Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Part I of II
 
Bill Rea wrote:  “[N]ot everyone places these sources [JEPD] that late [that 
is, as late as the mid-1st millennium BCE].  For a more conservative view 
Milgrom, in his Anchor Bible commentary on Leviticus, places the writing of 
some 
parts of Leviticus before the rise of the monarchy.  While dating the sources 
raises a host of problems, Milgrom's views are certainly worth considering 
and 
well argued.”  [I cannot in this post address Bill Rea’s more recent 
comments, although as usual they are thought-provoking, and I partially agree 
with 
most of what Bill Rea says.  I will address those comments next week.  Here 
let 
me, if I may, focus exclusively on P.]
 
On the JEPD theory, the main author of Leviticus is P, the Jerusalem priestly 
source.  As opposed to Milgrom’s theory, Richard Elliott Friedman dates P to 
the mid-7th century BCE or so.  At p. 4 of “The Bible With Sources Revealed”, 
Friedman characterizes the P portions of the Bible as being “produced by the 
Jerusalem priesthood as an alternative to the [older] history told in JE.”
 
As to Milgrom’s own theory of the case, perhaps the following may be helpful:
 
“Milgrom…sharply distinguish[es]…Priestly Israelite religious ideology from 
other, clearly inferior, forms of religion.  Thus, according to Milgrom, ‘
there is no animism in the Bible’ in contrast to that found in ‘primitive 
religion
’.”  William K. Gilders, Emory University, at 
_http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/reviews/review212.htm_ 
(http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/reviews/review212.htm) 
 
So now let’s see how those two aspects of P apply to the Patriarchal 
narratives.  P hates animism, and P, representing the Jerusalem priesthood, 
not 
surprisingly thinks that religious observances should be focused at 
Jerusalem.  Can 
either of those two key views of P be squared with the received text of the 
Patriarchal narratives?
 
A.  Animism:  Sacred Trees
 
Wherever one looks in the Patriarchal narratives, one finds sacred trees.  
That is antithetical to the anti-animism views of P.
 
The first thing that Abraham does upon entering Canaan in chapter 12 of 
Genesis is to worship at a sacred tree (which must be located near the hamlet 
of 
Salim) on the west bank of the Jordan River, just east of Shechem.  “And 
Abram 
crossed through the land to the site of Shechem, to the Terebinth [or Oak] of 
the Oracle.”  Genesis 12: 6, Robert Alter translation.  In his Anchor Bible 
book “Genesis”, E.A. Speiser at p. 86 notes that the Targum Onkelos renders 
terebinth here as “‘plain’, evidently to avoid the pagan implications of a 
sacred 
tree.”
 
Professor Mark G. Brett is truly shocked at the utter blasphemy of Abraham’s 
actions regarding sacred trees and altars:
 
“Abram builds an altar to Yahweh in the same area as the sacred tree (12.7), 
and this is just the first of many cases where the religious practices of the 
Israelite ancestors flout the laws of Deuteronomy without so much as a 
cautionary remark from the editors.  Deuteronomy 16:21 prohibits the 
juxtaposition of 
trees and altars, yet Abram builds an altar beside terebinths both here and 
in 13.18.”  “Genesis:  Procreation and the Politics of Identity” (2000), at 
p. 
51.
 
There’s no way that P could put up with that!  (In fact, there were no 
editors of the Patriarchal narratives, except for a handful of two-word late 
glosses.)
 
Then the first place where Abraham settles in the Promised Land, in the 
Valley of Hebron, is marked by another sacred tree:  the Terebinth (or Oak) 
of 
Mamre.  Genesis 13: 18  And it is by that same sacred oak tree in the Valley 
of 
Hebron where Abraham and Sarah are expressly stated to be visited by three 
divine figures.  Genesis 18: 1 Later, when Abraham decides to stay at 
“Beersheba” 
in Gerar for many years, Abraham plants a sacred tree.  Genesis 21: 33  Prof. 
Alter notes at p. 102:  “The cultic tree is planted [by Abraham] at…Beer-sheba
”.
 
Jacob/“Israel” is also partial to sacred trees.  When Jacob is concerned 
that he needs YHWH’s help to escape the wrath of the friends and neighbors of 
the 
murdered men of Shechem, Jacob orders all of his people’s idols to be buried 
beneath that sacred oak tree (which must be at Salim) near Shechem, where 
Abraham had stopped first upon entering Canaan.  Genesis 35: 4  Not long 
thereafter, Jacob takes care to bury his mother’s nurse, Deborah, under an 
oak tree, 
the “Oak of Weeping”.  Genesis 35: 8
 
We see that P is AWOL in the Patriarchal narratives as to the issue of sacred 
trees.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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