{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"drop-cap p-left\">Moses, originally of a Chaldean<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1048\" id=\"FNanchor_1048\">[1048]</a> family, was born in Egypt, his\r\nancestors having migrated from Babylon into Egypt on account of a\r\nprotracted famine. Born in the seventh generation,<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1049\" id=\"FNanchor_1049\">[1049]</a> and having\r\nreceived a royal education, the following are the circumstances of his\r\nhistory. The Hebrews having increased in Egypt to a great multitude,\r\nand the king of the country being afraid of insurrection in consequence\r\nof their numbers, he ordered all the female children born to the\r\nHebrews to be reared (woman being unfit for war), but the male to be\r\ndestroyed, being suspicious of stalwart youth. But the child being\r\ngoodly, his parents nursed him secretly three months, natural affection\r\nbeing too strong for the monarch’s cruelty. But at last, dreading lest\r\nthey should be destroyed along with the child, they made a basket of\r\nthe papyrus that grew there, put the child in it, and laid it on the\r\nbanks of the marshy river. The child’s sister stood at a distance, and\r\nwatched what would happen. In this emergency, the king’s daughter, who\r\nfor a long time had not been pregnant, and who longed for a child,\r\ncame that day to the river to bathe and wash herself; and hearing the\r\nchild cry, she ordered it to be brought to her; and touched with pity,\r\nsought a nurse. At that moment the child’s sister ran up, and said\r\nthat, if she wished, she could procure for her as nurse one of the\r\nHebrew<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_451\">[451]</span> women who had recently had a child. And on her consenting and\r\ndesiring her to do so, she brought the child’s mother to be nurse for\r\na stipulated fee, as if she had been some other person. Thereupon the\r\nqueen gave the babe the name of Moses, with etymological propriety,\r\nfrom his being drawn out of “the water,”—for the Egyptians call water\r\n“mou,”—in which he had been exposed to die. For they call Moses one\r\nwho “who breathed [on being taken] from the water.” It is clear that\r\npreviously the parents gave a name to the child on his circumcision;\r\nand he was called Joachim. And he had a third name in heaven, after\r\nhis ascension, as the mystics say—Melchi. Having reached the proper\r\nage, he was taught arithmetic, geometry, poetry, harmony, and besides,\r\nmedicine and music, by those that excelled in these arts among the\r\nEgyptians; and besides, the philosophy which is conveyed by symbols,\r\nwhich they point out in the hieroglyphical inscriptions. The rest of\r\nthe usual course of instruction, Greeks taught him in Egypt as a royal\r\nchild, as Philo says in his life of Moses. He learned, besides, the\r\nliterature of the Egyptians, and the knowledge of the heavenly bodies\r\nfrom the Chaldeans and the Egyptians; whence in the Acts<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1050\" id=\"FNanchor_1050\">[1050]</a> he is\r\nsaid “to have been instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” And\r\nEupolemus, in his book <i>On the Kings in Judea</i>, says that “Moses\r\nwas the first wise man, and the first that imparted grammar to the\r\nJews, that the Phenicians received it from the Jews, and the Greeks\r\nfrom the Phenicians.” And betaking himself to their philosophy,<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1051\" id=\"FNanchor_1051\">[1051]</a>\r\nhe increased his wisdom, being ardently attached to the training\r\nreceived from his kindred and ancestors, till he struck and slew the\r\nEgyptian who wrongfully attacked the Hebrew. And the mystics say\r\nthat he slew the Egyptian by a word only; as, certainly, Peter in\r\nthe Acts is related to have slain by speech those who appropriated\r\npart of the price of the field, and lied.<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1052\" id=\"FNanchor_1052\">[1052]</a> And so Artapanus, in\r\nhis work <i>On the Jews</i>, relates “that Moses, being shut up in\r\ncustody by<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_452\">[452]</span> Nechephres,<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1053\" id=\"FNanchor_1053\">[1053]</a> king of the Egyptians, on account of\r\nthe people demanding to be let go from Egypt, the prison being opened\r\nby night, by the interposition of God, went forth, and reaching the\r\npalace, stood before the king as he slept, and aroused him; and that\r\nthe latter, struck with what had taken place, bade Moses tell him the\r\nname of the God who had sent him; and that he, bending forward, told\r\nhim in his ear; and that the king on hearing it fell speechless, but\r\nbeing supported by Moses, revived again.” And respecting the education\r\nof Moses, we shall find a harmonious account in Ezekiel, the composer\r\nof Jewish tragedies in the drama entitled <i>The Exodus</i>. He thus\r\nwrites in the person of Moses:</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","THE MISCELLANIES.","BOOK I.","CHAPTER XXIII. THE AGE, BIRTH, AND LIFE OF MOSES."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_1053","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-815"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"844d79116662e4065c8ebaf6da9745ff5830714b7ef5cbddeadae89e9265b207","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_1053","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1867 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_1053","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1053\" id=\"Footnote_1053\">[1053]</a> Or Chenephres.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_1053","text_sha256":"1707825eac298cc5c048a8fe4e00bdbbe3d518226be672ec6f54fb979202ffa6","verified":false,"work_id":null}