Moses vs. Jesus: Who is America's Prophet?
On July 4, 1776, immediately after passing the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress asked Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams to design a seal for the new United States. Six weeks later they made their recommendation: Moses, leading the Israelites across the Red Sea.
Three of the five drafters of the Declaration of Independence and three of the defining faces of the Revolution proposed that Moses be the face of the United States of America. In their eyes, Moses was our true founding father.
Four years ago I set out looking at the role of Moses in American life. I sailed on Plymouth Harbor where the Pilgrims compared their journey to Moses; I climbed the tower of Independence Hall where the Liberty Bell was inscribed with a quote from Moses; I retraced the Underground Railroad where "Go Down, Moses" was the national anthem of slaves; and I donned the robe Charlton Heston wore in The Ten Commandments.
One discovery surprised me most of all and reshaped my views of the culture wars of today: Moses has been more important to American history than Jesus.
Of course, Jesus was influential in American life. The United States at its founding was 100 percent Christian and is 75 percent Christian today. But as important as Jesus was to Americans' private lives, he had far less influence than Moses on the great transformations of our public life. The themes of Jesus' life -- love, charity, poverty alleviation -- would not make the list of the defining impulses of Americans.
The themes of Moses' life, by contrast -- social mobility, standing up to authority, balancing freedom and law, dreaming of a promised land -- would make any short list of America's defining traits.
Moses was more important to the Puritans. On The Mayflower, the Pilgrims carried Bibles emblazoned with Moses; they called King James their pharaoh; and they proclaimed their mission to be as vital as "Moses and the Israelites when they went out of Egypt."
Moses was more important during the Revolution. Thomas Paine called King George the "hardened, sullen-tempered pharaoh"; Benjamin Franklin used Moses to help pass the Constitution; and George Washington was called "America's Moses" for leading a beleaguered band of Colonists against the superpower of the day. When he died, two-thirds of the eulogies compared the "first conductor of the Jewish nation" to the "leader and father of the American nation."
And Moses was more important during the Civil War. Slaves and Abolitionists rallied around Moses because he offered a precedent for escaping bondage; Harriet Tubman was so successful freeing slaves she was called "the Moses of her people." Southerners, meanwhile, invoked the story, too, noting that Moses invited slaves to the first Passover.
It took America's most Bible-quoting president to unite the country. Abraham Lincoln quoted the Exodus at Gettysburg, and, even though he was shot on Good Friday, Lincoln was more often compared to Moses upon his death. Eulogizers cited his freeing of the slaves and the fact that, like Moses, he died short of the Promised Land.
Not just American political events were shaped by Moses; American cultural figures were, too. The Statue of Liberty drew inspiration from the biblical prophet. The spikes of light around Lady Liberty's head and the tablet in her arms come from the moment when Moses comes down Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. Superman's backstory also comes from the superhero of the Torah. Both figures were born to a people facing annihilation, floated to safety in a small vessel, then picked up and raised by strangers, before being summoned to save humanity. Even Superman's original name, Kal-El, is Hebrew for "swift God."
But it was Cecil B. DeMille who turned Moses into a hero of the Cold War. At the start of The Ten Commandments, which was released this week in 1956 and went on to become the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time, DeMille appeared on screen to tell viewers the movie was about freedom versus communism. And at the end of the film, Charlton Heston quotes the words of Moses on the Liberty Bell and mimics the pose of the Statue of Liberty.
In recent years, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have all said they were inspired by Moses.
As historian Allen Guelzo told me, "The story of Jesus is extremely important. What is surprising is how persistently important the story of Moses remains."
Why?
The answer, I believe, is that Moses represents the courage to leave oppression and create a better world. He embodies the American juggling act between freedom and law. And he encapsulates the desire to build a society that uplifts the downtrodden and nurtures the outsider.
For years, the culture wars have debated whether America is a Christian country. That debate misses the point. It was white male Protestants who introduced Moses into the American narrative, and his presence made it easier for blacks, Jews, and women to eventually integrate into American society. Precisely because he was invoked by left and right, Republican and Democrat, Jew and Christian, Moses may be the one cultural figure who can remind Americans of our common heritage and help restore a national conversation in how we can become a "promised land" once again.
Follow Bruce Feiler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brucefeiler
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Moses led a band of merry men who owned slaves, subjugated women, hated homosexuals, invaded, raided and destroyed entire populations of people who had done no real harm to them vilified people who didn't believe like them and kept the poor poor while the rich became richer creating a class system all in the name of god, ... I can understand why Mr. Feiler could come to his conclusion
the almightly dollar
The reason that people through our nation's history have tried to identify with Moses rather than Jesus is actually quite simple: to believers, who know Jesus as God incarnate, any attempt to identify with him would be seen as sacrilegious, borderline profane. Moses was one of us, and therefore more accessible. It would be like a common Englishman in the 1780s calling himself King George.
This reminds me of the infamous question once posed on SNL "Who is mas machismo Ricardo Montalban or Julio Iglesias?". I have to correct this though. Everyine knows the story of Moses and Exodus. Moses ,son of a slave, riased by the pharoh, leads his people out of bondage and to the promised land. While all of this is true most of the story as you know it is not. The tale we have come to know as gospel was largely conveyed to us by a Jew Cecil B Demilles in the movie with Charlton Heston as Moses. I say Jew becasue I have no idea what a Demille is. Or the B for that matter. What likely happened is that the Jewss were likely mercenaries who were either asked to leave or were thrown out. They sacked a city as they left Egypt to provision themselves for which the Pharoh chased them across the desert and was eventually defeated militarily. Kinda differetn story huh?
there is no historical evidence that Moses existed . . . it is a myth . .
