Dear George Athas and Yigal Levin: Now that the two of you as moderators have opened and dedicated a thread to making humorous remarks about my ideas in general and my view of Beersheba in particular, I wonder if you might do me the courtesy of responding on the merits to the following five arguments I have made that chapters 21 and 26 of Genesis are referring to Beersheba of Galilee, not the more famous Beersheba in the Negev. 1. In chapter 26 of Genesis, Isaac is portrayed as digging a series of four wells, spaced about a day’s journey or so apart, ending with Beersheba. That does not make sense near the Beersheba in the Negev Desert, which is famous precisely because of the great paucity of other wells in the vicinity: “Brigadier-General William Bartholomew…pointed out in June 1917: ‘there is apparently no water fit for the troops to drink on any part of the enemy’s present line between Gaza and Beersheba, except [the many wells at Beersheba itself]’.” Brian Holden Reid, “Military Power” (1997), at p. 64. By sharp contrast, a whole series of wells makes complete sense in west-central Upper Galilee: “To the rain and mists that fall on the Lebanons above are due Galilee's abundant water supply in rivers, wells, springs, and fountains, and her great fruitfulness. Galilee is the garden of Palestine.” Martha Tarbell, “Geographical Pamphlet: Palestine in the Time of Christ” (1907), at p. 16. If that comment is too old and lyrical for your taste, then consider modern hard science. In view of my contention that the series of four wells referred to at Genesis 26: 17-23, 32-33, each spaced about a day’s walk or so from the next, is in northwest Galilee, note the following very pertinent comment from the Negev Dept. of Geological & Environmental Sciences, in “Geological Framework of the Levant” (2005): “The formation is continuous over most of the central and western Galilee, except for several wells in the north-western Galilee….” So we see that, just as the Bible accurately tells us, a series of wells, and northwestern Galilee, are a match made in heaven. 2. In digging this series of wells, only as to the last one, Beersheba, is Isaac said to go “up”. Genesis 26: 23. That makes perfect sense as to Beersheba of Galilee, which is in the foothills of the mountains of Galilee. Starting from Sur/Tyre on the coast, and proceeding southeast, the first place to which one would go “up” is precisely Beersheba of Galilee. By contrast, Beersheba of the Negev is located at the bottom of a basin. In digging a series of (non-existent) wells in that area, there is no way that as to the last well, and only the last well, one would go “up” to Beersheba in the Negev. 3. Beersheba is mentioned before and after the Wilderness of Paran in chapter 21 of Genesis, which indicates that Beersheba was very near the Wilderness of Paran. (a) On a linguistic basis, P)RN would seem to derive from P)RH, which means the foliage of a tree. As such, MDBR P)RN would logically mean “a dense forest of trees”. That works perfectly for the huge, dense forest of trees immediately southwest of Beersheba of Galilee in the Late Bronze Age. But there was no forest of trees near the Beersheba in the Negev. (b) On a non-linguistic basis, we are told that Ishmael becomes an “archer”, with the implication that Hagar and Ishmael lived for some years on the basis of Ishmael hunting big game in the Wilderness of Paran. In the next generation, Esau bags big game for his doting father Isaac shortly after Beersheba has been mentioned. Hunting with a bow makes perfect sense in the dense forest southwest of Beersheba of Galilee in the Late Bronze Age, where deer, wild boars, etc. were plentiful. But hunting would have been a difficult way to survive near the Beersheba in the Negev, which was a semi-arid area. 4. When Jacob leaves Beersheba to escape the anger of his brother Esau, Isaac makes it from Beersheba to Luz on the first day of his long journey east. That works perfectly if Jacob left Beersheba of Galilee, located in west-central Upper Galilee, and made it in one long day to Luz/Laish in the northeast corner of Upper Galilee. But that sequence does not make sense for Beersheba of the Negev. (Even if Luz were taken to be Bethel, though “Bethel”, not Luz, is stated to be the Patriarchal nickname, Jacob could not make it from Beersheba of the Negev to Bethel north of Jerusalem in a single day.) 5. Perhaps the two of you may be thinking that Beersheba of Galilee did not exist until Hellenistic times, but that is not the case. Item #50 on the mid-15th century BCE Thutmose III list of places in Canaan is BR, which may likely be referring to a series of wells in Upper Galilee, one of which may well be B)R $B( of Galilee. The immediately preceding item on the T III list, KRYMN, seems to be near Beth Anath in central Upper Galilee, based on it being item #13 on the early 13th century BCE Seti I list of places in Upper Galilee, with B?-R being item #12 and Beth Anath being item #11. It seems there was a well-known series of wells in west-central Upper Galilee in the Late Bronze Age, which made it onto both of these topographical lists. One of those wells may be what the Patriarchal narratives call Beer-sheba. Item #47 on the T III list is Acco, on the west coast of Lower Galilee, indicating the western part of Galilee. All signs point to the geographical location of BR on these two Egyptian lists as likely being a series of wells in west central Upper Galilee, which include the Beer-sheba [of Galilee] in chapter 26 of Genesis. Note that Genesis 26: 18-33 talks about a whole series of wells in this part of GRR/Galilee. [GRR derives from the Akkadian word gararu, meaning “rolling”, referring to the “rolling” hills of Galilee. KRR at item #80 on the T III list (where Egyptian K is Semitic G), and Garu at Amarna Letter EA 256, are variants of GRR in referring to Galilee. GRR is the Late Bronze Age spelling of Galilee, whereas GLYL is the post-Bronze Age spelling of Galilee. Chapters 20 and 26 of Genesis state that the Patriarchs are in GRR/Galilee, shortly before the Beersheba sequences noted above.] These Egyptian topographical lists from the Late Bronze Age seem to be making a generic reference to that series of wells in northwest Galilee, with one such well very possibly being what the Biblical text calls Beersheba. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois
-----Original Message----- From: Tory Thorpe <[email protected]> To: [email protected]; Yigal Levin <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, Mar 10, 2011 11:52 pm Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The meaning of Beersheba You guys should just either not allow this stuff to make it on to the list in he first place or seriously engage it, not waste time mocking it with hetorical exercise. Some of the points, had they been presented in the "right" ay, might be worth a real discussion. Tory Thorpe el Aviv, Israel _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
