{"id":76775,"date":"2020-07-01T15:38:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T12:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=76775"},"modified":"2020-07-01T15:38:01","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T12:38:01","slug":"joel-ben-pethuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joel-ben-pethuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Ben Pethuel"},"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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"76775","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"515","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Son of Sam(uel) - or not?","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Book of Joel opens with a seemingly straightforward superscription: \u201cThe word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel\u201d (Joel 1:1). The Prophet Joel is mentioned by name only here, though ten other biblical personalities also bear the name Joel. Also, Pethuel is mentioned only here. Moreover, unlike most other Prophets, no specific information is given in Scripture about when the Prophet Joel lived. The current dominant view seems to be that the Book of Joel was composed in the Second Temple Period.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The paucity of definite dating information for the Prophet Joel ben Pethuel only served to stimulate the interpretive ingenuity of Jewish tradition. Rashi on Joel 1:1 states somewhat elliptically that Joel ben Petheul was the son of Samuel the Prophet, apparently identifying the Prophet Joel with Joel, the first-born son of Samuel (see I Sam. 8:2). Ibn-Ezra though states bluntly that \u201caccording to the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pshat<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he (i.e. the Prophet Joel) is not the son of the Prophet Samuel\u201d, because we have no way of knowing in what generation the Prophet Joel lived.&#8221; Since we are told there that Samuel\u2019s two sons fell into wicked ways, Rashi&#8217;s view seems to be a surprisingly pejorative comment on the character and behavior of the Prophet Joel. Indeed, Rashi goes on to state that he [the Prophet Samuel] \u201cseduced God with his prayer\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rashi\u2019s source for this rather disconcerting comment is a no less curious midrashic tradition preserved in Midrash Tehillim 80:1 and in Numbers Rabbah 10:5. Why was he called Pethuel [Hebrew \u201c<em>petu<\/em> \u2013 seduce, <em>el<\/em> \u2013 God)? Because he would seduce (<em>mitpateh<\/em>) by curling his hair like a virgin maiden\u2026Because he seduced God with his prayer. And this refers to Samuel Ha-Ramati (the prophet Samuel whose home was in Ramah, I Sam. 25:1), as Samuel says: \u201cI will pray to the Lord for you\u2026and there they said We have sinned against the Lord\u201d (I Sam. 7:5-6) [i.e. Samuel \u201cseduced\u201d God with his prayer to forgive those who had sinned]\u2026 \u201cAnd the name of his [Samuel\u2019s] first-born son was Joel, and his second son\u2019s name was Abijah\u201d (I Sam. 8:2)\u2026Just as this one was wicked so the other one was wicked. But in the end, they repented\u2026and for this reason the two sons of the Prophet Samuel deserved the Holy Spirit, as it is written: \u201cThe word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel\u201d (Joel 1:1).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Jewish tradition, the grave-site of the Prophet Joel ben Pethuel is located in the Galilean village of Jish (ancient Gush Halav) along with the grave-sites of the early Rabbinic Sages Shemaiah and Avtalyon and several ancient synagogues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(For a detailed discussion of the various traditional Jewish interpretations of Joel 1:1, see Menahem Ben-Yashar and Jordan S. Penkower, <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bible in Rabbinic Interpretation<\/span><\/em><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vol. 2 Joel Amos (2015), pp. 19-27).<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":76776,"id":76776,"title":"joel1-tomb","filename":"joel1-tomb.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel1-tomb.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joel-ben-pethuel\/joel1-tomb\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"joel1-tomb","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":76775,"date":"2020-07-01 12:36:58","modified":"2020-07-01 12:37:08","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":400,"height":533,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel1-tomb-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel1-tomb-225x300.jpg","medium-width":225,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel1-tomb.jpg","medium_large-width":400,"medium_large-height":533,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel1-tomb.jpg","large-width":400,"large-height":533,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel1-tomb.jpg","1536x1536-width":400,"1536x1536-height":533,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel1-tomb.jpg","2048x2048-width":400,"2048x2048-height":533,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel1-tomb.jpg","post_full_size-width":400,"post_full_size-height":533,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/joel1-tomb-315x420.jpg","home_baner-width":315,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Joel Ben Pethuel","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Son of Sam(uel) - 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