Foreign priests
As the story unfolds, we discover that the
Israelites had no monopoly on priests. Joseph marries the daughter of
Potiphera, almost universally seen as a priest of Ra serving at On
(Heliopolis). Potiphera’s role or lineage is significant enough to record
thrice (Gen. 41:45, 50; 46:20) and we read elsewhere of Egyptian priests
(47:22, 26). The commonality of such priests throughout surrounding nations is
illustrated here by the fact that Genesis simply uses the regular Hebrew term
for ‘priest(s)’. While the narrative records special remuneration habits
applicable in Egypt, it needs to add nothing about priestly roles in society.
Harder to
assess is Moses’ father-in-law, ‘the priest of Midian’ (Exod. 2:16; 3:1; 18:1). We first meet him with the name
Reuel (2:18). That name contains a theophoric element (‘ēl, ‘god’) and the narrative here and in Exodus 18 casts him as an
ally of Moses (Paul Hughes, “Jethro,” Dictionary
of the Old Testament: Pentateuch [Inter-Varsity Press, 2003]). He is common
seen as coming to follow Israel’s God (18:8-12); he certainly behaves like an
Israelite priest, offering a range of sacrifices and eating ‘in the presence of
God’ with the Aaronide elders, and perhaps evocatively dong so ‘in the tent’ (T.E.
Fretheim, Exodus [Westminster John
Knox Press, 1991], 196). He also offers Moses some sage advice (18:13-27),
though there is no indication that there is anything priestly about this
additional content or process. Of greater relevance is the fact that we find
here that Moses is ‘to be [an advocate] for the people before God’, especially
in terms of teaching and judicial decisions (18:19-20). (Andrew S. Malone, God’s Mediators: A biblical theology of
priesthood [New Studies in Biblical Theology 43; London: Apollos, 2017], 61,
emphasis added)
For further reading, see my book:
