Moses was for a long time a shepherd in the wilderness.
Regarded outwardly, He was a Man brought up in a tyrannical household, and was
known among men as One Who had committed a murder and become a shepherd. By the
government and the people of Pharaoh He was much hated and detested.
It was such a Man as this that freed a great nation from the
chains of captivity, made them contented, brought them out from Egypt, and led
them to the Holy Land.
This people from the depths of degradation were lifted up to
the height of glory. They were captive; they became free. They were the most
ignorant of peoples; they became the most wise. As the result of the
institutions that Moses gave them, they attained a position which entitled them
to honor among all nations, and their fame spread to all lands, to such a
degree indeed that among surrounding nations if one wished to praise a man one
said, “Surely he is an Israelite.” Moses established laws and ordinances; these
gave life to the people of Israel, and led them to the highest possible degree
of civilization at that period.
To such a development did they attain that the philosophers
of Greece would come and acquire knowledge from the learned men of Israel. Such
an one was Socrates, who visited Syria, and took from the children of Israel
the teachings of the Unity of God and of the immortality of the soul. After his
return to Greece, he promulgated these teachings. Later the people of Greece
rose in opposition to him, accused him of impiety,
arraigned him before the Areopagus, and condemned him to death by poison. (‘Abdu’l-Baha,
‘Some Answered Questions’)
