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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:
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.
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.
