The Exodus Narrative from a Different Angle

 

Alice C. Linsley

Analysis of the kinship pattern of Moses’ family reveals that Moses was Horite Hebrew. The Horites and the Sethites constituted the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. The Hebrew married only within their caste (endogamy) which explains why so many of the people in the Hebrew Scriptures are related by marriage or have common ancestry.

The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is Nekhen on the Nile (4200 BC). This settlement predates the building of the Great Pyramids at Giza and the step pyramid of King Djoser (Third Dynasty). The oldest known tomb, with painted mural on its plaster walls, is located in Nekhen and dates to c. 3500–3200 BC.

The Horite mounds and the Sethite mounds were sacred Hebrew settlements along the Nile. Though separate groups or moieties, they shared common religious practices and beliefs, and they worshiped the same God and served the same king.

It is clear in the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (2400-2000 BC) that the Horites and the Sethites maintained separate settlements. Utterance 308 addresses them as separate entities: "Hail to you, Horus in the Horite Mounds! Hail to you, Horus in the Sethite Mounds!"

PT Utterance 470 contrasts the Horite mounds with the mounds of Seth, designating the Horite Mounds "the High Mounds."

This diagram shows the relationship between Moses and Seir, the Horite Hebrew ruler mentioned in Genesis 36.

Moses was a sent-away son

As the son of Amram's cousin bride, Moses was not Amram's proper heir. Analysis of the social structure of the early Hebrew suggests that Moses was sent to live for a time with his maternal uncle Jethro in Midian (avuncular residence). That is the same pattern exhibited by Jacob who was sent away to live for a time with his maternal uncle Laban. In both cases, these sent-away sons struck out to establish territories of their own. That is one way to think of the "Exodus", except Moses didn't live to rule over a territory of his own.

Keep in mind also, that the biblical narrative of the Exodus is the story of only one Hebrew clan, the clan of Jacob who was called Israel. There were many other Hebrew clans and some of them were living in Canaan. The Hebrew had dispersed widely before the time of Abraham. They had already settled in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and other regions of the Ancient Near East.

Exodus 17:12 describes an event that connects Moses to an earlier Horite ruler. "But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun". 

King Hor (c. 1800 B.C.)

About 300 years before the time of Moses, there was a Horite king whose statue shows him with up-raised arms over his head. From predynastic times, this ka/kah (K3) symbol indicated divine authority, potency, and the sustaining power of the Spirit.

Related reading: Amram's Children; Cousin Brides Among the Hebrew; Royal Sons and Their Maternal Uncles; Horite and Sethite Mounds

Moses and the "Kushite" Bride

Alice C. Linsley

If Moses married according to the pattern of his Horim, he would have had two wives. Other Hebrew rulers with two wives include Lamech, Terah, Abraham, Esau, Jacob, Amram, Elkanah (Samuel's father), Ashur (1 Chron. 4:5), Mered (1 Chron. 4); Joash (2 Chron. 24:1–3), and Shaharaim of Moab (1 Chron. 8:8). Caleb fathered children by his wives Azubah and Jerioth (1 Chron. 2:18).

Moses' first wife would have been a half-sister, a daughter of Amram. She is described as his "Kushite" bride in Numbers 12:1. It seems probable that this wife remained in Egypt with Amram because we have very little information about her. In Exodus, the focus shifts to Zipporah, Moses' Midianite cousin.

Ishara (Ušḫara) is a Hittite word said to mean "promise" or "binding oath." The Hittites are related to Heth of Kiriath Arba (Hebron) where Sarah lived. Though a place rather than a person, Hebron is listed as a "son" of Kohath in 1 Chronicles 23:12.

Ishara is a woman's name and is related to the name Ishtar. According to Stol and Wiggermann, although Ishtar was a goddess of love, Ishara was the figure to whom women turned to bare sons (Birth in Babylonia and the Bible: Its Mediterranean Setting, p. 79).

In 1 Chronicles 23:18, Ishar is named as a chief, as is the woman Anah in Genesis 36. (See diagram below.) Among the Horite Hebrew, women served as chiefs. The right to rule depended on one’s rank and authority more than one’s gender. Rank and authority were determined by the antiquity of the clan and its reputation. According to Genesis 36:31, the Horites “are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the children of Israel.” Jeremiah notes that the rulers of Edom and Teman of Edom were renowned for their wisdom (Jer. 49:7).

Genesis 36 mentions that Esau the Elder married a Hittite woman. Her name is Adah, the daughter of Elon. In this same diagram, we see Anah, daughter of Zibeon, listed as a Horite chief. Anah's daughter Oholibamah married Esau the Younger.

1 Chronicles 23:18 says that Ishara's son was Shelomith. The name is problematic because there are eight people by that name in the Old Testament, 5 men and 3 women. If Shelomith is the name of another son born to Amram (and Ishara?), his name identifies him as a member of a ruling family. In the ancient Akkadian language, shal means rule or reign, and mit refers to a mace. 

The names Shelomith and Shulamit share the same consonants: Sh-l-m-t. The name Shulamit appears in the Song of Songs where she is described as "dark as the tents of Kedar."

