Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Genesis 25: 2 tells us that two of Keturah’s sons by Abraham were named MDN and MDYN.  Genesis 25: 6 then tells us where those sons were sent:  “But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.”

 

So Keturah’s sons MDN and MDYN were sent “eastward, unto the east country”.

 

Believe it or not, the scholarly community tells us that when MDN and MDYN were sent “eastward, unto the east country”, MDN and MDYN didn’t go even one step east of inland Canaan, but rather they went straight south, to western Arabia.  Here’s a leading Genesis scholar defending that tortured reading of Genesis 25: 6:

 

“The unique phrase, ‘land of qedem’, can be either a proper name for a specific territory, probably in the Syrian desert, that is known from Egyptian texts, or a general designation of the vast territory east of Israel extending from the Middle Euphrates to Arabia.  The identification of Keturah’s sons with place names in this vast territory [mainly, but not exclusively, MDYN and MDN] favors the latter interpretation.”  Bruce K. Waltke, “Genesis” (2001), p. 338.

 

Here’s another leading Genesis scholar who takes basically the same view:  “In Egyptian texts from the first half of the second millennium (e.g., the travels of Sinuhe) {twelfth dynasty} and one of the pyramid texts {eighteenth dynasty}), it [“Qedem”] appears to refer to part of the Syrian desert.  Later the term is used more loosely to cover those desert areas on the eastern fringes of the land of Israel…inhabited by the ‘people of the east’….”  Gordon Wenham, “Genesis 16-50” (1994), p. 160.

 

And here’s a third world-famous Genesis scholar making that same unbelievable argument:  “ ‘the country of the East’.  Apparently used here [at Genesis 25: 6] as a vague geographical concept for ‘desert lands’.”  E.A. Speiser, “Genesis” (1962), p. 187.

 

And here’s what noted Genesis scholar Gerhard von Rad has to say at p. 261 of “Genesis” (1972):  “The tribal names in the list [of Keturah’s sons] take us to South Palestine and Northwest Arabia….”

 

The scholarly community is simply unwilling to admit that a Biblical text could refer to the wealthy non-desert state of Mitanni in eastern Syria by its Late Bronze Age name, MDYN or MDN:  “The term Mitanni does not appear in the OT….”  Geoffrey W. Bromiley, “International Standard Bible Encyclopedia” (1986), p. 386.

 

But perhaps we should look on the bright side of things.  The scholarly view of Genesis and Exodus works  o-n-l-y  if the _expression_ “eastward, unto the east country” at Genesis 25: 6 means going straight south of inland Canaan to western Arabia, to the Gulf of Aqaba area.  If, on the other hand, “eastward, unto the east country” means that MDN and MDYN are portrayed as going east to eastern Syria, a non-desert locale which only in the Late Bronze Age was called Mitanni/MDYN/MDN, and with such name never being attested after the 12^th century BCE, then that would decimate the scholarly view that Genesis and Exodus are oral folklore that was recorded in writing only long after the end of the Late Bronze Age.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois