Moses Did Not Marry Outside of His Race
Moses DID NOT Marry Outside of His Race
By Pastor Eli James
I feel the need to address the issue of Moses\’ two wives, because it is often asserted that Moses himself engaged in race-mixing. It is one of the most frequent questions that come up in my ministry. This study will silence the integration crowd once and for all.
The Arabian Cush and the African Cush
‘Ethiopia” is the Greek word for the Hebrew ‘Cush\’. There were two separate territories called Cush in OT times: one in the Arabian peninsula and the other in Africa, just across the Sea of Reeds. The above map shows the Arabian Cush and the nearby African Cush.: Both of these territories were conquered by the descendants of Ham and held by them for many centuries. Wherever these Hamites encountered blacks, known to them as “Nubians,” these blacks were either conquered or enslaved.
Gen. 10:6-8 gives some of the biblical place names of the Hamites shown in the map. Remember that King Solomon was visited by the Queen of Sheba. She was also White. A black woman would not have been allowed anywhere near Jerusalem.
Moses and the “African” Woman
Billy Graham and others have asserted that Moses married outside of his race. Often, this assertion is made on the sheer assumption that the word ‘Ethiopian\’ means “Negro.” This is not the case. The Greek word ‘ethiopia\’ means “sunburnt faces.” Cush was a White man whose descendants tanned like rednecks in the African sun. Since only Whites get sunburned, the obvious conclusion is that the Ethiopians (Cushites) were White. We have to be careful substituting a Greek word which does not have the same meaning as the Hebrew. Moses would have never allowed the Israelites to do what he himself refused to do.
The Egyptians and Cushites were White, because they were descendants of Ham, the brother of Shem and Japheth. The idea that Japheth fathered the Orientals, Shem fathered the Caucasians and Ham fathered the Negroes is a Jewish fable. It is laughable, both scientifically and scripturally. When Moses was sent down into the African Cush by Pharoah to take charge of the country there, he was obliged to take the “Ethiopian” queen to wife. This he did; but there is more to the story. Here is the evidence from the Book of Jasher:
Jasher 71:1 – 76:13And Moses was eighteen years old, he desired to see his father and mother and he went to them to Goshen, and when Moses had come near Goshen, he came to a place where the Children of Israel were engaged in work, and he observed their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian smiting one of his Hebrew brethren. …Chapter 72…
72:21 At that time the war and the siege were against Cush, Moses fled from Egypt from Pharaoh who sought to kill him for having slain the Egyptian.
72:23 And Moses was nine years in the camp of Kikianus king of Cush.
72:29-36 (In these verses Kikianus dies and the people select Moses to be their new king.)
72:37 And all the people and nobles swore unto him (Moses) to give him for a wife Adoniah the queen, the Cushite, wife of Kikianus, and they made Moses king over them that day.
…Chapter 73 …
73:32 And Moses feared the Lord God of his fathers, so he came not to her, nor did he turn his eyes to her.
[Although Adoniah is described as a Cushite (Hamite), this statement suggests that the King’s widow was unclean in some other way. It is possible that Adoniah was White; but it is very clear that Moses felt compelled by Yahweh’s law not to approach her sexually.]
73:33 For he remembered how Abraham had made his servant Eliezer swear, saying unto him, thou shalt not take a woman from the daughters of Canaan for my son Isaac.
73:36 Therefore Moses turned not his heart nor his eyes to the wife of Kikianus all the days that he reigned over Cush.
[This verse suggests that Adoniah was a Canaanite. Even though Canaan was a descendant of Ham, the Canaanites interbred with the Kenites, the descendants of Cain. (Gen. 15:18-21) This fact placed the Canaanites off limits. Moses was obviously aware that Adoniah was not marriageable. All the evidence points to the fact that Kikianus married a daughter of Canaan.]
73:37 And Moses feared the Lord his God all his life, and Moses walked before the Lord in truth, with all his heart and soul, he turned not from the right way all the days of his life; he declined not from the way all the days of his life, in which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had walked. …
… Chapter 76 …
76:3 And in the fortieth year of the reign of Moses over Cush, Moses was sitting on the royal throne whilst Adoniah the queen was before him, and all the nobles were sitting around him.
76:4 And Adoniah the queen said before the king and princes, what is this thing which you, the children of Cush, have done for this long time?
76:5 Surely you know that for forty years that this man has reigned over Cush he has not approached me, nor has he served the gods of the children of Cush.
76:6 Now therefore hear, O ye children of Cush, and let not this man more reign over you as he is not our flesh.
76:7 Behold Menacrus my son (by Kikianus) is grown up, let him reign over you, for it is better for you to serve the son of your lord, than to serve a stranger, a slave of the King of Egypt.(In Cush Moses was \’minority\’, whereas if the Cushite were living in Israel, then the Cushite, not Moses, would be \’minority\’.)
76:12 So Moses went forth from the land of Cush and Moses was sixty six years old when he went out of the land of Cush, for the thing was from the Lord, for the period had arrived which he had appointed in the days of old, to bring forth Israel from the affliction of the children of Ham.
76:13 So Moses went to Midian, for he was afraid to return to Egypt on account of Pharaoh, and he went and sat at a well of water in Midian.
So, Moses never touched that woman (unlike Bill Clinton) for 40 years. Then he went to Midian, which according to the map above is in the northwest territory of the Arabian Cush, not far from Egypt.
Zipporah, Moses\’ Real Wife
Here is the story of Jethro:
Jethro was the “priest of Midian” and the father-in-law of Moses (; ). He was also called “Reuel” () and is described as a Midianite in .
The original Midianites were probably descendants of Midian, one of Abraham’s sons by Keturah (). The land where they lived then became known as “Midian” (). It is likely that the people who lived in the land of Midian were then all called Midianites, even if they were not descendants of Midian. For example, some descendants of Ishmael appear to be called Midianites ( ,; ).
We don’t know whether Jethro was a descendant of Midian, or whether he had some other ancestry but lived in the land of Midian.
In , Jethro is described as a “Kenite” but that may not relate directly to his ancestry. The word keniin Aramaic means “smith” and it is thought that the Kenites may have been metal workers.
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From the above, it is clear that Jethro was father of Moses\’ wife, Zipporah (Ex. 18:2). He also was a man of Yahweh. They were Shemites, descended from Abraham. The last sentence is important because it shows that the term ‘kenite\’ can also mean “metalsmith.\’ (Strong’s Concordance does not contain this definition.) So, even though Jethro is referred to as a ‘kenite,\’ it is obvious that he was a descendant of Abraham, not Cain, so the word ‘kenite\’ can here mean only “smith.” Moses would have never allowed the Israelites to do what he himself refused to do.
It is also clear from scripture that, later on, some of the Midianite tribes became the enemies of the Israelites during the Exodus period. They were still unmixed at this time because Moses allowed the Israelite men, after killing all of the adult Midianites, to take Midianite virgins for wives after conquering the tribe. (Num. 31:14-18.) This can only be explained as an act of mercy, as those White virgins had not been polluted by the sex rituals that the adults were doing. It was the adult Midianite women who responsible for spreading the plague among the Israelites – probably something like syphilis or gonorrhea.
Conclusion
A careful study of scripture and related texts shows that Moses never married outside of his race. Those who assert otherwise are either ignorant or insincere.