Moses (est.1526-1406 BC)

Moses came from the tribe of Levi but his mother feared for his life and hid him, but he was found by the daughter of the King of Egypt and was adopted by her and named Moses.  After killing an Egyptian to protect a Hebrew but the king heard and wanted to kill him for it, so Moses fled to Midian where he met a priest called Jethro and his seven daughter, he married a daughter and became a shepherd.

At one point Moses takes the herd to Mount Sinai where he sees a bush on fire but not being consumed, and God speaks to him and tells him to go and lead the people out of Egypt, and that the king will not easily let them leave, so God teaches him how to preform miracles to help make people believe in the message that he has to bring.

So Moses goes with Aaron and asks the King of Egypt to let the people of Israel go, but instead the King punishes the slaves, making their brick-building task harder.  After the failure Moses faces a backlash from his own people and fail to convince them that God will set them free.  Moses is not very confident about speaking so he gets Aaron to speak for him.

This is where Moses stick is thrown down and turns into a snake, but the Egyptian magicians can do the same thing, although Moses snake eats the other ones.  So the next next day it is stepped up and all the rivers are turned into blood, killing the wildlife, but once again the magicians could copy Moses so the King ignored it.  This was followed by the plague of frogs, then a plague of gnats, then a disease struck the livestock, then sores on people and animals, then hailstones came which destroyed crops, then a plague of locusts came to destroy the last of the crops, then there was three days of darkness, and lastly all the first-borns fell dead. Through all of it the Israelites were protected.

Finally they left Egypt, 430 years after they had first arrived there in the time of Joseph.  They headed out into the desert, avoiding the Philistines for fear out them attacking and headed towards the Red Sea.  Moses took with him the bones of Joseph.  A think cloud led their way, it burned with fire so that they could travel by day and night.  God informs Moses that the King has changed his mind and will chase the Israelites, so now God will destroy them.  So Moses opens up the Sea, and the Israelites escape and the Egyptians are destroyed.

And so they went out into the desert, relying on God and Moses to lead them to water, they travelled in the direction of Mount Sinai.  They carry on through constant issues with finding food and water, and then they fight a battle with the Amalekites, the attack led by Joshua.  So they reach Mount Sinai, where he gives them the law, the ten commandments and guidelines to live by.

God tells Moses about they land which they shall have, and that he will send an angel to help them defeat the people who live their, to drive them off their land.  God gives details of the stone tablets, and the gold box that is to be made to carry them, which is all to be kept within a holy alter, where a lamp must stay lit at all times (and maintained by Aaron and his sons).  Aaron is become the high priest.  At one point Moses is up on the mountain and Aaron makes the mistake of building a golden idol at the request of the people.  Moses instructs the Levi tribe to kill the disobediant people and they kill 3000, and God sends a disease upon the others who disobeyed.

They counted all the men over the age of twenty who could fight, they numbered over 600,000. They settled what order the tribes would enter into battle.  So they left Mount Sinai and after a number of days, the camp caught fire and Moses prayed and the fire went out.  Then the people complained of no meat so God sent a wind to blow thousands of quail inland to feed them, but he spread a disease onto the people who had been complaining for not trusting in God.

Moses sent 12 spies ahead to scout out the land and the people and the fortifications, but the people loose faith yet again.  Now God condemns them for their lack of faith in several instances and sentences them to live in the desert for forty years.  Some leaders rebel saying that they should lead instead of Moses, but, Moses asks God to open up the ground and swallow up the rebels, and it does.  IN all 14,700 died in the incident, including fire and disease.

God informs that Moses and Aaron will not be the ones to lead the people into the promised land.  Aaron dies on Mount Hor, and the priest robes are passed to his son Eleazar.  The Edomite King refuses to let the Israelites pass through Edom so they are forced to travel by a different route.  When the Amorite King refuses them entry he attacks them but is defeated.  The Israelites move on and capture more lands through battle such as Jazer, Og, Bashan, Gilead.  Eventually Moses passes on the leadership to Joshua, as God tells Moses that he will see the promised land and then die.

Joseph (est.1886-1806 B.C.)

Joseph was born in Syria and had eleven brothers Rueben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Gad, Asher, Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali.  Joseph was son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham.

By 17 he was his father's favourite and they were living in Canaan, he would have many dreams foretelling the future, yet his brother scorned him so they faked his death and sold him to slavery to a caravan coming from Gilead, where he ended up being sold in Egypt

He rose from slave to house assistant but his owner's wife tried to seduce him and then told lies and Joseph ended up in prison, where he interprets dreams for people, two years later he is called to interpret the king of Egypts dream; He say that a seven year famine is on the way, and Joseph is put in charge of all the officials.  His brothers come to buy food, and they do not recognize Joseph as speaks in Egyptian and he tricks them all to come to Egypt so that he can reveal his identity.

Gen44:5 states that he uses a silver cup to "learn about the future"

So his father and brothers and their families come to live in Egypt to avoid death during the famine, stopping at Beersheba to offer sacrifices.  Joseph went on to trade food for all things and by the end of the famine he owned all of the land and animals and most people were his slaves.  He went on to have two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.  Joseph died at the age of 110 and he was embalmed, later his bones were taken by Moses when the exile occurred so that he could be buried in the land of Canaan.

Mary the Prophetess (est400BC - 300AD)

She is estimated to have lived anywhere bwtween 400B.C.-300 A.D. And is said to be the first non fictitious alchemist in the Western world. She is known as the names Maria the Jewess or Maria Prophetissima or Mary Prophetissa or Miriam the Prophetess. There is no tangible evidence of the exact time and place of her existence. One theory is that she is possibly Miriam, the sister of Moses and the prophet Aaron.

She is mentioned in a few sources including the 4^th century alchemy by Zosimos of Panopolis, she is also mentioned by George Syncellus in the eighth century as 'Mary the Prophetess', the Arabs knew her as the 'Daughter of Plato'. In the Alexander book by Nizami, Maria a Syrian princess visits Alexander the Great in Greece and learns from Aristotle (384-322B.C.) including how to make gold.

Although none of her original writings have survived the test of time, she is said to have invented some aparatus that alchemists use as well as having various precepts attributed to her.