Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Oun Kwon:
 
Without realizing it, you are re-creating an ancient Jewish controversy.  
Rachel is portrayed at Genesis 35: 19 as dying at Bethlehem in Galilee.  But 
post-exilic Jews re-interpreted that to mean Bethlehem of Judea, which was 
close to the place that the post-exilic Jews (unlike the Patriarchs) loved, 
Jerusalem.  Likewise, chapter 21 of Genesis tells us that Isaac was born in 
GRR, which per item #80 on the mid-15th century BCE Thutmose III list of 
places in Canaan is Upper Galilee.  But whereas GRR historically is Upper 
Galilee, Ezra re-interpreted that reference by claiming at II Chronicles 14: 
12-13 
that there supposedly is an unattested place called GRR in southwestern 
Judah.
 
Neither Jews nor Christians have been comfortable with those references in 
sacred scripture to Galilee.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois