108 Fun Facts About Moses

As a baby, Moses was hidden by his mother in a basket among the bulrushes of which river?

Pharaoh had ordered every newborn Hebrew boy thrown into the Nile, so Moses' mother hid him in a basket at the river's edge.

In Exodus, who found the infant Moses in the river and raised him?

Exodus never names Pharaoh's daughter, though Josephus and the Book of Jubilees call her Thermouthis.

Moses' birth mother, who was later hired to nurse her own son, was named what?

Jochebed hid her baby for three months before setting him afloat in a basket, and Numbers calls her a daughter of Levi.

Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who was doing what?

After killing the Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, Moses fled to Midian and sat down by a well, where he met his future wife.

Moses' wife Zipporah was one of the seven daughters of which Midianite priest?

Jethro is also called Reuel in Exodus and Hobab in Judges, a puzzle that has kept commentators busy for centuries.

On the road back to Egypt, Zipporah saves Moses' life by doing what?

In the strange 'incident at the inn', God sought to kill Moses until Zipporah saved him by circumcising their son with a flint.

What were the names of Moses' two sons?

Moses named Gershom for being 'a stranger in a strange land', later Heinlein's novel title, and Eliezer because God saved him from Pharaoh's sword.

God first called to Moses from a burning bush on which mountain?

On Horeb the bush burned without being consumed, and its Hebrew name, seneh, may be a deliberate pun on Sinai.

What did God tell Moses to do before approaching the burning bush?

God told Moses to remove his sandals because he stood on holy ground, and anyone entering the Chapel of the Burning Bush still removes their shoes.

What reason did Moses give for not wanting to be God's spokesman before Pharaoh?

Moses protested that he could not speak eloquently, being 'slow of speech, and of a slow tongue', and God's anger flared against him.

Which sign was Moses given at the burning bush involving his staff?

It turned into a snake when Moses threw the staff down, and back into a staff when he caught it by the tail.

What was the first of the ten plagues of Egypt?

The Nile turned to blood and its fish died, yet Pharaoh's magicians copied the trick, so Pharaoh still refused to listen.

Which plague came second, with Pharaoh's magicians conjuring a second wave of their own?

Frogs even got into Pharaoh's bedroom, and when Moses let him choose when they would go, Pharaoh said 'tomorrow'.

The tenth and final plague was what?

The death of the firstborn passed over Israelite homes with marked doorposts, which is how Passover got its name.

The Hebrew name of the sea the Israelites crossed, Yam Suph, is often translated as what?

Yam Suph literally means Sea of Reeds, but the Greek Septuagint rendered it as the Red Sea, and that name stuck.

Why did God bar Moses from entering the Promised Land?

He struck a rock twice at Meribah instead of speaking to it, so God said Moses would not bring Israel into the land.

Which sister of Moses leads the women in song and dance after the crossing of the sea?

Exodus calls Miriam a prophetess, and the Talmud names her among the seven major female prophets of Israel.

Some scholars consider Exodus 15's Song of the Sea to be what?

Some scholars see the Song of the Sea as the oldest surviving text about the escape, while others think it was written in a deliberately archaic style.

What did the Israelites call the food that appeared each morning in the wilderness?

Manna's name is said to come from the Israelites' question 'man hu?', roughly 'what is it?'

Exodus says the wilderness food tasted like wafers made with what?

Honey is the flavour Exodus gives the wilderness food, and one theory traces it to sweet honeydew left by scale insects on tamarisk trees.

The Israelites defeated which people at Rephidim while Moses held up his hands?

Whenever Moses lowered his hands the Amalekites began winning, so two companions held his arms up until sunset.

The Hebrew name for the Ten Commandments literally means what?

Aseret ha-Dibrot means 'the Ten Words', and the Greek dekalogos translates it directly, giving the name Decalogue.

How long was Moses on Mount Sinai before coming down with the tablets?

Moses stayed forty days and forty nights on the mountain, and Deuteronomy says he ate no bread and drank no water the whole time.

Who fashioned the golden calf while Moses was on the mountain?

Aaron collected the people's golden earrings, then told Moses he threw the gold into the fire 'and there came out this calf'.

