Hebrews 11:23

Of his parents (ὑπὸ τῶν πατέρων αὐτοῦ) Lit. by his fathers. Comp. Exodus 2:2. Πατέρες fathers, according to a late Greek usage, is employed like γονεῖς parents. Similarly the Lat. patres and soceri, including both parents, or father and mother in law. Proper (ἀστεῖον) Only here and Acts 7:20, on which see note. Rend. "comely." Commandment (διάταγμα) N.T.o. Rend. "mandate."

Hebrews 11:23 . By faith Moses — As if he had said, The parents of Moses believing, when he was a child, that God would make use of him at a future period, for some extraordinary service to his people; hid him three months — In their own house, to preserve him from falling a sacrifice to the cruelty of Pharaoh. It appears by this, that both his parents were engaged in the work of concealing him, although his mother only is mentioned, Exodus 2:2 ; because they saw he was a proper child — Greek, ειδον αστειον το παιδιον , they saw the child beautiful; and doubtless through a divine presage of things to come, and not merely from his beauty, believed that God had designed him for some singular usefulness. And they were not afraid of the king’s commandment — Requiring all Israelitish parents, on pain of death, to give up their male children that they might be thrown into the river. Of Moses’s beauty, see note on Acts 7:20 .

Hebrews 11:23-31 . The writer passes from the patriarchal age to the times of Moses and the Judges. First the faith of the parents of Moses ( τῶν πατέρων αὐτοῦ , in Stephanus’ Thesaur , several examples are given of the use of πατέρες for “father and mother,” parents; and consider Ephesians 6:4 and Colossians 3:21 ) is celebrated. This faith was shown in their concealing Moses for three months after his birth and thus evading the law that male children were to be killed, called in Wis 11:7 νηπιοκτόνον διάταγμα . They did not fear this commandment of the king. It did not weigh against the child’s beauty which betokened that he was destined for something great. Their faith consisted in their confidence that God had in store for so handsome a child an exceptional career and would save him to fulfil his destiny. In Acts 7:20 Stephen calls him ἀστεῖος τῷ f1θεῷ , extraordinarily beautiful ( cf. Jonah 3:3 ) or as Philo, De Mos. , p. 82, ὄψιν ἀστειοτέραν ἢ κατʼ ἰδιώτην , indicating that he had a corresponding destiny. Moses himself when he had grown up ( μέγας γενόμενος , as in Exodus 2:11 paraphrased by Stephen ( Acts 7:23 ) ὡς δὲ ἐπληροῦτο αὐτῷ τεσσαρακονταετὴς χρόνος .) refused to be called a son of a daughter of Pharaoh.

The significance and source of this refusal lay in his preferring to suffer ill-usage with God’s people rather than to have a short-lived enjoyment of sin. συνκακ ., the simple verb in Hebrews 11:37 , also Hebrews 13:3 ; the compound here only. τῷ λαῷ τοῦ θεοῦ , it was because they were God’s people, not solely because they were of his blood, that Moses threw in his lot with them. It was this which illustrated his faith. He believed that God would fulfil His promise to His people, little likelihood as at present there seemed to be of any great future for his race. On the other hand there was the ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσις , the enjoyment which was within his reach if only he committed the sin of denying his people and renouncing their future as promised by God. For “the enjoyment to be reaped from sin” does not refer to the pleasure of gratifying sensual appetite and so forth, but to the satisfaction of a high ambition and the gratification of his finer tastes which he might have had by remaining in the Egyptian court. Very similarly Philo interprets the action of Moses, who, he says, “esteemed the good things of those who had adopted him, although more splendid for a season, to be in reality spurious, but those of his natural parents, although for a little while less conspicuous, to be true and genuine” ( De Mose , p. 86).

Hebrews 11:23 . Πίστει , by faith ) It is not the faith of Moses that is referred to in this verse, but that of his parents; as in Hebrews 11:30 it is not the faith of the citizens of Jericho , but that of the Israelites.— πατέρων , of his fathers ) In Exodus 2:2 , the LXX. relate the fact as follows: and seeing that he was a goodly ( ἀστεῖον ) child, they [not she , as in the Hebrew] hid him three months; and when they could no longer hide him, the mother took to him an ark or wicker-basket . In the Hebrew, the whole is ascribed to the mother; by the apostle, to the fathers . By the term, fathers , the Syrians understand father and mother; but we can scarcely prove that this was the case among the Hebrews and Greeks. Chrys. on this passage remarks, ἄρχεται ἀπὸ τῶν γονέων τοῦ Μωϋσέως , ἀσήμων τινῶν ΑΝΔΡΩΝ : he begins with the parents ( γονεῖς ) of Moses, some undistinguished MEN. Hesychius explains πατέρες as πλούσιοι ἢ πρόγονοι , wealthy [ men of note ], or ancestors . So πατέρες , Hebrews 1:1 , Hebrews 3:9 , Hebrews 8:9 ; Ephesians 6:4 , note. The LXX. never use γονεῖς for אבות , nor will it be found in the New Testament that πατέρας can be appropriately substituted for the word γονεῖς , which so often occurs. Moses was concealed by his fathers, that is, by his father (Amram) and by his grandfather, not the maternal grandfather, who was Levi himself, but by the paternal grandfather, who was (Kohath) Kahath. Therefore Kahath (Kohath) was alive when Moses was born.