I think Mr Feiler should read Gore Vidal's Burr . . . he might get a better grasp about our Founding Fathers and their religious preference than he has
Define historical evidence..
Actually Egypt was a known slave owning state, so I believe that the Jews were slaves.
Slavery in that time was pretty much captured people of another nation.
Looking at the nearby nations, the most likely origin of the Jews would have been Babylon.
The Jews were Babylonians!
(this is also supported by the many similarities between pre-Moses parts of the Torah and what we know of the Babylonian religion).
Slaves in Egypt were prisoners of war and criminals. The term "habiru" means thief, among other things: Habiru (Ha biru) or Apiru or pr.w (Egyptian)[1]was the name given by various Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Ugaritic sources (dated, roughly, from before 2000 BC to around 1200 BC) to a group of people living as nomadic invaders in areas of the Fertile Crescent from Northeastern Mesopotamia and Iran to the borders of Egypt in Canaan [2] Depending on the source and epoch, these Habiru are variously described as nomadic or semi-nomadic, rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries, and bowmen, servants, slaves, migrant laborers, etc.
http://en.
Do you have any idea what a Bible is ??
Try reading one...then you can comment.
Seventy five per cent of Americans describe themselves as Christians. Five per cent say they are not. Twenty per cent say they are neither. So who is America's prophet? Does it even have one?
Your answer is as valid as anyone's.
But if you asked me. I would say the prophet of America and much of the world is "net profit."
Net profit has created a world in which the wealthiest 2 per cent own more than half the world's wealth. The poorest 50 per cent own 2 per cent.
When the world decides it has become unjust and needs to correct itself, it can rally around a universal prophet: Lustitia, the God of Justice. You know. The lady with the blindfold and balance scales. And oh yes, though you may not have noticed it. She's also carrying a sword.
And wasn't Jesus also a revolutionary in his own way?
Yeah, he proposed that all his followers pool their wealth and give to each according to need. Karl Marx stole parts of Jesus's theories to create communism.
Yes , in his own non violent way.... which is why he isn't a great role model for America..
Ah yes, that good old Holy Moses who made sure that his folks could get out of Egypt by, among other nasty things, having all of the Egyptian first born fall dead when God's Angel of Death "Passed Over" their homes. Happy holiday! The same fellow who, after forty years wandering aimlessly around the Sinai peninsula, finally found the "Promised Land" -- which was soon cleared of its original inhabitants, the Canaanites, by having them slaughtered (see the Book of Joshua for the gory details). Great role model for American politicians! If we are not exactly the "chosen people" we can at least claim to be "Number One" -- but alas! it often seems that God doesn't play favorites. .
great blog stirner . . .
None of the above!
Neither Jesus or Moses can reaistically be considered America's prophet. For one thing, there is no anthropological or archaological evidence that either man ever even existed as humans in the history of civilization, outside of that precious little book of fairy tales.
Secondly, even if someone did find archaological or anthropological evidence of the existance of these men, there is no evidence that either man stepped foot on US soil. They might be considered prophets of the middle east, but not the US
And if we're going to consider men who have no anthropological or archaeological evidence of their existance prophets of the US, then we might as well nominate Santa or the Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy, because they at least embody the American ideals of Capitalism
There is more evidence for the existence of Moses and Jesus than there is for your existance. It is your religious point of view that prevents your admitting it.
I beg to differ. Where are Jesus and Moses blogs?
Where is the archaeological or anthropological evidence that either of those men, or in fact any of the characters in the bible existed outside the bible?
And books that use the bible as reference materials dont count. Show me clothes, show me bones, hell, show me the arc of the covenant or the holy grail..and I mean the actual artifacts, not some well guarded monastary or chapel...o
great blog PlaceboStudman . . you are absolutely right . . there is no historical or archaeological evidence that either of them lived . . . they only appear in that book of fairy tales in two volumes . . .
I think most of our Founding Fathers had more on their minds than religion . . .especially the Virginian artistocracy and Mass' Tom weren't no good Christian all according to John Adams . . .
the founder of RI Roger Williams wasn't enamoured of the Massachusetts Bay crowd . . he got out and got a separate charter from Charles I .. and founded RI on the grounds of religious toleration . . .
Religious tolerance is one of the biggest oxymorons in existance. I've rarely heard anyone who calls for freedom of religion also supporting freedom from religion
Whether they existed or not isn't the point. Mythology and grand narratives need not be empirically valid to be significant. You cannot simply ignore the importance of this belief structure to the larger social and political fabric of the nation. While I would strongly argue that Mammon is the guiding light rather than Moses or Christ, it is a topic both worthy of study and critique because people do believe.
There is a difference between a philosophical "guiding light" and a real tangible prophet. Mohammed was a prophet, Buddha was a prophet. Both of those existed as real people who expressed ideas and beliefs and spread them amongst the people. You are talking about the message, I am talking about the messenger, because the messenger helps to define the message.
Example: Would you take the financial advice of a kid who just graduated in economics over Warren Buffett?
I wouldn't
Nor would I take the message of Rick Warren or Pat Robertson over the message of Jesus himself if he were real and came to earth to spread his message
excuse me ...can you provide evidence of having ever recieved an education ?
yes I have my high school diploma. What's that got to do with there being no scientific evidence of any of the people in the bible? The places, sure, cities, city-states, definitely. But there are no references to people from the bible outside of the bible.
You neglected to mention the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's references to Moses, as well as the Mormons' (strenuous) identification with the Israelites.
Yes, I would agree that Moses is probably the Big Kahuna of classical prophets, but I like Martin Luther King and Bob Marley for 20th century contenders.
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