MOSES, the inspired lawgiver of the Jews, was the son of Amram and Jocabed : and was born in Egypt, 2433, and B. C. 1571. His name signifies out ;" and was given to him by the daughter of Pharaoh, because she had drawn him out of the water. Being adopted by this princess, he was instructed in all the learning of the Egyptians, and spent the first forty years of his life at the court of her father. He is said by Josephus to have commanded the army of the Egyptians, in an expedition against the Ethiopians, whom he de feated and subdued. The next forty years of his life he passed in the land of Midian, where he took refuge from the vengeance of Pharaoh, and where he married the daughter of Jethro, the priest of that country. The last forty }cars of his life were employed in conducting the people of Israel to the land of Canaan, on the borders of which he died, in the 120th year of his age. The parti culars of his history are so much connected with that of the Jewish people, and are so well known, by means of the sacred Scriptures, that they need not be detailed in this place. Little dependence can be placed upon the accounts given of him by Josephus, Philo, the Jewish Rabbins, and various profane authors ; and it is only in his own writings, that any thing authentic can be found respecting his extraordinary character and mira culous services. The frequent notice, however, that is taken of him by many ancient writers, serves to confirm the truth of his own narrative, and to point him out as the most ancient author, of whom any au thentic works remain. He is thus mentioned by Ma netho, Chercmon, Apollonius, and Lysimachus, as quoted by Josephus against Appian, I. i. § 26 and 32. ;
by Eupolemus and Artapanus, as quoted by Eusebius. Prop. Ev. lix. c. 26-20.; by Strabo, Geog. lxvi.; by Trogus Pompeius, in Justin. hist. lxxxvi. c. ii.; by Pliny the elder, Nat. Hist. I. xxx. c. i. ; by Tacitus, hist. 1. v. c. ; by Juvenal, Sat. xiv. v. 96.; by Lon ginus on the Sublime, § 9.; by Numenius, as cited by Origin against Celsus, 1. iv. p. 198.; by the author of the Orphic verses, a production of great antiquity ; by Diodorus Siculus, 1. i. who mentions Moses as one who ascribed his laws to the God Jaoh, which may be consi dered as a corruption of the name Jehovah, and also in his fortieth book, as preserved by Photius, Bib. No. 244, he speaks of him as a man of illustrious prudence and courage ; by Poleman, Appion of Possidon, Ptolemy Mendesius, Hellanias, Philocorus, Castor, Thallus, and Alexander Polyhistor, as enumerated by Justin Martyr, Cohort. ad Gent. p. 9-11.
Some of the Psalms, particularly the sc. have been ascribed to Moses ; and also the book of Job, or at least the rendering of it from the original Arabic into the Hebrew language. But these are no more than mere conjectures; and the only unquestionable writings of Moses, are the first five books of the Old Testament, generally called the Pentateuch, and which are supposed to have formed originally but one book.
The Editio Princeps of the Pentateuch, was published with the Hebrew Bible, printed at Soncini, 1488 ; and the first translation into English, by William Tindalc, was printed at Mariborow, in the land of Hesse, by Hans Luft, 1530, and at Hamburgh in the same year.
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