This example is so important, and has screwed up the faith of so many for no other reason than bad scholarship, we need to spend time on it. It's as though everyone for centuries didn't know that Moses wrote about his own parents, under God's Own Power! So incredibly, this relationship between Amram and Jochebed is MISaccounted: so Bible debunkers droolingly use the persistent translation error to claim God a liar (technically, to claim the Bible errs); since by their MISaccounting the MIStranslation, Israel couldn't have thus spent 400 years in Egypt. And those seeking to defend the Bible, come up with the most insane justifications imaginable, or just dismissively treat the debunkers. So everyone learns nothing of what God is saying!
You wouldn't believe the number of insipid commentaries on this 'problem' verse over the last two centuries. Yeah, it's a problem if you don't Learn What Real Bible Says! [For much more on God's Accounting for the Exodus, click here: see the whole picture, which you can even confirm from an encyclopedia plus a nice stroll in Central Park. Stay across the street from the Park at the Westin Essex House (great staff, beds and showers).] Yeah, and if I base my accounting on lies, I can pretend my answer proves the Truth wrong, too.
If my pastor said it once, he said it a thousand times: It's a cardinal principle of Biblical hermeneutics to always apprehend the exact thought of the writer. If you don't know where the writer is 'coming from' (the why of a verse), you will screw up interpretation. Ok, then: clearly, Moses would know his own lineage, and since God is making him write about it, and a lot! God has something important to impart to us. Moses' parents were Jochebed and Amram. Two Bible verses on Jochebed are in Exo6:20 and Numbers 26:59, both mistranslated. Another passage not naming her is Exo2:1-10, and it confirms the interp below. Per the Real Bible of Exo 6:20 (not the horrible translations), that couple were cousins through their fathers who were not Levites, and also via their mothers, who were. You know this for sure, because in Exo2:1, Amram is treated as a no-status Levite, but Jochebed, as a "daughter" (a title; means also descendant, but here used in comparative primogeniture rank) of Levi. Notice how Exo2:1 precedes all the genealogies, so tells you Amram's status before God appointed Moses. And whaddya know, it's properly translated! The ranking matters: for if Amram were a direct son of Kohath (i.e., not through a daughter of Kohath), the Levites as a tribe couldn't be adopted by God. Why, will hopefully become clearer in these indented paragraphs.
So Moses' paternal grandmother was a daughter of Kohath, and his maternal grandmother was a daughter of Levi. Which is why his maternal grandmother was the aunt of his paternal grandmother. These two women were not sisters to each other; but the much-later-born daughter of Levi would be considered the aunt of the daughter of Kohath, since the daughter of Levi was the much younger sister of Kohath. You can't see any of this in English, because Exo6:20 is egregiously mistranslated, putting in words which aren't in the Bible (i.e., there's no "father's sister" anywhere in the text). The female line is in the Masoretic text, and the male line is in the LXX. Same bad translation problem as with Isa53:10-12, where you need both texts.
Satan&Co. are so clever. Look: the blasphemous MIStranslation of Exo6:20 to say "father's sister", makes it look like God breaks his own Law in order to set UP the Law! See Lev18 and 20 prohibitions against marrying one's aunt, which prohibition the Bible restricts to the sister of your father or mother. Worse, there is more than one way to be an "aunt", which anyone (like me) who has great-uncles only a few years older than the uncles, knows. That's what's happening here: the "aunt" is through the grandmother (Levi's daughter would be the daughter-of-Kohath's aunt, so Jochebed would be Amram's cousin, not aunt). So why MIStranslate Exo6:20? God is saying Amram married on his great-aunt's 'side'; you don't make distinctions in writing between great-aunt and aunt, it's known by the names of the people (even today, one still calls a great-uncle, merely "uncle"). Obviously, since it was against the law (even though the law didn't yet exist) to marry one's own aunt? So why make a translation which 'makes' God break His Own new Law? For Amram and Jochebed are the parents of the adopted originators of that Law, Moses and Aaron. Do you see? It takes effort to make this mistranslation, and effort to keep it going.
