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WWJD, Knox, Jamie, and Erin TABLE OF CONTENTS

How to Use This Deep Dive 3 Episode Overview 5 Follow Along Casting Background & Timeline Handy Episode Breakdown MVBP Biggest L So What, Who Cares? Gentle Rebuke Show Notes Expanded Gentle Rebuke 10 Discussion Questions 13 Fun Facts 14 Additional Resources 15 Resources Used in the Episode Going Further Movies TV Playlist Art Bibliography 17

Notice of reproduction: If you’re a member of The Bible Binge Patreon community, this guide is 100% yours. Print it out, bind it, share it with your small group, whatever. We ask that you do not distribute this guide without purchasing it. We know you’ll do the right thing. HOW TO USE THIS DEEP DIVE

If you’re here, that means you’ve either joined our Bible Binge Patreon community OR you’re considering it. Either way, thanks for all the clicking that brought you here. We hope you like what you see. Ever since we started The Bible Binge, we’ve had requests from our listeners for more. The Bible Scholar Deep Dive is our more. Within these pages, you’ll find all the things we’ve always wanted to include in an episode, but were never able to. You’ll discover new ways to engage with the Bible, either in community or on your own. Here’s how you use this resource:

EPISODE OVERVIEW This contains the high points of the episode: scripture references, casting, timelines, timelines and backgrounds for each episode’s scripture, gentle rebukes, show notes, and more.

EXPANDED GENTLE REBUKE There’s always a good bit of Gentle Rebuke that won’t fit into the episode. You’ll get all Erin’s bonus rebukes here.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS These questions are designed to help you think about the story in new ways. They work well for small groups, family dinner tables, or just you on your own.

FUN FACTS What’s a Bible Binge episode without fun facts? Dazzle your friends and puzzle your pastor with all your newfound (albeit potentially useless) smarts.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Immerse yourself in the story by going even deeper. Here you’ll find examples of art, music, books, movies, and shows that will use your pop culture knowledge to enhance your Biblical knowledge.

Plus, as a member of our Patreon community, not only do you get this dope guide for every episode (and we’re working on past episodes as well), there’s even more Bible Binge love to go around. + Monthly QTNAs with The Bible Scholar

3 + Quarterly Ask-Us-Anything Live with Knox, Jamie, and Erin + Ad-free Episodes + Occasional Bonus Episodes like “The Nos of Church” + Plus, you just never know what else might be on the whiteboard.

This Deep Dive is meant to help you go further into these Biblical stories as a casual learner, or a wannabe scholar. You can use it as a resource for your small group, for facilitating conversation around your family dinner table, or ponder these things in your heart by yourself. Our hope is that you’re able to learn more about the Bible, whether or not you identify as spiritual or religious.

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4 Episode Overview Season 6, Episode 1: Baby

EPISODE OVERVIEW Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

FOLLOW ALONG: 1, 2:1-10 (NRSV, ESV, The Message, NIV)

CASTING Moses - Brad Pitt (as a baby) Shiphrah - Tia Mowry Puah - Tamara Mowry - Winona Ryder Oppression Pharaoh - Dax Shepard

OTHER BIBLE BINGE EPISODES REFERENCED Season 2, Episode 5: Moses, Miriam, and

BACKGROUND & TIMELINE: EXODUS The , which is the second book of the Bible, takes its name from the Ancient Greek and means “going out.” Exodus is also the second book of the , but is called , which means “Names”.

It’s difficult to pin down the exact date for the writing of Exodus, as it’s a compilation of two works which are very different from one another. “When attempting to read the book of Exodus as a unified literary work, one must acknowledge that it is being pulled in opposite directions from both sides, and the unifying factors are significantly strained.”[1]

However, many scholars believe that the writing of Exodus (and possibly the rest of the Pentatuech) began around 600 BCE, organizing existing oral and written traditions and bringing them together.

As far as when they became sacred texts in the more or less final form we know today, that probably occurred around 400 BCE.

Exodus is considered to be “historical narrative,” but it’s difficult to pin down the events chronologically. We don’t have much to go on as far as historically placing the details described in Exodus, since no one bothers to include the names of the pharaoh or identifying markers that could be helpful. We know these dates are important (Israel’s

5 Episode Overview Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses calendar was positioned around the actual exodus), but it wasn’t a sticking point to whoever was compiling these stories and turning them into we know today.

