In the Gospels, Jesus looks like other figures from classical antiquity. So far in this ongoing series, I have covered Dionysus, Aesop and the Emperor Vespasian.
Yet perhaps the strongest parallel to Jesus in the Gospels – especially the Gospel of Matthew – is not classical, but Hebraic. It is the figure of Moses.
This comparison is often overlooked, perhaps because there is no ‘Moses’ or ‘Son of Moses’ title. Yet for an ancient Jewish reader, this typology was impossible to miss.
In this piece, I look at seven similarities between Moses and Jesus, sketching a parallel biography of their lives. I will then move behind the gospels to consider whether the typology is the evangelists’ own, or whether it goes back to Jesus.1
The Birth of Moses
After opening with his genealogy, Matthew launches into the story of Jesus’ birth. There we find an insecure ruler, Herod, who tries to take Jesus’ life when he finds that a new ruler is to be born. As a result, the Holy Family flee to Egypt and return.
To an ancient Jewish reader, all of this would sound redolent. For Moses’ story also begins with an (unsuccessful) attempt of his life by the Pharaoh – and the method is the same shotgun approach: Pharaoh decides to kill a sweep of newborn males.
When it time to return, we are told that Joseph that it was safe to return. The language that Matthew uses to describe this command echoes the command for Moses to return to Egypt (Mt. 2:19-21; Exod. 4:19-20). Strikingly, Matthew uses the same phrase ‘those seeking… have died’ (2:20) despite the fact that Herod is the singular antecedent.
Matthew also explicitly cites Hosea: ‘Out of Egypt, I have called my son.’ This may not be an allusion to Moses per se – here God’s ‘son’ is in reference to Israel. Nevertheless, this quotation reinforces the wider Exodus parallels in the narrative. Readers are here to expect a new Exodus event. The new Moses figure can only be Jesus himself.
Jesus and the Twelve
In the Synoptic gospels, Jesus calls a group of twelve disciples. Typically, it is noted that these twelve disciples represent the Twelve tribes of Judah. Given the belief that these tribes would come together again in Israel’s golden age, the calling of Twelve men is therefore seen as a symbolic reconstitution of Israel – even a messianic act.
What is often neglected is how another figure first called Twelve men in connection to the Twelve tribes. In Exodus, Moses called twelve phylarchs as heads of the twelve tribes. So also Jesus’ Twelve will sit on twelve thrones, judging Israel (Mt. 19:28).
To be sure, this connection of the twelve falls short of proof. This is because there are many sets of twelve scattered throughout Scripture: twelve patriarchs, twelve spies, twelve priest, levites and so on. Yet it is worth noting that some commentators, such as Origen, naturally thought of the twelve in connection to Moses’ phylarchs.
Most intriguingly, the political philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, pointed to the Twelve as a fulfilment of Deuteronomy 18:18: “For as Moses chose twelve Princes of the tribes, to govern under him; so the Saviour chose twelve Apostles, who shall sit on Twelve thrones, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel” (Leviathan, 41).
Moses & the Crowds
The idea that the evangelists use numbers in service of a Moses-typology is also seen in another episode: the feeding of the five thousand. There, Jesus divides the crowds into ‘groups of hundreds and fifties’ (Mk. 6:40). Why does he do this?
The best explanation I have seen is that Jesus is echoing Moses. For when Moses led the Israelites out into the wilderness, he organises them in a similar fashion:
“Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times” (Exod. 18:25-26; cf. Deut 1:13-15)
Around the time of Jesus, the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls thought that a messianic figure would arise who would echo Moses’ actions. He would be a ‘new Moses,’ liberating Israel like Moses had in the past. And he is also thought to have gathered the people of God into ‘[hundreds,] of fifties and of tens…] [1QS] (1:27-2:21).
