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  • From: Vadym Zhuravlov <Vadym.Zhuravlov AT cern.ch>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Ephod in Judges 8
  • Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:26:25 +0200

Dear b-hebrew-ers,

During the reading of Gideon stories in Judges I learned that the current
scholars opinion (R.Boling, D.N.Friedman) sees the meaning of word
"ephod" as a garment. "Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible" describes ephod
of Gideon as following:

"Several passages describe an idolatrous ephod. Gideon makes an ephod
with the captured gold of the Ishmaelists ans places it in the city of
Orphah. It becomes a stumbling block to Gideon and his family along with
all of Israel (Judg. 8:27). Gideon's ephod is not described, but it may
be either a noniconic vestment employed in obtaining oracles or a garment
covering an idol, such as those associated with Mesopotamian or Egyptian
cultic statues (cf. Isa 30:22)"

http://books.google.com/books?id=P9sYIRXZZ2MC&pg=PA415

On the other hand, J.Wellhausen renders ephod as an image, for example, in
this passage of "Prolegomena":

"the Priestly Code indeed no longer knows what those articles [ephods] are
for, and it confounds the ephod of gold with the ephod of linen, the
plated image with the priestly robe"

The question is why the rendering of Wellhausen is not valid any more?
HALOT says that "from the current linguistic and archaeological evidence
it appears to be a cuirass-like sacral garment made of metal and common in
Asia Minor." What exactly is this linguistic and archaeological
evidence?

Best regards,
Vadym Zhuravlov
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