger of God; of himself Christ said, "But if by the finger of God I cast out devils...."
Moses selected twelve scouts; Christ chose twelve apostles.
Moses gave authority to seventy elders; Christ did the same for seventy disciples.
Moses chose Josue, son of Nave, as his successor; Christ raised Peter to the high priesthood to succeed himself.
Of Moses it is written: "No man hath known of his sepulchre until this present day." Of Christ the angels bore this witness: "You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified? He is risen, he is not here."
Hear St Basil in the first homily of the Hexaemeron: "Moses, when still at the breast, was fair and pleasing to God; [1365] he preferred to be persecuted with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting delights of sin. He received from nature a love of justice and a horror of evil, in Ethiopia he passed forty years in contemplation. Finally, at the age of eighty, he saw God, as far as it is possible for man to see Him; hence God said of Moses, 'with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches'" (tr. Jackson).
Hear St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 22, in which he compares St. Basil and his brother St. Gregory of Nyssa to Moses and Aaron: "Who was the most illustrious of lawgivers? Moses. Who was the holiest of priests? Aaron. They were brothers no less in piety than in body; or rather, that one was the God of Pharao, the commander and lawgiver of the Israelites, the one who entered the cloud and viewed and interpreted divine secrets, the architect of the true tabernacle that was built by God, not man; he was the prince of princes and the priest of priests, who used Aaron as his tongue, etc. Both of them plagued Egypt, divided the sea, governed Israel, drowned their enemies, drew bread down from heaven, walked on water, and showed the way to the promised land. Therefore Moses was the prince of princes and the priest of priests, etc."
Hear St. Jerome, who teaches at the beginning of his Commentary on the Epistle to Galatians that Moses was not only a prophet, but also an apostle, and this is the common view of the Hebrews.
Hear Philo, the most learned of the Hebrews: "This is the life, this is the departure of Moses, king, lawgiver, priest, and prophet." From book 3 On the Life of Moses, at the end.
Hear also the gentiles. Numenius is quoted in Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel, chapter 3, as asserting that Plato and Pythagoras followed the teachings of Moses--so much, he said, that what is Plato, but the Athenian Moses? [26] Add to these Eupolemus and Artapanus, who say (according to Eusebius, ibid., chapter 4) that Moses gave literature to the Egyptians as well as many other things for the common good. Thus he was called Mercury because of his interpretation of sacred letters and, as it happened, he was regarded as almost a god among them.
Ptolemy Philadelphus (as Aristaeas testifies On the 72 Translators), having heard the law of Moses, said to Demetrius: "How is it that no historian or poet preserves the memory of such a work?" Demetrius replied, "This is the law of sacred things, given by God; moreover, some have tried to write about it, but were terrified by a divine plague and abandoned their plan." He gave as examples the historian, Theopompus, and the tragic poet, Theodect, whom I have previously mentioned.
Diodorus, the most respected of all historians, as St. Justin says in his Hortatory Address to the Greeks, posits six original lawgivers, the first of which is Moses. He describes him as a man of great soul, celebrated for his uprightness of life, and adds these words: "Among the Jews they say that Moses ascribed his laws to that God who is called Jehovah, whether because they judged it a marvelous and quite divine conception which promised to benefit a multitude of men, or because they were of opinion that the people would be the more obedient when they contemplated the majesty and power of those who were said to have invented the laws. And they say that Sasunchis was the second Egyptian legislator, a man of excellent understanding. And the third, they say, was Sesonchosis the king, who not only performed the most brilliant military exploits of any in Egypt, but also consolidated that warlike race by legislation. And the fourth lawgiver, they say, was Bocchoris the king, a wise and surpassingly skillful man. And after him it is said that Amasis the king acceded to the government, whom they relate to have regulated all that pertains to the rulers of provinces, and to the general administration of the government of Egypt. And they say that Darius, the father of Xerxes, was the sixth who legislated for the Egyptians" (tr. Dods).
Finally, Josephus, Eusebius, and others say that of all those whose writings are extant, or whose names are recorded in gentile writings, Moses was the first theologian, philosopher, poet, and historian. For this reason, there is a remarkable veneration of Moses not only among the Jews, but among the gentiles, as well. Josephus tells the story, in book 20, chapter 4, that a Roman soldier had cut up the books of Moses and the Jews ran to the Roman official, Cumanus, to demand revenge for the injury done not to themselves, but to the Godhead. Cumanus accordingly punished the soldier who had violated the law by striking him with his axe.
Moreover, this veneration has been illustrated by martyrdom and miracles. When Maximian and Diocletian issued an edict that the books of Moses and the other scriptural books be handed over to them for burning, the faithful resisted, preferring to die rather than hand them over. Thus many entered the glorious contest on behalf of the sacred books, and so won the victorious crown of martyrdom. But when Fundanus, the onetime bishop of Alutina, handed over the books from fear for his life, and the sacrilegious magistrate was putting them on the fire, a rainstorm suddenly appeared in the calm skies and extinguished the fire that had been set for the books. A hailstorm followed, and that entire region was devastated by the raging elements on behalf of the sacred books. So say the acts of St. Saturninus, which are extant at Surium, for February 11.
Look upon us , I beech you, holy Moses, who once had a distant view of the glory of God on Mt. Sinai and a much closer view of the glory Christ on Mt. Tabor, and who now enjoy the vision of them both, face to face. Extend a hand from above, and let the rivers of your wisdom flow into us, and by your prayers and merits impart to us even a spark of that eternal light. Beg the Father of lights that he may lead us, worms that we are, to these sacred precincts of the Pentateuch, and grant that we may recognize him in his scriptures. May he grant that we may love him as much as we know him, for we do not wish to know him unless we love him, and, kindled like torches with his love, we may set others and the entire world ablaze. Such is the science of the saints; he is our love and our fear, to him alone all our affairs tend, and to him we dedicate ourselves and all things with us. And finally lead us to Christ, who is the end of your law, that he may guide, assist, and bring to success our studies and all our efforts for the glory of God, to whom all creation sings praise, the glory which must be preached in the realm of his church now militant, and which we and all your students are bound to celebrate most sweetly and happily, I hope, with you for all eternity. There we shall stand above the sea of glass, as many as have vanquished the beast, "singing the canticle of Moses, the servant of God, and the canticle of the Lamb, saying: Great and wonderful are thy works, O Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, O King of ages. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and magnify thy name? For thou only art holy" (Apocalypse 15.3). For you have chosen us, you have made us a kingdom and priests, and we shall reign unto the ages of ages. Amen.