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Notes

Correction: @ 36:41 I say 1st Corinthians 23:14, but the correct reference is 1st Chronicles 23:14
References:
D&C Section 132 claims that Moses was a polygamist. We’ll study why people make that claim and investigate whether or not it is true. This episode surprised me! So much to learn!
Scriptures:
Exodus 2, 4, 6, 18,19
Numbers 10-12

Summary

In this episode, Michelle Stone critically examines the claim that Moses was a polygamist, as stated in Doctrine & Covenants 132. She explores scriptural accounts, genealogies, and cultural context to determine whether there is any valid evidence supporting the assertion that Moses practiced plural marriage.

Key Themes:

  1. Does the Bible Say Moses Was a Polygamist?
    • D&C 132 claims that Moses was a polygamist, but no biblical evidence supports this.
    • The only verse ever cited to justify this claim is Numbers 12:1, which states that Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses for marrying an Ethiopian woman.
    • Stone investigates whether this referred to a second wife or was simply another description of Zipporah, Moses’ known wife.
  2. Ethnic and Cultural Misinterpretations
    • Zipporah is called a Midianite in Exodus, but Numbers 12:1 refers to an Ethiopian woman.
    • Stone explains how ethnic terminology was inconsistent in biblical records—just as Moses’ father-in-law is referred to by three different names (Jethro, Reuel, and Hobab).
    • She highlights Habakkuk 3:7, which parallels Midianites and Cushites, suggesting that Ethiopian (Cushite) and Midianite were synonymous in this context.
  3. Biblical Parallels and Translation Variations
    • She examines the Septuagint and various Bible translations, noting that many versions use Cushite instead of Ethiopian, reinforcing the idea that Zipporah and the “Ethiopian woman” are the same person.
    • Josephus, the Jewish historian, also equates Ethiopians with Cushites, showing that ancient cultures saw them as interchangeable.
  4. Miriam and Aaron’s Complaint: Racism, Not Polygamy?
    • Stone proposes that Miriam and Aaron’s criticism of Moses was likely rooted in racism, objecting to Zipporah’s non-Israelite background rather than opposing polygamy.
    • As punishment, God afflicts Miriam with leprosy, making her “white as snow”, a poetic irony that condemns her racial bias.
  5. Genealogical Evidence Against Moses’ Polygamy
    • The Bible meticulously records the genealogy of important figures, yet Moses’ only recorded sons are Gershom and Eliezer, both from Zipporah.
    • No second wife or additional children are ever mentioned, which would be highly unusual if he were a polygamist.
  6. If Moses Had Another Wife, Was It After Zipporah’s Death?
    • Even if one insists Moses married a second woman, there is no evidence that it was a concurrent plural marriage.
    • Stone compares this to Abraham’s marriage to Keturah, which occurred after Sarah’s death, not as a polygamous union.
  7. Final Conclusion: No Scriptural Support for Moses’ Polygamy
    • After a detailed examination, Stone concludes that the claim that Moses was a polygamist is baseless.
    • She argues that D&C 132’s inclusion of Moses in its justification for polygamy is historically and scripturally inaccurate.
    • She urges listeners to reevaluate long-held beliefs and question doctrinal claims that lack biblical foundation.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to 132 Problems revisiting Mormon Polygamy, where we explore the scriptural and theological case for plural marriage. If this is your first time here, please remember to listen to these episodes in order, starting first with number 1 and continuing on from there. My name is Michelle Stone, and this is episode 10, where we’ll investigate the claim that Moses was a polygamist. Thank you for joining us as we take a deep dive into the murky waters of Mormon polygamy. I’m excited about this episode. I hadn’t planned to do one on Moses, a full episode. I thought maybe it would just be a paragraph in another episode. But as I started really digging in, I learned so much. It’s fun to really study these scriptures that I haven’t delved into deeply before. And I’m excited to share what I’ve learned. So we’re going to do a whole episode on Moses. So, OK, what do we know about Moses? Again, one of the most central and important characters in the Old Testament. Well, we know that 132, Section 132, claims that he was a polygamist, but we know quite a bit more about him than that, and that is actually the claim we’re going to investigate. So, the story of Moses mostly occurs in Exodus. In Exodus 2, we are told of his birth. His miraculous rescue by his two mothers, his Israelite mother and his Egyptian mother, um, we know of his upbringing in Egypt, then him killing a man fleeing to the desert and ending up with the Midianites where he marries his wife Zipporah, and they have their first son Gershamm. So that all occurs in Exodus 2. In chapter 3, Moses encounters God in the burning bush and is called to free the children of Israel. In chapter 4. Um, verse 20, it says, and Moses took his wife and his sons, so we know by now he had had a second son, although we don’t yet know his name, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. So we know that he is going to Egypt to follow the Lord, and he brings Zipporah and his two sons with him. That’s what we know so far. So then Moses, it goes on, and Moses joins his brother Aaron, and they begin their mission, and they have many interactions with the Lord. OK, so, we are going to tell this story in sort of a different way because we are investigating it to try to understand more about Moses’ wife or wives, to try to see what we can learn there. So, In Exodus 6, the genealogy of Moses and Aaron is laid out. So I’m starting at verse 16, well, in verse 16 and onward, we learned that Moses was descended from Levi through Khaohath, then Amram, and we’ll pick up in verse 20, and Amram took Jacobed, his father’s sister to wife, so he married his aunt, and she bare him Aaron and Moses. And the year. Of the life of Amran were 130 and 7 years. Then down to verse 23, and Aaron took Elishaba, daughter of Ainadab, sister to Nation, to wife, and she bare him Nadab and Abihu, Eliezer, and Ithamar. And verse 25, and Eliezer, Aaron’s son took him, one of the daughters of Putti to wife, and she bare him. Sinhas,

