Moses
c. 1391–1271 BC
“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” — Exodus 3:11
The Argument
Moses is the central human figure of the Pentateuch and one of the most fully realized characters in ancient literature. His story has the shape of a classic hero narrative — but it consistently refuses the conventions of heroic literature. Moses does not want the commission. He argues with God five times in Exodus 3–4. He is described as the most humble man on earth. He never enters the Promised Land.
The literary significance of Moses lies in what his narrative does to the category of human greatness. He is great not because of his own capacities but despite his resistance, and the greatness that emerges is always explicitly shared with God. The plagues are not Moses's power. The parted sea is not Moses's achievement. The law is not Moses's invention.
He is a mediator, and the mediatorial role he fills points forward to the one who would fill it without remainder — the prophet like Moses that Deuteronomy 18 promises, who would speak God's words so completely that to hear him would be to hear God.
The Literary Apologetic
New essays from the long tradition. No noise. Just letters worth reading.