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"Josephus adds a prophecy to Moses’s birth about a Hebrew child who will free Israel, not found in Exodus. A similar tradition is found in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, suggesting Josephus used it to explain why Pharaoh wanted to kill the Hebrew infants.
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Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 2.9
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.
Date: 93-94 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Pseudo Jonathan Exodus 1:15
Targum
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. 17 And he said, 'When you act as midwives for the Jewish women, you shall look at the birthstool: if it is a male child, you shall kill him; but if it is a female child, she shall live.' 18 But the midwives feared before the Lord, and they did not do as the king of Egypt told them but let the sons live.
Date: 300-1200 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Compare Josephus Antiquities II.ix.2; The Chronicles of Moses (Gaster, 106); Sefer Ha-Yashar 67 (210) ... compare also b. Sanhedrin 101b; Pirkei DeRabbi Eleazar 48 (377); Exodus Rabbah 1:18. Compare also with Genesis 41:8 ..."
* 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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