Genesis by the Numbers: A Reassessment of the Years of the Patriarchs, Beginning with the Joseph Story
-
Daniel R. Driver
Abstract
Do the numbers of years in Genesis add up? Biblical scholars have learned to attend to the art of biblical narrative. Is there also an art of biblical numbers? If so, could its rediscovery lead to a better understanding of the contours of the biblical text, and its complex meanings, as well as its reception history prior to the Enlightenment? This article’s provisional answer to these questions is yes. It looks at two key numbers associated with the Joseph Story: a span of twenty-two years, which a variety of readers calculate as the time that Joseph lived away from his family in Egypt; and a double span of seventeen years, which the Bible suggests is the length of time that Joseph lived under his father’s protection in Canaan, and that Jacob in turn lived under his son’s care in Egypt. The study finds that, since Spinoza, modern assessments of these numbers have been constrained by a strongly linear view of time, as may be seen in the work of Robert Alter, among many others. It criticizes linear time as reductive insofar as it flattens the numbers of Genesis into chronologies and timelines. It also draws attention to an aspect of figural time, which it describes as symmetrically folded time, to help characterize the non-linear, isotropic way that numbers seem to behave in the Bible and in the Bible’s pre-modern reception. The findings about figural time in the Joseph Story raise significant questions about the compatibility of narrative, literary-critical, and theological approaches to the time-denominated numbers of Genesis.
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank those individuals who read earlier versions of this essay and improved it with their feedback, including especially Alyda Faber, Mary Hale, Abram Kielsmeier-Jones, Nathan MacDonald, Walter Moberly, Ephraim Radner, Christopher Seitz, and the anonymous reviewers of JBR. I also gratefully acknowledge Pine Hill Divinity Hall for its award of the Leni Groeneveld Grant for Research Assistance in 2017–2018, and my research assistant, Jordan Draper, for his help scouring the commentaries.
Works Cited
Alter, Robert. 1981. The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Alter, Robert. 2004. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W.W. Norton.Suche in Google Scholar
Astruc, Jean. 1753. Conjectures sur les Mémoires originaux dont il paroit que Moyse s’est servi pour composer le Livre de la Genèse, avec des Remarques qui appuient ou qui éclaircissent ces Conjectures. Bruxelles: Fricx.Suche in Google Scholar
Auden, W. H. 1962. The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays. New York: Random House.Suche in Google Scholar
Auerbach, Erich. 1953. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Translated by Willard R. Trask. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Baden, Joel S. 2012. The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis. New Haven: Yale University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Bennett, William Henry. 1904. Genesis: Introduction, Revised Version with Notes, Giving an Analysis Showing from Which of the Original Documents Each Portion of the Text is Taken. NCB (New Century Bible) 1. Edinburgh: T.C. & E.C. Jack.Suche in Google Scholar
Berman, Joshua A. 2017. Inconsistency in the Torah: Ancient Literary Convention and the Limits of Source Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190658809.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Blidstein, Gerald J. 1975. Honor Thy Father and Mother: Filial Responsibility in Jewish Law and Ethics. New York: Ktav.Suche in Google Scholar
Cassuto, Umberto. 1961–1964. A Commentary on the Book of Genesis. Translated by Israel Abrahams. 2 vols. Jerusalem: Magnes.Suche in Google Scholar
Davidson, Robert. 1979. Genesis 12–50. CBC (Cambridge Bible Commentary). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Delitzsch, Franz. 1889. A New Commentary on Genesis, vol. 2. Translated by Sophia Taylor. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.Suche in Google Scholar
Dillmann, August. 1897. Genesis, Critically and Exegetically Expounded, vol. 2. Translated by William B. Stevenson. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.Suche in Google Scholar
Driver, Samuel R. 1904. The Book of Genesis: With Introduction and Notes. London: Methuen.Suche in Google Scholar
Epstein, Isidore, ed. 1938. The Babylonian Talmud, Seder Mo‘ed. London: Soncino.Suche in Google Scholar
Fokkelman, J. P. 1975. Narrative Art in Genesis: Specimens of Stylistic and Structural Analysis. SSN (Studia Semitica Neerlandica) 17. Assen: Van Gorcum.10.1163/9789004354517Suche in Google Scholar
Genung, Matthew C. 2017. The Composition of Genesis 37: Incoherence and Meaning in the Exposition of the Joseph Story. FAT (Forschungen zum Alten Testament) II/95. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.10.1628/978-3-16-155541-1Suche in Google Scholar
Guillaume, Philippe. 2009. Land and Calendar: The Priestly Document from Genesis 1 to Joshua 18. LHBOTS (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) 391. London: T&T Clark.Suche in Google Scholar
Gunkel, Hermann. 1910. Genesis: Übersetzt und Erklärt. 3rd ed. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Suche in Google Scholar
Gunkel, Hermann. 1997. Genesis: Translated and Interpreted. Translated by Mark E. Biddle. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Hendel, Ronald S. 1995. “4Q252 and the Flood Chronology of Genesis 7–8: A Text-Critical Solution.” Dead Sea Discoveries 2 (1): 72–79.10.1163/156851795X00229Suche in Google Scholar
