Understanding "Biblical" Marriage Practices

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

This recently came across my Facebook feed. It is misleading and reveals ignorance of the social structure of the biblical Hebrew and their Jewish descendants.

The Hebrew persons listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36 were rulers, not commoners. These are king lists similar to the Sumerian king lists, only more easily authenticated using kinship analysis.

None of the marriages of the Hebrew rulers can be called "biblical" and therefore cited as models for Bible believers because this pattern pertains only to Hebrew ruler-priests, the "first lords of the earth". It is not a biblical pattern for marriage. It is a pattern for royal Hebrew persons beginning long before Judaism emerged. These were regnal marriages involving a bride and a groom from related Hebrew clans or between half-siblings (endogamy). Royal marriages are prone to irregularities because of the necessity of a proper heir, and political complexities.

That these were rulers is evident in the fact that they had a distinctive marriage and ascendancy pattern that involved two wives. The firstborn sons of the two wives had different rights according to the Hebrew hierarchy of sons. 

Jacob's marriage to two "sisters" is the single example in the Bible, and it is more likely that Leah was his half-sister and Rachel is cousin. A proper marriage arrangement of a Hebrew ruler-priest was with a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and with a patrilineal cousin (as was Keturah to Abraham). Leah and Rachel fit the pattern. Jacob was a sent-away son, and those sons usually went to live with their maternal uncles.

Solomon is criticized for taking many wives and concubines in order to forge political alliances. However, that was a common practice, and his father David did it also.

The payment of dowries was a widespread practice among the many diverse biblical populations. It is still the custom in Africa and among Hindu and Muslim populations. Dowries are not to "purchase" a bride. They are gifts given to the bride by her family to secure some personal wealth for her when she marries. The bride and her dowry contribute to the building up of a new household.

Levirate marriage was a custom among the Hebrew and their Jewish descendants. Levirate marriage is an extremely ancient practice in which the widow of the deceased brother marries one of his brothers. Levirate marriage is practiced by societies with strong clan and caste structures in which exogamous marriage is forbidden. Such a marriage arrangement is intended to preserve the deceased husband's lineage and inheritance. 

Hebrew rulers over territories maintained their two wives in geographically separate settlements. Territorial boundaries were marked by the wives' settlements. Sarah's settlement was in Hebron and Keturah's settlement was in Beersheba. Abraham's territory extended on a north-south axis between the settlements of his wives. 

Hebrew rulers with two wives include Lamech, Terah, Abraham, Esau, Jacob, Amram, Moses, Elkanah (Samuel's father), Ashur (1 Chronicles 4:5), Mered (1 Chronicles 4); and Joash (2 Chronicles 24:1–3). Caleb fathered children by his two wives Azubah and Jerioth.

Related reading: The Marriage and Inheritance of Hebrew Daughters; The Hebrew were a Caste; Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives; Gender Balance of the Hebrew Social Structure; Hebrew Birthrights and Blessings; Concubinage Among the Hebrew

The Talmud's Influence on the New Testament Writers

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The first 12 chapters of Genesis are rich in anthropological data. They speak of the Hebrew ruler-priests who established and expanded their territories, promoted technological advances, controlled river and land commerce, traded with kingdoms far from their own, developed systems of writing, and influenced the religious beliefs of many non-Hebrew populations. 

The Hebrew ruler-priests were the first lords of the earth, the potentates of 6000+ years ago. They believed that their authority was derived from the High God and that they were required to rule according to the sacred law codes of their ancestors. Genesis preserves their king lists in chapters 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36. Genesis 36:31 clarifies that these "mighty men of old" (Gen. 6) ruled before there was any king in Israel.

The Hebrew ruler-priests were a caste that preserved their identity and wealth by marrying only within their caste. Among them are Cain, Seth, Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4), Lamech the Younger (Gen. 5), Noah, Ham, Shem, Sheba, Heth, Nimrod, and Abraham the Hebrew. 

Unfortunately, some of these early Hebrew are misrepresented in later writings, especially the Talmud and Mishnah. Though these were codified after 70 A.D. the ideas they contain were well known to the Jewish writers of the New Testament. In the first century there were many sects and schools in Jewish society and the diversity of opinion is expressed in the disputations of the rabbis.

Many Jews believe that the Talmud contains truth of greater authority than the Hebrew Bible. The Talmud itself encourages this. We read this explicit instruction: “My son, be more careful in the observance of the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Torah." (Talmud Erubin 21b)

SUNY professor, Robert Goldberg, has written: “The traditional Jew studies Talmud because it communicates ultimate truth—truth about God, truth about the world, and most important, truth about how God wants the holy community of Israel to live.”

New Testament writers were influenced by the Talmud in the way they present certain Old Testament characters: Cain, Esau, Korah, and Balaam are examples. Cain is remembered as a murderer, but Moses and David are not. Esau is posed as wicked though he forgives the deception of Jacob and welcomes him back to the “land of Seir” in Edom (Gen. 32:3). Moses’ half-brother Korah is remembered only for his challenge to Moses’ authority and not for his ritual purity, and Balaam becomes the archetype of a foolish false prophet.

