Much work has been done on the Exodus, evidence scoured for possible routes into the wilderness, the conquests of Canaan pored over all without result. Those who vehemently believed or believe in the story did so through belief in the Bible as history. Many people still do and a small number of unaffiliated scholars still treat the Bible as true, extrapolating vast vistas of Hebrew existence into the past. This paper will treat the Moses story as fiction, but one pregnant with meaning. It will present the Moses and Exodus narratives as conversion myths in a similar way to the Abraham story, both narratives describing changes in priestly or ideological concepts of the cult. Within biblical text scribes and priests constructed a reality that rarely connected to actual events in the hill-country or the cultures existing there, but represents another, preferred reality, one of ethnic purity and underlying piety. The changes the Moses’ myth symbolised involved the centralisation of the cult and the shaping of Hebrew culture into one transfigured by law, with law courts presenting its essential templates-YHWH as a judge and society made up of accusers and accused. Lastly, this paper will consider Israel and Judah within organic contrasts, demonstrating the association of Moses and Israel with maturation.
Judaism begins with Moses and his presentation to the Hebrews of the commandments provided by YHWH. The seriousness with which this has been received needs to be evaluated as the laws themselves, while being a mish-mash of Middle Eastern and Egyptian laws consists also of dietary codes and rules. At this point these papers will address the problem of when biblical text was written down as the first copy we have are the Dead Sea Scrolls[1], which differ in some instances probably to reflect Essene beliefs. For example, in the Scrolls the qualities of Adam and Moses are conflated, one situated as the other. There are also differences between Masoretic medieval Hebrew text and the Septuagint, the Jewish and Christian commentary. The evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls suggests that there were many versions of the Old Testament. Apparently 60% of the DSS chimes with the Masoretic Text, but only 5% with the Septuagint. And yet modern changes to the text based on the DSS are few, but sometimes startling. For example:
MT and KJV: Deut. 32-43. DSS 4QDeut q
Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people. Rejoice with him, you heavens,
bow down, all you gods
Clearly, the text was different originally and at a time when monotheism was thought to be established in Israel, at least to a large degree, it was not. Monotheism was gradually established through legends/stories such as the Moses story and Persian hegemony.
The first evidence of the Moses story comes from Israel and seems only later to have reached Judah by the 8th century at the earliest (Romer: The Revelation of the Divine Name to Moses and the Construction of a Memory about the Origins of the Encounter between YHWH and Israel)[2]. Its martial emphasis of conquest and genocide might more reflect the northern state. In Exod. 20:2 and Deut. 5.6 there is no mention of Moses. In Deut. 5-9 YHWH is hailed as the author of Exodus. Most of the Psalms do not mention Moses and his part in the Exodus. As Moses´ mentions are in Chronicle, Romer suspects there was an Exodus narrative without Moses. This is indeed complicated by 1 Kings: 12 in which Jeroboam builds two golden calves to be situated at Bethel and Dan declaring that these were the gods that lead them out of Egypt. Romer speculates that the two calves represent the early YHWH cult from Bethel and Dan, which requires genuine consideration and may point to YHWH emerging from amongst the Philistines and Sea Peoples. This is of course merely speculation, although Dan, contrary to the Patriarch stories, only became part of Israel in the 8th century. It could, as Romer asserts, be an attempt by Judah redactors to blacken the development of the YHWH religion in Israel.
Modern scholarship sees the Moses narrative as heavily redacted in contrast to earlier ideas of its roots in oral traditions[3], and although probably correct this paper suggests that the Moses story owes much to North African and Middle Eastern literature, strongly reflecting those regions’ narratives and genres. It is a revised compendium of older literary and historical traditions based in Egypt, Sumeria and Syria. Its symbolism reflects that of the charismatic leader, an archetype that evolved during the Late Bronze Age, epitomised through Sargon the Great, Ramesses II, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh, as well as Hittite religion in which conquest was part of the ideology.
