Interlocutor of Moses on Sinai 4 letters crossword puzzle. Moses mountain

And all the time, a chaotic stream of dreams, as it were, takes place in a kind of ring, beyond which it is impossible to escape.

One day Moses jumps up from sleep in fear.

In the middle of the night, some universal sigh is heard, running wrinkled and powerful across the expanses of the desert, an inexpressible sigh of the Creation itself, unable to withstand the weight of its own sadness, called eternity.

6. Interlocutor

Moses goes far to the southeast, tending Yitro's flocks of sheep. He remembers his wife, the beautiful Sepphora, with unfailing warmth and love.

But the main interlocutor of Moses is the desert.

This absent and at the same time present companion has amazing qualities.

Not speaking, shows stubbornness.

Without arguing, refutes your arguments.

Moreover, being perceived as emptiness, it is incredibly voluminous and attractive.

Not imposed, but not far behind.

Infinitely malleable, but at any moment it marks the boundary, which your curiosity stumbles upon like a wall. With undisguised mercy, more like a mockery, watching your curiosity try to break a hole in this wall.

Can be designated as a kind of insight. It may not respond at all for a long time, but you always feel its absent presence.

Or rather, you don’t even feel it, but you are always ready for its appearance, being angry and realizing that more is not given to you.

In a dream, you can even somehow physically feel his absence, but always beyond the edge of vision.

This interlocutor behaves like a complete simpleton, but behind his empty, as if absent look, devoid of any thought, absolute knowledge is hidden.

It is so beggarly simple, like the very essence of Existence, so connected with it, as they are firmly connected with their native hearth and those closest to them, that the cunning pyramid builders seem to have arisen from nowhere, tumbleweeds, devoid of attachment and umbilical cord, although it seemed to have grown forever into earth.

In the end, by his behavior, he makes it clear that he simply spares you, because the greed of your curiosity endangers your own existence.

He hinted quite clearly that your face, as a form of passing dust, does not interest him. To let you see your face is to bring you death.

But at the same time, he exists only and absolutely as your interlocutor. And it depends on you just as you depend on him, although you are dust, and he is eternity.

Having descended to you, he has thereby already placed himself on an equal footing with you.

Moreover, an ever-growing mutual need has been established between you.

Dialogue becomes vital and the only proof of the existence of the world.

Moses feels, and not for the first time, how a mortal curiosity for the interlocutor turns into a breakdown, alienation, and again ... a desire for sleep. But sleep does not serve as an obstacle, because the interlocutor in a dream is even more active: he invades, touches the sleepy vein - a thread pulsating, ready to break at any moment of life.

The presence of an interlocutor in dreams makes them revelation. Let it be instantly forgotten, but leave hope as another step towards absolute knowledge, towards mutual knowledge and mutual feeling.

In a dream, it came that, in addition to the external reason for fleeing - the murder of an Egyptian, there was a deeply internal reason: to escape from the stone labyrinths, from the squeezing walls that constantly followed him, because he, with his own essence, rejected them as interlocutors, and they were already very thirsty this dialogue.

The failed dialogue was replaced by surveillance, distrust, suspicion of a simple stupid guard at the gates of Egypt, who is very animalistically able to identify not so much an eccentric as a stranger, incorrigible and therefore already posing a threat to these walls.

Going out on his first distant shepherd's journey, Moses first choked on the desert. And in order to survive physically and mentally, he began desperately and on the move to rush to the interlocutor, and it was like climbing a sheer smooth wall in an endless flat space.

Only then came a sense of anticipation and anticipation of this dialogue, mutual disclosure, and out of nowhere, mutual trust that came from and is becoming more and more stable.

The desert is becoming more and more reliable and indispensable interlocutor.

Before Moses began to consistently and stubbornly compose the appearance and character of his interlocutor, not yet feeling his form, voice or silence, big eyes or eyelessness, he, as if out of touch with him, unconsciously compares the desert with Egypt.

In general, both are phantoms.

The desert is surreal organic.

Egypt is surreally illusory and artificial.

The consciousness of the desert, gradually invading the consciousness of Moses, mythological.

Consciousness of Egypt logical.

Egypt lives in a knotted web of droughts and floods, festivals and ministries, kingdoms and dynasties, plagues and invasions.

The desert is always a transition, a clearing from one world to another, it brings salvation through irrationality and irrevocable faith in instinct.

Moses does not at all deny that the stone labyrinth can be the same salvation for other souls, but he understands that this labyrinth, no matter how long it exists, is finite.

The desert, the dust - are eternal.

For all the outward poverty at first, the character of the desert interlocutor is complex, capricious, infects with endless laziness, in order to suddenly overturn back with an obsession that grabs the throat.

And Moses is frightened by the suppleness of his soul to this interlocutor. How is it? After all, he encroaches on his original freedom.

But for the first time on one of the days, when all internal dialogues with the interlocutor line up in something clear and full of power, Moses, having reached the next and long-awaited well, having watered the sheep, washed off the dust and sweat, looks for a fleeting shadow, unexpectedly, at first even frightened his own voice, which he had not heard for a long time, except for the monosyllabic sounds of shouting at the sheep, begins to pronounce aloud the words of these strange conversations with a non-existent, but soul-exhausting interlocutor.

Surprisingly: without any stuttering.

Pronouncing them, Moses never ceases to be surprised at his own calmness, with which he accepts from the outside this obviously seemingly insane, unusually smooth and eloquent speaking to anyone accustomed to tongue-tied ears.

Then, carefully, as if afraid of violating the internal prohibition set for himself, he takes out of the shepherd's bag a clean bundle of papyrus, a vial of ink, a pen taken from Yitro, and tries to describe the interlocutor in clear and simple words.

The next day he reads what he wrote: in general, not bad. But how much it does not compare with the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which rises like these crimson, then blue-black mountains rising from the sands, with their sharp teeth abruptly, unexpectedly, bizarrely, but organically merging with the sky.

If someday the secret of the Creation of the world is revealed to him, undoubtedly it is there that the roots of these stories will be revealed.

But after all, without the interlocutor opened by Moses, without the desert, there would be no these stories.

Perhaps this is incomparable, because in relations with the interlocutor there is an initial flaw: the interlocutor is mute, and the text is dead until it opens to the eye and soul of the reader. Behind the stories that seem to be briefly told, but over time, gradually, more and more captivating the soul, one can hear the living voices of Merari, Ahmes, Yitro.

Although these voices have long since resounded, they are fleeting, but the burning passion of a one-time and therefore especially precious sound that gave birth to them, emanated from their souls, makes these stories, like underground reservoirs of water, reservoirs of the immortality of life.

In the middle of the endless desert, in the usual, seemingly attached to the skin, doll of silence and loneliness, suddenly the human voice opens with an urgent and desperate need to feel its own presence in the world.

7. A hair's breadth from death

As if bewitched by some kind of pull, Moses continues to drive the herds to the east, although the vegetation is dwindling before our eyes, and at night the boundless sandy non-existence clings to the ear with a faint rumble of a drifting snow, carrying a message of lack of water, lack of grass, fear and dust of death.

Prophets Moses and Aaron, 13th century

After the death of Joseph, the offspring of Jacob his father for several hundred years 1 so multiplied in the land of Egypt that all of it was overflowing with Israelites, and during the war they alone could put up to six hundred thousand people in the army.

Then the king of Egypt began to fear that the people of Israel would unite with the enemies of Egypt and, desiring freedom, would not arm themselves against it. He assigned special overseers to the Israelites, who were charged with the duty of exhausting them with hard work.

They tortured the Israelites with particular cruelty, forcing them to cultivate the land, make bricks and build cities, both for the sake of vanity and, in particular, in order to quickly exterminate the Jewish people. But the more they became embittered against the Israelites and exhausted them, the more they multiplied: for they could not reduce the number of people whom it was pleasing to God Himself to multiply and exalt.

And although the king gave a secret command to the midwives, so that they, at the very birth, would kill Jewish male babies; but those, fearing God, spared them. Then the king issued an inhuman command throughout the Egyptian land, according to which anyone who noticed a male Jewish baby was to throw him into the river (Ex., ch. 1).

At that time there lived a certain man named Amram, from the tribe of Levi, who had a wife from the same tribe, whose name was Jochebed; to this day they have had a son, Aaron, and a daughter, Miriam. At that very cruel time, when newborn Jewish babies were exterminated, their second son was born; the child was so beautiful that the mother, knowing the brutal law on the killing of all newborn Jewish babies, grieved for the baby and decided to hide him at home, which she did for three months.

But then, since she could no longer hide the baby, she took a basket, pitched it, put the child in it and placed it in the reeds near the river bank. The baby's sister began to watch from a distance what would happen to him (Ex. 2:2).

And the daughter of Pharaoh 3 went out to the river 4 to bathe, and her servants walked along the river bank. She saw a basket among the reeds, and sent her handmaid to take it. Opening the basket and seeing a crying baby in it, she took pity on him and said: "This is from Jewish children." The princess wanted to adopt the baby and find him a Jewish nurse.

According to the legends of Joseph Flavius ​​5, many Jewish nurses were brought to the found baby, but he did not accept milk from them. Then Miriam, the sister of Moses, dared to approach Pharaoh's daughter and said to her:

“Wouldn’t it be right for me to call a Jewish nurse to you to nurse your baby?”

Pharaoh's daughter answered her, "Go," and she brought her mother to her. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her:

“Take the baby and nurse it: I will pay you for it.

Jochebed took the baby, and he clung to her, feeling his mother in her. she fed him in her house; when the baby grew up, she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, who adopted him and called his name: Moses, " because, she said, I took it from the water”(this name in Egyptian means water) (Ex. 2: 7-10).

In some ancient legends 6 it is told that one day the daughter of Pharaoh brought Moses to her father, and he, playing with him, placed on his head a royal crown, on which there was a small statue of an idol; Moses, having torn off the crown from his head, threw it on the ground and trampled it under his feet. The pagan priest, who received a prediction from the Magi 7 that when a leader was born to the Israelites, Egypt would suffer many plagues, advised the Pharaoh to kill the baby so that he, having grown up, would not cause any disaster to their country.

But, according to the good will and dispensation of God, others rebelled against this, saying that the baby did it not intentionally, out of ignorance. To test his infantile ignorance, hot coals were brought, and he took them and put them into his mouth, which caused his tongue to be seared and, as a result, became tongue-tied.

When Moses came of age, the daughter of the king assigned to him the most chosen wise men of Egypt to teach him all the wisdom of Egypt, and he was strong in words and deeds, surpassing his teachers in a short time and becoming the favorite of the king and all his closest dignitaries (Acts 7: 21-22).

When he learned about his origin, that he was an Israelite, and knew the One God, who exists in heaven, the Creator of the universe, in whom his people believed, he began to abhor Egyptian pagan wickedness (Heb.22:24-26).

Some historians write 8 that when the Ethiopians fought against Egypt, then Moses, who had already reached adulthood, was chosen by the Egyptians as commanders and, thanks to his courage, defeated the enemies. However, the king of Egypt, instead of gratitude, hated him even more, because some of the Egyptian priests in their sorcery prophesied that Moses would bring disaster on Egypt in the future, and advised the king to kill him. Under the influence of their suggestions, the king really planned to kill Moses, but he did not proceed to this immediately, not wanting to offend his daughter, and hoping to find some fault behind him or to wait for a more convenient time.

It happened that Moses went to his compatriots, the sons of Israel, and examining their hard work, he saw that an Egyptian was beating a Jew. Noticing that there was no stranger near that place, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. The next day, he went out again and, seeing two quarreling Jews, he said to the one who started the quarrel:

Why are you hitting your neighbor?

And he said:

“Who made you the chief and judge over us?” Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

Moses, hearing this, was afraid and said to himself:

“Probably everyone knew about this case.

Pharaoh, hearing about this, wanted to kill Moses; but Moses fled from Pharaoh and stopped in the land of Midian (Ex. 2:11-15).

Tired of the long journey, Moses sat down by the well. And behold, the seven daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, 9 came to the well, tending their father's flocks. They began to fill the troughs with water to water the sheep. But the shepherds of the other flocks came and drove them away. Then Moses got up and protected the maidens, drew water for them and gave water to their sheep.

The maidens, having returned home, told their father that some Egyptian had protected them from the shepherds and had even drawn water for them and watered their sheep. Jethro hurried to invite Moses to him, took him into the house and then gave him his daughter Zipporah in marriage, from whom Moses had two sons. He called the first Risam, “because,” he said, “I became a stranger in a strange land,” and the second, Eliezer, saying: “The God of my father was my helper and delivered me from the hand of Pharaoh” (Ex. 2: 16- 22).

After a long time, the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel groaned from their work, and their cry for the heavy yoke went up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God looked upon the sons of men, and desired to set them free (Ex. 2:23-25).

Moses was tending sheep at Jethro, his father-in-law. One day he led the flock far into the wilderness and came to the mountain of God Horeb 10 . And then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a fiery flame from the midst of a thorn bush 11 , and Moses saw that the thorn bush was burning with fire, but was not consumed.

Moses said:

“I’ll go and look at this great phenomenon, why doesn’t the bush burn down?”

The Lord called to him from the midst of the bush:

- Moses, Moses!

He replied:

“Here I am, Lord!”

And God said to him:

– Do not come here; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

And he added to this:

“I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

Moses covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.

“I,” the Lord said to Moses, “I saw the suffering of my people in Egypt, the cry from their ministers, and I know their sorrows. And I go to deliver him from the hand of the Egyptians and bring him out of this land and bring him into a fruitful and spacious land, into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Gergesites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, into a land flowing with milk and honey 12 . And behold, the cry of the children of Israel has already come to Me, and I see the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. And so go: I will send you to Pharaoh, and you will bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

Prophet Moses receives the tablet

Moses said to God:

Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?

“I will be with you,” God answered him, “and here is a sign for you that I have sent you: when you bring My people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.

Moses said to God:

“Behold, I will come to the children of Israel and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they will say to me: What is His name? What should I tell them?

