Bible Mysteries III

More thoughts to ponder from an anonymous book borrowed from a nameless library …


* What exactly was the “manna” that fed the Israelites in the desert? Was it heavenly food not normally intended for mortals? Food eaten by angels? Was it in the form of precipitation (it “rained” from heaven and “fell” to earth) instead of what we usually conceive of bread?

* Why did Moses need to keep his arms raised and outstretched to defeat the Amalekites? Is this a prefiguration of the Crucifixion?

* Did God “bend” down heaven to touch Mt. Sinai to impart the teaching to Moses (see Ps 18:9, 13). Or did He somehow raise Mt. Sinai to heaven? If the latter, did this transform Moses in any way? Surely one cannot ascent to heaven and remain an ordinary man.

* Why does God start speaking the Ten Commandments in the first person (the first three commandments), then switch to the third person? Why were they inscribed upon two stone tablets? Wasn’t one enough? Do two tablets signify some type of fundamental division within the Decalogue?

* Is the tabernacle described in detail to Moses a copy of some heavenly sanctuary shown to Moses while he was on Mt. Sinai?

* Why had Aaron, Moses confidante, supporter, and sibling, be so apparently and willingly complicit in the making of the golden calf? Did he perhaps fear for his life? For the lives of other innocents?

* When Moses came down from the mountain for the second time, his face was changed in some way from speaking with God (see Ex 34:29). His face “beamed” or “shown.” What does this mean? What really happened to his face? He had to wear a veil lest the people flee in fear. In Jerome’s translation of the Hebrew bible into Latin, he says that Moses’ “face was horned as a result of his speaking with God.” What?

* Why were Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu killed by a fire from God? What was their sin? The Bible says that they brought an “unholy” or “foreign” fire before God. Were they killed for violating some procedure? Were they drunk while performing their duties?

* Why are some animals deemed pure and fir for consumption by God but not others (beef and lamb, for example, but not pork or ham)?

* Is Aaron’s staff, which sprouts and puts forth buds and blossoms overnight to confirm God’s choice of Aaron and his sons, a prefiguration of the Cross, too?

* What was the bronze serpent fashioned by Moses that had the effect of curing snakebites?

* Did Phinehas receive the gift of immortality for his role in punishing the Israelite who flouted God’s law by intermingling with foreigners? The Bible does not record his death … Phinehas is mentioned in Judges, long after Moses and Joshua and the others from the book of Numbers had died. Is Phinehas Elijah? The great prophet’s birth is not recorded in the Bible. Both are described as “zealous” or “jealous” for the Lord.

* What of the tradition that Satan disputed with the archangel Michael over the body of Moses (stated in the New Testament, in Jude 9)?


The book focused only on the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). The author’s written a couple of other books, and perhaps I’ll check one or two out, as a low-priority kinda thing. Oh, and I almost forgot the greatest mystery I found in the book:


*** Why would a Bible commentator use the designations CE and BCE? (Perhaps it was the publisher’s demand …)