Of the above, the Hebrews accomplished little but are like the bar-room bore who claims to be a millionaire or ex-army officer and writes and speaks about his/her fantasies convincingly-so convincingly that its primary and secondary religions can be counted in billions, many believing its historical authenticity. Romer (2012: 65-66) references C. Leven who asserts that the only original text in the Exodus: ‘So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt….(4.20); the Israelites journey from Rameses to Succoth (12:37); They set out from Succoth, and camped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness…..(13:20) ; When the Israelites looked back there were the Egyptians advancing on them (14:10).’ As Romer suggests (67) that the story itself dates from Persian times, with many redactions, the narrative was created late, just before the time of Manetho, the Egyptian historian, one of its earliest commentators, and its narratives were familiar to him-the narratives fitting in with Egyptian and Hellenistic Greek myths to some extent or another. Osiris’ fight and flight with Set, the spirituality of his death and resurrection, the notion of renewal, of identity formed upon nationhood. None of these matters were new. The Greeks had built their culture upon heroes.
Of importance to the theme of this paper, the matter of conversion, Romer (2015: 307) references how Jacob is treated in Chapter 12 of the Book of Hosea, as a figure who became Canaanite, and who worshiped El, not necessarily YHWH. While this again might simply reflect Judah’s negativity towards Israel, after all Abraham was their ancestor not Jacob, it might also reflect different religious views and a different god. Discovering god’s name, is perhaps an indication of a different religion. Romer claims that the name YHWH is a later redaction in the narrative (page 310) and that the previous names are 1) in the primeval history Elohim; 2) for Abraham El Shadday; 3) only the northern state of Israel and Moses knew the name YHWH. Romer sensibly concludes that the original Exodus story minus Moses came from the northern state of Israel, and that Moses and YHWH connected together are inventions from Judah of the 7th century BCE-with Moses as a mythical character actually predating the Exodus story-conjured as a response to Assyrian incursions (page 314). Meanwhile, Tebes[4]considers Exodus as competing narratives in Israel, a unifying myth for the reforms of Jeroboam II taken up by Judah probably when Israel was destroyed by Assyria and refugees arrived in Judah.
Narrative and symbolism:
The Moses story appears to contain several inclusive stories: birth and adoption, maturation into hero, problems in a foreign culture, hiatus abroad and successful life, return to Egypt to free his people (matters of identity and thereby instability of his relationship with Egyptian elite as both a slave and incubus), with additional subtext for example as magician, YHWH demonstrating power and freeing Hebrews, sojourn in desert and conquest march.
Each element of the story reflects other stories and contributes to notions of change-that is conversion. The story is meant to demonstrate how the Hebrew state came about (it is an elite fabrication) in connection with the YHWH cult, itself connected to conquest motifs. This was common at the period, but whereas the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians did conquer, the Hebrews did not.
Moses’ rescue as a baby from certain death appears a rewrite of the Sargon the Great myth. The Myth of the birth of the hero (Otto Rank.1914[5]) although it also can be seen, with its literary structure, as abandonment by YHWH with the Hebrews abandonment of him through going to and abiding in Egypt. Although the covenant story concerns faith in YHWH’s word and plans, the Hebrew’s disappoint YHWH by not keeping their side of the bargain until YHWH again intervenes. Nevertheless, the narrative is not coherent, except for Egypt being the incubator for the Hebrews to safely gain in number. In this view, Moses is a midwife, not only in allowing the birth of Hebrews as a nation, but also allowing for the birth of YHWH’s laws and knowledge. We have here a literary reconstruction of the Osiris story, Moses enjoys several distinct lives and identities, of fertility myths in general and modern myths of attachment and separation from Egypt, the cultural ‘bad’ mother, to relative autonomy.
Sargon, the mighty king, King of Agade, am I. My mother was a vestal, my father I knew not, while my father’s brother dwelt in the mountains. In my city Azuripani, which is situated on the bank of the Euphrates, my mother, the vestal, bore me. In a hidden place she brought me forth. She laid me in a vessel made of reeds, closed my door with pitch, and dropped me down into the river, which did not drown me. The river carried me to Akki, the water carrier. Akki the water carrier lifted me up in the kindness of his heart, Akki the water carrier raised me as his own son, Akki the water carrier made of me his gardener. In my work as a gardener I was beloved by Ishtar, I became the king, and for forty-five years I held kingly sway. 1
The story of Sargon the great, according to Romer, was written down in the 8th century during the resurgence of Assyrian power, although referencing the original Akkadian king of that name. Other documents of the time appear to confirm the 3rd millennium story of Sargon to some degree, but many historians dispute the existence of an empire, suggesting instead it was more likely a confederation.
