Introduction
Last week, I examined the show-piece of the Documentary Hypothesis, the flood narrative. Today I present an alternative explanation for the use of two divine names, Elohim and YHWH, within the flood narrative.
Samuel Shaviv argues that the different names might have originally referred to two different deities, and that the flood narrative was edited to conceal its polytheistic origins. He suggests that someone unfamiliar with Judeo-Christian monotheism would not conclude that Elohim and YHWH refer to the same entity after reading the flood narrative.
Elohim and YHWH are translated into English as 'God' and 'the LORD', respectively. Below, I have copied the entire ESV Bible flood narrative and changed 'God' to 'Elohim' and 'the LORD' to 'Yahweh' (one of the possible ways that 'YHWH' might be pronounced) so that you can try to read it without the assumption of monotheism. Any changes to the usual translation are in italics, and Shaviv's explanations are included at the end.
While Shaviv's theory doesn't have the same level of support as the Documentary Hypothesis, but it does have its merits. Archaeology may one day discover a Special Extended Edition of the Biblical Flood Narrative, featuring extended and deleted scenes that Shaviv's re-imagining can only hint at.
Next week, I will be discussing a variety of other explanations for the use of the two divine names throughout the Torah.
The Story
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of Elohim saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not contend with man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of Elohim came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
YHWH saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And Yahweh regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So Yahweh said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with the gods (1). And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in the gods' sight (1), and the earth was filled with violence. And Elohim saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
And Elohim said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me (2), for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, they are to destroy the earth (3). Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” Noah did this; he did all that Elohim commanded him.
Then Yahweh said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” And Noah did all that Yahweh had commanded him.
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as Elohim had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And Yahweh poured rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights (4). On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as Elohim had commanded him. And Yahweh shut him in.
The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land bin whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
But Elohim remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And Elohim made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. Then Elohim said to Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
Then Noah built an altar to Yahweh and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Yahweh smelled the pleasing aroma, the Yahweh said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
And Elohim blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for Elohim made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”
Then Elohim said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
And Elohim said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth."
Yahweh (5): "When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds..."
Elohim (5): "I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh."
Yahweh (5): "When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between Elohim and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
Elohim said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Explanations
1) Genesis 6:9 and 6:11 are usually translated as 'Noah walked with God' and 'Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight'. In the Hebrew verses, the word "elohim" is accompanied by a definite article ha-, forming "ha'elohim". This article does not accompany the word "elohim" in any other verse of the flood narrative. The word 'Elohim' is plural, and roughly means 'the powerful ones' or 'the gods', but it is also used as a name to refer to a single entity. Shaviv suggests that the article 'ha-' might be used to distinguish between the use of 'Elohim' as a name and 'elohim' as 'the gods'. He backs this claim up with using other instances of "ha'elohim" in the Bible. In Exodus 21:6 and 22:8, "ha'elohim" is translated as either 'God', 'judges' or 'gods'.
This might explain why we are twice told that God saw that the earth was corrupt.
'Now the earth was corrupt in God's (ha'elohim) sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God (elohim) saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt'
2) Usually translated either as 'I have determined to put an end to all flesh' or 'The end of all flesh has come before me'. The latter is considered the more accurate translation.
3) Usually translated as 'Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.' I can't give more detail than this because Shaviv explains this change by quoting a German scholar, and I can't read German.
4) Genesis 7:12 is usually translated as 'And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.' Shaviv suggests that in a more archaic form of Hebrew, it might have read 'And Yahweh poured rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights.' Later redactors might have concealed Yahweh's presence in his line by using impersonal verbs.
5) This soliloquy might originally have been a longer discussion Yahweh and Elohim. This would explain why God refers to himself in the third person, saying 'the covenant between Elohim and...', very shortly after referring to it as 'my covenant'. We would expect him to say 'between me and...'. The rainbow is also alternately referred to as 'the bow' and 'my bow'.
Monday 30 June 2014
Monday 23 June 2014
Hebrew Bible: Documentary Hypothesis
The first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) are collectively referred to as the 'Torah', the 'Pentateuch' or the 'Five Books of Moses'. Traditionally, authorship of these books has been assigned to Moses: God dictated them content to Moses on Mount Sinai. This view is now only held by the most fundamentalist scholars. Nowadays there is a debate about when the Jews decided to assign Torah authorship to Moses.
The modern consensus is that the Pentateuch is a composite work written by multiple authors in different time periods. A final editor put the separate works together into a single text. The Pentateuch is therefore comparable to Tatian's 'Diatessaron', which combines the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) into a single text.
This is known as the 'Documentary Hypothesis'. It is not universally accepted. Some scholars seem exasperated by it, and would like someone to discover archaeological evidence which either confirms or disproves it so that they can move on. I will discuss alternative hypotheses in later posts.
In my first Bible post I mentioned the jarring transition to the second creation story. I did a little bit of research and found that they were written at different times. In my second Bible post, I noted that God seemed to change his mind about how many animals Noah should be taking with him, and that the Noah story was confusingly achronological. In the Abraham and Jacob stories, a lot of events are repeated with differing details.
The authors of the separate sources may have been influenced by some of the same material, such as the 'Book of the Wars of the Lord', referenced in Numbers and now lost to us, and the original 'Book of the Covenant' written by Moses, mentioned in Exodus, also lost to us.
The hypothesis divides the content of the Torah between 6 sources whose names are abbreviated to J, E, P, D, RJE and R.
J, E, P and D were independent documents; RJE and R were editors.
Between 922BC and 722BC the promised land of the Jews was split into two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Israel in the north, the kingdom of Judah is the south. The J and E texts are thought to have been written sometime during this period: J was written in the southern kingdom, E in the northern kingdom.
The J text features the stories of the Garden of Eden, Cain & Abel, Noah's Ark, the tower of Babel, Abraham, Sodom & Gomorrah, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. In the original Hebrew, the J text refers to God as YHWH throughout. J is an abbreviation of 'Jahwist', the name given by the German scholar who first developed the hypothesis.
The E text includes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses stories. God is referred to as 'Elohim' until God reveals the name 'YHWH' to Moses. E is an abbreviation of 'Elohist'.
In 722BC, the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrian empire. Sometime afterwards, the J and E texts were combined into a single work, with some text being added to make a more cohesive narrative. This source is known as the Redactor of JE, hence RJE.
P is thought to have been written shortly after J and E were combined into one text. The text focuses on priesthood, laws and rituals. P covers the 7-day creation, Noah's Ark, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. P also refers to God as 'Elohim' until the name 'YHWH' is revealed to Moses. P is an abbreviation of 'Priestly'.
The D source makes up most of Deuteronomy, and was written around 622BC. D is an abbreviation of 'Deuteronomist'.
