7. Patriarchal Narratives

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7. Patriarchal Narratives

• BOT630/BHE630 Exegesis of Genesis

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Similarities in the Careers of the Patriarchs

• 1. All these heroes leave their homeland 12.
  28.2 37.28
• 2. All quarrel with their brothers 13.7 27.41
  37.4
• 3. Three go down to Egypt, one to Gerar, i.e.,
  toward Egypt 12.10 26.1 37.28 46.6
• 4. Two patriarchal wives are seduced or nearly
  so an Egyptian wife attempts to seduce Joseph
  12.14-16 20.1-14 26.1 39.6-18

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Similarities in the Careers of the Patriarchs

• 5. Their wives are barren and quarrel (in
  Abraham's and Jacob's cases) 16.1-6 29.31-30.8
• 6. The younger sons are divinely favored (also
  Joseph's sons) 17.18-19 25.23 48.14 49.8-12,
  22-26
• 7. Brides met at well 24.15 29.9
• 8. Promises of children, land, divine blessing
  e.g., 12.1-3 26.28-29 41.39-40

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Similarities in the Careers of the Patriarchs

• 9. Gentiles acknowledge God's blessing on the
  patriarchs 21.21-22 26.28-29 41.39-40
• 10. Buried in cave of Machpelah 23.1-20 25.9
  35.27-29 49.29-32
• Wenham, Gordan, Genesis 1-15 Word Biblical
  Commentary, 257.

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Dating the Patriarchs

• The 480 years of 1 Kgs 6.1 has its lower end
  fixed at the fourth year of the reign of Solomon,
  for which a date of 967 B.C. seems probable. This
  figure, and the 430 years of Ex 12.40, together
  places the descent into Egypt at about 1877 B.C.
  This date should not be considered exact, since
  some small leeway must be allowed for the dating
  of Solomons reign, and the figures of 430 and
  480 may themselves be round estimates. Bimson,
  J. J. Archaelogical Data and the Dating of the
  Patriarchs, Essays on the Patriarchal
  Narratives, eds. D. J. Wiseman A.R.Millard,
  85-86

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Chronological Chart
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Dating the Patriarchs

• This dating scheme places Abraham's life almost
  entirely before 2000 B.C., and therefore in MB I
  part of Isaac's life, before his move form
  Beer-lahai-roi to Gerear (cf. 25.11 and 26.1), is
  also allowed to fall within MB I, before the
  depopulation of the Negeb. It is tempting to
  speculate that the famine which drove Isaac from
  the southern Negeb to Gerar was part of the
  change in conditions which led to the
  depopulation of the Negeb as a whole at the end
  of MB I. Jacob's life after his return from the
  household of Laban falls satisfactorily within MB
  II. Bimson, J. J. Archaelogical Data and the
  Dating of the Patriarchs, Essays on the
  Patriarchal Narratives, eds. D. J. Wiseman
  A.R.Millard, 85-86

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 1. The practice of granting a birthright, that
  is, additional privileges to an eldest son, is
  mentioned several times in the patriarchal
  narratives (Gen 25.5-6 25.32-34 43.33 49.3-4
  cf. 48.13-20) and was widespread in the ANE . . .
  . The double portion, well known in texts from
  the Old Babylonian to the Neo-Babylonian period,
  is clearly found in the OT only in Deut
  21.15-17. Selman, M. J. "Comparative Customs
  and the Patriarchal Age," Essays on the
  Patriarchal Narratives, eds. Millard Wiseman,
  135

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 2. In Gen 25.23, the Hebrew term for the eldest
  son is not the usual rekor but rab, which is
  used here only in this sense. The cognate
  Akkadian word, rabu, is also used by itself of
  the eldest son, but so far has turned up only in
  tablets of the mid-second millennium, from Nuzi,
  Alalah, Ugarit, and Middle Assyria. Since the
  texts from Babylonia and those of the
  Neo-Assyrian period use different terminology,
  such as aplu(m) rabu(m) (eldest heir) or
  maru(m) rabu(m) (eldest son), it appears that
  this biblical datum has some chronological
  significance.

