A Jahwist, an Elohist,
and a Priest Walk into a Bar
This Week
- Should we be concerned with contradictions in the text?
- How many “she’s my sister” cards did the Patriarchs pull?
- Was Jacob a trickster, or was he just #BLESSED?
- Like/Follow https://www.facebook.com/OutOfTheWhirlwind
With the Jacob cycle this week and the Joseph cycle next week we’ll complete Epoch 2, “The Patriarchs, Israel’s Ancestors (2000–1500 B.C.).” First, our Proverb.
Proverbs 1:8-10 (LXX2012)
8 Hear, my son, the instruction of your father,
and reject not the rules of your mother.
9 For you shall receive for your head a crown of graces,
and a chain of gold round your neck.
10 My son, let not ungodly men lead you astray,
neither consent you to them.
Days 7-14
Genesis 25:1-36:43
This week’s insights are more challenging than they have been, and probably more challenging that they will typically be. But see if you can follow along. What I hope you’ll get out of it is confidence that, even when things don’t seem to add up, there’s an explanation for those who are willing to dig and maybe get a little dirty. Like Jacob, sometimes we need to wrestle with God and refuse to let Him go until He blesses us.
Did Abraham settle in Hebron (13:18, 35:27) or Beer-Sheba (22:19)? Why do we find the same conflicting reports in the story of Isaac (26:23-25 & 35:27)? Was it Abraham who dug and named the well of Beer-Sheba (21:30-34) or was it Isaac (26:32-33)? And did Jacob return to Hebron after his time in Haran to bury Isaac (35:27) or did he remain in the northern part of Canaan because Isaac was already long dead (33:18-20; 35:1-7; 35:21)? If we insist that Moses personally wrote the entire book of Genesis, these contradictions are difficult to reconcile. But when we consider the sources behind these verses, we find that the discrepancies can be solved (if you’re unfamiliar with the sources I’m talking about, or if you’ve forgotten, consult my Old Testament Overview).
Take a look at this map I lifted from iBIBLEmaps.com so we can visualize where all these places are. Before continuing, find Hebron west of the Dead Sea, Beer-Sheba southwest of Hebron, and Beth-El & Shechem to the north.
Let’s begin with the Priestly account. Abraham dwells in “the land of Canaan” without further specification until chapter 23 when he purchases land in Hebron (we read about this last week in our “Haggle Properly!” section). From this point on, the Priestly tradition centers all three patriarchs in Hebron (see 35:27). Isaac and Ishmael bury Abraham there (25:8-10), Esau and Jacob (presumably upon his return to Canaan from Paddan Aram) bury Isaac there (35:27-28), and Jacob’s sons bury Jacob there (50:13).
The Jahwist agrees in having Abraham traverse all of Canaan, from Shechem to Beer-Sheba, until Hebron becomes his primary headquarters at the end of chapter 13. But we should remember: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were semi-nomadic pastoralists–they didn’t really “settle.” Isaac roams the southern “Negev,” between Beer-Lahai-Roi (south of the Dead Sea, off the map) and Beer-Sheba (25:11, 24:62, and 26:23-33). And Jacob–after his sojourn in Haran–remains in the Central Hill Country of Canaan, primarily between Shechem (see ch. 34 where the Jahwist’s anti-northern bias is apparent) and Beth-Lehem (35:21).
There is no mention of Jacob returning to Hebron to bury Isaac. In fact, a natural reading of chapter 27 suggests that the blessing Jacob steals from Esau is Isaac’s deathbed blessing. This is why Esau says, “The days of mourning for my father will be soon, and then I’ll kill Jacob my brother” (27:41, Friedman). The Jahwist’s explanation for Jacob going to Haran is to flee “until your brother’s anger turns back from you and he forgets what you did to him” (27:45). He wouldn’t return to Canaan, then, until Esau has finished mourning Isaac’s death and enough time has passed to “forget” and repent of his anger. There may be a hint of this truth even in the Priestly account. At 49:31, Jacob instructs his sons to bury him in Hebron where “they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife. And there I buried Leah.”
