\nthat’s where today’s story starts. \u00a0Pharaoh is said to be worried
\nthat the Hebrews are going to overtake the Egyptians (a common way
\nthat oppressors justify inhumane treatment). \u00a0Since the midwives
\nwon’t kill the baby boys at birth, he orders that all Hebrew baby
\nboys be thrown into the Nile at birth. \u00a0As I mentioned when
\ndiscussing the midwives, \u201cIt took me entirely too long to figure
\nout why the boys were to be killed. \u00a0I was thinking of males as
\nespecially strong laborers in the fields, and wondered why you’d want
\nto have fewer of them. \u00a0If you wanted fewer descendants, I thought,
\nwhy not kill the girls who have the babies and leave the workers?
\nOur Bible Study participants responded that the death of the male
\nbabies meant that the females would be sexually available to the
\nEgyptians, and they’d presume that as half-Egyptian \u2013 the next
\ngeneration would be more pliable and ‘better.’ \u00a0The participants in
\nthe Bible Study figured this out by considering American slave
\nhistory.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nThis “Sargon, It \tHowever, \tAlso, \tThe \tWhether \tMeanwhile, \tMoses’s \tIn \tThis \tSo, \tThe <\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n 1<\/a>\u00a0 Sermon 2<\/a>https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sargon_of_Akkad#cite_ref-46<\/a> \n\t3<\/a>\u00a0J.B. —<\/p>\n Rev. Sara E. Baron<\/p>\n First United Methodist Church of Schenectady<\/p>\n 603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305<\/p>\n Pronouns: she\/her\/hers<\/p>\n http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a> <\/p>\n July 30, 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nstory is an old story. \u00a0Order than even the version we have.
\nScholars say this story about the birth of Moses is an adaptation of
\na story that was already ancient in his time. \u00a0Sargon
\nof Akkad, believed to live in the 23rd<\/sup>
\nor 24th<\/sup>
\ncentury\u00ad before the common era, was a ruler of the Akkadian
\nEmpire. \u00a0According to Wikipedia (which is sometimes much pithier in
\nexplaining things than any other format), \u00a0\u201cA Neo-Assyrian text
\nfrom the 7th century BC purporting to be Sargon’s autobiography
\nasserts that the great king was the illegitimate son of a priestess.
\nOnly the beginning of the text (the first two columns) are known,
\nfrom the fragments of three manuscripts. The first fragments were
\ndiscovered as early as 1850.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a>
\n So this story was ALSO written down many centuries after it
\nhappened, which means we can’t be certain what it sounded like in the
\ntime of Moses, but it is the best piece of comparison available. The
\ntext is found the book \u201cThe Ancient Near East\u201d and reads:<\/p>\n\n
\n\t\t\tthe mighty king, king of Agade, am I.
My
\n\t\t\tmother was a changeling, my father I knew not.
The
\n\t\t\tbrother(s) of my father loved the hills.
My
\n\t\t\tcity is Azupiranu, which is situated on the banks of the
\n\t\t\tEuphrates.
My
\n\t\t\tchangeling mother conceived me, in secret she bore me.
She
\n\t\t\tset me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid.
She
\n\t\t\tcast me into the river which rose not (over) me,
The
\n\t\t\triver bore me up and carried me to Akki, the drawer of
\n\t\t\twater.
Akki,
\n\t\t\tthe drawer of water lifted me out as he dipped his e[w]er.
Akki,
\n\t\t\tthe drawer of water, [took me] as his son (and) reared me.
