1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 2 "Moses my servant is dead. (Joshua 1:1-2a NIV)
Reading the above verse, the issue of Moses' death has never been brought up because God himself told Joshua he is dead. However, I think that Moses did not "die."
5 And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said. 6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. (Deuteronomy 34:5-6 NIV)
Here we have another account of Moses' death where God buried him. However, no one knows where he is buried at (except God). It's kind of like the saying, "if a tree falls and no one is around, did it make a sound?" Now before I get accused of calling God a deceiver or liar, let me continue my case and throw some of my questions regarding my case.
As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11 NIV)
Why bring Elijah into this mess? Well he along with Enoch, were the only people in the old testament that did not die. Elijah was the one who was walking with Elisha and then got taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. However, the next point I'm about to make will show the importance of Elijah in regards to Moses death.
After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. (Mark 9:2-4 NIV)
So here we have the account of Jesus' transfiguration. Jesus is talking to Elijah and Moses. Here is where I have some questions concerning my thought process
Questions:
From a Christian viewpoint, death with Christ means eternal Life where Death without Christ means death. Since Moses Did not know Jesus that would mean he would have died. Plus, I do not recall reading about Moses atoning for his sins which lead to him not entering the promise land. So if he didn't atone for his sins and died, how did he get to talk to jesus with elijah?
Second, what is the Hebrew's viewpoint of Moses' death?
I know there are some holes in my presentation but I did that on purpose to have discussion. The game of Backgammon is a game of going back and forth trying to get to the other side of the board. Thus is theology, People talking back and forth trying to figure things out regarding God and religion. The only difference is that their is a winner in backgammon but theology is always a ongoing game until death.
Actually yes, if you could discuss it that would be great! That was awhile ago but I am still confused even after talking to Karina and one of the youth leaders at my church.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I like this post. It brings up some valid questions. I had never thought about Moses' death like that, had actually never even realized how he hadn't atoned for his sins. Is it possible that maybe because the Bible are accounts of events that happened, and not every book and every event is written by the person it happened to, Moses did possibly atone for his sins but we are not told about this event? That's just one of my thoughts.
Let me see if I have your argument straight here: Because of the Transfiguration which involves both Moses and Elijah, the latter of which never died, and because classical and, especially, evangelical Christian theologies interpret the stories of Christ as implying a theology of atonement (which you are suggesting ends in the options of death or life, depending on whether or not one has been atoned for by a sacrifice), then Moses could not have died because if he had died he would have just been dead without hope of resurrection. The explanation then is that Moses, like Elijah, simply disappeared for a time and returned in this moment to communicate something about God/Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that symbols of resurrection--or even the absence of death (which is not resurrection)--are to be found in the biblical stories is an interesting idea to me. If one can infer or deduce implications from patterns in scripture, then one has, potentially, a very creative and productive way of looking at the scriptures. I just don't know if the integrity of the original biblical text has been respected if we take this route. The piece that concerns me about the concept and argument presented here about the death of Moses is that your interpretation imposes a Christian theological meaning on a Jewish scripture. Unless one believes that the Jewish scriptures exist only as a sign pointing to a Christian meaning that will come to fruition in the future with the coming of Christ, the argument would be problematic as it implies that the Jewish text is superceded by Christian meaning. I know some Jews who might be a little upset by this.
Also, one would need to explore the concept of death in Israeli societies and Jewish theologies of the time the piece was written in order to know whether this interpretation is a possibility for people of that time. If I remember correctly, Jews of this time would not been concerned with issues of eternal life and its relationship to atonement because death was death--the dead go to sheol, the grave.
The concerns of an agrarian (farming) society were concerned more with "the land", having land and sustenance; and the Abrahamic tradition and divine promise was that descendents would be many and provided for. If death was just death in this early Israel, is it likely that Moses did not die because he was not atoned for? Perhaps we should go ask some Jewish scholars to find out.