That Jesus is being presented as a ‘new Moses’ in this episode is enhanced by other clues in Mark’s narrative: it takes place in a wilderness setting, just as Moses fed crowds in the wilderness; and the bread he provides is supernatural, just as Moses provided supernatural bread for the Israelites in the form of manna.
Yet the strongest link in this narrative concerns its preface. We are told that when Jesus came ashore, ‘he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things’ (6:34).
The phrase ‘as sheep without a shepherd’ would jump out to any biblically-minded reader, as it occurs throughout the Scriptures.2 The first time it appears is in reference to Moses. In Numbers 27:15-17, Moses prays for someone to come after him to lead Israel, so that they might not be ‘as sheep without a shepherd’ (v.17). Here Jesus may be seen as the the fulfilment of this expectation (cf. Deut. 18:15, 18).
Moses’ Generation
We have seen that Jesus, as a ‘New Moses’, organises crowds into fifties and hundreds, and appoints twelve disciples who might be considered ‘phylarchs’ over them. This is a positive vision of a new Israel being re-constituted around the Messiah.
Yet not everything that Moses or Jesus about his generation was positive. In the story of Israel’s liberation, the people repeatedly turn away from God and his law. Moses decries his generation as ‘this evil generation’ (1:35).
Notably, as as we turn to the gospels, we find Jesus repeatedly characterises in a similar way: ‘a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign’ (16:4). Why does Jesus speak in this way of his generation? It is plausible that he is borrowing this language from Moses: they have heard the teaching Jesus has delivered and have rejected it.
Moses, Giver of the Law
A Moses typology is also present in Jesus’ teaching. This is most obvious in Matthew’s gospel, where Jesus delivers his ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (in Luke, it is on a plain.) For Matthew, this is one of Jesus’ five major discourses (5-7, 10, 13, 18, 24-25.)
Why does Jesus deliver a Sermon on the Mount? One common explanation is that Matthew is styling Jesus as a new Moses. Just as Moses went up a mountain to receive the ten commandments, so now Jesus goes up a mountain to deliver his authoritative teaching which intensifies the Jewish law.
As for the five discourses, these are sometimes thought to echo the five books of Moses. Yet this hypothesis faces more difficulties. Many other texts in the first-century Jewish/Christian world can also be divided into five parts. This means that even if we could be confident that Matthew’s ‘five discourses’ were Moses’ ‘five books’, it is not clear what the payoff of this discovery would be.
The Miracles of Moses
We have already seen that one of Moses’ miracles bears a semblance to one of Jesus’: both feed thousands in the wilderness with supernatural bread. In John’s story, this leads the crowds to recognise Jesus as ‘the prophet’ – referring to the common expectation that a ‘prophet like Moses’ would one day emerge (Deut. 18:15-18).3
Yet this was not the only marvel Moses performed. In the book of Exodus, Moses commands his assistant, Aaron, to stretch out his staff and Egypt is plagued with gnats. In turn, the Egyptian magicians tell Pharaoh: ‘this is the finger of God!’
Remarkably, we find the same expression – finger of God – in a saying of Jesus found in Luke: ‘But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you’ (11:20). For many scholars, Jesus is here likening his own ministry of exorcisms to the miracles that took place during Moses’ own time.
Another meta-normal event echoes the life of Moses. When Jesus ascends a mountain with his inner ring of Peter, James and John, he is transfigured before them. Strikingly, Matthew tells us that in this moment, Jesus’ face ‘shone like the sun’ (17:2) –suddenly, Moses and Elijah and appear, but God tells them to listen to Jesus, his son.
Why does Jesus’ face ‘shine like the sun’? A Roman reader might be prompted to remember pagan epiphanies, where the radiant divine form of a god is revealed. Yet a Jewish reader would no doubt think of another figure whose face shone upon a mountaintop encounter with God – namely, Moses himself (Exod. 34:29-25).
