In Jethro and the Jews, Beatrice J. W. Lawrence gathers a range of rabbinic traditions about Moses's father-in-law in order to demonstrate that he was a locus of anxiety about essential markers of Jewish identity. In doing so, she also examines competing rabbinic positions on the meaning of conversion, both for the individual proselyte, and for her or his descendants in the community of Israel. Lawrence argues that while Jethro is praised for his hospitality to Moses, the sincerity of his faith in Israel's God, his imagined Torah scholarship, and the learning and prestige of his offspring, for some rabbinic interpreters “these virtues do not supersede the fact that he is not an Israelite and was not party to the revelation at Sinai” (153). And even though most rabbinic exegetes believe that Jethro was a genuine proselyte, Lawrence demonstrates that tensions and ambiguities are present in all the documents under study, with each body of literature including traditions that construct fences between the Israelites and the priest of Midian. Her monograph makes this case in four substantive chapters examining representations of Jethro in the Hebrew Bible, the tannaitic midrashim, the later midrashim, and the Targums.
In her discussion of biblical references to Jethro, Lawrence reviews modern scholarship on the relevant texts, noting that many of the questions that concern contemporary commentators echo those of rabbinic exegetes. These include Jethro's several names (including Reuel, Hobab, Heber, and Putiel, among others); his religious allegiances; the nature of his relationship with Moses; his contribution to Israelite jurisprudence; and the Israelites’ complicated interactions with Jethro's kinfolk, both the traditionally antagonistic Midianites and the usually friendly Kenites. In her chapter focusing on tannaitic traditions, Lawrence finds that, with the exception of some qualifications in the Mekhilta, Jethro is generally portrayed as a praiseworthy “friend of God” and a sincere convert, albeit by means of a rather unorthodox process. She points out, as well, that these midrashim emphasize the concept of land, building on biblical testimony to the enduring presence of Jethro's descendants, the Kenites and Rechabites, in the Land of Israel as Torah scholars and as judges in the Sanhedrin. However, Lawrence also identifies a rabbinic disquiet with Jethro's foreign and idolatrous past, and perhaps with proselytes in general, arguing on the authority of Mekhilta ‘Amalek 3 that he is “simultaneously brought into the community” at the same time as his outsider status is maintained (91).
Diverse, although generally favorable, views of Jethro are also found in later midrash collections. Lawrence writes that identity traits connected with ethnicity, nationality, and land are problematized in these documents, particularly in relation to Jethro's connection to Midian; she points out that Jethro's “Midianite-ness” is deemphasized, while his Kenite identity is highlighted wherever possible. Moreover, Lawrence sees an ideological dispute enacted in these texts: on the one hand, “the rabbis are determined to uphold the integrity of the Sinai event and the singularity of the Jewish people; on the other, there is a genuine desire to demonstrate inclusiveness and acceptance of converts” (126). She also reports that Pesikta de-Rav Kahana (PRK) stands apart in its unusually negative representation of Jethro, emphasizing his necessary exclusion from the Sinaitic revelation because he is a foreigner (zar). Lawrence suggests that the liturgical connection between PRK piska 12 and the festival of Shavuot may have influenced this portrayal, together with the hermeneutical need to explain why Jethro left the Israelites before the theophany at Sinai (Exodus 18:27).
Lawrence identifies considerable ambivalence about Jethro in the various Targums, pointing out that the pentateuchal Targums do not include midrashic traditions that connect Jethro's descendants with temple service. Moreover, the Targum on Chronicles, in a broad rewrite of 1 Chronicles 2:55, which refers to families of scribes at Jabez, removes the reference to the Kenites. Instead, the text mentions “the Shalmaites,” who are said to be “descendants of Zipporah,” and links them to the “Levite families who came from the descendants of Moses” (148). In addition, each of the pentateuchal Targums changes Jethro's title from kohen (priest) to rabba (an ethnic leader), a sign of the importance of the priesthood to the Targums’ authors and their intent to separate Jethro from it. Similarly, in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan's account of Jethro's sacrifice in Exodus 18:12, Moses is portrayed as the officiant in place of his father-in-law. Lawrence writes that when the Targums treat Jethro inclusively, they highlight his identity as a Kenite, but references to Jethro's (or Zipporah's) Midianite origins are negative and exclusionary, an indication, she suggests, that “the authors of these texts carefully marked boundaries between non-Israelite enemies and friends” (157).
Lawrence highlights the different emphases among the tannaitic and later midrashim and the Targums, reflective of the various times, places, and religious contexts in which they were composed. However, she is insistent that in each case the rabbis made interpretive choices based on deep-seated concerns about Jewish particularity. Even though midrashic traditions about Jethro, and such figures as Rahab, Ruth, and the Gibeonites, reveal that divine acceptance can overcome human tribalism, “deconstructing the boundaries erected in the Bible between those who are inside the Israelite community and those who are decidedly not” (89), in the end a foreigner is a foreigner. As Lawrence concludes, despite some dissenting voices, the purport of midrashic and targumic opinions on Jethro suggests that even though a “proselyte's descendants could be woven into the people of Israel through a few generations of marriage and procreation, an individual who converted would remain, somehow, an outsider for the duration of his life” (158).
Jethro and the Jews constitutes a thoughtful and valuable contribution to ongoing discourses about formations of Jewish identities and attitudes towards converts in the late ancient and early medieval worlds. It is, as well, a helpful compilation and analysis of rabbinic exegeses of a complicated and engaging biblical personage.