The Elohist, with his pro-northern bias (see Old Testament Overview), happily emphasizes Jacob‘s association with Shechem (33:18-20), a future capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Elohist seems even more eager link Jacob with Beth-El, the religious center of the northern kingdom. This is where God had appeared in the dream of “Jacob’s Ladder” (ch. 28). And it was “the God at Beth-El” who would call him to return from Haran to Canaan (31:13) and to “go to Beth-El and live there and make an altar there to God” (35:1). Again, however, these patriarchs didn’t “settle.” For the rest of the book, every time Jacob is mentioned, we find him further south, from Beth-Lehem (35:16-20) to Hebron (37:14) to Beer-Sheba (46:1) to Egypt (48).
The discrepancy arises with what the Elohist tells us (or doesn’t tell us) about Abraham and Isaac. Abraham apparently makes a home in Beer-Sheba (21:33 and 22:19), contradicting both the Jahwist and Priestly accounts. And, if you remember from last week, there is no mention at all of Isaac‘s adult life (more on that later).
This is not the only time the Elohist seems confused about events that had taken place in the south, which leads us to our first compelling question of the week: how many times did the Patriarchs pull the “she’s my sister” card?
She’s My Sister!
Here are the three parallel stories:
1. Abraham & Pharaoh: Genesis 12:10-20 (Jahwist)
2. Abraham & Abimelek: Genesis 20:1-18; 21:22-34 (Elohist)
3. Isaac & Abimelek: Genesis 26:1-33 (Jahwist)
In the first instance, Abraham takes Sarah down to Egypt to escape a famine, and he tells her, “Say you’re my sister so it will be good for me on your account” (12:13, Friedman). As Abraham predicted, Pharaoh’s officers are so enamored of her beauty, they bring her into Pharaoh’s harem. If we take the chronology of the combined accounts at face value, Abraham is about 75 years old here and Sarah is about 65.
In the second instance, Abraham takes Sarah to Gerar of the Negev (northwest of Beer-Sheba in the map above), and the same sequence of events transpires with Abimelek. This time, Abraham is at least 100 years old and Sarah is now at least 90 . . . and apparently pregnant with Isaac. Any chance this king is going to see a 90 year old pregnant woman and think, “if she’s married I will literally kill her husband so I can take her for myself!”? Seems less plausible.
Leading up to the third instance, Isaac had married Rebekah at age 40 and they lived together in the southern Negev for 20 years. Rebekah finally gives birth to Esau and Jacob when Isaac is 60. The boys grow up and we have the story of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob. We’d have to guess that they would be at least 15-20 years old at this point. Then comes the Abimelek story, after which we’re told that Esau is 40 (26:34). That would make Isaac somewhere between 75 and 100 years old when the famine hits. And that means Abimelek is going to be 75-100 years older than he would have been when he had taken Sarah.
How likely does this whole sequence of events seem to be? And why is there no mention of the fact that Abimelek had gone through all of this before?
We might suggest that, like Pharaoh, “Abimelek” is a title for a king rather than a name. This does appear to be the case later in the Hebrew Bible. The word, after all, means something like “father of a king” or “my father is king.” If this were the case we could be dealing with two different Abimeleks. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. First, it would seem redundant to say “Abimelek, king of Gerar” (20:2 = E) and “Abimelek, king of the Philistines, at Gerar” (26:1 = J). More convincingly, the commander of Abimelek’s army has the same name (Phicol) in both stories (21:22 = E and 26 = J). So, whether Abimelek is a name or a title, the most likely explanation is that these are variations of the same story. We’ll return to that in a moment.
If we follow the Jahwist exclusively, the “she’s my sister” thing only happens twice:
And there was famine in the land (other than the first famine, which was in Abraham’s days). (Genesis 26:1, Friedman)
YHWH tells Isaac not to go down to Egypt as Abraham had done, but to remain in the land of Canaan. Why would the narrator link this episode between Isaac and Abimelek with the story of Abraham and Pharaoh but not refer at all to the story of Abraham with Abimelek? The Jahwist apparently has no knowledge of Abraham trying to pull the “she’s my sister” card with Abimelek.
