The Jews care about their lineage. Deeply.There are entire chapters dedicated to genealogies, to priest lineages, to organizational charts depicting which family will take care of certain tasks, and more.
With all that attention paid to various families, why does the Bible rarely bring up the lineage of Moses, one of the most important characters in Scripture and arguably one of the foundations of Judaism?
One argument can be made to the point of the Bible to begin with. The Scriptures are not intended to tell us everything we want to know, but everything we need to know. Taken in that view, the lineage of Moses isn’t as important as say, the lineage of Abraham. He is the father of many nations, after all.
Another argument could be made from the little that we do know about Moses’ children. The firstborn son, Gershom, is introduced in Exodus 2:22. According to Moses, he gets his name because Moses has “been a stranger in a foreign land.”
Were not told the name of the other son until Exodus 18:2-4. His name is Eliezer, which means “God is my helper,” referencing specifically Moses’ deliverance from “the sword of Pharaoh.” There are several more Eliezers in Scripture, such as Eliezer of Damascus, the original heir to Abraham’s house, and several priests who went by the same name.
The two boys don’t make much of an appearance in Scripture. According to Exodus 4:20, Moses took his entire family to Egypt, which is nobody’s idea of a family vacation. They must’ve left Egypt at some point though, because by the time Jethro shows back up in Exodus 18, the Text says that he brought Moses’ family with him (Exodus 18:2-4).
But back to Gershom. According to some Jewish scholars and quite a bit of Hebrew tradition, it’s thought that the son of Gershom, which would be Moses’ grandson, was one of the ones responsible for leading Israel into idolatry.
How can anyone believe such a thing, you ask? Simple. Judges 18:30 mentions a Jonathan who set up idols for the tribe of Dan. In that verse, his name is given as “Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh.”
Normally, that type of delineation wouldn’t raise many eyebrows, until you read into the Hebrew and see that the name for Manasseh and Moses is virtually identical. The only thing that’s different is the positioning of one part of one letter. The thought is that Hebrew scholars deliberately altered the name to hide the fact that one of the grandchildren of Moses was responsible for such a bold departure from God.
It has to be mentioned at this point that this is one hundred percent conjecture. There is a lot of evidence to support this claim, but at the end of the day, we don’t know for sure. It makes for an interesting story, but I’m not going to concoct an entire lesson around a supposition that we make into the Text.
But if it is true, it shows how nobody is immune to the trappings of sin. Everyone has the ability to fall away from God, no matter where you come from or who your family is. That much is true, and as such, it’s a lesson for all of us.