Did Moses Have a Stutter?

 

But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and tongue."

Exodus 4:10

I have seen this verse used many times over to teach that Moses had a stutter. This was something I always understood as common knowledge, and this was why Aaron went with Moses to stand before Pharaoh. 

However, as I have dug deeper into the text over the years, I can't help but question if Moses actually did have a stutter. This is the only verse in Scripture that mentions Moses having any type of speech impediment, and when we understand who is speaking, who is being spoken to, and the context of what is being said, I can't help but wonder why Moses ever uttered this phrase.

Raised in Pharaoh's Court

It is important that we remember that Moses was raised in Pharaoh's court, and would have received the best education of his day. Charles Aling said this concerning Moses's education:

“The student was trained in both the hieroglyphic and the hieratic scripts, spending endless hours in copying and memorizing voluminous lists of words and names. The student was also expected to study foreign languages of the Near Eastern world… Some mathematics were included, and perhaps a little music…The Egyptians highly valued the ability to speak well in public, and accordingly it received heavy attention during the years of formal education” (Aling, 74).

If it was important that Moses be able to speak well in public, and it "received heavy attention" as he was learning, wouldn't his instructors have provided a strong speech therapy to help him overcome his stutter?

In the New Testament, just before Stephen is stoned, he claims that Moses was a great public speaker.

And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

Acts 7:22

When Stephen is speaking of Moses, he does not claim that Moses was slow of speech and tongue. The only person to say that was Moses himself when he is speaking to God. 

Was Moses Lying?

So if Moses was trained in an education system that "highly valued" public speaking skills, and if other passages claim that Moses was "mighty in his words," why, then does everyone think he had a stutter?

Or a better question might be, was Moses lying?

There may have been some motive for lying. Keep in mind that Moses was in Midian during the encounter with God, and that he had fled to Midian to avoid execution. 

Now God is calling him to go back to face the very one who wanted him dead and demand all the Hebrew slaves be freed. (Moses did not yet know that the Pharaoh who wanted him executed was dead. God did not reveal that until after Moses agreed to go--check Exodus 4:19).

Moses did not want to put his life on the line. He had fled to preserve it and now God is calling him to go back. As a result, Moses starts throwing out all of the excuses.

His last excuse is that he is "slow of speech and tongue." When that doesn't work, he simply says:

"Oh, my Lord, please send someone else."

Exodus 4:13

It is possible that Moses simply made up that he had a stutter to avoid being sent to Pharaoh.

What's the Truth?

There are some real problems with the theory that Moses was lying, however. 

Is it possible for Moses to encounter God at the burning bush and lie to him without being struck down? Isaiah had an encounter with God and needed to have his sins atoned for while in his presence (Isaiah 6:6-7). Ananias and Sapphira were struck down for lying to God (Acts 5:4-5 and 9-10). 

However, God is also a God of mercy. He sees us in our sin and rescues us from it. We are not struck down every time we sin, even though there is nowhere we can go that is away from his presence (Psalm 139:7-10).

There is one other possibility. 

It is that Moses never claimed to have a stutter. He simply said he was slow in speech and tongue. People then claimed that meant he had a stutter.

If public speaking was so important, it could be that Moses was "mighty in his words" when compared to the general population, but that he was not a great speaker when compared to the great speakers in all of Egypt.

For example, people may believe me to be a great speaker. However, if asked to speak before the President, I would believe I am not a strong enough speaker to take on that task and would say something similar to Moses. 

To the common person, Moses may have been a great speaker. However, when standing in front of all the great speakers of Egypt, he may have been at the bottom of the list.

This would also explain why God didn't strike him down for lying, and why God didn't correct him. Rather, he sent Aaron.

Either way, I do not believe the Bible teaches that he had a stutter. He may have been simply making up excuses, or may have genuinely felt inadequate, but it seems consistent to say that he was, in fact, a strong speaker chosen to lead Israel out of Egypt.

Bibliography

Aling, Charles F. Egypt and Bible history: From Earliest Times to 1000 B.C. Baker Book House, 1981.