Moses never existed ... or if he did, he was only a minor historical character and most of his life was expanded by legend.
When I was an atheist I believed Moses never existed. The Jews made him up to bolster their religion. However, if someone by the name of Moses really did live, he wasn’t anything like the stories about him in the Bible. No way he called down the wrath of God on the Egyptians. No way Moses raised his hands in the air and a sea of water split in two. No way.
I used the story of Moses leading Israel out of Egypt as a major proof that the Bible was full of myths and fairy tales. It was a favorite discussion on my radio talk shows in the late 1960s and early 70s. Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood, Abraham leaving Ur for Canaan, Joseph in Egypt, and Moses leading Israel out of Egypt were stories I threw at Christians whenever they called about the Bible and Christianity being true. There was absolutely no evidence for any of those stories, so why should I believe anything in the Bible. Everything in the Bible was untrue.
That worked pretty well until I met some Christian apologists (reasoned defenders). They answered my mocking and skepticism with evidence ... lots of evidence ... so much evidence that I was no longer able to say the Bible was full of myths, fairy tales, and lies. I didn’t know where the investigation would lead me, but I knew there was more to the Bible than I had thought.
[A reminder that I am including only those archaeological and historical references available for my research during the first half of 1971.]
Moses and the Exodus
The archaeological finds I had already seen were impressive in supporting some of the historic nature of Genesis. What would I find in archaeology to support the historic nature of the “Exodus?”
“And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, ‘Because I drew him out of the water.’ Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, ‘Why are you striking your companion?’ Then he said, ‘Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ So Moses feared and said, ‘Surely this thing is known!’ When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.” Exodus 2:10-15
The Book of Exodus doesn’t include much about Moses’ childhood, but what we know about him is important in being able to check the story with archaeological findings and logical reasoning.
A man of the tribe of Levi was married to a woman who was also of the tribe of Levi.
The woman conceived and bore a son, saw that he was a beautiful child and hid him three months.
When the woman was no longer able to hide the child she built an ark of bulrushes and placed the child in the ark, then laid the ark in the reeds by the river’s bank.
The child’s sister stood a distance away and waited to see what would happen to him.
The daughter of Pharaoh came to bathe at the river, accompanied by her maidens.
When the daughter of Pharaoh saw the ark among the reeds, she asked one of the maidens to get it for her.
When the daughter of Pharaoh opened the ark, she saw the child and the baby cried.
The daughter of Pharaoh had compassion on the child and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
The child’s sister, who was waiting nearby, asked Pharaoh’s daughter if she should get a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for her.
The daughter of Pharaoh told the girl to get the Hebrew nurse.
The daughter of Pharaoh told the Hebrew nurse (who was the child’s mother) that she would pay her wages to nurse the child.
The Hebrew woman took the child and nursed him and the child grew.
The Hebrew woman brought the child to the daughter of Pharaoh and the child became her son. The daughter of Pharaoh called the child’s name Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
The question I looked at in 1971 was this: was there anything about the story of Moses’ conception, birth or early years that could not have happened because of archaeological findings or logical reasoning. The answer was “no.” Everything recorded in the first several verses of Exodus 2 could have happened. The events were “naturally” possible.
The journalistic process is slow and methodical. It’s both inductive and deductive – asking questions, getting answers, weighing evidence, hearing from all sides, waiting to draw conclusions until all the evidence is seen and heard. Part of that process is looking for anything that defies logic, anything that is impossible or improbable. That was the process I used while investigating the claims of Christianity and, so far, I had found nothing in the story of Moses that was impossible or improbable. It might not be true, but that wasn’t because it ‘couldn’t’ be true. A human being named Moses could have lived the life detailed in the Bible.
Exodus 2 said little about Moses’ years growing up in Egypt other than to say, “Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown.” Nothing about his childhood, his teen years, young adult years. However, the Bible does include some information about his early years in Egypt. We read in Acts 7 that “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” (Acts 7:22) We read in Hebrews 11 when Moses became of age he “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.” (Hebrews 11:24-25)
Moses knew about his Hebrew ethnicity and that knowledge, and the feelings that knowledge gave him, led Moses to stand up for his people. However, that did not go well. He killed an Egyptian, but it became known and Moses had to leave Egypt. He traveled to the land of Midian, located east of the Red Sea in the area east of the Gulf of Aqaba in the northwestern regions of the Arabian Desert.
Archaeologist Nelson Glueck discovered Midianite pottery (also known as Qurayya ware) during excavations in southern Jordan during the 1930s. He dated the pottery to the 13th century BC. It’s interesting to remember that a caravan of Midianites bought Joseph from his brothers centuries earlier and sold him to an Egyptian (Genesis 37), which eventually led Jacob and his family to move from Canaan to Egypt. The Midianites were distant relatives of the Hebrews through the marriage of Abraham and Keturah after the death of his first wife Sarah. Before he died, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of Keturah and “sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the east.” (Genesis 25:6) Midian was a country “east” of Canaan and Egypt.
“Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.” Exodus 2:16-17
What must have been going through Moses’ mind? He was the biological son of Hebrew slaves, raised as the adopted son of a daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt. As Stephen recited in Acts 7:22 – “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” How quickly things changed. At the age of 40 (Acts 7:23) Moses fled Egypt for a new life in Midian. What would he do there? How would he live? What would become of him?
