I’ve been seeing an idea pop up more and more lately. I sometimes will browse Quora and other forums to see what kinds of questions people are asking and what kinds of answers they are getting.

One that keeps coming up is the question of whether Moses was real or not.

It’s popular to question the historical accuracy of the Bible. After all, it was never intended as a history book. There are certainly some aspects of the Bible’s reporting that deserve a second look (we have a whole series on this stuff) but is this one of them? Should we question whether Moses really existed?

What People Say About Moses

There is a fairly widespread belief that Moses must have been simply a legend or mythical figure created to inspire adherents of Judaism in their faith. Popular opinions would assert that the biblical Moses may simply be an amalgam of many figures and influential leaders in the history of the Hebrew people. Why?

For one, there isn’t much to go on as far as extra-biblical evidence of Moses. It seems that nothing else out there points to an existence of a literal man named Moses, at least anything that provides historical or archaeological evidence.

This creates a problem for the skeptic. More and more, the general consensus seems to be shifting toward the notion that Moses is simply legend. Even the Wikipedia article basically assumes that. In fact, there is even a growing sentiment among Christians that Moses may not have been a real person.

Does it matter? Should we care about whether or not Moses was real?

I think there are a lot of issues in the Bible that we can have some differing opinions on, but that don’t ultimately affect our faith or salvation in any meaningful way. How tall was Goliath exactly? Who cares. David was little, Goliath was big, God gave David everything he needed to win.

But I think this matter is different, and here’s why.

We Should Trust That Moses Really Existed

In the face of general sentiment to the contrary, and perhaps even a distinct lack of secular evidence, we should absolutely take the Old Testament at its word and trust that Moses was a real person. Moses really existed.

And here are a few reasons that’s important.

Jesus Talked About Moses

Yes, Jesus mentioned Moses specifically. Like, a lot.

In the four gospel narrative we get a snapshot of Jesus’ life on earth and his ministry among his people. During that time, Jesus mentions Moses a number of times, especially when conversing with the Jewish religious elite.

He also affirms his own ministry by way of Moses through John 5:46–47: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But if you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe my words?””

Jesus thought Moses was very important. In fact, Jesus references Moses more than any other Old Testament figure. If Jesus thought Moses was important, then so should we. If Jesus believed in the reality of a literal Moses, then so should we.

Any other belief on our part would suggest that Jesus was in error, or at the very least, embraced a popular error in order to further his ministry. But either of these notions bring up some very dangerous ideas about who Jesus actually was.

Jesus Talked To Moses

Not only did Jesus talk about Moses often, at one point Jesus talked to Moses.

I’m talking, of course, about the Transfiguration of Christ, which occurred in three of the four gospels. In each account, Jesus converses with two very important people from the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah: Matthew 17:1–3, Mark 9:2–4, and Luke 9:28–30.

If Moses wasn’t a literal person, it would be very hard for Jesus to speak to him, no? If we begin to embrace the idea that Moses may simply be a symbol of Jewish victory, then we are left with a very dangerous problem as we face the New Testament.

Can we trust the New Testament authors?

The gospels are the only reliable and authoritative revelation about who Jesus is. The only way that we can learn about what Jesus did on this earth and his ministry is through what the gospel writers have told us.

Even beyond the gospels, Moses is a staple figure throughout the rest of the New Testament. The apostles often started with Moses when they preached in order to come to the conclusion of Christ.

But if we begin to believe that they erred in presenting Moses to us, then we would also need to worry about what else they told us and whether it’s reliable. To question Moses is, quite literally, to question the authenticity of the Bible as a whole.

And that’s exactly what you see when you start to look at the answers for whether Moses was real. When people begin to embrace the idea that Moses may have been figurative or symbolic, the integrity of the whole of Scripture becomes an issue.

This isn’t an idea that we can shrug off and say, “Well that’s just a different interpretation.” The understand of Moses in the story of our redemption is crucial in providing authority for the rest of Scripture.

My encouragement for you is this: don’t fall for it. As this idea and others continue to proliferate in our empirically scientific culture, don’t allow your trust in Jesus or in the integrity of the Word to falter.