Identity

1
Identity

• Identities are complex and multiple and grow out
  of a history of changing responses to economic,
  political, and cultural forces, almost always in
  opposition to other identities.
• - Kwame Anthony Appiah

2
Identity Questions

• How do we identify ourselves to other people?
• What things constitute our self-understanding?

3
Moses

• Born to a Levite family (Exod 21-2)
• Raised by Pharaohs daughter (Exod 210)
• Knows himself as a Hebrew (Exod 211-12, 13-15a)
• Looks like an Egyptian (Exod 219)

• Understands himself as an alien (Exod 222)

4
The Burning Bush

• Exod 36 I am the God of your father, the God
  of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
  Jacob
• Exod 311 Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh
  and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?

• Exod 313-15 But Moses said to God, If I come to
  the Israelites and say to them, The god of your
  ancestors has sent me to you, and they ask me,
  What is his name? what shall I say to them?
  God said to Moses, I am who I am. He said
  further, Thus shall you say to the Israelites,
  I am has sent me to you. God also said to
  Moses, Thus you shall say to the Israelites,
  The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of
  Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
  has sent me to you. This is my name forever,
  and this is my title for all generations.

5
The Tetragrammaton

• Generic name for God is elohim
• The Tetragrammaton is the personal name of God.
  It is considered sacred and so not said aloud.
• YHWH or hwhy
• hyha ehyeh is used in 314

• Hebrew verb to be is hyh or hyh. Exod 314 is
  a 1cs form. The divine name is like a 3ms form.
• The Masoretes knew you do not pronounce the name.
  So when they added vowels, they remind us of the
  tradition and put the vowels for adonai or
  lord on the four letters
• The result is Yahowaih which becomes in English
  Jehovah.

6
The Family

• Gen 1139-121 says God called Abram to leave all
  that he has known including the fathers house
  (bet av) the family household is a shared
  lineage as well as a social grouping
• Not necessarily a residential unit (although it
  can be) it is more about shared relations and
  grows through births, wives marrying in,
  adoptions, and having resident workers and slaves
• People organized in this way for land use and
  inheritance, production of goods related to
  survival, and protection could be 50-100 people

• When Isaac is to take a wife, a servant is sent
  back to Abrahams bet av (Gen 24 40, for
  example) but note also the mention of bet em or
  the mothers house (Gen 2428)
• Similar story involving Jacob in Gen 28 when he
  is sent back to the house of his mothers father
  for a wife.
• Patrilineal genealogy with some key women thrown
  in
• Who cannot carry on the line
• Ishmael (Hagar, Egyptian is mother)
• Canaanite women (Gen 244)
• Esau (married to Hittite women Gen 2634-35
  Gen 286-9)

7

                                              
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
            
Isaac his Abrahams son He marries
Rebekah Rebekah is Abrahams great niece and
Isaacs 1st cousin once removed Rebekah is
Jacobs mother Rachel and Leah are Jacobs wives
and his mothers nieces Isaac is Jacobs
father Rachel and Leah are his 1st cousins twice
removed
8
Why not marry outside of the family?

• Identities are complex and multiple and grow out
  of a history of changing responses to economic,
  political, and cultural forces, almost always in
  opposition to other identities. - Kwame Anthony
  Appiah
• Clearly we are being told that this family is NOT
  Canaanite living in and amongst these people
  means that there is a necessity not to be
  confused with them
• Also consider the time period these stories were
  edited 6th and 5th centuries BCE. Much of the
  population is in exile in Babylon and that is the
  region where this family originates.