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 3. The alteration of a mans inheritance
  prospects was never subject to a father's
  arbitrary decision, whether it involved the loss
  of the birthright privilege or total
  disinheritance, but was brought about in every
  case by serious offences against ones own
  family. Thus Reubens sexual offences against his
  fathers concubine (Gen 35.22 49.3-4) can be
  linked with behaviour of similar gravity
  elsewhere, such as taking legal action against
  ones parents, the usurping of a fathers
  authority, or the despising of ones parents.
  Selman, M. J. "Comparative Customs and the
  Patriarchal Age," Essays on the Patriarchal
  Narratives, eds. Millard Wiseman, 135-136

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 4. A mans ability to sell inherited property is
  documented at different periods in the ANE,
  though at the present time no clear case is known
  of an eldest son who, like Esau, sold either his
  inheritance or his rights to an inheritance.
  Selman, M. J. "Comparative Customs and the
  Patriarchal Age," Essays on the Patriarchal
  Narratives, eds. Millard Wiseman, 136

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 5. While the inheritance relationship between
  Abraham and Eliezer may find its explanation in
  Prv 17.2, the examples of adoption of slaves, and
  the specific case of the OB letter from Larsa
  (where it is suggested that a man without sons
  could adopt his own slave), are also very
  apposite to this situation. it is precisely the
  custom of the adoption of ones slave that is
  found only in the Larsa letter and in Gen 15.
  Selman, M. J. "Comparative Customs and the
  Patriarchal Age," Essays on the Patriarchal
  Narratives, eds. Millard Wiseman, 136

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 6. The adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh by their
  grandfather (Gen 48.5) may be compared with a
  similar adoption of a grandson at Ugarit.
  Furthermore, the phrase, they are mine (Gen
  48.5) is almost identical to the usual ANE term
  adoption formulae, as found for instance in the
  Laws of Hammurapi para. 170. Selman, M. J.
  "Comparative Customs and the Patriarchal Age,"
  Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives, eds.
  Millard Wiseman, 136

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 7. The custom of bearing upon the knees has
  frequently been interpreted as an adoption
  rite.... The practice is mentioned five times in
  the OT, of which three references occur in the
  patriarchal narratives Gen 30.3 48.12 50.23
  Job 3.11-12 Isa 66.12 A study of all these
  reveals no clear connection with adoption,
  however, an impression which is confirmed by
  similar references in two Hurrian myths and
  several Neo-Assyrian blessings. Rather, both the
  biblical and extrabiblical passages have
  associations with birth, name-giving,
  breast-feeding, and fondling of a child, and seem
  to indicate some kind of recognized welcome or
  acceptance of a newborn child into the family
  which could be carried out by parents,
  grandparents, or great-grandparents. Selman, M.
  J. "Comparative Customs and the Patriarchal Age,"
  Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives, eds.
  Millard Wiseman, 136-137

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 8. The gift of a female slave as part of a
  dowry, a practice mentioned three times in the
  patriarchal narratives, is well known in the ANE
  at various periods. If the marriage proved to be
  infertile, the husband normally took matters into
  his own hands, but on certain occasions, the wife
  was able to present one of her slavegirls,
  sometimes specially purchased, to her husband to
  produce children for their own marriage. The
  parallels to the biblical references (Gen 16.1-4
  30.1-13) for this rare custom are found so far in
  the Hammurapi Laws, and in single instances from
  Nuzi and Nimrud. In each case, the authority over
  the children resulting from this union belonged
  not to the slavegirl who bore them but to the
  chief wife. Selman, M. J. "Comparative Customs
  and the Patriarchal Age," Essays on the
  Patriarchal Narratives, eds. Millard Wiseman,
  137

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 9. A fathers prohibition forbidding his
  prospective son-in-law to take a second wife in
  place of his daughter is found regularly in
  marriage contracts, as well as in Labans
  covenant with his son-in-law Jacob (Gen 31.50).
  Selman, M. J. "Comparative Customs and the
  Patriarchal Age," Essays on the Patriarchal
  Narratives, eds. Millard Wiseman, 138

