Secret Alias wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 2:52 pm
(4) Why else would Gen. 49:10 say “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, not a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come”?
Priests need muscle. Muscle is treated like muscle. Brains like brains.
I don't even know what that means.
But while we're on the subject of chapter 49:
8 “Judah,your brothers will praise you;
your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons will bow down to you.
9 You are a lion’s cub, Judah;
you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
10 The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
11 He will tether his donkey to a vine,
his colt to the choicest branch;
he will wash his garments in wine,
his robes in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes will be darker than wine,
his teeth whiter than milk.
It is clear that Judah has the scepter of rule, Judah is the lawgiver, and Judah possesses ferocious military might. This is definitely a pro-Judean blessing. This is not something a Samaritan would have written.
22 “Joseph is a fruitful vine,
a fruitful vine near a spring,
whose branches climb over a wall.
23 With bitterness archers attacked him;
they shot at him with hostility.
24 But his bow remained steady,
his strong arms stayed limber,
because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,
because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
25 because of your father’s God, who helps you,
because of the Almighty, who blesses you
with blessings of the skies above,
blessings of the deep springs below,
blessings of the breast and womb.
26 Your father’s blessings are greater
than the blessings of the ancient mountains,
than the bounty of the age-old hills.
Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,
on the brow of the prince among his brothers
Joseph is portrayed perhaps as the best of the twelve sons of Israel, “the prince among his brothers,” and blessed by God, a fertile land. This seems quite pro-Samari(t)an, much in line with the brothers bowing down to Joseph in the dream. But Joseph is portrayed as militarily weak, under fierce hostile attacked by archers, defending themselves, but not very effectively, in contrast to Judah the lion earlier.
I'd say Joseph wins that battle of praise comparison hands down.
That evaluation seems EXTREMELY subjective. Yes, I agree that Joseph receives the blessings of the Almighty. But Judah receives the blessings of rule and lawgiving and military might, which Joseph does not.
So let's see what history we can tentatively recover from the blessings in Genesis 49.
I would say this stems from a period when temple of Gerizim still has a great prestige, but Samaria has suffered serious military setbacks, while Judah has the rule and the power and the military might. This doesn’t seem to fit the Persian Era, when the provinces of Samaria and Judah [Yehud] were both thriving and at peace. But when Alexander the Great conquered the Levantine coast—and ignoring the fictional account in Josephus—we know from reliable historical sources (Quintus Curtius Rufus, The History of Alexander IV.8.9-11) that Samaria made the mistake of rebelling against Alexander, who sent forces that brutally crushed the uprising in 332 BCE.
“(9) This grief was further deepened by news of the death of Andromachus, whom he had put in command of Syria: the Samaritans had burned him alive. [10] Alexander marched with all possible speed to avenge his murder, and on his arrival the perpetrators of the heinous crime were surrendered to him. [11] He appointed Memnon to replace Andromachus, executed the murderers of the former governor, and handed over to their own subjects a number of local rulers, including Aristonicus and Ersilaus of Methymna, whom they tortured and put to death for their crimes.”
According to the Chronicon of Eusebius, Alexander destroyed Samaria and rebuilt it as a Macedonian military colony (as Jerome also reports, and as confirmed by archaeology).
These historical accounts are confirmed by the discoveries of a cache of Samarian legal documents left by fleeing Samaritan noble families in a cave in Wadi Daliyeh. The pursuing armies of Alexander caught up with them and and slew them to a man, according to Frank Moore Cross, “The Discovery of the Samaria Papyri,” BA 26 (1963): 110-21.
It has been suggested that this was when the events of Josephus, Apion 2.43, took place:
“Because of the fairness and loyalty shown to him [Alexander the Great] by the Jews, he annexed the land of Samaria to them free of tribute.”
So in the early Hellenistic period, starting ca. 332 BCE, Samaria was under attack from armies of Alexander the Great, denied the political independence it had enjoyed as a province in the Persian Era, and was made subject to Jerusalem and the Jews. This answers to the political situation implied in Genesis 49, with Judah exercising the ruling power, and Samaria probably under Jerusalem’s rule, but still possessing its prestigious temple at Gerizim.
During the period 335-270 BCE we have a foundation story of Judea and Jerusalem and its temple by Hecataeus of Abdera (320-315 BCE), something similar from Manetho (ca. 285 BCE), but nothing about the Samaritans. Judea was the local power and Samaria practically invisible, probably just considered part of Judean territory. Likewise when Ptolemy II Philadelphus wanted a copy of the laws of Moses ca. 270 BCE, he wrote to Jerusalem and its senate and high priest, not the Samaritans.
But I agree that although this prestigious literary project of writing and translating the Books of Moses ca. 270 BCE was under Jewish control, the Samaritans played a major part in it. But it was a clearly cooperative literary venture, and there are clear traces of Judah’s part.