Yitro – Names/2
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Was Yitro Really Moshe's Father-in-law?
Exegetical Approaches
Overview
Within a span of eleven verses in Shemot 2:16-3:1, the Torah introduces Zipporah's father / Moshe's choten, and the "priest of Midyan," first as Reuel, and then as Yitro. Shofetim 4:11 adds Chovav as another name for choten Moshe. To resolve these apparent contradictions, exegetes have suggested that either:
- The same person (Moshe's in-law) had multiple names.
- The same term (kohen Midyan or choten or avihen) describes multiple persons or relationships.
- A combination of these possibilities.
These suggestions lead to three main possibilities concerning the central question of the relationship between Reuel and Yitro: Yitro and Reuel are the same person, Yitro is Reuel's son, or Yitro is Reuel's father. Similarly, there are four options regarding the secondary question of the identity of Chovav: Yitro and Chovav are the same person, Yitro is Chovav's grandfather, Yitro is Chovav's father, or Yitro is Chovav's son. The analysis below will examine how these possibilities can be integrated:
Yitro = Reuel
According to this option, the Torah refers to the same person by more than one name, and Yitro, a.k.a. Reuel, is Zipporah's father (i.e. Moshe's father-in-law). There are two variations of this approach which differ regarding the secondary issue of Chovav's identity:
Yitro = Reuel = Chovav
According to this position, there is only a single character and Chovav is merely a third name of the father of Zipporah (i.e. Moshe's father-in-law)
Multiple names – Both Mekhiltas maintain that Yitro had a total of seven names. The standard editions of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael (beginning with the 1545 Venice edition) list them as: Yeter, Yitro, Chovav, Reuel, Chever, Putiel, and Keini, and then proceed to give derivations for each. This is also the list popularized by Rashi Shemot 18:1. However, Mekhilta DeRashbi provides a slightly different list, omitting Chever and including Ben (i.e. it counts "Chovav Ben Reuel" as three distinct names). Manuscripts1 and other textual witnesses show that this was also an/the original version of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael.2
Motivation – The Mekhiltas appear to be motivated more by a desire to arrive at the symbolic number seven, rather than merely by textual exigencies. In fact, each of the Chever and Ben possibilities create significant exegetical difficulties while solving none (see R. Chayyim Paltiel Shemot 18:1 and the Tosafist commentaries brought in Tosafot HaShalem Shemot 18:1:3-4).3
Conservation of characters – The Mekhiltas are consistent with the general tendency of Rabbinic Midrash to consolidate characters by identifying different names with the same person. See Midrash for examples and analysis.
Explaining the name change – Why would one person have three or more names? The Mekhiltas explain that the various names reflect Yitro's good deeds and relationship with Hashem. However, it remains unclear why there would be a need for so many names which have basically the same message. Furthermore, no explanation is provided for why Tanakh would use different names in different places.
"Chovav ben Reuel" – Identifying both Chovav and Reuel with Yitro creates an almost insurmountable difficulty in understanding the words "Chovav ben Reuel" in Bemidbar 10:29.4 This problem is raised by R. Chayyim Paltiel Shemot 18:1 and the Tosafist commentaries brought in Tosafot HaShalem Shemot 18:1:3-4.5
Choten – This position solves all of the Yitro/Reuel/Chovav problems by employing just the single method of giving multiple names for the same person, and does not need to resort to expanding the semantic field of the term choten beyond its basic meaning of father-in-law.
Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 10 – Identifying Chovav with Yitro necessitates an examination of the relationship between the stories of Yitro's departure in Shemot 18:27 and Moshe asking Chovav to remain with the nation in Bemidbar 10. Why would Moshe send Yitro away in Shemot 18 but beg him to stay in Bemidbar 10? R"E HaModai in Mekhilta Yitro Amalek 2 conflates the two stories, maintaining that both describe Yitro=Chovav leaving temporarily in the second year to convert his family (according to the Mekhilta, he later returned and remained with the people, as his descendants are found with the Jewish people in Shofetim 1). To facilitate this position, R"E HaModai reinterprets vayshalach as the giving of gifts. See below for Ibn Ezra's alternative interpretation of "vayshalach," and see also Chronology of Shemot 18. In contrast, according to R. Yehoshua in the Mekhilta as developed by Peirush HaRosh Shemot 18:4, Moshe actively sent Yitro away in the first year so that he would not be present for the Decalogue – see Chronology of Shemot 18. Later, though, when Yitro came back after the revelation, Moshe requested that he remain with the people and Yitro assented.
