Limmud Oz 2021

The Book of Exodus offers a potted account of the early life of Moses. We know that he was born to Israelite parents but was raised as a prince in Pharaoh’s royal palace. The nature of his upbring as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter is largely unmentioned in the original biblical text. In response to gaps in Moses’ biography, artists and biblical commentators alike have imagined the infancy and adolescence of the future leader of the Jewish people. In this session we will look at a series of nineteenth-century paintings of baby Moses in order to consider what Moses may have looked like, and the degree to which he was able to ‘pass’ as Egyptian. We will also touch on contemporaneous debates in anthropology about the racial characteristics of ancient Egyptians and ancient Israelites.