Bible Trivia - 5/13/2008

Question: What virtue did Moses possess more than anyone on earth as stated in the Bible?

Answer: Humility. (Numbers 12:3)

Comments: The statement that Moses was the most humble human arises in the context of Moses’ siblings having spoken against him. The parenthetical aside illuminates the fact that Moses' subsequent rebuke is done for the good of the nation which needed stable leadership and not out of spite. Jacob Milgrom (b. 1923) further adds, "Moses' selflessness reaches its apogee in this passage and thereby merits the accolade awarded him."

"(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)" (Numbers 12:3, NASB)

The Hebrew word used for "humble" in Number 12:3 is `anav. This is the first time the word occurs in Scripture. Cleon Rogers claims that `anav likely derived from a root meaning "to be bowed down." (Rogers, "Moses: Meek or Miserable?", Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Vol. 29, No. 3, 1986, pp. 257-263.) R. Dennis Cole adds that `anav "conveys an individual's devout dependence upon the Lord" [New American Commentary: Numbers, Volume 3B, Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville, 2000, p. 202]. He cites Psalm 22:26 and Zephaniah 2:3 as passages to support a connection between `anav and earnestly seeking God.

This passage is especially humrous when considering traditionally Moses penned the book. Even conservatives Raymond Dillard and Tremper Longman acknowledge that this is "scarcely a statement that the world’s most humble man would make about himself" (An Introduction to the Old Testament. Zondervan Publishing House, 1994, p. 39). Critics of Mosaic authorship naturally ask - Just how humble could Moses have been?