An American-Israeli researcher has suggested that two inscriptions found in the Egyptian desert, dating back 3,800 years, could be the oldest known written references to the biblical figure Moses. The etchings were discovered at Serabit el-Khadim, a turquoise mining site in the Sinai Desert, and are currently being re-examined by Michael S. Bar-Ron, a graduate student at Ariel University.
The Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions date from between 1800 and 1600 BC, centuries before the earliest biblical texts were written. Bar-Ron argues that the texts read “Zot M’Moshe” and “Ne’um Moshe”, which may translate as “This is from Moses” and “Declaration of Moses”. If correct, they would represent the earliest known written reference to Moses outside of the Bible.
The inscriptions also refer to El, a deity linked to the Abrahamic God, according to Bar-Ron. He told The Independent that the inscriptions appear to resist worship of the ancient goddess Ba’alat by Semitic workers at the site, which once housed a temple to Ba’alat. “Rather than lauding Ba’alat … [the] readings curse out the Ba’alat cult, with words of warning and rebuke to its followers,” he said.
Bar-Ron acknowledged academic critique, stating that his readings are part of a coherent framework he calls “clades”, groups of inscriptions linked by vocabulary, phrasing, letter forms, and thematic content. However, Thomas Schneider, an Egyptologist at the University of British Columbia, told the Daily Mail that the new interpretation is “completely unproven and misleading.”
Bar-Ron stressed that his work will be subject to peer review, noting that his research has already been revised more than 100 times. “If we were drawing such conclusions on the basis of one or two inscriptions, it would be weak,” he said. “Rather, they are based on what is understood across the full set found at Serabit el-Khadim.”
