Moses vs. Jesus: Parallels and Divergences Revealed

In this engaging exploration, Michael Papa Newton delves into the lives and teachings of Moses and Jesus, highlighting astonishing similarities and important differences. The podcast analyzes their shared focus on ethical monotheism and critiques of oppressive empires, while exploring their diverging life paths. Both figures advocated for justice, compassion, and high ethical standards, leaving a lasting impact on humanity. Through a close examination of their teachings, we gain insights into their views on justice and sin. These stories encourage us to reflect on the enduring relevance of ancient wisdom in today's world, all while testing the truths they imparted.

Transcript

Flip the Coin

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Hello and welcome to Flip the Coin onto its Edge. I'm your host, Michael Paw Paw Newton. We work, we raise families, we may engage in marriage, we must have times of having our own fun and excitement. All these pull at us psychologically like four strong horses of responsibility tethered to our limbs and pulling in four different directions. No wonder we don't have the opportunities to study the classics of philosophy, spirituality, religion, and the holy books of other religions not dominant in our culture or and regions. Fortunately, since college, I find these topics, plus science and mythology, fun and entertaining for my mind. For over 20 years, I've studied these topics and the various holy books of the major religions to make myself a better person, not a better Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, or Taoist. In this episode, prepare to be amazed as we explore the astonishing similarities in the lives of Moses and Jesus spanning both the supernatural and natural realms. But it doesn't stop there. We also uncover the surprising differences in their lives and teachings and how they articulated their understanding of justice and sin.

Moses and Jesus

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Now into our show. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Love your neighbor as yourself. These revolutionary teachings first articulated by Moses in the Hebrew Bible were reiterated thirteen hundred years later by Jesus in the New Testament. While the epic stories of both Jesus and Moses depict supernatural events, both men are portrayed as phenomenal teachers with divinely inspired religious sensibilities. Moses develops the concept of ethical monotheism, insisting that the one God demands that man, created in his spiritual image, must emulate God's virtues, namely love, justice, and mercy. Moses ingeniously creates a system of rituals to turn a group of liberated Hebrew slaves into a holy people with high ethical standards and moral standards, giving them the Torah. Jesus passionately passionately preaches love, mercy, justice, and forgiveness, and is portrayed in the Gospels as initiating an emphasis on the ethical aspects of Judaism over the ritual practices. Although many of Jesus' teachings can be found in the Hebrew Bible, his love for the spirit of Jewish law rather than the letter of the law has profoundly influenced humanity. The life story of Moses and Jesus get off to a similar start. In the book of Exodus, the Pharaoh orders the Egyptians to kill all male Israelite babies. The infant Moses escapes the genocidal decree because his mother puts him in a basket and sets it on the Nile River. In the Gospel of Matthew, King Herod orders all male children in Bethlehem area killed. The infant Jesus escapes the murderous decree because his parents flee with him to Egypt. Just as nothing is known about Moses' youth, other than that he was raised in Egypt as son of the Pharaoh's daughter, nothing is known of Jesus' youth except that he was raised in Nazareth by Joseph and Mary, who brought him at the age of twelve to Jerusalem for Passover, where he got lost and was found debating in the temple. Moses parts the Sea of Reeds. Jesus walks on the Sea of Galilee. Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Jesus delivers the sermon on the Mount. Moses spends forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai. Jesus fasts for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. Moses receives manna and quails to feed six hundred thousand men and makes water flow from a rock. Jesus divides two fish and seven loaves of bread among more than five thousand people. Moses leads the twelve tribes of Israel to the promised land. Jesus chooses twelve disciples. Moses declares the Last Supper in Egypt to be the Passover feast, a meal to be used as a remembrance of the bondage in Egypt and how God freed the Israelite slaves. At the Last Supper in Jerusalem, Jesus gives two symbols of the Passover Seder new meaning. He proclaims that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood. Similarities between the lives of the two great leaders abound. In the Hebrew Bible, Moses helps free the Hebrew slaves from bondage in Egypt, establishes a new system of ethical and moral laws, and leads the Israelites to the promised land. In the New Testament, Jesus tries to help the Jews transcend Roman oppression on a spiritual level by teaching high standards of ethical behavior to create a kingdom of heaven on earth. On a literary level, each story scathingly attacks an oppressive empire. Taken together, all the plagues mocked the power of the Pharaoh, a self-proclaimed god whose divinity was sustained by the religious and the political institutions of Egypt. The ninth plague, darkness for three days, mocks the Egyptian sun god Ra, regarded as the most important god and the father of the first pharaoh, from whom all other pharaohs were descended. Similarly, the story of Jesus can be seen as a poignant indictment of the barbarism and ruthlessness of the Romans who ruled over Judea. During the first century CE, the Romans condemned fifty thousand to a hundred thousand Jews to death by crucifixion, a brutal form of execution forbidden by Jewish law because it was torture. Against the backdrop of Rome's tyrannical rule, Jesus shines as a beacon of compassion, love, and forgiveness. This contrast becomes horrifically apparent when the war Romans whip and torture the gentle Jesus, thrust a crown of thorns onto his head, nail him to a crucifix, and then heartlessly cast dice for his clothes. Jesus responds to this atrocity with the ultimate plea for compassion. He looks heavenward and cries, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Luke twenty three, thirty four. Both stories also focus on the notion of divine justice. The story of Moses begins with the Egyptians committing genocide on the Israelites by drowning every Hebrew male infant in the Nile River. In retribution, the first plague God inflicts upon the Egyptians is turning the Nile River to blood, bringing the atrocity to the surface. This final pl the final plague God unleashes upon the Egyptians is the death of every firstborn Egyptian male child. As Jesus insists in the New Testament, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. For all the similarities between Moses and Jesus, the differences in the lives of the two men are equally significant. Moses establishes the freed Israelite slaves as a nation under his leadership for forty years in the wilderness. Jesus never leads the Jewish people or frees them from Roman oppression. Moses kills an Egyptian taskmaster and escapes arrest. Jesus is arrested and sentenced to death unjustly by the Romans for being a potential revolutionary. Moses tells the Pharaoh, let my people go, and unleashes ten plagues upon the Egyptians. Jesus never makes any demands of Pontius Pilate and does not unleash any plagues on the Romans. Moses marries Zipporah and has two sons, Gersham and Eliezar. Jesus remains single and childless. Moses has sinners stoned to death. Jesus prevents people from stoning others. Moses oversees battle. Jesus remains a pacifist. Moses sees the Israelites lapse into idolatry, worshiping a golden calf. Jesus experiences no such pagan activity among the Jews, although he does express similar outrage against the money changers and those selling pigeons in the temple. The most striking difference between Jesus and Moses is how the two religious heroes take their respective places in Christianity and Judaism. Jesus is crucified by the Romans while in his thirties, rises from the dead, and ascends to heaven, where he sits at the right hand of the Father. Moses, however, remains a fallible human being. He dies of natural causes alone in the land of Moab at 120 years of age, and as the book of Deuteronomy tells us, no one knows his burial place to this day, preventing the Jews from worshiping Moses or turning him into a deity. Despite the differences in their lives, stories, Jesus and Moses both preached against injustice, advocated compassion for the poor, and urged their followers to love one another. They were both inspiring teachers, determined to raise mankind to a higher spiritual level, and instill us all with love and awe for God. The light of their teaching remains eternal. Jesus could have easily been speaking for Moses when he said, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Law and Justice in the Torah

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So what did they say about justice? Justice, justice shall you pursue, decrees Moses in the Torah, Deuteronomy 1620. The word justice is repeated twice, not merely to stress the urgency of bringing about justice, but also, according to some interpretations, to emphasize that both the means and the ends must be just. The biblical edict, eye for eye at Exodus 21, 24, frequently is misconstrued to advocate retaliation. Actually, it limits vengefulness, insisting that the punishment never be allowed to exceed the crime, not two eyes for an eye, but instead that the punishment be appropriate compensation for the eye. The Hebrew word for justice zedak also means righteousness. Let justice well up like waters, implores the prophet Amos, and righteousness like a mighty stream. To be righteous one must pursue justice and help correct any injustice in the world. One way of achieving this goal is by giving the charity. In fact, the feminine form of the Hebrew word Zedaka means charity. While some people contend that Jesus transcended the Bible verse eye for eye by exhorting forgiveness, Jesus insists that with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. A standard of justice perfectly instinct with the laws of Moses. Jesus exclaims, Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew five, three. Moses exclaims, He who pursues righteousness and mercy finds life, justice, and honor. Proverbs twenty one twenty one. Jesus says, With the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Mark four twenty four. Moses says with the measure a man uses, it is measured to him again. Mishnah Sota one seven. Jesus expresses Simply let your yes be yes and your no no. Matthew five thirty seven. Moses expresses, let your yes be honest, and let your no be honest. Rabbi Jose Ben Judah, Babylonian Talmud, Baba Metzia forty nine A. Jesus pronounces, Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it, but small is the gate, and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew seven, thirteen and fourteen. Moses pronounces The path of goodness begins as a thicket of thorns, but soon oak becomes an open prairie. The path of evil starts as an open prairie, but soon becomes a thicket of thorns.

Both Moses and Jesus on Sin

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Deuteronomy eleven six. Let's study these two men on sin. Mankind endowed with free will, has the capacity to do both good and evil. The Ten Commandments revealed by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, double as a checklist of the most serious sins written in stone. When Moses descends the mountain with the two tablets, he discovers the Hebrew people worshiping a golden calf. God plans to destroy all those who worship the idol, but Moses begs God to either forgive the sins of the people or blot him out. God refuses to allow Moses to suffer for the sins of others. Instead, God sends a plague to punish those who sin. Those who commit a sin are responsible for their own actions and the consequence. The Talmudic sages taught that all people sin, that each individual must assume personal responsibility for his or her sins, and that we must constantly struggle to prevent our natural inclination to do evil from triumphing over our natural inclination to do good. Jesus too acknowledged that we all sin, and like the great Talmudic rabbis, urge people to look inward and take responsibility for their own sins before passing judgment on the sins of others. Jesus says, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own? Luke six forty one. Moses says, If the judge said to a man, remove the splinter from your eyes, he would reply, remove the plank from yours. Babylonian Talmud Bava Bathra fifteen. Jesus expresses It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent. Luke five thirty one and thirty two. Moses expresses It is the duty of the righteous to aid the wicked, of the wise to aid the unwise, of the rich to aid the poor. Zohar one two hundred and eight A Jesus exclaimed, If any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them at Mark six, verse eleven. Moses exclaimed, If you warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die for his sins, but you will have saved your soul. Ezekiel thirty three verse nine. Jesus proclaims, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers at Matthew twenty one, verse thirteen. Moses proclaims, Has this house where my name is called become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declared the Lord, at Jeremiah 7, verse 11. That's

The Life of Moses, Jesus and Buddha

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all we have time for today, my friend. I appreciate you turning into this episode. Today we uncovered astonishing parallels between Moses and Jesus. Not only were they revered teachers and leaders, but their lives eerily mirrored each other in profound ways. Having examined the shared words of Jesus and three other religious figures who truly lived, we now turn to Jesus and the spiritual pioneer, Buddha, living 500 years before Jesus. The incredible similarities between these two icons is nothing short of mind-blowing. Remember, I advise you not to accept everything you hear in this podcast without testing it yourself. It has to resonate with you personally. Believing often carries doubt. The real secret to success is to know the laws of life, not just believe in them. When you take the time to test these laws and principles, you'll truly come to understand. For your own good, keep an open mind for new ideas. This will help you better understand and evaluate what you're learning. And don't forget, if you found value here, click the button to follow this podcast. Remember, God woke you up this morning for a reason. Now go out and find out why.