Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

George Athas wrote:  “[P]lease engage in a methodologically appropriate way.
”

O.K., let’s ask whether GRR/Gerar in the Patriarchal narratives may be
referencing northern Canaan (rather than southwest Judah as traditionally
thought), by examining
what scholars say as to whether KRR at item #80 on the mid-15th century BCE
Tuthmosis III list (“T III list”) may be GRR/“Gerar” in northern Canaan.
[In asking whether the first two geographical references at Genesis 20: 1
(NGB and QD$) are Late Bronze Age cities in eastern Galilee in northern
Canaan (per my prior post), one critical issue is whether the fourth 
geographical
reference at Genesis 20: 1, “Gerar”/GRR, means “Galilee”/GLL/GLYL in a
Late Bronze Age context, or at least is a rough equivalent to the later notion
of Galilee, in northern Canaan.]

In 1907, German scholar W.M. Muller argued that KRR at item #80 on the
Thutmosis III list (which Yigal Levin and some other scholars see as being
GLYL/Galilee in northern Canaan) is Biblical “Gerar”/GRR.  W.M. Muller, Die
Palastinaliste Thutmosis III.  Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft
(1907) Eingetragener Verein.  12.  Jahrgang.  Berlin:  Wolf Peiser Verlag, at
p. 24.  (See the Internet site and modern scholarly commentary referenced
immediately below.)

In 2006, Finnish scholar Eero Kalevi Junkkaala considered this old German
scholarly view of KRR as being GRR/Gerar, along with other more recent
scholarly views of KRR, without coming to any definite conclusion:

“Muller argues that the name [KRR at item #80] could be identified as
Gerar, but it is also possible to consider Galal.  Helck is suspect about this
reading of the name, but does not give any other suggestion.  Aharoni reads
the name as Galil….”  “Three Conquests of Canaan” (2006), Abo Akedemi
University Press, Biskopsgatan, Finland, at p. 165, a book that is reproduced 
on
the Internet at:
_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)

I realize that Prof. Muller’s view that KRR = GRR/Gerar is “old”.  But
that view has been looked at by many fine scholars over the last 100 years, 
and
has never really been refuted.  KRR on the Thutmosis III list is located in
northern Canaan, and is a perfect linguistic match to GRR/Gerar.  (Egyptian
K can be gimel/G, as in MKT on the T III list being MGDW (Megiddo) in
Hebrew, and most scholars, including Yigal Levin, view the Egyptian K in KRR 
as
being gimel/G;  Egyptian R can be resh/R or lamed/L.)  The problem is that
despite the apparent linguistic match, scholars have been unwilling to
question the Ezra era view (discussed later in this post) that Gerar is 
portrayed
in the Patriarchal narratives as being located in southwest Judah.  In fact,
there is no inscriptional support whatsoever from the secular history of the
ancient world for the Ezra era view (which is identical to the modern
scholarly view as to geographical locations), under which the locales of NGB, 
QD$
and GRR at Genesis 20: 1 are viewed as being in southwest Judah.  By sharp
contrast, there are secular historical inscriptions from the Late Bronze Age
to document an historical northern Canaan locale for each and every one of
NGB, (unpointed) QD$, and GRR at Genesis 20: 1.

As to the question of GRR vs. GLYL, which is the focus of this post, if, at
the time of the composition of the Patriarchal narratives, either GRR or
GLYL could have been used to reference northern Canaan, then it is no surprise
that the author would opt for GRR (even if GLYL was already the more
commonly used word), because of the clever Hebrew wordplay that results.  The
first appearance of GRR in the Patriarchal narratives is at the end of Genesis
20: 1, where the last few words are:  YGR B-GRR.  Note the nice play on GR,
where “to sojourn” and “Gerar” in Hebrew both feature GR.  (As will be
noted later in this post, GR is closely associated with northern Canaan in 
Late
Bronze Age secular history.)

Whereas it is very possible that KRR may be an inscription from the Late
Bronze Age attesting Gerar/GRR as being a rough equivalent of Galilee/GLL/GLYL
in northern Canaan, it is widely acknowledged by scholars that there is no
Gerar attested anywhere near Gaza in any ancient inscription:

“Gerar is never mentioned in any non-biblical source and its role as the
principal city in the western Negeb during the ‘ancestral period’ is fraught
with difficulties.”  Anson Rainey, “The Sacred Bridge” (2006), at p. 114.

Note in particular that Joshua never mentions “Gerar”, even though (i)
hundreds of towns in southern Canaan are recorded on the Joshua city lists,
(ii) we know from Genesis 26: 1-6 that Gerar is definitely in Canaan, and 
(iii)
scholars recognize that many of the city names in Joshua are Late Bronze
Age names.  That indicates that no “Gerar” was known as a city in southern
Canaan in the Iron Age.