“I am Jehovah 13,” God answered Moses, “so say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob 14 sent me to you. This is my name forever and the remembrance of me from generation to generation. Go, gather the elders of Israel, and tell them: The Lord God of your fathers appeared to me and said: I visited you ... And I will bring you out of the oppression of Egypt, and they will listen to you, and you will go to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him: Jehovah, the God of the Jews , called us. So let us go into the wilderness, for a three-day journey, to offer sacrifice to the Lord our God. “But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go. Then I will strike Egypt with wonders, and Pharaoh will be forced to let you go.

“And if they do not believe me,” Moses objected, “and do not listen to my voice and say: The Lord has not appeared to you?

The Lord said, "What is that in your hand?"

He replied: "Staff."

The Lord said, "Throw him on the ground."

Moses threw, and the staff turned into a snake. Moses ran away from him, but God commanded him to take the serpent by the tail, and the serpent again became a rod in his hands.

The Lord said:

“Here is a sign for you so that they will believe you that the Lord, the God of their fathers, has appeared to you. And if they don’t believe this, then do one more thing: put your hand in your bosom.

Moses put his hand in his bosom, then took it out, and saw that it turned white from leprosy 15 like snow. The Lord ordered to put his hand in his bosom again, and she again became healthy.

“If they don’t believe even this miracle,” said the Lord, “then take water from the river and pour it out on dry land, and the water will become blood on dry land.”

Moses again began to ask God not to send him, for he was not speechless and tongue-tied.

The Lord said:

- And who gave the mouth to man? Who makes dumb or deaf, or sighted, or blind? Am I not the Lord God? So go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what to say.

Moses continued to refuse and asked to be sent to replace him with someone more capable. Then the Lord became angry with Moses and said:

"Don't you have a brother Aaron?" I know that he can speak for you. And now he will come out to meet you, and a meeting with you will make him happy. You will speak to him and put My words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and I will teach you what to do. And he will speak instead of you to the people and will be your mouth, and you will be to him instead of God. And this rod (which was turned into a serpent) take in your hand: with it you will do signs 16 .

After this, Moses returned to Jethro and said to him: "I will go to Egypt to my brothers, to see if they are still alive."

“Go in peace,” answered Jethro.

And Moses went to Egypt without fear, for the king who wanted to kill him, and all those who sought his destruction, had already died. To meet Moses, at the command of God, Aaron came out, who kissed him with joy. Moses gave Aaron all the words of the Lord. When they came to Egypt, they gathered all the elders of Israel and told them all the words that the Lord spoke to Moses, and Moses did signs and wonders before their eyes. The Israelites believed them and rejoiced that God had visited the children of Israel and looked upon their suffering.

After this, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him:

“Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast for me in the wilderness.”

But Pharaoh said:

Who is the God of Israel that I should listen to His voice? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let the Israelites go. And you, Moses and Aaron, why are you diverting the people from their work? Go, everyone, to your work.

And he immediately gave the command to the guards over the Jews to oppress them even more with hard work and not to give them henceforth straw for making bricks, which from that time on they must collect themselves, but at the same time they did not reduce the required number of bricks from them.

“Jews,” said the king, “are idle; therefore they cry: we will go, we will offer sacrifice to our God.

After this, the Jews began to be oppressed even more. Looking for material for themselves, they did not have time to prepare the number of bricks set for them every day; for this they beat the Jewish guards and did not accept any explanation from them, and they cried out against Moses and Aaron, saying: “Judge you, Lord, because you made us hated before Pharaoh and his servants and gave weapons into their hands to kill us .

Moses turned to the Lord and said:

- God! Why did you subject this people to such disaster, why did you send me? For from the time I came to Pharaoh and began to speak in Your name, he began to do worse to the people.

The Lord answered Moses:

“Now you will see what I will do with Pharaoh: with a strong hand, he will let the children of Israel go, even drive them out of his land. Say to them: I, the Lord, will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, and I will save you; heritage.

Moses told these words to the children of Israel, but they, due to their cowardice and the severity of their work, did not believe Moses. Then the Lord commanded Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the children of Israel out of his land. Moses answered that if the children of Israel did not already listen to him, then how could Pharaoh listen to him when even his speech, Moses, was inaudible.

To this the Lord answered him:

“I appointed you as a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.” You will tell him whatever I command you, and your brother will tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. But I will allow Pharaoh to show his stubbornness in all his strength and not listen to you. For this I will stretch out My hand on Egypt and execute a terrible judgment on her by means of miraculous plagues; then all the Egyptians will know that I am God! And I will bring the children of Israel out of their midst. And if Pharaoh demands proof from you, then you tell Aaron to throw down the rod, and the rod will become a serpent.

Encouraged by God Himself, Moses and Aaron again stood before Pharaoh and his servants and did as the Lord commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh, and the staff became a serpent. Pharaoh called the wise men of Egypt and sorcerers, and they did the same with their charms; but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had foretold, and did not want to let the Jews go. Then, at the command of God, Moses and Aaron began to inflict executions on the land of Egypt 17 .

The next day, Aaron, at the command of Moses, took his staff and struck it on the water of the river in the presence of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water in the river turned into blood; the fish in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water from the river. The second plague was the frogs 18: Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and brought out frogs from them, which penetrated into the houses, into the bedrooms, on the bed, into the oven and the kneader, and on the king, and on the servants, and on his people, and nowhere nobody was given rest. And the whole land of Egypt was covered with frogs, and when they died out at the command of Moses, the Egyptians gathered them in heaps, and the whole earth stank from the dead and rotten frogs. The third plague was on people and on cattle, on Pharaoh and his house and on his servants, and the soil of the land of Egypt became full of snipes 19 . The fourth plague was dog flies 20 . The fifth plague was a very severe plague on the cattle throughout the land of Egypt. The sixth execution was purulent inflammatory abscesses on people and cattle. The seventh plague was hail and fire between hail 21, and that hail killed everything that was in the open air: grass, and trees, and livestock, and people. The eighth plague was locusts and caterpillars 22 which devoured all the Egyptian vegetation. The ninth plague was a three-day darkness over all the land of Egypt, so thick that even with the fire there was no light, so that no one could see each other for three days, and no one got up from his bed during this time. The tenth and last plague was the death of the firstborn of the Egyptians.

And all these plagues, none of which did any harm to the Israelites, but only to the Egyptians, were inflicted by God through Moses and Aaron because Pharaoh did not want to let the people of God into the wilderness to serve God; for, although he promised several times to release them for fear of execution, but when the punishment weakened, he became hardened again and thus did not release them until the tenth execution. Before the tenth plague, the sons of Israel, in accordance with the way Moses commanded them, begged the Egyptians for silver and gold vessels and expensive clothes, as much as they could carry with them.

Then Moses established for the children of Israel, in memory of their exodus from Egypt, the feast of Passover, according to the command of the Lord. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron:

- Let this month 23 be your first of the year. Tell the whole congregation of the sons of Israel that on the ninth day of this month, each family separates one lamb from their flock. The lamb must be without blemish, male, one year old. And let them keep it with you until the fourteenth day of this month. Then in the evening let them slaughter a lamb in every family. Then let him anoint both the doorpost and the crossbar with his blood in those houses in which they gather to eat the lamb. It is necessary to eat its meat not boiled in water, but baked on fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Until morning, do not leave anything from him and do not crush the bones, and what remains, burn with fire. Eat with haste, girded and shod, and with staffs in your hands. This is the Passover of the Lord 24 . I will go through this night in the land of Egypt, and I will strike every firstborn among the Egyptians, from man to livestock, and when I see blood on your houses, I will pass over you and will not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike. And let this day be memorable, and celebrate on this feast to the Lord in all your generations, as an eternal institution 25 .

According to the command of God, in every family of Israel, a lamb was separated and prepared for the appointed time. All the children of Israel had their doors anointed with blood and locked; no one left them until the morning. At midnight, the destroying angel passed through Egypt and struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the prisoner in prison, and all the firstborn to the cattle. The Jews had everything.

In the night Pharaoh arose, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not a dead man. Immediately Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to him and said:

“Get up, get out of the midst of my people, you and all the children of Israel, and go and serve the Lord your God, as you said; take small and large cattle. Go ahead and bless me.

The Egyptians began to urge the Israelites to get out of their land as soon as possible, because, they said, otherwise we would all die because of them.

And the people of Israel carried their dough before it was left sour; their kneaders, tied in garments, were on their shoulders, for they, compelled by the Egyptians, could not have time to prepare the brashna for the journey. They went out with silver and gold and jewels; many strangers, small and large cattle also went out with them. The number of all foot husbands, except for households and other strangers, reached 600,000 people. Moses took with him the bones of Joseph, who died in Egypt, and before his death, foreseeing the future with a prophetic spirit, he cursed the children of Israel, saying: God will visit you, and you will carry my bones out of here with you.» (Gen. 50:24-25).

The Lord God went before the Israelites, shining on them by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire, that they might go day and night. The pillar by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from the presence of the whole people (Ex. 13:16-32).

When it was announced to the king of Egypt that the people of Israel had fled, the heart of him and his servants turned against this people, and they said: “What have we done? Why did they let the Israelis go so they wouldn’t work for us?” Pharaoh harnessed his chariot, and took his people with him, Six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt, and leaders over all of them. They pursued the Israelites and overtook them when they were encamped by the sea, 26 but they could not attack them: the angel of God, who went before the camp of the children of Israel, went behind them, entered into the middle between the camp of the Egyptians and between the camp of the children of Israel, and was cloud and darkness to some, and lighted up the night to others, and they did not come near one another. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea with a strong east wind that lasted all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters parted. The Israelites went across the sea on dry land; the waters were a wall to them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued them, and all the horses of Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen went into the midst of the sea. After the Israelites were led through the sea, Moses, at the command of God, stretched out his hand over the sea, and by morning the water returned to its place, and the Egyptians fled to meet the water. And the Lord drowned the Egyptians in the midst of the sea: the returning water covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the army of Pharaoh who went into the sea after them, so that not one of them remained. And the Lord on that day delivered the Israelites out of the hands of the Egyptians, whom they saw dead on the seashore, so that not one of them was left. And the Lord on that day delivered the Israelites out of the hands of the Egyptians, whom they saw dead on the shore of the sea, which had thrown their bodies on dry land. Then the Israelites saw in what happened the great hand that the Lord showed over the Egyptians, and the people of the Lord feared and believed Him and His servant Moses (Ex., ch. 14). Moses and the children of Israel, rejoicing and triumphant, sang a song of thanksgiving to the Lord:

– « I sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; he threw his horse and rider into the sea...» 27 (Ex. 15:1-18).

And Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, having gathered the wives of Israel, led the choirs with them, taking her timbrel in her hand; they all struck the tambourines and sang the same song under her direction.

After this Moses led the Israelites from the Red Sea 29 , and they entered the wilderness of Shur 30 ; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah and found a spring there, they could not drink from it, for the water was bitter. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet 31. And Moses led the Israelites during their travels in various deserts for forty years, asking them from God everything that was necessary. When they murmured against Moses and Aaron because of food, remembering the meat that they ate in Egypt, Moses pleaded with God, and the Lord rained on them with manna and sent them full quails 32 . The Israelites ate this manna for forty years in the Arabian desert, until they entered the borders of the promised land of Canaan. When they murmured because of thirst, Moses brought water out of the stone for them: he struck the stone with his rod, and a fountain of water flowed out 33 . When the Israelites were attacked by the Amalekites, Moses lifted up his hands to God in prayer, and the Israelites began to overcome and defeat the enemies, whose troops they completely destroyed with the sword 34 . And no matter how many times they angered God in the wilderness, every time Moses implored the Lord for them, who wanted to destroy them, if Moses, His chosen one, did not stand before Him to turn away His wrath, may he not destroy them!

Meanwhile, Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, hearing what God had done for Moses and the people of Israel when they went out of Egypt, took Zipporah, the wife of Moses, and his two sons, and went with them to Mount Horeb, where the Israelites camped with their tents. Moses went out to meet him and, after a mutual greeting, told him about everything that the Lord had done with Pharaoh and with all the Egyptians for Israel, and about all the difficulties that met them on the way. Jethro rejoiced when he heard about the benefits that God had shown to Israel, glorified God, who delivered his people from the power of the Egyptians, confessed before everyone that the Lord is great, more than all gods, and offered sacrifices to Him.

The next day Moses sat down to judge the people; the people stood before him from morning until evening.

Prophet Moses, 16th century

Seeing this, Jethro noticed Moses that he was in vain bothering himself and the people in this way, for this work was too hard for him alone.

“Listen to my words,” said Jethro, “be a mediator for the people before God and present their deeds to God; teach the children of Israel the ordinances of God and His laws, show them His way in which they must walk, and the works that they must do; and choose for yourselves capable people, fearing God, truthful people, hating self-interest, and put them over the people as chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifty, and chiefs of tens, and clerks; let them judge the people at all times and report to you about every important matter, and judge all the small things themselves: and it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.

Moses obeyed his father-in-law, after which Jethro soon took leave of him and returned to his land (Ex., ch. 18).

On the very new moon of the third month, after the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and encamped against the mountain. Moses went up to Sinai 35, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, commanding him to proclaim to the Israelites in His name: “You saw what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you, as it were on eagle wings, and brought you to Me. If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you will be my chosen people before all others, and you will be my holy kingdom and holy nation.”

The people expressed their readiness to fulfill whatever God commands. Then the Lord commanded Moses to sanctify the people and prepare them for the third day with a two-day cleansing. On the third day, in the morning thunders were heard, lightning began to flash, and thick darkness surrounded the mountain; a trumpet sound was heard, which became stronger and stronger. All the people trembled. And Moses led him out of the camp to meet the Lord; everyone stopped at the foot of the mountain, the mountain was surrounded on all sides by a line, which was forbidden to cross under pain of death. The people saw that Mount Sinai was tossing from its very foundations, and smoke ascended from it, as if from a furnace; because the Lord descended on him in a thick cloud and in fire. Moses and Aaron, by the command of God, stood on the mountain in the sight of the people (Ex. 19:3-25).

