Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Jack:

You mention exactly some reasons that I considered 
when I came to the conclusion that the Pharaoh of the 
Exodus was Hyksos. This was even before I learned of the 
archeological research that showed that the Hyksos also 
oppressed resident "Asiatics" who preceded the Hyksos 
as residents of the Nile Delta region, i.e. "Goshen".

If the midwives were Hyksos, that would explain their 
Semitic sounding names. You make good points in your 
reasoning as to why they were not Hebrew.

I think it needs to be kept in mind that just because 
Exodus calls them "Egyptian", that does not mean that 
they were ethnically Egyptian, no more than the Manchus 
were Chinese: they were called "Egyptian" because they 
ruled Egypt at that time.

Just because the story may have been historical, that 
does not rule out the literary use of history, focussing on 
those aspects that the author wants the audience to learn 
from the story. After all, the story was not an exhaustive 
recital of every detail, rather it hits on those details that 
support the author's central theme.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: tladatsi AT charter.net
> 
> Hello Brian,
> 
> I will not get into the *historicity* of Ex 1:1-17 but I
> will comment on what I think the author intended to reader/
> listener to understand about the story.  I would argue that
> we need to look at the entire story as whole before you can
> look at how the midwives might be interpreted.  The key
> element of the story is the fear that all Egyptians, and
> their king in particular, have for the Israelites.  They
> fear the growing number of these *resident aliens* and that
> they might support a foreign invasion.  The Egyptians hit
> upon the idea of enslaving the Israelites.  This will at a
> minimum prevent them from supporting an invasion and
> perhaps also prevent their numbers from increasing.
> However, although no invasion occurs, the more the
> Egyptians oppress the Israelites, the more they increase in
> number spread across the land (Ex1:12).  Now, the Egyptians
> fear not an external invasion but an internal uprising and
> revolution by the Israelites.  Plan A has backfired with
> more than a bit of literary irony.
> 
> Some new king hits upon Plan B.  He will get these two
> midwives to kill the male newborns of the Hebrews.  Why use
> midwives and not the army?  Because the king is afraid of
> the Hebrews.  He does not wish to move openly against them
> unless he absolutely has to.  This is to be a *covert*
> operation.  The midwives are to kill the newborn and make
> it look like the males died by accident or were stillborn.
> Midwives were skilled professionals and would know how to
> make a murder look like a stillbirth.  When this plan also
> fails, the King demands to know why.  Their excuse sounds
> like the observations of neutral medical professionals.  *
> Your Highness, we tried our best, but those darned Hebrew
> women were just too much for us.*  The Kings had relied
> upon the midwives special skills to carry out Plan B but
> the midwives used their special skills to thwart the kings
> plan (a bit more of that literary irony here).  He does not
> punish them, they did their honest best to carry out his
> orders, he believes.  For him to believe this, they would
> have to be Egyptian women.
> 
> This precipitates Plan C.  Here the king orders ALL OF HIS
> PEOPLE (LVL ?MW, not just the Hebrews) to throw their
> newborn sons into the Nile.  Once more he does not openly
> attack the Hebrews because he fears rebellion.  His order
> applies to *all of his people*.  So with no small irony,
> the Egyptians suffer as much as the Hebrews from Plan C.
> The King was not careful in wording his order.  He of
> course does not actually order their death, just that they
> be thrown into the river. This is exactly what Moses mother
> does, following the kings orders to the letter, if not the
> spirit.  The net effect is (ironically) to put Moses, a
> Hebrew, into the kings own household as a son which allows
> him to effect a Hebrew rebellion which releases the Hebrews
> from slavery.  Of course it is not the rebellion the King
> expected, rather than an armed uprising, it is Yahweh who
> raises up.
> 
> Each of the Egyptian kings plans has the exact opposite
> effect of its intent, working in favor of Yahweh and the
> Hebrews.
> 
> Since Plan B is a secret operation against the feared
> Hebrews, it would make no sense that his secret agents
> would be Hebrews.   Had the author conceived of the
> midwives as Hebrews, the King would have suspected their
> cover story of the lively Hebrew women as being false.  But
> coming from an Egyptian woman, that the King would believe
> this cover story makes sense.
> 
> 
> Jack Tladatsi

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