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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Yamin -South

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  • From: jimstinehart AT aol.com
  • To: Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Yamin -South
  • Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2011 00:38:10 -0400 (EDT)


1. Will Parsons, responding to Isaac Fried, wrote: “I find that thought
quite extraordinary - I realize that that in ancient times people matured at
an earler age than they do now, but I find the thought that Jacob would be
enraptured by a 5-year old, ... disconcerting to say the least. And even
then, would a 5-year old be entrusted with the task of taking care of a flock
of sheep on her own?”

We are never given a stated age for Rachel, but we know Jacob’s ages at all
times, and we have Sarah’s ages for an analogy, so here’s what’s most likely.

Rachel was age 13 in 12-month years when Jacob first laid eyes on her.
That’s just old enough for Rachel to be “statuesque”, and old enough for
Rachel to tend the flock. Many females in the ancient world married at age
13, which likely was when a female back then was considered to be her very
most attractive. Leah, whom Jacob was supposed to marry, was the ideal age
for marriage, age 15, being the age that Sarah and Rebekah likely were when
they married. [Ages 13-15 were the normal ages for a female to be married in
the ancient world. By contrast, males were usually older, and sometimes much
older, when they married.] Jacob himself is age 27 [with this being Year
107, meaning 107 years in 12-month years after Abraham’s birth]. Jacob was
born in Year 80; Leah was born in Year 92, and is 12 years younger than
Jacob; Rachel was born in Year 94, and is 14 years younger than Jacob. But
Jacob has to wait 7 years before marrying them both, in Year 113. [Counting
both Year 107 and Year 113, that’s 7 years (not 6 years).] So at the end of
Year 113, Jacob awkwardly marries first Leah [due to trickery on the part of
Laban, Leah and Rachel, but it’s the right result], who is age 21, and then
Rachel, who is age 19, with Jacob being age 33. Leah is ages 22-28, in Years
114-120 [a total of 7 full years, not 6 years], when she bears 7 children
[counting Dinah as her 7th child]. A few days or weeks after Dinah is born,
Rachel finally bears Joseph in Year 120 [Year 12 tenfold], when Rachel is age
26. Jacob is age 40 at Joseph’s birth. That is an old age in the ancient
world for a man to sire a child, and Joseph is said to be a child of Jacob’s
old age. Joseph is Jacob’s youngest child for almost 10 years, before
disappearing.

Everything is quiet on the childbearing front for almost 10 years. Then both
Leah and Rachel get pregnant again. Leah dies in childbirth in Year 129.5,
with the child [whom Leah had hoped would be her 7th birth son], being
stillborn. Leah is buried at the Patriarchs’ Hebron, which is why the
family, which was splitting its time between Succoth and Shechem, spent a few
days at the Patriarchs’ Hebron at Genesis 37: 14. Leah is age 37½ at her
death, being very old in the ancient world for trying to bear another child.
Rachel dies in childbirth in Year 130, at age 36, but her son Benjamin lives
to be an adult. Jacob is age 50 in 12-month years at Benjamin’s birth, being
the same age as Abraham was at Isaac’s birth. Abraham had witnessed 100 fall
and spring New Years, and hence is stated to be age 100 at Isaac’s birth.

The flashback in chapter 37 of Genesis starts when Joseph is age 8½ in
12-month years [stated age 17, since he had witnessed 17 fall and spring New
Years]. Young Jacob, a “boy”/nar, has his first dream of the sheaves of his
older half-brothers bowing down to him. About 12 months later, in Year
129.5, when Jacob is age 9½ and the family is spending a few days at the
Patriarchs’ Hebron to bury Leah, Jacob awkwardly has his fateful second
dream: 11 stars [including Benjamin en ventre sa mere], the sun and the moon
bow down to Jacob. Jacob disappears at age 9½, in Year 129.5. In Year 130,
being Year 13 tenfold, first comes the bloody Shechem incident, and then
Benjamin is born.

Jacob, age 50, has just seen his favorite son Joseph disappear and presumably
is dead, and beloved Rachel has just now died in childbirth, giving birth to
a second son. Jacob’s former love and favoritism for Joseph and Rachel now
transfer to Rachel’s second-born son, who is Joseph’s only full-brother.
Jacob, acting emotionally, decides to call beloved Rachel’s second son BN
YMYN, “Son of my Right Hand”, thereby announcing to the world his plan to
eventually place his “right hand”/YMYN on this “son”/BN, which would anoint
Benjamin as the leader of the next generation of Hebrews. Jacob favors
Benjamin for 15 long years [after having favored Joseph for the previous 10
years]. Only when the family is forced to move to Egypt [when Benjamin is
age 15, in Year 145] does Jacob, age 65 [stated age 130, per Genesis 47: 9]
gradually come to his senses and realize that Benjamin should not be named
the leader of the next generation of the Hebrews.

So now everyone can see a-l-l the relevant ages. The primary relevance for
this thread is that Benjamin is born in Year 130 per chapter 35 of Genesis,
and then chapter 37 of Genesis is a flashback, first to Year 128.5, and then
to Year 129.5, when Joseph is almost murdered by his older half-brothers and
is taken to Egypt, a few months b-e-f-o-r-e Benjamin is born in Year 130.

See how a-l-l the ages in the Patriarchal narratives make perfect sense on
all levels? And that lets us figure out w-h-y Jacob called Rachel’s
second-born son BN YMYN, “Son of my Right Hand”. [The Patriarchal narratives
make a lot more sense once one has figured out everyone’s ages.]

2. Prof. Yigal Levin wrote: “Well, according to rabbinic calculations,
Rebecca was 3 at the time of her marriage to Isaac. Now if you insist on
taking that literally, it is indeed strange, to say the least.”

Once again, the text gives us no stated age for Rebekah, but we have a close
analogy to Sarah, and we certainly know Isaac’s ages. Isaac was born in Year
50. Isaac marries at stated age 40, being age 20 in 12-month years, in Year
70. Just as Sarah was 5 years [in 12-month years] younger than Abraham, so
also is Rebekah likely 5 years younger than Isaac. That makes Rebekah the
ideal age for marriage, age 15, and Rebekah is portrayed as being ideal in
every way as Isaac’s bride. So Sarah and Rebekah marry at age 15, and Leah
should have married Jacob at age 15, but instead Leah in effect becomes
engaged to Jacob [though Jacob thinks he’s going to marry statuesque Rachel].
We can only be absolutely sure that (i) Isaac marries at age 20 in 12-month
years, and that (ii) Sarah is 5 years younger than Abraham, but all of the
other ages set forth in this item #2 seem reasonably certain by analogy.

Neither the rabbis, nor modern scholars, have figured out people’s ages in
the Patriarchal narratives. Isaac is stated age 40 when he marries in Year
70, meaning that Isaac had witnessed 40 fall and spring New Years at the time
of his marriage to Rebekah, with Isaac being age 20 in 12-month years. Jacob
is born 10 years [in 12-month years] later, in Year 80, when Isaac is stated
age 60, meaning that Isaac had witnessed 60 fall and spring New Years, and
was age 30 in 12-month years. Sarah had witnessed 90 fall and spring New
Years, and was age 45 in 12-month years [in Year 50] when Isaac was born.
All of the ages of all persons in the Patriarchal narratives make perfect
sense on all levels.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois







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