23 April 2013 Annotated Bibliography: Moses.
Kilcher, Andreas B. "The Moses of Sinai and the Moses of Egypt: Moses as Magician in Jewish Literature and Western Esotericism."Aries 4.2 (2004): 148-170. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.
Summary: In this article, they examine the identity of biblical character Moses as a magician in modernity. It also studies the effect of the identity of Moses on the history of religion; Impact of the victory of Moses over the magic of the Egyptians in rabbinical literature; Information on the portrayal of Moses by Philo of Alexandria in his book "De Vita Mosis."
Evaluation: This is an important article because it contain lot of information about the Miracle Moses was able to make when he was trying to get the people out of Egypt. Investigating the question of Moses as magician in modernity might seem hardly a meaningful venture. After all, the figure of Moses was established in the period between humanism and the Enlightenment much more obviously as the founder of a de-mythologized religion, in which things like magic had just been overcome. People thought that Moses was a magician; however, he was getting his power from God.
Applicability: This article is interesting, and I found it very interesting. I will use it in my term paper to demonstrate what Moses has achieved to bring the people out of Egypt and where he got his power from. I will also explain what happen near the Mount Sinai when Moses was tending sheep and saw a bush that appeared to burn but was not destroyed.
ANISFELD, MOSHE. "Why Was Moses Barred From Leading The People Into The Promised Land? A Psychotbeological Answer." Jewish Bible Quarterly 39.4 (2011): 211-220. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013. Summary: The article presents a theory that Moses was barred from entering the land because he failed to counteract the people's slide into blasphemy. The people blame Moses for taking them out of Egypt into the miserable conditions of desert travel. It argues that Moses failed to prevent the people from partnering him with God in regard to blame for the Exodus and to credit for providing water. Thus, Moses failed because he was insensitive to the beliefs of the people.
Evaluation: The article offer good information about how the people were reacting when Moses got them out of Egypt. Moses had to teach the people the ordinances and laws. He was also teaching them how they must walk or the work they must do. Moses had to do so because he had a mission from God. However, these same people he was teaching how to behave began to do what they want and did not feel happy about their new life out of captivity. Some of them began to serve other god. These reactions made Moses very angry because he did a lot to get these people out of Egypt and they were not showing any respect for God who made their freedom possible.
Applicability: My term paper will have lot of information to help people understand what happened during this period, and this article is a plus for me because it provides lots of information about how the people were behaving after they got out of slavery. Even today people do not always show gratitude for what is good for them. These people got out of Egypt because God allowed Moses to lead them; however, they were expecting more. To fulfill their expectations, they began to serve other god. Which is not acceptable at all after all the work Moses has done to try to lead them to the Promised Land.
Embry, B. "The Endangerment Of Moses: Towards A New Reading Of Exodus 4:24-26." Vetus Testamentum 60.2 (2010): 177-196.Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.
Summary: In this reading, Moses’ endangerment in Exodus 4:24-26 in which Yahweh sought to kill him has perplexed study as to its rationale: why kill Moses, the one chosen to deliver Israel out of slavery? Research responses to this periscope tend to identify causality for Moses’ endangerment that is both Moses’ doing and external to the call and journey. The following article suggests that Moses’ endangerment is a formalized rite of passage which is part of the wider, literary unit. As such, Moses is endangered precisely because he has undertaken this journey and for no other reason; his difficulty is both internal to narrative and functional component of his mission.
Evaluation: There must be a ‘rationale’ behind the story of the bloody bridegroom. This is true. But the explication of such rationale, both in modern and pre-modern commentary on the pericope, oftentimes rests on finding something that originates in Moses’ actions, which explains his endangerment. Thus, Moses is under bloodguilt for killing the Egyptian taskmaster in Exodus 2:12, or is uncircumcised, or has failed to circumcise his son Gershom. The paper proposes that this wider, literary unit is also the framework around which the story of Balaam’s journey in Numbers 22 is built. As such, Exodus and Numbers 22 are read, and best understood, in conversation with one another.
