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Deuteronomy 34 insists Moses died and was buried in an unknown grave, showing no signs of aging. 2 Kings 2 tells of Elijah ascending alive to heaven from the same region, preserving a heavenly departure tradition possibly suppressed from Moses’s story.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 34:5
Hebrew Bible
4 Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it, but you will not cross over there.” 5 So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab as the Lord had said. 6 He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab near Beth Peor, but no one knows his exact burial place to this very day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died, but his eye was not dull nor had his vitality departed.
2 Kings 2:11
Hebrew Bible
6 Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they traveled on together. 7 The 50 members of the prophetic guild went and stood opposite them at a distance, while Elijah and Elisha stood by the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his cloak, folded it up, and hit the water with it. The water divided, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “What can I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of the prophetic spirit that energizes you?” 10 Elijah replied, “That’s a difficult request! If you see me taken from you, may it be so, but if you don’t, it will not happen.” 11 As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot pulled by fiery horses appeared. They went between Elijah and Elisha, and Elijah went up to heaven in a windstorm.
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Notes and References
“... The corresponding motifs between the stories of Moses and Elijah continue until the end of their earthly lives. In the story of Elijah’s departure from this world, he first crosses the Jordan on dry land (2 Kings 2:8) like Moses, who divided the Sea of Reeds for the Israelites. The reader of the tale of Elijah’s ascendance may wonder why the prophet divides the Jordan and passes from Jericho to the eastern bank in order to be taken from there. It is clear that, also in this detail, we have an allusion to Moses’s story. The spot where Elijah ascends heavenward, on the far bank of the Jordan, facing Jericho, is the site reached by Moses before his death: “from the steppes of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the summit of Pisgah, opposite Jericho” (Deuteronomy 34:1). It is reasonable to say, therefore, that Elijah’s biography also took its final chapter from Moses’s life story—only that chapter in Moses’s life, his heavenly ascent, was suppressed and has disappeared; only its echo, Elijah’s ascent, remains. ...”
Shinan, Avigdor and Yair Zakovitch
From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends
(pp. 182-183) The Jewish Publication Society, 2012
* 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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