Moses, Liberator of Israel
So far, we have surveyed the evangelists’ depiction of Jesus as a ‘new Moses’ figure. Our final link between the two figures occurs at the last supper, where Jesus performs of a sign of the ‘blood’ of the ‘covenant’ with his twelve disciples. Taking the cup, Jesus says: ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured for many’ (Mk. 14:24).
For a reader familiar with the Jewish law, this would remind them of one of Moses’ actions. In Exodus 24, Moses makes a covenant with the people of Israel, signified by the twelve tribes, and signs it with blood, sprinkled on the people: ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words’ (v.8).
A Mosaic interpretation of Jesus’ words is here supported by Hebrews, which describes Jesus as ‘the mediator of a new covenant.’ The writer also notes that ‘even the first covenant was not ratified without blood’ and then goes on explicitly to cite Moses’ action of sprinkling blood on the people and his words in doing so (v.15-22).
Moses… Behind the Gospels?
We have surveyed just some of the ways in which the Synoptics present Jesus as a new Moses figure. But we have so far refrained from talking about whether Jesus saw himself in this light. Did the historical Jesus see himself as a New Moses?
Some commentators have understandably refrained from pushing back this Moses typology to Jesus himself. There are huge debates about the reliability of the infancy narratives and the last supper, while certain other echoes may signal redactional activity – for instance, Luke’s ‘finger of God’ and Matthew’s mountaintop setting.
Yet it is important to repeat the obvious fact that sometimes people deliberately ape their heroes.4 When I was a student at Magdalen College, Oxford – where C.S. Lewis spent most of his career – I would relish the opportunity to follow in Lewis’ footsteps, discussing the Incarnation with friends on Addison’s Walk. (It was here that Lewis and Tolkien had a significant conversation on the same topic a century before.)
If Jesus did model himself on Moses, he would not be the only figure in history to do so. In the fifth century CE, Simon Stylites, a figure known for his extraordinary feats of fasting on a tall stone pillar, saw himself as a Moses figure, while in modern times, Martin Luther King Jr consciously modelled himself on Moses the liberator.
Given the prevalence of Moses imagery in the Gospels, it is plausible that Jesus had something to do with setting this typology in motion. Jesus may have seen himself as the long-awaited figure who would come like ‘Moses’ and re-constitute the people of Israel. If this is the case, then a Moses typology may take us well behind the Gospels.
Recommended Reading
Dale C. Allison, Jr., The New Moses: A Matthean Typology. Edinburgh, T&T Clark, 2013.
Dale C. Allison, Jr., “Enacting Moses: Jesus and Simeon Stylites” in Interpreting Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2025.
Thanks for reading!
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Next Monday on Biblical Time Machine, Dale Allison will be talking about Moses allusions in the Gospels – and whether they go back to Jesus himself…!
In this piece, I am largely dependent upon the work of Dale C. Allison Jr., The New Moses: A Matthean Typology (Edinburgh, T&T Clark, 2013).
E.g. 1 Kgs. 22:17; Ezek. 34:5; Zech 10:2.
John draws not so much on Moses traditions, showing at every stage that Jesus surpasses Moses. John 1:17 sets the tone for the gospel narrative as a whole: ‘For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’
Here I am rehearse the general point made by Dale C. Allison, Jr., “Enacting Moses: Jesus and Simeon Stylites” in Interpreting Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2025).
This is sharp work, John. I agree, Matthew practically screams “new Exodus” for anyone with Torah in their bones. From Herod as Pharaoh to the mountain sermons, the echoes aren’t subtle.
The part that intrigues me most is your closing question. Did Jesus see himself through Moses’ lens, or did the gospel writers retrofit the type? My hunch: both. A prophet on the margins will always reach for ancestral scripts, and a community preserving his memory will polish those parallels until they shine.
Either way, the typology works. Moses split the sea. Jesus split open the imagination. Both fed the hungry in the wilderness, both gave their faces to the fire, both called a people out of slavery in different kinds of chains.
Blessed be the ones who notice the rhymes across history and refuse to dismiss them as accidents.