I just finished reading a novel, Zipporah, Wife of Moses. In the story Moses rescues the daughters of Jethro at the well and one, Zipporah was adopted by Jethro when her boat floated on the sea of reeds with Zipporah and her mother. Her mother died and Jethro raised her as his daughter. It said in the book that she at first refused to marry Moses until he agreed to go back to Egypt and rescue his people from pharoah. The name of the Pharoah was Thutmose 11. Moses was adopted by the old Pharoah's daughter, Hatshepsut. Note-I heard the name Batya as the name of Pharoah's daughter and amongst Jews (I'm Jewish too) she's considered a very holy woman and many Orthodox Jewish girls are given the name Batya in her honor. The book calls Pharoah's daugher Hatshepsut.
2006-11-12 12:37:11 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Wow all of you made such great answers and I learned so much and I'm super shocked about all the SMART people that took their time to answer my question. THANKS! One problem, I cant decide which answer is the best. Isn't that the perogative of a woman not being able to make up her mind, even a 13 year old woman? lol lol Ok I'm going to let this question go to voting and let all the smart people out there pick the best answer. Thanks again all of you for your great answers.
2006-11-13 13:02:15 · update #1
This is all just a story of fiction, so believe whatever you want to. The bible has been written, re-written, translated from one language and back again so manty times, it's even more of a work of whoever was writing it and whatever was believed at the time than anything to be taken for "truth".
2006-11-12 12:45:20 · answer #1 · answered by mailrick12 3 · 0⤊ 4⤋
In the Book of Exodus, in the process of Moses' exile from Egypt, he begins working for Jethro as a shepherd. Consequently he meets Zipporah (meaning female or little bird), and marries her, and they have two sons, Gershom, and Eliezer.
Zipporah also features in a much more curious, and much-debated, passage. The passage concerning Moses and Zipporah reach an inn, contains four of the most difficult sentences in Biblical text. One possible interpretation is that something (perhaps God, perhaps an agent of God) tries to kill Moses, until Zipporah carries out a circumcision. (Other interpretations suggest that it is their son, Gershom, who is attacked.). Yet another is that Moses tried to kill his own son and only after Zippora cut the child's foreskin, drawing blood and pain, did his anger subside.
A third reference to a wife of Moses occurs in the tale of snow-white Miriam, at Numbers 12:1, where she is described as a Cushite (often understood to mean Ethiopian but could also simply imply "foreign"), but is not named. Since Zipporah is a Midianite, some early sources, such as Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities 2.10-11, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, as well as modern biblical criticism, have stated that they were different individuals, particularly since bigamy was legal, and practiced elsewhere by Jacob, a major patriarch. Nevertheless, a traditional Jewish and Christian view has been that they are both the same woman, the Cushite reference being only a metaphorical one concerning the perceived beauty of the Cushites
2006-11-12 20:41:16 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I can't find anything in the Bible that confirms Zipporah as being African, black, or any other nationality.
Cush was a grandson of Noah, but we are not told the heritage of Jethro, thus not for Zipporah either.
This book is a fictional account, and may be an interesting read, but don't mistake it for history, or dramatized Scripture either.
2006-11-12 20:51:28 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
After Abraham's wife Sarah died Abraham took a second wife, Keturah, and she was the mother of Midian, the father of the Midianites. So they both, Moses and Zipporah, were descendants of Abraham. See Gen 25.
2006-11-12 20:44:51 · answer #4 · answered by oldguy63 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Becky,
Zipporah, was the daughter of a Midianite, not a Cushite.
2006-11-12 21:18:10 · answer #5 · answered by robin rmsclvr25 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Actually I heard that back in those times there was a different Ethiopia from the one we know today that was near Saudi Arabia. Moses wife was an Arab woman and his sister was racist against her because she was an Arab.
2006-11-12 20:58:04 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Zipporah is a Midianite
2006-11-12 20:46:48 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes, tzipporah was a cushite (ethiopian) and cushites were very black. miriam ends up mocking moses for marrying her and G-d turns her white as snow in punishment. i love biblical irony.
i have also heard that pharaoh's daughter was named batya too
2006-11-12 20:41:35 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Read Numbers Chapter 12. Moses' SECOND wife was a Cushite/Etheopian which would definitely indicate that she was black. Moses' siblings were not pleased with this inter-racial marriage and God rebuked them harshly and struck Moses' sister with leprosy. God showed great irony in his punishment on her - you like white?, I'll show you WHITE (and he struck her with leprosy that was "white as snow"). Moses, meek and humble, interceded for his sister and God healed her. Great story, Great God!
2006-11-12 20:46:52 · answer #9 · answered by 5solas 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
All I know is that Moses married an Ethiopian!
Cool, there are so many Jewish people on here! Keep it up=)
2006-11-12 20:39:59 · answer #10 · answered by paTROLLer 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