The Moses myth by contrast shows Moses evolving from lowly beginnings into a member of a royal, powerful and wealthy household, while Sargon makes the journey from lowly beginnings to wealth through talent it seems rather than fate. In each case the journey by river symbolises change. The Moses story shows Moses as driven by YHWH, at times a mere puppet, not someone with skills. Moses is an incubus, inserted by other forces to destroy a host culture (he certainly destroys the family who saved him, connecting his life to the Pharaoh’s dream of Hebrew numbers and their threat to the Egyptian polity), while Sargon openly declares his foreign nature, born of a hierodule in Azuripani, a city that did not exist, brought up outside of the elite, with a father from the mountains, a place of barbarians he has not known. Sargon enters Akkad society to transform both it and the world in which he lives.
Moses becomes part of Egyptian royalty by fate, or design, that is YHWH’s will, except at this point YHWH has apparently forgotten them. The Pharaoh has noted the fertility of the Israelites and the threat they pose, turning them into slaves (Ex 1 8-9).[6] When they still increase in numbers, he orders the killing of first born boys (Ex 2: 22). A common sacrifice event in the Bible, but unlikely to have occurred in Egypt.
These events seem to function in many ways. They may express a genuine fear of migration, particularly Semitic migration, but we then find ourselves in the abiding problem of dating text. It may equally have been a Hebrew fear of Phoenician or Syrian intrusion at the time of Yehud or anxieties over the return of the exiles. The sacrifice events may have been common in the hill-country until the Babylonian take over. As these papers assert at certain points that the Israelites were a mixture of races and cultures, mainly Hebrew and Phoenician, then probably the last two of these. Egypt throughout is presented as an incubation device for the Israelite nation (which as has already been noted, probably did not exist in totality pre-exile), to initiate the fertility that by and large they did not, notwithstanding YHWH’s promises, otherwise possess. YHWH thereby needed help to achieve his great plan for without Egyptian acquiescence it would have come to nothing. Exodus 2: 24 demonstrates that YHWH had forgotten about the Hebrews and the covenant. Moses’ association with Egypt may indicate the powerful role Egypt had in constructing the Israelite nation but this was probably equally a narrative device to place the Israelite nation into the distant past. In these narratives, Egypt seems to take the place of Assyria and Babylon, the enslavement of Hebrews corresponding to the removal of the Israelite population and of the elite of Judah.
Sargon the Great by contrast, through his mother’s occupation and his father’s birthplace, places himself as an outsider. He shares the liminal existence of Moses, whose identity is only confirmed by YHWH, and of nearly all ancient heroes.
Sargon’s allusion to mountains might also be a reference to his father as a god or simply as a foreigner. Commentators allege this makes him seem ordinary by comparison with other Sumerian heroes, as Moses also is often referenced as ordinary, not of royal birth. As in the Exodus narrative only YHWH is truly remarkable, creates real change, Sargon still has supernatural connections. Compared to Moses, Sargon is independent because of his freedom from royal and godly connections. The placing of his father as a god goes along with the fact that until recently no one could ever be sure of who their real father was and fantasies, which often were true, of being unrelated to one or both parents were common. As he did not know his father, he remains autonomous, which is necessary in a conqueror set on changing the geography and culture of his world. Sargon could not so easily hide his real background as someone born without royal connections.
If as seems likely he was outside of the general run of kings and chiefs, not one of the traditional elite, why should he broadcast the fact? He was using his humble but secretively godly origins to declare that he was starting history afresh. He was not part of the old elite groups. Moses too was at the beginning of a new kind of history, but a tool rather than an innovator. Both were, it seems ‘Foreigners in a foreign land’Ex.2:22, (Moses predicament copied from Sargon’s), with Moses’ non-Hebrew background, born to Levites, a group not considered Hebrew, brought up an Egyptian, exacerbated by his marrying a Midian, and his children Midian. In that he was equal to Sargon. Moses’ stay in Midia closely resembles the Sinuhe story, as the Egyptian is deeply aware of his difference and fears he will lose his identity.
