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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: kwonbbl AT gmail.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Galilean Bethlehem?
  • Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2010 15:03:17 EDT


Oun Kwon wrote: “Reading v. 16 'Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when
there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, ...' (NASB), it must be not
too


far from Bethel to be Bethlehem in Judea.”

As to the location of Jacob’s “Bethel”, here is the relevant portion of
Genesis 35: 6-7: “So Jacob came to Luz, …and he…called the place Elbethel: be
cause there God [had] appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his
brother” [in leaving Canaan to go to Laban’s place way out east in
Naharim]. Luz/LWZ is Laish, in northeastern Galilee. Jacob flees north to
Luz/Laish to avoid any backlash from the bloody events at Shechem in central
Canaan.
Jacob gives Luz/Laish the Patriarchal nickname of “Bethel” or “Elbethel”
, in honor of the fact that Jacob, in leaving GRR/Upper Galilee to go to
Paddan-Aram to visit Laban, had been comforted by YHWH at Luz/Laish/“Bethel”/“
House of God” on the first night of his long journey out east. This is not
historical Bethel south of Shechem, but rather is historical Laish, way
north of Shechem, which Genesis 35: 7 tells us Jacob gave the Patriarchal
nickname “Elbethel”. Laish/Luz/“Bethel” is the first place in Canaan after
returning from Naharim/Paddan-Aram out east, and that is why we read at
Genesis
13: 9: “God [had] appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram,
and blessed him.”

Having gone northeast after the bloody Shechem incident, Jacob now
gradually moves south toward central Canaan. “Then they journeyed from
Bethel [that
is, Luz/Laish]. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel
went into labor, and she had hard labor.” Genesis 35: 16 The city name
transliterated as “Ephrath” is )PRT. The two most common west Semitic
suffixes
on the mid-15th century BCE Thutmose III list of places in Canaan are –T and
–N, each of which effectively means “place” in a geographical place name.
So )PRT is )PR-T, with the key letters being )PR. Now compare the spelling
of Afula in the Jezreel Valley: (PWLH. The vav is a post-exilic spelling
update, being a vowel indicator, and the –H is a common suffix [since most
place names are feminine in Hebrew]. The key letters are (PL, which compare
with the key letters )PR at Genesis 35: 16. I see these as being different
spellings of the same city: historical Afula, in the heart of the Jezreel
Valley. Bethlehem of Galilee is 10 miles north of Afula, and 50 miles
southwest of Laish/Luz/“Bethel”. So having slowly traveled 50 long miles
southwest of Laish/Luz/“Bethel”, but still being a good 10 miles north of the
next
sizable city, Afula, Rachel dies at a tiny place called Bethlehem of
Galilee. “So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath [Afula]
(that
is, Bethlehem [of Galilee])”. After Rachel’s death, Jacob continues to
journey south, to historical Migdal (southwest of Megiddo), where he tends
his “
flock”/(DR/“Eder”. “And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent on the
other side of Migdal-Eder.” Genesis 35: 21

Between Genesis 35: 6 and Genesis 35: 21 Jacob is between Laish and Migdal,
being well north of Judah. Jacob does not go to see his father Isaac in
XBR-W-N, at the Aijalon Valley in the northern Shephelah, until Isaac is on
his deathbed. Genesis 35: 27. So Jacob starts at Shechem, goes northeast to
Laish in fleeing the bloody Shechem incident, then slowly works his way
southwest to Afula by way of Bethlehem of Galilee, then southwest to Migdal
[naturally giving Shechem a very wide berth!], and finally south to
XBR-W-N/the
Aijalon Valley, just northwest of the territory controlled by the much later
state of Judah. XBR-W-N is west of historical Bethel (south of Shechem),
per Genesis 13: 9, 11, where Abraham says that he will go the opposite of
whatever way Lot goes, and Lot goes “east” of historical Bethel.

The geography of the Patriarchal narratives makes perfect sense, once one
realizes that the Patriarchs never sojourn south of a line drawn between
historical Bethel (south of Shechem, north of Jerusalem) and the Aijalon
Valley, whose Patriarchal nickname is XBR-W-N. XBR-W-N references the
idealized
kingdom XBR/Khuburu of mythical Ugaritic King Keret, with XBR-W-N also
meaning in Hurrian “the heaven-and-sky of mine”. XBR-W-N is a fanciful
Patriarchal nickname for a very real place, the wondrous pastureland of the
Aijalon
Valley. Note the difference in spelling: XBR-W-N is where the Patriarchs
tend a huge flock, whereas XBR-N, by stark contrast, is the highest city in
Canaan, surrounded by rugged mountains, 20 miles south of Jerusalem, being a
forbidding locale that could not possibly have enough water for a huge flock
of sheep and goats in the long, hot summers, while being too cold and wet
for camels in the winter. If one starts with Isaac being born in GRR/Upper
Galilee, which is where Jacob in turn starts from in leaving Canaan to go out
to Naharim, then one realizes that Jacob’s “Bethel” is a nickname for
historical Laish, and that this entire segment of the Patriarchal narratives
is
taking place in Galilee, not in southern Canaan, where the future state of
Judah would eventually coming into being many centuries later.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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