{"id":57675,"date":"2019-06-18T20:32:12","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T17:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=57675"},"modified":"2023-01-11T08:32:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T06:32:05","slug":"who-is-bedan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/who-is-bedan\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Is Bedan!?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/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":[622,890,839],"acf":{"old_id":"57675","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56490,"related_cahpter":"244","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Samuel gives us a glimpse of a different historical narrative","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bible presents us with what we may call the \u2018canonical\u2019 narrative of Israel\u2019s history. \u00a0Every now and then, however, we gain a glimpse of a slightly different story. A prime instance is Samuel\u2019s speech in 12:6-17, which includes some surprising departures from the standard account.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, v. 8, \u201cThe Lord sent Moses and Aaron, and they brought your fathers out of Egypt, and they settled them in this place.\u201d Really? \u00a0According to the Torah, Moses and Aaron died before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land. Yet Samuel implies that Moses and Aaron brought the Israelites into the land of Canaan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, v. 9 states, \u201cAnd they forgot the Lord their God, and he delivered them into the hand of Sisera, the general of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.\u201d True, all three of these events are described in the book of Judges, but in the canonical version, the order of Israel\u2019s opponents is: \u00a0a) Eglon, king of Moab (ch. 3); b) Sisera (chs. 4-5); and c) Philistines (chs. 13-16). Here in the book of Samuel they are reordered into b), c), and a).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then v. 11 reads as follows: \u201cAnd the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Bedan, and Jephthah and Samuel; and He saved you from the hand of your enemies all about.\u201d Jerubbaal (= Gideon) and Jephthah did save the Israelites in the book of Judges, but the other two names in the list are puzzling. First, Bedan is known from no other source, though there is mention of someone (the same person?) by this name in 1 Chr 7:17. \u00a0Presumably stories about Bedan circulated in ancient Israel, but for whatever reason he was excluded from the canonical version in Judges. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secondly, the inclusion of Samuel in this list raises an eyebrow for two reasons: \u00a0a) never in the book of Samuel is the eponymous character seen saving the day from the hands of enemies along the likes of Gideon, Jephthah, et al.; and b) why would Samuel refer to himself in such fashion, not necessarily due to the first point noted (though that too), but rather because characters in the Bible never refer to themselves in such boastful manner. To the contrary, primacy is placed on humility. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, v. 12 states, \u201cAnd you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites came upon you, and you said to me, \u2018No, but a king will reign over us\u2019.\u201d \u00a0But in the book of Samuel, the people approach Samuel for a king in ch. 8, and the attack by Nahash occurs in ch. 11. Once again, a different chronology is present.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of this reminds us that frequently different versions of national narratives circulate, until one of them (usually) becomes the standard one, told and retold by later generations.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":57680,"id":57680,"title":"isam12-arrows","filename":"isam12-arrows.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-arrows.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/who-is-bedan\/isam12-arrows\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam12-arrows","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":57675,"date":"2019-06-18 17:32:00","modified":"2019-06-18 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