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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Kadeshah & Zonah in Genesis 32 + More
  • Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 20:36:16 -0500

Dear George,

Personally, it makes no difference to me whether the report is
historically accurate or not. I think there is too little to support a
claim that it was, but that is beside the point. So long as one is
solely interested in attempting to explain why they consider it to be
historical or whether the words are accurately reported, one is not
concentrating on the purpose for which it was written. Why are these
stories written as they are? Was there some importance to the story of
Judah and Tamar? If so, what? These are what should be sought.
Otherwise we are majoring in minors.

HH: One thing the story in Genesis 38 shows is the tendency of Judah to mix with the Canaanites and adopt Canaanite practices. This may have been one reason why God led the Israelites into Egypt. The Canaanites were to mature in their wickedness during the Israelite years in Egypt (v. 16 below):

Gen. 15:13 Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
Gen. 15:14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
Gen. 15:15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.
Gen. 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."

When Israel came out of Egypt, the Canaanite evil would have matured to the point of divine judgment. The story of Judah suggests that Israel might have been sucked into that evil had they stayed in the land. Judah's friend Hirah was an Adullamite. Adullam was a Canaanite royal city, so Hirah was evidently a Canaanite. Then Judah married a Canaanite woman (Gen 38:2), something Abraham and Isaac would have blanched at. Judah next sought Tamar, thinking she was a prostitute. She was sitting at the entrance to Enaim, so he probably thought she was a Canaanite prostitute.

By the way, I liked the idea that someone presented about the veil being used in unusual situations. The person compared it to Rebekah putting on a veil when she approached Isaac. It seems plausible that a veil might mark out a woman as a prostitute, if women did not ordinarily wear them and it was not a marital situation. Anyway, Judah met her on his way to see Hirah, who lived in Timnah. Enaim was on the road to Timnah, so Judah met her before he saw Hirah.

Therefore, when he sent Hirah to get his pledge back from the woman, he must have identified her to Hirah as a shrine prostitute (QD&H), because that is the information Hirah used to seek for her. Remember, he had to depend on the information given by Judah, since Hirah was not there when the incident occurred. So we see Judah getting sucked into the depravity of Canaan.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard
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Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 20:51:43 -0500
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ark of the Covenant (Iron Age Exemplar Found ?)
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Dear Tony,

Walter, you make the assertion in your article of "Pharaoh being reckoned as
a god". Was the Pharaoh seen as a god? Most current Egyptologists dispute
this concept. What is your source for this? Thank you.

HH: This following information is taken from a non-profit history website:

World History From Ancient Mesopotamia To The Present
A Collection Of History Related Essays, Documents, Maps and Music From World History
http://ragz-international.com/pharaoh.htm

The Egyptians believed their pharaoh to be a god, identifying him with the sky god Horus and with the sun gods Re, Amon, and Aton. Even after death the pharaoh remained divine, becoming transformed into Osiris, the father of Horus and god of the dead, and passing on his sacred powers and position to the new pharaoh, his son. The pharaoh's divine status was believed to endow him with magical powers: his uraeus (the snake on his crown) spat flames at his enemies, he was able to trample thousands of the enemy on the battlefield, and he was all-powerful, knowing everything and controlling nature and fertility.

As a divine ruler, the pharaoh was the preserver of the god-given order, called ma'at. He owned a large portion of Egypt's land and directed its use, was responsible for his people's economic and spiritual welfare, and dispensed justice to his subjects. His will was supreme, and he governed by royal decree. To govern fairly, though, the pharaoh had to delegate responsibility; his chief assistant was the vizier, who, among other duties, was chief justice, head of the treasury, and overseer of all records. Below this central authority, the royal will of the pharaoh was administered through the nomes, or provinces, into which Upper and Lower Egypt were divided.

Since he was considered a god, the pharaoh lived apart from other men, and his subjects subscribed to rituals that exalted him as a divine king. All those approaching him, for example, had to prostrate themselves on the ground. When the pharaoh died, Egyptian funerary rituals were performed that were thought to guarantee that he survive in the afterlife as a god, apart from other men.

Evidence suggests, however, that the Egyptians knew that their divine ruler was only a human being, if a supreme one; they judged him according to his deeds, criticizing pharaohs, plotting against them, and deposing or murdering ineffectual ones. Each succeeding pharaoh, however, ascended the throne under the aegis of the rituals and traditions that recognized him as divine ruler.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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