![]() ![]() So, according to historical documents, who WAS the Pharaoh’s daughter? Based on the year that Moses was born and the ruling 18 th Egyptian dynasty of the time, she is widely believed by scholars to be Hatshepsut. Is this pure chance, or another part of God’s grand orchestrated plan to save the Jewish nation? And how could this one woman be the answer to it all? Just as Joseph’s rise to power with the Egyptian pharaoh years before in a pivotal time during the land’s severe famine saved Israel, so too does God bring an unlikely character to the scene: an Egyptian daughter of the pharaoh, who by virtue of her position, is the one person to set the stage for Israel’s survival (ironically since her father is the sworn enemy of the Jewish nation). Knowing that their entire family could be destroyed if they were caught, Moses’ parents made the heavy decision to entrust God with their precious son, and sent him down the river in a papyrus basket, under the watchful eye of his Miriam, his sister.Įnter the Pharaoh’s daughter (Josephus calls her Thermuthis), who coincidentally happened to be at the river washing herself at this exact moment in time. His older sister, Miriam (15 years his senior), and his brother 3-year old Aaron were safe from Pharaoh’s edict since they were born before it was enacted. Does this sound eerily similar to another man born nearly 1,500 years later, when murderous rampages are ordered by King Herod for all male children under 2 years of age?īorn into a Levite family, Moses’ natural parents, Jochebed (mother) and Amram (father) reared Moses until he was about 3 months old. According to Josephus, these scribes warned the Egyptian pharaoh, “That there would be a child born to the Israelites, who, if he were reared, would bring the Egyptian dominion low, and would raise the Israelites that he would excel all men in virtue, and obtain a glory that would be remembered through all ages.” ( Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 9:2). The pharaoh also was listening to his sacred counselors foretelling of a Hebrew man who would lift up his nation above the Egyptians. ![]() Why the genocide? The Egyptian pharaoh knows that the Jewish nation was becoming too numerous, and if not checked, could become a severe threat to his dynasty simply by their sheer strength in numbers. The infant Moses, born in approximately 1526 B.C., is placed in a basket and set into the Nile river as his family tries to avoid the Egyptian Pharoah’s orders that all boys be put to death. Moses’ birth occurs against the backdrop of a horrific, recurring event in history when a power-hungry leader attempts to extinguish the Jewish nation by genocide. Interestingly, God does not give her a name, nor does the writer of the book of Exodus, her adoptive son Moses. She is mentioned in only 5 verses in the Bible. According to the Bible, her most significant accomplishment was raising a young Hebrew boy, a boy that had been ordered by her father to be murdered, and providing him with a most excellent education. Nor is she signified as one of the most prolific builders of her time. She is not known for her reign as one of Egypt’s most dynamic queens. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.ĭo you notice that this powerful woman in Biblical history is not named? The pharoah’s daughter, seemingly one of the most influential women in Egyptian history, is not remembered for her unusual style of dynastic rule. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”Īcts 7:20-22: At that Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took and the baby and nursed him. And the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” “Yes, go,” she answered. ![]() “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. But when she could hide him o longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. Exodus 2:1-8: Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. ![]()
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