Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 00:20:39 +0200 "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
writes:
> 
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: George F. Somsel 
> 
>   At the risk of sounding like one of those I previously mentioned 
> who will attempt at any cost to avoid an embarassing problem with a 
> text, this might be explicable.  "The sons of Ephraim:" is a caption 
> to the list which does not necessarily say anything as to the time 
> in which Ephraim might have lived.  The problem comes in regard to 
> Ephraim's mourning and begetting other children though, in this 
> regard, it still says nothing regarding the time-frame.   The way in 
> which the Chronicler has written this leaves an impression that it 
> is post-conquest due to the structure.  David and his progeny are 
> inserted in chapter 3, but it is not necessarily the case that the 
> whole is post-conquest.  It would seem that he follows one line for 
> a time then moves on to another giving the ultimate residence of the 
> descendants.  The question is "When was the death of Ephraim's sons 
> and the subsequent birth of his "second family"?  It could have been 
> conceived of as taking place before going down into Egypt just as 
> the incident of Judah and Tamar in Gen 38 before the descent  into 
> Egypt in Gen 39.  
> 
> 
> 
>   Except, George, that Ephraim was born to Joseph in Egypt, and 
> never lived in Canaan. So the story "could not" have taken place 
> before the children of Israel went down to Egypt.
> 
>   Yigal
> 
> _______________________________________________

Oops, you're right.  I had forgotten about that.  I was simply thinking
of the sons of Jacob, but Ephraim and Manasseh were Joseph tribes.  Well,
perhaps we do have evidence for a minimalist view in a different
tradition. 

george
gfsomsel