We hear talk of female prophets. Deborah, Huldah and others, but we do not get much discussion of Miriam.
— the classic illustration of her singing in triumph while leading the Israelite nation.
While she has a number of places she is mentioned, Miriam’s signature moment is criticizing Moses for his polygamous wife and being struck with leprosy as a result, (see the story at Numbers 12:2) but still … there is more to her than that.
The story is rich in nuance. Miriam comes on the stage identified as a prophet (Exodus 15:20). Then in Numbers, Miriam and Aaron both criticize Moses over an extra wife and related issues. Miriam justifies herself in what she does and says because she is a prophet. When God reacts, only Miriam is stricken (Aaron is not punished). But God heals her as well. She is recounted as one of the prophets God sent Israel (in Chronicles and at Micah 6:4) in places outside the historical narrative.
So why don’t we talk more about Miriam when we talk about female prophets?
For more about her and Jewish History, visit Jewish Bible .Org’s archived material on her. [From the Jewish Bible Quarterly e.g. “There is a record of her death in Numbers, but no record of a husband or children – a rare example in the Bible of a woman notable without identification as someone’s wife or mother.” and “She is introduced as Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister. . . (Ex. 15:20) – the first mention in the Tanakh that a woman was endowed with the prophetic spirit” — the article is several pages long with a good deal to say about her.]
I’d love to hear your guesses and thoughts about why we don’t talk about Miriam.
Wheat & Tares 
I’ll take a stab at this. Sexism!
Well, we talk about other female prophets. Just not Miriam.
We don’t hear more about Miriam as a prophet because she is detrimental to the rhetorical positions taken by both sides of the women’s’ ordination issue. The conservative faction is loathe to admit any history of women holding priesthood office. Bringing up an example of a woman holding a subordinate priesthood office complicates their argument because there is an great deal of room for women if the ceiling is immediately below Moses. I also suspect they would be rather hard pressed to demonstrate that they have more in common with Moses than say Barak, or Hilkiah. For those arguing in favor of women’s ordination, the examples of Deborah and Huldah are much stronger positions than providing an example of a woman who held priesthood office but was was still subordinate, rather than dominant.
“…the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10)
“…would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!” (Num. 11:29)
Neither of these verses refer to any priesthood office or any gender. Am I missing something? Please update me.
In the years I taught Seminary we teachers were counseled to refrain from referring to these women as prophets. If students directly asked about it we were to say it was a figurative title of honor and respect, but not an official calling because women cannot be prophets for real because they are not ordained to the priesthood and thus unable to hold keys.
Further, Miriam was criticized for criticizing The Prophet. She was to be viewed as a murmuring sort of shrew. She’s seen as being too much—too smart, independent, and not knowing her place, especially regarding plural marriage.
Female leaders, particularly prophetesses must constantly remain in the holes pigeons are allotted. When male leaders and prophets criticize, we are to be humble and heed their counsel as if it comes from God. But with women in comparable roles, no heeding is required, nor even expected. Women don’t speak for God, so their counsel is often seen negatively and is deemed unwanted and unwarranted.
Sexism to the fullest measure.
According to lds.org, a prophetess is a woman who has a testimony of Christ and has the spirit of revelation. In their definition, she does not hold any priesthood office. Compare that with the description of a prophet (male) who has authority to act as the mouthpiece of the Lord. The First Pres and Q12 are sustained as prophets which implicity suggests association with the priesthood and leadership in the church. Joseph Smith alledgedly stated that *all* prior prophets had the Melchizedek Priesthood.
I agree with Daniel. Miriam is seen as subordinate to Moses in spite of her title as prophetess. You could easily compare her to a curent female general auxiliary president. Deborah and Huldah were viewed by political and military leaders as *the* authoritative mouthpieces of the Lord. If you are going to bet on any OT prophetess holding the priesthood (like in a women’s ordination argument), those two would be your best options.
