Religion series, â??Jacob and Mosesâ?
Oh, c’mon, admit it. You thought I had forgotten about this whole religion set of entries, didn’t you?
I was reading the â??Epic of the Patriarch: The Jacob Cycle and the Narrative Traditions of Canaan and Israelâ? (yeah, just a little light reading for the evening, eh?) by Ronald Hendel. This wasn’t random, I took classes from Dr. Hendel while I was SMU, and the book was the expansion/revision of his PhD thesis. He compares different story traditions (both Biblical and not) and sees how there are similar themes, regardless of culture. Interesting book, probably very hard to locate. If you are actually interested, ask me nicely and I might loan you my copy. Virtually this entire entry is based upon Dr. Hendel’s work. If it’s insightful and thought provoking, it’s probably his. If it’s wrong, I probably added it.
The stories of Jacob and Moses are so similar in structure that it is difficult to see it as coincidence. Either they were both based on an earlier oral or written (but as of yet, unfound) tradition, or they both were told to fit the pattern that an ancient Israelite heroic story â??shouldâ? be. (or, if both stories are literally true and historically accurate, it can be said that God lacked creativity)
Please don’t take my feeble attempts at humor as some sort of heinous blasphemy. I don’t mean it that way, and you shouldn’t take it that way.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, or who maybe don’t see how the stories of Jacob (Patriarch of the Twelve Tribes of Israel) and Moses (Leader of the Exodus from Egypt) are so similar. Consider this:
- They both have a special birth story (this is almost completely consistent for every figure of any importance in the Bible)
- They both have an illicit act in their youth
- They both run from their homeland as a result of the fear of persecution as a result of that act
- They both get a promise from Yahweh at a sacred place
- They both have an incident at a well with their future wife
- They both get married and have children
- They both return to the land of their birth (at the command of Yahweh)
- They both have a dangerous encounter with Yahweh
- They both have a meeting with their brother upon their arrival home
It is remarkable, isn’t it? I’m not implying that the ancient Israelites were cheating by not coming up with an original story. It’s no more cheating than the fact that almost all chick-flicks follow a formula, or the fact that about 9 John Grisham books in a row were virtually identical. We expect it. We have story patterns that we are comfortable with. It’s safe to assume that the Israelites were the same. We also read stories from other cultures, and incorporate them into our own stories (Greek mythos, for instance, are routinely made into movies, and inspired the human religion in Battlestar Galactica). Why are we so averse to the idea that the ancient Hebrews might not have done the same?
Especially when there is a significant amount of evidence that they did exactly that. See my previous entry for a discussion on the similarity between the Old Testament Noah and Utnapishtim of the Gilgamesh epic. But we’re not talking about Noah today, are we? We’re talking about Moses and Jacob. Consider this:
My mother, a high priestess, conceived me, in secret she bore me.
She placed me in a reed basket, with bitumen she caulked my hatch.
She abandoned me to the river from which I could not escape.
the river carried me along; to Aqqi, the water drawer, it brought me.
Aqqi, the water drawer, when immersing his bucket lifted me up.
Aqqi, the water drawer, raised me as his adopted son.
Aqqi, the water drawer, set me to his garden work.
During my garden work, Ishtar loved me, so that
For 55 years, I ruled as King.
- translation from B. Lewis, The Sargon Legend, pg 24-25
Sargon was a legendary figure that was extremely popular in ancient Mesopotamia. Referring to him have been found throughout the Middle East, and have been dated as early as 2,000 years B.C.E. (Before Christ… literally, Before Common Era). Lewis, in his book listed above, on page 109, states that â??With the possible exception of Gilgamesh, Sargon of Akkad dominated the literary tradition of Mesopotamia as no other historical figure before or after.â? The Hebrews who first told the stories of Moses, and the later Hebrews who first wrote the story down, were almost certainly aware of the stories of Sargon. It’s reasonable to assume that they wanted THIER heroes to have just as remarkable of a birth story as the stories they had read of heroes in other cultures.
We do the same thing in our culture. Does anyone believe that George Washington actually cut down a cherry tree, and when confronted, declared, â??I cannot tell a lieâ? ?
I don’t. I think that is a story used to illustrate a point about the father of our country. What if a special birth story is used in ancient Israelite literature to foreshadow â??this character is destined for great thingsâ? ? It certainly does not make the story less valid. It just provides â??signpostsâ? that make the story easier to follow, much as a musical soundtrack does today in movies.
I don’t think that this is blasphemous at all, although I am sure some of you do. But I think it is reasonable to believe that some things are just â??human nature.â? One of those things is to make up stories about our heroes. Does the fact that George Washington didn’t cut down a cherry tree make him any less real? Does it in any way denigrate what he stood for? Does it make his accomplishments less impressive?
We do the same with some more modern heroes, as well. Did Babe Ruth â??call his shotâ? before he hit a home run? Some people think he did, and some people don’t. I think that is one of the sad things about the â??video intensiveâ? society we live in. It removes some of the mystery from our heroes. It’s difficult to tell fantastic stories about Nolan Ryan’s strikeouts, when we have a video record of all 5,714 of them.