Moses

Moses (Hebrew Moshe; Greek Mouses) is the central figure of the Torah—the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—and the foundational leader-prophet of ancient Israel. Traditional dating places him somewhere between the 16th and 13th centuries BCE; no contemporary primary source names him directly, so his biography reaches us through the biblical text and later sources. According to the narrative, he was born in Egypt at a time when Pharaoh ordered the killing of Hebrew male infants. His mother Jochebed placed him in a basket on the Nile, where Pharaoh's daughter recovered him and raised him in the royal household. As an adult he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, fled to Midian, and married Zipporah, daughter of the priest Jethro. While shepherding he encountered the burning bush on Mount Horeb (Sinai), through which he received his call to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. After negotiations with Pharaoh and the ten plagues, Moses led the Hebrews across the Red Sea to freedom. The subsequent Sinai event delivered the Ten Commandments and the broader covenant of the Torah, providing the basic moral grammar—do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, have no other gods—foundational for Jewish, Christian and Islamic ethics. The forty years of wandering in the wilderness that followed are presented as a long apprenticeship in collective life, with stories of rebellion, scarcity and battle. Moses himself is said to have died on Mount Nebo without entering Canaan. The pattern—liberation, covenant law-giving, and formation of a people in the wilderness—has shaped Jewish, Christian and Islamic thinking on freedom and justice ever since. The historical scale, dating and route of the exodus remain debated, but the legal and ethical legacy carried in his name has influenced two and a half millennia of thought.