By the time that Jude wrote his epistle (c. 68 AD) Cain was solidly established as the archetype of an earthly ruler. Jude warns those who might abandon Christ because of their suffering and false teachers that God punishes those who rebel against Him. He uses three men as examples: Cain the ruler, Balaam the prophet, and Korah the priest. These were the three most sacred offices among Abraham’s Hebrew people, and they were often filled by people corrupted by the world.

The pervasive influence of the Talmud on first century Jews makes it more remarkable that the New Testament writers recognized Jesus as Messiah and the Son of God.

Much of the argument developed by the writer of the book of Hebrews relies on rabbinic thought, not on historical realities. In Hebrew 7:14, the writer recognizes that the Messiah is from the clan of Judah and a descendant of David, but he seems unaware that both Judah and David are descendants of an ancient caste of ruler-priests. 

Hebrews 12:16 casts Esau as immoral, yet Esau welcomed his deceiving brother Jacob who sought to return home. Zevachim 14:4 claims that Esau's wives served idols, yet they were the daughters of the Hittite chiefs Elon and Beeri who served the same High God. Esau was Isaac's proper heir and he ruled over Isaac's territory in Edom. The intense dislike of Esau in Jewish writings appears to spring from jealousy.

In Hebrew 7:20-28, the author states that the former priests did not take oaths. However, there are historical documents that attest to oaths among the Horite and Sethite Hebrew priests. These include oaths of office, of loyalty, and of truth telling. The priest took an oath that declared loyalty to the high king who he served, and the oath was declared before the appointed royal official or high priest under whom the priest served.

In an oath taken before a priest of the Temple of Hathor on December 6, 127 B.C., a royal servant Petasatet declared his innocence in the case of cloth theft. Temples played an important role in resolving legal and personal disputes.

An oath was taken as a solemn appeal to divine authority represented by the high king. One type asserts a truth and is by nature a declaration such as that of Petasatet. A second type makes a promise pertaining to future actions. (See John A. Wilson, “The Oath in Ancient Egypt”.)

The writer of Hebrews admits that many of the religious practices of the period of the Exodus are not familiar to him. Of the Ark of the Covenant, the mysterious manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, he explains in Hebrew 9:5 – “Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.” When the details that enable verification of narratives is lacking the reader has reason to question the source.

However, an empirical investigation of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste using the data in Genesis tells us who they were, what they believed, how they dispersed out of the Nile Valley, and that they are the first to hold the Messianic Faith concerning God Father and God Son. Their religion was not Judaism and they would find much in the Talmud confusing and unfamiliar.

Related reading: The Good Guy-Bad Guy Motif Fails; Ancient Moral Codes; Abraham's Faith Lives in Christianity; Abraham the Hebrew; Rabbi Akiva and Shimon Bar Yohai of the Talmud and Mishnah are Fictional Characters

Longevity of the Genesis Kings

The Scorpion King II on the Scorpion Macehead found at Nekhen, 

the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship (c. 4200- 2600 BC).

Alice C. Linsley

Invariably, people ask: “What is the significance of the long lifespans in Genesis?” and “Why did those who lived before the flood live longer than those after the flood?” 

Genesis chapters 4 and 5 list ancestors of the early Hebrew, a caste of ruler-priests. These were powerful men who built kingdoms and expanded their territories. As with the kings named in the Sumerian King Lists, theses rulers are assigned unusually long lifespans. The fact that the Genesis King Lists reflect a practice of antiquity means we are dealing with authentic material.

The long lifespans of the early Hebrew rulers are not to be taken literally. It was a practice in antiquity to assign long years to rulers. The reign of the Persian king Zahhak was said to be 1000 years. The Sumerian king lists assign reigns of thousands of years. Longevity claims for eight Sumerian kings alone totaled 241,200 years. The length of years for these rulers cannot be correlated with dynasties from contemporary Mesopotamian records.

The lists in Genesis chapters 4 and 5 are typical of royal lists from the ancient world such as the Sumerian King Lists, the Turin Royal Canon, the Abydos King List, and the Saqqara King list. The lists attribute absurdly long reigns and lifespans to the rulers. There is no single pattern for the numbers assigned. Some theorize that the years are calculated according to the 11-year solar cycle. Others recognize that the 365 years assigned to Enoch, the son of Jared/Yered (Gen. 5:23), are a reference to the solar year.

In his book Genesis Chronology and Egyptian King-Lists (2019) Gary Greenberg argues that the birth and death dates found in Genesis 5 represent a disguised but accurate chronology of Egypt's dynastic history. However, Cain and Seth lived before the emergence of Egypt as a political entity (c. 3150 BC).

