Difference between revisions of "The Births and Relative Ages of Yaakov's Children/2"
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<p>The Torah favors thematic order over chronological order and therefore presents the pregnancies and births as consecutive, even though they needed to overlap with each other to fit into the seven year time frame. Similarly, positing achronology resolves the difficulties in the later stories of Sefer Bereshit, with the story of Shimon and Levi in Shechem transpiring only many years after Yaakov returned from Lavan's home, and Yehuda's first marriage occurring several years before the sale of Yosef.</p> | <p>The Torah favors thematic order over chronological order and therefore presents the pregnancies and births as consecutive, even though they needed to overlap with each other to fit into the seven year time frame. Similarly, positing achronology resolves the difficulties in the later stories of Sefer Bereshit, with the story of Shimon and Levi in Shechem transpiring only many years after Yaakov returned from Lavan's home, and Yehuda's first marriage occurring several years before the sale of Yosef.</p> | ||
<mekorot> | <mekorot> | ||
− | <multilink><aht source="Demetrius21">Demetrius the Chronographer</aht><aht source="Demetrius21">Cited by Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 21</aht><aht parshan="Demetrius" /></multilink>, | + | <multilink><aht source="Demetrius21">Demetrius the Chronographer</aht><aht source="Demetrius21">Cited by Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 21</aht><aht parshan="Demetrius the Chronographer">About Demetrius</aht></multilink>, |
<multilink><aht source="LekachTovBereshit29-32">Lekach Tov</aht><aht source="LekachTovBereshit29-32">Bereshit 29:32</aht><aht source="LekachTovBereshit34-25">Bereshit 34:25</aht><aht source="LekachTovBereshit38-2">Bereshit 38:2</aht><aht parshan="Lekach Tov">About R. Toviah b. Eliezer</aht></multilink>, | <multilink><aht source="LekachTovBereshit29-32">Lekach Tov</aht><aht source="LekachTovBereshit29-32">Bereshit 29:32</aht><aht source="LekachTovBereshit34-25">Bereshit 34:25</aht><aht source="LekachTovBereshit38-2">Bereshit 38:2</aht><aht parshan="Lekach Tov">About R. Toviah b. Eliezer</aht></multilink>, | ||
<multilink><aht source="IbnEzraBereshit30-23">Ibn Ezra</aht><aht source="IbnEzraBereshit30-21">Bereshit 30:21</aht><aht source="IbnEzraBereshit30-23">Bereshit 30:23</aht><aht source="IbnEzraBereshit33-20">Bereshit 33:20</aht><aht source="IbnEzraBereshit38-1">Bereshit 38:1</aht><aht source="IbnEzraShemotLong2-2">Shemot Long Commentary 2:2</aht><aht parshan="R. Avraham ibn Ezra" /></multilink>, | <multilink><aht source="IbnEzraBereshit30-23">Ibn Ezra</aht><aht source="IbnEzraBereshit30-21">Bereshit 30:21</aht><aht source="IbnEzraBereshit30-23">Bereshit 30:23</aht><aht source="IbnEzraBereshit33-20">Bereshit 33:20</aht><aht source="IbnEzraBereshit38-1">Bereshit 38:1</aht><aht source="IbnEzraShemotLong2-2">Shemot Long Commentary 2:2</aht><aht parshan="R. Avraham ibn Ezra" /></multilink>, |
Version as of 16:09, 13 July 2014
The Births and Relative Ages of Yaakov's Children
Exegetical Approaches
Overview
In attempting to make sense of the various chronological issues relating to the the births and lives of Yaakov's children, commentators offer an array of possibilities. Interestingly, many of them are remarkably consistent in the methodologies they apply to resolve each of the issues.
A first approach, taken by many Midrashim, reads the text both literally and chronologically, and resolves all issues by positing that events were supernatural. This allows for seven month pregnancies, youngsters capable of massacring cities, and eight year old parents. Others take a more rationalist approach, preferring to resolve the problems by suggesting minor chronological changes in the order of the recorded events. They assert that some of Yaakov's wives' pregnancies overlapped, that Yaakov spent some years in Shechem before Dinah was raped, and that the story of Yehuda and Tamar occurred before the sale of Yosef. A final approach expands the time frame in which Yaakov's children were born, making Shimon, Levi, and Yehuda older during the subsequent events.
Premature & Precocious
The pregnancies for each and every one of Yaakov's children were extraordinarily short, and were thus able to fit within a seven year time span. Similarly, Yaakov's children reached physical and sexual maturity at supernaturally early ages, and this accounts for the very young ages of Shimon and Levi and Yehuda's descendants when they sired offspring in the subsequent stories.
Achronological Order
The Torah favors thematic order over chronological order and therefore presents the pregnancies and births as consecutive, even though they needed to overlap with each other to fit into the seven year time frame. Similarly, positing achronology resolves the difficulties in the later stories of Sefer Bereshit, with the story of Shimon and Levi in Shechem transpiring only many years after Yaakov returned from Lavan's home, and Yehuda's first marriage occurring several years before the sale of Yosef.
Expanded Time Frame
The births of Yaakov's first twelve children took place over a period of almost fourteen years, rather than seven. This approach subdivides over whether it is the starting line or end point which needs to be adjusted to gain the additional years.
Yaakov Married Earlier
Yaakov married Leah immediately upon starting working for Lavan, and thus Yaakov's first twelve children were born over the course of thirteen years. As a result, Shimon and Levi were about twenty at the time of the incident in Shechem, and there is additional time for Yehuda's descendants to sire their own offspring before descending to Egypt.
Yosef Born Later
Yosef was born only after the completion of Yaakov's first fourteen years working for Lavan, and the twelve children were born over a span of up to twelve years. The incident with Shechem happened only much later when Shimon and Levi were already twenty years old.