It seems to be a common notion, perpetuated by movies like Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments and Disney's Prince of Egypt, that Moses grew up as a high-level member of Pharaoh's household with no idea that he was a Hebrew. But does that notion fit in with what it says in the Bible, or what Jewish tradition teaches about Moses? This week's Torah portion is Shemot, the beginning of the book of Exodus, so it's a good time to examine this question.
We actually know very little about Moses' childhood from the Bible. Pharaoh had ordered all male children to be thrown into the Nile River at birth (Ex. 1:22). While that order was in effect, a boy was born to a man of the tribe of Levi and his wife, also of that tribe (Ex. 2:1-2). The parents are later identified (Num. 26:59) as Amram an Yocheved (that "ch" is pronounced like a throat-clearing noise). Yocheved could not bear to throw her beautiful new son to his death, so she hid him away for three months (Ex. 2:2). When she could no longer hide the baby, she put him into the Nile in a wicker basket sealed with bitumen and pitch (Ex. 2:3). The child's sister (later identified as Miriam, Num. 26:59) watched the basket float away to see what happened to her brother (Ex. 2:4). Pharaoh's daughter, who was bathing in the Nile at the time, spotted the basket and had it brought to her (Ex. 2:5). She immediately realized that it was probably a Hebrew child (Ex.2:6). Miriam stepped in and offered to find a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child for her (Ex. 2:7). Breastfeeding was the normal way of feeding newborns at the time, and there were certainly no shortage of Hebrew women with milk to offer in that horrible time. Pharaoh's daughter agreed and Miriam brought back Yocheved as the nurse without identifying her as the child's mother (Ex. 2:8). Pharaoh's daughter hired her to take the child home and nurse him, which she did (Ex. 2:9). The child was brought back to Pharaoh's daughter when he "grew up" (yeegdal, probably meaning when he was weaned in this context). Pharaoh's daughter named him Moshe, from the Hebrew phrase m'osheetahu (I drew him out) (Ex. 2:10).
Then we suddenly fast-forward to when Moses was truly grown up and watching the Hebrews laboring (Ex. 2:11). There is no information here about how long Moses was with his birth family and how much he knew about his origins. You might assume that the child was weaned very early, as is the custom in modern times, but in the ancient world breastfeading continued much longer than it does today. Experts in the field indicate that breastfeeding in ancient Israel continued for two years (see, e.g., Breastfeeding in the Course of History - MedCrave online) and Jewish tradition teaches that Moses was nursed by Yocheved for 24 months (Shemot Rabbah 1:26).
So what did Moses know? Children don't have full-blown adult-style memories at the age of 2, but they do retain general impressions of that time. Moses clearly knew that he was born a Hebrew, because the first thing the Bible says about his adulthood is that he went out to watch his kinsfolk at their labors (Ex. 2:11). The Hebrew word usually translated as "kinsfolk" is echav -- his brothers! Bretheren is perhaps a better translation. So he understood that he was connected to these people. In fact, he felt such a strong connection to these people that he struck and killed an Egyptian master for abusing them (Ex. 2:11-12), which certainly doesn't seem like the behavior of an Egyptian prince with no connection to the Hebrew laborers.
The idea that Moses was a prince of Egypt, a potential heir to Pharaoh in the natural order, clearly is not what we see in the Bible. Moses was an adopted son of a daughter of Pharaoh (Ex. 2:5), in a very patriarchal culture where daughters and their children were not normally in the line of succession. Traditional stories tell that Moses as a child would take the crown off of Pharaoh's head and put it on his own (Shemot Rabbah 1:26), as many children like to play with pretty things. The story goes on to say that Pharaoh's advisors were concerned that Moses was a prophesied usurper, not a potential rightful heir. They had the child tested, bringing him a piece of gold and a piece of coal, to see whether he was a usurper. The story says that Moses initially reached for the gold but angel Gabriel pushed his hand toward the coal and the child popped the burning coal into his mouth! This proved to Pharaoh's advisors that Moses was no threat, and also caused the speech impairment that Moses said made him an inappropriate speaker for the people (Ex. 4:10).
None of this would have happened to a true "Prince of Egypt," so it is clear he wasn't thought of that way. He was very beautiful and very popular (Ex. 2:2; Shemot Rabbah 1:26), but he was not perceived as an Egyptian prince, and he knew that the Hebrew people were his brothers.