St. Jerome's Observation

The only "old" person mentioned in Genesis is Abraham, as St. Jerome, notes: "I am reviewing carefully the places in Scripture where I might find old age mentioned for the first time. Adam lived for 930 years, yet he is not called an old man. Methuselah's life was 969 years, and he is not called an old man. I am coming down all the way to the flood, and after the flood for almost three thousand years, and I find no one who has been called old. Abraham is the first, and certainly he was much younger than Methuselah." (Homilies on the Psalms 21)

Jerome's observation is significant. Abraham lived to a ripe old age. Those who lived before the flood are not called "old" because the numbers assigned to them are symbolic. Note also that the numbers vary depending on the version of the Bible. 

There is the discrepancy between the Septuagint, the Masoretic, and the Samaritan texts. The total number of years in the Septuagint and the Masoretic (Hebrew) records agree except in the case of Lamech the Younger (Noah's father). The Septuagint assigns Lamech a total of 753 years, whereas the Samaritan Pentateuch assigns him only 653 years. The Masoretic Pentateuch assigns Lamech the Younger 777 years.

In his Commentary on Genesis (Volume 1), Umberto Cassuto wrote, "What is the cause of the divergences between the three texts, and which recension has preserved the original figures? Much has been written on this subject, and the answer remains in dispute" (p. 265). Cassuto himself believed that the original figures are preserved in the Masoretic chronology. Those are the numbers I use here.

Consider the lifespan assigned to each of these pre-flood patriarchs in Genesis 5:

Seth – 912 years
Jared – 962 years
Kenan – 910 years
Methuselah – 969 years
Lamech the Younger – 777 years

Now compare the lifespan of each of the following in Genesis 11:

Shem – 600 years
Eber – 464 years
Serug – 230 years
Nahor the Elder (Terah's father) – 148 years
Terah – 205 years

Clearly, there is much we do not understand about the numbers assigned to these early Hebrew rulers, and until we have a better understanding it is wise not to insist that these numbers represent literal spans of time.

Related reading: Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant; Methuselah's Real Age; The Lifespans of Methuselah and Lamech; St. Jerome on Genesis; The Genesis King Lists; An Anthropologist Looks at Genesis 4; An Anthropologist Looks at Genesis 5; An Anthropologist Looks at Genesis 11

On Gaps and Overlaps in Genesis

Alice C. Linsley

There are gaps and overlaps in the flow of the biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation. Some gaps are more controversial than others. None seem to be troubled by the gap of the "intertestamental period" (400-4 BC), the time between the Old Testament and New Testament writings. Sufficient texts exist from that period for scholars to identify some of its characteristics. The gap between Genesis 1-3 and the king lists of Genesis 4 and 5 is more controversial because we have only the biblical texts. These present challenges that we can address only when we recognize them.

If Genesis 1 reflects the seven-stepped pyramid cosmology of ancient Babylon, as is argued by Dr. John Walton, it relates to a time about 5000 years after the watery world of Eden. The word ziqqurat is derived from the Akkadian word zaqaru, meaning "to be high." In the ancient world, shrines and temples were located at high places near permanent water sources. These were perceived as the spatial sacred center between heaven and earth, just as high noon was perceived as the sacred temporal center. (Consider the solar imagery of James 1:17.) Pillars and obelisks also represented the connection between heaven and earth. Jacob's dream of that connection involved a ladder.

Although Genesis does not tell the whole story of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Nonetheless, we have reliable data about the early populations they describe. This has been confirmed by findings in many scientific disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, DNA studies, migration studies and climate studies.

There is a gap between the story of the Garden and the king lists of Genesis 4 and 5. This is true whether Adam and Eve represent the first humans or the founders of the Horite Hebrew lineages. Adam and Eve are assigned to the world of Eden which extended from the source of the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates. That is a vast region. Presumably, it is also the region where Cain and Seth lived as Neolithic rulers.


Overlaps

There are overlaps in the biblical accounts also. Abraham appears in Genesis 12, yet he was a contemporary of Job whose story appears many pages later than the story of Abraham. Abraham and Job were Horite rulers and kinsmen. To understand the world of Abraham and Job it is best to read their stories back-to-back.

Sometimes the overlap of material is evident only through exploration of the themes. There are two stories of drunken fathers - Noah and Lot - and when these are read back-to-back we find a powerful critique of drunkenness and the failure of fathers to accept responsibility for their actions.

There are two passovers - one involving Moses in Egypt and the other involving Rahab in Jericho. When we read these stories back-to-back, we uncover the scarlet cord which symbolizes the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

There is an overlap between the story of Judah going into Egypt during the time of Joseph's rule and the story of Judah having intercourse with Tamar in the region of Adullam.

The gaps and overlaps of the Bible invite us to delve more deeply into the text to understand what God is telling us. Inevitably, we find that the whole of the Bible is really about one thing: the Promised Seed/Son of God, Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save repentant sinners, to defeat death, and to establish an eternal kingdom in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are ever glorified.

Related reading: Gap Theory or Gap Fact?; The Horite Confederation of Uz, Huz and Buz; Two Passovers and Two Drunken Fathers; Who is Jesus?