Other sources – This would appear to also be Philo's position, if one synthesizes his positions in different works. In On the Change of Names XVII:103, Philo writes that Yitro and Reuel are two names of the same person, with Yitro having a negative meaning ("superfluous") and Reuel having a positive meaning ("shepherd of God"),6 and in On Drunkenness X-XI:40 he attributes the words of Chovav in Bemidbar 10:30 to Yitro.
Yitro = Reuel, but Chovav is Yitro's son and Zipporah's brother (i.e. Moshe's brother-in-law)
Ibn Janach says only that Reuel is Moshe's father-in-law and Chovav is Moshe's brother-in-law, but does not describe Yitro's relationship to Moshe. Radak assumes that Ibn Janach thinks that Yitro = Reuel and is Moshe's father-in-law, but it is also conceivable that Ibn Janach maintains that Yitro is Moshe's brother-in-law (like either Ibn Ezra or the Biur below).
Choten – Ibn Janach understands from Shemot 2:16-21 that Reuel is Zipporah's father, and that Chovav, the choten of Moshe, is Reuel's son and Zipporah's brother (like the simple readings of Bemidbar 10:29 and Shofetim 4:11). As a result, he claims that the term choten, like its Arabic counterpart, can mean both father-in-law and brother-in-law. See our discussion of "חותן" / choten.
Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 10 – As according to this opinion, Yitro and Chovav are different characters, there is no contradiction between the stories of Yitro in Shemot 18 and Chovav in Bemidbar 10 – see Hoil Moshe who points this out explicitly.
Explaining the name change – This approach must be accompanied by an explanation for why the Torah would sometimes refer to Moshe's father-in-law as Reuel, but at other times as Yitro. There are a few possibilities:
- Reuel is a family or tribal name – R. D"Z Hoffmann proposes this theory and draws a parallel to the name Keini in Shofetim 1:16 which he interprets similarly.
- Yitro is a title – Nahum Sarna7 suggests that Yeter/Yitro may be an honorific meaning "his Excellency" and not a proper name. As support he references Bereshit 49:3 as well as Akkadian and Ugaritic cognates.
- The names have two different connotations – This requires further development.8
Other sources – This may also be the position held by Josephus (see Antiquities 2:12:1) who identifies Reuel and Yitro as the same character. Josephus, though, never discusses Chovav.
Yitro = Reuel's Son
This position splits into two categories of opinions which disagree regarding whether it is Yitro or Reuel who is Zipporah's father. Each of these categories then further subdivides regarding the issue of Chovav's identity:
Yitro is Zipporah's father (i.e. Moshe's father-in-law) and Reuel is Zipporah's grandfather
The three variations of this opinion diverge as to whether Chovav is Yitro himself, Yitro's brother, or Yitro's son:
Chovav = Yitro and both are names of Zipporah's father, while Reuel is her grandfather
Avihen – The explicit impetus for the Sifre's position (in contrast to the Mekhilta) is to resolve the textual discrepancy regarding the identity of Moshe's father-in-law. See Midrash for other examples. R. Shimon does so by identifying Chovav with Yitro, and by apparently adopting the anonymous interpretation in the Sifre that "Reuel avihen" ("אביהן") in Shemot 2:18 means that Reuel is Zipporah's "grandfather" or "ancestor," rather than the more common meaning of "father." See av for a discussion of the semantic flexibility of the word and for other examples of its use in referring to a grandparent. Interestingly, there is no unique Biblical term for a grandparent, and thus it is not strange that avihen would be used to refer to their grandfather.
Reuel and Yitro in Shemot 2-3 – The opinion that Reuel is Zipporah's grandfather needs to explain why he (and not Yitro) is mentioned in Shemot 2, what the extent of his role is in that story, and why he disappears or is displaced by Yitro by the next chapter. There are two basic approaches: Ramban attempts to insert Yitro into Chapter 2. According to him, Yitro is the anonymous "priest of Midyan" referred to in 2:16, it is his flock that his daughters are shepherding, and it is Yitro who marries off his daughter Zipporah to Moshe.11 Reuel is thereby reduced to little more than a cameo appearance in which he answers the door when his granddaughters arrived home early, as Yitro was too busy ministering at his temple. The advantage of this reading is its consistency with 3:1 where it is explicit that Yitro is "the priest of Midyan" and the owner of a flock. However, one difficulty with this approach is that the same term avihen would be referring to Yitro in 2:16 but then to Reuel in 2:18. Additionally, it is hard to understand why the Torah would refer to Yitro anonymously throughout 2:16-21, but by name in 3:1.