[00:03:25] these are the heads of the fathers of the Levite Levites according to their families. I have to say I’ve never before spent this much time reading through the genealogy aloud. It’s quite a challenge. But, um, so verse 26, these are that Aaron and these are that Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies. So this Exodus 6 gives us the gen it tells us who Moses and Aaron are. It tells them who they are descended from, and it tells us their descendants, but incredibly, it doesn’t include the genealogy of Moses. It doesn’t list his wife or his children, which seems very strange. But OK, so this was the first thing that I was like, what’s going on here? So as I studied more. I began to see what I believe is the most likely reason that this would be, and so you’ll understand this more and more, but I think the most likely reason that the wife and the wife and mother of Moses’s children, Zipporah was not included and that their children were not included was that she was not approved of because she was the wrong ethnicity. She was not an Israelite. So, well, you know, everyone can come up with their own um theory I guess. This just seems to me to be really interesting. Um, the wives, you’ll notice that the wives, all all of the other wives, Amram’s wife and Erin’s wife and all of the other wives throughout it, their genealogy is given, it tells how they belong. In the family of the Israelites. So, um, let’s just keep this in mind as we continue. Another thing, the reason I wanted to delve into the genealogy, please notice as you read through this genealogy that it is all monogamous. Moses’ father, brother, relatives all had one wife each, so obviously that doesn’t prove anything. But it does show that that was the standard of the culture and definitely of this family culture, if not the broader Israelite culture at the time. So we can’t just assume, oh, they were all polygamists, so Moses was a polygamist. It was actually the opposite. Moses would have been an exception and very different from everybody else. Um, OK, so the narration, the narrative continues with the plagues, the lamb’s blood, Phara. Finally, finally releasing them, then changing his mind, the parting of the Red Sea, the pillar of fire and a cloud, Pharaoh’s army being drowned, the, the amazing story that we all know and love. And, um, OK, so that account is all an exodus. So this is the one of the things that I learned that I didn’t know. And maybe other people know it. Maybe I’d heard it before, but I, I got to learn it again this time, and I love learning new things. So I didn’t realize that Exodus and Numbers give a parallel account of the children of Israel. I like, as I read through them, it really felt to me similar to the four Gospels,

[00:06:24] how Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each tell basically the same story of the life of Jesus, but they each have a somewhat different focus. They Each include different elements. There are a lot of similarities between them, also a lot of differences or um contrasts between them. So, you know, you really get the best idea of the life of Jesus by studying all four of those accounts in parallel. And it seems to me, it feels very much to me that Exodus and Numbers, those two books are the same if we want to get a more complete picture of the Israelites. So So that was a fun discovery for me and that’s what we’re going to do. So also you can they they are very different, they cover different things, but just again like just like the gospels, you can find the similarities to know what kind of goes together, what aligns in the narrative. So Exodus 18 seems to me to, well, clearly does align with numbers 10. 1 of the main reasons is because it is when Moses’ father-in-law is with them. Um, and it’s also the next time we hear about Moses’s family, all of Moses’s interactions with Pharaoh and then bringing the um children of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness doesn’t include anything about Sephora and their children, so we Catch up with them again in Exodus 18 and 10. OK, so this is really interesting. The children of Israel by then had been in the wilderness for a while, struggling, complaining, having miracles, Moses having many revelations and Starting to share the law quite a bit. And so in this chapter, Zipporah and her children come back. Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, brings Zipporah and her children and her sons back to be with Moses. So it’s interesting cause we know that they went, that Moses took them with him to Egypt, but apparently at some point they said he sent them back. It says, let’s see if I can find where it is. Um, this is where I want to read. OK, Exodus 18:2. Then Jethriel, Moses’s father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’s wife, after he had sent her back, and her two sons, of which the name of one was Gersham, for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land, and the name of the other was Eli. Was Elizer, Elizer, for the, for the God of my father said he was mine help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh, and Jethro Moses’s father-in-law came with his sons and his wife unto Moses in the wilderness, where he encamped at the Mount of God. So, OK, that’s so interesting. So this is where we get the name of Moses’s second son. We do know that he has two sons, their names are given. They are Gersham, I think I might have said that wrong. Gersham and Eliezer. G4 and E is usually a soft G and this I looked at the pronunciation it said Gersham. So if I’m saying it wrong, you can say it your way. I’m doing my best, but anyway. So, um, so interesting, right? We know Zippora, Jethro, and Moses’s two sons,

[00:09:25] Gersham and Eliezer, and they come back to the camp. And so it’s at this part that I, I actually really like this part because this is where we see the really good father-son relationship between Moses and his father-in-law Jethro. Um, let’s see where. Um, OK, so this is where Jethro gives Moses wise counsel, and Moses gratefully hearkens to it. It says in verse 24, so Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Um, and then, and then that’s at Exodus, and then again, numbers gives us additional insight into this relationship where Moses begged his father-in-law not to leave. So this is Numbers 10:29, and I’m going to read from the new international version. We have, you know, we have these different translations, and I like to use all of them. And sometimes one is much more clear than the other. The King James version, the language here is really difficult and confusing. So the new international version was much easier. So this is verse 29. Now, Moses said to Hobab, son of Rule, OK, keep in mind that’s the Midianite, Moses’s father-in-law. So he said to his father-in-law, we are setting out for the place about which the Lord said, I will give it to you. Come with us. And we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel. He answered, No, I will not go. I am going back to my own land and my own people. But Moses said, Please do not leave us. You know where we should camp in the wilderness. You can be our eyes. If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the Lord gives us. So he’s really saying. I need you. I need your help. Come with us. But, um, Jesper goes back at, um, again, continuing back to Exodus. This is Exodus 18:27, and Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way into his own land. So again, you can see how combining them gives us, um, just gives us a better understanding of the narrative, the Story and the relationships we get to see Moses and his father-in-law. Um, OK, one interesting difference between them, while there are the parallels, is that in Exodus 18, it is Jethro who counsels Moses that he is doing too much himself and that he’s going to burn out. So this is 1817 and Moses, father. And Moses’s father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou dost is not good. Thou wilt wilt surely wear away both thou and this people that is with thee, for this thing is too heavy for thee. Thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. So Moses was judging all of the people. They brought all of the problems and concerns to him, and he had to take care of everything, and it was wearing, and

[00:12:03] Um, Jethrow was very concerned about him being able to continue that. So in in Exodus, Jethro tells Moses to choose good men and appoint them as leaders to share his burden. So he basically, it’s Jethro that tells Moses Moses to establish the first government, right? However, in numbers, it is Moses. He, he even uses almost the same words, but instead of Jethro telling Moses, Hey, this is too much for you, Moses tells the Lord, Hey, this is too much for me. So this is numbers, oh, it’s verse 14. I will get you the chapter. I think I didn’t include it. um. Uh, anyway, I am not, this is what Moses says, I am not able to bear this people alone because it is too heavy for me. So you can hear it’s almost the same, and the Lord, and in this version, the Lord tells Moses to choose additional leaders to share the load to share the load. So it’s an interesting difference because it’s clearly the same story, but it has different Um, very different elements to it. Was it, um, Jethro or was it the Lord that counseled Moses to start the first government, which was very, very good counsel, right? So it’s really interesting that in one Jethro is given credit and the other, the Lord is given credit, and in one Jethro is given credit for telling Moses it’s too much, and the other Moses complains himself that it’s too much. So really interesting. OK. Another parallel from the next chapter. So that must have been 1814. I’m sorry, I didn’t get that reference written down, but I think that was still in chapter 18. So now we’re moving to chapter 19, which is number 11, to um see another parallel. And This is when the Lord comes. So Exodus 1920, and the Lord came down upon upon Mount Sinai on top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount and Moses went up. So here’s the numbers 1124. And Moses went out, skipping to 25, and the Lord came down in a cloud and spake unto him. So you can see how you can get, OK, this is where we are. This is where we are. It’s really, it’s really kind of fun to figure that out. There are so many more parallels and um so we’re going um we’re we’re going to only touch on the ones that are important to our subject, our topic. So, OK, so now we are coming to the most important part of the story for our particular subject, the question of whether Moses was a polygamist or the claim that Moses was a polygamist. This is the next chapter of Numbers, chapter 12 and verse 1. Um, OK, so if we keep in mind the story before I, sorry, before I read the verse, keep in mind where we are in the story. So Moses took Zipporah and their two boys went to Egypt,