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 10. Since the function of Bethuel in the
  arrangement of his daughters marriage is rather
  ambiguous (Gen 24), one should not the several
  instances in the Old and Neo-Babylonian periods
  where a marriage was arranged by the brides
  brother, either by himself or together with their
  mother. Selman, M. J. "Comparative Customs and
  the Patriarchal Age," Essays on the Patriarchal
  Narratives, eds. Millard Wiseman, 138

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 11. The description of adultery as a great sin
  by the Philistine king Abimelek (Gen 20.9 cf.
  26.10) is known also at Ugarit and in Egyptian
  marriage contracts of the first millennium B.C.
  Selman, M. J. "Comparative Customs and the
  Patriarchal Age," Essays on the Patriarchal
  Narratives, eds. Millard Wiseman, 138

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 12. Certain oral statements were accompanied by
  recognized rituals and ceremonials which
  functioned as legal safeguards. These included
  the grasping or correct placing of the right
  hand, and actions of this kind may be seen as the
  legal background of Jacobs adoption and blessing
  of his grandson (Gen 48). Selman, M. J.
  "Comparative Customs and the Patriarchal Age,"
  Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives, eds.
  Millard Wiseman, 138

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Customs the Patriachal Age

• 13. The use of the phrase (a4kal kesep in the
  complaint of Labans daughters may be compared
  with the Akkadian equivalent (kaspa aka4lu),
  which is used five times in marriage contracts at
  Nuzi for the withholding of a dowry which was
  normally taken from the husband's marriage
  payment. Selman, M. J. "Comparative Customs and
  the Patriarchal Age," Essays on the Patriarchal
  Narratives, eds. Millard Wiseman, 138

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Themes of the Patriarchal Narratives

• It is possible.... to read through the
  patriarchal narratives as a whole and perceive
  one clear theme linking them. The theme is
  explicit in the actual words of God which promise
  blessing, land, increase, and influence. These
  explicit words then form the key which explains
  the function in their context of the stories
  which make up the bulk of the narratives as a
  whole. These stories illustrate the theme, often
  by

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Themes of the Patriarchal Narratives

• showing how God overcomes the obstacles to the
  fulfillment of his commitment of himself which
  arise from circumstances that surround those who
  receive Gods commitment or from the people that
  they had to deal with or from the recipients of
  God's promises themselves. Goldingay, J. The
  Patriarchs in Scripture and History, Essays on
  the Patriarchal Narratives, eds. Millard
  Wiseman, 13

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Themes of the Abrahamic Narratives

• 1. The theme of the Abraham narrative... is that
  Yahweh undertook to bless him with descendants
  and land and to make him a blessing for other
  peoples, that obstacles to the fulfillment of
  this commitment presented themselves from many
  quarters, but that Yahweh kept reaffirming his
  undertaking and saw it to its partial fulfillment
  in Abrahams own lifetime. Goldingay, J. The
  Patriarchs in Scripture and History, Essays on
  the Patriarchal Narratives, eds. Millard
  Wiseman, 6

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Themes of the Abrahamic Narratives

• 2. The Abraham narratives (chs. 12-25), have a
  strikingly elemental character in that they are
  often concerned with life and death. They begin
  with the motif of Sarahs barrenness and
  Abrahams childlessness, which would mean the end
  of the line and, in the understanding of that
  epoch, death. They continue through the narrative
  of Abraham in Egypt to the birth in ch. 21, and
  on to the mortal danger that

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Themes of the Abrahamic Narratives

• threatens the child in ch. 22 (C. Westermann, ThB
  24 1964 58f.). They are the proper setting of
  the motif of the promise. The promise of a son,
  to which the other promises are attached, is the
  guarantee to Abraham of the life of his family."
  Westermann, Claus, Genesis 12-25 A Commentary,
  29

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Themes of the Isaac Narratives

