Geographical context of Genesis 35:8

Investigating the geographical context of the unit in question is not unimportant particularly if it is considered that the unit is found in the context of an itinerary. Certainly, location becomes crucial when a discussion centres on a journey. In 35:8, the burial of Deborah under an oak below Bethel is reported but the chapter itself contains several other place names. The itinerary took off at God’s command from Shechem; the destination was Bethel but it is noted that Jacob came out of Paddan Aram (v.9). At Bethel, Jacob built an altar and set up a pillar to God after God appeared to him again (vv. 7, 9-14). Rachel had her baby a little distance to Ephrath of Bethlehem and she died there (vv. 16, 19); Jacob pitched his tent beyond the tower of Edar (v.21) and, finally, he went to his father at Mamre in Arbah or Hebron (v.27).

4.2.5.1 Bethel

Deborah died and she was buried below Bethel. Is there anything particularly significant about the location? According to Coats (1983:238), the “catchword organization” that connects the unit with the context is Bethel; without it the unit has no contact with the context. If the weight of the unit’s connection rests on the location, Bethel, as Coats demonstrates, then, Bethel is worth investigating here. The name Bethel is mentioned explicitly in a number of verses in the chapter – 35:1, 3, 6, 8, 15 and 16. It is remarkable that of the twelve occurrences of the name in the book of Genesis, half is in chapter 35.

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We have observed earlier that the first time that the name Bethel196 is mentioned in Genesis is in connection with Abram in 12:8 – there Abram pitched his tent and built an altar to the Lord between Bethel and Ai. In 13:3, Abram went back to the same place between Bethel and Ai where he first pitched his tent. In both 12:8 and 13:3, the name Bethel is mentioned twice. In 28:19, Jacob erected a pillar and called the name of the place where he had a revelation of God in the night, Bethel. Lastly, in 31:13, Jacob related to his two wives a dream he had, noting that God introduced himself in the dream as the God of Bethel.

Outside the book of Genesis, dozens of other references to Bethel are found in the Old Testament. In Joshua 7:2; 8:9, 12, 17, the location197 _{of Bethel is described, that is, it}

was beside Ai, and Joshua laid ambush there between Ai and Bethel; Joshua 12:9, 16 show that Bethel had a king in those days198_{. In the period of the Judges, Bethel was}

home to the Ark of the Covenant and Deborah dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel (Judg. 4:5). “[I]n Samuel’s day, Bethel was a place of holy pilgrimage; Jeroboam chose it as a cultic centre for the northern kingdom and a school of prophets functioned there in the days of Elisha”. The prophecies of Amos and Hosea later castigated Bethel for its apostasy (Sarna 1989:399). Clearly, the thread of Bethel weaves through all the major sections of the Old Testament; from the Deuteronomistic history through the prophetic tradition, Bethel is a significant presence.

196

Bethel (house or temple of El or God) in the Old Testament mostly stands for the name of a particular city or the sanctuary in that city. However, it is also used a few times as the name of a deity (Rofé 1979: xx-xxi; Ross 1985:233; Brodsky 1992:709, 711; Gomes 2006:1).

197

See Sarna (1989:399).Bethel was located on the border of ancient Israel and Judah and is generally associated with the modern day Beitin or Beitil. Although a few other scholars have suggested modern el-Bireh as Bethel, “the scales will continue to tip in favour of locating Bethel at Beitin” (Gomes 2006:2; cf. Rainey 1971; Vos 1977:150; Aharoni 1979:410, 432; Wenham 1987:280; Sarna 1989:399; Dever 1997a:300; Blenkinsopp 2003:93 and Laughlin 2006:52). W F Albright conducted a preliminary excavation of Bethel in 1927, which he continued in 1934. It is shown that the city lies approximately 2,886 feet (880 m.) above sea level and is about 10.5 miles (17km.) north of Jerusalem. On the state of Bethel in later periods, Dever (1997a:301) comments: “Presumably, the occupation at the site ends with the Babylonian destructions in the early sixth century BCE… There is some Persian occupation and the town recovered some of its importance by the Hellenistic-Roman period… Travellers mention Bethel in the Byzantine period, from which there are some remains” (cf. Vos 1977:151). This assertion is upheld, to some extent, by Blenkinsopp (2003:95) who claims that Bethel continued to function all the way into the Neo-Babylonian period as it was not destroyed during the Babylonian invasion. Furthermore, with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, it must have served as the official sanctuary of Judah and Benjamin and possibly also of the central hill.

198

Other references to Bethel in Joshua are 16:1, 2 and 18:13, 22. For further details on Bethel, see Laughlin (2006:52-54).

