Course:Meetings for teaching/Life of Prophets/Moses/Dialogue

Evelyn: I’ve been studying Chapter 5 of Some Answered Questions, where ’Abdu’l-Bahá presents Moses as proof of a divine Educator. But when I started researching modern biblical scholarship and archaeology, I ran into a wall. Many secular historians question whether Moses even existed as an individual, or at least suggest he was a composite legendary figure rather than a single historical leader who led millions out of Egypt.

Dr. Kaveh: It’s a very natural question to encounter when you dig into contemporary historical-critical studies. But it helps to look at how ’Abdu’l-Bahá Himself approached the Exodus narrative. He didn’t view it through a narrow, fundamentalist lens. For example, in an account recorded by pilgrims in Akka, He addressed the journey of the Israelites directly:

"It was both spiritual and physical. They journeyed to the Promised Land and geography and history both prove that this was a physical journey.

"Moses viewed the Promised Land but died before it was reached, having given over his charge to Joshua.

"The crossing of the Red Sea has a spiritual meaning. It was a spiritual journey, through and above the sea of corruption and iniquity of the Pharaoh and his people, or army. By the help of God through Moses, the Israelites were able to cross this sea safely and reach the Promised Land (spiritual state) while Pharaoh and his people were drowned in their own corruption.

"The Egyptian History recorded even trifling events. Had such a wonderful thing happened as the parting of the physical sea it would also have been recorded."

Evelyn: That’s a fascinating perspective—it actually addresses the physical miracle head-on. But on that last point, couldn't the Egyptians have simply whitewashed their records? I have read that royal inscriptions were notoriously propagandistic. Pharaohs rarely carved their catastrophic military defeats or humiliating losses on temple walls.

Dr. Kaveh: That’s true. Royal monuments were designed to celebrate order and victory, not national embarrassment. Yet outside of royal triumphal monuments, the Egyptians kept extensive day-to-day administrative logs, border-patrol dispatches, and bureaucratic correspondence. A total wipeout of an entire royal chariot host and the collapse of a massive enslaved labor force would have left unmistakable administrative ripples, economic distress, and foreign policy crises in surviving records. So while royal spin certainly existed, the silence of the broader administrative record still carries real weight against a literal, cinematic sea-parting.

Evelyn: What about the composite nature of Moses himself? Scholars point to the Documentary Hypothesis—different layers of text with distinct names for God, duplicate stories, and contrasting legal styles written centuries apart. It looks like Moses became a convenient peg upon which generations of later scribes and priests hung their evolving laws and legends.

Dr. Kaveh: The Bahá'í writings actually align quite naturally with the idea that the biblical text is an edited, composite historical record rather than a verbatim diary penned cover-to-cover by Moses. ’Abdu’l-Bahá explicitly made this distinction between the core revelation and the later historical narrative:

"Know ye that the Torah is that which was revealed in the Tablets to Moses, may peace be upon Him, or that to which He was bidden. But the stories are historical narratives and were written after Moses, may peace be upon Him."

So the fact that later scribes codified, edited, and preserved historical traditions over centuries doesn’t mean Moses never existed. Nearly every major legal and religious tradition clusters around an authentic foundational lawgiver. The presence of later editorial layers doesn't dissolve the reality of the historical figure who initiated the movement in the first place.

Evelyn: Thank you, that makes sense. But that brings me to another difficult point in the talk. ’Abdu’l-Bahá mentions that Greek philosophers sought knowledge from the learned men of Israel, and specifically that Socrates traveled to Syria, learned monotheism and the immortality of the soul from the Israelites, and returned to Athens to preach it. But when you read Plato’s Crito, Socrates is explicitly described as someone who almost never left Athens except for mandatory military campaigns. Historians say there’s no evidence he ever went to Syria.

Dr. Kaveh: That’s a classic objection, and it’s true that contemporary Athenian documents don't record such a journey. But when we look at ancient historiography, silence in one archive isn't always decisive. ’Abdu’l-Bahá Himself addressed this very problem regarding omissions in ancient histories:

"The above, however, cannot be found in the Jewish histories; there are many facts which are not included in Jewish history. Not all the events of the life of Christ are set forth in the history of Josephus, a Jew, although it was he who wrote the history of the times of Christ. One may not, therefore, refuse to believe in events of Christ's day on the grounds that they are not to be found in the history of Josephus."

Now, regardless of whether we can historically demonstrate that Socrates literally made that physical journey, we have to look at ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s primary intent. His underlying point was to emphasize the profound, undeniable impact of Semitic, prophetic revelation on the intellectual and moral development of the Mediterranean world.

Evelyn: And that intellectual influence is historically demonstrable, isn't it?

Dr. Kaveh: Absolutely. The ancient Levant was not an isolated silo; trade, migration, and cultural diffusion continually linked the Eastern Mediterranean with the Greek islands. The transmission of the Phoenician alphabet to Greece, the convergence of Near Eastern cosmology with early Greek metaphysics, and later the vibrant intellectual fusion of Hebrew thought with Hellenism in Alexandria all demonstrate that the West's ethical and philosophical foundations did not emerge in a vacuum. The moral impulse of prophetic monotheism fundamentally reshaped Greco-Roman thought.

Evelyn: That makes sense of the broader context. But might not some object that it is hyperbolic for ’Abdu’l-Bahá to say this one man, a former shepherd with a stammer, "established" all these arts, sciences, and civilization single-handedly? No single person creates a civilization by himself.

Dr. Kaveh: Of course. And we shouldn't read that as saying Moses personally drafted medical treaties, conducted astronomical observations, or engineered every craft in the Levant. But a Prophet provides the foundational moral and spiritual seed—an organizing impulse that elevates an oppressed, fragmented people into a coherent, lawful society. That social order creates the fertile soil in which learning, legal ethics, and human discovery can blossom.

Civilization is always implemented gradually over generations by countless individuals, but it requires that initial, seminal catalyst to awaken human capacity and give it enduring direction. Moses was the great catalyst for that time.