Miriam (prophetess)

Miriam's dance. Miniature from the Bulgarian Tomić Psalter around 1360. Mirjam is represented with a frame drum ( tof ), the model for the daira played by oriental women . Your dancing companions beat couples' pools here .

Mirjam , also written Miriam ( Heb. מִרְיָם; Arabic مریم), according to the tradition of the Old Testament, was the sister of Moses and Aaron and a prophetess .

The biblical tradition

According to Num 26.59  EU, Mirjam was the daughter of Amram and Jochebed , from the tribe of Levi . She is traditionally equated with the unnamed older sister of Moses, who observed from a hiding place how Moses was found in the reed basket by the Pharaoh's daughter and who suggested her mother as wet nurse ( Ex 2.1-10  EU ).

When leaving Egypt , after crossing the Red Sea , Mirjam led the dance of joy and the singing of the women, where she was referred to as a prophetess ( Ex 15.20-21  EU ).

During the following hike in the desert, Mirjam and Aaron stood against their brother Moses in a dispute over his sole claim to leadership. She was then punished by God with leprosy , which only disappeared again at the prayer of Moses. After a seven-day period of ritual uncleanliness outside the camp, Mirjam was resumed ( Num 12.1–15  EU ). According to Num 20.1  EU , Mirjam died in Kadesch and was buried there.

Tradition in the Koran

The figure of Mirjam ( Arabic : مريم, Maryam ) is depicted in the Koran as the daughter of Amram ("Imran", sura 3 , 35), without taking into account the narrative and historical differences between the Old and New Testament traditions, but who has a foster father named " Zacharias ”and is considered the mother of Jesus (Sura 3.45). This connection is made similarly in Sura 19 , which bears the title "Maryam". There the mother of Jesus is also Aaron's sister (19: 28–34).

See also

• Maryam
• Moremi , a legendary figure and goddess of the Yoruba

literature

• Kurt Hennig (Ed.): Jerusalem Bibellexikon . Hänssler-Verlag, Neuhausen-Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-7751-2367-9 .
• Ursula Rapp: Mirjam. A feminist-rhetorical reading of the Mirjam texts in the Hebrew Bible. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002 (= supplements to the journal for Old Testament science . Volume 317), ISBN 3-11-017384-0 .
• Erich Zenger , Peter Weimar: Exodus. Stories and History of the Liberation of Israel. Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-460-03751-2 , pp. 71-87: Das Mirjamlied (Ex 15.20-21) .

Web links

Commons : Mirjam  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Ursula Rapp:  Mirjam. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.