Moses and the Levites

Abstract

This paper has been prompted by two recent articles bearing on the Levites by Professor Leroy Waterman: "Some Determining Factors in the Northward Progress of Levi"' and "Jacob the Forgotten Supplanter."2 The latter article is particularly suggestive, and it is striking in how many points it agrees with conclusions in the present writer's Hebrew Origins (Harpers, 1936), although each was produced quite independently of the other. In fact, the two agree so largely that I would fain adopt all of Waterman's interpretations, particularly those with regard to the Levites. It would make my contention that Yahweh came to the Hebrews through the medium of the tribe of Judah ever so much easier to hold if it could be shown that Moses was not a Levite and that the Levites were never in Egypt. However, the evidences would seem to run so strongly counter to this contention of Waterman that I am forced most reluctantly to reject it. The purpose of this paper is to examine and appraise those evidences.