The final editor is known as the Redactor, R.
There are seven main arguments for all this:
1) Linguistic. Languages change over time: the verses of the Torah can be separated based on what stage of the Hebrew language they display. Doing this separates the hypothesized sources and gives us the approximate dates above.
2) Terminology. Certain phrases and words occur disproportionately in certain sources. For example, 'in that very day' is used eleven times in total: ten times in P; once in R.
3) Consistent Content. When the sources are separated, inconsistencies concerning God's name, sacred objects, God's personality, the role of priests, prophets and judges, etc. In J and E, God is frequently anthropomorphic: he walks in the garden of Eden, makes clothes, smells the pleasing aromas of Noah's sacrifice, wrestles with Jacob, etc. In P, God is a mysterious higher power.
4) Narrative Flow. When the sources are separated, each can be read as a flowing, sensible text.
5) Connections with other parts of the Bible. Other books of the Bible cite passages only from certain sources, which suggests either linked authorship or that the authors of the other books only had access to some of the sources, not the complete work that we know today.
6) Relationships to History and Each Other.
The J text, written in the Kingdom of Judah, presents Judah as a significant figure, has Abraham live in Hebron, the kingdom's capital, and has Moses' scouts only describe locations from the southern kingdom. The description of the promised land's borders in J match the borders of the southern kingdom. J has Jacob favour Judah in his deathbed speech.
In the northern E text, the births and namings of the Jacob's sons only includes the brothers whose descendants became part of the northern kingdom. E has Jacob favour Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, whose tribes were the largest in the northern kingdom.
In J and E, people sacrifice things to God all over the place. P insists that sacrifice can only be performed at the Tabernacle. The practice of centralised worship in Judaism began in the southern kingdom sometime during the reign of Hezekiah, around 700BC. P follows the J and E narratives, but differs when it comes to sacrifice and priesthood: there are no sacrifices until the Tabernacle is built, no way to commune with God unless you are a priest.
7) Convergence. If you separate the passages by linguistic analysis, you also happen to separate by terminology, historical allusion, etc. If you separate passages by historical allusion, you also happen to separate by terminology, linguistics, etc. The lines of enquiry all converge on the same separation pattern.
That is a very short introduction to the evidence for the 'Documentary Hypothesis'. The Bible With Sources Revealed (TBWSR) by Richard Friedman is a special edition of the Torah with the sources identified using different font styles and colours. It also covers the evidence for the hypothesis in more detail. In the introduction, Friedman explains that one of the purposes of the book is 'to help readers appreciate that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The Bible is a rich, complex, beautiful work as a result of the extraordinary way in which it was created.'
Certainly, the way the sources have been put together is amazing.
Noah and the Amazing Achronological Flood
Let's have a look at the Noah narrative which, as I mentioned earlier, is confusingly achronological and has God change his mind about how many animals should be taken onto the ark. The Noah narrative is seen as the show-piece of the Documentary Hypothesis. In TBWSR, the Noah narrative looks like this:
Why would the redactor choose to keep God changing his mind about whether Noah should take a pair or seven pairs of each clean animal? Why would the redactor choose to put the sources together in such a way that tells the story in a confusingly achronological manner?
The answer: to give the Noah story an amazing literary structure that mirrors the rise and fall of the waters of the flood.
The narrative centres on God remembering Noah. Before the remembrance, the narrative tells parts of the story in a certain, achronological, order as the flood waters rise. After the remembrance, the order, again telling the story achronologically, is reversed as the flood waters recede. HOW COOL IS THAT?
In the paper pointing this structure out, the author uses this to argue against the documentary hypothesis. He thinks that the original author of the Noah narrative chose to tell the story in such a confusing way in order to give it this amazing structure. I am more convinced that this structure is the result of a redactor trying to figure out the best way to splice the two narratives together.
The Ontological Hierarchy of the Universe
In the J narrative, God is anthropomorphic: he walks in the garden, smells the pleasing aromas of cooked meat, etc. In the P narrative, God is a almighty metaphysical entity who is too grand for humans to understand. The combination of the two sources means that God is presented as both transcendent and personal.
The merging of the J and P prehistory narratives gives interesting results.
In P's creation, God makes man and woman in his image, gives them dominion over the animals and tells them to eat seeds and fruits.
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And qlet them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth... Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food."
Chapter 1 establishes a hierarchy: God, Humans, Animals.
In J's creation story, the serpent tells Eve to eat of the apple because 'when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' Eating the forbidden fruit is a disruption of the ontological hierarchy; the humans are reaching too high. When God learns about this, he kicks them out of the garden, in case they ate of the Tree of Life and became immortal, which would further disrupt the established order.
“Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”
The Noah narrative begins with: 'When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.'
The 'sons of God' breeding with the humans messes up the hierarchy. The humans become more divine. 'These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.' But the hierarchy must be maintained: after the interbreeding 'The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.' He wipes out life with the great flood to set things right.
Then we have the Tower of Babel which the humans intend to build 'with its top in the heavens'. This gets God worried. The hierarchy is being impinged.
'And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”'
God re-establishes the hierarchy; he stops the collective might of humanity from becoming too powerful.
The overall theme of the composite Genesis prehistory is the ontological hierarchy of the universe: God, Humans, Animals. When this order is maintained, everything is fine. A common criticism of humanity's ever increasing technological power is 'playing God'.
That humanity will go too far, become too powerful, and end up being destroyed or destroying itself is a common anxiety when pondering about our future. This anxiety is not the result of modern technology. It goes way back, at least as far back as Genesis.
Sources
The Bible With Sources Revealed
Tatian's Diatessaron and the Analysis of the Pentateuch
The Enigmatic Plurals like "One of Us" in Hyperchronic Perspective
The Coherence of the Flood Narrative
An Empirical Basis for the Documentary Hypothesis
The modern consensus is that the Pentateuch is a composite work written by multiple authors in different time periods. A final editor put the separate works together into a single text. The Pentateuch is therefore comparable to Tatian's 'Diatessaron', which combines the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) into a single text.
This is known as the 'Documentary Hypothesis'. It is not universally accepted. Some scholars seem exasperated by it, and would like someone to discover archaeological evidence which either confirms or disproves it so that they can move on. I will discuss alternative hypotheses in later posts.
In my first Bible post I mentioned the jarring transition to the second creation story. I did a little bit of research and found that they were written at different times. In my second Bible post, I noted that God seemed to change his mind about how many animals Noah should be taking with him, and that the Noah story was confusingly achronological. In the Abraham and Jacob stories, a lot of events are repeated with differing details.
The authors of the separate sources may have been influenced by some of the same material, such as the 'Book of the Wars of the Lord', referenced in Numbers and now lost to us, and the original 'Book of the Covenant' written by Moses, mentioned in Exodus, also lost to us.