• 1. The Isaac narrative. . . is by no means
  identical with the Abraham narrative. It is more
  tightly structured and less episodic, there is
  more irony, and it introduces fewer heroes and
  more villains. Yet the major themes we perceived
  in the Abraham narrative appear here too. It
  relates that Yahweh reaffirmed to Abrahams son
  and grandson his undertaking to bless Abraham
  with descendants and land and to

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Themes of the Isaac Narratives

• make him a means of blessing to others, and that
  he kept this undertaking despite and frequently
  through the vagaries of those he committed
  himself to. This theme holds the narrative
  together by constitution both a thread running
  through it and the key motif to which the
  individual scenes relate. Goldingay, J. The
  Patriarchs in Scripture and History, Essays on
  the Patriarchal Narratives, eds. Millard
  Wiseman, 10

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Themes of the Isaac Narratives

• 2. Here the main theme is what happens between
  brother and brother. Institutions that extended
  far beyond the mere family circle begin to play a
  major role. It is a matter of regulating
  ownership, making covenants, legal practices,
  privileges, and, in the realm of religion, of
  sacred places and events. All this is at most of
  marginal interest in the Abraham narratives."
  Westermann, Claus, Genesis 12-25 A Commentary,
  29

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Themes of the Jacob Narratives

• As a redactional framework, Gen 37-50 provides
  necessary unity for including diverse traditions
  about the last days of Jacob in the overall
  narration about the patriarchs. The collection
  thus intends to close the large segment of Jacob
  traditions. In addition, it opens the door for
  the exodus traditions by accounting for the shift
  from Jacob in Canaan to Israel in Egypt. The unit
  thus functions as a bridge between the
  patriarchal traditions (Gen 12-50) and the exodus
  traditions (Ex 1-12 13.1-16). Coats, Genesis
  FOTL, 261

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Themes of the Jacob Narratives

• 2. "In Gen. 37-50 there enters an additional
  element which is completely absent from Gen.
  12-36, namely, the encounter with the institution
  of kingship and state. This element is seen not
  only in the role played by Pharaoh and his court
  and officials, but also in the confrontation
  between brothers and the one brother in which the
  basic phenomenon of kingship, dominion over
  brothers, is determinative. The family too is
  different in Gen. 37-50 it is the family that
  has grown outwards into the surrounding world and
  become enmeshed with it." Westermann, Claus,
  Genesis 12-25 A Commentary, 29

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROMISES TO THE PATRIARCHS

• 1. The promises to the patriarchs are the most
  frequent motif in Gen 12-50. References to them
  are frequent in other books, especially Deut, and
  are found as late as Neh. Westermann, Promises
  to the Patriarchs, IDBSup, 690

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROMISES TO THE PATRIARCHS

• 2. These promises are a part of the total
  complex of OT oracles of blessing, but are
  different from the others in not having been
  delivered by a cultic or other type of mediator
  they are depicted as having been given directly
  by God to the patriarchs. Westermann, Promises
  to the Patriarchs, IDBSup, 690

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROMISES TO THE PATRIARCHS

• 3. A further hallmark of the promises to the
  patriarchs is that they are unconditional. What
  God proclaims does not depend upon on the
  fulfillment of any conditions. (Gen. 22.16-18
  therefore apparently contains a late
  interpretations.) Westermann, Promises to the
  Patriarchs, IDBSup, 690

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ANALYSIS OF THE PROMISES TO THE PATRIARCHS

• 1. The following occur alone a son, 18.1-16
  the land, 12.7 15.7-21 24.7 Gods presence,
  31.3. Westermann, Promises to the Patriarchs,
  IDBSup, 691

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ANALYSIS OF THE PROMISES TO THE PATRIARCHS

• 2. The promise of numerous posterity and of
  blessing are found only in combination with other
  promises (1) son and posterity 15.1-6 16.7-12
  21.12-13, 17-18 (2) land and posterity
  13.14-17 35.11-13 48.3-4 (3) land, posterity,
  and blessing 26.4-5 28.3-4 28.13-14 (4)
  posterity and blessing 12.1-3 18.18-19
  22.15-18 (5) posterity, blessing, and Gods
  presence 26.24-25 (6) posterity and Gods
  presence 46.3-4 (7) Gods presence, blessing,
  and land 26.2-3 (8) posterity, Gods presence,
  blessing, and land 26.2-6 28.13-15.
  Westermann, "Promises to the Patriarchs,
  IDBSup, 691

