The Sword of Moses

The topic of my research paper addresses the question to what extent the figure of Moses conforms to an ancient conception of a magician. Stated more generally, I began my research project interested in exploring how Moses, taken in a broader context than a figure within the Jewish religious and historical tradition, would have been understood or identified as being a magician. There were clear elements within the Biblical and Jewish traditions of Moses that struck me, from the outset, as being very clearly magical, but I wanted to research if there were other viable ways of interpreting Moses outside of the scope of a prophet who performed miracles.

There are a number of converging factors that make this question a difficult one to answer, including the lack of a clearly articulated conception of what exactly a magician was, what the distinction between magical and religious actions were and how one ought to interpret Moses’ attested actions as related in Biblical/Talmudic accounts compared to seemingly magical texts that have been ascribed to him. I’m approaching this topic trying to steer clear of the unclear distinction between magical and religious activities, aiming to understand what features of the figure of Moses would have been identifiable as being those shared with a magician.

One difficulty that I’ve come across in my research thus far is the existence of a number of dubious manuscripts and apocryphal texts that have been claimed to originate from antiquity, but may very well be much later additions. The issue that I have been having in my research does not arise from the fact that these books exist in and of itself, as I feel that it would be a reasonable move to exclude them from my research given their more than questionable quality and veracity, but rather from the fact that they offer such a compelling lens through which the figure of Moses can be viewed and a stronger connection with his performance of magical acts can be attested. For example, within these works the figure of Moses is claimed to have been the source for what amounts to a very specific spellbook, as well as to have ordered and articulated a hierarchy of angels based on their respective powers and usefulness in the casting of magical spells.

Given that the origin of these texts is hotly contested and may very well be far beyond antiquity, their applicability as sources for a study of classical magic is not a clear-cut issue. By choosing to engage with these texts and include them as sources, I may in fact be undermining my own project by creating not an analysis of the relationship between the figure Moses and the ancient conception of a magician, but of an entirely unknown conception.

According to the Jewish religious tradition, Moses is the source for five books that are collectively known as the Torah. Outside of this canon I have researched an additional five books of Moses. While not all of these are equally magical in their contents, the individuals who have uncovered these “lost” books make the claim that they represent components of a more complete and full tradition of literature on the figure of Moses.

Of these works, and simultaneously the most interesting and frustrating source that I’ve come across in my research thus far, is the “Sword of Moses” a manuscript of less than certain origins and composition date that is almost entirely magical in its contents. The bulk of this manuscript reads very much as a series of specific and targeted spells or invocations to bring about a wide variety of desired outcomes. There are invocations that range from bringing about higher social standing for an individual, to breaking apart a married couple.There is a clearly asserted relationship within this text between the tradition of Moses as a religious prophet and his performance of magical acts. The text also claims that these magical acts performed by Moses were of the same nature of the spells that the text contained.

If this text does indeed have its origins in antiquity rather than in the 19th century, then it presents an incredibly valuable insight into the relationship between the figure of Moses and his performance of magic. It would support the notion that there was a well-developed tradition in which Moses was more than simply a prophet performing miracles, but also a skilled magician who left behind an instructional booklet on making the most effective use of his magical arts. However, if this text originates from far beyond antiquity, even as early in the 10th century CE, as one scholar dates it, then its place in a paper on the classical figure of Moses is hard to defend. In summary, these sources could be incredibly valuable to use in my paper, but could also have nothing or very little to do with what I’m writing about.