Texts in Conversation
Jubilees retells the events of Exodus 4 where God is shown trying to kill Moses, who is rescued by Zipporah. In this version, Jubilees changes the story so that it's not God who tries to kill Moses, but the adversarial figure known as Mastema.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 4:24
Hebrew Bible
22 You must say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord has said, “Israel is my son, my firstborn, 23 and I said to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me,’ but since you have refused to let him go, I will surely kill your son, your firstborn!”’” 24 Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26 So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.)
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Jubilees 48:2
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
1 And in the sixth year of the third week of the forty-ninth jubilee [2372] you departed and lived in the land of Midian, five weeks and one year. And you returned into Egypt in the second week in the second year in the fiftieth jubilee. 2 And you yourself know what He spoke to you on Mount Sinai [2410], and what prince Mastema desired to do with you when you were returning into Egypt on the way when you met him at the place where you stayed. 3 Did he not with all his power seek to kill you and rescue the Egyptians from your power when he saw that you were sent to execute judgment and vengeance on the Egyptians? 4 And I rescued you from his power, and you performed the signs and wonders which you were sent to perform in Egypt against Pharaoh, and against all his house, and against his servants and his people.
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
"... A strange incident occurs on the way to Egypt (verses 24–25). The angel of the Lord meets Moses and threatens to kill him (verse 24). Sepphōra intercedes by circumcising her son (verse 25), somehow averting her husband’s death. Biblical studies designates this among the more enigmatic pericopae in the Hebrew Bible. It is not even mentioned by Philo or Josephus, and takes on new meaning in LXX Exodus ... The subject is the ἄγγελος Κυρίου, “angel of the Lord.” This reading is affirmed by the Targums, Targum Neofiti I (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan has “destroying angel”; compare Jubilees 48:2 where it is Mastemah), though the Masoretic text reads יְהוָה and makes no mention of an “angel” ..."
Daniel M. Gurtner, Exodus: A Commentary on the Greek Text of Codex Vaticanus (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 230–231.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,