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Moses As A Polygamist

M

Maegirl

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Female
Hi everyone! :)

I have heard from several sources that Moses was himself polygamous, but I myself have not been able to find any Scripture references clearly stating that his first wife was still living when he married again. I'm very likely missing something obvious, but I would really appreciate input from others regarding this topic. Thank you!
 
As far as I know, there is no place where it is explicitly stated that he took his "second" wife while the first was still living. I put second in quotes, because some even argue that there was no second wife at all, just a different name for his first. The idea of Moses having two wives at the same time is somewhat arguable, since (again as far as I know) it isn't overtly stated in the text. It one accepts polygyny, then reading the text can easily give the strong impression that he had two wives at the same time, but if one supposes polygyny is wrong, and Moses, that man of God would not participate in such things, then an argument can be formed that he did not have two wives at the same time.
 
Numbers 12:1 states that Moses had an ethiopian wife, and this caused controversy. This occured between leaving Egypt and the first attempt to enter Canaan, a short period during which Zipporah is also mentioned as being still married to him (Exodus 18). So just from scripture alone we can deduce that Moses had two wives simultaneously.

But much more information about Moses is given by Josephus, and when we read his account also this all becomes much clearer.

Prior to his banishment, Moses became a very prominent figure in Egypt. When Ethiopia invaded Egypt, and Egypt was rapidly being defeated, Moses was appointed the commander of the army. He turned the entire war around through some shrewd maneouvers, and defeated the Ethiopians. The final seige against their capital was ended when the daughter of the Ethiopian king brokered a surrender, partly involving giving herself to Moses as a wife - her idea, she saw him from the wall and was very attracted to him. (Antiquities of the Jews, book 2, chapter 10).

Which means that she was Moses' first recorded wife. After his banishment he took Zipporah to wife as outlined in scripture. Then when his Ethiopian wife is mentioned in Numbers as causing a controversy, and therefore still around (if she'd died many years before there could have been no controversy), we find that the entire time he has been married to Zipporah he has been a polygamist! We don't know if this Ethiopian wife accompanied him to Midian or stayed in Egypt though in a "long-term distant relationship".

We also read of another father-in-law to Moses, Hobab the Kenite (Judges 4:11), a different name and family to Jethro, Zipporah's father. This strongly indicates a third wife, though we know nothing about her so cannot be certain that she was married to him at the same time as the others.

So it is very clear that Moses was a polygamist with at least two wives, and possibly more.
 
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General timeline of events:

Ex 17 - Israel encamps at Rephidim.
Ex 18 - Jethro returns with Zipporah.
Ex 19 - 3rd month, 1st year - Arrival at Sinai.
Num 10 - 2nd year, 2nd month.
Num 12 - Aaron and Miriam angry about the Cushite wife he took.

So, assuming they're different people, the first mention of the Cushite seems to be about a year after the last mention of Zipporah. There are a few possibilities:

1. He could have married the Cushite some time before Exodus 18, presumeably even before fleeing into Midian, as mentioned in extra-Biblical sources like Josephus. In this case, they would obviously have been married simultaneously. However, to me, it seems odd that the presence of a wife that Moses had been married to for over 40 years would suddenly become a problem.

2. The marriage could have taken place after Exodus 14, but before Numbers 12, possibly itself being the source of Miriam's and Aaron's anger. In this case, you've only got about a year long period to posit that Zipporah either left, or died, without mention in the text.
 
What could be controversial about Moses marrying an Ethiopian woman anyway? Pondering why Miriam was upset about it in the first place may help understand this also. I can only think of two possible reasons, one of which isn't actually very possible at all:
  1. A misunderstanding of the prohibitions against marriage of foreigners. The Israelites, through Moses, were clearly told not to marry Canaanites. Miriam may have misinterpreted this to be a ban on marriage of all foreigners, and therefore felt that Moses was being a hypocrite, having / marrying an Ethiopian wife when this was prohibited (in her mind). If this were the case, when would she have been upset? Whenever she had this understanding of the law and Moses simultaneously was married to a foreigner. In other words, however long Moses had been married to this woman, Miriam would only have become upset after the delivery of the law at Sinai, and after she'd had enough time to ponder this in her mind and come to her own conclusions. This timing would fit perfectly with the timeline above, even if Moses had been married to this woman for decades.

