Description
Medium: stone ware clay, multiple glazes, acrylics & gold luster
Size: life sized & wall mounted
Zipporah, wife of Moses, sister in law of Aaron & Miriam. Zipporah the woman whom scholars still argue over- whether she was Nubian, Ethiopian or Egyptian. I felt free to portray her as I wished – Nubian. Zipporah is also known as the woman who stood up to God. Bizarre is typical of how biblical scholars describe the tale of Zipporah and her husband Moses.
The gist of the so called Zipporah/Moses story is this: As Moses, Zipporah and their two sons set out to Egypt to free his people from slavery, God appears to them and sought to kill Moses (it is nowhere exactly clear why the lord was so angry with Moses to wish to kill him). So- Zipporah took a piece of flint, grabbed her son and cut off his foreskin and placed it at God’s feet and said to God: “Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me” God then spared Moses and let them go on their way. Then as now no scholar is sure what Zipporah meant, however it appears God did.
There is some speculation that it was not clear whether Zipporah placed the foreskin at God’s feet, or her husbands or her sons; further speculation posit that since the cutting away the foreskin (circumcision) identifies Hebrews, according to God’s covenant with Abraham; she might thus have shown that her son or sons are Hebrew and that Moses did not fail God in marrying a non-Hebrew.
The Old Testament is full of the most extraordinary stories, I never tire to read and be inspired by them.