Perhaps the simpler reading of 2:16-21 is that Reuel is "the priest of Midyan" referred to in 2:16, it is his flock that his granddaughters are shepherding, and it is Reuel who marries off his granddaughter Zipporah to Moshe (i.e. interpreting "daughter" in 2:21 as "granddaughter", see av).12 Ibn Kaspi adopts this position, explaining that as the head of the household, Reuel signed off on all decisions, including who his granddaughter would marry. Shadal 2:18 cites J.D. Michaelis who further explains that Reuel died by the end of Shemot 2 (and thus does not appear again), and by Chapter 3 Yitro has replaced him as both "the priest of Midyan" and the head of the household (which would also include ownership of the flock). See Chronology of Chapters 2-4 for how much time elapsed between the chapters.13
Choten – By identifying Chovav as Yitro (like the Mekhiltas), rather than as Yitro's brother or son, this opinion avoids the need to posit multiple meanings of the term choten.
Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 10 – Identifying Chovav as Yitro requires addressing the relationship between Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 10. According to Ramban, Yitro came and left in the first year and returned (as Chovav) in the second year, while according to Rashi he came in the first year but didn't leave until the second year. Ibn Ezra submits a third possibility that Yitro both came and departed only in the second year – see Chronology of Shemot 18. All of these possibilities must also explain the intensive (piel) form of "vayshalach" in 18:27 (see the discussion of the Mekhilta above that this might imply that Moshe actively sent Yitro away, and would thus stand in contrast to his begging Chovav to stay). Ibn Ezra 18:27 therefore suggests that "vayshalach" means sending away with honor (as in Bereshit 18:16), and does not contradict Bemidbar 10.
Explaining the name change – R. Shimon offers an etymology for each of the names of Yitro and Chovav. But this approach must also explain why the Torah switches from using Yitro's name in Shemot to Chovav's name in Bemidbar and in Shofetim. Ramban suggests that Yitro received the name Chovav after he converted (as per the custom of converts to take a new name upon conversion – see also Character Titles for additional sources and discussion). Shadal agrees that the name Chovav may have been given to Yitro by the Jewish people as an expression of affection, but he disputes the possibility that Yitro converted – see Yitro's Religious Identity for elaboration.
Other sources – This position seems to be the approach also of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Shemot 2:18-21, 3:1, 18:1 and Bemidbar 10:29. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan says that Reuel is Zipporah's grandfather, while translating choten in the same fashion when referring to each of Yitro and Chovav.14
Chovav and Yitro are brothers, the sons of Reuel, meaning that Chovav is Zipporah's uncle
Sources:Demetrius the Chronographer
No multiple names – According to Demetrius, Reuel, Yitro, and Chovav are three different people. By not identifying unrelated names with the same person, he thereby avoids the difficulties inherent in that approach.
Choten – To enable Chovav to be called a choten of Moshe, Demetrius would need to expand the definition of choten to include even an uncle of a wife. However, there is no Biblical precedent for such a meaning – see choten.
Avihen – Similar to the Sifre, Demetrius would interpret avihen in Shemot 2:18 as "grandfather" or "ancestor." See our discussion above for more on avihen.
Genealogy – Demetrius traces Zipporah's genealogy back to Yokshan, the son of Avraham and Keturah. According to him, Reuel is the great grandson of Avraham (Avraham -> Yokshan --> Dedan --> Reuel). The LXX Bereshit 25:3 preserves this tradition,15 however, the Masoretic text does not include Reuel among the sons of Dedan. R. Avraham b. HaRambam also links Zipporah's family to Avraham, but he does so (following the Masoretic text) through Midyan the son of Keturah. He highlights the hospitality Reuel shows to Moshe, noting that this is a hallmark of Abraham's descendants. The goal of both exegetes is apparently to explain Moshe's choice of Zipporah as a wife and to grant her Abrahamic lineage – see Moshe's Family Life and Zipporah for further discussion and the Matriarchs for a parallel case.
Reuel and Yitro in Shemot 2-3 – For the options as to how Demetrius could explain Reuel's role in Shemot 2 and the transition to Yitro in Shemot 3, see above.
Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 10 – Since Yitro and Chovav are different characters, there is no contradiction between the stories of Yitro in Shemot 18 and Chovav in Bemidbar 10.
Chovav is Yitro's son and Zipporah's brother, while Reuel is her grandfather.
No multiple names – Like Demetrius, this approach views Reuel, Yitro, and Chovav as three different people, thereby avoiding the difficulties inherent in identifying unrelated names with the same character. Also, as Reuel, Yitro, and Chovav are three different generations, we can easily understand why they appear on the scene in three stages.