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any image of what is in heaven above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth; do not worship them and do not serve them, for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, punishing the children for the guilt of the fathers to the third and fourth generations that hate Me, and showing mercy to thousands of generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments. Do not pronounce the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who pronounces His name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; six days work and do [in them] all your works, and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: do not do any work in it, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your handmaid, nor [ your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor the stranger that is in your dwellings; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother, [that you may be well and] that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Dont kill. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. Do not covet your neighbor's house; Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, [neither his field,] nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, [nor any of his cattle,] anything that is your neighbor's" (Ex. 20:2-17 ; Deut. 5:5).

After this, the elders of Israel stood up before Moses and said:

“Behold, God has shown us His glory, we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire… We feel that it is impossible for any mortal being to hear God who is ever-awake, as we hear, and remain alive. It is better for you to approach, and listen to everything that our God will tell you, and retell to us: we will listen and fulfill.

“Do not be afraid,” said Moses, “God is testing you, so that by placing His fear on you, He will keep you from transgressing His commandments.

Then Moses entered the darkness, marked by the near presence of Jehovah, and there he received from Him various laws relating to the ecclesiastical and civil welfare of the people of God and, descending from the mountain, conveyed everything that the Lord had said to the people and wrote it all down in a book. The next day, in the morning, Moses built an altar of earth under the mountain and placed twelve stones around it, according to the number of the twelve tribes of Israel, and offered burnt offerings and thanksgiving offerings from slain bulls and goats to God, on behalf of all the people, who promised at this time to do everything that he commanded Lord (Deut. 5:23-31; Ex. 20:18-21; 24:1-11). Then the Lord said to Moses:

“Come up to Me on the mountain and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone 36 and the law and the commandments that I wrote for the teaching of the people.

Moses, with his helper in the work of ministry, Joshua, the son of Nun 37, went up to Sinai, and a cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of the Lord overshadowed it, and a cloud covered Sinai for six days, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses, and he went up to the very top, where he dwelt forty days and forty nights. At this time, he received instructions on how to arrange a tabernacle or camp temple, in which the people should offer sacrifices and offer prayers to God.

At the end of forty days, the Lord gave him two tablets, on which were inscribed with the finger of God all the ten commandments that the Lord spoke aloud to all the people (Ex. 24:12-18, 31; Deut. 9:9-11).

Meanwhile, the people, seeing that Moses did not leave the mountain for a long time, gathered to Aaron and demanded that he make them a god who would go before them, “because,” they said, “something happened to Moses.” They brought him the golden earrings of their wives and daughters, and Aaron made for them the image of a calf of gold. The people said, "This is the god who brought us out of the land of Egypt." And the next day they offered sacrifices on the altar before the calf, they began to drink, eat and play 38 .

And God was angry with them, and He told Moses that this hard-nosed people whom He had brought out of Egypt had gone astray, transgressed the commandments of God, and worshiped a false god. Moses began to pray for the people, and God heeded his intercession. Going down to the foot of the mountain, Moses and Joshua saw a calf and dancing. Moses was inflamed with anger, and throwing down the tablets, he broke them under the mountain in the sight of all the people.

Then he took the calf that they had made, broke it and ground it into dust, which he poured into the stream flowing from the bark, and, to the shame of the man-made deity, forced the Israelites to drink that water. Aaron, in response to the reproaches of Moses, excused himself for the unbridled and stubbornness of the violent people, and Moses saw that the people had nothing to justify themselves with. He stood at the gate of the camp and exclaimed:

- Who remained faithful to the Lord - come to me!

And all the sons of Levi gathered to him. Moses ordered each of them to go with a sword through the camp and back, and kill anyone who met. And up to three thousand of the guilty fell (Ex. 32:1-29; Deut. 9:12-17, 21).

The next day, Moses again ascended the mountain, prostrated himself before God, and fasting for forty days and nights, pleaded for the sin of the people, saying:

- If You do not forgive their sin, then blot me out of Your book, in which you have inscribed those destined for eternal bliss.

The Lord answered that He would blot out those who sinned against Him from His book, and, commanding Moses to lead the people to the promised land, he made it clear that he would no longer accompany him with special favor. The people, having heard this threat, wept, and all put on themselves penitential garments. Moses deepened the prayers, and God returned His favor to the Israelites.

After this, Moses was honored at Sinai to see the glory of the Lord.

“My face,” the Lord said to him, “you cannot see, because a person cannot see Me and remain alive. But I will pass all My glory before you and I will proclaim the name: Jehovah ... When My glory passes away, I will set you in a cleft of the rock and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed through. And when I remove My hand, you will see Me from behind, but My Face will not be visible to you.

At the same time, Moses received the command to write the words of the covenant in a book and again received the tablets, on which God again inscribed the same ten commandments that were written on the previous ones.

The contemplation of the glory of God left a mark on the face of Moses. When he came down from the mountain, Aaron and all the Israelites were afraid to approach him, seeing how his face was shining. Moses called them and told them everything that God commanded him. After this, he put a veil over his face, which he removed only when he stood before God (Ex. 32:30-33; 33:1-6, 12-23; 34:1-8, 10-18, 22-24 26-35; Deut. 9:18-19, 10:1-4; 2 Cor. 3:13).

Moses announced to the sons of Israel the will of God about the tabernacle and proceeded to build it, entrusting it to the artists indicated by God, according to the model he had seen at Sinai during his forty-day stay on it. The Israelites, on the other hand, brought generous donations of gold, silver, copper, wool, linen, leather, trees, fragrances, precious stones, and everything they could. When the tabernacle was ready and sanctified with all the accessories with anointing oil, a cloud covered it and filled the whole tabernacle, so that Moses himself could not enter it.

And Moses placed inside the tabernacle the cauldron of the covenant, bound with gold 39 , in which he put the golden stave with manna 40 , the prosperous rod of Aaron 41 and the tablets of the covenant, and above the casket he placed the image of two golden cherubs 42 and arranged everything necessary for sacrifices and burnt offerings.

Then Moses established holidays and new moons for the Israelites 43 and appointed priests and Levites for them, choosing the entire tribe of Levi to serve God, at His command, and placing it at the disposal of Aaron and his sons 44 .

The servant of God Moses did many other signs and wonders, he gave many cares for the Israelites, he gave them many laws and reasonable orders; all this is reported in the sacred books written by him: in the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; these books describe in detail his life and the labors that he took upon himself during his reign over the children of Israel.

When the Israelites came to Mount Amorite in Cadiz-Barnea, 45 Moses told them that the land that the Lord had given them as an inheritance was now before them; but the Israelites wished to send spies first to inspect the land, and by the command of God, Moses chose from the leaders of Israel one person from each tribe, including Joshua, to survey the land of Canaan.

Returning, the messengers told that the land was rich in fruits, pastures, cattle and bees, but some of them were afraid of the inhabitants of that country, who were distinguished by extraordinary growth and strength, and advised the Israelites to return to Egypt, so as not to perish from the Amorites; But Joshua and others who urged them to go to that beautiful land, the Israelites wanted to stone them to death. But God, through the prayer of Moses, forgave the Israelites their sin, and those guilty of rebellion were stricken with sudden death (Numbers 13 and 14; Deut. 1:19-46).

On the way, the children of Israel again showed their cowardice, and began to complain and grumble against God. Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes, the stings of which were deadly, and many of the children of Israel died from them. The people humbled themselves and repented that they had sinned against God and grumbled against Moses.

Then Moses prayed that the Lord would drive away the snakes from them, and the Lord said to him: “Make a snake and hang it on a pole: then, whoever is wounded, just look at him and remain alive.” Moses hung a brass image of a serpent on a pole, after which all the wounded who looked at this image with faith remained unharmed 46 .

So Moses led the people of Israel on their way to the land of Canaan, saving them with his prayers and miracles from various disasters and punishments of God.

Moses himself was determined to die outside the promised land. When the time of his death approached, the Lord foretold him of his imminent repose and said:

“Go up Mount Avarim 47, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving for the possession of the sons of Israel, and die on that mountain, and be added to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor 48, and was added to his people, because you have sinned against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah in Cadiz, in the wilderness of Sin, because you have not shown My holiness among the children of Israel; before you you will see the land that I give to the children of Israel, but you yourself will not enter there (Deut. 31:14-30; ch. 32 and 33).

Before his death, Moses blessed the children of Israel, each tribe separately, prophesying about their future destinies (Deut. 3:23-28; Numbers 27:12-23). After this, by the command of God, he went up to the mountain, and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead to Dan, and all the land of Naphtali, and all the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, even to the West Sea and the midday country and the plain of the valley of Jericho, city ​​of palms, to Sigor 49 . And Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.

His body was buried in the valley of the land of Moab opposite Beth Pegor, 50 and no one ever knew the place of his burial. Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died; but his vision was not dimmed, and the strength in him was not exhausted. The Israelites honored the death of Moses with thirty days of lamentation. And there was no longer among the Israelites a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, according to all the signs and wonders that he performed before the eyes of all Israel (Deut. 34: 1-12).

Through the prayers of the holy prophet Moses, may the Lord deliver us from all sorrow, and may it settle us in eternal villages, leading us out of Egypt - this troubled world! Amen.

Troparion, tone 2:

Thou prophet Moses ascended to the height of the virtues, and for this reason thou wast worthy to see the glory of God: the tablets of the grace-filled law were received, and the inscriptions of grace were carried in oneself, and the prophets were honest praise, and piety was a great sacrament.

Kontakion, tone 2:

The face of the prophet, with Moses and Aaron, rejoices today, as if the end of their prophecy has been fulfilled on us: today the cross shines, by whom you saved us. With those prayers, Christ God, have mercy on us.

____________________________________________________________

1 The death of Patriarch Joseph should be attributed to approximately 1923 BC. The stay of the Israelites in Egypt lasted about 398 years, starting with the resettlement of Jacob and his family there.

2 Amram, descended from the tribe of Levi (the son of the patriarch Jacob) and was the son of Kohath, the son of Levi (Ex. 6:20; Numbers 3:29; 26:58-59). Jochebed was the daughter of Levi (Ex. 6:20; Numbers 26:59).

3 i.e. daughter of the king of Egypt. The kings of Egypt were called pharaohs.

4 Here, of course, the Nile is the greatest river in the world. The length of the Nile is believed to be 6000 versts; it flows in northeast Africa, starting from Ethiopia and flows into the Mediterranean Sea.

5 Josephus, Jewish historian (born 37 A.D.), author of Antiquities of the Jews, where he relates some stories about Moses that are not found in the sacred biblical books.

6 The legend about this is transmitted by Georgy Kedrin, a Byzantine writer of the late 11th or early 12th century, the author of the so-called. "Historical synopsis", or a collection of annalistic tales from the creation of the world to 1059 according to R. Chr.

7 In ancient times, the name Magi meant wise people who had high and extensive knowledge, especially knowledge about the secret forces of nature, heavenly bodies, sacred writings, etc. They observed natural phenomena, interpreted dreams, predicted the future; for the most part they were also priests, and enjoyed great respect at the royal courts and among the people. Such were especially the magi of Egypt.

8 Flavius ​​Josephus in "Antiquities of the Jews", book. 2, ch. ten.

9 The Midianites, or Midianites, were the descendants of Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by Keturah; it was a numerous people of different Arabian tribes, who led a nomadic lifestyle. The Midian land, where they had their main residence, was a desert area near the Elanite Gulf of the Red (Red) Sea, on its eastern side, in Arabia. As a descendant of Midian, son of Abraham, Jethro and his family were worshipers of the true God.

10 Horeb is a mountain in the Arabian desert, the western upland of the same mountain range, the eastern part of which is Sinai.

11 In Slavic: Kupina is a thorny acacia of the Arabian Peninsula, which grows especially abundantly near the mountains of Horeb and Sinai, which is a small shrub with sharp thorns. The burning, but not burning bush that appeared to Moses, foreshadowed by itself, according to the teachings of St. Church, the Mother of God - the Virgin, who remained incorruptible after the incarnation and the birth of the Son of God from Her.

12 By the land of Canaan, in some places, are meant the vast lands that lie in the west of Asia along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea - in particular, the land on this side of the Jordan, Phenicia and the land of the Philistines, and the country beyond the Jordan differs from the land of Canaan. In modern times, under the land of Canaan, it usually means the entire Promised Land, all the lands occupied by the Israelites on both sides of the Jordan. The land of Canaan was notable for its extraordinary fertility, an abundance of pastures suitable for cattle breeding, and in this sense it is called in Scripture the land flowing with milk and honey. The Canaanites are the original inhabitants of the land of Canaan, the descendants of Canaan, the son of Hamov, divided into 11 tribes, of which five: the Jews, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Gergeses and the Hittites lived in the country that the Israelites later occupied, or in the proper sense the Promised Land. The Jews, a large tribe of Canaan, dwelt in the middle of the land of Canaan and partly in the south; the Amorites, the most powerful Canaanite tribe under Moses, spread widely in the very land of Canaan, on this side of the Jordan, occupied the middle of this land and the mountain of the Amorites and spread far, both to the north and to the south; the Hittites lived in the mountainous countries near the Amorites and were also a strong and numerous tribe; the Jebusites in the time of Moses occupied the southern part of the Promised Land; The Gergesites lived in the west of the Jordan. The Perizzites were a people who belonged to the ancient, natural inhabitants of Palestine, and did not come from a Canaanite tribe; lived mainly in the middle of Palestine, or the land of Canaan.

13 Jehovah, or Jehovah in Hebrew, is one of the names of God, which expresses the originality, eternity and immutability of the Being of God.

