The word “affection” is the translation of the Latin word affectio, meaning “to influence.” According to Swedenborg, to be affected means to be influenced deeply enough to act out. According to Swedenborg, these two mothers symbolize two different affections. Moses had two mothers: the biological mother who was a Levite and the daughter of the Pharaoh, who raised and protected him. Even better, the daughter allowed Moses’s mother to nurse him! Later, the daughter took Moses as her own son, giving him a name meaning “drawn.” As planned by his mother, Moses was rescued by the daughter of the Pharaoh. For extra measure, Moses’s sister followed the little boat from the bank. Then, she put the boat on the Nile headed toward the place where the Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe, which might have been a hidden or secret place. She made a small reed boat with as much waterproofing as possible. Moses was born under the Pharaoh’s decree: “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews, you shall throw into the Nile.” (Exodus 1:22) His mother secretly kept him for three months, but had a good plan to save him. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” Exodus 2:10