The dispute that arose over Moses' Kushite wife appears to be connected to the ruling house in Egypt which was served by Horite and Sethite priests. Though marriage to a half-sister was customary among the biblical Hebrew, it is likely that the Kushite bride was viewed as compromising Moses' authority among the clans of Jacob who were leaving Egypt.

Related reading: Hebrew Rulers With Two Wives; Kushite Wives; The Pattern of Two Wives; Identifying the Status of Two Wives; Moses's Horite Hebrew Family; The Kushite Marriage Pattern Drove Kushite Expansion Out of Africa; Amram's Children; Why Zipporah Circumcised Her Son

Two Passovers

Alice C. Linsley


There are two "passovers" in the Old Testament. Death passed over those in the houses with the lamb's blood on the door posts. Likewise, when death came to Jericho, the scarlet cord hanging from the window of Rahab's house preserved her household. The horizontal blood streak on the door lintel and the scarlet cord hanging vertically from the window form a + cross. When considered together the narratives point us to Jesus Christ whose blood brings deliverance.

The paradox there is that blood was perceived both to purify and to pollute. As St. Paul says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Reality in the Bible is told from the perspective of both the male and the female and the added dimension of the male-female couplet. Consider prophets and trees as a male-female couplet. Deborah judged Israel from her tamar tree between Bethel and Ramah (north-south axis). The tamar is a date nut palm associated with the female. Many biblical women were named Tamar. Likewise, the prophet or "moreh" consulted by Abraham sat under an oak. This tree was associated with the male. The trees represent another male-female couplet. There is no murky middle ground on gender in teh Bible. No androgynous authority figure sitting under some fanciful tree.

There are two "passovers" in the Old Testament. The passover associated with Moses involving the lamb's blood streaked on the lintel and door posts. Because of this blood, death passed over these houses. Likewise the scarlet cord hanging from the window of Rahab's house preserved those within the house when death came to Jericho. There is no denying the blood symbolism and no imaginary substitute for it.

Rahab and the Horite Hebrew

Rahab of Jericho was the wife of Salmon/Salma, the son of Hur (HR - a Horite Hebrew name). Salma is designated the "father of Bethlehem" in 1 Chronicles 2:51-54. Rahab was the grandmother of Boaz, a ruler of Bethlehem Ephratah, a Horite Hebrew settlement according to 1 Chronicles 4:4 - "These are the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah, the father of Bethlehem." ! Chronicles 4:5 identifies the marriage pattern of the Horite Hebrew chiefs. "Ashhur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah."

1 Chronicles 2:50 tells us that Caleb’s firstborn son was Hur (HR). Hur’s firstborn son was Shobal, the founder of Kiriath-jearim where the Ark resided until it was moved to Jerusalem.

Related reading: Blood and Binary Distinctions; The Sun and Moon as a Gendered Couplet

Midianite Potters of Edom

A tent-shrine or tabernacle was discovered at Timnaʿthat resembled the biblical description of the tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness. Stone-lined post-holes were found with acacia wood fragments and numerous copper rings. There were copious fragments of copper wire knots likely used to suspend the tent curtains.

At all sites where Midianite sherds were found (B. Rothenberg and Glass 1983; Parr 1988; Knauf 1988: 21-23), their dating was of the New Kingdom period of Timna, an industrial-scale metallurgical site in and around the Wadi Arabah in ancient Edom. The region was rich in copper and the metal work done there appears to have involved religious ritual. Juan Manuel Tebes points out that the Midianite ceramic wares also appear "consistently in cultic contexts, administrative buildings, and burial offerings."

In the early 2000's, Dr. Thomas E. Levy led an archaeological survey that yielded earlier dates than had been assigned to the Edomite kingdom. The team found scarabs, painted pottery shards, metal arrowheads, hammers, grinding stones, and slag heaps. Dr. Levy stated, "Only a complex society such as a paramount chiefdom or primitive kingdom would have the organizational know-how to produce copper metal on such an industrial scale." 

An "impressive amount of Midianite ware" was found around the tent-shrine at Timna. The Midianites were related to Abraham through his son Midian, born of Abraham's cousin wife Keturah (Gen. 25). They should be considered a Horite Hebrew clan of Edom. Moses married his cousin Zipporah, a daughter of the Midianite priest Jethro. Moses' father married a Horite woman of Edom (see diagram above).

At Timna there was a shrine to Hathor, the mother of Horus. (Horus is derived from the Ancient Egyptian HR, meaning "Most High One.") Hathor was the patron of the Horite metal workers at Timna and at other metal workers sites in the region. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timna by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Timna, p. 183)

Concerning House 314 at Tel Masos near Beersheba Juan Tebes writes: “Within several of its habitations, rests of metallurgical activities were visible on the ground, possibly connected to a ritual function, as has been suggested by the appearance of ‘human’ figurines very similar to those found at the Hathor temple of Timna."

Tel Masos sits at the gateway to Hebron where Sarah resided. Keturah likely resided at or near Tel Masos or Beersheba. These sites were within Abraham's territory in Edom as shown on the map above. Note the placement of the wives on a north-south axis, a characteristic of the Horite marriage pattern involving two wives.