In Exodus, what did Moses do with the golden calf after burning it?

Made the people drink it: Moses ground the calf to powder and scattered it on water first, and about three thousand men died that day.

What did Moses do with the first tablets on seeing the golden calf?

Moses smashed them at the foot of the mountain, and God later had him cut two new tablets to replace them.

Moses' brother and sister criticised him for marrying a woman described as what?

His sister was struck with a skin disease for a week as punishment; midrash insists the 'Cushite' was really Zipporah.

Who led a revolt against Moses' leadership and was punished for it?

The earth swallowed Korah's allies and their households, while fire consumed 250 of his followers offering incense, whose bronze censers were hammered into an altar covering.

Moses set a bronze image on a pole to heal Israelites bitten by what?

God sent fiery serpents to punish the people's complaints, and anyone bitten who looked at Moses' bronze serpent lived.

Which prophet was hired to curse Israel but blessed them instead during the wilderness years?

Balaam is best remembered for his talking donkey, which saw an angel blocking the road before he did.

To whom did Moses pass his authority before he died?

Moses laid his hands on Joshua, who then led the Israelites across the Jordan, where the waters parted as the sea had for Moses.

Deuteronomy says which of Moses' faculties was unimpaired when he died?

Moses died at 120 with his eyesight undimmed and his strength unabated, and Jews still wish each other a long life 'until 120'.

From which mountain did Moses view the Promised Land before he died?

From Mount Nebo in modern Jordan, Jericho is usually visible, and Jerusalem can be seen on a very clear day.

What does Deuteronomy 34 say about the location of Moses' grave?

It is unknown to this day, Deuteronomy says, yet local Muslim tradition places a Tomb of Moses at Nabi Musa, south of Jericho.

Rabbinic tradition credits Moses with writing which part of the Hebrew Bible?

The Torah is also called the Pentateuch, though the Talmud debates whether Moses wrote its last eight verses, which describe his death.

The name Moses is linked to an Egyptian element meaning 'child of', seen in which pharaoh's name?

Thutmose means 'born of Thoth', while Exodus explains Moses' name as meaning he was drawn out of the water.

Which two Old Testament figures appear with Jesus at the Transfiguration in the Gospels?

Moses and Elijah appear with the transfigured Jesus, and Moses is mentioned in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament figure.

In the Quran, who finds the baby Moses floating on the river?

Pharaoh's wife, known in tradition as Asiya, urged Pharaoh not to kill the baby, calling him a comfort to the eye.

In the Quran, which animal does Moses tell his people to slaughter, giving the second surah its name?

A cow: the Israelites kept asking which cow, so Moses spelled out its age and its bright yellow colour.

Islamic tradition has Moses journey to meet a mysterious wise servant of God named what?

Al-Khidr isn't named in the Quran itself, and Moses found him where a fish they meant to eat had escaped into the sea.

In the Night Journey, Moses gets the daily prayers reduced from fifty to what?

On Moses' advice Muhammad kept going back to God, until the fifty daily prayers were cut to five.

Why did Michelangelo give his statue of Moses horns?

Jerome's Vulgate called Moses' shining face 'horned', long described as a mistranslation of 'rays', and artists followed it for centuries.

Michelangelo's Moses was commissioned in 1505 for the tomb of which pope?

Julius II planned a tomb with about 40 statues, but after decades of delays it was scaled down and only finished in 1545.

Michelangelo's Moses stands in which Roman church?

San Pietro in Vincoli means Saint Peter in Chains, after the relic chains said to have bound Peter, kept under its main altar.

Who played Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 epic The Ten Commandments?

Charlton Heston won the part partly for resembling Michelangelo's Moses, and his newborn son Fraser played the infant Moses.

Which actor played Rameses in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 epic The Ten Commandments?

Yul Brynner played Rameses the same year The King and I came out, which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Which studio's first traditionally animated film was The Prince of Egypt (1998)?

Jeffrey Katzenberg had pushed for an animated Moses film at Disney, and Steven Spielberg urged him to make it at DreamWorks.

