Another Miriam’s Song: An Ancient Celebration of the Exodus with a Mixed Chorus

The accompanying article suggests that a separate Song of Miriam, partially suppressed in the book of Exodus, partially survived among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This suggestion finds additional support in a passage from the first-century Jewish philosopher Philo, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Philo describes a festal celebration of the Therapeutae, possibly at Passover. The Therapeutae were a Jewish Egyptian group who shared many practices and beliefs with the Qumran community, whom most scholars identify as the Essenes. Indeed, the Therapeutae are sometimes called the “Egyptian Essenes.”

In the following passage Philo recounts how men and women form separate choruses and sing apparently somewhat different songs about the events at the Red Sea. Perhaps men and women in Palestine celebrated in the same way, using the Song of Miriam found among the Dead Sea Scrolls: