Miriam watched eagerly every day for sign of her baby brother; he had just gained glory as the victorious leader of a battle. She was proud of him but each day that passed brought increasing consternation. Rumors came fast as returning soldiers trickled in and at first she found it impossible to believe. But day after day passed and the report was the same. She kept her mother busy with little outings designed to prevent her from hearing the scandalous news.At last, when she saw the royal flags approaching the encampment, she ran to get her older brother. She found him debating with some laborers by the roadside and felt guilty for disturbing him.
“Brother,” she cautiously interrupted, “he’s returned.”
He jumped up, grabbed her by the arm, and practically dragged her along as he hurried his way to the caravan. They arrived just in time to see their brother hop down from his horse and whisper a few words to a woman clad in fine silk being carried along in a gold-accented enclosure.
“Jered!” Miriam cried as she broke free from her brother’s grip, “Then it’s true! How could you soil your blood?”
He spun around, his eyes wide with surprise that quickly turned to anger.
“Don’t call me by that name today sister, my name is Mosheh!” he thundered, “And your loose words will only bring down a curse upon you! You beware too, Aaron...”
Moses, the babe who was drawn out of the reeds of the Nile three months after his birth on February 18, 1272 BC, who was adopted into the family of Pharaoh and who would later cross him to free his people from the Egyptian yoke, was according to Josephus, returning to Goshen as husband of his first wife, an “Ethiopian” named Tharbis.
2 comments:
This post as your 2 previous have a lot to take in, but I love the history behind them. Thanks for including the links that give the historical backgrounds.
Thanks Karinann. This one was one of the first ideas I had come up with when I began this project. I just was never able to come up with a good way to write it, and looking at it, I still haven't. Some are better than others.
This bit as you probably know is a disputed one; Rabbis hotly debated whether or not Moses had been married before his marriage to Zippora. Some say "Ethiopian" was a mistranslation (which there is no basis since the tradition of the church-fathers maintained it's use) and others say it was actually the same wife, not a second, as there is some discrepancy in the timelines of his trips to Midia. But St Irenaeus it seemed, believed in Jospehus' account (and there's no reason not to) so I presented it here in this way.
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