I recently looked up the story of the birth of Moses in the Quran, and it is fascinating. While the characters are the same, the details differ from the biblical account.
According to the Quran, the Pharaoh who rose to power in Egypt demanded worship as a god, dividing his people into two groups: servants/slaves and masters. The Hebrews happened to be among the enslaved. To challenge Pharaoh, God promised that a young man would be born among the Hebrews to overthrow his authority.
Much like Herod in the New Testament, Pharaoh decreed that newborn Hebrew boys should be killed, skipping a year at a time to maintain a steady labor force in future. Aaron according
to the Quran, the brother of Moses, was born in a year when boys were spared, but Moses was slated to be killed. That is why his mother hid him in the reeds until he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter. The Quran notes that Moses refused to be nursed by any other woman until his sister, Miriam, suggested their own mother as a wet nurse. Through this divine plan, Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s household while being nursed by his birth mother.
This narrative presents Pharaoh as a ruler demanding absolute worship, which aligns with historical realities of ancient Egypt. Both Judaism and Islam rejected the divine rule of kings—monarchs were never gods to be worshipped. But there is more. Unlike the Bible, which often ties servitude to ethnicity (Egyptians versus Israelites), the Quran roots it in social status and class: servants and masters. Regardless of the perspective, historical scholarship suggests that those who eventually left Egypt included non-Israelites fleeing socio-economic exploitation.
The Quran also shifts the focus from the communal fear of the Hebrew people to Pharaoh’s personal terror of losing power to an infant boy. Whether this detail reflects the Christian story of Herod is secondary; what matters is the underlying critique.
While the Bible notes the fear that the Israelites were multiplying too quickly, such claims hide the political interests of those in power. In this way, the Quran alerts us to the hidden political motives behind wars and violence waged against the powerless in our names.
Some Community Notes:
Please join me in thanking Kris and Brian for spending late hours on Monday night preventing what could have been catastrophic flooding of our Lower Fales. Thanks also to our former Sexton, Rob, for making late night calls.
Please remember that we do not have a service this Sunday, August 30, 2026.
From the E-Crier of August 27, 2026. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter.