Seder 44: Genesis 49:27---Traditional Applications of the Blessing to Benjamin

 Jacob's blessing for his youngest son Benjamin initially is surprising to readers, since it does seem to relate to anything we know so far about Benjamin:  "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil" (Ge 49:27).  

Interpreters often try to relate these words to the later history of the tribe of Benjamin.  Nechama Price sees some "wolf-like" qualities in Ehud, the Benjaminite who assassinated Eglon of Moab.  He was a "lone wolf" who used stealth and cunning to carry out his plan.  

It has been traditional to relate Genesis 49:27 to the Benjamites who, like a pack of wolves, savagely raped the Levite's concubine (Judges 19).

Christians traditionally have connected Genesis 49:27 to the apostle Paul, who was a Benjamite (Phil 3:5).  In the Greek Septuagint translation, the verse says, "Benjamin is a rapacious wolf: in the morning he will be eating still, and in the evening, he gives food.”  In a tradition mentioned by Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Origen in the second century AD, this is related to the fact that Paul attacked the church as a young man, but then after surrendering to Christ he fed the church.  This tradition is discussed by Darrell D. Hannah in a 2016 paper (New Testament Studies, Vol 62, pp 610-627).  

In a variation on this tradition, reported by the fourth century bishop Diodore of Tarsus, the "eating" Paul does in the morning refers to the spiritual nourishment he took in from Gamaliel as a young man.

Jerome relates Isaiah's prophecies about the wolf and the lamb dwelling together (Isa 11:6; 65:25) to Paul's baptism by Ananias and his joint labors with Peter.  

In another variation of the application of Genesis 49:27 to Paul, due to Apollinaris of Laodicea, Paul at first plundered the church, then went to war against the demons, leading people away from them and distributing them to the rulers of the Church.  

There is an addtional variation due to Ephrem the Syrian, who saw Paul as a wolf snatching souls away from the devil.  Then "at the end of the world he will rest with a reward greater than his labors."

Seder 44: Genesis 49-50---Joseph's Bones

 The patriarch Jacob told his children that he was to be buried at Machpelah with Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and his wife Leah.  Joseph made sure those instructions were carried out. 

Joseph himself died about 54 years later.  He did not ask to be buried immediately in Canaan.  Instead, he indicated that at a later date God would bring the Israelites out of Egypt and back to the land.  When that happened, they were to take his bones with them and bury them in Canaan (Ge 50:24-25).  

There's an indication here that Joseph had knowledge, perhaps both practical and prophetic, about the future enslavement of his family.  (He would have been aware, for example, of what God had told Abraham in Genesis 15:13-14.)  Still, that enslavement had not yet begun at the time of Joseph's death, so Joseph could have requested that his body be taken back to Canaan right away.  That raises a question:  Why didn't he?  

Jewish tradition has proposed some interesting answers.  One is that the responsibility of burying Joseph's bones gave the family a long-term commitment to return to Canaan and some extra incentive to return.  

Another is that the presence of Joseph's coffin with the family would remind them of who Joseph was.  There were important qualities of Joseph's character that the family as a whole would need to emulate to be successful in their mission.  Joseph was able to live his life in Egypt and still maintain his commitment to God and his identity as a Hebrew.  When he was imprisoned, he did not give up hope but continued to live a productive life.  The Israelites would need to be like Joseph to survive and get beyond their time in slavery.  

Seder 44: Gen 50---The Deaths of Jacob and Joseph

 So great was the respect of the Egyptians for Joseph and his family that they embalmed Jacob's body and mourned his death for 70 days (Gen 50:1-3).   God had promised to make Abraham's name great (Gen 12:2), and we see here further fulfillment of this promise.  

Even so, Joseph's request that he go to Canaan to bury his father was a sensitive one (vv 4-6).  Some interpreters--e.g., Rashi---have proposed that Jacob had Joseph swear to take his body to Machpelah (Gen 47:31)  in order to give Joseph more leverage with Pharaoh.  It has also been proposed that this request caused the Egyptians to begin to question the loyalties of Joseph and his family, a first step toward the enslavement that came later.  The request reminds us of the later even more difficult requests that Moses and Aaron made to a later Pharaoh.

