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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Afula vs. Biblical Ophra vs. Biblical Ephrathah
  • Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:13:01 +0200

Dear Jim,

There are actually several different places called Ophrah in the Bible. The Ophrah of Benjamin (eg. Josh. 18:23) is usually identified at Taybeh (one of several modern Arab towns by that name), NE of today's Ramallah. The usual explanation for the name shift is that "Afrit" is a she-demon in Arabic, and since no Arabic-speaker wants to live in a place called "she-demon", the name was changed to Taybeh, "good".

The Ophrah of Abiezer of Judges 6:11, hometown of Gideon, is presumably in the territory of the Abiezer clan of Menashe, Gideon's tribe. Afula used to be a popular suggestion, until it turned out that there is almost no evidence for Iron age I settlement at the site. The same goes for the Taybeh in the southeastern Galilee, on the Issachar hights. In an article published in Cathedra 22 (1982), Hanan Eshel makes a good case for identifying this Ophrah with a small Iron I site south of Samaria. So while the shift Ophrah-Afula is linguistically possible, phonetic similarity is not the only factor that goes into site identification.

As far as Ophrah - Ephrathah, well, we've been through that one before.


Yigal Levin


----- Original Message ----- From: <JimStinehart AT aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 4:51 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Afula vs. Biblical Ophra vs. Biblical Ephrathah



Afula vs. Biblical Ophra vs. Biblical Ephrathah

1. Modern Afula Is Biblical Ophrah

I agree with the majority view of scholars that modern Afula, on the northern
edge of the Jezreel Valley in northern Canaan, is Biblical Ophrah. Modern “
Afula” is spelled ayin-peh-vav-lamed-he. Per Judges 6: 11, Biblical “Ophrah”
is spelled ayin-peh-resh-he. The presence or absence of a vav is commonplace
in variant spellings of a geographical place name. The only significant
difference between the two spellings is lamed vs. resh. “Egyptian r and Semitic l
are interchangeable”. See the nice analysis of this issue at pp. 140-141 of
the following website, which concludes that modern Afula is Biblical Ophrah:

_https://oa.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/4162/TMP.objres.80.pdf?sequence=1_

(https://oa.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/4162/TMP.objres.80.pdf?sequence=1)

2. Is Biblical Ophrah Biblical Ephrathah?

My own controversial, new assertion is that Biblical Ophrah and Biblical
Ephratah are one and the same place.

(a) Linguistics

At Genesis 35: 16, 19, “Ephrathah” is spelled aleph-peh-resh-tav-he. At
Genesis 48: 7, the final he is dropped, resulting in aleph-peh-resh-tav.

The city of Ophrah pre-dates the Hebrews and the emergence of the written
Hebrew language. So it is not surprising that there are two different Hebrew
spellings of the initial guttural vowel-type sound: ayin vs. aleph. These
variant spellings may reflect differences in regional accents over the centuries.
The only other difference in spelling is that “Ephrathah” has a tav at (or
near) the end. Presumably that was the older full-length name, and over the
course of many centuries the name got shortened by dropping the final tav.
Linguistically, ayin-peh-resh-he (“Ophrah”) may be fairly close to
aleph-peh-resh-tav-he (“Ephrathah”).

(b) Geographical Sense

On this new reading, Genesis 35: 16, 19 and 48: 7 now, for the first time,
make geographical sense. Jacob starts out west of Bethlehem of Galilee, in
northern Canaan (not near Bethlehem of Judea in southern Canaan near Jerusalem).
Jacob is traveling southeast, and is on the road to Ophrah/Ephrathah, which is
located on the northern edge of the Jezreel Valley. (This is the farthest
south Jacob will go prior to getting to the Jordan River.) On the road to
Ophrah/Ephrathah, Rachel dies, at Bethlehem of Galilee. After burying Rachel at
Bethlehem of Galilee, Jacob proceeds past Ophrah/Ephrathah, and then goes
northeast to nearby ayin-dor/En-dor/Migdal-eder/the fortified (migdal) town of
ayin-dor, which is just north of the hill of Moreh (“Mt. Moreh”). (There was no
fortified town, or any “En-dor”, between Bethlehem of Judea and Hebron.)

In terms of distances, Bethlehem of Galilee is about 10 miles northwest of
Ophrah/Ephrathah, and historical ayin-dor/En-dor is about 6 miles northeast of
Ophrah/Ephrathah. The Egyptian army routinely covered 15 miles a day under nor
mal circumstances. Even though Jacob would be slowed down by his large flock,
Jacob might have been only one day away from getting to Ophrah/Ephrathah, and
planning to get to Ophrah/Ephrathah the next day, when Rachel died at
Bethlehem of Galilee, 10 miles away from Ophrah/Ephrathah.

“Ephrathah” is not an older name for Bethlehem of Judea (or for Bethlehem of
Galilee). Nothing in secular history supports that traditional view.
Rather, Ephrathah is historical Ophrah, the place to which Jacob was heading when
Rachel died at Bethlehem of Galilee.

“...[A]nd there was still some way to come to Ephrath [Ophrah]; and Rachel
travailed, and she had hard labour. …And Rachel died, and was buried in the
way to Ephrath [Ophrah] -- [that is, at] Beth-lehem [of Galilee]. …And Israel
journeyed, and spread his tent beyond Migdal-eder [the nearby fortified (migdal)
town of ayin-dor/En-dor].” Genesis 35: 16, 19, 21

“And as for me [Jacob], when I came from Paddan, Rachel died unto me in the
land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some way [10 miles] to come
unto Ephrath [Ophrah]; and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath [Ophrah] -- [that is, at] Beth-lehem [of Galilee].'” Genesis 48: 7

3. Conclusions

(a) Regardless of whether the Patriarchal narratives are “myth” (not my
view), or closely based on secular history (my view), we would expect the
Patriarchal narratives in any event to make geographical sense. The only way to make
sense out of “Ephrathah” and “migdal Edor” in the text is to view them as
being, respectively, historical Ophrah/Afula, and the nearby fortified town of
ayin-dor/En-dor, in northern Canaan. Accordingly, the “Bethlehem” mentioned
in chapters 35 and 48 of Genesis must be Bethlehem of Galilee, in northern
Canaan, not Bethlehem of Judea in southern Canaan.

(b) If my new controversial view were accepted, then one main consequence of
that would be that the divine promises of Promised Land to Isaac and Jacob
focus on the valuable, fertile land of northern Canaan, rather than being
limited to the relatively undesirable land of the Negev Desert.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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