Considered a holy man in the three main branches of Western religious tradition, Moses stands as the lawgiver and mediator between God and humankind. His depiction here conflates episodes and images from his long itinerary: the pillar of fire, the striking of the rock at Meribah, the parting of the Red Sea, and the two tablets of the Law he brought down from Mount Sinai. As with all of us, Moses was flawed: chosen by God, yet willfully bringing down the Almighty’s “wrath and indignation” upon the Israelites and, by extension, the rest of humanity. It is his imperfect determination to do the will of God that makes Moses an accessible holy man, not one whose remote loftiness shrouds him in the clouds.
Image and words: Moses by Brian Allan Skinner.