  2. A belief that polygamy was banned - Moses had Zipporah, and then here's this second woman (either a new marriage, or a long-time estranged wife returning into the scene). If the law banned polygamy, as this author contends, then this would be a very sound explanation of why Miriam was upset. But it would at the same time prove that Moses was a polygamist...
In my opinion, (1) is most likely. I think that Miriam joined the dots following Sinai, and decided that Moses' pre-existing marriage to the Ethiopian was hypocritical, and he should put her away.

By the way, this Ethiopian woman has a name - Tharbis, according to Josephus.
 
There is also possibility number 3: Miriam just couldn't stand Tharbis for personal reasons, it had nothing to do with her race or anything else, the fact she was Ethiopian is just how she is identified in the text to distinguish which one of Moses' wives Miriam was upset about. In this case, the fact Tharbis' race is mentioned actually supports the idea that Moses was a polygamist, because if Moses were a monogamist and Miriam didn't like his wife the text could have just said "Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman."
 
Thank you all for the replies; this has been extremely enlightening. :) I have been very hesitant to use Moses as an argument for polygamy when I was unable to pinpoint a verse supporting it, but this makes much more sense now. I really appreciate it! Do any of you run into issues with people not holding Josephus as an authority on Biblical history when you use his writings to "fill in the blanks", so to speak? If so, how have you handled that?
 
I know a few people who would not accept anything from Josephus in a Biblical debate. I don't use Josephus as a source in a Biblical debate. I am perfectly find with using Josephus as a Historical source to support context of a Biblical debate. I know its splitting hairs. I've slowly learnt that some arguments aren't won by the words said but how the words were said.
 
Just fall back to "if we ignore Josephus then, what does the text itself say?". You'll usually get close to the same conclusion.

Or, in this particular case, look at Acts 7:20-25
Acts 7:20-25 said:
At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father’s house. When he was thrown out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and reared him as her own son. Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works. But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn’t understand.
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Here we read that BEFORE Moses was 40 years old, and the incident with killing the Egyptian and being banished, he was already "mighty in his works". What works are these? Scripture records nothing mighty that he did before this. What is Luke, the historian, talking about? He's clearly referring directly to Josephus' records of the mighty acts of Moses prior to this incident (or rather the underlying documents Josephus also used when putting together his books). So if Luke thought this worth reading and referring to, we probably should take a look at it also.
 
FollowingHim said:
Numbers 12:1 states that Moses had an ethiopian wife, and this caused controversy. This occured between leaving Egypt and the first attempt to enter Canaan, a short period during which Zipporah is also mentioned as being still married to him (Exodus 18). So just from scripture alone we can deduce that Moses had two wives simultaneously.

But much more information about Moses is given by Josephus, and when we read his account also this all becomes much clearer.

Prior to his banishment, Moses became a very prominent figure in Egypt. When Ethiopia invaded Egypt, and Egypt was rapidly being defeated, Moses was appointed the commander of the army. He turned the entire war around through some shrewd maneouvers, and defeated the Ethiopians. The final seige against their capital was ended when the daughter of the Ethiopian king brokered a surrender, partly involving giving herself to Moses as a wife - her idea, she saw him from the wall and was very attracted to him. (Antiquities of the Jews, book 2, chapter 10).

Which means that she was Moses' first recorded wife. After his banishment he took Zipporah to wife as outlined in scripture. Then when his Ethiopian wife is mentioned in Numbers as causing a controversy, and therefore still around (if she'd died many years before there could have been no controversy), we find that the entire time he has been married to Zipporah he has been a polygamist! We don't know if this Ethiopian wife accompanied him to Midian or stayed in Egypt though in a "long-term distant relationship".

