Moses is the man God used to bring Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and the figure the first five books of the Bible are built around. He is the Old Testament's central human figure: prophet, lawgiver and leader. The outline of his life falls into three parts of roughly forty years each, a shape the Bible itself notes (; ; ): - Born a Hebrew under a death sentence, hidden, and raised in Pharaoh's household (; ; ; ). - Fled to Midian after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew; married Zipporah and kept sheep (; ; ; ; ). - Called at the burning bush and sent back to Egypt (; ; ), where after ten plagues Israel was released (). - Led Israel forty years in the wilderness, received the Law at Sinai, and died within sight of the promised land without entering it (; ; ; ; ; ).

Who was Moses?

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Short answer

Moses is the man God used to bring Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and the figure the first five books of the Bible are built around. He is the Old Testament's central human figure: prophet, lawgiver and leader.

The outline of his life falls into three parts of roughly forty years each, a shape the Bible itself notes (Acts 7:23; Acts 7:30; Deuteronomy 34:7):

Born a Hebrew under a death sentence, hidden, and raised in Pharaoh's household (Exodus 2:1; Exodus 2:2; Exodus 2:10; Acts 7:21).
Fled to Midian after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew; married Zipporah and kept sheep (Exodus 2:11; Exodus 2:12; Exodus 2:15; Exodus 2:21; Exodus 3:1).
Called at the burning bush and sent back to Egypt (Exodus 3:2; Exodus 3:4; Exodus 3:10), where after ten plagues Israel was released (Exodus 12:31).
Led Israel forty years in the wilderness, received the Law at Sinai, and died within sight of the promised land without entering it (Exodus 19:20; Exodus 20:1; Numbers 20:12; Deuteronomy 34:1; Deuteronomy 34:4; Deuteronomy 34:5).

Question

Who was Moses?

Analysis

What he is called

Title	Where
Servant of the LORD	Deuteronomy 34:5; Joshua 1:1
A prophet unlike any other in Israel, who knew God face to face	Deuteronomy 34:10; Numbers 12:8
The most humble man on earth	Numbers 12:3
Faithful in all God's house, as a servant	Hebrews 3:5

What he did

Confronted Pharaoh repeatedly and led the exodus (Exodus 5:1; Exodus 12:31; Exodus 14:21).
Received the Law, including the Ten Commandments, at Sinai (Exodus 19:20; Exodus 20:1; Exodus 31:18; Exodus 34:28).
Interceded for Israel after the golden calf, asking to be blotted out rather than see them destroyed (Exodus 32:11; Exodus 32:32).
Oversaw the tabernacle's construction to the pattern he was shown (Exodus 40:16; Exodus 40:33; Hebrews 8:5).
Appointed Joshua as his successor (Numbers 27:18; Deuteronomy 31:7).

Why he did not enter the land

At Meribah, told to speak to a rock to bring out water, Moses struck it and spoke angrily to the people. The reason given is a failure to trust God enough to honour him as holy before Israel (Numbers 20:8; Numbers 20:10; Numbers 20:11; Numbers 20:12). He asked to be allowed in and was refused, though he was shown the land from Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 3:25; Deuteronomy 3:26; Deuteronomy 34:1).

In the New Testament

Moses is named more than any other Old Testament figure. He appears with Elijah at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:3; Mark 9:4), is listed among the faithful (Hebrews 11:24; Hebrews 11:25; Hebrews 11:26), and is repeatedly set alongside Christ, in continuity and in contrast: the law came through Moses, grace and truth through Jesus Christ (John 1:17); Moses was faithful as a servant in the house, Christ as a son over it (Hebrews 3:5; Hebrews 3:6). Jesus said Moses wrote about him (John 5:46), and Moses himself spoke of a prophet like him to come (Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:22).

What is debated

Authorship of the Torah. Tradition ascribes the first five books to Moses, and the New Testament refers to them as his (Mark 12:26; John 5:46). Much modern critical scholarship argues for composite authorship over a longer period, often noting that the account of his own death (Deuteronomy 34:5) is unlikely to be his. Views range from full Mosaic authorship, through Mosaic substance with later editing, to a largely post-exilic composition. Our answer on who wrote the Bible sets those views out.

The date and scale of the exodus are also debated among historians and archaeologists, with no consensus. Scripture gives the event without the kind of detail that would settle a date.

Sources, trace every one

Every cited verse, in full. Tap any reference to open it in the reader.

Acts 7:23bsb
When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.
Acts 7:30bsb
After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
Deuteronomy 34:7bsb
Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished.
Exodus 2:1bsb
Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,
Exodus 2:2bsb
and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.
Exodus 2:10bsb
When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”
Acts 7:21bsb
When he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.
Exodus 2:11bsb
One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.
Exodus 2:12bsb
After looking this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.
Exodus 2:15bsb
When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.
Exodus 2:21bsb
Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.
Exodus 3:1bsb
Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Exodus 3:2bsb
There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed.
Exodus 3:4bsb
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered.
Exodus 3:10bsb
Therefore, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Exodus 12:31bsb
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested.

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