The hypothesis divides the content of the Torah between 6 sources whose names are abbreviated to J, E, P, D, RJE and R.
J, E, P and D were independent documents; RJE and R were editors.
Between 922BC and 722BC the promised land of the Jews was split into two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Israel in the north, the kingdom of Judah is the south. The J and E texts are thought to have been written sometime during this period: J was written in the southern kingdom, E in the northern kingdom.
The J text features the stories of the Garden of Eden, Cain & Abel, Noah's Ark, the tower of Babel, Abraham, Sodom & Gomorrah, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. In the original Hebrew, the J text refers to God as YHWH throughout. J is an abbreviation of 'Jahwist', the name given by the German scholar who first developed the hypothesis.
The E text includes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses stories. God is referred to as 'Elohim' until God reveals the name 'YHWH' to Moses. E is an abbreviation of 'Elohist'.
In 722BC, the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrian empire. Sometime afterwards, the J and E texts were combined into a single work, with some text being added to make a more cohesive narrative. This source is known as the Redactor of JE, hence RJE.
P is thought to have been written shortly after J and E were combined into one text. The text focuses on priesthood, laws and rituals. P covers the 7-day creation, Noah's Ark, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. P also refers to God as 'Elohim' until the name 'YHWH' is revealed to Moses. P is an abbreviation of 'Priestly'.
The D source makes up most of Deuteronomy, and was written around 622BC. D is an abbreviation of 'Deuteronomist'.
The final editor is known as the Redactor, R.
There are seven main arguments for all this:
1) Linguistic. Languages change over time: the verses of the Torah can be separated based on what stage of the Hebrew language they display. Doing this separates the hypothesized sources and gives us the approximate dates above.
2) Terminology. Certain phrases and words occur disproportionately in certain sources. For example, 'in that very day' is used eleven times in total: ten times in P; once in R.
3) Consistent Content. When the sources are separated, inconsistencies concerning God's name, sacred objects, God's personality, the role of priests, prophets and judges, etc. In J and E, God is frequently anthropomorphic: he walks in the garden of Eden, makes clothes, smells the pleasing aromas of Noah's sacrifice, wrestles with Jacob, etc. In P, God is a mysterious higher power.
4) Narrative Flow. When the sources are separated, each can be read as a flowing, sensible text.
5) Connections with other parts of the Bible. Other books of the Bible cite passages only from certain sources, which suggests either linked authorship or that the authors of the other books only had access to some of the sources, not the complete work that we know today.
6) Relationships to History and Each Other.
The J text, written in the Kingdom of Judah, presents Judah as a significant figure, has Abraham live in Hebron, the kingdom's capital, and has Moses' scouts only describe locations from the southern kingdom. The description of the promised land's borders in J match the borders of the southern kingdom. J has Jacob favour Judah in his deathbed speech.
In the northern E text, the births and namings of the Jacob's sons only includes the brothers whose descendants became part of the northern kingdom. E has Jacob favour Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, whose tribes were the largest in the northern kingdom.
In J and E, people sacrifice things to God all over the place. P insists that sacrifice can only be performed at the Tabernacle. The practice of centralised worship in Judaism began in the southern kingdom sometime during the reign of Hezekiah, around 700BC. P follows the J and E narratives, but differs when it comes to sacrifice and priesthood: there are no sacrifices until the Tabernacle is built, no way to commune with God unless you are a priest.
7) Convergence. If you separate the passages by linguistic analysis, you also happen to separate by terminology, historical allusion, etc. If you separate passages by historical allusion, you also happen to separate by terminology, linguistics, etc. The lines of enquiry all converge on the same separation pattern.
That is a very short introduction to the evidence for the 'Documentary Hypothesis'. The Bible With Sources Revealed (TBWSR) by Richard Friedman is a special edition of the Torah with the sources identified using different font styles and colours. It also covers the evidence for the hypothesis in more detail. In the introduction, Friedman explains that one of the purposes of the book is 'to help readers appreciate that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The Bible is a rich, complex, beautiful work as a result of the extraordinary way in which it was created.'
Certainly, the way the sources have been put together is amazing.
Noah and the Amazing Achronological Flood
Let's have a look at the Noah narrative which, as I mentioned earlier, is confusingly achronological and has God change his mind about how many animals should be taken onto the ark. The Noah narrative is seen as the show-piece of the Documentary Hypothesis. In TBWSR, the Noah narrative looks like this:
Why would the redactor choose to keep God changing his mind about whether Noah should take a pair or seven pairs of each clean animal? Why would the redactor choose to put the sources together in such a way that tells the story in a confusingly achronological manner?
The answer: to give the Noah story an amazing literary structure that mirrors the rise and fall of the waters of the flood.
The narrative centres on God remembering Noah. Before the remembrance, the narrative tells parts of the story in a certain, achronological, order as the flood waters rise. After the remembrance, the order, again telling the story achronologically, is reversed as the flood waters recede. HOW COOL IS THAT?
In the paper pointing this structure out, the author uses this to argue against the documentary hypothesis. He thinks that the original author of the Noah narrative chose to tell the story in such a confusing way in order to give it this amazing structure. I am more convinced that this structure is the result of a redactor trying to figure out the best way to splice the two narratives together.
The Ontological Hierarchy of the Universe
In the J narrative, God is anthropomorphic: he walks in the garden, smells the pleasing aromas of cooked meat, etc. In the P narrative, God is a almighty metaphysical entity who is too grand for humans to understand. The combination of the two sources means that God is presented as both transcendent and personal.
The merging of the J and P prehistory narratives gives interesting results.
In P's creation, God makes man and woman in his image, gives them dominion over the animals and tells them to eat seeds and fruits.
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And qlet them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth... Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food."
Chapter 1 establishes a hierarchy: God, Humans, Animals.
In J's creation story, the serpent tells Eve to eat of the apple because 'when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' Eating the forbidden fruit is a disruption of the ontological hierarchy; the humans are reaching too high. When God learns about this, he kicks them out of the garden, in case they ate of the Tree of Life and became immortal, which would further disrupt the established order.
“Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”
The Noah narrative begins with: 'When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.'
The 'sons of God' breeding with the humans messes up the hierarchy. The humans become more divine. 'These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.' But the hierarchy must be maintained: after the interbreeding 'The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.' He wipes out life with the great flood to set things right.
Then we have the Tower of Babel which the humans intend to build 'with its top in the heavens'. This gets God worried. The hierarchy is being impinged.
'And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”'
God re-establishes the hierarchy; he stops the collective might of humanity from becoming too powerful.
The overall theme of the composite Genesis prehistory is the ontological hierarchy of the universe: God, Humans, Animals. When this order is maintained, everything is fine. A common criticism of humanity's ever increasing technological power is 'playing God'.
