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Miriam's Image in Patristic and Rabbinic Interpretation

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Miriam's Image in Patristic and Rabbinic Interpretation Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 96/3 (2020) 521-536. doi: 10.2143/ETL.96.3.3288589 © 2020 by Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses. All rights reserved. Miriam’s Image in Patristic and Rabbinic Interpretation Agnethe SIQUANS Universität Wien I. INTRODUCTION: THE BIBLICAL MIRIAM AND HER LATER IMAGE Miriam is one of the most frequently mentioned women in the Hebrew female prophet”) and“) נבאיה Bible. First, in Exod 15,20-21 she is called “Aaron’s sister”. She is portrayed as singing, dancing and drumming and a short song of hers is quoted. Numbers 12 is a longer yet critical text about Miriam in which the issue is also prophecy. Miriam, together with Aaron, criticises Moses and is consequently punished with leprosy (whereas Aaron is not). Moses prays for her and she is healed. During her exclusion from the camp, the Israelites do not move on but wait for her. The mention of Miriam in Deut 24,9 is a warning and commemorates the incident of Numbers 12. Num 20,1 reports Miriam’s death and burial at Kadesh. Furthermore, she appears in two genealogies as the sister of Moses and Aaron – in Num 26,59 and 1 Chr 5,29. In the prophetical book of Micah (Mic 6,4), she is referred to as a leader of the Exodus on an equal level with her brothers. Moreover, since antiquity, most interpreters have identified Moses’ anonymous sister in Exod 2,4 with Miriam as no other sister is known. These seven or eight short texts provide rather sparse information about Miriam’s life and her character1. Later interpreters com- bined these scattered texts, originating from different sources and times, to draw a portrait of Miriam2. However, sometimes they just interpret one 1. For Miriam in biblical texts cf., e.g. the contributions by P. TRIBLE, J.G. JANZEN, F. VAN DIJK-HEMMES, C. MEYERS, N. GRAETZ, and A. BACH, in A. BRENNER (ed.), A Femi- nist Companion to Exodus to Deuteronomy (Feminist Companion to the Bible, 6), Sheffield, Sheffield Academic Press, 1994, Part III: Miriam: On Being a Sister, pp. 166-254; R. BURNS, Has the Lord Indeed Spoken Only through Moses? A Study of the Biblical Portrait of Miriam, Atlanta, GA, Scholars, 1987; I. FISCHER, Gotteskünderinnen: Zu einer geschlechterfairen Deutung des Phänomens der Prophetie und der Prophetinnen in der Hebräischen Bibel, Stuttgart, Kohlhammer, 2002, pp. 64-94. See also K. BUTTING, Prophe- tinnen gefragt: Die Bedeutung der Prophetinnen im Kanon aus Tora und Prophetie (Erev-Rav-Hefte Biblisch-feministische Texte, 3), Wittingen, Erev-Rav, 2001, pp. 36-77. 2. For rabbinic and patristic interpretations cf. D. STEINMETZ, A Portrait of Miriam in Rabbinic Midrash, in Prooftexts 8 (1988) 35-65; L.L. BRONNER, Biblical Prophetesses through Rabbinic Lenses, in Judaism 40 (1990) 171-183; A. SIQUANS, Die alttestament- lichen Prophetinnen in der patristischen Rezeption: Texte – Kontexte – Hermeneutik (Herders Biblische Studien, 65), Freiburg i.Br., Herder, 2011, pp. 48-179; EAD., “She 522 A. SIQUANS of the texts and stress its particular focus. Sometimes, interpreters add further information about Miriam which is not found in the biblical texts. As Hanna Tervanotko3 has demonstrated, there was an elaborate pre - rabbinic oral and written Jewish tradition about Miriam. Although Miriam is mentioned quite often, she is a marginal biblical character compared to Moses and Aaron. Nevertheless, patristic and rab- binic biblical interpretations do not neglect her and attribute important features to her. As the sister of Moses and Aaron and as a prophet, she is a prominent and esteemed figure. In this article, I present patristic interpretations of the biblical Miriam alongside rabbinic interpretations that often deal with the same topics. They occur, however, in different religious-cultural contexts and thus with different hermeneutical presuppositions and from different, sometimes even opposing, perspectives. The ancient writers’ interpretations of Miriam as female prophet, as a virgin or mother, as a critic of her brother Moses and her relation to Moses’ Cushite wife will be discussed. II. MIRIAM’S MANIFOLD IMAGES 1. Miriam the Female Prophet In accordance with Exod 15,20, Miriam is listed in patristic writings among the biblical prophets, together with other women, most frequently Deborah and Huldah as well as New Testament women. Miriam’s char- acterisation as a female prophet is an important feature in patristic texts4. Jerome, for instance, identifies Miriam in his Ep. 78,35 as the representa- tion of prophecy, Aaron of priesthood and Moses of the Law5. Although Miriam’s prophetic activity is greatly appreciated, it is at the same time restricted. In his commentary on 1 Cor 14,34-35, Origen men- tions Miriam’s song as an example whereby a woman acted according to the prohibition of public speaking by women by Paul in 1 Cor 14,34-35. The Pauline letters are authoritative texts for the church fathers and affect their view on women’s activities in the community. Paul (or a later inter- polator) does not permit women to speak in an assembly (ἐκκλησία), and that means in the presence of men who are not members of their family. Thus, the church fathers’ stance toward female prophecy is somewhat Dared to Reprove Her Father”: Miriam’s Image as a Female Prophet in Rabbinic Inter- pretation, in JAJ 6 (2015) 335-357. 