Who voiced both Moses and, uncredited, God in The Prince of Egypt?

Val Kilmer voiced God too because the filmmakers wanted God to sound like the voice Moses would hear inside his own head.

Which song from The Prince of Egypt won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?

When You Believe, by Stephen Schwartz, won the Oscar, and Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey recorded the hit pop duet.

Sigmund Freud's last book, Moses and Monotheism (1939), argued that Moses was what?

Freud argued Moses was an Egyptian nobleman who followed Akhenaten's monotheism and was murdered in the wilderness, a theory many historians call pseudohistory.

In a rabbinic legend, what did the young Moses put in his mouth when Pharaoh's court tested him?

After the boy snatched Pharaoh's crown, he was offered gold or a live coal, and the angel Gabriel guided his hand to the coal.

Which reforming king of Judah destroyed Nehushtan, the bronze relic Moses had made in the wilderness?

Hezekiah broke Nehushtan into pieces because the Israelites had been burning incense to it, centuries after Moses made it.

Which Chinese sage is carved alongside Moses among the lawgivers on the US Supreme Court's courtroom frieze?

Confucius shares the courtroom's south wall frieze of ancient lawgivers with Moses and Hammurabi.

What was the name of Moses' father, a descendant of Kehath the Levite?

Amram, the Talmud says, divorced his wife after Pharaoh's decree, then took her back when one of his children argued that his ban was even harsher.

The story of baby Moses in the basket echoes the origin legend of which Mesopotamian ruler?

Sargon of Akkad's legend has his mother seal him in a basket of rushes with bitumen and cast him into the river, where a water-drawer lifts him out and raises him.

Which Founding Father proposed a US Great Seal showing Moses as the sea overwhelmed Pharaoh's chariot?

Benjamin Franklin's Moses scene was dropped, but his committee's motto, E Pluribus Unum, made it onto the Great Seal adopted in 1782.

Which Underground Railroad conductor was nicknamed 'Moses' for leading enslaved people to freedom?

Harriet Tubman made about 13 trips back into Maryland, and in 1863 she guided the Combahee River raid that freed more than 700 enslaved people.

Eupolemus, a Hellenistic Jewish historian, claimed which people received the alphabet from the Jews after Moses taught it?

The Phoenicians then passed the letters on to the Greeks, Eupolemus claimed, and Artapanus went further, saying Egyptian priests honoured Moses as Hermes.

Whose final speech, given in Memphis in 1968, echoed Moses viewing the Promised Land from afar?

Martin Luther King Jr. gave the speech to rally striking sanitation workers and was assassinated the next day.

Which comedian plays a Moses who drops one of three tablets in History of the World, Part I?

Mel Brooks, who also directed the 1981 comedy, has his Moses hastily announce ten commandments instead of fifteen once the third tablet lies in pieces.

Pharaoh punished Moses' first demand by making the Hebrew slaves produce bricks without being given what?

Straw now had to be gathered by the slaves themselves, yet Pharaoh demanded the same daily tally of bricks as before.

Which birds covered the Israelite camp one evening after the people complained to Moses of hunger?

Quail flew in at dusk and covered the camp, and the next morning a strange flaky food lay on the ground once the dew had lifted.

What fruit did Moses' spies carry out of Canaan slung on a pole between two men?

Grapes were just ripening, and the scouts cut one cluster in the valley of Eshcol, bringing pomegranates and figs home with it.

Which Jewish festival recalls the night the final plague spared the Israelites' homes in Egypt?

Passover is traditionally said to take its name from that night, when the plague skipped every doorway the Israelites had marked.

Which actor played Moses in Ridley Scott's 2014 film Exodus: Gods and Kings?

Christian Bale led the cast opposite Joel Edgerton as the pharaoh, with Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley in support.

What did Moses put on when his skin shone after Mount Sinai, frightening the Israelites?

A veil covered his face whenever he finished relaying God's words, and he took it off again each time he went in to speak with God.

Where did Moses meet his future wife, driving off men who harassed her and her sisters?

At a well in Midian, Moses watered the sisters' flock for them, and their father sent for the stranger to come and share a meal.

