Was Moses correct in killing the Egyptian in Exodus chapter 2?

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StudentMI said:
But that would paint the Bike narrative as unhistorical due to the details being wro
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I don’t think anybody claims that every single detail in the text of Exodus as we know it today describes exactly what happened historically. There are some episodes that are impossible to explain, such as Ex 4:24-26, where God (apparently) was intending to kill Moses because he had never been circumcised, but Zipporah takes action to save her husband’s life. What was that action, exactly? It’s not clear. But that doesn’t mean that the Exodus never happened.
 
I have no idea why it auto corrected to bike. I meant the Bible lol.
 
Yes, I realized that! Moses didn’t escape from Egypt riding on a Harley Davidson.
 
We know Moses is righteous because he was with Jesus at the Transfiguration. That pretty much answers your question for me.
 
StudentMI said:
According to historians the Exodus never happened anyway.
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It is unfortunate that they ignore the similarities between the Ipuwer Papyrus and the Exodus story. But nothing will convince skeptics.
 
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When I was writing an article about Moses, I found that some of the Fathers of the Church justified this killing, while other said it was wrong. It is an interesting question, never settled in the Church.
 
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Have checked this verse with the commentaries I have:

Catholic Commentary of Sacred Scripture (Bernard Orchard):

2:11–14. In Pharaoh’s court Moses remained a Hebrew at heart and, on reaching man‘s estate, visited one of the labour gangs and, seeing a Hebrew workman beaten by an Egyptian taskmaster, slew the Egyptian. This act of reprisal, which its author no doubt considered justified, must not be judged by the standard of Christian morality. It is recorded, not for imitation, but to explain Moses’ flight to Madian when he discovered that surely the thing is known. 15–22. However highly placed, the slayer of an official could not remain unpunished. Canaan was under Egyptian rule. Hence Moses feld to Sinai where the Kenites, a Madianite tribe, then resided.

The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Exodus (Scott Hahn):

2:11-22. Three episodes that reveal the noble character of Moses and foreshadow his mission as liberator of Israel. Far from being indifferent to the plight of the oppressed, he is one who stands up to defend the weak against the injustices of the strong.

Navarre Bible Commentary:

2:11–15. This is Act One in the calling of Moses. Because he carries out God’s will he has to leave the pharaoh’s palace, where he had a comfortable and easy life, and go out into the unknown. In this he is doing what the patriarchs did: first Abraham and then his descendants had to leave their homeland and their family (cf. Gen 12:1ff). The leader-to-be of Israel kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew; and later he tries to make peace between two Hebrews. Freeing his people from oppression and slavery, and bringing about peace and unity among them are two of the goals of Moses’ mission. Here again the sacred writer, over and above the details of events (about which he makes no moral judgments) is building up his theological profile of Moses and indicating the scope of his mission.

The same points are made when Moses is referred to in the New Testament. For example, according to St Stephen’s reconstruction of these events in the Acts of the Apostles, Moses was forty years of age at this time and “mighty in his words and deeds”; his intervention on behalf of a member of his people was, presumably, inspired by high ideals: “He supposed that his brethren understood that God was giving them deliverance by his hand” (Heb 7:25).

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The Letter to the Hebrews adds that “by faith Moses […] refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered abuse suffered for the Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward” (Heb 11:24–26). However, his own people rejected him, and the pharaoh condemned him to death, furious at the killing of one of his overseers and fearful lest it signal an uprising of Hebrew slaves. Another forty years had to pass before Moses was actually given his mission (cf. Acts 7:30). On the basis of all these testimonies, St Cyril of Alexandria goes as far as to compare this episode of Moses’ life with the Incarnation of Christ: “Do we not say that the Word of God the Father, who took on our condition, that is, became man, in some way went away from himself and became anonymous? […] He left therefore to see his brothers, that is, the sons of Israel. For to them belong the promises and the patriarchs to whom the promises were made. And so he said, ‘I have been sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’ But, on seeing that they were subject to a heavy and intolerable tyranny, he chose to set them free and to make them see that they could hope for deliverance from pain of any kind” (Glaphyra in Exodum, 1, 7).