The hero of humble beginnings, who is really a god, a king, a prince, but whose identity has been lost or forgotten-Sargon, as above, Jesus, King Arthur, Oliver Twist-is a consistent literary trope, an encouragement for the oppressed and equally for the ambitious. It can be found in various disguises-Gilgamesh begins as a king and hero and becomes a wanderer, without home or city, a tramp, until he rediscovers himself and returns to Uruk and his duties as a king. Jesus comes to his destiny when past 30, Muhammad discovers his true identity or vocation after many years as a merchant. It is a myth of actualisation.[7] The nature of identity is important for a hero, not fully grasping it until maturity at best, often knowing only one parent, coming into full powers after youth has faded-unless of course the hero-archetype is based on you like Achilles and Alexander, whereby that youth, in the latter instance, reflects the youth of the state the hero rules or fights for. Abraham and Moses’ advanced ages reflect the eternal life of YHWH and the ancient nature of the Hebrew religion. The Patriarch’s excessively long lives, reflect the idea that the religion they represent is indeed exceedingly old, when in fact it is exceedingly young, but also, conversely, they appear more like El than YHWH in age and appearance.
Birth legends appear common within the ancient world and indeed in human cultures in general. Jeff Boice[8] demonstrates the prevalence of the myth in Ancient Irish culture, some distance from Palestine then and now, not only in Irish pagan society but in Saints’ narratives. Such stories are found in China, amongst Tartars, in Hindu and amongst the ancient Greeks. Rees and Rees see these myths as being ‘symbols of the transcendent meaning of birth’, that is its relevance in the supernatural world within paradigms of predestination and the incarnation of a spirit or, I suggest, an ancestor. Boice itemises both the daemon lover, or in many societies a god, and in Irish culture a fructifying substance such as a worm or salmon, in others an incubus. The association with gods as lovers is particularly frequent in Greek culture, inherited perhaps from Mesopotamia, and appears again in the story of Jesus’ paternal origins. Earthly powers (Pharaohs) cannot stop the hero: prevent his (invariably a he) or stop their maturation, which is often beset with trials and obstacles. The supra/personal nature of the hero initiates natural forces at his birth-thunder, such as lightening, cloud formations, rods bursting into bloom, strange animal births.
Certainly the hero figure represents in coded, archetypal form the ethics of the group[9], and in the Moses’ story the ethics of YHWH. Of course he represents also the Israel nation, past and future, and the inevitability of a society based on law that continues to represent incubation. The blanket of an all-abiding Law is another form of incubation. Contrarily, the Moses’ figure represents the Middle Eastern nature of Moses and Israel, its connection to other cultures. Moses remains a constant allusion to Egypt as well as Midia. He is seen as everyman and all-men, but somehow threatening to later Israel. In Jewish texts Moses’ sons, not full ethnic Hebrews, disappear from the greater story.
Svend Hansen [10]considers heroes to have emerged from the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE, standing out through strength, dominant character and charisma, although he places its first appearance during the 4th millennium. Moses fits this picture, more so as one who not just founds a people but also leads it on a migration during which they fuse together as a people and gain an identity, a social structure and religion. Such heroes and migration leaders became part of near eastern and European culture: Romulus and Remus, Aeneas, Agamemnon and of course Sargon. Religion would be involved in each case. The Aztecs had a similar migration story. [11]
Each of these stories contain darker elements. These include the placing of both Moses and Sargon in tiny boats on a river. There are several different possible interpretations here: that fate will look after them, both because of and confirming their future hero status and connection to the gods; it is simply an attempt to rid themselves of the unwanted birth of a child conceived in inappropriate circumstances, as in Sargon, although even in that narrative there is a connection to the supra-natural: Moses was set adrift to save him from certain death but there was clearly a possibility he would die, even when discovered by the Egyptian princess: the story of Moses’ being adopted by royalty is also fantasy of the kind many pre-adolescents and young adults enjoy, in reverse, royalty to poor circumstances, but which still occurs in the Moses and Sargon fashion as representing day-dreams of a better life, of being famous when older. Another corresponding story is within the Siege of Aratta, whereby Lugalbanda is,[12] as with Joseph, abandoned by his brothers in a cave when he seems likely to die, but in this instance is saved by supernatural intervention and emerges with super speed (a DC comics type transformation) and eventually, although his brothers are senior military men, the En (king) of Uruk. Like Joseph, he is one of the ancestor figures of Uruk-a Patriarch. Boice itemises the notion that it may represent a pagan baptism rite, surely employed by many societies, whereby the child is separated from its family or group and exposed to cleanse it of and protect it from the supernatural. Again, most if not all the stories in the Pentateuch have origins in Mesopotamian literature.
The Moses’ story at this stage is clearly a romance, the child of slaves becoming a prince. It is equally clearly a piece of literature. Sinuhe for example is an official attached to an Egyptian princess, similar to Moses, but in Syria/Northern Palestine becomes a mighty if still secondary chief. Joseph is rejected by his own people but prospers in a foreign land. Going into foreign lands can provide opportunity and fortune, the motivation of migrants everywhere. Crossing water is symbolic of change and of a new and different future, redolent of both a change in history and of perhaps conversion. The Sinuhe connection comes into the picture again as Moses’ departure from Egypt after murdering an overseer appears to have been copied from Sinuhe’s fears of being accused of involvement in the Pharaoh’s assassination and fleeing to become successful in another environment until transformed he returns to Egypt.
The Moses story needs to be compared with Abraham’s narrative, the former as a successful agent or tool of YHWH, the latter unsuccessful, having in fact achieved very little except the establishment of his genes and the identification of Faith.
Conversion Myth:
In this view, Moses represents a myth of conversion to an ethnic-based religion based on the growth of law courts within the Near and Middle East, initiating a god-judge with Hebrew society as one constructed upon judgement and prohibition. The emphasis here is on law, law courts and of a god who functions as a judge. Society becomes a huge law court, where each person is potentially both accused and accuser, judge and judged. It becomes an experiment in cultural cohesion and crowd control.
Crossing the Reed or Red Sea, going from certainty into chaos in order to construct a different society based solely on law not kingship, or in Egyptian terms into the gateway to hell to resurrect a new society in the land YHWH has selected for them. This is clearly a priestly construct with probably only limited reality before the Post-Exile period, and a slightly greater reality after that for some. Certainly, the idea of conversion is strongly symbolised by the accumulation of water motifs connected to other societal change and creation motifs: the Flood, seen predominantly in Mesopotamian literature, which demonstrates gods or god (Bible) wiping the world clean and starting afresh, as the abandoning of Moses and Sargon on the/a river represents the end of one history and predictive of another. Major rivers were connected also to deities so we have here also children being placed in the care of gods and being carried into a different and better future. The Pharaoh ordered that Hebrew male children should be cast into the Nile to drown, but like the Ark the reed boat saves the new man (see above, conflation with Adam). Underpinning these motifs are the Sumerian association of water with creativity[13], with Brisch (2016) noting the strong connection in ancient Sumeria of water and fertility-new growth, renewal-with the word ‘a’ changing in time to semen. It was also used to mean descendants and offspring bringing the motif in line with both the Abraham narrative of his origins in Mesopotamia and his descendants. There are two instances in the Abraham story of him and his people crossing water, going into Transjordan and into Egypt. In both cases he and his group gain strength.
The Sumerians also connected water with Enki, the Lord of Wisdom, who dwelt in the Apsu, or marshes, from where Sumerian civilisation may have emerged. Britsch (2016) describes it as underground water also associated with creation of humankind. Enki is described as a helper of mankind and pictured with water coming out of his shoulders. He was also described as humankind’s creator. He looks at times remarkably like the later Jesus figure, and a connection is possible even just through the creation of early archetypes that were later appropriated to describe other kindly deities. Enki is at some points referred to as healing his peers through magic and incantation. He consequently like the Jesus-figure had some connection to medicine. Fish indeed appear to have been early Sumerian deities long forgotten by historical times[14]. As Brisch notes, Hebrew wisdom was usually connected to piety-Job’s clever dialectic friends do not have wisdom, just conceit-but Sumerian wisdom was connected to magic and incantations, and thereby can be more closely connected to Moses than probably the other Patriarchs. Moses’ use of magic is a rewrite of a scene from Sumerian literature.
These are almost without fail literary constructs, and very rarely reference real people and events. One telling example (again) is the invasion of Britain from 4th and 5th century which recent archaeology has shown to be a reasonably peaceful migration but the early legends identified an invasion force led by Hengest and Horsa and of course in other stories King Arthur fighting the invaders. The stories were part of a need to dramatise the past, provide events with courageous warriors not sensible farmers.[15] Moses and the Exodus provide the same needs.
As they enter the Sinai desert, there to stay 40 years in order to gain knowledge or/and adjustment plan-to become warriors and in effect murderers, doing to the Canaanites what the Egyptians threatened to do to them-we have here all the tools of conversion. The cleansing of both the past and of recalcitrant people. The acquisition from YHWH of both his name, indicating there a change of religion or religious emphasis, and the laws, in effect a new approach to society, establishes the new society before entering the future-the Promised Land. Before YHWH presented his name with the laws, maybe the hill-country had several gods.
