EDITORIAL: Bithiah The Great

One important method in Bible study is to keep asking questions as we read a text, and to imagine how the story developed further. The account of Moses being found by Pharaoh's daughter is a classic Bible story- but it begs many questions. Why did this young woman risk disobeying her father? Given Moses' age, how did she manage to survive in Pharaoh's court with an adopted child who looked like a Hebrew and ought to have been killed in babyhood? What kind of relationship did she have with her father? Did he tolerate her sympathy and "compassion" for the Hebrews?

Where else do we read about Pharaoh's daughter? Searching through the Bible, perhaps with the help of a concordance, we come to the references to Solomon marrying Pharaoh's daughter. No great answers there to our questions. Sometimes in Bible study we do draw a blank. And that's a blank. And there's only one other reference to Pharaoh's daughter, hidden away in the obscure genealogies of Chronicles, which we likely skip reading in our daily Bible readings. But there... is the answer. "The sons of Ezrah: Jether, Mered, Epher, and Jalon. These are the sons of Bithiah, the