"From Lawgiver to Prophet: The Transformation of the Image of Moses in Late Antiquity" (original) (raw)

In the Exodus narrative of the Hebrew Bible Moses is presented as the divinely sanctioned "national" leader of Israelites, who led them out of the oppressive situation they found themselves in as migrants in Egypt (Ex. 3:16-22) and conveyed to them a set of legal rules concerning all aspects of life, endorsed by the claim of divine revelation (Ex. 19 and 34). In later Jewish and rabbinic consciousness, this latter aspect predominates: the Torah was given to Moses at Sinai-Moses is the intermediary through whom God delivered his Torah to his people. 1 In their focus on Torah study, interpretation, and application rabbis considered themselves to stand in a direct line of sages that could be traced back to Moses at Sinai. 2 Their "oral" Torah was linked to the "written" Torah, rabbinic halakhah continued and expanded biblical law. 3 Like Moses, late antique rabbis main role was that of "lawgivers", who tried to regulate the behavior of their fellow-Jews not only in cultic but also in inter-personal relationships resembling Roman civil law. 4 In the Qur'an, Muhammad appears as a prophet succeeding and superseding Moses (Musa) and Jesus, whose prophecy he is believed to have completed. 5 Angelika Neuwirth has