Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Thomas J. King on Genesis 49:25

  

Some evidence suggests that the fertility blessings reflected in Genesis derive from Canaanite fertility traditions. Significant among this evidence is the description of the Canaanite fertility goddess. Asherah was depicted with prominent breasts, and the Ugaritic record contains references to "the divine breasts, the breasts of Asherah and Raḥam, a phrase noticeably similar to the biblical ‘blessings of breasts and womb (רָחַם)’” (Gen 49:25). (Biale, “El Shaddai in the Bible,” 253-54) Accordingly, Biale concludes: “Hence there is abundant evidence of the fertility tradition of El Shaddai may have originated with the Israelite interest in the figure of Asherah, the fertility goddess represented by breasts.” (Ibid., 254)

 

In accordance with this discussion, Biale observes that the blessing which Jacob recounts before Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen 48:3-5) and Joseph’s blessing within the Testament of Jacob (49:22-26) prompt the speculation that they represent traditions reflecting a bias for the northern tribes. A northern tradition attached to fertility imagery is further reflected in the fertility images of the Ephraimite prophet Hosea (Hos 9:14). (Ibid., 250, 253) (Thomas J. King, The Realignment of the Priestly Literature: The Priestly Narrative in Genesis and its Relation to Priestly Legislation and the Holiness School [Princeton Theological Monograph Series; Eugene, Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 2009], 114)

 

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