Understand too, that many commentaries through the centuries are made about this relationship, everyone blithely assuming that the Exo6:20 is correctly translated (i.e., TWOT, Easton's Dictionary, ISBE Encyclopedia; and Fausset's Dictionary has to posit seven or eight generations, using modern-day ideas, not Bible's). Feels like Twilight Zone, then, to say hey, why not just examine the Bible itself. For example, I've searched in BibleWorks for any verse claiming that the Amramites numbered 2,000 in Moses' day, like Fausset's Dictionary claims -- but I don't find any count of only the Amramites, anywhere. Do you? Moreover, because the Kohathites at the time of the Exodus number about 8,600 males, it's assumed that seven or eight generations ensued between the time Kohath entered Egypt with his dad (Gen46), and 430 years later, when Israel leaves. Excuse me? 430 years is plenty of time to have 8600 sons, even in only five or six generations; Jacob himself re-entered Canaan with 12 sons, but 70 years later, the brood numbered 70 when he entered Egypt (75, including the women). [See Mirroring.htm on Jacob's timetable: I had to back into it via Scripture verses.] Within less than one century (17th-18th) one branch of my own family had too many sons for me to trace (i.e., the routine number in a family was ten children)! Not to mention, the "mixed multitude" verse, who by the time the Kohathites were actually counted (in the wilderness period of 40 years), would have been in the various tribes by however-distant ties of marriage and blood, or counted as part of the tribe, being adoptees and/or servants (remember, any non-Jew could become a Jew by circumcision, for males; faith conversion, for females). So when you also consider that women gave their servants to their husbands, as competition to get more sons versus other women, sheesh: rabbits!
Notice how Satan&Co. aren't really to blame, then: for does no human bother to care what God is saying, so to research the why of this emphasis on Jochebed (i.e., how she outranks her husband in terms of God's accounting of primogeniture, in Exo2:1ff)? God makes a stink about this, to invoke the daughter inheritance clause of Numbers 27:8 and thus assign otherwise-ineligible family members to Moses and Aaron, the two He chose. So, all of Scripture will only record them as such: legal status, inheritance, appointed by God Himself. Notice how it's the FOURTH generation via the mother Jochebed, thus accounted to Moses, thus fulfilling Gen15:8-16 promise to Abram. So Moses and Aaron are FOURTH and FIFTH generation Levite, but solely through their mother (and paternal grandmother, who doesn't rank as high). So God promotes them, gives Aaron the entire tribe of Levi, thus fulfilling Jacob's "Joined" (=Levi) prophecy of Gen49. You can see this explanation in many passages, but Numbers 18 is the quickest in translation. Search on "Moses", "Aaron" and "Amram", see the other 100+ verses for yourself.
Now do you see why God so favors Israel? Look: a little-noticed awesome fact is that Abram knew his descendants would be enslaved for 400 years, from God's explanation in Gen15:8-16. God said that to him before Abram even had kids; it was a condition of the heirs promise. Now think: Abram lived with that knowledge, the rest of his life. So did Isaac. So did Jacob. So did Joseph. Notice how they all obeyed anyway, going back into the Land, staying there, waiting for God to fulfill the promise of enslavement, prior to fulfilling the promise of uncountable descendants, Chief among Whom, would be the Eben (=Petra), the Adonai (=Pedestal, foundation (holding pillars), function of Petra in Holy of Holies). Knowing, above all, that Christ would be the Son of Sons. You see their absolute acceptance, generation after generation, going into Egypt, then into the Land (viz., what Jacob says to Joseph in Gen48, what he tells the family (lots of not-nice stuff!) in Gen49, what Joseph says on his deathbed in Gen50:24ff. You can see that Israel kept on believing in that Promise, the whole 400 years (what, can't they escape?) -- i.e., Exo13:19. They believed in God's Promise of slavery!
Could you live knowing that information? Would it matter what works you ever did, compared to such faith? No wonder James says "doctrine works" in the Greek of James 2:22, re Abraham. Such faith is not humanly possible, only the Holy Spirit running God's Word in you can generate the strength! Which at that time, was only a pimplemi level, but now, is plerow level! [See pimplemi.htm.]
Back now, to Moses' parents. In modern parlance, Jochebed and Amram might be called "cousins once removed". (If that's the wrong use of the term, please correct me.) Meaning, one-generation 'removed'; a gap of a generation is between them (not in age, but in numbers of generations). That gap matters, since separation is wordplay in Jacob's prophecy about his son Joined ("Levi", to you) being separated and scattered, in Gen49. So: one generation is removed, get it? Just as Levi removed the entire town of Shechem's males from being able to have descendants (by killing them in revenge for the rape of Dinah), so God removes Levi's sons from the count -- until Moses.