In his fine article on the boundaries of the land of Canaan and
Kadesh-barnea, Yigal Levin never mentions Gerar.  “Numbers 34: 2-12, The 
Boundaries of
the Land of Canaan, and the Empire of Necho”, in “Journal of the Ancient
Near Eastern Society”, Vol. 30 (2006), pp. 55-76.  That’s because no Biblical
author ever links Kadesh-barnea to Gerar, even though both such places are
traditionally viewed as being located near the southwest border of Canaan.
Outside of Genesis 20: 1, no Biblical author ever links QD$ to Gerar either.
 (In fact, contra Yigal Levin’s view in that article, QD$ at Genesis 20: 1
has nothing to do with Kadesh-barnea south of Gaza.  Rather, despite the
medieval pointing done in the Middle Ages, QD$ at Genesis 20: 1 is an
historical Late Bronze Age city in Gerar/Galilee, in eastern Upper Galilee in
northern Canaan.)

It was in the Ezra era, in post-exilic times, that II Chronicles 14: 13-14
presents Gerar as being located between Judah and Egypt, presumably on the
far southwest corner of Judah (since Gerar is explicitly stated at Genesis
26: 1-6 to be in Canaan).  That geographical claim (which is the substantive
basis for the later medieval pointing of QD$ at Genesis 20: 1) is made in a
passage that has no equivalent in either secular history or the rest of the
Bible.  There is no non-religious reason to give historical credence to that
very late assertion in Chronicles, especially since the story told there has
no basis whatsoever in secular history or in the rest of the Bible.  (In
this post, I will not discuss Genesis 10: 19, which is the only other mention
of Gerar in the Bible outside of the Patriarchal narratives.)

When we compare GRR, NGB and (unpointed) QD$ in Genesis 20: 1 to the
mid-15th century BCE T III list and Ugaritic sources and the Amarna Letters, 
we
come to see that GRR/Gerar is not a fictional name of a fictional town in
southwest Canaan.  Rather, GRR/Gerar is an earlier or alternative version of 
the
historical name of some ill-defined region in northern Canaan, whose later
name, in the Iron Age and thereafter, was GLL/GLYL/Galilee.  GRR is the
linguistic equivalent of KRR on the T III list, and given its location on the 
T
III list, item #80 KRR must be referencing a town or region in northern
Canaan.  (Note Yigal Levin’s view that KRR on the T III list is Galilee.)  In
Ugaritic literature, the eastern part of Galilee is sometimes referred to as
GR.  George A. Barton, “Danel, a Pre-Israelite Hero of Galilee”, in “Journal
of Biblical Literature”, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Sept., 1941), pp. 216-218, 225.
In the Amarna Letters, Garu or ga-ri, whose key consonants are G-R, at Amarna
Letter EA 256: 23 appears to consist of cities in or fairly near Galilee,
including Yanoam just south of the Sea of Galilee, and Anaharath a few miles
southwest of Yanoam.  Although GRR and both versions of GR are ill-defined
at this early point in time, all of them seem to include at least part of
eastern Galilee.  (The view of Wm. Moran, the editor of the Amarna Letters,
that “Garu” is not GR, but rather is a “scribal error” for Biblical Geshur,
is untenable special pleading, being against all the manifest weight of the
geographical evidence, despite the fact that at least on occasion it has been
taken seriously by scholars such as B. Mazar, “Geshur and Maacah”, in “
Journal of Biblical Literature”, Vol. 80, No. 1 (Mar. 1961), at p. 20.)  In 
any
event, one thing that is clear is that  n-o-r-t-h-e-r-n  Canaan is always
front and center when it comes to GRR or GR as geographical place names in
ancient times;  neither GRR nor either version of GR ever includes southern
Canaan, much less any locale south of Gaza.  It is possible that GRR in the
Late Bronze Age was a vague reference to what we today might term “Greater
Eastern Galilee” or “the Greater Northwest Jordan River Valley”.  Though GRR
and GR at that early time were likely nowhere near to being a close match to
the precise Roman Era concept of Galilee, nevertheless the focus is always
on northern Canaan, and at least part of eastern Galilee is always included
in GRR or GR.  Whereas it is easy to find somewhat ambiguous references in
the Late Bronze Age to GRR or GR referring to some ill-defined portion of
n-o-r-t-h-e-r-n  Canaan -- on the T III list, in Ugaritic literature, and in
the Amarna Letters, one never finds GRR or GR referenced anywhere near or
south of Gaza prior to the common era.  Based on the foregoing examples from
secular history, it seems clear that prior to the Babylonian Captivity and the
Ezra era, the Hebrew letters GRR in the Patriarchal narratives would have
connoted “north” to a southern Hebrew audience, that is, an ill-defined
region somewhere in northern Canaan that may be roughly comparable to Galilee.

Scholars W.M. Muller and Yigal Levin are  b-o-t-h  correct, in my
controversial opinion, as to KRR on the T III list.  KRR on the T III list is
GRR/Gerar, per W.M. Muller,  a-n-d  KRR on the T III list is also 
GLL/GLYL/Galilee,
per Yigal Levin.  GRR at Genesis 20: 1 is referring to a Late Bronze Age
historical name of an historical region in northern Canaan, not a fictional
name of a fictional city in southwest Judah.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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