[00:14:55] at some point sent Zipporah away, and then Jethro just brought Zipporah back at the end of verse 10. Jethro just brought Zipporah back. Counsels Moses. Moses is like, Stay with me and Jethro’s, no, nope, I’m going home, and he leaves. So Seppora and their boys have just come back to the camp. And then it’s in chapter numbers 121, it says, and Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman who he had married, for he married an Ethiopian woman. OK, this one verse, this one single verse is the totality of evidence there is to claim that Moses was a polygamist. This is what it all rests on. If you look up any source, any writing, listen to any. who claims that Moses is a polygamist, this is it. This is why. It’s because, wait, Zipporah was a Midianite. This wife is described as an Ethiopian, so clearly it’s another wife. All right, so that’s what we’re really going to get into. Let’s break this down. OK, as I have studied this, cause I did come to it with an open mind, like my, when I thought it would just be a paragraph, I was like, OK, this is why we say Moses is a polygamist, we can’t really know either way. That’s where I started out, and that’s what I think most, like a lot of biblical scholars say that’s what I’ve read. Quite a bit. So that’s what I expected to find. But as I dug in, I, I’m amazed because to me the case seems airtight that this is absolutely talking about Zipporah, Moses’ one and only wife. That’s what we’re going to get into. So, OK, so again, remember, Zipporah had been sent away with their boys from the Israelites. Why was that? We don’t know. Um, I think it’s interesting, and as I have read through the story. It appears to me that Miriam’s and Aaron’s objection to Moses was that was that she was a different ethnicity, like or likely with darker skin, and so maybe the Israelites wouldn’t accept her. Maybe that was at least part of the reason that she and the boys were sent away. Moses, a very meek, humble man, maybe in order to just keep things good, make peace, was like, hey honey. You better just go back. This is problematic. That’s, that’s what seems to me to be the most likely case, of course, we can’t know for sure, but let’s get into it and look at this more. So, um, OK, so a couple of points we want to make is that, um,

[00:17:31] Jethro, right, just brought Zappora back. His presence at the camp is mentioned, his interactions with Moses. Then he leaves, and then immediately after Aaron and Miriam complain against Moses’ wife. I want to like specify no other wife is ever mentioned in any way, and no other children are ever recorded. So, OK, so let’s let’s look into this. OK, let’s See where I am. I got a little bit. I went off a little bit, so got sidetracked from my notes. OK, so now we have the problem though, right? That, well, she’s called an Ethiopian instead of a Midianite. So it must be someone else. OK, first of all, I’ll explain this a little more, but the Bible is not too careful about other ethnicities. It mixes up ethnicities a lot. I’ll share at least one example in a little while. It’s kind of like, if you’re not an Israelite, you’re something else and That can that can be shifted around to anything else, right? That seems to happen, so we’re gonna, we’re going to look into that, but um. OK, sorry, I’m getting a little bit sidetracked. OK. Also, first, as we also stated, there are many, many variations between the two accounts. So I guess I am here. I thought I was jumping ahead. So there, so here’s one example. Moses’ father-in-law in Exodus, he is referred to many times, like if you search father-in-law or Jethro, especially Exodus 18, like he’s just Through there. It says his name many, many times, and he is always referred to as Jethro, except the first time we meet him in Exodus 218, where he is called Ruel, R E U E L. So there’s, there’s an interesting thing, is it Jethro or is it Rule, which is his name? Then in numbers, in the numbers account where he’s only mentioned once his by name. Um, he is called, I just lost it. Oh, he is referred to as Hobab, the son of Ragwa, R A G U E L, Hobab. So even though it is very clear that this is talking about the same man, Moses’ father-in-law, the interactions are the same, the story is the same. The biblical recorders use different names. Whoever, whoever recorded this story, give him different names at different times. So we asked the question, should we claim that that it’s 3 different men, and Moses had 3 different fathers-in-law all doing the same thing and apparently being the same man, or should we just recognize that the accounts have variations? And

