 Classical historian Michael Grant, for instance, stated "The tale is not history but myth or folk-lore".It appears to be modeled on Pharaoh's attempt to kill the Israelite children (), and more specifically on various elaborations of the original story that had become current in the 1st century.In that expanded story, Pharaoh kills the Hebrew children after his scribes warn him of the impending birth of the threat to his crown (i.e., Moses), but Moses's father and mother are warned in a dream that the child's life is in danger and act to save him.