Problems of the name Moshe in the Exodus narrative

 

Praise be to God and prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of God. As for what follows: The Book of Exodus
begins in the second chapter by narrating the story of the birth of Moses, peace be upon him, to a Levite man and woman. Then his mother places him on the edge of the river, and the child arrives close to the palace of Pharaoh, so Pharaoh’s daughter orders her maid to bring him to her. Then Pharaoh’s daughter leaves the child with a Hebrew woman until he grows up and then returns with him to Pharaoh’s daughter. She calls his name Moshe, saying, “I pulled him out of the water.” The naming text came in Exodus 2:10 and says: וַֽיְהִי־לָ֖הּ לְבֵ֑ן וַתִּקְרָ֤א שְׁמוֹ֙ מֹשֶׁ֔ה וַתֹּ֕אמֶר כִּ֥י The son grew , and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter; and he became her son, and she called his name Moshe מֹשֶׁה "Moshe" and said, "Because I drew him out of the water" מְשִׁיתִֽהוּ "Mishithu" Here Pharaoh's daughter says I drew him "Mishithu" so I call him Moshe; and this method of naming is prevalent in the Old Testament as is known. During this story we stop at two important points: 1- How does the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt name the boy she adopts with a Hebrew name?! 2- Is the name Moshe appropriate for the context of the naming?! First: No one can imagine that the daughter of the Pharaoh would name the boy who would live in her palace and become her son = name him with a Hebrew name; it is logical to name him with an Egyptian name. To get out of this dilemma, some have suggested that the one who named the boy with this name is the boy’s mother and not the daughter of the Pharaoh; therefore, it is logical that his name be in the mother tongue, i.e. Hebrew; this is wrong because the text clearly states that the one who gave the name is the same one who pulled the boy out of the water, and of course the one who pulled it out was not Moses’ sister or mother. Today, scholars agree, as Hamilton says, that the boy’s name must be Egyptian, and most of them believe that it is derived from the word “mes” which means “born” in the ancient Egyptian language. Victor Hamilton says: The consensus today is that “Moses” goes back to an Egyptian root, which is ms “child,” mss “ to be born.” The marginal comment of the NET translation reads: The naming provides the climax and summary of the story. The name of “Moses” (מֹשֶׁה, mosheh) is explained by “I have drawn him (מְשִׁיתִהוּ, méshitihu) from the water.” It appears that the noun is etymologically connected to the verb in the saying, which is from מָשָׁה (mashah, “to draw out”). But commentators have found it a little difficult that the explanation of the name by the daughter of Pharaoh is in Hebrew when the whole background is Egyptian (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 20). Translation: "The name Moses "מֹשֶׁ� Moshe" is explained as "I pulled him out of the water" so it seems that the name

















Etymologically related to the aforementioned verb, which is derived from the root מָשָׁה "to pull out", but commentators have found a bit of difficulty in explaining how Pharaoh's daughter could give the boy a Hebrew name when the background is entirely Egyptian!"
Second: Is the name Moshe appropriate to the context of the name? As we mentioned, the text says that Pharaoh's daughter named him Moshe because she pulled him out of the water; and there is a great similarity between the word Moshe and the verb Meshitehu, which means pulled out, and is from the root מָשָׁה "to pull out"; and through this story it becomes clear that the name Moshe must mean pulled out in the passive participle form, which is what most people who do not know Hebrew might think; and this is claimed by the applied interpretation of the Bible, which says: "And when the boy grew, she returned him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she adopted him and called him Moses (which means pulled out)" This is incorrect, since the word Moshe מֹשֶׁה means pulled out In Hebrew the proper name “Moses” is a Qal active participle (masculine/singular) of the verb māšâ “to draw (out),” and hence is to be translated as “drawer out” or “he who draws out.” ...If such were the case, we would expect the name given to the infant by the daughter of Pharaoh to be, not mošeh “he who draws out,” but māšūy “He who is drawn out,” i.e., a participle that is passive in form. In Hebrew, the name Moses is a participle from the verb māšū “to pull out,” so the name should be translated “the puller” or “the one who pulls out. ” A Handbook on Exodus states: “ She named him Moses, probably an Egyptian name based on the Egyptian mose, meaning “son of.” But as the 2:10 TEV footnote points out, Moses sounds like the Hebrew for “pull out.” The Hebrew form of the name is Mosheh, a participle meaning “one who pulls out” rather than “one who is pulled out,” which would be mashuy. She called his name Moses; perhaps this is a name from the Egyptian root mōšeh, meaning son; but according to the TEV’s marginal note on the text, which notes that the name sounds like the Hebrew “anṭashīh,” the Hebrew form of the name Mosheh is a participle meaning “one who pulls out,” not “one who is pulled out,” which would be mashuy. J. K. HOFFMEIER in The World’s Standard Bible Encyclopedia states: It might be expected that Moses’ name would appear in the passive form since he was “drawn out ” of the water. In fact it is written in the active voice (mōšeh). It was expected that the name Moses would appear in the passive participle form since he was pulled out of the water. In fact, the name is in the active participle form, Musa.












In the marginal note on the text in the NET translation we read:
the Hebrew spelling of the name is the form of the active participle (“the one who draws out”); to be a precise description it should have been spelled מָשׁוּי (mashuy), the passive participle (“the one drawn out”).
Translation:
"The Hebrew spelling of the name gives us the active participle form "the one who pulls out" but the name should have been מָשׁוּי Mashvi, that is, in the passive participle form to mean "the one who pulls out". The bottom line of all these quotes is that the novel has several problems: 1- Pharaoh's daughter could not have called the boy by a Hebrew name, contrary to what the novelist claims. 2- The form of the name Moshe does not conform to the novel and should have been Mashvi to be consistent with the novel. This defect is the result of long ages of manipulation, change and distortion, the extent of which is known only to God Almighty; and praise be to God, the Perfecter of blessings.


A RELATED TOPIC HAS BEEN UPLOADED WITH NAME OF MOSHE OR MOSES