[00:20:06] You know, which, which is clearly the answer, which is clearly the case. So same thing with Ethiopian or Midianite, right? Like if it was just if it was just a different, just like um Jethro or R or Hobab, same person, different names, don’t know why, that’s just what it was. So, you know, it’s very possible midnight Ethiopia Ethiopian. Very, very commonly are people’s um ethnicities mixed up in the Old Testament, or at least there are variations. So that’s very, very possibly a variation, right? So, um, anyway, but there’s more. I want to look at the word Ethiopian. This also blew my mind. So, OK. Admittedly this might get a little complicated. I think it’s worthwhile, but if it’s on the one hand, if it’s complicated and you want to understand it, maybe listen to this part a second time after if I mean, maybe it’s easy to follow. I don’t know if for those of you who are like, I don’t really care about this, maybe just put it on, you know, fast speed for a minute till we get through this part, but I think it’s really interesting, so. OK, the Greek word, again, I really love Bible Hub. You can get strong concordants there, and it’s just such a good resource. So you can find the original translation and all the different variations in translation. So the Greek word that is used to that is translated as Ethiopian here is um The word is kush. Well, it’s cushy, which actually means a descendant of Kush, and in, in the Greek we spell it K U S H I. It’s, it’s Greek letters, which it’s Greek to me. I don’t know what the Greek letters mean, but The transliteration is kushi, which means descendant of kush. So this same Greek word is used 26 times in the Old Testament, and it is always translated either as Ethiopian or as some form of kush, kush, kushy, or kushi. I couldn’t find a rhyme or reason to why it was translated one way or the other in different in um different instances. All of the different versions seem to sometimes use kushite and sometimes use Ethiopian. Um, including the King James version. So I thought that that was interesting. I don’t know why, but, but I was able to find this Josephus, so you know, Josephusus was the historian of the Jews. He wrote his book called Antiquities of the Jews, and he makes it clear that Cushite and Ethiopian are synonymous, which would explain the translations. And so this is, this is a quote from Josephus. Time has not at all

[00:22:37] heard the name of Kush. For the Ethiopians over whom he reigned, even at this day, both by themselves and by all men in Asia are called Kushites. OK? So Ethiopians are called Kushites. Ethiopia, it sounds like it’s the land that they’re from. So if you’re referring to the land they’re from, you can call them Ethiopians. Kush was a leader, so if you’re referring to their who they are by government, I guess you could call them Kushites. So this must be why the King James Version translates Kushite in Numbers 12:1, the verse about Moses’s wife, as Ethiopian. Although it is translated in almost every other version of the Bible as Kushite. So I want to just show you a couple of examples so you can see what I mean, cause it’s interesting. So this is the new international version. Um, 121, Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses Moses because of his Kushite wife, for she had married, for he had married a Kushite. The new living translation. While they were at Hazaroth, Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because he had married a Cushite woman. The English standard version, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman who he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. Here’s one more, the Brian study Bible. Then Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married, for he had taken a Cushite wife. Then the King James version. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So you can hear that obviously these are synonymous and that Cushite and Ethiopian are synonymous and can be used either way. So when Zipporah, or sorry, if we’re going to say Moses’ wife. we’re, if we’re still holding out, this could be a different way. Whoever she is, she can be described either as an Ethiopian or as a Kushite. OK. So that’s interesting, but we still have the, the, but wait, Zippo was a M Midianite, not aushite, not an Ethiopian. We’ve already gone over that a little bit, but here is the really interesting part. This, this was cool when I found it because I’m not usually one that has spent a lot of time in Habakkuk, um. Habakkuk 37 uses a parallel structure. So I, I learned about this when I was studying Isaiah in depth. Um, a parallel structure is a common literary technique in the Old Testament. It’s used by many of the prophets prophets. Isaiah uses it a lot, and it’s um stating the same thing with kind of two different words to make a parallel between those two things. It’s saying this is synonymous with this by putting them in the same. Um, in the same situation in the story, if that makes sense. So, um, maybe, maybe that’s a little confusing. You can look up like biblical parallels to try to see, um, to get a better understanding of that. But my understanding is what it’s doing is saying this is the same as this. So that happens. Habakkuk does that in chapter 3, verse 7. He uses a parallel structure to associate Cushites and Midianites to show us that they are synonymous. that they could be used either way. And, um, let me find,