Hendel, Ronald S. 1998. The Text of Genesis 1–11: Textual Studies and Critical Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780195119619.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Hendel, Ronald S. 2012. “A Hasmonean Edition of MT Genesis?: The Implications of the Editions of the Chronology in Genesis 5.” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 1 (4): 448–464.10.1628/219222712805363999Suche in Google Scholar
Hendel, Ronald S. 2013. The Book of Genesis: A Biography. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400844593Suche in Google Scholar
Hieke, Thomas. 2003. Die Genealogien der Genesis. HBS (Herders Biblische Studien) 39. Freiburg: Herder.Suche in Google Scholar
Ilgen, Karl David. 1798. Die Urkunden des ersten Buchs von Moses in ihrer Urgestalt: zum bessern Verständniß und richtigern Gebrauch derselben in ihrer gegenwärtigen Form. Halle: Hemmerde & Schwetschke.Suche in Google Scholar
Jacob, Benno. 1974. The First Book of the Bible: Genesis. Translated by Ernest Jacob and Walter Jacob. New York: Ktav.Suche in Google Scholar
Larsson, Gerhard. 1973. The Secret System: A Study in the Chronology of the Old Testament. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004676947Suche in Google Scholar
Larsson, Gerhard. 1998. “More Quantitative Old Testament Research?” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 110 (4): 570–580.10.1515/zatw.1998.110.4.570Suche in Google Scholar
Larsson, Gerhard. 2008. The Chronological System of the Old Testament. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Suche in Google Scholar
Moberly, R. W. L. 2009a. “Pentateuch.” In New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol 4: Me–R, edited by Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, 430–438. Nashville: Abingdon.Suche in Google Scholar
Moberly, R. W. L. 2009b. The Theology of the Book of Genesis. Old Testament Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511626937Suche in Google Scholar
Moberly, R. W. L. 2013. Old Testament Theology: Reading the Hebrew Bible as Christian Scripture. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.Suche in Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac, Larry Pierce, and Marion Pierce, eds. 2009. Newton’s Revised History of Ancient Kingdoms: A Complete Chronology. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Park, Abraham. 2009. The Genesis Genealogies: God’s Administration in the History of Redemption. North Clarendon, Vermont: Periplus Editions.Suche in Google Scholar
Provan, Iain. 2016. Discovering Genesis: Content, Interpretation, Reception. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.Suche in Google Scholar
Radner, Ephraim. 2016. Time and the Word: Figural Reading of the Christian Scriptures. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.Suche in Google Scholar
Rogerson, John W. 2008. “Early Old Testament Critics in the Roman Catholic Church – Focussing on the Pentateuch.” In Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation, vol. 2, From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, edited by Magne Sæbø, 837–850. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.10.13109/9783666539824.837Suche in Google Scholar
Skinner, John. 1910. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis. ICC (International Critical Commentary). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.Suche in Google Scholar
Speiser, E. A. 1964. Genesis: Introduction, Translation, and Notes. AB (Anchor Bible) 1. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Suche in Google Scholar
Spinoza, Benedict de. 2007. Theological-Political Treatise. Translated by Michael Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Tov, Emanuel. 2015. “The Genealogical Lists in Genesis 5 and 11 in Three Different Versions.” In Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, Septuagint: Collected Essays, vol. 3, edited by Emanuel Tov, 221–238. VTSup (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum) 167. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004285569_016Suche in Google Scholar
Ussher, James. 1658. The Annals of the World: Deduced from The Origin of Time, and continued to the beginning of the Emperor Vespasian’s Reign, and the totall Destruction and Abolition of the Temple and Common-wealth of the Jews. London: Tyler, Crook, and Bedell.Suche in Google Scholar
Ussher, James. 2003. Larry Pierce and Marion Pierce, eds. The Annals of the World. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Von Rad, Gerhard. 1972. Genesis: A Commentary. Translated by John H. Marks. OTL (Old Testament Library). Rev. ed. Philadelphia: Westminster.Suche in Google Scholar
Westermann, Claus. 1986. Genesis 37–50: A Commentary. Translated by John J. Scullion. Minneapolis: Augsburg.Suche in Google Scholar
Westermann, Claus. 1996. Joseph: Eleven Bible Studies on Genesis. Translated by Omar Kaste. Minneapolis: Fortress.Suche in Google Scholar
©2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Ready for His Closeup? Pasolini’s San Paolo and Paul, Apostle of Christ (2018)
- Exploring Metaphors for the Reception History of the Lord’s Prayer
- Genesis by the Numbers: A Reassessment of the Years of the Patriarchs, Beginning with the Joseph Story
- Emotions in Eden and After: Ancient Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Genesis 2–4
- “Sword Handling: The Early Christian Reception of Matthew 10:34”
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Ready for His Closeup? Pasolini’s San Paolo and Paul, Apostle of Christ (2018)
- Exploring Metaphors for the Reception History of the Lord’s Prayer
- Genesis by the Numbers: A Reassessment of the Years of the Patriarchs, Beginning with the Joseph Story
- Emotions in Eden and After: Ancient Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Genesis 2–4
- “Sword Handling: The Early Christian Reception of Matthew 10:34”
