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| November, 2005 |
| Inner-Biblical Geography |
| Fun with biblical geography |
| Posted by Charlie Trimm at 11/5/2005 9:40:00 AM (3 comments left) |
| One of my favorite topics is intertextuality, or how the Bible uses and
re-uses itself. And since I am teaching a class on biblical geography,
I am currently fascinated with inner-biblical allusions that are based
on geography. So here is a list of various geographical allusions that
I have come across. The list is far from complete, but just contains
the ones I am thinking about at this moment. Some are purely random and
were probably not intended by the authors, others are part of a finely
crafted literary setup. If you guys think of anymore I would be
interested. |
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1. Jabesh-Gilead. The people of Jabesh-Gilead take down the body of Saul from the walls of Beth-Shean where it is hanging. Why them? Because early in his reign Saul had rescued them from the Ammonites. Why them? One possible reason might be that in the time of the Judges, the tribes of Israel destroy Jabesh-Gilead for not joining in the attack on Benjamin. But they leave 400 virgins from Jabesh-Gilead, which are given to Benjamin to "repopulate." So there is a chance that Saul was related to someone from Jabesh-Gilead. 2. Timnah. Judah goes to Timnah and meets Tamar, Samson goes to Timnah to get a (dead) wife. 3. Ammonites wives. Nehemiah gets very upset that the Jews are marrying Ammonite women. Solomon married an Ammonite woman, who mothers his son Reheboam. 4. Gibeah and Bethlehem. In Judges, a Levite gets excessive hospitality in Bethlehem (home town of David). On the way to Gibeah, he deigns to stop at Jerusalem, because one can never trust foreigners. So instead he stops in among his countrymen in Gibeah (hometown of Saul), where he gets a "sodomite" reception. The neighbors have become worse than the foreigners. 5. Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, and Jesus. There are extensive geographical links between these four characters. Elijah heals in Phoenicia, as does Jesus. Elisha brings back a boy from the dead in Shunem, which is on the south slopes of Mt. Moreh in the Jezreel Valley. Jesus brings a boy back from the dead in Nain, which is on the northern slopes of Mt. Moreh. Salim, where John baptized, is very close to the hometown of Elisha. The Jordan is important to all of their ministries. The transition from Elijah to Elisha involves movement toward heaven, the transition from John to Jesus involves a voice from heaven. 6. Moab. Moab is conceived in incest in a dark cave at night. Later, they seduce the Israelites with sexual immorality. Ruth, a Moabite, goes to an Israelite in the dark in the middle of the night, but does not act like her ancestors, even though there is a similar setting. 7. Bethlehem ('granary') undergoes a famine. 8. David is established as king at Hebron, Absalom begins his rebellion at Hebron. 9. The Danites take Laish and rename it Dan because it is lightly protected. Unfortunately for them, Dan is among the first to fall to Aram and, later, the Assyrians. 10. Moses and the first generation crossed the sea of reeds, Joshua and the second generation crosses the Jordan River. The first few chapters of Joshua contain a lot of inter-textual allusions, this is only one of them. |