14 Having chosen Abraham to keep the faith on earth, and having made His covenant with him, God repeated His promises to Isaac and Jacob afterwards. Hence, these patriarchs are often cited together in the Holy Scriptures, not only as the ancestors of the Jewish people, but also as successors and keepers of Divine covenants and promises, as great ascetics of faith and piety, and as intercessors and intercessors before God, who acquired their special faith and virtues. grace from God. Therefore, their names are repeated and mentioned in Holy Scripture and during manifestations and revelations to the people of God, and God in this sense is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

15 Leprosy is the most terrible and disgusting, contagious disease; it dominates predominantly in countries with a hot climate, especially in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Arabia, India and in general in the east. With the development of this disease, the skin becomes a disaster, then it swells, dries, becomes covered with scabs and ulcers with a disgusting smell, then the members of the body fall off, and for the most part, those affected by this disease eventually die in terrible agony.

16 For the appearance of God to Moses and the calling of the latter, see Ex., ch. 3, ch. 4, art. 1-17.

17 For the plagues of Egypt, see Ex., ch. 7-12.

18 A genus of large tailless frogs. Toads themselves are harmless and not dangerous, but very vile and disgusting; often covering the land of Egypt in myriads and filling swamps, Nile channels, fields and courtyards, and creeping into houses, bedrooms, on beds, in ovens and sourdough, they became a real ulcer for the inhabitants.

20 Dog flies are a genus of stinging flies or insects, supposedly especially harmful to dogs. But here the Hebrew word that replaces this expression means actually a mixture, a multitude, and therefore here one must understand the multitude of harmful insects in general.

21 Some understand the seventh plague as khamsin, a scorching south wind that brings whole heaps of sand to Egypt from the desert, often combined with devastating thunderstorms and at the same time strong hail. Khamsin is accompanied by terrible disasters for the inhabitants of Egypt.

22 Locust is an insect belonging to the category of jumping and herbivores. It is distinguished by its gluttony, and therefore is considered one of the most terrible scourges of God in the East. It always arrives in clouds with an east wind, devours all vegetation on its way, and nothing can resist it until the same wind drives it into the sea, where it dies. Scripture often points to locusts as a special instrument of God's wrath. - A caterpillar is one of the locust species in its larvae, before the development of its wings.

23 In Hebrew, the month of Aviv, or Nisan, corresponding to the second half of our March and the first half of April.

24 Passover - translated from Hebrew - means passing, passing something, deliverance, and hence the sacrifice of passing, deliverance. Easter is the greatest of the Old Testament Jewish holidays, established in memory of the miraculous deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian slavery. The Old Testament Easter served as a type of the redemption of the human race from sin through the suffering and death of the Divine Lamb - Christ, and was a great sacrament of faith for the Jews (Heb. 11:28).

25 For the establishment of the feast of Passover, see Ex. ch. 12 and 13, Art. 1-16.

26 At that time the Israelites were encamped at Pi-Gahiroth before Baal-zephon (Ex. 14:9). Baal-Zephon is an Egyptian city near the Red or Red Sea, on the western side of its northern edge. Pi-Gahiroth - the area at the end of the northern (Hieropolitan) Gulf of the Red Sea, east of Baal-Zephon, the so-called Agirud or Agrud; now - a fortress with a source of such bitter water that even very unpretentious camels can hardly drink it.

27 Ex. 15:1-18. The words of this whole thankful, laudatory song are filled with reverent delight and bear the seal of sacred majesty. This solemn song of the Israelites to the Lord in our Orthodox Church occupies the first place among the nine sacred songs that serve as the basis of the well-known song canons, daily sung by the Church to the glory of God and His saints.

28 The tympanum is one of the oldest musical instruments, which is still in great use throughout the East, and partly in the West. This is a wooden or metal circle the width of a palm, covered with leather, along the edges of which various metal circles, rings, and tambourines are usually hung. And now, as in ancient times, this instrument is predominantly an instrument of women, who, while singing and dancing, holding it in their left hand, shake it, and strike it in time with their right hand.

29 The Red, or so-called Red, Sea is a long narrow strait of the Indian Ocean, separating the Arabian Peninsula from Egypt and Asia from Africa. The Red Sea is very deep, even at the smallest distance from the coast.

30 Sur - the desert between Palestine and Egypt, between the Gulf of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, to the southwestern border of Palestine. Now the so-called El-Jifar desert.

31 Exodus 15:22-25. Merra (translated means bitterness) is a place in the Sur Desert, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. Now this area is believed to be on the way from Ayun-Muz to Sinai in the mineral spring Govar or Gavor, where the water is so unpleasant, bitter and salty that it is considered by the nomadic Arabs to be the worst spring.

32 Ex., ch. 16. It was in the wilderness of Sin in Arabia near Sinai. - Manna - translated from Hebrew means: "What is this?", For the first time the Jews saw her descending from heaven in the form of something small, snowy, they asked each other in bewilderment: "What is this?" By manna here one cannot understand any of all natural manna known by the genus, made from small grains of a special cereal plant. It was a special wonderful food that God sent from heaven to the Israelites. Moses likens the taste of manna to the taste of flour mixed with honey or oil; she was at the same time convenient for the preparation of various victuals.

33 Ex. 17:1-7. It was in Rephidim, in the desert of Arabia, by Mount Horeb. After the miraculous drawing of water from the rock, Moses called the name of the place: Massa and Meribah (i.e. “temptation and reproach”), because of the reproach of the sons of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying: “Is the Lord among us, or not?"

34 Ex. 17:8-16. The Amalekites are a nomadic people who lived in the south of Palestine in rocky Arabia, between Idumea and Egypt, in the deserts of Sin and Paran, in the north of the Sinai Peninsula.

35 Mount Sinai is actually a group of mountains, consisting of granite rocks, cut through and surrounded by steep and rough valleys; the Arabs now call it Mount Tur or Jebel-Tur-Sina; lies almost in the middle of the known branches of the Red Sea, which form the Sinai Peninsula. It consists of three mountain ranges. Mount Sin itself, at which the Israelites entered into a covenant with God and received the commandments of the law from Him, represents the highest southeastern peak of the middle ridge, while the lower, northwestern peak is Mount Horeb.

36 i.e. stone boards.

37 Joshua is the successor of Moses, the leader of Israel, who led the Jews into the promised land. His memory is September 1st.

38 It cannot, of course, be assumed that the Israelites thought of making a god out of metal and ascribed their deliverance from Egypt to him, while recently God spoke his law to them; no, they wanted to serve Jehovah (Ex. 32:5), but, contrary to the clear prohibition of God (20:4), they were carried away by the example of the pagans who worshiped deities in sensual images, the closest example of which was presented to them by the Egyptians, who worshiped the black bull Apis, depicting the deities of Osiris, and cast from metal his image. For all that, their crime was idolatry and deserved severe punishment.

39 The kivot or, from Greek, the Ark of the Covenant, the greatest shrine of the Tabernacle, was a box made of shittim wood (the best kind of cedar).

40 Stamna, translated from Greek, is a jug or a vessel in general. In this golden stave was kept part of the manna, which the Israelites miraculously ate during their forty years of wandering in the desert of Arabia.

41 The origin of this rod of Aaron is told in the book of Num. One day, a dangerous uprising broke out against Moses and Aaron, led by the Levite Korah and two Reubenites Dathan and Aviron, who were joined by 250 other leaders of the society. Korah, jealous of Aaron, himself sought the high priesthood and, together with his accomplices, began to say that the whole society is holy, and in vain did Moses and Aaron put themselves above everyone else. The guilty were punished by the judgment of God: they were swallowed up by the scattered earth; but the indignation continued, and the wrath of God struck another 14,700 people. To prevent disputes about who should have the right to the priesthood, God commanded that a rod be taken from each of the twelve leaders of the tribes of Israel and placed in the tabernacle, promising that the rod would blossom in the one chosen by Him. The next day Moses found that Aaron's rod gave flowers and brought almonds. Then Moses laid Aaron's rod before the ark of the covenant for preservation, as a testimony to future generations about the Divine election of Aaron and his descendants to the priesthood.

42 The image of the cherubim in human form, but with wings, and the placement of these images over the ark of the covenant expressed that they, as the highest spiritual beings, were awarded special closeness to God, stand before His throne and reverently serve Him, delving into the mysteries of our salvation.

43 These holidays were the following: Saturdays, Passover and the feast of unleavened bread, Pentecost (established in memory of the Sinai legislation and to give thanks to God for the new fruits of the earth), the feast of trumpets, the day of cleansing, the feast of tabernacles, the new moon - the beginning of each new month, sanctified by sacrifices. In addition, special feasts for the Israelites were: the Sabbath year, or the seventh, and the jubilee, or 50th year.

44 Num. 3:5-13; 8:5-22; 1:5-53. First, Aaron and his sons received a special consecration to minister before God in the Tabernacle; after that, the whole tribe of Leviino was attached to them. The priesthood proper belonged to Aaron and his sons and their offspring; the high priesthood belonged to the eldest in his family; his other descendants were priests, and others from the tribe of Levi were generally called Levites, who served at the tabernacle, performing the lowest duties: they carried the tabernacle and its accessories, guarded them, helped the priests during worship, some of them were singers and musicians, book readers and judges according to civil cases, etc.

45 Cadiz, or Cadiz-Barnea - the area on the border of the promised land, near Mount Seir, in the south of Palestine.

46 Numbers 21:4-9. The serpent ascended in the desert, according to St. Gregory of Nyssa, is the sign of the sacrament of the Cross, which the Word of God clearly teaches when it says: as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up"(John 3:14).

47 Abarim is actually a chain of mountains going against Jericho on the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab. Moses saw the promised land from the top of Mount Nebo; This peak was called Pisgah.

48 Mount Hor was on the border of Idumea and Palestine, near Cadiz, south of the Dead Sea. Aaron died a year before the death of Moses.

49 The country of Gilead is called the country of the Jordan, from Mount Hermon to the river Arnona. The city of Dan is in the north of Palestine and was the northern limit of the Promised Land. The land of Naphtali occupied the northernmost part of the land of Canaan. The tribe of Ephraim, during the division of the Promised Land, occupied the very middle of it. Manassiino - its northern part next to Gilead, which was later occupied by him. The tribe of Judah occupied the vastest and most important part of the land of Canaan from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, and from the stream of Egypt to the limits of Ephraim. “By the Western Sea we mean here the Mediterranean. - Midday suffering, i.e. southern. Sigor is a city in the valley of Siddim, in the south of the Judean Desert, on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. Thus, Moses was shown the whole country, which, by the will of God, the Jews were to occupy.

50 Beth Pegor is one of the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites on the east side opposite Jericho.

Mount Sinai is the place where the Lord revealed himself to the prophet Moses in a burning bush. And then again, already at the top of the mountain, he spoke with the prophet and gave 10 commandments. 600 years after Moses, the prophet Elijah came to the same place and also spoke with God. Both of these prophets turned out to be interlocutors of Christ during the transfiguration on Mount Tabor. The Lord Himself called this land sacred when He spoke from the burning bush, and even ordered Moses to take off his shoes.

From the first years of the existence of monasticism, hermits began to settle near Sinai. The first temple for hermits was built by order of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Helena around 320.

The high walls that protect the monastery were erected by order of Emperor Justinian in the middle of the 6th century. Justinian was a very religious person and did a lot for the Church. His confessor was the Monk Savva the Sanctified, whom he often invited to Constantinople to participate in Councils. Justinian himself lived for several years in the Holy Land, as well as here on Mount Sinai. He came here, found this desert with a small temple in honor of the Burning Bush.

To him, as to the Emperor, local hermits came to greet him. After looking at their life, he decided to build a cenobitic monastery here. It's a completely different statute. This is not when everyone lives separately and meets only in the Temple for worship once a week (a special charter), but when the brethren live together, have common obediences, a common meal, and most importantly, have a completely different way of working on themselves - they rise to spiritual heights through humility to each other, obedience, etc.

Since the 6th century, the monastery has become the way we see it now. Justinian is building a cathedral church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which since that time no one has ever destroyed. Over time, the Temple only became more beautiful, a new iconostasis, new chandeliers, candelabra, etc. appeared.

Above the monastery one can see the special mercy of God that even the recent revolution in Egypt did not affect the monastery.

That night, almost all of our pilgrims climbed Mount Moses(or otherwise Mount Horeb). The height of Mount Moses is 2285 m above sea level, the ascent to it from the monastery of St. Catherine takes about 2-3 hours. Two roads lead to the top: steps carved into the rock (3750 steps) - a shorter but more difficult path, and the Camel Path, laid in the 19th century. For those who cannot afford the path, here part of the ascent can be overcome on camels.

At the top of the mountain is the Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, where we served the Divine Liturgy at night.

Once in such places, a person realizes that he has long been living a littered, fussy life, which he spends in essence completely senselessly, and therefore all achievements in it are ephemeral and doubtful. Here he feels all the greatness of the universe and man, as God's creations. Here the prayer becomes sharper, as if the Lord is getting closer. You begin to experience a sense of gratitude. Here the thought of God is the most natural thought.

Among the very mountains, under the very stars that Moses looked at, you too will be rewarded with a revelation. It will be different for everyone. But in these places, the pictures of the Old Testament will become real, and Moses and Aaron will no longer be just abstract characters from an old book.

The descent from the mountain was easier

Those who did not climb the mountain took communion at the Divine Liturgy in the monastery. For the last 1700 years, the Divine Liturgy has been celebrated every day in the monastery of St. Catherine. After breakfast and a short rest, we went to one hermit - Father Moses.

He has been in Sinai for 30 years, 27 of which he lives as a hermit. He himself comes from the island of Crete (Greece) and his confessor was the recently canonized elder Porfiry Kavsokalivit. It was from the confessor that Father Moses learned about the existence of Sinai, and it was Elder Porfiry who blessed him to come here. At first he lived in a monastery, and then he discovered this ruined monastery in the mountains, restored it and named it after Saint John the Russian(relics on the island of Euboea in Greece). St. John the Russian lived among the Muslim Turks and professed Christianity with his life, so a handful of monks from the monastery of St. Catherine live among the Muslim people.

