To: leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Galilean Bethlehem?
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2010 10:33:27 EDT
Oun Kwon:
Without realizing it, you are re-creating an ancient Jewish controversy.
Rachel is portrayed at Genesis 35: 19 as dying at Bethlehem in Galilee. But
post-exilic Jews re-interpreted that to mean Bethlehem of Judea, which was
close to the place that the post-exilic Jews (unlike the Patriarchs) loved,
Jerusalem. Likewise, chapter 21 of Genesis tells us that Isaac was born in
GRR, which per item #80 on the mid-15th century BCE Thutmose III list of
places in Canaan is Upper Galilee. But whereas GRR historically is Upper
Galilee, Ezra re-interpreted that reference by claiming at II Chronicles 14:
12-13
that there supposedly is an unattested place called GRR in southwestern
Judah.
Neither Jews nor Christians have been comfortable with those references in
sacred scripture to Galilee.