manhood. Threatened when he kills an Egyptian who is mistreating a Hebrew slave, Moses flees to the desert. There, he speaks with God, who appears in the form of a burning bush and who confers on Moses the mission of freeing the Hebrews from Pharaoh and leading them to the land of milk and honey (Exod. 3.16-17).
Moses' Hebrew identity has been challenged, most prominently by Freud, who considered him to be fully Egyptian but also fully committed to his mission. Freud's model was the famous Michelangelo statue of Moses as the lawgiver. He considered Moses "a passionate leader of mankind . . . who had managed to control his temper . . . for the sake of a cause to which he had devoted himself" (Freud 283). What is relevant is the extent of Moses' devotion to his cause and the extent of his obe
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