[00:25:33] let me find the verse. OK, here it is. This is, again, the new international version. I saw the tents of cushion in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. So you can see how it’s like, there’s a problem. Cush and and Midian, it’s saying the same thing about both of those, which links those two to say these can be used interchangeably. That’s, that was really interesting to me. So I know that’s the part that might be confusing to some people, but I liked it. So anyway, this, this does this verse does imply that Ethiopian and Cushite are interchangeable just as um well that that Midianite and Kushite are interchangeable just as Josephus and the translations show us that Ethiopian and Cushite are interchangeable. So, So seeing this, it was really cool. It’s OK, so for any other math nerds out there, it’s um let me see where did I lose my place. Oh, it’s like the transitive property of equality, right? If A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C. So if Kushite and Ethiopian are synonymous. And, um, Kaite and Midianite are synonymous, then Ethiopian and Midianite are synonymous. So, so anyway, I want to point out that when it calls for an Ethiopian, there are actually biblical structures that can show us, um, a. From just the fact that they’re loose in their, um, descriptions of different ethnicities. Aside from that, there are actual biblical structures that show us, no, these are the same. These are the same. And I, I thought that was really cool. So, um, oh, and, and, OK, so now it gets even more interesting. So remember that an Ethiopian or a coshite is the same, that’s how this wife is described, and a coshite and a Midianite are linked together, so they are the same. So here’s what’s really interesting. The actual meaning of the word kush is black. So when people are referred to as Kushites or Ethiopians, or Midianites, the implication is that they have a darker color of skin. So Jeremiah 12:23 demonstrates this. He says, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the his spot. So when they’re talking about the Ethiopians or the Kushites or the Midianites, it’s saying they were not only a different ethnicity, they had darker skin, which also is really interesting considering all of the things we’ve covered so far that we’ll recap again about Moses’s wife and sons potentially not being accepted. So, um, let’s see, so OK, So when Numbers 121 refers to Moses’ wife as an Ethiopian or a Kushite, the implication is that she had a darker skin, which it seems must have been the issue for Erin and Miriam, the thing that They objected to. So it does seem that they and the broader Israelites and perhaps some of the writers of these records as well had a problem with that.

[00:28:34] So I want to sum up this I am just here going to sum up the, the things that kind of point to the conclusion that her ethnicity was the problem. So again, In Exodus 6, Moses’s wife and children are conspicuously the only ones excluded from the record, although Moses is the main reason that that they’re the only ones excluded from the genealogy, even though Moses is the reason the genealogy. Even given because he’s the central figure. Um, that’s, that’s really interesting. In the exodus in the exodus narrative, Jethro plays a prominent role, including as Moses’s counselor who advises him to establish the government. But in the numbers version, Moses’s father-in-law is really minimized. He’s only mentioned once, and God instead of Jethro is given credit for counseling Moses to establish the first government. OK, that, that’s interesting, and of course there could be many reasons for that, but It could be and seems to me likely that it could be at least in part because of Jethrow’s ethnicity as a non-Israelite and with darker skin. So, um, it reminds me, so to to kind of draw a parallel potentially, um, from the Book of Mormon, when Jesus came to the Nephites, he had to remind them that Samuel’s prophecies and their fulfillment had not been recorded. Excuse me, so 3rd Nephi 23 starting in verse 6, and now it came to pass that when Jesus had said these words, he said unto them again after he had expounded all the scriptures unto them which they had received. He said unto them, Behold other scriptures I would that ye should write that ye have not, so you’ve left something out, and it came to pass that he said. Unto Nephi, bring forth the record which ye have kept. And when Nephi had brought forth the record and laid them before him, he cast his eyes upon them and said, Verily I say unto you, I commanded my servant Samuel the Lamanite, that he should testify unto this people, that at the day that the Father should glorify his name in me, that there were many saints who should. Rise from the dead and should appear unto many and should minister unto them, and he said unto them, Was it not so? And the disciples answered him and said, Yeah, Lord, Samuel did prophesy according to thy words, and they were all fulfilled. And Jesus said unto him, How be it that ye have not written this thing that many saints did arise and appear unto many and minister unto them? And it came to pass that Nephi remembered that this thing had not been written. And it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be written. Therefore, it was written as he commanded. OK, those were the only scriptures Jesus had to remind them to include. And I can’t help but wonder if on some level it might have been, at least in part because Samuel was a Lamanite, which was obviously a very big deal because throughout the entire story, he is almost never referred to as just Samuel. He is always, it always includes the descriptor a. Lamanite or the Lamanite. So it seems like it was a really big deal. So it’s possible that I’m reading too much into this and you can disagree, but it sure feels to me like, OK, that’s interesting. Samuel’s writings were excluded until Jesus was like, Hey guys, he was my servant. Include this. And in the numbers of Jethro is minimized and they kind of don’t want to say that it was a darker skinned Midianite who gave Moses this brilliant counsel and who was responsible for the establishment of the first Israelite government. So