That humanity will go too far, become too powerful, and end up being destroyed or destroying itself is a common anxiety when pondering about our future. This anxiety is not the result of modern technology. It goes way back, at least as far back as Genesis.
Sources
The Bible With Sources Revealed
Tatian's Diatessaron and the Analysis of the Pentateuch
The Enigmatic Plurals like "One of Us" in Hyperchronic Perspective
The Coherence of the Flood Narrative
An Empirical Basis for the Documentary Hypothesis
Tuesday 17 June 2014
Hebrew Bible: Genesis 37-50
PREVIOUSLY ON GENESIS: Jacob/Israel had a total of 12 sons. From Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon. From Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. From Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali. From Zilpah: Gad and Asher.
37) Joseph, now 17 years old, is his father's favourite son. Jacob makes him a coat of many colours. Joseph's brothers hate Joseph.
Joseph tells his brothers about two recent dream of his: in the first, all of his brothers bowed down to him; in the second, the Sun, the Moon and the stars all bowed down to him. This doesn't make the brothers more fond of Joseph.
The brothers conspire to kill Joseph, but Reuben thinks he should be kept alive, just in case. So, instead of killing him, the brothers steal his colourful coat and throw him into a pit. Judah gets the idea of selling Joseph as a slave. The brothers sell Joseph to some passing Midianites.
The brothers kill a goat and dip the colourful coat in its blood. They take it to Jacob and ask to confirm whether it is Joseph's coat.
“It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”
And so Jacob went into mourning for his son, and could not be comforted.
The Midianites travel to Egypt and sell Joseph to Potiphar, captain of the Pharaoh's guard.
38) Judah gets married and has three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah.
Er marries a women named Tamar. 'But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.'
Judah tells Onan, “Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”
Onan did not want to father children that would not be his, so every time he had sex with Tamar he would pull out at the end and ejaculate on to the floor. God kills him for doing this.
Judah tells Tamar that she can marry Shelah when he gets a bit older.
Time passes. Judah's wife dies. He decides to visit the city of Timnah.
Tamar learns that Judah is going to Timnah, and realises that Shelah would be grown up by now, and she should have married him. She takes off her widow's garments, covers herself with a veil, and waits at the entrance of Enaim, on the road to Timnah.
Judah sees her, mistakes her for a prostitute, and says, “Come, let me come in to you.”
“What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
Judah promises to give her a young goat in exchange for sex. He gives her his signet, cord and staff as a guarantee. He goes in to her, and she conceives.
Tamar goes home and puts her widow's garments back on.
Later, Judah sends his friend Hirah to give the goat to the prostitute and get his stuff back, but Hirah can't find her and nobody in Enaim knows anything about her.
“Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at." says Judah.
Three months later, Judah is told that Tamar has become pregnant from prostituting. “Bring her out, and let her be burned,” he says.
She sends the signet, cord and staff to Judah, asking him to identify them, because they belong to whoever made her pregnant. Awkward.
“She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.”
[This chapter makes sense if you think of reproduction as each character's priority. Judah wants grandchildren and Onan is married, therefore Onan should produce offspring from Tamar. By pulling out early and wasting his sperm, Onan is not producing offspring, so God considers this to be wicked. Judah considers Tamar more righteous than him because her trickery made her pregnant and continued his bloodline, while he had forgotten his promise to marry her to Shelah.]
39) Joseph is a hard-working slave in Potiphar's house, and he is promoted to overseer of the house.
The master's wife wants Joseph to have sex with her, but he is having none of it. She repeatedly tries to seduce him, and fails every time.
One day she gets angry, and catches some of his garment as he flees from her. She tells her husband that Joseph wanted to have sex with her, but she screamed and he ran away, leaving some of his garment in her hand. Potiphar gets angry and puts him in prison.
'But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison.'
40) Some time later, the Pharaoh imprisons both his cupbearer and his baker.
One night they both have strange dreams, and are troubled by them. Joseph interprets their dreams: after three days, the Pharaoh will restore the cupbearer to his position and hang the baker. Joseph asks the cupbearer to mention him to the Pharaoh.
Three days later, the Pharaoh restores the cupbearer to his position and hangs the baker. The cupbearer forgets to mention Joseph.
41) Two years later, the Pharaoh is troubled by strange dreams about seven thin cows eating seven plump cows, and seven thin ears of grain eating seven plump ears of grain. He can't find anyone to interpret them.
The cupbearer remembers Joseph, and tells the Pharaoh about his ability to interpret dreams.
The Pharaoh sends for Joseph and tells him his dreams. Joseph interprets the dreams: the seven plump cows/ears represent seven years of plenty to come; the seven thin cows/ears represent seven years of famine which will follow. Joseph advises that the Pharoah saves one-fifth of all produce during the seven plentiful years and store it up in preparation for the years of famine.
The Pharaoh makes Joseph his second in command, and all the people of Egypt bow to him.
The earth produced abundantly during the years of plenty, and grain was stored up in immeasurable quantities.
Joseph marries Asenath, daughter of Pentiphera priest of On, and has two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim.
Then the famine struck. 'So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.'
42) Joseph's brothers (excluding Benjamin, the youngest) travel to Egypt to buy grain. They meet with Joseph but do not recognise him. They bow down to him, and introduce themselves.
Joseph recognises them, but pretends otherwise. He accuses them of being spies, and says that they are not allowed to leave until he sees their youngest brother, Benjamin. He imprisons them for three days.
On the third day he releases nine of them, telling them to return home with some grain for the family, and to return with Benjamin. He keeps Simeon imprisoned.
Joseph tells his servants to replace his brothers' money, without the brothers knowing.
On the way home, they notice that their money has been replaced in their packs: they thought that they had bought the grain. Now they worry they might be thought of as thieves.
The brothers explain to Jacob that they need to return to Egypt with Benjamin in order to free Simeon. Jacob worries that he is going to lose two more sons. Reuben tells Jacob that if they fail to bring Benjamin back he may kill Reuben's two sons as compensation.
43) Jacob's family consumes the grain brought from Egypt, so they need more. Jacob tells his sons to get more food. Judah promises to bear the blame if Benjamin is not returned.
The brothers set off to Egypt, carrying double the necessary money: they intend to pay for the last lot of grain also. They reach Egypt and meet with Joseph, who invites them to lunch at his place.
The brothers are suspicious and think that Joseph is going to kill them. Simeon is released.
They go to Joseph's place and make pleasant conversation: Joseph enquires about their welfare and asks about their father. Then Joseph sees Benjamin, his youngest brother, and has to leave the room to cry.
Joseph returns, and the food is served. Benjamin is served five times as much as anyone else.
"And they drank and became intoxicated with him."
