Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Dear George Athas and Yigal Levin:
 
Now that the two of you as moderators have opened and dedicated a thread to 
making humorous remarks about my ideas in general and my view of Beersheba in 
particular, I wonder if you might do me the courtesy of responding on the 
merits to the following five arguments I have made that chapters 21 and 26 of 
Genesis are referring to Beersheba of Galilee, not the more famous Beersheba 
in the Negev.
 
1.  In chapter 26 of Genesis, Isaac is portrayed as digging a series of four 
wells, spaced about a day’s journey or so apart, ending with Beersheba.  That 
does not make sense near the Beersheba in the Negev Desert, which is famous 
precisely because of the great paucity of other wells in the vicinity:  
“Brigadier-General William Bartholomew…pointed out in June 1917:  ‘there is 
apparently no water fit for the troops to drink on any part of the enemy’s 
present line between Gaza and Beersheba, except [the many wells at Beersheba 
itself]’.”  Brian Holden Reid, “Military Power” (1997), at p. 64.   By sharp 
contrast, a whole series of wells makes complete sense in west-central Upper 
Galilee:  “To the rain and mists that fall on the Lebanons above are due 
Galilee's abundant water supply in rivers, wells, springs, and fountains, and 
her great fruitfulness.  Galilee is the garden of Palestine.”  Martha 
Tarbell, “Geographical Pamphlet:  Palestine in the Time of Christ” (1907), at 
p. 16.  If that comment is too old and lyrical for your taste, then consider 
modern hard science.  In view of my contention that the series of four wells 
referred to at Genesis 26: 17-23, 32-33, each spaced about a day’s walk or so 
from the next, is in northwest Galilee, note the following very pertinent 
comment from the Negev Dept. of Geological & Environmental Sciences, in 
“Geological Framework of the Levant” (2005):   “The formation is continuous 
over most of the central and western Galilee, except for several wells in the 
north-western Galilee….”  So we see that, just as the Bible accurately tells 
us, a series of wells, and northwestern Galilee, are a match made in heaven. 
 
2.  In digging this series of wells, only as to the last one, Beersheba, is 
Isaac said to go “up”.  Genesis 26: 23.  That makes perfect sense as to 
Beersheba of Galilee, which is in the foothills of the mountains of Galilee.  
Starting from Sur/Tyre on the coast, and proceeding southeast, the first 
place to which one would go “up” is precisely Beersheba of Galilee.  By 
contrast, Beersheba of the Negev is located at the bottom of a basin.  In 
digging a series of (non-existent) wells in that area, there is no way that 
as to the last well, and only the last well, one would go “up” to Beersheba 
in the Negev.
 
3.  Beersheba is mentioned before and after the Wilderness of Paran in 
chapter 21 of Genesis, which indicates that Beersheba was very near the 
Wilderness of Paran.
 
(a)  On a linguistic basis, P)RN would seem to derive from P)RH, which means 
the foliage of a tree.  As such, MDBR P)RN would logically mean “a dense 
forest of trees”.  That works perfectly for the huge, dense forest of trees 
immediately southwest of Beersheba of Galilee in the Late Bronze Age.  But 
there was no forest of trees near the Beersheba in the Negev.
 
(b)  On a non-linguistic basis, we are told that Ishmael becomes an “archer”, 
with the implication that Hagar and Ishmael lived for some years on the basis 
of Ishmael hunting big game in the Wilderness of Paran.  In the next 
generation, Esau bags big game for his doting father Isaac shortly after 
Beersheba has been mentioned.  Hunting with a bow makes perfect sense in the 
dense forest southwest of Beersheba of Galilee in the Late Bronze Age, where 
deer, wild boars, etc. were plentiful.  But hunting would have been a 
difficult way to survive near the Beersheba in the Negev, which was a 
semi-arid area.
 
4.  When Jacob leaves Beersheba to escape the anger of his brother Esau, 
Isaac makes it from Beersheba to Luz on the first day of his long journey 
east.  That works perfectly if Jacob left Beersheba of Galilee, located in 
west-central Upper Galilee, and made it in one long day to Luz/Laish in the 
northeast corner of Upper Galilee.  But that sequence does not make sense for 
Beersheba of the Negev.  (Even if Luz were taken to be Bethel, though 
“Bethel”, not Luz, is stated to be the Patriarchal nickname, Jacob could not 
make it from Beersheba of the Negev to Bethel north of Jerusalem in a single 
day.)
 
5.  Perhaps the two of you may be thinking that Beersheba of Galilee did not 
exist until Hellenistic times, but that is not the case.  Item #50 on the 
mid-15th century BCE Thutmose III list of places in Canaan is BR, which may 
likely be referring to a series of wells in Upper Galilee, one of which may 
well be B)R $B( of Galilee.  The immediately preceding item on the T III 
list, KRYMN, seems to be near Beth Anath in central Upper Galilee, based on 
it being item #13 on the early 13th century BCE Seti I list of places in 
Upper Galilee, with B?-R being item #12 and Beth Anath being item #11.  It 
seems there was a well-known series of wells in west-central Upper Galilee in 
the Late Bronze Age, which made it onto both of these topographical lists.  
One of those wells may be what the Patriarchal narratives call Beer-sheba.  
Item #47 on the T III list is Acco, on the west coast of Lower Galilee, 
indicating the western part of Galilee.  All signs point to the geographical 
location of BR on these two Egyptian lists as likely being a series of wells 
in west central Upper Galilee, which include the Beer-sheba [of Galilee] in 
chapter 26 of Genesis.  Note that Genesis 26: 18-33 talks about a whole 
series of wells in this part of GRR/Galilee.  [GRR derives from the Akkadian 
word gararu, meaning “rolling”, referring to the “rolling” hills of Galilee.  
KRR at item #80 on the T III list (where Egyptian K is Semitic G), and Garu 
at Amarna Letter EA 256, are variants of GRR in referring to Galilee.  GRR is 
the Late Bronze Age spelling of Galilee, whereas GLYL is the post-Bronze Age 
spelling of Galilee.  Chapters 20 and 26 of Genesis state that the Patriarchs 
are in GRR/Galilee, shortly before the Beersheba sequences noted above.]    
These Egyptian topographical lists from the Late Bronze Age seem to be making 
a generic reference to that series of wells in northwest Galilee, with one 
such well very possibly being what the Biblical text calls Beersheba.  
 
Jim Stinehart 
Evanston, Illinois





-----Original Message-----
From: Tory Thorpe <torythrp AT yahoo.com>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org; Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Sent: Thu, Mar 10, 2011 11:52 pm
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The meaning of Beersheba


You guys should just either not allow this stuff to make it on to the list in 
he first place or seriously engage it, not waste time mocking it with 
hetorical exercise. Some of the points, had they been presented in the 
"right" 
ay, might be worth a real discussion.
Tory Thorpe
el Aviv, Israel