ZIPPORAH AND MOSES: AN ANALYSIS OF INTER-ETHNIC RELATIONSHIP IN THE PENTATEUCH

Abstract

In a world of diverse tribal tongues, cultural ethnicities, and differences of colors, way of living, and the ever changing spawn of generations; when one would see the world of the Pentateuch wherein as the Israelites sets eyes to the Promised Land, a single nation although probably mixed with crowds of other minority tribes, one can see that this very nation as God’s chosen people, were to do extraordinary things, conquering lands and parting seas amongst others.

The Israelites’ exodus out of Egypt was one of the more remarkable historical precedents, as that this very act seems to have defied narratives. They defied their masters whom they were serving; the slaves were now to be free, and the slave-masters  were to simply let these people go. The exodus of the Israelites brought attention to Israel, the descendants of Jacob into the spotlight. These were the very people whom God have delivered, and were about to be given into the Promised land; this nation’s independency  were not lead by fractions or groups of people, rather it was led by the very man who encountered God at the burning bush, Moses.

Moses was the epitome of a third culture hero-leader; he was the boy out of the waters, he grew up and was raised albeit by his own birth mother, into the Egyptian palace, and was considered a son of Egypt; he was the Hebrew boy who defied odds, wherein most Hebrew boys that were supposed to be of his present age, many have died due to the order of the Pharaoh, the very Pharaoh who took Moses in.

Moses’ dilemma as a third culture nationalist poses a problem wherein he had to choose between his people or the people who have raised him; and Moses chose the first, thus proved a trait on which his fight for the independency of his people began, yet Moses was casted away and reduced to nothing before the Lord called Him. In fact he was so far off his roots that he decided to marry Zipporah, a daughter of a priest, a Medianite. This poses a potential problem in the long-term; how could a great leader of the nation of the Israelites have a foreigner as a wife? The many times Moses looked upon his people and remind them not to intermarry, does he forget that him and his wife are of interracial marriage? What could his marriage to Zipporah do to his view of Zipporah’s people? And they to him?

This paper seeks to analyze this interracial marriage of Moses and Zipporah. Analyzing the possible pros and cons of it as to the leadership of Moses, the result of this marriage either to the family of Moses or to the family of Zipporah; This paper also seeks to define the problems within the 21st century interracial marriage, wherein some parts of the World, even Asia are still struggling with the very concept. This paper seeks to answers, and contribute of the possible dealings and nuances of intercultural marriage in the context of the Pentateuch.