I made in modem times to identify the Pharaoh into ] whose family Closes was thus introduced, but different Egyptologists have varied widely as to his name and relative position, according to their several chronologi- cal and historical schemes. See Egypt. The latest and most plausible effort in this direction is that of Osburn (in the Juur. of Sac. Lit. July, 18G0, p. 2o7 sq.), I who argues from a number of striking coincidences with the monumental records that it must have been no less than Sesostris-Kameses, the famous architectural mon- arch of the 19th dynasty, whose son Amenephthis, dying soon after his accession, was succeeded by a sister, Tlio- noris (in that case the foster-mother of Moses), who again, after a long reign, was succeeded by her nephew, Sethos II, the latter having already been associate king in Upper Egypt. This last then, if we miglit trust these precarious synchronisms, would be the Pharaoh of the exode (cp v.).
From this time for many years Jloses must be consid- ered as an Egyptian. In the Pentateuch this period is a blank, but in the N. T. he is represented as "educated (tTraicevct]) in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and as " mighty in words and deeds" (Acts vii, 22), The fol- lowing is a brief summary of the Jewish and Egyptian traditions which fill up the silence of the sacred writer. He was educated at Heliopolis (comp. Strabo, xvii, 1), and grew up there as a priest, under his Egyptian name of Osarsiph (Manetho, ap. Josephus, c. Ap. i, 2G, 28, 31) or Tisithen (Chaeremon, ib. 32). He was (according to these accounts) taught the whole range of Greek, Chaldee, and Assyrian literature. From the Egyptians especially he learned mathematics, to train his mind for the unprejudiced recciition of truth (Philo, P. .1/. i, 5). "He invented boats and engines for building — instru- ments of war and of hydraulics — hieroglyi)hics — divi- sion of lands" (Artapanus, ap. Euseb. Prwp. Kr. ix, 27). lie tauglit ( )rpheus, and was hence called by the. Greeks ^lusiviis ( //;. I. and by the Egyptians Hermes {ib.). He tauglit grannnar to the Jews, whence it spread to Phoe- nicia and Greece (Eupolemus, ap. Clem. Alexand. Strom. i, p. 343). He was sent on an expedition against the Ethiopians. He got rid of the serpents of the coun- try to be traversed by turning basketfuls of ibises upon them (Josephus, Ant. ii, 10, 2), and founded the city of Hermopolis to commemorate his victory (Artapanus, ap. Euseb. ix, 27). He advanced to Saba, the capital of Ethiopia, and gave it the name of Meroe, from his adopted mother Jlerrhis, whom he buried there {ib.\ Tharbis, the daughter of the king of Ethiopia, RU in love with him, and he returned in triumph to ICgypt with her as his wife (.Josephus, ib.). See D.AV. Moller, De Mose philosopfio (Altorf, 1707) ; Adami, Exerc. e-rcg. p. 92 sq. ; Brucker. Hist. phil. i, 78 ; J. G. ^\'alch, Obseri: in N. r. (Jen. 1727), p. 02 sq.
2. Period of ^foses's Retirement, — The nurture of his mother is probably the unmentioned link which bound him to his own people, and the time hat! at last arrived when he was resolved to reclaim his nationality. Here again the N. T. preserves the tradition in a more dis- tinct form than the account in the Pentateuch. "Closes, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer afflic- tion with the peo[)le of (iod than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures" — the ancient accumu- lated treasure of Ithamjisinitus and the old kings — "of Egypt" (Heb. xi, 24-20). In his earliest infancy he was reported to have refused the milk of li^gyptian nurses (Josephus, Ant. ii, 9, 5\ and when three years old to have trampleil under his feet the crown which Pha- raoh had playfully ]ilaced on his head {ib. 7). Accord- ing to the Alexandrian representation of Philo (P. M. i, 0), he led an ascetic life, in order to pursue his high philosophic speculations. According to the Egyptian tradition, altliough a priest of Helio])olis, he always per- formed his jimyers, in conformity witli the custom of his fathers, outside the walls of the city, in the open air,
MOSES
MOSES
turning towards the sun-rising (Josephus, Apion, ii, 2). The king was excited to hatred by the priests of Egypt, who foresaw their destroj'er (j6.), or by his own envy (Artapanus, ap. Eiiseb. Prcej). Kv. ix, 27). Various plots of assassination were contrived against him, wliich failed. The last was after he had escaped across the Nile from Memphis, warned by his brother Aaron, and when pursued by tlie assassin he killed him (<6.). The same general account of conspiracies against his life ap- pears in Josephus (.!«/. ii, 10). All that remains of these traditions in the sacred narrative is the simple and natural incident that seeing an Israelite suffering the bastinado from an Egyptian, and thinking that they were alone, he slew the Egyptian (the later tradition, preserved by Clement of Alexandria, said, " with a word of his mouth"), and buried the corpse in the sand (the sand of the desert then, as no\v^, running close up to the cultivated tract). The tire of patriotism which thus turned him into a deliverer from the oppressors, turns him in the same story into the peace-maker of the op- pressed. See J. F. ]\Iayer, Ufrum Moses yEr/i/pHum juste interfecit (Viteb. 1(585) ; Hoffmann, Moses just. ^■Ef/i/ptii pe)-cusso7- (Hal. 1776). It is characteristic of the faith- fulness of the Jewish records that his flight is there oc- casioned rather by the malignity of his countrymen than by the enmity of the Egj'ptians. So in St. Ste- phen's speech it is this part of the story which is drawn out at greater length than in the original, evidently with a view to showing the identity of the narrow spirit which had thus displayed itself equally against their first and their last Deliverer (Acts vii, 25-35). But his spirit was yet too rash and vindictive to fit him for being the meek and patient instrument of the Divine purposes. The discovery, too, of the servile and treacherous tem- per of his own compatriots disheartened him. He need- ed the bracing as well as the purifying discipline which j'ears of calm reflection and peacefid self-culture alone could give in order to make him the cool, firm, and in- dependent leader of a popular movement.