Let’s dig a little deeper. The Elohist story ends with Abraham digging and naming the well of Beer-Sheba (21:22-34). The Jahwist story ends with Isaac digging and naming the well of Beer-Sheba: “And he called it Seven. On account of this the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day” (26:23-33, Friedman). Once again, this is best explained as two different versions of the same story.
If the Elohist and Jahwist are referring to the same historical event, why would one source say it happened to Abraham while the other says it happened to Isaac? I can’t think of a single compelling reason why the Jahwist might replace Abraham with Isaac. Trust me, I tried. In the interest of time, I’ll spare you the full analysis. There is, however, one very good reason why the Elohist might substitute Abraham for Isaac: in the Elohist story, Isaac is already dead, sacrificed as a burnt offering to God (if that just came out of nowhere, check out last week’s post). The Elohist never mentions Abraham’s descent into Egypt. Either that was not part of his source material or he harmonized the Abraham & Pharaoh and the Isaac & Abimelek traditions into one story about Abraham & Abimelek.
Conclusion: When we accept that the Elohist may have occasionally confused or conflated Abraham and Isaac, everything else falls into place and the Jahwist’s version of this story is proved trustworthy. Abraham lived as a nomad in Canaan until a famine forced him into Pharaoh’s land where he claimed Sarah was his sister. When he was able to return to Canaan, he resided in and around Hebron. About a century later, there was another famine and Isaac tried the same ploy with Rebekah in Abimelek’s land. After this, Isaac remained in the south, between Beer-Sheba and Beer-Lahai-Roi. Jacob left the southern Negev for Haran when it was time to find a wife. And instead of returning to his father’s land (which Esau had already claimed in his absence), Jacob settled further north in the Central Hill Country.
As for the Priestly authors, it appears they simply associated all three patriarchs with their traditional burial place.
And [Jacob] commanded them, … “Bury me: to my fathers, to the cave that’s in the field of Ephron the Hittite, … as Abraham bought the field from Ephron the Hittite, as a possession for a tomb. There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife. And there I buried Leah.” (49:29-31, Friedman) [E & P both testify that Rachel had been buried in Beth-Lehem (35:19-20 & 48:7).]
This section of the Bible always reminds me of Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven: https://amzn.to/39CN1Q5.
It’s a really beautifully shot film, playing on some of these themes, that should be seen in HD to appreciate the cinematography. If you haven’t seen it, check it out and let me know how it makes you feel about these episodes from the lives of Abraham and Isaac.
Jacob: Trickster or #Blessed
We’ve talked quite a bit about the Jahwist’s southern bias and the Elohist’s northern bias. Let’s take a look at one example of how this is manifested in the text.
We just established Jacob’s association with key northern cities. It should come as no surprise, then, that it’s the southern Jahwist account that tells us about Jacob’s conniving nature: grasping his brother’s heel at birth (25:26), talking Esau out of his birthright (25:31-33), and tricking his father into giving him the preferred blessing (27:19-29). Poetic justice comes down on him, however, when Laban tricks him into marrying Leah (29:22-25). It’s a fascinating parallel. Isaac, dulled by age, is deceived by Jacob into giving his blessing to the wrong son. Jacob, dulled from feasting, is deceived into giving himself in marriage to the wrong woman (it took seeing this scene in a movie, which I will mention in the next section, for me to make this connection). But the trickster gets back at Laban, cunningly fleecing him of his choicest sheep and goats (30:29-42).
The northern Elohist account, on the other hand, goes out of its way to defend Jacob’s innocence. There’s no tale of him deceiving his father. He becomes wealthy in Haran not because of trickery, but because God chose to bless him (31:4-12). And if Rachel stole her father’s household gods, Jacob knew nothing about it (31:32).
