Literary:Indicators of Achronology/0
Indicators of Achronology
Explicit Markers
Dates
The most obvious indicator of achronology is when an event is dated and explicitly appears out of order. Examples follow:
- Shemot 16:35 – Shemot 16 is dated to the first year of the Wilderness period, yet mentions the eating of manna throughout the forty years of the nation's journey to Canaan.
- Bemidbar 1-9 – Bemidbar 1 is dated to the second month of the second year in the Wilderness, yet Bemidbar 7 and 9 explicitly backtrack to the first month. Bemidbar 7 is dated to the "day that Moshe finished erecting the Mishkan", which Shemot 40:17 teaches took place on the first of the first month, while Bemidbar 9 similarly opens "בַּשָּׁנָה הַשֵּׁנִית לְצֵאתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן"
- Sefer Yirmeyahu – The prophecies and events of Sefer Yirmeyahu are also explicitly achronological, switching back and forth between the reigns of Yehoyakim and Tzidekyahu.1
Ages
Sometimes, even though no calendar date is given in the text, the timing of an event can be determined through knowledge of people's relative ages as provided by genealogy lists, time markers,2 or birth and death notices. Calculations might then point to achronological ordering. For example:
- Terach's death – Terach's death is mentioned at the end of Bereshit 11, before we read of Avraham's departure from Charan, even though one can calculate that he first passed away 60 years after Avraham's departure.3
- Avraham's death – Avraham's death is mentioned in Bereshit 25, before the text shares the story of Yaakov and Esav's birth, even though one can calculate that he only passed away 15 years afterwards.4
- Yitzchak's death – Yitzchak's death is recorded in Bereshit 35, before the stories of Yosef and his brothers are discussed. However, given that Yitzchak was 60 when he bore Yaakov, that Yaakov was 108 during the sale of Yosef, and that Yitzchak died at the age of 180, one can determine that he first passed away 12 years after the sale.
Geographical Markers
At times, geographical data can point to achronology:
- Laws of sacrifices in Vayikra 7: R. D"Z Hoffmann notes that Vayikra 7 closes by stating that the laws just stated were given on Mt. Sinai, while Vayikra 1 opens by stating that its laws were relayed in the Ohel Moed. As once the Tabernacle was constructed, laws were issued from there, the laws given on the mountain were presumably relayed beforehand, suggesting that the chapters are achronological.
- Vayikra 25-27 - These chapters, too, were said to have been commanded on Mount Sinai, suggesting that they were relayed before the Tabernacle was built, and thus before most of the Sefer.
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Headings
וַיְהִי בָּעֵת הַהִוא
Variations of the phrase "וַיְהִי בָּעֵת הַהִוא" (and it was at that time)5 appear 18 times in Torah (with 15 being part of Moshe's speeches in Sefer Devarim) and 49 times in the rest of Tanakh. To what time period does the phrase refer?
- Immediately follows – Cassuto suggests that, at least at times, the phrase teaches that the story about to be told occurred immediately after the preceding one, "בעת ההיא עצמו". Netziv adds that it might further point to a "cause and effect" relationship between two stories.
- Undefined - R. Avraham b. HaRambam and Ibn Kaspi, instead, suggest that "בָּעֵת הַהִוא" refers to an undefined time, and thus often indicates that the narrative which is about to be told does not directly follow the events which were just recounted, but might have occurred at some point before them.
- Overlapping – It is also possible that the phrase indicates that two consecutive stories overlapped in time, with the second story happening literally "at that time" - during the preceding events.
- Resume previous narrative - At times, the harse appears t fuction as an indicator that intervening verses
אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה
Variations of the phrase "אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה"6 appear 13 times in Tanakh.7 As the default ordering in Tanakh is to recount events chronologically, this phrase would appear redundant. Are not most events recorded "after the matter" which preceded them? This leads commentators to question whether the phrase might function in a different manner:
- Chronological connector – R. Huna in Bereshit Rabbah suggests that the phrase "אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה" tells the reader that the coming event happened immediately after whatever preceded it, while "אַחֲרֵי הַדְּבָרִים" הָאֵלֶּה" suggests that the upcoming event only occurred after a significant amount of time had elapsed. Elsewhere (when no heading is included) the recorded events follow each other, but neither immediately nor significantly later.8
- Content connector – Alternatively, one might suggest that the phrase is used to relate the content of two stories and show how they are a cause and effect or the ike. See for example, Rashbam on Bereshit 15:1, 22:1.
