{"id":55606,"date":"2019-05-15T21:25:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T18:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=55606"},"modified":"2022-12-07T18:55:02","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T16:55:02","slug":"joseph-jacob-and-abimelech-intertextual-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joseph-jacob-and-abimelech-intertextual-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph, Jacob, And Abimelech: Intertextual Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[490,523,363],"acf":{"old_id":"55606","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34245,"related_cahpter":"220","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"He comes to quite a different end","content":"

From the moment Abimelech \u201cwent to Shechem unto his mother’s brethren,\u201d his actions kept alluding to stories from the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Joseph before him, Abimelech traveled to Shechem with his father\u2019s other sons in mind. But while Joseph went to see if his brothers were well, Abimelech set out to bring about his brothers\u2019 death. In both cases, the question of dominion (expressed through the Hebrew root m.sh.l) was at the heart of the situation: Joseph\u2019s brothers thought that he wished to have dominion over them, and Abimelech wanted to kill his brothers so that he alone could have dominion over others. But while both journeys led to violent confrontations, Jacob\u2019s sons didn\u2019t kill each other, and were reunited and reconciled to each other in the end.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Joseph and his brothers are not the only ghosts haunting this story. Abimelech, after all, didn\u2019t actually set out to find his brothers. He more closely resembles Jacob, who traveled to seek his own maternal uncle. But Jacob traveled to avoid a violent confrontation with his brother Esau; Abimelech traveled with his brothers\u2019 death in mind. Upon meeting his uncles, Abimelech used a soon-to-be-proved-empty platitude to convince them: \u201cremember,\u201d he said, \u201cthat I am your bone and your flesh.\u201d In Jacob\u2019s journey it was the uncle, Laban, who used the same expression: “Surely thou art my bone and my flesh.\u201d (Genesis 29:14) Laban then went on to exploit and cheat his nephew; Abimelech belied his words by murdering his kin. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The intertextual connections don\u2019t end here. Abimelech ended his relationship with his brothers by murdering them \u201cupon one stone.\u201d This gruesome image stands in stark contrast with Jacob\u2019s usage of a stone to end his relationship with Laban. After a tense confrontation, Jacob \u201ctook a stone, and set it up for a pillar.\u201d (Genesis 31:45) His family piled other stones about it, and they made the heap into a witness that (in Laban\u2019s words) \u201cI will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.\u201d(Genesis 31:52)<\/span><\/p>\n

It is appropriate that Abimelech, who used a stone to kill his \u2018bone and flesh\u2019, was defeated when a millstone crushed his skull. It is also appropriate that Jacob, the man who used a stone to diffuse a potentially violent family altercation, died surrounded by his children. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Hebrew, the word for stone is a combination of the words \u201cfather\u201d and \u201cson\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Gustave Dore, Death of Abimelech<\/em>, 1866 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":55607,"id":55607,"title":"jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02","filename":"jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joseph-jacob-and-abimelech-intertextual-connections\/jud9-dore_deathofabimelech_02\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud9-dore_deathofabimelech_02","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55606,"date":"2019-05-15 18:25:45","modified":"2019-05-15 18:25:56","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":509,"height":625,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02-244x300.jpg","medium-width":244,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","medium_large-width":509,"medium_large-height":625,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","large-width":509,"large-height":625,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","1536x1536-width":509,"1536x1536-height":625,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","2048x2048-width":509,"2048x2048-height":625,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","post_full_size-width":509,"post_full_size-height":625,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02-342x420.jpg","home_baner-width":342,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Joseph, Jacob, And Abimelech: Intertextual Connections","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"He comes to quite a different end","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":55607,"id":55607,"title":"jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02","filename":"jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joseph-jacob-and-abimelech-intertextual-connections\/jud9-dore_deathofabimelech_02\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud9-dore_deathofabimelech_02","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55606,"date":"2019-05-15 18:25:45","modified":"2019-05-15 18:25:56","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":509,"height":625,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02-244x300.jpg","medium-width":244,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","medium_large-width":509,"medium_large-height":625,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","large-width":509,"large-height":625,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","1536x1536-width":509,"1536x1536-height":625,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","2048x2048-width":509,"2048x2048-height":625,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02.jpg","post_full_size-width":509,"post_full_size-height":625,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-Dore_DeathOfAbimelech_02-342x420.jpg","home_baner-width":342,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55606"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109750,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55606\/revisions\/109750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}