MOSES
680
MOSES
self-existence of the one God. The name itself, as al- ready mentioned, must have been known in the family of Aaron, Hut its grand siguiticance was now first drawn out. Sec Jkuovaii. (2.) The mission was given to Moses to deliver his people. The two signs are characteristic — the one of his past Egyptian life, the other of his active shepherd life. In the rusli of leprosy into his hand is the link between him and the people whom the ICgyptians called a nation of lepers (Josephus, Apion, I, -ICi). (The Mussulman legends speak of his white shining hand as the instrument of his miracles [D'llerbelot]. Hence "the white hand" is proverbial for the healing art.) In the transformation of his shep- herd's staff is the glorification of the simple pastoral life, of which that staff was the symbol, into the great career which lay before it. The humble yet wonder-working crook is, in the history of Closes, as Ewald finely ob- serves, what the despised cross is in the first history of Christianity. In this call of Moses, as of the apostles afterwards, the man is swallowed up in the cause. Yet this is the passage in his history which, more than any other, brings out his external and domestic rela- tions.
Moses returned to Egypt from his exile, B.C. 1058. His Arabian wife and her two iiifant sons were with him. She was seated with them on the ass (the ass was known as tlie animal jieculiar to the .Jewish people from Jacob down to David). He apparently walked by .their side with his shepherd's staff. (The Sept. substi- tutes the general term ra inroZuyia.) On the journey back to Egypt a mysterious incident occurred in the family, which can only be explained with difficulty. The most probable explanation seems to be that at the caravansary either Moses or (iershom (the context of the preceding verses [iv, '22, 23] rather points to the lat- ter) was struck with what seemed to be a mortal illness. In some way, not apparent to us, this illness was con- nected by Zipporah with the fact that her son had not been circumcised — whether in the general neglect of that rite among the Israelites in Egypt, or in conse- quence of his birth in Midian. She instantly performed the rite, and threw the sharp instrument, stained with the fresh blood, at the feet of her husband, exclaiming, in the agony of a mother's anxiety for the life of her chihl — •• A bloody husband thou art, to cause the death of my son." Then, when the recovery from the illness took place (whether of Jloses or Gershom), she ex- claimed again — '• A bloody husband still thou art, but not so as to cause tlie child's death, but only to bring about his circumcision." So Ewald explains the nar- rative {Geschic/itfl, vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 105), taking the sick- ness to have visited Moses. Kosenmiiller makes Ger- shom the victim, and makes Zipporah address Jehovah, the Arabic word for " marriage" being a synonym for "circumcision." It is possible that on this story is founded the tradition of Artapanus (Euseb. Pr. Ev. ix, 27), that the Ethiopians derived circumcision frorn Mo- ses. It would seem to have been in conseipience of this event, whatever i,t was, that the wife and her children were sent back to Jethro, and remained with him till ;Moses joined tliem at Kcphidim (Exod. xviii, 2-G), which is the last time that she is distinctly mentioned. In Numb, xii, 1 we hear of a Cushite wife who gave umbrage to Miriam and .Varon. This may be— (1) an Etliiopian (Cushite) wife, taken after Zipporah's death (Ewald, Gesch. ii, 229); (2) tlie Ethiopian princess of Josephus {Ant. i, 10, 2; but tliat whole story is proba- bly only an inference from Numb, xii, 1); (3) Zi[)porah herself, which is rendered pr<)l)al)k. l)y the juxtaposition of Cuslian with ^Midian in Hab. iii,"?. The two sons also sink into obscurity. Their names, though of Le- vitical origin, relate to their foreign birthplace. Ger- shom, " stranger," and Eli-czer, " (Jod is my help," com- memorated their father's exile and escape (Exod. xviii, 3, 4). Gersliom was the fatlier of the wandering Levite Jonathan (Judg. xviii, 30), antl the ancestor of Shebuel, David's chief treasurer (I Chrou. xxiii, 10; xxiv, 20).
Eliezer had an only son, Rehabiah (1 Chron. xxiii, 17), who was the ancestor of a numerous but obscure prog- eny, whose representative in David's time — the last de- scendant of Moses known to us— was Shelomith, guard j of the consecrated treasures in the temple (1 Chron. xxvi, •Ib-lH).
I After this parting Moses advanced into the desert, I and at the same spot where he had had his vision en- countered Aaron (Exod. iv, 27). From that meeting and co-operation we have the first distinct indication of Moses's personal appearance and character. Tlie tra- j ditional rejjresentations of him in some respects well I agree with that which we derive from Jlichael Angelo's famous statue in the church of St. Pietro in Vinculi at I Rome. Long, shaggy hair and beard is described as his characteristic equally by Josephus, Diodorus (i, p. 424), I and Artapanus (»:o/j/;r//c, ap. Euseb. Prwp. Ki: ix, 27). i To this Artapanus adds the curious touch that it was of I a reddish hue, tinged with gray {Trvfjf)uici)c, iroXwc;). The traditions of his beauty and size as a child have al- ready been mentioned. They are continued to his manhood in the Gentile descriptions. " Tall and digni- fied," says Artapanus {jiuKpoc, ct^KDi.iaTiK6(;) — " Wise and beautiful as his father Joseph" (with a curious con- fusion of genealogies), says Justin (xxxvi, 2). But be- yond the slight glance at his infantine beauty, no hint of this grand personality is given in the Bible. What is described is rather the reverse. The only point there brought out is a singular and unlooked-for infirmity : " O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. . . . How shall Pharaoh hear me, which am of uncircumcised lips?" (i. e. slow, without words, stammering, hesitating; Sept. iax^'J- (piiii'OQ (cat l3(tpvy\w(T<T0(j') ; his " speech contemptible," like St. Paul's— like the English Cromwell (comp. Car- lyles Cromwell, ii, 219)— like the first eiforts of the Greek Demosthenes. In the solution of this difficulty which Moses offers we read both flic disinterestedness, which is the most distinct trait of his personal charac- ter, and the future relation of the two brothers. " Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him wliom thou wilt send" (i. e. "make any one thy apostle rather than me"). In outward appearance this prayer was granted, Aarou spoke and acted for Moses, and was the permanent in- heritor of the sacred staff of power. But Moses was the inspiring soul behind; and so as time rolls on, Aaron, the prince and priest, has almost disappeared from view, and Moses, the dumb, backward, disinterested prophet, is in appearance what he was in truth — the foremost leader of the chosen people,