A statue of Moses at which US university is nicknamed 'First Down Moses' for its raised finger?

Notre Dame students have a habit of renaming campus statues after football, and this prophet points one finger skyward outside the Hesburgh Library.

The tablets God gave Moses on Mount Sinai were made of what material, according to Exodus?

Stone tablets, written with the finger of God, were later replaced by a second pair that Moses had to chisel with his own hands.

Which gold-covered sacred object, built at Mount Sinai, was made to hold the tablets of the law?

The Ark of the Covenant had a lid of pure gold topped by two cherubim, and God promised to speak to Moses from the space between them.

The Tabernacle that Moses had built at Mount Sinai as God's dwelling was what kind of structure?

A portable tent, it was taken down and carried from camp to camp, and it served Israel until Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem replaced it.

What was Moses' occupation in Midian when God called him to go and free the Israelites?

Shepherd to his father-in-law's flock, Moses had led the animals to the far side of the wilderness when the call came.

On which day did the wilderness food fail to appear, so Moses' people gathered double beforehand?

The Sabbath was set apart for rest, and those who went out searching that morning found nothing on the ground.

Which plague, the ninth, lasted three days and came just before the last and deadliest blow to Egypt?

Darkness thick enough to be felt covered Egypt after Moses stretched his hand toward the sky, while the Israelites still had light where they lived.

What does Exodus repeatedly say happened to Pharaoh's heart when Moses asked him to free Israel?

It was hardened: some verses say Pharaoh did this to his own heart, while others say God did it to him.

The 'eye for an eye' rule in the laws of Moses appeared earlier in which ancient collection of laws?

The Code of Hammurabi, a Babylonian law collection that predates the writing of the Hebrew Bible, holds the earliest known use of the principle.

In which Vatican building do frescoes of the life of Moses face a matching cycle on Christ?

The Sistine Chapel got both wall cycles in 1481–82 from a team of painters that included Botticelli and Perugino.

What led the Israelites by night after they left Egypt, while a cloud guided them by day?

A pillar of fire gave them light to travel after dark, so the march out of Egypt could go on around the clock.

Which food did the Israelites bake from dough carried out of Egypt in bowls wrapped in their cloaks?

Unleavened bread was all they could make, because they were hurried out of Egypt before the dough had time to rise.

Beside the giants of Canaan, the fearful spies told Moses they felt as small as which insects?

Grasshoppers was their word for how they looked beside the sons of Anak, and the gloomy report left the whole camp weeping that night.

What did Moses' father-in-law advise after watching him settle disputes alone from dawn to dusk?

Appoint other judges, he urged, warning that Moses would wear away under the load; small matters went to them and only hard cases reached Moses.

Jewish tradition calls Moses 'Moshe Rabbeinu', a Hebrew epithet that means 'Moses our' what?

Teacher is the role the epithet stresses for the lawgiver, while Abraham gets the matching title Avraham Avinu, 'our father'.

How old was Moses when he died within sight of the Promised Land, according to Deuteronomy?

120 was the age Deuteronomy records, and the Israelites wept for him for thirty days before moving on under a new leader.

Which book of the Bible covers most of Moses' wilderness years, from Mount Sinai to the edge of Canaan?

Numbers takes its English name from two censuses of Israel, while its Hebrew title, Bemidbar, means 'in the wilderness'.

Which spy from the tribe of Judah urged Moses' people to take Canaan at once when others lost heart?

Caleb quieted the frightened crowd, and he was rewarded as one of only two adults of that generation allowed to enter the land.

Which archangel argues with the devil over the body of Moses in the New Testament letter of Jude?

Michael does not dare to condemn the devil during the dispute and leaves the rebuke to the Lord instead.

Whose bones did Moses carry out of Egypt, honouring an oath the Israelites had sworn long before?

Joseph had made the Israelites swear that when God finally led them out of Egypt, his remains would travel with them.

When Moses asked to see God's glory on Mount Sinai, which part of God was he allowed to glimpse?

His back was all Moses could see once God had passed by, because God said no one could look on the divine face and live.

Who joined Moses' brother in holding up Moses' tired arms during the battle at Rephidim?