Questions and Answers
I had my own questions about Moses in 1971. I had been content to be an atheist until three Christians presented evidence in answer to my questions about truth claims concerning Christianity. I wasn’t used to Christians having answers to my questions, so as a journalist I was curious to see where their evidence would go.
I looked at the Bible’s information about Moses from a journalistic perspective. I had investigated old stories before, but nothing this old. What was the evidence for Moses’ existence? Was the evidence testable? What about extra-biblical testimony? Did the information about Moses in the Bible read like history or mythology? Lots of questions, but what were the answers? And where would those answers lead me in my investigation? Would I find enough evidence to warrant continuing or would the story of Moses end my search for the truth about the existence of God?
As an atheist I did not believe in the supernatural, so I looked at the ancient document called Exodus to see whether anything about the life of Moses was ‘naturally’ possible. What the Bible described as the first 40 years of Moses’ life in Egypt was possible based on a naturalistic worldview. Here’s what the Bible described as the next 40 years of Moses’ life in Midian.
Moses sat next to a well.
The seven daughters of a Midian priest came to the well to
draw water and filled troughs to water their father’s flock.
Shepherds came to the well and drove away the women, but
Moses stood up and helped them to water their flock.
The daughters returned to their father and he asked them how
they had finished so early.
The daughters told their father that “an Egyptian” delivered
them from the hand of the shepherds and helped them draw enough water to give to their flock.
Their father told his daughters to get the Egyptian and invite him to eat with them.
Moses ended up living with the man and his family and eventually married one of the man’s daughters and had two sons with her.
So far everything about Moses’ life was possible. However ... The next part of the story was not so easy to believe.
“Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.” Exodus 2:23-25
In my way of thinking at the time, the story moved from possible history to mythology whenever “God” was mentioned. That’s normal thinking for an atheist. As I continued to ask questions about what was written about Moses in the Book of Exodus, I looked at the interaction between Moses, who appeared to be a normal human being of his time, and God — whom I viewed as ‘abnormal’ and ‘not possible.’
“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.’ So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’ Moreover He said, ‘I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.” Exodus 3:1-6
It’s not easy to be an atheist and take the Bible seriously because many of the stories in it seem so impossible. However, I was challenged to look at the stories in the Bible from the perspective of a journalist investigating whether something could be true or not. I had thought of Bible stories as fanciful tales for the uninitiated minds of children, but I did my best to be objective and not bring presuppositional thinking to bear on the ancient document.
What I saw in a less biased light was a seemingly rational conversation between Moses and another being identified by the writer as “Lord” and “God.” I found that to be true throughout the early chapters of Exodus. Even as Moses talked with and eventually obeyed the requests of this supernatural character, the language never became fanciful. After God identified Himself and told Moses to take the sandals off of his feet because the place where he was standing was holy ground, Moses hid his face, “for he was afraid to look upon God.”
I thought about what I might do and say if I was in a similar situation. What Moses said and did seemed rational. Moses saw a bush on fire, but not burning up. A rational human response would be to know that what you were seeing was not naturally possible. So, Moses stopped what he was doing and walked toward the burning bush to “see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” That’s when, according to the Exodus text, Moses heard God’s voice. The character of God seemed almost human in communicating with Moses about what He (God) wanted Moses to do.
“And the Lord said: ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:7-10
The character of God expressed a deep love and loyalty to the Hebrew people; both reasonable emotions. He wanted to free them from slavery in Egypt and return them to the land He had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As I had seen previously from archaeological discoveries, the people groups identified as Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites and Perizzites existed at the time of Moses in regions north of Egypt (we’ll learn more about them in later newsletters).
Moses was not the typical mythical hero who jumped at the chance to slay dragons and save the fair maiden in distress. His reaction to what God asked him to do was realistic under the circumstances. Look at Moses’ side of the discussion and see if you don’t agree that his reaction to what God asked him to do was ‘anti-hero.’
“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:11
“Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” Exodus 3:13
“Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.” Exodus 4:1
“Then Moses said to the Lord, ‘O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Exodus 4:10
“But he said, ‘O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.” Exodus :13
What the Bible describes about Moses’ speech and behavior later in Exodus might lead the reader to think he was no mere mortal, but mere and mortal is just what he was. That certainly made Moses a more believable character because he exhibited real human traits rather than mythical/legendary traits.
“Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, ‘Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.’ Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: ‘Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.” Exodus 4:19-23
The Bible story about Moses is about to get extremely supernatural. So far, except for the burning bush incident, the story about Moses seemed plausible, but now God is sending Moses back to Egypt to do “wonders before Pharaoh”.
As an atheist, I saw this part of the story as myth/legend/fairytale. The rest of Exodus seemed false because it was a supernatural being commanding human beings how to live, where to go, what to do, and what to believe.
How in the world could I investigate something like the ten plagues and parting of the sea so the children of Israel could escape from Egyptian soldiers? How could I investigate the people of Israel wandering in the desert for 40 years? How could I investigate a man named Joshua leading the wandering Israelites from the desert into Canaan to fight against foreign peoples and capture cities and land for themselves? How as an atheist who vehemently denied the existence of God and the supernatural could I possibly investigate this subject honestly and objectively?
Next Time
I turn to history and archaeology to see what answers might lie there. I’ll share some of what I found in the next part of my series, From Atheist to Theist.
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This is my favorite part of this series so far! My Bible Study group is using Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christmas” right now and we are all excited about learning facts vrs fiction. This episode is your case for Moses!! It’s great!!