We sat for a long time visiting the elder, who gave us Greek mountain tea to drink, answered our questions and gave instructions. His first instruction was: "If you work on the ground, then this is a wonderful treatment for all psychological problems."

The most important place in our life is the truth, the truth. When I was in the army (21-22 years old), I remember that for the first time the question arose in my soul: “Where can I find the truth?” I didn't have a spiritual path at that time. And at that time I tried to find the truth everywhere, read various philosophical books, studied other religions - Buddhism, yoga, everywhere I tried to find the truth. I am from Crete. We have two favorite things in Crete: freedom and truth. And all my life I have been searching for the truth. And I really wanted to find inner freedom in the truth. Time passed, I became closer to the Church, I realized that the Church is closest to the Truth. Then I found the confessor of Elder Photius, then Elder Porfiry, who sent me here.

Once a group of Germans entered the monastery of St. Catherine. Approximately 35-40 people. Father Daniel and I looked after them in the temple. Everyone in the group was Protestant. But we paid attention to one woman and thought that she was Orthodox. We took her aside and asked: “Maybe you are Orthodox?” And she really turned out to be Orthodox. This incident shows that the grace of the Orthodox Church is visible on a person's face. We were very happy then, brought her to the casket where all the relics are stored, gave her all sorts of gifts ...

I felt the same joy today when I saw all your faces. I thank you very much for the joy that you brought me today with your bright Orthodox faces.

Our Church is not the work of people, it is divine work. This is exactly what the human soul craves, this is the very Truth. Starting from holy baptism, this truth shines through the face of a person. Therefore, every day and night, every moment of our life, we all must thank the Lord a lot for this, for the fact that we have this Truth. Along with this gratitude to God, we have another responsibility - we must carry this message to the rest of the world. The face of a Christian must express joy and peace, which are gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And I want to say again how glad I am, because almost everyone I see in front of me now express this joy and peace on their faces. Everything we are talking about is a great gift of God and this applies not only to persons, because look at what saints are in our Church, in the 20th century how many saints were revealed in Russia, and in Greece, and in Georgia, and in other countries . And where is the holiness in Germany, in England, where is the holiness of Europe? In addition to the recently celebrated in Greece prepp. Porfiry and Paisia ​​are also preparing for the glorification of St. Ephraim, St. Sophrony and many other of our contemporaries. We must understand that the truth that the Church gives us is so valuable that it is even difficult to comprehend it, this is a real treasure that a person has.

We must never stop, we must take new steps every day in order to comprehend this truth of Orthodoxy. Like any warrior on the battlefield, if he suddenly stops and lowers his weapon, what will happen? He must fight unceasingly until all his enemies are dead. Christ expects us to be fighters, warriors to the last breath, so that we do not leave the battlefield. Elder Paisios, Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, Elder Gabriel Urgebadze (Georgia) and others were just such warriors. The saints show us the path we must follow: this is fasting, prayer, all-night vigil, regular confession, communion - which is our spiritual weapon. As much as we make efforts, efforts in this struggle, so much Christ will give us gifts.

Christ outlined for us the very value - love, love for God and love for one's neighbor. That's why we're in the fight to make our love grow. Wherever we go, with whomever we communicate, our task is to distribute this goodness and happiness, to bring it into the world. You, too, can observe people's faces in this way in order to experience how Orthodox faces differ from others. I also ask you to commemorate us, the monks of Sinai, with all your love. Because it's been a very difficult time for us. Among our brethren there are a lot of already elderly and sick monks, our Vladyka Domian is in intensive care in Greece, and there are very few young and healthy monks in the monastery, and the monastery is large and there is a lot of work in it. So please pray.

Then Father Moses answered numerous questions of the pilgrims. Here are some of them.

Question: The Gospel says: "Do not cast pearls in front of swine." How can I divide people into pigs and into good ones? This is not correct. There is pride and condemnation in this.

Father Moses: Preaching is not the business of the laity. Preaching and such a division of the listeners is the work of priests and monks. And for the laity: if they ask, they must answer the question and say: "If you want to know more, then go to the priest." The main sermon is preaching in deeds, without distinguishing for whom they are performed. By good deeds people will know that you are Christians and that you possess the truth. Also, the message that can be brought into the world is humility. Before a truly humble person, anyone will retreat and humble himself. Another thing that will help a lot is the ability to be silent. Because most people want to speak out more than they listen. If we as Christians take on this role, open our hearts and patiently listen while being silent, we will be able to help so many.

Question: Often our memory prevents us from living. How to live not in the past, but in the present?

Father Moses: If we have something that prevents us from living, then there is a confession for this. A very important spiritual law that all the holy fathers tell us about: Do not delve into the past. That is, what has passed, it has already passed, if we have realized and confessed everything, then we don’t even need to look in this direction, we must live in the present moment. There is also practical help that helps us to expel the unwanted from our memory, this is help to our neighbor. That is, look around you all the time: you need to talk with this person, listen, do something good for this, devote time to prayer here .... Through doing good deeds, our mind will be fully immersed in the present moment. Work and good deeds not only heal us from the past, but even from psychological problems. When the Lord created Adam and Eve, He said, "Cultivate the Garden of Eden." They had to work from the very beginning. Since the creation of man, the commandment to work has been given. Many people, maybe they fast and pray, and confess, and take communion ... but do not do good deeds. Therefore, not all is well with them. It is very useful to be busy all the time, because when we leave ourselves free time, thoughts will immediately come that will fill our consciousness and control us. Works will help us keep our minds pure. In Greece in recent years there have been many people who commit suicide. Some have lost their jobs, some simply do not want to work, damage to the mind begins and everything ends badly. In the spiritual life, work along with fasting and prayer is very important.

Question: I travel a lot to holy places. But my relatives do not understand me and scold me for spending money. They say: "Don't pray for us." But I still pray and order the trebs.

Father Moses: You must not only travel to the monasteries, but also walk. Do everything in secret from them. Our main task is not to turn into a preacher in the family. We can pray for them, we can do good deeds for them, but only with absolute silence, so that in no way they could guess. And in no case do not teach anyone. If we are silent with our neighbors, no one will disturb us. My brother and sister live in Greece and don't go to Church, and I don't tell them anything at all. One of the greatest gifts that man has from God is freedom. The Lord seems to be saying: "If you want, you can go to Church." Also in our Church there is such a commandment: "Whoever wants to eat and spend money must also work." Therefore, money must be earned, we must not do good deeds at the expense of others. When we want to do something good for someone, we should not offend our neighbors, our family.

Question: At what age should a child be involved in Church life?

Father Moses: From the smallest. Children 3-4-5 years old should be led by the handle. After 8 years, the child must be left free. Mom says: “I'm going to Church. Who is with me?" Who wants, he goes. From a very young age, they need to be explained the need for confession, even up to the age of 7. It is important to give the concept of what exactly is sin, to teach him to confess. And then, in adolescence, if a child leaves the Church, then the seed planted in childhood will surely sprout.

Question: How to distinguish true love from the feeling that we take for love?

Father Moses: True love does not exist in the world. True love is only the love of Christ for us. People often think that they love someone, but, as a rule, it is love and affection. Often these are external impressions. Love is based on years of living together, on humility, on forgiveness. And only after going through patience, after many, many years, a person has the right to say that he loves. Love is the great good that exists in life. Therefore, this is what people hunt for all their lives. But at the same time, everyone forgets that love cannot just be taken and caught from the air or caught on the road. It is the result of constant struggle and self-control. All people on earth are very different, there are no similar and ideally suitable people for each other. Therefore, if people create a family, then this is work, self-control. And you should not look for what you want for yourself, but strive to look for his dignity in another person, and behave in such a way that he opens up even more. That is why Christ visited the marriage in Cana of Galilee and blessed the sacrament of Marriage itself, because in Marriage a person must devote himself to another person in order not to take away his freedom, but rather to recognize in him the image of God. It would be good if we taught our children from childhood to life in the family, in the relationship between brothers and sisters. Then the whole human society would be different. We must also explain to children that all people are one. Because the Lord gave each person his own image of God. Just like the Holy Trinity: one God in three Persons. One person has many people. All humanity is like one person. Each of us is a piece of another person.

Question: When you treat a person, on what does recovery depend more? From the providence of God or from the skill of a doctor or from the personality of a doctor? And what should the doctor pay attention to in order to better help the patient. (Psychiatrist) Father Moses: The most important thing that can help is the doctor's love for the patient. Any person experiences psychological problems when he feels that no one loves him. Except in those cases when a person fell ill due to pride (schizophrenia). Then you need to try to humble him. It is very important to understand that we are nothing in the face of God. A person can get an education, possess some knowledge, and think of himself that he is something of himself. This is mistake. I have a friend who became seriously ill mentally and spent many years in bed. He was completely helpless. And I asked him: “Do you yourself understand the cause of your illness?” He replied, “I understand. Pride". The doctor needs to figure out, looking at the person who came, psychological problems arose from a lack of love or from pride. In the first case, you need to give a person maximum love, in the second case, try to bring him to humility. Medicines alone cannot cure. To treat others, the doctor must first of all have love. If a person comes who has lost his job, feeling at the bottom. Give him as much love as possible and explain to his family so that they show him love too. Another thing that can help is to try to find an occupation for a person that will distract him from the consciousness of his unfortunate situation.

Question: One saint said: "Prayer is the beginning of eternal life." What can be the beginning of eternal life for the laity? Just prayer or deeds or something else?

Father Moses: The era in which we live is difficult. And it will obviously become even more difficult. Let us lose everything, but not faith. Many saints answer this question: "What is most necessary for us?" - answered - "Faith, faith and faith." If I can keep faith, faith gives birth to prayer, faith gives birth to love and all other virtues. “When the Son of God comes to earth, will he gain faith on earth?”

Answer: I am a writer, I write books. It's like I don't have the right to teach others. But I teach people through my characters how to act in this or that situation. Where is the truth here?

Questions about children in the family, the elder replied: If the relationship in the family between husband and wife is built correctly - to see the image of God in another person, to know him, to appreciate his dignity, to give him freedom, to love him as he is, ... if there is this true love, then They generally don't need children. Often people close other unresolved problems with the desire of children. And when the children come, it will be even worse. Because in the family if there is no normal relationship. The main thing is to learn to love another person. Many spouses, when they beg for children, become unhappy. Either the child gets sick, or becomes not a good person, ... God gives children, does not give, you need to thank God for everything.

All children in general now suffer from parental pressure. Don't pressure them. Children can only be taught by personal example. And often our words diverge from our actions. You can explain and inspire something only up to 7-8 years of age. After that, you can only influence by personal example. So say: “Son, you are already big, you are already responsible for your actions. If you don't understand something, you can ask me. And so - decide for yourself.

The skete of Father Moses is a real oasis in the middle of the desert.






In the evening after the service we visited the ossuary. Ossuary and cemetery - located outside the monastery walls, next to the garden. The cemetery has a chapel of St. Tryphon and seven graves, which are used repeatedly. After a certain time, the bones are removed from the grave and placed in the ossuary. The only complete skeleton is the relics of the hermit Stephen, who lived in the VI century and is mentioned in the "Ladder" of St. John of the Ladder. Stefan's relics, dressed in monastic clothes, rest in a glass icon case.

The relics of the hermit Stephen, who lived in the VI century and is mentioned in the "Ladder"

The remains of other monks are divided into two parts: their skulls are stacked near the northern wall, and their bones are collected in the central part of the ossuary.

The bones of Sinai archbishops are kept in separate niches.

To be continued…

Our task was to move forward step by step and see how the Masonic ceremony could reach from New Kingdom Egypt to the time of Jesus. The task was difficult, because we could rely only on the Old Testament. True, it was somewhat facilitated by the fact that we could interpret this meager information by comparing it with modern Masonic ritual.

Fortunately, the Bible unambiguously states that the founder of the Jewish nation was a man whose reality of existence does not inspire doubt. This man was called Moses, and it was he who led the so-called exodus of enslaved Asians from Egypt. Needless to say, after the overthrow of the Hyksos yoke, Semites of all stripes, including the Khabirs, became not very welcome guests in Egypt. That is why the usually friendly Egyptians in 1560-1550. BC. suddenly enslaved, if not all, then many of those Semites who remained in their country. Inscriptions from the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries BC discovered by archaeologists. describe in detail the slave labor of these Khabirs. One inscription tells that huge crowds of people were forced to work in the turquoise mines. This work was not only difficult, but also dangerous, since there was no ventilation in the mines, and the flames of the torches burned out oxygen. We learned with interest that these mines were located not far from Mount Sinai, located in the south of the Sinai Peninsula, on which Yahweh allegedly talked with Moses. It occurred to us that it was no accident that the Khabirs made their escape from here, and not from Egypt itself.

We have found documents that say that although these proto-Jews spoke Canaanite, they worshiped Egyptian gods and erected monuments to Osiris, Ptah and Hathor. This does not fit well with the popular notion of noble Yahweh-worshipping slaves striving for Jerusalem in the wake of “the god of their fathers” (Peake’s commentary on the Bible).

The legend of Moses has been told a thousand times to every little Jew and Christian; naturally, adults consider it a historical fact, although the majority rejects such fabulous elements as the “spread out” Red (that is, Red) Sea. When this epochal event occurred is difficult to determine, but it used to be widely believed that Moses led "his people" out of Egypt during the reign of Ramesses II, which lasted from 1290 to 1224 BC. However, there is now much strong evidence that this happened much earlier - shortly after the expulsion of the Hyksos. But before embarking on the laborious determination of the exact date, it was necessary to reflect on what the Bible says about a man named Moses, about the Israelites and their new god.

