Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Karl:

1.  Let me start with what appears to be your main objection to my line of
reasoning on this thread:

“Where do you get these imaginary siblings and half siblings [of Jacob]?

There are many indications in the text that Jacob and Esau had brothers and
sisters, including half-brothers and half-sisters.

(a)  First and foremost, here is the JPS1917 translation of Genesis 27: 29,
when Isaac famously gives a grand blessing to a disguised Jacob, with Isaac
thinking he is giving this critical blessing to Isaac’s firstborn son Esau:

“Be lord over thy brethren [plural brothers of Esau], and let thy mother's
sons [plural sons of Rebekah, excluding Esau himself] bow down to thee.”

That blessing makes sense if and only if Rebekah gave birth to other sons
after the twins Esau and Jacob.

(b)  Daughters of the Patriarchs are rarely named, other than Dinah.  But
of course, the Patriarchs did not sire only sons.  So Isaac doubtless sired a
number of unnamed daughters.

(c)  Isaac almost certainly sired sons and daughters by minor wives.
Abraham and Jacob did that.

(d)  Here is a critical clue that there were many female descendants of
Isaac and Rebekah, who were not descendants of either Jacob or Esau:

“And the sons of Simeon:  Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and
Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman.”  Genesis 46: 10

The mention of Simeon having a minor wife or later wife who was a
Canaanite, as if that was something unusual, implies that most of Jacob’s 12 
sons,
excluding Judah and Joseph, married women who were related by blood to the
Hebrews.  It seems likely that a majority of the main wives of Jacob’s sons
were female descendants of Isaac and Rebekah, who were not descendants of Esau
and Jacob.  These marriages would be marriages to first or second cousins,
or descendants of such cousins, which were often thought of as being ideal
marriages in the ancient world.

Thus all in all, we can be virtually certain that at the time Jacob left
Harran, Jacob had many siblings and descendants of siblings (including
half-siblings and their descendants), other than Esau and his descendants.  
Thus
Jacob had many MWLDT in Canaan.

2.  As to my pointing out that Ur was a city, not a country, you oddly
replied:

“Where does it say that it [Ur] was a single city?  How do you know that Ur
of the


Chaldeans was not an Early Bronze Age country with several cities?”

Not a single historian has ever thought that “Ur of the Chaldeans was...an
Early Bronze Age country with several cities”.

How do you expect people to take such an argument seriously?

But perhaps I should agree with you, as follows.  Your analysis of MWLDT in
the Patriarchal narratives makes sense if and only if Ur is not a city, but
rather Ur is a country with several cities.  By making such an argument,
you in effect concede that if Ur is a single city, like everyone else thinks
it is, then )RC MWLDT cannot mean “land of one’s birth”.



3.  You also noted, somewhat oddly, since you seem to be assuming that my
views are exactly the opposite of what I have stated my views to be:

“One thing is certain, that the Chaldeans, moving from north to south, did


not reach Sumer and its capital Ur until many centuries after Abraham, even


by your reckoning. Therefore, even by your reckoning, Ur of the Sumerians


could not be where Abraham was from.”

My whole point is that the Hebrews are not from Ur!  My whole point is that
the Hebrews are indigenous to Canaan.

On the other hand, I do not see “Kasdim” at Genesis 11: 28 as referring to
the Chaldeans.  The Chaldeans long post-date both the Patriarchs and the
composition of the Patriarchal narratives, in my view.  I see Kasdim at
Genesis 11: 28 (though not elsewhere in the Bible) as referring to the 
Kassites,
who ruled Ur and the rest of southern Mesopotamia in the mid-14th century BCE.

The Patriarchal Age is, in my view, more than 500 years after Ur ceased to
be the capital of Sumer.  But Ur was still in existence in the mid-14th
century BCE, and indeed was a wealthy provincial city that was still the main
place for a caravan to buy lapis lazuli at wholesale prices.

Jim Stinehart


Evanston, Illinois

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