Horite Hebrew priests were active in metal work, as is evidence in the stories of Aaron and Moses fabricating ritual objects. They were rather widely dispersed in the ancient world. Horite Hebrew priests were found in Aram, Edom, Judah, and Moab. The Midianite potters were among them.


Related reading: The Chiefs of Edom, The Substance of Abraham's Faith, The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; A Land Whose Stones are Iron and From Whose Hill You May Mine Copper.; The Antiquity of the Edomite Rulers

Amram's Children

Alice C. Linsley

Amram fathered at least three sons and a daughter by two wives. The daughter was named Miriam/Miryam. The name is related to the Egyptian word for love - mer. The Anglicized form is Mary. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 69b; Sotah 11b) states that Miriam married Caleb and their son was called Hur, a Horite Hebrew name. Caleb and Hur are related to the Horite Hebrew of Bethlehem. Hur is called the "father of Bethlehem" in I Chronicles 4:4.

As Amram had two wives, Miriam was probably not his only daughter. One daughter born to his cousin wife Ishara might have been called Shelomith. However, 1 Chronicles 23:18 says that Shelomith was Ishara's first son. The name is problematic because there are eight people by that name in the Old Testament, 5 men and 3 females.

This two-wife marriage custom is typical of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew ruler-priests. We find the custom with Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4), Terah, Abraham, Esau, Jacob, Amram, Moses, Caleb, Ashur, Joash, and Elkanah.

Many Horite Hebrew rulers had two wives. Abraham's were Sarah and Keturah. Amram's wives were Jochebed and Ishara. Moses married a "Kushite" bride (his half-sister) and a Midianite bride, Zipporah (his patrilineal cousin). Samuel's father Elkanah married Penninah and Hannah.

The evidence of kinship analysis indicates that Jochebed was Amram's half-sister, not "his father's sister" as claimed by some on the basis on Exodus 6:20, Numbers 3:19). Cousin in Hebrew is בן דוד (ben-dod) for men and בת דודה (baht-doh-dah) for women. Anthropologically, dodatho and dohdah may refer to a close "cousin."

In 1 Samuel 10:14 and Leviticus 10:4 דוד dod signifies an uncle. It can also signify an uncle's son: compare Jeremiah 32:8 with Exodus 6:12, where the Vulgate renders דדי dodi as patruelis mei, my paternal cousin. In Amos 6:10, for דודו dodo, the Targum has קריביה karibiah, meaning a near relation. 

It appears that Jochebed was the mother of Aaron, Miriam, and Moses, and that Aaron was the oldest of the three. It is also possible that Jochebed and Amram were half-siblings. They may have had the same father, but different mothers. This is true for Abraham and Sarah. Their father was Terah, but they had different mothers.

Amram's second wife was Ishara, the daughter of Korah the Elder. Her first-born son was named Korah, after her father, following the early Hebrew practice of the cousin bride naming her first born son after her father. Korah the Younger belonged to the household of Korah the Elder, not to the household of his biological father. This is typical of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite and Sethite Hebrew.

It appears that all Amram's children were born in Egypt. They were Horite Hebrew, a caste of priests dedicated to God Father and God's son called Horus (from ancient Egyptian HR, meaning Most High or Hidden One). Some of the Horite Hebrew rulers are listed in Genesis 36. They are associated with the high places in Edom. Horite high places were found in many regions of the ancient world. In the Pyramid Texts (2613-2181 BC) these elevated shrines and temples are called "Horite mounds."

Amram's means "the people are exalted"or "exalted among the people." This refers to Amram's high status and the high regard in the ancient world for the Horite Hebrew priests. They were known for their strict devotion to the High God and his son, and for their purity and sobriety. Herodotus observed II:37:

"They are religious excessively beyond all other men, and with regard to this they have customs as follows: they drink from cups of bronze and rinse them out every day, and not some only do this but all: they wear garments of linen always newly washed, and this they make a special point of practice: they circumcise themselves for the sake of cleanliness, preferring to be clean rather than comely. The priests shave themselves all over their body every other day, so that no lice or any other foul thing may come to be upon them when they minister to the gods; and the priests wear garments of linen only and sandals of papyrus, and any other garment they may not take nor other sandals; these wash themselves in cold water twice in the day and twice again in the night; and other religious services they perform (one may almost say) of infinite number."

Likewise, Plutarch noted that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis [biblical On] never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

Amram's father was Kohath. He also was a priest. One of Amram's sons has the priestly name of Korah. "Korah" refers to a priest who shaves his body as part of a cleansing ritual in preparation for his time of service in the temple or shrine. Korah, a son of Ishar/Izhar, is mentioned in Numbers 16:1.

Jews pose Aaron as the founder of the Jewish priesthood, but the roots of the Hebrew priesthood are found much earlier. They are found in ancient Egypt and in Edom. In fact, Aaron was buried in Edom, one of the territories ruled by the Horite Hebrew.

Aaron's Tomb on the summit of Mount Harun in ancient Edom.

(Photo credit: Ferrell Jenkins)

Related reading: The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of the Horite Hebrew; The Social Structure of the Horite Hebrew; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; Two Named Esau; Horite Mounds

Moses the Horite Hebrew Priest

Alice C. Linsley


The Horite Hebrew were a caste of royal priests who served at the most prestigious shrines and temples of the ancient world. In some ancient texts they are called Abru (Akkadian), 'Apiru or Habiru, which is rendered "Hebrew" in English Bibles.

