Daughter's of Dignity:
Zipporah narrative:
Moses rescues Zipporah and her sisters from a group of harassing shepherds. Reuel, her fathe gives Zipporah to Moses in marriage. The have a son Gershom and another Eliezer Exod. 2.16-22. Moses is under some type of spell where he is about to die and Zipporah saves him by circumcising her son Gershom. Later they are reunited in the wilderness.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright writes in "Africans Who Shaped Our Faith" emphasiizes Zipporah's role as the daughter of a priest and the wife of a preacher. Wright ascribes to her a spiritual wisdom and attentiveness to ritual and tradition that forms the foundation for her immediate response to Moses' attack by God. He paints a picture of a woman who is wise beyond her years, using the African rituals of her father to save the life of her husband. Thus McCain Gill supports Zipporah's role in salvation history. (Daughter's of Dignity, Laverne McCain Gill).
Elevated womanist status comes from domestic enterprise where they are the authority and decision making is done around the campfire in close proximity to the home site in rural areas or villages.
Moses was born a Herew slave and thrown into the water and rescued by a Egyptian princess. Later in life he kills a Egyptian task master and flees into the Midianite territory. These people were herders of Hamitic descent said to be descendants of Keturah and Abraham.
Women seem to have experience, prestige and self esteem. This status would gradually decline within a state sponsored system or centralized rule making authority; that did not value self expression.
Moses responds to God's call to be deliverer of his people. The circumsion rite is perfomed and they share a covenant with God. This text may be paralled with the blood rite of Moses in Exodus 24.3-8 and Zipporah's priestly circumsion Exodus 4.24-26
The sole exercise of POWER derives from a rite of passage; where the pattern is separation, threshold, and reintergration. Likely known as puberty rites, bith rites, martial rites and or life cycles across cultures.
Contrast this form to making prophetic proclamations on matters of public interest or direct participation in public affairs.
Described further as a social drama where there is a breach, crsis, redressive action, reconcilation or schism all processed as temporal regulation.
The woman has changed in this rite to one who makes ritual through her marginal character. Womanist priest has adopted the law from her father.
Certainly we are called and summoned by God to Awake and
help reveal sacred knowledge.
reading guide: Ackerman, Susan WHY IS MIRIAM ALSO AMONG THE PROPHETS? (AND IS ZIPPORAH AMONG THE PRIESTS?).Journal of Biblical Literature, Spring2002, Vol. 121 Issue 1, p47, 34p;
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