We also read of another father-in-law to Moses, Hobab the Kenite (Judges 4:11), a different name and family to Jethro, Zipporah's father. This strongly indicates a third wife, though we know nothing about her so cannot be certain that she was married to him at the same time as the others.

So it is very clear that Moses was a polygamist with at least two wives, and possibly more.
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@FollowingHim like a Boss, busting out some Josephus and stuff! Boom baby! :cool:
:bible:Lol
#historylessons
 
Look, if you're looking to change minds then this episode, and especially Josephus, are not good options.

The Moses example is not explicit. You can offer explanations that do not contradict the text and have Moses monogamous so it can make your case look weak to the skeptic.

And Josephus, who I think is accurate and reliable and quite probably a Christian, is still not inspired Scripture. Again, he gives the skeptic a lot of room to counter with spurious replies that dodge the real issues.
 
Some people are not merely trying to win a bible debate. Some people find historical information useful, some don't. Knowledge of what Josephus said about it is a tool in the tool kit; use it where it's useful.
 
Just off the top of my head, (I can provide verses later if you like) we know that Moses had a father in law Jethro from Midian who's daughter would have also been from Midian. His son Hobab is later referred to as a Kenite. The Kenites occupied an area between Sinai and lower Palestine.
Aaron and Miriam become very upset because of Moses' taking an Ethiopian wife. Nothing more is mentioned to my knowledge about this Ethiopian lady, but in my view, the differences are too great to think that the Kenite/Midianite family mentioned in Exodus 18 are the same as the Ethiopian lady mentioned in Numbers 12.

I could of course be wrong
 
Personally, I would not use this as a concrete argument or main point until AFTER a person has already opened up to the possibility of polygyny. Once they experience the paradigm shift in their brain, the Moses narrative will open them up to at least seeing the possibility. It's not your strongest arrow in your quiver. It could get lost in the weeds on someone dead set against plurality.
 
Maegirl said:
Thank you all for the replies; this has been extremely enlightening. :) I have been very hesitant to use Moses as an argument for polygamy when I was unable to pinpoint a verse supporting it, but this makes much more sense now. I really appreciate it! Do any of you run into issues with people not holding Josephus as an authority on Biblical history when you use his writings to "fill in the blanks", so to speak? If so, how have you handled that?
Click to expand...
Isn't it amazing how this never came up in church? Moses being a polygamist that is...
 
Even if we did not know about Josephus; a plain reading of the verse @FollowingHim listed, Numbers 12:1 is quite clear this is not a Midianite woman.
The Hebrew word הַכֻּשִׁ֖ית (ha-Cushiyt) means "The Nubian"; an area in Africa were Egypt periodically raided.
The LXX (Septuagint) further modernizes her ethnicity calling her "τῆς Αἰθιοπίσσης" pronouncing it makes it clear "teys Aithiopisseys"
"The Ethiopian".
I personally doubt the Josephus story and I think Moses just recently had taken her as a wife and that's what caused the controversy and it doesn't create a need to account for a very important aspect of Moses' life having been left out previously. It's also the way the story is told "because He had taken a Cushite woman."
Either way it clearly demonstrates Moses had more than one wife there is just no way to make a Medianite into a Cushite.

Also as @Verifyveritas76 pointed out the text later refers to other people as Moses' fathers-in-law. It certainly seems he had 3 wives to me.

This is why I actually love to bring up Moses in these kinds of discussions. Mostly because few have ever heard that he was a polygamist as it's not so many who focus on the torah books so intently to notice these nuances so often the intellectually honest person will be excited to know something new about the greatest prophet who ever lived.
Moses is a great bombshell rarely used; he was very useful in the months I spent discussing polygamy with my 2nd wife when I was just courting her.
 
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One more thought on this I forgot to mention since I've got a splitting headache.
I believe the reason Miriam and Aaron were angry is not racial but due to polygamy.
Egypt was a monogamous society except for the Pharaohs. Wives cost money and slaves don't have so much.
Moses presented the case of even being concerned that the Egyptians would freak out at the Israelite choices for sacrifices.