The term Horite takes many forms: Hor, Hur, Horonaim, Horoni, Horowitz, and Hori. Hori was the son of Lotan son of Seir whose descendants were the "lords of the Horites in the land of Seir" (Gen. 36:20-29 and 1 Chronicles 1:38-42). Lot, Lotan, and Nimlot are Egyptian titles. Nimlot C was the High Priest of Amun at Thebes during the latter part of the reign of his father Osorkon II. Horite Hebrew does not refer to the ethnicity of the people, but to their caste.

A variant spelling of Horite is Horim, which is what Jews call their ancestors.

According to Strabo, Moses was educated at Heliopolis (Strabo, 17:1) as a priest under his personal name Osorsiph. This was the name given at birth and was preceded by the title "Son of Ra", written with the hieroglyph of a duck (za), a homonym for the word meaning "son" (za). With this hieroglyph there appears an image of the sun, the emblem of the Creator and his son.

Manetho reports that Moses was born at Heliopolis B.C. 1738 (Josephus, Ap. 1:26; 2:2). Heliopolis was a shrine of such great prestige that the great pyramids of Giza, Saqqara and Abusir were aligned to the obelisk of Heliopolis.

The Harris papyrus speaks of the 'apriu of Ra at Heliopolis, the shrine of the Sun. Joseph married into this royal priest line when he married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of On (Heliopolis). This appears to be evidence of endogamy within the Hebrew clans.

The people who lived at On called it Iunu, which means "place of pillars." There were many pillars bearing inscriptions to the high king, prayers to the Creator and to his son. Some pillars depicted great victories in war, the details of treaties, and dedications. It was common for pillars to be inscribed in memory of righteous ancestors, as stained glass windows in churches are dedicated to "pillars" of the congregation. The entrance pillars of Solomon's temple were called Boaz and Joktan. Boaz was Solomon's holy ancestor on his father's side and Joktan was a holy ancestor on his mother's side.

The priests of Heliopolis were known for their meticulous devotion to the Creator (Ra/Ani) and his son (Horus/Enki), and for their sobriety and purity of life. Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

The Habiru priest purified himself before he entered the temple. His purification involved fasting, abstinence from sexual relations and alcohol, ritual bathing, and an intense period of prayer. Korah, Moses' half-brother, also was a priest according to Numbers 16:17,18. His name means "shaved one." Habiru priests shaved their heads and bodies as part of the purification ritual (Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2007, p.37).

Heliopolis was conceived as the sacred center of the primeval ocean, called Nun. The many pillars of the temple symbolized the connection between the waters below and the waters above (Gen. 1:7). Numbers 11:28 says that Joshua was the "son of Nun" suggesting that he belonged to a Horite Hebrew clan associated with On.

The marriage pattern of the Horite Hebrew

As with other Horite Hebrew (Lamech, Terah, Abraham, Amram, Jacob, Elkanah), Moses had two wives. Moses' first wife may have been named Tharbis. She is designated a "Kushite" in Numbers 12:1. However, that is a general term that applied to many groups of Nilotes. His second wife was a cousin named Zipporah. Zipporah was the daughter of the Midianite priest Jethro. The Midianites were descendants of Abraham by his cousin wife Keturah. Again, we have evidence of endogamy within the Hebrew clans.

Moses was a kinsman of the Horite Hebrew ruler, Seir (Gen. 36). Seir ruled over what had been Abraham's territory in ancient Edom (called "Idumea" by the Greeks). Amram's cousin wife, Ishar had a son named Korah (Numbers 26:59). That son was named after his maternal grandfather Korah the Elder.

Abraham's territory was in ancient Edom, or what the Greeks called Idumea, meaning "land of red people." It extended on a north-south axis between the settlements of his two wives. Sarah resided in Hebron and Keturah resided in Beersheba. His territory extended on an east-west axis between Ein-Gedi and Gerar. These places are shown on the map below.

Kings ruled in Edom long before there were any kings in Israel. "These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before a king ruled the children of Israel." (Gen. 36:1)

This brief sketch of Moses the Horite Hebrew priest is supported by the biblical data. A different view of Moses is found in the work of the Deuteronomist Historian who is responsible for the book of Exodus (written c. 600 BC).

Many of the incongruities surrounding the person of Moses are contextual; posing a contrast between the earlier context of the Horite Hebrew of Heliopolis and the latter context of the Deuteronomist whose narrative provides Israel with a revisionist history. 

In Exodus, God self-reveals on the "high places" or the tops of sacred mountains.Yet the Deuteronomist seeks the destruction of all high places, insisting that worship should be centralized at the Jerusalem temple. 

Rather than representing a priesthood that extends deep into antiquity, the Deuteronomist poses Moses as the founder of a new people and Aaron as the founder of the Jewish priesthood.

The Deuteronomist would have us believe that only priests living is Israel are the rightful heirs of the Messianic Faith of the Hebrew, yet Horite Hebrew priests had dispersed into Anatolia, Syria, Lebanon, and Crete long before the time of Moses.