So God renders judgement ab initio, as if Levi had no eligible sons until Moses; then God invokes His Own Law, the daughter-inheritance clause of Numbers 27:8-11. Which allows Levi to be 'joined' via Moses, and no other way. Which allows Kohath (who is otherwise cut off, since Moses' parents' fathers aren't of Levi) to be joined to Aaron, Amram's other son (Num18:1-2, 4:18-20). Hence God adopts the whole of Levi to Himself, Exo32:29, and Numbers 3:6-12, and Levi has no other inheritance (many verses on that). Thus He also forecasts how Messiah, being born of Mary, not the Solomonic line, causes Levi and Judah to be Joined since Aaron married a descendant of Judah, but Messiah Himself is cut off, having no descendants, Isa53. So all the human race can be adopted. In short, God is rather stressing this cutting-off-and-rejoining to tell the biggest story of all: how we can be saved. Always first look for WHY God says something in a verse, else you chase your tail!
So, just like the Bible (but no translation) says, Jochebed was related to Amram through his aunt, who is not the same person as Jochebed herself, duh, so should be translated "Jochebed of his aunt", or, more idiomatically, "Jochebed on his aunt's side"; which is why, duh, dodato is in apposition in the Masoretic text! Sheesh. Didn't the scholars know the Lev18 and 20 prohibitions against marrying one's aunt, so their stupid translation would give them pause to revisit the original text? And just to help out, the LXX tells you who the dads are -- non-Levites, who are brothers. [dative case of heautou seems to pointedly refer to Amram's natural father as distinct from the primogeniture legal 'father' God gives him via his own mom and Aaron his son. You decide.] So Jochebed's mom was Levi's daughter, Amram's aunt (remember, Levi was in Egypt for 57 years or more until he died and had daughters, so his daughter could be much younger than the sons). Jochebed's dad was Amram's uncle, non-Levite. So the couple were cousins on both sides of their respective families, but the Levite connection was matrilineal only. So because Moses and Aaron are only Levites through their grandmother and mother, God can legally invoke the daughter-inheritance clause of His Own Law (Num27:8-11); thus He simultaneously executes Judgement to fulfill Gen49, and can legally gift to Aaron the entire Levite clan (which is a repeated statement throughout the Pentateuch); and thus claim that entire tribe as His Own Property (another refrain, passim in Pentateuch). This sets up the bloodline to be joined (=Levi) in Christ, fulfills Gen49.
Oh, this is so important! Jews account their race via the mother, but primogeniture through the father. So God uses the mother, to make His Choice of primogeniture, so no one gets cut off. So then you can see the crossover of priesthood which is the central theme of the Book of Hebrews (starting in Chap3, on bloodline): Christ is first a King. Judah. So cannot be as Lion of Judah, a priest; yet, He is descended from the sons of Aaron, since from the beginning Aaron married a daughter of Judah. See how consistent God is? Just as He assigned primogeniture through a grandaughter of Levi from a daughter of Levi, so also through a daughter of Judah via David (Mary) who is also daughter of Levi but indirectly so -- a new Priesthood can be crafted this second time, even as it was crafted the first time, with Moses and Aaron; and Aaron got in, only because Moses refused to be God's sole mouthpiece (Exo4:13-14)-- so only through Moses, really. So solely Christ! becomes the High Priest of a new priesthood to Father, fulfilling Ps110:1-4 (theme of Heb Chaps 5-10), joining, nonetheless, the previous priesthood. So Levi was Grafted In; so we Church "Now" are grafted in, not replacing Israel, but instead sibling TO her, joined like Temple stones (Eph2). All this, the writer of Hebrews is assiduously explaining. Which continuity you miss, if you leave an errant translation of Exo6:20, alone!
Which of course is exactly how the Jewish race came into existence, in the first place: through the mother, Sarah. Children of the promise, due to Abram's faith. So the father is the cause, but the descendance goes through the mother. So AbraHAM, via faith, not blood; but the blood, comes through the mother. Whole Bible is structured this way: see Romans 4 and 9, Gal 3, Heb3-4. So now the entire inheritance package, by faith and by blood, makes total sense. And tracks perfectly. God is Perfect, so He knows how to track perfectly. Look at His Precision! And to think, He does all this, without gerrymandering anything!
Inheritance begetting principle: faith is the 'father', and the body is the 'mother'. His Own Faith on the Cross fathered us, Isa exults in passages like Isa 9 and 53. So by faith we are saved, since 'Mom', The Holy Spirit's self-chosen role (Gen1:2 mother-hen), takes that faith and Makes It Birth Us, Titus 3:5. Thereafter, His Own Word, DDNA! thus fathers us to father the many, to become the great ones, the booty, the spoil of victory. Which DDNA, we get in our own bodies, so reproduce. Like rabbits. Well, like lambs of the Lamb. Nourishing, all.
See what gets missed when we prove how we hate God by keeping such terrible, blasphemous mistranslations as Exo6:20? Which persist despite believer Bible commentators looking at them, even for centuries?!