43) Joseph tells the steward of the house to return all his brothers' money, and to hide his silver cup in Benjamin's sack.
When morning comes, the brothers set off home. Joseph tells his steward to catch up them and bring them back here, accusing them of stealing his cup.
The steward does this. The brothers become confused and say, "Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die!" And then it is found in Benjamin's sack. The brothers return to the city.
They bow before Joseph again. Judah pleads to be taken in Benjamin's place.
45) Joseph cannot control himself anymore: he bursts into tears. He tells his brothers who he is:
“I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither uplowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt."
He tells them to bring all the family to Egypt, where they can have lots of land. The Pharaoh hears about this and is pleased. He tells Joseph that his family may have the best land and goods in Egypt. The brothers return to Canaan, and tell Jacob the good news.
46) Jacob's entire family travels to Egypt. Seventy people in total.
47) Joseph tells the Pharaoh that his brothers have arrived; the Pharaoh goes to meet them.
"What is your profession?" the Pharaoh asks. (OK, in the ESV translation he says 'occupation', not 'profession'.)
The brothers explain that they are shepherds. The Pharaoh is cool with this. He gives them the best land in Egypt.
The famine continues, but now the citizens of Egypt have no money left. They exchange their animals for some of the stored grain. Then they run out of animals: the Pharaoh now owns them all. They exchange their land for some of the stored grain. Everyone except the priests sell their land to the Pharaoh for food. Joseph says:
“Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And at the harvests you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones.”
Joseph's family were fruitful and multiplied greatly.
48) Jacob is dying. Joseph takes he two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to meet him. Jacob blesses Ephraim, the younger, saying that Ephraim's descendants will be greater than Manasseh's.
49) Jacob gathers all his sons and blesses them all, and predicts the future.
Jacob asks to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah (where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, etc are buried.), then dies.
50) Joseph has the Egyptians embalm his father. Jacob is buried at the cave, as requested.
Joseph's brothers worry that he might hate them because they sold him into slavery, Joseph reassures them:
“Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.”
Joseph tells his brothers that God will come to them in the future, to bring them out of Egypt and back to the promised land, and has them promise to carry his body with them. Joseph dies at 110 years old, is embalmed, and put in a coffin in Egypt.
END OF GENESIS.
37) Joseph, now 17 years old, is his father's favourite son. Jacob makes him a coat of many colours. Joseph's brothers hate Joseph.
Joseph tells his brothers about two recent dream of his: in the first, all of his brothers bowed down to him; in the second, the Sun, the Moon and the stars all bowed down to him. This doesn't make the brothers more fond of Joseph.
The brothers conspire to kill Joseph, but Reuben thinks he should be kept alive, just in case. So, instead of killing him, the brothers steal his colourful coat and throw him into a pit. Judah gets the idea of selling Joseph as a slave. The brothers sell Joseph to some passing Midianites.
The brothers kill a goat and dip the colourful coat in its blood. They take it to Jacob and ask to confirm whether it is Joseph's coat.
“It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”
And so Jacob went into mourning for his son, and could not be comforted.
The Midianites travel to Egypt and sell Joseph to Potiphar, captain of the Pharaoh's guard.
38) Judah gets married and has three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah.
Er marries a women named Tamar. 'But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.'
Judah tells Onan, “Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”
Onan did not want to father children that would not be his, so every time he had sex with Tamar he would pull out at the end and ejaculate on to the floor. God kills him for doing this.
Judah tells Tamar that she can marry Shelah when he gets a bit older.
Time passes. Judah's wife dies. He decides to visit the city of Timnah.
Tamar learns that Judah is going to Timnah, and realises that Shelah would be grown up by now, and she should have married him. She takes off her widow's garments, covers herself with a veil, and waits at the entrance of Enaim, on the road to Timnah.
Judah sees her, mistakes her for a prostitute, and says, “Come, let me come in to you.”
“What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
Judah promises to give her a young goat in exchange for sex. He gives her his signet, cord and staff as a guarantee. He goes in to her, and she conceives.
Tamar goes home and puts her widow's garments back on.
Later, Judah sends his friend Hirah to give the goat to the prostitute and get his stuff back, but Hirah can't find her and nobody in Enaim knows anything about her.
“Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at." says Judah.
Three months later, Judah is told that Tamar has become pregnant from prostituting. “Bring her out, and let her be burned,” he says.
She sends the signet, cord and staff to Judah, asking him to identify them, because they belong to whoever made her pregnant. Awkward.
“She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.”
[This chapter makes sense if you think of reproduction as each character's priority. Judah wants grandchildren and Onan is married, therefore Onan should produce offspring from Tamar. By pulling out early and wasting his sperm, Onan is not producing offspring, so God considers this to be wicked. Judah considers Tamar more righteous than him because her trickery made her pregnant and continued his bloodline, while he had forgotten his promise to marry her to Shelah.]
39) Joseph is a hard-working slave in Potiphar's house, and he is promoted to overseer of the house.
The master's wife wants Joseph to have sex with her, but he is having none of it. She repeatedly tries to seduce him, and fails every time.
One day she gets angry, and catches some of his garment as he flees from her. She tells her husband that Joseph wanted to have sex with her, but she screamed and he ran away, leaving some of his garment in her hand. Potiphar gets angry and puts him in prison.
'But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison.'
40) Some time later, the Pharaoh imprisons both his cupbearer and his baker.
One night they both have strange dreams, and are troubled by them. Joseph interprets their dreams: after three days, the Pharaoh will restore the cupbearer to his position and hang the baker. Joseph asks the cupbearer to mention him to the Pharaoh.
Three days later, the Pharaoh restores the cupbearer to his position and hangs the baker. The cupbearer forgets to mention Joseph.
41) Two years later, the Pharaoh is troubled by strange dreams about seven thin cows eating seven plump cows, and seven thin ears of grain eating seven plump ears of grain. He can't find anyone to interpret them.
The cupbearer remembers Joseph, and tells the Pharaoh about his ability to interpret dreams.
The Pharaoh sends for Joseph and tells him his dreams. Joseph interprets the dreams: the seven plump cows/ears represent seven years of plenty to come; the seven thin cows/ears represent seven years of famine which will follow. Joseph advises that the Pharoah saves one-fifth of all produce during the seven plentiful years and store it up in preparation for the years of famine.
The Pharaoh makes Joseph his second in command, and all the people of Egypt bow to him.
The earth produced abundantly during the years of plenty, and grain was stored up in immeasurable quantities.
Joseph marries Asenath, daughter of Pentiphera priest of On, and has two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim.
Then the famine struck. 'So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.'
42) Joseph's brothers (excluding Benjamin, the youngest) travel to Egypt to buy grain. They meet with Joseph but do not recognise him. They bow down to him, and introduce themselves.
