Robert Feather
Copper Scroll £16.99

Moses will be hitting the big screen on Boxing Day, when Christian ("Batman") Bale swaps his crusading cape for a staff in Ridley Scott's Exodus: Gods and Kings.

For some scholars, the biblical hero is just a myth. But in his new book, Where Moses Stood, Robert Feather, West London Synagogue representative on the Board of Deputies and archaeological enthusiast, believes that it is based in history, even though it is not quite as the Bible presents it.

Feather views Moses as a follower of the radical monotheistic Pharaoh, Akhenaten (father of Tuthankhamun). He retraces the route of the Exodus and claims to be able to identify the site of the "Holy Mountain" where Moses received the Ten Commandments. Along the way he takes a look at the tabernacle, the scapegoat and the copper snake erected to stop the plague of fiery serpents.