Sources: Exodus 2–40; Numbers; Deuteronomy; the Documentary Hypothesis (Wellhausen, ~1878).

Moses is the central human figure of the Torah — prophet, liberator, lawgiver, covenant mediator. Born to an Israelite woman, hidden in a basket on the Nile, adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, he grows up in the Egyptian court before killing an Egyptian taskmaster and fleeing to Midian. His call comes at the burning bush (Exod 3) — the divine self-disclosure as “I AM WHO I AM” (Ehyeh asher Ehyeh), giving the name YHWH (the verb “to be” in causative form: “He who causes to be” or “He who is”). This name — its meaning, its pronunciation, its ineffability — generates centuries of reflection. YHWH is not a new deity but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob now revealing the name. The ten plagues are presented as divine warfare against Egypt’s gods — each plague attacking a specific divine domain (the Nile as god, the sun as god, etc.). The Passover and Exodus follow. At Sinai, Moses mediates the covenant — forty days on the mountain receiving the Torah, descending to find the people worshipping a golden calf, returning to intercede and receive the tablets again. His intercession after the golden calf (Exod 32:31–32) — “If you will forgive their sin — but if not, blot me out of the book you have written” — establishes the model of the one who stands between God and people. The Documentary Hypothesis identifies four source strands (J, E, D, P) woven together in the Pentateuch, each with distinct theological emphases on the divine character.