Joseph recognises them, but pretends otherwise. He accuses them of being spies, and says that they are not allowed to leave until he sees their youngest brother, Benjamin. He imprisons them for three days.
On the third day he releases nine of them, telling them to return home with some grain for the family, and to return with Benjamin. He keeps Simeon imprisoned.
Joseph tells his servants to replace his brothers' money, without the brothers knowing.
On the way home, they notice that their money has been replaced in their packs: they thought that they had bought the grain. Now they worry they might be thought of as thieves.
The brothers explain to Jacob that they need to return to Egypt with Benjamin in order to free Simeon. Jacob worries that he is going to lose two more sons. Reuben tells Jacob that if they fail to bring Benjamin back he may kill Reuben's two sons as compensation.
43) Jacob's family consumes the grain brought from Egypt, so they need more. Jacob tells his sons to get more food. Judah promises to bear the blame if Benjamin is not returned.
The brothers set off to Egypt, carrying double the necessary money: they intend to pay for the last lot of grain also. They reach Egypt and meet with Joseph, who invites them to lunch at his place.
The brothers are suspicious and think that Joseph is going to kill them. Simeon is released.
They go to Joseph's place and make pleasant conversation: Joseph enquires about their welfare and asks about their father. Then Joseph sees Benjamin, his youngest brother, and has to leave the room to cry.
Joseph returns, and the food is served. Benjamin is served five times as much as anyone else.
"And they drank and became intoxicated with him."
43) Joseph tells the steward of the house to return all his brothers' money, and to hide his silver cup in Benjamin's sack.
When morning comes, the brothers set off home. Joseph tells his steward to catch up them and bring them back here, accusing them of stealing his cup.
The steward does this. The brothers become confused and say, "Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die!" And then it is found in Benjamin's sack. The brothers return to the city.
They bow before Joseph again. Judah pleads to be taken in Benjamin's place.
45) Joseph cannot control himself anymore: he bursts into tears. He tells his brothers who he is:
“I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither uplowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt."
He tells them to bring all the family to Egypt, where they can have lots of land. The Pharaoh hears about this and is pleased. He tells Joseph that his family may have the best land and goods in Egypt. The brothers return to Canaan, and tell Jacob the good news.
46) Jacob's entire family travels to Egypt. Seventy people in total.
47) Joseph tells the Pharaoh that his brothers have arrived; the Pharaoh goes to meet them.
"What is your profession?" the Pharaoh asks. (OK, in the ESV translation he says 'occupation', not 'profession'.)
The brothers explain that they are shepherds. The Pharaoh is cool with this. He gives them the best land in Egypt.
The famine continues, but now the citizens of Egypt have no money left. They exchange their animals for some of the stored grain. Then they run out of animals: the Pharaoh now owns them all. They exchange their land for some of the stored grain. Everyone except the priests sell their land to the Pharaoh for food. Joseph says:
“Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And at the harvests you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones.”
Joseph's family were fruitful and multiplied greatly.
48) Jacob is dying. Joseph takes he two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to meet him. Jacob blesses Ephraim, the younger, saying that Ephraim's descendants will be greater than Manasseh's.
49) Jacob gathers all his sons and blesses them all, and predicts the future.
Jacob asks to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah (where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, etc are buried.), then dies.
50) Joseph has the Egyptians embalm his father. Jacob is buried at the cave, as requested.
Joseph's brothers worry that he might hate them because they sold him into slavery, Joseph reassures them:
“Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.”
Joseph tells his brothers that God will come to them in the future, to bring them out of Egypt and back to the promised land, and has them promise to carry his body with them. Joseph dies at 110 years old, is embalmed, and put in a coffin in Egypt.
END OF GENESIS.
Thursday 5 June 2014
Hebrew Bible: Genesis 26-36
PREVIOUSLY ON GENESIS: Isaac and Rebekah had two children: Esau and Jacob. Esau became Isaac's favourite; Jacob became Rebekah's favourite. God foretold of a rivalry between them
26) There was a famine, so Isaac & Co. go to the Land of Gerar, home of the Philistines . God tells Isaac to settle here.
Whenever the people asked Isaac about his wife, Rebekah, and he would tell them that she was his sister, not his wife.
Abimelech, king of Gerar, notices that they are married, and asks Isaac why he lied to everyone, then warns everyone not to touch Isaac or Rebekah under pain of death.
Isaac is a good farmer; he becomes very wealthy. The Phillistines get jealous. Abimelech tells Isaac to go away. Isaac moves to the Beersheba, where God appears and tells him not to worry.
King Abimelech, accompanied by Advisor Ahuzzath and Commander Phicol, meet up with Isaac to make a peaceful covenant. To celebrate, they eat, drink, and stay overnight.
27) Isaac is now old and mostly blind. He tells his son Esau to kill something and cook some delicious food; in return, Isaac will bless him.
Rebekah overhears, and wants Jacob to get the blessing. She hatches a fiendish plan: she will cook the food; Jacob will give it to Isaac and receive the blessing.
Jacob worries that it won't work because he is smooth while Esau is hairy; if Isaac decides to feel him the deception will be revealed!
They get the food ready. Jacob dresses in Esau's clothes and puts goatskin on his hands and neck to cover up his smoothness.
Jacob goes to his father with the food and pretends to be Esau. Isaac is suspicious because he didn't expect Esau to return so quickly, and because he hears Jacob's voice. He asks to feel Jacob's hands. The goatskin fools him; he is convinced he is talking to Esau. He blesses Jacob.
Very shortly after Jacob leaves his father, Esau returns from his hunt, cooks some delicious food and presents it to his father.
Isaac becomes confused and asks "Who are you?"
Esau answers.
Isaac becomes more confused and explains why.
Esau lets out 'an exceedingly great and bitter cry' and asks his father to bless him.
Isaac explains that this can't be done because he's already given the blessing to Jacob. Now Esau must serve Jacob.
Esau now hates Jacob and plans to kill him after Isaac dies. Rebekah hears about this and warns Jacob, telling him to flee to her brother Laban in the land of Haran.
28) Isaac blesses Jacob and tells him to go the house of Bethuel, Rebekah's father, in the land of Haran. Here he should take a wife from the daughters of Laban, Rebekah's brother.
Jacob goes towards Haran. On the way, he sleeps on the ground, using a rock as a pillow. He dreams about a ladder going up from Earth to Heaven, on which the angels of God ascend and descend. God stands above it, and tells Jacob that the land he is on will be given to his offspring; that his offspring will be like dust, spreading it all directions; and that he will ensure his safe return to this land.
Jacob wakes and says: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
29) Jacob reaches Haran, meets Laban, and stays with him.
