Mosaic chronicles book 96/28/2023 This is the opinion of C B Michäelis, his son, and Rosenmüller. Even though in his time no king had yet reigned in Israel, this is not a problem, because the verse is essentially saying that all these kings ruled in Edom before Israel ever had a king, and they still didn’t have one. “These are the kings”-the reference here is to before the time of Moses. This prooftext is not convincing, however, since Deuteronomy 33:5 likely refers to the kingship of God. Another matter: “There was a king in Jeshurun”-this is our teacher Moses. Ibn Ezra’s prooftext here follows the rabbinic reading of the verse ( Midrash Tannaim, ad loc.): ד א: "ויהי ביש מלך"-זה משה רבינו. Deut 33:5 There became a king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people assembled, the tribes of Israel together. The truth is that the meaning of “before any king reigned over the Israelites” is a reference to Moses, King of Israel. “Before a king ruled”-Before Moses who redeemed Israel. One interpretation that was popular among medieval peshat commentators was that the king of Israel refers to Moses. Thus, some commentators tried to read the text against the grain. For traditional scholars, however, this was a serious problem, as tradition credits Moses with authorship of the Pentateuch. Most scholars would date the text of Genesis to well after the time of Saul, but at the very least, nothing would necessitate dating it earlier. Thus, the earliest time such a list could have been written, or at least introduced the way it is, would be during Saul’s reign, though of course it could be later.įor critical Bible scholars, this reference to the monarchy does not pose any problem. According to the book of Samuel, the first king of Israel was Saul son of Kish, who was appointed by the prophet Samuel. Gen 36:31 These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites.īy introducing the list with this verse, the editor is ostensibly telling us that he lived at a time when there was already a king in Israel. One element that stands out in this chapter as different from the other lists is that of the Edomite kings. Whoever added these addenda to chapter 36 made no attempt to adjust his sources, as is clear from the fact that he includes a second list of Esau’s sons and two contradictory versions of Esau’s clans. In each of these cases, we have only one list, and thus, it is surprising that we encounter, after what seems like a summary verse (Gen 36:8), that the text continues for another 35 verses with various lists describing Esau’s extended family: Thus, we have such a section about the sons of Nahor, Abraham’s brother (Gen 22:20–24), about the sons of Abraham’s other wife Keturah (Gen 25:1–4), and about the sons of Isaac’s brother Ishmael (Gen 25:12–18). Giving a final description of the future of a scion of the Abrahamic family outside of the Israelite covenantal core is standard fare in Genesis it gives the Israelite readers an account of the neighbors that they consider to be extended family, and at the same time shows the fulfillment of YHWH’s promise to Abraham that his progeny will all become nations. At that point, we are told why Esau moved away from Jacob and went to Seir. The chapter begins with an introductory statement that it will report on the generations of Esau, who is Edom (v. Genesis 36: Collection of Lists About Esau, Edom, and SeirĪfter reporting the death of Isaac and before beginning the Joseph cycle, the Torah includes a long excursus on the sons and clans of Esau and Seir.
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