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In Exodus, Pharaoh orders the male children killed because Israel has grown numerous. Josephus adds a scribe's prophecy of a Hebrew deliverer, a tradition the Aramaic Targum Pseudo-Jonathan inherits and incorporates into the text.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 1:16
Hebrew Bible
14 They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous. 15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you assist the Hebrew women in childbirth, observe at the delivery: If it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she may live.”
Josephus Antiquities of the Jews Book 2 9:2
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.
Date: 93-94 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Pseudo Jonathan Exodus 1:15
Targum
14 And made their lives bitter with hard work in clay and bricks and in all kinds of work in the open country; with harshness they made them do all their work. 15 And Pharaoh said that while he slept, he saw in his dream that all the land of Egypt was placed on one balance of a weighing scale, and a lamb, the young of a ewe, on the other balance of the weighing scale; and the balance of the weighing scale on which the lamb was placed weighed down. Immediately he sent and summoned all the magicians of Egypt and told them his dream. Immediately Jannes and Jambres, the chief magicians, opened their mouths and said to Pharaoh: 'A son is to be born in the assembly of Israel, through whom all the land of Egypt is destined to be destroyed.' 16 Therefore Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, took counsel and said to the Jewish midwives—one of whom was named Shiphrah, she is Jochebed, and the other was named Puah, she is Miriam, her daughter.
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Notes and References
“... In § 205, in fact, the presumed cause is the announcement of the coming of a newborn who will deliver the Hebrews from slavery. This baby will be in possession of immense virtues and will reach an eternal glory. Alarmed by this prophecy, related by one of his scribes, the king orders all the Hebrew's male infants to be drowned in the Nile (§ 206). But divine Providence, according to Josephus' version, wants a happy ending, so the newborn is saved and brought up secretly (§ 209). Both these two elements, the presence of a prophecy and the connection with a slaughter of innocent newborns, refer to a similar episode in the New Testament (Matthew 1-2). [...] Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 1:15 reports a dream of Pharaoh himself, interpreted by Jannes and Jambres, magicians of Egypt. Some rabbinic traditions (Sanhedrin 101a, Sotah 12b, Midrash Exod. Rabbah 1.18) underline that it is not a dream of the Pharaoh, but a prediction, made by astrologers, about a pregnant woman, and a child who will be the saviour of the Hebrews. ...”
Frulla, Giovanni
"Reconstructing Exodus Tradition: Moses in the Second Book of Josephus' Antiquities" in Pastor, Jack, et. al. (eds.) Flavius Josephus: Interpretation and History
(pp. 118-119) Brill, 2011
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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