Criticism of Moses

According to the Torah, Moses prescribed the death penalty for a huge range of offences and for defeated enemies. He is considered a holy figure by Jews, Christians and Muslims, so most criticism of his life and teachings has been by deists, agnostics and atheists.

Paine

In the late eighteenth century the deist Thomas Paine commented at length on Moses' Laws in The Age of Reason, and gave a view on his character:

Besides, the character of Moses, as stated in the Bible, is the most horrid that can be imagined. If those accounts be true, he was the wretch that first began and carried on wars on the score or on the pretence of religion; and under that mask, or that infatuation, committed the most unexampled atrocities that are to be found in the history of any nation, of which I will state only one instance.

When the Jewish army returned from one of their plundering and murdering excursions, the account goes on as follows: Numbers, chap. xxxi., ver. 13:

"And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp; and Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle; and Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the Council of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known a man by lying with him; but all the women-children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."

Among the detestable villains that in any period of the world have disgraced the name of man, it is impossible to find a greater than Moses, if this account be true. Here is an order to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers, and debauch the daughters. Let any mother put herself in the situation of those mothers; one child murdered, another destined to violation, and herself in the hands of an executioner; let any daughter put herself in the situation of those daughters, destined as a prey to the murderers of a mother and a brother, and what will be their feelings? It is in vain that we attempt to impose upon nature, for nature will have her course, and the religion that tortures all her social ties is a false religion.

After this detestable order, follows an account of the plunder taken, and the manner of dividing it; and here it is that the profaneness of priestly hypocrisy increases the catalogue of crimes. Ver. 37 to 40, "And the lord's tribute of sheep was six hundred and three score and fifteen; and the beeves were thirty and six thousand, of which the Lord's tribute was three score and twelve; and the asses were thirty thousand and five hundred, of which the Lord's tribute was three score and one; and the persons were sixteen thousand, of which the Lord's tribute was thirty and two persons." In short, the matters contained in this chapter, as well as in many other parts of the Bible, are too horrid for humanity to read or for decency to hear, for it appears, from the 35th verse of this chapter, that the number of women-children consigned to debauchery by the order of Moses was thirty-two thousand.

People in general do not know what wickedness there is in this pretended word of God. Brought up in habits of superstition, they take it for granted that the Bible is true, and that it is good; they permit themselves not to doubt of it, and they carry the ideas they form of the benevolence of the Almighty to the book which they have been taught to believe was written by his authority. Good heavens! it is quite another thing; it is a book of lies, wickedness, and blasphemy; for what can be greater blasphemy than to ascribe the wickedness of man to the orders of the Almighty?^[1]

Ingersoll

In the nineteenth century the agnostic Robert G. Ingersoll^[2] wrote Some Mistakes of Moses, which is wholly devoted to discussion of the Torah, assuming it to be the work of Moses. He says of Moses:

From the last account it appears that while Moses was upon Mount Sinai receiving the commandments from God, the people brought their jewelry to Aaron, and he cast for them a golden calf. This happened before any commandment against idolatry had been given. A god ought, certainly, to publish his laws before inflicting penalties for their violation. To inflict punishment for breaking unknown and unpublished laws is, in the last degree, cruel and unjust. It may be replied that the Jews knew better than to worship idols, before the law was given. If this is so, why should the law have been given ? In all civilized countries, laws are made and promulgated, not simply for the purpose of informing the people as to what is right and wrong, but to inform them of the penalties to be visited upon those who violate the laws. When the ten commandments were given, no penalties were attached. Not one word was written on the tables of stone as to the punishments that would be inflicted for breaking any or all of the inspired laws. The people should not have been punished for violating a commandment before it was given. And yet, in this case, Moses commanded the sons of Levi to take their swords and slay every man his brother, his companion, and his neighbor. The brutal order was obeyed, and three thousand men were butchered. The Levites consecrated themselves unto the Lord by murdering their sons, and their brothers, for having violated a commandment before it had been given.^[3]

Ingersoll sums up in the same book with his hope

... that every free, brave and enlightened man should publicly declare that all the ignorant, infamous, heartless, hideous things recorded in the "inspired" Pentateuch are not the words of God, but simply "Some Mistakes of Moses".^[4]

Dawkins

The atheist Richard Dawkins has criticised Moses and his law in his 2006 book The God Delusion. He writes:

The book of Numbers tells how God incited Moses to attack the Midianites. His army made short work of slaying all the men, and they burned all the Midianite cities, but they spared the women and children. This merciful restraint by his soldiers infuriated Moses, and he gave orders that all the boy children should be killed, and all the women who were not virgins. 'But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves' (Numbers 31:18). No, Moses was not a great role model for modern moralists.^[5]

Discussions of Numbers 31 in the Jewish tradition

Jewish sources mainly note verse 16 "Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to revolt so as to break faith with the LORD in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of the LORD." (Numbers 31:16) ^[6] as clearly indicating that the women involved were not innocent, and indeed were as guilty as the men. The Chatam sofer emphasizes that this war was not fought at Moses' instigaton but "Nikmat Bnei Yisrael, a revenge for Israel's sake. When Moshe calls the people to battle, he refers to revenge for G-d's honor. If the people would be fighting for their own honor, they might forgo the battle and not hasten Moshe's end. But to avenge G-d's honor, they dare not refuse."^[7]

Rabbi Joel Grossman, on the other hand, takes the Midianite women as symbols, and draws a parallel to Amalek.^[8]

Alan Levin, an educational specialist with the Reform movement, using the commentary of the Plaut Chumash as a source, puts forward both approaches.^[9]

Rabbi Avraham Fisher cites traditional legal authorities who read the text to indicate that an opening was provided to allow civilians to escape a siege.^[10]

Even secular Jews with a very complex relationship to the Jewish religion have taken issue with attempts to characterize biblical morality by citing passages like Numbers 31. For example Walter Kaufmann said "The reproach of callousness and insufficient social conscience can hardly be raised. Our social conscience comes largely from the religion of Moses. ... "[But] to find the spirit of the religion of the Old Testament in [these biblical passages],is like finding the distinctive genius of America in the men who slaughtered the Indians." ^[11]

References

1. ^ Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason part II, 1796; compare also Numbers 31:13-18
2. ^ Brandt, Eric T., and Timothy Larsen (2011). "The Old Atheism Revisited: Robert G. Ingersoll and the Bible". Journal of the Historical Society 11 (2): 211–238. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5923.2011.00330.x/abstract. 
3. ^ Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses chapter XXIII. Compare also Exodus 32:25-28
4. ^ Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses chapter XXIX
5. ^ Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006, chapter 7. Compare also Numbers 31:13-18
6. ^ http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0431.htm
7. ^ http://www.ou.org/torah/tt/5763/matmas63/aliya.htm
8. ^ http://libraryminyan.org/divreitorah/Jole%20Grossman%20-%20Matot.htm
9. ^ http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Weekly_Torah_Portion/mattot_uahc.shtml
10. ^ http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Weekly_Torah_Portion/mattot_ou5762.shtml
11. ^ http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Weekly_Torah_Portion/mattot_clal.shtml