During the Days of Unleavened Bread this year, I had my traditional Moses marathon, in which I watch five Moses movies: Cecil B. Demille's Ten Commandments (1956); Moses, with Burt Lancaster (1974); Moses, with Ben Kingsley (1996); Prince of Egypt (1998); and Ten Commandments, with Dougray Scott (2006). See My Moses Marathon and Moses Marathon Awards for last year's reflections.
Today, I want to focus on the character of Bithiah. In Exodus 2, the daughter of Pharaoh finds a Hebrew baby in a basket while she is at the river to bathe. She rescues him from her father's decree to kill every Hebrew baby boy, and she names him "Moshe," which means "drawing out" in Hebrew. She even says that she's naming him "Moshe" because "I drew him" (Hebrew, meshitihu) out of the water! (This raises interesting questions for inerrantists: Why is an Egyptian speaking in Hebrew? Is this historical, or is it a literary device?) She then adopts him and raises him as an Egyptian.
Rabbis identified Pharaoh's daughter with Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh in I Chronicles 4:17 (or 18, in other versions.) According to that passage, Bithiah married and had children with an Israelite named Mered. Josephus, however, calls Moses' adoptive mother "Thermuthis," not "Bithiah" (Antiquities 2:232).
The rabbis portray Bithiah positively, for she showed compassion by saving Moses from her father's evil decree. Some Jewish interpreters suggested that she was one of the few people who entered paradise alive, a reward for her kindness to Moses. The rabbis affirm that she left Egypt with the Israelites, and that the "Mered" she married was none other than Caleb, "who was called Mered ('rebellion') because, as she rebelled against her father and her family, so did Caleb 'rebel' when he refused to follow the evil counsels of the spies" (Numbers 14). See JewishEncyclopedia.com - BITHIAH. Caleb was not the only one who had another name, however, for the name "Bithiah" means "daughter of Yah" in Hebrew. I Chronicles and rabbinic literature may hold that she changed her name when she joined the Israelites. Maybe her Egyptian name was "Thermuthis," as Josephus narrates!
Here's my impression of how the movies portray Bithiah:
1. Ten Commandments (1956): This movie is closest to I Chronicles 4:17 and rabbinic literature. Bithiah leaves with the Israelites at the Exodus, and, after the Passover, she is continually with a Hebrew named "Mered" (or so he is identified in the Internet Movie Database--see The Ten Commandments (1956)). The movie departs from rabbinic literature in that Mered and Caleb are two different characters. In the movie, Caleb mocks Bithiah when she tries to join Moses' Passover meal, whereas Mered welcomes her. Although the commandments in the movie were in the ancient Hebrew script, its authors may not have been sensitive to the meaning of the name "Mered," or "Bithiah," for that matter. After all, why would the Egyptians call her a name that means "daughter of Yah" in Hebrew?
I love the Ten Commandment's portrayal of Bithiah most of all, for it emphasizes her spiritual growth. She goes from saying "This desert god is the hope of the hopeless" to confronting the worshippers of the golden calf in the wilderness.
2. Moses, with Burt Lancaster (1974): She draws Moses from the river, and that's it!
3. Moses, with Ben Kingsley (1996): Her portrayal in this movie is not all that positive. She adopts Moses, and all of Pharaoh's court knows that he's not a real Egyptian. As Merneptah (played by Frank Langella) mockingly inquires, "When is an Egyptian not an Egyptian?" Bithiah seems to feel ashamed that she adopted Moses. She also tries to force him to be an Egyptian, even though he has a greater affinity with the Hebrew slaves and their God. My impression here is that she adopted Moses because she disliked being childless, but she wasn't too happy with her decision. She does not love Moses like the Bithiahs in the other movies.
4. Prince of Egypt (1998): One of my favorite scenes in this movie is when Moses and Rameses come to a celebration, and the Egyptian priests bring them a present: a Midianite woman (Tzipporah, who later becomes Moses' wife). Tzipporah tries to escape and Moses humiliates her, to the laughter and applause of his Egyptian guests. When Moses looks at his adoptive mother, she bows her head in shame.
Maybe Bithiah thought that Moses should grow up, but I'd like to believe that she had a humanitarian impulse. Even though she was part of the pampered elite and probably didn't think too much about the poor and the suffering, she wanted Moses to treat everyone with respect, even a Midianite woman from the desert.
5. Ten Commandments (2006): Bithiah in this movie really loves Moses, and she's also a woman of her word. When she gives baby Moses to his true mother, Jochabed, Jochabed makes her swear that she will tell Moses that the Israelites are his people, too. And Bithiah keeps her vow.
Bithiah never understands what Moses is doing on God's behalf, but she still loves him. Unfortunately, Moses is pretty rude to her when they finally part ways, for he walks away from her without saying a word. He must not want anything to do with his Egyptian background! At least Charlton Heston's Moses honored Bithiah as the woman who brought him up.
Bithiah in Demille's version was probably more open to Moses' work because she was an outcast from Egyptian society: She was put on house-arrest after the Egyptians learned she'd adopted a Hebrew. Bithiah in the 2006 version was still entrenched in the system, however, so she couldn't understand why Moses was mad at her people.