Of course, the Bible being the Bible there are contradictions noted by Thomas Romer[16]in that Numbers declares the laws were provided in Moab, just prior to the Israelite invasion of the Promised Land (Num. 36.12). Where the laws were given is important to any understanding of the conversion process, as to whether it evolved within the hill country, as of course it did, and if it was influenced from outside. To put it succinctly, was it brought in by Assyrians or Babylonians?
According to Romer (2007: 430) Hosea is the first to mention Israel in the wilderness, finding problems only when they reach cultivated land and Ba’al poer. Jeremiah 2.6 describes the desert sojourn in terms of Israel as a bride of YHWH (Asherah?), first a tender youth, one who matures into an adult. This is an excellent way of seeing events-as a metaphor, Egypt (incubation), crossing the Reed Sea (separation from corrupt influences after birth, in other words baptism), crossing the desert (kept away from bad neighbours, protected as they mature), before maturation comes with assertion in the hill-country and its surrounds. Before entering the Promised Land, the old Israel must die and a new Israel, Joshua, takes his place to effect maturation. The journey into the wilderness, growth and renewal also reflects Moses’ life.
According to Israel Knohl[17] the laws were first publicly revealed by Ezra (Neremiah:8:9), and the general population knew nothing about the laws. As the only evidence we have for Ezra’s disclosure we may be looking at a gradual build-up of the laws. Although Assyria effectively ruled Israel off and on for two centuries the appalling harshness of its laws suggest these had little influence on Hebrew law codes. What the Ezra episode suggests is the power of priests and their growing grip on Judah as a result of Persian control of Yeduh, the rump state created as a Hebrew/YHWH province in the hill-country.
Mesopotamian rule by law:
Bruce Wells[18] suggests there is a connection with neo-Babylonian law and other local developments in law within the same period. Wells states that there is evidence in the Middle East of courts employing similar strategies to resolve difficult cases, based upon two witness procedures. One witness would be the victim (if there was one) and the case cannot be resolved unless another witness or informant comes forward. This can be seen in the trial of Sodom of Gomorrah, where witnesses are called but the accused makes no plea. A difficult case could be resolved by cultic procedures but that it seems was rare. The idea of YHWH as rational may come from court procedures impacting on religion. Wells’ (2015) believes that calling witnesses had been a common and shared device in Babylonia, and throughout the Middle and Near East.
Wells’ perceives the idea of city sanctuary, which can also be found in medieval Europe, for those fleeing blood revenge as an innovation, representing a sharp change from Exodus to Deuteronomy that occurred as the result of cultic practices and religious centralisation based on the Temple. This was common throughout the Middle and Near East, influencing Greece as well according to Westbrook[19] and appears to be a general acceptance of law. The Moses story portrays the increasing importance of law in Israel, connecting law to both the YHWH religion and state identity. The laws it celebrates were common judiciary processes throughout the Middle East. The biblical account has made Hebrew law seem extraordinary, the remit of a god, but none of it was.
Neither the Hammurabi Code nor the Hebrew covenant are legislative, just what should be or what is possible, set in order by scribes. Although later priests and rabbis were to insist on the supernatural origins of the Covenant Code, clearly the laws were commonplace simply put into direct statements not conditional statements. These laws are literary models, not necessarily employed as distinct laws. The Covenant Code describes the Israelite nation, especially in contrast to Assyrian, Babylonian Greek and Roman conquerors. Westbrook states clearly that the Covenant Code and the laws in Deuteronomy are related to Middle Eastern law traditions-the similarities are limitations on slavery, rights to compensation for someone involved in a fight, sanctions if someone fails to care for their land and their indolence affects other landowners, punishment for false accusers. Bruce Wells (2015) reinforces the shared approaches to law in Israelite Religious texts and the laws of their neighbours in The Law of Testimony in the Pentateuchal Codes.