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As a city, it was often linked with certain other towns or cities in the Old Testament especially with Ai (Genesis 12:8; 13:3; Josh 7:2; 8; 8:9, 12, 17; 12:9; Ezr 2:28 and Neh 7:32;), with Dan199 (1 Kgs 12:29; 2 Kgs 10:29), and with Gilgal (Am 4:4; 5:5). Bethel is also sometimes referred to as Luz (Gen 35:6) or situated by Luz. Actually, Genesis 28:19 and Judges 1:23 note that Luz was Bethel’s former name. Moreover, it has been acknowledged that, next to Jerusalem, Bethel is the second place name that occurs most frequently in the Old Testament200.

In his discussion of Bethel’s impact on the Judean language and literature, Knauf (2006:291ff) tries to prove that Bethel (as well as Babylon) played a crucial role in the literary history of the Neo-Babylonian era just as Jerusalem did in the Persian period. His position is that Benjamin with Judah was attached to Judah in the seventh century and that the demographics of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods reveal the importance of Bethel and Benjamin. There is enough evidence that the Bethel Temple functioned in the sixth century and that Bethel continued to be occupied through the Persian to the Hellenistic period. Knauf argues that with the decline of Jerusalem and the destruction of the First Temple in the sixth century, the Bethel cult assumed prominence, which enabled it to play a decisive role in the early transmission of biblical literature201.

Knauf further asserts that at the time that the Bethel cult began to gain ascendancy (ca. 650-586 BCE) and flourished, there was conflict between the Bethel and Jerusalem cults, which resulted in anti-Bethel polemic especially in the books of Kings and Amos. However, Bethel and its traditions (Jacob and Exodus) were gradually incorporated into Judah and, by the time Bethel was finally annihilated, the Bethel traditions had become

199 _{Bethel and Dan are often regarded as associate towns of sorts especially since King Jeroboam of Israel set up his}

golden calf idols in the two places (Halpern 1976:32, 37 and Amit 2000:14).

200

See Brueggemann (1982:247); Dever (1997a:300); Gomes (2006:1); Knauf (2006:291); Laughlin (2006:52) and Arnold (2009:255).

201

Knauf (2006:318) argues that, “The impact of Bethel on Judean literature must by necessity have increased when its sanctuary, school, and library/archive were the only ones remaining and operating in Judah for most of the sixth century and possibly extending into the fifth century”.

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integrated into or harmonized with the ‘constitution of Yehud’, the Torah. It is of interest to mention here that Knauf (2006:321, 329) sees Genesis 35:8 as a literary construct by the Jerusalem cult in a text regarded as a redactional post-P material that is designed to counter Judges 4:5, a Bethel composition. He claims that, Gen 35:8 tries to find a solution for the problem of Judg 4:5-6 by finding another Deborah who might have sat under that tree”.

Without a doubt, Bethel was recognized as a sacred place. Sarna (1989:200, 398) argues that the initial sanctity of Bethel was based solely on Jacob’s revelation of God at the place. Speiser (1964:219) notes that Bethel stands as a “spiritual milestone”, that is, based on the Genesis 28:10-22 revelation. Further, the centrality of Bethel to the Jacob Cycle, which, incidentally, begins with the Bethel event, has been attested (Brueggemann 1982:280; Sarna 1989:197). Gomes (2006:70, 218) observes that the Jacob Cycle begins and climaxes at Bethel (Gen 28:11ff; 35:1-8), that is, with the revelation at Bethel and the vow at Bethel. He argues that, by and large, the Bethel cult was pivotal to the configuration of Israelite identity (2006:212). However, Bethel was most famous (or infamous) for the “golden calves” erected there (and at Dan) by Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 12:29).

Amit (2001:109-125), in a discussion of place-names in Hebrew narratives, explains that place-names perform specific functions such as giving the story a realistic tone and serving a particular ideology or as an intentional background, among other functions202. She notes that:

When the author wishes to give the stories an air of historical reality, familiar places are chosen as the setting. At times, the place names hint at the allusional character of the

story or act as a direct reflection of a hero… Therefore, the place is always functional,

and understanding its function in the story leads to a deeper, more comprehensive understanding (Amit 2001:125, italics added).

202 _{Similarly, Westermann (1985:63) notes the importance of (place) names in Genesis 12-50, stressing that, “In the}

first place, names are not invented here. Rather we can presuppose that there is a tradition behind every name that occurs in Gen. 12-50 (individual exceptions are not to be excluded entirely)”. He further asserts that, “A necessary consequence for the Gen. 12-50 is that one must pay special attention to the context in which each individual geographical designation occurs” (italics added). Bar-Efrat’s (1989:194) claim that places in biblical narratives “are not merely geographical facts but are to be regarded as literary elements in which the fundamental significance is embodied”, is equally noteworthy.

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Could the reference to Bethel in Genesis 35:8, therefore, be a deliberate literary strategy by the author of Genesis 35 to draw attention not only to the allusive character of the event but also to the death of an unforgettable Hebrew heroine?