Hur stood on one side and Moses' brother on the other, keeping the hands steady until sunset, because Israel only prevailed while they stayed raised.

In which land beyond the Jordan River did Moses die, according to the final chapter of Deuteronomy?

Moab is also where Moses delivered the long farewell speeches that fill Deuteronomy, with the Israelites camped just short of the Jordan.

Which psalm is the only one whose heading credits it to Moses, calling him the man of God?

The 90th psalm broods on how brief human life is and puts a typical span at seventy years.

In which part of Egypt did the Israelites live, spared when flies and hail hit everywhere else?

Goshen was deliberately set apart from the rest of the country, so that Pharaoh would see the plagues were no accident.

What did Moses throw into the bitter waters at Marah so the thirsty Israelites could use them?

A piece of wood that God pointed out to him turned the water sweet, at a place whose very name recalled how bitter it had been.

What sound grew louder and louder as God came down on Mount Sinai in thunder, lightning and smoke?

A trumpet blast so loud that everyone in the camp trembled marked the moment, and as it swelled Moses spoke and God answered him aloud.

Rabbinic tradition counts how many commandments in the law given through Moses at Mount Sinai?

613 is the figure given in the Talmud, which splits it into 365 prohibitions for the days of the year and 248 positive duties for the limbs of the body.

Which Islamic fast day marks, for Sunni Muslims, God rescuing Moses and the Israelites at the sea?

Ashura falls on the tenth day of Muharram, and one well-known hadith says Muhammad found the Jews of Medina fasting that day and told Muslims to fast it too.

Which Baroque composer's 1739 oratorio Israel in Egypt sets the plagues and Moses' escape to music?

Handel built the work entirely from Old Testament passages, mainly Exodus and the Psalms, and premiered it in London.

Which actor voiced Rameses, the adoptive brother of Moses, in the animated film The Prince of Egypt?

Ralph Fiennes voiced the heir to Pharaoh Seti, the ruler played in the film's opening scenes by Patrick Stewart.

Which Harlem Renaissance author retold the Exodus in the 1939 novel Moses, Man of the Mountain?

Zora Neale Hurston recast Moses and the Israelites from an African American perspective, foregrounding parts of the legend that the Bible leaves out.

Which Washington building has 23 marble portraits of lawgivers, with only Moses facing forward?

The US Capitol hangs them over the gallery doors of the House chamber, where the other 22 lawgivers are carved in profile, all turned toward Moses.

Which monastery at the foot of Egypt's Mount Sinai claims to enclose the bush Moses saw burning?

Saint Catherine's was built on the orders of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and it was later renamed for a saint whose relics drew pilgrims.

Which medieval rabbi and doctor from Córdoba has an epitaph ranking him beside the biblical Moses?

Maimonides, born Moses ben Maimon, has a tomb in Tiberias inscribed with the saying that from Moses to Moses there arose none like Moses.

Which craftsman of the tribe of Judah did God fill with skill to build the sanctuary at Mount Sinai?

Bezalel could work gold, silver and bronze, cut gems and carve timber, the whole range of crafts the wilderness sanctuary called for.

What did Moses first ask Pharaoh to let the Israelites do, rather than leave Egypt for good?

Hold a feast in the desert, three days' journey away, was the modest opening request, and Pharaoh answered by calling the slaves idle.

Deuteronomy says Og, the giant king of Bashan beaten by Moses' army, left what huge iron object?

A bed nine cubits long and four wide was still on show in the Ammonite city of Rabbah, proof of how big the last of the Rephaim had been.

Moses won a ruling that the daughters of Zelophehad, who had no brothers, could do what?

They could inherit their father's land, a plea the sisters put to Moses in person, and the ruling became standing law for any man who died without a son.

By what names does the New Testament call the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses before Pharaoh?

Jannes and Jambres are named in the second letter to Timothy as a warning example, likened to people who resist the truth.

In Islam, Moses is titled Kalim Allah because the Quran describes God doing what with him?

Speaking to him directly, rather than through the angel Gabriel, is what earned Moses the title, rendered in English as 'Speaker of God'.