Deuteronomy 34 / Wrap Up: Moses' death / looking back / looking ahead

Deuteronomy 34: Moses Dies and is Buried in the Land of Moab
Deuteronomy Wrap-up

Moses Dies and is Buried in the Land of Moab: Deuteronomy 34
The tale of the central character of four biblical books finally comes to an end in the last chapter of the last book of the Torah.

Moses ascends Mount Nebo, as the Lord commanded. There he finally sees the promised land sworn to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Moses then dies, and is buried in Moab, "opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day" (Deut. 34.6). Though Moses dies at age 120, the biblical author tells us he was still vigorous and had perfect vision - attributes befitting such a storied leader.

The Israelites mourn Moses 30 days, and are then led into the promised land by Joshua, who has been imbued with Moses' "spirit of wisdom."

The biblical author closes with a testament to Moses' greatness and importance.

Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.
(Deut. 34.10-12)

So ends the fifth book of the bible - and the fourth in which Moses was the protagonist. Moses receives the second-longest tale of all the characters of the Hebrew Scriptures. The longest? God. Then again, the entire book is about him.

Deuteronomy Wrap-up

The Story
The bible until this point has been very much concerned with the relationship between God and humankind. It is a strained relationship, and not one of equality. Inequality is in fact the basis for the relationship between God and Israel and gives the story its plot and curious nuances. God is always faithful to his chosen people of the Israelite line. The relationship began with Adam and continued through his son Seth to Noah, and eventually to Abraham. It was the covenant between God and Abraham that established his descendants as God's people. From that point forward, God would be ever-faithful to the covenant, promising land and progeny to the patriarchs.

The covenant changes as Israel prepares to enter the promised land. Here the covenant is not a promise of anything, for the promise of progeny has been fulfilled and the promise of land nearly-so. Now the covenant is based on the behavior of the people. God demands that the people obey him, and if they do, all will be well for them. Whereas the covenant with Abraham required only the action of God, the covenant with the people requires action from both God and his people. And yet God will never break the contract. If the Israelites break the contract by making false idols, God will punish them with the curses listed in the Torah. However, the covenant will always stand. The curses in a very real way define the covenant; their existence proves that the bond between God and his people is unbreakable, no matter how badly the Israelites screw up. God is always willing to again support his people once they begin again to follow his ways.

Fiction and History
The bible so far is a work of historicized fiction. It is a work of fiction that appears to be real with all of the place and character names, dates, and locations. These elements serve to add realism to the story. But in reality, many of these things probably never happened. The story is therefore a fiction that is historicized with realistic elements. Historicized fiction lacks a factual basis - all the facts are made up. However, it would be unfair to call historicized fiction "untrue." While the tales may not have hard facts, they do reveal "truths" about life or "the human condition." In fact, these "truths" may be the most effective way of making a point.

I would argue that some of the greatest historicized fiction written today falls under the genre of science fiction. In this case, the "history" is in fact the future, but the level of creativity the author must employ in creating this fiction is astounding. Names, dates, places must be created in order to set the fiction in time and place - to historicize it. This is exactly what the biblical authors did, albeit it was a number of people over a very long period of time.

The counterpart to historicized fiction is fictionalized history. This is pretty similar to historical fiction but has more of a poetic license in changing and creating names and numbers. Fictionalized history is concerned with actual events, and applies to them fictional people, numbers, names, etc. This method was used by the biblical authors to in effect flesh out the biblical narrative and give it a point of view. Because the authors are concerned with story-telling, the chronicle "X people died at the battle of Y" is expanded upon to yield a richer story. Little if no fictionalized history has cropped up yet, but it will become more and more common as the biblical story moves through the years toward modern day.

My Journey
I started this blog the day after my college graduation - the day I entered to so-called "real world" of living with my parents while searching for a job. It has been a long journey so far - but the majority of the text lies ahead.. I first posted to this blog Sunday, May 23, 2010. 127 posts and 486 page views later, i'm still writing, but much has changed.

Four months later I landed a full-time job as a staff writer in the Provost Office of Stevens Institute of Technology, which means that most of my day is spent writing or otherwise communicating in one way or another, whether it is through text, video, images, or web development. I blog every morning on the train ride into Hoboken and if my eyes do not fail me by the end of the day I try to blog a little more on the way home.

One of my original goals was to present a non-gender specific image of God, which I see now imposes my own view on the bible. In fact, the God of the Hebrew bible is portrayed as male. I adopted the language of the bible, referring to God as "he" in order to better represent the language and ideas of the biblical authors. A number of other changes to style and content have been made. This blog will surely evolve as I write more and learn more about the bible.

This was my first time reading completely through the rules and regulation, and I am sure at times that the tedious nature of some of these passages seeps into my writing. I don't expect everyone to find the bible fascinating. However, if there is something you like or do not like, please let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear what you think of the blog, and am open to suggestions for improvement.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy this blog as it continues to grow.