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   Is this story credible? One can easily believe that Moses was raised as an   
   Egyptian prince. There seems to be no controversy on this point, and surely it   
   was this royal upbringing that qualified Moses as an efficient military and   
   administrative leader    
   for the Hebrews. No doubt his life in the royal palace also provided him with   
   high-level contacts who might have been sympathetic to him personally, and who   
   could have assisted him in his petition for the release of the Hebrews under   
   his care. Moses    
   probably was a childhood playmate of the particular Pharaoh who ultimately   
   granted the Hebrews their freedom. Moreover, as a prince of noble lineage, but   
   having absolutely no chance to reach the throne (being the son not of the   
   Pharaoh himself but rather    
   of the Pharaoh's daughter), Moses surely must have longed for a kingdom of his   
   own, and would perhaps have turned an appreciative eye more than once in the   
   direction of the Hebrews, a hardy race as evidenced by the pyramids they had   
   constructed. He may    
   even have had some real sympathy for the Hebrew people, having been raised as   
   a child by a Hebrew nurse, perhaps even having had the opportunity to engage   
   in long discussions with Aaron, his alleged brother. [38] That much we can   
   readily believe, but can    
   we also believe that Moses, himself, was truly a Hebrew? This “fact” sounds   
   far-fetched no matter how many times we read God speaking to Moses, always   
   referring to Aaron as “Aaron, thy brother”. [39] Surely there was no need for   
   God to take such pains to    
   stress that Aaron and Moses were brothers – at least not to Moses. Once should   
   have been enough and so, in the words of the great English bard, William   
   Shakespeare, “methinks he doth protest too much”.   
      
   No doubt there was a great deal of controversy about the actual parentage of   
   Moses. In order that the clan accept his leadership, it was essential to   
   establish Moses as a bona fide Hebrew. For this it was vital for Moses to have   
   the full support of Aaron,   
    who could testify as to Moses' Hebrew identity. Aaron would certainly be   
   prepared to give this testimony because he required Moses' contacts in the   
   royal palace to arrange the liberation of the Hebrews, Aaron's people.   
   Furthermore, Aaron was a religious    
   leader, not a political leader, and it would seem he knew much less than Moses   
   about administrative and military matters. Hence Aaron may even have been   
   inclined, however reluctantly, to accept Moses as the political leader of the   
   Hebrews (for one    
   generation only), although he was always zealous to guard his own claim to   
   religious leadership. Moses and Aaron were both without doubt strong-willed,   
   intelligent men who assisted each other in the fulfillment of their personal   
   ambitions. Their joint    
   endeavors enabled the creation of a new Hebrew Kingdom in the land of Canaan.   
   But, again, were they really brothers? Was Moses really a Hebrew? Candidly   
   speaking, I find this supposition a bit suspect. Let us consider the following   
   points.   
      
   First, there is the question of Moses' circumcision or rather his lack of it.   
   As Moses is recorded to have said to God, “Behold the children of Israel have   
   not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised   
   lips?” [40] There    
   is also a very confusing passage in the Bible wherein Moses' first wife, who   
   is also not a Hebrew, bitterly curses Moses as a “bloody husband” for   
   compelling her to circumcise their son (who was presumably at that time quite   
   a bit older than eight days,    
   the prescribed age for the religious rite to take place). [41] What makes this   
   seem very strange is that Moses surely knew about the Covenant demand for   
   ritual circumcision on the eighth day as, no doubt, did his “alleged” Hebrew   
   parents. Yet Moses would    
   appear to have been the only uncircumcised Hebrew man to come out of Egypt;   
   and, even before leading the Jews out of Egypt, Moses was somewhat careless   
   about the circumcision of his own sons.   
      
   As if all the above were not enough Moses, during his forty years of   
   leadership, made absolutely no effort to arrange the circumcision of any of   
   the new-born Hebrew male children. [42] Is it probable that such leaders of   
   the Hebrew clan as Aaron's    
   parents and Moses himself would easily forget or lightly ignore this   
   all-important ceremony without which “that soul shall be cut off from his   
   people”. [43]   
      
   Second, how likely is it that the Pharaoh's daughter could recognize an   
   uncircumcised three-month old baby as being Hebrew rather than Egyptian? Then,   
   after supposedly realizing the baby to be a Hebrew, why would she flagrantly   
   disobey her father's order    
   and keep the child under her protection as her very own son? [44] Certainly no   
   one in the royal palace would have believed the child was really hers unless   
   it were true, for even in those days a woman was pregnant for nine months   
   before a baby was born,    
   and Moses was already three months old when, according to the story, he first   
   appeared in the palace.   
      
   Third, the unmistakable political struggle between Moses on one side and Aaron   
   and Miriam on the other side, as portrayed when Aaron and Miriam started a   
   sedition against Moses' leadership on the grounds of his marriage to an   
   Ethiopian woman, [45]    
   bespeaks something less than a healthy familial relationship, And it is   
   certainly curious about Moses' predilection for marrying non-Hebrew women, Is   
   this not one more indication that the uncircumcised Moses was somewhat unique,   
   different from the other    
   Hebrew men?   
      
   Fourth, although Moses had two sons, [46] still none of Moses' descendants   
   were apparently accepted as either political or religious leaders of the   
   Hebrews, whereas the family of Aaron was granted religious domination of the   
   Jewish people into perpetuity.   
    [47] What is it that made the sons of Aaron so holy and the sons of Moses   
   completely ordinary? Might not we say that the children of Moses were cursed   
   as they were almost blotted out of all the “Chronicles”. [48] The only   
   reasonable explanation is that    
   the partnership between Aaron and Moses was one of convenience for both men,   
   but that ultimately it was Aaron who struck the better bargain on behalf of   
   his family, and even his tribe. The last days of Moses must have been bitter   
   indeed as he was    
   compelled to hand over political leadership to Joshua, Moses' right-hand man,   
   but not to his own son, As regards the descendants of Moses, officially   
   treated as Levis, their appointed destiny was to serve Aaron's male   
   descendants forever. [49] Perhaps    
   the only satisfaction that Moses got was the selection of Joshua from a tribe   
   other than that of Aaron, the Levi tribe, [50] to which also Moses was alleged   
   to belong (but, as is clear, that can hardly be believed).   
      
   The Ten Commandments   
      
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