Posted on 07/29/2025 10:40:53 AM PDT by fidelis
Mysterious Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions may point to Moses and Joseph as historical figures, sparking global scholarly controversy.
A groundbreaking proto-thesis by independent scholar Michael S. Bar-Ron suggests exactly that. After eight years of rigorous epigraphic analysis, Bar-Ron argues that two inscriptions found at Serabit el-Khadim, an ancient turquoise mining site on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, contain the Semitic phrase “This is from MŠ” — a possible early rendering of the name Moses (Moshe).
The inscriptions, dated to Egypt’s late 12th Dynasty during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, are written in Proto-Sinaitic, considered one of the world’s earliest alphabetic scripts. According to Bar-Ron, this writing system reflects an early Northwest Semitic dialect remarkably close to Biblical Hebrew, but with traces of Aramaic structure.
“If correct, this could be the first inscriptional evidence of Moses as a historical individual,” Bar-Ron states. “And the implications for our understanding of the Exodus traditions are enormous.”
(Excerpt) Read more at arkeonews.net ...
He was. He was raised as an Egyptian Prince with a Hebrew nanny!....................
Tut tut tut
Yeah, well we need to see the Provenance before we can accept the “Certificate of Authenticity”. /s
Exodus 2
New King James Version
Moses Is Born
2 And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. 2 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. 4 And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.
5 Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. 6 And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”
8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the maiden went and called the child’s mother. 9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name [a]Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
Yes. Archeology means never having to say "never". Just because we haven't found evidence of something so far, doesn't mean it won't be found in the future. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
I remember a Bible show with an episode narrated by Leonard Nimoy. Someone had found a small pillar with the inscription “a Jew worshipped his God here.” Which coincided with travel by Moses.
If someone were to use that as evidence that Moses left that inscription, I would point out to them that at the time of Moses, no one was yet called a Jew. That term only came into use about 900 or so years later, after the exile of the southern kingdom of Judah. When they returned to the land it was called Judea and the inhabitants were then called Jews. During the time of Moses they would have been called Israelites.
That's one of the reasons why I said I find the connection to the biblical Moses a slim one. Even if it did mean Moses, there's no supporting evidence at this time that we are talking about THE Moses.
I see the auto pen joke has already landed. Okay how about this? They found Moses’ exclamation point stamp also. He liked to use a lot of exclamation points.
Of course, the same thought occurred to me when Sarah named her son Isaac and then says , "which means laughter". The thought goes through my brain, "Why does his name have to be translated?" I would think that that part of the Bible (or Torah, I guess) would've been written in Hebrew so why would the reader, who was also probably Hebrew, need to have the name translated? Of course you can apply that to all the names in The Bible.
My mind thinks all kinds of weird things.
It could be both. It would be typical of the Bible to infer more than one meaning to a word or name. I've read this other places, but for my own convenience, here is Wikipedia's treatment of this:
"The Egyptian root msy ('child of') or mose has been considered as a possible etymology, arguably an abbreviation of a theophoric name with the god’s name omitted. The suffix mose appears in Egyptian pharaohs’ names like Thutmose ('born of Thoth') and Ramose ('born of Ra'). One of the Egyptian names of Ramesses was Ra-mesesu mari-Amon, meaning 'born of Ra, beloved of Amon'. Ms by itself also has multiple attestations as an Egyptian personal name in the New Kingdom. Linguist Abraham Yahuda, based on the spelling given in the Tanakh, argues that it combines "water" or "seed" and "pond, expanse of water," thus yielding the sense of "child of the Nile" (mw-š).
"The biblical account of Moses' birth provides him with a folk etymology to explain the ostensible meaning of his name. He is said to have received it from the Pharaoh's daughter: "he became her son. She named him Moses [מֹשֶׁה, Mōše], saying, 'I drew him out [מְשִׁיתִֽהוּ, mǝšīṯīhū] of the water'." This explanation links it to the Semitic root משׁה, m-š-h, meaning "to draw out". The eleventh-century Tosafist Isaac b. Asher haLevi noted that the princess names him the active participle 'drawer-out' (מֹשֶׁה, mōše), not the passive participle 'drawn-out' (נִמְשֶׁה, nīmše), in effect prophesying that Moses would draw others out (of Egypt); this has been accepted by some scholars."
According to this Jewish website the name is Hebrew in origin. However, an Egyptian Princess named him Moshe.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it. 2:6 When she opened it, she saw that it was a child, a boy crying. She took pity on it and said, "This must be a Hebrew child."
Moses’ sister who was standing and watching from nearby, offers to find a Hebrew midwife to nurse the child, and she calls the boy’s mother, who then is hired as nursemaid. Then the text continues:
When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, who made him her son. She named him Moshe (Moses), explaining, "I drew him (meshitihu) out of the water."
This verse suggests that Pharaoh’s daughter names Moses—oddly enough, using a Hebrew etymology.
The website goes on to cite some sages who speculated that the Princess must have known Hebrew or that his mother actually gave him his name. The second alternative wouldn't fit the Biblical text so I would throw out that possibility.
[snip] There are autochthonous Arab traditions about the wandering tribes led by Mosaikaia, his brother Arnran, and his sister Zeripha. These traditions have not been borrowed from the Old Testament or rabbinical tradition. From the Bible and Midrashim, the Arabs culled much of the content of the Koran, but they did not realize that their traditions about Mosaikaia (and the catastrophe that took place in his time) are of independent origin, though referring to the same persons and events. [/snip]Historical-Geographical Dictionary | Desert of Wandering | Immanuel Velikovsky
Bullet points in memos are directly derived from the tablets.
Omniglot (sometimes very slow to load)
https://omniglot.com/writing/langfam.htm#afroasiatic
A Description of the Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic) Language Family
https://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/Ling450ch/reports/afro-asiatic.html
All I can think of is the scene from Mel Brooks playing Moses in “The History of the World part 1” . Where Moses is hold the THREE tablets in his hands and then drops one just as he is saying “the Lord has bestowed onto me these fifteen/oops TEN Commandments.”
Hmm? I saw Yule Brenner order that the name Moses be erased. Workers have missed one.
:)
Big deal. One can buy an authentic Moses autograph on eBay.
Bookmark.
“Evidence that the signature is genuine was further supported by the “Certificate of Authenticity” that was found at the site.”
In a surprising development, a highly distinguished expert on the Middle East had recently suggested that Aaron was known to “borrow” Moses autopen on occasion to sign for humus purchases. Apparently he had a 400 shekel a week habit .. .
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