A journalist and amateur biblical exegete proclaims as striking
news what diligent readers of that ancient text have long known:
that its tales include many that appear to violate its own moral
teachings. Kirsch (Harlot by the Side of the Road, 1997) retells
the biblical stories of Moses, from the Exodus account of his birth
to Deuteronomy's last verses on his death. But readers who expect
from the misleading subtitle a historically grounded biography will
be disappointed. What Kirsch achieves instead is a curious
syncretism of views of Moses from sources that do not often speak
to each other, including the Bible itself (and its traditional
midrashic elaborators); ancient Hellenistic interpreters
(principally Philo of Alexandria); modern academic exegetes (Elias
Auerbach, Martin Noth, Gerhard yon Rad, et al.); and Freud. To
juxtapose such unlikely bedfellows casually is provocative. To do
so without regard for history or interpretive context is
misleading. For example, in discussing the Burning Bush episode,
when Moses first meets God, Kirsch asserts that Philo (in contrast
to Jewish midrash and modern exegesis) "insisted on reading the
whole incident . . . as metaphorical," as though allegory were not
the stock-in-trade of Philo and his Jewish Hellenistic colleagues.
Part of Kirsch's hope in exhibiting such an array of interpretive
voices is to show readers how much pietistic views of Moses owe to
idealizing, post-biblical interpreters (like Philo) and how little
to the actual biblical text, where Moses can come across as angry,
unforgiving, and even murderous. But for whom is this newsworthy,
except the audience of biblical illiterates that Kirsch must be
counting on as readers for his unveiling of "the real Moses - the
Moses no one knows"? Discounting its grandiose self-image, this
book can serve as an undemanding introduction to biblical narrative
and its diverse interpreters. (Kirkus Reviews)
Lawgiver and liberator. Seer and prophet. The only human permitted to converse with God "face-to-face." Moses is the most commanding presence in the Old Testament. Yet as Jonathan Kirsch shows in this brilliant, stunningly original volume, Moses was also an enigmatic and mysterious figure--at once a good shepherd and a ruthless warrior, a spiritual leader and a magician, a lawgiver who broke his own laws, God's chosen friend and hounded victim. Now, in Moses: A Life, Kirsch accomplishes the wondrous feat of revealing the real Moses, a strikingly modern figure who steps out from behind the facade of Sunday school lessons and movie matinees.
Drawing on the biblical text and a treasury of both scholarship and storytelling, Kirsch examines all that is known and all that has been imagined of Moses. In these vivid pages, we see the marvels and mysteries of Moses's life in a new light--his rescue in infancy and adoption by an Egyptian princess; his reluctant assumption of the role of liberator; his struggles to wrest his people from the pharaoh's dominion; his desperate vigil on Mount Sinai. Here too is the darker, more ominous Moses--the sorcerer, the husband of a pagan woman, the military commander who cold-bloodedly ordered the slaying of innocent people; the beloved of God whom God sought twice to murder.
Jonathan Kirsch brings both prodigious knowledge and a keen imagination to one of the most compelling stories of the Bible, and the results are fascinating. A figure of mystery, passion, and contradiction, Moses emerges from this book very much a hero for our time.
From the Hardcover edition.
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