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Rabbinic tradition in Memar Marqah explains Moses' shining face as the glory God created Adam with, lost and restored to Moses. Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah describes a similar tradition, interpreting Adam's garments of skin as garments of light.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Memar Marqah 5.4
The Book of Wonders
Samaritan
7 Moses lived a hundred and twenty years: twenty in Egypt, sixty in Midian and forty in the wilderness. He completed them in glorious, surpassing exaltation, with prophecy and prayer. “His eyes were not dim, and his vigor had not left him.” His eyes were not dim, as with the patriarchs, the pious of the world. His eyes were not dim, for he was able to write down the Law, and he looked out over the four quarters of the world. His vigor had not left him, for he had received the garment that was taken from Adam in the Garden of Eden, and his face shone until the day of his death.
Date: 301–400 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Genesis Rabbah 20:12
Aggadah
Rabbinic
“The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of hide [or], and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). In Rabbi Meir’s Torah, they found that “garments of or” was written. These are the garments of Adam the first man, that were similar to the common rue, broad at the bottom and narrow at the top. Rabbi Yitzḥak Ravya says: They were as smooth as a fingernail and as pretty as jewels. Rabbi Yitzḥak said: It was like the thin linen garments that come from Beit She’an. [And they were called] garments of hide because they adhered to the skin. Rabbi Elazar said: Goat hides. Rabbi Aivu said: Garments that cover the skin. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Hare hides. Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥanina said: Hides with their wool. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: Radiant hides. And the firstborn sons would use them. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: They were camel wool and hare wool. [And they were called] “garments of hide” because they were garments that come from hide. Rabbi Levi said: The Torah teaches you proper conduct: Eat according to your means, wear clothing that is less than your means, and dwell in a place that is more than your means. Eat according to your means – “From every tree of the garden you may eat” (Genesis 2:16). Wear clothing that is less than your means –“The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife [garments of hide].” And dwell in a place that is more than your means – as two people resided in the entire world.
Date: 500 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Notes and References
"... Jarl Fossum and April De Conick successfully demonstrated the importance of the Samaritan materials for understanding the connection between the glories of Adam and Moses. The Samaritan texts insist that when Moses ascended to Mount Sinai, he received the image of God which Adam cast off in the Garden of Eden. According to Memar Marqa, Moses was endowed with the identical glorious body as Adam ..."
Andrei A. Orlov, “Vested with Adam’s Glory: Moses as the Luminous Counterpart of Adam in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Macarian Homilies,” Xristianskij Vostok 4.10 (2002): 498–513.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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