The Deuteronomist stresses rejection of images that were regarded as sacred among the Horite Hebrew, in particular the solar symbolism of the Proto-Gospel. 

The Deuteronomist advocates exclusive devotion to the God called Yahweh (YHWH), though the Horite Hebrew knew God by many names: Ra, Ani, El, Yah, Adonai, El Elyon, etc.

The Deuteronomist requires strict obedience to Moses and THE prophet of YHWH and yet most of the religious laws attributed to Moses have a precedent in more ancient laws of the Nilotic priests among whom we find the practices of circumcision, animal sacrifice, and ritual purity before the time of Moses.

The Deuteronomist writes from the context of the Neo-Babylonian Period (700-300 BC), long after the time of Moses, and his perspective does not align well with the historical, archaeological, linguistic, and anthropological data concerning Moses and his Horite Hebrew ancestors.

Some interpreters believe that the disparate narratives reflect a conflict between priestly families. However, Moses's family is descended from Abraham's family and their marriage and ascendancy customs are exactly the same. Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Moses's family reveals the distinctive pattern of the Horite Hebrew ruler-priest caste. Moses is the half-brother of the ruler-priest Korah, a descendant of the Horite ruler, Seir of Edom, and the Horite Hebrew clans practiced endogamy. All are related in some way.

There is great continuity in Genesis and Exodus on the level of kinship patterns, and perhaps the greatest contribution of Biblical Anthropology (the science) is the identification of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew. The Messianic Faith began with them and they are the main source behind the Old and New Testaments. The continuity of the Bible exists thanks to their steadfast adherence to the sacred Tradition of their ancestors. They believed they had a responsibility to preserve that Tradition. As it says in Proverbs 8:33, "Listen to my instruction and become wise. Don't change the order."

Related reading: The Substance of Abraham's Faith, The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Sun Cities of the Ancient World; The Pattern of Two Wives; How the Deuteronomist Changes the Genesis Narrative; The Edomites and the Color Red; Moses's Wives and Brothers, Contextual Incongruities in Genesis; Aaron Was Buried in Edom

Why Zipporah Circumcised Her Son

Alice C. Linsley

Exodus 4:24-26 is one of the most difficult passages of the Old Testament.

Thus saith the LORD.... And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, "Surely a bloody husband art thou to me." So he let him go: then she said, "A bloody husband [hatan/hatam damm]thou art, because of the circumcision." (Exodus 4:22-26)

Some Bible scholars believe that this puzzling story is an episode from a larger narrative. It is mysterious because of its brevity and lack of context. We are told only that this happens on the journey back to Egypt and at night.

The confusing snippet shows evidence of redaction and that contributes to the confusion. However, once you clarify Zipporah's relationship to Moses, the narrative makes more sense. Zipporah is Moses's Midianite cousin. The Midianite clans were descendants of Abraham by his cousin wife Keturah (Genesis 25). Zipporah is Moses's patrilineal cousin and his second wife. His first wife was his Kushite half-sister. This is the marriage pattern of Horite Hebrew rulers. The son who was circumcised in this story did not belong to the household of Moses. He belonged to the household of his maternal grandfather, Jethro (Yetro) the priest of Midian. This is the ascendancy pattern of the Horite ruler-priest caste for the sons of cousin brides. The son should have been circumcised by his maternal grandfather. For some reason this did not happen.

3200 BC flint knife 

from al-Badari

There is no explanation as to God's motive. Was Moses to pay for killing another man with his own life? Why would God want Moses to die when He has given Moses clear directions about what he is to say to Pharaoh when he arrives back in Egypt?

What is the significance of all this talk of first born sons? Israel as God's firstborn appears to parallel the firstborn of Egypt, but was the child circumcised by Zipporah Moses's first born son?

In what sense is Israel God's firstborn. Surely this is not a statement about the primacy of birth, since Israel, that is, Jacob, was not Isaac's first born. Is it a reference to the great antiquity of the Hebrew priesthood?

Note that Moses is not named in the passage.When Zipporah circumcised her son what did she touch with the bloody foreskin? The pronouns do not make it clear. Did she touch the legs of her son or the legs of her husband? Is the word "legs" a euphemism for genitals? Scholars have debated this for years.

Zipporah appears to accuse Moses. What is the substance of her accusation, and is she angry with him? Did Moses delay his son's circumcision for some reason?

Zipporah's complaint appears to pertain to something Moses failed to do. Moses failed to have his first born son by his cousin wife circumcised according to the tradition of the Horite Hebrew fathers (Horim). The boy should have been circumcised on the eighth day by Jethro, to whose household the child belonged according to the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's Horite Hebrew people.

The root dmm appears in over 62 places in the Bible and 4 times in the book of Job, the Horite Hebrew of Uz. It often refers to blood guilt or to responsibility. With this in mind, hatam damm appears to mean simply that Moses failed to do his duty in some regard.

This interpretation is supported by James P. Allen's observation in his book The Ancient Egyptian Language: An Historical Study. Allen explains: "The verb tm forms a negative counterpart of all verb forms that can be negated except the imperative. It is a verb in its own right, meaning something like “stop doing, fail to do, not do,” and as such can be negated itself..." (p. 129). The examples he gives include: "He will not fail to do good." and "He does not fail to return."