Applicability: This paper gives good example about why they wanted Moses dead and it is going to help me prepare my term paper. Moses was considered as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, so he learned all about them and they treated him as he was an Egyptian. However, Moses knew where he came from, and could not accept to see an Egyptian beating an Israelite. Thus, Moses killed the Egyptian, this is one of the reasons Pharaoh wanted Moses dead.
Lackey, Michael. "Moses, Man Of Oppression: A Twentieth-Century African American Critique Of Western Theocracy." African American Review 43.4 (2009): 577-588. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.
Summary: This composition presents the African American’s views of Moses and depictions of Moses in the twentieth-century African American literature. It examines the book “Moses, Man of the Mountain” by Zora Neale Hurston. Other African American authors considered include James Baldwin, Alice Walker, and Richard Wright. The authors particularly comments on Moses and the Bible’s perceived relationship with Western Imperialism. For African Americans, Moses was more than an expert magician or and magician. He was, first and foremost, a leader of his people. Moses personifies leadership as divine vocation.
Evaluation: African Americans admire Moses as a "venerable ideal of African American leadership", since he provided oppressed people with the perfect model for setting the captives free. So, instrumental was the figure of Moses in the project of emancipating blacks that he has been considered almost as important as Jesus. African American respects Moses because of his courage to defeat Pharaoh and bring the people out of slavery from Egypt. People from Africa know what it means to be a slave because they had lived the same thing in the past. During that time some of them were probably thinking if they had their Moses to show them the way out of slavery without fighting for their freedom, would be very remarkable for them.
Applicability: This work is very interesting in understanding slavery in the past and how others who were in slavery think about Moses victory over the Pharaoh. I will use it in my term paper to show the connection between the Israelites and the African who had lived the same condition and who fight by themselves to get out of captivity. They had no leader who was taking care of negotiating their freedom and who had the power of God to do so and to say “Let my People go”.
Reiss, Moshe. "The Women Around Moses." Jewish Bible Quarterly 33.2 (2005): 127-130. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.
Summary: The article focuses on Moses, who is considered foremost of all prophets of Israel, and the outstanding personality of the Bible. God calls upon him to take on the role of God. He is warrior, statesman, prophet and a mystic. A midrash goes so far as to say that while the Israelites in Egypt and the desert were at almost the lowest possible level of impurity (49 out of 50), Moses was at almost the highest possible level of purity. For the children of Israel, who feared to speak to God directly, Moses is their mediator.
Evaluation: Moses is the foremost of all prophets of Israel, and the outstanding personality of the Bible. God calls upon him to take on the role of God. He is known as the teacher, as the Man of Faith, as the Servant of God, and as the Man of God. “Moses is God's lawgiver, and God declares him to be the one to whom my household is entrusted” (Num. 12:8). He is warrior, statesman, prophet and a mystic, a truly remarkable personality. It is also notable that Moses was both nurtured and protected by women. When Pharaoh wanted all male children to be dead, Moses’ mother hides him for three month to protect him. Moreover, she putted Moses in a basket in the river and had Moses’ sister looked over him. The story also mentioned that the Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses and wanted to be his mother.
Applicability: This piece of writing almost explains every part of Moses’ life and what he had done to deliver the people of God. Since the beginning of Moses’ life, it seems like God already had a plan for Moses. God did not want his people to continue suffer from slavery anymore and guide one of them to lead the nation. This article is very important for my term paper because it gives good information about the people who were around Moses and all that happened in Moses’ life before he received the call from God to get the people out slavery.
Berlyn, Patricia. "The Pharaohs Who Knew Moses." Jewish Bible Quarterly 39.1 (2011): 3-14. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.
Summary: The article focuses on the names of the Pharaohs in "The Book of Exodus" who knew Moses. It discusses several biblical records that relate to the Pharaoh-of-the-exodus and the Pharaoh of the oppression. It comments that the names of the Pharaohs in the Book of Exodus can be debated but not determined, unless and until there is some new historical or archaeological discoveries.
