Was Moses a Hebrew, an Egyptian, or a Midianite? In The Exodus, Richard Elliott Friedman deals with this in connection with the origin of monotheism.
As the story now stands in Exodus with the various sources now combined, Moses was a Hebrew. The J story dominates this narrative. We know about his birth to Hebrew parents, his rescue from the river, his growing up in the royal court, his killing an Egyptian, and his flight to Midian.
However, the first mention of Moses in E (Exodus 3:1) has him already in Midian. If you interpret his objection about his difficulty speaking in Egypt (4:10) as a language problem, then he is a foreigner to Egypt. Perhaps, in this source, he was a native Midianite.
The P source never mentions Midian in connection with Moses until later, when Moses orders a murderous war against the Midianites (Numbers 31:1-12).
Friedman believes…
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