In his tomb Ramesses I, under the watchful eye of Atum, brandishes his rod over Apophis. Apophis is a twelve-coil serpent surging out of the primordial ocean. This is a sketch of the nocturnal combat between Pharaoh and the forces of evil. A bit further along is an unusual picture representing the ocean, the Nun, separated into two parts. Apophis is pressing back the waters, and twelve goddesses represent the hours of the night. These elements are at the origin of the legend of the nocturnal expulsion of the twelve tribes of Israel and the crossing of the Red Sea, the Sea of Reeds.
Ramesses I hunts the serpent Apophis (Tomb of Ramesses I).
Apophis flees to the middle of the open sea. The dozen goddesses of the night extend their hands towards the sea.
"Moses extended his hand over the sea, and Adon-Ay drove back the sea, all night long, with an east wind drawing them back. And he made the sea dry, and the waters were divided" (Exodus 14:27).
The legend of Moses, a prince saved from the waters, was borrowed, like so many others, from Mesopotamia,1 and Egypt.2 It was necessary for the story to have Moses be born a Hebrew and miraculously become an Egyptian, raised by Pharaoh's daughter. Moses then became the head of Pharaoh's house and a student of all the wisdom of Egypt. Later, to affirm before the king his pride in belonging to the Hebrew people, Moses revolts against the supreme authority.
The Hebrew Bible states in Exodus 2:6: "She [Pharaoh's daughter] had pity on him and said, 'It is a child of the Hebrews.'" In the Aramaic Bible, the same verse says: "She had pity on him and said, 'It is a child of the Yahuds (yehudaeh).'" So Moses was a Yahud by birth, a son of the Elohim, belonging to the Egyptian nobility, probably the son of one of Pharaoh's daughters.
"This woman conceived, and bore a son [Moses]. She saw that he was beautiful, and kept him hidden for three months" (Exodus 2:2). The reference to keeping Moses hidden in a cradle for three months appears to be taken from the Egyptian temple service where the priests hid Amun (the hidden god) within the sanctuary to have him reborn into the light every three months.3
"Not being able to hide him any longer, she prepared for him [Moses] a cradle of bulrushes [ Teva]. She placed the child in it and set him among the reeds on the bank of the river" (Exodus 2:3). In the same way the Pyramid Texts place Pharaoh's birth in the Lake of Reeds. "In the Lake of the Reeds, Re, Shu, and Pharaoh purified themselves. This place of water and light is similar to the celestial paradise that is shown in the form of the 'fields' that Pharaoh crosses."4
Etymologically, in Hebrew the Nile is written as the river of light. So Moses is depicted as a prince, luminous, sailing on an ark among the reeds in a river of light, which conforms to the Pharaoh in the Pyramid Texts. Moses' birth, combined with the appearance of divine light, is associated with the waters of the Nile, the River of Light. Rashi's commentary states: "How beautiful he was. When he was born, the entire house was filled with light."
Although the legend of Moses saved from the waters had been assumed, the symbol of the "divine child" saved from the Nile was an integral part of Egyptian religion. Christiane Desroches Noblecourt confirms this. "Every New Year's Day, the flood brings back the divine child, the solar child who is associated with the young king who, apparently, renews himself every year."5
The following two points are of interest. The divine child, Pharaoh's son, mentioned by Christiane Noblecourt is called "Mes" or "Messess" in Egyptian, because symbolically it derives from "slave of the world." In the Bible, the Hebrew word "Teva" designates both "the cradle of Moses" and Noah's Ark. Since Pharaoh, Moses, Mosheh, the Messiah, arrive on an Egyptian Ark to save the Hebrews from slavery, the "Teva" is the Divine Ark in which God's emissary saves humanity.
"Now Pharaoh's daughter went down to the river (Yeor) to bathe, with her companions following her. She saw the basket among the reeds" (Exodus 2:5). According to the following illustration, and Plutarch,6 Isis, like Miriam, hid her son Horus (the symbol of light) among the reeds.
Isis, bearing the Re-disk, gives life to the divine child in the papyrus marsh (sea of reeds), assisted by Amun and Thoth, as well as by the two foster mothers who hold the "serpent rod, "symbol of life and power.
The child grew, and she [the nurse] brought him to Pharaoh's daughter. And he became her son [Leben]. She named [ Vaykra] him Moses, saying, 'Because I drew him [Masheti-oo] forth from the waters [Min A-Maim]'" (Exodus 2:10).
This is surely the most important message in the Bible: Pharaoh's daughter, the image of Isis, pronouncing the sentence justifying Moses' name. An attentive examination of the above verse, in parallel with the Egyptian, makes the attributes of the cartouche of Ramesses I opposite crystal clear; since the cartouche is in Egyptian, the true honorific name of the pharaoh becomes apparent: "Because from the waters [Min-A-Maim] I drew him forth [Masheti-oo]."
"Min" |[J symbolizes the divine emanation, corresponding with the "Mem" and the "Nun" contained in the cartouche of the throne name of Ramesses I. Min (or Mnevis) recalls the "powerful bull" inscribed in the name of Horus of Amenhotep III.
Min (who emanates from).
"Maim" Q'C ("the waters") corresponds to the "Nun," the primordial waters where the pharaohs were born. In the Pyramid Texts, Pharaoh is "made flesh" from the waters of the heavens and of the earth. "Thy water and thy cool water are the abundance that emanate from you." Min and Nun form the principal component of Amun, the hidden god who surges from the primordial waters.
Hieroglyph of the primordial waters.
"Masheti-ou" ("I drew him forth"), contains the Egyptian root MST,
That Pierre Grandet7 translates as "giving birth," "child bearing," "delivery." The root SWT in Egyptian means bullrush, emblem of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, as the cartouche of Ramesses I indicates. The last part, "Oo" ("he"), is depicted below by the bird hieroglyph - "oo."
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