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  • From: jimstinehart AT aol.com
  • To: bjwvmw AT com-pair.net, yishalom AT sbcglobal.net, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc: George.Athas AT moore.edu.au
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Fw: Re: Names of Rachel's Second-Born Son
  • Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:47:34 -0400 (EDT)


Rev. Bryant J. Williams III:

You wrote: “[T]he calendars of Israel were of two types: sacred and secular.
There is a six month difference between them since Passover, followed by
Feast of Unleavened Bread, begins the sacred calendar in March-April; while
the secular calendar begins with Hashanah, followed by the Feast of
Tabernacles (Booth), in September-October. Your calendrical half-years is
speculative.”

But that’s after the Exodus. What were the calendars of Canaan like before
the Exodus? Didn’t Canaan have a fall New Year, for the harvest of fruits,
and a spring New Year, for the harvest of grains? Weren’t those two New
Years of approximately equal importance in Canaan prior to the Exodus,
because the people of Canaan got about half their caloric intake from each of
those two harvests?

Joseph cannot be age 17 in 12-month years at Genesis 37: 2. The sympathetic
narrator calls him a “boy”. That works perfectly if Joseph had witnessed 17
fall and spring New Years, being a boy age 8½ in 12-month years. But it
would be a terrible insult for the narrator to call Israel’s favorite son
“boy” if he were a full-grown man in the ancient world, age 17 in 12-month
years.

And consider how, with childish naivete, Joseph excitedly tells all his older
half-brothers of his dream when all their sheaves of grain bow down to him.
That is charming for a boy age 8½ in 12-month years. But it would be dumb
for an adult man, age 17 in 12-month years, to be that naïve as to how his
older half-brothers would react to the telling of such a dream.

We know that Joseph was born in Year 12 tenfold, being Year 120. So Genesis
37: 2 announces to the audience that chapter 37 of Genesis will begin in Year
128.5, as Joseph is age 8½ in 12-month years. The audience knows that
Benjamin was born in Year 13 tenfold, being Year 130, shortly after the
bloody Shechem incident [per chapter 35 of Genesis], with the ruler of
Shechem historically being assassinated in Year 13. So the audience knows
that chapter 37 of Genesis is a flashback.

Why do you say my counting of people’s ages in the Patriarchal narratives is
“speculative”? You don’t think that Ishmael lived to age 137 in 12-month
years, do you? You don’t think Sarah bore Isaac at age 90 in 12-month years,
do you? Sarah had witnessed 90 fall and spring New Years, and was age 45 in
12-month years.

As you probably know, scholars advise us to ignore all the numbers in the
Patriarchal narratives for all purposes. Do you think that’s good advice?
When Genesis 37: 2 says that Joseph was stated age 17, don’t you think that
has real meaning? It tells us he’s a boy, age 8½ in 12-month years, and that
chapter 37 of Genesis is a flashback, going back to the time period shortly
before Benjamin’s birth.

My guess is that you yourself do not see the name BN-YMYN as being a
“euphemism”. It’s a perfectly logical name, once one realizes that not only
Rachel, but also Joseph, had disappeared from Jacob’s life shortly before
Jacob decided to call Rachel’s second son “Son of my Right Hand”, that is,
Jacob’s heir-apparent.

My guess is that you agree with me that all the numbers in the Patriarchal
narratives are perfect, as is, rather than being senseless and something that
should be ignored. Every single stated age in that text makes perfect sense,
once one realizes that all stated ages are set forth in terms of how many
fall and spring New Years a person had witnessed. Only on that basis can we
understand why Jacob called Rachel’s second-born son, non-euphemistically,
BN-YMYN/“Son of my Right Hand” [because Joseph had just recently disappeared
and was presumed dead by Jacob, so that Benjamin promptly took Joseph’s place
in Jacob’s heart]. And finally, my guess is that you would agree with me
that there’s not a single mistake in chapters 37 and 35 of Genesis. Rachel
is not alive at Genesis 37: 10, after previously being dead at Genesis 35:
19. No, chapter 37 of Genesis is a flashback. The received Hebrew text is
perfect, as is. We simply need to figure out how the early Hebrew author
wants us to interpret his incomparable text.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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