Evaluation: To the Egyptians, their pharaoh was a literally divine figure, an earthly incarnation of the god Amon-Ra. Yet in encounters with the Israelites and their forebears, god-kings of the Two Lands appear quite human and at times cordial. Even though the Pharaoh was very hard with the people and was making them work as slave they consider him as a god. Pharaoh also knew Moses very well because his daughter was considered as Moses mother. So, we can describe Pharaoh as Moses grandfather. Moses learned everything from them. This is the reason that pharaoh was very angry at Moses when he knew Moses killed an Egyptian. He wanted Moses dead; however, Moses came back and had victory over him. That was very frustrating when Moses was leading the people out of Egypt, so pharaoh sent his soldier to go after them even when they were crossing the red sea.
Applicability: From the entire article I found, I could not find a better one that explains about the history between the Pharaoh and Moses. This is a plus to have this type of information in my term paper, so the readers will enjoy having the information about what happen between these two leaders. Both were leading with their own rules. Pharaoh was doing lots of construction and wanted to have slave to do the job. In the other hand, Moses was leading his people out of captivity, teaching them the word of God, and what they should do.
Litke, Joel. "Moses At The Waters Of Meribah." Jewish Bible Quarterly 39.1 (2011): 31-34. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.
Summary: The article presents several reflections on the two biblical passages, Numbers 20:7-13 and Exodus 17:5-7. The first passage states that Moses was unexpectedly found wanting and angered God when leading people into the Promised Land. The second passage adds that God intervened when the people argued vehemently and complained that they were taken out of Egypt.
Evaluation: This is a good article, and it states that Moses was unexpectedly found wanting. He had angered God, who declared; “Because you have not sanctified me . . . you shall not enter there, into the land” (Deut 32:51-52). For all his devotion, labor and leadership, it was now decreed that Moses would not bring the people into the Promised Land, something for which he had yearned and prayed throughout the long years of wandering. This passage does not explicitly state however, where Moses exactly failed in sanctifying God. It is not clear how the violation deserved such a severe judgment. Justice surely demands that the punishment must match the offence; it must be commensurate with the transgression.
Applicability: This subject treats an important part in Moses history, and it will be very useful to use this information to conclude my paper. After getting the people out of slavery, Moses had to delegate people to do the work, so he chose able men out of Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, ruler of fifties, and rulers of tens. He had to teach the people ordinances and laws. How they must walk and the work they must do. However, the people disappointed Moses by serving other God and they were also acting against the rules that Moses had gave them. As a result, God became very angry and say that they will not be able to see the Promised Land.
LORKOWSKI, C. M. "The Miracle Of Moses." Heythrop Journal 50.2 (2009): 181-188. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.
Summary: In this paper, the author draws out a tension between miracles, prophecy, and Spinoza’s assertions about Moses in the Theological-Political Treatise. The three seem to constitute an inconsistent triad. Spinoza’s account of miracles requires a naturalistic interpretation of all events. This categorical claim must therefore apply to prophecy; specifically, Moses’ hearing God’s voice in a manner which does not seem to invoke the imagination or natural phenomena. Thus, Spinoza seemingly cannot maintain both Moses’ exalted status and his account of miracles. The author consider some possible solutions; however, find that they are either untrue to Spinoza’s position, or would undercut his categorical argument against miracles. Therefore, people can conclude that Spinoza leaves an unresolved tension in the Theological-Political Treatise.
Evaluation: From the reading, we can see that Spinoza’s account of miracles has an interesting consequence in that, were an actual miracle to occur, it would weigh against the existence of God, as outlined by Spinoza. Such an occurrence would imply that there are no ‘necessary and eternal’ laws of Nature and therefore detract from the possibility of an immutable designing mind. Spinoza’s ultimate conclusion about what we can know from the common notion of miracles is that, it is only those works of nature which we clearly and distinctly understand that afford us a higher knowledge of God.
Applicability: This is a good judgment about Moses miracle, and it is always good for people to question themselves about how things happened. This is good information to use in my paper because Moses was able to do miracles when he was trying to bring the people out of slavery. For example, Moses’ rod became a serpent and eats Pharaoh’s serpents, and water became blood.