THE AGE, BIRTH, AND LIFE OF MOSES.
Moses, originally of a Chaldean[1048] family, was born in Egypt, his
ancestors having migrated from Babylon into Egypt on account of a
protracted famine. Born in the seventh generation,[1049] and having
received a royal education, the following are the circumstances of his
history. The Hebrews having increased in Egypt to a great multitude,
and the king of the country being afraid of insurrection in consequence
of their numbers, he ordered all the female children born to the
Hebrews to be reared (woman being unfit for war), but the male to be
destroyed, being suspicious of stalwart youth. But the child being
goodly, his parents nursed him secretly three months, natural affection
being too strong for the monarch’s cruelty. But at last, dreading lest
they should be destroyed along with the child, they made a basket of
the papyrus that grew there, put the child in it, and laid it on the
banks of the marshy river. The child’s sister stood at a distance, and
watched what would happen. In this emergency, the king’s daughter, who
for a long time had not been pregnant, and who longed for a child, came
that day to the river to bathe and wash herself; and hearing the child
cry, she ordered it to be brought to her; and touched with pity, sought
a nurse. At that moment the child’s sister ran up, and said that, if
she wished, she could procure for her as nurse one of the Hebrew women
who had recently had a child. And on her consenting and desiring her
to do so, she brought the child’s mother to be nurse for a stipulated
fee, as if she had been some other person. Thereupon the queen gave the
babe the name of Moses, with etymological propriety, from his being
drawn out of “the water,”--for the Egyptians call water “mou,”--in
which he had been exposed to die. For they call Moses one who “who
breathed [on being taken] from the water.” It is clear that previously
the parents gave a name to the child on his circumcision; and he was
called Joachim. And he had a third name in heaven, after his ascension,
as the mystics say--Melchi. Having reached the proper age, he was
taught arithmetic, geometry, poetry, harmony, and besides, medicine and
music, by those that excelled in these arts among the Egyptians; and
besides, the philosophy which is conveyed by symbols, which they point
out in the hieroglyphical inscriptions. The rest of the usual course
of instruction, Greeks taught him in Egypt as a royal child, as Philo
says in his life of Moses. He learned, besides, the literature of the
Egyptians, and the knowledge of the heavenly bodies from the Chaldeans
and the Egyptians; whence in the Acts[1050] he is said “to have been
instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” And Eupolemus, in his
book _On the Kings in Judea_, says that “Moses was the first wise man,
and the first that imparted grammar to the Jews, that the Phenicians
received it from the Jews, and the Greeks from the Phenicians.” And
betaking himself to their philosophy,[1051] he increased his wisdom,
being ardently attached to the training received from his kindred
and ancestors, till he struck and slew the Egyptian who wrongfully
attacked the Hebrew. And the mystics say that he slew the Egyptian by
a word only; as, certainly, Peter in the Acts is related to have slain
by speech those who appropriated part of the price of the field, and
lied.[1052] And so Artapanus, in his work _On the Jews_, relates “that
Moses, being shut up in custody by Nechephres,[1053] king of the
Egyptians, on account of the people demanding to be let go from Egypt,
the prison being opened by night, by the interposition of God, went
forth, and reaching the palace, stood before the king as he slept, and
aroused him; and that the latter, struck with what had taken place,
bade Moses tell him the name of the God who had sent him; and that he,
bending forward, told him in his ear; and that the king on hearing it
fell speechless, but being supported by Moses, revived again.” And
respecting the education of Moses, we shall find a harmonious account
in Ezekiel, the composer of Jewish tragedies in the drama entitled _The
Exodus_. He thus writes in the person of Moses:
“For, seeing our race abundantly increase,
His treacherous snares King Pharaoh ’gainst us laid,
And cruelly in brick-kilns some of us,
And some, in toilsome works of building, plagued.
And towns and towers by toil of ill-starred men
He raised. Then to the Hebrew race proclaimed,
That each male child should in deep-flowing Nile
Be drowned. My mother bore and hid me then
Three months (so afterwards she told). Then took,
And me adorned with fair array, and placed
On the deep sedgy marsh by Nilus bank,
While Miriam, my sister, watched afar.
Then, with her maids, the daughter of the king,
To bathe her beauty in the cleansing stream,
Came near, straight saw, and took and raised me up;
And knew me for a Hebrew. Miriam
My sister to the princess ran, and said,
‘Is it thy pleasure, that I haste and find
A nurse for thee to rear this child
Among the Hebrew women?’ The princess
Gave assent. The maiden to her mother sped,
And told, who quick appeared. My own
Dear mother took me in her arms. Then said
The daughter of the king: ‘Nurse me this child,
And I will give thee wages.’ And my name
Moses she called, because she drew and saved
Me from the waters on the river’s bank.
And when the days of childhood had flown by,
My mother brought me to the palace where
The princess dwelt, after disclosing all
About my ancestry, and God’s great gifts.
In boyhood’s years I royal nurture had,
And in all princely exercise was trained,
As if the princess’ very son. But when
The circling days had run their course,
I left the royal palace.”
Then, after relating the combat between the Hebrew and the Egyptian,
and the burying of the Egyptian in the sand, he says of the other
contest:
“Why strike one feebler than thyself?
And he rejoined: Who made thee judge o’er us,
Or ruler? Wilt thou slay me, as thou didst
Him yesterday? And I in terror said,
How is this known?”
Then he fled from Egypt and fed sheep, being thus trained beforehand
for pastoral rule. For the shepherd’s life is a preparation for
sovereignty in the case of him who is destined to rule over the
peaceful flock of men, as the chase for those who are by nature
warlike. Thence God brought him to lead the Hebrews. Then the
Egyptians, oft admonished, continued unwise; and the Hebrews were
spectators of the calamities that others suffered, learning in safety
the power of God. And when the Egyptians gave no heed to the effects of
that power, through their foolish infatuation disbelieving, then, as
is said, “the children knew” what was done; and the Hebrews afterwards
going forth, departed carrying much spoil from the Egyptians, not for
avarice, as the cavillers say, for God did not persuade them to covet
what belonged to others. But, in the first place, they took wages for
the services they had rendered the Egyptians all the time; and then
in a way recompensed the Egyptians, by afflicting them in requital
as avaricious, by the abstraction of the booty, as they had done the
Hebrews by enslaving them. Whether, then, as may be alleged is done
in war, they thought it proper, in the exercise of the rights of
conquerors, to take away the property of their enemies, as those who
have gained the day do from those who are worsted (and there was just
cause of hostilities. The Hebrews came as suppliants to the Egyptians
on account of famine; and they, reducing their guests to slavery,
compelled them to serve them after the manner of captives, giving them
no recompense); or as in peace, took the spoil as wages against the
will of those who for a long period had given them no recompense, but
rather had robbed them, [it is all one.]