Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Bible Trivia - 10/14/2008

Question: What did Moses’ mother cover the basket in which she hid Moses?

Answer: Slime (tar) and pitch. (Exodus 2:3)

Comments: Moses' infancy narrative is one of the most famous in all of the Bible. To avoid Pharaoh's mandate to kill all Hebrew male babies, his mother placed her infant in a wicker basket coated with tar (chemar) and pitch (zepheth) and set the basket in the reeds by the bank of the Nile River. The tar and pitch served to waterproof the vessel.

But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. (Exodus 2:3, NASB)

The basket was discovered by Pharaoh's daughter who named the child Moses and raised him as her own.

Note: This painting is the "Finding of Moses" by SĂ©bastien Bourdon (1616-1671). The oil on canvas hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washinton, DC, as part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection.

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