Some of the difficulty of this passage can be cleared away when we remember that Moses was a Horite Hebrew and his marriages followed the pattern of his father and his ancestral Horim. The Horite Hebrew chiefs had two wives. The first was the wife of the man's youth and was a half-sister. Moses's first wife was his half-sister and she is referred to as his "Kushite" bride. The second wife was usually a patrilineal cousin and this wife was taken close to the time when the man would become a chief.

Zipporah was Moses's second wife; his cousin bride. Presumably, the son who Zipporah circumcised was their first born. If this is the case, Zipporah performed the rite that would have been performed by her father, the priest of Midian. This is because the first born son of the cousin bride belonged to the household of his maternal grandfather. This is a feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's people.

Zipporah's father was a Horite Hebrew priest who ruled in the region of Midian.The land of Midian was named for one of Abraham's sons, born to Abraham's cousin wife, Keturah (Gen. 25). To explore the account given in Exodus 4:24 we need to understand the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew chiefs.

As Moses and Zipporah were by now too far away from Jethro for Jethro to perform the circumcision, it was done by Zipporah. The daughters of priests performed circumcisions, but only on females. It is called "Pharaonic circumcision" and pertained only to the wives and daughters of high-ranking Kushite priests. The Bible does not say much about this, but there is extra-biblical evidence for female circumcision among the Nilotic rulers.

Among the ancient Nilotic peoples, and especially among the ruler-priests, circumcision was a blood rite. Blood was regarded as the substance of life and shed blood was a protection or a covering.  The tent that covered the Tabernacle was made of the hides of rams dyed red to symbolize the blood covering (Exodus 26:14). Purification was made by the ashes of a red heifer (Numbers 19:9). This stands as a "perpetual sacrifice" for Israel and points to the Son of God who was sacrificed outside the city. The blood of the lamb on the doorposts in Egypt signaled divine protection for all in that house. Likewise, the scarlet cord let down from Rahab's window symbolized blood protection. She and her household were spared when the Israelites entered the city.

This brings us to the term hatan.  The word has multiple related meanings. It means husband or groom and protection. Moses was both Zipporah's husband and her covering. We recall how in seeking Boaz's protection, Ruth asked him to cover her with the hem of his robe. This is a very ancient custom which is observed in many cultures. In the Akkadian, hatan means protection. However, in Arabic hatan (or khatin) refers to circumcision (Hebrew Study Bible, pp. 113-114), suggesting a play on words.

It is possible that Zipporah claimed concerning her husband: "You are protected by blood" (Sarna, N., The JPS Torah Commentary on Exodus, Jewish Publication Society, 1991, p. 26).

It is significant that the blood that protects is the blood of the Son. Let those who have ears to hear, hear the message of our Messianic Faith.

Related reading: Moses's Wives and Brothers; Female Circumcision in Context; Pharaonic Circumcision in the Sudan: A Case Study; Why Zipporah Used a Flint Knife; The Scarlet Cord Woven Through the Bible; A Bridegroom of Blood or a Groom Protected by Blood?; Circumcision and Standing Stones

Anthropological Evidence for the Exodus

Beja metal-working chief in Sudan.

The Beja of Sudan/Nubia and the Taureq of Niger are genetic cousins and Nilotes. 

They were one population but separated when the Taureqs moved west around 5000 years ago.

Alice C. Linsley

The Exodus is one of the most dramatic events in the Hebrew Bible and a central narrative for modern Jews. The dominant narrative comes from the Deuteronomist, about 1000 years after the time of Moses. According to this narrative, the enslaved Horim were forced to endure hard labor in Egypt. Moses was appointed by God to lead the people out of bondage and there was a miraculous escape across the Red Sea. Under the leadership of Moses, the Israelites received the Law and this marked the birth of a new people.

Many scholars question this narrative because there is little archaeological data to support it, and what evidence we have suggests that the slaves were not as oppressed by the Egyptians as the Jews were later by the Babylonians. It appears, for example, that Judah came and went between Egypt and the ancient metal-working site of Timnah. On one of those excursions, he had relations with Tamar (Gen. 38).

James K. Hoffmeier questions the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt. The outstanding Jewish scholar Abraham Malamat (1922–2010) questioned the historicity of the Exodus narrative. He believed the event was more prolonged. The story of Israel in Egypt and the Exodus should be viewed as dispersed over time.

An inscription by the ancient Egyptian ruler Merneptah, discovered in 1896 by Flinders Petrie at Thebes, is an early reference to Israel outside of the Bible. An earlier reference found with the name “Israel" pushes the Israelite presence in Egypt back 200 years earlier to about BC 1400. That is only about 600 years after Abraham the Hebrew had a personal audience with the Egyptian king. The ruler with whom he met was likely Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II who reigned c. BC 2061-2010. Only persons of high rank were permitted a personal audience with the King of Egypt.

A question asked about the Exodus concerns the metal work done by Aaron and Moses. Moses is credited with making a bronze serpent (Num. 21:9) and Aaron made a golden bull calf (a Messianic image) like the one shown below. How is it that these refugees out in the desert had the technology to make bronze and gold castings?

