Moses and Campbell's Journey of a Spiritual Hero Essay

The plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death caused the Pharaoh of Egypt to finally free the people of Israel. But the people of Israel leaving with Moses not only served as an effect of the plagues, but also as a cause for the death of the Pharaoh. Following their release, the Egyptian army pursued Moses and the Israelites and planned to enslave them once more. The army caught up to Moses when they were at the Red Sea, but God’s plan was not for the Israelites to return to slavery. He told Moses to raise his staff just as he had in Egypt several times, and when he did, the waters of the Red Sea dispersed and left a path for the Israelites to travel across in order to escape Pharaoh’s army. Continuing to chase after the Israelites, the Egyptians entered the Red Sea using the path created by God. But once each Israelite had safely crossed the sea, God let loose the waters, and all of the Egyptians trapped in the rushing waters drowned. By this final act of God, His power was made clear and the grace and love He has for His people was undoubtedly

The story of Moses is one of the more widely known stories from the Old Testament. The story is found in the book of Exodus and details the life of the prophet Moses. The story of Moses has been the basis of several Hollywood movies. One of the movies, The Prince of Egypt, is a cartoon depiction of the story of Moses. While the movie is very entertaining and will captivate a child’s attention from the beginning, there are not very many accurate details from the Biblical story.

Moses is an effective Prophet due to his faithfulness to God; his unification of the Hebrews; and dedication to his mission. Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Moses sees the harsh persecution of his people in Egypt. Fleeing for his life after killing an Egyptian, Moses is living a quiet life, married, tending to his children and his father-in-law’s flocks. However, when God interrupts Moses’s life and calls upon him to deliver the Israelites from purgatory, Moses answers God’s call. Despite his fears,

“The Hero’s Journey” is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development. It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization. The hero’s journey is divided into three sections departure, initiation, and return. The three sections are then divided into subsections that give a little more in detail journey that the so-called “hero” takes in the storyline. Hamlet and Simba are the main characters in the two storylines that take on the role of the hero.

As I finished reading the first three chapters of Courageous Faith, I found myself to be most identified with Abraham. The beginning of new things is hard and challenging, and it takes great faith and courage for a person to make a decision that can change his whole life. This was what happened with Abram. God told him to leave behind his whole world to move to Canaan. He had to face new and unfamiliar people and environment, but he believed in God and follow His will. Throughout my life, I have met with changes throughout the years. From elementary to high school, I always go to a school far away from the previous with new environment, and all the people there already know each other and are friends. Then I study abroad in the States, this

The “hero’s journey”, coined by Joseph Campbell, is a pattern in the plot structure of literature, myths, and oral tradition in which the hero is consistently faced with similar obstacles and achieves many of the same goals. The first part of the hero’s journey is “The Call.” The hero is usually living a very comfortable and easy life, unaware of the journey ahead. The hero is then faced with a situation or dilemma which eventually causes them to seek change. The hero, at this point, tends to refuse the call to adventure in fear of the unknown. Once the hero has been given the strength to push past the unknown, they have entered the threshold. The hero will experience many challenges and temptations where the hero is tested, eventually reaching “The Abyss,” the most difficult challenge. The hero is then transformed by these trials and returns home to every-day life and begins to contribute to their society. The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist, Janie, experiences the hero’s journey first-hand through overcoming obstacles and transforming herself. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the heroine Janie overcomes many obstacles and is therefore transformed into a self reliant woman.

Christopher “Alexander Supertramp” McCandless was a dreamer. However, unlike most of us nowadays, Christopher turned his desire for adventure into reality. Similar to Buddha, he gave up his wealth, family, home, and most possessions except the ones he carried before embarking on his journey. He traveled by various methods, mostly on foot, to eventually reach his desired goal in the Alaskan wilderness. Unfortunately, due to various mistakes, Christopher ultimately passed and his body was found in a neglected Fairbank City Transit Bus. His motivation to achieve his goal was based on the many aspects of his life. Chris’s dysfunctional family weighed heavily on him, one prime reason for driving him onto the road of freedom.

