How many wives did Moses have?
Exodus 2:21 says that Moses married a woman from Midian named Zipporah. Numbers 12:1 says that Moses had married an Ethiopian woman.
This raises the question: Is this one woman or two? That is, is the Ethiopian woman the same person as Zipporah, or are they two different people?
There are two possibilities: Two references to the same woman, or two different women. If different women, then did Zipporah die and some time later Moses remarried? Or did he have two wives at once? Note that was no law at the time against a man having more than one wife, so we can't rule that out.
An obvious objection to the theory that they are the same woman is that Zipporah was from Midian and this other woman was from Ethiopia. But there are several resolutions to this objection.
One that I read when researching this article is that calling her an "Ethiopian" was a way of saying that she was unusually pretty. Ethiopians were black, so an Ethiopian would be unusual and would stand out in a group of white people. So, several writers said, maybe calling her "Ethiopian" was just a way of saying she was unusual, probably unusually pretty.
I don't claim to be an expert on Hebrew idioms, but this sounds very unlikely to me. Even if you had a preference for black women, I can't imagine someone saying, "Sally is black" to mean "Sally is a very pretty white woman". Frankly, I suspect this is a convoluted theory of people who don't like the idea of a white man marrying a black woman and who want to explain it away. But as I say, I don't claim to be an expert on Hebrew idioms. If anyone has some evidence that this was really something that ancient Hebrews said, I'd be interested to hear it.
The word translated "Ethiopia" in most English Bibles is the Hebrew word "Cush". And the Jews used the name "Cush" not just for Ethiopia but also for the southern coast of Arabia. Midian was in northern Arabia, but maybe she was from the southern part of Midian, or had immigrated to Midian from southern Arabia.
A problem with this theory is that, again, I can't find any corroboration for it other than when people are discussing Zipporah. I get very suspicious when a "fact" only comes up in one particular context.
If we will consider the possibility that Zipporah's family moved to Midian from southern Arabia, there's another potential resolution to the discrepancy: Maybe her family moved to Midian from Ethiopia. If her family was originally from Ethiopia but was presently living in Midian, then it would make perfect sense to refer to her as an Ethiopian and at the same time to say that Moses met her in Midian. Note that Zipporah is never called a "Midianite". We are told that Moses met her in Midian, and that her father was the "priest of Midian", but not that they were Midianites.
Numbers says that Moses's brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, objected to his marrying an Ethiopian. But it doesn't say the reason for their objection. Did the writer consider it obvious? Maybe they were racist and didn't like the idea of a white man marrying a black woman. Maybe this woman did not believe in God and they objected to Moses marrying an unbeliever. Maybe something else.
The text does tell us that God took Moses's side. He punished Miriam for opposing the marriage. There's no mention of God punishing Aaron. Maybe Miriam was the instigator of the objection and Aaron just went along with her. The fact that God punished her probably means this wasn't a misunderstanding or something debatable. God didn't just say, "No, Miriam is wrong". He actively punished her.
Maybe, possibly, the story of Miriam's objection indicates that the marriage was recent, so it was not Zipporah. But not necessarily. Miriam might have just thought this was a good time to bring it up. Maybe her objection had been simmering for months. Maybe something happened that suddenly made it particularly relevant. Again, we just don't know.
Disclaimer: I am married to an Asian woman, so I might have some bias to defend cross-ethnic marriages.
© 2024 by Jay Johansen
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