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Heb_11:23 he points to the faith manifested by the relatives of Moses at the time of his birth. Comp. Exo_2:2. The special beauty of the new-born child awakened in them the belief[110] that God had chosen him for great things and would be able to preserve his life, and in this belief they hid the child in opposition to the commandment of the Egyptian king.
ὙΠῸ ΤῶΝ ΠΑΤΈΡΩΝ ] i.e. by his parents. For this elsewhere unusual employment of πατέρες , Wetstein aptly directs the reader to Parthenius, Erot. 10 : Κυάνιππος εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν Λευκώνης ἐλθών , παρὰ τῶν πατέρων αἰτησάμενος αὐτὴν ἠγάγετο γυναῖκα , as well as to the Latin patres, Stat. Theb. vi. 464: Incertique patrum thalami. Bengel understands πατέρες of the still living ancestors of Moses (“a patribus, id est a patre [Amram] et ab avo … paterno, qui erat Kahath”), and he is followed by Chr. Fr. Schmid, Böhme (yet with wavering), and others; while Stein, who expressly rejects both explanations, wonderfully supposes “the mother,” together with “a few concurring friends, who as it were took the place of parents,” to be intended. In the Hebrew, Exo_2:2, the ΚΡΎΠΤΕΙΝ is predicated only of the mother; the LXX., however, with whom the author agrees, have: ἸΔΌΝΤΕς ΔῈ ΑὐΤῸ ἈΣΤΕῖΟΝ , ἘΣΚΈΠΑΣΑΝ ΑὐΤῸ ΜῆΝΑς ΤΡΕῖς
ἈΣΤΕῖΟΝ ] fair and graceful in form. Theophylact: ὡραῖον , τῇ ὄψει χαρίεν . In the Hebrew stands èåÉá .
ΚΑῚ ΟὐΚ ἘΦΟΒΉΘΗΣΑΝ ΤῸ ΔΙΆΤΑΓΜΑ ΤΟῦ ΒΑΣΙΛΈΩς ] might, on account of the plural ΟὐΚ ἘΦΟΒΉΘΗΣΑΝ , be considered, together with ΕἾΔΟΝ , in opposition to the passive ἙΚΡΎΒΗ , as still dependent upon ΔΙΌΤΙ . But more logically exact is the taking of the words, as also is mostly done, as a parallel to ἘΚΡΎΒΗ ). For much more natural does it appear that the author wished to represent that ΚΡΎΠΤΕΙΝ as an act from the accomplishment of which fear did not deter, than that he should think of fearlessness as the motive cause of that action.
ΤῸ ΔΙΆΤΑΓΜΑ ΤΟῦ ΒΑΣΙΛΈΩς ] the command of Pharaoh, to drown all new-born male children of the Israelites. Comp. Exo_1:22.
[110] Kurtz is in a position to add further particulars on this point, inasmuch as he supposes the “presupposition” is to be derived from the state of things narrated, “that a special divine admonition spoke to the parents out of the eyes of the child.”