Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.beitberl.ac.il>]

Niels Peter Lemche wrote:

> And according to Exod 15, the exodus only stopped when they entered the
> mountain of God, i.e. when the temple was built. Maybe a link to a spurious
> tradition in a hellenistic source--I believe it was Diodorus but do not kill
> me if I am wrong, that Moses built the temple when he came from Egypt. Goes
> also well with the strange note about the nehushtan that was thrown out of
> the temple by Hezekiah: Why, if it was Moses' cobber snake.

The Bible elsewhere preserves some rather ambivalent views of Moses. In the
story of Micah's Idol, the founder of the Levitical priestly family at the
cultic shrine of Dan is no less than Moses' grandson.
And Former Prophets in general is pretty silent about Moses. A view I am
acquainted with is that this was to prevent his idolization, as in the 
narrative
about his unknown place of burial in Deut. 34. But perhaps the explanation 
lies
es=lsewhere - in the fact that the anathematized Dan priesthood traced its
lineage to Moses.
Yours,
--
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Beit Berl Post Office
Israel