Choten – This position would maintain, like Ibn Janach, that the term choten can mean both father-in-law and brother-in-law. See our discussion of choten.
Avihen – Similar to the Sifre, "avihen" in Shemot 2:18 would mean "grandfather" or "ancestor." See our discussion above for more.
Who accompanied Yitro – This opinion could explain 18:5 like the Zohar and Minchah Belulah (see here) that Yitro was accompanied by his own wife and sons, one of whom was Chovav. Even after Yitro's departure in Shemot 18, Chovav remained with the Jewish people, and is thus present in Bemidbar 10.
"Chovav ben Reuel" – According to this approach, the verse would mean Chovav, the grandson of Reuel, or a descendant of Reuel's clan (like R. D"Z Hoffmann cited above). See ben.
Reuel and Yitro in Shemot 2-3 – For the options as to how to explain Reuel's role in Shemot 2 and the transition to Yitro in Shemot 3, see above.
Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 10 – Since Yitro and Chovav are different characters, there is no contradiction between the stories of Yitro in Shemot 18 and Chovav in Bemidbar 10.
Yitro is Zipporah's brother (i.e. Moshe's brother-in-law) and Reuel is their father (i.e. Moshe's father-in-law)
The two variations of this position disagree as to whether Chovav is just another name for Yitro himself or is Yitro's brother:
Chovav = Yitro and both are names of Zipporah's brother, while Reuel is their father
Sources:Ibn Ezra
See above that Ibn Ezra in his Long Commentary Shemot 2:18, 18:2 adopts the position of R. Shimon in the Sifre that Yitro is Zipporah's father. See Ibn Ezra for the relationship between Ibn Ezra's various commentaries.
Choten and avihen – Ibn Ezra's two positions are very similar. The relative advantage of the approach in the Long Commentary is that it obviates the need for saying that choten can also mean brother-in-law. On the other hand, the Short Commentary can interpret avihen using its regular meaning of father.
Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 10 – Both of Ibn Ezra's approaches maintain that Yitro = Chovav. This directly follows from his position in Shemot 18:1 (in both his Short and Long Commentaries) that Yitro/Chovav came only in the second year – see Chronology of Shemot 18. See above for how Ibn Ezra explains the relationship between Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 10.
Reuel and Yitro in Shemot 2-3 – See our discussion above for how Ibn Ezra (in his Long Commentary) understands Reuel's role in Shemot 2.
Chovav, Yitro, and Zipporah are three siblings, the children of Reuel
Sources: Moses Mendelssohn's editorial note in the Biur
Choten, avihen and no multiple names – The advantage of this approach is that the only assumption it needs to make is that choten can also mean brother-in-law. It does not need to propose multiple names for the same person or that avihen means anything other than father.
Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 10 – The Biur's point of departure is the relationship between the stories of Yitro in Shemot 18 and Chovav in Bemidbar 10. The Biur assumes (like Ramban) that all of Shemot 18 takes place in the first year, before the Decalogue. However, the Biur solves Chovav's presence in the second year by positing that Yitro and Chovav are different characters (rather than suggesting like Ramban that Yitro traveled back and forth). Menachem Leibtag, arriving at Mendelssohn's approach independently, suggests that Yitro who inherited Reuel's position as 'the priest of Midyan' returned to his ministry in Midyan, while Chovav, the professional scout (who the Torah never describes as 'the priest of Midyan'), remained with the Jewish people as their guide.
Reuel and Yitro in Shemot 2-3 – See the discussion above for the possible approaches to understanding Reuel's role in Chapter 2.
Interestingly, Mendelssohn in his commentary on Shemot 2:18 does not explain like his position here, but rather like the approach of R. Shimon in the Sifre.
Yitro = Reuel's Father
According to this possibility, Yitro is Zipporah's grandfather (i.e. Moshe's grandfather-in-law), Reuel is Zipporah's father (i.e. Moshe's father-in-law), and Chovav is Zipporah's brother (i.e. Moshe's brother-in-law).16
Choten and avihen – This approach needs to assume that choten can refer to multiple members of the wife's family – her grandfather, father, and brother, but it does not need to propose that avihen means anything other than father.
No multiple names – It does not need to posit that the same person has multiple names.
Reuel and Yitro in Shemot 2-3 – This theory could maintain that Reuel marries off his daughter in Shemot 2, but his father Yitro is the head of the clan. Thus, in Shemot 4, Moshe needs to request permission to leave from Yitro, and in Shemot 18, it is Yitro who heads the delegation to Moshe. Alternatively, it could adopt Ramban's reading that Yitro is the one making all of the decisions already in Shemot 2, by virtue of his being the head of the household.
