Hebrew Myths (23 page)

4
. How far the Promised Land extended, to whom it was promised, and under what conditions, can be seen from the following Biblical passages:

Dan, the northernmost point of Palestine occupied by the Hebrew tribes, was originally called Laish (‘Lion’,
Judges
XVIII. 7, 29, etc.), and later Paneas. It was not only the place where Jeroboam raised a golden calf (1
Kings
XII. 28–29), but famous for a grotto sacred to Pan and the Nymphs, from which the River Jordan springs; and for a temple raised in honour of Augustus by Herod the Wicked (Josephus:
Antiquities
XV. 10). It afterwards became Caesarea Philippi, a heathen city studiously avoided by Jesus (
Matthew
XVI. 13;
Mark
VIII. 27). The mound over the grotto is called to this day Tell el-Qādī (‘Mound of the Judge’), Qādī being the Arabic translation of Dan, ‘judge’.

5
. The Melchizedek myth provides a charter for Jerusalem’s peculiar sanctity and the institution of a priestly tithe; but, according to
Exodus
XXV. 30; XXIX. 40, etc., the rules governing shew-bread, wine-libations and sacrifices were first revealed by God to Moses in the Wilderness. The tithe laws were also Mosaic (
Leviticus
XXVII. 30 ff;
Numbers
XXVIII. 26 ff, etc.).

6
. Though
Melchizedek
, a name resembling Adoni-Zedek, King of Jerusalem (
Joshua
X. 1 ff), means ‘The God Zedek is my King’, it was later understood as ‘Lord of Righteousness’. Zedek will have been the city-god of Salem, not the God of the Hebrews, and not monotheistically worshipped. The Ammonites called him ‘Zaduk’.
Zedek
, moreover, was the Hebrew name for the planet Jupiter, which enabled the Midrash to develop from this encounter between Melchizedek and Abram a myth that the planet helped Abram against his enemies. A ‘royal vale’ occurs in the story of Absalom (2
Samuel
XVIII. 18) and, according to Josephus, lay a quarter of a mile from Jerusalem; this may be ‘the royal vale of Shaveh’ later accursed as the Valley of Hinnom (‘Gehenna’ or ‘Tophet’), the scene of King Ahaz’s human sacrifices (2
Chronicles
XXVIII. 3). A tradition quoted in
Hebrews
VII. 3, that Melchizedek had ‘neither father nor mother’ may be based on a similar phrase found repeatedly in letters sent by the Jebusite King Abdu-Heba (slave of [the Goddess] Heba), to Pharaoh Amenhotep III in the fourteenth century
B.C.
, which meant that he depended for his position not on birth but on Pharaoh’s grace.

7
. Lotan occurs in
Genesis
XXXVI. 21–22 and 1
Chronicles
I. 38–39 as the eldest son of Seir the Horite; and in Egyptian records as a geographical area of Southern Palestine, which included Mount Seir. Since Horites, or Hurrians, had lived on Mount Seir before the Hyksos hordes arrived, Abraham’s nephew Lot of Harran may well be another fictional character.
But perhaps Abraham’s Hebrews, after dislodging the Hurrians from their Lotan pastures, assisted them against Eastern raiders from the direction of Elam.

8
. The Canaanite giants conquered by Chedorlaomer were known as Emim (‘Terrors’) by the Moabites, Zamzummim or Zuzim (‘Busy Ones’) by the Ammonites, and Rephaim (‘Weakeners’) by the Gileadites. The
Book of Jubilees
makes them anything from ten to fifteen feet tall. They appear in Ugaritic mythology as spectres. Other names were Anakim (‘Giants’), Awwim (‘Devastators’), Gibborim (‘Heroes’), Nefilim (‘Fallen Ones’)—(see 18.
i.
11–13). An Egyptian execration text of the early second millennium
B.C.
mentions several rulers of Jy’aneq (‘Land of the Anakim’?), one of whom is named Abi-imamu, perhaps ‘Father of the Emim’.

