Bithiah
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Bithiah, in Hebrew Bitya (בִּתְיָה, literally daughter of God), is the name given to a character in the account of the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt in Rabbinic Midrash, as she is not named in the text. She was the foster mother of Moses, having drawn him from the Nile.
In the Bible and In the Biblical account, she is described as the daughter of Pharaoh, and is not named. The Midrash names her Bithiah, literally daughter of God, because of her compassion and pity in saving the baby Moses. In the Midrash (Leviticus Rabbah 1:3), God says to her that because she took in a child not her own, and called him her son (Moses means "son" in Egpytian), God will take her in and call her God's daughter (which is what Bithiah means). The Midrash portrays her as a pious and devoted woman, who would bathe in the Nile to cleanse herself of the impurity of idolatrous Egypt. She is mentioned in Chron. 1, 4:18, as being the wife of Mered from the tribe of Judah, who is identified in the Midrash as being Caleb, one of the 12 spies. The Midrash (Exodus Rabbah 18:3) also records that she was not affected by the 10 Plagues, and was the only female firstborn of Egypt to survive.
In movies
She is often portrayed as being the sister or wife of Pharaoh in adaptations of the story, in order to have Moses appear as Pharaoh's son. In the film The Ten Commandments, she is portrayed as the sister of the Egyptian pharaoh, Seti I, who raised Moses as her own son as her husband had died years previously, before they could have children. In the film The Prince of Egypt, she is shown as the wife of Seti I, and the birth mother of Raamses.Sources
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1972, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, Israel.
- [Jewish Encyclopedia.com]
External links
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