Snow-white Miriam

Snow-white Miriam is the name usually given to the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) tale at Book of Numbers chapter 12.

Summary of the Biblical tale

At Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses because:

of the Cushite woman whom he had married: for he had married a Cushite woman

Miriam and Aaron continue questioning Moses' authority, since they consider themselves to also have been prophets. God overhears and, in person, calls all three to the door of the tabernacle. When they arrive, God states to them that Moses has a much greater authority than Miriam and Aaron; indeed, He chooses to speak to Moses face to face, rather than merely through dreams.

In anger, God subsequently visits a punishment on Miriam, giving her Tzaraath, usually translated as leprosy, turning her "white as snow." According to the rules concerning Tzaraath, Miriam must then live outside of the camp, in isolation, only being allowed back when Moses intercedes with God on her behalf. Nevertheless, God insists that she still be punished for seven days.

Interpretation

Zipporah and Cush

Several features of the story are debated. One of the most prominent is the nature of Moses' wife. Elsewhere, Zipporah is named as being a wife of Moses, so the traditional Jewish and Christian line is that Zipporah is the wife in question. However, Zipporah is described as being a Midianite, and, as a result, distinctly un-Cushite. "Cushite" also meant "dark-skinned person" in a more general sense, i.e., a Cushite could be one who was not directly from the Kushite region south of Egypt, but who was, in general, characteristically similar to one. This would, of course, imply that there were black Midianites (as well as blacks living amongst other Semetic tribes). This interpretation is controversial, as many assume that black people (Cushites) were not present in meaningful proportions in other cultures outside of the nucleus of Africa.

Several ancient sources (such as Josephus) nevertheless dispute this, identifying them as two separate women, pointing to the legality at the time of certain forms of polygamy, as carried out by no less than Jacob himself. Modern scholars also consider them as two separate women, both for the difference between Midian and Cush, and for the fact that, in the documentary hypothesis, Zipporah is only mentioned in the Jahwist text, and the story of Snow-white Miriam is assigned to the Elohist, and so, in each, Moses only ever has one wife. The most frequent interpretation of the view of the documentary hypothesis is that at least one of the accounts (either that of Zipporah or of Snow-white Miriam) is historically inaccurate, and so this view is not supported by traditional Jews or Christians.

Aaronids and the Shiloh priesthood

Since according to the Hebrew Bible anyone with Tzaraath was not allowed to become high priest, if Aaron had been punished as well as his sister, he would no longer have been able to perform his duties. This is plausibly the reason that God (or the writer, for those who view the story as historical) decided that Aaron should not receive punishment. {fact}}

In the kingdom of Judah, much later than the time in which the story is set, a priesthood which claimed descent from Aaron controlled the temple. However, there was a priesthood based at Shiloh that viewed the Aaronids' claim (that they themselves were, alone, the rightful priesthood) to be inaccurate and vain. The Shiloh priesthood would have happily received the tale of Snow-white Miriam, since it paints Aaron in a negative light; for the same reason, the Aaronids would likely have disliked the story.

According to the Documentary Hypothesis school of analysis, the Elohist was from, or supported, the Shiloh priesthood, and thus had a strong motivation to repeat (or create) this tale, as with the tale of the Golden Calf. It is notable that the tale is not present in the earlier Jahwist source, which generally parallels the Elohist. It is also not present in the later Priestly source, which was purportedly based on the combination of the Elohist and Jahwist's works (JE). This is unsurprising, as the Priestly source is thought to originate from the Aaronid priesthood.

Moral

Some politically "liberal" Biblical scholars in the United States view the story as one of racism. Cushites, usually identified as being from Ethiopia, would be very dark-skinned. Thus, after Miriam criticizes Moses for taking a Cushite wife, and God turns Miriam's skin as white as snow, the punishment can be seen as suitably just, as well as ironic, or as an expression of the principle of middah keneged middah (punishment in kind).

Traditional Jews and Christians tend to avoid reading the story as a criticism of racism, and instead take it as a condemnation against those who attack authority, particularly biblical authority. Rabbinical sources from the classical era consider that Miriam's real reason for criticising Moses' wife was that she wished Moses to spend more time with his wife and children.