[00:32:14] anyway, I just, I think that’s interesting. So that’s another potential piece of evidence of their non-acceptance of a different ethnicity. So then, um, OK next. Although Zipporah and their sons accompanied Moses to Egypt again as some to Egypt, at some point he sent them back to live with her father until Jethro, on his own initiative, brought them back to the camp to be with Moses again, which is immediately after that. When Miriam and Aaron voiced their severe disapproval, which was so serious that they actually questioned Moses’s status as the prophet. So this is 12, 1 and 2, and Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not also spoken as he hath hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. OK, so, so are you with me? Like she’s been gone, he sends her away. Maybe because of this reaction, Jethro bring brings her back and that’s when, no, you married an Ethiopian. What’s wrong with you? You’re not a prophet is their reaction. So, OK, let’s see if I am. In the right place. OK, and then I love that in this narrative, it pauses in verse 3 to say, Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. Ah, that just hits me that he was so humble. I love that in the face of such hateful disapproval of his wife and his sons, the record pauses to point out that Moses, who, as we said, had already sent his family back perhaps to avoid the Israelite disapproval. He was such an incredibly humble man. He didn’t seem to get angry or retaliate, and I think he probably just didn’t even want this problem. But the Lord did not let it slide, and this is really interesting. The Lord calls Miriam, Aaron, and Moses to the temple. He reaffirms to Miriam and Aaron in the strong language that Moses is the prophet, and then he curses Miriam with the perfect punishment for racist judgment. Numbers 12:10, and behold, Miriam became lepros, white as snow. Such a profound lesson. I, I love it is. I love this. It is such a profound lesson to teach her and hopefully everybody that whiter skin is not superior to darker skin. Oh, you like white skin, huh? OK, here you go. You can be leprous and have pure white skin. I think that is fascinating and is another piece of evidence that Racism was the issue here. So, um, it’s, it’s really interesting and to really drive this lesson home to all of them,

[00:35:25] even though Aaron pled with Moses and Moses pled with God to heal her, God let her suffer for 7 days. According to their laws, any lepers had to be put out of the camp, so she had to be put out of the camp, exiled as a leper for an entire week. Hard lesson. I, I don’t know. I, I just think this is amazing. I really, it doesn’t tell us what happened after that, but I really like to believe that Miriam, Miriam learned a great if very painful lesson. I like to imagine that she sincerely repented and that she and Zippora became true sisters after this, cause, you know, they were, they were sisters. That would be a hard situation. So I really like to think that the Lord was, although it was hard for um Marian that he was giving her a real gift and allowing her to have a sister. So that’s, that’s how I like to think of this story, but again, it’s up to everyone to think of it their own way cause we don’t know. But, um, it also seems that not only Miriam, but the, the biblical the recorders of the biblical record also learned the lesson because Moses the genealogy is given two more times in 1 Corinthians chapters 23 and 26, and this time it finally includes Moses’ sons. So this is 23:14. Now concerning Moses, the man of God, his sons were named of the tribe of Levi. The sons of Moses were Gersham and Eliezer. Of the sons of Gersham, Shebuel was the chief, and of the sons of Elizer were Rahabiyah, the chief, and Eliezer had none other sons, but the sons of Rebiya were very many. It goes, it continues on. So again, from this later genealogy included, it is as clear as it could possibly be that Moses had 2 and only 2 sons, both of which were born of his one wife, Zipporah. So, OK, I hope this makes sense to you. I, I want to kind of recap it cause I’m hoping you can see why it seems so clear cut to me. That the claims that Moses was a polygamist based only on that one verse, based only on the fact that it says that his wife was an Ethiopian, he married an Ethiopian woman, that that is just, it’s just implausible. It, it just does not stand up to scrutiny so. So again, well, you know, again, oh, he married an Ethiopian woman. Well, where’s the story of that marriage? Where is anything about her? Where is her name? Where are their children listed? Where do we learn? We don’t know all of this about how Moses met and married Zipporah. We know all about his father-in-law and their relationship. We have intimate details of this relationship. So who’s this other woman? Why are, why are we wanting to make that claim? It is just so like we really, really, really want to say Moses is a polygamist, so we will take anything to say, oh look, look, he’s a polygamist. So anyway, but even if you thought this was too complex, like.

