Texts in Conversation
Rabbinic tradition and Josephus describe Amram as a leader who agonized over Pharaoh’s decree to kill Hebrew boys. In tractate Sotah, Miriam rebukes him for divorcing his wife and in Josephus, God appears in a dream promising Moses will save Israel.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 2.9.3
Classical
2 During this time, the Egyptians found further motivation for eradicating the nation of the Hebrews. A sacred scribe, known for accurately predicting the future, advised Pharaoh that around this period a Hebrew child would be born who would lower the kingdom of Egypt and raise the Israelites, standing out in virtue and remembered forever. Alarmed by this prophecy, the King commanded that every male Hebrew infant be cast into the river, ordering the Egyptian midwives who assisted Hebrew mothers to obey this edict on pain of death. This was an extreme affliction for the Hebrews, forced to do away with their sons or face punishment, seeing their entire future extinguished. Yet no one can outwit God’s power, no matter how many cunning devices are devised. For the child, whose birth the scribe had predicted and whose life Pharaoh sought to end, was saved and hidden. The prophet also did not err in predicting this child would elevate the Hebrews and ruin the Egyptians. 3 Amram, a distinguished Hebrew, feared the destruction of his nation through the slaughter of their male children. His wife was pregnant, and he was at a loss, torn by what to do. Turning to prayer, he appealed to God’s mercy for those who had not violated His commands, seeking their deliverance from suffering and the thwarting of their enemies’ plan. God listened to him and, appearing in a dream, reassured him that He would always reward the devotion of those who upheld His worship. Recalling how He increased Abraham’s descendants from a single man and gave Isaac, whom Abraham once thought impossible, God promised to care for Amram’s people and grant him personal renown. He revealed that the very child threatening Egyptian power would be Amram’s own son. Concealed from those seeking to harm him, the child would later deliver the Hebrews from their afflictions. His memory would endure through all time, among Hebrews and foreigners alike, fulfilling God’s favor to Amram and his offspring. This child would also have a brother who would become a priest, passing that priesthood down to his posterity forever.
Date: 93-94 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Sotah 12a
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
The verse states: “And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took for a wife a daughter of Levi” (Exodus 2:1). The Gemara asks: To where did he go? Rav Yehuda bar Zevina says: He went according to the advice of his daughter Miriam, as the Gemara will proceed to explain. A Sage teaches: Amram, the father of Moses, was the great man of his generation. Once he saw that the wicked Pharaoh said: “Every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive” (Exodus 1:22), he said: We are laboring for nothing by bringing children into the world to be killed. Therefore, he arose and divorced his wife. All others who saw this followed his example and arose and divorced their wives. His daughter, Miriam, said to him: Father, your decree is more harsh for the Jewish people than that of Pharaoh, as Pharaoh decreed only with regard to the males, but you decreed both on the males and on the females. And now no children will be born. Additionally, Pharaoh decreed to kill them only in this world, but you decreed in this world and in the World-to-Come, as those not born will not enter the World-to-Come.
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... As the greatest man of his generation, according to a Talmudic legend, he responded to the pharaoh's decree by divorcing his wife in order to avoid the procreation and subsequent death of any male offspring. The Israelites then followed his example. His daughter, however, rebuked him, arguing that his decree was even worse than the pharaoh's, because it essentially killed both male and female offspring. At this, Amram and the other men remarried their wives, Jocheved conceived, and gave birth to Moses without pain (b. Sotah 12a). In Josephus's account, Amram responded to the decree by praying. God assured Amram in a vision that he had not forgotten the Israelites' piety: a child born to Amram and Jocheved would fulfill the Egyptian scribes' prophecy of an Israelite baby who would punish the Egyptians. ..."
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