We have found that the name Moses (Moses) is eloquent enough on its own. Oddly enough, the Roman Catholic Bible of Douai informs readers that in Egyptian the name means "saved from the water" when in fact it simply means "begotten." This name was usually preceded by another name, such as Thotmose ("born of Thoth"), Ramesses ("born of Ra") or Amenmos ("born of Amun"). Despite the fact that the endings in the translation sound a little different, they all mean the same thing. It is very likely that the first part of his name, which meant one of the Egyptian gods, was deliberately discarded either by Moses himself, or by one of the later scribes. So does one who truncates the Scottish surname Macdonald (“son of Donald”) to a simple Mac.

Perhaps the Roman Catholic Church is wrong, but if there is any historical truth in their statement, then the full name of Moses literally meant "Born of the Nile." In this case, in Egyptian it was pronounced as Hapimos and, using hieroglyphs, was depicted something like this:

(Figure on page 153 of the original).

The unusualness of the name Moses is that it is one of the very few ancient Egyptian names that are widely used today. In Hebrew it sounds like Moshe, and in Arabic it sounds like Musa. The Egyptians to this day call Mount Sinai “Jubal Musa” - the mountain of Moses.

Now it is already impossible to say what exactly in the Old Testament legend about Moses is true and what is romantic fiction. According to the book of Exodus, Pharaoh ordered all newborn Israelite boys to be thrown into the Nile. However, it is impossible to believe in the historical veracity of such a statement, since such a barbaric order was absolutely not compatible with the concept of Ma'at, dear to the heart of every Egyptian. Any pharaoh who gave it away would have burdened his soul and automatically forfeited immortality. Moreover, he could not do it from a practical point of view, since if thousands of swollen corpses floated down the Nile, this would poison the only source of water in the country.

According to the Old Testament, Moses' mother decided not to let her son die and left him on the banks of the Nile overgrown with reeds in a basket smeared with pitch, where he was found by the Pharaoh's daughter. It has long been noted that this episode has much in common with the birth of Sargon I, who reigned in Babylon and Sumer many hundreds of years before Moses. A cursory comparison is enough to confirm this similarity:

Sargon Moses

My traitorous mother A Levi's wife conceived and

conceived me; in secret she gave birth to a son, and ... hid him for three

gave birth to me. month. But you couldn't hide it any longer

his,

She put me in and took a cane basket and

a reed basket, pitched it with asphalt and pitch;

sealed it with asphalt, and putting a baby in it,

cover. She left me in the reeds by the shore

into a river that is not a river.(Exodus 2:1-3).

swallowed me up.

We have come to the conclusion that this story is made up in the sixth century BC. in order to give the origin of the Jewish nation the features of a myth widespread in the ancient world about the appearance of a living being from water. In addition, this legend was an excellent way to explain how an Egyptian military leader and member of the royal family could become the adoptive father of the Jewish people. This will be discussed below.

We have no doubt that some parts of this story are inventions of a later time. One such point is that Moses' mother is called "a wife of the tribe of Levi." This was an attempt to link historical facts with the ideas of later authors. The Levites became a tribe of priests and scribes. Using the logic of modern times, it was reasonable to assume that Moses himself was a priest and, therefore, a Levite. The book of Exodus contains unequivocal evidence that it was compiled from three oral versions of the well-known legend of the flight from Egypt. So, it is not clear who played the main role in this play - Moses or Aaron; two names of the mountain on which Moses communicated with Yahweh are given (Sinai and Horeb), etc.

We had to remind ourselves at every turn that the authors of the books of the Old Testament wrote down the legends of their tribe long after their origin, that the oldest of these legends were literally thousands of years old, and that even the relatively recent tales of David and Solomon arose in a few years. centuries up to this point. The general outlines of events were clear, but the details were completely confused. Each author filled this gap in his own way, depending on his own worldview and opinion about how this or that event could happen. Historians have been able to isolate fragments written by different authors, and quite prosaically labeled them with the letters J, E, D, and P. Today we have a much more extensive body of evidence than before, and can quickly identify the places with the maximum amount of fiction. For example, the authors mention the existence of pack camels and money in the era of Isaac and Joseph, while they appeared in Egypt much later. Another gross mistake is to point out that Abraham avoided southern Israel because that land belonged to the Philistines; it is now known that the Philistines arrived there much later than the time of the flight of the Israelites from Egypt.

If the book of Exodus indicated which pharaoh's daughter found the baby Moses, everything would be much simpler, but it can be seen with the naked eye that the authors themselves had no idea about this.

We have concluded that there are three main explanations for how Moses came to be a member of the royal family:

a) He was an Asiatic or Khabir by birth and was adopted in infancy or early childhood, as the Old Testament indicates. It is known that the Egyptians often adopted children from neighboring countries so that when they grow up, they would influence their peoples, urging them not to attack the Egyptians. However, it seemed incredible that this could happen at a time close to the time of the expulsion of the Hyksos and the conversion of the Khabirs into slavery;

b) he was a noble Egyptian who committed murder, was forced to flee and joined the Khabirs, since they were also outlawed;

c) he was a young Semitic commander in the army of the last Hyksos king, and after the restoration of the united kingdom with its capital in Thebes, he left with the remnants of the Asian hordes into the desert. He later returned and led the Khabir slaves to freedom. Such an explanation would make it necessary to attribute this story to a much earlier period than hitherto thought, but on the whole it is also quite plausible: it is known that Moses was indeed a military leader of some unnamed pharaoh.

The third option had its own attraction, but, firstly, we did not have convincing evidence to attribute this important historical event to earlier times; secondly, in order to gain access to the secrets of the Egyptians, Moses was required to be related to a real pharaoh, and not to a Hyksos usurper. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that the truth lies somewhere between the first and second options. In both cases, the biblical version was generally accepted as correct. However, for our purposes it was not so important how Moses ended up at the head of the proto-Israelites, and we decided not to delve into this story; it was enough that a high-ranking Egyptian courtier led certain tribes, which later became the core of the Jewish nation.

Verse 7:22 says:

“Moses learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians” .

The Israelites who subsequently described the life of Moses had no reason to invent his closeness to the enemies of their ancestors; they were sincerely convinced that their prophet had access to great secrets - more precisely, to everyone secrets. By the time Moses became a member of the Pharaoh's family, the New Kingdom had begun and the "original" mysteries of Osiris had been replaced by "substitute mysteries." As one of the senior courtiers, Moses must have known the resurrection ritual described in the legend of the sacrificial death of Sekenen-ra Tao and replacing the lost “true” ritual. To the young Moses, the coronation ceremony must have seemed like the greatest secret, the possession of which gave the pharaoh the right to occupy the throne. This ritual must have made a strong impression on Moses, because the prophet not only memorized it in every detail, but also transferred it to Israel.

Precisely because this rite was a secret, to which only the leadership of the Jews had access, the story of the “king who perished” was passed on unchanged from generation to generation of the house of David, while the myth of the exodus, known to everyone, was modified to this to the extent that no one could distinguish truth from fiction. Be that as it may, the biblical story of the Exodus makes it clear that the group led by Moses was heavily "Egyptized" and that the worship of the Egyptian gods was normal in them. Moses, who received the ten commandments on stone tablets, was desperately needed to somehow mark the foundation of a new state. Each ruler received his “royal charter” from the hands of the gods as proof that he was capable of being a leader and maintaining law and order in society.

The inscriptions on these tablets could only have been made using hieroglyphs, otherwise Moses simply would not have understood them. We, accustomed to dealing with the written word every day, find it difficult to imagine the trepidation with which the ability to write was treated in the second millennium BC. The idea that messages could be transmitted with the help of some marks on a stone amazed ordinary people, and scribes who knew how to conduct a “stone conversation” were considered the owners of the greatest magical secrets. In this light, it becomes clear why the Egyptians called the hieroglyphs the "Words of God." This expression occurs several times in the Bible.

God of War from Mount Sinai

An impartial and careful study of the contents of the book of Exodus horrified us. The point of view on these events, instilled in us by Christian upbringing, quickly changed. Instead of depicting a noble great people fighting for their freedom and striving for the "promised land", we were presented with a picture of primitive demonology, betrayal, massacres, violence, vandalism and the most unbridled robbery. A more disgusting way to found a new nation could not be imagined.

The myth of Moses begins with a murder. He sees an Egyptian beating a Khabir, makes sure no one is following him, and kills the Egyptian. It was the first of tens of thousands of murders that the former warrior was to commit. Unfortunately, another Khabir witnessed the crime and reported the incident to the Egyptians, and Moses began to be searched for. He was forced to flee east to Sinai, where he joined the tribe of the Midianites (otherwise the Kenites, Kenites, or Kenezites) and married the daughter of the king there, Zipporah.

It was then that Moses met the god of the local tribe, the god of storms and war, the symbol of which was a cruciform sign on the forehead of his worshipers (later called the “marks of Yahweh”). This god, who lived in the mountains, served as a prototype of the god of the Israelites, who allegedly talked with Moses on Mount Horeb.

If the gods appear from scratch, then this is extremely rare; more often they undergo a long metamorphosis, during which they take on the qualities of other deities. Ironically, Moses' first recorded encounter with the God of the Jews and Christians was tepid, if not threatening. When Moses asked the interlocutor to introduce himself and give his name, he was very respectful, but it did not help. Egyptian upbringing taught Moses to think that the gods did not always rule over people; if a person learned the name of a god, he gained power over him. The Egyptian gods had many names - from ordinary, known to everyone, to the most secret ones - but both mortals and other gods did not know their real name. If Moses had received a direct answer to his question, he could have turned God into his slave.

Until relatively recently, the concepts of "theology" and "magic" were extremely close. We realized this when we tried to find a connection between the two sides of primitive mysticism. The idea of ​​an Israelite god living in an ark is no different from the idea of ​​a genie sitting in a bottle and fulfilling the wishes of its owner. Both could, at the request of the owner, fly through the air, “separate” the seas, throw lightning and completely ignore the laws of nature. Now we seem to have learned to mentally separate the tales of the Thousand and One Nights from biblical myths, but, no doubt, they have the same origin. It will be difficult for many to agree with this, but if you call a spade a spade, the prototype of the personality of the creator, who is called the word “God” in the West, was a modest, obscure genie who lived in the mountains on the border of northeast Africa and southwest Asia.

Fearing to lose his independence, the Midian god refused to tell Moses his name, arrogantly ordered the interlocutor to take off his shoes and not come close, because he was on holy ground. The Book of Exodus reports that when asked about His name, God answered Moses as follows:

"Eheh Asher Eheh."

This is usually translated as “I am who I am”, but we strongly suspect that the expression was actually much stronger and meant something along the lines of “none of your damn business”. The names Yahweh and Jehovah are the current pronunciation of the Hebrew word, which is written as YHVH (recall that there are no vowels in Hebrew). So this word did not mean the name of God, but his title, meaning "Existing".

According to the biblical version, Moses eventually returned to Egypt to deliver from slavery a crowd of Asians who had gathered from the pine forest, whom the Egyptians called Khabirs. At the same time, he allegedly used the spell of his new genie-spirit-god of the storm, which brought suffering and death to the unfortunate Egyptians. It is reported that 600,000 Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty-five years, but any reasonable person can see that this is a gross exaggeration. There is not a word about this in the Egyptian chronicles; if this event had such a scale, as indicated in the Bible, it would certainly have been reflected in the documents. If there were so many Israelis, they would have made up a quarter of the population of Egypt at that time. The displacement of this amount of labor would have a strong impact on food production and would have great social consequences.

However, Moses took everyone, no matter how many there were, and returned with them to Sinai, to the Midianites. His father-in-law, Jethro, congratulated the Israelites and gave Moses wise advice to go again to the sacred mountain to meet the god who still lived there. The god of the storm, who lived inside the thundercloud, threatened to thunder or stone any Israelite or his cattle who dared to step on the mountain or even touch it. Then the new god informed his followers that they were obliged to worship him, otherwise it would be bad not only for them, but also for their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on. In addition, he demanded that the Israelites bring him gifts of gold, silver and copper, beautiful clothes, badger skins, shittim wood (acacia) and build an ark covered inside and out with pure gold so that God could live in it. This ark had a classical Egyptian form; on its lid were depicted two cherubs, which were nothing more than winged sphinxes, that is, lions with a human face (see Fig. 6).

Obviously, the new god did not make too strong an impression on the Israelites, for as soon as Moses climbed the mountain to talk with Yahweh, they built themselves a golden calf and began to worship him. It is very likely that this calf was an image of the Egyptian god Apis. The new god went berserk and told Moses to order the priests to kill as many "sinners" as possible. It is reported that 3,000 Israelites were killed by the sword of the sons of Levi that day.

And the walls were crumbling

When the Israelites moved to their "promised land", they faced only one obstacle - the local population. But Yahweh promised to grant them victory over the Canaanite peasants.

Chapters 2 and 3 of Deuteronomy (in the Douay version) describe how God's chosen people entered the land of Canaan:

“And Sihon with all his people went out against us to fight against Jahaz.

And the Lord our God gave him into our hands, and we struck him and his sons and all his people,

And at that time they took all his cities and killed men and women and children, left no one alive.

We only took their livestock and what was captured in the cities we took as booty.

From Aroir, which is on the banks of the stream of Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley, to Gilead, there was not a city that was inaccessible to us; the Lord our God has given everything into our hands...(2:32-36).

And we turned from there, and went to Bashan; and Og, the king of Bashan, went out against us to war with all his people, at Edrei.

And the Lord said to me: Do not be afraid of him; for I will give him into your hand, and all his people, and all his land, and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon.

And the Lord our God delivered into our hands both Og the king of Bashan and all his people; and we smitten him so that he has no one left alive,

And we took at that time all his cities; there was not a city that we would not take from them: sixty cities, the whole region of Argi, the kingdom of Og of Bashan.

All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates and locks, except for the unfortified cities, very many.

And we completely destroyed them as they did to Sihon, king of Heshbon, destroying every city with men, women and children.

But they took all the cattle and captured in the cities as booty.(3:1-7).

These passages describe not so much battle as the slaughter of men, women, and children, put to the sword like sheep, cows, and donkeys.

