More about Miriam the Prophetess

Presumably, the final editors of the Bible meant to connect the unnamed sister of Moses who watches over him after his mother places him in the Nile (Exod 2:4) to Miriam, but Miriam appears by name only in Exodus 15:20–21; Numbers 12:1–16; 20:1; 26:59; Deuteronomy 24:9; 1 Chronicles 5:29; and Micah 6:4. For a study of these passages, see Hanna Tervanotko, Denying Her Voice: The Figure of Miriam in Ancient Jewish Literature, JAJSup 23 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016); Rita J. Burns, Has the Lord indeed Spoken only through Moses? A Study of the Biblical Portrait of Miriam, SBLDS 84 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987); Susan Ackerman, “Why Is Miriam Also among the Prophets? (and is Zipporah among the Priests?),” JBL 121 (2002): 47–80. Editor’s note: see also Tamar Kamionkowski, “Will the Real Miriam Please Stand Up?,” TheTorah (2015).

Biblical translations follow NJPS, with modifications.

Cf. Moses’s first verse:

‏^{שׁמות טו:א} אָשִׁירָה לַי־הוָה כִּי גָאֹה גָּאָה סוּס וְרֹכְבוֹ רָמָה בַיָּם.

^{Exod 15:1b} I will sing to YHWH, for He has triumphed gloriously; horse and driver He has hurled into the sea.

On the theory that the Song of the Sea was originally attributed to Miriam, see the article by Carol Meyers, “Miriam’s Song of the Sea: A Women’s Victory Performance,” TheTorah (2020).

Or 4QPentateuch^c, as the name and status of this text continues to be debated. See Molly M. Zahn, “The Problem of Characterizing the 4QReworked Pentateuch Manuscripts: Bible, Rewritten Bible, or None of the Above?” DSD 15 (2008): 315–339. The manuscript preserves parts of Exodus 14–15: the children of Israel escaping from Egypt, the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, and the songs performed by Moses and Miriam. Though we refer to these lines as an “addition,” this is so in reference to the MT; they are an integral part of the manuscript 4Q365, interwoven into the surrounding text and written in the same hand that composed the rest of the fragment, paleographically dated ca. 75 B.C.E. Similarities between 4Q365 and the Temple Scroll (2^nd century B.C.E.) suggest that they stem from the same literary tradition. The parallels thus push the date of 4Q365 at least to the second century B.C.E. and perhaps earlier. See Tervanotko, Denying Her Voice, 148.

Emanuel Tov and Sidnie White Crawford, “Reworked Pentateuch^c (4Q365),” in Qumran Cave 4, VIII: Parabiblical Texts, Part 1, ed. Harold Attridge et al., Discoveries in the Judean Desert 13 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), 255–318, 269–271.

The editions and translations follow Accordance 12 Dead Sea Scrolls Resources unless otherwise indicated.

Tov and White Crawford, “Reworked Pentateuch^c,” 269–271.

The Qumran collection contains several manuscripts that preserve parts of Exodus, but the Song of Miriam is preserved solely in the Reworked Pentateuch^c.

Songs celebrating victory in battle were often attributed to individuals who had played a role in the military action (cf. Deborah’s song in Judg 5 and Judith’s in Jdt 16). Not all victory songs refer to a war context, however. Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1–10, for example, celebrates God saving her from barrenness and the suffering it has caused her. On victory songs attributed to women, see Tervanotko, Denying Her Voice, 151–153, 160; and Meyers, “Miriam’s Song of the Sea: A Women’s Victory Performance.”

Michael Maher, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Exodus, ArBib 2 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1994), 205.

Martin McNamara, in Targum and Testament Revisited: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible, 2^nd ed. (Grand Rapids: MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 93–100, 129–140, argues that the bulk of the material in the Palestinian Targumim to the Pentateuch comes from the pre-Christian era. Stephen A. Kaufman, “Dating the Language of the Palestinian Targums and their Use in the Study of First Century CE Texts,” in The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context, ed. D. R. G. Beattie and M. J. McNamara; JSOTSup 166 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1994), 118–141 (at 130), claims that there was a “proto-Targum” that already existed in the first century C.E., and all the Pentateuch Targumim depend on that.

Tervanotko, Denying Her Voice, 154–161. See also Ariel Feldman, “The Song of Miriam (4Q365 6a ii + 6c 1–7) Revisited,” JBL 132 (2013): 905–911.

The editor of the text is Émile Puech, Qumrân grotte 4. XXII: Textes araméens, première partie: 4Q529–549, Discoveries in the Judean Desert 31 (Oxford: Clarendon, 2001), 283–405.

While the author of the Visions of Amram appears to favor uncle-niece marriage, other ancient texts express disapproval of unions between close family members. Leviticus prohibits aunt-nephew marriages (18:12–14; 20:19). Several late Second Temple era texts extend the ruling to cover uncle-niece marriages, which are not explicitly prohibited in the Torah (e.g., 4QHalakha A 17 3–5; 11QTemple Scroll a LXVI, 15–17). See Hanna Tervanotko, “Members of Levite Family and Ideal Marriages in Aramaic Levi Document, Visions of Amram, and Jubilees,” RevQ 27 (2015): 155–176.

This narrative is also preserved in manuscript 4Q545.

It has been argued that in some cases, women participated in choosing their spouse (cf. the figure of Aseneth in Joseph and Aseneth). See Michael L. Satlow, Jewish Marriage in Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 107. Editor’s note: For a summary of the story, see Patricia Ahearne-Kroll, “Joseph and Asenath,” TheTorah (2021).

Tervanotko, “Members of Levite Family and Ideal Marriages in Aramaic Levi Document, Visions of Amram, and Jubilees,” 172–174.

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 3.54 (Thackeray, Loeb Classical Library 242: 344–345). The Talmud also offers a different tradition, that Miriam’s husband was Caleb (b. Sotah 11b).

The translation is mine.

In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron claim that YHWH has spoken through them (v. 2), and then YHWH declares that he speaks through his prophets in visions and dreams (v. 6).

Tervanotko, Denying Her Voice, 259–261.

Howard Jacobson, A Commentary on Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, with Latin Text and English Translation, vol. 1 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996), 105.

Editor’s note: On Philo’s reading of this story, see Elad Filler, “Moses and the Kushite Woman: Classic Interpretations and Philo’s Allegory,” TheTorah (2018).

James C. VanderKam and Monica Brady, “Apocryphon Pentateuch B (4Q377),” in Qumran Cave 4, Miscellanea, Part 2, ed. Moshe Bernstein et al., Discoveries in the Judean Desert 28 (Oxford: Clarendon, 2001), 205–218.

Tervanotko, Denying Her Voice, 172–178.

The text is fragmentary, but since the surrounding lines deal with other pentateuchal passages, it seems clear that the reference to the conflict in Numbers 12 is brief.