Anthropological studies provide a clear answer to that question. Metal work was a secret craft and metal workers commonly did it in the wilderness away from prying eyes. This is why Moses sought royal permission to go 3-days journey into the wilderness to worship.

In the ancient world, metal work was done only by certain castes. Moses and Aaron belonged to the caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of the Creator and his son Horus. The golden bull calf with the sun resting in its horns was an ancient symbol of Horus as the divinely appointed sacrifice. They were of the Horite Hebrew caste, the same caste to which Abraham belonged.

The Horite Hebrew priests were but one metal working caste. They were known for the high quality of their work at the Horite mounds mentioned in the ancient Pyramid Texts. PT Utterance 470 contrasts the Horite mounds with the mounds of Seth, designating the Horite mounds "the High Mounds."

The Horites take their name from their devotion to the son of God who was called Horus. The mother of Horus was Hathor, the patroness of Horite Hebrew metal workers. This caste of priests was widely dispersed before Abraham's time. Some served rulers along the Nile River and others served rulers in Mesopotamia and in Edom. Some of the Horite Hebrew rulers of Edom are named in Genesis 36.

The Beja (Medjayu) are another group famous for metal work. These metalworking nomads from the eastern Nubian desert were devotees of Horus and Hathor until the 6th century A.D. They were associated with different Horite temples, especially on the island of Philak, and at Thebes. Today many Beja are Christians and some are Sufi Muslims. 

The Inadan of Niger are metalworkers who forge beautiful figurines and crosses out in the desert. If a Taureg overlord attempts to do metal work, the Inadan launch a fake attack on his house to warn him not to transgress against their metalworking prerogative. 

The Inadan claim to be related to King David. The Inadan chief maintains two wives in separate households on a north-south axis. The pattern of two wives characterizes the marriage system of the Horite Hebrew ruler-priests. (Read more about the Inadan in National Geographic, Aug. 1979, p. 389.)

The bull's horns appear on images of Hathor, the mother of Horus. Hathor was the patroness of metal workers. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timnah by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. Timnah is the site of some of the oldest copper mines in the ancient Near East. When Rothenberg excavated the site in the late 1960’s he found over 10,000 artifacts, nearly all of them offerings to Hathor. He also found half dozen unhewn stone pillars.

Another fascinating discovery at the Hathor Temple was a copper snake with a gold head. The association of copper with the serpent is evident is the relationship between the Akkadian words: sibbu - serpent and siparru - copper. The words "Hittite" and "Het" share the same primitive root for copper - nahas-het. As an adjective, HT means shining bright, like burnished copper. Nahash (NS) refers to a serpent. The HT copper smiths apparently ranged from Timna and Beersheba to Anatolia in Turkey. The serpent image was sacred for them, just as it was for Moses the Hebrew ruler who fashioned a bronze serpent and set it on a standard (Num. 21:9).

Related reading: The Exodus Narrative from Another Angle; Moses' Horite Hebrew Family, The Nubian Context of YHWH; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; Why Cows Were Venerated in the Ancient World; Contextual Incongruities in Genesis; Moses's Wives and Brothers

Moses's Horite Hebrew Family

Serpent in shape of the sun, an archaic symbol of the Creator among Moses's Horite Hebrew people. Did his rod look like this bishop's crozier?

Alice C. Linsley

The Horite Hebrew were part of the larger archaic Kushite civilization that extended from Lake Chad to India and from southern Arabia to ancient Bactria and Anatolia. The Kushite territories are called Kush and Kish, and included the Upper Nile Valley and archaic settlements of the Kushan.

Beginning in Nubia about 10,000 years ago, the Kushites spread into the interior of Africa along the Shari and the Benue rivers, establishing kingdoms and chieftains as far at Lagos in Nigeria and into the southern Kordafan. They also went west. The Ashante of Ghana were Kushites. Nte means "people of" and Asha is a proper name. The Ashante are the people of Asha, a Kushite ruler who established a kingdom in West Africa. Asha is also an ancient name for their God.

Variant spellings of Asha include Ashai, Asi and Asa. It is a priestly name in the Bible. One of Jesse's grandsons was named Asahel, which means "made by God." The priest Elkanah had a son named Am-asi (I Chron. 2:25, 35), and a Jerusalem priest was named Am-ashai (Neh. 11:13). This suggests that the priesthood of Israel is linked to the Horite Hebrew who Jews claim as their ancestors. They call these ancestors "Horim," which is rendered Horite in English Bibles.

The Horites Hebrew originated in the NIle Valley, ancient Kush so Moses's marriage to a Kushite woman was consistent with the endogamous marriage pattern of the Horite Hebrew rulers. His second wife, Zipporah, was a cousin. She was the daughter of the priest of Midian. The Midianites were descendants of Abraham by his cousin wife, Keturah.

Abraham and his people were Horite Hebrew (Abru/Habiru), a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of the Creator and his son "Horus of the Two Crowns." The Horite conception of the priesthood is the antecedent of the Jewish and Christian conceptions of the sacrificing priesthood. The Horite worldview is distinctly Nilotic, though the Horites spread across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion in the service of the kingdom building "mighty men of old." 

