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Ezekiel the Tragedian
Saturday, April 18th, 2020 11:31 pmI get a bit annoyed when I hear people talking about the Egyptian princess who rescued Moses as a baby as Batya (or Basyŏ) as if that was a fact from the biblical text.
It's not; it's a midrash dating from centuries later. Other, more ancient, traditions assign her different names. Josephus, writing over nineteen hundred years ago, calls her Thermutis; the Book of Jubilees, written two and a half centuries earlier, concurs, calling her Tharmuth.
So much you might have heard me say before. Now I have learned from Rabbi Ludwig Philippson's commentary on the Torah of still another name: The third-century church historian Eusebius (whom Philippson frequently makes reference to, but I never got around to looking up who he was until now) calls her Merrhis.
Today I also learned from (Wikipedia via) Philippson of the existence of Ezekiel the Tragedian, the oldest known Jewish playwright, who retold the story of the Exodus in a five-act play (of which 20–25% survives). "This drama is unique in blending the biblical story with the Hellenistic tragic drama." I'm intrigued; I think I'd like to read this, now.
It's not; it's a midrash dating from centuries later. Other, more ancient, traditions assign her different names. Josephus, writing over nineteen hundred years ago, calls her Thermutis; the Book of Jubilees, written two and a half centuries earlier, concurs, calling her Tharmuth.
So much you might have heard me say before. Now I have learned from Rabbi Ludwig Philippson's commentary on the Torah of still another name: The third-century church historian Eusebius (whom Philippson frequently makes reference to, but I never got around to looking up who he was until now) calls her Merrhis.
Today I also learned from (Wikipedia via) Philippson of the existence of Ezekiel the Tragedian, the oldest known Jewish playwright, who retold the story of the Exodus in a five-act play (of which 20–25% survives). "This drama is unique in blending the biblical story with the Hellenistic tragic drama." I'm intrigued; I think I'd like to read this, now.