9
Brief Visit to the post-exilic period

• When Genesis was being edited and the Torah
  gathered, it was the post-exilic period
• Judaism was starting in the wake of the
  destruction of the Temple
• There was a threat that the people could lose
  their identity as Israelites with the loss of
  the land and the locus of their faith tradition
• There were multiple responses to the question of
  what makes one a person who follows this
  tradition
• Ezra offer a conservative response

• Ezra 91-2 reads in part The people of Israel,
  the priests and the Levites have not separated
  themselves from the peoples of the land with
  their abominations..for they have taken some of
  their daughters as wives for themselves and their
  sons. Thus the holy seed has mixed itself with
  peoples of the land.
• Ezra forbids such marriages (912)
• Ezra orders that foreign wives be divorced
  (1010-11)

10
Why Women Were The Problem

• Women were seen as the carriers of culture
• No formal schooling
• Children of both genders spend significant time
  with their mothers boys only go to fields and
  other work when physically large enough to assist
  the men
• What they learn about life and the way things are
  done comes mostly from their mothers

• Women performed key rituals
• In the family household in a small village,
  little formal religious worship
• Many of the activities of faith took place in the
  home
• Household gods and goddesses
• Women had power in the household and thus
  influenced religious practice in a dramatic way

11
The role of women in families

• Note how Sarah takes control when she cannot get
  pregnant You see that the Lord has prevented me
  from bearing children go into my slave-girl it
  may be that I shall obtain children through her.
  (162)
• Abram reminds Sarai when there is a problem,
  Your slave-girl is in your power, do to her as
  you please. (166)
• When Hagar runs, God tells her, Return to your
  mistress, and submit to her. (1610)
• Sarah, of course, has Hagar cast out as well
  Cast out this slave woman with her son.
  (2110)

• Rebekah makes the choice to go to Isaac (sight
  unseen) Gen 2458
• Rebekah sets up Jacobs success with his father
  (275-17) and then protects him (2746)
• Rachel and Leah compete with one another for
  affection and assure Jacob a large family
  (2931-3024) look especially at mandrake
  incident (3014-18)
• They support Jacob in his decision to return to
  Canaan (3114-16)
• Rachel is wily to protect her husband from her
  father (3125-35)

12
Why is family important?

• Subsistence
• Average life spans 40 for men, 30 for women
• As many as half of children born did not reach
  adulthood you needed 2x the number of
  pregnancies to get family size desired
• Poor diet and chronic malnutrition
• Higher rates of disease
• Avg family size of 4-8 people (extended family)

• Agricultural and herding lives were labor
  intensive and you needed people to do basic
  tasks
• Clearing fields, planting and harvesting
• Preparing food for consumption and storage and
  creating the utensils necessary for both
• Gathering the material for clothing, shoes,
  household items spinning material and then
  making it
• Tending animals and making items from their
  produce

13
Living Arrangements

• Abram tent (133-5 181). Nomadic existence.
  
• Sheep and goats were the general mainstays of a
  herd
• Avg herd size was 50-100 animals
• Milk, wool, hides, bone/horns, meat, fertilizer
  and animals for sale were the produce
• Goats reproduce more quickly and have short life
  cycles. That makes for good milk and a source of
  meat
• The wool of a sheep made it of great value

• By Jacobs generation, it was houses (2715
  2913)
• Four-room or pillared house most common
• Several dwellings can be grouped together around
  a common courtyard for a family grouping
• Nomadic/pastoral life is then combined with more
  agricultural pursuits

14
Four-Room House

• Beersheba Families shared homes or lived in
  proximity to one another

• Pillars subdivide the rooms
• Work areas and living areas
• Courtyard for stabling animals
• Household tasks done near the entrance
• Long-term storage often in the back
• 2nd floor could be added for sleeping
• Roof was generally on poles and made of branches

15
Inheritance

• The bet av is patrilineal (descent traced
  through the male line) and patrilocal (women join
  the household of their husband)
• Womens place in the household was assured first
  by their fathers when they married the power
  shifted to their husbands in his familial
  household and, upon the death of the husband,
  women depended on their son(s) See Gen 2110
  the son of this slave woman shall not inherit
  along with my son Isaac
• Relationships within the family were ordered
  carefully once large enough, the bet av also
  becomes part of a mispacha or clan

