Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Divine birth: The birth of Moses

 Moses was born in the year 2377 after the creation of the world. He was born circumcised, and was able to walk immediately after his birth; but according to another story he was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. A peculiar and glorious light filled the entire house at his birth, indicating that he was worthy of the gift of prophecy. He spoke with his father and mother on the day of his birth, and prophesied at the age of three. His mother kept his birth secret for three months, when Pharaoh was informed that she had borne a son. The mother put the child into a casket, which she hid among the reeds of the sea before the king’s officers came to her. For seven days his mother went at night to nurse him, his sister Miriam protecting him from the birds by day.

Pharoah’s daughter finds baby Moses, 1638
Nicolas Poussin
Oil on canvas
Louvre, Paris, France
Moses lowered by his mother into the Nile, 1839-42
Alexey Tyranov

And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side: and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” And the maid went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.” And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
Excerpt from Exodus 2:1-10 (KJV)


George Dunea, MD, Editor-in-Chief

Highlighted in Frontispiece Fall 2012 – Volume 4, Issue 4

2 responses

  1. No body comes to this world circumcised.

  2. You make some very strong claims yet provide no verifiable evidence to back up those claims. These type of fantastic claims help shed light on why God buried Moses’ bones, because He knew that the Israelites would have worshipped his bones above and beyond their worship of God – much like your article, where you assign near divinity to Moses. Moses was a man, and there was only one man who was born divine, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ.

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