9.
The midrash makes them tall as cedars, and explains that every Hebrew of that generation was equally gigantic. Abraham himself was seventy times the height of an ordinary man, and each of his steps measured three or four miles; so was his servant Eliezer, who alone passed the test of holiness which Abraham set his three hundred and eighteen retainers, and who had as much strength as all of them together. It should be observed that the numerical equivalents of the letters in
Eliezer
add up to 318. Jacob, his son Simeon, and his grandson Manasseh were reputedly giants. So were Samson and Saul’s general Abner, who said: ‘If I could but seize the earth with my feet set elsewhere, I should be able to shake it!’; also Absalom, David’s son, whose hair when shorn weighed two hundred shekels.

10
. Aner, Eshcol and Mamre, Abraham’s allies, are thought by some scholars to represent three residential districts of the city of Hebron. Mamre is stated in
Genesis
XXXV. 27 to have been a section of the city of ‘Kiriath-Arba, the same is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned,’ and in
Genesis
XXIII. 18 is identified with Hebron. Eshcol was the name of a valley or wadi near Hebron (
Numbers
XIII. 22–24); while Aner seems to have survived in
Ne’ir
, the name of a neighbouring hill.

11
. For the Vale of Siddim see 32.
2
.

(
a
) As Abram lay asleep in his tent, God appeared to him, saying: ‘Fear not, for I am your shield, and your reward shall be great!’ He asked, ‘O Lord, what reward can console me if I die childless, and my slave Eliezer inherits all that is mine?’ God answered: ‘Not he, but your own son shall inherit. Arise, go out into the night!’ Abram obeyed, and heard Him say: ‘I am your God, who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees to make this inheritance yours. Look at the stars of Heaven, and try to count them; for your posterity shall be no less numerous.’ Abram pleaded: ‘O Lord, how can I be assured of this blessing?’ God replied: ‘Offer Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, and a three-year-old ram; also a turtle dove and a wild pigeon.’

(
b
) When morning came, Abram cut a heifer, a she-goat and a ram into halves with his sword; laying one half of each beast on the left side of a narrow lane, and the other half opposite it on the right. Then he killed a turtle dove and a pigeon; laying one on the left side of the lane, and the other opposite it on the right. As Abram worked, vultures flew down to feast on the carcases; but he drove them off.

(
c
) That night, as the sun set, Abram fell into a trance, and dread of the darkness overcame him. Again, he heard God’s voice: ‘When you have died at a ripe age, your children shall be strangers in an alien land, and slaves to its rulers. After four hundred years I will punish that land, and lead your people out, greatly enriched. Yet not until the fourth generation of their wanderings, when the Amorites have at last fully deserved My punishment, will your people return to possess what is their own!’ The thick darkness was then dispelled by a smoky flame, like that of a torch, which passed along the lane between the severed carcases. God declared: ‘I have given this land to your posterity: from the Torrent of Egypt to the Euphrates. The Kenite, the Kenizzite, the Kadmonite, the Hittite, the Perizzite and the Rephaim; also the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Girgashite and the Jebusite shall be their subjects!’
²⁵²

(
d
) Some say that God lifted Abram above the dome of Heaven,
and said: ‘Look at the stars, and try to count them,’ adding: ‘Whoever stands beneath a star, fears it; but you, seeing one shine below you, may now lift up your head and consider yourself the greater!’
²⁵³

(
e
) Others hold that Abram’s severed carcases foreshadowed the Empires destined to oppress Israel: the heifer, Babylon with its three Kings Nebuchadrezzar, Evil Merodach and Belshazzar; the she-goat, Media with its three Kings Cyrus, Darius and Ahasuerus; the ram, Greece with its three Kings Alexander, Caligula and Antoninus. Moreover, the turtle dove signified the Ishmaelites; and the pigeon, Israel. Had Abram not severed the beasts with his sword, these Empires would have grown too powerful; but thus they were weakened.
²⁵⁴