The author of Exodus clearly doesn’t want us to get bogged down in all of that. He (or she, you never know) is focused on telling the story of how fulfilled his covenant to through his offspring, and began making Abraham’s descendants a great nation.

HANDY EPISODE BREAKDOWN Moses Casting (4:52) Baby Moses and Importance of Moses (2:59) Genesis vs. Exodus (3:30) Legend of Baby Moses (5:21) Background and The Name of Moses (5:34) Principle Character Casting (6:26) Historical dating, Exodus timeline, and Pharaoh (8:00) Pharaoh Casting (9:20) Story Context (11:19) Exodus 1:6-7 (14:09) Exodus 1:8-10 (15:45) Egyptian and Mesopotamian Context (17:19) Exodus 1:11-14 (18:07) Exodus 1:15-19 (21:49) Hebrew Midwives and Egyptian Women (23:45) Exodus 1:20-22 (26:17) Exodus 2:1-4 (27:27) Exodus 2:5-10 (29:24) MVBP (32:08) Biggest L (33:29) So What, Who Cares? (34:38) Gentle Rebuke (38:11)

MOST VALUABLE BIBLE PLAYERS Jamie: Knox: Shiphrah and Puah

BIGGEST L Jamie: Pharaoh Knox: Pharaoh

6 Episode Overview Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

SO WHAT, WHO CARES? Jamie: Shiphrah and Puah: As midwives to Hebrew women, Pharaoh trusted these women. What I love about their story is that they teach us about social justice work and about being allies to those who are oppressed. They had no real reason to stand up for the Hebrews. They had every reason to kill Hebrew boys because it meant they could live. That’s so true for me too. We have to be willing to sacrifice our audience with the king (i.e. our privilege) to do what is right. They risked death to be allies to Hebrews. For us, we may have to risk losing a follower on social media or a friend in real life because we call them out for bad behavior.

Sometimes we are faced with hard decisions that violate what we know is right and we might have to risk something to do the right thing. That risk will always pay off. The scripture said God blessed the midwives with a family. We have to take the same risks to be allies to oppressed people.

Francine Klagsbrun said that the refusal of Shiphrah and Puah to follow the Pharaoh's genocidal instructions "may be the first known incident of civil disobedience in history" (Voices of Wisdom). Jonathan Magonet agrees, calling them 'the earliest, and in some ways the most powerful, examples, of resistance to an evil regime’.

Knox: So the thing that resonated the most with me in this story is the idea of Moses’s parents sending him away in the basket. They obviously loved him as they hid him for three months but they knew that eventually they were going to have to rely on their faith in releasing him to his own fate.

Now obviously that doesn’t mean they just flung him in the water and hoped for the best.

No, they still made sure to waterproof the basket and strategically wait until the Pharaoh’s daughter was bathing. They also made sure that Miriam was around to do a little conwoman work.

They could do as much prep work as they wanted, but eventually, they had to send that basket down the river and rely on God.

Where this hit home for me was that in actual, actionable faith - that’s really hard for me. I prefer it to be theoretical or intangible.

“Like yes of course I totally have faith so no need to trust me on that, okthanksbye.”

7 Episode Overview Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

When it comes to the basket of my destiny, I’d rather just hold onto it and take my chances with myself, but eventually we’re all called into moments where we have to remove ourselves from the narrative and rely on what we believe.

Because if you aren’t willing to send that basket down the river, do have a faith or just a talking point?

THE GENTLE REBUKE

Moses’s Name There are a couple of commentators who posit the idea that “Moses” is an amalgam of the ancient Egyptian words for “child of” and “water”, making his name mean “child of water”, born or water, or metaphorically drawn out of the water.