I don't think a subservient slave people would be looking to rock the boat with polygamy. (this also fits the Jewish ban on polygamy to not further anger the Europeans against Jews later in history). I think Moses' taking of an additional wife sparked the controversy which landed Miriam outside the camp. Think, possibly no polygamy for a few centuries... then BAM! Moses does it. Part of the result of the wondering in the desert was getting the "Egyptian culture" out of the Israelis. Maybe that included forced monogamy as well...
It would be interesting to know the Cushite's age (btw in Modern Hebrew "Cushi" is seen as a pejorative for black person).

How about this as a possible scenario.:
  • Pharaoh slaughtered all the male babies (except Moses).
  • Israeli slaves in Egypt likely did not take multiple wives.
  • There were a slew of lonely ladies in old age when they were led out of Egypt (due to the dead males the Egyptians killed in that generation)
  • Moses out of the ministering, kindness of his heart decided to take a worthy lady (perhaps his age or younger) who had never known a man's love (since there weren't enough males ... dead babies etc)
  • He ministered to her
This may be a more palatable scenario though it's only speculation it also fits the narrative and Moses' character.
 
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Mojo said:
Personally, I would not use this as a concrete argument or main point until AFTER a person has already opened up to the possibility of polygyny. Once they experience the paradigm shift in their brain, the Moses narrative will open them up to at least seeing the possibility. It's not your strongest arrow in your quiver. It could get lost in the weeds on someone dead set against plurality.
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Mojo, I agree, and have only used Scriptures clearly promoting or regulating polygamy in discussions with family who do not agree that it is accepted by God. But I was also extremely curious as to the sources others were using to come up with the conclusion that Moses was polygamous, and it has been wonderful to receive so many in-depth replies. Gives me lots of great material to study in a new light! :)
 
IshChayil said:
One more thought on this I forgot to mention since I've got a splitting headache.
I believe the reason Miriam and Aaron were angry is not racial but due to polygamy.
Egypt was a monogamous society except for the Pharaohs. Wives cost money and slaves don't have so much.
Moses presented the case of even being concerned that the Egyptians would freak out at the Israelite choices for sacrifices.

I don't think a subservient slave people would be looking to rock the boat with polygamy. (this also fits the Jewish ban on polygamy to not further anger the Europeans against Jews later in history). I think Moses' taking of an additional wife sparked the controversy which landed Miriam outside the camp. Think, possibly no polygamy for a few centuries... then BAM! Moses does it. Part of the result of the wondering in the desert was getting the "Egyptian culture" out of the Israelis. Maybe that included forced monogamy as well...
It would be interesting to know the Cushite's age (btw in Modern Hebrew "Cushi" is seen as a pejorative for black person).

How about this as a possible scenario.:
  • Pharaoh slaughtered all the male babies (except Moses).
  • Israeli slaves in Egypt likely did not take multiple wives.
  • There were a slew of lonely ladies in old age when they were led out of Egypt (due to the dead males the Egyptians killed in that generation)
  • Moses out of the ministering, kindness of his heart decided to take a worthy lady (perhaps his age or younger) who had never known a man's love (since there weren't enough males ... dead babies etc)
  • He ministered to her
This may be a more palatable scenario though it's only speculation it also fits the narrative and Moses' character.
Click to expand...

Unless they were angry that with all those eligible native Israelite women lacking a husband, he went and took one of the "mixed multitude"...

Maybe they were just upset to see the distress of the Israelite women not eased. I like your point, though, but now my brain is busy trying to look at all possible angles.
 
If the marriage took place, chronologically, where it is presented in Numbers 12, there might also have been some ageism involved. Moses was around 80 at this point; maybe Miriam didn't think it was proper for him to be marrying at such an age? Especially depending on whether there was much age difference.

Really like Ish's suggestion, though, of reprogramming Egyptian cultural monogamy.
 
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