The Old Testament contains many such passages. Yahweh continually reminds his people how powerful he is and how ready to punish anyone who will not worship him and will not obey His Word. Deuteronomy 8:19-20 contains the following threat:

“But if you forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve and worship them, I testify to you today that you will perish.

As the nations that the Lord destroys before you, so will you also perish because you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

Whoever Moses really was, he committed murder in Egypt and spent the rest of his life killing crowds of people, both strangers and those who believed in him. We considered that a person of such views and beliefs bears little resemblance to a modern Christian or Jew. This confirmed our point of view that the idea of ​​God is not static, that it reflects the interests of society, and that as the features of a given God are intertwined with those of other deities, He slowly turns into an idealized person who meets the moral requirements of his time. It seems that it was not God who created man in His image and likeness, but, on the contrary, man constantly remakes God according to his likeness.

Exodus time

Some scholars still believe that the grand victories described in the Old Testament are in fact a gross exaggeration and that the Israelites' infiltration into Canaan was not a bloody takeover but a slow incorporation into society. However, recent archaeological excavations have revealed a large number of ruined cities and towns dating back to the second half of the Bronze Age, that is, just in time for the Exodus. This dating suggests that the Exodus took place in the century between the expulsion of the Hyksos and the middle of the fifteenth century BC, and greatly increases the likelihood that Moses was adopted by the pharaoh's family shortly after the Thebans regained control of the country.

We believe that it was Moses' upbringing in Egypt that enabled him to create a new religion and establish a new nation under conditions of extreme hardship. Only ruthless measures could ensure his success. There is ample evidence of a strong Egyptian influence on the events described in the book of Exodus, from the appearance of the Ark of the Covenant to the hieroglyphic tablets handed to Moses by Yahweh. Therefore, it is logical to assume that the secret ceremony of the resurrection of Sekenen-ra was also borrowed from the Egyptians. Moses treated his people like sheep; these people must indeed have been very simple-hearted compared to their leader, who, as we know, was versed in all the mysteries of the Egyptians.

David and Solomon

The Israelite tribes were independent for several centuries - the so-called era of the Judges. These judges had nothing to do with the judiciary. They were local heroes or, more precisely, “saviors”.

The widely held notion that all the twelve tribes of Israel took part in the Exodus seems to be erroneous; in fact, only two or three of them took this path. During the time of the Judges, the tribes of Simeon and Levi practically disappeared, and all Israelites began to be represented by the all-powerful tribe of Judah.

Nomadic Khabirs slowly but surely became ancient Jews, or Israelites. Wandering shepherds turned into farmers and artisans. The more culturally advanced Canaanites, who had not died during the invasion, mingled with the newcomers and taught them the art of agriculture that had been developed here for thousands of years.

The oldest fragment in the Old Testament is Deborah's thanksgiving song, which is considered an exemplary work of Jewish eloquence and forms the content of the fifth chapter of the book of Judges. From it we can conclude that some tribes united in the face of a common enemy - for example, the Philistines. Tribes that did not want to give warriors for battle were condemned. The role of judges was different from that of kings. The former had limited power over one or more tribes and tried to exert all possible political and economic influence on voluntary tribal associations. In other words, kings were God's anointed, but judges were not.

However, the judge judge strife. One of the early heroes of the period following the invasion was the warrior Jerobaal, who later changed his name to Gideon. (His original name is no doubt of Canaanite origin, in honor of the god Baal, showing that in the time of the Judges the cult of Yahweh was nowhere near as strong as later Old Testament writers would have us believe.) Kingship was offered to Gideon, but he rejected it, saying that Yahweh was king over them all; nevertheless, it is clear that he occupied a special position in society, since he was considered the heir of Moses.

Although Gideon renounced the title of king, his authority was based on direct lineage from Moses and surpassed that of the other judges. He founded a religious center in Ophrah and made an object of worship called an "ephod" and was a kind of ark. This suggests that Gideon got himself another god. A strong and influential man, Gideon had an extensive harem (perhaps from captive Midianite virgins) and left behind seventy sons, chief among whom was Abimelech. So significant is the figure of Abimelech that many biblical scholars regard him as evidence of a rising public desire for a monarchy. Some of them express the opinion that in fact Gideon accepted kingship. True or not, it is not known, but Abimelech really inherited the title of judge from his father and became king. During the excavations of his temple (“temple”) dedicated to Baalverif; it was discovered that this temple was a so-called “migdal”, that is, a fortified tower with walls five meters thick. On either side of the entrance, the bases of two sacred columns were found. (Peake's commentary on the Bible).

This is a fact of extreme importance. This generation grew up after the death of Moses. Before the construction of the temple of Solomon, there were still several centuries, but on both sides of the entrance to the temple of the first Jewish king there were already two sacred columns. Knowledge of the meaning of the pillars and the ceremony associated with them could only come from Moses and was given to Abimelech through Gideon. Since this “royal family” did not know any other ritual of anointing to the kingdom, except for the one brought by Moses from Egypt, it is quite reasonable to assume that Abimelech used the resurrection ceremony for this, based on the legend of Sekenen-ra. The columns themselves personified the strength of the new state and the inviolability of its connection with God.

Unfortunately for Abimelech, the strength of his kingdom proved insufficient. His precocious monarchy collapsed shortly after its creation when Abimelech died during the siege of the city of Tevez. After this, the era of the Judges continued, but in the family of Gideon, knowledge of the secret ritual of anointing to the kingdom was still preserved.

During this period, Jerusalem continued to belong to its ancient founders, the Jebusites. The religious and political center of the Israelites was the city of Shiloh, twelve miles north of Jerusalem. Excavations have shown that Shiloh was destroyed around 1050 BC. during the war between the Israelites and the Philistines. This event was witnessed by Samuel, the last judge, prophet and high priest, who first anointed Saul and then David as king.

The war with the Philistines is told in the legend of Judge Samson, who was a Nazirite (holy man) and possessed incredible power. He destroyed three thousand Philistines, breaking the right and left columns of the building, which, as we know, personified the strength of the kingdom of enemies.

It was Samuel who secretly anointed Saul from the tribe of Benjamin as king. There is no hint in the Bible how Samuel knew how to do it; Naturally, there is no description of the ceremony itself. This means that the connection between Samuel and Saul was the connection between the power of the king and the high priest - two pillars (more precisely, columns) on which the state and society are based. However, this connection was quickly broken when Saul personally offered sacrifices to the Lord at Gilgal without Samuel's permission. And when Saul refused to comply with the high priest's instructions and disband the harem of captive Amalekites, Samuel began to regret his choice.

Soon a new candidate emerged, this time from the main Israelite tribe of Judah, and not from the smaller tribe of Benjamin. The name of the candidate was David, and he was from the town of Bethlehem.

Judging by everything, David was a very gifted person, possessing the talents of a courtier, warrior and statesman. The story of how he slew Goliath is widely known, but in fact it was not David at all who killed the Giant Giant, but another native of Bethlehem named Elhanan, the son of Yagare-Orgim (2 Kings 21:19).

This feat was attributed to David later in order to portray in a more favorable light a simple shepherd youth, allegedly unaccustomed to war; in fact, this man was a great warrior and politician all his life.

Saul saw David as a threat and pursued him, but eventually died, and Samuel anointed his second king. Few people think about the fact that during the flight from Saul, David served in the army of the Philistines and fought against his kindred: this does not characterize the founder of the greatest family in the history of Israel too well.

David became king of Israel around 1000 BC. and for some time he really united the scattered tribes into one people, demonstrating a stunning resemblance to the kings of Egypt. Israel also consisted of two lands, northern and southern, headed by one ruler. For the first seven years, David's capital was the city of Hebron in the southern land of Judah, or Judea, but then the king accomplished his most important act, taking Jerusalem and making it the new capital, located between the two parts of the united kingdom. Here he built a palace for himself and set up a tent, in which the Ark of the Covenant and the altar were kept, in the place where the temple of Yahweh conceived by him was to grow.

David created a well-trained army, mostly composed of foreign mercenaries. With her help, he defeated the Philistines, who still held some Israelite cities, and eventually established his rule over the lands stretching from the Euphrates to the Gulf of Aqaba (located between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas). When David signed an agreement with Hiram, king of Tyre, the long-awaited peace reigned in the country, but soon the immoral behavior of David and his family led to collapse.

Further events developed as in a Hollywood series. David became involved with Bathsheba and killed her husband Uriah. The son of David, Tsarevich Amnon, raped his half-sister Tamar, for which he was killed by her brother Absalom. Then Absalom rebelled against his father. After what looked like a civil war, David regained his throne, and Absalom died, his long hair tangled in the boughs of a large oak tree.

All these misfortunes distracted David from the construction of the temple, which was to become the home of Yahweh. Soon David fell ill, and his son Adonijah became king. However, even before the feast on the occasion of the coronation ended, David, with the help of the high priest Zadok, anointed his son Solomon from Bathsheba to the kingdom. The ceremony was true, and soon the newly-made king dealt with his half-brother and his supporters in case they did not dare to challenge him again.

Solomon was a great king; under him, Israel achieved such a flourishing, which it did not know either before or after. The king married the pharaoh's daughter and took as dowry the strategically important city of Gezer on the border with Egypt; he began extensive construction; but his most important act was the construction of the house of Yahweh, the sacred temple, for which Solomon is still remembered with a kind word. As described above, the temple was relatively small; however, it was richly decorated and beautifully situated. He stood on top of a hill, his portal looking east towards the rising sun. Since the temple was located approximately on the border of two lands - one in the north, the other in the south - the columns of this portal were supposed to provide balance and harmony to the united kingdom. This idea was a mirror image of the Egyptian concept of achieving stability through unity.

The left column, Boaz, stood in the south, representing Judah, and meant “strength”, the column of Jachin stood in the north, depicted Israel and meant “foundation”, and united by a bridge in the form of Yahweh, both of them provided the state with “strength”. As in ancient Egypt, political stability in the country had to continue as long as the two lands, which were the personification of the columns, are one. This concept, borrowed entirely from the Egyptians, proved that the Israelite monarchy and religion had not yet lost their ancient roots.

However, the construction of the temple cost a lot of money, because both skilled builders and most of the building materials were supplied by Hiram, the king of Tyre. For a fledgling kingdom, this was a big expense. Solomon began to look for money. He imposed tribute from the city to pay off the debts that grew by leaps and bounds. The population had to tighten their belts and work day and night. Brigades totaling up to ten thousand people were sent to Lebanon for seasonal work to King Hiram. The kingdom was divided into twelve regions, and each region was responsible for collecting taxes in a specific month of the year. Taxes increased incredibly, and even the most ardent admirers of Solomon began to slowly condemn the king for his desire for luxury.

No matter how hard the later writers of the Bible tried to embellish the picture, it must be admitted that at that time the attitude towards Yahweh was rather cool; For most of Israelite history, other gods were valued here just as much, if not more so. For many, Yahweh remained just an Israelite god of war, useful in battle, but not the most important place in the local pantheon. The names given to the nobles of Israel for many centuries show a greater respect for Baal. Even the most devout Jew would not argue that the Jews of that period believed in only one god.

So it was with Solomon. Towards the end of his reign, he began to honor other gods, which caused displeasure in some circles, in particular the priests of the Jerusalem temple. Later, they came up with an explanation that Yahweh did not turn his anger on Solomon only out of respect for his father David. In short, from the time of Moses to the time of Solomon, Yahweh was not at all enthusiastic about his “chosen people.” When King Solomon, famous for his wisdom, died, the country not only went bankrupt - it was left without God.

Solomon's son Rehoboam was accustomed from childhood to believe in the power of royal power. Although he was advised to find common ground with the angry northerners who did not want to recognize him as king, Rehoboam continued to demand unquestioning obedience from them. The unity of the two kingdoms quickly waned; the northern kingdom of Israel did not want to have anything to do with Judah, considering her the culprit of all troubles.

Let us summarize what we know about the Israelites of this period. The aspiration of the new nation to become a great civilization was based on mosaic religious beliefs, hard work and borrowed money. Like any adventure, this aspiration failed, but left a deep imprint on the minds and hearts of the following generations, who tried to create a single religion and restore the opinion of the Israelites as God's chosen people of great destiny. This dream remained unfulfilled, but allowed the ancient Jews to achieve true greatness.

Meanwhile, members of the royal family and high courtiers learned the secret ceremonies of initiation through the resurrection and the requirements of high morality, based on the principles of temple construction. These mysteries were no longer an abstract concept borrowed from the Egyptians and brought to the Israelite kings by Moses; they were as real as the temple in Jerusalem, which contained the ark with their God.

During this stage of our research, we did not find any mention of the murdered architect of the temple of King Solomon. At the same time, a number of convincing evidence was found in favor of our hypothesis regarding the two columns and the associated ceremony of the resurrection of Sekenen-ra Tao, brought to Israel by Moses and became the secret of the royal house of Israel.

Our next task was to establish the time when the main character changed his name from Sekenen-ra Tao to Hiram Abif. In order to understand how these closely guarded secrets could survive and eventually come to the surface through the deeds of the man who is called Jesus Christ, and how the New Testament should be interpreted in the light of our discoveries, it was necessary to study more carefully the next period of the history of the Jewish people.

Conclusion

When it was discovered that the story of the birth of Moses can be traced back to Sumerian legend, we knew we needed to find out how a high-ranking military leader and member of the Egyptian royal family could become the father of the Jewish people. We were quite sure that Moses had access to the "replaced mysteries" of Sekenen-ra Tao and was familiar with the concept of two pillars; he used these secrets to create a new anointing ritual for his followers. This allowed the Jews, who had neither their own state nor their own culture, to acquire a national identity and a secret ritual that was preserved in the family of David.

It was Moses who began to worship the violent Kenyan god of storms, Yahweh, whose worshipers were distinguished by the letter “tau” on their foreheads, known as the “mark of Yahweh”. Having made contact with his new God, Moses returned to Egypt (where he was wanted for murder) to deliver the Khabirs from slavery. The campaign of the Jews in the land of Canaan is depicted in the Bible as an endless beating of local residents.