• Clans are larger kinship groupings marriage is
  within the clan or endogamous
• Ownership of any land or goods passed through the
  male line women did not stand to inherit
• Eldest sons have some priority in inheritance,
  although all sons get a share. Of greater
  significance, eldest sons typically had more
  stature within these groupings

16
The Younger Over the Older

• Sarah cannot get pregnant and so gives Hagar, her
  servant, to Abraham as a surrogate
• The enmity between the two women results in a
  rift that prevents this plan from succeeding
• Ishmael, while oldest, is displaced by Isaac Gen
  2110 Cast out this slave woman with her son
  for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit
  along with my son Isaac.

• Esau sells his birthright to his younger brother
• Rebekah and Jacob scheme to fool Isaac into
  blessing the younger
• Jacob goes away and returns with a large family
  the promised continues through him

17
More Problems with Descendents

• Judah (eventual line of King David) has 3 sons by
  a Canaanite women he is Jacobs fourth son
• First son married to Tamar (no mention of
  nationality), but dies childless
• Levirate law kicks in Deut 255-6 When brothers
  reside together, and one of them dies and has no
  son, the wife of the deceased shall not shall
  not be married outside the family to a stranger.
  Her husbands brother shall go into her, taking
  her in marriage, and performing the duty of a
  husbands brother to her, and the firstborn whom
  she bears shall succeed to the name of the
  deceased brother, so that his name may not be
  blotted out of Israel.

• Second son Onan does not perform the function
  correctly and dies Judah reluctant to give his
  third son
• Tamar is shamed by being send to her fathers
  house to live and wait (3811)
• Judahs wife dies Tamar fools him and gets him
  to sleep with her
• She becomes pregnant and has twins by Judah

18
More on Marriage Outside of the Clan

• Dinah is Jacobs only daughter (mother Leah)
• Abraham had no girls and neither did Isaac, so
  the problem of who the women in the family would
  marry had not arisen
• Shechem, son of Hamor, a prince of the region and
  a Hivite, sees her and has sex with her
• Is it rape? The language can be read more than
  one way. It can say he takes her (as in
  marriage), sleeps with her, and humiliates her
  (because he has not done it the correct way)

• It can also say that he takes her (as in grabs),
  and forces her into sex. While not rape in the
  ancient world by law, it would be sexual violence
  and would be a violation of her father and
  family.
• Shechem does want to marry her which is the
  Israelite legal remedy for sleeping with an
  unmarried woman Exod 3216-17 When a man
  seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be
  married, and lies with her, he shall give the
  bride-price for her and make her his wife. But
  if her father refuses to give her to him, he
  shall pay the amount equal to the bride-price for
  virgins.

19
Marriages outside the clan (continued)

• How are two non-kinship groups to relate? Hamor
  and Shechem promote an exchange of women and a
  cooperative living arrangement (Gen 348-12)
• Jacobs family (deceitfully) require
  circumcision. That is the sign of the covenant.
  Are they expecting complete adherence?
• When the men of the town are sore and recovering,
  they attack and take their wealth and families
  for their own
• Note Dinah was with Shechem throughout (3426)

• Note Deut 71-4a When the Lord your God brings
  you into the land that you are about to enter and
  occupy, and he clears away the many nations
  before you the Hittites, the Girgashites, the
  Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the
  Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations
  mightier and more numerous than you and when
  the Lord your God gives them over to you and you
  defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them.
  Make no covenant with them and show them no
  mercy. Do not intermarry with them, giving your
  daughters to their sons or taking their daughters
  for your sons, for that would turn your children
  from following me to serve other gods.

