In conclusion, Moses Among the Idols is a well-argued volume which presents innovative solutions concerning Moses’ status change and many ambiguous passages.

Reading Religion

Well-constructed and cogently argued, the book received nominations in 2019 for both the AAR Best First Book in the History of Religions Award and the ASOR Frank Moore Cross Book Award. It is certainly a significant contribution that should not be neglected by future commentators of Exodus.

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

In this conceptually provocative and methodologically rigorous study, Amy Balogh seeks to reorient our conventional appraisals of just who—and even what—Moses is. . . . Among the most significant claims of this clever monograph is that the Priestly source was engaged in deliberately crafting a sophisticated theological counternarrative to Babylonian hegemony.

Review of Biblical Literature

Balogh’s book is generated by the shift in Moses’ status from one who is "uncircumcised of lips" to one who is "god to Pharaoh." She casts her eye eastward, to Mesopotamia, and particularly to the texts about enlivening the cult statue known as the cleansing and opening of the mouth rituals. The resulting investigation is creative and generative on a number of fronts: the understanding of Moses’ role as mediator, for example, his radiant face, and his function as "Yhwh’s idol." Even the etymology of the name Mosheh is reconsidered in this intriguing study, which concludes—not without some irony—that Moses’ comparison to an idol is a way to describe him as "the most elevated of human beings."

Brent A. Strawn