Origins and Early Life
Moses was born in Egypt to Hebrew parents of the tribe of Levi, Amram and Jochebed (also rendered Jochabed or Yocheved). He had an older sister, Miriam, and an older brother, Aaron. According to the sources, Miriam was some seven years older and Aaron about three years older than Moses.
At the time of his birth, Pharaoh had ordered that all newborn Hebrew boys be killed in order to reduce the Israelite population. Moses' mother hid him for three months, then placed him in a basket of papyrus coated with pitch and set him among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter discovered the child, took him as a foundling, and raised him; the name Moses is explained as meaning 'taken up from the water.'
Growing up in the Egyptian royal household, Moses received an Egyptian education and, in the words of the tradition, was schooled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
Flight to Midian and the Burning Bush
As an adult, Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Fearing Pharaoh's retribution, he fled to Midian, where he married Zipporah (also rendered Zepphora or Sephora), a daughter of the priest of Midian, named in the sources as Jethro (also Raguel). He worked there as a shepherd, and according to one account had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.
While tending flocks on Mount Horeb, Moses encountered a bush that burned without being consumed. God spoke to him from the bush, instructing him to remove his shoes because he stood on holy ground, and revealing the divine name YHWH (Yahweh). The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob commissioned Moses to deliver the Hebrew people from their bondage in Egypt and appointed his brother Aaron to be his spokesman.
The Exodus and the Giving of the Law
Returning to Egypt, Moses confronted Pharaoh, and through ten plagues that afflicted Egypt and its people, the last of which struck down the firstborn, he secured the release of the Israelites. He then led the people out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, which they crossed as though on dry land.
At Mount Sinai, Moses received the Ten Commandments inscribed on stone tablets. Finding the Israelites worshiping a golden calf upon his descent, he broke the tablets; God afterward re-inscribed them on new tablets. In the course of the Torah, Moses delivered several bodies of law, including the Decalogue, the Book of the Covenant, and the Book of Deuteronomy. He remained on the mountain for two periods of forty days, receiving the legislation that established Israel as a nation ordered around the worship of God, and was given instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle.
The Wilderness and Death on Mount Nebo
For forty years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness under Moses' leadership. During this time he is recorded to have brought water from a rock, provided manna and quails for the people, appointed seventy elders, and established the Tabernacle and the priesthood.
At the age of 120, Moses ascended Mount Nebo (also called Phasga or Pisgah) in the land of Moab and looked over the Promised Land, but he was not permitted to enter it. He died there in the valley of Moab, and according to Scripture no one knows the place of his burial to this day (Deuteronomy 34:5-6).
Significance in Orthodox Tradition
In the Orthodox Church, Moses is venerated as a prophet and as the God-seer, and is commemorated on September 4 as the 'Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses, on Mount Nebo.' He is also commemorated on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers and, together with Elijah and Elisha, on July 20.
The Orthodox Church attributes to Moses the authorship of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, as well as the first two of the Biblical Odes. He is regarded as a type of holiness whose life prefigures Christ, and he is described in the tradition as a supremely wise lawgiver. The figure of Moses is understood to foreshadow Christ throughout the liturgy, and the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15 is read as fulfilled in Jesus, whom the Gospel writers present as the 'new Moses.'
Moses appeared together with the Prophet Elijah at the Transfiguration of Christ, a moment in which the Law and the Prophets are shown bearing witness to him.
Relics & Shrines
Although Scripture states that no one knows the place of Moses' burial, Mount Nebo in present-day Jordan has been a place of pilgrimage commemorating his death since the fourth century. Mount Nebo is an elevated ridge approximately 700 metres above sea level, part of the Abarim mountain range, from which, by biblical tradition, Moses viewed the land of Canaan.
A Byzantine church was first constructed atop Mount Nebo in the late fourth century to commemorate Moses' death. It was enlarged in the late fifth century and rebuilt in 597. Excavations beginning in 1933 revealed a basilica with monastery annexes, six rock-hewn tombs, and extensive mosaics. The site has remained a pilgrimage destination, visited in modern times by Pope John Paul II in 2000 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
