3 days ago
- General
- National Geographic
Do these ancient Egyptian inscriptions mention Moses by name?
Moses with the Tablets of the Law (oil on canvas) by the Italian artist Reni Guido (1575-1642). Photograph by Bridgeman Images
There is no doubting the importance of Moses to Jews and Christians. According to the Hebrew Bible, Moses was the one who delivered the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, guided them through the wilderness, and received the Ten Commandments from God. For historians, however, the existence of Moses has been a fiercely contested debate. Despite his religious importance, the archeological evidence for Moses has always been thin on the ground.
But now a sensational new interpretation of a 3,800-year-old inscription claims that we finally have evidence for the law-giver's existence.
(Ten plagues and a betrayal: How Moses freed the Israelites) Inscriptions in a mine
The evidence in question is two inscriptions on the rock walls at Serabit el-Khadim, an Egyptian turquoise mine in the Sinai Peninsula. The inscriptions are part of a larger group of inscriptions excavated by famed archeologist Sir William Flinders Petrie in the early 20th century.
Early on, Petrie recognized that the inscriptions were alphabetic, but it took decades for them to be deciphered. They are the main evidence of a Middle Bronze Age writing system known as the Proto-Sinaitic script and their precise meaning and decipherment continues to be debated.
Scholarly consensus maintains that the inscriptions were carved by workers during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III (ca. 1800 BCE). Two other slightly older inscriptions, excavated from Wadi el-Hol on the west bank of the river Nile, suggest that the Proto-Sinaitic script originated in Egypt. This makes the 30-40 inscriptions from Serabit el-Khadim some of the oldest surviving alphabetic writing.
Some of the inscriptions at Serabit el-Khadim seem religiously invested. Several refer to 'El,' one of the names given for God in the Hebrew Bible. Others mention Ba'alat, a female Semitic deity often viewed as a counterpart for the Egyptian goddess Hathor. In some instances, Ba'alat's name is scratched out, which might suggest that there was disagreement among the mine workers about which deity to follow.
(Why Moses' brother worshipped a Canaanite god) The ruins at Serabit el-Khadim, documented during an ordnance survey of the Sinai Peninsula circa 1865. Photograph by Pump Park Vintage Photography/Alamy Stock Photo Sinai 346, a statuette excavated in 1906 by Hilda and Flinders Petrie from the Hathor temple at Serabit el-Khadim, was one of the first examples of Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions to be discovered. Photograph by Historic Collection/Alamy Stock Photo
Michael S. Bar-Ron, a retired rabbi and graduate student at Ariel University, has used high-resolution photos and 3D scans to offer a reinterpretation of two of the inscriptions (357 and 361). According to Bar-Ron they read 'zot mi'Moshe' (This is Moses) and 'ne'um Moshe' (A saying/statement of Moses). Bar-Ron argues, in his proto-thesis, that many of the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions found at Serabit el-Khadim come from a single author who was familiar with Egyptian hieroglyphs. He even suggests, based on the lettering of the inscriptions, that Moses himself inscribed them. 'I am compelled to propose,' writes Bar-Ron, 'that [the inscriptions] could well have been written by a historical base personage found behind the biblical tradition of Moshe, Moses.' Still, it is difficult to understand why Moses—an alleged Prince of Egypt—would have been part of an Egyptian mining community.
The reinterpretation, which has been widely reported in the media, has some profound implications for our understanding of the historicity of Moses. If, as Bar-Ron argues, these inscriptions were authored by Moses himself they would not only offer definitive proof of Moses's existence they would also be the only surviving piece of writing authored by a major biblical figure and religious founder.
(Which Egyptian pharaoh challenged Moses?) Was Moses a common Egyptian name?
The academic response to this new theory has been mixed. Many scholars are concerned about the reconstruction of the inscriptions themselves, which is a famously difficult task. One scholar told National Geographic that the readings are 'very problematic.' Thomas Schneider, an Egyptologist at the University of British Columbia told The Daily Mail that the new interpretation is 'completely unproven and misleading.' Schneider hinted that the inscriptions themselves had been misread, adding that the 'arbitrary identification of letters can distort ancient history.'
Even if Bar-Ron's identification of letters and translation of the inscriptions is correct this does not necessarily mean that they were authored by the Moses of the Bible. Liane Feldman, an assistant professor of religion at Princeton University, told National Geographic that the name Moses may well be an Egyptian name and, thus, is less distinctive in the context of Egyptian mining inscriptions than it might appear to modern readers.
As scholar Joshua Huddlestun has written, the name Moses appears in New Kingdom letters and legal documents including a 'high-profile case involving land inheritance brought by a plaintiff named Mose.' If, as the evidence suggests, Moses was a relatively common Egyptian name there's no reason to think that these inscriptions refer to or were authored by the biblical Moses. Limited Time: Bonus Issue Offer Subscribe now and gift up to 4 bonus issues—starting at $34/year.