Laban has two daughters: Leah (older; has bad eyesight) and Rachel (younger; 'beautiful in form and appearance'). Jacob loved Rachel, and agrees with Laban to serve him for seven years in exchange for Rachel.
'So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”'
Laban explains that it is the custom to give the oldest daughter first, and if Jacob wants Rachel as well he'd have to work for another 7 years. Jacob does so; he loves Rachel more than Leah.
Jacob has 4 sons with Leah; none with Rachel.
30) Rachel is worried about not having had any children yet. She tells Jacob to 'go in to' her servant Bilhah, who conceives two sons with Jacob.
Leah stops producing children, so gives her servant Zilpah to Jacob. Zilpah has two sons with Jacob.
Leah produces 2 more sons and a daughter.
Rachel finally gets her own child: Joseph.
After Joseph's birth, Jacob asks Laban to send him home. Laban refuses because Jacob is a good worker; he is willing to up his wages. Jacob says that he really wants to return home, and explains that he is responsible for Laban's current wealth.
Laban asks Jacob what he wants to take with him. Jacob wants all the spotted and speckled goats and lambs from Laban's flock. Laban thinks this is reasonable.
Laban removes all the spotted and speckled animals from his flocks and sends them away, leaving Jacob to look through the plain coloured ones.
Jacob gets a bunch of sticks and places them in front of the flocks. The sticks are magic: the animals that breed in front of the them produce spotted and speckled offspring. Whenever the strongest animals were breeding, Jacob put the sticks in front of them so they produced spotted and speckled offspring. So Jacob received the offspring of the strongest animals, and left the offspring of the weakest for Laban.
31) Jacob learns that Laban doesn't like him so much any more. God tells Jacob to go home.
Rachel steals her father's household gods. Jacob sets off with his wives, children and livestock.
'Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee.'
After three days, someone tells Laban that Jacob ran away. Laban sets off to chase him. God appears to Laban in a dream and says, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
Laban catches up to Jacob and asks wtf is going on? Why have you ran away without telling me? Why did you not let me send you off with a party? Why did you not let me kiss my daughters or grandchildren goodbye? Why have you stolen my household gods? Etc.
Jacob explains that he was afraid and didn't want his wives taken away by force. He knows nothing about the household gods, and promises to kill any one found with them.
Laban fails to find the household gods: Rachel had hidden them under her saddle and explained that she can't dismount because 'the way of women is upon' her.
Jacob gets angry and has a go at Laban for being ungrateful and accusatory.
Laban and Jacob make up and form a covenant; the next morning Laban returns home.
32) Jacob keeps going, and meets the angels of God. "This is God's camp!" he exclaims.
Jacob sends messengers ahead to tell Esau that he is on his way home. The messengers return and tell Jacob that Esau has 400 men with him. Jacob becomes afraid; he splits his convoy in two so that if Esau attacks one, the other can survive.
Jacob sends Esau a present of 220 goats, 200 sheep, 30 camels, 40 cows, 10 bulls and 30 donkeys in the hope of appeasing him.
That night, Jacob sends his family and servants across the Jabbok river, leaving him alone on the other side.
He wrestles with a man until daybreak. Jacob always wins, so the man touches Jacob's hip, and dislocates it.
"Let me go, for the day has broken," says the man.
"I will not let you go unless you bless me." says Jacob.
"What is your name?"
"Jacob."
"Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed." ('Israel' means 'he strives with God')
"Please tell me your name."
"Why is it that you ask my name?" And the man blesses him.
Jacob understands, saying "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered."
'There to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.'
33) Jacob and Esau reunite. They meet, embrace, fall over, kiss and weep.
Esau asks who all the people with Jacob are. Jacob introduces them; they all bow to Esau.
Esau asks Jacob what the all the animal presents were for. Jacob explains that it was to ensure a friendly relationship. Esau explains that he has enough animals, he doesn't need any more. Jacob urges Esau to take the animals. Esau takes the animals.
They separate. Esau returns home; Jacob goes to the city of Shechem, buys some land, and sets up camp.
33) Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah, starts socialising with the people of the land.
'And when Shechem son of Hamor, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her.'
'His soul was drawn to Dinah. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.'
Shechem and his father Hamor meet with Jacob & Co to ask for Dinah to be Shechem's wife. He explains that he is willing to pay a high bride price. He thinks it would be mutually beneficial to establish connections between their two peoples via marriages; he is willing to have Jacob's sons marry his daughters, etc.
Jacob & Co tell Hamor that they cannot let Dinah marry someone who is uncircumcised; they require all the males of the city to be circumcised, otherwise they will take Dinah and move elsewhere.
Hamor and Shechem get to it; they circumcise all the males.
Three days later, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, go into the city and kill every single male. They plunder the city, taking everything. 'All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered.'
Jacob has a go at them, saying: “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”
'But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”'
35) God tells Jacob to go to Bethel and make an altar. Jacob tells his household to get rid of all their foreign gods, to purify themselves, and put on clean clothes.
They journey to Bethel. God appears to Jacob and tells him that he shall no longer be called Jacob; henceforth he shall be known as Israel!
Rachel goes into labour, and delivers another son. 'And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.'
Jacob has a total of 12 sons. From Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon. From Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. From Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali. From Zilpah: Gad and Asher.
Isaac, Jacob's father, dies and is buried.
36) Esau moves to the land of Seir, and his descendants live their for a long time.
NEXT TIME: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat!
26) There was a famine, so Isaac & Co. go to the Land of Gerar, home of the Philistines . God tells Isaac to settle here.
Whenever the people asked Isaac about his wife, Rebekah, and he would tell them that she was his sister, not his wife.
Abimelech, king of Gerar, notices that they are married, and asks Isaac why he lied to everyone, then warns everyone not to touch Isaac or Rebekah under pain of death.
Isaac is a good farmer; he becomes very wealthy. The Phillistines get jealous. Abimelech tells Isaac to go away. Isaac moves to the Beersheba, where God appears and tells him not to worry.
King Abimelech, accompanied by Advisor Ahuzzath and Commander Phicol, meet up with Isaac to make a peaceful covenant. To celebrate, they eat, drink, and stay overnight.
27) Isaac is now old and mostly blind. He tells his son Esau to kill something and cook some delicious food; in return, Isaac will bless him.
Rebekah overhears, and wants Jacob to get the blessing. She hatches a fiendish plan: she will cook the food; Jacob will give it to Isaac and receive the blessing.
Jacob worries that it won't work because he is smooth while Esau is hairy; if Isaac decides to feel him the deception will be revealed!
They get the food ready. Jacob dresses in Esau's clothes and puts goatskin on his hands and neck to cover up his smoothness.