There is little doubt among scholars that the Hebrew laws were from the same varied sources as all Middle Eastern law texts of the period, and the essential notions behind them common too, that they all shared a sense of social justice, clearly visible in some ancient Sumerian literature. It is equally visible in Ugarit and Egypt.[20]
Conclusion:
The Moses myth appears in its final form to be a late development, written down during Persian rule of the hill-country and its surrounds, although referencing separate older stories concerning Moses and the Exodus. Its main purpose was to create a fictional account of Hebrew origins to mask the failure of the Hebrew states at a time when Israel and Judah, the beloved of YHWH reduced to a rump, Yehud, and yet again the hill country was ruled by a foreign power-one that ‘did not know god’, to create a single identity at a time of foreign rulers and migration into the hill-country and emphasis the priesthood. In order to effect priestly rule greater emphasis was made on the law, copies of older laws were revived, dating from the 7th century and reflecting entirely Mesopotamian law codes. By including Moses’ acquisition of YHWH’s laws Hebrew priests appropriated the common Middle Eastern laws and categorised them as divine.
Moses’ incubus identification can be reflected in Sargon, his doppelganger, and also in Joseph, who parasitically if symbolically lays Israel’s eggs in the body of the Egyptian state to be reclaimed when sufficiently numerous. The tribes of Israel employ their slave status within Egypt to avoid intermarriage with Egyptians, although it must have occurred before they were enslaved. Like a child of protective parents, to reach actualisation the children must destroy the parent. Although saved by an Egyptian princess, Moses’ secrete identity, not truly revealed until he leaves Egypt, emerges against Egypt. Although he knows nothing of the culture of his birth, he is true to it. The lesson here is that true Hebrews should be loyal too.
[1] Perry, Andrew. Dead Sea Scrolls and Bible Translation.
[2] Ed. Levy, Schneider, Propp. Israel’s Exudus in Transdiciplinary Perspective Text, Archaeology, Culture and Geoscience. Springer 2015
[3] Romer, Thomas. Tracking Some ‘Censored’ Moses’ Traditions Inside and Outside of the Hebrew Bible. Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel.Vol.1 2012. Mohr Siebeck.
[4] Juan Manuel. The southern Home of YHWH and pre-Priestly Patriarch/Exodus Traditions from a Southern Perspective. Biblica 99/2 (2018) 166-188
[5] The Myth of the Birth of the Hero.
[6] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+1&version=NIV
[7] Jung. C.G. On the Nature of the Psyche. Ark Paperbacks. 1947.
[8] For On This Day A Hero was Born. Harvard University. 14/11/1994. Ac.edu.
[9] Jung. C.G. On the Nature of the Psyche. Ark Paperbacks. 1947.
[10] The Birth of the Hero. The Emergence of a Social Type in the 4th Millennium BC.
[11] https://www.thoughtco.com/aztlan-the-mythical-homeland-169913 I found that this site covers the main points of Aztec migration from the mythical Aztlan in the present United States. There are similarities with the Hebrew myth, the Aztec’s consist of 7 tribes, except the Promised Land is inverted in their history.
[12] Lugalband in the Mountain Cave.
[13] Brisch, Nicole. Water in Sumerian Mythology. Essays from a symposium held on the occasion of Peder Mortensen’s 80th birthday, ed. J.K. Madsen, et al. Proceedings of the Danish Institute in Damascus, Pp. 18-27. Copenhagen: Orbis Publishing House. 2016.
[14] Leick, Gwendolyn. Mesopotamia: the Invention of the City. Penguin. 2003.
[15] Oppenheimer, Stephen. The Origins of the British-A Genetic Detective Story. Constable and Robinson. 2006.
[16] Israel’s Sojourn in the Wilderness and the Construction of the Book of Numbers. (ed)Robert Rozetko et al. Reflection and Refraction. Studies in Biblical Historiography in Honour of A. Graeme Auld. 2007. 428.
[17] Axial Transformations within Ancient Israelite Priesthood. Ed. Arnason, Johann B, et al. Axiel Civilisations and World History. Brill, 2005. Leiden and Boston.
[18] Is it Law or Religion? Legal Motivations in Deuteronomic and Neo-Babylonian Texts. Ed. Hagedorn/Kratz. Part II. Law and Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean: From Antiquity to Early Islam. 2015.
[19] Westbrook, Raymond.ixx in vol. 1 of Law from the Tigris to the Tiber. The Writings of Raymond Westbrook. Ed. B.Wells. and F.Magdalene. Winona Pub. Eisenbraun.
[20]Evans, Paul.S. Imagining Justice for the Marginalised A Suspicious Reading of the Covenant Code (Exodus:-:) in its Ancient Near Eastern Context. The Bible and Social Justice. (MNTS), ed. Cynthia Westfall and Brian Dyer. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015, 1–34.