Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jonathan Robie <jonathan AT texcel.no>]

At 01:35 PM 1/12/99 -0800, Lloyd Barre wrote:
>Dear List Members:
>
>Freud's arguments that Moses was actually an Egyptian have recently been
>expressed again by Jon Assman and myself.  Moses' alleged Hebrew identity
>rest upon the episode of baby Moses' trip down the Nile.  However, it is
>well-known that this storyline is folkloristic, most famously illustrated
>by the Legend of Sargon.  Thus the historical discrediting of the basket
>episode leaves a fully Egyptian Moses, including his name, which is
>Egyptian as everybody knows and not Hebrew as the popular in the tale
>etymology claims.  Indeed, the function of the story seems intent on
>transforming Moses' ethnic identity from Egyptian to Hebrew.

I'm trying to wrap my brain around this. You state that Moses was actually
an Egyptian; by this, I assume you mean that his blood parents were
Egyptians and not Israelites.

The evidence you present is this:

1. You don't believe that the story of the basket is true.
2. The story of the basket involves the heritage of Moses, therefore you
don't believe that either.
3. The name "Moses" is Egyptian, not Hebrew.

Well, I'm not sure how to respond to this. Since you assume the story is
not accurate, let's assume Moses is either Hebrew or Egyptian, and we don't
know which, so we want to find out. If the name is Egyptian, that's not all
that surprising, especially if we accept the biblical account that he was
named by Pharoah's daughter (see Exodus 2:10 "The child grew, and she
brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. And she named him
Moses, and said, 'Because I drew him out of the water.'"  So if we discount
the story, what evidence is there to believe one way or another?

Jonathan
 
jonathan AT texcel.no
Texcel Research
http://www.texcel.no