Was Moses a powerful speaker?

The two verses describe different things at different times. Stephen speaks of Moses in Egypt, before he was forty (Acts 7:22–23), a man trained in the learning of Pharaoh’s court. Exodus 4 records Moses’ own words forty years later, after a long exile as a shepherd in Midian, when he was trying to escape the task God was giving him. His verdict on himself was an excuse, and God did not accept it: “Who hath made man’s mouth?” (Exodus 4:11). God promised to be with his mouth, and when Moses still refused, God was angry and gave him Aaron as his spokesman (4:13–16).

The words differ too. Moses says that he is not ‘a man of words’ (Hebrew ’îsh dᵉvārîm) and is ‘heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue’: he lacked fluency and ready speech. Stephen’s Greek, dynatos en logois, ‘powerful in words’, speaks of the force of what Moses said, and pairs it with his deeds, as Luke says of Jesus that he was “mighty in deed and word” (Luke 24:19). A man can lack polish and still speak with power. Deuteronomy is a series of Moses’ speeches, and his song opens, “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak” (Deuteronomy 32:1). Paul’s critics said of him that “his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible” (2 Corinthians 10:10), yet no one doubts the power of his words. Exodus and Acts are both true.

A speech impediment

Gill thought that Moses may have had ‘somewhat of a stammering in speaking’, and yet ‘a just diction, a masculine style, and a powerful eloquence’. On this view Exodus speaks of his delivery and Stephen of the content and force of his words.

Out of practice

Some suggest that after forty years among the shepherds of Midian, Moses no longer felt at ease speaking at court, or that he had grown up speaking Egyptian rather than Hebrew. Exodus does not say this, but it would explain his fear of speaking to both Pharaoh and Israel.

Exodus does not say whether Moses had a physical difficulty with speech or simply felt unfit to speak before a king.