{"id":77821,"date":"2020-07-21T17:42:09","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T14:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=77821"},"modified":"2020-07-21T17:43:11","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T14:43:11","slug":"where-angels-fear-to-tread-dating-obadiah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/where-angels-fear-to-tread-dating-obadiah\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Angels Fear to Tread: Dating Obadiah"},"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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"77821","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"528","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Hints in the text help us fix a time\r\n\r\n","content":"

In <\/span>our introduction to Joel <\/span><\/a>(entitled \u201cDating a Prophet\u201d), we illustrated how one may identify the historical context of a prophet about whom the Tanakh itself does not provide such information. Here, too, the absence of the usual information about kings during whose reigns he prophesied makes dating Obadiah problematic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi assumed that he was the same Obadiah who served as chamberlain to King Ahab (see 1 Kings 18:3 ff.). This was rejected explicitly by Ibn Ezra who argued that were that the case, Scripture would have so identified him there as a prophet rather than just \u201cfearful of God.\u201d However, he was unable to provide an alternative, maintaining, instead that \u201cwe do not know his era.\u201d Radak subscribed to Ibn Ezra\u2019s position, though also cited Rashi\u2019s opinion that placed him in the court of King Ahab.<\/span><\/p>\n

While respecting their reluctance to fix Obadiah\u2019s era, I feel that there is an approach they hint at\u2014but on which they failed to capitalize. Ibn Ezra, for instance, interpreted the plural voice of the opening verse: \u201c<\/span>We<\/span><\/i> have heard a message\u201d as an indication that in addressing Edom, Obadiah joined with Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Amos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the case of Obadiah and Jeremiah, their respective remarks about Edom are identical.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obadiah\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> Jeremiah 49:15 ff.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

I will make you least among nations, You shall be most despised. Your arrogant heart has seduced you, You who dwell in clefts of the rock, In your lofty abode. You think in your heart, \u201cWho can pull me down to earth?\u201d Should you nest as high as the eagle, Should your eyrie be lodged \u2019mong the stars, Even from there I will pull you down \u2014declares the LORD. If thieves were to come to you, Marauders by night, They would steal no more than they needed. If vintagers came to you, They would surely leave some gleanings. How utterly you are destroyed! How thoroughly rifled is Esau, How ransacked his hoards!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

I will make you least among nations, You shall be most despised. Your arrogant heart has seduced you, You who dwell in clefts of the rock, In your lofty abode. You think in your heart, \u201cWho can pull me down to earth?\u201d Should you nest as high as the eagle, Should your eyrie be lodged \u2019mong the stars, Even from there I will pull you down \u2014declares the LORD. If thieves were to come to you, Marauders by night, They would steal no more than they needed. If vintagers came to you, They would surely leave some gleanings. How utterly you are destroyed! How thoroughly rifled is Esau, How ransacked his hoards!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

If identical language is a sign of contemporaneity \u2014witness Isaiah 2:2 ff. and Micah 4:1 ff.\u2014 then the literary proximity between Obadiah and Jeremiah speaks volumes about their proximity in time. Both were witnesses to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple at the hands of the Babylonians, in which the Edomites, ostensibly kith and kin to the Judeans, played an ignominious role.<\/span><\/p>\n

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