As It Is Written . . .
Those Midwives
by Patrick Henry Reardon
Since so much of the Hebrew Bible is about Jews, it is hardly surprising, I suppose, that some readers imagine that everybody in the book—especially the significant people—are Jews. Even the occasional Jew makes that mistake.
I think of Herman Wouk, for instance, whose novels, over many decades, have filled my leisure hours with pleasure and my mind, perhaps, with wisdom. One of Wouk's most memorable and enduring characters, who stands as a massive pillar supporting Winds of War and War and Remembrance, is Aaron Jastrow, the historian, rabbinic scholar, and universal humanist. A powerful scene in that lengthy saga is set in Auschwitz, where Jastrow, just before entering the gas chamber, delivers a long elocution on the story of Job. (Indeed, it is one of the best introductions to the Book of Job I have ever read.) The only note off-key in Jastrow's deep and moving meditation is that he makes Job, "the Bible's only hero," a Jew. Well, in the Bible at least, clearly he is not.
Sometimes, of course, we don't know for sure. Was Samson's femme fatale, Delilah, a Jew? Because the Bible does not explicitly say so, some dramatic presentations of the story—Saint-Saëns' opera, for instance, and Cecil B. DeMille's motion picture—exploited the uncertainty by making her a Philistine patriot instead of an Israelite traitor. (Their license alters the account to one of ethnic politics, much as Jean Anouilh's play Becket transforms a Norman archbishop into a Saxon.)
Evocations of Genesis
A more interesting example is the case of the midwives in Exodus 2. According to the Hebrew text, followed by nearly all English translations, these were "Hebrew midwives." Inasmuch as their appearance at the beginning of Exodus fits into a larger pattern that evokes the beginning of Genesis, we do well to examine the context in some detail.
The opening scene in Exodus, where "the children of Israel were fruitful (paru) and increased abundantly, and multiplied (vayirbu) and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled (vatimmle' ha'arets) with them," calls forth the initial command God gave the unfallen human race: "Be fruitful and multiply (p-ru vurbu), fill the earth (v-mil'u 'eth ha'arets) and subdue it" (Gen. 1:28). That is to say, the initial condition of the Israelites in Egypt resembled the condition of Adam prior to the Fall: "Then the Lord God took the man ('eth ha'adam) and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it" (2:15).
But Israel's idyllic life in Egypt comes to an end with the accession of a new pharaoh, "who did not know Joseph." This pharaoh, wrote Flavius Josephus, was moved by "jealousy" (phthonon) of the prosperity of the Israelites. He announced a new policy with regard to Israel: "Come, let us deal shrewdly with him."
The introduction of this new pharaoh calls to mind, once again, our first parents, whose downfall began with the appearance of a shrewd enemy: "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made" (Gen. 3:1). The new pharaoh in Exodus is the literary parallel to "that ancient serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world" (Rev. 12:9). Thus, each of these two books, Genesis and Exodus, introduces very early a wily enemy who endeavors to oppress and destroy God's people.
The plans of this cunning monarch, however, are foiled by the wisdom of the midwives. These women, Shiphrah and Puah, stand in contrast to the first woman, who was deceived in Genesis 3. Whereas the gullible Eve was no match for the ancient snake, the two midwives are far wiser than Pharaoh. The source of their wisdom is the fact that "the midwives feared God" (Ex. 1:17), and all Bible-readers know that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 1:7; Ps. 111:10).
Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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