The oppression of the Hebrews consisted of a new power in Egypt where the Israelites population was seen as too large in the eyes of the new ruler. Many of the Hebrews were murdered and/or worked to death by the Egyptians. The reason for the Hebrews being enslaved and murdered was simply due to their large numbers. The Egyptian lord did not want to Hebrews to have that large of a population as they had almost as many numbers as the Egyptians. The

“The Hero’s Journey Defined” is an article summarizing the ideas of Joseph Campbell. The article describes the transformations and wanderings seen in many Greek tales about heroes. It gives some examples and many reasons to emphasize the adventure the characters go on in mythological writing. To begin, Campbell interprets the definition of a hero as someone who has given his life to a person or cause bigger than himself. The journey Campbell believes each hero typically goes on follows the idea of what he believes makes a person a hero. The article follows his explanation of what a hero should be and act like. First, the writer identifies a passage through a magical threshold to come out reborn as one stage of the quest each mythological hero

The Israelites were cornered at the Red Sea, with nowhere else to go. Moses tells the Israelites not to fear and that the Lord will help them. Moses is given the power by God to divide the sea in half. The Israelites cross the Red Sea safely while the Egyptians that followed were immediately drowned as the sea came together again. It was proven that God put up a constant fight for the Israelites, never giving up for them because of His love for them. He fought for their survival and well-being. The Lord told them He was their healer, as long as they continued to express their love to Him and listen to Him and His

Moses was a humble man, but God sees that he is mightier than Moses sees himself. When God tells him that he must lead the Jews out of Egypt, he grows fearful and unworthy of such a task. Moses humility toward God is what makes him capable of such a tremendous mission. Although, he would have much rather not lead the Jews out of Egypt because he is afraid and does not have faith in himself, however, he is able to do it because God has told him to and God would not ask him to do so if it was impossible. Moses successfully leads the Hebrews out of Egypt. Moses was capable of freeing the Jews of slavery with a quality of humility (No Title, 1986).

In his renowned work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell defined the essential stages of the Heroic Journey, using examples from a wide range of myths and stories. His objective was not only to establish the framework for hero tales, but also to convey why these elements of the monomyth prevail in so many different works. Campbell’s view states that “the hero myth is really written about every human being: we are all heroes struggling to accomplish our adventure” (Whomsley, 185). From this perspective, it seems justified that these patterns continue to appear in so many stories adventure and heroism; we all want our

Moses had an older brother, Aaron and older sister, Miriam. After his birth, his parents hid him for three months until they could no longer do so. The mother prepared an ark, laid him in it and left it in the reeds by the Nile riverbank (Gregory, pg. 45). The sister stood a far to watch what would happen to him and as Pharaoh 's daughter came down to bathe; she saw the child and took him as her own. Then without her knowledge, she had Jochebed brought in to nurse the baby. Therefore, Moses grows in the royal family and acquires wisdom in Egyptian ways, commanding armies and leading in victorious battle. As he grows, Moses sympathizes with his fellow Israelites after witnessing the harsh conditions they are forced to live and work and refuses to be regarded as Pharaoh’s daughter. Rather, he chooses to suffer affliction with his people until he notices an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, whom he murders and escapes upon discovery to Midian. It is here where his journey to save the Israelites from bondage begins. The promise of

A Jewish interpretation would focus heavily on theme and see Moses’ interaction with God as a guideline for how all Jews should interact with God. This pericope is about a call to action. Many people believe they have some purpose or calling in life, and Jews believe that their calling is revealed to them by God. Moses demonstrates that when God calls someone to action, it should not be considered optional. This pericope also defines the relationship that God has with His chosen people. God is portrayed as a parent; God wants to ensure the honor and well-being of the Israelites, and just as God was relentless with Moses, God will prove to be equally relentless with the Egyptians. Although God wants His people to serve Him and follow His word, He does not consider humans to be His slaves. God genuinely cares for His people, and He does not want them to suffer endlessly.

In this paper, Moses character is described as a magical (hoodoo) man who represents the African-American community. In addition, Hebrews march from Egyptian enslavement is compared to African American enslavement in the United States. By portraying various scenes and close character analysis Moses leadership qualities is compared to his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam leadership qualities. By including flaws in all three leaders Moses, Aaron, and Miriam Hurston explains how the leaders will deal with