Moses: Liberator & Lawgiver

Moses: - Was raised in Egyptian royal culture, so would have absorbed Egyptian priestly and mystery lore. - Preserved Mesopotamian influences already embedded in Genesis: flood myth, Eden motifs, divine council language. - Codified a Torah that blends Egyptian ritual (tabernacle/ark with parallels to Egyptian sacred barks and shrines) with Mesopotamian covenantal-legal forms (treaty law, suzerainty covenants).

Knight & Lomas’ claim is that this created a “royal line” of initiates—Moses not just as lawgiver but as hierophant who transmuted Egyptian death-and-resurrection initiation into Israelite covenant.

• Sumerian Influences: Biblical creation/flood stories (Genesis) parallel Sumerian epics (e.g., Enuma Elish, Gilgamesh). Moses' birth legend (basket in reeds) echoes Sargon of Akkad's (c. 2300 BCE), suggesting adaptation for a "royal" motif—Sargon as foundling king, Moses as liberator-prophet founding a divine kingship line. Some argue Moses "debunked" pagan myths by monotheizing them (e.g., one God vs. polytheism).
• Egyptian Elements: Raised in Pharaoh's court, Moses' name may derive from Egyptian "ms" (born of, e.g., Thutmose). Parallels: Staff-to-serpent (Exodus 7) evokes Egyptian magic; Horus as divine child/king models Moses' role in establishing a covenantal "royal" people.

Synthesis for Royal Line: In esoteric views Moses merges these to create a monotheistic "royal" theology—Sumerian kingship (divine mandate) with Egyptian pharaonic divinity, birthing Israelite theocracy (e.g., Davidic line as eternal kingship, Psalm 89).

• Moses' Basket and the Nile's Prophecy

Midrash in Exodus Rabbah (1:22) recounts Pharaoh's astrologers prophesying a Hebrew savior born to drown him, leading to the infant decree; baby Moses' basket, woven by Miriam, miraculously floats unharmed amid crocodiles, with God's angels protecting it until Pharaoh's daughter, guided by divine hand, retrieves him as her son.

• Moses' Stammering Tongue from Hot Coal

In Legends of the Jews and Exodus Rabbah (1:26), young Moses in Pharaoh's court grabs the king's crown, prompting fears of usurpation; tested with jewels and coals, an angel pushes his hand to the coal, burning his tongue and causing his lifelong stutter, symbolizing divine humility over worldly ambition.

• The Staff of Moses' Creation Origins

Midrash in Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer (40) traces Moses' staff back to Adam's Edenic branch, passed through patriarchs like Jacob and Joseph, engraved with divine names; it blooms miraculously in Jethro's garden, only Moses can retrieve it, using it for plagues and sea-parting as a vessel of primordial power.

• The Plagues as Midrashic Retributions

Exodus Rabbah (9:8-12) expands each plague as targeted justice: blood for drowned Hebrew babies, frogs for Egyptian cruelty, hail for stolen labor; during darkness, hidden righteous Egyptians join the exodus, while angels debate the merits, underscoring divine measure-for-measure judgment.




The Pisgah Sight 

The Pisgah Sight refers to the biblical moment when God showed Moses the Promised Land from the summit of Mount Pisgah, though Moses was not permitted to enter it himself.

Found in Deuteronomy 34:1–4, this event marks the end of Moses' life after leading the Israelites through 40 years of wandering. God brought him up from the plains of Moab to the top of Mount Nebo (often identified with Pisgah), where He revealed the entire land stretching from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, Ephraim, Manasseh, Judah, and the Mediterranean Sea to the Negev.

"Then he said to him, 'This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.'" — Deuteronomy 34:4

This sight served as both a fulfillment of God's promise and a solemn reminder of Moses' limitation due to his earlier disobedience at Meribah (Numbers 20:12). Shortly after this vision, Moses died on the mountain at 120 years old, and Joshua succeeded him as leader.



And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho . And the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan. And all Napthali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. [Deuteronomy 34: 1-4; King James Bible]

Death of Moses

So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. - Deuteronomy 34: 5-7; King James Bible