Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu>]

At 12:15 AM 1/16/2003 +0000, Ben and Jo Crick wrote:
> Nor I!  According to the biblical narrative, baby Moses was wet-nursed by
> his own mother Jochebed YoWKeBeD "YHWH is glorious" (Numbers 26:59). Moses
> Mo$eH was the name given to the baby by Pharaoh's daughter; Amram and
> Jochebed gave him the name Manasseh (Exodus 2:10; Judges 18:30). 

Actually, no where does it say that "Amram and Jochebed gave him the name
Manasseh". The "Jonathan son of Gershom son of MN$H" of Judges 18:30 is not
specified as a descendant of Moses. A later midrash "put two and two
together", that is, the fact that he was a Levite and that his father,
Gershom, had the same name as Moses' son, and assumed their identity. In
fact, in the MT the nun in MN$H is a small "superscript" letter, as if
"added in" by a proof-editor. The midrash assumes that this is because this
IS, in fact, Moses (M$H), spelled and read M<N>$H in order not to
"dishonor" Moses, whose grandson was an idolotor. 

Interestingly enough, while "Moses" is often understood to be an Egyptian
name meaning "born" (the same element as in Thutmose or Ahmose), "Menashe"
comes from the same root (N$H) as is used in the Hebrew explaination for
Moses' name in Exodus 2:10.


Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.