New Jerome Bible Commentary:

2:11-15. Moses is conscious of being a Hebrew despite his court upbringing. With full intent (“he looked this way and that”), he kills the Egyptian oppressor, only to find that the act makes him unwelcome to his own people. He cannot give an answer to the question, “Who made you a prince and judge over us?” Moses flees to the land of the Midianites, a tribe that inhabited variously Transjordan and the south of Canaan, where his righteous acts win him a wife and where the question about who made him a judge will be answered.

Catholic Bible Dictionary (Scott Hahn), “Moses”:

After reaching manhood, Moses witnessed firsthand the terrible oppression of the Hebrews, and became so enraged that he killed an Egyptian overseer whom he saw beating a Hebrew worker (Exod 2:11–12). Fearful of the consequences, Moses fled to Midian for safety (Exod 2:15).

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St Anthony of Padua, Sermon 25:

We are told in the second book of Exodus, that Moses struck the Egyptian, and hid his body in the sand (Ex 2,12). Moses is ‘from the waters’, and he represents the penitent, awash with the waters of sorrow. He must strike the Egyptian, mortal sin, in contrition, and bury him under the sand in confession. St Augustine says: “If you uncover, God will cover; if you hide, God will find out.” He who discloses his sins ‘hides the Egyptian’- hides it from God, I say, even as he reveals it to the priest. In Genesis, it says that Rachel hid the idols of Laban (cf. Gn 31,34). Rachel (‘a sheep’) is the penitent soul who should hide the idols (mortal sins) that belong to Laban (the devil). Blessed are those whose sins are covered (Ps 31,23).

St Anthony of Padua, Sermon 5:

So you find in Exodus that Moses hid the Egyptian he had slain in the sand (Ex 2,12), because the just man ought to strike down mortal sin in confession, and hide it with the satisfaction of penance.

St Anthony of Padua, Sermon 105:

Pharao sought to kill Moses. But he fled from his sight, and abode in the land of Madian: and he sat down beside a well. (Ex 2,15)

You too should flee, my beloved; because the devil wants to kill you. Go and live in the land of Madian (which means ‘of judgement’), so that you may judge your own land, and not be judged by God. Sit by the well of humility, from which you may draw water springing to eternal life (cf. Jn 4,14). Flee away, my beloved. It says in Genesis that Rachel said to Jacob:

Behold, Esau thy brother threateneth to kill thee. Now therefore, my son, hear my voice: Arise and flee to Laban, my brother, to Haran; and thou shalt dwell with him. (Gn 27,42)

Hairy Esau is the world, full of many vices. He threatens to kill you, my son. Flee away, then, my beloved, to Laban (meaning ‘whitening’), Jesus Christ who will make you whiter than snow (Ps 50,9) from your sins. He is in Haran (‘on high’), and there you will live with him; because God dwells on high (Ps 112,3). Flee away, then, my beloved!

St Thomas Aquinas, (Summa Theologica, ii, 2, q. 60, art 6):

Moses seems to have slain the Egyptian by authority received as it were, by divine inspiration; this seems to follow from Acts 7:24-25, where it is said that “striking the Egyptian … he thought that his brethren understood that God by his hand would save Israel [Vulgate: ‘them’].” Or it may be replied that Moses slew the Egyptian in order to defend the man who was unjustly attacked, without himself exceeding the limits of a blameless defence. Wherefore Ambrose says (De Offic. i, 36) that “whoever does not ward off a blow from a fellow man when he can, is as much in fault as the striker”; and he quotes the example of Moses. Again we may reply with Augustine (QQ. Exod. qu. 2) [Cf. Contra Faust. xxii, 70] that just as “the soil gives proof of its fertility by producing useless herbs before the useful seeds have grown, so this deed of Moses was sinful although it gave a sign of great fertility,” in so far, to wit, as it was a sign of the power whereby he was to deliver his people.
 
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Yes, he was more concerned in saving the Hebrew than measuring his strength, and the Egyptian died, if something along these lines happened today we would have to remember the concept of self defence.
 
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