3. H. TERVANOTKO, Denying Her Voice: The Figure of Miriam in Ancient Jewish Literature (JAJSuppl, 23), Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016. 4. Cf. SIQUANS, Prophetinnen (n. 2), pp. 48-179. 5. Hieronymus, Epistula 78: Ad Fabiolam de mansionibus filiorum Israhel per Here- mum 35, in Epistulae LXXI–CXX, ed. I. HILBERG (CSEL, 55), Wien, Verlag der Öster- reichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, ²1996, p. 76. MIRIAM’S IMAGE IN PATRISTIC AND RABBINIC INTERPRETATION 523 ambivalent. Although it is accepted that they are inspired by the Holy Spirit or by God as prophets, their female gender is seen as an obstacle to public prophetic speech. Their solution is to restrict Miriam’s prophetic speech at the Red Sea to women only. So do Origen and Theodoret of Cyrus6, for instance7. Certainly, their model was Philo’s description of two choirs, led by Moses and Miriam in his Life of Moses 1,180: This great and marvellous work struck the Hebrews with amazement, and, finding themselves unexpectedly victorious in a bloodless conflict, and seeing their enemies, one and all, destroyed in a moment, they set up two choirs, one of men and one of women, on the beach, and sang hymns of thanksgiving to God. Over these choirs Moses and his sister presided, and led the hymns, the former for the men and the latter for the women8. In De vita contemplativa 85‒87, Philo assumes that the two choirs join each other and form one mixed choir. Origen does not pick up this idea, but assumes two separate choirs. The biblical text in Exod 15,20 is not thus detailed, but it associates the singing of Miriam with the women. It does not make explicit whether men were present and listened to the women’s song or not. However, the situation of the rescued Israelites at the seashore suggests that the men were present and could hear Miriam’s song. The idea of separate choirs of (virgin) women, found in some Greek patristic writings, may originate from the existence of such choirs in Greek cult9. This separation helps to align Miriam’s prophetic appearance to Paul’s prohibition. Rabbinic texts also appreciate Miriam’s prophecy, but never in the context of Exodus 15. They locate her prophecy in her childhood: the young Miriam predicts Moses’ birth. This tradition reaches back to Pseudo-Philo’s Liber antiquitatum biblicarum (L.A.B.), dating probably to the first century CE. In this context, Miriam’s prophecy is – of course – of high importance. Yet it is transferred to her childhood as well as to a “typical female” issue: the birth of a child. The passage about Exod 1,8–2,9 in the Babylonian Talmud (Sotah 11a-13a)10 connects Exod 15,20 to Exod 2,4: 6. Cf. Theodoret, Commentary on Psalms 106/105,12. 7. Mekhilta Shirah 10 also assumes that Moses sang to the men and Miriam to the women. 8. Philo of Alexandria, De vita Mosis I,180; English text: F.H. COLSON (trans.), Philo: in Ten Volumes, vol. 6 (LCL, 289), London, Heinemann; Cambridge, MA, Harvard Uni- versity Press, 1935; reprint 1950, p. 369; cf. De vita Mosis I,256; De vita contemplativa 85-87; De agricultura 80-82. 9. Cf. E. REISCH, Chor, in PRE 3/2 (1899) cc. 2373-2403. 10. Cf. for this passage G. STEMBERGER, Midrasch in Babylonien: Am Beispiel von Sota 9b-14a, in Henoch 10 (1988) 183-203, and ID., Mose in der rabbinischen Tradition, Freiburg i.Br., Herder, 2016, pp. 17-48. 524 A. SIQUANS And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took etc. (Exod 15,20) The “sister of Aaron” and not the sister of Moses! – R. Amram said in the name of Rab, and according to others it was R. Nahman who said in the name of Rab: It teaches that she prophesied while she yet was the sister of Aaron only [13a] and said: “My mother will bear a son who will be the saviour of Israel”. When Moses was born, the whole house was filled with light; and her father arose and kissed her upon her head, saying “My daughter, thy prophecy has been fulfilled”; but when they cast him into the river, her father arose and smacked her upon her head, saying: “Where, now, is thy prophecy!”. That is what is written: And his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him – that would be the fate of her prophecy11 (b.
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