[00:38:33] The parts about Kush and Midians and Ethiopians. If that was too much for you, let’s just make a couple of other points that I think go without saying. I almost don’t want to say them because I don’t want to take the focus off what I think is the real case. But if you’re not convinced, let’s just go over this, this part too as another possibility that is still far more likely than the interpretation that Moses was a polygamist. Remember that Moses’ father-in-law. One man is referred to by 3 different names. That seems to me like a bigger deal than 11 woman being referred to by two different ethnicities, especially when that happens quite a bit in the Bible. Here, here’s one example, um, where the ethnicities are just kind of loosely used. Actually, 2 times like there one group is referred to as two different ethnicities in the same verse. This is Genesis 37:28. And, um, it says, then they’re passed by Midianites, Midianites, merchantmen, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver, and they bought Joseph into, and they brought Joseph into Egypt. So in the exact same verse, they’re called Midianites and Ishmaelites. And, you know, you can do your research on that, and people just go, Well, those must be the same because they’re used. So there’s just another example. There are many of them. Of the variations and differences. In fact, in the New Testament, I didn’t look this up, so I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s in Matthew, and I know in Luke that the genealogy of Jesus is given, and it’s different. Each of those have a very different line of genealogy of Jesus. I know that people say, well, the Luke one is about Mary, but that’s just, again, an explanation for nobody knows. It’s just somebody’s way of going, Oh, well, this is, this must be what it is. I think it’s just so clear that there are often differences, variations in the biblical record, and Zipporah being referred to as both an um a Midianite and an Ethiopian is by far the most like that barely even ranks on the list of some of the differences in these records. So anyway, either way you want to look at it, it should be really clear that This was about Zipporah, Moses’s one wife, who had just come back to the camp, had just been brought back, and Miriam and Erin immediately are like, You married mehiopian. So, anyway, it’s really hard for me to to get to where, how people can miss this. If well, I guess studying it out. It’s helpful, right? Studying it out makes it really clear because I didn’t, I didn’t know all of this before. So, OK,

[00:41:09] in case there are still any holdouts, anyone that it’s like, No, I think Moses married his second wife. Um, even though her name and all of her children are left out, even though like, You know, even with Abraham, his concubines names are listed and their children are listed. Moses is at least as much of a prominent figure in the narrative in the Bible as Abraham, and you know, even Jacob, all of his concubines, children’s names are listed like, like, so even if we want to say no, I think he had two wives, which I think is very unlikely, um. There would still be still, even if you want to say that, there would still be no evidence that she was a plural wife, that he married her while Zippora was living because the same claim was made as we covered in an episode a little while ago that Katura was another plural wife of Abraham. But the record makes it very clear that no, she was a subsequent wife after Sarah died. So that could just as easily be the case here, if you want to view it that way. If you want to say the Ethiopian woman was a different wife, you still can’t show that they were married at the same time because we don’t hear of Zippora anymore after this. So Um, so if if Moses somehow strangely married another wife, it could very easily have been after Zipporah’s death. And even more than that, no matter how much you want to stretch, twist, insert, there is absolutely nothing whatsoever that can possibly be used to claim that God commanded Moses to live polygamy, or that it was somehow doctrinal for him or important for his. Exaltation or salvation or mission that just nothing, nothing at all. So, but again, I think all of that goes without saying, cause I think the record is very clear. So I really hope you’ve been able to follow this. I’m, I’m hoping that it wasn’t too much, but in any case, I hope you at least can understand that it is really quite clear that when, excuse me, that when it is carefully and honestly studied and investigated. The claim 132 makes that Moses was a poly polygamist is as strange and unprovable as the claim that Isaac was a polygamist. It just, it just can’t stand up to scrutiny. So thank you for for being here. Thank you for continuing to listen and for joining in these discussions. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your comments and feedback. Um, it’s really good. Me to be able to hear that, that people are enjoying this and that it’s helping people as it has helped me. So, OK, I know that we’re way overdue for the episode on Jacob. I keep promising it, but then I keep getting sidetracked into other topics. So that will be coming, but it’ll have to wait just a little bit longer because the next episode I really want to do that I actually was working on when Moses became, instead of just a paragraph in that episode when it became its own entire episode. The next one I really want to dive into part of 132 itself and investigate some very interesting things. So I hope you will join me. Again, thank you for being here. My name is Michelle Stone, and this is 132 Problems.