Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Dear Sergio, Peter and all,

> >[Sergio:]
> > In Ruth 4:20-22 we find that Boaz' father was Salmon, and Boaz'
> > grandson was Jesse (David's father).  In Mathew 1:5 we learn that
> > Salmon's wife was Rahab.

According to rabbinic tradition, Rahab actually married Joshua. That, of
course, is no more historical that Mt. 1; both have a point to make. There
are several explanations as to why Matthew includes four gentile women in
the genealogy of Jesus. In any case, biblical (and ANE) genealogies are
literary creations, which, just like other genres of biblical literature,
are meant to teach, not to record "history".

> > This means that this part of the chain begins before the period of the
> > judges. Too few links for more than 300 years.
> > Of course, the Hebrew word for "father" also means "grandfather",
> > "great-grandfather", and so on, and one can assume that some names in
> > the genealogy are not mentioned for some reason.

"Telescoping" is a well known characteristic of genealogies - people who
have no function are often "cut out".

> [Peter:]
> The full genealogy from Perez son of Judah to David is given in Ruth
> 4:18-22, 1 Chronicles 2:5,9-15, Matthew 1:2-6 and Luke 3:32-33. In each
> case the list is (Jacob), (Judah), Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab,
> Nahshon, Salmon/Salma, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David. So 11 recorded
> generations to cover probably at least 700 years:

Why 700 years. Assuming that the average male has his first son at age 25
(which is probably high for ancient Israel, but would compensate for some
late starters or cases in which the son listed is not the eldest), 11
geneations would cover 275 years.

it looks as if
> something must have been left out - although possibly not if the time
> period is reduced to around 400 years as some might argue (based on an
> Exodus under Rameses II and only about 200 years in Egypt based on
> Exodus 12:40 LXX and Sam).
> Nahshon son of Amminadab is identified as the leader of Judah in Numbers
> 1:7 etc, cf. 1 Chr 2:10. As he was part of the generation which died in
> the wilderness, it makes sense that his son Salmon took part in the
> Conquest and married Rahab. On an orthodox chronology (ignoring 1 Kings
> 6:1) with an Exodus in the time of Rameses II, the Exodus was c. 1280
> BC, with Salmon being born up to 20 years later, and David was born c.
> 1030 BC. Four generations are unlikely to cover 230 years. So four
> generations from the Conquest to David seems too few on almost any
> chronology.

Once again - 4 generations are about 200 years. 230 is not that far.

>
> The story of Ruth seems to reflect a settled period, not the early
> aftermath of the Conquest, thus that Boaz is unlikely to have been the
> son of one of the conquerors. So I would suggest missing generations
> between Salmon and Boaz.
>
The story of Ruth is a much later composition, and the genealogy at its end
is very likely an even later addition.

Yigal