So did Moses write these books or what? It’s true that tradition states that Moses is the author of the Torah, or the Pentatuech, but when these books were written, authorship was a “largely unknown concept.” Lots of ancient works, such as Gilgamesh, have no author. [2] It was only after came into contact with Greek works that began to find or assign authors for their scriptures. This tradition probably got started with the , moved on to the more extensive laws, and then ended up at “Moses wrote all this!” It really took off in the Babylonian Talmud, where rabbis dove deep into how Moses received divine revelation, how he curated and passed it down to later generations, and most notably, how he could have written his death if he was the sole author [3]. The common scholarly view today is that the Pentateuch is not the work of one single author writing at one time, but was composed over several centuries by people responding to different circumstances [4]. Whoever the final compiler was, he or she wove these pieces together to create what we now know as the Books of Moses. However, the idea that Moses authored the Torah is an article of traditional Jewish faith and for some .

Whether or not Moses sat down at the end of his life and wrote these out doesn’t negate or weaken the first five books of the Bible. Robert Alter states often that the point is not, nor was it ever intended to be, that Moses wrote the books. The point is the content, the story, and what it tells us about the character of God and His people.

Hebrew midwives or Egyptians midwives to Hebrews?

8 Episode Overview Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

There is a lot of speculation and theory surrounding two of the most mysterious women in the Torah: Shiphrah and Puah. Let’s take some of the most popular one by one:

1. Shiphrah and Puah were code names for and Miriam.

2. Shiphrah and Puah were code names for Jochebed and Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, wife of Aaron, Moses’s brother. This doesn’t get a ton of traction, but there’s no real reason why it’s less of a possibility than other of the other theories.

So either of these are obviously here for the idea that the midwives were Hebrew, and this is backed up by verse 21, when God establishes households for the midwives because of their dissent towards Pharoah.

3. There is another rabbinic tradition holds that Shiphrah and Puah were Egyptian midwives and true converts to .

We get a lot of speculation and commentary on the midwives rewards for being God- fearing, mainly that they were the progenitors of godly men: from Puahh descended Bezalel, who built the , and also is one of her descendants but these are based on Puahh being a code name of sorts for Miriam.

In the Anchor Bible commentary, William Propp writes that he sides with the midwives of Hebrew descent theory for two reasons: Shiphrah and Puah are not Egyptian names, but either Hebrew or a close-enough related dialect, and their defiance of Pharaoh, who, like Knox mentioned, was considered to be a god. He’s correct that their names are not Egyptian, however, an Egyptian papyrus from around year 1700 BCE gives a list of the names of Egyptian household servants, and over half the names are Semitic, and Shiphrah is included, indicating that these names were clearly known in .

There is a LOT of evidence both ways, and probably at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. However, I am going to go into some of these theories a little more robustly in the Expanded Gentle Rebuke, should trying to decipher the nationality of two midwives from be your thing.

What is a birth stool? Since Jamie asked, the Hebrew word for “birth stool” as found in Exodus 1:16 means “two stones.” Birthing stools are actually still used, though not with the same popularity. The birth stool mentioned here would have referred to pretty much just two bricks or stones placed under the buttocks of a woman in labor. She would then squat on the bricks and let gravity

9 Expanded Gentle Rebuke Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

EXPANDED GENTLE REBUKE

Moses and Sargon and Osarseph There are a couple of stories that bear striking similarities to the Moses legend, notably Sargon and Osarseph. Sargon the Great was the founder of the Akkadian Empire, and central character in probably one of the earliest and most popular legends pre-Moses. Sargon’s mother was unable to keep him, so she placed him in a basket sealed with tar and pitch, and let him go on the Euphrates River. Sargon was also rescued by someone on the river and adopted into the family. Sargon’s legend, which was either transcribed by Sargon himself as a type of autobiographical record of his reign, or recorded by someone fairly close to his time, came first chronologically, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the author of Exodus borrowed themes from Sargon when telling Moses’s story. Of course, it also doesn’t mean that the author didn’t.

The story of Osarseph was first written by an Egyptian historian named Manetho, whose original work has been lost, which was then expounded upon by Jospehus (a contemporary- ish of ) in one of his works. Osarseph was a legendary Egyptian who, according to Manetho, led an army of lepers and various other unclean people in a revolt against a Pharaoh. Then, towards the end of the story, Osarseph changes his name to...wait for it...Moses. Josephus goes even further, saying that the rebel army that Osarseph led were the Jews, but Jospehus is literally the only person saying that, and it doesn’t look like that’s founded on any factual evidence.

