Moses

Moses is the prophet of the Exodus — the liberator who, according to the Hebrew Bible, led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage and received the Torah at Sinai.

Liberation narrative

The Exodus story is the archetype of liberation theology: God hears the cry of the oppressed slaves, judges the tyrant Pharaoh, and constitutes a people through covenant. Its influence runs through:

• Jewish prophetic tradition's condemnation of exploitation (Amos, Isaiah)
• Christian liberation theology in Latin America
• Black American spirituals and the civil-rights movement ("Go Down Moses")
• Islamic reverence for Musa as the most-mentioned prophet in the Qur'an

Marxist engagement

Marxists have read Exodus as a formative myth of revolutionary deliverance — with the caveats that covenant is with a chosen people rather than a class, and that Canaanite conquest complicates the liberatory reading. Michael Walzer's Exodus and Revolution traces its career in Western political thought.

In Infrared discourse, Moses belongs to the prophetic lineage culminating in Muhammad and finding political completion in communism (see Jesus Christ, Abraham, Communism is Islam).