Biblical History involves collecting facts and interesting information about the characters and times recorded in the bible. My blog is not religious its factual history based on the accounts of biblical times, so be advised I will not add any religious overview, and all content can be read directly from the bible at your own convenience.
Moses, known for his relationship with God, his inspired historical book writing (namely the first five Bible books) and the story of his survival from the Genocide authorised by Pharaoh.
His story is well known by many. Recently a question was put before me that I was greatly intrigued by.
Who named Moses? Is the name Egyptian or Hebrew?
To answer these questions I turned to my main source of biblical knowledge, The Bible. The account of Moses being drawn out of the water by Pharaohs daughter is found in the book of Exodus.
Exodus 2:5-10
5. After a while Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the Nile River, and her female attendants were walking by the side of the Nile River. And she caught sight of the ark in the middle of the reeds. Immediately she sent her slave girl that she might get it.
6. When she opened it she got to see the child, and here the boy was weeping. At that she felt compassion for him, although she said: "This is one of the children of the Hebrews."
7. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter: "Shall I go and specially call for you a nursing woman from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?"
8. So Pharaoh's daughter said to her: "Go!" At once the maiden went and called the child's mother.
9. Pharaoh's daughter then said to her: "Take this child with you and nurse him for me, and I myself shall give you your wages." Accordingly the woman took the child and nursed him.
10. And the child grew up. Then she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, so that he became a son to her; and she proceeded to call his name Moses and to say: "It is because I have drawn him out of water."
Pharaoh's daughter in fact named Moses, as shown in verse 10. This is fascinating as to the meaning of Moses' name 'Drawn out of water.'
In Hebrew Moses does in fact mean "Drawn out; Saved out of water." But Pharaohs daughter is Egyptian so there is some debate among scholars as to the source of the name Moses.
The bible account shows us that Pharaoh's daughter had Hebrew female attendants, one of them being Moses sister, so she may have known some of the Hebrew language.
A historian name Flavius Josephus argued that Moses was actually a compound of two Egyptian words meaning "water" and "saved".
Its difficult to say in which case is right, as neither Ancient Hebrew or Egyptian are spoken today and the pronunciation is unsure.
As verse 10 also indicates that the nurse had Moses until "the child grew up" we may never know Moses original birth name. Neither will we know in what language the name Moses was given.
We do know that the account of Moses survival and miracles performed is a record that will be read for generations to come!