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ANALYSIS OF THE PROMISES TO THE PATRIARCHS

• 3. This survey shows that he most frequent
  promise in Gen 12-50 is that of posterity, with
  that of the land a distant second. The promise of
  a son is found only in the Abraham stories, and
  that of Gods presence only in the Jacob-Esau
  stories. The promises usually occur in groups of
  two, three, or more, with the greatest
  concentration occurring in P. Westermann,
  Promises to the Patriarchs, IDBSup, 691

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PROMISE OF A SON

• 1. Texts 15.2-4 16.11 17.15, 16, 19, 21
  18.10, 14 21.1-3
• 2. Promise of a son elsewhere in the OT Judg
  13.2-5 1 Sam 1 2 Kgs 4.8-17.
• 3. Parallels in Ugaritic texts Kirta Aqhat
• 4. In Gen 12-50 the promise of a son is confined
  to the Abraham stories, where it dominates
  accounts. Westermann, Promises to the
  Patriarchs, IDBSup, 691

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PROMISE OF GODS PRESENCE

• 1. Texts Gen 26.3, 24 28.15 20 31.3 46.3
  48.15, 21 50.24
• 2. This promise is found only in chs 26-50. In
  26.3, 24 it is made to Isaac, and elsewhere to
  Jacob. Just as the promise of a son is the
  dominant motif in chs 12-25, this promise is
  dominant in chs 26-50. Westermann, Promises to
  the Patriarchs, IDBSup, 691

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PROMISE OF GODS PRESENCE

• 3. Maag was the first to draw attention to this
  promise, seeing it as loosely connected with the
  wanderings of the patriarchs. In each instance,
  God promises to be with them on a journey. It is
  given as part of the command to move (46.1-3), or
  to remain (26.1-3), or to return (31.3).
  Westermann, Promises to the Patriarchs,
  IDBSup, 691

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PROMISE OF THE LAND

• 1. Promise of a New Home and New Pasture 12.1-3
• 2. Promise of a Land Under Cultivation (12.7
  13.14-15 13.17 15.7-21 17.8 24.7 26.3, 4
  28.4, 13 35.12 48.4 50.24 outside of Gen
  12-50 Ex 13.5, 11 32.13 33.1 Num 11.12
  14.16, 23 32.11 Deut 1.8, 35 4.31 6.10, 18,
  23, and thirteen other passages).

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PROMISE OF THE LAND

• 3. As can be seen from Gen 15.7-21 and 13.14-17,
  the emphasis lies on the promise made to Abraham.
  The promise that Jacob would gain possession of
  the land is seen as a renewal of the promise to
  Abraham (Gen 26.3, 4 28.4 35.12 50.24). The
  story in Gen 15.7-21 concerns only the promise of
  the land in fact, the story developed out of the
  promise. Westermann, Promises to the
  Patriarchs, IDBSup, 692

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PROMISE OF THE LAND

• 4. The language varies so little that we can
  assume a fixed form, utilizing the verb !tn. The
  promise is probably the basis for an accepted
  formula for the legal transfer to land (cf. Gen
  48.22). Such an adaptation is suggested by
  13.14-17. Westermann, Promises to the
  Patriarchs, IDBSup, 692

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PROMISE OF THE LAND

• 5. This promise probably was formulated when
  possession of the land was a life-and-death
  matter for the tribes that had settled in Canaan.
  At the end of the patriarchal stories (50.24) it
  is stated that the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and
  Jacob refers to the gift of the land of Canaan to
  the Israelites who leave Egypt. Westermann,
  "Promises to the Patriarchs," IDBSup, 692

44
PROMISE OF THE LAND

• 6. In twenty-one passages in Deuteronomy the
  promise of the land is formulated as an oath and
  has the function of legitimizing the occupation
  of the land by the tribes. Westermann,
  Promises to the Patriarchs, IDBSup, 692

