In the
Book of Exodus, Amram (; ) is the husband of
Jochebed and father of
Aaron,
Moses and
Miriam.
In the Holy Scriptures
In addition to being married to Jochebed, Amram is also described in the Bible as having been related to Jochebed prior to the marriage, although the exact relationship is uncertain; some Greek and Latin manuscripts of the
Septuagint
The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...
state that Jochebed was Amram's father's cousin, and others state that Amram was Jochebed's cousin, but the
Masoretic Text states that she was his father's sister. He is praised for his faith in the
Epistle to the Hebrews.
Textual scholars attribute the biblical genealogy to the
Book of Generations, a hypothetically reconstructed document theorized to originate from a similar
religiopolitical group and date to the
priestly source. According to
critical scholars, the Torah's genealogy for Levi's descendants, is actually an
aetiological myth reflecting the fact that there were four different groups among the
Levites – the
Gershonites,
Kohathites,
Merarites, and
Aaronids;
['' Peake's Commentary on the Bible''] Aaron – the eponymous ancestor of the Aaronids – could not be portrayed as a brother to
Gershon,
Kohath, and
Merari, as the narrative about the birth of Moses (brother of Aaron), which textual scholars attribute to the earlier
Elohist source, mentions only that ''both'' his parents were Levites (without identifying their names). Critical scholars suspect that the Elohist account offers both
matrilineal and
patrilineal descent from Levites in order to magnify the religious credentials of Moses.
Family tree
In rabbinical and apocryphal literature
In the
Apocryphal ''
Testament of Levi'', it is stated that Amram was born as a grandson of
Levi when Levi was 64 years old. The
Exodus Rabbah argues that when the Pharaoh instructed midwives to throw male children into the Nile, Amram divorced Jochebed, who was three months pregnant with Moses at the time, arguing that there was no justification for the Israelite men to father children if they were just to be killed;
[Exodus Rabbah 1:17] however, the text goes on to state that Miriam, his daughter, chided him for his lack of care for his wife's feelings, persuading him to recant and marry Jochebed again.
According to the
Talmud
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
, Amram promulgated the laws of marriage and divorce amongst the Jews in Egypt; the Talmud also argues that Amram had extreme longevity, which he used to ensure that doctrines were preserved through several generations.
Despite the legend of his divorce and remarriage, Amram was also held to have been entirely sinless throughout his life and was rewarded for this by his corpse remaining without any signs of decay.
[ Baba Batra 17a] The other three ancient Israelites who died without sin, being
Benjamin,
Jesse and
Chileab.
According to the
Book of Jubilees, Amram was among the Israelites who took the bones of Jacob's sons (excluding those of
Joseph) to
Canaan for burial in the
cave of Machpelah.
[Jubilees 46:11] Most of the Israelites then returned to Egypt but some remained in Canaan. Those who remained included Amram, who only returned somewhere up to forty years later.
One of the
Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q544, Manuscript B) is written from Amram's point of view, and hence has been dubbed the ''
Visions of Amram''. The document is dated to the 2nd century BC and, in the form of a vision, briefly discusses dualism and the
Watchers:
References
{{Authority control
Ancient Egyptian Jews
Levites
Book of Exodus people
People of the Quran
Family of Aaron and Moses
Tribe of Levi
Book of Jubilees
Epistle to the Hebrews