Sun

MASU THE HERO

Yet another of these possible multiple meanings lies in the assertion by Sayce that Mashu or Masu, as found in Babylonian tablets, was the same word as Mosheh/Moses. Elsewhere, Sayce reiterates that, in Hebrew, Moses/Mosheh “is most easily explained by the Babylonian Masu, ‘hero.’”

The Assyriologist further elucidates:

Masu, hero, an epithet of several deities, specially Adar, Merodach and the Sun-god; also “a scribe,” or “librarian,” and in astrology connected with Taurus.

MŜ THE SACRED SERPENT

Adding to the Mosaic syncretism, in the Ugaritic mythology appears a figure called Mŝ or Mush, son of Baal and Anath, possibly equivalent to Adar as “Mash,” son of Bel. Mŝ/Mush was propitiated to prevent poisonous animals like scorpions and serpents from attacking, in essence making of him a snake god. Mŝ’s name is asserted to be not Semitic or Egyptian but Sumerian, such as by Brandeis University linguist Dr. Michael C.

Gilgamesh and Mt Mašu

A major factor in this quest for the origins of the Moses account is the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was extremely famous around the Near East for thousands of years, with copies of it found in Turkey, Syria, Mesopotamia and the Levant, as at Megiddo, in Israel, thus connecting the two cultures. Since the earliest parts of this epic date to at least 1800 BCE, with the era of a possible “historical” king by that name around 2600 BCE, this myth predates the composition of the Moses tale by over a thousand years.

The Great God Sun

“The evidence for the sun cult manifests itself in Europe from as long ago as the fourth millennium BC, when Neolithic farmers recognized the divine power of the solar disc...

“…Solar religion manifested itself not only in acknowledgement of the overt functions of the sun—as a provider of heat and light—but also in recognition of influences that were more wide-ranging…

Yahweh and the Sun

“And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD; and behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east.”

Ezekiel 8:16

Moses as Solar Hero

“This deity [Adar] represented the sun god primitively worshipped at Nipur (now Niffer) in Babylonia, who afterwards came to be regarded as a sort of Chaldean Herakles....