Texts in Conversation
The Samaritan text Memar Marqah and Rabbinic tradition in Leviticus Rabbah describe Moses’ shining face, comparing it to Adam’s original form, said to shine like the sun. In this tradition, Moses receives temporary glory similar to Adam's original state.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Memar Marqah 5.4.7
The Book of Wonders
Samaritan
Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died—twenty in Egypt, sixty in Midian, forty in the desert with exceedingly great exaltation in prophethood, in prayer, in fasting. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. His eye was not dim—so in the case of his fathers, the Righteous of the world. His eye was not dim, for he was prepared for the recording of the law, and to see the four quarters of the world. Nor his natural force abated, for he was vested with the Form which Adam cast off in the Garden of Eden; and his face shone up to the day of his death.
Leviticus Rabbah 20:2
Aggadah
Rabbinic
Another matter, “after the death [of the two sons of Aaron]” (Leviticus 16:1). Rabbi Levi began: “I said to the revelers [laholelim]: Do not revel” (Psalms 75:5); laholelim, to the confused, those whose hearts are filled with wicked thoughts. Rabbi Levi would call them woe-generators, because they bring woe to the world. “And to the wicked, do not raise your horn” (Psalms 75:5). The Holy One blessed be He said to the wicked: ‘The righteous did not rejoice in My world, and you seek to rejoice?’ Reish Lakish said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Menasya: The ball of the heel of Adam the first man would outshine the sun, all the more so the radiance of his face. Do not wonder, as the way of the world is that if a person crafts bowls, one for himself and one for a member of his household, whose does he craft more beautifully?
Date: 500 C.E. (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 ..."
Orlov, Andrei
Vested with Adam's Glory: Moses as the Luminous Counterpart of Adam in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Macarian Homilies
(pp. 498-513) Marquette University, 2002
* 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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