George Athas wrote: “I don't see any strength to your five arguments. They are all based on oblique possibilities and remain very far from what I would call plausible, and require such a wholesale reinventing of ancient world geography that I do not think it actually fits in the real world.” Is it “plausible” that big game hunting for “savory” meat was good near Beersheba of the Negev? Beersheba is mentioned before and after Ishmael is said to be an “archer”, and Beersheba is mentioned shortly before Isaac tells Esau to go out and hunt some “savory” meat. Indeed, it’s clear that Isaac was certain that Esau would easily be able to bring home some prey that was “savory”. I have asserted that the Beersheba in question there is Beersheba of Galilee, which was immediately northeast of a huge, dense forest of trees that was ideal for hunting. But is the foregoing a “plausible” storyline to be told regarding Beersheba of the Negev? Wouldn’t the semi-arid area around Beersheba of the Negev be a poor area for hunting big game? Here’s a scholarly analysis of that very question: “Only 8 fragments of fallow deer and 6 of fragments gazelle bones were identified, indicating the insignificant role of hunting in pre-urban Beer- sheba.” Ze’ev Herzog, “Beer-Sheba II: The Early Iron Age Settlements” (1984). That confirms what common sense should tell us: it does not make sense to portray Esau as being easily able to hunt “savory” game near Beersheba of the Negev. Genesis 26: 6 tells us that in response to a drought-famine in southern Canaan, Isaac moved to GRR, that is, Galilee. [There is no name GRR attested in the ancient world in or near the southern wilderness or anywhere near Beersheba of the Negev.] Genesis 26: 23 says that Isaac’s family went “up” to Beersheba [with Beersheba of Galilee being located “up” in the foothills of southwestern Upper Galilee]. Genesis 26: 33 says that Isaac’s family lived near Beersheba, which must be Beersheba of Galilee. Esau’s ability to bring “savory” meat from his hunting exploits back home to his doting father Isaac is referenced soon after this reference to Beersheba [of Galilee], at Genesis 27: 4. Note that as soon as Isaac’s family is living by Beersheba of Galilee, on six occasions in chapter 27 of Genesis there is a reference to the “savory” meat from Esau’s hunting. Chapters 25 and 27 of Genesis both tell of Esau’s hunting prowess. But only in chapter 27 is Esau said to bring home “savory” meat: M+(MYM. That particular word appears six times in chapter 27 of Genesis, at Genesis 27: 4, 7, 9, 14, 17, 31. [The only other two appearances of that word in the Bible are in Proverbs.] The best place to hunt for savory prey in all of Canaan was likely just southwest of Beersheba of Galilee, in the “dense forest of trees”/MDBR P)RN, where archaeology has not been able to find a trace of any people living there in the Late Bronze Age, and which was a heavily forested area in Biblical times. When Isaac’s family moves up to Upper Galilee and stays at Beersheba of Galilee near that dense forest, all of sudden we hear six times of “savory” meat from Esau’s hunting. We see that it is the traditional view, which sees the area near Beersheba of the Negev as being an ideal place for Ishmael and Esau to hunt big game, that “require[s]…a wholesale reinventing of ancient world geography”. Such traditional view simply is not “plausible”. By sharp contrast, these stories of Ishmael and Esau being great hunters near Beersheba make perfect sense if the Beersheba being referenced in chapters 21 and 26 of Genesis is Beersheba of Galilee. Unlike the traditional view [which unfortunately has been uncritically accepted by university scholars], the “northerly” view of which Beersheba is being referenced here does not “require…a wholesale reinventing of ancient world geography”, and it’s eminently “plausible”. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois
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