Akki,
\n\t\t\tthe drawer of water, appointed me as his gardener,
While
\n\t\t\tI was a gardener,\u00a0Ishtar<\/a>\u00a0granted
\n\t\t\tme (her) love,”3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n\tseems likely that the myth of Sargon’s birth was adapted to explain
\n\tthe birth of Moses. \u00a0The similarities are pretty obvious, including
\n\tnaming that Moses came from a family of Levites, the holy tribe from
\n\twhich later priests would emerge, while Sargon was the son of a holy
\n\tpriestess. \u00a0The whole thrown in a river part is obviously similar,
\n\tas is the emphasis on \u201cdrawing out\u201d the child from the water,
\n\tand raising him as the son of the one who drew him out. \u00a0The Sargon
\n\tstory explicitly states that he was loved by a powerful goddess, the
\n\tMoses story is the opening to a long narrative about being specially
\n\tchosen by YHWH.<\/p>\n
\n\twhen we have likely source material, the interesting part is not the
\n\tsimilarities, it is the differences. \u00a0The differences here are
\n\tastounding. \u00a0Of course, the Moses story feels more complete, for one
\n\tthing. \u00a0It is since the stone on which the Sargon birth story is
\n\twritten is incomplete. \u00a0But we also have a reason for Moses being
\n\tput in the river (the decree of Pharaoh), and a masterful turn at
\n\tthe end that the one who decreed that baby Hebrew boys be put in the
\n\triver is the one in whose household the baby is raised. \u00a0The format
\n\tof the story that we have now was polished over many years into an
\n\texcellently crafted final form.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tthe Sargon birth story has a more limited role for human women: his
\n\tmother gives birth and puts him in the basket. \u00a0The Moses birth
\n\tstory is an intricate weaving of the actions and intentions of THREE
\n\twomen, and of whom could easily be \u201cthe\u201d subversive woman of the
\n\ttoday’s story. \u00a0Moses’s mother is not just the woman who birthed
\n\thim. \u00a0She is the one who notices he is an especially fine baby, and
\n\tdecides to try to save him. She keeps him hidden at home for three
\n\tmonths. \u00a0And then she carefully crafts the waterproof basket she
\n\tlays him in. \u00a0To this point the story is similar enough to Sargon’s,
\n\tbut at the same time, the story seems to want us to believe that God
\n\ttakes care of where the basket floats off to, and wants us to deduce
\n\tthat God put the basket in the sight-line of the Egyptian princess.
\n\tPersonally, I think that loving mother who risked her own life for
\n\ther son and carefully crafted the basket ALSO would have tried to
\n\tmake sure the basket went to a good place, but I do think the faith
\n\ttradition tells it so we think of it as God’s hand at work. \u00a0On a
\n\trelated note, I think this proactive mother might have instructed
\n\ther daughter to watch over it! \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tstory doesn’t tell us if babies in waterproof baskets were often
\n\tfloating down the Nile, but the constraints of the story (that is,
\n\tthe command from the one in charge to put baby boys in the river)
\n\tseem to make it likely. \u00a0It seems like the other women would have
\n\ttaught her how to weave the basket and how much tar to use. \u00a0It even
\n\tseems likely that for the first 3 months Moses’s mother pretended
\n\tshe’d had a girl and everyone just played along. \u00a0I don’t think the
\n\tstory really believes that Moses was the only baby whose mother
\n\ttried to save him, even though the story is designed to help us
\n\tbelieve that Moses was specially cared for by God.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tinstructed to or not, Moses’s sister (maybe Miriam) stays at hand
\n\tand watches where the basket goes. \u00a0I imagine her to be at a very
\n\tgood age for this: young enough not to be noticed by grown ups and
\n\tto be free to play as she wished, yet old enough to understand the
\n\timportance and be able to convincingly play her role. \u00a0And she
\n\tplayed her role to perfection! \u00a0Nothing like this is in Sargon’s
\n\tstory.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tin Moses’s story one of the princesses has gone down to the river to
\n\tbath, attended by handmaidens. \u00a0She sees the basket, she sends a
\n\tmaid to get it, she opens it. She sees a crying baby, and has
\n\tcompassion for him. \u00a0I’m told the Hebrew word for compassion
\n\tconnotes the womb, so this may have some connotations of \u201cand her
\n\twomb leapt.\u201d \u00a0She knew what was happening, what her father’s
\n\tdecree had been, and she decides to ignore its intentions. \u00a0She uses
\n\tthe power she has to adopt him, bring him into the palace, make him
\n\ta part of the Pharaoh’s family. \u00a0She has money that she controls in
\n\torder to pay for a wetnurse. \u00a0We spent some time in Bible study
\n\twondering if she was her father’s favorite, or if there were so many
\n\tprincesses that no one really noticed her, if she was defiant, if
\n\tshe was above the law, or if she had special circumstances. \u00a0By her
\n\tpresence in the palace, I think it is likely she was unmarried, and
\n\tthat may well imply she was quite young as well. \u00a0However, there are
\n\tother explanations that might also suffice. \u00a0Her story is mostly
\n\tmissing, but her actions are direct and subvert the law of the land.