An impressive funeral procession, including Egyptian dignitaries along with Israel's children, traveled to Canaan for the burial.  We are reminded of prophesied times when the nations will accompany Israel to Zion to worship the true God (Isa 2:1-4; Zech 8:20-23; Zech 14:16).  

The procession was also a sort of Exodus, with Egyptian horsemen and chariots as part of the entourage.  We do not know the location of the threshing floor of Atad---which side of the Jordan it was on depends on the vantage point of the writer---but if Atad was near the Jordan, then the route followed by the procession  bore some resemblance to the actual exodus route.   

With Jacob gone, Joseph's brothers worried about what steps he might take against them.  They still felt guilty about selling Joseph into slavery.  They needn't have worried.  Joseph had always shown himself to be concerned about what God thought (Gen 39:9), not about what any human being might think.  Joseph repeated what he had told his brothers 17 years before (Gen 45:5-8).  God had worked out events in order to save many lives and further his plan.  

Early in the book of Genesis, brothers Cain and Abel had been unable to get along.  At the end of the book of Genesis, we see reconciliation among brothers.  

Joseph was about 56 years old when his father died.  He went on to live another 54 years.  Commentators point out that in ancient Egyptian culture, 110 is considered to be an ideal lifespan. 

We might imagine that since the patriarchs lived long lives---Abraham lived to be 175, Isaac 180, Jacob 147, Joseph 110---that people typically lived longer lives then.  But that doesn't seem to be the case.  In his commentary on Genesis, John Walton points out that evidence from Egyptian mummies indicates a life expectancy of 40 to 50.  The long lives enjoyed by the patriarchs were part of God's blessing to them.  

When Joseph died, he asked that his bones be taken back to Canaan when the Israelites returned there.  In doing so, he showed faith in God's promises (Heb 11:22).  This time there was no big funeral procession to Canaan, a possible indication that Joseph's influence and prestige had already waned a great deal by then.

Kyle Kettering gave a message on Seder 44 at Church of the Messiah on Feb 13, 2021.

Seder 44: Psalm 7---An Appeal for Justice

 There are two unusual items in the superscription of Psalm 7.  One is its identification as a shiggaion, a term used only once in the Psalms.  We don't know the meaning of this word for sure.  It may be "a psalm of lamentation or a psalm with irregular literary features" (VanGemeren, REBC).  The sages thought it might mean "an outpouring of words" or "impulsive speech".  

The second is its association with "the words of Cush, a Benjamite", a person mentioned nowhere else in the Bible.  David certainly had difficulty with Benjamites during at least a couple of periods of his life---while he was fleeing from Saul, and then at the time of Absalom's rebellion and afterward  (2 Sam 20, e.g.).  Whoever Cush was, he seems to have been slandering David.

In the face of persecution, David turns to the judge of the universe in an appeal for justice.  He asserts that he has done nothing to deserve what he is facing, having harmed neither friend nor foe (vv 1-5).  Confident that he will be vindicated, he asks God to execute righteous judgment (vv 6-13).  Declaring that the wicked tend to fall into their own traps, he praises God for his righteousness (vv 14-17).  

To modern Christian ears, it sounds as if the psalmist is bragging or being arrogant.  But the psalmist is not claiming to be sinless.  He is instead affirming his sincere loyalty to God.  

Seder 44: When and How Did Esau Die?

 The book of Genesis records that the patriarch Jacob died at age 147 (Gen 47:28).  However, nothing is said in Genesis about how long Jacob's twin brother Esau lived.  

I know of two legends about the time and circumstances surrounding the death of Esau.  Both are fanciful and reflect a tendency to read later hostility between the nations of Israel and Edom back into the lives of Jacob and Esau.  Still, they are entertaining and worth knowing about.  

One of the legends appears in Chapters 37 and 38 of the book of Jubilees.  After Isaac's death, Esau's sons insist that they attack Jacob.  (They resent the fact that they have no inheritance in Canaan.) With a large army of mercenaries, they attack Jacob at Hebron, where Jacob kills Esau with a well-placed arrow from the bow spoken of in Gen 48:22.  

Another legend (b Sotah 13a) says that when Jacob's funeral procession (Gen 50) arrived at Machpelah, they were confronted by Esau, who tried to stop the burial but was killed by Dan's son Chushim.