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Dr. Alice C. Linsley
The application of kinship analysis has proven extremely useful in identifying the following features of the social structure of the biblical Hebrew.
1. The Hebrew ruler-priests were a caste. The most significant feature of a caste is the practice of taking marriage partners only from members of the caste (caste endogamy).
2. The Hebrew caste is characterized by cognatic double descent or bilateral descent. The individual’s descent is traced through both the father’s line and the mother’s line. With bilateral descent, there is a doubling of ancestors. Lamech the Younger could claim descent from both Cain and Seth since his father and mother had Cain and Seth as common ancestors. Nimrod could claim descent from both Ham and Shem since the descendants of Ham and Shem intermarried.
Tamar’s two sons Zerah (the firstborn) and Perez and their wives were the principal cognatic ancestors of the people of Judah. Judah was Hebrew, not Jewish, because Judaism did not exist in the time of Judah. Jesus is a descendant of Tamar and Judah. The wives of Zerah and Perez are the principal female ancestors of the people of Judah. This story is told in Genesis 38 and the cognatic feature is reintroduced in Ruth 4 where we are told that these men and women are associated with Bethlehem, an ancient Horite Hebrew settlement.
Descent from Hebrew cousin wives can be traced for especially high-ranking Hebrew by the cousin bride's naming prerogative. The diagram shows the pattern. Lamech the Elder's daughter Naamah (Gen. 4) married her cousin Methusaleh (Gen. 5) and named their firstborn son Lamech after her father.
The firstborn son of the cousin wife was not the proper heir of his biological father. Methuselah's proper heir was the firstborn son of his first wife, probably a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham.
3. In the Hebrew cognatic double descent system, caste members receive some rights and obligations from the father’s side and some from the mother’s side. Those rights and responsibilities depend on the parent’s status and the order of marriage. The rights and responsibilities of the firstborn son of the first wife (usually a half-sister) are different than those of the firstborn son of the second wife (usually a cousin).
4. Hebrew men who ruled over territories maintained two wives in separate settlements. These settlements marked the boundaries of the ruler’s territory. The wives’ settlements were usually on a north-south axis. The settlements were guarded by warriors. The wives of high-ranking Hebrew ruler-priests were served by handmaids, metal workers, potters, shepherds, weavers, brewers, and farmers.
5. Only males offered blood sacrifice at the altars. Women were not permitted in the area where animals were sacrificed. Likewise, men were not permitted in the birthing chambers where women shed blood in childbirth. These distinct types of blood work speak of death and life and the two were never to be confused. Therefore, the blood work of the Hebrew priests and the blood work of the Hebrew women never shared the same space.
Because the Hebrew caste resisted innovations, their customs persisted among Abraham’s numerous Hebrew descendants. Some of Abraham’s ancestors lived in the Nile Valley, some lived in Canaan, and others lived in Mesopotamia and Anatolia. That is why it is possible to speak of Kushite Hebrew, Canaanite Hebrew, and Anatolian Hebrew.
Jacob and Esau were both Hebrew rulers as they were members of the Hebrew ruler-priests caste. A trait of castes is endogamy, the custom of marrying only members of the caste or blood relatives. Jacob and Esau married Hebrew women, including women of the clan of Seir the Horite Hebrew (Gen. 36), and women of the clan of Nahor the Younger of Padan-Aram ("Plain of Aram") otherwise known as Aram-naharaim ("Aram of the two rivers"). The town of Haran was there. The word Haran is derived from the Ancient Akkadian word harranū, meaning "road" or "caravan route." That is where Abraham’s father died and Nahor, Abraham’s older brother, assumed rule of Terah’s household and territory.
One of Esau's wives was the daughter of the Hittite Hebrew ruler, Elon. The Hittites were descendants of Heth, a Hebrew ruler listed in Genesis 10:15. Some of his descendants lived in Hebron (Gen. 23:3,7) which was in Abraham's territory.
Abraham's territory extended between the settlements of his wives in Hebron and Beersheba Shown on the map). Both settlements were in ancient Edom (Greek: Idumea). The place names Edom and Idumea refer to a land of red people. Some of Abaham’s descendants are described as "red" or "ruddy "in the Bible.
After David became king, he brought the Ark "from the house of Abinadab, that was in Gibeah” (Saul's hometown) to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:1-12). However, for three months the Ark rested in David’s hometown of Bethlehem on the property of Obed-Edom.
Genesis 36:31 states that there were kings in Edom long before there was a king in Israel. This suggests the antiquity of David's royal lineage. That lineage is traced back to Abraham whose territory was entirely in ancient Edom.
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