1 Chronicles 5-8
There are
tidbits scattered throughout these genealogies. One that stood out to me was in
1 Chronicles 5, where the author maintains that when Reuben lost his birthright
for sleeping with his father Jacob’s concubine (Genesis 35), the birthright went
to the tribes of Joseph. The author explains that Judah was strongest and that a
ruler came out of it, but he says the birthright was given to Joseph (Manasseh
and Ephraim). I have always read the earlier parts of the Bible as saying that
the birthright passed to Judah, and I don’t know what to make of the Chronicler’s
statement it actually went to Joseph. One commentator says that the birthright
entitled the firstborn to two shares of the inheritance and that Joseph received
two allocations—one for Manasseh and one for Ephraim. Maybe that’s all the
Chronicler meant.
Another
tidbit is the very extensive list of the descendants of Levi, including the
note about David’s Levitical temple musicians. This is an example in which the
genealogy is demonstrating for a post-exilic community their continuity with
the past and presumably their legitimacy (and the legitimacy of their worship)
in the present.
Tidbits,
but they do break up what might otherwise be difficult reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.