Wednesday, June 4, 2014

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"Mount Nebo"
Madaba, Near The Northern End of The Dead Sea,
Jordan
Friday, ‎December ‎27, ‎2013

Seventh Day of my Holy Land Trip, Mount Zion, Jerusalem

My Holy Land Trip



"Mount Nebo"
Madaba, Jordan

The Promised Land is the land promised or given by God, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), to the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. The promise is first made to Abraham (Genesis 15:18-21) and then renewed to his son Isaac, and to Isaac's son Jacob (Genesis 28:13), Abraham's grandson. The Promised Land was described in terms of the territory from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates river (Exodus 23:31) and was given to their descendants after Moses led the Exodus out of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 1:8)


The term should not be confused with the expression "Land of Israel" which is first used in 1 Samuel 13:19, when the Israelite tribes were already in the Land of Canaan.

On the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
Mount Nebo is an elevated ridge in Jordan, approximately 817 meters (2680 feet) above sea level, mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land that he would never enter. The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land and, to the north, a more limited one of the valley of the River Jordan. The West Bank city of Jericho is usually visible from the summit, as is Jerusalem on a very clear day.

According to the final chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses ascended Mount Nebo to view the Land of Israel: And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho.

On the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
According to Christian tradition, Moses was buried on the mountain, although his place of burial is not specified. Some Islamic traditions also stated the same, although there is a grave of Moses located at Maqam El-Nabi Musa which lies 11 km (6.8 mi) south of Jericho and 20 km (12 mi) east of Jerusalem in the Judean wilderness. Scholars continue to dispute whether the mountain currently known as Nebo is the same as the mountain referred to in the Torah.
According to the 2 Maccabees 2:4–7, the Prophet Jeremiah hid the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant in a cave there.

On the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
On March 20, 2000, Pope John Paul II visited the site during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. During his visit he planted an olive tree beside the Byzantine chapel as a symbol of peace.
Pope Benedict XVI visited the site on May 9, 2009, gave a speech, and looked out from the top of the mountain in the direction of Jerusalem.
The serpentine cross sculpture (the Brazen Serpent Monument) atop Mount Nebo was created by Italian artist Giovanni Fantoni. It is symbolic of the bronze serpent created by Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4–9) and the cross upon which Jesus was crucified (John 3:14).

On the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, a former Egyptian prince later turned prophet, religious leader and lawgiver, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew, he is the most important prophet in Judaism. He is also an important prophet in Christianity and Islam, as well as a number of other faiths.

The existence of Moses as well as the veracity of the Exodus story are disputed among archaeologists and Egyptologists, with experts in the field of biblical criticism citing logical inconsistencies, new archaeological evidence, historical evidence, and related origin myths in Canaanite culture. Other historians maintain that the biographical details and Egyptian background attributed to Moses imply the existence of a historical political and religious leader who was involved in the consolidation of the Hebrew tribes in Canaan towards the end of the Bronze Age.

On the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people, the Children of Israel, were increasing in numbers and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might ally with Egypt's enemies. Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed, secretly hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed upon the circulating prophecy among Egyptian priests of a messianic deliverer among the Hebrew slaves. Through the Pharaoh's sister Queen Bithia, the child was adopted as a foundling from the Nile River and grew up with the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave master, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he encountered the God of Israel in the form of a "burning bush".

God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land.

Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BC. Jerome gives 1592 BCE, and Ussher 1619 BCE as his birth year.

On the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
Name
The biblical text explains the name Mošeh as a derivation of the root mšh "to draw", in Exodus 2:10:
"she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water." (KJV).

On the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
The name is thus suggested to relate to drawing out in a passive sense, "the one who was drawn out". Those who depart from this tradition derive the name from the same root but in an active sense, "he who draws out", in the sense of "saviour, deliverer". The form of the name as recorded in the Masoretic text is indeed the expected form of the Biblical Hebrew active participle. 

Josephus argued for an Egyptian etymology, and some scholarly suggestions have followed this in deriving the name from Coptic terms mo "water" and `uses "save, deliver", suggesting a meaning "saved from the water".

Another suggestion has connected the name with the Egyptian ms, as found in Tuth-mose and Ra-messes, meaning "born" or "child”.

On the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was a son of Amram, a member of the Levite tribe of Israel descended from Jacob, and his wife, Jochebed. Jochebed (also Yocheved) was kin to Amram's father Kehath (Exodus 6:20). Moses had one older (by seven years) sister, Miriam, and one older (by three years) brother, Aaron. According to Genesis 46:11, Amram's father Kehath immigrated to Egypt with 70 of Jacob's household, making Moses part of the second generation of Israelites born during their time in Egypt

On the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
In the Exodus account, the birth of Moses occurred at a time when an unnamed Egyptian Pharaoh had commanded that all male Hebrew children born be killed by drowning in the river Nile. Jochebed, the wife of the Levite Amram, bore a son and kept him concealed for three months. When she could keep him hidden no longer, rather than deliver him to be killed, she set him in a marsh on the Nile River in a small craft of bulrushes coated in pitch.

The Mount Nebo from the street, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
Moses' sister Miriam observed the tiny boat until the Pharaoh's daughter (Bithiah, Thermuthis) came to bathe with her handmaidens. It is said that she spotted the baby in the basket and had her handmaiden fetch it for her. Miriam came forward and asked Pharaoh's daughter whether she would like a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby.

Thereafter, Jochebed was employed as the child's nurse. Moses grew up and was brought to Pharaoh's daughter and became her son and a younger brother to the future Pharaoh of Egypt. Moses would not be able to become Pharaoh because he was not the 'blood' son of Bithiah, and he was the youngest.

Out side the Hotel after lunch, on the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
After Moses had reached adulthood, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Moses killed the Egyptian and buried his body in the sand. Moses soon discovered that the affair was known, and that Pharaoh was likely to put him to death for it. Moses then fled from Egypt across the Sinai Peninsula

Out side the Hotel after lunch, on the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
In Midian he stopped at a well where he protected seven shepherdesses from a band of rude shepherds. The shepherdesses' father Hobab adopted him as his son. Hobab gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage, and made him the superintendent of his herds.

Out side the Hotel after lunch, on the way to Mount Nebo, located ten km NW of Madaba, near the northern end of the Dead Sea, Jordan:
Moses lived in Midian for forty years as a shepherd, during which time his son Gershom was born One day, Moses led his flock to Mount Horeb (Exodus 3), usually identified with Mount Sinai — a mountain that was thought in the Middle Ages to be located on the Sinai Peninsula. There he saw a bush that burned, but was not consumed. When Moses came to look more closely, God spoke to him from the bush, revealing his name to Moses.

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