After the establishment of the cult of Yahweh, the Israelites were led by judges, the first of whom was Joshua, who became famous for the battle of Jericho. He was followed by a number of other judges, but both the Bible and archaeological excavations indicate that the image of the two columns is associated with both Abimelech, the son of Gideon (Peake's commentary on the Bible), and with the Nazirite Samson. In our opinion, this indicates that the leaders of the Israelites continued to use the Egyptian mysteries of Moses.

The prophet Samuel anointed Saul as king, and David eventually became his heir. David, who was crowned around 1000 BC, ruled very successfully. He united Judea and Israel into a single state with Jerusalem as its capital, located just between them. His son Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem with two columns, reflecting the unity of the two kingdoms and creating a portal that looked east. The northern column represented Israel and the southern column represented Judah. Double columns stood either on both sides of the porch, or at the entrance to the temple, testifying that the Israeli monarchy had Egyptian roots and used Egyptian rituals. Solomon died, leaving the country bankrupt, but passed on to his descendants the knowledge of the secret ceremony of initiation through a lifetime resurrection and a call to high morality based on the principles of building a temple; this knowledge subsequently spread among persons close to the royal family.

“having betrayed to the curse” - E.K.

In the "Bible Encyclopedia" (M., 1891), sacred clothing made of gold is called an ephod - E.K.

one of the Canaanite tribes. Whether this tribe got its name from the original name of Jerusalem - Jebus - or whether the city was named after the tribe is not known. - E.K.

King Saul's squire - E.K.

11/30/2013

Article text updated: 11/25/2019

In a report on an independent trip to Sri Lanka driving a rented car, I described how inhumanly difficult it was to climb to the top of the sacred mountain of Adam's Peak. That night, May 9, 2013, I didn't take any pictures because it was pouring rain and thick fog. But this was not our first difficult ascent. Today I want to tell and show photos taken during the conquest in the distant 2008 of Mount Horeb on the Sinai Peninsula, better known as Mount Moses.

This peak is also called Har Sinai or simply Mount Sinai. The story is placed in the section "Independent travel", as it is connected with tourism. But then my wife and I had no idea how interesting it is to organize a vacation on our own! Therefore, we went to Egypt, like thousands of our compatriots, on a tourist package. The Red Sea in Sharm El Sheikh is, of course, beautiful. But on the 4th day, it became clear that just relaxing in a hotel on the Sinai Peninsula is insanely boring and we decided to act: we took an excursion to climb Mount Moses.

And our campaign became the brightest event during the whole vacation in this Arab country. Later, when we had the experience of traveling as a savage in a rented car around Mexico and Sri Lanka, moving around China on the third shelf of a second-class carriage and sailing on a fragile boat between the Philippine Islands, we realized that there was almost nothing in Egypt. saw...

On the tour, I took with me a simple soap dishSonyDSC-W15, acquired already in 2008. At that time, I did not yet know what a beginner SLR camera was.NikonD5100, why do you need a tripod for the camera and a bunch of heavy lenses. Fortunately, I already had a vague understanding of the rules of composition (I read several articles on the topic of how to photograph on vacation correctly). Therefore, today I can show you, without being particularly ashamed, my photos from the ascent to a height of 2285 meters above the Egyptian desert. All photos in today's report have been Photoshopped. During the ascent to Mount Moses it was very dark and it was impossible to shoot normal shots with a soap dish. But during the descent, the light, the tonal perspective were magnificent. In my review, you will see that even with a soap dish with high-quality lighting, you can take good photos. The main thing in our business is the right light!

The events described took place on July 23, 2008. Back then, your obedient servant was actively involved in sports (at least twice a week he played futsal). Therefore, no special difficulties with the rise were foreseen. As it turned out, climbing Mount Sinai is no less difficult than climbing the sacred Sri Pada in Sri Lanka or the Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Sua) in Thailand on the Krabi peninsula.

As we climbed the mountain of Moses. Tour report

We left the hotel at 22 or 23 pm. For several hours we dragged ourselves on the bus, first through the desert, and then along the serpentine in the mountains. Somewhere around one o'clock in the morning we arrived at the starting point of the route. The guide instructed the tourists on safety issues and return back, said that there will be several rest stops along the way. I handed out flashlights and off we went.

At first, people moved briskly, talking cheerfully and joking. Around - pitch darkness. At some point, a terrible, inhuman, bestial roar was heard from black nowhere. Incomparable to anything... The blood froze with fear in the veins... How everyone laughed when they found out that the camels were yelling so madly!..

The guide said that if you climb Mount Moses on foot, then God will forgive the pilgrim all his sins. If you go up on a camel, then the sins of the animal will be forgiven. None of the Russian-speaking tourists wanted to give the animal a chance for divine forgiveness. All of us, gritting our teeth, stomped on the stones on foot and on the provocation of the Bedouins: “Camel!.. Camel… Only 15 dollars! "- did not succumb.

But the Chinese comrades are not so scrupulous in matters of cleansing sin, or they did not understand the interpretation of their guide. All the Chinese proudly sat astride dromedaries (the so-called one-humped camels).

If at first, walking along a narrow mountain path, behind your ear you heard the moist breathing of an overtaking dromedary, you jumped aside in surprise, to the side of the road. Then after an hour of lifting, even to the cries of the drover: “Be careful. Camel! Let me pass!” - only wearily waved it off: “Not a tram. You will eat…”

The trail slowly but steadily climbed. It's getting harder to go. Closer to the top, conversations almost stopped. You begin to struggle with your weakness, and only willpower, clamped in an iron vise, pushes you forward to the end point of the journey.

The last section is an almost vertical climb of several hundred steps. To say that it was unbearably hard for us is to say nothing. I climbed Mount Moses white as a sheet, on the verge of fainting, at about 5 in the morning. It was still about an hour before dawn.

It's cold upstairs. A piercing wind is blowing. You can buy or rent a smelly blanket or mattress from the Bedouins. We took the mattress, but we refused the “camel bedding”. We took fresh shirts with us to change into dry clothes and not get sick.

Gradually it began to light up. Stunning landscapes opened up before our eyes.

Approaching the edge of the cliff, you can see the paths along which we walked all night. This, as it turned out, was a camel trail.

Eh, imagine if I took this photo not with a soap dish, but with my Nikon D5100 DSLR, and not at 9 mm focal length, but somewhere at 100 mm and from a tripod !!!

The sun in the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula rises almost at lightning speed. Only a disk appeared above the mountain range ...

Mount Moses (Jabal Musa or Sinai) in Egypt

The monastery of St. Catherine is located at an altitude of 1570 meters. And Mount Sinai rises to 2286 meters. The Arabic name Jabal Musa is translated into Russian as the mountain of Moses.

There are two trails to its summit. One is short but very cool. It is called Siket Sayidna Musa. I don’t know how many steps there are - they say that there are about 3700 pieces. They were laid by the monks (this road is known as the "Stairs of Repentance"). The trail passes by the "Spring of Moses" and the chapel of the Virgin Mary. Closer to the top, you can see the "well of Elijah" where the prophet hid during his flight from Jezebel (1 Kings 19).

The other trail is longer, but also more gentle. The Arabs call it Siket El Bashait. This is where we went up and down. Another name is the Camel Trail. It begins behind the monastery of St. Catherine, where the camel camp is located. Here the drovers offer tourists to climb the mountain on horseback.

The camel trail was built by the ruler of Egypt, Ibrahim Abbas Pasha (1849-1854). In 1853, he visited Mount Moses, intending to build a palace on its top. However, the palace was later erected on top of Jebel Abbas Pasha, a mountain located to the west of the village of St. Catherine (from which you can see the ruins of the building). The Stairs of Repentance start 200 meters to the right of the camel stand.

At the top of Mount Moses is the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity. It was built in 1934 on the site of the ruins of a church from the 4th-5th centuries. The interior of the chapel is decorated with frescoes depicting the life of Moses. A little to the west of the church stands a small mosque built in the 12th century. Beneath it is a cave in which Moses spent 40 days, and where God appeared before the prophet Elijah.

… And it seems that literally in 30 seconds a new day has come. Meeting the dawn on this mountain, sacred for half of the population of the Earth, you are overwhelmed with stormy emotions.

Landscapes in the mountains of Egypt are similar to Martian landscapes.

Tips for tourists who are going on an excursion to Mount Moses in Egypt

• Wear comfortable shoes and a hat, bring a flashlight, sunblock and a warm jacket, as it is always cold here at night and in the morning. Please note that in winter it is very frosty on Mount Khoriv (sometimes it snows), so you need to take especially warm clothes.
• If you are going to spend the night on Mount Moses, do not stay overnight on the top, rest at the well of Elijah.
• Respect the pilgrims' right to peace and quiet at the summit.
• Respect the religious feelings, the sanctity of this place. Leave no trace of your visit to Mount Moses.
• Do not collect or destroy flora and fauna, do not leave inscriptions.
• Please throw cigarette butts in the bins.
• Use the toilets, don't pollute everything around.
• Keep in mind, climbing Mount Moses can be especially difficult for older people with heart problems, emphysema, and other comorbidities.
• Food prices on this tour are very high. So take a small snack and some water with you.
• If you start climbing earlier, you will be able to take a more comfortable place to meet the dawn. A lot of people will come later.
• Whatever the Bedouins tell you, don't settle for a guide. It's all a waste of money. Every night, hundreds of pilgrims climb both paths to the top of Mount Moses - it is impossible to get lost.
• No need to immediately after sunrise to run down. There will be crowds of tourists around. It is better to sit down and enjoy the surrounding landscapes, and only then slowly descend.

Photo 6. In Arabic, the mountain of Moses is called Jabal Musa, in Hebrew - Har Sinai or Horeb. Here Moses received the 10 commandments. Morning in Egyptian mountains

On such a path we climbed all night and overcame several kilometers of mountain serpentine.

The present location of Mount Sinai

The Holy Scriptures do not clearly indicate where the mountain of Moses is located, so for many centuries scientists have been arguing whether this place is or not. Horeb is traditionally considered to be in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula, but some believe that this is too far from the Nile Delta, from which the Israelites fled during their wanderings described in Scripture (it is assumed that it is in the northern or central part). Others think that the real Mount of Moses is located on the other side of the Gulf of Aqaba (today it is the territory of Saudi Arabia).

On the way there were Bedouins with their camels. The desire to climb onto the back of a humpback horse does not leave you, since going down from the top is even harder than climbing it - your knees hurt.

But we decided that we would return on our own two feet, just as we came here.

Local residents sleep in such buildings made of brushwood.

And in order to see again with my own eyes and photograph this landscape, I am ready to go to Egypt again and climb Mount Horeb.

The chain of returning tourists stretched for more than one kilometer.

We walked for a long time, because we wanted to photograph every stone, every peak.

Photo 14. The most interesting excursion in Egypt. Climbing Mount Moses. I wanted to photograph every stone, every peak ...

Hungry? Welcome to the Rest House!

Photo 15. Climbing Mount Moses. Excursions in Egypt. Tired? Let's go to the Rest House!

I remember this boy - the seller of souvenir eggs carved from stone. For one product, he asked for one dollar. But I felt so sorry for him! I think that's how childhood passes on the side of a mountain path. And so he will spend his life for many years to come. Gave 5 dollars. And he looked after us with surprised eyes for a long time.

Imagine, in the middle of this silent mass, people wandered 5000 years ago. And almost nothing has changed...

Buses are waiting for tourists near the monastery of St. Catherine. From the outside it is also impressive.

Inside, in the cellars of the church, you can see heaps of skulls of the first Christians and a bush of burning Bush. But such an excursion is already an amateur. I'm more impressed with nature. And the excursion with climbing Mount Moses allows you to see the beauty of the Sinai land.

Monastery of Saint Catherine in Egypt

Climbing Mount Moses is not complete without an excursion to the Monastery of St. Catherine, built in the traditions of the Byzantine period. It received its name from the name of the holy martyr Catherine of Alexandria, who died in Egypt in 307 AD. Three hundred years later, the monks of the Monastery of the Transfiguration (as it was called until that time) found her relics and changed the name.

The library of the monastery of St. Catherine holds the second largest collection of ancient manuscripts in the world (the first place is held by the Vatican), including 3,500 manuscripts and 2,000 scrolls. Most of the documents were written by Greek monks.

In 1844, the German scholar Friedrich Konstantin von Tischendorf discovered the Septuagint (Code Sinaiticus) here, a Greek translation of the text of the Old Testament. In general, this famous biblical scholar set himself the task of compiling the original text of the New Testament. He visited the monastery of St. Catherine several times, talked with the monks and even received from them 43 sheets (out of 129 pieces) of parchment with ancient texts.

In general, I am not very broken in matters of Christian history. As far as I understand, the Codex Sinaiticus is one of the earliest copies of the Bible (4th century AD). - he published this text in Leipzig in 1862 with the support of the Russian Empire, became a hereditary nobleman and gained worldwide fame.

El-Raha Plain (el-Raha)

The valley of Wadi el-Deir connects the mountain of Moses and the plain of el-Raha (el-Raha). The word "Raha" means "rest" and, according to legend, this is the place where the Israelites stopped while waiting for Moses to go up to Sinai. And here the golden calf was cast (Exodus 32). Nearby is the tomb of Aaron (Aaron) and the chapel of the golden calf.

In today's review, we saw examples of photographs taken on an ancient Sony DSC-W15 soap dish. I am terribly jealous of those photographers who are just going on vacation to Egypt. If you find the strength to drag a backpack with a tripod and photographic equipment to the top, you can bring home the most gorgeous pictures. Indeed, in Sinai, unlike Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka, the probability of good weather and beautiful light is much higher. Good luck with your photos, friends!

P.S. Some of the information I found on the Internet in English. Since I am not deeply familiar with the Old and New Testaments, I apologize if I translated some titles and names into Russian incorrectly. Didn't mean to offend anyone.

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