George Athas:
You wrote: “Could you please provide some evidence for your claim that
אהלים ('tents') has the connotation of 'community' -- that is, larger than a
family clan. There is nothing in the Genesis narrative that I can see which
necessitates your rendition. Is there any actual linguistic or contextual
evidence for your claim?”
David Kolinsky’s cognates are fascinating. To them I could add alu,
meaning “village” in Akkadian. But much more important here is the usage in
Hebrew.
Prior to reading Genesis 25: 27, we already know that each of Esau and
younger twin brother Jacob lives in a “tent” [singular]/)HL. What Genesis 25:
27 then tells us is that Esau spends his days where the wild animals roam,
doing big game trophy hunting. By contrast, Jacob is living in “tents”
[plural]/)HLYM, meaning that Jacob, unlike Esau, is spending his days with the “
community” of tent-dwellers of whom his father Isaac is the leader. Now
that Abraham has died, we know from Genesis 24: 35-36 that Isaac has inherited
a large flock of sheep and goats, shepherds, and servants. All of the
humans live in “tents”. Their livelihood is dependent on the well-being of the
flock of sheep and goats, not on Esau’s hunting, which only benefits Esau’s
immediate family, not the “community”. Jacob is well on his way to
becoming a master shepherd, which is benefiting the entire “community”, that
is,
all the people under Isaac’s leadership who are living in “tents” [plural].
I have used the word “community” here to refer to all the various peoples
under Isaac’s leadership, in particular including all of Isaac’s shepherds
and their families. If that is what you mean by the term “family clan”,
perhaps we are just using different nomenclature.
I agree with Karl’s explanation of TM. Jacob is
TM/well-rounded/complete/upright. Jacob knows that the “community” of people
under his father’s
leadership who are living in “tents” [plural] depend on the all-important flock
of sheep and goats, and Jacob is duly becoming a master shepherd. Each of
Esau and Jacob lives in a “tent” [singular], but only Jacob is looking out
for the general well-being of the “tents” [plural], that is, the “community”
under Isaac’s leadership.
Perhaps you will allow me in a later post to explore w-h-y big game
trophy hunting gets such a bad rap in the Patriarchal narratives.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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