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BW - Where in the Scriptures does it tell us how Moses found out he was a Hebrew?
JOEL - The scriptures describe what happened to the child Moses after the Pharoah's daughter found him and gave him to his mother to care for him:
"10. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
11. And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. (Ex 2:10-11)
The fact that in verse 11 Moses is said to have gone out among "his brethren" and that he was angered that an Egyptian was smiting one of his brethren, we must conclude that he must have found out he was a Hebrew somewhere between verses 10 and 11 as he was growing up.
He might have learned it from his own mother who was hired to take care of him as he grew:
"7. Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.
9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son..." (Ex 2:7-10)
If not from his own mother then perhaps from the Pharoah's daughter. In verse 6 we are told that when she discovered the infant Moses, she could somehow tell that he was Hebrew:
"And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children." (Ex 2:6)
We are not told how she knows this. Perhaps it was because of something he was wearing, or, knowing that the Pharoah had just ordered all male Hebrew children to be thrown into the river (Ex 1:22), she might have assumed this was one of them that had somehow been miraculously protected from drowning. Regardless of how she knew, she might have told him after he came and started living with her as her son. The scriptures say nothing more about it.
According to Elder Mark E. Peterson:
"There are legends that say that from childhood Moses knew he was a Hebrew, even while in the court of Pharaoh, and he often went out among the enslaved Israelites and showed great sympathy for them. He helped those who were too weak to bear their burdens, and appealed to Pharaoh to have mercy on them." (Moses: Man of Miracles by Mark E. Petersen)
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