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Jubilees

About this book

The Birth and Rescue of Moses

Chapter 47

1 And in the seventh week, in the seventh year, in the forty-seventh jubilee [2303], your father went out from the land of Canaan, and you were born in the fourth week, in the sixth year of it, in the forty-eighth jubilee [2330]; this was the time of oppression of the children of Israel. 2 And Pharaoh, king of Egypt, issued a command regarding them that they should cast all their male children which were born into the river.⁠ 3 And they cast them in for seven months until the day that you were born. And your mother hid you for three months, and she was reported. 4 And she made an ark for you, and covered it with pitch and asphalt, and placed it in the reeds on the bank of the river, and she placed you in it seven days, and your mother came by night and nursed you, and by day Miriam, your sister, guarded you from the birds.⁠ 5 And in those days Tharmuth, the daughter of Pharaoh, came to bathe in the river, and she heard your voice crying, and she told her female attendants to bring you out, and they brought you to her. 6 And she took you out of the ark, and she had compassion on you. 7 And your sister said to her: 'Shall I go and call for you one of the Hebrew women to care for and breastfeed this baby for you?' 8 And she said to her: 'Go.' And she went and called your mother Jochebed, and she gave her wages, and she nursed you. 9 And afterwards, when you were grown up, they brought you to the daughter of Pharaoh, and you became her son, and Amram your father taught you writing,⁠ and after you had completed three weeks they brought you into the royal court. 10 And you were three weeks of years at court [2351-2372] until the time when you went out from the royal court and saw an Egyptian striking your friend who was of the children of Israel, and you killed him and hid him in the sand.

Moses Flees from Egypt

11 And on the second day you found two of the children of Israel fighting with one another, and you said to him who was doing the wrong: 'Why do you strike your brother?' 12 And he was angry and indignant, and said: 'Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you think to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' And you feared and fled on account of these words.

Texts in conversation

Compare Jubilees 47:2 and Acts 7:19

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · New Testament

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Summary

Acts and Jubilees both add details not found in the Hebrew Bible in their retelling of Exodus, adapting the account of Pharaoh’s decree for their audiences. Acts, in particular, describes infant exposure using language common in its Greco-Roman setting.

Passages

Jubilees 47:2

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
1 And in the seventh week, in the seventh year, in the forty-seventh jubilee [2303], your father went out from the land of Canaan, and you were born in the fourth week, in the sixth year of it, in the forty-eighth jubilee [2330]; this was the time of oppression of the children of Israel. 2 And Pharaoh, king of Egypt, issued a command regarding them that they should cast all their male children which were born into the river. 3 And they cast them in for seven months until the day that you were born. And your mother hid you for three months, and she was reported. 4 And she made an ark for you, and covered it with pitch and asphalt, and placed it in the reeds on the bank of the river, and she placed you in it seven days, and your mother came by night and nursed you, and by day Miriam, your sister, guarded you from the birds.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

Acts 7:19

New Testament
17 “But as the time drew near for God to fulfill the promise he had declared to Abraham, the people increased greatly in number in Egypt, 18 until another king who did not know about Joseph ruled over Egypt. 19 This was the one who exploited our people and was cruel to our ancestors, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die. 20 At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful to God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house, 21 and when he had been abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Acts

References

"... In the New Testament period, non-Jews often left their children out to die, but Jews (and in this period, Egyptians) abhorred this practice; here Luke uses the same term often used for child abandonment, increasing revulsion for Pharaoh. In Luke’s period some rescued discarded babies, but most often reared them as slaves; it was known, however, that the biblical Pharaoh did not want babies rescued. Stephen’s hearers might think also of the wicked Gentile oppressor Antiochus Epiphanes, who killed Israel’s babies (1 Maccabees 1:61; 2 Maccabees 6:10). For Pharaoh’s mistreatment of Israelites summarized here, compare Exodus 1:9-11, 22 ..."
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2014), 338.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Jubilees 47:2 and Acts 7:19

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