Now if your just wondering why we just don’t seem to mention her much in our scripture study, it’s fairly simple. Like Shiblon in the BofM she gets overshadowed by her two siblings. Moses was the leader of a dispensation, the claimed author of some of the most important scriptures, essential founder and savior of the Jewish people, holder of priesthood keys, etc. His influence is felt throughout *all* the standard works. Aaron was chosen by Moses as high priest and his descendants held considerable influence and position because of it. Even John the Baptist was given more credibility by being a descendant of Aaron. In our dispensation, the importance of the priesthood lends greater prestige to Aaron as a historical figure. Miriam really only has significance within the historical context of the exodus and wandering in the wilderness. She just doesn’t really matter much beyond that.
I recall hearing a reference from the ‘old school’ TV show, “All in the Family”. Norman Lear worked a lot of “Yiddishisms” into that production. One was were a rabbi is quoted as thanking Yahweh that he wasn’t born a woman. Misogyny is acceptable if you’re wearing a surplice or yarmulke, I guess, but have a “Discover America: Read Book of Mormon” bumper sticker on your car and you’re in deep kimchee. Woman don’t get much press in the scriptures at all. The ‘most’, not that it’s a lot, is the Doctrine and Covenants, and even then a cynic could retort that the Lord is telling dear Emma, the “elect Lady”, to let her husband with the penchant for bagging multiple wives or else’s she’s a lightning rod.
I think nearly all females in the scriptures aren’t discussed, and Miriam is just another in a long line of women who are ignored in the scriptures.
#8 – Then again, in how many religious works or even historical accounts (Josephus, Herodotus, etc.) are women mentioned anyway? We know of Queen Boudicca of the Iceni (1st century ‘Roman’ Britain), and Theodora (like her namesake role in the recent ‘Oz’ movie, could potentially be portrayed by Mila Kunis as she’d pass for medieval ‘Greek’), former ‘actress’ and ‘bear-dancer’ and wife of Byzantine Emperor Justinian (her famed quote, “purple makes a fine burial cloth”, meaning that she preferred to die a monarch than abdicate in the face of rebellion) who was the clear ‘power behind the throne’ in 6th-century Constantinople. Also Hatshepsut, the only “Pharoh-ess” that I can recall, as ruthless as the Rameses II portrayed by Yul Brenner in the “Ten Commandments”. Other than that, a definite dearth of prominent women in history. Either an ‘attitude’ problem, or else feminism as we understand it is a modern phenomenon.
Quote from #6: “According to lds.org, a prophetess is a woman who has a testimony of Christ and has the spirit of revelation.”
I know this is not how we as the Church (or the Church as the Church) use the word, but I always figured that the definition of prophet is the same: ‘A man who has a testimony of Christ and has the spirit of revelation.’
Then on top of that, we use the word ‘Prophet’ to mean the guy with the priesthood keys in charge of the church. However, we could use President the same way – and do. I really do believe that God is serious about having a nation of prophets.
I realize that this does not leave much room for use of the word prophet in arguments for female ordination – but it is how I have always understood the words myself. I tend to think there could be room for Prophetess or something like it, anyway, but that prophetess (and prophet) is also extremely important (if not more).
#7 – I agree that women don’t get much press in the scriptures, but I disagree that the Doctrine and Covenants should be labeled the most sympathetic to women. Besides D&C 25 there really isn’t much. D&C 132 is a mixed bag – it was oriented to Emma chastising her for her negative reaction to polygamy (definitely a negative), but it also contains the doctrine of godhood as the union of male and female.
The Bible (OT and NT) far and away is the standard work that has the most female-centric stories (both positive and negative). It’s not a huge percentage compared to stories of men, but it’s still bigger than *any* of the other standard works. You have to a dig a little harder in the Book of Mormon, but there are good stories of women there (again, both positive and negative), and you can’t beat it’s testimony of Mary’s position as the mother of Christ. Jacob’s scathing remarks to the men on their treatment of their wives and children, as well as the denunciation of polygamy, is also huge for Mormon women. The Pearl of Great Price doesn’t have much, but it’s crowning jewel is definitely Eve’s personal testimony.