Jacob is blessed in the Priestly account as well, but the reason given is that Esau had displeased Isaac and Rebekah by taking Hittite women as wives (27:46 – 28:9). Intermarrying with Hittites, or any other Canaanites, was abhorrent to the priestly sensibility, especially after Jews were taken into Exile in the 6th century BC.
Though they may differ in their characterization of Jacob, all three sources acknowledge special appearances from God. In chapter 28, the Jahwist has YHWH appear to Jacob on his way to Haran at Beth-El, where he is confirmed as the heir of the Abrahamic covenant. In the same chapter, the Elohist tells the famous story of “Jacob’s Ladder” upon which angels ascended and descended. It was common in ancient societies to believe that certain physical locations linked the realm of the divine with the realm of humanity. When a man encountered a god, he would set up a pillar to mark the spot as the earth’s navel, the center of the universe, the intersection of the two realms. A village or shrine might then be built around this center and the god who appeared in that place would be considered its patron. Jacob accordingly consecrates a pillar to mark the location of this gate of heaven and names the place Beth-El, “House of God.” As I mentioned above, Beth-El was the religious center of the northern kingdom of Israel when the Elohist account was written.
The Priestly parallel comes later in chapter 35 when El Shaddai appears to Jacob, changes his name to Isra-El (without explanation), and confirms him as the heir of the Abrahamic covenant. Jacob commemorates the occasion with a pillar and names the spot Beth-El. For the meaning of Isra-El, we must return to the Elohist account. In chapter 32, Jacob wrestles all night with “a man,” refusing to let him go until he gives Jacob his blessing. God eventually identifies Himself and changes Jacob’s name to Isra-El, “for you have prevailed with God and with men” (32:28, SAAS).
In the end, the Jahwist, the Elohist, and the Priests, sipping their different drinks at the bar, can at least agree on one thing: even if he was an occasional trickster, Jacob was #blessed!
If anything in this week’s post was interesting to you, please share it with a friend.
The Story of Jacob and Joseph
This might be a good time to check out a movie most of you probably have not seen: The Story of Jacob and Joseph: https://amzn.to/3onvak5.
I watched the first half this past weekend. I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece of visionary filmmaking, but it’s a good straightforward presentation of what we just read. It is directed by Michael Cacoyannis who also directed Zorba the Greek (a fantastic movie based upon the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, about whom I wrote in my ThM thesis) and Iphigenia, a film oozing with pathos based upon the ancient Greek tragedy of Agamemnon having to sacrifice his daughter in order to appease the gods (similar to Abraham) so that he might sail across to Troy to fight the Trojan War. I highly recommend the latter two in general. The former is well worth watching as a companion to our reading. Compare it with the way you envisioned the story and share any thoughts you have about it.
Next Week
Joseph cycle!
Days 25-30: Genesis 37-46
The Jahwist account includes chapter 37: verses 2, 3b, 5-11, 19-20, 23, 25b-27, 28b, and 31-35; all of chapters 38 and 39; chapter 42: verses 1-4, 6, 8-20, 26-34, and 38; all of chapters 43-45 except 43:14 & 23b and 45:3 (all Elohist); and chapter 46: 5b, and 28-34.
The Elohist account includes chapter 37: verses 3a, 4, 12-18, 21-22, 24, 28a, 29-30, and 33-35; all of chapters 40 and 41 (except 41:46 which is Priestly); chapter 42: verses 5, 7, 21-25, and 35-37; chapter 43: verses 14 and 23b; chapter 45:3; and chapter 46:1-5a. The rest is Priestly.
Days 31-32: Genesis 47-50
The Jahwist account includes chapter 47: verses 1-4, 27, and 29-31; chapter 49:1-27; and chapter 50: verses 1-11, 14, and 22.
The Elohist account includes 47:13-26; chapter 48 verses 1-2 and 8-22; and chapter 50: verses 15-21 and 23-26. The rest is Priestly.
Have a great week, everyone!