Jacob goes to his father with the food and pretends to be Esau. Isaac is suspicious because he didn't expect Esau to return so quickly, and because he hears Jacob's voice. He asks to feel Jacob's hands. The goatskin fools him; he is convinced he is talking to Esau. He blesses Jacob.
Very shortly after Jacob leaves his father, Esau returns from his hunt, cooks some delicious food and presents it to his father.
Isaac becomes confused and asks "Who are you?"
Esau answers.
Isaac becomes more confused and explains why.
Esau lets out 'an exceedingly great and bitter cry' and asks his father to bless him.
Isaac explains that this can't be done because he's already given the blessing to Jacob. Now Esau must serve Jacob.
Esau now hates Jacob and plans to kill him after Isaac dies. Rebekah hears about this and warns Jacob, telling him to flee to her brother Laban in the land of Haran.
28) Isaac blesses Jacob and tells him to go the house of Bethuel, Rebekah's father, in the land of Haran. Here he should take a wife from the daughters of Laban, Rebekah's brother.
Jacob goes towards Haran. On the way, he sleeps on the ground, using a rock as a pillow. He dreams about a ladder going up from Earth to Heaven, on which the angels of God ascend and descend. God stands above it, and tells Jacob that the land he is on will be given to his offspring; that his offspring will be like dust, spreading it all directions; and that he will ensure his safe return to this land.
Jacob wakes and says: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
29) Jacob reaches Haran, meets Laban, and stays with him.
Laban has two daughters: Leah (older; has bad eyesight) and Rachel (younger; 'beautiful in form and appearance'). Jacob loved Rachel, and agrees with Laban to serve him for seven years in exchange for Rachel.
'So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”'
Laban explains that it is the custom to give the oldest daughter first, and if Jacob wants Rachel as well he'd have to work for another 7 years. Jacob does so; he loves Rachel more than Leah.
Jacob has 4 sons with Leah; none with Rachel.
30) Rachel is worried about not having had any children yet. She tells Jacob to 'go in to' her servant Bilhah, who conceives two sons with Jacob.
Leah stops producing children, so gives her servant Zilpah to Jacob. Zilpah has two sons with Jacob.
Leah produces 2 more sons and a daughter.
Rachel finally gets her own child: Joseph.
After Joseph's birth, Jacob asks Laban to send him home. Laban refuses because Jacob is a good worker; he is willing to up his wages. Jacob says that he really wants to return home, and explains that he is responsible for Laban's current wealth.
Laban asks Jacob what he wants to take with him. Jacob wants all the spotted and speckled goats and lambs from Laban's flock. Laban thinks this is reasonable.
Laban removes all the spotted and speckled animals from his flocks and sends them away, leaving Jacob to look through the plain coloured ones.
Jacob gets a bunch of sticks and places them in front of the flocks. The sticks are magic: the animals that breed in front of the them produce spotted and speckled offspring. Whenever the strongest animals were breeding, Jacob put the sticks in front of them so they produced spotted and speckled offspring. So Jacob received the offspring of the strongest animals, and left the offspring of the weakest for Laban.
31) Jacob learns that Laban doesn't like him so much any more. God tells Jacob to go home.
Rachel steals her father's household gods. Jacob sets off with his wives, children and livestock.
'Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee.'
After three days, someone tells Laban that Jacob ran away. Laban sets off to chase him. God appears to Laban in a dream and says, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
Laban catches up to Jacob and asks wtf is going on? Why have you ran away without telling me? Why did you not let me send you off with a party? Why did you not let me kiss my daughters or grandchildren goodbye? Why have you stolen my household gods? Etc.
Jacob explains that he was afraid and didn't want his wives taken away by force. He knows nothing about the household gods, and promises to kill any one found with them.
Laban fails to find the household gods: Rachel had hidden them under her saddle and explained that she can't dismount because 'the way of women is upon' her.
Jacob gets angry and has a go at Laban for being ungrateful and accusatory.
Laban and Jacob make up and form a covenant; the next morning Laban returns home.
32) Jacob keeps going, and meets the angels of God. "This is God's camp!" he exclaims.
Jacob sends messengers ahead to tell Esau that he is on his way home. The messengers return and tell Jacob that Esau has 400 men with him. Jacob becomes afraid; he splits his convoy in two so that if Esau attacks one, the other can survive.
Jacob sends Esau a present of 220 goats, 200 sheep, 30 camels, 40 cows, 10 bulls and 30 donkeys in the hope of appeasing him.
That night, Jacob sends his family and servants across the Jabbok river, leaving him alone on the other side.
He wrestles with a man until daybreak. Jacob always wins, so the man touches Jacob's hip, and dislocates it.
"Let me go, for the day has broken," says the man.
"I will not let you go unless you bless me." says Jacob.
"What is your name?"
"Jacob."
"Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed." ('Israel' means 'he strives with God')
"Please tell me your name."
"Why is it that you ask my name?" And the man blesses him.
Jacob understands, saying "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered."
'There to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.'
33) Jacob and Esau reunite. They meet, embrace, fall over, kiss and weep.
Esau asks who all the people with Jacob are. Jacob introduces them; they all bow to Esau.
Esau asks Jacob what the all the animal presents were for. Jacob explains that it was to ensure a friendly relationship. Esau explains that he has enough animals, he doesn't need any more. Jacob urges Esau to take the animals. Esau takes the animals.
They separate. Esau returns home; Jacob goes to the city of Shechem, buys some land, and sets up camp.
33) Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah, starts socialising with the people of the land.
'And when Shechem son of Hamor, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her.'
'His soul was drawn to Dinah. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.'
Shechem and his father Hamor meet with Jacob & Co to ask for Dinah to be Shechem's wife. He explains that he is willing to pay a high bride price. He thinks it would be mutually beneficial to establish connections between their two peoples via marriages; he is willing to have Jacob's sons marry his daughters, etc.
Jacob & Co tell Hamor that they cannot let Dinah marry someone who is uncircumcised; they require all the males of the city to be circumcised, otherwise they will take Dinah and move elsewhere.
Hamor and Shechem get to it; they circumcise all the males.
Three days later, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, go into the city and kill every single male. They plunder the city, taking everything. 'All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered.'
Jacob has a go at them, saying: “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”
'But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”'
35) God tells Jacob to go to Bethel and make an altar. Jacob tells his household to get rid of all their foreign gods, to purify themselves, and put on clean clothes.
They journey to Bethel. God appears to Jacob and tells him that he shall no longer be called Jacob; henceforth he shall be known as Israel!
Rachel goes into labour, and delivers another son. 'And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.'
Jacob has a total of 12 sons. From Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon. From Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. From Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali. From Zilpah: Gad and Asher.
Isaac, Jacob's father, dies and is buried.
36) Esau moves to the land of Seir, and his descendants live their for a long time.
NEXT TIME: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)