20
Back to the post-exilic period and a somewhat
different response (Ruth)

• Elimelechs family from Judah leaves Bethlehem
  (bet lechem house of bread) and goes to Moab to
  escape famine
• Elimelech is married to Naomi and they have two
  sons Mahlon and Chilion
• While in Moab, the sons marry. Mahlon to Ruth
  and Chilion to Orpah
• All three men die there are no children. The
  women are left alone
• Naomi is from Judah. With no husband or kin, she
  has no one to care for her and must return home
  for any real hope of survival

• If Ruth and Orpah stay behind, they have some
  chance at a new marriage to a man from their
  region (Ruth 18)
• Orpah returns home Ruth leaves it all behind and
  goes with Naomi

21
Ruth (continued)

• 21 lets the reader in on something important
  Naomi had a kinsman on her husbands side, a
  prominent rich man, of the family of Elimelech,
  whose name was Boaz
• The possibility of the levirate law kicks in here
  as Elimelechs family name might die out
  otherwise
• It has not yet occurred to Naomi but meanwhile
  Ruth just happens to be gleaning in his fields
  and catches his eye
• Note how many times Ruth is called a Moabite
  14, 22 22, 6, 21 45, 10.

• She is also compared to Abraham, leaving country
  and kin for something new (211)
• Naomi hatches a plan once she knows it is Boaz
  seduction by Ruth (31-13)
• She succeeds after a brief complication Ruth and
  Boaz are married
• But the child they have is not Mahlons. Obed is
  called Naomis in 317 and Boaz in 421.
• Ruth (a Moabite!!) is King Davids
  great-grandmother

22
Leviticus weighs in

• 181-5 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying Speak
  to the people of Israel and say to them I am the
  Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in
  the land of Egypt where you lived, and you shall
  not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which
  I am bringing you. You shall not follow their
  statutes. My ordinances you shall observe and my
  statutes you shall keep, following them I am the
  Lord your God. You shall keep my statutes and my
  ordinances by doing so one shall live I am the
  Lord.

• 2022-26 You shall keep all my statutes and
  ordinances, and observe them, so that the land to
  which I bring you to settle in may not vomit you
  out. You shall not follow the practices of the
  nation that I am driving out before you. Because
  they did all these things, I abhorred them. But
  I have said to you You shall inherit their land,
  and I will give it to you to possess, a land
  flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your
  God I have separated you from the peoples.
  .You shall be holy to me for I the Lord am
  holy, and I have separated you from the other
  peoples to be mine.

23
Family Ties

• Incest prohibitions
• uncovering nakedness is sexual contact outside
  of acceptable parameters
• Male-dominated or patriarchal hierarchy where
  women are under the control of men
• The texts we read in Genesis violate some of
  these prohibitions (1818 for example) showing
  that the law developed over time and can vary in
  different generations

• Identity is to be gleaned from being unlike
  neighboring countries
• The evidence is scant as to whether neighboring
  countries practiced the things forbidden in these
  texts
• The idea is that being set apart is one of the
  things that constitutes being part of Gods
  community

24
Some Tentative Conclusions

• Family is a primary source of identity in this
  ancient period
• The bet av or fathers house is the building
  block the mispacha or clan is next
• You were known by who your parents (with emphasis
  on the father) were.
• Father/mother, husband/wife, son-in-law/daughter-i
  n-law, brother/sister were just some of the roles
  you could assume. Of course, you were often many
  of these things simultaneously.
• Death could really rearrange the family
  structure. Births and marriages did so to a
  lesser extent.

• Other familiar forms of identifying oneself have
  not yet come into play
• There are no set geographical borders to give you
  any sense of a national identity and government
  as well as judicial affairs tended to be handled
  by families and so you would not have identity as
  a resident of a particular village
• The people of God were not yet known as the
  people of Israel. While Jacobs name is
  changed in Gen 3228 to Israel, the line
  continues to be his family. It is safe to say
  Israelites or those descended from Jacob by
  the time Exodus gets going, but the unification
  of this people as a people must wait for the
  covenant and then is consolidated when they come
  into the land and start really building a nation