From Recalcitrant Youth to Sagacious Leader: The Bildungsroman Odyssey of Moses in Biblical Narrative

This paper attempts to reinterpret the biblical narrative about Moses through the lens of Bildungsroman, a literary genre that charts the character’s psychological and moral growth from childhood to adulthood. It employs the critical framework of the transformation narrative to perceive the formative character arc of the Old Testament saviour, Moses. It examines how the change in the protagonist's psychological outlook aligns with the archetypal stages of classical bildungsroman - childhood, alienation, learning, and integration. It explores how the external exodus of liberated Israelites from the land of slavery to their covenant homeland mirrors Moses' developmental arc from a recalcitrant young man to a sagacious leader, culminating in his self-actualization. The application of this literary model of narrative to a sacred text not only highlights the theological and human dimensions of Moses’ growth but also broadens the scope of the life-trajectory narrative.