AVSENIK NABERGOJ, Irena. 2023. Love overcomes fear and brings freedom : the courage of the female characters in the Parable of the birth of Moses (Exodus 1:8-2:10). V: SZAMOCKI, Grzegorz, WISZNIEWIECKI, Przemysław, ur., Wolność – od czego i do czego? ; Natura i zagrożenia : od wolności fizycznej do wolności eschatycznej : Colloquia Gedanensia 15 : program i abstrakty : Międzynarodowa Konferencja Naukowa, Gdańsk, 24–25 listopada 2023 = Freedom – from what and to what? ; Nature and threats : from physical freedom to eschatological freedom : Colloquia Gedanensia 15 : program and abstracts : International Scientific Conference, Gdańsk, 24–25 November 2023, 15. Gdańsk: Uniwersytet Gdański.
My paper is based on the analysis of literary texts depicting the free behaviour of Moses’ mother and his sister, the two Hebrew midwives and Pharaoh’s daughter in the biblical narrative and, on the other hand, of Medea in Euripides’ tragedy of the same name, as a protest against the abuse of power. The result of the analysis is that Pharaoh’s daughter, as well as all the other female characters in the biblical narrative of Moses’ birth (Exodus 1:8-2:10), act in contradiction to Pharaoh’s order to kill the Hebrew boys after birth. Compassionate love leads them to freely choose to save the child from death. The courage of the Hebrew women is based on their belief that God’s providence guides human history, usually in contradiction to human plans in service of human ambition and power. Particularly outstanding is the figure of Pharaoh’s daughter who, against her father’s orders, decides to adopt a Hebrew boy out of a deep maternal and merciful love. In contrast to the biblical narrative, the ancient Greek Medea, who appears as a goddess and as a human being, responds to her husband Jason’s infidelity by the most extreme means, the murder of their common children. In doing so, she invokes the justice of the gods in acts that are generally perceived as horrific and contradict all notions of divine justice.
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