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Miriam’s Challenge

Why was Miriam severely punished for challenging Moses’ authority while Aaron got off scot-free? There is no way to avoid the fact that the story presupposes a patriarchal society.

By Bernhard W. Anderson

The story in Numbers 12 is one of the most troublesome in Scripture. It is unlikely to be read in a worship service with a concluding announcement, “The word of the Lord”; if it were, many worshipers would murmur or perhaps storm out in protest. The brief story, involving Moses, Aaron and Miriam, portrays an episode that occurred on Israel’s wilderness itinerary, at a place called Hazeroth. It falls into the following parts: 1. Miriam and Aaron, the sister and brother of Moses, challenge Moses’ authority (Numbers 12:1–3). They speak against Moses, saying: “Is it only by Moses that […]

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Footnotes

1.

See Kenneth V. Mull and Carolyn Sundquist Mull, “Biblical Leprosy—Is It Really?” BR 08:02.

Endnotes

1.

Catholic Study Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).

2.

The NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1985), annotation to Numbers 12:10.

3.

The New Jerusalem Bible (New York: Doubleday, 1985), annotation to Numbers 12:10.

4.

See the illuminating essay by Phyllis Trible, “Bringing Miriam Out of the Shadows,” BR 05:01.

5.

See Katherine Doob Sakenfeld, “Numbers,” in The Books of the Bible (New York: Scribners, 1989) p. 80. This brief discussion anticipates her forthcoming commentary on Numbers.

6.

See the cover story, “War against Women,” U.S. News and World Report, March 28, 1994.

7.

Harold Bloom, The Book of J (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990) pp. 24–35.