Moses in the Bible vs. Other Major Faith Traditions Moses plays a huge role in not only the faith stories of Christians and Jews, but he also features as an important prophet in and Bahai (actually he’s mentioned more than anyone else, including Mohammed, in the Qur’an). In Moses’s Torah birth story, Yahweh is not mentioned a single time, where in the Qur’an, is a major character involved with every aspect of the story. In the Qur’an, it’s not Pharoah’s daughter, but Pharoah’s wife, Asiya, who finds Moses (or Musa, as he’s referred to in this text), and when Asiya gave him to a , Musa refused, because God had forbidden him from being fed by a wet nurse, so that he would be reunited with his mother.

More on Shiphrah and Puah Like I mentioned, rabbinical traditions and midrash speak extensively about the true identities of Shiphrah and Puah. Let’s jump back in:

10 Expanded Gentle Rebuke Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

Are these women Hebrew or Egyptian? Some rabbinical traditions think that we can suss this identity question out by looking at the excuse the midwives give to in verse 19: “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous.” Their argument is that this means Egyptian women were subject to act as midwives to their own people, as well as to the Hebrews, since when a midwife gives birth, she also need a midwife.

The word used here defined as “vigorous” is hayyot, which can mean a couple different things: vigorous or beast or creature-like. Rabbis here are arguing that the midwives are telling Pharaoh that the Hebrew women are like beasts, and don’t need the help of midwives. Wilda Gafney paraphrases this as “The Hebrew women are brutish, animalistic — not refined, like Egyptian women. The babies just plop out of them.” There’s some intense commentary on how this relates back to Genesis 49, when is blessing his sons and basically all of them get compared to beasts (as a side note, this also parallels with the idea that Genesis and the first part of Exodus were written or compiled by the same person).

The last bit of “evidence” is that within their conversations with Pharaoh, both the midwives and Pharaoh refer to the Hebrews as other (actually calling them “the Hebrews”), which could be taken as an implication that the midwives weren’t a part of that group.

So that’s been the traditional thought process (plus what was mentioned in the episode’s Gentle Rebuke), but a “recent” discovery has perhaps given the “midwives are definitely Egyptian” theory more weight.

The Cairo genizah is a treasure-trove (it’s over 300,000 Jewish manuscript fragments) of documents dating from around 1000 CE, discovered (pretty much) in 1896. One of these fragments is a midrash containing a list of “righteous gentile women.” The list includes ’s Egyptian wife, Asenath, Pharaoh’s daughter that saved Moses from the basket, Tziporah (Moses’ wife), Rahab, Ruth, and...you guessed it: Shiphrah and Puah. This fragment, while crazy old, is still thousands of years removed from Moses’ time, but it does give us insight to how long some of these theories have been holding water.

One final theory comes from a named Malbim, who was a biblical commentator and master of Hebrew grammar, which SHOUTS TO MALBIM, that sounds lonely. Malbim has probably the most interesting thought process for this investigation: he believed that Shiphrah and Puah were not even names, but titles. Shiphrah’s job was to help the mother through the labor process, and Puah’s job was to cut the cord and get the baby situated. Malbim also concludes that Pharaoh addressed many midwives (since lots of midwives could have the titles of Shiphrah and Puah), and that they were God-fearing Egyptian women.

11 Expanded Gentle Rebuke Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

How dumb is Pharaoh? There’s just a great story in rabbinical tradition that relates how when Pharaoh decided to kill all the Hebrew boy babies, God came down from heaven to call him an idiot. “Whoever gave you this counsel is a fool. You should have killed the females. If there are no females, from where will the males take wives? One woman cannot marry two men, but one man can marry ten or a hundred women!” (Rabbah) Oh Dax! One of the great ironies of killing the boys and thinking that would solve his problems is that it was the girls who were leading the creative rebellion against Pharaoh.

12 Discussion Questions Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

These questions are meant to help you think beyond the episode, and are created for any kind of use: small groups, family dinners, drinks with friends, or for you personally.

Knowing what we know about the authorship of Exodus and that Moses (more than likely) did not write all of this book, does that change the way you consider the text? Why or why not?

Who did you relate to the most in today’s episode? Why?

