Artapanus leaves it up the reader to find out why Moses and Hermes are the same man. It comes as a bald assertion, and the detective work is up to us. There is an initial obvious parallel. Hermes-Thoth was the lord of heka (magic). Moses, as it turns out, was a well-known magician. He had a staff which looked very much like a wand. He could turn his staff into a snake, make water into blood, ash into gnats, and so on.