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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 Exagoge 34 and Jubilees 47:9

Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

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Summary

In the Exagoge, a retelling of the Exodus as a Greek tragedy, Moses learns his ancestry from his mother before entering the palace, which is how he knows he is a Hebrew. In Jubilees, his father Amram teaches him at home instead, before he goes to court.

Passages

Exagoge 34

Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry · Ezekiel the Tragedian
28 Then Pharaoh's daughter said, "Take this child 29 and nurse him, and I will pay your wages." 30 She gave me the name Moses, to record 31 that she had drawn me out of the river. 32 When my infancy was over, 33 my mother brought me to the princess's palace, 34 but first she told me the whole story of my birth 35 and family, and of God's gifts to us long ago. 36 Then all through my boyhood the princess 37 raised me as if I were her own son, 38 with a royal upbringing and education. 39 But when the full cycle of days had passed, 40 I left the palace, driven to great deeds 41 by my own heart and by the king's design.
200–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Exagoge

Jubilees 47:9

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
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.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

“... In Exodus, Moses is brought by his mother to the royal palace. It is not said in the biblical text how long his mother took care of him (Exod 2.9e-10b: ‘The woman took the child, she nursed him, the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter’). In Jubilees, it is said twice that Moses was brought to Pharaoh’s daughter, without the mother being mentioned in this respect. The first time an indefinite formulation is used: ‘Afterwards, when you had grown up, you were brought to the Pharaoh’s daughter’. Shortly after this, the father is named explicitly as the one who brought Moses to the court: ‘He (= your father Amram) brought you into the royal court’ (Jub 47.9e). Moreover, the text makes clear at what age Moses went to Pharaoh’s daughter. He was 21 years old (Jub 47.9d: ‘after you had completed three weeks’). This makes clear that, according to Jubilees, Moses got his earliest education not in the palace of Pharaoh, but in his own house, by his own father (Jub 47.9c: ‘your father Amram taught you the art of writing’). This resolves a problem that the biblical text does not answer, namely how does Moses become aware that he was one of the Israelites? But there is something more. He could use his skill to write the Book of Jubilees. Moreover, the notion that Moses’ father Amram taught him the art of writing seems to be at odds with a tradition that reports on Moses’ education in Egyptian wisdom. However, it is consistent in the Book of Jubilees, and it puts Moses on one line with all the patriarchs. [...] Ezekiel the Tragedian recounts that it was his mother who told Moses about his descent: ‘My mother brought me to the princess’ palace, after telling me all about my lineage and God’s gifts’ (Exagoge 33-35). ...”
Jacques T.A.G.M. van Ruiten, “The Birth of Moses in Egypt According to the Book of Jubilees,” in The Wisdom of Egypt: Jewish, Early Christian, and Gnostic Essays in Honour of Gerard P. Luttikhuizen, ed. Anthony Hilhorst and George H. van Kooten, AJEC 59 (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 62–63.

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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Exagoge 34 and Jubilees 47:9

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