45
PROMISE OF POSTERITY

• 1. Texts 12.1-3 13.16 15.5 16.10 17.2, 5, 6,
  16, 20 18.18 22.17, 18 26.2-5, 24-25 28.3,
  14 32.12MT 13 35.11 46.3 47.27 48.4, 16,
  19 outside of Gen 12-50 Ex 1 Ex 32.10 Num
  14.12 Deut 1.10, 11 6.3 13.17 MT 18 15.6
  Isa 51.2 Neh 9.23

46
PROMISE OF POSTERITY

• 2. Promise of a son and posterity. The
  combination of these two promises is found, lie
  the promise of a son, only in the Abraham cycle.
  That they were originally separate can be seen in
  16.10-12 (cf. 21.12-13, 17-18). Their
  interrelationship is made completely clear in
  15.4-5, where the opening of a new scene in v5
  shows that the writer was aware of the
  independence of the two promises. Westermann,
  Promises to the Patriarchs, IDBSup, 692

47
PROMISE OF POSTERITY

• 3. The language and form of the promise. Of all
  the promises this one most often had a fixed form
  and is found exactly or almost word-for-word the
  same in many passages. Characteristic also is the
  poetic comparison with the stars of the sky (Gen
  15.5 22.17 26.4 Ex 32.13 Deut 1.10 10.22
  28.62 Neh 9.23), the sand by the sea (Gen 22.17
  32.12 MT 13 Isa 10.22 48.19), and the dust of
  the earth (Gen 13.16 28.14). A variant forms of
  the promise indicates the transition of the
  family to the nations, I will make of you a
  great nation (12.2 17.20 18.18 21.13, 18
  46.3 Ex 32.10 Num 14.12). Westermann,
  Promises to the Patriarchs, IDBSup, 692

48
PROMISE OF POSTERITY

• 4. The origin of the promise of posterity.
  Westermann argues that many passages where the
  promise of posterity is promised along with a
  blessing indicates that they were originally
  connected and therefore late. (12.2 17.16, 20
  22.17 26.4 26.24 28.3 32.12 MT 13 35.9-11
  48.3-4 16 Isa 51.2)

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PROMISE OF BLESSING

• 1. The distinctive nature of the promise. An
  independent pronouncement of blessing has been
  preserved only in Gen 12.1-3. here all the other
  promises are subordinated to that of blessing,
  while in all other passages the promise of
  blessing is made specific in, or is more fully
  developed by, the promise of prosperity.
  Westermann, Promises to the Patriarchs,
  IDBSup, 692

50
PROMISE OF BLESSING

• 2. Expansion of the promise. Concerning (1)
  Cursed . . . . and (2) All the families . . . .

51
THE COVENANT PROMISE

• In the patriarchal histories it is found only in
  P (Gen 17.7-8), and is characterized as a
  covenant (tyrb). Elsewhere in P it occurs in Lev
  11.45 22.33 25.38 26.45 Num 15.41 see also
  Ex 29.45 and Ezek 34.24. In all these passages
  Israel is the recipient of the promise. In Deut
  29.10-13 it occurs as promise to the patriarchs
  and is characterized again as tyrb. It also
  occurs as a part of the covenant formula, which
  also says and you will be my people. By citing
  this promise in the middle of ch 17, P builds a
  connection between patriarchal history and that
  of the nation. Westermann, Promises to the
  Patriarchs, IDBSup, 693

52
THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROMISES

• 1. They witness to the earliest connection
  between what God says (the promise) and what he
  does (the fulfillment). When the people later
  were rescued or protected they saw this as the
  fulfillment of what God had said, and thus we can
  understand why the patriarchal traditions become
  a basic part of Israels traditions.
  Westermann, Promises to the Patriarchs,
  IDBSup, 693

53
THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROMISES

• 2. The promises thus have the function of
  connecting Gods ancient word with what he had
  more recently done Exodus for his people. They
  give the assurance that God stands by his word,
  and that he trusted for the future. Westermann,
  Promises to the Patriarchs, IDBSup, 693