Why did matter that Moses was such a beautiful baby? In Acts 7:20 we read:
"At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight." (the wooden-ultra-conservative ESV)
or
"At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child." (the taking-liberties-fluffy NIV)
or
"At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God." (done-by-pack-of-liberal feminists NRSV)
The Greek word can mean 'handsome' or 'well-bred'. He is probably picking up Ex 2:2 which mentions that Moses was a 'fine child'.
But: an odd thing to pass on?
3 comments:
Looking over Stephen's speech before the Sanhedrin, I was struck that it was it's a salvation history that reiterates the scandal of preference. God chose Abraham and his descendents, which is a scandal to Greeks. Joseph was his father's favorite (and Joseph himself dreamed of his family bowing down to him); as token of this favored status, Joseph was given the beautiful coat that was also the (false) sign that he had been killed. Moses, as p knight suggests, was a beautiful sign of hope in the face of pharoah's attempt to destroy the people. Again, it was selfish love of a mother for her son and the love of the princess for the beautiful baby that was the instrument of salvation. The preference above all that Stephen announces is that of God's incarnation through one particular human being, Jesus Christ.
This reading owes a bit to Giorgio Buccellati's "Ascension, Parousia, and the Sacred Heart: Structural Correlations." Communio: 25, no. 1 (1998): 69-103.
Fred
Well, it also owes alot to the text!
It is of course no subtle irony that it is for narration of this story of providence that stephen gets rejected and killed...
It helps that he was also the most humble man alive at the time too (Num 12.3)! (esp if he was the author of Exodus at some stage in its development!)
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