The men named in Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36 are Horite Hebrew rulers. As has been the custom among royal families, these biblical rulers married within their ruler-priest clans (endogamy). Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of these rulers indicates that two wives. The first wife was a half-sister and the second was a patrilineal cousin. There are numerous examples of this pattern in Genesis and Exodus. This is the pattern of Abraham's family, Moses’s family, and Samuel's family, suggesting continuity of the practice over a very long period.

Moses’s Family

Amram, Moses's father, had two wives, following the pattern of his Horite Hebrew forefathers. By Jochebed he had Moses, Aaron and presumably Miriam. Exodus 6:20 indicates that Jochebed was probably his patrilineal cousin, that is the daughter of his paternal uncle. The Hebrew דדתו dodatho in Exodus 6:20 is sometimes translated "his father's sister." That is how they perceived the relationship, since father could also be the father's brother, and sister could also apply to a patrilineal cousin. Anthropologically, dodatho is more accurately defined as a "patrilineal cousin."

In 1 Samuel 10:14 and Leviticus 10:4, דוד dod signifies an uncle. It can also signify an uncle's son: compare Jeremiah 32:8 with Exodus 6:12, where the Vulgate renders דדי dodi as patruelis mei, my paternal cousin. In Amos 6:10, for דודו dodo, the Targum has קריביה karibiah, meaning a near relation. The evidence supports the view that Jochebed was Amram's patrilineal cousin, and not his aunt. Her name is sometimes spelled Jacquebeth which refers to a homeland in Africa, probably ancient Kush. She was Amram's first wife and also a Kushite bride.

Amram's second wife was Ishar/Izhar (Is-Har/Horus). Her name is related to Isis and Hathor, the mother of Horus who was called "son of God" in the ancient Coffin Texts and Pyramid Texts. Korah son of Izhar, is mentioned in Numbers 16:1. It is generally held that Ishar is a male, but the name indicates a female as it is related to the Hebrew isha, meaning "woman." Other females are listed as clan chiefs in the Old Testament. An example is Anah in Genesis 36 (shown on the diagram below).

Ishar was a descendant of Seir the Horite (Gen. 36). By Ishar, Moses had Korah the Younger (Numbers 26:59). Korah the Younger opposed Moses' authority in the wilderness. Korah's claim to be the rightful ruler was supported by the Hanochites (descendants of Hanock, the first-born son of Jacob's first-born son, Reuben). As the first-born son of the cousin bride Korah was to rule in the territory of his maternal grandfather. That territory was in the region of Edom, Abraham's territory.

“Korah” means shaved head, a custom for priests preparing for their terms of service in the temples. (See Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2007, p.37.)

Amram's cousin wife is Ishar, a Horite Hebrew bride. Isaac's son Esau also married a Horite Hebrew bride, Oholibamah (meaning "most high tabernacle"). Since ethnicity was traced through the mother, it is evident that Moses' half brother Korah was also Horite. Here is a diagram of the pertinent segment of Seir's genealogy from Genesis 36:

Moses and his family were ethically Kushite and were Horite Hebrew who practiced endogamy. (For more on the "The Social Structure of the Biblical Hebrew" see the 7-part series, beginning here.


The Pattern of Two Wives

Following the custom of his Horite Hebrew ancestors, Moses had two wives. The first wife would have been a half-sister, the wife of Moses' youth. It is likely that he married her while in Egypt. She is said to be Kushite (Numbers 12) and for some reason Moses' siblings didn't approve of the marriage, although the marriage was likely arranged by Amram.

Criticism of Moses's marriage to the first wife appears to be based on political objections. This marriage appears to have positioned Moses to become the chief of the clans.

“When they were in Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Kushite woman he had married: “He married a Kushite woman!” They said, “Has the Lord God spoken only through Moses? Has God not spoken through us as well?” (Numbers 11:35-12:2)

The name of "Kushite wife" is not found in the Bible, but she would have been a woman of high rank, a member of the upper classes in Egypt. If Moses married according to the Horite Hebrew custom, she would have been his half-sister. That would make her the sister of Korah. Moses may have had children by his first wife when he fled to Midian. In Midian he contacted Yetro (Jethro), a patrilineal uncle Jethro and it was arranged for Moses to marry Zipporah, his patrilineal cousin bride.

Zipporah is mentioned in Exodus 2:15-16 and Exodus 18:1-6. Moses met her while she at a well where she was drawing water for her father’s flocks. Many of the brides of Genesis and Exodus were met at wells. Priests, like Jethro, maintained shrines near wells, springs, or other permanent bodies of water. Zipporah was one of Jethro's daughters. He was the "priest of Midian."

Moses’s siblings may have been angry that he asserted authority over them by marrying Korah's sister and then marrying a Midianite wife. His marriage to Korah's sister strengthened the alliance with the Kushites in Egypt and his marriage to Zipporah strengthened the alliance with the Horite Hebrew of Midian. This led to a powerful alliance of clans related by blood and marriage, and it strengthened Moses's position as ruler.


Related reading: Moses's Wives and Brothers; Samuel's Horite Family; Hebrew, Israelite or Jew?; Who were the Horites?; Who Were the Kushites?; Jesus Christ's Kushite Ancestors; The Serpent of Moses's Staff