The Jacob Story: Between Oral and Written Modes

In this article I examine the relations between Jacob’s putative oral story and the pre-Priestly narrative. I argue that Hosea’s prophecy presents the version of Jacob's oral story related in his time and antedated by many years the composition of the story-cycle in its written form. Comparison of Hosea’s prophecy and Jacob’s narrative indicates the thorough way in which the exilic author worked the oral story he received in order to fit it to his ideological messages and religious concepts. To further examine the relations between the oral and written modes, I discuss the episode of the treaty between Laban and Jacob (Gen 31,45–54) in light of a Mari letter (A.3592). Comparison of the two episodes indicates that part of the biblical narrative rests on the oral story and other part was written by the late author. Evidently, the long process of oral transmission, the growth of the narratives in its course, and the creative reworking of the author make it impossible to either isolate the early oral layer within the present story-cycle or to date the stages of its growth in the oral process of transmission.     

The Kingdom of Geshur in History and Memory

ABSTRACT

The article re-examines the biblical, extra-biblical and archaeo-logical sources for the history of Geshur and the way it was memorialized in biblical texts. It demonstrates that archaeological research is the key to estab-lishing the location of the kingdom's capital, its territory, population, econo-my and commercial relations. The written sources complement and corrobo-rate the archaeological data. Evidently―contrary to the conclusions reached in a recently published article―we know quite a lot about this marginal Aramean kingdom.

Geshur was located on the northern border of the Kingdom of Israel, far away from Jerusalem; and yet late Judahite scribes, who operated hundreds of years after it disappeared from the political arena, still remembered that it was a separate entity, on par with Maacah, and different from all other neighbour-ing districts enumerated side by side with it. What was unclear to the scribes is the geographical reality in the far north. Hence, their geographical depic-tion of Geshur's (and Maacah's) location was inaccurate.     

Was an Early Edition of the Book of Kings Composed during Hezekiah’s Reign?

In this article I critically examine the hypothesis that the early edition of the Book of Kings was written during the time of Hezekiah. I first analyze the histories of the kings of Judah from Ahaz to Josiah and the way their accounts helped to shape the histories of five earlier Judahite kings (Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoash, Amaziah, and Uzziah). This analysis demonstrates that the same author wrote the histories of the pre-Hezekian and post-Hezekian Judahite king—an author who operated not earlier than the time of Josiah. Hence, the early edition of Kings was written in either the late monarchic or the early exilic period; thus, the hypothesis that an early edition of Kings was written during the time of Hezekiah can no longer be upheld.