Moses

In the Christian tradition

Moses is the central figure of the Pentateuch, the lawgiver through whom God brought Israel out of Egypt and to whom God gave the Torah on Mount Sinai. Christian tradition reads him as a typological figure of Christ; he appears with Elijah at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8).

The Moses cycle spans four of the five books of the Pentateuch and is foundational to both Jewish and Christian biblical theology. The Christian tradition reads Moses as a type of Christ in many respects: as the mediator of God's covenant, as the giver of the law that Christ fulfills, as the figure who appears alongside Christ at the Transfiguration. The Catholic and Orthodox calendars commemorate Moses on September 4; the Sunday of the Forefathers in Orthodox practice includes him. The name has been in continuous Christian use; modern usage is steady, particularly in African-American Protestant families and in English-speaking Evangelical families.