Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/234

 220 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

the more sober and less pretentious material has been overlooked as too humble and insignificant for close attention. It is upon the humbler material that modern scientific scholarship is direct- ing its keenest analysis. The miracles that are said to have been worked through Moses and Aaron by Yahweh have no meaning for the scientist aside from their value as evidence of primitive psychology. For these miracles can be paralleled from all the epics of antiquity. We have already noted the naive nature of the biblical accounts, in that the gods of Egypt, working through the magicians, are allowed to be miracle-workers themselves, the distinction of Yahweh being that he is able to perform greater wonders than the Egyptians. But this is no more than the dictates of loyalty prescribe to the worshipers of all the gods. Each must believe that his god can in some way outdo all rivals. But if the scientific scholar has little concern about the miracles of Moses, he is intensely interested in the traditions about the experiences of Moses in the desert. For Moses was the mediator between Israel and the Kenites ; and he it was who brought about the covenant with Yahweh.

We have seen that when Moses went into the wilderness of Sinai, he became the husband of Zipporah, a daughter of Jethro, the priest and leader of the Kenite shepherds. According to a narrative in Exod. 4:24-26, he was not accustomed to the rites and ceremonies of the Kenite religion. This was natural, since each clan had its own religious mysteries. The account has no relation to its context, having reference neither to that which comes before, nor to that which follows. It implies that circum- cision was one of the rites of the Kenite religion. But Moses had not been circumcised before his marriage, and hence was not "a bridegroom of blood." This kindled the anger of Yah- weh, who sought to kill Moses. The wrath of the deity was appeased by Zipporah, who took a stone knife and circumcised her son, making the blood wet the feet of Moses. This was a kind of substitutionary sacrifice, which converted Moses into "a bridegroom of blood," and thus turned away the fierce anger of the desert god. After the operation, Zipporah says in effect, "Now you are in the correct ritual attitude, because the circum-