According to the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, Gershom ( ''Gēršōm'', "a sojourner there"; ) was the firstborn son of

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

and

Zipporah Zipporah is mentioned in the Book of Exodus as the wife of Moses, and the daughter of Jethro (biblical figure), Jethro, the priest and prince of Midian. She is the mother of Moses' two sons: Eliezer and Gershom. In the Book of Chronicles, two of ...

. The name means "a stranger there" in Hebrew, ( ''ger sham''), which the text argues was a reference to Moses' flight from Egypt.

Biblical scholars Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse academic discipline, disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the Biblical canon#Jewish canons, canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Judais ...

regard the name as being essentially the same as ''Gershon''Cheyne and Black, '' Encyclopedia Biblica'' and in the Book of Chronicles the progenitor of one of the principal Levite clans is sometimes identified as Gershom, sometimes as Gershon. The firstborn son of Moses by Zipporah; born in Midian. Moses’ father-in-law Jethro came to Moses in the wilderness, bringing with him Moses’ wife Zipporah and their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. The priestly service of Gershom's descendant Jonathan on behalf of the Danites was illegal, because, although he was a Levite, he was not of Aaron's family. The passage in Exodus concerning Moses and Zipporah at a night camp appears to suggest that some being, possibly

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

or an

angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

, attacks either Gershom or Moses, until a

circumcision Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. T ...

is carried out by Zipporah on Gershom. The later

Books of Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Ta ...

identify Shebuel as a "son" of Gershom,, though this is

anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common typ ...

for a literal interpretation of the Bible because ''Shebuel'' is described as living in the time of King

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

. The Hebrew word for "son" can also mean descendant; for example even remote descendants of King David are in many instances identified as "So-and-so son of David" in the original Hebrew.

Priestly connections

Although certain passages of the Bible, which textual scholars ascribe to the Priestly Source, assert that it is only the descendants of

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

known as Aaronim who were legitimate priests,

biblical scholars Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse academic discipline, disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the Biblical canon#Jewish canons, canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Judais ...

believe that the priesthood was originally open to members of any tribe, and that the restriction to Aaronim was purely an Aaronim invention, opposed by authors such as the Deuteronomist. Aaronim claimed descent from

– Moses' brother, and hence any immediate descendant of Moses would not count among the Aaronim. The possibility that the story of Micah's Idol refers to ''immediate descendants of Moses being priests'' is taken by biblical scholars as a demonstration that the Aaronim-only restriction was originally not present in the Israelite priesthood. One of the accounts of Micah's idol refers to a priest as being ''a sojourner there'' (), which could alternatively be taken as stating that the priest was indeed Gershom (). The accounts of Micah's idol also include reference to a ''Jonathan son of Gershom'' as being a priest, and although the Masoretic Text seems to avoid the implication that non-Aaronim could be priests by describing this particular ''Gershom'' as a son of ''Manasseh'' (), this appears to have been distorted; the letter ''nun'' () appears here in

superscript A subscript or superscript is a character (such as a number or letter) that is set slightly below or above the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. Subscripts appear at or below the baseline, wh ...

, suggesting that the text originally described this ''Gershom'' as the one that was a son of ''Moses'' (). The rabbinic text known as the ''Seder Olam'' has ''Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses'' when it quotes this verse.Ken Johnston, ''The Ancient Seder Olam'', Biblefacts.org, Kindle Edition (2006), Kindle Locations 1754, 5611-5612 The priestly/prophetic aspect remains open to discussion, God explicitly chose Aaron and his direct sons for the Tabernacle and Temple services in remembrance of Aaron's servitude to Moses all along. Aaron served his brother Moses with much devotion being metaphorically called "his prophet" from the very beginning. The King and the Priest/Prophet are the two head leaders in ancient hierarchy; from this viewpoint, the belief of priesthood being open to ''anyone'' appears unsupported. The Bible recounts very strict lineage rules for the priests, aka "the descendants of Aaron", but certain deviations from the concept are mentioned – for instance, prophets such as Samuel or Elijah performed priestly-like services in special cases. As mentioned above, it is probable that Gershom's lineage would have compelled him into the priesthood, yet it appears he performed no regular priestly services of note. In other related writings it is mentioned that God ordered Moses to pass authority unto Joshua instead of his own two stubborn sons, Gershom and Eliezer.

References

{{Authority control Book of Exodus people Family of Aaron and Moses

Priestly connections

See also

References