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More excerpts-----MOSES AN EGYPTIAN 13
On the other hand the suggestion has long been
made and by many different people that the name
Moses derives from the Egyptian vocabulary.
Instead of citing all the authors who have voiced
this opinion I shall quote a passage from a recent
work by Breasted, 1 an author whose History of
Egypt is regarded as authoritative. "It is
important to notice that his name, Moses, was
Egyptian. It is simply the Egyptian word ' mose '
meaning * child/ and is an abridgement of a
fuller form of such names as ' Amen -mose '
meaning c Amon-a-child 5 or ' Ptah-mose, 5 mean-
ing c Ptah -a -child, 5 these forms themselves being
likewise abbreviations for the complete form
* Amon-(has-given)-a child 5 or Ptah -(has -given) -
a -child. 5 The abbreviation ' child 5 early became
a convenient rapid form for the cumbrous full
name, and the name Mose, c child, 5 is not un-
common on the Egyptian monuments. The father
of Moses without doubt prefixed to his son 5 s name
that of an Egyptian god like Amon or Ptah, and
this divine name was gradually lost in current
usage, till the boy was called ' Mose. 5 (The final
s is an addition drawn from the Greek translation
of the Old Testament. It is riot in the Hebrew,
which has ' mosheh 5 ). 55 I have given this
passage literally and am by no means prepared
to share the responsibility for its details. I am
a little surprised, however, that Breasted in
1 The Dawn of Conscience, London, 1934, p. 350.
Let us return to the two families in the myth.
As we know, on the level of analytic interpreta-
tion they are identical. On a mythical level they
are distinguished as the noble and the humble
family. With an historical person to whom the
myth has become attached there is, however, a
third level, that of reality. One of the families is
the real one, the one into which the great man
was really born and in which he was brought up.
The other is fictitious, invented by the myth in
pursuance of its own motives. As a rule the real
family corresponds with the humble one, the
noble family with the fictitious one. In the case
of Moses something seemed to be different. And
here the new point of view may perhaps bring
some illumination. It is that the first family,
the one from which the babe is exposed to danger,
is in all comparable cases the fictitious one; the
second family, however, by which the hero is
adopted and in which he grows up is his real one.
If we have the courage to accept this statement
as a general truth to which the Moses legend also
is subject, then we suddenly see our way clear.
Moses is an Egyptian probably of noble origin
whom the myth undertakes to transform into a
Jew. And that would be our conclusion!

More excerpts-----MOSES AN EGYPTIAN 13
On the other hand the suggestion has long been
made and by many different people that the name
Moses derives from the Egyptian vocabulary.
Instead of citing all the authors who have voiced
this opinion I shall quote a passage from a recent
work by Breasted, 1 an author whose History of
Egypt is regarded as authoritative. "It is
important to notice that his name, Moses, was
Egyptian. It is simply the Egyptian word ' mose '
meaning * child/ and is an abridgement of a
fuller form of such names as ' Amen -mose '
meaning c Amon-a-child 5 or ' Ptah-mose, 5 mean-
ing c Ptah -a -child, 5 these forms themselves being
likewise abbreviations for the complete form
* Amon-(has-given)-a child 5 or Ptah -(has -given) -
a -child. 5 The abbreviation ' child 5 early became
a convenient rapid form for the cumbrous full
name, and the name Mose, c child, 5 is not un-
common on the Egyptian monuments. The father
of Moses without doubt prefixed to his son 5 s name
that of an Egyptian god like Amon or Ptah, and
this divine name was gradually lost in current
usage, till the boy was called ' Mose. 5 (The final
s is an addition drawn from the Greek translation
of the Old Testament. It is riot in the Hebrew,
which has ' mosheh 5 ). 55 I have given this
passage literally and am by no means prepared
to share the responsibility for its details. I am
a little surprised, however, that Breasted in
1 The Dawn of Conscience, London, 1934, p. 350.
Let us return to the two families in the myth.
As we know, on the level of analytic interpreta-
tion they are identical. On a mythical level they
are distinguished as the noble and the humble
family. With an historical person to whom the
myth has become attached there is, however, a
third level, that of reality. One of the families is
the real one, the one into which the great man
was really born and in which he was brought up.
The other is fictitious, invented by the myth in
pursuance of its own motives. As a rule the real
family corresponds with the humble one, the
noble family with the fictitious one. In the case
of Moses something seemed to be different. And
here the new point of view may perhaps bring
some illumination. It is that the first family,
the one from which the babe is exposed to danger,
is in all comparable cases the fictitious one; the
second family, however, by which the hero is
adopted and in which he grows up is his real one.
If we have the courage to accept this statement
as a general truth to which the Moses legend also
is subject, then we suddenly see our way clear.
Moses is an Egyptian probably of noble origin
whom the myth undertakes to transform into a
Jew. And that would be our conclusion!
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