The Cultural World of the Bible
The ancestral stories in the book of Genesis provide a legal and social foundation for much of the rest of the biblical narrative. It is important, for instance, to have a story that explains where the people came from and why they had a claim to the “promised land” that supersedes the claims of the Canaanites who occupied that territory before the arrival of Abram and his family. At the same time, it is important to explain why certain places become integral to Israel’s history. The narratives draw on collective memory contained in a host of stories that were edited into their current form. These stories are not intended to serve as a history of the time period when Abram and his descendants first settled in Canaan. Instead they provide the basis for theological and traditional precedents that guide the Israelites in later periods.
Precedents in the Ancestral Narratives
God’s covenant promise. A conditional contract is established with Abram to receive land and children in exchange for obedience to God’s command and exclusive worship of Yahweh.
Altars built in Canaan. They provide an introduction of Yahweh worship and a physical “stake” in claiming the promised land.
Significant places. Repeated visits to Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, and Beer-sheba mark them as geographic centers of importance.
Circumcision becomes a mark of membership. While not unique to the Israelites, it is sufficiently unusual (compare the “uncircumcised” Philistines) to serve that purpose.
Bargaining is possible with God. Abraham does this over the fate of Sodom (Gen. 18), and Jacob negotiates with God over becoming heir of the covenant (Gen. 28).
Endogamy. At least for the first three generations, it was important to only marry within the designated group.
Anachronisms in the Ancestral Narratives
Camels were first domesticated in the Arabian peninsula and would have been unusual among pastoral nomadic groups in Canaan prior to the thirteenth century BCE (see Gen. 12:14–16; 24:10–67; 31:17–35; 37:25).
Philistines did not arrive in Canaan until after the 1200 BCE invasion of the Near East by the Sea Peoples (see Gen. 21:34; 26:1, 8, 18).
Reference to city of Dan (Gen. 14:14) reflects the later name for a city originally known as Laish (Judg. 18:27–29).In the book of Genesis, Abraham and the other ancestral figures are portrayed as pastoral nomads who travel from northwestern Mesopotamia (Haran) southwest into Canaan by way of Damascus. From there they take their flocks and families west into Egypt on two occasions, settling in the third generation in the Nile Delta region (Goshen) after Joseph obtains a royal bequest from the pharaoh. Along the way they engage in the normal pursuits of pastoral nomadic peoples, seeking pasture for their sheep and goats and interacting with the settled population. The efforts of historians and the excavations of archaeologists have yet to provide incontrovertible evidence for the historical reality of the ancestors. As a result some scholars argue that the narratives are literary recreations of tribal history compiled by scribes or priests during the monarchic or the postexilic period to provide the nation of Israel with a claim to Canaan and an origin story. According to this view, the ancestors were either folk heroes or composite characters based on the exploits of many different tribal leaders from the nation’s past.
While the memories of this period are hazy, the episodes in the ancestral narratives are appealing to readers for their human interest value. They contain quite convincing and poignant descriptions of itinerant herders and their families. The attention to detail and the importance attached to certain social customs suggest that this material is more than a literary attempt to recreate an ancient era. There simply is no point in making up forms of social interaction, especially if your original audience is very familiar with tribal groups and basic family dynamics. Certainly the text does contain some anachronisms (elements that fit into a different time period than that of the story), and the evidence of later editing of the text is clear in many places. Nevertheless, the narratives give the overwhelming impression of a time when the ancestors of the Hebrews were new to the land and still dependent on the household and the tribe, not the nation, for their identity.
The exact dates of the ancestral period are still uncertain since we lack extrabiblical confirmation of the characters or events in Genesis. Ancient cuneiform tablets found at the northern Mesopotamian city of Mari and dated to the eighteenth century BCE do contain descriptions of tribal groups whose activities and interactions with the urban community are surprisingly similar to those of the biblical ancestors. Of course, similar environmental and economic conditions among tribal people are likely to foster similar herding strategies and interactions with local officials. We can certainly posit that the pastoral nomadic tribes in the Mari letters operated in a similar manner, and that can assist with an examination of the setting for the ancestral narratives. Still, the use of parallel information and historical events such as those found in the Mari documents must be employed with care when drawing conclusions about the Bible. If it were possible to provide a likely time period for the ancestors, however, the turbulent centuries of the early second millennium could be a good choice.
In terms of the history of the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries BCE, it was a time of flux and transformation for the cultures of Mesopotamia. Under the leadership of King Hammurabi and his successors, Babylon conquered all of the city-states and kingdoms in the region. The kings of Babylon subjected the inhabitants of the entire Tigris-Euphrates valley to centralized rule and imposed both the benefits and the constraints of Babylonian law and administration. After 1600 BCE, the Babylonian Empire went into decline and was eventually replaced by a group of smaller states, including the Kassites in the south and the Mitanni in north-central Mesopotamia.
I was also given robes of purest linen, myrrh, and the scents used by Pharaoh and his court. I had slaves to perform my every wish. (OTP, 141)During the period between 2000 and 1800 BCE, Egypt also experienced internal disorder. This situation is demonstrated in the epic narrative of Sinuhe, a political refugee who fled to Canaan in order to escape being implicated in the murder of a pharaoh (OTP, 137–41). His joy, when he is eventually allowed to return to Egypt, is marked by a change of clothing (much like Joseph in Gen. 41:42–43) and the discarding of his “desert clothes.” A further sign of political unrest in the eighteenth century BCE occurs when the Hyksos raiders invaded the ancient kingdom. As new leaders were installed, Egypt had little time to deal with its political and economic contacts in Canaan. The foreign invaders set themselves up as pharaohs at Avaris, their Delta region capital. Archaeological and textual evidence suggest that these foreign rulers were of Asiatic, and more specifically Western Semitic or Amorite, origin. Discovery of scarabs (images of the dung beetle that had inscriptions carved into their flat side), amulets, and other Egyptian merchandise found at Jericho, Megiddo, and other major sites in Canaan indicate active trade between the Hyksos and the Levant during this period. Some see this political shake-up as an opportune time for Joseph and his brothers to move into the area of Goshen (Gen. 46:1–47:12), also in the Nile Delta, but again we lack Egyptian sources to confirm this possibility.
During the time when Babylon’s kings built and lost an empire in Mesopotamia, and Egypt suffered internal problems, the peoples of Canaan enjoyed relative freedom. The freedom to develop on their own continued until the rise of the New Kingdom in Egypt (sixteenth century BCE), when its aggressive pharaohs defeated the Hyksos rulers and attempted to restore their extended control over Canaan. Taken in the context of the biblical narrative, it is interesting to see that Abraham’s household is able to enter and spend extended periods of time in Canaan without reference to an Egyptian presence there. If this was indeed the period associated with Israel’s ancestors, then they took advantage of new opportunities for building a life in other lands distant from the conflicts in Mesopotamia and later in a region of Egypt controlled by foreign rulers.
Regardless of the degree of historicity of the ancestral narratives, the aspects of the basic economy and social life of pastoral nomadic peoples in the ancient Near East can be studied using these stories of Abraham and his descendants. Individual aspects of existence will be highlighted below, and special regard will be given to the literary construction of the narratives, archaeological discoveries, and any parallel written materials available from Mesopotamia and Egypt.
The Cultural World of the Bible
Baker Publishing Group
Jul 2015
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