(
f
) Azazel, the fallen angel who seduces mankind, came disguised as a vulture to feast on the carcases. He addressed Abram: ‘What do you here, on these holy heights, where no mortal may eat or drink? Fly off, lest heavenly powers burn you!’ But Abram’s guardian angel rebuked Azazel: ‘His lot lies on the heights, as yours lies in the depths. Depart, for you can never lead him astray!’
²⁵⁵

(
g
) God then showed Abram a vision of Hell, the oppressive Empires, the Torah and the Sanctuary, saying: ‘While your children honour these last two, they will escape the first two. Choose now whether they are to be punished by damnation or by servitude!’ All day long, Abram sorrowfully weighed one evil against the other. At last, having been granted another vision of a Fourth oppressive Empire, namely Edom—though it would fall, as the three earlier ones were fated to fall and never rise again—he left God to make the choice. God chose servitude.
²⁵⁶

***

1
. The savage deity here described has more in common with the one who attacked Jacob (
Genesis
XXXII. 25–33) and tried to kill Moses (
Exodus
IV. 24), than with the friendly guests entertained by Abraham and Sarah in bright sunshine (
Genesis
XVIII. 1–15). His presence was later attested by a pillar of fire in the Wilderness (
Exodus
XIII. 21, etc.), and by the fire that consumed Elijah’s sacrifices on Mount Carmel (1
Kings
XVIII. 38).

2
. This myth of a covenant between severed carcases authorizes a solemn Hebrew rite still performed at Jerusalem in the sixth century
B.C.
During
Nebuchadrezzar’s siege, King Zedekiah and his courtiers swore they would free their Hebrew bondmen in accordance with the Law; but failed to do so when the siege was temporarily lifted. Jeremiah then reminded them of their ancestors’ oath: to release every Hebrew bondman after six years of service (
Exodus
XXI. 2). This covenant, neglected for generations, had recently been renewed in the Temple by priests, leaders and freemen of Judah who passed between the severed quarters of a calf. Jeremiah therefore prophesied that their latest breach of faith—which profaned God’s name—would be punished in some by slavery, in others by carrion birds and beasts sent to mangle their corpses (
Jeremiah
XXXIV. 1–22).

3
. In Biblical Hebrew, covenants were not ‘made’, but ‘cut’ (
karath b’rith
—
Genesis
XV. 18; XXV. 27, etc.); or ‘passed through’ (
’abhar bibh’rith
—
Deuteronomy
XXIX. 11); or ‘come into’ (
Ezekiel
XVI. 8); or ‘stood in’ (2
Kings
XXVIII. 3). This proves the antiquity of the rite, which is still practised by the Male and Baka tribes of south-western Ethiopia: the man who ‘cuts’ the covenant smears himself with blood from the severed carcases. In late Hebrew practice, oath-takers were sprinkled with blood of animals sacrificed on the altar—the ‘blood of the covenant’ (
Exodus
XXIV. 5–8).

4
. Since the carrion birds mentioned in both
Genesis
and
Jeremiah
signify divine punishment of transgressors, the rite amounts to a declaration: ‘Unless I tread faithfully along a narrow lane of truth, let my body be cut in two like these carcases; and let carrion birds and beasts mangle it!’ Thus King Saul cut a yoke of oxen in pieces, which he sent through Israel with the message: ‘Either come to fight behind Saul and Samuel, or be treated like these oxen!’ (1
Samuel
XI. 7). In Greek myth, the covenant sworn by Helen’s suitors for common action against whoever wronged the man she chose to marry, was taken, according to Pausanias, on the severed pieces of a horse, Poseidon’s sacred animal. The animals here chosen by Abraham were sacred, it will be observed, to three deities other than the Bull-god El: heifer, to the Canaanite Moon-goddess; she-goat to the Philistine goddess, mother of Cretan Zeus, whom the Greeks knew as Amaltheia; ram to the Sumerian Sky-god, or to the ram-headed Ammon of Egypt.