Did you learn anything new about Moses’s origin story in today’s episode? What?

In what ways did Moses’ birth mirror the birth of Jesus?

Why do you think Pharaoh commanded the midwives to treat the boys differently than the girls?

Have you had the opportunity to stand up for someone being oppressed? What did you do? What could you have done differently?

Moses’s parents were faced with a heartbreaking reality of having to hand over their son in hopes that he could escape death and have a better life for himself. What is the aspect of your life that you have the most difficulty handing over to either God or someone else?

What is something you previously knew about this story that you saw in a different light after listening to this episode?

The episode discusses the tension of the being enslaved but God using that to prepare their population for the promised land. What is a bad thing in your life that God has made good? What is a bad thing in your life right now that you want to ask God to make good?

13 Fun Facts Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

FUN FACTS What’s a Bible Binge episode without the fun facts? Here’s all the goodness we couldn’t fit into the episode.

Wet nurses worked/breastfed their charges for between 2-4 years.

It’s possible that Moses was a “prince” of Egypt, but just because you were Pharaoh’s daughter did not mean you lived the bougie life. We don’t have evidence that this particular daughter was legitimate, or if she even had any power. We assume she was somewhat powerful because she was able to keep Moses, but it’s just as likely she was one of Pharaoh’s concubine’s daughters. It’s also important to remember that Pharaoh’s daughter stood up to her father’s policies as well.

The account of Moses is the only place in the Bible that details a baby crying.

If you’re a math major, you might be trying to figure out how were able to turn into thousands of Hebrew slaves in the span of three or four generations. Don’t worry: Friend of the Show, midrashic commentator Rashi has got you covered. He posits that 66 Jewish males “descended to Egypt, along with many women” and that, at that point in history, all Jewish mothers were having sextuplets.

Val Kilmer voiced both Moses and God in Prince of Egypt. The directors originally had all the major voice actors read God’s lines, but when they go to Val Kilmer’s voice, they decided they needed something stronger, which is why you can hear Kilmer’s voice over the whispers. It’s rumored that Charlton Heston also played both parts in The Ten Commandments.

Both Val Kilmer and Christian Bale have played Batman, as well as Moses. Ralph Fiennes, who voices Ramses, voiced Batman’s trusted manservant, Alfred, in The Lego Movie.

14 Additional Resources Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Is this not enough for you? We understand. Go real deep with more books, movies, articles, shows, art, and music to really fill out the story.

RESOURCES USED FOR THIS EPISODE NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible ESV Study Bible Who Were Shiphrah and Pua - Chabad NIV Study Bible Traditional Midrash Shiphrah: Midrash and Aggadah - Jewish Women’s Archive Moses - Ancient History Encyclopedia How the Bible Became a Book by William M. Schiedewind Essential Torah: A Complete Guide to the Five Books of Moses by George Robinson Reading the Pentatuech: A Historical Introduction by John J. McDermott Preaching the Women of the Old Testament: Who They Were and Why They Matter by Lynn Japinga Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne by Wilda C. Gafney

GOING FURTHER Moses: In the Footsteps of the Reluctant Prophet by Hamilton by Moses: A Life by Jonathan Kirsh Moses, Servant of God by FB Meyer Moses: A Human Life (Jewish Lives) by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg Moses and the of Egypt: Studies in Exodus by John J. Davis Jochebed: Midrash and Aggadah - Jewish Women’s Archive Jochebed: Bible - Jewish Women’s Archive

MOVIES The Ten Commandments Prince of Egypt Exodus: Gods and Kings

TV Battles BC

15 Additional Resources Season 6, Episode 1: Baby Moses

The Bible

PLAYLIST Listen to our season playlist on any of these platforms.

Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

ART Enjoy curated visual meditations from different artists around the world. Visit thebiblebinge.com/bbpatreons6 and enter the password: burningbush

16 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1 - McEntire, Mark (2008). Struggling with God: An Introduction to the Pentateuch. 2 - Schniedewind, William M. How the Bible Became a Book: The Textualization of Ancient Israel 3 - Robinson, George. Essential Torah: A Complete Guide to the Five Books of Moses 4 - McDermott, John J. Reading the Pentatuech: A Historical Introduction

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