Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG]

Ian asked:

>If an Israelite called Moses
>was indeed brought up at the Egyptian court, he would very likely have 
>learned to write on papyrus.

What evidence have you got to support such a conjecture?

From "New Bible Dictionary" article "Moses" by KA Kitchen: "In due 
course princes were given a tutor, usually a high official at court or 
a retired military officer close to the king (H. Brunner, 
Altagyptische Erziehung, 1957, pp.32,33); Moses doubtless fared 
similarly. Egyptian education included reading and writing of the 
hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts..., the copying of texts (especially 
classical literature), instruction in letter-writing and other 
administrative accomplishments... On Egyptian education, see the work 
of Brunner mentioned above for full sources."

Moses' Semitic background was no bar to his progress, for (from the 
same article) "Semites and other Asiatics could be found at every level 
of Egyptian society in the New Kingdom... some reached positions of 
high influence and responsibility in the state and its 
administration... Under the Ramesside kings Asiatics were still more 
prominent. Thus one of King Merenptah's trusted cupbearers was the 
Syrian Ben-'Ozen of Sur-Bashan..."

Kitchen concludes: "once the veracity of Ex. ii. 10a,11 is granted, 
that Moses did have a court upbringing (which the Egyptian background 
makes natural and typical), then the assumption becomes obligatory that 
Moses was subjected to the kind of intellectual training referred to 
above in Egyptian scripts, literature, and administrative methods..."

Thus Kitchen argues that the premise "Moses was brought up at the 
Egyptian court" implies the conclusion "Moses was literate". I know 
you don't accept the premise, so why do you try to fault the 
argument also?

By the way, why should any Pharaoh's body be missing? I guess you 
think that Exodus claims that he was drowned in the Red Sea, but the 
text certainly does not say that unambiguously, only that the army 
which he sent to follow the Israelites perished. I would guess 
(without consulting commentaries) that "Pharaoh" in 14:10 is a figure 
of speech for "Pharaoh's army" and that the actual king (in the 
scenario envisaged by the author of Exodus), after mustering his 
troops (14:6,7), stayed safely in his capital city, mourning for his 
first-born son.

Ian also wrote:

There is nothing to suggest the means of maintaining records in pre-exilic 
Palestine.

Well, if you don't accept even as suggestive evidence the physical 
survival on papyrus (which you did not dispute) of one of those 
records (see my separate posting), what evidence would you accept?

Peter