\n\t That’s unique to this story.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tsister steps back in with the most brilliant possible solution,
\n\tasking the princess if she’d like the baby nursed by a woman of his
\n\town community. \u00a0Then she brings her brother back to their mother to
\n\tbe nursed! \u00a0In fact, it makes me wonder if the whole family moved
\n\tinto the palace. \u00a0(maybe, maybe not). \u00a0But Moses gets fed by
\n\tmother’s milk and fed by his family’s story and identity at the same
\n\ttime. \u00a0He also gets the privilege of being in the royal family and
\n\tthe knowledge of how the political system works. \u00a0The way this story
\n\tis used to explain Moses’s identity and compassion for his people
\n\tAND his insider knowledge of the Pharaoh and his political system is
\n\ta unique part of the Hebrew story \u2013 as is the attention to nursing
\n\tthe baby and the brilliant move by the women of his family to keep
\n\tcaring for him while also making money to care for their own needs.
\n\t All of this is in the portion of the story the Hebrews adapted.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tfact, given the way the story is adapted, and given the dominance of
\n\thuman women in it, I’ve started to wonder if it is implied that they
\n\tare all working together. \u00a0Perhaps many people thought the Pharaoh’s
\n\tdecree was immoral and were working together to subvert it. \u00a0Maybe
\n\tthese women had devised this all as a plan, and made it flow so
\n\tseamlessly because it was well-rehearsed. \u00a0Maybe they thought that
\n\tthe care of babies was more important than decrees of politics. \u00a0Or
\n\tmaybe it doesn’t go this far, but maybe there was just a lot of
\n\twinking involved when it really happened, and that princess knew
\n\tEXACTLY who she was hiring to feed \u201cher\u201d baby.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tis, after all, a story about saving the baby who would save the
\n\tHebrew people. \u00a0It is also a story of interdependence. \u00a0No one of
\n\tthe three women in it could have pulled off saving Moses alone. \u00a0The
\n\tchoice of heroine is any one of the three, but perhaps it isn’t much
\n\tof a choice when they all need each other and Moses needs all of
\n\tthem. \u00a0The story the Hebrew people tell also says that they needed
\n\tMoses, and his cross-cultural competencies, to be free. \u00a0That means
\n\tthey needed all three of these women \u2013 including the Egyptian one
\n\t\u2013 to be free from Egyptian oppression.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tthe Hebrews took an old myth and reworked it in genius ways. \u00a0They
\n\tadded several heroines, more intrigue, and a broader context. \u00a0The
\n\tpremise that the Hebrew people benefited from the skills Moses had
\n\tas someone stuck in-between worlds strikes me as interesting. \u00a0I
\n\thear a lot about the struggles of being in-between: particularly for
\n\tpeople who have two or more racial identities, or for those who live
\n\tbetween the values of different countries due to immigration in
\n\ttheir family’s recent past, or even those whose social class changes
\n\tover their life times. \u00a0Many people are in-between and it is often
\n\tvery uncomfortable. Is also a position that enables translations
\n\tbetween groups to be possible, and it can be a position of
\n\tincredible power when circumstances emerge in particular ways.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tliberation of the Hebrews is a meta-narrative of the Torah, and a
\n\tstory with resonance well beyond the Hebrew people. \u00a0It was a
\n\tprimary narrative for African American slave communities in this
\n\tcountry, and is often source of hope for oppressed communities
\n\tseeking liberation. \u00a0I love that it took collaboration, rule
\n\tbreaking, deep compassion, and connections between unexpected
\n\tpartners to make it all happen. \u00a0May we keep noticing the strange
\n\tways God is up to making liberation happen \u2013 including by
\n\tconnecting unexpected partners and using people who stand in
\n\tin-between places! \u00a0Amen <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/8de9b30fbb2466d62ba5e3a253b26fbb\/tumblr_inline_otww8vQLPr1ta4iua_540.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n
\n\t10-6- 2017.<\/p>\n
\n\taccessed July 20, 2017<\/p>\n
\n\tPritchard’s\u00a0The
\n\tAncient\u00a0Near East<\/a>,
\n\tVolume I, page 85.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n