Sunday Sermonette: What's this really all about?

As I've noted before, Genesis is full of continuity errors, and seems to dwell tediously on trivia at times and to underdevelop or fail to explain a good deal that seems important. We have to remember that it is a compilation of old stories that originally came down through oral tradition. We don't know if there were earlier written versions of some of this. There probably were. We have more than once seen the same basic story happening repeatedly to different characters, or to the same characters in different times and places. These may have come from separate written sources that were then pasted into a rough chronology. It's also possible that some of this is the first written version of oral tradition. We do know that there were different original scribes and writers.

Scholars identify four principle sources or scribes whose work somehow got compiled into the Torah. They call these the Jahwist (or Yahwist) who calls God Jahweh, designated J; the Eloist, who calls God Eloim, designated E; the Deuteronomist (D); and the Priestly Sources (P). There is debate about the process by which these sources got compiled into the Torah, and when. J is thought to be the oldest, and a D writer is thought to have first compiled J,E and E. P then did a new compilation and added additional material. At least that's the most popular version. As I said early on, I'm not going to worry about when we're reading J and when we're reading E. Apparently Genesis 34, the previous chapter, was by J and there is a suggestion that the allegation that Shechem was captured by a massacre of its original inhabitants is a dis of the Northern Kingdom, as J is partial to Judah. (That's all future history we'll get to eventually.)

Anyhow, it's important to keep all this in mind as we grapple with the somewhat confused story. Here's Genesis 35.

Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”
² So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. ³ Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” ⁴ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.

I have to say the writer is awfully reticent about this. There's no commentary about why Jacob told the people to get rid of the "foreign Gods." We heard before about Laban's "household Gods," which Rachel stole, so obviously she thought they were valuable. Are these the same entities? If so that's the only previous mention of them, if not they have never merited previous mention. Presumably they are statuettes of some kind. Was there any objection to this order?  There's no indication that God was behind it, it seems to have been Jacob's idea. And what's with burying the earrings?

⁵ Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.

Remember that Jacob was afraid the locals would take revenge for the Shechem massacre, so evidently God protects the tribe. I guess it was okay with him.

⁶ Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. ⁷ There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel,^[a] because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Jacob had already named the place Bethel in Genesis 28, before he even met Rachel. So now he names it Bethel again. (

⁸ Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. So it was named Allon Bakuth.^[b]
9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram,^[c] God appeared to him again and blessed him. ¹⁰ God said to him, “Your name is Jacob,^[d] but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.^[e]” So he named him Israel.

God is getting to be something of a pest. He has already renamed Jacob Israel, but it didn't stick. This time, Jacob is called Israel again in this chapter, but then he goes back to being Jacob. 

¹¹ And God said to him, “I am God Almighty^[f]; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. ¹² The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.” ¹³ Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him.
¹⁴ Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. ¹⁵ Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.^[g]

 For the third time.

¹⁶ Then they moved on from Bethel.

Uhm, God just commanded them to settle there. . . . Guess he didn't really mean it.

While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. ¹⁷ And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t despair, for you have another son.” ¹⁸ As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni.^[h] But his father named him Benjamin.^[i]
19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰ Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb.

The pillar may have existed when this was written, who knows? But the true location is not known today. There is a monument in Bethlehem which is said to mark Rachel's tomb, but it is very unlikely that is true.

²¹ Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder. ²² While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it.

Did he mind? Does this matter for some reason? Why is this little factoid here?

Jacob had twelve sons:

And now he's Jacob again.

²³ The sons of Leah:

Reuben the firstborn of Jacob,

Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.

²⁴ The sons of Rachel:

Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵ The sons of Rachel’s servant Bilhah:

Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶ The sons of Leah’s servant Zilpah:

Gad and Asher.

These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

²⁷ Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. ²⁸ Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years. ²⁹ Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Right. He was 180 years old.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 35:7 El Bethel means God of Bethel.
2. Genesis 35:8 Allon Bakuth means oak of weeping.
3. Genesis 35:9 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia; also in verse 26
4. Genesis 35:10 Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he deceives.
5. Genesis 35:10 Israel probably means he struggles with God.
6. Genesis 35:11 Hebrew El-Shaddai
7. Genesis 35:15 Bethel means house of God.
8. Genesis 35:18 Ben-Oni means son of my trouble.
9. Genesis 35:18 Benjamin means son of my right hand.