MOSES (12th-13th century B.C.):
the great law giver of the JEWS and the founder of the
nation of ISRAEL who is traditionally credited with writing the PENTATEUCH.
According to the HEBREW BIBLE, he was born of HEBREW parents and adopted by an
Egyptian Princess and educated as an Egyptian prince. Later he was forced to flee Egypt
and lived in Midian for a number of years before returning to Egypt to lead the Children
of Israel out of bondage into the wilderness where they remained for 40 years after the
death of Moses before entering the promised land. Although some modern scholars doubt the
historicity of Moses it seems clear, as the philosopher Walter Kaufmann pointed out, that
if he did not exist and perform the deeds traditionally attributed to him, he would have
had to be invented to explain subsequent JEWISH HISTORY.
